Cao Wenxuan (C) attends the awarding ceremony of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in Auckland, New Zealand, Aug 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Cao Wenxuan, one of China's most popular authors of children's fictions, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday, becoming the first Chinese writer for the most distinguished international honor for children's literature.

Cao shared the prize, handed out every other year, with German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner who was absent from the grand prize-giving ceremony was attended by some 300 readers, publishers and members of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

"Cao Wenxuan's books don't lie about the human condition," Patricia Aldana, president of the Hans Christian Andersen Award jury told the audience, "They acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer."

Except for Cao, other shortlisted competing writers are from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. He has won all the hearts of 10 jurors and was voted unanimously the winner of this year's prize.

"Cao writes beautifully about the complex life of children facing challenges. He's a deeply committed writer whose own child life has been deeply influential on his writing," she said.
MOGADISHU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Two suicide car bombers attacked the local government headquarters in Somalia's Galkayo town in Puntland region on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, local police said.

"There were two car bomb blasts which targeted the local government headquarters. More than 10 people have been killed," said police officer Mohamed Abdiqani.

Witnesses said the first bomb was a truck bomb, immediately followed by a car bomb at the gates of the local goernment. After two lound explosions, heavy gunfires erupted.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group, which has been carrying a series of raids in Somalia, claimed the attack.
MOGADISHU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 people were killed in twin bomb explosions in Galkayo town in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, northern Somalia on Sunday, police and witnesses said.

The police said the twin explosions targeted local government office in Galkayo town amid fierce gunfire.

The witnesses said suspected suicide bomber detonated the explosive device inside the local government office in Galkayo, killing 15 people and wounded unknown number.

Al-Shabaab militant group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, saying it killed "dozens" of Puntland soldiers.
A Chinese chef makes dumplings during the welcoming reception organized by the Ethiopian Airlines at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Jan. 25, 2016. The event took place on Monday as passengers from different African countries were traveling to China for the Chinese New Year. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and China have expressed their keen interest to cooperate on the development of tourism sector in the East African country.

The Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia on Friday organized a half-day Dialogue on China-Ethiopia Tourism Industry Cooperation on its premise in the capital Addis Ababa, to explore ways of collaboration between Ethiopians and the Chinese in the industry.

The event has been an opportunity for Ethiopians and the Chinese to discuss ways of attracting more Chinese tourists to Ethiopia and also ways of cooperation in the sector between the two sides.

In his opening remarks, La Yifan, Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, noted that Ethiopia's rich natural and historical heritages coupled with the government's heavy investments in infrastructure presents the country's huge potentials for tourism development.

Passengers make dumplings during the welcoming reception organized by the Ethiopian Airlines at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Jan. 25, 2016. The event took place on Monday as passengers from different African countries were traveling to China for the Chinese New Year. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

Ethiopia's landscape, wildlife, flora and fauna as well as its diverse cultures, and the infrastructure developed over the past two decades is the potential to tap the tourism sector in the country, said the Ambassador.

He stated that the Chinese could participate in Ethiopia's tourism both as tourists and investors to cooperate with Ethiopians and jointly promote and develop the industry.

"Last year, the total number of outbound Chinese tourist reaches 120 million, making us the largest outbound tourist of all the countries in the world," he said.

"I have realized that there is a growing interest from the Chinese business sector to be exposed to the development of Ethiopia's tourism sector because they are the number one builder in the world, they build best roads, the best airport, the best electricity facilities, the best running water facilities in the world," said the Ambassador.

Tadelech Dalecho, Ethiopian State Minister of Culture and Tourism, noted on the occasion that China and Ethiopia are countries with very strong and solid relationship.

A Chinese lady poses for pictures with bowls during the welcoming reception organized by the Ethiopian Airlines at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Jan. 25, 2016. The event took place on Monday as passengers from different African countries were traveling to China for the Chinese New Year. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

With a long-standing diplomatic tie, the two countries are enjoying strong relations at the levels of government to government, business to business, and also people to people, noted the State Minister.

She reiterated that Chinese investors are doing great jobs in Ethiopia, especially in the construction sector.

The Dialogue is another window for the Chinese investors and also to create partnership among the Ethiopian business community and Chinese business people in the tourism and hospitality sector, said Tadelech.

"Hospitality and tourism is one of the sectors growing very fast in Ethiopia for the past few years. Ethiopia has very unique tourism potential for leisure tourists, for business as well as conference and different types of tourism targets," she said.

"Currently, the government of Ethiopia is giving great attention to transform the tourism sector in the country. There are different packages of incentives provided for investors in hotel and tourism sector. The investment policy and the environment overall is very encouraging for foreign direct investment and for all tourism areas," noted the State Minister.
BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- In his role as chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi Jinping has signed orders to give honorary titles to two military units for their outstanding services.

Troop 77656 is now titled as a "model plateau battalion" for its outstanding performance in safeguarding borders, ensuring stability and helping disaster relief, according to a statement Sunday.

Navy Submarine 372 was honored as a "model submarine" for performing marine missions with excellence.

The whole armed forces were urged to learn from both examples.

In a separate statement also released Sunday, Xi signed orders to award merit citations to four military units and 15 persons for outstanding services.

Troop 66114 was given a first-class merit citation for its outstanding contribution to completing tasks, and units 91515, 94669 and 96261 were given second-class merit citations for their outstanding performance in strengthening fighting capacity.

Chen Deming, a researcher from unit 63620, was awarded a first-class merit citation. Two others were given posthumous first-class merit citations.

Twelve individuals, including research fellows, engineers and medical staff, were honored with third-class merit citations.
KABUL, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces during operations against militants in the eastern Parwan province have captured a Taliban shadowy judge, said a statement of interior ministry released here on Sunday.

"Taliban shadowy judge Mohammad Nadir was arrested in Shinwari district on Sunday," the statement asserted.

The arrested Nadir who had served as judge for the Taliban terrorist group was notorious for arbitrary killing and extra-judicial murdering of people, the statement said, adding his arrest could be a major setback for the militants in Parwan and adjoining areas.

Taliban outfit has yet to make comment on the report.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Justice on Sunday said it executed 36 convicted prisoners over charges of killing about 1,700 soldiers when Islamic State (IS) militants seized the city of Tikrit in June 2014, an Iraqi official television reported.

"The ministry of justice executed 36 prisoners in Nasriyah prison after they were found guilty in the crime of Speicher," state-run Iraqiya channel said, referring to the city of Nasriyah, the capital of Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar.

In June 2014, armed Sunni insurgents, spearheaded by the IS group, an al-Qaida offshoot, launched a surprise offensive on Iraqi security forces and captured a large part of the country's northern and western territories after government troops abandoned their posts and military equipment.

Reports said that among the dozens of thousands of soldiers who abandoned their posts in June, some 1,700 soldiers who walked out of an air base, known as Camp Speicher north of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, were abducted and killed by IS militants.

The IS group later posted video footage and images showing the execution of Iraqi government soldiers.
CHICAGO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- What will succeed the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to continue the research of Higgs boson and other particles after the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator finishes its mission?

Physicists in Japan, China and the Europe's particle-physics laboratory CERN are trying to offer an answer, according to recent reports about the the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Chicago on Aug. 8.

The 27-kilometer-long LHC at CERN will reach its maximum-energy run in 2018, but the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 just opened a new door for particle physics and inspired the scientists to do more exploration.

With a team of top international physicists, CERN has a plan to design a 100-kilometer-circumference circular machine that could smash protons together at more than 7 times the energy of the LHC.

However, CERN might not start the action as early as the mid-2030s because they will be occupied firstly by the work to upgrade the intensity rather than the energy of the LHC's proton beams, which are made to collide in the accelerator.

Japan is quicker at the move. The Asian country has expressed the willingness to host the International Linear Collider (ILC), which is designed to have a 31-kilometer-long track and can better provide cleaner collisions for precision measurements.

Japan postponed its announcement of hosting due in 2016 because Japanese scientists advised the authority to wait and see the further results of the LHC's funding, according to reports by the Nature magazine.

After all, even with support from the United States counterparts, the cost to build the ILC is estimated at 10 billion U.S. dollars, too much for the country to afford alone.

Japan needs other countries's funding, Masanori Yamauchi, director-general of Japan's High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, was quoted by the Nature as saying.

China also has a part in the action with an idea to host a circular collider which will be 50-100 kilometers long and apply electron-positron smasher.

The Chinese plan, secured by governmental funding and partially sponsored by the international community, aims to host the upgraded collider in the 2030s.
GAZA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli war jets and tanks struck Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun Sunday after two rockets were fired from the area into southern Israeli, security sources and eyewitnesses said.

The sources said it was not clear what was the target that the Israeli war fighters and tanks had hit, however, the Israeli media reported that two rockets fired from northern Gaza struck the southern Israeli town of Sderout.

The Israeli media said the rockets fired from northern Gaza caused no injuries but caused damaged to two buildings in the town. No one claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
CAIRO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Two Egyptian policemen were killed Sunday by unknown gunmen in Egypt's Delta governorate of al-Menufiya, state-run MENA news agency reported.

Five others, including two civilians, were also wounded in the attack that was carried out at a police checkpoint in al-Menufiya's Sadat town, 72 km north of Cairo.

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the attack and carried the casualties to Sadat Central Hospital, while prosecution was notified to launch a probe into the incident, according to MENA.

Anti-government terror attacks have notably increased in Egypt, specifically in the country's North Sinai province, since the army overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and later blacklisted his Muslim Brotherhood group.

Most of the attacks are carried by the Sinai-based "Sinai State," an offshoot of the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Increasing terror attacks have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers nationwide, which led the army to launch a substantial anti-terrorist operation in Sinai which has so far killed hundreds of militants.
DUBAI, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday condemned a deadly bombing attack that hit southeastern Turkey on Saturday night, state news agency WAM reported.

In a statement, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Abu Dhabi stressed the Gulf state's "firm stance denouncing terrorism in all forms and manifestations."

A blast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey district of Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep, killing at least 30 people and injuring 94 others.

The ministry stressed the international community's need of intensified and concerted efforts "to ensure the eradication of the serious scourge of terrorism and to find radical solutions to eliminate this phenomenon."

It expressed deepest condolences and sympathy to the people and families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to all the injured.

Turkey has been targeted by a wave of bombing attacks in recent years.
PYONGYANG, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday slammed the upcoming Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise by South Korea and the United States, calling it the "most undisguised physical measure and provocative action."

The drill is "an outrageous provocation for a nuclear war against the north aimed to encroach upon the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and infringe on the vital rights of its people," said a statement given by a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country (CPRC), which was carried by the official news agency KCNA.

"It is the resolute stand of the DPRK to decisively foil all hostile acts and threat of aggression and provocation with the Korean-style nuclear deterrence," the statement said.

The DPRK also urged the United States to roll back the hostile policy against it and stop such dangerous muscle flexing.

The Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military drill to be carried out by Washington and Seoul next week is reportedly to kick off on Monday.

Each year, South Korea and the United States conduct a number of joint military drills including "Key Resolve," "Foal Eagle" and "Ulchi Freedom Guardian" which they claim to be of defensive nature. But Pyongyang says the annual war games are designed for northward invasion.
JUBA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- China has pledged a 10 million U.S. dollars aid to help South Sudan respond to humanitarian needs.

Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang told Xinhua late Saturday the funds will be used to purchase food and non-food items in an effort to immediately rescue lives of thousands in dire humanitarian condition.

Ma said people of South Sudan are at critical humanitarian assistance aggravated by the recent fighting that has forced nearly 1 million people to flee their country to seek refuge in the neighboring countries.

"I am going to meet the minister of humanitarian affairs to discuss other items that are urgently needed so that we can immediately provide to rescue those in dire need of assistance," Ma told Xinhua in Juba.

The current humanitarian situation was prompted by renewed fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar and the mid December 2013 civil strife.

Ma said the immediate humanitarian assistance needed includes rice, shelters and medical drugs for maternal diseases and cholera, as well as other valuable medical equipment.

He stressed that at this critical time China is still committed to providing humanitarian assistance to those who are in need.

In 2016, humanitarian needs in South Sudan have continued to grow as a result of violence, displacement, hunger and disease.
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- In the wake of Taliban advance in parts of the strategically important Kunduz province along the border with Tajikistan over the past one week, Afghan Defense Minister General Abdullah Habibi visited the beleaguered Kunduz city on Sunday and vowed to smash insurgents in the province and adjoining areas.

After meeting with local officials and military commanders, General Habibi told journalists that the government forces would soon launch major offensive to destroy Taliban and all anti-government militants across Kunduz.

The visit of the defense minister to Kunduz provincial capital the Kunduz city took place after the Taliban militants overrun vast areas in Qala-e-Zal district and captured Khan Abad district on Friday blocking the road linking Kunduz to the neighboring Takhar province.

Scores of Taliban and government forces have been killed for control of Kunduz over the past week.

According to Kunduz provincial governor Assadullah Omarkhil, more than 70 Taliban fighters have been killed and more than 50 injured over the past week. He also confirmed that 10 government soldiers had lost their lives over the period.

Government forces, according to governor Omarkhil, has recaptured Khan Abad district forcing militants to flee.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Afghan Army Staff, General Murad Ali Murad, who is leading operations in Kunduz against the Taliban, told reporters on Sunday that his top priority is to eliminate Taliban and destroy their sanctuaries throughout Kunduz province.

Government forces, according to General Murad, would soon launch counter-offensive to retake all the areas controlled by Taliban insurgents.

General Murad also vowed that only "dead and weakened Taliban will have a place in Kunduz afterwards" and the remaining Taliban rebels would be eliminated in Kunduz province.

Taliban militants, however, on Sunday morning blown up Alchin Bridge which connects Kunduz city with Imam Sahib, Dasht-e-Archi districts and Sher Khan Port and affected logistic supplying system to government forces.

Zabihullah Majahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in contact with media on Saturday claimed capturing Khan Abad, Qala-e-Zal and Sher Khan port, but on Sunday he is tightlipped on the situation.
MOGADISHU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were seriously injured in a mortar shell attack in Mogadishu on Sunday.

Spokesman of local government Abdifitah Omar Halane said unknown person hurled two rounds of mortar shells on the ministry of transport in Mogadishu, wounding three people.

"Two rounds of the mortar shells landed in the ministry of transport this afternoon, causing injuries to three people and burned two cars," Halane said.

He confirmed that an emergency team rushed to put out the fire after the incident and rushed the injured to hospital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, which came a few hours after Al-Shabaab militant group staged a deadly attack in the northern Somalia town of Galkayo, killing at least 15 people.
ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The suicide bomber who carried out a deadly terror attack at a wedding in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday night is aged 12 to 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

The brutal terror attack was carried out by a teenager, and initial findings showed it was perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS) group, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

He stressed that security forces have been conducting counter-terror operations against the IS, and are intensifying their fight against terrorists in Gaziantep province.

At least 51 people were killed in the attack, and 69 others injured, including 17 in critical condition, Erdogan confirmed.

Related:

Spotlight: Turkey wedding blast turns paradise into hell with death toll hitting 50

ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 people were killed and 94 wounded when a blast hit an outdoor wedding celebration in the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, the Gaziantep Governor's office stated. Full story

Putin offers condolences over wedding blast in Turkey

MOSCOW, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday offered condolences to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over the deadly blast that hit an outdoor wedding celebration in southeastern Turkey and killed at least 50 people.

Condemning the attack for its cruelty and disrespect for human morality, the Russian leader vowed to boost anti-terrorism cooperation with Turkey. Full story

Pakistan condemns terrorist attack in Turkey

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Sunday strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Turkey and reaffirmed solidarity with brotherly Turkey.

A blast exploded near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, killing at least 30 people and injuring nearly 90 others, Gaziantep Governor's Office confirmed early Sunday. Full story

Backgrounder: Chronology of major bombing attacks in Turkey since beginning of 2016
A worker stands near the oil refinery Camilo Cienfuegos in Cienfuegos December 20, 2007. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

HAVANA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Cuba is set to hold its first Energy & Infrastructure Summit in an effort to boost clean and renewable energy sources and cut down on fossil fuels, local media reported on Saturday.

Conrado Moreno, a member of the organizing committee, told state-run Radio Havana Cuba that the Sept. 1-2 event, to be held at Havana's Melia Cohiba Hotel, is expected to draw green energy experts from 14 countries in the Americas and Europe.

Participants will explore ways to attract foreign investors in the national energy sector, including touting the new business opportunities under Cuba's new Foreign Investment Law.

The island nation is hoping to expand its renewable energy infrastructure, such as wind farms, solar panels and plants that turn sugarcane into biofuel, said Moreno.

Cuba has long depended on its close ally Venezuela, an oil exporter, to meet its energy needs. But low oil prices have plunged the South American country into an economic crisis, leading the Caribbean island nation to focus more on alternative energy sources.

The United States, which recently restored diplomatic ties with Cuba, will be attending the summit.

The summit is being sponsored by London-based IJ Global, a "project finance and infrastructure journal"; New Energy Events, which serves as a bridge between technology and capital and regional renewable resources; and the infrastructure division of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, a provider of news and information on the global financial community.

Also organizing the event are Cuba's Chamber of Commerce and Renewable Energy Technologies Study Center, with the support of the ministries of Foreign Trade and Investment, Tourism, and Agriculture.

Cuba generates about 4 percent of its energy from renewable sources, but aims to increase that figure to 24 percent by 2030.

The island produces half of its oil needs, and imports the rest at substantial cost. That's why Cuban President Raul Castro is looking to boost local energy production, especially green energy.
Women cry during a funeral for a victim of last night's attack on a wedding party that left 50 dead in Gaziantep in southeasternTurkey near the Syrian border on August 21, 2016. At least 50 people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said on August 21. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The suicide bomber who carried out a deadly terror attack at a wedding in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday night is aged 12 to 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

The brutal terror attack was carried out by a teenager, and initial findings showed it was perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS) group, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

He stressed that security forces have been conducting counter-terror operations against the IS, and are intensifying their fight against terrorists in Gaziantep province.

At least 51 people were killed in the attack, and 69 others injured, including 17 in critical condition, Erdogan confirmed.
DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Sunday the government will not hesitate revoking citizenship granted to Burundian refugees who were disobedient.

"The government will revoke citizenship to given to Burundian refugees who are disobedient. They will also be repatriated to their respective country of origin," Majaliwa told naturalized Burundian refugees living at Katumba in Katavi region.

"A good number of refugees who were granted citizenship are abusing the offer by bringing in their relatives. This is unacceptable," said the prime minister who was on a visit to the region.

Majaliwa directed the Katavi regional defence and security committee to conduct a special inspection in Katumba and Mishamo refugee camps in order to establish whether they were refugees who had been brought in by their relatives who have secured citizenship.

He said the inspection at Katumba and Mishamo refugee camps in Katavi region should also target refugees in illegal possession of firearms.

"The only person that is legally allowed to carry a firearm in Tanzania is a policeman," said Majaliwa.

He said border regions should be highly protected to ensure that refugees were not fleeing to the east African nation illegally.

"If we allow uncontrolled entry of refugees through our border regions we will create a horrible situation," said the prime minister.

In 2014, Tanzania granted citizenship to 162,156 former Burundian refugees, marking the largest group in which naturalisation had been offered by a country of first asylum as a solution to their decades in exile.

In December 2007, the government of Tanzania announced its willingness to offer naturalisation to the former Burundian refugees in an effort to end protracted refugee situations in the country.

The refugees have historically lived in three settlement areas in Tabora and Katavi regions in western Tanzania since 1972 and had become largely self-supporting and taxpaying members of society.

Tanzania previously granted naturalization to some 32,000 Rwandan refugees in 1982, and in February 2014 the country concluded the naturalization of 3,000 Somali Bantu refugees who had fled Somalia in 1991, after the fall of the Siad Barre regime. Enditem
TEHRAN, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday strongly condemned a deadly bomb attack on a wedding ceremony in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, saying it was "inhuman," local media reported.

"Carrying out such a terrorist act in a wedding ceremony and the killing of defenseless people and civilians once again clearly display the ominous and inhuman goals of terrorism," state Press TV quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.

At least 50 people were killed and 94 wounded when a blast hit the outdoor wedding celebration on Saturday night.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack was likely carried out by the Islamic States (IS) terrorists.
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) listens while Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto makes a statement to the press after a meeting during the North American Leaders Summit at the National Gallery of Canada on June 29, 2016 in Ottawa, Canada. (Xinhua/AFP)

by Chris Dalby

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- No country appreciates being turned into a political punching bag.

Mexico has been systematically victimized by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has accused the country of sending rapists to the United States, is planning to build a border wall, and to stop remittances being sent to Mexico. These reasons have all made most Mexicans eager supporters of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

However, the issue of free trade may become Mexico's largest concern in the presidential race of the United States, a country that has pioneered the global economic model.

Both candidates have openly spoken out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the world's largest free-trade agreement (FTAs) signed in 2015 between 12 countries, including Mexico, the United States, Australia and Japan.

For decades now, Mexico has made free trade a cornerstone of its economic and foreign agendas. It has more FTAs with 45 countries, the most of any nation in the world, and much of its economic development has come from rivaling the likes of China and Vietnam as a manufacturing destination.

Its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) treaty, signed with the U.S. and Canada in 1994, also anchored Mexico's competitiveness by being arguably the only developing economy in the world with such privileged access to these markets.

The unexpected body swerve away from free trade by both Clinton and Trump may well have Mexico spooked. At a one-day summit with President Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, this Mexican preoccupation was made clear.

In his address, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Mexico "is now a country that jealously protects its macroeconomic strength."

For Pena Nieto, this strength is based on free trade. "The partnership Canada and Mexico have with the United States is on track to make North America a much more competitive and productive region."

Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" screams of cheap jingoism but it also strikes at a desire to bring jobs back and rebuild America's manufacturing heartland. Interviewed by CNN, Raul Benitez Manaut, a Mexican researcher on North America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said "NAFTA has been heavily criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for two decades. No matter whether it is Clinton or Trump, it will surely be revised and updated."

"Trump has been very aggressive and put in doubt the future of the TPP, which involves Mexico," he said, adding that Clinton would probably be friendly toward free trade overall, as Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have all been.

However, Benitez Manaut's confidence about this may not be certain. Clinton's track record indicates an openness toward free trade. Her husband was in office when NAFTA was signed and she also supported FTAs between the United States and Oman, Chile and Singapore while in the Senate.

Despite that, she has been markedly careful at towing a line between supporting the idea of free trade yet providing few specifics as to what pro-trade measures she would support.

In an interview with CBS in April, Clinton said that "any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security. We have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and the skills to be competitive. It's got to be really a partnership between our business, our government, our workforce, the intellectual property that comes out of our universities, and we have to get back to a much more focused effort in my opinion to try to produce those capacities here at home so that we can be competitive in a global economy."

There is no doubt that will play well with the American electorate but it was not what Mexico wanted to hear. Far from being content with simply assembling American cars or packaging pre-produced goods, Mexico is actually looking to move up the value chain.

The country produces over 130,000 engineers a year, many of whom aim to work for American companies. Ford has an R&D lab in Mexico, designing parts for the new Ford Fiesta, among others. Should policy arguments about free trade lead to protectionist policies being passed by Congress, such companies would face a very difficult time.

News website, Economia Hoy (Economy Today) speaks of the irony of how Trump "has used NAFTA as cannon fodder", promising protectionism and to "eliminate any regulation which annihilates jobs" while his free trade opposition would harm both the U.S. and Mexico.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), called by the organization "Chile better without TPP", at Citizenship Square in Santiago, capital of Chile, on Feb. 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas)

However, American Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson said that she doubted any move away from FTA would actually materialize.

"We feel that trade between the two countries, worth 1.6 billion U.S. dollars a day, means that it is one thing to say we want to separate and another thing to actually do it. We are so integrated that I do not think it is possible to make any quick changes," said Jacobson in an August interview with Mexican daily, Excelsior.

For Jacobson, since NAFTA was signed over 20 years ago, all the administration share the understanding that this is a very important, fruitful relationship for the U.S.

In this, the ambassador is probably right. Presidential candidates might campaign in poetry but they must govern in prose when reality kicks in. Railing against free trade may play well in Rust Belt states, which have undoubtedly suffered from jobs being exported, but the U.S. is too dependent on the benefits of free trade.

Trump has spoken of renegotiating NAFTA and of slapping 35 percent tariffs on goods imported from Mexico. That would not be a renegotiation of NAFTA at all, that would mean throwing it out and starting a trade war. Companies who still make finished goods in the U.S. would be punished for importing parts and raw materials. This would be passed on to customers, who would see prices spike on everything from foodstuffs to freezers.

This is where protectionism often falls apart. The world is too interconnected for countries to make such radical changes to their trade policies, without paying a stiff price, as the UK is now feeling after Brexit.

Politicians find it very difficult to undo broad legislation once enacted. As pointed out recently by Alberto Barranco, a political columnist for Mexican daily, El Universal, the TPP is a rare area where Obama and many Republicans agree. The president has stated that he wants Congress to ratify the TPP before he leaves office. If House Speaker Paul Ryan obliges him, and Mexico also ratifies it as planned, neither government will have the stomach for a renegotiation.

Jacobson says she cannot foresee a future for U.S.-Mexican relations without NAFTA or TPP. "We may have a fight ahead with TPP but I think all countries will ratify it, including the U.S.," she stated confidently.

At the Canada summit, Pena Nieto expressed his agreement. "The TPP revitalizes the NAFTA agreement, by putting it on another scale and at another level."

The free flow of goods across borders is the grease that keeps the global engine of growth turning. For years, this was drilled into Mexico's head by its northern neighbor. For all its social and economic problems, Mexico learned this well. Since NAFTA was signed, far more complaints were filed against Canada than against Mexico. The country has a real commitment to open markets and to global fair trade rules. It is the exemplary pupil of the global economic model pioneered by the United States.

It would now be a real shock if the pupil surpassed the master.
NAIROBI, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The East Africa Development Bank (EADB) has called on regional countries to strengthen laws for the mining industry to ensure equitable distribution of resources.

EADB Director General, Vivienne Yeda, said the discovery and ongoing exploration of various minerals in the region have raised the expectation of host communities and governments that resource extraction will result into wealth creation, reduced budget deficit and improve the conditions of the local people.

"It is critical that host countries are able to derive tangible benefits from the exploitation of their natural resources," Yeda told a regional seminar for judges from East Africa region which ended in Nairobi on Sunday.

"The benefits should accrue to the local communities in form of appropriate royalties, taxes, dividends, business opportunities, professional jobs and employment for skilled labour," she added.

Yeda said that there should be a clear benefit to the country, commensurate with the amount of resources derived for the country.

In order to achieve this, taxes and other fiscal rates, environmental and social management in Africa should be comparable to those prevailing in advanced economies, she added.

The seminar, which was organized by EADB, was designed for judges from the East African region involved in arbitrating transactions and settlement of disputes in the extractive sectors.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the seminar, Kenya's Attorney General Githu Muigai asked public sector lawyers in the region to ensure that resource wealth brings East Africa long-term and sustainable economic development through preventing resource dependence and encouraging economic diversification.

This, Muigai said, will encourage job creation despite the sector's capital-intensive nature, by minimizing environmental degradation and by allowing for the benefits to accrue even after depletion of resources.

"The governments in the general East African region are increasingly putting in place legal and regulatory mechanisms to support the investments in the extractives sector," he said in a speech read on his behalf by Deputy Solicitor General, Christine Agimba.

"This includes reviewing of outdated legislation and the enactment of new laws as well as other mechanisms to improve the investment climate and enhance the ease of doing business," Muigai added.

He said the rise of exploration activities has also seen a rise in litigation both before Kenyan courts, and internationally in forums like International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, and these calls for a closer examination of how disputes are resolved.
By Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tried to reach out to African Americans this week, but that key demographic is unlikely to cast their ballots for the bombastic billionaire, analysts said.

As African Americans statistically back Democratic candidates in presidential elections, Trump made a speech earlier this week, saying that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has neither helped blacks, nor will she ever be able to do so.

But while addressing blacks, Trump did so in front of a mostly white audience.

"I'm asking for the vote of every African-American citizen, struggling in our country today, who wants a different and much better future," he said in front of a mostly white crowd in a speech Tuesday night.

Indeed, the candidate is depending on white, blue-collar men to put him in the White House. And those African Americans who come out to vote are likely to hit the button for Clinton.

Hillary Clinton and her husband and former president Bill Clinton have been viewed over the years as espousing causes important to the black community, and Bill was once referred to by Nobel Prize winning poet Toni Morrison as the nation's "first black president."

Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua that Trump is getting very few votes from African Americans and this is not likely to change.

"He doesn't speak their language or take their side on crucial economic issues. He will poll lower with minorities than most recent GOP presidential candidates," he said.

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told Xinhua that African American voters have become very attached to Democrats, in large part because the party has promoted policies from civil rights to economic assistance for the middle class that appeals to them.

"This makes it very difficult...to see how Trump can change the dynamics," he said.

Trump has also not addressed African American or minority groups, nor has he held many rallies in diverse urban areas.

While some on the right have tried to highlight the narrative of Trump "heading to Milwaukee," - a city with a large black population - he gave his address from the town of West Bend, which is 94 percent white, Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.

"While a GOP candidate could highlight how the status quo has not benefited African Americans, Trump continues to address white supporters about issues facing African Americans rather than reaching out to that community," Mahaffee said.

Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua that African American voters are crucial to the Democratic electoral coalition, and helped save Clinton's candidacy from former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

"So taking a position that brings African Americans to the table is vital for her to maintain good relations with these voters," Galdieri said.

Galdieri added that polling shows that black Trump supporters are few and far between. "Trump appears to be doing worse with these voters than any Republican in fifty years," Galdieri said.

"If you want to win the support of African Americans, the first step needs to be talking to them, not about them," he added.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nearly four in ten voters believe that the U.S. media is biased for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. election, said a new poll.

According to the Morning Consult poll released on Friday, 38 percent U.S. voters say that news coverage favors the former U.S. secretary of state, while only 12 percent believe that same is true for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

As to the amount of coverage each nominee is getting, the majority of voters approve of the amount of coverage of either nominee, said the poll.

However, voters voiced dissatisfaction with the fairness of the media, with 33 percent saying that the media's fairness to each candidate is "poor".

Another 22 percent voters believe the media coverage of each candidate is "only fair", and those who describe the media coverage as either "excellent" or "good" account for 35 percent in total, according to the poll.

The poll came as Trump doubled down on his accusation against "the crooked media."

"I'm not running against Crooked Hillary. I'm running against the crooked media," said the New Yorker during a rally on Aug. 13.

Though benefitting heavily from the media's wall-to-wall coverage of his campaign during the nomination contests, relations between Trump and the media deteriorated in the past weeks as the bellicose billionaire developer got embroiled in one political firestorm after another.

The media bombardment began late July after Trump derisively answered criticism from Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American solider killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.

On the final day of the Democratic National Convention, Khan blasted Trump for his divisive remarks and proposal to temporary ban Muslims entering the country.

The Republican standard-bearer responded by implying that Ms. Khan, who accompanied his husband on stage on the final day of the Democratic National Convention, was forbidden to speak.

Then on Aug. 9, Trump caused another round of media frenzy after suggesting that supporters of gun rights could take action against his Democratic counterpart Clinton if Clinton wins the election.

"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment," said Trump during a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks."

"Though the Second Amendment people, maybe there is," he added.

As he was still scrambling to tackle the backlash after his gun rights comments, Trump on Aug. 10 handed the U.S. media new prime fodder after declaring that U.S. President Barack Obama "is the founder of ISIS," referring to the extremist group Islamic State.

Despite a conservative radio show host's apparent move to help him clarify his position, Trump on Aug.11 stepped up his accusation of Obama, saying that he "meant he (Obama) is the founder of ISIS."

Trump eventually backtracked on his accusation, blaming the media for missing his sarcasm.
GiantpandaBeibei (R) plays with its mother Meixiang at National Zoological Park in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- As giant panda cub Bei Bei living in Washington National Zoo turns one year old on Monday, Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan sent a message to wish him a healthy and happy childhood.

"As Bei Bei's first birthday draws near, I am sending greetings from China, the home country of pandas half a world away," Peng said in a statement.

"Giant panda is China's national treasure. Bei Bei's birth is the fruit of collaboration between China and the United States and a strong symbol of our friendship," she said.

"I would also like to say a big thank you to the staff of the National Zoo for taking good care of Bei Bei and to all American friends who love and cherish pandas," said Peng.

Peng recalled her visit last September with U.S. first lady Michelle Obama to the zoo and jointly named Bei Bei, which means "precious treasure" in Chinese. She was in town accompanying her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was on his first state visit to the United States at the time.

"Time flies! Now, Bei Bei is one year old. From the other side of the Pacific, together with all Chinese who love Bei Bei, I wish him a healthy and happy childhood!" she said.

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama also celebrated Bei Bei's birthday via social media on Saturday.

"Today we celebrate the @NationalZoo's 'precious treasure' as he turns one year old. Happy birthday, Bei Bei!" Michelle twittered.

For the cute cub's first birthday, officials from the zoo and Chinese Embassy in the U.S. threw a big Zhuazhou party on Saturday. Zhuazhou is a popular traditional ceremony in China for families and relatives to observe a one-year-old baby's own choice from a number of symbolic objects so as to foretell something about the baby's future.

Early on Saturday morning, three posters with painted symbols, peaches for long life, bamboos for green habitat and Chinese red knot for good luck and friendship, were hung on bamboo branches in Bei Bei's yard. With the help of his mother Mei Xiang and amid hearty laughter from hundreds of visitors, Bei Bei put "good luck and friendship" as his first choice.

"He is so cute and funny. Everybody loves panda. They are best animals in the zoo," Courtney Smith, who has been working at the panda house of the zoo as a volunteer for ten years, told Xinhua.

At noontime, Bei Bei was served a big frozen tiered cake specially made with diluted juice and water tinted with food coloring. However, the plump young cub was quite sleepy at the time, his mother Mei Xiang enjoyed much of the cake alone.

Bei Bei, weighing almost 70.4 pounds (32 kilos), was born on August 22, 2015 and is the second cub born to giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian.
DAMASCUS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A truce has been reached between Syrian forces and Kurdish fighters in the volatile northeastern province of Hasakah under a Russian mediation, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported on Sunday.

The report said the regime of calm includes a cessation of battles, evacuation of wounded people, return to the previous lines of both parties, and the start of negotiations.

The ceasefire starts as of 5 p.m. on Sunday coupled with transporting the wounded to hospitals in the city of Qamishli in Hasaka.

The military positions should return to their previous state, as the negotiations are set to start on Monday at the Qamishli airport between representatives of the Syrian and Kurdish sides as well as Iranian and Russian mediators.

A day earlier, a source in the city told Xinhua that the Russians started mediation efforts to defuse the tension and the battles that have raged between the Kurdish police forces, Assayish, and the Syrian National Defense Forces (NDF), a paramilitary forces backing the army, over the past few days.

Tension started last week, when both the NDF and Assayish arrested members of each other.

As tension grew bigger, the Kurdish militias demanded the dissolve of the NDF in Hasakah, a request denied by the Syrian army.

Later on, the Assayish started shelling the NDF positions inside Hasakah, prompting the Syrian army to respond with airstrikes for the first time, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Assayish and the People Protection Units (YPG) said they will respond to the attacks of the Syrian forces, unleashing wide-scale offensives on the NDF positions inside the city of Hasakah.

The source said the Kurds couldn't advance in government-controlled areas, contrary to their claims that they have achieved that.

The Syrian artillery and airstrikes responded to the attempts of the Kurds to advance, he added.

He added that 80 percent of the people of Hasakah have fled their homes to areas in the countryside as a result of the latest confrontation.

Previous tension occurred between the Syrian forces and the Kurds, but both parties contained the situation to avoid further confrontations.

The YPG and other Kurdish militant groups have been assuming positions in Hasakah since 2012.

At the time, reports emerged about a tacit agreement between the Kurds and the Syrian government.

Even though many Kurdish figures denied it, but it's widely believed that the Kurds are planning to carve out a piece in northern Syria with heavy Kurdish weight as their autonomous state.

Buoyed by the support of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, the YPG and the allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have made sweeping victories against the Islamic State (IS) group, stripping the terror-designated militants of key areas in northern Syria.

The Russians were said to have also backed the Kurdish fighters in their push against the IS, but the Kurdish groups didn't disclose that, or admit receiving such support from Russia.
GAZA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The armed wing of Islamic Hamas movement, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, warned Israel on Sunday that keeping the blockade on the coastal enclave won't serve the current calm.

Abu Obeida, the masked spokesman of al-Qassam Brigades, made the remarks in a rally in Rafah town in southern Gaza Strip marking two years since Israel waged its last large-scale offensive on Gaza in 2014.

His remarks also came shortly after several rockets were fired from northern Gaza Strip into southern Israel, where Israeli jet fighters and artillery bombed targets belonging to Hamas.

"The enemy's leadership keeps committing mistakes and repeats the same stupidities by maintaining the siege imposed on our people. They will be wrong if they believe that the siege could break our resistance," said Abu Obeida.

He stressed that "the Israeli siege would never prevent the Brigades from developing its abilities or preparing for the battle of liberation. We will carry on until we liberate our land and our people."

In the summer of 2014, Israel waged a large-scale military air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, which went on for 50 days, leaving 2,200 Palestinians and 70 Israelis killed, and causing large destruction in Gaza.

On Aug. 26, Israel and the Palestinians reached a cease-fire brokered by Egypt.

Abu Obeida also warned Israel that Hamas militants will treat Israeli hostages in the same way Israel is dealing with the Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

Earlier in April, Hamas armed wing for the first time unveiled that its militants were keeping four Israelis without giving further details on whether they are dead or alive.
Syrian Kurdish civilians board vehicle as they flee reported shelling in the northeastern governorate of Hasakah, toward the city of Qameshli, on August 18, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A truce has been reached between Syrian forces and Kurdish fighters in the volatile northeastern province of Hasakah under a Russian mediation, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported on Sunday.

The report said the regime of calm includes a cessation of battles, evacuation of wounded people, return to the previous lines of both parties, and the start of negotiations.

The ceasefire starts as of 5 p.m. on Sunday coupled with transporting the wounded to hospitals in the city of Qamishli in Hasaka.

The military positions should return to their previous state, as the negotiations are set to start on Monday at the Qamishli airport between representatives of the Syrian and Kurdish sides as well as Iranian and Russian mediators.

A day earlier, a source in the city told Xinhua that the Russians started mediation efforts to defuse the tension and the battles that have raged between the Kurdish police forces, Assayish, and the Syrian National Defense Forces (NDF), a paramilitary forces backing the army, over the past few days.

Tension started last week, when both the NDF and Assayish arrested members of each other.

As tension grew bigger, the Kurdish militias demanded the dissolve of the NDF in Hasakah, a request denied by the Syrian army.

Later on, the Assayish started shelling the NDF positions inside Hasakah, prompting the Syrian army to respond with airstrikes for the first time, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Assayish and the People Protection Units (YPG) said they will respond to the attacks of the Syrian forces, unleashing wide-scale offensives on the NDF positions inside the city of Hasakah.

The source said the Kurds couldn't advance in government-controlled areas, contrary to their claims that they have achieved that.

The Syrian artillery and airstrikes responded to the attempts of the Kurds to advance, he added.

He added that 80 percent of the people of Hasakah have fled their homes to areas in the countryside as a result of the latest confrontation.

Previous tension occurred between the Syrian forces and the Kurds, but both parties contained the situation to avoid further confrontations.

The YPG and other Kurdish militant groups have been assuming positions in Hasakah since 2012.

At the time, reports emerged about a tacit agreement between the Kurds and the Syrian government.

Even though many Kurdish figures denied it, but it's widely believed that the Kurds are planning to carve out a piece in northern Syria with heavy Kurdish weight as their autonomous state.

Buoyed by the support of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, the YPG and the allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have made sweeping victories against the Islamic State (IS) group, stripping the terror-designated militants of key areas in northern Syria.

The Russians were said to have also backed the Kurdish fighters in their push against the IS, but the Kurdish groups didn't disclose that, or admit receiving such support from Russia.
Panda Mei Xiang, mother of one-year-old panda baby Beibei, eats a birthday cake for her child, which missed the cake at the moment for a noontime snooze. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- As giant panda cub Bei Bei living in Washington National Zoo turns one year old on Monday, Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan sent a message to wish him a healthy and happy childhood.

"As Bei Bei's first birthday draws near, I am sending greetings from China, the home country of pandas half a world away," Peng said in a statement.

"Giant panda is China's national treasure. Bei Bei's birth is the fruit of collaboration between China and the United States and a strong symbol of our friendship," she said.

"I would also like to say a big thank you to the staff of the National Zoo for taking good care of Bei Bei and to all American friends who love and cherish pandas," said Peng.

Giant panda Beibei (R) plays with its mother Meixiang at National Zoological Park in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

Peng recalled her visit last September with U.S. first lady Michelle Obama to the zoo and jointly named Bei Bei, which means "precious treasure" in Chinese. She was in town accompanying her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was on his first state visit to the United States at the time.

"Time flies! Now, Bei Bei is one year old. From the other side of the Pacific, together with all Chinese who love Bei Bei, I wish him a healthy and happy childhood!" she said.

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama also celebrated Bei Bei's birthday via social media on Saturday.

"Today we celebrate the @NationalZoo's 'precious treasure' as he turns one year old. Happy birthday, Bei Bei!" Michelle twittered.

Giant panda Meixiang, mother of Beibei, selects a Chinese knot during a traditional "Zhuazhou" ceremony for Beibei at National Zoological Park in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

For the cute cub's first birthday, officials from the zoo and Chinese Embassy in the U.S. threw a big Zhuazhou party on Saturday. Zhuazhou is a popular traditional ceremony in China for families and relatives to observe a one-year-old baby's own choice from a number of symbolic objects so as to foretell something about the baby's future.

Early on Saturday morning, three posters with painted symbols, peaches for long life, bamboos for green habitat and Chinese red knot for good luck and friendship, were hung on bamboo branches in Bei Bei's yard. With the help of his mother Mei Xiang and amid hearty laughter from hundreds of visitors, Bei Bei put "good luck and friendship" as his first choice.

"He is so cute and funny. Everybody loves panda. They are best animals in the zoo," Courtney Smith, who has been working at the panda house of the zoo as a volunteer for ten years, told Xinhua.

At noontime, Bei Bei was served a big frozen tiered cake specially made with diluted juice and water tinted with food coloring. However, the plump young cub was quite sleepy at the time, his mother Mei Xiang enjoyed much of the cake alone.

Bei Bei, weighing almost 70.4 pounds (32 kilos), was born on August 22, 2015 and is the second cub born to giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian.
Left: Donald Trump takes the stage on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, July 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) Right: U.S. Democratic Nominee for President Hillary Clinton speaks on the last day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States, July 28, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tried to reach out to African Americans this week, but that key demographic is unlikely to cast their ballots for the bombastic billionaire, analysts said.

As African Americans statistically back Democratic candidates in presidential elections, Trump made a speech earlier this week, saying that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has neither helped blacks, nor will she ever be able to do so.

But while addressing blacks, Trump did so in front of a mostly white audience.

"I'm asking for the vote of every African-American citizen, struggling in our country today, who wants a different and much better future," he said in front of a mostly white crowd in a speech Tuesday night.

Indeed, the candidate is depending on white, blue-collar men to put him in the White House. And those African Americans who come out to vote are likely to hit the button for Clinton.

Hillary Clinton and her husband and former president Bill Clinton have been viewed over the years as espousing causes important to the black community, and Bill was once referred to by Nobel Prize winning poet Toni Morrison as the nation's "first black president."

Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua that Trump is getting very few votes from African Americans and this is not likely to change.

"He doesn't speak their language or take their side on crucial economic issues. He will poll lower with minorities than most recent GOP presidential candidates," he said.

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told Xinhua that African American voters have become very attached to Democrats, in large part because the party has promoted policies from civil rights to economic assistance for the middle class that appeals to them.

"This makes it very difficult...to see how Trump can change the dynamics," he said.

Trump has also not addressed African American or minority groups, nor has he held many rallies in diverse urban areas.

While some on the right have tried to highlight the narrative of Trump "heading to Milwaukee," - a city with a large black population - he gave his address from the town of West Bend, which is 94 percent white, Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.

"While a GOP candidate could highlight how the status quo has not benefited African Americans, Trump continues to address white supporters about issues facing African Americans rather than reaching out to that community," Mahaffee said.

Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua that African American voters are crucial to the Democratic electoral coalition, and helped save Clinton's candidacy from former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

"So taking a position that brings African Americans to the table is vital for her to maintain good relations with these voters," Galdieri said.

Galdieri added that polling shows that black Trump supporters are few and far between. "Trump appears to be doing worse with these voters than any Republican in fifty years," Galdieri said.

"If you want to win the support of African Americans, the first step needs to be talking to them, not about them," he added.
ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- One soldier was killed and three others were injured in a Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) bomb attack on an armored military vehicle in southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa on Sunday, Dogan News Agency reported.

The roadside bomb was detonated as the military vehicle passed through a highway in Viransehir district of southern Sanliurfa.

Police and ambulances were immediately dispatched to the scene.

Over 600 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations in Turkey and northern Iraq since July 2015, and Turkish forces have killed over 7,000 PKK militants, Daily Sabah said in the report.

More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group first started anti-government attacks.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.
KIRKUK, Iraq, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Sunday foiled two suicide bomb attacks by the Islamic State (IS) militants targeting two Shiite mosques in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk, a local police source told Xinhua.

In one of the attacks, a suicide bomber tried to enter a Shiite mosque crowded with worshipers in western Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, but he blew up his explosive vest when the guards stopped him, wounding two guards and two people, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Another suicide bomber aged between 13 and 14 years tried to attack another Shiite mosque in central Kirkuk, but the security forces captured him and defused his explosive vest, the source said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in downtown Baghdad, but IS militant group, in most cases, is responsible for such suicide attacks, targeting areas where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.

Iraq has witnessed intense violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.

A report by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) estimated that 759 Iraqis were killed and 1,207 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in July across Iraq.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S. that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003.
JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The South African Presidency on Sunday said that a decision on whether there will be university fee increases will be announced once the process of consultations with stakeholders in the higher education sector is completed.

This came following press reports that President Jacob Zuma has instructed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, and Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande, to find money for another zero-percent fee increase for 2017.

The instruction was reportedly issued at a recent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the African National Congress (ANC) in Irene, Pretoria.

Over a week ago, the National Treasury told the Fees Commission of Inquiry that looking into the feasibility of free tertiary education, a zero-percent fee increment for 2017 was not budgeted for.

Early this week, the Higher Education Transformation Network called on the Nzimande to reject the proposal by the council on higher education that institutions increase their fees by six percent for the 2017 academic year.

The Network, however, said the minister should wait until the presidential commission on higher education makes its findings around the feasibility of free education.

Students have threatened to disrupt institutions of higher learning if their demand for zero fee increase is not met.

Nzimande warned that zero fee increases would force universities to downsize or shut down certain programs, calling on the students to remain calm as a decision on fees will only be made following consultations.

South African universities were hit by widespread protests over fee increases last year. According to official figures, the unrest cost more than 145 million rand (about 10.8 million US dollars) in damage.

Following the unrest, President Jacob Zuma appointed a commission to look into the students' concerns.

The government then suspended fee increases for 2016 and provided universities with billions of rand for the shortfall.
CAPE TOWN, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The South African Presidency on Sunday denied reports, alleging a rift between the Presidency and the National Treasury in relation to providing support to the South African Airways (SAA).

"The rumours and gossip published in today's Sunday Times on the matter are false and regrettably," presidential spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said.

He said the Presidency was not asked for comment by the newspaper. "In fact, the Presidency is working with the National Treasury to address concerned matters."

The Sunday Times reported that the national carrier, which is allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy, has been given until early next month to submit its annual financial statement or face deregistration in Hong Kong.

The report said that the Hong Kong registrar of companies has threatened to ground all flights to Hong Kong if SAA fails to meet the deadline on September 6.

According to the report, the Presidency had a rift with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan over the SAA's request for a five-billion-rand (about 378million U.S. dollars) bailout, which Gordhan has declined.

Meanwhile, SAA spokesperson Tladi Tladi said that contrary to the report, he believes the airline will meet the deadline and flights will not be affected. Endtiem
by Christine Lagat

NAIROBI, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Growing up in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, Ann Ng'ang'a witnessed systematic discrimination against women and girls despite their abundant talent and skills that could be harnessed to fuel progress.

She was determined at a tender age to defy the stereotype that has always confined women to the margins in many Kenyan communities.

The third year student of mechanical engineering at a public college credits her mother and other female relatives who encouraged her to knock fearlessly every barrier that stood in her path with her achivements.

Ng'ang'a and a handful of young female college students have been selected to participate in this year's edition of Africa Tech Challenge, a vocational skills competition sponsored by Chinese firm, AVIC International.

During an interview with Xinhua earlier this week on the sidelines of the training for the contestants, Ng'ang'a spoke of her passion for engineering that was nurtured while she was in high school.

"I loved physics while in high school aware that it would pave way for me to take up an engineering course in college. During my younger days, girls dreaded technical courses but I decided to defy that myth," Ng'ang'a said.

She learnt about the Africa Tech Challenge in 2014 when it was launched in Kenyan tertiary institutions to boost the prowess of young adults in diverse engineering disciplines.

"Some of my friends who participated in previous editions of Africa Tech Challenge encouraged me to take it up this year. I qualified for participation in this year's contest having proved my prowess in use of machines to solve problems," she said.

She is among some 120 Kenyan students who are going through an intensive training at a university campus in the capital Nairobi in readiness for a contest to gauge their technical skills to be held in late August, alongside a dozen of students from Uganda, Zambia and Ghana.

The month-long training is covering two courses that include operation of conventional lathe machines and computer numerical control (CNC) machining.

Chinese tutors are conducting the training to boost the capacity of African engineering students to operate industrial machines.

"So far, I have learnt how to operate lathe machines at ease thanks to intensive training and mentorship. It has been possible to put theories learnt in class into practice," said Ng'ang'a.

Her ambition is to become an outstanding mechanical engineer upon graduation from college next year.

"It will be a great honor to become part of the growing army of female engineers in this country. I intend to use my spare time and mentor young girls to take up technical courses," Ng'ang'a told Xinhua.

The China-sponsored contest has provided a platform for budding young engineers in Kenya to hone their skills and network with potential employers.

This year's contest, themed of "Made in Kenya", has attracted ambitious youth from universities and vocational training institutes from different parts of the country.

Eric Chimwani, a second-year welding and fabrication student at a vocational training institute in western Kenya, said his participation at this year's contest was an eye-opener.

"My college mates alerted me about a call for participation at this year's challenge. I participated in the regional competition and was shortlisted to take part in the finals," said Chimwani.

His training on operation and maintenance of conventional lathe machines that commenced a fortnight ago has boosted his skills in mechanical engineering.

"The training is very rich in terms of content and it is not as challenging as I previously thought. Our Chinese tutors are good and share knowledge without holding back," Chimwani said, adding that future dream is to establish a workshop near his home town to earn a living through welding and fabrication.

The top three winners in the conventional lathe machines category in the contest will be awarded scholarships to study for masters' degree in mechanical engineering in China.

Executives from AVIC International say the number of Kenyan tutors and students who have gained from Africa Tech Challenge has increased tremendously.

"We have trained over 290 teachers and students with technical skills since we first launched ATC in 2014," said Qian Rong, Deputy President of AVIC International.

He said that his company had also offered cash rewards, internships and full time working opportunities for groups and individuals who demonstrate outstanding engineering prowess.
NEW YORK, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Five people, including a pregnant woman were killed in rural Citronelle, Alabama on Saturday, and a suspect was arrested later in Mississippi, according to media reports.

The 27-year-old suspect turned himself to police several hours after he killed five people in a family his girlfriend was staying with, using firearms and several other weapons, a CNN report said.

Derrick Dearman, kidnapped his girlfriend and a three-month-old baby after the killing and drove them back to his father's home in Mississippi but later decided to set them free and surrender to the police, according to the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.

The suspect's girlfriend Laneta Lester told police she was trying to end a relationship with him, and had gone to stay at her relative's house in Alabama.

The police said it could take investigators days to sort out the grisly murder scene in Citronelle, a small town 30 miles northwest of Mobile.
ALGIERS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Algeria on Sunday condemned the attack that targeted a wedding ceremony in Turkey, while urging the international community for wider cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The Algerian Foreign Ministry described the terrorist attack that hit Turkey on Saturday night as a "perfidious act."

"Algeria has been constantly urging for coordinating efforts and intensifying international cooperation to fight this evil that threatens the security and stability of peoples and countries of the whole world," the ministry said.

At least 51 people were killed when a teenager committed a suicide attack at a wedding ceremony in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep, near the Syria border, local media reported. Enditem
GAZA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli war jets carried out on Sunday night a series of intensive airstrikes on militants posts in northern Gaza Strip in response to earlier rockets firing from the area into southern Israel, security sources said.

The sources said that Israeli tanks stationed on the borders between northeast Gaza Strip and Israel fired around nine shells on agricultural areas in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, no injuries were reported.

Eyewitnesses said that Israeli drones and war jets hovered over the area and carried out 15 successive airstrikes on posts and facilities that belonged to Islamic Hamas movement, the Islamic Jihad and the left-wing Popular Front (PFLP).

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of Gaza health ministry, said two civilians were injured in the Israeli strikes on northern Gaza Strip, adding that they were taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

The security sources said that since Sunday afternoon, the Israeli army had carried out 46 artillery shelling and airstrikes on the northern area of the Gaza Strip in response to the earlier rockets' firing into Israel.

Earlier on Sunday, unknown militants fired four rockets from northern Gaza Strip into southern Israeli town of Sderout. One of the rockets caused severe damages to two houses in the town, no injuries were reported.

However, a military group, affiliated with the Salafist and sharing the same logo of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility in a statement for firing the four rockets into Israel.
by Daniel Majack

JUBA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A China-built secondary school in South Sudan's capital Juba has helped kept the aspirations of students despite the uneasy environment in the war-torn nation.

The China Friendship School, which was constructed in 2013 by a Chinese company, currently accommodates over 2,000 students.

Solomon Michael Abas, a 17-year-old Form Three student, said he feels encouraged by the good learning facilities he enjoys at the school.

"My being here has encouraged me to become a gynecologist in future. I hope one day the Chinese will come here to give us science tips because what they did to build this school proofs that one day they will come back," Abas told Xinhua earlier this week.

The school's deputy head teacher, Onesimo Uonyi Loguya, told Xinhua that the 14-classroom structure had helped thousands of poor and vulnerable students to continue with their education because of its affordability and secure learning environment.

"We are really very thankful to the Chinese government for having done their best to erect this school in Munuki Payam because this is the only government (run) secondary school here. Before, students were getting difficulties to get to school," Loguya said.

Loguya said the school had recorded increased number of student enrollment since 2014 and it was becoming congested.

Wani Sule Ladu, Jubek State education minister, said China had played a major role in supporting South Sudan in the infrastructure and education sectors, adding there were several China-funded schools throughout the state.

Elizabeth Juru, another Form Three student, called on authorities to upgrade facilities at the school to meet certain standards.

"What makes me happy about this school is the good learning environment that we enjoy. I want to be a doctor in future. But currently the science students lack books and a laboratory for doing practical work, which is making learning difficult," Juru told Xinhua.

South Sudan's education indicators remain among the worst in the world. The country's education sector remains critically under-resourced, according to the Ministry of Education. Official data shows annual allocation to education stood at 7 percent for 2013-2014.

This has contributed to high number of school dropout, low primary completion rate, scarce teaching and learning materials and inadequate school infrastructure, with a large number of open air classrooms.

The adult literacy rate stands at 27 percent, and 70 percent of children aged between six and 17 have never set foot in a classroom -- with only 33 percent of girls in schools, one of the lowest in the world, according to the UN children's agency (UNICEF) report released in March.

Michael Lopuke, Undersecretary for Education, said the country was seeking funds for reconstruction of learning institutions.

South Sudan has been blighted by a more than two-year civil war that erupted in December 2013, and there are renewed clashes between the two factions involved in the war.
TIRANA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ditmir Bushati condemned on Sunday the attack that took place at a wedding ceremony in Turkey's Gaziantep late Saturday, leaving at least 50 people dead and about 100 others wounded.

The Albanian official extended the condolence to the families of the victims, and expressed Albania's solidarity with Turkey.

"Another deadly terrorist attack at a wedding party in Turkey. My thoughts are with the families of the victims," Bushati said.

After the bomb blast, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Saturday night that the suspected suicide bomber in the wedding blast was between 12 and 14 years old. He blamed the Islamic State (IS) group for the attack. Enditem
SKOPJE, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The government of Macedonia has submitted to the parliament the draft for budget revision, through which the government seeks an additional fund of 36.4 million euros (41.2 million U.S. dollars), local media reported on Sunday.

The additional fund will be used for the compensation for the damage in the flood-hit areas.

The budget revision was announced earlier by the Macedonian Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev, who deemed such move as necessary to cope with the situation after the Aug. 6 floods which caused 21 victims and huge economic damage.

Meantime, the budget revision is expected to increase the deficit from 3.6 percent to 4 percent of the gross domestic product, taking it from 334.4 million euros (378.7 million U.S. dollars) to 375.9 million euros (425.7 million U.S. dollars). Enditem
CARACAS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The gulf between the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) is widening, 10 days ahead of a mass protest to demand a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro.

On Sunday, the PSUV mayor of Caracas, Jorge Rodriguez, stated that during the march on September 1, the opposition was likely to seek new violent ways to force the "impossibility" of holding the referendum in 2016.

"They are seeking to reach a critical mass that will renew the acts of violence, as I am certain they have a plan B," Rodriguez told the private TV station, Televen.

However, the MUD released a statement on its website Sunday, stating that the protest "will uncover the deception to which we are subjected," referring to the government's unwillingness to hold the referendum this year.

Should Maduro lose a recall referendum before January 10, 2017, new presidential elections would be automatically triggered. However, should this happen after January 10, 2017, he would step down but his vice-president would take over the presidency until the end of the mandate on January 10, 2019.

However, the MUD made it clear that the protest will be "pacific" and added that the government was trying to create "false positives" about the opposition's violence.

On September 1, the MUD and its followers will demand a specific date on which to begin collecting signatures from 20 percent of the electorate, which are needed to trigger the referendum.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has tentatively stated this could happen in October yet this would likely prevent the referendum happening this year.
NEW YORK, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A new law has gone into effect over the weekend that no longer requires New York City cab drivers to be proficient in English, a move that was seen to combat the challenges from mobile cab-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

The new law was signed by mayor Bill de Blasio in April and went into effect on Friday, scraping the mandatory English examination for taxi drivers. Now the test for cab drivers to get a license will be available in several different languages.

According to the New York Times, the bill was passed in an effort to seek parity with app-based ride services such as Uber, which don't require drivers to pass an English test.

Foreign-born drivers had long been dominating the city's taxi market. As of 2016, only 4 percent of New York City's yellow cab drivers were born in the U.S., comparing with 24 percent in Bangladesh and 10 percent in Pakistan, according to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission.
People visit an art exhibition in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 19, 2016. Most of Afghanistan's banknotes become very old as people do not keep it in a proper manner. The week-long exhibition, held by local artist Mohsin Tasha, aims to encourage Afghans to preserve and maintain their local currency. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)
A farmer gathers organic rice in Quxian County, Dazhou, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 20, 2016. More than one million mu (66,667 hectares) of organic paddy fields here ushered in a harvest season. (Xinhua/Deng Liangkui)
Police foil another South kidnapping

The rescue occurred during the early hours of yesterday morning. The car in which the men were taken subsequently crashed and the suspects escaped leaving their victims behind unharmed. Inside the vehicle, police recovered two Glock pistols, 37 rounds of .9mm ammunition along two extended magazines and one normal magazine which they believe belonged to the perpetrators.

Police revealed that one of the Glock pistols was fitted with an attachment which enables the weapon to become fully automatic.

One officer was forced to draw his revolver and fire shots during the action when he was challenged by one of the gunmen.

It is uncertain whether the escaping man was hit, but officers are asking medical institutions to be on the lookout for anyone seeking medical attention for gunshot wounds.

According to a police report at about 3.50 am yesterday, PCs Clarence and Ali of the Princes Town Police Station responded to a report of a robbery in progress in Borde Narve Village, Princes Town. The report indicated that three gunmen had sped off in a blue Subaru Impreza car with three male passengers against their will.

Officers in response to the call intercepted the vehicle along La Paille Road, St Charles Village causing the driver to veer off the road and crash into the curb. The report stated further that the three suspects hurriedly exited the vehicle, one of them them pointing a pistol at the officers while anoother opened fire. It is not known if any of the men were hurt.

The suspects however managed to escape through a large bushy area while police rescued the three hostages. The car was impounded. A party of officers led by ASP Ramdeo, Insps Gajadhar, Persad, Sgt Ramlogan and other officers of the Southern Division Task Force, and Princes Town CID, supported in the air by Viper One joined in an extensive search for the suspects but without success.

Investigations are continuing.

Only last Monday, a 16-yearold girl was allegedly kidnapped from her Marabella home and, according to reports, was robbed, raped and an attempt made on her life.

On Friday afternoon, Jesse Kangoo, 27, a security guard of Caratal Village, Claxton Bay appeared before a San Fernando Magistrates Court to answer four charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape and attempted murder. He has been remanded in custody and is expected to return to court tomorrow
Child dies in Laventille fire

A police report stated that Paris Scott was at her Straker Village, home at about 4.40 am yesterday when residents noticed fire emanating from the structure.

Residents, police said, alerted the Fire Department and units from the Wrightson Road Fire headquarters and Belmont Fire Station quickly responded.

However, by the time the units got to the house, it was almost consumed in flames.

Scotts tiny body was later discovered among the rubble. Police said despite attempts by emergency medical officials to revive her, Scott, who sustained burns about her body, succumbed to her injuries.

It is believed Scott died from smoke inhalation.

President of the Fire Services Association Leo Ramkissoon extended condolences to Scotts family.

It is always a sad day when a citizen of the country or a child perishes.

Officers would have been saddened to observe that the child had died, he said.

Investigations are continuing.
Kamla: PNM illegal

Addressing the packed hall of supporters the former Prime Minister, now Opposition Leader, said both the economy and infrastructure projects had stalled under the new PNM-led government, that people were losing their jobs, and that many were unable to pay their bills.

She noted that the Rowley government is a do nothing government and that the country could no longer wait for them to kick-start.

It is time to make a change and that change could come with the local government elections, she said, adding that the citizenry does not know who is in charge at times as someone is always acting as the Prime Minister.

This has been the case, she says, on nine occasions in nine months under the PNM rule. Persad-Bissessar noted that although the country is a few days away from the one-year anniversary of the PNM government it seems the Prime Minister is always on vacation.

She called on her supporters to put an end to this kind of rule as they carry the strongest weapon in their own hands.

Send a message with your hands, she told supporters. We do not need violence, we do not need guns, it is with you finger you could vote them out. Persad-Biss essar urged the nominees for the local government elections who are not selected to contest the elections to stay united as a house divided against itself can never stand. She reminded that this has posed a problem in the past and what gave victory to the PNM.

She urged nominees to support those selected and work hard, as they can be selected for aldermen and other positions within the regional corporations.

Continuing to knock the Government over the removal of GATE and food cards, Persad- Bissesar claimed that people are texting her to report the hardships they are facing regarding schoolbooks for their children and that students are no longer receiving free eye examinations or spectacles under the PNM.

No textbooks, no laptops, and now you taking away the childrens ability to see, she said.

The UNC leader further took the Government to task over its handling of the crime situation in the country declaring that crime was at an all-time high with four murders in twelve hours and 290 murders to date.

Turning her attention to the property tax, Persad-Bissessar noted that the government is now ready to implement it.

She claimed this will bring further hardships as homes would now be assessed on certain standards. She claimed property taxes will be higher for homes with more than one bathroom.
Dont hurt the children

The officer in focus was acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Erla Christopher, who was speaking yesterday at the Edinburgh 500 Recreation Grounds, Chaguanas, following a walkathon hosted by the Women Police Bureau.

Child abuse is wrong, she said, And we ask all children, adults, anyone, who is aware of it, to make it their business and report it to any police station or to the Child Protection Unit. The theme of the event was, It should not hurt to be a child. And Christopher recalled that the Child Protection Unit of the Police Service was established in May 2015.

From then to July last, police received more than 2,595 reports of child abuse. Of that number, Christopher added, 520 cases are before the courts of law.

 The children are our future and we have a moral obligation to protect them and to ensure that they live a life free from harm and abuse, she added.

Last year, the Women Police Officers celebrated their 60th anniversary (Diamond Jubilee).

Christopher yesterday noted that August is considered - Woman Police Month - simply because it is the month in which the first batch of women entered the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).

The senior policewoman noted that women in the service have evolved over the 61 years.  Right now we have many women in leadership positions. We have women leading at least ten division branch sections in the service, she said.

Among those in attendance were: ACP Enez Joseph; Snr Supt (Tobago), Joanne Archie; Snr Supt (Central) Floris Hodge-Griffith; acting Snr Supt, Patsy Joseph; and ASP Vena Butler of the Police Academy.

Acting Commissioner of Police, Stephen Williams, who is currently on vacation, also attended the event along with Head of Corporate Communications at the TTPS, Ellen Lewis.

The TTPS comprises nine Divisions throughout Trinidad and Tobago as well as 18 branches, Squads and Units.
King Mohammed VI delivered, Saturday, a speech on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People in which he stressed Africas central place in Moroccos foreign policy along with the Kingdoms solidarity with sub-Saharan migrants and its condemnation of extremism and terrorism.

Africa a top priority in Moroccos foreign policy

Africa has been given top priority in Moroccos foreign policy, underscored the Monarch, highlighting that Morocco adopts a win-win approach underpinned by solidarity in its relations with Africa.

The Sovereign, who ascribed Africas social and economic problems to colonialism, made it clear that Moroccos is set to take its natural place within Africas institutional family.

For Morocco, Africa means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent. Africa also means sincere affection, appreciation, close human and spiritual relations as well as tangible solidarity. Furthermore, Africa is the natural extension of Morocco and the embodiment of the countrys strategic depth, the King said on the occasion of the Revolution of the King and the People that is celebrated on the eve of Youth Day, which corresponds this year to the Sovereigns 53rd birthday.

He shed light on the Kingdoms multi-dimensional relationship with Africa, saying that Morocco contributes, along with other African countries, to the implementation of human development projects and the provision of social services which have a direct bearing on the lives of people in the region.

The Monarch went on to give examples of Moroccos mutually beneficial projects in Africa such as the setting up of pharmaceutical companies and healthcare centres in addition to contributing to the implementation of human development projects and providing social services.

For us, Africa is not about goals and objectives; dealing with Africa involves a commitment towards the African citizen, wherever he or she may be, the monarch made it clear.

Moroccos solidarity-based policy regarding sub-Saharan migrants

Morocco was one of the first countries of the South to adopt a genuine solidarity-based policy regarding sub-Saharan migrants, the King said, adding that this policy is designed to safeguard migrants rights.

In this regards, he noted that Morocco regularized the situation of migrants using fair and reasonable standards and provided the conditions needed for migrants to reside, work and lead a dignified life within the Moroccan community.

Rooted in humanitarianism and Moroccos genuine values of generosity, this policy has earned Morocco the honor of co-chairing, alongside Germany, the Global Forum on Migration and Development for 2017-2018, said the king, while acknowledging that there are still challenges to address and that difficulties facing sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco have nothing to do with the color of their skin, their nationality or their status.

In this connection, King Mohammed VI called for a paradigm change in how migration is dealt with in the Mediterranean where, he said, there has been no real policy to integrate migrants.

A call for interreligious solidarity in the face of extremism and terrorism

King Mohammed VI went on to analyse the dilemma facing the Moroccan community abroad who are targeted by terrorism and xenophobia. He called on the Moroccan expatriates to maintain their good reputation, to show forbearance in these trying circumstances, to close ranks and to be, as always, staunch advocates of peace, concord and co-existence in their country of residence.

In this respect, the Monarch condemned terrorism and extremism in the strongest terms, citing verses from the Quran which clearly advocate lofty universal values.

Those who engage in terrorism, in the name of Islam, are not Muslims. Their only link to Islam is the pretexts they use to justify their crimes and their folly. They have strayed from the right path, and their fate is to dwell forever in hell, the King said.

He also stressed the need for interfaith solidarity to counter the spread of ignorance in the name of religion. Muslims, Christians and Jews have to close ranks in order to tackle all forms of extremism, hatred and reclusiveness, he said.

A call for Maghreb Unity

The anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the people in Morocco is also an occasion to recall the solidarity that brought the Moroccan and the Algerian peoples together against colonialism and tyranny, said the King.

We are in great need of that spirit of solidarity to enable us to rise to common development and security challenges, the Monarch added.

In this respect, King Mohammed VI voiced hope that the commitment and sincere solidarity between the Algerian and Moroccan peoples will be rekindled so as to rise up together honestly and in good faith, to serve Arab and Maghreb causes and rise to challenges in Africa.
King Mohammed VI stressed the need for closing ranks in order to counter the scourge of extremism and terrorism that targets innocents and hinders efforts towards coexistence, social progress and prosperity.

As ignorance spreads in the name of religion, Muslims, Christians and Jews have to close ranks in order to tackle all forms of extremism, hatred and reclusiveness, said the King in a speech on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People marked on August 20.

He deplored that Moroccan migrants in Europe bear the brunt of terrorist attacks and stigmatization and denounced the attempts to link extremism  rightly or wrongly  to migrants.

In this respect, the Monarch urged Moroccans abroad to maintain their good reputation, to show forbearance in these trying circumstances, to close ranks and to be, as always, staunch advocates of peace, concord and co-existence in their country of residence.

The Sovereign went on to explain the reasons behind the backlash of terrorist activities and their distortion of the image of Islam by radicals. Those who engage in terrorism, in the name of Islam, are not Muslims. Their only link to Islam is the pretexts they use to justify their crimes and their folly. They have strayed from the right path, and their fate is to dwell forever in hell, the Monarch said.

As for Jihad, the King made it clear that this concept is not synonymous to killing innocents. Jihad is rather governed by specific conditions, including the fact that it is to be resorted to only for defense purposes  not for murder or aggression.

Those who call for murder and aggression, those who excommunicate people without a legitimate reason, those who interpret the Quran and the Sunnah to suit their purposes, are actually lying to Allah and His Messenger, the King said.

The Sovereign warned that terrorists take advantage of some young Muslims- particularly in Europe- and their ignorance of the Arabic language and true Islam to spread their distorted message.

He strongly denounced how several Muslim groups have appointed themselves as sole authorities on Islam while excluding others. Such attitudes encourage the spread of the extremist ideology, of excommunication and terrorism, for terror advocates believe that this is the path to true Islam. These people need to take a hard look at themselves and decide to what extent they are responsible for the crimes and human tragedies perpetrated in the name of Islam, said the King.

The Monarch went on to argue that social progress hinges on countering radicalism and hatred which feed insecurity and instability.
Debris and the shoe of a young victim lay near the scene of the bombing. Photo: IHA/AP

A suspected suicide bombing at a wedding in southeastern Turkey killed at least 51 people on Saturday night, the Associated Press reports, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday that the bomber was a child as young as 12, and that ISIS was probably behind the attack. The explosion, which struck a Kurdish wedding party of more than 200 people packed into a narrow alleyway in the city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, also injured 69 people, 17 of whom remain in critical condition, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which is the deadliest terrorist attack yet this year in Turkey. It also comes at a time of extraordinary tension in the country, which has experienced numerous terrorist attacks over the past year, a coup attempt by members of the Turkish military last month, and a continuing violent conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish militants.

The bride and groom reportedly survived the bombing, but some of their close family members did not.

Relatives grieve outside a hospital in Gaziantep. Photo: Ahmed Deeb/AFP/Getty Images

President Erdogan blamed the attack on ISIS, who he says is trying to divide the Turkish population along religious and ethnic lines. Before the bombing on Saturday, the Kurdistan Communities Union, which includes the PKK militant group, announced that it would seek an end to its three-decade conflict with the Turkish government. Though its not clear if the bombing was a direct response to that announcement, the HDP pro-Kurdish political party decried the attack as such, saying it was planned to disable the spread of peace and success of possible negotiations. Last week, a series of three bombings targeting police officers and soldiers in eastern Turkey was blamed on PKK-linked militants. At least 11 people were killed, and hundreds injured, in those attacks.

One security expert who spoke with the AP, a former Turkish military officer named Metin Gurcan, said that ISIS has accomplished two goals with Saturdays attack, getting revenge on both Kurdish militia forces who have been successfully repelling the group across the border in Syria, and Turkey, which has been ramping up its military involvement against ISIS as well. Anti-ISIS activists in Gaziantep were also killed by the group in April and December, and an ISIS-linked suicide car bomber struck outside the citys police headquarters in May, killing two police personnel. The city of some 1.5 million residents is also home to many refugees from the Syrian civil war.

Shrapnel from Saturdays bomb. Photo: Ilyas Akengin/AFP/Getty Images

In June, Istanbuls Ataturk airport was attacked by suspected ISIS terrorists, killing 44 people. But hundreds have now been killed across multiple suicide bombings and terrorist attacks that have struck Istanbul, Ankara, and other cities in Turkey since June of last year, all conducted by either ISIS-linked attackers or Kurdish militants. Then in July, the failed military coup resulted in more than 240 deaths, including nearly 50 civilians.

The Erdogan government is in the middle of waging a wide-scale crackdown on political dissent in Turkey as Erdogan seeks to consolidate his power following the recent coup attempt, and initially Erdogan himself did not miss the opportunity to associate Saturdays attack with that effort, suggesting ISIS is no different from Kurdish militants or the group he blames for the coup, followers of a US-based Muslim cleric named Fethullah Gulen. In fact, ISIS and Kurdish militants are opposing forces and do not share the same makeup, goals, or tactics. As far as the Gulen movement, it remains unclear just how big a threat it actually poses to Turkey, or what its involvement was in the recent coup, which Gulen himself has repeatedly denied participating in. Turkey is asking the U.S. to extradite Gulen back to face prosecution, and Vice President Joe Biden will discuss that request with Erdogan during a trip to the country on Wednesday.
Photo: Michael Sears/TNS via Getty Images

Morgan Geyser, one of the girls charged with attempted murder in the Slender Man case, is pleading not guilty by reason of mental illness.

Geyser and schoolmate Anissa Weier are charged with attacking and stabbing a schoolmate 19 times in order to curry favor with Slender Man, an extremely creepy but entirely fictional character thats the subject of fan fiction and art among younger denizens of the Internet. Their victim survived the stabbing and crawled to safety; she returned to school three months later.

Weier has also pled not guilty, but without the added claim of mental illness. They were both 12 at the time of the attempted murder and are both being tried as adults, despite protests from their lawyers, Geysers mother, and assorted criminal-justice advocates.

Two court-appointed doctors will examine Geyser, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and oppositional defiant disorder, before the judge makes his ruling in the case.

The Slender Man mythos has attracted a larger pop culture interest since the attempted murder brought it out of the shadows of the Internet. Rumors were flying last January that the next season of American Horror Story would be about the character, although the teasers FX has been releasing in anticipation of the September premiere havent revealed much. In May, news broke that Sony is planning a film about the Slender Man.

The case heads to trial in October.
Photo: ?Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection

Is the tanning industry toast?

In 2010, the Obama administration passed a bill adding a 10% tax on indoor tanning services that made salon owners hopping mad. The tax was supposed to raise funds for health-care reform to the tune of $2.7 billion over ten years, and although the earnings have so far fallen below the projected earnings, the tax itself has eaten away at the indoor tanning salon industry like a, whats the word? A cancer.

According to a report published in the Associated Press, 10,000 of the 18,000 tanning salons in the United States have been forced to close since the bill passed. Experts point out that there are probably other influences at play aside from the 10% tax, such as public health warnings about the dangers of tanning and the passage of laws in dozens of states restricting the use of tanning salons by minors. Skin cancer is still the most common form of cancer in the United States, so it shouldnt come as a big surprise that the same government that brought us the Affordable Care Act would also want to crack down on things like tanning salons and emphasize preventative care.
i love these! I totally forgot about this one! I'm excited for Kristen Schaal! Can't wait to watch them!

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whoa three women on this one! i'll def watch, thanks so much for posting about this OP!

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Ikr I was surprised ! And I love all 3 women it's like a dream come true lol



You're welcome <3

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I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING!



This show is one of my favorite things about New Year's lol

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also, mel is so so cute

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I didn't either, I stumbled on it by chance on YouTube !!



I adore Mel she's the best 

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YESSS OP YOU ARE THE BEST!!

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No u <3

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omg I love Mel



and Kristen Schaal



Honestly if I were a judge on GBBO I'd get sooo fat really quicklly, I have the biggest sweet tooth.

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I don't have a sweet tooth and even I salivate over GBBO. But my favorites are when they do savory stuff. So jealous of Mel when she went around pocketing those meat pastries that one time, lol.

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Is this the first time they've divided the BFQY into parts, and with different teams for each part? Because that's not a bad idea.



EDIT: Lol never mind. Clearly I cannot read, or realize it's not even the time of year when the quiz comes out.



Favorite teams include Russell Brand (vomit) and Noel Fielding's first teamup, and David and Richard together. And my bb Sean Lock, especially when he was hating on those play-acting kids, lol (he's just saying what a lot of us are thinking,...or at least what I was thinking)



Edited at 2016-08-21 03:39 am (UTC)

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Lmao the shitty acting is the best part tho! the children are so adorable I love it so much 



Edit: I love that episode too. I find Russell Brand to be enjoyable on big fat quiz, he doesn't make me eye roll so much lol



Edited at 2016-08-21 01:46 pm (UTC)

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I always want to watch these but then I forget, can I find past ones on YT?

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Yes! I think they're all there or at least most of them are.

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omg I had no idea about this. I love this series, and I don't think I can pick a favorite. I think I've watched all the ones since 2006 even the decades ones.



But lol op I don't remember the Mel B one so fondly. I've rewatched a lot of these, but I don't think I've ever rewatched it even though I love Richard Ayoade and David Mitchell as a team and Sarah Millican is a joy.

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The Awesome Clams. Amazing.



My favorite bit ever was on The Big Fat Quiz of the Noughties when Richard and Noel were taking the piss out of Jimmy and Richard's voice gets so sexy and deep



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lol honestly i think noel is the one who can really make richard laugh

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omg it's so true. He's the only one who can break through his deadpan comedy persona and just make him crack up. It's the CUTEST thing.

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he totally is! like the other person said, he breaks through his deadpan and makes him laugh. love it.

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oh god i love noel and richard tohether!

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The best will always be BFQOT90s with Mr. Blobby terrorizing everyone (read: Jack Whitehall) but they're all hilarious

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That episode was boring until the Mr. Blobby bit. That had me crying

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YAS the mr blobby part had me crying omg

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Late, but this. My housemates STILL say "kiss, Jimmy" when they want a forehead kiss from each other lol.



I fucking love that bit. Mr Blobby is amaazing.

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OMG RIGHT?! And that excited laugh shake he does before reading the card, I do that around my mom just to get a reaction. xD Mr. Blobby forever.

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Next part is on Monday the 22nd, with everyone's fave Richard Ayode and Noel Fielding







I mean I'll still watch this one but OMG YAS THE INDOOR KITES / HOT SHAME  I mean I'll still watch this one but OMG YAS THE INDOOR KITES / HOT SHAME 

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yesssss! I didn't read the post, oops, but yay for the comments pulling through!

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Everything Noel and Richard do utterly cracks me up. I really enjoyed the one where James Corden and Jack Whitehall dress in suits, order pizza, and basically act like two boys in the back of a classroom not taking anything seriously. OH and that one where Noel and Dara O Briain went and sat on the floor, and Noel had on that huge feathery thing and they said something like it felt like they were meeting at a music festival.

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ngl I loved the bad dong





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lol, i've never seen this edited together. i'm crying.

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lmao this was so funny. i love richard/noel as a team, but greg davies is gold as well

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Thanks for posting OP! Love watching them.

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Ah, convenient, just as the concert ends.

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yeah, the credits rolled and i came here to see if the post was ever posted and i saw it finally



i submitted it just after it started too

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where did you go to watch them? i was just at the horseshoe

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canadian music

ubiquitous

ubiquitous synergy seeker

uss



aka the best canadian band





i love this wavvy, i love it

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USS <3

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WAIT WAVVY YOU'RE CANADIAN???

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Wavvy, we are from the same blessed country?!!

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i was never really into the hip, but that show was something amazing, i got really emotional

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yah, i didn't watch but i saw some clips and its the state of my social media is very emotional as a whole tbh

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Gord is and forever will be a legend. I'm in a glass case of emotion right now!

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I can't say I'm a Hip fan necessarily, but everyone knows the songs, they're just such an ingrained part of Canadian culture. What a special thing to get to witness, and just awesome knowing the whole nation was watching along.



Also, love Trudeau's level 10 Canadian tuxedo in that photo.

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I completely agree. Was never a huge fan but their songs remind me of certain periods of my life. Hearing of his diagnosis (and watching the concert tonight) made me tear up. They are Canadiana.

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yeah i've never been a huge Hip fan but i grew up on their music so it reminds me a lot of certain points in my life. what a bittersweet night and a great thing to witness.

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same. also you cant get more canadian than a guy named gord

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omg jeans on jeans but he pulls it off. What kind of witchcraft?

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It was amazing!!!!

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Justin would be wearing a Canadian tuxedo.

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beautiful show. glad i got to see one of the toronto shows last week, and then last year on canada day. beautiful band. i'm not ready to eulogize the band and certainly not gord yet. gord was clearly having a good night and wasn't ready for things to get somber, so we should be celebrating the band still, not mourning.

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def cried really hard during fireworks tho...not just hip, thats one of my favourite songs period.

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I cried at quiet a few songs, but cried the most during ahead by a century

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I tried to get tickets to one of their shows in Toronto, but had no luck. I'm very glad that the CBC aired it for everyone that couldn't get tickets. Was definitely a very bittersweet show, but amazing nonetheless.

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what a show. Even if you don't particularly like the band if you are Canadian you know the songs. I am also really amazed that they stopped Olympic coverage for it. Only the CBC haha

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Amazing show. I'm in Kingston and we've been waiting for this night! Gord didn't hold back anything... so much love

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Get out

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how very un-canadian of you, on this canadianest of nights

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rush is the worst

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rush?? how old are you jw. no one gives a shit about those prog rock dinosaurs - they haven't been remotely relevant for DECADES. even if you don't like the hip, they were still getting rotation on muchmusic & rock radio with their new music in the early 00s and their classics remain staples of radio. that cannot be said of rush, sorry.

it is ridiculous to use (anecdotally) the reactions of a festival crowd (a montreal festival crowd, no less) to assign popularity points to a band. did you not see how quickly their tour sold out? i saw the hip last summer in TO and it was a well attended show that people very much cared about.

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lmfao damn



Canadians don't play!

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yea quebec dgaf about the hip

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''(a montreal festival crowd, no less)''



I almost choked on my coffee omfg luv u

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(a montreal festival crowd, no less)



Damn, go IN. And ty for making me choke on my coffee. :D

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Haha! I like Rush, but man, you tell it...!

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I can honestly only name 1 rush song. I never hear their music on the radio or really anywhere. I hear the hip Ll the time.

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people care because they're ending and the lead singer is super sick

i know that 90% of the people on my feed wouldn't be posting about it if it wasn't The End

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Growing up their songs were always on the radio. So heartbreaking and yet his performance was so beautiful.

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That's so cute, love ha. But where's the album Christina Maria!? Even frank ocean released his

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What album? There is no album. That was just a rumor.

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I've been surviving on telepathy but one more week and it just won't cut it

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Now all I need.mp4 is this bish to hurry tf up and release an album. Rih, Bey, Ari, Britney, Gaga, Katy and Xtina... all in 2016 - We are not worthy, honestly.

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Also can't anyone magnify that sheet to read what it is 

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get some larries on the case

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Maybe she's waiting October. Who wants to be in competition for the Grammys with Adele, Beyonce, Rihanna, etc?

Or maybe I'm just delusional and we will have that album when her son leaves for college...



Edited at 2016-08-21 08:18 pm (UTC)

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Nah, let her take as much time as she needs.



The song she did for The Get Down is so beautiful, imo! The scene where it plays in the show made my eyes sweat a little.



I need her to work more w/ Sia & Nile Rodgers. Give us a 70s dance/gospel album, tbh!

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I agree. I need that 70s funk she did with Mark Ronson... that's where her vocals truly shine. She needs to quit pop.

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Britney managed to deliver, I'm sure she will too

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I listened to the new Britney song and actually loved it. Added it to my Party playlist on Spotify. It has been a long while since I did that with a Britney song tbh... It really reminded me of her older awesome pop music. I hope she continues to make fun pop with a good beat! Is there a date for a new album? (sorry, too lazy to google)



Edit: nvm, just saw the post about her release date a few posts below lol



Edited at 2016-08-21 07:57 pm (UTC)

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MTE GODTINA ha moment is coming!

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The problem is that when she takes too much time, she overworks and overthinks imo. Christina's best quality besides her vocal ability is her natural emotion. I think the perfectionist inside her tends to shove the emotion out for the sake of vocal perfection sometimes. (Either way I'll probably love the album though lol)

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christina is so incredibly talented but i feel like she never really found her niche because she explored so many different musical styles. i appreciate that she's not afraid to mix it up and to try new things because bionic and lotus were a lot better than people give them credit for and stripped/back to basics were amazing albums from start to finish. i hope she finds success with her next album and not as a feature

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Her insecurities always get in the way. It's a blessing and a curse tbh.

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ia with all of this. i show birds of prey to my friends who don't like xtina/pop and they're all so shocked it's her lol. bionic was actually a really good album tbh, definitely ahead of its time

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yesss i played those two constantly when bionic dropped

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Birds of Prey might be my favorite Christina song

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Oooh I forgot about Monday Morning. Brb adding it to my spotify playlist.

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Re. Bionic: I will forever love Woohoo, for many reasons. And Lift Me Up is really beautiful.

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Two already? Frick frack, I thought she happened last summer.

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What a wonderful, caring mother. It's so nice to see a pop star who is respectable and didn't give her children FAS.

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Geek fandom kween!



I hope her and Brit do a song together one day soon. The timing feels right.

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love it

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she's not releasing the album until there is #Peace in the Middle East, #Gender Equality, #Racial Equality, #LGBT Equality, and we have a transexual black womyn president in the White House!

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How very Brangelina-promising-not-to-get-married-u ntil-same-sex-marriage-is-legal of ha!

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LOL bless her heart!

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so progressive!!!! your fave could never!!!!!

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So cute!! <3 But please, release the new album already! And let it be either like Stripped or Back To Basics! ...After all this time I'll take anything though.



Oh, and why the fuck isn't Telepathy on Spotify? That's bullshit tbh.

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The sigh of relief I'm having scrolling past "Christina Aguielera Threw Her Daughter" rn...

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i had to do a double take too lmao

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I had the same reaction. in fact, i actually felt nervous reading those first five words.

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lol yea I did not think the title was going to end well.

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I mean this is "ONTD" so my first thought was the MJ/Blanket thing, ugh.

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yeah me too.

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Time goes by too fast.

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Where is the album tho?

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So precious!

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He was so annoying in Star Wars but good for ha getting these roles!

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adjective

1.

causing annoyance; irritatingly bothersome:

Causing vexation or irritation; troublesome: an annoying cough.

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this lie!





but i agree about the latter part.

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Frank, nobody cares about your opinion after you made us wait a decade for your new album.

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wouldn't say annoying but it was a disappointing role in terms of having not much to do if people look at it honestly

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Cool.



Also i'm watching Pacific Rim right now wondering when we're gonna get an inkling from the sequel.

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im only interested if he has a nude scene.

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He looks like a young Muhammad Ali!

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Damn I see it.

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I've always thought he looks like a young Denzel Washington.

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looks like they're all sweating balls tbh



also when will Bigelow's unholy union with Mark Boal finally end, idk what convinced ppl they were the perfect team for making movies on such sensitive topics like

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the summer has been fucking horrible tbh

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his face is how i feel right now because i ate too many chicken nuggets. :(





thx for feeling me, john.

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oh shit i knew they were filming here i didn't know he and mackie were in it oh my god

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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ditto bb! he is EVERYTHING.

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Is Adam getting any roles?



I pay absolutely no attention to him, lol. I didn't like him in that show Girls so I had no idea he was going to be in TFA so when he took off his helmet I literally went, "AH!" out loud

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looks a lot more like denzel like this



wish it was another director but get that drama work henny! show disney u shouldnt be a comic relief sidekick!

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Excited to see this!

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this is filming around the corner of my house. them redirecting traffic every night is driving me batshit.

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Good look career wise for him, hopefully leads to more

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i just want john boyega to have all the things in life. and to also be my best friend.

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Same. Beautiful Nerd Prince, Cat Dad.

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he's just such a beautiful human being omg

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"best friend"....ok, gurl

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Same

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Corner Bakery will replace the Bakers Square at 1305 E. Capitol Dr. in the Village of Shorewood. The existing building will be renovated, improved and expanded.

Wisconsin's first Corner Bakery Cafe opened nearly two years ago in October at The Mayfair Collection, 11500 W. Burleigh St. Now, the local franchise group owned and operated by Dimitri and Peter Dimitropoulos is eyeing a second location in Shorewood. The family also owns the Culvers location thats just east of the new Corner Bakery site. The Culver's is currently closed for remodeling.

The new Corner Bakery will expand upon the parking area and will add a patio, bike parking and a bike maintenance station. A drive-thru for the new restaurant and parking for the villages new multimedia, public art project, The Ghost Train, also will be added.

The proposal submitted to the Village of Shorewood will be under consideration at the Plan Commission meeting on Tuesday evening.

Proposed hours for the new restaurant are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, with approximately 60-70 staff. An opening date has yet to be announced, but the Baker's Square is expected to close at the end of the year.
The Ghosts of Sutro Forest

A Legacy of Suicides

by Rex Bell

October 2011

Sutro Forest is one of the most beautiful places in the City. Its a lush, green woodland of thousands of densely-packed eucalyptus trees, with a floor blanketed by ferns, ivy, and wild berries. Originally planted in the 1880s on a bare mountain by Adolph Sutro, the forest is now a nature preserve owned and maintained by University of California - San Francisco (UCSF), which lies just below it to the north. But Ive come to learn that this beautiful majestic place has a dark and disturbing past. A little over 100 years ago, this forest was the site of numerous suicides. It seems that most, if not all of the suicides that took place there were men, and the most common means of self-inflicted death was by hanging  owing to the abundant choice of trees on which to end it all.

It was also a very secluded place, so the act of suicide could be carried out in privacy, helping to guarantee that it would be successful and without intervention. In fact, it was once so secluded that the bodies of many of those who died there often went undiscovered for days, weeks, or even months. The corpses were sometimes so badly decomposed that identity could only be ascertained by personal effects or documents found on them. The following is a series of articles, mostly from the San Francisco Call, all dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and all documenting death in Sutro Forest.

From the San Francisco Call  November 16, 1903:

FOREST YIELDS GRISLY SECRET

Suicide's Body Found in Shadows of the Sutro Wood.

Grim Evidence of Hanging Meets Eyes of Mushroom Gatherers. Spectrally swaying from the limb of a tree in Sutro forest, the dead body of an unidentified man hung until natural decomposition parted the head and trunk of the corpse. Then the trunk rolled off in one direction and the head in another. The looped rope, hanging from the limb, alone gave mute evidence of the cause of the tragedy. Whoever it was who gave himself up to death deliberately months ago in the dim shadows of the wood, he over looked not the smallest detail that would prevent his identity from becoming known. In the clothing of the dead man there was nothing by which it could be learned what man had tenanted the bundle of rags enwrapping the grisly skeleton. The grewsome find was made by John Landini of 1207 Stanyan street and George Prosek of 1215 Stanyan street. They had gone to the forest to pick mushrooms and midway between the Affiliated Colleges and the Almshouse they came across the headless trunk, lying at the base of a little knoll. Above dangled a light rope with a noose at the end. Further search disclosed the head, some twelve feet away from the body. They ran from the shadows of the forest and telephoned to the Coroner's office. Deputy Coroner Brown went at once to the scene and took charge of the body. Clothing Bears No Marks Alongside of the tree from which dangled the rope was found a heavy chinchilla overcoat. The body was dressed in a dark brown coat of cheap material, fustian jacket, dark striped trousers and gray waistcoat. As far as could be ascertained the underwear was of rough material. In the pockets of the coat were found an empty pocketbook, a memorandum book without any trace of writing, a copy of the constitution and by-laws of the Pacific Coast Marine Firemen's Union and a certificate of membership in the union. Apparently the name of the member and the date of his admission, which had originally been written in ink, had been erased with a knife. Instead was scrawled across the face of the certificate the pathetic message, unsigned. "If you want to bury me, I'm thankful to you." The handwriting gave evidences of extreme nervousness, as though the writer were appalled at the swift plunge into eternity he was about to make. A close examination of the erased certificate failed to reveal the slightest clew to the name. On the date line could be deciphered the letter "J" which may have been January before the erasure. Rain and wind had dealt harshly with the clothing and no mark could be deciphered on any of it. Nothing but the bare bones of the skeleton and the grinning face of the skull remained to tell of one who found the burden of life too heavy to bear and chose the shadows of a forest and a hangman's knot to solve the problem of the hereafter. The officers of the union are making every effort to ascertain the identity of the suicide and hope by a thorough search of the records of the organization to learn whose body it was that lay for so many months the prey of weather and decomposition until all traces of what he once was were wiped away.

San Francisco Call  March 26, 1904:

SUTRO FOREST SUICIDE REMOVED. The remains of a man that committed suicide in the Sutro forest were removed to the Morgue yesterday afternoon. They were found on top of the hill east of the Almshouse after a search of three hours and a half by Deputy Coroner Meehan and Messenger Carrick. The clothing worn by the suicide was a gray checked summer weight suit, well worn; a soft black hat and a pair of heavy black laced shoes. The body had been lying in the brush for more than a month and was unrecognizable.

San Francisco Call  April 18, 1904

THOMAS MURNANE HANGS HIMSELF FROM A TREE

Once Wealthy Resident of City, Later  Inmate of Almshouse, Kills Himself. The body of Thomas Murnane, once a wealthy business man of this city, later a physical wreck and inmate of the Almshouse, was found yesterday hanging to the top branch of a tall eucalyptus tree in the Sutro forest. The body was found by L. K. Pryer of 660 Broderick street and A.E. Pinching of 1104 Divisadero street. Murnane had evidently been dead for two months. The body was taken to the Morgue. Nothing of value was found on it. On February 27 last, Murnane, who formerly lived at 36 Sixth street, disappeared from the Almshouse. The day before his disappearance he told one of his friends, also an Inmate of the Almshouse, that he had tired of a life of poverty. "My last child died a few months ago," he said, "and since that time I have been dependant on the city for alms. What is life to me, now, where once I had the best of everything? The next day Murnane disappeared. He was last seen strolling toward the dense growth of trees near the Almshouse, known as the Sutro forest. Although 52 years of age, Murnane climbed the smooth trunk of the tree and, fastening the noose, swung himself into a better world.

San Francisco Call - November 24, 1904:

DESPAIR CAUSES SUICIDE

Baker Missing for Nearly Two Weeks Chooses Lonely Spot at Which to Die

Womans Search Ends in Park

Mrs. Daniel Pfeefer Finds Long Looked For Body of Her Husband in Forest Two weeks ago Daniel Pfeefer, a baker, who lived at 4057 Twenty-fifth street, was reported missing from his home and his faithful wife, had spent the weary fortnight trying to find trace of him. The woman's search was rewarded yesterday afternoon when she stumbled across his remains strung to the limb of a tree in Sutro Forest, near the Corbett road. Every day since Pfeefer had been missing his wife hunted over the hills and among the sand dunes for her husband's body. She was convinced that he had taken his own life and her surmise proved startlingly correct. Until about six months ago, Pfeefer conducted a small bakery on Church street, near Seventeenth. When he sold out he made no effort to acquire another business or secure employment. About a month ago it was noticed that he acted strangely. He was pensive and he seldom spoke to anyone. On the morning of November 14, he left his home saying that he would return in the evening, but when he did not do so his wife started a search for him. First she visited all of her husband's haunts, and when she found he had not been seen in any of these, she started about the city inquiring if anyone had seen "a man with a coat buttoned over an undershirt rambling about." Yesterday, in company with her brother-in-law, Conrad Dettling, she visited the Sutro forest. After several hours tramp she came upon the body, then she went to St. Boniface's Church for advice and the priests told her to notify the officials. A strange feature of the case is that while Pfeefer has been missing nearly two weeks, he hanged himself within twenty-four hours of the time he was found. This was determined by the condition of the body. Just where Pfeefer spent the intervening time is hard to tell, but the Morgue officials will endeavor to ascertain. His family say he was, without doubt, insane, and the deed is attributed to insanity.

San Francisco Call  September 6, 1908:

BODY FOUND IN SUTRO FOREST Acting upon information received from J. F. Elliot, proprietor of the Ingleside Inn at Ingleside, a squad of policemen were dispatched to the Sutro Forest late last night to search for the body of a man. Elliot telephoned to the Coroners office later that he had discovered a body in the densest part of the forest. Armed with lanterns, the Mission street squad left for the scene about midnight.

San Francisco Call - December 19, 1899:

FOUND DEAD IN THE WOODS

Sutro's Forest Again the Scene of a Suicide

Keeper McGinnes of the Sutro Forest notified the Morgue officials Yesterday afternoon that the body of a man was found in the woods back of the Affiliated Colleges. Deputy Coroner Lacombe who was detailed on the case, found the body a few feet from one of the many paths. The deceased wore a striped suit of worsted material, a black sweater and a pair of bicycle shoes. In the pockets were found a bicycle pump. a pair of pants protectors, and a packet white crystals marked poison" - the contents of which were afterward found to be cyanide of potassium. A postal card on which was the printed address of the Cascade Laundry and the name of Frank Parker written in pencil, was also found on the body. From appearances the man had been dead about two days and the case looked like a suicide. The body is that of a man about 35, years of age.

From the Sacramento Record-Union December 20, 1899:

BODY OF A SUICIDE IDENTIFIED - SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19. The body found in the Sutro forest yesterday has been identified as that of Frank Parker, who came to this city from San Jose some time ago. The deceased committed suicide by taking cyanide. He was a machinist by trade and was a victim of strong drink.

From the San Francisco Call - December 21, 1899

GRANT BELL, SUICIDE.

Frank Parker Was Not the Name of the Sutro Forest Suicide. Frank Parker was not the name of the suicide found in the Sutro forest back of the Affiliated Colleges last Monday, as already announced. Police Patrolman Fontana had identified the body as that of a man who had asked him to arrest him and put him in Jail, and who showed symptoms of delirium tremens. The man gave the officer his name as Frank Parker, and there was no mistake about the identification, no matter whether the name given by the stranger was his real name or not. Positive identification by a man who had been acquainted with the dead man for a long time was made yesterday, when J.J. Zimmer of 112 Golden Gate avenue identified the remains as those of Grant Bell of San Jose, who worked for a while as bicycle repairer for Olten & Co. in San Jose. Zimmer last saw him alive last Thursday, struggling with an attack of delirium tremens. He had been on a spree for a long time.

San Francisco Call  October 28, 1908:

BODY FOUND HANGING FROM LIMB OF TREE

Man Believed to Be Samuel Anderson Despondent From Ill Health. While walking through the Sutro forest yesterday Attorney C. S. Gardner discovered the body of a suicide suspended from the limb of a tree, by a steel wire about the neck. The Coroner's office and police were notified by the attorney, who guided them to the body. After working for several hours the deputy coroners and the policemen succeeded in carrying the body of the suicide, from the forest to the Sunset avenue road. The man is believed to be Samuel Anderson and the police think despondency due to ill health prompted him to end his life.

San Francisco Call  March 26, 1904:

FOREST YIELDS ANOTHER BODY

Ends Life With Pistol

Remains of Unidentified Man Discovered on Ledge of Rock in Sutro Woods The body of some unfortunate who had tired of life and killed himself perhaps more than a month ago, was discovered on the highest point of Sutro woods, back of the Affiliated Colleges building, yesterday. The body was first seen by a passerby, who informed a street car conductor, and he in turn told the police. Patrolmen C. B. Weekend and A.C. Williams of the Park police station repaired to the woods in search of the corpse. They hunted through the brush and undergrowth from 3 o'clock till 5:15 before their efforts were rewarded by the finding of the grewsome object. The officers came upon the body of the unfortunate man in the thickest part of the woods. The corpse was in a sitting posture, leaning against a large rock. The left hand and the left leg below the knee were entirely eaten raw by wild animals and the face was utterly decomposed. The body of the man had evidently been undisturbed for a month or more. A black soft hat was discovered about ten feet away from where the corpse lay. A large British bulldog pistol lay rusted at the feet of the dead man, showing only too plainly how he had rid himself of his troubles. The patrolmen made no attempt to remove the body, but at once notified the Central police station and the Morgue. This morning at 10 o'clock a detachment of police and Coroner's deputies will repair to the scene, make an investigation, and remove the body to the Morgue, where an effort will be made to ascertain the identity of the unfortunate.

A Midnight Walk in the Woods

There have been many articles written about haunted places in San Francisco but none, to my knowledge, have ever been written about the haunting of Sutro Forest. Is this place really haunted, as I suspect it would be? Perhaps the spirits of those who committed suicide here still walk these woods. After reading the accounts detailed above, I believe that certainly might be the case. I decided to find out for myself - first hand  at night.

On a damp, foggy night, I start my walk. I begin on Johnstone Street, just off of Clarendon Avenue. There is a path into Sutro Forest that starts here. As I walk down the path, the glow of the final streetlight fades to nothingness, and I now have only one companion - darkness.

This dense forest, mystical and enchanted by day, is incredibly eerie at night. My eyes have not yet acclimated to the absence of light. Light... I now realize that its something we take for granted. Light is as essential to our feeling of security and sense of well being as food is to sustenance, or air is to life. Put us in a strange environment, take away the light, and our confidence quickly erodes. I know. Im beginning to experience it now.

Now my pupils are beginning to dilate as my eyes acclimate to the dark. There is a slight luminescence as the glow of the city below refracts through the dense fog. Odd forms and shapes in the woods attract my attention. I imagine figures crouching and lurking behind trees in the darkness.

Millions of eucalyptus leaves rustling in the wind combine to make a powerful roar. Condensation is dripping from the trees, almost like rain. I can feel the large drops hitting my shoulders giving me the sensation that someones tapping me from behind.

My vision, diminished by the darkness, is replaced by a heightening of my mental senses and my sense of sound. I'm on alert. I stop. I listen. Am I being watched? Am I being followed?

I hear the snap of a twig and the crunch of gravel. A shot of adrenaline pumps through my system. WHAT WAS THAT???!!! A raccoon??? A possum??? A skunk??? A human??? SOMETHING ELSE??? Maybe its just the sound of moisture hitting the ground as it drips off the trees.

Im now just above UCSF - the former site of the Affiliated Colleges. Is this the place, where in 1899, I would have encountered the dead body of Grant Bell, the bicycle mechanic - lifeless, pale, and wide-eyed, clutching his envelope of cyanide?

Now it's my eyes that are sending me messages. I see something move laterally across the trail ahead of me about 100 feet away. It was white and wispy; unmistakable  there one second and gone the next. WHAT WAS THAT MANIFESTATION??? I KNOW I SAW SOMETHING!!! Again the chill, but I keep walking forward, my eyes fixed on that spot. It manifests itself a second time. Just the fog. . . a thick visible breath of moisture in the night air. WHEW!!! My heart is pounding fast, but I exhale a breath of relief.

These are the same paths that Ishi, the last native California Indian living in the wild, walked almost 100 years ago. After he wandered out of the woods near Oroville in 1911, he was brought to the City, to the Affiliated Colleges, located on the northern edge of the Sutro Forest, to be studied. That site is just below me.

Free to roam as he pleased, Ishi spent time here in Sutro Forest because it reminded him so much of his wild Northern California homeland. That was until his death from tuberculosis in 1916, a disease against which he had no defenses. When Ishi died, his protector and benefactor, anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, was away on the East Coast.

Ishi had left specific instructions that he was not to be autopsied or dissected upon his death. But against his will, they tampered with his body. In Professor Kroebers absence, physicians at the college couldn't resist cutting open Ishis skull and removing his brain for further study  to see if it differed in any way from the White Mans - all in the name of science. It was disrespectful sacrilege. Im certain that Ishi's spirit was angry. Does his angry spirit wander these woods, or is it a forgiving, benevolent one?

Somehow I know Ishi is here right now, not far from where I am. I can feel it. Out of respect, I don't want to disturb him. I stop and listen. Is that the echo of his chanting I hear? Or is it just the wind?

A little further on I stop at the most amazing chert rock formation I have ever seen. It is a huge elaborate twisted mass of sedimentary rock  almost 20 feet in height located in a dense part of the forest near the top of Mount Sutro. This, I think to myself, must be the place where the body of the unidentified man who ended his life with the pistol was found in 1904, lying lifeless against the rock, decomposed beyond recognition, pistol at his feet, self-inflicted bullet wound in the head. I stare at the rock. If I stared any longer, Id see blood running down its surface, as Im sure it once did.

These things happened here, and they were as real as this moment is right now. I can see them clearly in my minds eye and the images are disturbing.

Then I hear something - a groan. I stop; I listen. There it is again!!! U-U-U-U-H-H-H-H. WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT???!!! Probably just the trunk of a eucalyptus tree flexing in the wind. A sound I would have recognized by day becomes strange and unnerving at night. I keep walking. I'm bundled-up against the cold moist wind, but I feel a chill - not from the damp night air, but from deep within. I'm strong and fit, but that type of strength doesn't counter this type of fear. Its a primordial fear, synthesized by the senses and enhanced by the imagination.

As I continue my walk, I try to step silently to avoid attracting the attention of anyone, or anything, that might be lurking in the darkness. Then, I suddenly feel a presence behind me. I stop again. Its unmistakable. I turn around slowly. I fully expect to see Adolph Sutro himself, attired in a 19th century suit, standing on the path right behind me, wide eyed, staring at me in silence. Nothing there. But again, the deep chill. I keep walking. [Insert Picture 5] Adolph Sutro.

I stop at a small clearing. Im about midway between UCSF (once the Affiliated Colleges) and Laguna Honda Hospital (once the Almshouse). Is this the place where, a little over 100 years ago, I would have seen the body of the unidentified man dressed in the gray waistcoat and dark striped trousers, dangling by the neck from the limb of a tree, swaying back and forth in the wind? Is this the very place where I would have seen his headless corpse lying on the ground, just as those boys from Stanyan Street who made the gruesome discovery did in November 1903? I shudder, then try and steel myself against the fear.

I know these woods well by day, but by night, Im slightly disoriented. The path forks. Should I go to the left or to the right? I dont want to make the wrong decision because Im ready for this experience to be over. Im getting to the point where Ive had enough. The combination of fear and adrenaline is exhausting. I take the left fork. Good choice. Through the curtain of fog I soon see the light of Christopher Drive in Forest Knolls below. I make my way toward it. The narrow path is now steep and slippery. Im careful not to loose my balance and fall in the dark. I step out of the forest and onto the wet pavement. Again I exhale in relief. The fog of my breath reminds me of the ghost I saw a short while ago. I take my pulse to measure the combination of exertion and fear; 96 beats per minute. Then I calm down and wonder, Do the people sleeping in these houses on this quiet residential street realize what powerful spirits exist only a few feet away? I distinctly felt the presence of those spirits this night.

So you now ask, Is Sutro Forest REALLY haunted??? My answer  Yes, it is. Haunted in the sense that it clearly communicates with the mind, the imagination, and the senses about the disturbing things that happened here in the past. It echoes the melancholy chants of Ishi, homesick for the woods he once knew. It invokes incredible sensitivities and feelings like Ive never experienced. The events that occurred here, and the people they involved  as real as you or I - reach out and touch you as you walk the paths in the darkness of night. Something you just dont sense in daylight.

Whether you live in The City or come here occasionally to visit, you are likely to see majestic Sutro Forest, either up close or from a distance. Next time you glimpse this amazing place, keep this story in mind. You will see the forest as more than just a beautiful tree-covered mountain. Theres much more here than meets the eye. Believe me, I know. Ive experienced it first hand.

Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places!
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
In this Wednesday Aug. 1, 2007 file photo black bear cubs are seen in Lyme, N.H. Beyond hurting crops and helping the tourism industry, New England's hot, dry summer also is affecting the region's wildlife. Bears are getting bolder, mosquitoes are multiplying and stream-dwelling fish are stressed. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter/FILE)

Bears are bolder, mosquitoes are multiplying and stream-dwelling fish are stressed. Beyond hurting crops and helping the tourism industry, New England's hot, dry summer also is affecting the region's wildlife.

All six New England states are experiencing at least moderate drought, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, with severe patches in all but Vermont and pockets of extreme drought in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Low rainfall also means low stream flow levels across the region. The U.S. Geological Survey says all six states have areas exhibiting moderate hydrologic drought, with severe spots in Massachusetts and one extreme area in Maine.

Low and warm water stresses fish, such as trout and salmon, forcing them to seek out deeper pools or spring holes. On Friday, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection closed portions of the West Branch Farmington River and the Farmington River to fishing through Sept. 15 after several fish kills.

"This is the first time in memory that we have found it necessary to take action like this to protect our fisheries on these rivers, and it is not a step we are taking lightly," said Deputy Commissioner Susan Whalen.

In Maine, officials are recommending that people fish earlier or later in the day when temperatures are cooler. The same goes for southern New Hampshire, said Scott Decker, inland fisheries program director at New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Given that mosquitoes breed in standing water, you might expect fewer instead of more during a drought, said Pete Pekins, wildlife professor at the University of New Hampshire. But the opposite happens because as water levels drop, river banks and the edges of ponds widen, he said.

Thanks to a mild winter and the current drought, water is warmer and more stagnant, which encourages growth of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, said Jeff Schloss, natural resources program leader at UNH Cooperative Extension. The resulting toxic blooms can hurt everything from microscopic organisms eaten by fish, to waterfowl that feed on those fish.

In Vermont, the drought has lowered water at the Bennington Fish Culture Station to about 30 percent below normal. As a result, biologists reduced the number of times they feed the fish destined for stocking next spring from three times to one, said hatchery manager Monty Walker. He expects fish that usually would measure about 7 inches by September to fall nearly two inches short.

The drought has implications on land as well as water, with bears, snakes and ants among those species venturing further afield in search of food or water. In Quincy, Massachusetts, a timber rattlesnake showed up on someone's front steps. In New Hampshire, bears have been foraging for food at campgrounds and neighborhood trash cans because drought-stricken berry bushes didn't produce as much as usual.

Pekin, the UNH professor, keeps it all in perspective. He notes that herons and other birds are feasting on frogs that have become more visible in ponds, and he himself has been enjoying listening to osprey in his backyard.

"In all of this, there are winners and losers," he said. "I have great faith in wildlife to adapt. Next year could be the opposite."

Explore further Drought hits Northeastern US, could last months

 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
A team of researchers has developed a simple, inexpensive, paper-based device to test medicine for quality and adulteration. Credit: Lieberman and Bliese

The developing world is awash in substandard, degraded or falsified medications, which can either directly harm users or deprive them of needed treatment. And with internet sales of medications on the rise, people everywhere are increasingly at risk. So, a team of researchers has developed a simple, inexpensive paper-based device to screen suspicious medications.

The researchers will present their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

"People who don't have access to the best-quality medicines also don't have as many resources to buy the analytical instrumentation to detect the quality problems," says Marya Lieberman, Ph.D. "Instead of a $30,000 instrument, we've developed a $1 paper card. We designed the card so it would be as easy and inexpensive to use as possible."

Medications can be compromised in many different ways. For example, they may be bulked up with fillers, or they can degrade because they are stored improperly. Identifying poor-quality medications is challenging, as inspectors may not know in advance what chemical adulterants or degradation products they need to look for. Plus, bad-quality medications may contain at least some of the active ingredient, so simply detecting the presence of the real medication isn't enough to rule out issues.

In this study, Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame, along with Hamline University undergraduate Sarah Bliese, developed a card to detect falsified or degraded antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin or ceftriaxone, both of which the World Health Organization lists as "essential." To screen for a variety of potential quality issues, the researchers included 12 lanes separated by wax barriers on the paper device. Each lane contained a different set of reagents to detect materials or functional groups found in active pharmaceutical ingredients, degradation products or common fillers.

To run a sample, the researchers crush a pill and rub the resulting powder across all 12 lanes, and then dip the bottom of the paper card in water for three minutes. The water wicks up the lanes, bringing reagents into contact with the powder. Colors are formed when the reagents interact with the pharmaceutical, filler or degradation product. The researchers then compare the color pattern from the sample with the color patterns obtained from high-quality pharmaceutical products. The comparison can be done by eye or with an image-analysis program on a smartphone.

Ceftriaxone is sensitive to heat and breaks down if storage temperatures climb too high. As an experiment, the researchers subjected ceftriaxone to high temperatures and ran the card test, simultaneously analyzing the degradation products via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. They verified that the colorimetric pattern for the degraded antibiotic was different from that of the correctly stored product. In addition to these tests on the pure active ingredient, Lieberman and Bliese analyzed dozens of real-world samples of ceftriaxone from Kenya and Uganda.

Unscrupulous makers of falsified medication sometimes add colorants containing toxic heavy metals to their products to make the illicit pills more closely resemble their legitimate counterparts, Bliese says. So, in a related project at Hamline University, Bliese and Deanna O'Donnell, Ph.D., are exploring whether a portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy device can scan pills for these substances.

In June, Lieberman and Bliese traveled to Kenya to test a new paper card which can detect substandard antibiotics. While Lieberman is currently focusing her work on the developing world, she says her cards could be applicable worldwide to perform, for example, the analysis of herbal medicines and nutritional supplements. "Sometimes those 'herbal products' are actually spiked with pharmaceuticals," she explains. "The paper test cards could be a defense against this." Bliese says her next project will be to develop a paper test card to help first responders identify drugs of abuse and differentiate them from household products or legitimate medicines.

Explore further Researchers detecting low quality antimalarial drugs with a lab-on-paper
OSIRIS-REx

The idea for a device that could unveil the origins of life in our solar system began with a Solo cup.

Next month, an invention inspired by that plastic, disposable beverage cup will launch into space aboard the United States' first robotic mission aimed at scooping up 4.5 billion-year-old dust from an asteroid.

The $800 million NASA mission is called OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.

The unmanned spacecraft will travel to an asteroid near Earth called Bennu to collect space dust that may reveal how the materials necessary for lifesuch as carbon and icemade their way to our planet.

"We seek samples that date back to the very dawn of our solar system," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator with the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Launching September 8 atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the 4,600 pound (2,087 kilogram) sport utility vehicle-sized spaceship is set to embark on a multiyear mission, returning its bounty of space dirt in 2023.

Scatter dust or collect it?

The idea is not to land on the asteroid, but approach closely and "high-five" it for several seconds to gather some debris that can be studied more closely back on Earth.

The problem is that in zero gravity, such a device could just scatter dust instead of collecting it.

So, years ago, Lockheed Martin engineer Jim Harris began practicing with a reverse-vacuum concept in his driveway.

He placed a plastic Solo cuppierced with some strategically placed holeswith the rim facing down on the ground.

Then he used an air compressor to blow air through the cup's base.

The dirt it spewed out through the holes was collected in an external container.

Harris first called his creation Muucav, "vacuum" spelled backwards. But the final name is TAGSAM, an acronym for the Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism.

"Over the past 10 years, it has come a long way from a Solo cup in the driveway to what you see now," said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver.

Follow-on to Japan mission

TAGSAM aims to return far more material than a similar mission by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency that launched in 2003.

The Hayabusa mission encountered some difficulties, and even crash-landed into the surface of its target, but managed to return just under a milligram of material from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010.

NASA's spacecraft is designed to collect at least 60 grams (2.1 ounces), but could get much more. Tests have shown it picks up an average of 300 grams.

The sample will not be taken until July 2020, allowing the spacecraft time to closely study the asteroid so scientists can pick the most promising region, says Gordon Johnston, an OSIRIS-REx program executive at NASA headquarters.

"We will approach Bennu, map it, orbit it, study it and pick the safest and most scientifically interesting place to pick a sample from before going in and attempting the sample," he told reporters.

"Three quarters of the sample will be set aside for future researchersfor the science questions we haven't figured out to even ask yet."

NASA has also promised four percent of the sample to its major partner in the effort, Canada, and another half-percent to Japan.

Although the Japanese mission proved that asteroid sampling and return can be done, NASA based much of the OSIRIS-REx's design on a previous US mission launched in 1999, called Stardust, which returned cosmic material from a distant comet's tail.

"Stardust told us a lot about comets, which form way in the outer part of the solar system," Lauretta said.

"OSIRIS-Rex is bringing back samples that are closer to home and are probably the likely candidates that delivered these key, prebiotic compounds to our Earth."

The right-sized asteroid

NASA picked Bennu out of 500,000 known asteroids in the solar system because it's the right size, easy enough to visit, and contains carbon-rich dust from billions of years ago, says Christina Richey, OSIRIS-REx deputy program scientist at NASA.

"We are talking about the start of the formation of our solar system," she said. "Maybe the precursors to life on Earth or elsewhere."

The space rock is taller than the Eiffel Towersome 500 yards (meters) in diameterand passes by Earth every six years, orbiting the sun at roughly the same distance as the Earth.

"Bennu is currently the best understood asteroid not yet visited by a spacecraft," Richey said.

Explore further NASA prepares to launch first U.S. asteroid sample return mission

 2016 AFP
Squatters who illegally occupy vacant homes or buildings are not always contributing to apathy or social disorder, says a new University of Michigan study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

It can actually be a good situation for a neighborhood to have these individuals move into abandoned homes, lessening the chance of them becoming sites for drug users or burned by arsonists, the study indicates.

In urban communities nationwide, such as Detroit, which are experiencing population decline, homes have been abandoned by owners or left unattended by private investors who often purchase them in bundles of tens, hundreds, or even thousands.

"While attempts to revitalize a city rely on private ownership to induce responsible care for property, that isn't always an option," said study author Claire Herbert, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a PhD in sociology.

That's where squatters come in.

Herbert, who will be an assistant professor at Drexel University in the fall, interviewed more than 60 people, including squatters, city authorities, and residents between 2013-2015, while also gathering ethnographic data on illegal property use from various sources, such as community meetings and squatted areas across Detroit.

Surprisingly, many of the residents in the study welcome squatters to keep abandoned homes occupied. Squatting, however, was not considered acceptable to residents if the home was still occupied or if the legal owner was maintaining and overseeing the property.

But, when there is minimal police or city oversight to enforce legal owners to maintain their vacant properties, neighboring residents seek solutions, Herbert said. Many forego involving the police or other city authorities to enforce legal ownership, but instead encourage responsible squatters in order to bring about the kind of positive impact that legal ownership is supposed to bringimproved neighborhood conditions, such as safety, community, and care for physical structures.

Explore further Auctions are not best options for abandoned property

More information: The paper, "Like a Good Neighbor, Squatters Are There: Neighborhood Stability After All the Windows Have Been Broken," will be presented on Sunday, Aug. 21, in Seattle at the American Sociological Association's 111th Annual Meeting.
With just a few weeks of summer left, its time to check off that sand bucket list of beach reading. If youre between books, dont fear; there are several books with ties to the region from which to choose.

The Hatties Restaurant Cookbook, by Jasper Alexander. $20.68 in hardcover, $14.16 on Kindle.

Hatties owner Jasper Alexander releases his first cookbook, with more than 250 pages of recipes and photographs of appetizers, cocktails, entrees and more, as well as history of Hattie Moseley Austin, and recipe origins. A launch party and cookbook signing will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 30 at Hatties Restaurant, 45 Phila St. in Saratoga Springs.

An Adirondack Portfolio, 1902-1935, The Hiking Stories and Photographs of Francis Bayle, by Bob Bayle.

Bob Bayles new book features photographs and writings by his father, Francis Bayle, who took hundreds of images of the Adirondacks between 1910 and 1970. A book signing is planned at 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Chapman Historical Museum, 348 Glen St., Glens Falls.

Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the War of American Independence, by George C. Daughan. $28.95 in hardcover, $9.18 on Kindle.

George C. Daughan tells the untold story of the fight for control of the Hudson River Valley during the Revolution, a power the Americans and the British thought would determine the outcome of the war.

A Taming Season: A Love at Lake George Novel, by Claire Gem. $13.99 in paperback, $4.99 on Kindle.

Set in Lake George, A Taming Season tells the story of Zoe, a Manhattan-based domestic violence counselor trying to rebuild her life after events that killed her spouse and left her wounded. She returns to what she remembers as an idyllic family lakeside cottage to find a rundown shack, and the owner of the neighboring resort, whose intentions are questionable. The book is the first in a series of loosely related romance novels set around Lake George village. Gem will make an appearance from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 9 on Lake George Steamboat Co.s Lac Du Saint Sacrement dinner cruise.

The Battle of Lake George: Englands First Triumph in the French and Indian War, by William R. Griffith IV. $21.99 in paperback, $9.99 on Kindle, available Sept. 5.

Twenty-four-year-old William R. Griffith IV visited Fort William Henry on a family vacation when he was 5 years old and developed a deep love for the states colonial history. The Battle of Lake George tells the history behind the first major British battlefield victory during the French and Indian War, as British commander William Johnson leads his men through enemy fire to force the French back to Ticonderoga.

The Saratoga Campaign: Uncovering an Embattled Landscape, by William A. Griswold and Donald W. Linebaugh, editors. University Press of New England. $27.95 in paperback, $25.99 in eBook.

Building on the work of scholars and more than 70 years of archaeological projects at Saratoga Battlefield, William Griswold and Donald Linebaugh edit a collection that expands and challenges historical narratives of the battles.

Last Goodbye: A Story of Love, Loss and One Girls Fate, by Laura Ostiguy. $16.99 in paperback, $13.99 for Kindle.

Laurel (Kupillas) Ostiguy was raised in Queensbury. The Boston area-based writer works at a financial firm by day. But along the way, she weaved a tale that examines love, loss, might-have-beens and relationships. Before dying, Jonathan tells his best friend about the girl who should have been his true love. Hundreds of miles away, Abigail suffers from a seizure that leaves her with an overwhelming sense of loss. Starting college the following fall, Abigail meets two men who will forever change her life. Both love and care for her, but one harbors a secret that will split her world into two.

Saratoga 1858: A Novel of Sorts, by Hollis A. Palmer. $18.58 in paperback, $9.29 on Kindle.

In his 12th book, Hollis A. Palmer writes a fictional account of Victorian life in Saratoga Springs, when everyone who was anyone flocked to the Spa City to see and be seen. The book follows five fictional families who summer in Saratoga in a story that touches upon the days biggest issues, including gambling, slavery, class struggles, religion and health.

The Haitian Chronicles: Poetic Reflections on 15 Years of Visiting the Land, by Tom Parsons. $8.99 in paperback.

After more than 15 years of mission work in the poorest of Western nations, the Rev. Tom Parsons shares his poems inspired by lessons learned and inspiration found in the beauty of Haiti and its people.

Leaves Torn Asunder: A Novel of the Adirondacks and the American Civil War, by Glenn L. Pearsall. $12.95 in paperback.

Johnsburg writer Glenn Pearsall has won a few awards for nonfiction about the history of the Adirondacks. But in Leaves Torn Asunder, he tries his hand at a novel inspired by true events. With research done in soldier diaries and letters, town records, regimental histories and Civil War battle sites, Pearsall pieces together the stories of Adirondack soldiers and their families.

Rooster: A Field Trial Fable, by Edward Pontacoloni. $15 in paperback, $4.99 on Kindle.

Lake George fabler Edward Pontacoloni recounts the tale of Rooster, an underdog in the competitive world of bird dog field trials. A classic tale of triumph, Rooster is an inspiring story that takes the reader to places that are warm, friendly and oh so true with a heartwarming style.

The Moose is Loose: The Adventures of an Adirondack Moose and the Wiggletoes Family, by Yvonne Foster Southerland and Alexis Southerland Anekwe; illustrated by Jeff Vernon. $14.95 in paperback, $19.95 in hardcover.

After summering the Adirondacks for more than three decades, mother-and-daughter team Yvonne Foster Southerland and Alexis Southerland Anekwe were inspired to write about the adventures of Big Moose, who lives on the wall at a Pottersville inn. He sneaks down from the wall at night and visits towns and attractions throughout the lower Adirondacks and into the Glens Falls and Saratoga areas  all told in rhymes.
FORT ANN  The men sat in a loose half-circle, nine of them, each dressed in green pants and tops, standard issue.

To their left, caged windows. Their right, armed guards. And on their minds, a chance to better themselves.

They are inmates at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison in Comstock, and students of Bennington College, a private liberal arts school in Vermont.

It was the latest meeting of a 15-week political theory course, held on a recent Tuesday night as part of the colleges Prison Education Initiative. The program began last fall, and there are about 40 Great Meadow inmates enrolled now.

In June, the college and prison were chosen by the U.S. Department of Education for a pilot program that revives Pell grants for inmates. The classes have been funded entirely by the school itself and private donations. But the Pell grants, if and when they make their way to inmates in the Bennington program, will alleviate some of the burden.

Second-chance school

For about two hours that night, as they had once a week for the past nine weeks, the inmates leaned in, listened, scribbled notes and learned.

Crina Archer, a visiting professor at Bennington who teaches the course, lectured in front of the cramped prison classroom, which is in a quiet section of the noisy prison cordoned off for education.

The inmates  all but two of whom agreed to be quoted and photographed by The Post-Star  sought to iron out any lingering questions about Rousseaus Social Contract before beginning with de Tocquevilles Democracy in America, classic works of politics.

They listened and spoke, often at length, above the whir of a box fan in the corner of the room and the occasional chatter of correction officers outside its open door. Another fan stood in the back of the room, old and metal and unplugged, a heavy chain and padlock twisted around its base. The open windows did little to mitigate the muggy heat.

What comes first? Archer asked, speaking about Rousseaus paradox of founding. Good laws or good people?

The question spurred some thought among the students. Archer expounded.

Bernard Prince  who has served 26 years so far for murder, robbery and weapons charges  listened closely, his fist pressed to his mouth, nodding, blinking, letting slip the occasional smirk.

He has been incarcerated since 1990, when he was 22. The only school he knew before prison was the street, but that education ended not with a walk across a stage but with a walk to a cell for a 32-to-life sentence.

He will be eligible for parole in six years.

If you are for second chances, then you have to give the people like us chances to better ourselves, he said in an interview after class. The only way you can do that is through education.

He wants to move on from his past.

I see myself now as a better man, he said. I see myself as someone who knows how important the law is.

Mental freedom

Federal funding for inmate higher education has been absent since 1994, when it was banned as part of the Clinton administrations crime bill.

An oft-cited 2013 study by the RAND Corp. showed that inmates who participated in educational programs are more than 40 percent less likely to end up back behind bars within three years, the time period in which recidivism is most likely.

The same study showed that a $1 investment in prison education saves taxpayers about $5 in incarceration costs.

Thats the reason Annabel Davis-Goff, director of the Bennington initiative and a professor of English literature, gives people who might be persuaded by practicality.

But theres another reason she urges governmental support for programs like Benningtons.

It gives you some kind of intellectual inner life that allows you to escape your surroundings in a way that can only be beneficial to you and those around you, she said in a phone interview.

For inmates, its a mental freedom, she said, and one that can be much more valuable to them than to traditional college students.

Education is a different value if thats all you have, she said.

Studying is how Victor Breland, who is serving a 177-to-life sentence for three murders and other charges, has spent his 26 years in the system so far.

Working out, studying, studying, he said in an interview after class.

He had already read many of the authors he and his fellow students have tackled in class, but he appreciates the ability now to get feedback on his thoughts.

We sit down and get outside this environment, he said, echoing the thoughts of other inmates. And (class is) a good environment. Its completely fulfilling.

In the class that night, the 57-year-old was animated when he spoke, and, like many of his peers, made reference to historical figures and concepts while discussing their current work.

When Archer asked the class to name some characteristics of Rousseaus ideal lawgiver, Breland called out, Wise as Solon, the Ancient Greek statesman.

Some of them, its the first time they picked up a book, Breland said in the interview. They have to know there is another world.

He added: Im sure a lot of us wouldnt be here if we had a real chance at a real education.

A layered process

Applying inmates are given two written excerpts and tasked with writing an essay on one of them. So Bennington can gauge a potential students creativity and logic, little guidance is given. The prisoners explain in a separate piece of writing why theyd like to join the program, and also provide some background information on their prior education.

The applications are reviewed first by Great Meadow, which weeds out inmates with disciplinary issues, and then by Bennington staff, who later interview the most promising applicants and, lastly, enroll the finalists.

There are three terms in the program: fall, spring and summer. There are classes in literature, American history and politics, and plans for a computer science class in the future.

Davis-Goff said the college covers most of the overhead for the program, and that two family foundations pay for books, instructor transportation and some of the instructors salaries.

The Pell pilot program circumvents the 1994 ban on prisoner Pell grants through the Department of Educations experimental sites authority, which lets it waive certain federal rules.

In a press conference earlier this year, Secretary of Education John King Jr. said the grants will not affect traditional recipients and are less than a percent of all Pell spending. Fifty-six Pell-eligible inmates at Great Meadow will be reached in 2016-17, according to a department publication. There are about 1,500 inmates at the prison.

The grants are targeted at inmates likely to be released within five years.

Through their coursework, Great Meadow inmates can earn college credits to put toward degrees. Benningtons program, still in its early stages, does not have a degree component, but inmates can transfer to prisons that do. The Bard Prison Initiative  the initiatives model and a program that offers full degrees in six state prisons  was mentioned by both inmates and Bennington faculty.

It changes them

Christopher Shapard, an inmate in the program, has been incarcerated since 1992, when he was 18.

In New York, he is serving 15-to-life for robbery, burglary, firearms and kidnapping charges. He originally had been charged with murder in Connecticut, but he escaped with another inmate, fled to New York and then took a person hostage. If he is released in New York, he will have time to serve in Connecticut.

Because he was still in high school when he entered prison, Shapard worked to earn a GED almost immediately. And while at Auburn Correctional Facility, he earned an associate degree in liberal arts and humanities through the Cornell Prison Education Program. He transferred to Great Meadow in 2013 and will be eligible for parole in 2022.

Getting into college has really helped me learn how to interact with people, especially other inmates, many of whom come from different backgrounds and cultures than his, Shapard said in an after-class interview.

He recalled a genetics course in which some of his peers took issue, on religious grounds, with the teaching of Darwinism.

Having that discussion helped me understand where theyre coming from, he said. It also gave him a better understanding of his own positions, which he had to defend.

Shapard said he has racked up more than 100 college credits. He hopes to make his way to a Bard prison to earn a bachelors degree, likely in a social science.

One thing you dont give up on is hope, he said. I feel that by staying hopeful, I change myself into a better person. This is one of the many ways of doing it.

People dont believe that they have hope, Shapard continued. They dont believe that they have these options.

But hope and enthusiasm brought into Great Meadow by the instructors is spreading, he said.

People in here catch that and they start to believe it themselves, and they start to believe in themselves.

In class, he was a vocal participant, engaging Archer and his peers at length  about Machiavelli, rationality, morality.

Education is absolutely necessary for someone to be able to go out there and realize how theyre living their life is not the only way, Shapard said in the interview. It changes them.

Prince, who sat next to Shapard and lives on an honor block with him, agreed.

If he gets out, he hopes his in-prison education will help him land a job as a counselor for troubled youths, the kind of help he could have used as a young man in Brooklyn before he turned to crime.

I might be able to give them some insight on what this is about and how I changed, Prince said.

I think thats the key, he said, pausing. They dont wanna look at the idea that people can change.

He has two daughters, one in college, one taking classes online.

(They said), Daddy, its there, do it, Prince said, thinking back to when he told his daughters about the program. Youre smart. You can learn. Do something different.
LAKE GEORGE  Although it has been open for more than a year, Lake George is going to take a moment in October to officially dedicate the Charles R. Wood Park and Festival Commons.

A grand opening celebration is tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 4.

Village of Lake George Mayor Robert Blais said he has been trying to organize a formal celebration.

New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado has indicated that she would be able to attend, he said.

Blais said he is also extending an invitation to state Department of Transportation Commissioner Matthew Driscoll.

State funding was instrumental in the project to convert the former Gaslight Village amusement park into a festival space and playground. The project received $2.5 million from the state Department of Transportation and $1.2 million from the state Environmental Protection Fund. Other funding included donations of $500,000 from the Wright Family Foundation and $750,000 from the Charles R. Wood Foundation.

The event will also include remarks from people involved in the project, which was a partnership between the village and town of Lake George and the Fund for Lake George, the Lake George Association and the Lake George Land Conservancy. Then, there will be a luncheon.

The Lake George Chamber of Commerce is seeking proposals from businesses and organizations interested in showcasing their food or beverages at a reception for the event, Taste of the Lake George Region. The reception will be under a tent with small high-top tables and stations featuring food from local eateries.

The chamber seeks to spotlight locally sourced food and craft beverages, according to a news release.

Proposals should include menu items, any additional needs and estimated costs. They are due by Aug. 26 to Kristen Hanifin, special events and convention sales director of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce & Convention and Visitors Bureau.

It has been a strong summer at the park, according to Blais. The most successful event was the Adirondack Wine & Food Festival, which was attended by about 5,500 people. Americade motorcycle rally organizers also used the festival space and the county parking lot for their trade show and music festival.

Unfortunately, Blais said this past Saturdays severe weather cut short Jonathan Newells British Invasion festival.

The tent came down because of the wind, he said.

The bands sound equipment also was damaged, Blais said. He said what was supposed to be a two-day show got cut to one as the band had to leave.

The Adirondack Nationals Car Show will take place Sept. 8 to 11 at the site.

It will be a busy fall, Blais said.

The American Music Festival will take place Sept. 24 and 25. This is the third year for the festival, which was the first event booked at the space. The festivals featured band is Blue Oyster Cult.

The Adirondack Independence Music Festival is set for Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.

Blais said the music acts do better in the fall and spring.

Music festivals in July and August, competing against the lake and the humid weather, have not been too successful, he said.

From Oct. 21 to 23, the first Lake George Harvest Festival will be held. A promoter from New York City is organizing the three-day event, which will feature a craft show, farmers market, music and hay rides, Blais said.

Hes done this event down in Long Island. Its been extremely successful, he said.

The Charles R. Wood Park has been successful in drawing people to the area to stay overnight, according to Blais.

Its accomplishing what weve hoped for, especially on the shoulder seasons. Its given people a reason to come to the lake in May, June and September, he said.

Blais is working to organize a barbershop quartet festival, a wood-carving competition and a circus in conjunction with local Shriners.

Each year, were going to add a couple of events and eventually, hopefully, fill up, he said.
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Speaking at the ceremony, the chairman of the Association, Daniel Raymond Tetteh said bartending is war, art and science. It is not a profession for dropouts but a vocation reserved for those with the natural acumen of customer service. Most of the Bartenders in Blue Kiosks are ladies and they sell a lot and earn a lot of tips but it all come at a cost: they are prone to being touched and groped by drunk customers both new and regularsand their partners understand that it is part of the Bartending Service Culture, not an offence. But please dont try this at a 5-Star Hotel!

He explained bartending saying, bartending is an aspect of molecular gastronomy, measurement and use of colour, culinary technology and cooking. Bartending is Social. Bartending is about Love, Art and Technique. Bartending investigates recipes, explores old recipes, invents new recipes, introduces new tools, ingredients, and methods to show how wonderfully scientific the profession is.

According to the Daniel Raymond, the association is working to become a member of the International Bartenders Association (IBA) with the goal of giving Ghana International representation in the Global Bartending Community.

Osei Bonsu, Executive Director of Ghana Tourism Authority also urged the association to be professional and creative in their dealings

The ceremony was graced by some stakeholders in the hospitality industry and hosted by AJ Sarpong of GH One TV.
READ ALSO:Education Teacher absenteeism reduces

But the Deputy Minister for Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has in statement debunked the reports, indicating that This rather abysmal attempt at creating disaffection for the Government defies common sense especially at a time the Ministry of Education is recruiting more teachers and lecturers.

Below is the full statement

You are kindly being invited to ignore and treat with utter contempt that pernicious publication in circulation claiming that an agreement has been reached with the IMF to expunge 4,000 teachers from the payroll.

This rather abysmal attempt at creating disaffection for the Government defies common sense especially at a time the Ministry of Education is recruiting more teachers and lecturers.

Over the past few days, some 2,500 Mathematics and Science teachers have been receiving their appointment letters to teach at the basic level when the 2016/2017 academic year commences next month.

Additionally, at the tertiary level, we have obtained financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance to employ another 1,018 lecturers and staff.

Falsehood shall always be defeated. Truth stands.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (MP)
Installed Odikro of the Central Region town, Mr. Arkoh goes by the stool name Nana Kwame Essoun III.

As part of the ceremony, the ECG Director was carried in a palanquin parade across the streets of the town together with his Queen Mother, Nana Esi Kobbah II, adding to the already festive season in the town as the Akwambo festival was underway.Nana Kwame Essoun III pledged his unflinching support to his people to ensure the rapid development of the community.

READ MORE: Fraud Alert Coalition against the privatisation of ECG accuses MiDA of fraud

His immediate priority would be the education of children and therefore charged parents to pay maximum attention to the education of their wards, as he hopes to improve the standards of education there. He promised to help them put up a community centre by next year.
He will commission projects which were not due at the time of his Accounting to the people's tour of the region.

The president and his entourage paid a courtesy call on the Overlords of the Nanumba and Dagomba Traditional Areas.

Speaking in an interview with Kumasi-based Ultimate Radio, the Northern Regional Communication Director of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), General Mohammed Amin, revealed that the campaign trail would make the first stop at Salaga to Yendi through to Kpandai and Bimbilla.
Dr. Nduom who was clearly not happy about the development, complained through a Facebook post titled: PRESIDENT J.D. MAHAMA  PLEASE STOP USING MY TAX MONEY TO CAMPAIGN FOR VOTES.

According to him, his employees and risk their lives traveling across the country and sweat to sell products and services, borrow to operate factories then pay income tax, payroll tax, VAT, etc. to government only to see President Mahama and members of his administrations donate outboard motors, sewing machines, vehicles, fertilisers, etc. while campaigning for votes.

He described the act by the president and his apparatchiks as daylight robbery of the governments treasury for partisan political benefit.

Below is the Fcebook post:

PRESIDENT J.D. MAHAMA - PLEASE STOP USING MY TAX MONEY TO CAMPAIGN FOR VOTES.

"My employees and I work, risk our lives traveling across the country and sweat to sell products and services, borrow to operate factories then pay income tax, payroll tax, VAT, etc. to government. Then we see President Mahama and members of his administrations "donating" outboard motors, sewing machines, vehicles, fertilizers, etc while campaigning for votes. If this is not daylight robbery of the government's treasury for partisan political benefit, then what is it?

Now NDC functionaries are all over the media justifying the plundering of taxpayer funds while the Mahama administration says it does not have money to pay debts owed to ECG, pay teacher and nurse trainees, etc.

How many of the more than one million fishermen, millions of hairdressers and farmers can get some of these "gifts"? Reminds me of the tactics of the illegal micro-finance schemes - show the people a handful of people whose deposits were doubled and others will be deceived into parting with their hard earned monies. And is this what is at play here? Is President Mahama Father Christmas? Is this the Christmas season for gift giving?

What the people need are the things that last - lower taxes, continuous, uninterrupted electricity, good drinking water, good and affordable compulsory education, good health and permanent jobs. If President Mahama campaigned on bringing these to the people during his tenure as President, how could I complain? The fact that he can't do this and has resorted to "gift-giving" must tell Ghanaians to beware and not waste their votes on those who have disappointed them and now are desperately trying to buy their votes.
The High Commissioner, in an attempt to set the record straight, said he has been in Ghana for some days because he was on his annual leave.He also stressed that his absence has not affected his work in Ghanas High Commission in the UK, as has been suggested.

READ MORE: NDC campaign Cape Coast stadium packed as NDC launches 2016 campaign [Photos]I was in Ghana because I was on leave, and as an ambassador, I am entitled to it just like every other worker. And the claim that my absence affected work here is unfounded because I have a deputy who takes over anytime I am away, so everything is on course here.
The Veteran Nollywood actor, while speaking during an interview with Punch Newspapers, disclosed his own struggle with power supply and what may have to be done to curb the situation.

Speaking during the interview, Bob Manuel said:

 I now use generators more than most Nigerians. We have no choice due to the poor power supply in the country. I rely mostly on the generator for my power needs.

I have three generators in my house. It is not deliberate and it is not to prove to be rich, but it is because of the condition we have found ourselves in this country. I run one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the night. By doing this, I will be able to lengthen the lifespan of the generators. Of course, running the generator throughout the day creates a deep hole in the pocket, but what can we do with the epileptic power supply in the country?"

The actor further emphasised that a change in the system may never occur except there is bloodshed while challenging the government to make a move on the situation.

Some of the importers are big people in this country who are doing everything they can to not make power supply improve. Some of them partially own the companies that manufacture generators. These people are in the government and wield huge influence. I am pessimistic we can succeed in getting good power supply again in this country. If it is ever going to happen, it will involve the shedding of blood because the cabal will be ready to do anything for their business to keep thriving. I am putting this as a challenge to the government, let them prove me wrong. We can never get stable power supply again in this country.

ALSO READ: The charming Bob Manuel Udokwu
In an interview with Punch Newspaper, the Special Adviser to the Anambra State Governor, said the economy has not been favourable to Nigerians and the hardship shouldn't be allowed to go on for long.

In his words: My appeal to the government is to bring the much desired change. Things are hard on Nigerians and we cannot continue like this."

ALSO READ: 7 things you should know about Bob Manuel Udokwu

Speaking further, he said: People are suffering, there is no money. People are not smiling. These days, you hear stories of food theft because of the bad situation of things. All is not well for now."
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident occurred at Ansarul-Deen Mosque, Osere area, Sawmill in llorin West Local Government Area of the state.

Eye witnesses account revealed that the dead woman popularly known as "lya Majeobaje" fell into the well on Friday while fetching water to clean the mosque.

They said that there was nobody within the vicinity of the mosque to rescue her when she fell inside the well at about 5p.m.

None of the worshipers with the mosque took notice of any human being inside the well during the evening and early morning Saturday prayers.

Some of the residents of the area who discovered the dead woman immediately alerted the state fire service in llorin.

The Director of the State Fire Service, Mr Tiamiyu Raji, while confirming the incident said personnel from the Fire Service removed the woman from the well dead on Saturday afternoon.

He said that the corpse of the woman was taken to the B Division of Police State Command, Surulere in llorin.
The group urged the trio to help secure the immediate and unconditional release of the Chibok schoolgirls being held by Boko Haram.

CATE national coordinator, Gabriel Onoja while speaking at a press conference in Abuja over the weekend suggested that the trio named by the military possibly knew more about Boko Haram than the security agencies once had cause to believed.

"We want the abducted girls back now that their captors, Boko Haram fighters have released a video to convince the world that many of them are still alive, Onoja said.

"The abduction in itself is evil and the girls travails is felt by all Nigerians and anyone that still has human blood flowing in their veins. This is why it is painful that after more than two years and despite several operations, promises, failed negotiations and dashed expectations the girls are still captives.

Their continued captivity has definitely been traumatic for the girls, especially as they have recounted how some their colleagues died. It has been harrowing for their parents and friends who daily wonder when their girls would be home or if they are among the unfortunate ones that have been reported dead. It has been crippling even for the nation as it became impossible to decisively end the terrorism crisis.

We must point out that despite the girls still being captive we appreciate all previous efforts by the Nigerian military in defeating the Boko Haram terrorists. The way they degraded the groups fighting capabilities. This imminent defeat is likely the reason Boko Haram is now using the girls as bait to both stall further military operations against them and to have time for reorganizing to become strong again.

We have also seen something that the entire country overlooked all along since the girls were first abducted from their school in Chibok. There are Nigerians that have the information about the girls all this time and they possibly know more about Boko Haram than even the security agencies once had cause to believed. They declared Ahmad Salkida, Barr. Aisha Wakil and Ahmed Bolori wanted in connection with the information they have about the whereabouts of the girls and Boko Haram, in general, considering the unfettered access they have with the terrorists.

The refreshed leadership of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group has also been reported to have similar information and some measure of access to the terrorists.

Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism, therefore, appeal to the trio of Salkida, Wakil and Bolori and all other persons with direct link to Boko Haram everywhere across the world to prevail on the abductors of these girls to release them unconditionally. The girls, their families, and the country have suffered enough.

We extend the same appeal to BBOG. They should use their connections to appeal to the trio of Salkida, Wakil and Bolori to help end the nightmare that has become the daily lives of these children. The group, in our view, currently channels its energy towards protesting at the wrong quarters. We think if BBOG converts its protest into an appeal to the human part of this trio a lot of progress would be potentially made.

Nigerians should please help us beg the trio and BBOG because time is running out in the practical sense as the defeated terrorists become increasingly more desperate. This has been exacerbated by the knowledge that their contacts in the outside world are now well known to the authorities. We should all appeal to the human conscience of all those involved in this affair as time is no longer on our side, he added.
Prison authorities confirmed that six inmates died during the botched jailbreak.

Dr Emeka Ogar, Chief Medical Director, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, told newsmen on Sunday, that surgeries were underway to extract bullets lodged in the bodies of the rampaging inmates.

``We are conducting surgeries on them as recommended by doctors and we are optimistic that they would soon regain fitness, he said.

Ogah said that all the affected inmates were at the hospitals Accident and Emergency Unit.

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Prisons Service, Jafaru Ahmed and Gov. David Umahi, had on Friday visited the inmates at the hospital.

There was tight security at the hospital wards where the wounded jailbreak inmates were receiving treatments.

Ebonyi Controller of the Prisons, Emilia Oputa, had blamed the attempted jailbreak on the ``notorious ring leaders inside the prisons who incited other inmates against the prison officials.
This contained in a statement issued by MEND's spokesman, Jomo Gbomo and made available to newsmen in Warri, Delta, on Sunday.

The stakeholders meeting was convened by elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark.

Gbomo said that the communique failed to categorically condemn the ``criminal and treasonable activities of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).

ALSO READ: Militants announce ceasefire as peace talk holds

``This is principally because notable promoter of the meeting was named by the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA) as a major supporters of the NDA.

He said that Clark lacked the moral authority to lead a discussion on the so-called ``restructuring of the Nigerian Federation at this critical point in the country's history.

``Consequently, MEND reiterates its full support for the ongoing military presence in the Niger Delta region, Gbomo said.

``MEND shall continue to insist that; so long as these elders and stakeholders do not categorically and publicly denounce the NDA, the Federal Government should also continue to ignore them, he said finally.
The militant group, which has wrecked havoc on several oil facilities in the Niger Delta region, has announced ceasefire, Vanguard Newspaper reports.

Niger Delta Avengers' spokesman, Murdoch Agbinigbo reportedly announced the ceasefire in a press statement.

ALSO READ: Ijaw leaders promise to end militancy if FG withdraws army attacks

It was further reported that the militants made the announcement after dialogue and peace talk meetings with leaders, monarchs and stakeholders in the region.

The struggle has always been a pan-Niger Delta one. We also know the anti-Niger Delta elements are using some disorganised characters from the region to scuttle the efforts to restore the essence of our humanity: Resource control and self-determination," Murdoch stated.

Continuing said: But we promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails. Therefore, we will give our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders that tacit support to go to the dialogue table with government and the multinational oil corporations whenever the enabling environment prevails."

ALSO READ: Militants launch 5 different attacks on oil facilities
Read some of the tributes below.

Popular social media critic, OluKemi Olunloyo however urged Ahmed's family to donate the funds raised through #savemayowa media campaign to research.

"Her family should donate the money they collected for research of vaginal cancers ovarian, cervical and uterine plus pap smears," she tweeted.

She urged women to go for regular medical check up adding that Nigerians should not blame Linda Ikeji or Toyin Aimahkun for Mayowa's death.

ALSO READ: Toyin Aimakhu: Actress pleads to save life of woman with Ovarian Cancer

Mayowa's story went viral after she uploaded an Instagram video soliciting for funds from good spirited Nigerians.

Over N32 million was raised after which an online campaign #savemayowa was launched.

May her soul Rest in Peace.
"The situation is a mess," said Ahmed Farah, a police officer, who did not have details of any casualties.

Witnesses and residents said they heard two loud blasts in quick succession followed by heavy gunfire.

"There were two huge bombs. The first one was a truck bomb, followed a minute or so (later) by another car bomb. My brother was injured at the scene," Halima Ismail, a local resident, told Reuters.
Two UN human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.

About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.

Duterte on Friday denied that the government was responsible and in a middle-of-the-night news conference in his home town, Davao, said the deaths were not the work of the police and invited UN experts to investigate themselves.

The news conference was broadcast by local media and the full version was posted on Facebook by GMA news.

"I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert," he said, urging them to count not just the number of drug-related deaths but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.

He then launched an attack on the UN and its members - including by inference Manila's traditionally close ally, Washington - saying, it could not fulfill its own mandate but was "worrying about the bones of criminals piling up".

"I do not want to insult you. But maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. Why do you have to listen to this stupid?"

Criticising the UN for not doing enough to address hunger and terrorism and for not being able to do anything about Syria and Iraq and allowing big powers to bomb villages and kill innocent civilians, he said he would invite China and African nations to form another global organisation.
Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind
The introduction of the fascinating, surreal Kubo and the Two Strings includes this dialogue that applies to the stories told within this shimmering film:

Pay careful attention to everything you see, no matter how unusual it may seem. If you look away, even for an instant, then our hero will surely perish.

Its good advice to Kubo and to audiences alike, because this latest from the Laika studios (The Boxtrolls) is so rich in meaning and nuance. Beautifully crafted with marvelous stop-motion animation, this fantasy set in feudal Japan is a quest tale thats also about story telling itself.

The main character Kubo (voice of Art Parkinson) cares for his mother, who grows more distant by the day, in a cave far away from a village. Kubo visits the village during the day to regale the villagers with his stories and magical origami that comes to life when he plays his shamisen (a gorgeous Japanese musical instrument).

Tragedy befell Kubo, who wears an eye patch, and his mother some years before. The entity that took the boys eye still seeks it, warns Kubos mother, so Kubo must not venture out at night.

But finally Kubo does exactly that, and now he must flee his enemies with the help of Monkey (Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Matthew McConaughey) in a search for items that will keep Kubo safe.

I just looked back on what I wrote, and it sounds pretty strange. It is indeed unusual  this movie does not have a typically American sensibility, to be sure  but so much of what makes this film superlative lies not only in the plot itself but also in the texture of the animation, the colors, the gorgeous score and the intriguing environments. Let the film take you, and youll find that its a journey worth making.

If you want to know a little more about the Laika magic, stick around for the end credits and youll see how the movie was created. This studio set the bar its Dreamworks, Pixar and Disney competition pretty high with this show. (Those with an interest in the art of animation also should visit http://www.laika.com/ to learn about the approach and the artists involved.)

The movie is certainly appropriate for families, but it might not hold the attention of the littlest viewers. Indeed, the characters and plot have such depth that I hope grownups will regard this as more than a kids movie and see it regardless of whether they are accompanied by a child.

It is one of the most magical and compelling films of the year.
DES MOINES  Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence spent Saturday getting a taste of Americana during a stroll through the Iowa State Fair, surrounded by Secret Service agents, campaign handlers and media boom microphones.

Pence, 57, the Indiana governor who is Donald Trump's running mate, stopped to take a "selfie" cellphone shot of himself, his wife, Karen, and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in front of the fair's iconic butter cow, flipped chops at the pork tent and cast a kernel of corn for Trump in an unscientific poll at a TV station's fair booth during his two-hour zigzag around the fairgrounds.

"Who's that? Donald Trump?" asked one fairgoer whose attention was diverted momentarily from the blur of corn dogs, funnel cakes and livestock sounds by the entourage of TV cameras, reporters and Iowa state troopers who accompanied Pence, his wife and Branstad through Saturday's heavily attended festivities.

"Play Free Bird," yelled another fair attendee as Pence paused near the stage in Jalapeno Pete's bar and restaurant to shake hands with Iowans, greet babies in strollers and navigate the mass of humanity that slowed the pace of movement through the grand concourse en route to the Beef Quarters and a lunch break featuring a hot beef sundae topped with a cherry tomato.

"He said it's something he's always wanted to do," said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, who met privately with Pence to talk trade and agriculture before touring the fairgrounds with him, "so I think it's a perfect fit for him to be here."

The vice presidential candidate got his most boisterous greeting at the GOP booth in the Varied Industries Building, where Republicans chanted, "We like Mike," "Trump" and "USA" before two detractors held up signs saying "Make Misogyny Great Again" several yards from where Pence briefly addressed the crowd.

"The haters always have to show up, and the media has to give them attention," one fairgoer said.

Pence said he was honored to celebrate Iowa's great agricultural tradition that was on display at the fair before rallying the GOP troops for the 2016 presidential campaign that lies ahead.

"Iowa always plays such an important role in the choice that America makes," Pence said. "I know this fall Iowa will lead the way when we elect Donald Trump the next president of the United States of America.

"Let's all work our hearts out. There's a little over 80 days, but I know in my heart of hearts, if all of us do all that we can, we will elect leadership in America that will make America great again."

As he made his way to the pork producer's tent, a person dressed in a duck costume held a sign saying, "Donald ducks releasing his taxes." That drew chants of "lock her up" that pro-Pence fairgoers aimed at Trump opponent Hillary Clinton.

About the same time Pence was touring the fairgrounds, Democrats gathered at a Hillary Clinton Des Moines field office several miles away where U.S. Agriculture Secretary and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and current Iowa treasurer Michael Fitzgerald did not discuss Pence, but rather continued Democrats' call for Trump to release his tax returns.

Vilsack released his tax returns annually during the two four-year terms he served as Iowa governor. He said doing so is important to engender trust with voters and said he does not believe Trump's claim that he is not releasing his tax returns because he is being audited.

"I'm telling you, there's a reason beyond this audit nonsense that he provides that he doesn't want people to know," Vilsack said. "I don't think he's paid much taxes. I'll bet he's paid a lot less tax than most people in this room have paid as a percentage. I'm pretty sure he wasn't as charitable as he claims to be. And I wouldn't be surprised if his business dealings are involving people that we would potentially be a little bit suspect of. And he's probably got resources parked outside the United States.

"If I'm wrong, all he has to do is prove me wrong. Show me the tax returns."

(Erin Murphy contributed to this story.)
DES MOINES  Tom Vilsack gave two examples of why Patty Judge can defeat longtime incumbent Chuck Grassley in Iowas U.S. Senate race this year: the biblical figure David and himself.

Vilsack, the current U.S. agriculture secretary and former governor of Iowa, spoke Saturday at a fundraiser in Des Moines for Judges Senate campaign.

A steady stream of polls on the Senate race have showed Grassley, the Republican and longtime incumbent, with a lead over Judge in the high single digits to low single digits. The latest, from Quinnipiac University last week, showed Grassley leading Judge by 9 percentage points.

Vilsack addressed those polls during his remarks, recalling when he trailed far worse in the polls in his 1998 gubernatorial campaign.

If at this point in 1998 I had been in Patty Judges circumstance, I would have been the happiest guy in the world, Vilsack joked.

Vilsack gave credit for his turnaround and eventual victory to his wife, Christie, former lieutenant governor Sally Pederson  who also attended Saturdays rally  and Hillary Clinton, the then-U.S. first lady who held a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for Vilsacks flagging campaign.

Judge said she remembers campaigning with Vilsack during the final weeks of that 1998 campaign.

Nobody thought he was going to win, Judge said.

She said as Vilsack barnstormed the state with a bus tour, daily tracking polls started to improve and crowds increased in size.

I think what you take away from that is, first of all, the race isnt over. Its not over until the last day, Judge said. And the other thing is that you dont give up.

Vilsack also compared Judge vs. Grassley to the biblical story of David vs. Goliath, not just because Judge is viewed as an underdog, but because he thinks the story shows how Judge can unseat Grassley, who has served in the Senate since 1981.

I thought it was a lucky shot, and it was sort of this is how underdogs win. But thats not the story. In fact, it was about a new way of thinking, a new approach to weaponry that this young fella understood that the big guy didnt, Vilsack said. Thats what this race is about. Its about understanding that impressions, perceptions, polls arent really the message here.  This election is about a fella whos been in public office for 58 years.

Vilsack accused Grassley of becoming complacent because of his tenure.

(Among voters) theres a sense of inequity. Theres a sense of a need to balance things out. And Sen. Grassley is at the heart of many of those issues, both as the judiciary (committee) chair and also on the finance committee, Vilsack said. The reality is its just not getting done, and hes a leader. And hes not doing his job.

Grassley campaign manager Robert Haus deflected the suggestion.

Its clear Iowans dont believe these tired, negative attacks from Patty or her D.C. patrons, Haus said in an emailed statement. "They know Chuck Grassley works for them, and he'll keep working for them for the next six years."
This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Iran's intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. That's what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. That's what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Iran's international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Iran's orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assad's regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand -- a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military -- he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldn't he? He's pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administration's response to these provocations? Urging "both sides" to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijing's territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesn't care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because he's convinced that in the long run it doesn't matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking -- primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers -- China, Russia and Iran -- know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And they're going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes' view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however -- Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands -- it matters greatly.
Soon, school bells will ring for the first time in the 2016-17 school year in communities across Iowa. Everyone can feel the excitement, as teachers prepare their rooms, students look forward to seeing classmates, and parents welcome getting back into a regular routine. But were also reminded of the importance of regular attendance and the risks associated with chronic absenteeism among students.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent or more school days for any reason, excused or unexcused. In Iowa, that means at least 18 days annually, or nearly a month of the school year. In 2014-2015, the Iowa Department of Education reports 8.8 percent of 460,918 K-12 students were chronically absent.

Missing a significant amount of school can have detrimental effects on a childs ability to learn early in life. According to the Child & Family Policy Center, chronically absent students are less likely to be reading proficiently by the end of third grade. And if children cant read proficiently by the end of third grade, its difficult to catch up and learn other subjects.

At the April 2016 Future Ready Iowa Summit, which elevated the statewide conversation about how to close the skills gap in Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad and I announced the formation of the Chronic Absenteeism Advisory Council to address this serious issue head on. The Chronic Absenteeism Advisory Council includes representatives from education, public health, the courts, nonprofits, and legislators. The councils task is to come up with at least one recommendation to help schools better address this issue.

In a knowledge-based, global economy, the careers of today and tomorrow demand stronger skills, including science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. All students need to finish high school ready for college or career training. This begins with regular attendance in school.

In addition to the councils work, I want to encourage parents to be part of the solution. Together, we can lower the rate of chronic absenteeism and set our children and grandchildren on a path to success in school and life.
Brandon Ketchum should have never been in Iraq. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran should have never faced the demons he brought home. Sgt. Brandon Ketchum should be alive today.

All eyes are on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City, which treated and released Ketchum hours before he took his own life. Iowa's congressional delegation, Republican and Democrat alike, are calling for answers. The VA's Office of Inspector General has opened an investigation. Throughout the state, federal lawmakers are sitting down with veterans -- old and young -- and hearing story after story about a hospital network that, too often, treats people like unfeeling statistics. It all plays into growing suspicion that, for years, VA bureaucracy has failed far too many young men and women with scars, physical and emotional. And, just since Ketchum's death, local veterans advocates speak openly of more suicides.

The Inspector General's report isn't expected for months. In that time, hundreds of Iraq War veterans will die. Overall, about 20 veterans a day kill themselves, a rate several times higher than the general public. But if, in some fit of legislative or bureaucratic magic, that rate was halved, it would still be too many.

The VA is the nation's back-end catch-all for U.S. military adventurism. Millions are sent off to fight, sometimes repeatedly. Tens of thousands return battered and broken. The fallout funnels to the VA. It's an epidemic beyond even the most efficient, well-run agency.

Needless, senseless war is the real problem here. And it's a cycle that will continue until elected officials devise some basic threshold for waging war beyond the simple politics of the moment. Politicians hope to dodge culpability when they pin all the blame on the VA. Then Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger proposed just such a test way back in 1983.

The VA didn't send Sgt. Ketchum to Iraq. For every justifiable action in Bosnia, and perhaps Afghanistan, there's a more damaging Vietnam or Iraq. The political class owns it.

This summer, the United Kingdom released its exhaustive probe into that country's foray into Iraq. Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair bought into President George Bush's War on Terror, it concludes. Information was twisted, intelligence was ignored, jingoism replaced reason -- all to justify a wholly unwarranted invasion.

More than 1.5 million U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines were sent to Iraq between 2003 and 2011. More than 32,000 were physically wounded, the Pentagon says. About 4,500 died. Exponentially more were psychologically scarred and the number of those who took their own lives far surpasses those killed in action.

More than $800 billion was spent during the actual conflict, reports the Congressional Budget Office. That number is expected to multiply several times over due to treatment and benefit costs for those who came back.

And, again, it was based on a lie.

The very generation that decided Saddam Hussein's regime should topple were victims of a similar ruse pulled off by those in power. The Vietnam War was fought on a lie, paid for by 2.7 million Americans troops. Drug addiction and homelessness among those who remain far surpasses what's expected in the general population. The VA failed them, too.

But this time, soldiers returned as local celebrities and heroes. All the jingoism, patriotism and saber rattling doesn't change war's effect on the human psyche. A parade doesn't cleanse the effects of post-traumatic stress or rampant guilt.

Brandon Ketchum fell victim to more than 60 years of U.S. foreign policy predicated on the use of force. It's more than a half-century of overthrowing governments and backing despots who ultimately turned on us. It's three full generations of needless intervention that, like in Iraq, destabilized entire regions.

It seems likely that the VA failed Sgt. Ketchum. The IG's report might detail the extent of the shortcomings and, hopefully, drive reform that saves lives.

But the fact remains, he should have never been there in the first place.
NATION

3 Doors Down founding member dies

Guitarist Matt Roberts, a founding member of the rock band 3 Doors Down, has died in Wisconsin.

The 38-year-old was in West Bend to perform at a benefit. The West Bend Police Department says someone called authorities around 7 a.m. Saturday to report an unconscious man in a hotel hallway. Police and firefighters found Roberts dead.

The police statement says there were no signs of trauma and the cause of death was not immediately known. An autopsy was planned for Sunday.

Roberts left 3 Doors Down in 2012 for health reasons. According to Billboard, he helped found the band with vocalist Brad Arnold and bassist Todd Harrell. They were all natives of Escatawpa, Mississippi.

The band's biggest hit was the 2000 song "Kryptonite," which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Paraglider dies after crashing into church

A man who was paragliding has died after he plunged through the roof of a Utah church.

Authorities say it happened around 9 a.m. Sunday at a Mormon church in Draper.

Police and fire crews said the man was operating a motorized paraglider when he crashed.

Unified firefighters pronounced him dead at the scene.

Witnesses in the chapel told fire officials the man appeared to be spiraling downward and out of control.

The church was evacuated and Sunday services were canceled.

WORLD

Brother of wounded Syrian boy dies

The brother of a wounded Syrian boy who gained international attention has died three days after suffering serious injuries in an air raid on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, opposition activists said Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Aleppo-based activist Baraa al-Halaby said that Ali Daqneesh, 10, died on Saturday from wounds sustained in the same airstrike on a rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo.

Syrian activists released haunting footage showing Ali's brother Omran Daqneesh, 5, rescued from a partially destroyed building in the aftermath of the airstrike late Wednesday. Omran was treated and later discharged.

The Halab Today opposition TV station posted a photo of Ali in a hospital with a tube coming out of his mouth, saying he later died from his wounds.

Omran was rescued along with his three siblings and his parents from the rubble of their partially destroyed apartment building, according to photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the memorable photo. The building collapsed about an hour after the family was rescued.

On Sunday, Raslan said Ali was wounded by a collapsing wall.

A man who said he was the doctor who treated Ali, told The Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, that the boy suffered chest wounds, broken ribs and internal injuries. Doctors performed surgery on the boy's stomach and found damage to his liver and kidney.

"His general conditions were bad," said the man wearing a surgical mask who identified himself as Abu Rasoul in a video released by the Aleppo Media Center. "His heart stopped three times, we resurrected him three times but with deep regret he died in the end."

The activists reported fresh air raids on Aleppo and its suburbs on Sunday, inflicting casualties.

Militants fire rocket into Israel

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday, prompting the Israeli military to respond with airstrikes and tank fire on targets inside Gaza. No injuries were reported on either side.

The Israeli military said the rocket landed in the southern border town of Sderot, a frequent target of Palestinian rocket fire. The rocket landed in a residential area next to a house, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

Shortly afterward, the military said Israeli aircraft and tanks targeted two posts belonging to the Hamas militant group in northern Gaza. Hamas officials said a training camp in northern Gaza was targeted, but the camp had been evacuated after the rocket was fired in anticipation of an Israeli reprisal.

17 die in suicide bombing

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gates of a local government headquarters in Somalia while another bomber targeted a nearby marketplace, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 30 others, police said Sunday.

Abdisalam Yusuf with the police said one bomber rammed the car into a checkpoint in Galkayo town Sunday morning after reaching the main gate of Puntland's local government. Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia, controls the northern part of the town, while the southern part is controlled by rival regional state Galmudug.
Jerry and Elaine Hook and their daughter, Hollee, have had the family business, Sign & Trophy/Westex, and the property at 1721 Haines Ave. in Rapid City on the market for two years.

The property sold in late July, but with no takers at that time for the custom sign, awards and screen-printing business. They were afraid their 35-year enterprise might just have to wither away.

We decided that since we couldnt sell the business, we were going to close it down, Jerry Hook said. Im going to be 70. Its time to retire. I dont have another move left in me.

But all that has changed in the last two weeks. They have sold the trophy and awards part of their business to J & J Engraving at 402 Second St. Their custom embroidery designs and customer files have been picked up by Masters Custom Design Embroidery at 2437 W. Chicago St. in Rapid City.

There will be some continuity for our longtime customers now, Hook said.

They stopped taking new orders on Aug. 15 and will close for good prior to the property closing date in late August. Jerry said the new owner has indicated plans to demolish the building where Sign & Trophy/ Westex has been at since 2003.

Since the screen-printing part of the business has not sold, it will just die on the vine, Hook said.

He said they are sad to be leaving the business world and thanked all of their loyal customers over the years. But they are also looking forward to spending more time with their grandchildren and doing some fishing and woodworking.

Oh, and where did the combination name of Sign & Trophy/Westex originate?

Jerry Hook said they had purchased a screen printing business called Western Textiles (Westex for short) just after new telephone directories were issued.

So we kept their name with our name for the year and then for another year and another year, he said. Finally, everybody knew us by that name and we never changed.

Estate sales, downsizing

Got stuff? Lynne Eliason will help pare down those no-longer-needed treasures.

Eliason has years of retail experience along with accounting and bookkeeping skills and is piquing an interest in antiques and garage sales by starting LDE Sale Services, a non-auction alternative for estate sales, downsizing for retirees and other liquidations that may be too small for an auction.

Eliason will value and appraise items to put together a sale for small- to mid-size households.

We will deal with clean, sorted property that will be displayed with organization and efficiency to result in a more profitable, less stressful sale, she said in an email news release.

She is also a recently certified antique appraiser through the Ashford Institute of Antiques and has an extensive resource library coupled with years of attending auction and rummage sales.

I will also be smart enough to pass on larger, more exciting collections of personal property to auctioneers, where they may bring a better price, she said.

Call 605-391-2254 for more information. Find LDE Sale Services on Facebook and by email at ldesales55@gmail.com.

New Scuba shop

Steamboats, Inc., a Pierre scuba and dive shop, has added a Rapid City location at 310 E. Fairmont Blvd. in the Circle S Plaza.

Shop owner Caleb Gilkerson will sell scuba and spear-fishing gear and offer tank refills along with visual tank safety inspections and hydrostatic pressure tests.

Also available are scuba certifications through Scuba Skills International and winter scuba trips.

Hours will be weekend only, Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Check out their Facebook page or call 605-222-4149.

Bella Boutique closed

Aug. 18 was the last day in business for Bella Boutique at 609 St. Joseph St.

Owner Tessa Warren and husband Casey Stokes welcomed their second son in March. Tessa decided to rethink the rigors of owning a store and the responsibilities of parenthood, with parenthood winning out.

This was a quick good-bye. They made the decision to close the womens clothing store in April, but began their clearance sales less than three weeks ago. Bella opened under other ownership in 2009. Tessa had owned the store for five years.

It was a hard decision to make as I have loved getting to know everyone not just as customers, but as friends during my five years of working at and owning Bella, Tessa said on her Facebook page.

Lowes landscaping

The Rapid City Lowes Home Improvement Center on Haines Avenue is doing a home improvement project of its own, re-doing their parking lot.

John Fenske of the stores human resources department said a stone retaining wall along Haines Avenue and wrapping around the intersection at Paha Sapa Road and has being removed and will be replaced with an landscaped slope. Earth movers have been carefully removing the wall for a few weeks now. The contour of the slope is taking shape.

The project will cost the store only a few parking spots, Fenske said. He gave no timetable for the projects completion.
 Two University of South Dakota graduate students in physics are working on experiments this summer nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead. Dana Byram, of Rapid City, is pursuing a Ph.D. at USD while working full time at the SURF lab, looking for experimental detection of dark matter particles. Michelle While, of Gillette, Wyo., is working on the new LUX-Seplin project to discover dark matter. The project has the potential to rule out the most popular theoretical model about the topic.

 Alexandra Wiley will return to Black Hills State University on Monday after a summer of exploring the world of modern scientific research as a Davis-Bahcall Scholar. Wiley, a physics and chemistry major from Mesa, Ariz., and seven other undergraduates participated in the program, an all-expense paid summer-study program for rising university freshman or sophomores from South Dakota or attending a South Dakota college or university. The scholars spent two weeks at Sanford Lab in Lead, where they learned about low background counters housed at the BHSU Underground Campus and met with researchers working on dark matter and neutrino experiments. They also embarked on a tour of U.S. science engineering facilities in the Midwest, including Microsoft in Fargo, N.D., 3M in Aberdeen and Fermi National Accelerator Lab outside of Chicago. A trip to Italy to tour and visit with researchers at Frascati National Lab and Gran Sasso National Lab rounded out the experience.

 The Associated General Contractors of South Dakota Highway-Heavy-Utilities Chapter has announced the winners of the 2016-2017 annual scholarship program. The AGC enhances workforce development and provides scholarships to help aid members in finding the next generation of workers. This year's recipients included Victoria Houtsma, of Watertown ($750), Sean Kafka, of Gregory ($350), Tara Eddington, of Sturgis ($650), and Caleb Furse, of Custer ($350). More than $26,000 in scholarships were awarded overall.

 Custer School District will hold open houses at Hermosa School, Custer Elementary, Junior and Senior High Schools from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Bring school supplies, meet the teachers and pay for morning milk and meals. Hermosa School is located on 11 Fourth St., and can be contacted at 605-255-4345. Custer Elementary School (grades K-6) is located at 1415 Wildcat Lane and can be contacted at 605-673-4483. Custer Junior and Senior High (grades 7-12) is located at 1645 Wildcat Lane and can be contacted at 605-673-4473.
South Dakotas members of Congress and governor all equivocated this week when asked by the Rapid City Journal whether they prefer Harney Peak or Black Elk Peak as the name for South Dakotas tallest mountain.

None said outright that they favor the new Black Elk name, which was adopted Aug. 11 by a federal board, but some expressed what they described as non-opposition.

All seemed hesitant to make a definitive statement of personal opinion about the renaming, which split the state's predominately white population and drew widespread support from the state's minority Native American population.

Immediately after a federal board voted to change the peak's name, Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Sen. John Thune each issued written public statements that were critical of the board, its processes and its shunning of a state naming panel's recommendation.

But neither statement communicated a clear personal opinion about the name change.

This week, during separate phone interviews, the Journal asked each of them whether they prefer the peak's old or new name.

Daugaard said, If the name had to be changed, I like Black Elk just fine.

Thune declined to state his preference, but revealed a hint.

I think its been Harney Peak for 150 years, he said. And the recommendation that was made by the state board, which was based on input from a lot of people, was to keep it that way.

Neither Rep. Kristi Noem nor Sen. Mike Rounds issued public statements, so the Journal asked their offices for their opinions, and each sent written statements to the newspaper. Like Thune and Daugaard, Noem and Rounds attacked the federal board and its actions but stepped lightly in regard to their own opinions about the peak's name.

Noem came close to expressing support for the new name, if her statement that, "I do not oppose" the name can be equated with support.

The way in which this administration went about the name change has done a great disservice to Black Elk and his legacy, Noem's statement said. While I do not oppose the name being changed to honor him, I do have deep concerns about the overreaching and nontransparent nature of the Obama administrations actions.

Sen. Mike Rounds statement was even more ambiguous.

I cannot defend this administrations process in changing the name, Rounds statement said. However, I have the utmost respect for the memory of Black Elk who is truly a Lakota hero worthy of our respect. I do not object to a mountain being named in honor of Black Elk. I do have a problem with the federal process and the fact that its taken away from the honor that Black Elk deserves.

Because of Rounds' reference to "a" mountain instead of "the" mountain in question, the Journal asked his spokeswoman, Katie Douglas, to clarify whether Rounds was for or against the name change.

I think his statement is pretty clear  he believes you can disagree with the process, but still show respect, Douglas wrote in an email.
CEMENT RIDGE, Wyo. | Barb Peterson is ideally suited to her job as a fire spotter in the Black Hills National Forest.

She likes solitude, which is good, because she spends her days at an elevation of 6,647 feet, pacing a catwalk around a rustic-looking tower and scanning forested hilltops and ridge lines for smoke.

She enjoys company, too, which is also good, because she counted 1,600 public visits in July from curious motorists, ATVers and hikers, despite the relatively remote location of the Cement Ridge fire lookout tower. It's in the northwestern Black Hills, about 20 miles southwest of Spearfish via gravel roads and just across the Wyoming line.

Peterson has been a "lookout," as her position is known, for eight years since retiring from an accounting career, and she loves the simplicity of looking for smoke, talking to visitors and enjoying nature.

To me, its a coveted position, she said. People say, I want this job, and I say, Stand in line. Im not ready to give it up.

The Cement Ridge tower, which turns 75 years old this year, is one of seven fire lookout towers still being used in the Black Hills. There were about 25 active towers in the region, but many were deactivated as advances in technology  including aerial surveillance and automated lightning-strike detection  made forest managers less reliant on human lookouts.

The 25 tower sites in the Black Hills now range from the stone ruins of long-ago deactivated towers to the well-preserved, wood-and-stone or metal structures of active towers. Some of the tower sites are situated along roads, and others require a hike; some are open to the public, and others are restricted. The most well-known Black Hills lookout tower is the stone structure atop Black Elk Peak (formerly Harney Peak), which is no longer used for smoke detection but is visited by thousands of hikers annually.

Towers trending downward

The decline of lookout towers in the Black Hills has paralleled a national trend. The Forest Fire Lookout Association reports that among nearly 9,000 lookout towers that once stood across the nation, fewer than 3,000 are still standing and fewer than 1,000 are staffed.

But the disappearance of the towers may be slowing as people nationwide, and especially in the West, take action to preserve and protect lookout towers for their continued usefulness, unique architecture, history and scenic vistas.

In some places, unused lookout towers have been re-purposed as rental cabins. That has not yet happened in the Black Hills, where forest managers seem more focused on preserving active lookout towers in part by keeping them staffed with human lookouts.

Chris Huhnerkoch, assistant fire management officer for the Bearlodge Ranger District, said the Black Hills National Forest uses surveillance flights and other modern technology to find fires. But technology is expensive and sometimes fails, and it's comforting to know there are people in towers ready to report smoke within minutes of a fire starting.

Additionally, lookouts provide weather reports and serve as human repeaters for Forest Service personnel who might be out of radio range of each other, but within range of a lofty lookout tower.

Its pretty handy having them up here for safety, weather and communication, aside from the primary smoke detection job, Huhnerkoch said, adding that he hopes to have people in lookout towers as long as possible, as long as Im here."

Low-tech, but highly effective

The Cement Ridge tower stands 15 feet tall, with a stone-constructed base. Inside the base is an empty room thats open year-round and is a popular warming spot for snowmobile riders.

Atop the tower is a 14-by-14-foot wooden, window-lined room, or cab, with a wraparound catwalk. A stroll around the catwalk affords a panoramic view of the northern Black Hills and the surrounding area, with visible landmarks including Terry Peak, Custer Peak, Crow Peak, Inyan Kara Mountain, Warren Peak and Sundance Mountain. On crystal-clear days, Peterson said, she can see the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming about 150 miles to the west.

Inside the cab is a mix of old and new technology, all surrounding a device known as an Osborne Firefinder.

The Osborne Firefinder was invented during the winter of 1910-1911 by William B. Osborne, a Forest Service employee in Oregon. The device consists of a circular map mounted on a rotating steel disc atop a pedestal, with brass sighting mechanisms.

When Peterson spots smoke from the Cement Ridge tower, she lines up the smoke in the firefinder sight, and then takes readings from the sights and the map that help determine the approximate location of the smoke. If human lookouts in other towers see the same smoke, they can communicate by radio and help pinpoint the location by means of triangulation with strings and tacks on wall maps.

Lookouts have some modern technology, including radios and cell phones, but some towers are still very rustic. The Cement Ridge tower is powered by solar energy, and Petersons work still revolves around a pair of binoculars and the Osborne Firefinder that is basically the same device, with some updates, that was used by lookouts more than 100 years ago.

It still works today, and thats the most important thing, Peterson said. Its tried and true technology, its been used for decades. My philosophy is if it isn't broke, dont fix it.

Tower uses evolve

The value of fire lookout towers and human lookouts extends beyond smoke-detection, according to Michael Engelhart, North Zone archaeologist for the Black Hills National Forest. Lookout towers are architecturally and historically significant, they offer spectacular views, and the act of getting to a remote tower offers a recreational opportunity.

Its kind of that nexus of utility and history and getting out and seeing the woods, all at the same time, Engelhart said. I think thats why we get a lot of visitors.

Petersons presence in the tower, and the presence of other lookouts in other towers, helps to protect and promote those multiple uses. Her presence deters vandals, and she does some upkeep on the tower during her downtime. And when people come to visit, as long as shes not busy calling in or monitoring a fire, she acts as a kind of docent, telling visitors about her duties and about the history of fire lookouts.

The proliferation of fire lookouts was related to the so-called Big Blowup of 1910, when an estimated 1,736 fires swept across the West and burned 3 million acres while destroying 7.5 billion board feet of timber, wiping out several small towns and killing at least 85 people.

After those fires, lookout towers began popping up around the country as land managers sought to spot and respond to fires before they raged out of control. At Cement Ridge, a log cabin was built in 1911. A crows nest was added in 1921, but it and the cabin were replaced by a tower that was finished in 1941.

People hired as lookouts in the early days had to be adventurous and comfortable with isolation and danger. Some lookouts lived in towers for days on end, and at Cement Ridge there was a horse stable and a rock cellar for provisions. Printed guidebooks advised lookouts how to avoid being electrocuted by a lightning strike.

Cement Ridge was remote enough that no motorized vehicles reached it until 1927, when a ranger named Tom Sawyer drove his car to the top with his wife and young son inside. He reportedly cleared a path as he went, and when he got out of the car to clear rocks or branches out of the way, he stuck a sack of potatoes behind one of the car's wheels to prevent it from rolling downhill.

The tower that was built atop Cement Ridge in 1941 is the one that still stands, and it was added to the National Historic Lookout Register in 1993. The towers 75th anniversary this year coincides with the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, which has done much to encourage the preservation of lookout towers and other historic structures all over the country.

Keith Argow, chairman of the board of the national Forest Fire Lookout Association, said historic preservation efforts are needed to prevent the disappearance of towers that help tell the history of forestry.

"They are a symbol of forestry in America going back 100 years," Argow said. "They're almost as important a symbol of responsible fire management as Smokey Bear."

'Part of our identity'

Concern about the decline of lookout towers has motivated many people across the country to donate money, volunteer time, or buy lookout towers in order to preserve them, said Gary Weber, the Idaho-based treasurer for the national Forest Fire Lookout Association.

In eastern states, where lookout towers were typically less remote and the job of a lookout was less demanding, there seems to be less nostalgia for the towers, Weber said. But in the West, there is an active community of people committed to preserving the towers, even as remote controlled cameras and other technological replacements for human lookouts continue to cause more towers to be deactivated.

"I think there is more and more recognition that this is something that's fading off the landscape, and it will continue to fade if we don't do something," Weber said.

Peterson is doing her part at Cement Ridge. She drives 17 miles to the tower five or six days a week during the fire season, which typically spans from May to September. Her days range from eight to 12 hours, depending on fire activity.

In keeping with the historic nature of her role and her work site, she drives a 1978 pickup, which is stuffed with extra clothing and food and whatever else she might need in case of an extra long day or unpredictable weather. Atop the tower, between visits from the public, she sometimes thinks about her predecessors and about lookouts in more remote towers across the country, and shes jealous of lookouts then and now who've ventured deeper into the wilderness.

Her longing for the wilderness helps explain the lasting appeal of lookout towers. They are reminiscent of a time when nature was more natural, solitude could still be found and life was uncomplicated by digital technology.

Visiting a place like Cement Ridge is one of the few modern ways to experience that bygone era, or at least something like it.

Its hard to overtly recognize it sometimes in ourselves, but we really seek out connections to the past, and I think thats part of the reason people come up here, Engelhart said. Its part of our identity, really, in the Western forests.
PIERRE | Mike Williams and his crews at Dakota Southern Railroad passed a big test.

By repairing and cleaning up the state-owned line west from Mitchell that his company leases, they won back the confidence of the South Dakota Railroad Board.

Todd Yeaton, the boards chairman from Highmore, manages the grain elevator outside Kimball that depends on the line. At a meeting Wednesday, with the other board members alongside or listening by telephone, Yeaton congratulated Williams.

I think I speak for the board. I didnt think you were going to do it, Yeaton said.

Three months ago, the tone was very different, as the board expressed its disappointment in the shoddy conditions of the line.

Williams said his crews worked seven days a week as necessary. We did get it done, on time. Thats the main thing, he said.

He brought in contract help from other states.

The thing I want to say to you guys is thank you for giving me the opportunity to do it, Williams said. I take responsibility for the way the line looked this spring  we took our eye off the ball.

Yeaton said the assurances that Williams has made to the board must continue to be met.

What we said 90 days ago is we dont want to do it again. We dont want to do it again, Yeaton said.

He described the railroad board as caretakers of assets of the state of South Dakota.

We want to have the long-term plans, Yeaton said.

Dakota Southern routinely operates from Mitchell to the Missouri River and the track is being rebuilt west from Oacoma to Presho so regular service can be made to the new Wheat Growers facilities at Kennebec.

The deteriorating condition along the line prompted the state board to send small teams of its members to review the conditions of each of the state-owned lines throughout South Dakota.

The Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee also took deeper interest, because millions of dollars in state, federal and local funds have been spent to restore service.

State government purchased the lines in the late 1970s after the Milwaukee Road went bankrupt.

Harlan Quenzer of Mitchell, a board member, and a state Department of Transportation railroad expert, Lyle Kennison, rode the Mitchell-west line with Williams earlier this month.

They went from Mitchell to Dakota Southerns rail yard at Chamberlain.

The purpose of the Aug. 9 trip was to judge whether Dakota Southern had completed all of the tasks that came up at the boards May 18 meeting, when Williams promised the work would be done within 90 days, which was Aug. 15.

Quenzer filed a four-page report to the board from his Aug. 9 trip that said nearly all of the work was done, such as bridge maintenance, ballast replacement and tamping, tie replacement and disposal, weed control, tree and brush removal and crossing repairs.

Among his recommendations were monthly reports from Williams to the board, submission of a written plan from Williams outlining the personnel needed to always be on hand for maintenance, and a written plan from Williams for tie replacement between Mitchell and Chamberlain and between Chamberlain and Presho.

There will be a formal action regarding Dakota Southerns plans at the boards September meeting.

Joel Jundt, who is DOTs second-in-command, said the department needs a written long-term plan from Dakota Southern. He said Quenzers report identifies some of the points that need to be in the long-term plan.

Jundt has taken direct responsibility for overseeing the railroad program after the resignation last month of Bruce Lindholm, who was administrator for the air, rail and transit programs within DOT. A replacement search is under way.

For Dakota Southern, the leasing rights to two state-owned lines are at stake. Dakota Southern has the lease for the Napa-Platte line and plans to revive it at least as far as Tabor at this point.

There also are plans for another rail yard, possibly in the Kimball area.

Were here for the long haul. Were going to make a major investment, Williams said.
With the fight over the renaming of Harney Peak apparently over, some South Dakota elected officials want to prevent similar name changes in the future.

Taking the lead is U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. He alleged this week in a Journal interview that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names violated its own policies, ignored the recommendation of South Dakotas naming panel and irresponsibly expanded the definition of derogatory place names.

This is a bunch of un-elected, unaccountable bureaucrats waving a magic wand, Thune said.

The board voted Aug. 11 to approve a nearly two-year-old request from a Native American man to change Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak.

Thune and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard immediately issued public statements criticizing the decision. Then, they conferred for about a week about potential methods of nullifying the decision. Such methods do exist  Thune could file legislation, for example, to override the decision, or the state could simply ignore the change and keep using the Harney name on South Dakota maps and signage.

But Daugaard said this week that neither he, Thune, nor the states other members of Congress are eager to undertake such an effort to have dual names for the peak.

Instead, Daugaard said he would direct state employees to change the name in all state-produced references, just as the federal government is already doing.

Thune is exploring ways to prevent the federal naming board from making similarly controversial decisions in the future, but he does not know what action, if any, he will take.

Thunes concerns about the board are shared by the states other members of Congress and the governor, all of whom are Republicans and all of whom spoke with the Journal or sent written statements in response to questions this week criticizing the federal naming board and its processes.

The South Dakota officials point to a number of the U.S. naming boards alleged shortcomings, including the boards failure to post agendas on its website or notify interested parties about upcoming meetings.

Thune and his fellow Republican leaders said those failings left some interested parties in the dark about the details and the timing of the boards consideration of the Harney Peak name change.

The boards non-voting executive secretary, Lou Yost, acknowledged in a Journal interview that agendas are not posted.

Its something that we just havent done, he said.

Yost added that anyone who expresses an interest in attending a meeting can receive an agenda and meeting notifications.

South Dakotas Republican leaders also accused the board of violating its own written principles, policies and procedures.

One board policy allows for the changing of derogatory names but says, in part, that the board is conservative in this matter and prefers to interfere as little as possible within the use of names in everyday language.

Despite that policy, the board determined that Harney was a derogatory word because its namesake, William S. Harney, led soldiers in 1855 who killed an estimated 86 Sioux people in present-day Nebraska, including women and children, in retaliation for the previous years killing of 29 soldiers by Sioux warriors. Another factor in classifying Harneys name as derogatory was the peak's status as highest in the Black Hills, which is an area of spiritual significance to many tribes.

The board had previously deemed words like Negro or Squaw to be derogatory in some cases, but the Harney Peak decision is believed to be the first time the board has deemed a persons name to be a derogatory word. Thune called the unprecedented decision a "misfire."

The federal naming board consists of federal employees appointed by the heads of various departments. Board member Doug Vandegraft, of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said board members were aware of the unprecedented nature of their decision and felt that in this case, breaking with precedent was justified.

The word Harney obviously isnt, in itself, a swear word or derogatory word, Vandegraft said. But the history of this one man named Harney made this a situation where it was offensive to some people to have such a peak named for such a man.

The U.S. board has also been criticized for its decision to go against the recommendation of the South Dakota Board on Geographic Names. The state board initially recommended a change to the peaks name last year, but ultimately backtracked and finally recommended no change.

Staffers for the U.S. board told the media prior to the Harney Peak decision that a state boards recommendation is typically granted significant weight in the U.S. boards consideration of a name change. But the U.S. board is not required to follow, and sometimes does not follow, a states recommendation.

Thune and Daugaard both argued that in the case of the Harney Peak decision, the will of the state was ignored.

Vandegraft said the state boards recommendation was considered, but that board members disagreed with the recommendation. He said the board received synopses of the public commentary that was gathered by the state board, which heard from hundreds of people orally and in writing last year.

We will always try to review and understand, of course, the view of the state board, Vandegraft said, but we do not have to approve their recommendation, and if we dont feel the same way, then we will act on our own accord.

The board suffered further criticism for allegedly ignoring its policy discouraging name duplication.

Because the mountain now called Black Elk Peak is within a federally designated wilderness area that was already named Black Elk Wilderness, some argue that duplication has occurred.

Yost, the U.S. boards executive secretary, said thats not the case. Black Elk Peak would be a duplicate name only if there was another mountain nearby that was already named Black Elk or something similar, he said.

The definition of "duplication" in the boards policies says, Name duplication occurs when two or more places or features of the same kind, relatively close to each other, have the same name in local or published usage. Name duplication does not occur when places or features of different kinds have the same name, such as a stream called Long Creek and a village called Longcreek or Long Creek.

Ultimately, when the time came for a vote on the Harney Peak renaming at the U.S. board meeting Aug. 11, board members were free to vote their conscience. The boards written principles are described as an underlying philosophy and as primary guidelines, and the boards policies allow that there may be certain instances in which other factors must be considered to arrive at a suitable decision.

In this case, board members thought Harneys actions toward Native Americans, coupled with Native American resentment of his name on a peak they consider sacred, made the name "Harney" derogatory. The matter was discussed at several meetings stretching back to last year until the vote was finally taken.

I looked at this as carefully as I could, said board member Vandegraft, and I think I made the right decision.
PIERRE | The story dates to Bill Janklows fourth term as governor. One winter afternoon, an aide received a call asking for a meeting upstairs with two of the state Senates Republican leaders.

Harold Halverson of Milbank and Mike Rounds of Pierre wanted a message taken back to the governor on the second floor. They wouldnt allow a tax increase on Deadwood casinos to get through the Senate.

They werent going to put Jim Dunn of Lead, their friend and fellow Republican leader, in that difficult spot.

Not many South Dakota legislators during the past 30 years had that kind of strength, who could stop a tax increase without being in the room.

Janklow didnt kowtow to legislator demands. But he could count. His tax increase idea went away. Not many people knew why. Jim Dunn was why.

The story came to mind in recent days. Jim died on Aug. 11 at age 89. Flags flew at half-staff Friday across South Dakota in his honor as Catholic services were held at Lead.

He was one of five legislators in South Dakotas history to serve 30 years. He was there from 1971 through 2000.

Much of that time he also was the assistant director or the director of public affairs for the Homestake gold mine at Lead. Even before he was a legislator, he was going to Pierre in the winter on Homestakes behalf.

He was born in a house atop the Old Abe mineshaft at Lead. Aside from military service during World War II and driving to Spearfish for the college degree he received in 1962 from Black Hills State, he was always a Lead man and always a Homestake man.

Among the few others who served 30 years was a previous Lawrence County legislator, Alfred Roesler, R-Deadwood. Roesler was a Homestake man too, serving as a foreman. His time in the Legislature ran from 1939 through 1968.

Jim Dunn didnt speak in legislative debates if he could avoid it. Instead his presence and his experience carried power in private conversations with other lawmakers. He was there to get things done or just as often to stop things from getting done.

When Democrats took over the Senate majority for the 1993-94 term, veteran Senate Republicans such as Dunn and Halverson turned to the young quick study named Rounds to be their leader and spokesman for the daily floor debates.

And with Janklow back on the ballot for a third term in 1994, Republicans won back the Senate majority. That paved the route for Rounds to run for governor in 2002 and win with Janklows semi-secret help in the primary. Today, Rounds is one of South Dakotas U.S. senators.

Governors such as Janklow and Rounds listened to men such as Jim Dunn. When Homestake closed the mine that trust helped open the way for the mine works to be donated to state government for use as an underground laboratory.

Janklow as governor couldnt solve the liability issue at the site. Rounds, an insurance businessman by profession, came up with the idea while governor of simply buying insurance. Then Rounds secured a mega-donation from T. Denny Sanford for the lab.

Now Gov. Dennis Daugaard and the state Game, Fish & Parks Department are working toward designating Spearfish Canyon, including its old Homestake waterworks, as a state park and a beautiful tourism destination.

The canyon has to be in the parks name, of course. But Jim Dunn somehow needs to be there in spirit.
I've always loved the story about Babe Ruth, negotiating his salary in 1930 as the Great Depression gripped the nation. When told he was being paid a higher amount than President Herbert Hoover, his response was: "I know, but I had a better year than Hoover."

Fast-forward to now, when we have French President Francois Hollande declaring that Donald Trump makes him "want to retch." Well, Trump might be forgiven if he wanted to, uh, throw up a snarky response like this: "I had a better year than Hollande."

That's a fact. As high as the Donald's unfavorables have been in the polls  60 to more than 70 percent in the latest ones  he's still doing better than Hollande, who is held in low regard by an incredible 9 out of 10 men and women in France.

Besides, it's not really the opinion of a foreign leader that matters to Trump. What is important, however, is the number of leaders in the U S of A, from his own Republican Party, who are declaring that his temperament, harsh policies and flat-out ignorance make it impossible for them to support him. Sen. Susan Collins said so in a Washington Post op-ed. Fifty national-security types, including two Homeland Security secretaries from the Bush administration, signed a letter declaring their opposition to him. They're not the only ones from the GOP, even as some of the party's leaders grit their teeth and continue to endorse him

While it is true that Trump has had a good year, it's been a disaster for him since his nominating convention. Whenever he ad-libs, he manages to say something asinine or inflammatory. His recent riff on "Second Amendment people" dealing with Hillary Clinton is just the latest stream of consciousness that is really a stream of unconsciousness. Same for his "sarcasm" that Barack Obama and Clinton are "founders" of ISIS. It's little wonder he has dropped like a stone in the polls, and Hillary has taken flight at his expense. Every time he goes off the teleprompter, he demonstrates he's dangerously out of his league.

Hillary is profiting to the point that many of her supporters are suggesting it's time for her to start sizing up the drapes for when she moves into the White House. But they'd better put their measuring tape away. There is still the chance to do what Democrats excel at: snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. That's another way of saying that Hillary must be sure to avoid a case of overconfidence.

She still has a favorability deficit of her own. The latest Gallup poll places her 15 percent underwater. When it comes to the popularity contest against herself, she's losing. Not as bad as Donny, but not a position of strength. She is just disliked less than he is. So far.

All it would take is some brutal revelation of dishonest dealings by her, her family and/or associates and the props holding her up could be kicked away. There are many on her side who are holding their breaths about a hacked release of all her private server emails that she and her lawyers decided were "personal."

Babe Ruth also defended his salary ($80,000 a year, by the way, to President Hoover's $75,000) by asking "How many home runs did he hit last year?" There is still plenty of time for Hillary to strike out and have a truly wretched finish.
RAPID CITY | Donald A. Livesay, MSGT (Ret.) USAF, age 99, died on Tuesday, August 16, 2016 at Clarkson Health Care. The family and friends of Don would like to thank Clarkson Health Care staff for their wonderful care over the past 2 years.

Don was born to Thomas and Alma (Davis) Livesay on January 19, 1917, in Sioux Rapids, Iowa. He had one older brother, Thomas. A few days after Don's birth, his mother passed away, so his father took him to his grandparent's home in Ashley, IL to live with until he was 10 years old. During this time his father had passed away and his grandparents weren't able to care for the two boys any longer, so his grandparents were forced to take the boys to the orphanage in Normal, IL. A year later the government offered his grandparents support if they became guardians of the boys. His grandparents agreed to do so, and they moved back in with them.

When Don was 17 years old he joined the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and pruned trees along the Chicago Canal. About a year later he moved to Paxton, Ill. and worked for the France Broom Factory until 1940 when he joined the Army Air Corps and was stationed at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL, and then, as the service does, he moved all over for the next 20 years (and 2 months.)

While in the Army Air Corps, he was a Crew Chief, Flight Chief, Line Chief, and 1st Sergeant, flying on B25's, C45's, C46's, C47's, and the C119's when he was stationed here at EAFB. He also met his first wife, Evelyn, while in the AAC, and they were married in 1941. With this union they had a son, Thomas, born in 1942.

After his 20 years of service, he retired while in Spokane, WA at Fairchild AFB. He then went to work for the Civil Service as a GS-11 in production and traveled around to all of the missile sites. In 1961 he was transferred to Great Falls, MT and earned a promotion to a G-12 in charge of quality control. In 1963 they moved to Grand Forks, ND, where they promoted him to a G-13 and later to Division Chief. In 1970 he moved to EAFB where he remained the Division Chief until his retirement. Following his retirement from the Civil Service, Don was a Construction Inspector for the state of South Dakota for five years, inspecting low income and elderly housing.

While Don was in Rapid City, he spent some of his free time at the Esquire Club, where he met his future wife, Mercedes Creeley . In 1953 they were married in Belle Fourche, SD.

In 1947 Don became a Mason and belonged to the Masonic Lodge in Paxton, IL. In 1964, while Don was living in Grand Forks, ND, he became a Shriner, joining Kem Temple, where he was the President of the Drum & Bugle Corp. When they moved to Rapid City in 1970, he joined Naja Shriners, where he held the positions of Naja Shrine Recorder, Chairman of the Building Committee which built the Rapid City Shrine Club and warehouse, Circus Chairman, Treasurer of ROJ for 17 years. In 1975 he was the President of the Rapid City Shrine Club, in 1985 he was Air Patrol and ROJ, was Treasurer for the Rapid City Shrine Club for 26 years, was made Honorary Potentate in 2002, and since

1992 he has held the position of Treasurer of Naja Shriners. Don said, "I have enjoyed all of the time I have spent working with Naja Shriners and look forward to stepping back and watching from now on."

Survivors include a son, Thomas (Barbara) Livesay, of Denver, close personal friends, Kevin (Kathy) Root, of Rapid City; a step-son, Norris (Esta) Risty, of the Twin Cities, MN and a niece, Dawn Norris, of Sheridan, WY. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Thomas, and his wife Mercedes in 2004.

His funeral service will be at 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 22, at Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home with Chaplain H.B. Cleveland officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.

Burial, with military honors rendered by the Ellsworth AFB Honor Guard, will be at Black Hills National Cemetery at 1 p.m.

A reception will be held at the Naja Shrine Club on Sturgis Road following the burial.

Friends may sign his online guestbook at www.osheimschmidt.com.

Memorials may be directed to the Naja Shrine Temple Children's Hospital Travel Fund, 4091 Sturgis Rd, Rapid City, SD 57702.
A Hamilton resident was charged with felony criminal child endangerment and driving under the influence of alcohol after allegedly driving while inebriated with her two young children in the car.

According to an affidavit:

Brandi Lea Wollam, 33, said she had one beer before driving to pick up her husband, Brian Wollam, from work on Aug. 17.

When he noticed the smell of alcohol, the couple began arguing about drinking. When they got to Little Britches Road the defendant got out of the vehicle, which is where Ravalli County deputies found them.

The responding deputies noted the defendants slurred speech and unsteadiness. She told them she had one beer before driving and nothing else to drink. A preliminary breath test resulted in a blood alcohol level of .208. A subsequent breath sample on the Intoxilyzer 8000 resulted in a blood alcohol level of .165.

In Montana, a person is considered impaired with a .08 BAC.

Justice of the Peace Jim Bailey released her on her own recognizance.

In other justice court news, a speeding stop resulted in an arrest of a 28-year-old man on drug charges.

On Aug. 16, a Hamilton police officer observed Andrew Thomas Girard, 28, of St. Joseph, Missouri, traveling over the speed limit and noted the Missouri license plate, which he could not get a registration return on.

According to the affidavit, Girard was pulled over for speeding. When Girard rolled down the window, the officer smelled burned marijuana and saw a glass marijuana pipe resting on the center console near the gearshift.

Girard refused to provide his drivers license stating he was not a driver but a traveler. After refusing to step out of his vehicle, Girard was removed from his vehicle by two officers and was taken into custody for speeding, obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest.

A later search of Girards vehicle allegedly discovered hashish, marijuana, a marijuana pipe, methamphetamines, a methamphetamine pipe and nearly $1,000 in cash.

Girard was charged with two counts of possession of dangerous drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Justice of the Peace Jim Bailey set Girards bail at $10,000.
These days, a lot of people want to know where their food comes from.

And many like the idea of eating food that was produced near their own homes.

In the Bitterroot, a growing number of farmers are looking to tap into that growing demand, but many find it challenging to get out and market their products to the restaurants, grocery stores and other institutions that would like to provide their customers with local goods.

On the flip side of that, the local chefs, produce managers and school cooks dont have the time either to journey out into the countryside to see what local farmers have to offer.

Amy Hutton is hoping to change all of that.

Hutton is the new produce market research and sales coordinator stationed at the Western Ag Research Center outside of Corvallis.

Her position is being funded by a two-year USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant written by local farmers and others interested in developing a pathway where producers and wholesalers can meet.

Laura Garber of Hamiltons Homestead Organics was on the team that wrote the grant.

We think its really important to have someone helping farmers connect with each other, Garber said. We all need to look past the guise of competition. We all should be on the same team. Lets call it Team Farm.

Part of Huttons job will be to build a bridge between Bitterroot Valley farmers.

Shell collect everyones ideas, Garber said.

Beyond that, Garber said farmers need to find a way to make inroads in getting their locally raised products into local grocery stores and restaurants.

Those places shouldnt have to reach out and talk to 10 different farmers to find what they need, she said. Hopefully, they will be more willing to use local products if we can simplify the process.

Thats where Hutton comes in.

Right now shes busy developing a website where eventually chefs, produce managers and school cooks will be able to log on, see what local farmers have for sale at that moment, and hit a button to place an order.

They will be able to decide on quantity and prices and then click on it, Hutton said. They will make the purchase just like they would on Amazon.

Farmers will bring their produce sold on the website to a central location where it will be sorted and delivered to the larger buyers. Small quantities will be picked up at the site.

Were launching the website in mid-September, Hutton said. We plan to start small with just a couple of buyers and producers so we can get the kinks worked out.

Other cooperatives are doing similar things both in Montana and throughout the country.

They have been very successful, Hutton said. We are pretty much looking to connect Bitterroot farmers with Bitterroot buyers.

The focus will be to provide fresh produce and other agricultural products to people who buy those products wholesale.

What theyve told me is that they would love to support local farmers and feature fresh foods in the businesses, but the logistics of doing that is really tricky, she said. Its hard for them to reach out to individual farmers. This new program will help people take the leap into buying local, which is what so many people want to do.

In September, Hutton is leading a couple of farm tours for wholesalers who would like to meet local farmers and learn more about whats available.

The first tour will happen at 2 p.m. on Sept. 8. People on the tour will visit the Mill Crick Farm, Missoula VG Co., and Bitterroot Greens. At 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 13, a second tour will stop at Sweet Root Farm, Homestead Organics and West Naturals.

People interested in attending the tours need to RSVP Hutton at amy.hutton1@montana.edu or by calling 303-250-6207.

There is more information about the program at http://agresearch.montana.edu/warc/loyal-to-local-bitterroot.html

Garber said the tours will provide a chance for people to learn about local agriculture.

These tours are key to a better understanding on what small agriculture really looks like in the Bitterroot Valley, she said.
This is a beautiful love story about a mom who gave up her baby for adoption praying her daughter would be in a loving family.

Forty-eight years later, they were reunited, and she discovered her prayers were answered.

Corvallis resident Linda Sinerius, 73, was 24 when she briefly held her daughter and gave her away because she felt she was unable to provide a great home for her.

She was heartbroken.

I asked my mom to go buy her a beautiful outfit, Linda said tearfully. Whoever picked her, she was going to have a pretty little outfit. I got to hold her for just a minute after she was born then I got to help her get dressed.

That was in Sacramento, California, 48 years ago.

This April, Lindas first husband who still lives in Sacramento, received an unstamped letter on his front porch from the daughter stating she would like to get word to her mom that she had been given a good life and that all was well.

He called Linda who said to wait.

A second letter came with canceled stamps. Linda said the stamps made the difference.

The letter had three black and white photocopies of Lindas senior portrait from her high school yearbook and Lori Easterling at age 18 and at age 48.

Linda and Lori looked the same.

The letter with the photos said:

Dear Mr. Howard, here are these photos and although you cant tell by the picture, my hair is red and my eyes are hazel and the resemblance is quite remarkable, Lori wrote. I wish to make contact with Linda only to tell her that everything turned out fine for me. If she ever had any doubts, I would like to relieve that burden.

Lori added her contact information.

Linda only waited one hour before calling on April 26.

I said Lori this is Linda, can I talk to you? We both were catching our breath then had a great conversation, Linda said. Never to be called mom had been a big deal and she sent me flowers for Mothers Day.

Lori came to Montana to meet Linda on May 27.

We met in the parking lot of Bitterroot Inn, Linda said. We just hugged, had a little bit of tears and then no more tears. We both have said it. We both have a gift for gab. We just started talking from day one. When she pulled up in the car I saw her and it could have been me.

The two had a wonderful weekend. Linda is a member of the Bitterroot Womens Club and Lori rode with Linda in the Memorial Day parade float.

Linda had remarried and moved to Montana. Her husband, Harry, passed away in 2004.

My heart and mind is so full, Linda said. I have never called Harrys daughter my stepdaughter, just my daughter so Lori has a sister and an aunt and the family tree is just expanding for her. My brother said, thank you for sharing Lori. Why wouldnt you share when someone wants you back in their life?

Linda has gone to California to meet her son-in-law, Larry, and granddaughter, Tessa, 12.

Lori asked if she should meet Lindas mom  her grandma.

I kept saying yes and she did have a half-hour with her, Linda said. Mom was sharp. Lori told mom Grandma I am so happy that you helped Linda make this decision because I did have wonderful folks that raised me. That was my prayer to God please let her have a good family so that to me was terrific.

Lindas mom passed away July 18. Lori was a pallbearer with the other grandchildren. Lori met more family then.

Lindas family had a gathering to meet Lori and her family this past Sunday.

We called it a gathering because if it wasnt for her parents and my mom, none of this would have happened, Linda said. Lori has met all her new family because more came from Oregon and everyone came from all over. The whole family has embraced her with love and my heart is so full of love that Im bursting.

Lori said that she was raised knowing she was adopted. She said the parents that raised her provided her with a good life and solid education. They died in 2014 and when she was cleaning found her birth certificate and that is how she found Lindas name.

If a child wants to find her parent, it is up to the child, not up to the parent, Linda said. She went to the vital statistics office and searched to find me.

Lori discovered a mom and a family. Linda regained her daughter and more.

Change is good and God wants us to embrace change, Linda said. When I look at the changes Ive had this year I am amazed. Lori came. I met my granddaughter and son-in-law and my mom died. I think Mom waited to meet her granddaughter before she died on July 18 at age 93.

I believe God says, if you want my help, you better get out of my way. God answered a prayer of 48 years.

Linda said she will visit Sacramento often and will rent a place there for longer visits.

It is not the ending  it is just the beginning, Linda said. So folks, dont think that life is over. My heart is so full and Im so blessed. It has just been pure love from the day of meeting her.
The seventh annual Bitterroot Celtic Games and Gathering is underway on the beautiful grounds at the Daly Mansion in Hamilton. The perfect weather and smoke-free skies brought clans, bagpipers, dancers, athletes, vendors and spectators. The two-day event continues today.

A key part of the gathering is traditional Celtic items for dress, weaponry and music.

On special display is a military family at a camp in the 1750s, reenacted by John Hurdman and his family.

I am a captain of lieutenants with the 78 Frazier Highlanders, a regiment that formed in the 1750s from the mostly Jacobite troops who had been part of the British Army only 10 to 15 years before, Hurdman said. As I am an officer of rank, I have a little bit larger tent. A regular tent, on a good day, would have fit four men and equipment.

Carolyn Hurdman said she is portraying an army wife.

Im showing how life would be in the 18th century, she said. We have our children with us, Samuel and Savannah.

Vendor Cammy Maughan, owner of The Misty Hollow Pixie, is at the gathering for the first time.

Her slogan is Let your inner pixie fly and her products are handmade from imagination.

It is whatever I can imagine in my mind of little forest creatures and pixies, Maughan said. Ive always been one that likes fantasy and I look at nature from a pixies perspective and try to imagine what they would like. It is fun being able to create things.

Maughan has The Misty Hollow on display with little pixies and fun little surprises tucked in wee houses and forest glens. Most of her designs are created from scratch but some have purchased elements.

It has been a lot of fun, she said. I got started when my dad found a really cool piece of driftwood and it looked like it would be a fairy house. He said you should do that, and thats how I started.

Maughan began her business in 2014. It is located in Ronan but most of her sales are done online via Etsy and she sells and ships her product all over the world.

Its crazy, I ship rocks to Norway, Australia and Japan, she said. I have cool river rocks and it has made me realize how blessed we are to live where we do. A lot of the stuff I get from my back yard and pick it off the trees and the ground. We do live in a magical place, we just have to open our eyes to it.

This is Maughans largest trade show. She has been busy with Etsy orders.

Wee stone houses, moss trees, small willow fences were all created with her eye for seeing the world differently. She also carves castles using recycled materials.

Im taking Styrofoam from my husbands work that would have ended up in the garbage and other people bring me Styrofoam, she said. It is so fun to add little details. This one has a little diamond mine in it.

Caren Stevens had her Irish Wolfhounds on the grounds before the gathering began on Saturday. The rough-coated dogs were prominent during the middle ages. They weigh between 50 and 100 pounds, love to run and have a strong sense of companionship.

These are great dogs, Stevens said. Ive wanted my own pack since I was 7. Now that my kids are mostly grown and Im adult I can have me as many as I want. They are here to get kisses and loves and be socialized.

She has information sheets and coloring pages for young spectators at the gathering.

Debbie Rodgers, owner of Tartan Shawls in Corvallis, is at the gathering for her fifth year.

It is a lot of fun, Rodgers said. Folks should come out and hear the wonderful music.

Tartan Shawls are handwoven in clan colors and patterns. Rodgers said the Black Watch is a clan color and pattern that anyone can wear, not specific to a certain clan. Stuart Royal, MacLeod and Fergusson are a few tartans specific to clans.

Rodgers said her weaving store called Willows and Wool evolved into Tartan Shawls.

I love the patterns and I love the colors, she said. Once youre a fiber person youre just always into wools, fibers and colors. It just sucks you in.

Rodgers said she often makes shawls to order and people come to her vendor booth to order for the holidays. She said she is busy year-round with her fun business.

I love the Bitterroot Celtic Games and Gathering, Rodgers said. Look at this venue. It is absolutely gorgeous when there is no smoke or fires and the wind stays calm. It is going to be a beautiful weekend.

On Sunday, the Bitterroot Celtic Games and Gathering will feature live music, tastings, highland dancing, vendors, cultural booths and competitions like Skillet Toss, Beards and Braids, Bonnie Knees and Tug O War from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $8. The Daly Mansion is located at 251 Eastside Highway with additional parking and free shuttle service at Hamilton High School.
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Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, with bloodied face, sits inside an ambulance after he was rescued following an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mahmoud Rslan

The older brother of a Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an air strike, shocked people around the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained in the same incident, a war monitor, a local council official and a witness said.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesday's air strike, according to U.K.-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys' father.

"He was martyred while in hospital as a result of the same bombardment that their house was subjected to," said Besher Hawi, the spokesman for the local council of Aleppo.

He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told the witness.

His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust- and blood-caked face.

The video and pictures were widely circulated online and in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syria's five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo.

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege.

Fighting and air strikes in and around Aleppo have killed 448 civilians so far this month, the Observatory said.

Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran. Russia began air strikes last September.

On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as "nightmarish" amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria.

Russia on Thursday said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.
Guwahati: The first program of weekly evening OPD clinic series at Guwahati Press Club (GPC) was launched on Saturday (20 August 2016), where Dr Kashyap Kr Das (Department of Medicine, Dispur Hospitals) provided necessary consultations on healthcare issues to over 30 member-journalists.

The participants, including some senior scribes, also took the opportunity to get their blood pressure & sugar checked by the health workers. The 'Evening with a doctor' at the press club premises was

started on 5 pm and continued till 7.30 pm.

Mentionable is that Assam's well known Dispur Hospitals Pvt Ltd under the leadership of Dr Jayanta Bardoloi took the initiative to raise a doctor's chamber on the GPC campus, which was inaugurated by young citizens namely Dhiman, Kristi, Shantanava, Arya, Shambhavi, Nistha and Arunava on the occasion of 70th Independence Day.
BAGHDAD, Aug 21: Iraqi officials say the country has executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group's massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014.

Gov. Yahya al-Nasiri says the men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq on Sunday. A Justice Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, confirms the executions.

IS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers from the nearby Speicher military base when it overran the northern city of Tikrit in the summer of 2014. It later posted graphic images online of the soldiers being lined up before trenches and shot dead.

The men executed on Sunday were arrested after Iraqi forces retook Tikrit in 2015 and sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year.
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In recent weeks, tensions have flared over a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea. While Japan announced plans to install new land-to-sea missile systems on the southernmost point of the Okinawa prefecture, China has deployed a number of coast guard vessels to the region.

 AFP 2016/ TORU YAMANAKA Japanese Defense Ministry to Seek Record-High $52Bln Budget in 2017

According to the state-run Peoples Liberation Army Daily, Beijing has now conducted military drills in the neighboring Sea of Japan.

The "confrontation" exercises were carried out between two Chinese naval fleets returning from the US-hosted Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, held in Hawaii. One fleet involved the missile destroyer Xian, the missile frigate Hengshu, and supply ship Gaoyouhu.

"The precision strike against enemy maritime strength jointly launched by warships and naval aviation forcewas highlighted in the confrontation drill," the PLA Daily report reads.

"Exercises far out at sea in international waters are common among the worlds navies, and this year our navy has conducted many exercises far out in the Western Pacific."

 REUTERS/ MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS/FILE PHOTO Manila Gets First of 10 Patrol Vessels Paid for by Japan as China Rises

The report stressed that the drill was not meant as a signal to any single nation.

"This exercise is part of annual training arrangements," according to the report, and "is not aimed at any specific country, region or target, and accords with international law and practice."

The second fleet consisted of a number of warships from the Donghai Fleet.

According to Xinhua news agency, "foreign aircraft attempted surveillance during the drill and were met with the proper response from the Chinese warships."

Earlier this week, Tokyo released footage of Chinese vessels encroaching on contested waters near the Senkakus in the East China Sea.

 AP PHOTO/ XINHUA, LI TANG China Readies First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier and a Fleet of Destroyers, New Photos Reveal

"Your ship has intruded into the territorial waters of our country," said an electronic message sent from the Japanese patrol ship Aguni to one of the Chinese vessels, according to the Japan Times.

"Non-innocent passage in the Japanese waters is not allowed. Get out of this area immediately."

Beijing claims ownership of the islands, which are known in Chinese as the Diaoyus, dating to their discovery in the 14th century. Tokyo maintains that it formally owned the chain between 1895 and the end of World War II, when they were ceded to the United States, until being returned in 1971.

The islands are believed to be rich in energy resources
King Mohammed VI affirmed that Morocco has given Africa top priority in its foreign policy and that Morocco is in the center of Africa; and that Africa holds a special place in Moroccans hearts.

I believe what is good for Morocco is good for Africa  and vice versa. Theirs is one and the same destiny. I also believe there can be no progress without stability: either the two go together, or they do not exist, said the King of Morocco in a speech he delivered Saturday to mark the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the people, commemorating the forced exile of King Mohammed V in 1953 by the colonizers.

The Moroccan monarch recalled that the kingdom, which is committed to its sisterly countries causes and to cooperation with them always makes sure that our cooperation is mutually profitable.

King Mohammed VI said that colonial powers looted Africas resources, stifled the potential of its sons and daughters, mortgaged their future, impeded the continents development and sowed the seeds of discord and strife among African countries.

But, despite the extensive damage caused by colonialism, I believe Africa has the means to ensure its development and to take its destiny into its own hands, thanks to the resolve of African peoples and to the continents human and natural resources, said the Sovereign.

For him, Moroccos decision to take its natural place, once again, within the African institutional family clearly illustrates our commitment to continue supporting the causes of African peoples.

For Morocco, Africa means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent. Africa also means sincere affection, appreciation, close human and spiritual relations as well as tangible solidarity. Furthermore, Africa is the natural extension of Morocco and the embodiment of the countrys strategic depth, the Monarch underlined.

For us, Africa is not about goals and objectives; dealing with Africa involves a commitment towards the African citizen, wherever he or she may be, he said, adding that We attach as much importance to improving the livelihood of Africans in their countries as we do to African migrants in Morocco. As a result, they do not suffer the same hardships endured in many parts of the world.

The Sovereign then recalled that  Moroccos national responses to many complex regional and international issues  such as development, migration and the fight against terrorism  are in line with a firm commitment to serve African peoples.
Here's where to get a pumpkin in central Kansas for fall

Local farms are preparing for the upcoming pumpkin harvest. Here's where to go pumpkin picking in the greater Salina area.
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This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world.




Is it Blonde, or is it Blond? Apple Music lists the new Frank Ocean album, which was released exclusively on that service this evening, as the former. But a picture of its cover has the latter spelling.

While some wondered if that might just be a mistake, others speculated instead that the confusion was intentional, just the first of many dualities and double entendres on an album that confounds perceived binaries of gender, sexuality, and race.

Regardless of whether it's Blonde or Blond (I'm inclined to say it's both), Ocean's long-awaited 17-track followup to 2012's Channel Orange defies expectations, most notably its anticipated name  previously, Boys Don't Cry was the widely circulated title of the album  and its many expected release dates, which it missed one after another.

Ocean's complex album rollout began with the release of a brief, surprise visual album called Endless on Thursday at boysdontcry.co and then on Apple Music. The process continued on Friday with the release of a rich and super sexual music video for the single "Nikes," also on Apple music (and on boysdontcry.co.)

Meanwhile, pop-up shops in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London today were carrying the anticipated print magazine accompaniment to Ocean's music. That item, which was indeed called Boys Don't Cry, is 360-page volume including stories interviews Rolling Stone reports.

inside the Frank Ocean pop up in Nolita  you get a magazine with the album inside! I'm dying  pic.twitter.com/Y84Mba3thH  Ashley Outrageous (@aoutrageous) August 20, 2016

The magazine includes a copy of Blond(e) and seems to carry with it a list of contributors to the album, a group including Pharrell, Kanye, Beyonce, and Andre 3000.

While Andre 3000, for example, is unmistakable on the album, the "contribution" of other artists isn't as clear. David Bowie and Elliott Smith are cited, too, perhaps for samples, lyrics, or inspiration.

Finally, Ocean included a message to fans, many of whom were outwardly frustrated by their long wait. In a play on the meme that somebody should "wake up Frank Ocean," the artists wrote on Tumblr. "FUCK, SORRY," in his typical caps lock. "TOOK A NAP, BUT ITS PLAYING ON APPLE RADIO RN."

Later, he added, "I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE MAKING ALL OF THIS. THANK YOU ALL. ESPECIALLY THOSE OF YOU WHO NEVER LET ME FORGET I HAD TO FINISH. WHICH IS BASICALLY EVERY ONE OF YALL. HAHA. LOVE YOU."

Here's the track list for Blond/e

1. Nikes

2. Ivy

3. Pink + White

4. Be Yourself

5. Solo

6. Skyline To

7. Self Control

8. Good Guy

9. Nights

10. Solo (Reprise)

11. Pretty Sweet

12. Facebook Story

13. Close to You

14. White Ferrari

15. Seigfried

16. Godspeed

17. Futura Free

Previously: Frank Ocean Teases Us With Visual Album Endless While Building Spiral Staircase
SIOUX CITY | UnityPoint Health -- St. Lukes has honored security officer Jim Cook as Employee of the Month for August.

Jim does a tremendous job keeping the UnityPoint Health -- St. Lukes family, patients and visitors safe, said Matt Max, security and safety manager.

As Employee of the Month, Cook received a number of gifts, and he will also have the chance to be voted as St. Luke's Employee of the Year for 2016.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | Dan Nieman didn't think he'd like Barbara Kingsolver's critically-acclaimed novel, "Flight Behavior."

The story of Dellarobia Turnbow, a 28-year-old housewife planning an affair in rural Appalachia, wasn't typical of the books the South Sioux City Public Library assistant director normally reads.

"I'm much more of a science-fiction guy," Nieman admitted. "I didn't think it would have much appeal to me."

This is until he discovered that "Flight Behavior" -- the summer selection for the South Sioux City Library's book club -- was much more than the story of a bored housewife seeking the attention of a telephone repairman.

While on a hike, Dellarobia discovers that the valley behind her husband's family farm is covered in millions of monarch butterflies.

Typically wintering in Mexico, the butterflies land in Tennessee as a result of global warming. It is feared that the beautiful butterflies likely will not survive the harsh Tennessee winter.

"It was then that 'Flight Behavior' became a book that touched upon a number of different topics," Nieman noted. "There was a bit of science through global warming. It also touched upon the economy of farming versus environmental concerns. But it all came back to family."

It sounds like there were plenty of twists and turns in "Flight Behavior. Is that what you're looking for from a book club selection?

"I think so. You're looking for stories that will resonate. While 'Flight Behavior' can be read as fiction, the novel also touches on sociology, religion and poverty."

But you also said there's humor in the book, right?

"There is plenty of humor. While (Kingsolver) writes with authority, she also brings an interesting sardonic tone. I mean there's a humor that's funny inside the family and a humor that's funny outside of the family. I like the former. Kingsolver is good at finding the humor that would be offensive if told by anybody other than by family members."

Do you know what's going to be the next selection for the South Sioux City Library's book club?

"Yes, I do. It's going to be (Karen Gettert Shoemaker's 2014 novel) 'The Meaning of Names,' which is actually about Nebraska farm people at the time of World War I. A woman of German descent must find the strength to keep her family safe."

This sounds like you choose a book that may be very relatable to your book club members, I imagine.

"It is. With the 100th anniversary of World War I next year, the topic will be timely. Also, having a book that is set in northeast Nebraska promises to resonate."

I guess you can personally relate to "The Meaning of Names," right?

"I can relate. I'm of German descent and my grandfather changed his name from Wilhelm to the more American-sounding William."

Is it my imagination or does "The Meaning of Names" seem especially timely during the current presidential season?

"The (novel's) characters are discriminated due to their nationality and some are beaten. That happens when people are led by their emotions and not by reason. Unfortunately, that still happens."
SIOUX CITY | A 19-year-old man was arrested for attempted murder after a shooting early Saturday morning.

According to a press release, police responded to a gun call at 5 a.m. at 2025 Wall St. Upon arrival, officers located two gunshot victims, and they were transported to the hospital for treatment.

Lasharbe Hardy, of Sioux City, was arrested for two counts of attempted murder without incident during a traffic stop a short time after the shooting.

The release said no further information is being released about the victims or their condition at this time.

The shooting is under investigation.
SAC CITY, Iowa | State authorities are assisting the Sac City Police Department and Sac County Sheriffs Office with an investigation into the death of a 1-month-old girl who died Friday morning in Sac City.

According to a news release from the Sac City Police Department, officers were dispatched to 1314 Schaller St. in Sac City around 8:14 a.m. Friday after a report that a 1 -month-old infant was not breathing.

Upon arrival two minutes later, a responding officer initiated CPR, the release said. The Sac County Ambulance transported the infant to Loring Hospital, where the release said the infant was pronounced dead.

Authorities have identified the infant as Sydney Rayne Grimm, of Jackson, Minnesota, born July 9, 2016. Grimms mother is Andrea Grimm, also of Jackson, and the father is Andrew Stephenson, of 1314 Schaller St. in Sac City.

The release said authorities executed a search warrant at the residence around 2 p.m. Friday. The investigation is ongoing.

Mark Jansma, assistant chief with the Sac City Police Department, said an autopsy was conducted Saturday morning. As of Saturday evening, Jansma said he had not heard the official determination of the cause of death.

Jansma declined to say whether there is an expected cause for the infant's death.

Agencies assisting the police are the Sac County Sheriffs Office, Sac County Attorneys office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Iowa State Medical Examiner.
Congratulations, Republicans. You just nominated a man for president of the United States described by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham as a "jackass."

He belittles his opponents by name-calling (Little Marco" Rubio, Look at that face Carly Fiorina), disparages the courage of POWs (I like people who weren't captured) and mimics people with physical disabilities (If one of my children did something like that, Id be ashamed). He responded to a fair question from a female reporter by suggesting she must be menstruating (If you did this at the workplace, youd be fired). He mocked a grieving mother, which, as Republican strategist Karl Rove said, represented unprecedented cruelty.

Trump even needs an interpreter to go along with him to explain to you what Trump meant by some remark he made other than what you just heard in his own words.

There is no question in my mind that the creation of this Trump Frankenstein goes back to the beginning of the Tea Party movement and its subsequent coup against the Republican Party. The movement began following the election of Barack Obama in 2008 as a backlash after the financial crisis and passage of Obamacare.

Although the Tea Party never really had a cohesive political agenda, we know a few things about its ideology. Its members dislike government and believe compromise is a dirty word. It was the Tea Party wing of the GOP that forced the government shutdown in 2014, willing to bring the economy to its knees to repeal Obamacare without any plan on what to replace it with. Never mind the fact that doing so would have taken away the insurance coverage of hundreds of thousands of people.

The Tea Partys anti-immigration fervor has helped push the Republicans even more into an us-vs.-them political party: Christian straight people vs. gays; Christians vs. Muslims; legal citizens vs. illegal immigrants; and Black Lives Matter vs. the police. After the Supreme Court decision clearly prohibiting discrimination against gays, Republican legislatures continued to look for ways to legalize discrimination based on religious freedom. Some states with Republican-controlled statehouses passed laws that ban Sharia law, even though the practice has never had any legal effect - a solution in search of a problem. Some Republican secretaries of state, including former Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, went on voter fraud witchhunts because they wrongly believed such fraud was rampant among illegal immigrants from Mexico - good old-fashioned voter suppression and another solution in search of a problem.

The second factor leading to Trump Frankenstein was the rampant gerrymandering that took place in 2012 after the Republican landslide in 2010. Even though most Americans voted for Democratic representation in the U.S. House of Representatives (49 percent to 48.2 percent) in 2012, Republicans maintained a 30-vote House margin. In the same year, Americans re-elected Obama as president and expanded the Democratic majority in the Senate.

Safely secure in their gerrymandered House seats, many Republican congressmen don't worry about the general population, but rather a potential Republican primary opponent with an even-more-extreme us-vs.-them agenda. And if you even talk about actually addressing a problem, expect a primary challenge. Just ask former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who was trounced by a vastly underfunded Tea Party primary opponent. His crime? Discussing a possible solution to the immigration crisis.

Trump has played the Republican Party brilliantly, taking their us-vs.-them agenda and simply doubling down. Dont like Mexicans? Build a wall on the border and send Mexico the bill. (Ask El Chapo Guzman, the Sinaola drug lord, how well walls work, since he was sprung from a walled prison through the use of tunnels.) Never mind the fact that actual illegal immigration on the southern border is down substantially because of increased border control along with enhanced technology. Dont like or are fearful of Muslims? We wont let them into our country.

Of course, the proposals Trump is advocating will never happen. Mexico aint going to pay for a wall and a Muslim ban is so unconstitutional even Clarence Thomas couldnt vote to uphold it.

Add to all of this the fact Trump is painfully ignorant about domestic and foreign policy, substituting bravado and ego over substance.

It's pretty obvious the Republican Party of 2016 does not care about solutions - or it would have come up with an alternative to Obamacare a long time ago.

Trump trumped the Republican Party at its own game.

Next week: Linda Holub

A Sioux City resident and local attorney, Al Sturgeon is a former Democratic state representative and senator. He is the father of six children.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | Sioux City's labor union for electrical workers celebrated its 100th year of existence Saturday by receiving recognition from regional officials.

Past and present members of Local No. 231, Sioux City's local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, gathered Saturday evening at the Marina Inn in South Sioux City to celebrate the centennial with a dinner and program.

In attendance were local government officials and the vice president of I.B.E.W. Region 11, who spoke during the program and presented Local No. 231 with a plaque commemorating its 100-year existence.

Founded May 10, 1916, 25 years after the I.B.E.W. was formed, Local No. 231 serves Northwest Iowa, Southeast South Dakota and Northeast Nebraska.

Jason Bowman, business manager of Local 231 since January 2015, said Local No. 231's longevity is a testament to the quality of its membership.

"A lot of times nowadays, things dont last," Bowman said. "This is, I guess, a sign of doing things right, standing up and doing things the right way.

Curtis Henke, vice president of the I.B.E.W.'s 11th District, which encompasses North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, agreed that 100 years was a special milestone.

He said while times have changed, the union's focus remains the rights of its members, who he said play integral roles in their communities.

During the program, some received hall of fame awards and pins for reaching milestone years of service, some of whom had been with the union for as many as 65 years.

The I.B.E.W., which traces its roots back to a group of electrical workers in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1891, now has more than 750,000 members worldwide.
DES MOINES | The revolving doors at state prisons saw about the same number of offenders admitted for extended stays in fiscal 2016 as were released into Iowa communities.

Iowa Department of Corrections (DOC) officials say the 8,207 male and female offenders held behind bars at state prisons in Anamosa, Clarinda, Fort Dodge, Mitchellville, Oakdale, Fort Madison, Mount Pleasant, Newton and Rockwell City at the end of the fiscal 2016 was down 10 from the previous years total.

Were maintaining a stable prison population, said Lettie Prell, the departments director of research.

The prison system admitted 5,561 offenders during the recently completed fiscal year  with 1,933 representing new court commitments for criminals convicted and sentenced for felony offenses and 3,034 returning for parole or work release violations as well as probation revocations, according to DOC yearly figures.

New court commitments are hard to predict, said Sarah Johnson of the state Department of Human Rights criminal & juvenile justice planning (CJJP) division, which tracks prison population trends, those things are kind of out of anyones hands. We cant really control who commits crimes or who gets convicted.

Meanwhile, the Iowa Board of Parole in conjunction with DOC analysts paroled 2,142 inmates in fiscal 2016, a 6.4 percent increase. Another 1,515 offenders were granted work releases -- a 13.3 percent increase -- while 1,068 inmates saw their sentences expire in the past fiscal year. That brought total releases to 5,571  the most since fiscal 2009, according to DOC data.

Every year, Iowa sees a fluctuation in our prison population, said Ben Hammes, spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad. However, it is the close collaboration between the Department of Corrections and the Iowa Board of Parole that enables the choosing of the best candidates for re-entry based on thorough risk analysis and data-driven rehabilitation programs.

While there will continue to be many variables that impact the overall admissions and releases, Hammes added, the efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars by the Department of Corrections with a focus on public safety remain the highest priorities.

Iowa has seen a slight surge in the prison population since the new fiscal year began July 1, with Fridays institutional count standing at 8,319 inmates  a figure more than 14 percent above the systems current capacity of 7,286 beds. Another 30,311 offenders were under the supervision of the DOCs community-based corrections system.

The ethnic makeup of Iowas prison population changed slightly in fiscal 2016 with 5,364 white inmates making up 65.4 percent of the overall count, while 2,076 African Americans constituted a disproportionate 25.3 percent of the offenders who were incarcerated. The remaining inmates were 7 percent Hispanic, 1.5 percent American Indian and 0.8 percent Asian during the 12-month period ending June 30.

Iowas prison count is down significantly from the record of 9,009 inmates on April 9, 2011. Prison overcrowding grew to 122 percent of design capacity that fiscal year.

Prell credited the lower overall prison count in recent years to the departments violence and victimization instrument that measures and identifies offenders who are at greater risk for committing new violent crimes or victimizing people when released from prison.

Those are the crimes of concern that we want to identify and provide appropriate treatment to target so that when its time for these people to leave prison  and 95 percent of them will leave prison  wed like them to be less of a risk than when we first got them, she said.

Johnson said short-term projections suggest that Iowas prison population will remain relatively stable, but the long-range estimates call for the inmate count to grow to about 10,058 by June 2025 -- or about 23 percent over the 10-year period if no major sentencing or policy changes are enacted.

However, those projections made last December likely will be modified in future years after lawmakers last session passed legislation to address mandatory-minimum sentences and give judges more discretion in granting paroles or releases to offenders convicted of some drug-related crimes.

We do expect that those will have a correctional impact reducing the population but the extent of that decrease, were going to have to wait and see what it does, Johnson said.
Wells awards college scholarships

LE MARS, Iowa | Wells Enterprise Inc. recently awarded college scholarships to four summer seasonal employees. The new program for the 2016 season offered the chance at a $2,500 scholarship for summer employees enrolled in a two or four year college.

To be eligible for the drawing, the employees must have been employed at Wells for the summer through Aug. 12, have excellent attendance and be a solid performer.

Mitchell Sitzmann of Le Mars worked in production on the day-shift at the South Ice Cream Plant and previously worked at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor. Mitchell attends the University of Iowa.

Rebecca Thiel of Granville, Iowa, is a student at South Dakota State University. This is Rebecca's third summer with Wells, spending this season in production on the night shift at North Ice Cream Plant.

Brian Smith of Phoenix, Arizona, attends Briar Cliff University. Brian spent his summer with Wells working in the freezer on the night shift.

Nikolas Langel, a Remsen, Iowa native, worked production at the South Ice Cream Plant in the Summer-Flex program. He is enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa.

Leadership Fellowship Scholarship

ORANGE CITY, Iowa | Northwestern College online graduate student, Amanda Winslow of West Des Moines, is one of two individuals awarded a 2016 Leadership Fellowship Scholarship from the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children (Iowa AEYC).

The Iowa AEYC's fellowship awards selected participants $4,000 to develop their leadership skills through graduate programs or attendance at state or national professional development opportunities.

Winslow is pursuing a master's degree in early childhood education through Northwestern College Graduate Studies & Adult Learning. She will present a workshop on the NAEYC Code of Ethics at the Iowa AEYC Fall Institute.
It is Monday morning in San Francisco, and you have just woken up late. To help in your rush to get to work on time, you use your favorite ride service app to pay for a driver to bring you to work. On the way to work, that pre-coffee, drowsy feeling starts to kick in, so you use your Starbucks app to order a coffee and a breakfast snack to get you through the morning. Between the apps ability to allow you to order ahead and your drivers keen shortcut, you get to work with just enough time to grab your Starbucks order and dash into work.

At lunchtime, your boss asks you to order lunch for the office. You use the companys stored payment method at the offices favorite takeout place, and order online for delivery. Everyone gets his/her favorite meal and an extra boost of energy to work harder for the remainder of the day. After work, you walk to the nearby grocery store and, using your Apple Pay service, pick up a few things for dinner. Finally, you buy a bus ticket with the MUNI app and shuttle home.

Notice a trend? You have just survived an entire day, made a number of transactions and purchases and yet you did not do the one thing that is synonymous with making a purchase; you never even took out your wallet (or searched through your purse, reached into your sock, smashed your piggy bank to oblivion, fumbled around with change, wrote a check, etc.). In other words, no physical money was ever exchanged. Everything was handled through mobile payment apps.

This is a rapidly evolving trend that is pushing society towards becoming cashless. Aided by cashs inefficiencies and the abysmal failure that is EMV chips, mobile payment apps are taking the crown as consumers preferred method of payment. At the same time, businesses are flocking to create these apps because they streamline checkout processes, as well as offering insights into improving other departments and strategies.

Why Cash is Inefficient

Think of all the steps it takes to get cash. Even excluding the steps towards the actual earning of that cash, you still have to go to a bank or ATM, in order to make a withdrawal. Sure, ATMS are everywhere, but if the ATM is not part of your bank, then there are additional fees just to get your own cash in your hand.

Making payments with cash is also a hassle. We have to receive change back on every purchase, which extends the transaction process and creates longer queues, especially when there is the little old lady who swears she has the extra seventeen cents in her purse. This also increases the likelihood of a miscalculation, when we are given too much, or too little change.

Change itself is cumbersome. No one enjoys walking around with his/her pants or purse weighed down. We end up stashing it in jars or piggy banks, losing it under car seats or couch cushions. Then it sits there, collecting dust instead of interest.

Cashs Current Status

With these inefficiencies, it should come as no surprise that cash transactions are in a decline. In 2015, Business Insider surveyed millennials (ages 18-34) and found that 40 percent of those asked would give up cash entirely. When you consider that this is the age range that is most attuned to mobile technology and therefore more likely to be using mobile payment apps, that percentage is not as startling as it may appear. It is the best-case scenario for mobile payment apps overtaking cash and less than half of the age group is on board.

However, there is a good chance that we will see those percentages in the millennial and other age ranges start to climb. After all, cashless transactions are becoming more and more popular in our economy. About 50 percent of all transactions involve a non-cash payment, such as a credit card or mobile payment app.

Outside of the US, other countries are pushing towards becoming entirely cashless societies. Leading the pack, Sweden is hoping to eliminate their physical cash sometime in the next five years. Currently, only 2 percent of all transactions in Sweden are made with cash. Its neighboring countries are also taking notice and jumping on the cashless bandwagon; Denmark has plans to be cash-free by 2030, with Norway a few short years behind in their planning.

On the other hand, the US has a plan to roll out new dollar bills, with the last being released just around 2030. We have already seen the new one hundred dollar bills, which are more secure and less susceptible to being counterfeited. Another bill, which will feature Harriet Tubman, is not set to be released for another four years. With any luck, the country wont be entirely cashless, by the time the last set of new bills are released.

EMV Chips are Paving the Way for the Adoption of Mobile Payment Apps

If you have received a new bank or credit card lately, then you have witnessed first-hand the pain of the new EMV chips. While this new card reading technology is better at preventing fraud, it takes longer. When you think about how fast we receive everything, thanks to our constant connectivity, the last thing consumers want is a slower process. In fact, the mobile world we live in is actually shortening our attention span and thereby our patience.

Longer checkout queues hamper the customer experience, which has caused some vendors to ignore the EMV process altogether; they feel it is too big of a detriment to their business. Arguably, the EMV chips are not as flawed as we think. It is just a learning curve. We have grown up swiping our cards, now we have to get used to inserting and waiting. Every new piece of tech has a few bugs to work out and it is possible that in the future, we wont have so many gripes with these chips.

For right now, however, consumers do have a lot of problems with the EMV readers and chips, which are opening up the door for mobile payment apps to take over. Consumers feel that these applications, such as Google Wallet, Apple Pay, etc, are not only faster (payments can be made with a quick tap of the phone), but also just as secure as these ultra-tight EMV chips. In other words, consumers are not waiting for the EMV process to get better or more streamlined. They are finding a new way to make payments and that is mobile pay.

Why Mobile Payments are a Win-Win for Consumers and Brands

One of the biggest draws to mobile payment apps that consumers are beginning to realize is that they are highly incentivized. Businesses offer rewards and app-only coupons to encourage users to use their payment app, instead of simply pulling out cash or even a card. Not only does this stimulate more repeat business, but mobile payment apps also yield huge amounts of consumer data for companies, which would not be as accessible if they paid with cash.

These huge volumes of data present a number of discoverable insights that businesses did not have such easy access to before. It will allow them to better understand the needs and attitudes of individual customers and thus cater a more personalized customer experience to meet those desires. The customer experience is a huge driver of business in todays world and offering a personalized journey for each customer is a huge boost, which will have big returns to a brands bottom line.

As long as you have the software or platform to properly and accurately analyze all this data, the benefits are endless. For example, it allows you to see who is buying what and when, which is superior market research that can be leveraged towards targeting customers with the right deals that most appeal to them at the current time. Another example, you can see which customers have become inactive on the app and then heavily incentivize them to return to your store and stimulate continued brand loyalty, while preventing defection to a competing company.

Some mobile apps have the ability to link to social media, which creates an even wider berth of possibilities. You can track a single customer and see if they are a brand promoter or detractor. Alternatively, you could measure the positive or negative sentiments of a larger section of customers, in order to see how you can improve your customer experience.

In addition to the data-rich benefits, mobile payment apps also have other perks. They streamline store efficiency because checkout processes are faster. This means you can serve more customers and those same customers are happier because they face shorter queues. It also eliminates disputes during returns. You never have to deal with an angry customer who does not have a receipt; all the receipts are digital and easy to access with a mobile device. This greatly benefits the consumer because they always have a record of their spending, which is nice for making returns, completing taxes or even figuring out business expenses.

In short, mobile payment apps have the ability to vastly enhance a number of business processes and the overall customer experience.

See Also: Infusionsoft Propel Supplies Mobile Marketing Experience

Conclusions

Again, it is hard to make a strong case that the US is going to be completely cashless in this decade or even the next. However, mobile payment apps are definitely driving us towards becoming a society that is less dependent on the Benjamins and more driven by who has the better payment app. This cashless, mobile-pay-dependent mentality is already being adopted by a number of forward thinking businesses. They are seeing massive benefits to a number of key facets of their business. Checkouts are more streamlined, customers are happy and incentivized to continue returning and the data created by the apps can help improve marketing strategies and more.

Chances are the US will not be going completely cashless anytime soon. However, with our heavy reliance on mobile devices and payment apps and the door for an alternative payment method wide open, a cashless future is certainly somewhere on the horizon.
Canada is one of the worlds centres of the mining and extractive sector. Toronto is the centre of the trade in mining stocks and in financing mining operations. Canadian mining capital operates in more than 100 countries and is among the top five world producers of potash, uranium, nickel, gold, platinum, aluminum, diamonds and steel-making coal. The Canadian state supports the accumulation of the mining industry at home and abroad. Indeed, it is impossible to separate out the history of Canadian colonialism and the building capitalism in Canada from the mining sector, from the original mining of fish and furs by Europeans to the modern mining of the tar sands, forests, precious metals, and many other sectors. The extractive sector remains at the centre of the Canadian states colonial  and often coercive, and extra-legal  relationship with the First Nations, and the ecological destructiveness of the Canadian developmental model.

Relations with workers and unions in the mining sector remain turbulent and chaotic  extract the resources and labour-power, and the devil of the consequences for the workers, communities, and environment. Both the Harper and Trudeau governments have pursued strategies to help mining companies expand their exploration and extraction activities around the world. The Canadian provinces share the same agenda,

whatever the political complexion of the government in power. In pursuing international trade and investment treaties, Canadian governments have had the protection of the extractive sector at the core of their bargaining. Signing investor protection deals with foreign countries and pushing consulates and embassies to promote Canadian mining projects are two of the main modalities by which Canadian imperialism operates. Canadian royalty regimes are, perhaps, the most generous in the world among large countries for mining capital.

Confronting Canadian capitalism necessarily means a confrontation with the Canadian mining sector. Solidarity with First Nations people requires support for struggles with the mining corporations. Ecologically-responsible production can only occur with democratic and social control of the mining sector.

More information:
SOCIEDAD ASIATICA

THE ASIAN SOCIETY

COMISION DIRECTIVA



THE DIRECTIVE BOARD



PRESIDENTE:

Liliana Garcia Daris



Universidad del Salvador.

Argentina

VICEPRESIDENTE:

Won-ho Kim

Universidad de Hankuk de Estudios Extranjeros.

Corea

SECRETARIO:

Luis Diaz Brougton



Universidad de Santiago, Chile



PROSECRETARIO:



Martha Barriga Tello

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru



VOCALES:



Mauricio Martinez



Universidad de los Andes, Colombia



Juan Uriburu Quintana



Universidad de Chenchi, Taiwan

CONSEJEROS ACADEMICOS

ACADEMIC ADVISERS



ASH NARAIN, Roy,

Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.

India



GARCIA BAZAN, Francisco,



CONICET, Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy



MATSUSHITA, Hiroshi,



Universidad de Kobe, Japon



MIEMBROS FUNDADORES



FOUNDING MEMBERS



ALBERT, Liliana



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



ANTON PACHECO, Jose Antonio



Universidad de Sevilla, Espana



ANTONIJEVIC, Ingrid



Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile



BARRIGA TELLO, Martha



Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, Peru



BERGMAN, Sergio

Melton Institute de Jerusalem, Israel



BERTOLINI, Luis



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



CABEZON, Jose



Universidad de Santa Barbara, Estados Unidos



CAGNI, Horacio



Universidad Catolica de La Plata, Argentina



CARRANZA, Francisco



Universidad de Dankook, Corea



CASTLETON, Barbara



Ohio State University of Athens



CASTRO, Jorge

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



CHAOUL-REICH, Alejandro



Universidad de Texas, Estados Unidos



CHELMICKI, Hanna I.



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



DIAZ BROUGHTON, Luis



Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile



FRANCO, Raul



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



GADRE, Vasant



Universidad Jawaharlal Nehru, India



GARCIA DARIS, Liliana

Universidad del Salvador, Argentina

GLUCK, Carol



Universidad de Columbia. Estados Unidos

HOPKINS RODRIGUEZ, Eduardo



Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru



KIM, Wonho



Universidad Hankuk de Estudios Extranjeros, Corea



KO, Heysun



Univesidad de Dankook, Corea



LOPEZ DEL CARRIL, Luis Maria



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



LUCO, Enrique



Universidad del Salvador



MARTINEZ, Mauricio



Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia



MASATERU, Ito



Universidad Nacional de Osaka, Japon



MATSUSHITA, Hiroshi



Universidad de Kobe, Japon



MINKOWICZ, Gabriel

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires

MONETA, Carlos Juan



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



MORROW, John Andrew



Minot State University, Dakota del Norte, USA



NGUYEN, Thiet Son



Academia de Ciencias Sociales de Vietnam, Vietnam

OVIEDO, Eduardo

CONICET. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina

PEREIRA, Ronan Alves

Universidad de Brasilia. Brasil

PEREYRA, Violeta



Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

REMETE, Andrea

Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



RIMOLDI DE LADMAN, Eve



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



ROMERO CASTILLA, Alfredo



Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico

TEDIN URIBURU, Virgilio



Universidad de Harvard, Estados Unidos

UEHARA, Alexander



Universidad de Sao Paulo. Brasil

URIBURU QUINTANA, Juan



Universidad de Chenchi, Taiwan



VITTOR, Luis Alberto



Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy



XU, Shicheng



Academia China de Ciencias Sociales, Republica Popular China
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




Harare (Zimbabwe), August 20, 2016 (SPS) President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, on Friday reiterated the firm support of his country to Sahrawi people's right to freedom and independence, after receiving Special envoy of the President of the Republic, Hamdi Khalil Mayara, Minister of State for Africa, who handed him a message from President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali.

The meeting focused on the latest developments of the question of Western Sahara in the light of current international efforts for the decolonization of Western Sahara, the obstacles of Morocco. The two sides discussed bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways of further developing them.

On this occasion, President Robert Mugabe reiterated the position of the Republic of Zimbabwe to support the just struggle of the Sahrawi people for the liberation of the occupied parts of the territory of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic by the Kingdom of Morocco.

He also expressed his rejection of all attempts of Morocco and its allies to destabilize the African Union in violation of the principles on which it was founded and that the union is the fruit of the struggles and sufferings of the African peoples.

Zimbabwean President also expressed the willingness of his country to develop relations with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




CAIRO (Sputnik)  At least two police officers were killed and five other people, including two civilians, were injured in an attack by unknown gunmen on a checkpoint in the Menofia governorate in northern Egypt, local media reported Sunday.

Five individuals in a small truck approached the checkpoint and opened fire at the people, the Egyptian Youm7 newspaper reported. The investigators found about 176 bullet casings at the scene, the daily added.
In December 2013 France, the CAR's former colonial ruler, launched "Operation Sangaris," sending French peacekeeping troops to the country under a UN peacekeeping mandate.

However, in December 2014 allegations of child abuse by French soldiers against children in CAR began to surface. According to the results of an official investigation, ten children were raped by the peacekeepers, and five soldiers were arrested.

However, in spite of French President Francois Hollande's vow that there will be "no mercy" for French child abusers, the CAR has not been informed of any formal punishment of the soldiers.

"France should serve justice. We want the rights of the victims to be respected, and we have held negotiations with France so that there will be a just decision. We are monitoring the situation, and we are insisting that the victims' rights are respected," CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera told Sputnik.

"For us and the victims this is taking a long time, but we hope that when everything is finished, sanctions will follow. The people are waiting for this, especially those who have suffered."
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The discussion is closed. You can participate in the discussion within 24 hours after the publication of the article.
Another report came just two days later, on August 20th. This one cites two friends who also claim they managed to capture what they say looks like Nessie.

"It looked like a shark at first, but it was much bigger and it definitely wasn't reeds like my friends keep saying," says Johnathan Jones, 23. "Who knows what it was. I'm hoping it was Nessie though  if not some other kind of lost sea creature."

The problem with this report is that it came from London. Yes, the friends say they have spotted the legendary monster right in the River Thames, some 600 miles from its supposed home in Scotland.

While there is no reason to believe the monster never goes out (everyone needs to travel to the capital from time to time), we now have a rare opportunity to calculate the creature's travelling speed. While it is unlikely that the monster used the M6 highway which is arguably the shortest way from London to Edinburgh, rough calculations suggest it had to travel some 660 miles by sea to reach river Thames.

Given there were some 48 hours between the reports, the creature should have traveled at the speed of 13.85 miles per hour.

By comparison, Russian nuclear-powered icebreaking LASH carrier and container ship Sevmorput is able to travel with a speed of 23.9 miles per hour. The missile frigate Dagestan that conducted the cruise missile strike on terrorists targets in Syria from Caspian Sea, can move at a maximum speed of 28 knots, or 32 miles per hour. The speed record of human swim speed equals to some 3.6 miles per hour or slightly more than 3 knots.

Now we have solved one more mystery in the world!
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Rodrigo Duterte said that it was his job as a President to protect law-abiding citizens, not criminals.

"Take us out of your organization. You have done nothing anyway," Duterte was quoted as saying at a press briefing by CNN Philippines.

The president stressed that police were acting on his orders, hunting for criminals and killing them if they put up resistance.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Heavy rains hit Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand on Friday, causing river overflows and collapses of many buildings, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said.

Seven members of one family were killed as their house was destroyed by a landslide in the Pauri district of Uttarakhand, the media added.

The majority of victims of the three-day rainfall resided in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where a total of 15 people died being swept away by overflowed rivers or buried under ruins of their houses, according to the police.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Pyongyang may carry out provocations after a high-ranking North Korean diplomat defected to the South, media reported on Sunday.

Earlier this week, Seoul announced that Thae Yong Ho, a London-based North Korean diplomat, and his family defected to the South.

"There is a considerable chance that the North confronted with difficulties may implement some sort of provocation to help rally its people and consolidate the regime's hold on power The defection of Thae Yong-ho, the No. 2 man at the North Korean Embassy in London may be causing tremors in the North as well as hurting the country's image abroad," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported citing an unnamed official at Seoul's unification ministry.
On Saturday, diplomatic sources confirmed that China had issued a severe warning to Tokyo in late June demanding that Japan refrain from dispatching Self-Defense Forces to join US operations testing the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

Japan will cross a red line if SDF vessels take part in the freedom of navigation operations, Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua conveyed to Tokyo at the time. Cheng threatened military action if Japan failed to comply with the ultimatum.

The warning came two weeks prior to The Hague international arbitration courts adverse ruling deeming the waters and territory that the Chinese people had historically viewed as their own were to be stripped of their control and that Beijing must immediately remove itself from the disputed territory.
The proposed military program, which will be officially introduced later this month, reportedly includes the purchase of an undisclosed number of controversial Lockheed Martin F-35 jet fighters and development of unmanned drone fighter jet, which is set to be put in operation by year 2037.

The massive increase in military appropriations out of Tokyo may be warranted in response to Beijing's growing animosity towards its longstanding regional rival including recent air contact between Chinese and Japanese warplanes over the East China Sea.

The two countries are embroiled in a territorial dispute regarding the Senkaku (known by China as Diaoyu) Islands with both China and Japan holding overlapping claims. The West recognizes Japan's control of the Senkaku Islands, a reality that may be increasingly unfavorable to China in light of the international pressure mounted on Beijing over the separate territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

Japan has inflamed historical tensions by beckoning China to give up its claim to the South China Sea, which includes islands and a valuable swath of water through which 40% of the world's shipborne trade transits each day, despite the fact that Tokyo itself is not a party to that dispute. China has repeatedly warned of war against Japan if it should undertake joint naval operations with the US in the contested area.
"The final contract to build a power station in El Dabaa will be signed this year," President Sisi was quoted as saying in an interview with local media by Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram.

Russias state nuclear authority Rosatom said last May they had agreed a contract on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and had moved into the final stage on deals involving nuclear fuel deliveries for the duration of the power plant's operation as well as a back-end pact on its decommissioning and were still working on a service agreement.
At the same time the federal authorities have been tearing down border controls, she said, leading to an upsurge in cross-border criminality.

"The AfD is the only party in Germany that opposes stricter gun laws. This will hit honest citizens and not those who buy guns on darknet."

The darknet refers to Internet websites where people can exchange currency anonymously. This makes these networks more appealing to criminals, including drug and gun traffickers.
Asked to comment on the fact that there is little chance of Ukraine getting a visa-free regime while the east of the country factually remains in a state of civil war, Kornilov countered, suggesting that "actually, there have been cases when the EU has granted a visa-free regime to countries which were in a state of war (for example, Croatia in the 1990s). Everything is possible. But in a situation where even Ukraine's own 'democratic community' is asking Europe not to introduce a visa-free regime with Kiev, the discussion about it is becoming more and more problematic."

Ultimately, the analyst suggested that he has the impression "that Poroshenko went on vacation somewhere, forgot about reality, arrived in Kharkiv and began to speak as though he is unaware of the changes taking place in the country."

Even now, Kornilov noted, Ukrainians are actively flooding into Poland for work. "And that's without any visa-free system! If it's introduced, I can assure you that farmers will sell their property, get a train ticket to Warsawand go work as hired hands for a pittance, which will still be better than in impoverished 'Eurointegrationist' Ukraine."

For his part, Vadim Trukhachev, a professor of foreign policy and regional studies at the Russian State University of the Humanities, suggested that while it's not possible to say for certain that Ukraine won't receive a visa-free regime, the chances don't look good.

"The country is facing a war on its territory, and the living standards are so poor that Bulgaria and Romania, which are poor by European standards, look like real islands of prosperity compared against Ukraine," the analyst noted.

As for President Poroshenko's promises of financial assistance, Trukhachev suggested that the claim that 'someone from abroad' will help Ukraine "has been one of the favorite expressions formulated by Poroshenko and other Ukrainian officials over the past two years. But the EU simply cannot afford to help Ukraine in any major way. The country is too large, and too poor. Moreover, previous tranches of assistance have disappeared into a bottomless pit  they were simply stolen. And so the promise of a tranche of help from the EU may just be Poroshenko's fantasy  a blatant, deliberate deception of his own citizens."
According to Hajek, "we will see an attempt to test the immunity of Czech society toward the crazy twists of Merkel's policy, which have led to a real chaos in Europe."

"But Merkel will be in the Czech Republic like a 'bull in a china shop', because her migration policy-related ally Sobotka's stance is out of sync with the sentiments of the absolute majority of Czechs," he said.

He added that Merkel will become a guest of honor in the country "only for those who want to see thousands of Islamists being settled in the Czech Republic, something that is already the case with Germany."

"However, for the 90 percent of the Czech population who strongly oppose 'the open doors' policy on migrants, Merkel's visit to Prague will be nothing but a provocation," Hajek said.

Merkel is facing a tough battle in regional elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony and Berlin in September, in the run-up to next year's federal election in which she has been threatened with a challenge from within her own CDU/CSU coalition.

Merkel knew the consequences of the culture clash that would follow the entry of a million Muslim migrants.  Nacy (@healthuever) 21  2016 .

In the latest poll, commissioned for media outlets Ostsee-Zeitung, Nordkurier, Schweriner Volkszeitung and NDR, almost one in four respondents said that they will vote for either the right-wing populist AfD party or the far-right ultranationalist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).

Germany Suffers In New Way From Migrant Terror brought in by Merkel.  Bryan Doyle (@Bryan700) 11  2016 .

Merkel has drawn strong criticism for her "open doors" policy towards refugees. In the summer of 2015, she made it clear that Syrian refugees would be welcome in Germany, precipitating a huge influx of migrants from war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as relatively peaceful albeit poverty-stricken countries such as Eritrea.

@fourbards Don't be stupid. Germany allowed in refugees starting in 2015. Merkel is squandering the surplus by spending it on migrants.  Ricky Vaughn (@Ricky_Vaughn99) 15  2016 .

Strangely enough, this welcome was not extended to Ukrainians, as theirs was considered a "safe country of origin." According to the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, a positive decision on asylum was made with respect to only 5.3 percent of Ukrainian requests, with every refusal accompanied by a requirement to leave the country.
BERLIN (Sputnik)  He also supported the idea of introducing a ban on backpacks at large venues.

"Individuals have the opportunity to take a picture of someone and find out whether they have seen a politician or a celebrity using the face recognition software on the Internet. I want to use such software for facial recognition in video cameras at train stations and airports," Maiziere told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

The German Interior Ministry has recently proposed a set of new security measures, including the increase in the number of police officers by 15,000 people in the wake of the two lone-wolf attacks in Germany's Bavaria in July. Responsibility for both attacks was claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, which is banned in Germany and Russia as well as many other countries.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The German authorities have tightened control over borders with Switzerland, sending there additional border guards and police officers, Swiss Finance Minister Ulrich Maurer said Sunday.

"[Germany] has deployed about 90 border guards and 40 federal police officers in recent weeks to the border [with Switzerland]," Maurer said, as quoted by the Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper.

According to Maurer, it seems that Germany "moved away" from its welcoming attitude toward migrants.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  The European Union needs its own armed forces to "fulfill" its mission in the world, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Sunday.

"We need common European foreign, security and defense policies to create a European army in order to have an opportunity to fulfill our role in the world," Juncker said at the European Forum Alpbach in Austria.

He added that it is not absolutely necessary to be a NATO member state to participate in the proposed European army, which could be not of an offensive nature, taking into consideration Austria's neutral status.
Maziere and the interior ministers also agreed to propose a package of security measures in response to a recent string of terrorist attacks in Germany, including more police officers, surveillance measures and EU border controls.

On Thursday Chancellor Merkel expressed her opposition to the full-face veil, but said that the implementation of a ban is a decision for the interior ministry.

"In my view, a fully covered woman has little chance of integrating in Germany," Merkel said.

While the center-right CDU-CSU bloc appears united in support for the partial burqa ban, Ralf Jager, SPD Interior Minister for the state of Nordrhein-Westfalens, expressed opposition to the ban.

"A burqa ban does not bring more security, rather it is only (being proposed) due to the election campaigns in some states," said Jager, who raised concern about the practicalities of the ban.

If burqas are to be banned, then "you also have to ban people from dressing up as St. Nicholas," Jager said.

News website Deutsche Welle illustrated Germany's divide over the issue with a series of commentaries on the issue, both for and against the burqa ban.

"For a free society it is necessary and beneficial to draw a clear dividing line. And that means the burqa should be banned in Germany. Just like polygamy, child marriage, and female genital mutilation  in the name of religion. That means politicians must say no. The lawyers will have to deal with the rest," wrote DW chief editor Alexander Kudascheff.

However, columnist Martin Muno said that the burqa should not be banned, since it is "only a symptom of the real issue of self-determination."

"The plans announced by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere are at best an expression of helplessness: There should not be a general burqa ban, but at least a partial one. They call for facial concealment to be prohibited behind the wheel of a car or in public service. But if you please: What veiled woman is allowed to drive by herself, or allowed to pursue a career? Again, symptom and cause are confused  and as regional elections loom, with a populist view to supporters of the AfD and Pegida," Muno wrote.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  The European Union can abolish visas for the Turkish nationals in October only if Ankara implements all the necessary conditions under the EU-Turkey migrant deal, including those related to the anti-terror laws, European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Sunday.

"This [visa-free regime] may be introduced on October 1 only if all requirements are fulfilled Terrorism legislation cannot be used for jailing intellectuals, generals, journalists and scientists," the EC president said at the European Forum Alpbach in Austria.

If the Turkish government fails to comply with the requirements, then it will be up to country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to explain to his nationals why they could not travel to Europe without a visa, he added.
Moreover, Pietka said, "there is no symmetry between the actions of Polish and Ukrainian nationalists; on the contrary; there is a complete asymmetry." Factually, Pietka suggested that the Institute's effort was "anti-Polish."

"What I resent most of all is the lack of a response to this obvious provocation from the Polish government," the commentator noted. "In 2009, Ukrainian nationalist bikers planned a bike rally, called 'In the Footsteps of Stephan Bandera' [Bandera was a leader of the OUN], which was to stretch from Kiev to Munich, through Poland, including a stopover at the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp. Then too Warsaw failed to react, and only the pressure from Polish society resulted in the rally being blocked at the border."

Now, the historian says, patriotic Poles need to react to this expedition as well, especially given the absurd claims by Ukrainian nationalists that Polish territory is "ancestral Ukrainian land."

"According to Ukrainian nationalists, these 'ancestral homelands' include the Podkarpackie, Lublin and Malopolska voivodeships, and if the Polish authorities do not see this obvious threat of Ukrainian nationalism, it's worth asking whether they represent the interests of their citizens, those of the Polish state, which they are constitutionally required to do."
The German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of a catastrophic terror attack the Frankfurther Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday as the country finds itself in high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month. The country also has announced plans to allocate a considerable sum of additional resources to police and security forces to create a special cybercrime and terrorism unit.

In the shocking report, the newspaper quoted a report by the German Interior Minister, titled "Concept for Civil Defense" as saying that "the population will be obliged to hold an individual supply of food for ten days."

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry noted that the plan is to be discussed by Chancellor Angela Merkels cabinet on Wednesday before being presented by the minister that afternoon, but declined to provide additional comment on the matter.
Apparently, the Kurds did manage to bring Syria and Turkey closer together. While Turkey's position on Syria for years has been based on the aim of immediate removal of Assad from office, the recent developments which include the failed coup attempt and strengthening of Syrian Kurds, may have led Ankara alter its calculation.

According to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Turkey thinks Bashar Assad can be a "part of the transition", but has no place in Syrian future in the long term.

"Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not," Yildirim said. "The United States knows and Russia knows that Assad does not appear to be someone who can bring (the people) together."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The falling debris killed two children, the Geo TV channel reported. The injured were taken to a hospital after rescue services pulled everyone from under the rubble.

The incident occurred in the city of Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province and one of the most densely populated areas in the country.
TEL AVIV (Sputnik)  On Saturday, Turkeys parliament, the Grand National Assembly, ratified the bill, which stipulates that Israel transfers $20 million to Turkey within 25 days for a 2010 raid on a Turkish flag-bearing vessel that killed 10 Turkish activists.

"Israel welcomes the Turkish Parliament's decision to approve the deal recently concluded by the two governments and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation, including the return of our respective ambassadors," the statement published Saturday reads.

In May 2010, a so-called Freedom Flotilla of six ships, including one sailing under a Turkish flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked and stormed by Israeli forces.
The Iranian president inaugurated the Bavar-373 (meaning 'Belief'), which was commissioned in February 2010 amid the suspension of a deal with Russia on deliveries of five S-300 systems over the adoption of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran.

The long-range mobile Bavar-373 air defense system has been designed and constructed by Defense Ministry scientists and experts in cooperation with the countrys Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base and other scientific and investigative centers.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Iraq hanged 36 militants over the 2014 massacre of hundreds of military recruits at Camp Speicher near the city of Tikrit, Iraqi Minister of Justice Haidar Zamili said on Sunday.

"The Justice Ministry carried out executions by hanging of 36 militants convicted over the Camp Speicher massacre," the minister of justice said as quoted by Iraqi newspaper Al Mada.
DUBAI (Sputnik)  Abu Dhabi condemned the recent blast at a wedding party in Turkey's Gaziantep regarded as a terror attack and stressed the need to find "radical solutions" to fight terrorism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Sunday.

On Saturday, the explosion targeted a wedding celebration in Gaziantep, claiming lives of at least 50 people. Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya described the incident as a "terror attack."

"The United Arab Emirates has condemned terrorist attack in the city of Gaziantep in the Republic of Turkey, which claimed the lives of scores of innocent civilians and left many people injured The ministry highlighted the need for intensified and concerted efforts of the international community to ensure the eradication of serious scourge of terrorism and to find radical solutions to eradicate this phenomenon, which is contrary to all moral and humanitarian values," the ministry said in a statement.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Earlier in the day, a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip exploded in the Western Israeli city of Sderot.

"Moments ago, in response to the rocket attack from Gaza. IAF & armored corps targeted 2 Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip," the IDF said on its Twitter account.

The Israeli government has repeatedly accused Hamas, classified by the country as a terrorist group, of attacking Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
ALEPPO (Sputnik)  The Russian servicemen delivered six tonnes of humanitarian aid to the oldest orphanage in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, a spokesman for the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation said Sunday.

"Today we delivered 6 tonnes of aid to this orphanage via a permanent humanitarian corridor. There was no shelling of the city during the last 24 hours," Amir Demlikamov said.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.
Moreover, Konashenkov noted that a Defense Ministry analysis of the video of Omran's rescue "shows that if the strike did take place, it would come not from aircraft munitions, but a mine or a gas cylinder used in large numbers by the terrorists."

But while most Western mainstream media and many on social media may not trust the Russian Defense Ministry's explanations, one disturbing element behind the photo not reported in the press is beginning to grab the attention of many social media users.

Photos circulating online from the social media account Omran's photographer, a man by the name of Mahmoud Raslan, appear to show him commiserating with the killers of another child  12-year-old named Abdullah Tayseer Issa, who was gruesomely beheaded by US-backed 'moderate rebels' last month.

The photos, circulating on social media and collected by LiveLeak (warning, graphic images), show screenshots of Raslan's Facebook page, including an image showing him posing and smiling with the terrorists from the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement who murdered Issa in cold blood.

Raslan provided Western media outlets with the harrowing details about his account, even penning a piece about it for The Telegraph titled 'I took the picture of little Omran in Aleppo'.

Capturing the photo of the little boy brought him to tears, Raslan said. "Today when I woke up to see the whole world using the photo and talking about it I thought to myself, I hope all photos of children and attacks in Syria go viral so the world knows what life is like here," he added. "If people know what it is like maybe the war will stop, the bombing will stop."

Same photographer(Mahmoud Rslan) shot photos of gang that beheaded 11yr boy(Abdallah Issa) & the photos of Omran pic.twitter.com/WMJO42G3EW  Tony Man (@MrTonyMan) 19  2016 .

But the photo of Raslan in a very different situation, jubilantly posing with the killers of another child, has led to outrage among social media users, with some even suggesting that the photo of the shell-shocked little boy from Aleppo was staged. But while that seems unlikely, the photographer's apparent camaraderie with child-murdering Salafist terrorists does question the sincerity of his claim about wishing to end the plight of Aleppo's children.

@ABarnardNYT @APDiploWriter Irony is photog of Omran (Mahmoud Raslan) took happy selfies with Zenki child beheaders https://t.co/rBetXplF5c  Ludwig W (@LudWitt) 21  2016 .

Is that a journalist or a captagon fueled terrorist? This is Mr Raslan, the man who took Omran's viral photo. #Syria pic.twitter.com/HpbdgBBRN1  Walid (@walid970721) 19  2016 .


The situation had devolved such to the point that State Department spokesman John Kirby trotted out to say "The lack of due process and the criminalization of the exercise of free expression continue to undermine the progress Bahrain has made since 2011."

The Sunni-led monarchy has moved to revoke citizenship of members of the Shiite opposition party, al-Wefaq, in order to render the individuals stateless and beyond the protections of human rights protocols.

Over 70% of Bahraini Muslims are Shia, but the regime is nonetheless led by the Sunni Khalifa family which claims to own all of the fishes in the sea and 99% of the wealth in the country. The demonstrators have remained peaceful despite repeated armed assaults, imprisonment and torture by the regime and even argue that it would be positive for a transition to democracy for the monarchy to remain installed in a figurehead role while the decisions of the state would be decided by representatives of the people.
The US Special Forces were ordered to change location as a precaution while US jet patrols over the region were beefed up.

Hasaka is located in northern region of Syria, which is currently under influence of Syrian Kurdish forces, who until recently were not in confrontation with Damascus, thanks to their successful fight against Daesh forces. But their growing military strength is now viewed as a possible threat of Kurdish separatism. The US-led coalition forces are known to use three airstrips located in northern Syria.

Earlier in July, the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov reported that Russia and the US are exchanging information on "most sensitive issues." Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has told journalists earlier in June that Russia and the US conduct constant informational exchange on military operations in Syria.
The Air Base serves as the main facility out of which US and Coalition jets fly out of to engage the fight in Syria, a battle at which the United States and Russia at times find themselves on different sides of.

The US supports both Kurdish forces and "moderate rebel" groups who appear to have fallen in with the not so moderate al-Nusra (an al-Qaeda affiliate until a recent rebranding) and Ahrar al-Sham terrorist groups under the banner of the Army of Conquest. Russia has provided air support to the Syrian Arab Army loyal to the Assad regime, which the United States has been adamant, should not be part of a transition.

Turkeys appraisal of their allies appears to have shifted more dramatically in the wake of the coup than the State Department insists, however. The country has normalized ties with Russia, endorsed the concept that Assad could play a role in the transition (albeit temporarily), and top officials have repeatedly insinuated if not outright said that the US played a role in the failed coup.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inches closer to securing a deal for 36 Dassault Rafale elite stealth fighter jets with France in an exchange that is expected to be worth $8.3 billion according to defense industry analysts. The final condition that the two countries must work out is a waiver provision, demanded by India, to avoid paying a deposit of $152 million to secure the contract.

Sources with Indias Hindustan Times suggest that a deal has already been struck "as India had put its foot down on doing away with the advance guarantee clause as it was a government-to-government sale" with France trusting that the New Delhi government had more than enough reserves to back the exchange.

The newspapers sources indicate that Indias Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar conveyed the countrys position regarding the need to waive the deposit clause via diplomatic channels to France on Thursday. It appears that Paris did not object to the condition and no other issues existed in the deal.
"The ceasefire has been observed in most provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic. Within last 24 hours, 9 ceasefire violations have been registered in the Damascus (6), and Latakia (3) provinces," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website.

Also, the Defense Ministry stated that the number of settlements that have joined the ceasefire in Syria has reached 444.
Between the resurgence of McCarthyite attacks by association and missteps by Donald Trump himself, most notably of which was an egregious public spat with the Gold Star family of American war hero Humayun Khan who sacrificed his life to save hundreds of his fellow soldiers based primarily on the fact that the family was Muslim, the candidate's favorability rating crashed to historically negative levels.

The damage, both wrought by the media and, perhaps mostly self-induced, caused Trumps stock among voters to cascade down nearly seven points while Hillary Clintons fortunes with the American electorate jumped an additional seven points  a 14 point swing in less than three weeks.

Yet, it appears that a new on-message Trump has begun to soar after apologizing to the public for "hurting others" by "sometimes using the wrong words," in stark contradiction to his previous stance that he has "the best words."

Trump has also attempted to appeal to new demographics, including the African-American community and younger voters, but it remains to be seen whether hell see advances with these voter groups.

Trump now finds himself securing 45% of the electorate versus 43% for Hillary Clinton in what may go down as the greatest political comeback in American history  or just as likely another blip in a long campaign cycle.

Nonetheless, despite the gravity of the new poll results MSNBCs Morning Joy on Saturday, spoke about a poll in which Donald Trump only secured 1% of the African-American vote  in a poll with a margin of error of three percentage points meaning, if those results were to be believed, Trump could have less than zero support among the black community.
In Sokoto, a predominantly Muslim city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, Kerry will deliver a speech about the importance of religious tolerance in fighting violent extremism, while in the capital city of Abuja, he will meet adolescent girls "working to change community perceptions" that depreciate girls role in society.

He is also expected to meet with northern governors and religious leaders of the West African country.

Kerry's final stop will be in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Senior Saudi leaders, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, officials from the United Kingdom and the UN special envoy for Yemen will meet with him to discuss the ongoing conflict in Yemen and measures to restore peace in the country.

The parties to the talks will also discuss the Syrian conflict and the fight against the Daesh jihadist group, outlawed in the United States, Russia and many other nations.
Divavin said that sanctions have been a boon for Russian exporters, who are investing their profits in new equipment to meet the rising demand.

"Of course, sanctions have been a huge help. If they are stopped, everything could change very quickly. (For example) they imposed an embargo on American soybeans, and immediately everybody switched to lupins, which grow well here. Just over the last two years, in the Black Earth region of Russia, several factories have been built for the processing of lupins."

"I get five calls a week asking me how the harvest is, there is very high demand. The sanctions mustn't be lifted under any circumstances! We can provide everything ourselves, in two or three years we will have everything covered. At the moment, there a bit of a lag in the cattle industry; they need some help from the government. The production cycle for meat and milk is very long and there are serious costs, cowsheds, milking machines and so on. A cheap long-term loan is necessary," Divavin explained.

Market analyst Kirill Yakovenko of Moscow-based Alor Broker explained that sanctions and government subsidies for the agricultural industry have enabled farmers to take advantage of this year's favorable weather conditions.
In an interview with the news website Life.ru , Russian Aerospace Forces Deputy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Gumenny did not rule out that a new long-range missile interceptor would enter service with the Forces in the immediate future.

He said that right now, more efforts are being made to create such a missile.

"The creation of the long-range missile interceptor will help the Aerospace Forces to duly fulfil any task set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces," Gumenny said.
The best way to explain the Nooscope is to refer to the article itself, now patented 50 times, which states that "the Nooscope is a device for recording changes in the Noosphere" with the device apparently consisting of "spatial sensors" capable of making "the invisible visible."

The goal of the device, according to the article, is to "allow the study of humanitys collective consciousness. The idea traces back to the Russian thinker Vladimir Vernadsky who opined that the "Noosphere" is the "third stage in Earths development, when humanitys collective thought would affect the earth as a whole."

Of course, this article has yet to be traced to Anton Vaino, but rather only to an "A. Vaino" (which is not to say it necessarily isnt him) with rather a large number of individuals bearing the last name and first initial based on even a cursory glance through social media, but that did not stop the immediate splurge of hysteria.
So were these two cases merely isolated incidents or could it be that they signify a dangerous new trend, that Japanese youth are beginning to consider the elderly as little more than a burden?

Viktor Pavlyatenko, senior research fellow for Japanese Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Sputnik that these incidents were nothing more that isolated cases. However, he stresses that this doesnt mean that they should be ignored. He pointed out that these outbreaks of violence were the result of the psychological issues of their perpetrators, and shouldnt be interpreted as a sign that young people in Japan are becoming more violent towards the elderly.

"However, the problem of the rapidly decreasing labor pool and, in turn, the rapidly increasing number of senior citizens does exist. The nation is aging much faster than any other developed country in the world, and caring for the elderly has become become a serious issue. However, all developed countries have to deal with this problem as well. Furthermore, many nations seek to increase the longevity of their citizens as it serves as a sign of high standards of living," Pavlyatenko explained.

Meanwhile, in 2013 the former Prime Minister and Japans current Finance Minister Taro Aso offered a rather bizarre way of dealing with the economy crisis.

According to Aso, allowing the elderly to die sooner would lighten the burden on the countrys social security system. The minister also added that he wouldve felt uncomfortable knowing that maintaining his fading life costs his nation a hefty sum.

Aso's statement was widely criticized by his colleagues and the minister was later compelled to apologize for his words.

According to Pavlyatenko, the public reaction to that statement shows that Japanese society is not as homogenous as some believe. He also remarked that politicians of

Taro Aso's rank should definitely pay close attention to the statements they make.

"Aso is a pragmatist  in a sense, he has to be a pragmatist as a minister of finance. Though I do hope that he didnt quite understand what kind of reaction his statement would elicit," Pavlyatenko added.

Despite Japan having a total fertility rate (TFR) of only 1.41 births per woman as of 2012 and a population which has ebbed from its high of 127.8 million, the country's life expectancy has risen from an average of under 67 years in 1960 to over 83 years today.

While other developed countries with low fertility rates have relied on immigration to make up for dwindling populations, Japan's culture is averse to the arrival of outsiders.

It must be remembered that foreigners were forbidden from entering the country for over two centuries. According to Bloomberg, Japans population "is projected to shrink by about 500,000 a year during the next few decades. Canceling out that loss with immigration would mean importing almost 0.5 percent of Japans population a year."

According to a 2005 Economist article, "the consensus among Japanese is that visions of a future in which immigrant workers live harmoniously and unobtrusively in Japan are pure fancy." However, the Economist went on to suggest that non-threatening humanoid robots could fill the shoes of erstwhile immigrants in providing elder care.
The billionaire presidential contender slammed his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, for being "a throwback from yesterday" and claimed that, unlike her, he had "no special interests" or people telling him what to do.

"Our campaign is about creating new American future. Im not a politician, thank goodness. I have no special interests have no donors telling me what to do, I am my donor, I have no lobbyists telling me what to do, Im going to do whats right for you," he said.

Trump said previously that his presidential election campaign was mostly self-funded. However he held several fundraisers earlier this year, saying he was not going to use personal funds for the general election.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  He went on to criticize his Democratic rival for "depleting" the US military during her stint as the US secretary of state, while the Clintons made a combined $60 million in gross income.

"Lets also not forget that Hillary Clintons disastrous Middle East policies unleashed ISIS [Daesh] onto the world, a fact for which Hillary Clinton has expressed zero remorse and no apologies."

"She will never be able to fix the ISIS problem that her policies created, for one thing she doesnt have the strength or the stamina coupled with all other problems that this country has."
The US government lost millions of dollars after inmates at US prisons made helmets for the army, only for the gear to be recalled because of dangerous manufacturing defects, defense news website Foxtrot Alpha reported on Saturday.

According to a report published earlier this week by the US Department of Justice, the privately-owned company Federal Prison Industries and another contractor, ArmorSource, were awarded contracts by the Department of Defense (DOD) to produce Advance Combat Helmets (ACH) and Lightweight Marine Corps Helmets (LMCH) for the US Army.

From 2006 to 2009 ArmorSource and the FPI were paid more than $30 million to produce 126,052 ACH helmets.
A similar situation is plaguing the US Navy, Stepnov noted. "The story of failures and money being siphoned off is illustrated very clearly by the innovative new destroyer project Zumwalt, the costs of which have already reached those of an aircraft carrier."

Ultimately, the journalist suggested that the stories surrounding the high costs of new US weapons systems demonstrate that pouring huge amounts of money into something doesn't guarantee results. The US military, he wrote, "had long intimidated the world with its high-tech, high-precision weapons, with its colossal military budget, etc. But while one cannot deny that this is the case, it's also necessary to see through the PR to the actual state of affairs: corruption, rent-seeking behavior, etc., which not only greatly increases costs, but leads to the creation of systems that don't necessarily offer any practical use."

Last week, former US Secretary of Defense William Perry slammed the Pentagon's plan to modernize the US's nuclear deterrent, not only because it amounts to "starting a new nuclear arms race," but also because "we are talking about huge expenditures here [which are] hardly being discussed or debated"

As to the costs of the program, Perry told Sputnik that the reality is that "nobody really knows what the cost isbut people drop figures like $1 trillion. But I don't know what the right number is  if anything [$1 trillion] is on the low side."

As for the US's current ground-based ICBM, the LGM-30 Minuteman III is concerned, Stepnov noted that it is a formidable, but aging weapon.
According to the CBS Connecticut broadcaster, the incident took place at about 1:30 a. m. local time (05:30 GMT) in the city of Bridgeport.

The media outlet added that among the injured partygoers, 12 people suffered non-life threatening wounds and one woman was in critical condition.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The shooting incident took place in the afternoon, the WDSU television channel reported. The pursuit reportedly began in the First District and ended at Law and New Orleans streets in the Seventh Ward.

One @LAStatePolice trooper shot to the arm near New Orleans & Law Streets. #NOPD & LSP investigating. #NOPDAlert  NOPD (@NOPDNews) August 21, 2016

A spokesperson with the New Orleans Police Department confirmed the shooting, the channel said. There was no immediate information on whether the gunman had been detained.
The journalist believes that Russia has managed to fill the vacuum created due to the withdrawal of most US forces from the Middle East which coincided with the pull-out from Iraq. He sees Moscow's move last September to assist the Syrian government as the turning point.

The use of the Russian air force in Syria gave Moscow a significant advantage, helping it to stabilize the position of President Bashar Assad and once again turning Russia into "an influential factor in the Middle East arena", according to Avenarius.

Moscow managed to find allies "on the battlefield" in Syria, Avenarius wrote, pointing to an about-face in the Iranian leaders' stance on Russia.

While former Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini slammed the Soviet Union as "the devil's superpower ", his successor allowed Russian bombers to use an Iranian airbase, Avenarius said, adding that those who managed to find common ground with Iran may soon strengthen their position in Iraq.

RUSSIA DEPLOYS STRATEGIC BOMBERS TO HAMEDAN AIRBASE IN IRAN pic.twitter.com/3Ug7WAqeXL (via @WarfareWW)  Gregor Peter (@L0gg0l) 15  2016 .

With the US currently losing its Sunni partners, Russia could become an "unofficial partner of the Shiite axis" in the Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, according to Avenarius.

"The failure of the 'Arab Spring' strengthened Islamists' positions and discredited the Western model of society. The US policy in Syria is seen as a grim joke, and not only by rebels. Moscow presents itself as an organizing force, which at least finds a friendly response," the journalist concluded.

On August 15, an undisclosed number of Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range strategic bombers and Sukhoi Su-34 strike fighters left the airfield in the Russian town of Mozdok in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and landed at Hamadan Airbase in Iran.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Lochte alleged a week ago that he and three other Olympic swimmers  Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz  were robbed Sunday at gunpoint by people claiming to be police officers. On Thursday, Brazilian police said the swimmers were not robbed by officers but instead were detained after vandalizing a bathroom at a gas station while drunk.

"It was still hours after the incident happened. I was still intoxicated. Im not making an excuse, Im not doing that at all, and I shouldnt have said that. I over-exaggerated that part, and the gun was drawn but not at my forehead. It was towards my general direction as you can see in the surveillance video," he told NBC broadcaster in an interview that aired in part on Saturday.

On Friday, Lochte apologized for his behavior and accepted responsibility for his role in the incident, adding he had learned some valuable lessons.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday expressed condolences to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the recent explosion that targeted a wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, the Kremlin press service said.

"The crime committed in the midst of a wedding celebration astonishes with its cruelty and cynicism. We have once again seen that terrorism does not recognize not only the laws of a civilized society, but also the most basic norms of human morality," Putin said in a letter to Erdogan.
He said that when it comes to grappling with cyberterrorism, Kali Linux is of great importance to the purpose.

"This operating systems is trying to take more of cyberterrorists rather than going after an individual. For instance, we would be looking at threats toward network connected infrastructure, " he noted.

Asked about what counter-measures should be introduced to address hacking-related problems, Hilse said that at least two core factors need to be considered.

" First of all, a [relevant] legislation should be changed and it should look into the direction of holding software vendors accountable in case of sever hack attacks taking place; also, there should be an understanding of complexity of the hacking-related problem," he said.

As for the forum, it is based upon online tutorials which promise newcomers to teach them how to hack American and European security sites.

It focuses on the so-called Kali Linux  an open-source distribution system which includes hundreds of penetration-testing programs.
"What we don't see (is) this unicorn a lot of people are chasing, this idea that there's some massive short-term build up or movement about to happen," Davis said, according to AFP.

The captain pointed out that the apparent buildup of the Russian troops, not surprisingly, coincides with the period of military drills that Russia holds in the same region every year.

"I think we are seeing movements associated with the upcoming exercise, we are not seeing this massive buildup of forces that has been suggested," Davis added.

The relations between Moscow and Kiev escalated dramatically earlier this month after Russian authorities detained a team of suspected Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea.

Russian security forces' attempts to capture the men resulted in the deaths of a Federal Security Service officer and a Russian serviceman, prompting outrage in Moscow.

On August 11, Poroshenko put Ukrainian military forces on the border with Crimea and in the Donbass on high alert. This provoked a corresponding response from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, whose leadership said that they could not rule out "provocations" from Kiev forces in near future.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Late on Saturday, the explosion targeted a wedding celebration in Gaziantep, claiming lives of at least 50 people and injuring dozens more. Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya described the incident as a "terror attack."

The Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper reported citing local officials that the suicide belt that exploded at the wedding had been found.

None of extremist groups has claimed responsibility for the explosion so far, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the Daesh terror group, which is prohibited in many countries, including Russia and the United States, could be behind the tragedy.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The bomber was between 12 and 14 years old, Erdogan told reporters as quoted by the Daily Sabah newspaper.

The bombing that took place on Saturday night claimed the lives of at least 51 people. Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya described the incident as a "terror attack."

Earlier in the day, the Turkish leader suggested the Daesh jihadist group, which is prohibited in many countries, including Russia, could be behind the bombing, however no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The German journalist added that he had become an expert in the field of the use of doping in Germany before releasing the film on Russian athletes.

"I get daily threats, insults. It is not easy. I reveal the truth. Russia is my last debunking, but I also revealed many other frauds," Seppelt told Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

Following the 2014 release of the film titled "The Doping Secret: How Russia Creates Champions" on alleged doping abuse and corruption in Russian sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) launched an investigation into the allegations.


BRUSSELS (Sputnik)Late on Saturday, an explosion targeted a wedding celebration in Gaziantep, claiming lives of at least 51 people and injuring 69 others.

"I strongly condemn the string of horrific terrorist attacks in Turkey in the last few days. My deepest sympathies are with those who lost their loved ones, with those injured and with the people of Turkey. We stand united in solidarity with our Turkish Allies in this difficult time. We remain determined to fight terrorism in all its forms," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was quoted as saying in the statement.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn expressed their sympathy to the Turkish government and people on part of the bloc.
Harness racings newest stars battled it out Saturday night (August 20) at Mohawk Racetrack in Grand Circuit action.

The Nassagaweya and Eternal Camnation Stakes put two-year-old pacers in the spotlight. Each event carried a total purse of $211,000 and saw two divisions contested. Many of the rookies battling in Saturdays stakes were preparing for next weeks Metro Pace and Shes A Great Lady eliminations.

The Nassagaweya Stakes started off with a bang, as 60-1 longshot Rock This Way pulled off a stunning upset over eight other colts and geldings in the $106,250 first division.

Bettors Dream was made the 1-5 heavy favourite, as the Scott McEneny trainee carried a perfect three-for-three record into the event. Driven by Doug McNair, the son of Bettors Delight left hard and cleared to the lead at the opening quarter in :26.3.

There was no breather for Bettors Dream in the second-quarter, as 30-1 shot Classic Pro was parked out and pressing the leader to the half in :53.4. McNair kept Classic Pro to the outside, as Bettors Dream continued to power along around the far turn and took the field by the three-quarter pole in 1:22.3.

The big fractions set up well for those near the back to make a stretch bid, including Rock This Way and Mario Baillargeon. The 60-1 longshot got away last and was into the outer flow around the final turn, but continued to sit ninth.

In the stretch, Bettors Dream dug in to try and finish the job, but Rock This Way unleashed a :27.3 final quarter to sweep by his rivals for the 1:51.3 victory. Bettors Dream was a game second, finishing two and a half lengths behind the winner. Classic Pro also showed grit and hung in to finish third.

Trained by Ben Baillargeon, Rock This Way is owned and was bred by Santo and Nunzio Vena. The gelded son of Rocknroll Hanover was winless in four prior starts to Saturday, but Mario Baillargeon had plenty of confidence in the rookie after his start a week ago.

Last week he came his last three-quarters in 1:21.4, said Baillargeon. Hes been battling sickness, but he was our best colt all winter.

Baillargeon noted many similarities between Rock This Way and another horse he had plenty of success with back in 2002.

I always told Ben [Baillargeon] that he reminds me of Totally Western. Totally Western was a great two-year-old and he acts exactly like him.

Rock This Way, who is eligible to next weeks Metro Pace eliminations, entered the Nassagaweya Stakes with just $700 earned, but exits with a bankroll of $53,825. He returned $140 to win.

The second division of the Nassagaweya didnt feature a major upset, but saw a great three-horse finish.

A field of eight clashed in the $104,750 second split. Macs Jackpot went off as the even-money favourite for new trainer Tony OSullivan, who also sent out Calvin K.

Driven by Sylvain Filion, Macs Jackpot got away fourth, while Windsong Napoleon cut an opening quarter of :27.1. Calvin K quickly leapfrogged from second to first entering the backstretch and led the field by the half in :55.3.

Filion was able to pick up cover around the final turn, as Macs Jackpot sat second over. Meanwhile, Calvin K continued to motor along on the lead and had more than three lengths on the field at the three-quarter pole in 1:23.3.

In the stretch, Calvin K had almost five lengths on his rivals with an eighth of a mile to go, but Macs Jackpot and Darlings Dragon, who was third over on the final turn, both hit their best strides late to make it a wild finish. Macs Jackpot reached up in the final strides to score the 1:52 victory. Darlings Dragon finished second by a head, while Calvin K was beat a neck in third.

A son of Somebeachsomewhere, Macs Jackpot had been racing south of the border for trainer Jim Campbell and was sent up to OSullivan by owner/breeder Jeffrey Snyder for the Nassagaweya and other stakes events.

We literally just got him this week, said OSullivan following the race. I trained him a trip and he felt like hes a big powerful gelding and Jim had said that he was kind of going in the right direction, so all the credit goes to Jim Campbell.

Macs Jackpot is the third foal out of Michelles Power, a winner of $1.3 million. He now has three wins in six starts and $79,569 earned. Macs Jackpot paid $4.10 to win.

Over on the pacing filly side, the first $105,550 Eternal Camnation division saw Candlelight Dinner improve to four-for-four to start her career with a 1:52.2 score.

The Casie Coleman trainee was unhurried off the wings of the gate by driver Jonathan Drury and patiently made her way towards the front. Parked by the opening quarter in :27.4, Candlelight Dinner quickly grabbed command entering the backstretch and it was lights out from there.

The daughter of American Ideal posted middle-half panels of :56.4 and 1:25, before firing home in :27.2 to win at odds of 1-9. Happy Hannah finished a length and a half behind Candlelight Dinner in second, while Everyones Watching was third.

Following the Eternal Camnation victory, Drury talked about the development of Candlelight Dinner.

She qualified like a real nice filly, did everything you asked of her and did it all on her own, said Drury, who noted he wanted to make things easy for the rookie on Saturday.

I didnt want to push her to the front, I wanted to try and get there as easy as I could.

Candlelight Dinner sold for $110,000 last falls Lexington Selected Yearling Sale. She now has $86,675 earned through four starts for owners Mac Nichol, Let It Ride Stables Inc. and Howard Taylor.

With victories in the Whenuwishuponastar Series final and now the Eternal Camnation, Candlelight Dinner is expected to headline next Saturdays Shes A Great Lady eliminations.

In the $105,550 second division, Bettors Up made a statement of her own with a 1:52.1 victory. The McEneny-trained filly was returning to Mohawk after three starts in the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes, where she posted two victories and a runner-up finish.

Sent off as the 1-2 favourite, Bettors Up and driver James MacDonald got away sixth before making a second quarter brush to the lead. Once on top, the daughter of Bettors Delight posted middle fractions of :57 and 1:25.2.

In the stretch, Bettors Up fired home in :27.2 for a convincing 1:52.1 score. Fade, who got a two-hole trip, was second, while Manhattan Play was third.

Owned by Brad Grant, Teresa Davidson and Michelle McEneny, Bettors Up now has five wins from six starts and earnings of $140,730.

Following the race, Scott McEneny noted that the filly is not eligible to the Shes A Great Lady and next up will be a return to Pennsylvania.

Shes got one more start at The Meadows and then shes got the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes final, he said.

Bettors Up paid $3 to win.

Many of these two-year-olds will return for their respective stakes eliminations next Saturday. The Grand Circuit continues at Mohawk on Friday evening (August 26), as three-year-old trotting fillies will battle in the Casual Breeze Stakes.

In Preferred action, State Treasurer now boasts back-to-back victories in the $34,000 top pacing class, with his latest conquest on Saturday night a season's-best 1:48.3 mile over Nickle Bag and Ellis Park. The reigning Horse of the Year was driven by Chris Christoforou and is trained by Dr. Ian Moore for owners Sally MacDonald and Paul MacDonald.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Mohawk Racetrack.

(With files from WEG)
YS Lotus overtook his stablemate and fellow trial winner Go Daddy Go down the backstretch and paced away to a 1:50.1 record victory in the 57th edition of the $60,000 Sobey's Gold Cup & Saucer to close out the Saturday, August 20 card just after midnight at Red Shores at Charlottetown Driving Park.

Driver Louis-Philippe Roy and YS Lotus gave trainer Rene Allard his second victory in P.E.I.'s signature race while Go Daddy Go and Brad Forward completed a sweep of the top-two spots for owner Yves Sarrazin of La Presentation, Que.

YS Lotus lowered the 1:50.3 all-age track record set by the Allard-trained Crombie A during last year's Gold Cup & Saucer trials. The time of the mile also equalled the Canadian record for older pacers on a half-mile track, which was established by Rockin Ron in this year's Confederation Cup at Flamboro Downs.

With the inside post advantage, Go Daddy Go established the lead off the gate while Limelight Beach and Anthony MacDonald fired out from post six and were able to secure the pocket position through a :26.2 first quarter. Paparazzi Hanover and Travis Cullen followed in third, with YS Lotus in mid-pack.

As Go Daddy Go led the field in front of the grandstand towards the half in :54.1, his stablemate YS Lotus made his move and began to advance first over with Alexas Jackpot and Jody Jamieson following the cover.

YS Lotus moved up to confront the favoured front-striding Allard trainee down the backstretch and worked to clear as they raced past the third quarter mark in 1:22.2. He began to open up a couple of lengths on top turning for home and continued to draw away down the lane in a :27.4 final quarter to win by six lengths in 1:50.1.

Alexas Jackpot finished third with Ron Burke trainees Limelight Beach and fan favourite Foiled Again, driven by Marc Campbell, earning the final paycheques in fourth and fifth, respectively. Paparazzi Hanover was sixth while D Gs Camme and Gilles Barrieau finished seventh. Allard's third entry, Shades Of Bay, and Corey MacPherson completed the field after breaking stride.

YS Lotus paid $6.70 to win. A career winner of 17 races and over $200,000 in purses, the five-year-old If I Can Dream-Bolero Takara gelding is undefeated in five starts in the province of P.E.I. He swept the Governor's Plate at Summerside Raceway in July and has now won three straight at Charlottetown, including a 1:51.1 front-end effort in his Gold Cup & Saucer trial.

"This Island, he hasn't lost here yet," said Allard of YS Lotus. "The owner's had him since he was two or three; he bought in on him and he ended up owning all of him. Yves Sarrazin from Quebec, he is one of my biggest owners and he's a great guy. We're happy we got it done. I've had the horse for a couple of years and we brought him here and he's got all the confidence in the world now. He's brave and was good tonight.

"He [Louis-Philippe Roy] drove him really well. I was a little concerned about sending him off the gate this week. We had a bit of a different strategy [than in the trial] and it worked out."

"It's crazy, I've never seen that much people and that much atmosphere around one race," said Roy of his Gold Cup & Saucer driving debut. "I never thought this year I could even be driving in this race so to win it is a big bonus."

Action-Packed Double-Header at Red Shores

Saturday's action-packed double-header of harness racing included an all-age trotting track record performance courtesy of Osprey Impact. Walter Cheverie was in the sulky as the five-year-old Federal Flex mare led through fractions of :28.4, :59.2 and 1:28.3 en route to the 1:57.2 victory in the $2,500 Open Trot for owner/trainer Paul Larrabee of Belle River, P.E.I. Freddie finished two and three-quarter lengths behind in second and trotting mare Thunderaway, who held the former record of 1:57.3, was third.

Driver Gilles Barrieau won the Francis McIsaac Memorial Award for the fourth time in his career as top-winning driver of Old Home Week. Barrieau capped off the week with a pair of victories on Saturday night for the Jackie Matheson stable.

In a battle of two top Maritime pacing mares, the Barrieau-driven Shadows Mystery held off the pocket-pulling Ramblinglily down the stretch to win the $3,500 Mares Open Handicap by half a length in 1:55.3. The five-year-old daughter of Shadow Play is owned by Gordon Ford of Yoho, N.B.

Barrieau also won the $2,350 Norman MacPhail Memorial Pace with Clic K, who went wire-to-wire in 1:54.3 and held off rivals on both sides, Smiley Bayama and Machinthesand. The eight-year-old Shanghai Phil gelding is owned by the Plo Stables of Donagh, P.E.I.

Trainer Trevor Hicken doubled up on Saturday night with All Turain winning the $2,650 Premier's Pace and Bazillion taking the $2,100 Papermaker Pace.

Bazillion started from the inside post and gave up the leading role to the quick-leaving Chaleurs Ad during the opening quarter, but the six-year-old Village Jolt gelding prevailed from the pocket in 1:54.3 in rein to Brett MacDonald for owner Kent Livingston of Cornwall, P.E.I.

All Turain rallied three-wide off cover to score his 1:55 victory over fellow late-closer Jeb. Jody Jamieson catch-drove the seven-year-old gelded son of Tell All for local owner Lee Hicken.

The Gold Cup & Saucer undercard also featured three $7,800 Gold divisions of the Joe O'Brien Memorial Stakes for three-year-old pacing colts.

J J Jodster and driver Marc Campbell just held on to win the first division, finishing a neck ahead of first over challenger Burkes Bandit and Brandons Glory, who came flying late up the passing lane to make it a three-across finish. Earl Watts trains the Chasin Racin gelding, who took a new lifetime mark of 1:55.4, for Nova Scotia owner Brian Burgess and P.E.I. partners Windemere Farms and Hollis Newson.

Heart And Soul advanced first over after the first lap of the track and wore down pacesetter Jackson K Down to win by a widening three lengths in 1:55.2. Clare MacDonald trains and drives the Western Paradise gelding for owners Earith Riley and George Riley of Kensington, P.E.I. Offshore Cowboy recovered from an early break in stride to finish third.

With Jody Jamieson catch-driving for trainer Earl Smith, Howmacsblackjack stole a second quarter breather en route to a 1:58.1 victory over pocket-pursuer Magical Cowboy and first over advancer K D Overdrive. The Articulator colt is owned by Islanders Peter Smith, Don Smith, Gerald Morrissey and Larry Chappell.

Campbell and Watts also teamed up to win a pair of $5,000 Grassroots divisions during the afternoon program with Abner The Great (1:58.4) and Allard's Windemere Rene (1:57.4) by a combined 20 lengths. The other Grassroots division was won by Alberta Sky (1:57.3) by a neck for driver Ken Murphy and trainer Clifford Murphy.

Gold Cup & Saucer winner Louis-Philippe Roy was also victorious in the Alpine Claiming Series. Quebec invader Force Of Fire and Roy made every call a winning one in the $5,300 fillies and mares final of the series for $4,000 claimers, with the final time 1:57.3 for owner/trainer Charles Gaudreault of Mont-Joli, Que.

Top Alberta reinsman Travis Cullen was in town and steered the popular pacer Threes A Crowd to victory in the $5,900 Alpine male final after being claimed each leg of the series. Racing from the Jeff Holmes stable for Vernon Bridge, P.E.I. owner Trevor MacDonald in the final, Threes A Crowd reeled in the pacesetting Mach Vegas and prevailed in 1:58.2 over Leading Camdidate, who weaved inside that pair down the stretch in a close finish.

To view Saturday's complete harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park.
Er is iets heel griezeligs aan de gang in Nederland. Dat wij geleidelijk aan in een totalitaire 'democratie' wegzinken wordt steeds ...
TL;DR

-A lot of what we know about how gender plays out in marriage focuses on the ways in which women are disadvantaged, said Christin Munsch, professor at University of Connecticut in the US.

-The study shows mens psychological well-being and health were at their worst during years when they were their families sole breadwinner.

-Our study finds that decoupling breadwinning from masculinity has concrete benefits for both men and women, says Munsch.

A new study, conducted by University of Connecticut sociologists, states that having the man in a heterosexual, nuclear family be the sole breadwinner is detrimental to him, causing a decrease in psychological well-being and health. The study will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) on Sunday.

Read the complete Press Release

Gendered expectations in marriage are not just bad for women, they are also bad for men, according to a new study by University of Connecticut (UConn) sociologists.

The study, Relative Income, Psychological Well-Being, and Health: Is Breadwinning Hazardous or Protective? by Christin Munsch, an assistant professor of sociology at UConn, and graduate students Matthew Rogers and Jessica Yorks, will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

Using data on the same nationally representative group of married men and women over 15 years, the authors examined the relationship between mens and womens relative income contributions and found that, in general, as men took on more financial responsibility in their marriages, their psychological well-being and health declined. Mens psychological well-being and health were at their worst during years when they were their families sole breadwinner. In these years, they had psychological well-being scores that were 5 percent lower and health scores that were 3.5 percent lower, on average, than in years when their partners contributed equally.

A lot of what we know about how gender plays out in marriage focuses on the ways in which women are disadvantaged, says Munsch. For example, women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, and they still perform the lions share of housework. Our study contributes to a growing body of research that demonstrates the ways in which gendered expectations are harmful for men too. Men are expected to be breadwinners, yet providing for ones family with little or no help has negative repercussions.

Breadwinning has the opposite effect for women when it comes to psychological well-being. Womens psychological well-being improved as they made greater economic contributions. Conversely, as they contributed less relative to their spouses, their psychological well-being declined. Relative income was unrelated to womens health.

Munsch attributes these psychological well-being differences to cultural expectations for men and women. Men who make a lot more money than their partners may approach breadwinning with a sense of obligation and worry about maintaining breadwinner status, says Munsch. Women, on the other hand, may approach breadwinning as an opportunity or choice. Breadwinning women may feel a sense of pride, without worrying what others will say if they cant or dont maintain it.

According to Munsch, her findings are good news given that both husbands and wives usually work. Our study finds that decoupling breadwinning from masculinity has concrete benefits for both men and women, says Munsch. Whereas mens psychological well-being and health tend to increase as their wives take on more economic responsibility, womens psychological well-being also improves as they take on more economic responsibility.

The study uses data from the 1997 through 2011 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine the effects of household income dynamics on psychological well-being and health in a nationally representative sample of married people between the ages of 18 and 32. The researchers considered a number of alternative explanations for their findings, including age, education, absolute income, and number of hours worked per week. However, these variables did not account for their findings.
hidden

Micro-blogging website Twitter can be utilised to gauge negative emotions in the aftermath of violence, especially on campuses since students are the most likely users among the general population, revealed a research.

Twitter can help analysts to gather the overall effect of traumatic experiences, like a school shooting, on people.

"Twitter's rapid distribution and widespread use enable us to avoid the fundamental difficulties with traditional survey methodologies," said lead researcher Roxane Cohen Silver, Professor at the University of California, Irvine.

"Studying communities impacted by traumatic events is often costly and requires swift action to enter the field when disaster strikes," Silver added.

Social media, such as Twitter, offers a wealth of information that can provide an immediate window into a community's emotional response to a trauma experienced collectively by them. However, using a big data approach presents its own unique challenges, according to Nickolas M. Jones, student at University of California, Irvine.

"Locating community members who have experienced the trauma can be problematic," Jones explained.

To infer members' location, prior researchers have either used geotagged tweets, which account for only 3 to 6 per cent of Twitter users, or tweets with hashtags, which yields vast numbers of tweets without certainty of the users' location.

The new approach was deployed to study the impact of the deadly gun violence at University of California-Santa Barbara, Northern Arizona University and Oregon's Umpqua Community College.

Followers of local Twitter accounts were identified, and the tweets of these likely community members were then downloaded for data analysis.

In the study, the team compared negative emotional expression via Twitter by people in the impacted communities and those in three matched control communities shortly before and after the campus killings.

Despite variations in the severity of violence at the colleges, results showed similar patterns of increased negative emotional expression in the post-event tweets from those in the affected areas, while tweets from those in the matched control locales exhibited no change in negative emotional expression during the same period of time.

The study features in the forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Methods.

IANS
tech2 News Staff

Sometimes, they look like puppies, and at times they look like ice cream. We are talking about Uber's car icons that most of time look a bit dull and boring on the maps page that most of us end up staring at when we are hunting for ride. Today, however, the company has given every customer in India a reason to smile, as the cab hailing service has switched its cars with shuttlecocks to celebrate PV Sindhu's silver win at the Olympics!

After breaking record books as India's first ever badminton player to win a silver at the Olympics, PV Sidhu indeed has another reason to smile, because it's shuttlecocks all over the famous cab hiring app, Uber. The cab hiring company decided to put things down in their own subtle way when the company switched from cars to shuttlecocks on its mobile apps today.

https://twitter.com/Ranjan_Nayak/status/766856677849116672

Riders who will open the app today will see shuttlecocks floating about on the booking screen (which shows a map) instead of the usual cars.

While many are able to see the shuttlecocks driving about on the map, our best guess is that the update is rolling out gradually, so it may not be visible to everyone instantly.

The gesture from Uber would be one of the many reasons for her to smile as a big Rs 1 crore cash reward (Telangana government) and a BMW car will also be handed to her when she arrives back in India.
About Me Common Ills We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting. This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists. View my complete profile

Blog Archive
Bashundhara Shopping Mall fire under control

Dhaka, Aug 21 (UNB) - The fire that broke out at Bashundhara City Shopping Mall in the citys Panthapath area on Sunday morning was brought under control, nearly nine hours after it broke out.



Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan said they brought the fire under control around 8:50 pm.



Some 150 firefighters, assisted by firemen of Bashundhara City Shopping Mall, struggled to douse the blaze, he said.



A total of 70 shops out of 100 on level 6 were completely or partially damaged in the fire, the DG said, adding that the firemen were carrying out dumping breaking the shutters of every shop.



They are still not sure about the reason behind the fire, Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan said, suspecting it might have originated from a ceiling of a footwear shop.



Meanwhile, a five-member probe body, headed by deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence Ajit Kumar Bhoumik, was formed to look into the incident, he said.



The committee was asked to submit its report within five working days, the DG added.



No one was injured or killed in the fire incident and all of 19 trapped people were rescued from the complex, he added.



The fire broke out on level 6 of the market around 11:30 am, said fire service control room sources.



Masud Ranaa, a shop owner of the shopping mall, said the fire originated from a footwear shop, Khandaker Show.



Talking to reporters, director (operations) of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters Major Shakil Neowaj said the fire could not spread from level-6 to other floors but it engulfed 7-8 showrooms of the floor.



Weve taken all kinds of steps so that the fire cant spread to other floors, Major Shakil said.



General manager (HR/admin) of Bashundhara City Development Limited Major (retd) Mostafa Rahel Imam said, The fire broke out from a footwear showroom. Its just an accident. The fire couldnt spread to other floors as our employees took prompt primary steps to douse the blaze.



Sohel Rana, a security guard of the complex, said over 10,000 people, including owners and employees, work at 2,600 shops in the Bashundhara City Shopping Mall.



Talking to reporters, Bashundhara City Shopping Mall shop owners association president MA Hannan Aziz claimed that the extent of loses from the fire would go up to Tk 50 crore as some 100 shops of the level-6 were damaged.



He also said they could not dismiss the possibility of sabotage behind the fire as law enforcement agencies had earlier advised us to stay alert.



Bashundhara City Shopping Mall chief security officer M Latif Hasan said the market might not open before Wednesday.



Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq visited the spot.



Responding to a question from reporters about recurrence of fire incident in the shopping mall, the mayor said they will carry out investigation into the incident.



Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Tejgaon Division Biplob Kumar Sarker also visited the spot.



Earlier on March 13, 2009, seven employees of the shopping complex, including its own firefighters, died in a fire incident in the shopping mall.



Besides, another fire broke out at the shopping mall on August 24, 2009.
MBBS admission test Oct 7, BDS on Nov 4

The admission tests for medical and dental colleges for the 2016-17 academic session will be held on October 7 and November 4 respectively as the government has decided not to take combined exams for the MBBS and BDS course this year. Besides, the candidates must have at least a combined GPA of 9 in SSC and HSC examinations to apply for the admission tests. Candidates having a combined GPA of 8 could take part in the medical and dental admission tests previous years. The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Health Ministry on Sunday with Health Minister Mohammad Nasim in the chair, senior information officer of the ministry Parikshit Chowdhury told UNB. The minister directed all concerned to conduct the admission tests transparently. The 100-mark one-hour multiple choice question (MCQ) examinations will be held at different centres across the country. According to the Health Ministry, there are 3,729 seats in 36 public medical colleges, while 6,155 in 64 private medical colleges for the MBBS course. Besides, nine public dental colleges have 635 seats for the BDS course while 24 non-government dental colleges have 1,385 seats. The results of Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations of 2016 were published on Thursday. The average pass rate was 74.70 percent this year, and a total of 58,276 students secured the highest Grade Point Average (GPA-5). -- Dhaka, Aug 21 (UNB)
Ctg journos vow to continue crusade against militancy, terrorism

Chittagong Bureau :

Chittagong journalists on Saturday vowed to continue their war against militancy and terrorism across the country. They said a vested quarter wants Bangladesh as a dysfunctional country through terrorism, militancy and brutal killing but their dream would not be fulfilled in this holy soil.

"The mass media must show zero compromise against militancy and communalism in order to protect democracy, advancement and sovereignty of the country", the said. The journalists said this while addressing a rally and human chain against militancy held at Chittagong Press Club (CPC) premises.

As a part of the programme of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Chittagong Union of Journalists (CUJ) organised the rally and human chain with CUJ president Reaz Haidar Chowdhury in the chair.

Addressing the rally the journalists urged the guardians and educational institutions to look over the movement of their children and students so that they cannot be misled.

Conducted by CUJ Joint-Secretary Swarup Bhattacharya, the rally was addressed, among others, by vice president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Shahidul Alam, BFUJ joint Secretary General Tapan Chakoroborti, CUJ General Secretary (GS) Mohammad Ali, former CPC president Ali Abbas, Senior Vice President Abul Monsur and Joint Secretary Chowdhury Farid, former CUJ president Mostak Ahmed and former CUJ GS Nirmol Chandra Das.


Dolphin Computers signs deal with SSL Wireless

Dolphin Computers Ltd a sister concern of Daffodil Computers Ltd (DCL) signs a deal with SSL Wireless recently in the city on online Payment Gateway services. Md. Sabur Khan, Managing Director of DCL and Saiful Islam, Managing Director of SSL Wireless has

Economic Reporter :

Recently an agreement of Online Payment Gateway has been signed among Dolphin Computers Ltd. a sister concern of Daffodil Computers Ltd. and SSL Wireless, said a press release.

For the reason by using SSL Commerce's Online Payment Gateway, Dolphin Computers Ltd. will be the largest online seller of Computer and Electronic product like- Laptop, Desktop, Computer accessories, gadget etc.

According to the agreement very soon customers will be able to buy products in online from Dolphin Computers Ltd. by their Debit/Credit Card or through Online Banking sitting at their home.

Md. Sabur Khan, Managing Director of Daffodil Computers Ltd. and Saiful Islam, Managing Director of SSL Wireless has signed the agreement in the Head Office of Daffodil Group.
Could human rights protections reverse the prevailing cruelty?

Rami G Khouri :

Week after week, year after year, the endless stream of cruelties and occasional barbarism across the Middle East seems only to widen and deepen.

Routine criminal deeds using barrel bombs, chemical weapons, starvation sieges, shooting of children, torture and rape, mass imprisonment, destruction of hospitals and schools, and death by drones and missiles are committed by all actors in the region, including governments, rebel groups, foreign militaries, ethnic militias, and criminal gangs.

Innocent civilians pay the heaviest price. The rule of law and its global human rights and international humanitarian law protection remain elusive, with no serious signs of either deterrence or accountability measures to stop the atrocities.

Even in quiet or wealthy lands untouched by war, tens of millions of people suffer the indignities of political powerlessness, socioeconomic vulnerabilities, and rampant discrimination.

Inside Story - Who's to blame for the worsening refugee crisis?

The temptation to despair is great, yet the nearly 400 million people who live in Arab countries have nowhere to escape to, and must keep seeking the path to stability and equity.

International development experts in the United Nations system and its thousands of non-governmental partners see three critical pillars that underpin stable, secure and satisfying societies and countries: peace and security, development and humanitarianism, and human rights. Instead of just cursing the madness and cruelty all around us, I decided to ask some experts whom I respect how one day we can reverse the worsening conditions and growing atrocities in the Arab world.

I went first to the person who is charged with promoting global human rights compliance in our world.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, is a Jordanian prince and seasoned diplomat whose assessment of such sensitive issues over the years I had always found clear, useful, and truthful. I met him in Geneva recently.

Protecting the fundamental freedoms and rights of your citizens is the way to create an antidote to the extremists and their thoughts. Using counterterrorism measures against journalists, activists and politicians to achieve a narrow political aim and consolidate your power base and authority is counterproductive. Should ordinary citizens anywhere expect the UN system to provide practical assistance, or have even just a glimmer of hope that one day soon we will emerge from this nightmare of human cruelty and return to orderly, secure societies, I asked him. "We see two countervailing trends at the same time," he told me. "There is growing acceptance of universal norms on issues such as child rights, women, minorities, LGBT, and torture, but some countries take exception to some norms - like sexual and reproductive rights, LGBT communities, and minorities - and say they need more time to overcome cultural resistance.

"Some states also sign the human rights agreements, but do not enforce them seriously. Our message to them is simple and clear: 'What can you say to others who deny your citizens' rights, if you also deny rights to your own minorities and vulnerable groups?' One area of progress is offering no amnesty after a peace agreement for those who have been accused of war crimes, and ensuring that those who violate human rights on a massive scale must face their victims in a court of law one day. "Frustratingly slow but real signs" of such progress include the sentencing of former officials of Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On the negative side, he points out, were "the devastating consequences" of giving former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh amnesty when he stepped down in 2012, which "was intended to foster stability, but backfired horribly".

Turbulent conditions in the Middle East

So what does this mean for Syria, Yemen, Libya and other conflicts, I asked? "Accountability must be institutionalised in post-conflict transitional justice arrangements," he said, otherwise tensions from deep-rooted grievances will persist, and people will commit atrocities without fear of being brought to court. In the current turbulent conditions in the Middle East especially, he regularly criticises states in the north and south for overreacting in hysterical ways to existing security or refugee conditions.

"Protecting the fundamental freedoms and rights of your citizens is the way to create an antidote to the extremists and their thoughts. Using counterterrorism measures against journalists, activists and politicians to achieve a narrow political aim and consolidate your power base and authority is counterproductive; it often fans the very thing governments say they want to remove from society, including intolerance, incitement to hatred, violence, assorted phobias, and deep racism. This is evident everywhere in the world, including some Middle Eastern societies.

He regularly speaks out about these issues forcefully and frankly. At the UN Human Rights Council's June session he warned against harsh action by specific European, Arab, Asian and African states alike.

He does not shy away from warning about the damage caused by human rights regressions during specific events, such as the war in Yemen, the policies of the Philippines' new President Rodrigo Duterte, Donald Trump's statements, or post-coup measures in Turkey.

Human rights for all

"Better human rights conditions will emerge from closer coordination among the four levels of activism and official responsibility in this field," he says: governments, state and regional non-governmental organisations, and the UN system.

In the final analysis, he adds, "human rights must be consequential for individuals everywhere, in villages, on the border, in the capital and throughout society. We have to keep fighting the tendency by some governments and others to treat human rights as window-dressing in their laws, treaties and rhetoric, without showing any perceptible change at the level of a citizen's life."

Human rights protections under the rule are directly related in two ways to the current wave of violence, abuses, state fragmentation, and refugee flows.

He suggests "human rights observance is the glue that binds the citizen-state relationship that is absolutely fundamental to the legitimacy of the state. The Arab uprisings of 2011 started in the two states - Egypt and Tunisia - that were well on track to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

"It is clear that beyond material conditions, citizens also must feel they are treated with dignity and have a say politically in the direction of their country."

Better human rights protections would also reduce the flows of desperate displaced people and refugees.

"If the world had invested in improving human rights conditions in the refugees' home countries, and reduced the insane disparities, deprivations and discrimination they faced, we certainly would not have the current refugee flows, human suffering, and underfunded responses," he suggests.



(Rami G Khouri is a senior public policy fellow at the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut and a non-resident senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy).
Bombing at Turkey wedding party kills 50

In Gaziantep, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting \'Allah is great\' as well as slogans denouncing terrorist attacks.

Reuters, Gaziantep :

At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 km (25 miles) from the Syrian border.

President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and from Syria.

Just weeks ago, Erdogan and his government survived an attempted coup, which Ankara blames on U.S.-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Islamic State has been blamed for other attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions, and the deadliest previous one was last October at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists in Ankara when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people.

Saturday's wedding party was for a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, it said, and the groom was among those injured. The bride was not hurt, one local official said.

Celebrations were ending at the traditional henna night party, when guests have decorative paint applied to their hands and feet. Some families had already left when the bomb went off but women and children were among the dead, witnesses said. Blood and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit. Women in white and checkered scarves cried, sitting crosslegged outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives. "The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

The local governor's office said in a statement 50 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

"We want to end these massacres," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We are in pain, especially the women and children." Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, some weeping at coffins draped in the green color of Islam, local television images showed. But other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were

blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

In Gaziantep, the chief prosecutor's office said they had found a destroyed suicide vest at the blast site.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June.

Violence has also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed the PKK.

Turkey began air strikes against Islamic State last July, in the weeks after a peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targeting PKK targets in northern Iraq.

Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shelling from Islamic State territory, killing civilians on some days.

On Sunday, ruling AK Party lawmakers as well as Erdogan himself emphasized that they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organizations.


Suspended NSU teacher Gias gets bail

Court Correspondent :A court here on Sunday granted bail to Prof Gias Uddin Ahsan, suspended Dean of the North South University's School of Health and Life Sciences, and two others arrested for not keeping tenant information and renting out their houses to Gulshan attackers.Metropolitan Magistrate Sabbir Yeasir Ahsan Chowdhury passed the order after hearing bail petitions.The two others who secured bail are Gias Uddin's nephew Alam Chowdury and Nurul Islam, a schoolteacher of Mirpur area. Meanwhile, the court also granted another petition filed by inspector Humayan Kabir of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Unit (CTTU) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) for acquitting the accused from charges under section 54.Earlier, police submitted a report under section 176 to the court which turned into a case. According to the case statement, the accused did not give any information of the tenants to police during renting the flat. If they would have given the information of the tenants to police, incident of Gulshan attack kind could not occur.Meanwhile, North South University authorities suspended its teacher Prof Gias Uddin Ahsan who was arrested on charge of hiding information of his tenants who turned out to be Gulshan cafe attackers.On July 16, police arrested Gias Uddin Ahsan and Alam Chowdury, Mahbubur Rahman Tuhin, manager of the building, from different parts of the capital for not keeping information of their tenants who had involvement in the Gulshan terrorist attack.On July 17, police arrested Nurul Islam, a house owner in the city's Shewarapara area, for renting out his flat to Gulshan attackers and not keeping their information. On July 1, gunmen stormed the cafe and took guests and employees hostage. Twenty bodies, including nine of Italians and seven Japanese nationals, were recovered from the crime spot the following day. The crisis ended following an army-led joint forces' operation - 'Operation Thunderbolt'. Two policemen and six militants, of whom one later appeared to be a staff of the Bakery who may not be involved in the attack, were also killed.
Gulshan attack mastermind stayed in Kolkata

He also JMB leader and killer of Prof. Karim

The mastermind behind the Dhaka cafe terror attack on July 1, who also murdered the English Professor Rezaul Karim at Rajshahi University, is Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leader Mohammed Suleiman, revealed a key Islamic State operative.

According to a Times of India report, Indian national Mohammad Masiuddin alias Abu Musa told the interrogators that the April 23 killing of the Professor and the July 1 terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery were linked to Suleiman. He further revealed that Suleiman had travelled to Kolkata two days after the Professor's murder and stayed at a hotel with his companion associated with the jihadi outfit and Islamic State, who is yet to be identified.

Meanwhile, security agencies are trying to find out whether the person staying with Suleiman was Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif alias Tamim Chowdhury, the chief of Islamic State (Bangladesh).

While Bangladesh has intimated that Suleiman and Tamim could be hiding in India, it has already shared photographs and details of the two with Indian security agencies.

Musa told top IB sources that the JMB leader Tamim works under a different name in Dhaka and was involved in the murder of the 61-year-old professor. Musa further told security agencies that Suleiman and another JMB man associated Islamic State met at Malda Station in West Bengal after which they went to Kolkata and stayed in a hotel there.

Agencies add: Top IB sources said according to Musa, the JMB leader works under a different name in Dhaka and was personally involved in the murder of the 61-year-old professor. The IS, through its media arm Amaq Agency, had claimed responsibility for the killing of the professor for "calling to atheism".

Suleiman and another JMB man associated with Islamic State met Musa in West Bengal. "They met me at Malda station. After that they went to Kolkata and stayed in a hotel there," Musa is learnt to have disclosed. Musa's revelations have given Indian investigators some food for thought as it appears that the Dhaka attack and Rajshahi killing masterminds were in India and possibly stayed for a while and planned attacks in India besides deciding on targets in Bangladesh.
BD-US talks on need-based security package

Staff Reporter :

The United States is discussing terms with Bangladesh government to offer a security package for countering terrorism and violent extremism.

"We've been refining our package and figuring out what we're going to provide. First of all what your government agencies need," US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat said on Sunday.

The Ambassador said this while talking to reporters at the Foreign Ministry after her separate meetings with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque during which they discussed bilateral relationship between the two countries.

When asked whether the US is pursuing any new agenda with Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat who had a number of meetings at the Ministry in the last couple of weeks, said there is 'constant evolution' more or less on the same agenda but new things come like blue economy and opportunities that lie.

Responding to another query, the envoy said they are, at this point, more or less talking about various requests they received from various agencies and what they are planning to do to respond to those requests.

The US Ambassador said Bangladesh and the United States have three prescribed talks and Security Dialogue is one of the things they are tracking.

"Again, there's no single point on the agenda. There're so many aspects of security cooperation. It's a very broad and rich agenda actually on the security side," she said while responding to a question on the upcoming security dialogue.

Bernicat said they also discussed the 71st regular session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) that will begin at UN Headquarters on September 13 and the sideline events.

She also talked about the potential of blue economy and how US investors can be attracted to come and invest here.

Bangladesh and the United States will discuss ways to further strengthen security cooperation between the two countries with specific focus on 'mechanisms to counter terrorism' in a better way and other new issues in the coming security dialogue, said Foreign Ministry sources.

The other current security issues, including military and non-military cooperation between the two countries will also be discussed in the fifth Security Dialogue, likely to be held in Dhaka in October.

Both sides are now working to finalise a date.

The security dialogue usually covers a broad range of topics, including strategic priorities and regional issues, security assistance, cyber-security, peacekeeping, military-to-military cooperation, and counter-terrorism, said the release.

Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, maritime and other related issues are likely to be discussed in the security dialogue, too.

On September 11, 2015, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Todd Chapman and Mizanur Rahman, Secretary (Bilateral & Consular), chaired the dialogue on security issues, held in Washington D.C.

The dialogue reflected the growing defence relationship with Bangladesh, and two countries shared commitment to peace and prosperity in the region.

The US side said they always look at what kind of training is required in strengthening counterterrorism efforts and countering violent extremism.


BD, UK working jointly to tackle terrorism: Blake

United Kingdom High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alison Blake on Sunday said the strong, friendly, multi-faceted and historic relationship between Bangladesh and the United Kingdom helps both the countries work together against global terrorism and extremism. "We are Commonwealth members and share a common set of values. We are working together to tackle the threat to security and remove the curse of global terrorism and extremism," Blake said.

The British High Commissioner was addressing the closing ceremony of a three-day photography exhibition titled 'Project London 1971: Unsung Heroes of Bangladesh's Liberation War', held at Shilpakala Academy.

She said, as a native Londoner, and as a child in 1971, this exhibition has a particular resonance for her.

"Yet these photos point to something at the very heart of our relationship. They show that Britain, and particularly but not just London, provides a home where the Bangladeshi national spirit flourishes," Blake said.

She noted that expatriate Bangladeshis in the UK had played an important role in driving the movement that led to the independence of Bangladesh. "And this spirit, passion, and pride in being Bangladeshi, continues to flourish today," she observed.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's first destination after his freedom from Pakistan jail was London.

The British diplomat said the photographs in this exhibition stand as testimony to the support the people of Britain for the independence of Bangladesh.

Former UN representative to Bangladesh Dr AK Abdul Momen was also present on the occasion.


Businesses, rights group urge BERC to abstain from verdict

Anisul Islam Noor :

Businesses and rights group have urged the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to abstain from giving verdict over gas tariff hike until the issue of imposing Supplementary Duty (SD) is settled.

BERC is now scrutinising after end of hearing on Thursday over the proposal of gas price hike submitted by seven gas distribution entities of Petrobangla.

They said, imposing of 40 percent SD and VAT on the sale of natural gas tariff is 'illogical', as SD is usually imposed on 'luxury or less-required' items to discourage their use. But natural gas is not a luxury item.

They emphasized to check gas pilferage and 'misuse' by the state-run gas entities, and ensure transparency on the use of public money, especially of Gas Development Fund (GDF).

BERC Chairman A R Khan assured them of taking any decision in this regard after scrutinising all proposals and opinions from experts and stakeholders. "I will not say that the tariff of natural gas will be hiked. BERC will not take any decision on the basis of emotion."

The Commission will announce its decision before press within the next 90 days, he said.

"As the BERC verdict is not appealable, we will analyse the impacts first before giving any verdict," the BERC Chairman added.

BERC member Md Maksudul Haque, however, said, "There will be a hike [a bit] for sure. And it might not be a burden for the people. We must be pragmatic."

On the concluding day of the public hearing, the state-owned Petrobangla and its subsidiaries - Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL), Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd (SGFL) and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX) - placed their respective proposals to raise bulk tariff rate of natural gas.

Petrobangla in its proposal said the price of natural gas, being purchased from international oil companies (IOCs), has almost doubled to Tk 8.759 per cubic meter (cm) from previous Tk 4.98 per cm, mainly due to imposition of SD and VAT on the IOCs' gas.

Petrobangla had not been paying VAT and SD to the government against the sale of natural gas, being produced by the IOCs before fiscal year (FY) 2015-16.

The government exempted the IOCs from paying VAT and SD through a statutory regulatory order (SRO) in 1993. But National Board of Revenue (NBR) termed it as an 'anomaly'. NBR lobbied with the government to collect SD and VAT, and succeeded after years of negotiation, said a senior Petrobangla official.

Opposing the gas tariff hike proposals Energy Adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Prof Shamsul Alam said, NBR has no authority to impose SD and VAT on the sale of natural gas.

He also opposed keeping GDF fund as Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) with banks instead of investing it for developing the country's energy sector. Prof Alam also sought action plan from the state-run gas entities to utilise public money.

Businessmen also opposed any further hike in natural gas tariff, saying that it will have adverse impact on industrial sector.

The government should consider tapping benefits from the growing export earnings instead of the earnings trough raising tariff, they opined. The public hearing started on August 7. In the tariff hike proposals, the state-run gas marketing and distribution companies sought to hike natural gas tariff at the similar rate - for metered domestic users to Tk 16.80 per cm from existing Tk 7.0 per cm, registering the maximum hike by 140 per cent.

For a single-burner stove, they proposed to increase the tariff to Tk 1,100 a month from current Tk 600, while for a double-burner stove the tariff as proposed will Tk 1,200 from Tk 650.

The state-run gas companies sought to raise natural gas tariff for captive power plants to Tk 19.26 per cm from existing Tk 8.36 per cm.

The tariff for compressed natural gas (CNG) has been proposed to Tk 49.50 per cm from existing Tk 27 per cm.

For power plants, the tariff as proposed is Tk 4.60 per cm from Tk 2.82 per cm. For fertilizer factories, the new tariff as sought is Tk 4.41 per cm against existing Tk 2.58 per cm.

The state-run gas entities have proposed to increase natural gas tariff for industries to Tk 10.95 per cm from existing Tk 6.74 per cm.

For commercial users and tea estates, the new natural gas tariff as proposed is Tk 19.50 per cm from Tk 11.36 per cm and to Tk 10.50 per cm from existing Tk 6.45 per cm respectively.

The country's energy regulator last raised natural gas tariff on an average by 26.29 per cent, which came into effect from September 1, 2015.
SC fines 10 medical colleges Tk 1 cr each

Staff Reporter :

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday fined 10 private medical colleges Tk one crore each for not complying with the enrolment rules of the government in admitting 153 students, who failed requirements during the 2014-15 academic session.

The 10 medical colleges are MH Samorita Medical College, City Medical College, Nightingale Medical College, ZH Sikder Medical College, AR Medical College, East West Medical College, Tairunessa Memorial Medical College, Aichi Medical College, Care Medical College and Ashiyan Medical College.

A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on August 10 directed the authorities of the 10 medical colleges to explain by August 21 as to why actions would not be taken against them for non-compliance of the rules. In case of default, the colleges would miss the enrolment right also for the session 2016-17. In its order passed on Sunday the court ruled that half of the amount would be given to the Dhaka University authority while the rest of the amount would be donated to National Liver Foundation and Kidney Foundation. The DU authority will open an FDR with the fined money and the accrued interest would be spent to give stipend to its underprivileged meritorious students.

The interest so accrued will be tax free. The ministry of health and the DU authority will oversee the order's implementation.

The MBBS and the BDS degree aspirants must have 120 marks out of 200 to be eligible for the enrolment. But the colleges authorities completed the admission a total of 153 students violating the benchmark. The DU authority traced the violation of the rules and decided not to let them to appear in the first professional examination.

The aggrieved students moved for a writ petition with the High Court against the DU decision and the court ordered to provide registration and admit cards to the students on June 13, 2015.

The DU authority moved with the Appellate Division against the High Court order. The SC issued the rule on August 10.


Storm lashes nine districts 12 killed, over 100 injured

Reza Mahmud :At least 12 people were killed and over 100 injured when a storm swept through nine districts of the country on Sunday. It caused damages huge to homesteads, trees and standing crops in the districts. The storm lashed the districts of Faridpur, Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Khulna, Bagerhat, Rajbari, Naogaon, Madaripur and Patuakhali leaving a trail of devastations to crops, houses and tress. According to Metrological Department, the adverse weather accompanied by tornado and heavy rains has disrupted public life seriously across the country. Meanwhile, the met office announced cautionary warning signal number three to the four seaports of the country. Our Faridpur correspondent adds: four workers of a jute mill were killed and 50 others injured as the tin roof of the workers shed collapsed on them during the storm at Bakhunda in sadar upazila yesterday.Of the deceased, four were identified as Hazrat Ali, 55, Maloti Rani, 35, Jasim, 23 and Akash. The two other tornado victims -- Biren Sikdar was killed after a tree fell upon him at Jasim Nagar of the district town, while the other unidentified person killed at Krishna Nagar union of Sadar upazila of the district. Mamtaz Uddin, in-charge of Faridpur Fire Service, said the tin roof of a workers' shed of Zobaida-Karim Jute Mill crashed around 1:00pm during the storm, leaving four workers dead on the spot and 50 others injured. The injured were rushed to Faridpur Sadar Hospital, he said.Firefighting units from Faridpur, Bhanga and Boalmari rushed to the spot and were carrying out rescue operation. Storm also caused serious damage to Modhukhali upazila of the district. The storm caused power supply totally snapped in Faridpur, Gopalganj and Rajbari districts as the 33-KV line in the region was broken down because many big trees fell on the line in different places, Superintending Engineer of PDB Amjad Hossain told reporters.The PDB official said the restoration and repair of the transmission line has already started and it will take few hours to accomplish the task. The people of three districts of greater Faridpur are facing various hazards due to the stoppage of the power supply. In Cox's Bazar, six fishermen were killed and another went missing after a trawler capsized in the Bay of Bengal in Maheshkhali upazila due to the storm on Sunday.Four of the deceased were identified as Rahmatullah, 28, Tarek Ahmed, 32, Kabir Ahmed, 30, and M Ishaq, 33. They hailed from different villages of Teknaf, Maheshkhali and Sadar upazilas of the district.Sub-Inspector of Sadar Model Police Station Abdur Rahim said the fishing trawler with 14 fishermen sank in the bay near Sonadia Island around 3:30 am after it was hit by another trawler during storm.Seven fishermen managed to swim ashore while seven others went missing.On information, a team of Sadar Police Station rushed in and recovered the bodies of six fishermen from inside the trawler around 6:00pm while another fisherman remained missing still filing of this report around 8:30 pm, the SI said.In Munshiganj, at least 40 people were injured and 100 houses damaged as storm lashed Gaundia village in Louhajang upazila on Sunday morning.The storm swept through the village around at 9:25am and lasted for one minute.Sources said 40 people were injured as houses and trees collapsed on them when the tornado hit the village.Md Saiful Islam, deputy commissioner of Munshiganj, said the affected people have been provided with emergency aids.In Khulna, our correspondents said heavy rain and rough weather made the public life totally crippled. According to the meteorology office, 214 ML rains were recorded yesterday at 6:00pm. It is the highest record for last 50 years.The rain caused stagnant of waters across the city. The transportations were totally collapsed during the day. Our Bagerhat correspondent adds: Mongla Port has suspended all types of loadings and unloads from Ships. The port authority has stopped all operations due to the heavy rain and adverse weather. In Patuakhali, our correspondent said the heavy rain from the morning made the normal life crippled. District maritime ports stopped all vessels to operate. In Rajbari, tornado caused huge damage to many villages in Sadar and Baliakandi upazilas. The houses, crops and trees were damaged seriously. District relief officer ABM Rezaul Islam said, the UP chairmen has been directed to make list of affected families to give them relief.
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Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.

What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?

Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.

Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property  there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:

You get to see exactly what will happen to your money

When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.

Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.

A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.

You find out about potential major repairs

Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.

If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.

You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on

One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.

Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.

You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for

While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.

This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.

Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.

You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price

If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.

You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.

You can sell your home faster and for more money

If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.

In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.

Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.

Your home will hold its value longer

As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.

When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.

You can make smart decisions about property investments

Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.

If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.

There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.

If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage

If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.

They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.

You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors

If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.

For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.

You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition

Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.

You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.

Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.

As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
BENTON  State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, and some other state legislators blasted Gov. Bruce Rauner on Saturday for his veto of a bill that would have re-opened the Hardin County Work Camp.

The camp closed in January of this year, sending more than 60 employees to other parts of the state, creating an economic deficit in that area, according to the news release. The work camp opened in 1980. In June 2015, the governor announced the closing of the work camp as part of budget cuts, saying it would save $1 million annually and save on $9.8 million worth of repairs that needed to be done to keep it open, according to past articles.

In a news release, Forby and the others expressed their disappointment.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I shocked? No, Forby said. This governor doesnt give a lick about Southern Illinois. Hes just another snake oil salesman from Chicago. Closing down state facilities in parts of the state that truly need an economic boost just doesnt make sense."

Forby said this bill received bipartisan support because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understand the importance of the work being done at the camp and the economic impact to the surrounding communities.

"The only explanation I can come up with is, hes just a terrible governor," Forby said.

Also sharing his surprise was State Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg.

I was shocked that Governor Bruce Rauner single-handedly closed the Hardin County Work Camp, after Democratic and Republican lawmakers urged him to keep the facility open, Phelps also said in the statement.

Phelps said he worked with fellow legislators in both parties to pass legislation to re-open the facility.

"By vetoing the bill, our billionaire governor from Chicago once again demonstrated he doesnt care about communities in Southern Illinois and showed everybody how much is at stake in the November election and in 2018 when he is on the ballot again," Phelps said. "Southern Illinoisans will not forget.

State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, accused the governor of using his money to buy "legislative lapdogs" who would not defend the interests of Southern Illinoisans.

"Rauner's veto was a result of his obsession with annihilating organized labor and hurting union members, like those who worked at the Hardin Camp," Bradley continued. "Rauner hates unions because they fight for fair wages, decent benefits and safe working conditions for everyone, and in the private sector they demand that workers receive a fair share of the profits, which means less money for people like Rauner."

He went on to say that Rauner made his fortune at an investment firm that owned companies that profit from privatization of prisons and the probation system.

"Rauner may well be trying to dismantle and privatize our criminal justice system to financially benefit himself, his former business partners, and the wealthy individuals who fund his political activities," Bradley said.

A spokeswoman with the governor's office called the closing "a difficult but necessary decision."

"The Department was spending $3.5 million a year to keep the facility running, and the closure will save taxpayers $1 million annually," spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said in a statement. "No employee lost their job as a result of the closure, and the Department can continue to cut down on excessive overtime expenses."
CARBONDALE  Babe, Ive been shot. Go down to the hospital.

Who shot you? responds the female on the other end, Broderick Millers girlfriend, the mother of his baby.

Some man named Q, Miller responds.

This dialogue is as relayed in closing arguments by Jackson County States Attorney Mike Carr at the murder trial involving Millers death this past month, according to court documents.

Thats all she heard from him. Thats it. The end, Carr said, according to the court transcript.

Though he was transported to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale's emergency room in an effort to save his life, Miller, of Marion, died following that May 2015 late-night shooting incident in a hotel parking lot in Carbondale over what the state argued, according to court documents, was a marijuana deal turned deadly.

The state alleged that Quinten Bailey, 23, of Carbondale, lured Miller to the parking lot of the Comfort Inn for what Miller assumed would be an exchange of marijuana for cash. But Bailey had other intentions  to execute a contract murder on behalf of another inmate that ordered the hit as Millers payback for cooperating with police in an undercover drug sting, the state argued.

Baileys attorney, Gal Pissetzky, argued in court that Miller wasnt murdered, but rather killed by the accidental discharge of the gun. And not at the hands of his client, but one of the other men at the scene.

The jury found Bailey guilty of murder and robbery but acquitted him of the charges of possession of marijuana and armed robbery in verdicts entered on July 22. He faces a minimum of 45 years in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27.

Pissetzky said he believes that verdict is inconsistent, and said in an interview Friday he plans to file a motion for a retrial. Hes also challenging the fact that the state alleged a murder-for-hire scheme but no charges have been filed specific to that accusation.

But barring an overturning of this case in a retrial or on appeal, Bailey will grow old in prison, and another young Southern Illinois man is dead, leaving behind a child who will grow up without his father.

Bloody 2016

This fatal shooting in May 2015 was the only shooting incident this past year as reported by the Carbondale Police Department in response to a records request from The Southern Illinoisan. But 2016 would become far bloodier, at least in part related to drugs, according to city officials. Heres a few pullouts from the statistics provided of shootings in 2016:

 Through Aug. 1 of this year, 15 people have been injured in 14 separate shooting incidents, two of them fatally. Two people were injured, one fatally, in the same shooting incident on March 27, Easter morning.

 The first seven months of 2016 registered the most shooting injuries in a given year in Carbondale compared to any other in the past decade  and there are more than four months left in 2016.

 The year that registered the next-highest number of shooting incidents causing injury was 2010, when there were 10, all of them nonfatal.

 Since 2006, there have been 74 people injured in Carbondale in shooting incidents, with more than 20 percent of those injuries happening in the first seven months of this year.

 Of the 74 people injured in shooting incidents since 2006 in Carbondale, 10 of those were fatal. That averages to just under one fatal shooting per year in Carbondale.

 The shootings have occurred in various parts of Carbondale, though a commonality is that many shootings appear to have taken place inside or near rental housing.

 Ten of the 14 shooting incidents through Aug. 1 of this year occurred at night, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. The other four occurred in the late afternoon, between about 2:45 p.m. and 7 p.m.

 Arrests have been made in connection to four of the 14 shooting incidents thus far. Several warrants are outstanding in other cases.

 Nine individuals have been arrested in relation to those three shootings. They range in age from 17 to 24. Almost all of the individuals have out-of-town addresses. Two individuals are from Cape Girardeau, one is from St. Louis, and three were arrested in Kansas. One arrested suspect was identified as a Carbondale man. The hometowns of two juveniles arrested in connection with shooting incidents were not provided.

Violence not random

Carbondale Police Chief Jeff Grubbs said the police department is working diligently to put a stop to violent acts in Carbondale neighborhoods. I think its important that the community knows that we are out there making concerted efforts to keep them safe and to get these criminals off the streets, he said.

He also said the average citizen in Carbondale should feel safe despite the uptick in shooting incidents causing injury this year, noting that almost all of the incidents have involved disputes between acquaintances.

Theres very few random acts of violence that are occurring associated with these, Grubbs said.

Grubbs, who sat down along with Mayor Mike Henry and City Manager Gary Williams for an interview this past week with The Southern, noted that theres been a spike in violent crime across America. A Washington Post story in July titled, Yes, violence in America has suddenly increased. But thats far from the whole story noted that there has been an uptick this year in violent events  particularly high-profile ones such as the massacre at an Orlando night club and shootings involving police. But it also noted that, despite the increase, violence has overall been on a steady decline since the early 1990s.

Mayor Henry said that, to him, it seems theres a societal thing where the gun is a validation of your masculinity.

No one seems to have a handle on whats going on with it, where its coming from, why its become this way, Henry said. Someone noted after the Tim Beaty shooting that when we were kids, the guys would take a shower and comb their hair and spray on cologne and be good to go. Now, people are checking their weapons, making sure theyve got them with them. Theres something drastically changed in society, I believe.

Added Grubs: I think theres a growth in violence across America. I think theres a growth in people taking to guns as a first alternative to settling a dispute. Grubbs said that, to the best of his knowledge as it relates to all the gun incidents, only one individual has claimed to have had a valid permit to carry a concealed weapon, and Grubbs said that regardless, the individual still is alleged to have illegally discharged the weapon.

We encounter very few concealed carry permit holders, Grubbs said.

Though Grubbs said most of the disputes involving gun violence have been between acquaintances, others have been injured as part of these incidents. Police have said that Beaty, 41, a beloved fixture in the local punk rock music scene, was found unresponsive on March 27 in his home that is located next to where a party occurred on West Walnut Street in connection to the shooting incident.

Police said their investigation determined that Beaty was an uninvolved bystander who was not participating in the party next door. He reportedly attempted to aid students who fled the nearby house of the party when shots were fired.

Police have said that shots were fired inside and outside the house at 402 W. Walnut St., stemming from a physical altercation. Three people have been arrested in connection to this incident. Dwayne Dunn Jr., 21, of St. Louis, has been indicted on charges of reckless discharge of a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon. Dunns lawyer said he fired a shot into the air to disperse the fight. Two other young men, John Ingram and Travis Tyler, both 21, of Cape Girardeau, have been charged with first-degree murder. Both have pleaded not guilty and their cases are pending in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Little has been released about what led to the altercation and/or shooting incident that night at the house party. The Jackson County States Attorneys Office previously stated in a news release that Tyler and Ingram are accused of firing at Nehemiah Greenlee, who was injured in the shooting, and thereby caused the death of Beaty. Greenlees injuries were nonfatal.

Police continue to search for a fourth suspect, Daniel D. Holmes, 21, who is wanted on two arrest warrants, one in connection to the Easter shooting, and the other related to a shooting incident at Evolve apartments in downtown Carbondale, 710 S. Illinois Ave., two days later.

In that incident, police said a 19-year-old from Florissant, Missouri, was injured after he was shot once in the lower back. His injuries were nonfatal.

Grubbs said he could not discuss details of any of the specific cases that are pending, but said that one of the shootings in 2016 was reported to be about a girl, and another followed a card game that stretched into the early morning hours.

A police officer has also been shot this year in pursuit of a suspect, and an SIU student was shot during what police described as an armed robbery. Both men suffered nonfatal wounds.

Drugs fueling violence

Other cases are alleged to have involved drugs, Grubbs said.

Around half the incidents youre looking at in 2016, the lowest common denominator is drugs, and in particular cannabis, he said.

Grubbs did not detail which cases involved distribution of marijuana. Sources have indicated the shooting incident on July 31 in the 700 block of Robert A. Stalls Avenue, in which Carbondale police officer was shot during a pursuit, may have a connection to marijuana. Trey Harris, 26, a three-plus year veteran of the force, suffered a nonfatal gunshot wound to the face after police, responding to a call of shots fired late on Sunday, July 31, engaged in a pursuit of a vehicle fleeing from Robert A. Stalls Ave. at a high rate of speed. A suspect or suspects in the fleeing vehicle fired the shot that hit the officer.

Three men have been arrested and charged in Salina, Kansas, in relation to that shooting incident with conspiracy to commit capital murder: Alex Bryan Karcher, 22; Xavier Lee McCray, 22; and Xavier Everett Lewis, 24.

They are accused of agreeing to carry out contract murders on three individuals living in Carbondale: Judious Kizeart, Darien Williams-Wright and Robert Harris, according to the charging documents provided to the newspaper by the Salina (Kansas) Journal which has covered court proceedings of the accused in that state. Law enforcement has not said whether they believe one or more of those suspects fired shots in the direction of police. One of the arresting agencies of the suspects was the I-135/I-70 Drug Task Force, further indicating the alleged murder-contract scheme may have been drug related.

The Kansas charging documents did not provide any more identifying information about the Carbondale-area individuals the suspects being held in Kansas are accused of setting out to kill.

There is Judious Kizeart listed with a Carbondale address in Judici.com court records. That individual is on parole related to a Class 3 felony conviction on July 2, 2013, of delivery of cannabis between 30-500 grams, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Kizeart turns 23 on Monday.

He was originally sentenced to probation, but that was revoked on May 11, 2015. IDOCs websites states that Kizeart was an inmate at the Vienna Correctional Center until his release to parole in April. The newspaper was unable to locate records related to the other two, Williams-Wright and Harris.

The only other fatal shooting incident in 2016 resulted in the death of David Stockstill, Jr., 28, who listed addresses of both Carbondale and Ullin, according to police. Officers responded about 2:45 p.m. on Feb. 1 to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale in reference to a gunshot victim, the department reported. He died two months later at a hospital in St. Louis where he was being treated for his injuries. No arrests have been made in connection to this case or warrants issued, but it remains an open homicide investigation, Chief Grubbs said.

Little information has been made available about the case involving Stockstill. Two family members declined interviews. His obituary stated that he accepted Christ at a young age and rededicated his life to God while hospitalized. It also described him as a hard worker who was quiet and very serious about any job he took on but was well-liked and never complained. David was always willing to go the extra mile to complete a task, no matter what the task was, the obituary read.

Police have not named a potential motive in his alleged homicide, nor have they said whether they believe it was tied to drugs. According to Judici.com records, Stockstill was convicted on May 10, 2013, of delivery of between 500 to 2,000 grams of cannabis. At the time of his death, he was free on an 18-month conditional discharge related to that crime, according to court records.

Shootings over marijuana?

Could this much bloodshed in Carbondale really be over marijuana?

Let that theory sink in. If thats the case, that would mean bloodshed and lives ruined over a substance that 25 states, including Illinois, have legalized in some form, the vast majority for medical purposes. Four states  Alaska, Oregon, Colorado and Washington  as well as Washington, D.C., also have legalized marijuana for medical use.

That would mean bloodshed over a substance that is grown legally in a state-sanctioned cultivation center near the Southern Illinois Airport only a dozen miles or so from where some of these shootings with possible ties to marijuana occurred.

Further, many states  again, including Illinois  have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Gov. Bruce Rauner did so for Illinois on July 29 when he signed into law Senate bill 2228, removing criminal penalties in favor of a fine ranging from $100 to $200 for anyone busted with 10 grams or less. Thats a punishment roughly the equivalent of a speeding ticket. It would not result in a criminal record.

Stephen Komie, a Chicago-based defense attorney and a member of the legal defense committee associated with NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), said it would be exceedingly unusual if there was a violent spat playing out in Carbondale related to the trafficking of marijuana.

While Komie said violence is common in the distribution of other drugs  such as heroin and cocaine  he said marijuana trafficking, albeit illegal, is generally an activity that nonviolent people participate in. He said most of his clients  primarily of middle-age  facing marijuana trafficking charges are people who lost homes or jobs during the economic downturn and need a way to get back on their feet. He believes that marijuana should be legalized at the federal level, and said that would take any criminal element and potential associated violence out of it and allow states to capitalize on the sale and distribution.

Ive been telling the governor that he ought to do something about getting more sales tax in the state from things like marijuana because it could fund us out of this pension problem, he said, noting the states debt problem.

Still, Komie said he would have a hard time believing that violent acts in Carbondale could be related to the business of supplying Carbondale, a college town, with marijuana.

I think the hypothesis of the police chief is mistaken, he said. It defies statistical evidence. Theres a big difference between cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Marijuana people are usually nonviolent people and they have no arrest sheets for domestic violence or any of that stuff.

But Grubbs said he believes that marijuana, along with other drugs, but primarily marijuana, is a contributing factor to the escalation of shooting incidents involving injuries in 2016.

Certainly, when you look at what the national trend is in decriminalizing marijuana, and in calling it a drug that is not associated with or does not have violent offenders behind it, I would argue that is absolutely not an accurate statement to make or a position to take, Grubbs said. Because that is again, in about half of our incidents, thats whats driving this, is people who are engaging in at-risk behaviors, typically late at night, and in the early morning hours, and its typically drug or alcohol related.
For the 29th consecutive year, the Regional Medical Center has offered area students the opportunity to gain practical experience in a hospital setting through the Summer Enrichment Program sponsored by the RMC Auxiliary.

We are grateful to the RMC Auxiliary for making the Summer Enrichment Program possible. It is important to foster the minds of the young people in our community and help them gain knowledge about healthcare professions, said RMC Vice President Strategy and Compliance Brenda Williams.

For six weeks, each student works 20 hours a week and receives a stipend of $900 for the program duration. Students receive the opportunity to experience direct patient care, interact with physicians and nurses, learn about the many hospital departments, and are encouraged to focus on specific disciplines of healthcare that interest them during the program. Students must meet academic criteria to be accepted, and must have declared a healthcare or healthcare-related major.

Two recent graduates of RMC's Summer Enrichment Program received scholarships toward pursuing healthcare careers. Sarah Gates was awarded the 2016 H. Filmore Mabry Scholarship for $1,500. Gates will attend the University of South Carolina Aiken with plans to major in biology. Olivia Winningham was awarded the 2016 Dr. Irene Myers Scholarship for $1,500. Winningham will attend the University of Alabama in the fall and plans to obtain a nursing degree.

All participants of the SEP were eligible to apply for the Mabry Scholarship and the Myers Scholarship. The scholarships were awarded to the two students who best met established criteria and completed the 2016 Summer Enrichment Program.
South Carolina State University will conduct its summer Commissioning Ceremony, inducting three cadets into active duty for the U.S. Army.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Aug. 26 and will be held in the auditorium of the Engineering and Computer Science Complex.

The soon-to-be second lieutenants will join the more than 2,100 commissioned officers produced by the S.C. State Bulldog Battalion. The cadets to be commissioned are:

2nd Lt. Alicia (Passmore) Portee

Major: Mathematics

Branch: Active Duty/ Ordnance Corps

Assignment: Fort Campbell, Kentucky

Hometown: St. Matthews

2nd Lt. Takeya McHaney

Major: Biology

Branch: Active Duty/ Engineer Corps

Assignment: Fort Hood, Texas

Hometown: Abbeville

2nd Lt. Mark Dorsey Jr.

Major: Political Science

Branch: Active Duty/ Adjutant General

Assignment: Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Hometown: Beaufort

Lieutenant Colonel Tia L. Benning, an alumna of S.C. State, will deliver the commissioning address and administer the oath of office.

Benning commands the 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade in Fort Stewart, Georgia. Over the course of her 21-year Army career, Benning has served time with the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and held positions to include platoon leader, network operations officer, executive officer to the deputy G-3/5/7 at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and signal corps active component majors assignment officer at Human Resources Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky. Her deployments include tours to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

She is the recipient of awards and decorations such as the Bronze Star Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and NATO Medal.

She earned a bachelor of science degree in the field of psychology from S.C. State and a masters degree in psychology from the University of Phoenix.

Benning is married to her battle buddy of 21 years, Sgt. Master David Benning, and they have two daughters.
DENMARK  Dr. Gerald Wright, mayor of Denmark, presented a plaque of appreciation on the citys behalf to the Masonite Corporation on Monday.

The plaque was presented to Masonite Safety Manager Gloria Carson and Human Resources Manager Elizabeth Good.

Wright told the representatives from Masonite, We have been fortunate to have a major player in the economic condition of this area.

He stated the company has contributed to the job growth in the City of Denmark.

The presentation was made at the start of city councils meeting. Less than half of the council members were in attendance so no decisions could be voted on during the meeting, and only information was presented.

McDonald Law, an architect from Aiken, gave a presentation on a new proposed town hall, but no decisions could be made.

According to records obtained from the City of Denmark, the new city hall is proposed to be located at the intersection of Beech and City Hall streets. The estimated cost is $600,000.

Rusty Munoz gave the financial report for August, which showed $258,273.67 in revenue and $80,420.45 in expenses for July.

Town Administrator Heyward Robinson reported that the city has been recognized by the Boys and Girls Club of South Carolina with certificates of appreciation for the summer intern program at Denmark City Hall. Two students interned at City Hall over the summer: Javonte Hughes of Denmark and Quincy Broughton of Bamberg.

He said the city ordered 10 new Christmas decorations, pole silhouettes and brackets for 2016 for Carolina Highway. The items were ordered in July for a 40 percent discount. The cost was $5,000.

The application for a Community Development Block Grant for streetscape improvements along one block of Highway 321 around the Dane Theatre area is underway and on schedule, Robinson said. Plans are for the work to be similar to recently completed improvements at intersections.

He added that the CDBG funds requested for the streetscape improvements were $500,000, and the citys match will be $58,008.

Robinson noted that the city is taking open bids at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, at City Hall for 6,480 linear feet of water lines, replacing two-inch diameter lines with six-inch lines, with five fire hydrants as well.

In other business:

 Kevin Peachey of the Denmark Fire Department said the department responded to 17 total calls since the last council meeting. There were two structure fires, four automatic alarm calls, two EMS assistance calls, six wrecks and two brush fires. The department also helped set up a landing zone for a medical helicopter.

 Police Chief Leroy Grimes said in July and August, the police department had 20 case files, including simple assault, burglary, bank teller machine fraud, larceny, theft, theft of a motor vehicle, vandalism of property, domestic violence and driving under suspension.

Grimes introduced Joseph Dingle, a new officer, during the meeting. He stated that two officers had recently left the Police Department.

He said that citizens need to turn off their cars when going in stores. The Denmark Police Department recovered at least three stolen vehicles because of citizens leaving their cars running and thieves driving off with them.

 Cedric Hudson next gave the Public Works Report, stating that they repaired 16 water leaks and performed state-mandated tests. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control performed a storm water pollution prevention plan inspection. The splash pad is now online.
As the arsenal of democracy in the world, the United States is looked to as a model of people deciding on their leadership. Elections are expected to be fair and honest.

Ensuring that America remains the beacon of freedom by way of its peoples votes is a priority. There can be no assumptions. Vigilance in protecting the election process is essential.

Today, we hear Democrats charge that Republican state leadership around the country is systematically trying to deny minorities the right to vote. At the same time, the GOP presidential nominee warns that Democrats will cheat to win the election of 2016.

Both parties and their candidates want to win  and they should. But neither should be supporting positions that undermine the electoral process.

If the motive of so-called voter ID laws is to shut out minorities rather than ensure that those who vote are legally participating in the process, then supporters of such law are wrong.

If those who contend anyone and everyone should be able to vote regardless of any circumstance, they are not concerned about honest outcomes.

There is a need for balance  with the answer, as with so many things, being found in the middle.

The nation needs a renewal of the Voting Rights Act to make clear that the law of the land ensures the right to take part in elections without regard to race, religion, ethnicity or any other such factor.

But the nation, and the states that conduct elections, also need laws to manage the electoral process.

Proper voter identification is not an exclusionary factor in voting  and no law should be so strict as to make it so. But there must be standards.

South Carolina has them. As the voter ID laws in other states are being rejected as discriminatory, South Carolina has a model that should be followed.

The statute requiring voters to present state-approved photo identification in order to cast ballots in elections and primaries was upheld by a three-judge federal panel.

Republicans were happy because the GOP-dominated Legislature had its efforts vindicated, with the judges finding no discriminatory intent behind the law. Democrats were happy because the law was, in effect, diluted.

The most important point: In virtually any instance, a voter will be able to cast a ballot, regardless of whether he/she has a photo ID. Judges made clear that ensuring just that was integral to their decision.

The law allows voters to show a state drivers license, ID issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles, S.C. voter registration card, federal military ID or U.S. passport.

But a voter without photo identification is not to be turned away. Any reason asserted by the voter ... for not having a photo ID must be accepted, unless false, and the ballot counted, the judges said.

A person who faces a reasonable impediment to getting an acceptable photo ID can vote by signing an affidavit, which will allow the vote to count unless someone proves to the election commission that the affidavit is false.

Among acceptable reasons for not having a photo ID: a conflict with work schedule, a disability or illness, a lack of transportation, lack of a birth certificate, family responsibilities, religious objection to being photographed and any other obstacle you find reasonable.

Other states laws that have been rejected by the courts are not as accommodating to people without photo IDs, and the court battles, as noted, are ongoing. Some states will reject South Carolinas leniency. Yet it would seem the Palmetto States law could show the way for the U.S. Supreme Court in making the final call.

The South Carolina law protects the right to vote for all as the election process advances toward identification standards comparable to those found in everyday life. At some point in the future, voters without photo IDs will be a rarity.

With the objective being to prevent fraud while ensuring that every person who wishes to vote can do so without impediment, South Carolina and the judges struck the right balance.
In his opening salvo as a candidate for president last June, Donald Trump said: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best  They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

The statement did not endear Trump to the millions of Americans of Mexican descent he would need to vote for him in the election in November. In fact, despite his obtuse protestations to the contrary  that Mexicans Love Me, Trumps poll numbers among prospective Latino voters have literally cratered. In response to his opening salvo and subsequent perceived slights against immigrants, record numbers of Latinos are registering to vote specifically in order to defeat Trump.

Trump reminds us that we do in fact have an immigration problem. There are more than 11 million illegal immigrants living and working in America, and a large part of those hail from Mexico, Americas Southern neighbor. Further, while there have been several high-profile crimes involving illegal immigrants, the evidence suggests that illegals have a far lower propensity to commit crimes than average American citizens.

The reasons for this are obvious: They want to stay under the radar. Many are fleeing crime, poverty and political oppression to arrive here and become marginal citizens. They reason that being a marginal citizen of America is far better than being a full-fledged citizen of their own country.

Trumps words also resonated among another segment of the public that views illegal immigration as a drain on working-class Americans. Illegal immigrants, their argument supposes, harm Americans by undercutting wages and burdening public services for which they do not contribute (their share of taxes to support).

Again, the evidence is somewhat mixed  wages paid to illegals by small businesses tend to make them more competitive, and it is estimated that illegal immigrants are net contributors to Social Security, since their wages are often taxed, but they cannot claim the benefit by reason of their immigration status.

So the real debate over immigration has very little to do with the propensity of immigrants from Mexico to commit violent crimes. Rather it is the cumulative economic and sociological effects of illegal immigration on Americas own workforce that is really at issue. But thats a complicated concept to explain in a sound bite. Alarm over Mexican rapists is much easier to digest for the average voter.

So, did Trump construe his opening salvo as a protest against the problems of illegal immigration, or in fact, as a coded racial attack against all people of Mexican descent in America. And that gets to the heart of this issue of whether Trump intends to be racist.

We are all familiar with dog-whistle politics and identity politics in this country. These tactics are used by both sides of the American political spectrum to drum up support for or against various causes. Democrats are certainly known to use the specter of civil rights abuses to drum up black votes; Republicans have consistently campaigned on the platform of law and order, using images of black criminals to scare voters into supporting more conservative policies. Republican operative Lee Atwater described what he called the Southern Strategy  a means of appealing to racial divisions without explicitly mentioning race.

Is Trumps appeal any different? In one sense, yes. Trump is more explicit about issuing blanket condemnations of races (Mexicans) and religions (Muslims) without the usual qualifiers that accompany such condemnations in polite speech. Many who support Trumps message say hes merely telling it like it is. That is, being blunt and forthright about matters that everyone is talking about in private, but no one wants to express openly.

But the other question we must ask is, even if Trump is merely giving public voice to private sentiments, should he do so? As a leader, is his job merely to voice some of the sentiments expressed to him in private by his supporters, or is it to shape and mold their views in ways that are constructive and engage the better animals of our spirits?

One has to believe that leadership requires character. The leader must understand the plight of the common man and woman but strive to elevate the discourse. Leaders must be deeply connected with the aspirations of those they seek to lead. But they must also voice such concerns with clarity about justice and civil discourse. In other words, leadership demands more of leaders than it does of followers. In the final calculation, good leaders must seek to advance not just one race at the expense of another, but the human race as a whole.

-----

Armstrong Williams is owner of Howard Stirk Holdings, which owns TV stations in Alabama, Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Flint, Michigan. He is the editor-in-chief of American Current See Magazine published by the Washington Times newspaper and was the Student Government Association president from 1979 to 1981 at South Carolina State University.
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This site focuses on Republican politicians and conservatives that rip off their constituency. We have the Tea Party, fundamentalist churches, the corruption of ALEC and other special interests groups. But the site also supports progressive Democrats and the local Democratic Socialist of America. We must have ideas on how to replace regressive and corrupt politicians with something better. For comments steveotto2001@yahoo.com or ottozero2001@yahoo.com.
By Trend

The domestic and foreign policy carried out by Azerbaijan shows that prejudiced approach to the country won't produce any results, Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, told reporters in Baku.

Mammadov also noted the biased approach of some international structures towards Azerbaijan.

He said that Azerbaijan, being a stable, secure country of the region, continues its own policy.

Often, the western circles, international structures and states showcase a biased position towards Azerbaijan, said Mammadov.

However later, he said, when they see this brings no results, they themselves start making approaches towards Azerbaijan, and this is what can be currently observed.

Mammadov noted the biased statements of some international structures, related to the executive secretary of the "REAL" movement, Natig Jafarli, which was arrested on suspicion of inflicting serious damage to state interests guarded by the law, which led to serious consequences.

"Such steps, attempts to interfere in domestic issues of our country, will never get any results," Mammadov said. "Better to stop with the double standards against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan, for 25 years, righfully and successfully follows its own chosen way, developing and strengthening international connections."

Mammadov further said that some international structures cannot accept the independent domestic and foreign policy of Azerbaijan. He added that Azerbaijan is not under control of any state, and this will never happen in the future.

Touching upon the latest developments in Armenia, Mammadov said that in this country one protest action follows another, rights of people are being violated.

The international organizations know about this, but they don't make any statements, don't state their position, and that is a double standard, said Mammadov.
Armenian armed forces have 7 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, Azerbaijans Defense Ministryreported on August 21.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the village of Barekamavan of Armenias Noyemberyan district, opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located on the nameless heights and in the village of Farakhli of Gazakh district.

Azerbaijani positions also underwent fire from the positions located near the Qarakhanbeyli village of the Fizuli district.

Moreover, Azerbaijani positions took fire from the positions located on the nameless heights of the Goranboy and Fizuli districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has expressed his condolences to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on August 21.

"We were deeply saddened by the news of a ruthless explosion during a wedding ceremony that resulted in heavy casualties and injuries in Gaziantep province.

We are extremely outraged by this horrible tragedy and other terror acts treacherously committed in your country, and consider it important and necessary to carry out a joint, consistent and resolute struggle against terrorism and all its manifestations.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deep condolences to you, the bereaved families, the loved ones of those who died and the brotherly people of Turkey, and wish the injured the swiftest possible recovery. May Allah rest the souls of the dead in peace!" said President Aliyev in his letter of condolences.
Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya said the blast was a terror attack and that there were injuries reported. Ambulances and police have been dispatched to the scene.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet ?im?ek said that the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

"The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said ?im?ek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament.

"It is barbaric to attack a wedding," he told Turkish television.

The blast took place in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighborhood of the city, while local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey. Reports suggest that 300 to 500 people were at the area when the explosion took place.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy ?amil Tayyar said that the attack was carried out by Daesh terrorist group.

Gaziantep borders Syria's Aleppo province, where intense clashes between Daesh and U.S.-backed SDF and opposition groups have been continuing for weeks in the towns of Manbij and Jarablous.

Four years ago on Aug 20, 10 people were killed and 66 others were injured in a car bomb attack carried out by PKK terror organization in Gaziantep. This coincidence also raised questions whether this date was specifically chosen.

Deputies of the province departed for Gaziantep after the blast, while Prime Minister Binali Y?ld?r?m instructed several ministers to depart for Gaziantep.
When the rubber meets the road! Hot Toys first generation muscle bodies are cracking up all over the place. This is the Hot Toys released 1:...
Dubai Wholesale City (DWSC), the largest global market for wholesale products, and a visiting delegation from the Spanish embassy in the UAE recently discussed emerging opportunities and key challenges in building synergies.



Abdulla Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Wholesale City, and senior officials from DWSC welcomed Victor Suanzes, Commercial Attache at the Spanish embassy in the UAE and Luis Cardenas Galvez, international trade and investment advisor at the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain in Dubai.



Belhoul provided the visitors with an overview of DWSCs vision and mission, as well as its strategic plans for short- and long-term development. Highlighting Dubai Wholesale Citys macro role as a global hub for wholesale trade, he outlined the key mandate of the newly launched city and the facilities provided to tenants. He also underlined its ambition to emerge as a major contributor to the UAEs economic diversification process.



The CEO also reiterated the importance of fostering collaborations between the public and private sectors in both countries in enhancing overall bilateral trade, economic and investment relations. He invited Spanish businesses and companies to benefit from the investor-friendly environment offered by Dubai Wholesale City that complements the state-of-the-art infrastructure, superior network of roads, ports and airports, and enabling regulatory framework of the UAE.



Pointing out that Dubai Wholesale City is keen to meet with Spanish businessmen, organizations and companies to leverage lucrative opportunities for existing and future partnerships, Belhoul said: We are pleased to step-up cooperation with Spanish companies. Spain is a unique trading partner for the UAE, and bilateral trade volumes are estimated at  2 billion per annum. The UAE is the most prominent center for re-export of Spanish products to the region.



Spanish businesses can take advantage of our integrated services and facilities to achieve tremendous growth locally, regionally and globally. Dubai Wholesale City serves as the ideal partner of choice in supporting these companies to achieve their business objectives, he added.



Suanzes asserted that the main aim of the Office for Economic & Commercial Affairs of the Embassy of Spain is to support Spanish companies working in various countries across the world and help them establish regional headquarters in strategically important areas. He noted that Dubai Wholesale City is a promising project that carries potential for tremendous future growth, and that the Office for Economic & Commercial Affairs is keen to collaborate with DWSC to strengthen trade and economic ties between Spain and the UAE.



The economy of Spain ranks 14th globally in terms of GDP, and is the fourth-largest economy in the Euro Zone. According to statistics issued by the Ministry of Economy in the UAE, the UAE accounts for 40 Spanish companies, 73 Spanish commercial agencies and 1,456 Spanish brands.



Set to span over 550 million sq feet once complete, with an expected development cost of Dh30 billion ($8.1 billion) over 10 years, Dubai Wholesale City aims to increase the UAEs share in the global wholesale trading sector.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the UAE's leading property markets, continue to be safe havens for global realty investors despite a downward trend in prices, says a report.



Though rents have seen periodic adjustments, the UAEs unique selling propositions such as a highly smart, diversifying economy, security of investment and the great promise of Expo 2020 will keep the real estate and its allied sectors thriving in the months to come, said the report from Bayut.com, one of the UAE's top property portals.



With average yields in July recording 5.6 per cent in Dubai and an attractive seven per cent in Abu Dhabi, ample interest from genuine investors remained in the markets.



Investment in Dubais real estate sector in the first half of the year crossed Dh57 billion ($15.51 billion), and there was encouraging news coming out of Sharjahs realty market as well - the city pulling in investment worth Dh12.1 billion ($3.29 billion) in the first six months of the year.



The real estate market in Abu Dhabi, as always, continued to lure investors with high rental returns on investment and a great promise of capital value appreciation, the report said.



DUBAI

In July 2016, Dubais real estate market remained strong with rental yields going as high as 6.5 per cent in select apartment categories. Overall, however, apartment rents were seen becoming more and more affordable with a total downward adjustment in July of two per cent. Average yield across all bed categories was recorded at 5.6 per cent.



The average rent for studio apartments in Dubai remained stable at Dh57,000 ($15,518) compared to the average studio rents in H1 2016. However, the average came down six per cent in a year-on-year analysis with July 2015.



The units returned an average rental yield of 6.3 per cent in July 2016, with the average rent for one-bed units recorded at Dh92,000 ($25,047) and rental yield hovering close to the 6.5 per cent mark. The average rent was seven per cent less in July 2016 than the average rent in H1 2016.



Two-bed apartments fetched owners Dh145,000 ($39,476) in July after a downward adjustment of three per cent. However, rental yield remained attractive at six per cent. Commanding Dh206,000 ($56,083), average rent of three-bed units remained stable when compared with H1 2016 values, and the rental yield was 5.4 per cent in July 2016.



The largest apartments, the four-plus bed category, returned an average annual rent of Dh304,000 ($82,763) in July 2016, exhibiting a two per cent drop in value from H1 2016. Average yield for these units was recorded at four per cent.



Top localities for renting apartments in Dubai (July 2016): 1. Dubai Marina; 2. Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT); 3. Downtown Dubai; 4. Bur Dubai; and 5. Dubai Silicon Oasis.



Top localities for buying apartments in Dubai: 1. Dubai Marina; 2. Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT); 3. Downtown Dubai; 4. Palm Jumeirah; and 5. Business Bay.



ABU DHABI

For the month of July, the average apartment rent in the UAE capital was recorded at Dh126,000 ($34,303) per annum, a six per cent downward adjustment from the average rent recorded in the same period in 2015. Still, the average rental return remained at an attractive seven per cent in July 2016, creating ample interest from genuine investors.



Compared to values calculated in July 2015, the average studio rent in Abu Dhabi dropped five per cent to Dh56,000 ($15,246) in July 2016, while rental values of one-bed apartments adjusted downwards by six per cent to Dh91,000 ($24,774). Two-bed and three-bed apartment rents fell to Dh129,000 ($35,120) and Dh172,000 ($46,826), respectively, registering decreases of four per cent and five per cent. The average rent of four-plus bed apartments also came down by four per cent to Dh247,000 ($67,245) on average in July 2016.



However, the drops in rental values were neutralised by the impressive yields (seven per cent on average) that the units in the capital offered. Studio apartments topped the yields chart by returning 7.4 per cent in July 2016, while one-bed and two-bed apartments returned yields of 7.3 per cent and 6.9 per cent, respectively. The average rental yield of three-bed apartments rose to 6.3 per cent, while the four-plus bed category returned an encouraging 5.5 per cent in rental yield during July 2016.



Top localities for renting apartments in Abu Dhabi (July 2016): 1. Al Reem Island; 2. Al Raha Beach; 3. Khalifa City A; 4. Al Muroor; and 5. Al Khalidiyah



Top localities for buying in apartments Abu Dhabi: 1. Al Reem Island; 2. Al Raha Beach; 3. Al Reef; 4. Saadiyat Island; and 5. Al Ghadeer - TradeArabia News Service
South Korea has revealed that plans are in the pipeline to send more trade missions to Qatar as part of initiatives to increase bilateral trade, said a report.



South Korea exported $674 million worth of heavy equipment, passenger cars, transformers, air conditioning units, electric generators, steel pipes and tubes, cellular phones, television sets, and tyres to Qatar in 2015, Korea Business Centre (Kotra) director general Jaehyun Shin, was quoted as saying in a Gulf Times report.



He added that during the same period, Qatar exported $16.4 billion worth of natural gas, petroleum, naphtha, aluminium ingot and scrap to South Korea.



Additionally, South Korean ambassador Heung Kyeong Park said that the impact of low oil prices had reduced the amount of trade between the two countries.



He noted that the embassy will send more trade delegations to Qatar to improve trade volume.
Iraq said on Sunday it had hanged 36 militants sentenced to death over the mass killing of hundreds of mainly Shi'ite soldiers at a camp north of Baghdad in 2014.



The executions were carried out at a prison in Nasiriya, a city in southern Iraq, state television quoted the Justice Ministry as saying.



As many as 1,700 soldiers were killed two years ago after they fled Camp Speicher, a former U.S. military base just north of Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, when it was overrun by Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group.  Reuters
His boss had said they would be fine, so thats what Josh Gibson told his wife and children, but seven months later, he was working a new job in a new city, driving a truck with a cartoon bulldog and his cell number printed on the windows.

His phone rang.

Ill have to call them back later, Gibson said, on his way to meet a woman who needed her Shih Tzu fully groomed and her mixed-breed dog neatly trimmed.

Hooked to the back of the 37-year-olds truck was a renovated horse trailer equipped with the essentials: doggy ramp, bath, clipping table and hair dryer.

He had spent his life in the oil industry, from rigs to welding to hauling chemicals. Now, he was the only mobile dog groomer in Casper.

Minutes before 11 a.m., he parked his trailer along the curb of Shelly Cohees house. Gibson walked to the front door and introduced himself, then crouched on the steps to meet his newest clients.

This is Lucy and thats Baile, Shelly said, her dogs sniffing the strangers hands.

Gibson reached to pet Baile, a 14-year-old Shih Tzu. She jumped.

Aw, I scared you, he said in a high-pitched whisper. And I didnt mean to. You must not hear very good.

Shelly wanted a full groom for Baile, including a trim, nail clipping and a bath. Gibson cradled the dog in his tattooed bicep, scratching behind her ears.

He walked the doggy ramp to his trailer and opened the door, placing Baile on the grooming table. He fitted her neck with a leash before turning on the propane-fueled generator, then grabbed his clippers and gently ran his hands through her thick summer coat. He paused.

The dog was shaking.

Stay right there, sweetie, he cooed.

***

Gibson was raised on a ranch in northern Colorado, where calving season and day-to-day chores took precedence over schoolwork and a social life. He discovered at an early age that he had a way with animals, setting his sights on a dream career: a veterinarian.

A veterinarian took care of animals, but once he learned the schooling required, he surrendered his dream for something else.

Oil.

Oil was never a passion of his, but it did provide.

I got the taste of making really good money, Gibson said.

At its peak, Gibson made $75,000 to $80,000 a year. But with the money came the stress. He worried about the price of oil. He moved from job to job, yearning for stability. His wife, Sabrina, who worked in the oil industry for eight years, always feared a bust.

I was terrified by the volatility of the ebb and flow, Sabrina, 39, said. When I was a child back in the 80s, I was born and raised in Wyoming, and that bust happened early and I remember it. I didnt want to experience that again.

In 2014, Gibson moved his wife and two children from Casper to Riverton to work at a chemical supply company. It was booming. Gibson worked 14-hour days as well as weekends, getting paid handsomely. But a year and a half later, rigs closed across the state and oil prices plummeted.

Thats when Gibsons boss told him not to worry.

Last winter, he was talking with his wife about work. She had recently accepted a job in Casper, and Gibson would soon follow once his son graduated from high school. Hed always wanted his own business, and with uncertainty clouding the oil industry, maybe it was time.

He enjoyed car detailing and liked the idea of opening a fish store, but Sabrina nixed both, especially the detailing, which would be a luxury service during a time when many in the state couldnt afford luxuries. Then, just as they were chatting, a mobile dog grooming truck drove by their Riverton home.

The two looked at each other.

A couple of months later, at the end of a pay period, Gibson was fired.

***

He groomed dogs in his free time. It eased his stress, and he was good at it. He happily trimmed friends and familys dogs for free.

Casper is home to many dog groomers, but nobody does mobile grooming. Gibson discovered this, but instead of pursuing the project, he found a construction job.

I was nervous to start my own thing, he said. Its that fear factor of failure and not being able to do something that the economy will handle.

The construction job lasted a couple of months. Gibson wasnt making enough money, and he wasnt happy. So he quit. He searched online and found a used horse trailer in Milwaukee renovated for dog grooming. He drove there and paid $6,500 cash  nearly all of the familys savings.

By May 1, his mobile business was ready. He coined it JABS, representing the first initials of everyone in the family. And the cartoon bulldog logo stamped on the side? Thats his dog, Sophie.

He drives around town, charging by size or work, hoping to find other people who share his love for dogs.

Dogs are like peoples kids. Theyll spend money to take care of their puppies, he said. And then theres the convenience side (of mobile grooming). Thats why we got into this. Its something where, even if the economy is down, people will still (pay for it).

Business started slow. He was barely making enough money to pay his bills, so Gibson found a second job as a custodian. He worked from 3 a.m. to noon, then groomed in the afternoon. All the while, Gibson grew his clientele. Eventually, he was booked four weeks in advance, and felt confident enough to quit his custodial job in mid-August.

He makes his own schedule, spending days doing what he loves and his nights with the ones he loves, a balance he never found in the oil industry.

This is probably the happiest Ive ever been doing anything, he said.

He earns enough to make his truck and insurance payments. But money is tight. Thats why hes concerned with the weather. In the summer heat, customers want their dogs fully groomed and de-shed.

But winter is almost here.

***

Balls of hair pooled atop the table as the groomer continued to trim. Baile, who was nervous at first, was now smiling and squinting as the stranger massaged her back.

Gibson moved like a sculptor, making a cut and then stepping back to observe. He was quick to transition, from electric clippers to shears, from trimming her face, feet and back.

If you spend too much time on one thing, the dog gets annoyed, Gibson explained. So I try to jump around a bit. Im not pressuring her to stay in the same position.

He clipped Bailes nails, holding her gently, and tested the water temperature before scrubbing shampoo and conditioner in her hair.

All right, he said in a soft voice as he dried her off. What do you think, baby?

It takes about an hour for Gibson to do a full groom. He finished drying Baile and brought her to the front door.

Does she look OK? Gibson asked.

Shes beautiful! Shelly said.

Next up was Lucy, a mixed-breed. Shelly just wanted a trim. Once again, the dog was nervous around Gibson, but eventually, she calmed. When Gibson finished, he walked the dog back to the front door.

Its $40 for Baile and $25 for Lucy, he said.

Shelly handed him a wad of cash.

I dont need change, she said.

Gibson scheduled another grooming while he was there. He returned to the trailer and cleaned it. He checked his messages, noticing four missed calls from 307 numbers. He counted the wad of bills.

$80, he said, smiling. I only charged her $65.

His goal is to make $200 a day, roughly the same as what he was making as a custodian. Thats about $35,000 a year. Hell do whatever he can to reach that number, even if it means picking up an extra job again.

Gibson drove toward his next appointment. Beads of sweat hung on his forehead. Today was a hot day, the kind of day where people want their dogs groomed.

But its already mid-August.

Honestly, I think Ill be fine this winter, Gibson said. I hope.
When Casper City Council awarded John Huff a coveted full liquor license on July 27, it couldnt have come at a better time for the Old Yellowstone Garage owner.

Huff bought the property on the corner of West Yellowstone Highway and South Elm Street in 2004 and spent six years fixing it up, planning to use it to show off his vintage muscle car collection. Aside from an annual Memorial Day car show that attracts hundreds of cars and thousands of visitors, that plan never quite worked out.

Instead, the old garage and car dealership has primarily been used to host a couple of paid events each week in addition to the weekly Rock the Block events during the summer.

But while Huff has enjoyed building out the garage and helping bring social events to the Old Yellowstone District, he said the oil bust increased the urgency of turning his side project into a profitable enterprise.

Huff is president of Sound and Cellular Inc., a national remote communication company based in Casper that helps connect rural drilling sites to the internet.

With the oil fields not doing so good, I got to rebuild my revenue stream, Huff said. My real job is  not worth a crap right now.

Huff said he had long considered opening a restaurant at the garage. He began to move on his plans when a new liquor license recently became available in Casper.

I didnt know if we had even a chance, honestly, Huff said with a laugh. We just hit the lotto.

His bid to the council was one of six compelling presentations, competing against plans to create a speakeasy-style lounge downtown, develop a riverside cafe and open a French bistro in the old Woolworths building.Huff is planning to open a bar and restaurant at the garage and held his first meeting with contractors on Thursday morning. Huff said he expects the bar to be partially ready by Oct. 1, with the restaurant to open next year. \

Unlike some of the other liquor license hopefuls, Huff does not appear to possess a passion for unusual cocktails or fine cuisine. Asked what kind of food the restaurant would be offering, he demurred.I dont know, he said. Hamburgers and potato chips or something  big old, greasy hamburger with bacon and cheese, avocado and pickles. Yum.

While classic pub fare may seem like a conventional use for one of Wyomings precious few liquor licenses  permits that retail on the secondary market for up to $300,000  Huffs main focus is on creating a welcoming atmosphere for patrons.

We dont want to have a meat market kind of bar, Huff said. I want this to be a destination for people who, maybe they want to have a drink and let their kids play out front and enjoy the music.

Huff thinks it is precisely his dedication to helping transition the Old Yellowstone District from a strip of rundown garages into a burgeoning social hub on the edge of downtown that persuaded council to give him the license.

The corner of Yellowstone Highway and Elm is a testament to Huffs work in the neighborhood over the last 12 years. Having worked at an AMC dealership in the neighborhood as a teenager, Huff recalled first being drawn to the building that is now Old Yellowstone Garage.

I always liked this place because of the architecture, the big curved glass front, Huff said.

After buying the garage and beginning renovations, Huff slowly started developing nearby properties. He repaved the parking lot across the street, fixed up a three-story brick building facing Yellowstone Highway, revamped and leased out a Skelly station and cleaned up a row of garages down the block from his flagship event space.We still want to do all our community events that weve built this place on, said building manager Garijo Brierley.

As for details surrounding the bar and restaurant, Brierley said they were working on creating a craft cocktails and craft beer menu. During his presentation to the City Council, Huff said he would draw more experienced restaurateurs to help develop a compelling menu.

Operating hours will be from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.Brierley said they expect to hire 20 to 30 employees to start. The liquor license allows for retail sales, and Huff said that while it was still in the early planning stages he expected to open a store selling packaged liquor at some point.But the priority for now is to get a community eatery up and running.

I just want everyone who lives in this town to feel comfortable coming and sitting down and having a drink, Huff said.
The large latex balloons will be filled with helium and released to ascend into the atmosphere, where they will grow until they burst.

As the balloons rise, cameras attached to them will capture and broadcast a solar eclipse that is set to cross Wyoming one year from now. The footage will be live-streamed to NASAs website.

The project is being coordinated by two University of Wyoming doctoral students, who will work with grade-school students throughout the state to deploy three weather balloons in Riverton, Casper and Glendo State Park. Central Wyoming is directly in the eclipses path and is considered one of the best places in the country to observe the celestial event.

You think solar eclipse, you think, thats an amazing opportunity that many people go their entire lives without seeing, said Phil Bergmaier, a doctoral student in atmospheric science. I know that its really neat and its something that is going to happen and is going to be coming across the entire country, so we might as well do something really cool with it and allow other people who arent in the U.S. to see it as well.

Katie Foster, the other doctoral student working on the project, will be running test flights until the time of the eclipse, she told the University of Wyoming Daily News.

The balloons will be sent between 60,000 and 100,000 feet into the atmosphere. Each balloon will have a Styrofoam payload box carrying the cameras, as well as GPS signals and sensors to detect humidity, pressure and temperature. The box will parachute to the ground when the balloon bursts.

The Wyoming weather balloons are part of a national effort to draw attention to the eclipse. Bergmaier and Foster are working with the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium. Other NASA Space Consortiums throughout the country are planning similar projects. Since the eclipse will cross the country, groups in each state will release weather balloons as it goes on a pathway across the United States.

I think its kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, said Shawna McBride, associate director of the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium. The last time an eclipse went across the entire United States was 1918, so it doesnt happen that often. Just watching that is pretty interesting. You can see how the moon completely blacks out the sun.

McBride said she hopes the weather balloons will encourage students to be interested in science.
JACKSON  Officials in Wyomings Teton County are already setting up management plans to prepare for a crush of 40,000 tourists, including people camping illegally, who are expected to swarm Jackson Hole next summer to see a total solar eclipse.

Jackson Hole lies in the path of the first total solar eclipse that will be viewable from the mainland U.S. in nearly four decades. The eclipse will occur Aug. 21, 2017, and will be visible from 12 U.S. states.

The last total eclipse over the U.S. happened on Feb. 26, 1979, and was visible from parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota.

Next years eclipse will happen during the busy summer tourist season in Jackson Hole, which borders Grand Teton National Park and is a gateway to neighboring Yellowstone National Park.

Illegal camping is going to be a huge issue with this, Teton County Emergency Management Coordinator Rich Ochs told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

He added: Hotels are already full, the ones that book this far out. People are coming here because its a once-in-a-lifetime event. Not getting a hotel room is not going to stop them. So were going to have issues  a lot of nuisance issues.

While Teton County isnt promoting the event like some other Wyoming cities, local officials know how attractive Jackson Hole during the summer even without an international event.

Its like running advertisements for a time when youre going to completely sell out, Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jeff Golightly said. Weve heard of hotels that sold out two years ago. There will be no bargains at that time.

In contrast, officials in Casper are promoting it as the best place to view the 2017 total solar eclipse.

Ochs said communities in and around Jackson Hole are already reserving anticipated extra needs, like portable toilets.

We already realized when were looking at getting resources for this event, we really cant look to our mutual aid partners to the east and the west because theyre having the same issue we are, Ochs said. Weve got to look north and south.

Grocery stores have also been advised to stock up on bottled water and gas stations alerted to keep their tanks full.
It is no secret that Wyoming is in the midst of a difficult financial crisis. It seems that every day we open the paper and read about additional layoffs, more budget shortfalls for our state and local governments, and more negative news about the status of our economy.

When over 70 percent of the states revenue comes from the natural resource sector, falling commodity prices hit all of us hard. Faced with these difficult times, it is more important now than ever that Wyoming promote policies and tax structures that allow our existing businesses to compete and provide good paying jobs in Wyoming.

If Wyoming is serious about diversifying its economy and providing some protection from the boom and bust cycles of our energy industries, it should look to the manufacturing sector.

For the last decade, growth of manufacturing as a percentage of state GDP has consistently outpaced other economic sectors and manufacturing industries have continued to grow at a faster pace than the overall private sector economy. This growth is in large part attributable to Wyomings tax structure that put Wyoming on an even playing field with neighboring states.

This tax structure allowed capital investment to be deployed in Wyoming and allowed us to be competitive with Colorado, Utah, South Dakota and other states. By growing the manufacturing sector, Wyoming is in a better position today than it would have otherwise been had it not decided to compete with other states for this business.

Key to the recent success of the manufacturing sector is the reduction in taxes applied to capital expenditures and equipment purchases necessary for the manufacturing process. Starting in 2004, Wyoming made the decision that it would match the tax policies in 37 other states, including all our neighboring states, and eliminate sales tax on those investments for productive capacity in Wyoming. All investments of any type of capital will be directed to locations where it can get the greatest return . By matching the tax policies of other states, Wyoming placed itself on an even playing field with those states.

Manufacturing companies can invest in Wyoming knowing they will no longer suffer from a tax disadvantage.

And, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. These tax policies worked. Investment is coming to Wyoming. This means more jobs for Wyoming families and in the end means more income for our state and local governments.

As Wyoming faces its budget shortfall, many are looking for ways to increase revenue for the state and local governments. One proposal has been to increase taxes on manufacturing and specifically to increase taxes on capital investments for manufacturing. Increasing taxes on business at this time is the exact wrong approach. If Wyoming is no longer competitive with other states, investments and most importantly the jobs associated with investments will go to other states. Now is the time to support our industries and help grow and diversify our economy. Shortsighted increases in taxes on manufacturing will stall growth of this important sector and hamper our ability to develop industries outside of oil, gas and coal extraction.
As a younger person, I went overseas as often as I could scrape together time and money. Middle age has not been as travel-friendly. It had been nearly a decade since I got a passport stamp. So, I put off home repairs, redeemed frequent flier miles and made plans. Armed with a new passport and a detailed itinerary, I found myself grinning in one dawns early light, striding up the walkway to board the first flight of the day  day one of my first international vacation in years.

While it rained my entire time in Iceland, it was the usual stimulating time of observation and discovery. I saw and did just about everything I wanted to, but along with the joy came a slightly melancholy realization: I am not the physically fit, boundlessly energetic overseas traveler I once was.

Europe on ones own is a lot harder when you are out of shape, older and technologically behind everybody else. Here, for your edification and amusement, are lessons gleaned from independent crossing of the pond after a long hiatus:

While you may arrive at your destination, your luggage may not. I went for 28 years not having an airline lose my bags. Unhappily, that record was broken upon landing in Reykjavik. Travel professionals tell you to be ready to face at least a couple of days without your stuff, and to keep your toiletries and prescriptions and camera in your carry-ons. This remains sage advice.

It is soul-sucking to spend ones first day in a new city/country at a shopping mall. When you are in a country where a simple windbreaker costs the same as a weeks groceries at home, you need to leave the main drag. Go to a tourist office and ask where ordinary people buy clothes. Not even people in Jackson need $825 down quilted pants.

In the past, I happily traveled incommunicado. You cannot do this abroad anymore. Hotels and restaurants email to confirm your reservations, and when you dont respond, said reservations are canceled. Also, if theres a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, folks at home will be frantic if you dont reach out to them. (Sigh.) Bring a smartphone and get a SIM card.

When you were 28 you could easily do four small museums in a day. When you are middle-aged you should stick to no more than two. And have a snack in between.

Keep your glasses handy because after 10 years your trusty-but-dusty European city street maps are illegible without them.

Driving in Wyoming you will see signs: Sheridan40 miles. Then you will see another, Sheridan10 miles. Finally you come to an exit clearly marked Sheridan with an arrow pointing to an exit ramp. Overseas you get one sign for Floderstykkisardivgunat, and its at the spot where you must turn. You miss the road to Floderstykkisardivgunat and dont have an opportunity to turn around for miles because (1) the roadbed is six feet above the surrounding rocky ground, (2) there are no shoulders, (3) there are no cross roads, and (4) your rental vehicle has the turning radius of a semitruck. At these moments, you hate your life. Have a map (and those glasses) handy. Chances are there is no alternate route to Floder, which you have finally abbreviated, but at least youll be able to figure that out before you run out of gas  sorry, petrol.

Europeans are curiously loath to honk their car horns, even when they probably should. People seem to be much more polite behind the wheel. Do your level best not to give them a reason to change this behavior.

Iceland has a swimming pool, spa or hot spring resort in every town. Visit at least one a day. There is nothing on the planet like sitting up to your neck in naturally heated unchlorinated water, out of doors, in any weather. Why else would people live in such a wretched climate where its dark almost all winter? Hot waters relaxation factor contributes to Icelands high national happiness and its negligible crime rate. I am giving serious thought now to retiring in Thermopolis.

Not news to Wyoming people: Brake for sheep.

Europe is a lot more crowded. Its not like the 1980s, when you could find a room in every hamlet you chose to stay in overnight. There are a lot more tourists out there, especially in Iceland. Good advice abounds on the Internet. Its pretty easy to book online for rooms and dinner tables in advance. Take advantage of that resource.

While it may seem counterintuitive to go to a chill and soggy place on vacation in May, when you come back to Wyoming, it may actually be summer!

Finally, dont wait to go to abroad! Most retirees have a hard time climbing towers and scrambling around on a lava field. Cobblestone streets will leave you weeping instead of charmed, and your aging alimentary canal will have a harder time with so many compelling new foods. Just go, while youre still reasonably mobile.
Wyomings Oil and Gas is our Bread and Butter. That bumper sticker has long symbolized Wyoming citizens acknowledgement that energy-related revenues and jobs are of vital importance to every aspect of our society. Over the years we have enjoyed enormous boom cycles and have rallied to overcome the bust cycles. Through it all, this industry has been our economic backbone.

As a member of the Wyoming legislature in 1975, I helped draft and actively supported a constitutional amendment to create a Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund. Thankfully, it was approved by Wyomings visionary voters. Today the value of that fund, plus the related accounts under the investment management of our State Treasurer, stands in excess of $17 billion. Thats the good news.

Now the bad: The oil, gas, and coal industries, which have long provided more than 60 percent of our state revenue, are in deep trouble. We have seen significant drops in oil and gas prices, and demand for coal has put major companies in bankruptcy or out of business and, tragically, tens of thousands of Wyomingites out of work.

During those good times the Wyoming legislature found it possible to spend, often quite liberally, on programs and projects beyond the reach of less fortunate states  too possible, as we are now seeing! People who were alarmed by the widening fiscal precipice appealed to the state government to rein in spending, with no significant response until it became crisis time.

It is an easy call to add government services and benefits. It is wrenching to take them away. I applaud Gov. Matt Mead and the Appropriations Committee for facing up to the situation by recommending spending reductions. But even though they will be painful and in some cases nearly heartbreaking for many people, there are additional difficult choices to be made. Just as each of us has only so many dollars to spend, so too does any government. Financially responsible individuals and governments (not to include our burgeoning and burdening federal government), do not spend what they dont have. How simple  and yet how agonizingly difficult.

Beyond spending cuts, how can we face this tough challenge while remaining true to our heritage and our citizens? Like this: we must heed the national call for less dependence on coal, oil and gas, and we must strengthen our industries of tourism, agriculture and all others while encouraging the development of new industries and services. That will take common sense, creativity and courage.

Sadly, these obvious priorities have largely been set aside or ignored in the last several legislative sessions, where instead we have witnessed endless scraps over social issues that rile people up while doing absolutely nothing to advance unity. How many more decades are we going to debate abortion? I dont know anybody running around with a sign that says Have an abortion...its really great. Abortion is a terrible and anguishing thing, but it is a deeply intimate and personal thing. If the credo for Republican legislators is to get government out of our lives, and to protect the precious rights of privacy and to be left alone, then for heavens sake honor that! Leave those horrid decisions to the people most deeply involved.

We cannot honestly address our mounting economic predicament if elected representatives continue to spend time giving each other saliva tests of purity on these things  and others, such as gay rights. Who should care how anyone else legally lives their life? What business is that of mine or yours? We are all Gods children, not just those who believe what we believe. Gay marriage is the law of the land. If legislators find themselves confounded, angered and vexed about transgender issues and toilet use, let them print up signs that say, Single occupancy only. After that 10-minute debate they can get back to diversifying the economy and saving jobs.

Lets give our young people a decent future, not embroil them in long held grievances of the past. Lets stop insisting that people march in proper order down the singular political path we each hold dear. (Note to political extremists: its actually possible to compromise and to disagree without becoming disagreeable).

We must stop these politics of picking sides and picking fights. Lets honor the ancient phrase that made us strong and healthy: United we stand, divided we fall.
After weeks of campaigning, the Wyoming primary election is finally behind us.

No matter how you feel about the results, its encouraging news that the two winners of the U.S. House primaries ran mostly positive campaigns. Republican Liz Cheney and Democrat Ryan Greene largely stayed away from personal attacks and smear campaigns.

Thats a trend worth continuing. The two candidates certainly differ enough on the issues that are important to Wyoming  theres plenty of substance for them to share and discuss during the run-up to the general election. There is no need for them to descend into the mud by airing attack ads or smearing their opponents.

We have so many issues to think about right now that theres simply no room to spare for ugly tactics. At the top of the list of substantive issues that need addressing is our states financial future. We know what candidates have said they would like to do to boost Wyomings energy industry, but what we havent heard much about yet is how they would work with their congressional colleagues to achieve those goals.

Bombast and passion will go only so far. With just one voice in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives but a host of important issues to address, Wyoming needs a strong and effective representative. Its important to remember, then, that what truly leads to measurable success is not bluster or knee-jerk reactions  its the ability to help build coalitions that serve the greater good of both the nation and our state. Its also the ability to define a broad goal and then come up with achievable, specific steps to measure progress toward that objective.

Our two House candidates should spend time before the Nov. 8 general election talking about their experience in that department. They should expect to be judged by voters on how well they will work with others to achieve Wyomings goals as well as the nations.

We hope theyll serve as an example for candidates all the way down the ballot. Campaigns should be substantive, focused on issues and abilities. Were looking forward to learning more about Cheney and Greenes visions for Wyoming and the U.S.
Owens named VP

of advertising at Star

Alisha Owens was named vice president of advertising for the Arizona Daily Star.

Owens previously was advertising director of The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, a position she had held since August 2013.

Before joining The Post and Courier, Owens spent three years as director of advertising for The Press of Atlantic City Media Group in New Jersey, leading the convergence strategy of new digital media with traditional print media.

She joined the The Press of Atlantic City in 2002 and held several leadership roles at the company, including online general manager. Owens holds a marketing degree from Stockton University in New Jersey.

Hacienda Del Sol hires

Fegan and St. Dryden

Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort has hired Joelle Fegan as catering manager of social events and promoted Bonnie St. Dryden to director of group sales.

Fegan was previously a sales and revenue coordinator for Hilton Orange County in Costa Mesa, California, and the Lighthouse Lodge and Cottages in Pacific Grove, California.

St. Dryden previously was catering manager for Hacienda Del Sol. She has more than 25 years experience in the hospitality industry, including a stint as group sales manager at Tucsons Marriott University Park Hotel.

New posts for Blair, Moore

at Paulo Freire schools

Chad Blair was appointed principal of Paulo Freire Freedom School-University.

Blair most recently served as assistant principal for the two Paulo Freire Freedom Schools and previously was a teacher and advisory coordinator at City High School since 2007.

His background also includes teaching stints at Cafe 54 in Tucson, the University of Montana and De La Salle High School in Chicago, Illinois. Blair also taught English as a second language in Ankara, Turkey. He earned a masters of fine arts degree from the University of Montana and a bachelors degree in secondary English education at the University of Illinois.

Kathy Moore is rejoining the Paulo Freire Freedom School-Downtown faculty as a teacher, tutor, and makerspace coordinator, after a five-year stint teaching out of state.

She will serve at the middle schools downtown campus on Pennington Street and will also support City High School students and teachers. Moore has taught science and math, developed curriculum, and served as student adviser. She received a bachelors degree in sociology from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and holds a post-baccalaureate teacher certification from Pima Community College.

Wester taking new patients at Crossroads OB/GYN

Dr. Lydia Wester joined Crossroads OB/GYN, a Genesis OB/GYN practice at 2424 N. Wyatt Drive, and is welcoming new patients.

Wester completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, followed by her M.D. at Iowas Carver College of Medicine. She recently completed an OB/GYN residency at the University of Arizona, where she was recipient of both the Resident Research Award and Resident Teaching Award.

Orr to manage Kolb branch of Fidelity National Title

Chrissy Orr was named assistant vice president and branch manager of Fidelity National Title Agencys new office at 1580 N. Kolb Road, Suite 100. Orr joined Fidelity National Title in 2015.

Farmers hires Anderson, Valladolid and Galello

The Southern Arizona District Office of Farmers Insurance Group has appointed three new advisers in Tucson:

Paul Andersen holds property and casualty and life and health insurance licenses and focuses on auto, home, life, and business insurance products.

Adviser Luis Valladolid is bilingual and holds property and casualty and life and health insurance licenses as well as a securities insurance license.
Did you know? University of Arizona chemistry professor Victor Hruby and UA Cancer Center researchers Sydney Salmon, Kit Lam and Evan Hersh formed Selectide Corp. in 1990, using the new field of combinatorial chemistry to screen vast numbers of chemical peptides for their potential to fight disease. The company was sold to Marion Merrill Dow in 1995 for $53 million, and through a series of sales and mergers became part of Sanofi in 2004.

French drug giant Sanofi has spun off its drug research center in Oro Valley, but the center will continue to serve Sanofi and may grow by conducting research for other major pharmaceutical companies.

Icagen Inc., a North Carolina-based biotech drug research company that was recently part of Pfizer, purchased Sanofis Tucson Research Center at 2090 E. Innovation Park Drive in a deal that closed in late July.

The value of the deal was not announced, but regulatory filings show Icagen paid a cash price of just $1 (one dollar), plus the assumption of certain liabilities.

But the deal includes a five-year contract under which Icagen will continue to perform drug-discovery services and maintain Sanofis chemical libraries in exchange for payments totaling $32 million over five years.

Sanofis interest is secured by a five-year, $5 million lien, and Sanofi will regain rights to the Oro Valley operation if Icagen sells the facility within five years, according to an Icagen filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Icagens chief executive said the deal wasnt about the nominal purchase price and more about allowing to keep access to an important research center and its scientists while building a third-party drug research business.

It was really taking on the site, keeping the jobs, keeping the people here working and Sanofi also wanted to continue to work with the group here, Icagen CEO Richie Cunningham said.

Cunningham said the Oro Valley site  a spinoff of University of Arizona drug technology in the 1990s  was not working at full capacity, and Sanofi and other companies are looking to outsource more drug-research services to control their variable costs.

We can go out and sell the capacity and services to other pharma companies we are working with and bring them in and operate and grow the company  thats our vision, he said.

Sanofi, which says it has more than 100,000 employees in 100 countries, launched a restructuring effort in mid-2015 and earlier this year announced it would eliminate 600 jobs in France over the next few years and has cut some jobs in its Boston hub. But the company also is expanding some businesses, including its Sanofi Genzyme operation in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This deal is part of Sanofi R&Ds responsibility to optimize its research and development efforts, review operations, and determine the right balance between internal and external innovation, Sanofi said in an e-mailed statement.

The agreement offers an important opportunity to maximize the research offering of the site to both Icagen and Sanofis benefit.

The new owners kept Sanofis management team at the Oro Valley center, including site director Ken Wertman, who joined the original UA technology spinoff company, Selectide Corp., in 1992.

The center now employs 88 people, including about 50 scientists, Cunningham said.

As of 2013, Sanofi said the site employed about 100 people, including 78 scientists.

The Tucson center adds its ultra high-throughput biology, screening and chemistry capabilities to Icagens flagship operation in Durham, North Carolina, while the contract with Sanofi provides a runway to build the business, Cunningham said.

The North Carolina site focuses on research on so-called ion channels  proteins that are frequently studied as drug candidates because of their role in regulating the flow of molecules across cell membranes  and related ion transporters.

That was the foundational technology of the company when it partnered with Pfizer on drug development.

Pfizer acquired Icagen about four years ago for $56 million, but in July 2015 it sold the company to XRPro Sciences, a Boston-area drug research firm that developed a high-capacity drug research technology based on X-ray fluorescence.

Paul August, senior director and biology head at the Oro Valley center, said the center has deep capabilities in early drug development, including biological and synthetic chemistry and computational chemistry, which uses computer models to narrow down promising leads from a many as 3 million beginning candidate compounds.

It essentially gives us 3 million shots on goal, he said.

The center features state-of-the-art equipment for high-throughput analysis, including robotic equipment to autonomously handle test sample plates.

The facility has longtime expertise in so-called combanatorial chemistry, which allows rapid synthesis of closely related drug compounds. That technology was advanced by UA faculty and formed the foundation of Selectide in 1990.

In the past 25 years, the research center has worked on nearly every major disease you can think of, said August, who joined the center in January 2015 after heading Sanofis U.S. early to candidate drug-research unit.

As of 2012, the Oro Valley center had produced more than 40 new candidate drug compounds for Sanofis drug-development pipeline, including two in active clinical trials for cardiovascular disease and osteoarthritis.

In the past five years, August said, the center has focused on rare diseases in collaboration with Sanofi and its Genzyme unit in the Boston area, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited neurological disorder, and Gaucher disease, an inherited disease that causes organ damage.

Were looking for opportunities in the future to partner with large companies, small companies and academic labs, August said.
Pima County voters have a rare choice between a county attorney who wants to limit the number of people we send to prison and a challenger who really, really wants to limit the number of people we send to prison.

This Democratic primary, which will likely decide the winner because theres no Republican challenger, is not a get-tough-on-crime campaign. It's unlikely the general-election race against Green Party candidate Cyndi Tuell will be either.

In the primary, the main argument challenger Joel Feinman has been making against incumbent Barbara LaWall boils down to: She puts too many people in prison and not enough into diversionary programs.

That was the background last week when LaWall and Feinman traded op-eds on the Stars editorial page.

LaWalls main point on Wednesday: We are putting the right people in prison.

Feinman, on Thursday, argued its un-American to imprison people at the rate we do.

The evidence that Arizonas incarceration rate is out of whack seems obvious.

We have almost 43,000 prison inmates in our state system, 5,100 of whom are at the prison complex here in Tucson. Thats far more than any other state Arizonas size. Indiana for example, has about the same population and 26,000 state prisoners.

The Prison Policy Initiative, an anti-mass imprisonment group, ranked the worlds countries and each of the U.S. states in a chart to show how each states incarceration rate compares to others and to world rates.

On a global scale, Arizona ranked seventh overall, behind five other states and the District of Columbia. No other country comes into play until Turkmenistan interrupts the roll-call of U.S. states at No. 35.

So, in Arizona, were a Top 10 world leader in locking people up.

Some of the blame for this comes from state laws. Not only are there mandatory minimum sentences in Arizona, but all prisoners, not just violent offenders, must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence imposed  a harsher standard than almost any other state.

Those laws also mean the power over who goes to prison has shifted away from judges, because they no longer have much discretion, and over to prosecutors and police officers.

When we spoke Friday, LaWall pointed out that her office must consider all the cases that police agencies submit  and that volume is growing fast. It went from a little over 9,000 filings in fiscal-year 2015 to a little over 11,000 in 2016, she said. Theres no way that kind of increase will not result in more rightful felony convictions and imprisonments.

But while police officers are one of the main drivers of the numbers, prosecutors have discretion over what charges get filed. Some new research suggests that nationwide, prosecutors are filing many more felonies per arrest than they used to.

A Fordham University criminal-justice professor, John Pfaff, reported that nationwide from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, the proportion of arrests resulting in felony charges went from about one in three to about two in three.

At least since 1994, he concluded in a 2013 paper, it appears that almost all the growth in prison populations has come from prosecutors decision to file felony charges.

LaWall argues that the right people are going to prison and points to a report commissioned by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Council. The bottom-line figure from the report, repeated often since it first came out in 2011: 94 percent of prisoners are violent or repeat offenders.

The data we have very clearly shows we are not putting in prison first-time, nonviolent, low-level offenders, LaWall said. The people in prison are those who have violent offenses or repeat offenses or violent and repeat offenses.

Feinman, who wrote his op-ed before LaWalls had been published, noted later that the report shes relying on has itself been debunked and pointed to the latest monthly report from Arizonas prison system as evidence of how wrong it is. That report, from July, says 50.7 percent of inmates were serving their first term, and 28 percent were nonviolent offenders.

It also says, though, that 12.9 percent of Arizonas prison population was sentenced in Pima County, which has 14.9 percent of the states population. So, our prisoners make up a slightly smaller than proportional share of the states prisoners.

This wouldnt matter so much if the stakes werent so high.

On the one hand, there are the lives of the growing ranks of prisoners. A felony conviction can ruin a persons record, leaving no job prospects and no place to live. Time in prison is as likely to keep a person screwed up as to fix him or her.

Were actually creating our own problem with these policies, Caroline Isaacs of the American Friends Service Committee told me.

If youre an addict, were not going to incarcerate the drug addiction out of you.

The story of Colleen Johnson comes to mind. In a case the Star has written about, the Pima County Attorneys Office chose to refile DUI charges against her, leading to her imprisonment despite her having regained her footing as a functional member of society. In prison this spring, she was diagnosed with cancer, received the health care afforded inmates, and quickly died.

But on the other hand, there are the lives of the victims and potential future victims to consider. Even property crimes, LaWall noted, are classified as nonviolent, but they dont necessarily feel that way to the victims.

Three times Ive been the victim of a burglary, LaWall said. Its a traumatizing, violent offense against me, the security of my home and my feelings of sanctity and security.

I asked her about Johnsons case, and she noted the number of people killed and maimed in DUI crashes . Its true  theres a risk in putting repeat offenders like Johnson back on the streets when theyve relapsed and offended again before.

Prison doesnt seem like the solution, but its the main one Arizonas been willing to give so far. How little of it we will use  that seems to be the choice before the countys Democratic primary voters.
Agencies that oversee visitations and help reunite foster children with their parents are being scrutinized in a statewide check on overspending.

Some agencies were spending too much on overhead costs, said Arizona Department of Child Safety Director Greg McKay, with employees receiving gym memberships and other perks while draining money he said could be going to other services.

But providers like Susie Huhn, executive director of Casa de los Ninos, and Bob Heslinga, executive director of Aviva Childrens Services, said what McKay sees as an inflated hourly rate is reasonable for these cases. They say McKay is pushing for cuts before meeting with professionals to establish standards and best practices.

The national hourly average for a supervised visitation is $80  the same as Arizonas average, Huhn said.

That amount, used to provide children and their parents with opportunities to meet and work toward reunification, includes employee pay, benefits and training as well as transportation costs, utilities, facility rental and sometimes food.

If they have a provider thats charging three times that much, then deal with that provider, Huhn said. Dont make everyone else pay, too.

McKay said not every agency is overspending, but theres been too much blind spending. He would not say whether the DCS plans to cut agency contracts, but Martha Gilliland, who serves on the board of Aviva Childrens Services, said her agency was told the DCS plans to reduce the number of providers by half.

I have no doubt streamlining is possible without damage to services, possibly even improving services, Gilliland said. But no analysis has gone into this approach. Moreover, it is abrupt and will no doubt cause things to worsen.

With roughly 19,000 Arizona children in out-of-home care, child advocates say spending high sums on these services is unavoidable.

Paying for high-quality services from experienced professionals is much less expensive than cutting corners and quality and leaving children in foster care far longer than they need to be, said Dana Wolfe Naimark, president of Arizonas Childrens Action Alliance.

McKay said the goal is not a broad brushstroke, but instead to provide better services more efficiently, and then have more money to spend on other services such as foster homes, in-home services and support for grandparents raising grandchildren.

There was rampant waste going on, he said. This was an area that was so blatantly ripe with opportunity to be more accountable.

The DCS recently received a $55 million increase in appropriations for out-of-home services, which includes parent aid and supervised visitation programs  money McKay said has already been spent on these services. In fiscal year 2015, the DCS spent $49 million for these services, while in fiscal year 2016, it rose to $74 million.

Over the last several months, some agency directors have been called to discuss spending. They are now waiting to see if they will have their contracts renewed.

Lowering rates to $40 or $60 per hour is not possible, said Huhn, referring to some of the sums she was quoted.

We cant do the work for that cost, she said. I couldnt go to my board and say, Were going to lose $300,000.

Huhn said her agency already lost $81,000 during the last fiscal year toward these same services and had to fundraise to make up the difference.

Heslinga, Avivas executive director, said he was called to Phoenix for two meetings over the summer, and each lasted about 20 minutes. Initially, he said it was proposed that they would receive 65 percent less than what they had been receiving for the services, and then that was adjusted to 40 percent less.

Like Huhn, he is now waiting to see if the contract will be renewed.

Aviva hires parent aides and trains them at an annual cost of about $1.5 million. During the last fiscal year, Aviva coordinated 6,700 visits and helped about 450 foster children with services that include parenting education and help with case management.

We believe that if you create the right atmosphere and support, parents are more likely to stick with their case, Heslinga said.

If wages fall and employees are asked to do more work, its going to get harder to fill jobs  and that, he said, wont benefit Arizonas most vulnerable families.
Each day, high school students walk into Luis Garcias North Fourth Avenue smoke shop, backpacks and all.

They make the eight-minute walk from Tucson High Magnet School hoping to buy electronic cigarettes.

Thats why I put up that sign, said Garcia, pointing to a prominently displayed piece of paper that reads 18+ over.

Its very popular and a lot of kids want to try it, but like cigarettes, you need to be 18, said the owner of Smokeys Smoke Shop, 519 N. Fourth Ave.

While teens are walking out of Smokeys empty-handed, a recent survey shows they are getting their hands on e-cigarettes, with more than half of Arizona high-schoolers reporting that theyve tried them.

E-cigarettes are devices that allow users to inhale a vapor containing nicotine or other substances.

In fact, Arizona high school students were more likely to have tried e-cigarettes than their peers across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Youth Risk Behavior Survey found.

The survey also found there are more teens using e-cigarettes than there are teens smoking regular cigarettes.

Its easy to see why, says John Schachter, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The industry has clearly been using a variety of methods that the old tobacco industry used to target its product to kids, he said.

There are slick TV ads, celebrity sponsorships and more than 7,000 flavors, including cotton candy and gummy bear, that are blatantly appealing to kids, Schachter said.

You have kids being bombarded with these products and the advertisements and the marketing for these products that they just dont see nearly as much with cigarettes, he said. So whether its that they perceive them as healthy alternatives or some cool new product, its just something thats being pushed out toward them and aiming for them to get addicted, and its obviously a problem.

That kind of marketing is troubling to one Southern Arizona teen who is working to keep the addictive products out of the hands of his peers.

The way I see it is that the tobacco companies always need replacements for people who quit or die, so they target youth, said Alex Duarte, a junior at Douglas High School. I just want to see kids live in a world where theyre not being targeted and sold a product that will have many different health effects.

Many think its just water vapor when really theres nicotine, and nicotine is known to be an addictive chemical  its a natural pesticide and if your body takes in enough of it, it can kill you.

Studies have found that even e-cigarette products that claim to be nicotine-free sometimes contain traces of nicotine, Duarte added.

Duarte, a member of the Cochise County Youth Health Coalition, recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where he was advocating for the need for action to protect kids from newer tobacco products like electronic cigarettes and flavored cigars, which also have become popular.

He was one of 21 youths from across the country participating in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Youth Advocacy Symposium, where he met with Arizona Rep. Martha McSally and the staffs of Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain. Duarte first became interested in the issue as a sixth-grader, watching his older sister take part in his countys youth health coalition for high school students.

While he was too young to become an official member, he snuck his way into conferences during middle school and joined when he entered the ninth grade.

Since becoming involved in anti-tobacco efforts, the 16-year-old has taken part in sting operations with the Attorney Generals Office, going to gas stations and convenience stores to see whether they will sell to those under 18, which is prohibited by law.

Having seen many places that do sell the products to kids, Duarte says he would like to see the creation of a tobacco license, similar to what is needed to sell liquor.

That would make it so if they are caught selling to minors, you could take their license away and prohibit them from selling for a certain period of time, Duarte said, adding that would have more of an impact than fines that are assessed now.

He has also seen how easy it is to buy e-cigarettes online, saying anyone can check a couple of boxes and claim they are 18, but there is no attempt to verify age upon delivery.

Researchers have found that e-cigarette devices are also being used by young people to smoke marijuana, all the more reason advocates are working to raise the tobacco sale age to 21 across the country, as has been done in Hawaii and California, Schachter said.

When you raise the tobacco age from 18 to 21, you are really getting these products out of the high schools because as it stands now, younger students can get them from older high school students, he said. If you raise it to 21, you remove that access.
After nearly four years of accreditation problems, Pima Community College is having a hard time hiring key administrators.

Unsuccessful searches  those in which jobs are advertised but no one is hired  have become common at the college, as have delays of a year or more in filling critical vacancies, Arizona Daily Star research shows.

School officials say hiring holdups are to be expected at a complex organization that requires administrators with specific skills. This is a critical juncture for the college and were doing everything we can to make certain that we are hiring the very best people, PCC spokeswoman Libby Howell said.

Experts say the type of hiring issues PCC faces mirror those that occur in the corporate world when a firms reputation has been damaged by problems. A tarnished reputation has a significant impact on the attractiveness and expense of talent acquisition and retention, Corporate Responsibility Magazine said last year in the annual survey on the topic.

When 1,000-plus North Americans were asked over the phone about their willingness to work for a firm that is not well-regarded, 77 percent said they werent likely to even if they were unemployed, the survey found. Every annual survey since 2012 has had similar results, it said.

A Harvard Business Review survey this year of more than 1,000 professionals found three top factors that create a bad reputation as a place to work: concerns about job security, dysfunctional teams and poor leadership. Nearly half of those polled said they wouldnt work for such a firm for any amount of money.

PCC has been under public scrutiny since 2012 when eight women accused the schools former chancellor of sexual harassment. In 2013, the schools accreditor placed the college on two years probation for mismanagement and lax governance. It is now on notice, an accreditation status that means the school has improved but remains at risk of ongoing problems. The accreditor, the Chicago-based Higher Learning Commission, will decide early next year whether to lift the notice sanction.

Loss of customers is another well-known negative side effect of a damaged reputation and PCC also resembles the corporate world in that regard. Student enrollment has dropped by more than 30 percent in the past five years and is poised to decline again this fall, public records show.

Howell rejected the idea that PCCs reputation is a factor in recent hiring delays.

Actually our applicant numbers are up and many, many of them are incredibly qualified, she said.

Of 52 administrator jobs listed on PCCs website last week, 14 of them  27 percent  were either vacant or filled temporarily on an acting or interim basis. Five others were filled within the past three months.

No takers for $88,000 job

One hiring delay in particular could give pause to PCCs accreditor, which is sending a team to Tucson next month to see if the school has improved enough to come off sanctions.

Since April 2015, the college has been trying to hire a director of assessment, responsible for creating systems to better assess the quality of PCCs educational programs. Sixteen months and two unsuccessful searches later, there still are no takers for the post that pays up to $88,000 a year.

The lack of a solid assessment system is a key concern for the accreditor. Without regular quality reviews, schools risk turning out graduates who dont meet the standards for employment in their chosen fields.

Other unsuccessful searches have affected different areas of the college. The finance department, for example, has been without a second-in-command since February 2015, a post that pays up to $128,000 a year.

Recruiting key employees costs money for things like finalists travel costs, so searches that dont produce new hires add to an organizations overhead. Costs also rise if outside help must be hired to cover a vacant position, as recently happened at PCC.

The college retained a consultant for $125,000 last year to run its financial aid operation for nine months until a new financial aid chief was hired. The consultant ended up staying four more months  at an added cost of more than $70,000  when the permanent hire was delayed due to an unsuccessful search. PCCs new financial aid boss starts work Monday making $105,00 a year.

THREE TIMES LONGER

Long hiring delays often cause related problems, experts say, such as low morale in affected work areas and stalled progress on major improvement projects.

Howell, the college spokeswoman, cited several causes for PCCs hiring delays. Some candidates drop out, others need time to notify current employers or relocate to Tucson and the process requires time-consuming background checks, she said.

Other public entities face those same hurdles, yet still manage to hire far more quickly.

PCCs recent search for a police chief, for example, took 14 months  about three times longer than it took the city of Tucson to hire a new police chief last year and twice as long it took the University of Arizona in 2014. Tucsons chief search, like PCCs, was complicated by a candidate dropping out and by the need to relocate the new hire, but that didnt delay the citys search.

The new police chief also starts work Monday at a salary of $105,000, leading a department where morale problems arose under the temporary chief the college installed to keep things running.

On average, PCC takes 216 days to hire a new administrator, Howell said. The citys average is 30 to 75 days depending on the nature of the administrative job, while Pima Countys average is less than 60 days, officials there said.

Some of PCCs planned quality improvements are behind schedule in the wake of hiring delays.

For example, a $400,000-plus plan to improve student advising with mobile technology was supposed to launch this fall but is on hold until next fall. The delay coincided with a recent seven-month search for a new head of information technology, but Howell said the events are unrelated.

INFORMATION GAP

PCCs Governing Board formed an advisory committee last year to get help with human resource issues, but its unclear how well the setup is working.

Board members Mark Hanna and Martha Durkin, who are on the advisory group, told the Star they didnt know PCC was taking an average of 216 days to fill administrative jobs because college officials never mentioned it.

Instead, they said, officials cited a 43-day average  the time it takes PCC to fill all job openings, not just administrative.

The advisory committee also has ignored Arizonas open meetings law, the Star found in a review of agendas and minutes.

The law requires meeting agendas to describe public business in enough detail to let taxpayers know ahead of time whats expected to occur. Most of the advisory committees agendas include a business item called miscellaneous without any specifics.

The law also requires public bodies to post minutes of their meetings within three business days, something PCC failed to do after the committees last meeting on Aug. 11. The minutes still werent available as of Saturday, Aug. 20.

Hanna and Durkin said theyre satisfied the college is headed in the right direction.

I have confidence that our HR department and search committees are doing a thorough job in filling critical administrative positions, Hanna said.

Durkin agreed.

The quality of the employees hired and promoted matters more than the time it takes to complete the process, she said.
Multinational biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. is bringing a small chunk of its highly influential  and controversial  seed operation to Pima County.

The company hopes to start building a facility later this year to grow corn and soybeans in at least one greenhouse on a 7-acre site in Pima County, a Monsanto spokeswoman told the Star Friday.

The main purpose will be for corn-breeding operations, which use few genetically modified organisms, Monsanto spokeswoman Christi Dixon said. But it also will do trait integration, which combines genetic and biotech traits, Dixon said.

Word of Monsantos Arizona plans became public Wednesday when the company announced in a news release its investment plans for greenhouses in Arizona. Dixon provided more details Friday, but didnt specify where the greenhouse would be built. More than one greenhouse could be built on the same site, she said.

Using new automated greenhouses, with robots watering and otherwise maintaining crops, the company hopes it can better manage risks  like insect, disease and weather variables  we may otherwise encounter in open field environments, Dixon said in an email.

The use of support protected culture capabilities  indoor growing  will increase the long-term rate of genetic gain in both corn and soybeans, she said.

The company picked Arizona because, while greenhouses can grow things year-round in most places by blocking out the elements, Its easier in this kind of weather, Dixon said, referring to Tucsons mild winters and warm weather the rest of the year.

Local farmers aware

Monsantos plans for Pima County are common knowledge in the local farming community, said Arnold Burruel, a longtime Marana farmer.

He has sold GMO-based seeds to Monsanto but hasnt talked to company officials about this venture, said Burruel, who said hes grown GMO and non-GMO cotton as well as GMO corn and non-GMO alfalfa in his fields.

Herb Kai, an owner of the Kai Farms in Marana, said his companys officials have talked with Monsanto about possibly selling the company land for the operation, but cant say more because of a confidentiality agreement the two parties have signed.

Im sure theyre probably talking to other landowners in Arizona besides us, said Kai, a Marana Town Council member.

GMO, herbicide controversy

The St. Louis-based company is the worlds largest manufacturer of genetically manufactured seed products for fruits, vegetables, cotton, corn and oilseeds. It calls itself a sustainable agriculture company that delivers products supporting farmers around the world.

Its also been called one of the worlds most-hated companies because of its work with GMO seeds and crops, its production of the widely used herbicide Roundup and its past production of toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a long-banned compound that was once regularly used in electrical transformers.

Its also fought legal battles with some farmers who accused Monsanto of trying to monopolize control of seed production.

Roundup, in particular, has become hugely controversial. Last year, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, concluded that glyphosate, Roundups active ingredient, probably causes cancer in humans.

Monsanto has challenged that finding. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has long considered Roundup safe, but is now revisiting that conclusion.

On its website, Monsanto says, We are focused on empowering farmers  large and small  to produce more from their land while conserving more of our worlds natural resources such as water and energy.

We do this with our leading seed brands in crops like corn, cotton, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables. We also produce leading in-the-seed trait technologies for farmers, which are aimed at protecting their yield, supporting their on-farm efficiency and reducing their on-farm costs. We strive to make our products available to farmers throughout the world by broadly licensing our seed and trait technologies to other companies.

In October, environmental, farming, food, anti-GMO and other groups will hold a mock trial in the Hague, Netherlands, to assess what they see as the companys negative impacts. Those include pollution, accelerated biodiversity loss and massive production of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The group also accuses Monsanto of crimes against nature and humanity and ecocide.

Writing critically about this effort, Fortune Magazine journalist Marc Gunther quoted Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant as saying U.S. corn farmers generate yields of 150 to 160 bushels an acre, far more than whats generated in Mexico, India and Africa, where the range is 20 to about 100 bushels per acre.

I wonder what, exactly, the anti-GMO forces who are going to spend their time and money to put Monsanto on trial intend to do for farmers in Africa, Grant wrote in a blog post late last year. Like all companies, Monsanto has made mistakes. Perhaps more than its share. But I honestly dont understand why this company is so maligned.

Marana farmer Burruel said his use of genetically modified seed to grow crops has been nothing but a win for us. He says Monsantos greenhouse-grown seeds will probably use less water than outside field crops because it will be far easier to recycle it inside the greenhouse, where the water will be contained and wont run off into the soil.

Because GMO crops are insect-resistant, use of chemicals on Burruels farm is down 95 percent, he said. That includes less use of residual herbicides on neighboring weeds that can seep into the underground aquifer.
Taking her elderly mother and aunt to the doctor is a complicated process for Tucson resident Jennifer Gin.

Both sisters, who live with Gin, require wheelchairs and have dementia. When taking them to the doctor, tasks like getting them in and out of the car, finding parking and sitting in the waiting room require careful coordination.

But Gins family has not had to worry about those stressful trips for an entire year. Medical care for 96-year-old Florence Quen and her 94-year-old sister Ruth Yang, including services like lab testing and X-rays, now comes to them.

Such care could become more widespread with the passage of a bill pending in Congress that would provide home care to the sickest 5 percent of Medicare patients  the ones who use 50 percent of the federal programs dollars.

In particular, the bill targets people suffering from multiple debilitating diseases such as Alzheimers, ALS, congestive heart failure, diabetes and Parkinsons.

Independence at home

A small, fledgling program through Banner Health is bringing home medical visits to certain chronically ill patients in Tucson, including Quen and Yang.

The program, which aims to prevent hospitalizations, long-term-care admissions and emergency room visits, also coordinates services like wound care at home.

The Senate bill introduced in Congress this summer would broaden the scope of home visits by turning a team-based home-care model into a national Medicare program. The legislation doesnt specify who is on the team. It is interdisciplinary and can include physical therapists, occupational therapists, office coordinators and pharmacists, among others.

It would make permanent a demonstration project called Independence at Home that the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has funded in some places  but none in Arizona  since 2012.

Independence at Home provides Medicare beneficiaries who have multiple chronic conditions with home-based medical care by a team, including a physician or nurse practitioner and a social worker.

The program has resulted in a savings for Medicare, officials say  $10 million in its second year, when nearly 11,000 patients were enrolled.

These results continue to support what most patients already want  the ability to have high-quality care in the home setting, said Dr. Patrick Conway, acting deputy administrator and chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a prepared statement.

Last year, the House and Senate approved a two-year extension of Independence at Home. The Congressional bill would make it both national in scope and permanent.

A key to the program is its shared-savings incentive model, where home-based practices that reach certain goals receive a financial bonus.

UA connection

The bill has bipartisan support and is supported by the American Academy of Home Care Medicine, which is headed by Dr. Mindy Fain, chief of the University of Arizona Division of Geriatrics, General Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine, and co-director of the UA Center on Aging.

Fain flew to Washington, D.C., when the sponsoring senators  two Democrats and two Republicans  announced they would introduce it. The legislation would let Medicare reimburse the team-based approach rather than its current fee-for-service model, which can limit at-home health care.

But a permanent national Medicare program would go beyond changing reimbursement, Fain said.

The federal governments affirmation of the model is critical to bringing home-based medical care into the mainstream of health-care delivery options, she said.

It sends a powerful message to commercial payers and others to recognizing this as an option for people who need this kind of care right now, Fain said. I think when this passes it will have a dramatic effect. It will change the face of medicine.

Among supporters of the legislation are the national Alzheimers Association the American Hospital Association, the National Council on Aging and the Family Caregiver Alliance.

Independence at Home successfully fills a critical gap in health care for our frail and elderly that few programs have been able to achieve, Fain said. In the process, it improves patient satisfaction and health outcomes, while simultaneously saving money.

Billing change at core

of federal strategy

Independence at Home is part of a federal strategy to improve health care by finding new ways to coordinate and integrate care.

At its core is changing Medicares fee-for-service model to one that reimburses for a team approach to care. Thats why the Banner program is limited. Eventually, leaders of that program would like to include other practitioners like pharmacists, mental health professionals and social workers to their home visit team.

Its much more than primary care at home. Its a team of professionals who coordinate all the services an elder needs at home 24/7 until the last day of their life, said Dr. K. Eric De Jonge, president elect of the American Academy of Home Care Medicine.

Medicare already pays for house calls, but not for the cost of doing business, De Jonge said.

Most house-call programs are losing money. It doesnt pay for driving time or coordination of care time, he said. Billing hasnt caught up with the way its being delivered.

Patients sometimes will need to leave their homes to see specialists or have a procedure, but a lot of diagnostic technology, like ultrasounds, is mobile and can be done at home, De Jonge said.

Teams can also do IV infusions and rehabilitation at home. The idea is to only use the hospital when its absolutely needed, De Jonge said. And the goal is to intervene before people are in crisis.

Dignity and independence

If Independence at Home becomes permanent through legislation, De Jonge said it will likely take 12 to 18 months before it is fully implemented.

And home care will be voluntary, he added. No one has to open their home to teams of medical providers if thats not what they want. The idea is not to save money by not allowing people to go to the hospital when they want, or by offering substandard care, he said.

Providers in the program dont get paid extra unless they have quality outcomes and patient satisfaction, De Jonge said. The key is to do what the patient wants. Many hospital and nursing home stays are unnecessary and can be dangerous. They can get bed sores and delirium, and end up never going home.

England and Scandinavian countries have a robust community-based house-call tradition, De Jonge said, and its been growing in the U.S. over the last 10 years.

Its a chance to improve the dignity and independence of elders, allow them to stay where they usually want to be  with their families, De Jonge said.

Caregiver support

Jennifer Gin has a team approach to caring for her mother and her aunt. Gin has her sisters, her husband, and a paid caregiver a few hours every day.

She also has Dr. Monica Vandivort, a geriatrician who visits Quen and Yang every three months or so, depending on their needs. On a recent Tuesday, Vandivort arrived with medical assistant Nancy Doud, greeting the various family members as they arrived in Gins spacious living room area.

Both Quen and Yang smiled as Vandivort hugged them, and both clearly remembered her. Doud cut their toenails and gave them foot rubs and Vandivort checked their vital signs.

Its like going backward to when doctors did house calls. But its what people want, Vandivort said.

By treating people at home, Vandivort says she knows firsthand that families avoid ambulance rides, ER visits, and hospitalizations. Vandivort says she and Doud also provide a lot of caregiver support.

Later in her visit she took Quen into a bedroom and checked on two leg wounds. She ordered some medication and told Gin how to apply it.

Gin said getting primary care at home has given her more time to care for her aunt and grandmother, and for the extended family that is often at her home  including her grandchildren.

Honoring wishes

Roughly 2 to 4 million Americans are chronically ill and disabled, limited to their homes and isolated from high-quality health care when they need it most, Fain said. They are usually invisible to larger society.

They are expected to manage complex conditions and functional impairments in a system that is clinical and hospital-based, where multiple specialists often dont coordinate among themselves, she said.

They often are not provided with the knowledge of what to expect, what to do, who to call, and how to self-manage. Most importantly, they often dont have care consistent with their goals and values  what they wish to see happen and what they wish to avoid.

Quen had always told her daughters that she didnt want to ever live in a facility.

And her daughters have honored those wishes. On Monday shell celebrate her 97th birthday at home with family.
A young Tucson woman who underwent a lifesaving bone-marrow transplant three years ago now says she is healthier than she has ever been.

At 22, Lizzie Bell is experiencing a new life that comes with waking up and feeling good and strong.

It feels nice to have freedom to live, said Bell, a smile erupting on her face while sitting in her living room in her Foothills home Friday afternoon.

But life wasnt always so. Bell was born with Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a rare disorder that prevents the body from producing sufficient red blood cells. Since she was a baby, she lived at University of Arizona Medical Center-Diamond Childrens Medical Center fighting the disease, which requires blood transfusions every two weeks.

But since her bone-marrow transplant in July 2013, her life has changed for the better. Her donor was a man who lives in Europe. She underwent the transplant at University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis, and Bell lived there for a prolonged period of time as an outpatient.

Two days ago, her house was abuzz because she was celebrating her health during a party and doing her work for sick children whose lives are dependent upon blood and marrow donations.

Bell was in the company of family, friends and supporters for her causes. She and her parents, Kathy Flores Bell and Michael Bell, were hosting a blood drive for the American Red Cross, and some 30 people were signed up to donate.

The young woman, who works in the childrens clothing area at a department store, had arrived home as the event was underway. She changed into jean shorts and a brown top and joined the party, where she ate a plate filled with vegetables, crackers and meat wrapped in bacon.

She took time out to explain her newfound freedom, which includes hopping in her KIA Rio and driving by herself to Phoenix to spend time with her nieces and nephews.

She plans to travel to Jamaica in January and eventually to Paris.

In her bedroom, she has a money jar filled with change and a taped note that reads: Adventure is out there. She sees many more road trips in the future, but doesnt know exactly where she will go.

For the moment, her higher education will wait. Eventually she plans to enroll at the University of Arizona and study photography. She still dreams of becoming a fashion photographer. She had planned to go to Columbia College in Chicago, but after spending a year in Minnesota after her transplant, she realized she hated cold weather.

Two years ago, Bells body began making red blood cells. Her marrow is functioning at a normal level. However, because she has too much iron in her heart and liver, Bell must go to Banner-University Medical Center Tucson every two weeks to have blood drawn.

But this is a piece of cake compared to her blood transfusions and complications from the disease since birth. Her last transfusion was in May 2014.

Bell remains under the supervision of her medical team at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, where she reports for an examination once a year.

The Salpointe Catholic High School graduate no longer lives in hospitals.

She is a walking miracle, said her grandmother, Gloria Flores, 78, who prays every day for Lizzie. The joyous grandmother handed out carnations to people at the party.

Bells good friend, Karina Acosta, 18, grew up with Lizzie and spent time in and out of the hospital with her. Experiencing her medical journey helped Acosta decide to major in nursing.

Seeing Lizzie in pain was the hardest thing for me, and that is when I decided that I wanted to help people who were sick, like the nurses who tended to her. The nurses became her family, Acosta said.

The Bells continue to raise money through the Lizzie Bell Hospital School Endowment, which is aimed at providing an education to children while they are hospitalized.

For more information about the endowment and fundraisers to help children with medically complex needs go to Facebooks Team Lizzie Bell.
Tucson photographer Jade Beall faced down a lifetime of body image issues four years ago, though she didn't know it at the time.

She took a nude portrait of herself five weeks postpartum  and about 50 pounds heavier than she'd ever been  holding her new baby.

Then she posted it online. No filters. No Photoshop.

It was a way for Beall, a 37-year-old Tucson native, to expand her portfolio with images that showed body diversity, but it ended up being the catalyst for something much more.

The blonde, blue-eyed photographer and dancer had always struggled with her body image. But, having a baby multiplied them. As a new mother, she was sleep deprived and had cellulite on her body.

"When I first looked at those photos I wanted to pass out. They were so hard for me to look at, but now I look at them and I just see such a beautiful woman that's a new mother," Beall said. "I was unable to truly face my decades of self-loathing until I took that self portrait and didn't Photoshop it...Previously I always Photoshopped any photo of myself...All the wrinkles and dark circles were gone. But, now I don't and it's so freeing because I'm ok with the way I look. I can be honest with 'this is who I am.'"

Putting herself out there  on social media sites and her own website  opened the floodgates for women who wanted to be seen and feel good in their own skin.

"When I did that, I received hundreds of emails from women giving them permission to look at themselves and I realized there was this huge need and desire for truthful body positivity, especially for mothers, in such an often exhausting, vulnerable, confusing time in a culture that only celebrates the bounce-back mother and everyone else is a failure," Beall said. "I didn't know it was such a huge, huge need to be celebrated in that moment of post-giving-birth and not feeling like a failure."

Now, she's on a mission.

Beall says she is unapologetically breaking the rules by showing that all people are beautiful exactly how they are. And that all people have the right to feel beautiful, no matter their body type.

Facebook has banned her several times because users have reported photos  usually of breastfeeding mothers  as offensive. But, she says that isn't going to stop her.

"I'm celebrating people we've been told not to celebrate," Beall said. "I'm saying a woman is beautiful just the way she is. She doesn't need to aspire to be somebody else...It upsets people, but I'm never gonna stop. I'm gonna keep pushing it."

Beall's photographs feature women, new mothers (often in the nude, with their babies), grandmothers and breastfeeding mothers. She does not Photoshop the stretch marks, belly rolls or wrinkles.

"We're taught at a very young age that we should look like anybody but ourselves. And we celebrate one body type, one age and if we don't fit into that it's a constant struggle and competition, which puts women at odds with each other and divides sisterhood," Beall said. "It makes a lot of us suffer until we're like in our 80s and we're finally like 'I'm just gonna accept this before I die. I'm gonna love myself for a little bit."

Beall has recently added the elderly in her repertoire  both couples and singles.

One photo features a couple in their 70s, embracing in the nude. They met in their 50s and have been together for 20 years.

"It's beautiful and inspiring to people my age, in their late 30s, to see that as an example of beauty," Beall said. "Like, what if we thought that wrinkles were a sign of a true queenly matriarch beauty and a little girl is like 'one day I'll have wrinkles that show I've lived a privileged long life?' But, instead we're told we should be ashamed and fix them and change them and be someone we're not. It's exhausting."

Some struggle with the concept that smart can be considered beautiful and they ask Beall, "What if you're just a strong, powerful, intelligent woman? Isn't that enough?"

Beall's answer: "If you're a strong, powerful, intelligent woman, there's absolutely no way you're gonna be anything but beautiful. I don't understand why it has to be one way or the other. To me, it's a whole package deal."

In the studio

When people arrive at Beall's studio in the living room of her home, they are immediately surrounded by her photos covering the walls.

Beall spends time chatting with each client to make them feel comfortable before they get undressed  if they do  and take their place on the large rolled out paper that serves as a background in her photos.

"When people get on my backdrop they want to feel special. Our culture is so good at trying to make us feel like we're not special and worthy of feeling good in your skin, whether you're differently abled or whatever shape or whatever age you are," Beall says. "When there's only one body type celebrated it puts us in competition. It's just evil. I'd way rather live a life of sisterhood and feeling good about myself and seeing the beauty in the women around me."

When Stacy Gray arrived at her photo shoot with Beall, she was a newly divorced woman, "learning how to be a strong single mother" to her two children.

She was also Beall's first photo shoot after posting her own self portrait.

"I was so grateful to have brought forth these beautiful children, but now that they were no longer laying in my lap and I was standing alone facing myself as an individual, I began to hear the train of society's judgments on my body and it was coming fast and with a mission to destroy my self love," Gray said.

The experience was a "coming to" and a "waking up out of surviving into thriving" for Gray and her children.

"Our faith in our little family was sealed that day, under those bright lights," Gray said.

Many women show up nervous and take a little warming up before they feel comfortable, Beall said.

That wasn't the case for Gray.

"I wasn't nervous, just ready to be witnessed," Gray said. "I was hungry and aching to be seen...So I undressed, picked up my children and began to unfold the layers of shame from my body and laid it down in front of that sacred lens."

Once she saw the photos she said she nearly threw up bracing herself for negative comments online. She thought for sure she'd see at least one saying she was disgusting.

"Guess what. No one ever said that," Gray said. "In fact, they said thank you. When people said negative things about me, I grew stronger and more trasparent. I was truly nude and there was nothing left to apologize for. This is just me."

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One of Gray's photos is now on a billboard as part of a body positivity campaign in London, Germany and Africa.

Gray said the photos left a lasting impression on her children that their journey through her into the world matters and encourages others.

Lupita Chavez first heard of Beall's photography when a mutual friend sent her a message about it, saying she thought she'd be perfect for Beall's Beautiful Body Project.

"Jade's story really clicked with me, but maybe differently," Chavez recalled. "I was truly this confident woman who never actually felt beautiful. My confidence was based on my brains, skills, friends and accomplishments. In a weird way, my changing body from childbirth didn't effect me the way it did others. Motherhood changed me."

Chavez called her daughter, Cheyenne Baum, that night to get her opinion. Her daughter was excited and told her mom she thought she should do it. So, Chavez wrote Beall that night and told her story.

The shoot was "amazing and inspiring" for Chavez. She was excited to be doing something that would "terrify others" and was having fun at the same time.

"I've never liked getting my photo taken," Chavez said. "Jade welcomed me in with so much love and warmth. In addition to weight issues, I have psoriasis. She saw my skin as art...For the first time, I felt genuinely beautiful and truly comfortable in my own skin. That's such a gift. I'll be forever grateful."

When she first saw the images Beall posted, Chavez was "blown away."

"Here's the deal as I see it: Our daily visual impression of ourselves is usually in a mirror. So, first, we're not smiling or laughing or even just interested or animated the way we are in the presence of others. Second, we're usually putting on makeup or doing our hair, which means, we're looking at ourselves with the express purpose of finding flaws to fix," Chavez said. "So, the experience of seeing myself in photographs taken by someone who's entire being is set on bringing out your beauty not just for others to see, but for you to see? I wish everyone could experience that."

The effect of seeing themselves

Beall edits each shoot down to about 200 photos, so clients can see a progression of the shoot.

"Typically women leave feeling wonderful after the shoot," Beall said. "They're like, 'Yes I did it. I'm beautiful and strong.' Then they get the photos and they're like, 'Oh...ok.' Because they're not used to seeing themselves naked, only in a mirror."

Women usually look at their photos again a week later and like about five of them. A month later it's ten to 15 and a few months later, they like a whole bunch of them, Beall said.

"My body? Well, I still see it for what it is. I'm a big girl. Hell, I'm fat," Chavez said. "But I knew that. What I didn't know was that my whole face changes when I laugh. My eyes light up. When I'm at peace my face is soft, welcoming. I saw beauty."

"It's learning to see yourself with different eyes. I'm not Photoshopping you. I am lighting you to show your best essence, but I'm not hiding the things we've been taught to hide," Beall said. "I'm gonna showcase them."

Word has gotten out

Through Facebook and Instagram, Beall's work has gained popularity around the world.

Instagram recently featured one of Beall's photographs of a breastfeeding mother for World Breastfeeding Week and it got major attention  more than a million likes.

She started photographing breastfeeding when she was working on her book, "The Bodies of Mothers," which showcases unretouched photos of mothers. It wasn't what she set out to do but so many of the moms had their breastfeeding babies in the studio, she started photographing them together.

"It's helping normalize it and helping women understand it better and to not feel alone," Beall said. "Women see my photos and write me the most beautiful emails so it helps them realize what they're doing is ok and others are doing it."

Earlier this year Beall went to London to photograph new mothers for a documentary called "The Tenth Month"  which is about the first month of motherhood  after being discovered by an advertising company there who saw her work on Facebook.

She will travel to Switzerland to help scientists who want to understand motherhood and body positivity.

And each month Beall goes to different cities to speak at Mommy-Con, a holistic baby conference.

She also started an international movement "The Beautiful Body Project," in which female photographers, videographers and journalists in seven countries have come together to photograph women and tell their stories. Its mission is to create awareness of the issues women face about birth, aging, cancer, eating disorders, breast feeding, c-sections, miscarriage, loss, domestic violence, sexual abuse and more.

All women want to 'feel worthy of being called beautiful'

On a self-funded trip, Beall went to Greece to photograph Syrian refugees. While on that trip, she also photographed women in Israel and Turkey.

During her travels, she has noticed one commonality among women across cultures is the desire to love themselves.

"The deep desire for self love, like, unwavering self love and to want to feel worthy of being called beautiful," Beall said. "99.9 percent of the women I photograph would not say they are beautiful and that's true in every country I've photographed."

She receives hundreds of calls and emails from women who want to be photographed and from women around the world who want to thank her for the work she does. They also follow her on Facebook, where her photo page has nearly 150,000 likes, and on Instagram, where she has close to 68,000 followers.

"Jade Beall has an innate ability to love people for all they are," Gray said. "This is what Jade does. The camera and photos is the medium in which she educates the world about self love, but what she truly does is love people more than they have ever loved themselves, which reminds them how to fully embrace this life and all we are as humans, and especially as women."
Help India!

By TCN News,

New Delhi: Thousands marched today to express their concern on the growing influence of Israel in India. The march was convened by Movement for Civil Rights, an alliance of many civil-society and religious organization under the leadership of Dr. Maulana Mufti Mukaram, Imam of Delhis Fatehpuri Masjid. The organizers asked the Indian government to snap all ties with Israel.

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The marched started today from Ram Leela Maidan around 10 am and reached Jantar Mantar. Later a public meeting was held at Jantar mantar.







Mufti Mukarram addressing the gathering.



Mufti Mukaram while addressing the gathering said Gandhiji was against Zionism and our first PM Nehru made India part of the Non-Aligned Movement but unfortunately, in early nineties this policy was changed drastically by the government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao who established formal diplomatic relations with Israel in 1991. Since then the country has become the largest customer of Israeli military equipments that are nothing but modified versions of US products. India is Israels largest defence market, accounting for almost 50 percent of Israeli arms sales.

Later on the Programme Convener and SDPI National Gen Secretary Hafiz Manzoor Ali Khan said that That Israeli diplomats have established relations with various State Governments and this kind of relations are void and against the norms of our country. Mossad have regularly intervened in investigations in various cases which indicate that Israel does not have trust in the capacity of Indian investigation agencies.







EM Abdul Rahiman Chairman Popular Front of India said that our growing civil and military ties with the illegitimate government of Israel are in gross violation of our great traditions and secular, democratic ethos. He cautioned that engaging Israel agencies like Mossad in tackling our domestic law and order problems will ultimately endanger the very autonomy and dignity of our police, military and intelligence agencies. The recent incidents like the arrest of a senior journalist in the Israel embassy car blast are intended to suppress the voices against the Zionist atrocities. He stated that the terror agenda of Israel will get defeated in the Indian soil as a result of the united democratic resistance that is gaining strength in our country.

Abdul Wahab Khilji President  All India Islahi movement said  Israel has been always an entertainer of terrorism and was created by violence, And Israel relation with India with create tension in the nation as well it will a endorsement of the Israels oppression on Palestinian.







Later in his speech Dalit leader Udit Raj of Confederation of SC ST Organisation said its high time that an alliance should be formed between Dalit and Muslims and they should vote for themselves.

Moulana Usman Baig president of All India Imams Council in his speech said that the audio tapes seized from the laptop of Dayanand Pandey, an accused in various bomb blast cases carried out by Hindutva groups reveal that Col. Srikant Purohit, the king-pin of the terror group had sought the support of Israel. There are two reasons behind terrorism in India one is the Israel and the other is the fascist forces. It is also worth notice that the increasing ties with Israel had very grave impact on the countrys security.







While addressing the public Turab Ali Kazmi son of arrested journalist Ahmed Kazmi said that the only reason for arrest of his father is that he wrote the truth about America and Israel. National Secretary of National Confederation of Human Rights Organization Advocate A Mohamed Yusuf told Israel is a cancer which is killing thousands of people, if we allow this cancer in our country it may lead to unhealthy situation. Ahmed Kazmi was arrested on suspicion of supporting people who planted bomb in an Israeli diplomat car in New Delhi. He has been in detention since February.

Other people who addressed the public are:

Dr Baseer Ahmed Khan, President, Indian Union Muslim League

Maulana Amir Rashadi, President, Rastriya Ulama Council

Adv Bahar U Barqui, Advocate, Supreme Court

Zaheer Zaidi, President, Shia Point

Yasin Patel, Co-ordinator, Wahdet-e-Islami

Dr Anwar ul Islam, Secretary, AIMMM

Irfanullah Khan, Convener, Jamia Nagar Coordinator Committee

Dr Taslim Rahmani, President, NPCI

Faisal Khan, President, Khudai Khidmatgar

Adv A Mohamed Yusuf, Sec. NCHRO

Anisu Zaman, National President, Campus Front

A memorandum demanding severance of all ties with Israel was submitted to the Prime Minister of India by a team led by Hafiz Manzoor Ali Khan.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net, Staff Reporter

New Delhi: In the backdrop of the growing communal incidents across India, Jamaat-e-Islami Hinds nationwide campaign for peace and humanity witnessed leaders and intellectuals from different religions coming together on one stage to campaign for establishment of peace and humanity in the society.

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While speaking at the inaugural session of Jamaats 15 day nationwide campaign from August 21 to September 4, Ram Puniyani, an eminent social activist and writer has emphasised upon the worsening situation.

Communalism of all religious groups is bad. Today communalism of Hindus calls itself nationalism. Gau Raksha is a political tool, supporting the campaign. Today lots of wrong things are being spread against Muslims and Christians. Therefore, common people need to be approached in order to remove their misunderstandings, said Puniyani in his speech.

Kastur Muni, patron of Vishwa Ahimsa Sangh which was representing the Jain community, said, Our thoughts and words should not trouble others, they in fact should please us and others.

Dr John Dayal, Secretary-General of the All India Christian Council made it clear that minorities are not seeking unity against Hindus.

There is no default religion of India, but what happens at the launch of a war plane or a government project, is open for all to see.

He further stressed to revive spirit of Constitution of India. There is a need to revive spirit of Constitution. We want rights of equality. There is no difference between my patriotism and your patriotism, he said referring to incidents where saffron groups and leaders have questioned patriotism of Muslims and Christians.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Syed Sadatullah Hussain, vice president of Jamaat and national convener of the campaign, said, Some forces want to divide the society. They actually want to push the society to a civil war. This is dangerous indications and all people who believe in peace and humanity must stand up to save the society and the country.

Navaid Hamid, national president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, strongly criticised Sangh ideology and said, Until and unless this ideology is crushed, peace cant be established in the society.

He also criticised the upcoming New Education Policy formulated by the current BJP-led NDA government.

Magsaysay awardee and eminent social activist Dr Sandeep Pandey highlighted the division in the society in Gujarat post 2002 riots. One partition took place in 1947 but the second one has now taken place in Gujarat  where Hindu areas have no Muslim resident and Muslim areas have no Hindu resident.

He called for an urgent need to promote co-habitation where all should reside together.

They are creating walls in minds. Efforts are being made to divide us and incite violence. he added.

Ayodhya saint and peace activist Yugal Kishore Shastri also spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Maulana Syed Jalauddin Umari, the President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in his presidential address emphasized upon peace and security as an essential condition for the people of nation to prosper and for India to forge on the path of development.

Our nation of 1.25 billion people is the largest democracy in the world. India is home to people belonging to all major religions of the world. This unique diversity is also its core strength. As despite the differences in language, race and religion, the thread of humanity binds all the countrymen together, he said.

Lashing out at communal and fascist forces, Maulana Syed Jalauddin Umari said, it is a matter of grave concern that some extremist ideologies propounded by communal and fascist forces are quickly gaining ground in society. Some opportunist elements are trying hard to disrupt our age-old social fabric for their own petty political, financial and cultural gains, he added.
Obama, Xi to meet again at G20 Updated: 2016-08-22 06:11 By WANG LINYAN and XINHUA in New York(chinadaily.com.cn)

US President Barack Obama will conduct in-depth meetings with President Xi Jinping when he attends the G20 Hangzhou summit in early September, the White House announced on Aug 18.

The two leaders will meet in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, where the G20 will be held for the first time in China, to discuss "a wide-range of global, regional and bilateral issues", the White House said in a statement.

In China, Obama will participate in his final G20 Leaders' Summit, where he will emphasize the need to continue building on the progress made since 2009 in advancing strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth.

He will underscore the importance of G20 cooperation in promoting a level playing field and broad-based economic opportunity.

This trip will highlight "Obama's ongoing commitment to the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation as well as the US rebalance to Asia and the Pacific", the White House said.

It will be Obama's 11th trip to Asia since he took office in 2009. The trip from Sept 2-9 also includes a visit to Laos. Obama will be the first US president to visit Laos, where he will participate in the US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.

Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, said in an interview with Xinhua that the G20 Summit could help deepen mutual understanding between China and the US and boost bilateral ties.

"Every time that an American president visits China, it is a benefit to US-China relations. Every time that a Chinese president and an American president meet, it is a benefit to US-China relations," Orlins said.

Orlins said that as the G20 host, China has the opportunity to set the tone and agenda for the meeting and help all participants reach an important consensus.

It is "very much up to China" whether the G20 summit can produce some really encouraging outcome,"Orlins said. "I think China is going to need to lead. I think China in a lot of ways can lead," he said.

"I think China being the host of the G20 is very much a kind of statement that China is now one of the most important economies in the world, and it is terrific that it is being able to do it," Orlids said Orlins.

Orlins said that he believes the world needs to seek new growth engines from innovation and clean industries, and that China as a global leader in both fields should steer the Hangzhou summit to achieve some breakthroughs. "We need to see more innovation that can be shared globally, and we need to see more movement towards industries which emit less carbon. I hope that's what comes out of the G20," he said.
Cao Wenxuan becomes first Chinese writer to receive Anderson award Updated: 2016-08-21 10:17 (Xinhua)

Cao Wenxuan (C) attends the awarding ceremony of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in Auckland, New Zealand, Aug 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Cao Wenxuan, one of China's most popular authors of children's fictions, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday, becoming the first Chinese writer for the most distinguished international honor for children's literature.

Cao shared the prize, handed out every other year, with German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner who was absent from the grand prize-giving ceremony was attended by some 300 readers, publishers and members of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

"Cao Wenxuan's books don't lie about the human condition," Patricia Aldana, president of the Hans Christian Andersen Award jury told the audience, "They acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer."

Except for Cao, other shortlisted competing writers are from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. He has won all the hearts of 10 jurors and was voted unanimously the winner of this year's prize.

"Cao writes beautifully about the complex life of children facing challenges. He's a deeply committed writer whose own child life has been deeply influential on his writing," she said.
G20 seen as boost for bilateral ties Updated: 2016-08-22 05:11 By CHEN WEIHUA in Washington(chinadaily.com.cn)

The upcoming summit between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama is expected to inject strong momentum into the bilateral relationship, according to China's top diplomat in Washington.

The White House announced on Aug 18 that Obama will attend his final G20 summit in Hangzhou (Sept 4-5) and also will conduct in-depth meetings with Xi covering a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues.

Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, said on Aug 20 that the two leaders have held several strategic summits in past years and each has produced a positive and important impact.

"The summits have provided very powerful guidance in developing the bilateral relationship between the two countries, expanding cooperation and managing their differences," Cui told the media. "I believe it will be the same this time."

He noted that Hangzhou, the venue for the upcoming summit, is special because it was the city where the historic Shanghai Communique was produced four decades ago.

The communique, officially signed in Shanghai during President Richard Nixon's historic trip to China in February 1972, set the course for the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. But much of the intense discussion for the document took place in scenic Hangzhou, about 110 miles from Shanghai.

Cui believes that the past predicts the future. He said the last 40 years have shown that China and the US should continue to cooperate to build the partnership.

"It is what we often refer to as building a new type of major country relationship," he said.

The new type of major country relationship was proposed by Xi in February 2012, when he toured the US as China's vice-president.

Cui said China and the US have had much coordination and cooperation since the G20 mechanism was established and have had good communications this time.

"I think the world expects China and the US to continue to play a leadership and constructive role this year to make the G20 summit a complete success," he said.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
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HA NOI  The Ministry of Finance proposed the government should offer a preferential corporate income tax of 10 per cent tor firms that are renovating deteriorating apartment blocks.

This is aimed at attracting developers to participate in restoring unsafe old apartment buildings, which are a pressing problem in terms of living standards, safety and the urban landscape in major cities such as Ha Noi and HCM City.

Under the proposal, which will be submitted to the National Assembly for comments in October, firms will enjoy a preferential tax rate of 10 per cent in the 2017-20 period, compared to the current popular rate of 20 per cent.

Firms must declare the income of each project separately to enjoy this preferential tax rate, according to the ministrys proposal.

Tran uc Thang, director of Cienco 1, one in three property companies involved in renovating the C1 Thanh Cong apartments in Ha Noi said this was good news, noting that developers might consider lowering housing prices in response.

However, a representative from another company said the 10 per cent tax rate was applicable for only a three-year period, which is too short as it usually takes at least five years to complete renovations before earning any revenue or profit.

According to Pham inh Thi, director of the Tax Policies Department, after 2020, the ministry might consider signing the proposed corporate income tax into law for these firms.

Incentives and policies to encourage firms to participate in renovating deteriorating apartment blocks have become essential, as firms remain hesitant because of low profits and complicated regulations.

After the government issued Resolution 34/2007/NQ-CP in 2007 on measures to renovate these apartment blocks, the results were still far below expectations.

For example, in Ha Noi, only 1 per cent of old apartment buildings were renovated over the past decade.

Statistics from the Ministry of Construction showed that there were some 4,000 old apartment buildings, built before 1991, covering a total area of more than 3 million sq.m., of which 1,516 were in Ha Noi and 900 in HCM City. More than 200 buildings were severely dilapidated and needed to be rebuilt. - VNS
The village of Thanh Thuy Chanh has its famous wooden Thanh Toan bridge.

Visitors have always been there to see it.

Villagers want them to see more than just the bridge.

So, they have come together and built a museum that tells the story of traditional farming.

by Phuoc Buu

A museum that displays farming tools and lies beside the famed Thanh Toan roof-tiled bridge has received over 24,000 visitors over the past six months.

The head of the cooperative running tourism services for the museum, Tran Cong Phu, said visitors were happy to learn about traditional Vietnamese farming techniques and were able to practise them in a rice field.

The museum was set up by the efforts of the local community and serves as an excellent example of community management of a cultural site.

According to Tran Duy Chien, 66, one of the 35 farmers who lent a hand in setting up the museum, locals wanted something traditional to introduce to tourists who visit their village, besides the ancient wooden bridge.

More importantly, this [the museum] is for the whole community; for the older generation to look back upon, and for young people to learn about the past, he said.

In the middle of November last year, villagers at Thanh Thuy Chanh Village, where the museum is based, joined hands to build the museum, aiming to display farming tools that were used in the past.

The work was done in consultation with, and with technical assistance from, country staff from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Thirty-five locals fixed, cleaned and reorganised farming tools gathered from houses that had been organised for an exhibition in 2014, and made a museum from the collection.

Visitors now get a chance to learn how the soil was prepared by water buffalo-powered ploughs and rakes, and how rice saplings were replanted. They see how to separate the rice from the plant and how to blow away the husks using manual tools.

They can also examine bamboo boats and handmade fishing tools. Fishing and hunting amphibians were another key means of living in this rural area in the past.

Villagers donated old farming tools, bamboo household utensils, earthen rice bowls and other things that reminded them of a past life that is now largely gone.

The museum took about six months to set up in an atmosphere that the villagers described as a joyful festival.

The younger generation joined in with the work showing their deep respect for their villages traditions. Few villages can keep up the easy rural life like my home village and we are proud to participate in this work, said Phu, 27, a bachelor of economics.

Life behind the villages bamboo bushes is peaceful and musical, with mothers singing folk songs to send their children to sleep. Stories of a persons life are told in an area of the museum with a bamboo cradle, bamboo bed, costumes and other items used in traditional weddings.

Ho Thi Vui, a local, said she would love to perform folk songs that were sung in the past while farming, doing housework and taking care of children. She would entertain visitors with delight and pride, she said.

The villagers are extremely proud that they have been able to make the village a charming rural destination in Hue, and are able to entertain visitors with their idyllic traditions.

Legendary bridge

In 1776, the village was bestowed with a uniquely roof-tiled wooden bridge, a gift from a native who had to travel far away for marriage. The bridge freed locals from both sides of the waterway from the risks of travelling over the water, and also gave the village a charm that mirrored the clean water of the canal.

For centuries, the bridge was appraised as one of the most complicated wooden spans in the country and is considered as beautiful as its sister Japanese-styled bridge in Hoi An.

City dwellers today take holidays to the bridge for Lunar New Year and enjoy playing traditional games at the same time.

The village also has some colourful characters including a poetess known as O Kinh. She is a normal lady who sells drinks, but she has become famous locally for her poems about the beauty of the bridge and her love of the village.

Yes, the locals take much pride in their bridge, and now they have added to it with their museum. VNS

GLOSSARY

In the middle of November last year, villagers at Thanh Thuy Chanh Village, where the museum is based, joined hands to build the museum, aiming to display farming tools that were used in the past.

To join hands to do something means to work together to do it.

The work was done in consultation with, and with technical assistance from, country staff from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

To work in consultation with others means to keep talking to others as you do your work, keeping them updated and hearing their suggestions.

Visitors now get a chance to learn how the soil was prepared by water buffalo-powered ploughs and rakes, and how rice saplings were replanted.

Saplings are young, little plants.

They see how to separate the rice from the plant and how to blow away the husks using manual tools.

Husks are the outside covering of some fruits and seeds.

Manual tools are tools that people operate using their hands.

They can also examine bamboo boats and handmade fishing tools. Fishing and hunting amphibians were another key means of living in this rural area in the past.

Amphibians are the group of animals that frogs belong to.

A rural area is a country area.

Villagers donated old farming tools, bamboo household utensils, earthen rice bowls and other things that reminded them of a past life that is now largely gone.

Donated means gave.

Households utensils are devices used in a house.

The museum took about six months to set up in an atmosphere that the villagers described as a joyful festival.

Atmosphere means mood.

Few villages can keep up the easy rural life like my home village and we are proud to participate in this work, said Phu, 27, a bachelor of economics.

A bachelor of economics is a type of university degree.

Stories of a persons life are told in an area of the museum with a bamboo cradle, bamboo bed, costumes and other items used in traditional weddings.

A cradle is a babys bed.

The villagers are extremely proud that they have been able to make the village a charming rural destination in Hue, and are able to entertain visitors with their idyllic traditions.

A destination is a place people travel to.

Idyllic means wonderful.

In 1776, the village was bestowed with a uniquely roof-tiled wooden bridge, a gift from a native who had to travel far away for marriage.

Bestowed means given.

The bridge freed locals from both sides of the waterway from the risks of travelling over the water, and also gave the village a charm that mirrored the clean water of the canal.

If the village charm mirrors the clean water, the two things are much the same.

For centuries, the bridge was appraised as one of the most complicated wooden spans in the country and is considered as beautiful as its sister Japanese-styled bridge in Hoi An.

Appraised means judged.

A wooden span is the length of something that is made of wood, from one end to another.

City dwellers today take holidays to the bridge for Lunar New Year and enjoy playing traditional games at the same time.

City dwellers are people who live in a city.

The village also has some colourful characters including a poetess known as O Kinh.

A poetess is a female poet, (who writes poems).

WORKSHEET

State whether the following sentences are true, or false:

The museum took six years to set up. The bridge is more than a hundred years old. Tran Duy Chien is a farmer. Water buffalo have been known to pull ploughs in traditional farming. UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Council.

ANSWERS:

 Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2016

1. False; 2. True; 3. True; 4. True; 5. False.
HA NOI  An exhibition of folk paintings originating from different regions of the country opened last week in Ha Noi.

During the opening ceremony, artisans Nguyen ang Che, Nguyen ang Giap and Le inh Nghien printed and presented ong Ho and Hang Trong folk paintings for visitors.

The event, a collaboration between the Ha Noi Museum and the Ha Noi Ceramics Museum, provides art lovers, history buffs and culture enthusiasts a look at paintings and sculptures that were created when few people had access to institutional learning and were generally self-taught.

The exhibition introduces the quintessence of 12 folk painting genres with various works brought by collector Nguyen Thi Thu Hoa, director of the Ha Noi Ceramics Museum.

Intrigued: Visitors looking at the paintings in the exhibition.  Photo vov.vn

Many ancient Buddhist objects of worship, maps, posters and printing tools are on display, illustrating the process of making folk paintings.

Besides showcasing some famous works such as ong Ho and Hang Trong, the exhibition also shows o The Nam Bo (spiritual paintings, burned to pray for health), Sinh Village paintings originating from Phu Vang District of Hue City in about the 15th century, Goi Vai (paintings with a silk background and 3D details produced by folding silk) and Thap Vat (spiritual paintings printed from sculpted-wooden planks, only in black and white, which are burned for the dead).

Thap Vat painting: These spiritual paintings were printed using sculpted-wooden planks, in black and white only, and were burned for the dead).

The exhibition will also feature colourful southern glass paintings, which came to Viet Nam in the early 20th century when Chinese immigrants opened glass shops in Sai Gon (the former name of HCM City).

In the 1920s, the art form developed rapidly along with other crafts, spreading throughout six southern provinces. Mass produced products on religious themes, celebrations and interior decorative painting were developed. Some glass paintings were drawn with multi-coloured paints, or with mother of pearl, and combined with coatings of mercury.

 Goi vai painting: Paintings on silk backgrounds. Some details are produced by folding the silk to produce 3D figures.  Photo courtesy of the Ha Noi Museum

Fine folk arts are an integral part of Vietnamese culture, however, many folk painting genres have been lost, according to Nguyen Tien a, director of the Ha Noi Museum.

We cultural activists and researchers are nervous about the fact that so many folk painting genres now live only in the museum, he said.

We just know about them through rare old paintings and printing tools. But no one knows how to paint and print them. These objects have their own bodies, souls and stories but they have no vitality in contemporary life.

So we have organised this exhibition with the aim of introducing people to these traditional arts. We hope to inspire people to revive folk painting.  VNS
Ding Dong is the new gong in Kon Klor Village of Kom Province. Kaly Tran has almost single handedly revived the Tay Nguyen(Central Highlands) music of the Ba Na

people, and is now spending his time leading a musical troupe of his own. Moc Mien reports.

by Moc Mien

Kaly Tran has just finished his show late on a hot summer night in the hustle and bustle of HCM City. His forehead is sweating yet his lips smile proudly. Hardly anyone can imagine that this well-built Bana man is so interested in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) music and is spending a lot of time leading a musical troupe of his own. We sit quietly side by side in a street cafe and Tran cannot help expressing his emotions and thoughts: I had a special family background. I was sent to an orphanage when I was a little child. My love for music grew day by day through the activities and services at the orphanage.

In his memory, decades ago the BaNa ethnic people led a poor life, yet every household had their own trung and klong put instruments and gongs. When it came to the harvest or festivals, villagers gathered together, playing instruments and drinking ruou can (tube wine) until everyone got drunk.

When I went to high school, I found that no young people played instruments. BaNa families hung the gongs on the wall or even sold them at the market. It was pretty sad. He said.

In 2015, after his graduation from the Military University of Culture and Arts, Tran decided to return to his home village to teach children to play instruments, and to gather adults to set up a music troupe. In order to be able to afford his dream, Tran had to perform on several pop music stages around HCM City. Whenever he has free time, he takes a bus back to the village.

In the beginning, it was very hard to persuade villagers to join hands with him. Most of them said: We cannot sing. We are farmers who are just familiar with the fields and the forest. We have no talent for singing.

It took Tran time and effort to show them that just passion, dedication and patience can help revive BaNa music. He also took charge of leading everyone. After a while, one by one, they came to believe him.

BaNa people are among the biggest music lovers in Central Highlands. They have an aptitude for music. I have been addicted to music since I was a child. Music and I cannot be separated.

Farm at day, sing at night

In the first days after coming back home, Tran could call on the participation of nearly 30 people. Everyone was excited to go to the forest to find lo o, bamboo trees which were then carved and dried to make instruments: Klong put, ting ning, bong boh, especially trung instruments. Some Trung instruments were lifted from the walls to be used.

Thanks to their constant efforts and creation, Tran and his counterparts have managed to make a new gong collection named Ding Dong based on the working principles of the old gongs.

For ages, Central Highlands people have been using the old gongs made on the pentatonic scale which is very popular in traditional music but not in new music. However, I would like to develop new gongs that can play all kinds of music. In another sense, it will help popularise ethnic musical instruments to foreigners, Tran said.

The old gong collection has just 12 or 13 gongs. Meanwhile, the new one has 27 gongs. Of these, 16 gongs are to play main rhythms and the other 11 gongs are to support. That is why the new gong collection can create strange and soothing sounds, Tran shared excitedly.

Tran has developed the musical troupe to about 70 members, or even 100 members if they need to play the new gongs.

We just want to let people know how wild and free BaNa music can be. If we can make money, its good, he added.

Now, Kon Klor Village in Kon Tum Province is quite famous not only for its traditional and rustic houses, but also for the musical troupe led by Tran.

Notably, most of the troupe members are poor farming villagers. They were convinced by Tran to try, and then they became talented instrument players.

A Rung, a member of the Kon Klor musical troupe, shared: I just finished Grade 9 then stayed home to do farming. When Tran called, I was hesitant at first. Then I was curious and excited to join him. Now it has become so familiar to me. I will definitely be sad if I dont sing once a week.

Pham Thi Trung, director of Kon Tums Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said that she was so touched when seeing Trans troupe playing.

Tran has developed the troupe based on the wildness and freedom in the souls of the BaNa people.

Thats why Tran and his troupe are newly discovered assets of the cultural sector.  VNS
Thuy Hang

If you want a travel companion, who do you choose? A friend, your partner or lover, or do you choose a family member?

While most young people would choose a friend or their lover, young HCM City resident Pham Tam Tuan Khuong chose his maternal grandmother.

Khuong was the first grandchild of his grandmother and was raised by her since he was a five-month-old infant.

"My mother got pregnant with my younger brother when I was only five months old. Taking care of a newborn baby plus serious morning sickness was beyond my mothers capacity at the time, so I was sent to my maternal grandmother to live in the southern coastal city of Vung Tau," Khuong said.

His grandmother became his second mother. She was the one who fed Khuong every single spoon of milk and stayed awake the whole night through to take care of him when he was sick.

Thats why its understandable that when Khuong started speaking, his first word mom was to his grandmother.

"During my childhood, I always called her mom. When I had to part from her and return to my parents in HCM City, I cried everyday because I missed her so much," Khuong recalled.

In his memory, his grandmother was an active woman who liked travelling.

His "special mother" always had him with her on almost every trip.

With such a special bond between himself and his grandmother, Khuong had always nurtured a dream to take her travelling with him whenever he could earn the money.

"I wanted to show gratitude to the one, who while not giving birth to me, did foster me as a child," Khuong said.

After many years, the 24-year-old made his dream come true. He and his grandmother had a wonderful trip together to Phu Quoc Island, located off the southern coast of Viet Nam, in July last year.

His 70-year-old grandmother was very excited when she got the call from her beloved grandchild asking if she could join him for a four-day trip to the island.

"She accepted my offer when she was sure that it would be a low cost trip because she didnt want me to spend all the money I had earned," Khuong said.

Besides the two VN700,000 return tickets, the total expenditure of the trip was only about VN3 million.

"The first criteria my grandmother had was that it must be low cost. Its hard to convince her to step into a taxi. Instead, she prefers to travel around by rental motorbike. She also prefers to stay in a humble hostel rather than a luxury hotel," Khuong said.

During their trip, some people gave him weird looks, like "What? You are travelling with your grandmother?" Khuong said he didnt care, because he just wanted to make his grandmother happy.

As a freelance photographer, Khuong didnt miss the chance to capture all the great moments of their trip. He took hundreds of photos showing how the two of them enjoyed their trip.

Through his lens, his grandmother  with a big smile  immerses herself in clear waters, or looks very cool chasing birds on the beach.

When Khuong uploaded his photo collection, entitled Ngoai Oi, Minh i au The (Maternal grandmother, where do we go?), to his Facebook page, the young man didnt expect his photos to receive hundreds of likes from his friends.

He said he was very moved when reading the positive comments on his photos because they somehow brought inspiration to some people.

"Many people said they felt regret that their grandmothers had passed away and they didnt have the chance to do something similar as Ive done with mine. Others said they would pay more attention to taking care of their family members so they wouldnt feel this regret in the future," said Khuong.

Khuong is also founder and leader of the Sharing Kitchen, a charitable group of young volunteers who offer special meals for orphaned children and disadvantaged people.

Last December, Khuong and his grandmother made a second trip to a Nang and Hoi An, where his grandmother for the first time experienced riding a 3D horse and watching a 5D movie.

"She is very cool. She doesnt hesitate to try anything, even a mojito cocktail that she had never sampled before," Khuong said.

However, the first try is not always a great experience.

"On our first trip to Phu Quoc, she wanted to join a group of tourists night fishing for squid. But after about 10 minutes on the boat, she got seasick and had to be taken back to shore.

"She wanted to try a mojito when we were in Hoi An. After few sips, she turned red from head to toe and looked like a giant lobster. When we got back to our hotel that night, she fell asleep in under three seconds," Khuong recalled.

Like on previous trips, all the moments they shared together were posted on his Facebook page, and received warm responses from thousands of viewers. Some online newspapers also ran articles about their wonderful trips.

In an unexpected way, Khuongs grandmother became "famous", so that people recognise her whenever she goes to the morning market.

"I am very happy to see my grandmother receiving so much joy and many smiles during and after our trips," he said.

Khuongs friends now are no longer surprised whenever he tells them about his next travel plans with his grandmother.

"Now they are the ones who tell me about flight promotions so I can schedule a trip for the two of us," the young man said.

The young man now is competing in the Here We Go competition for people who like travelling.

"If I win the competition, I will use the cash prize to continue travelling with my special companion  my grandmother. Im thinking about Singapore or Malaysia, because it is convenient for her to travel to these countries as they are not very far from Viet Nam," Khuong said.

At the moment, the only thing Khuong wants is his grandmothers health, so "she can team up with me for our next trips".  VNS
Members of the Coast Guard of Quang Ngai Province recently rescued six sea turtles that had been illegally transported by a group of local residents. The turtles were weak but still alive.

The first thing we did was to soak the turtles in sea water, Major Ngo Doan Tu, deputy head of Binh Hai Coast Guard Station, said.

The turtles, which face risk of extinction, are listed in the Red Book. Were always happy about rescuing them because we know were protecting marine biodiversity.

Pham Chau, a 55-year-old resident of the commune, was fined VN4.5 million after he was found transporting four turtles.

Ive recognised my mistake. Now, Ill inform the Coast Guard force whenever a sea turtle is captured, Chau said.

Lieutenant Colonel Vo uc, chief of the Binh Hai Coast Guard Station, said that his soldiers had visited households every week to educate locals in the central coastal commune about marine conservation.

Vo Bong, an 85-year-old fisherman, said the Coast Guard had been friendly and the information easy to understand.

Ive told my family not to catch marine creatures protected by the State, Bong said.

Phung inh Toan, deputy head of Quang Ngai Provinces division for exploitation and protection of marine resources, said the Binh Hai Coast Guard Station had contributed significantly to the protection of the sea environment.

He said that recently software chips had been attached to the bodies of 10 turtles before being released to the sea.  VNS
By Ha Thanh Phuc

At five in the morning, he heard noises from the kitchen. His bed was only a few steps from the kitchen and at the foot of the bed rested two motorbikes. This was because of the narrow lodging room he lived in; it was only 20 square meters.

He was dozing off while his wife was preparing breakfast, trying to be quiet by occasionally stopping and glancing at him to make sure she didnt disturb her husbands sleep.

***

He met her when he was a student. Two years after he graduated from university, he asked for her hand in marriage. Poor as he was, the wedding was simple, with several dozen friends attending in a small restaurant. Her parents did not come, whereas his parents were dead. Since then, they had lived together for more than three years.

Sometimes he could not understand why she loved him so much. Her parents had never supported their marriage because he was so poor, let alone orphaned. What was more, she was an only child. She should have studied abroad and then married a rich husband. She had left everything behind and followed him to live in this narrow lodging room. Her parents had left her high and dry.

He made about four million dong a month working as a technician. She smiled, saying: Dont worry, my dear! My salary is ten million dong plus yours to make fourteen million dong. We can save for our child and our house. My parents will eventually accept us. We must be patient.

***

One day, out of the blue, she said to him:

Lets have a child. If we do, my parents will accept our marriage. I know they want a grand-child very much.

Seeing his concern over their financial condition, she continued:

Dont worry, my dear. Ill take care of it

So, he agreed. However, they tried and tried, but she didnt become pregnant. They had prayed at several pagodas, but they should have gone to the hospital, and when they did, she was told that she was completely healthy. The problem lay with him as his sperm count was low, he wouldnt be able to get her pregnant.

To have a child, they would need artificial insemination. The doctor told them about the time and cost. He calculated in silence and realised they couldnt afford it. It was better to shelf it, he thought.

***

His company announced layoffs due to the difficult economy. He was one of the persons to be sacked. It was a great surprise to him as he had worked for the company for many years. He had to leave at the end of the month.

Having arrived home on the day he finished work, he did not break the news to his wife. He dared not tell her. They had been struggling to make ends meet and now he was unemployed, all difficulties would be placed on her, he thought.

One morning, he dressed well and carried briefcase as if he was going to work. He then drove around the city and went to a cafe under an old tree. The owner was old with white hair, but was still agile and wise. She was made the coffee quickly for him. Looking at her, he felt assured. Everything would be all right, he thought, and this could be an opportunity to get a better job.

A light wind was blowing and flowers were falling everywhere. He finished the coffee. He told himself that he should put an end to his sadness now. He received a message from his wife, saying that she would be late home today, so there was no need for him take her home or wait for her to have dinner together. He breathed a deep sigh, feeling pity for his wife. After finding out she couldnt have a child with him she had kept busy, probably trying to forget about it.

More than two weeks had gone by. He looked for work everywhere. He had some interviews, but no offers of employment.

While waiting for a new job, he worked as a motorbike taxi driver. He was careful not to be recognised by people who could let the cat out of the bag to his wife. His wife did notice that he was darker and thinner. She asked him about this and he said smiling:

Ive got to go outside to meet customers. Men look stronger when theyre darker. Its okay, Im healthy!

Sometimes when he rested in roadside drink shops when he felt tired, he thought his life was miserable. And what was worse, he was infertile. He had made his wife unhappy. She deserved a better life. But he loved her very much. He did not want to leave her. He dreamt of a rich life, but dreaming remained dreaming. Reality was far from his reach.

One night, he could not sleep. He thought about the future, about how to earn more money and about having a child. It was 12 oclock at night. Suddenly, she got up. At first he thought she was going to the toilet. No. She stood in front of the mirror and opened the wardrobe, selecting her best skirt to wear. He pretended to sleep soundly, even snoring.

She expressed no emotion. He was stunned by her actions, but later he discovered that she was sleepwalking. She was doing things very skillfully, from preparing food in the kitchen to opening the fridge. He was startled. Normally, she cooked food in the morning, not at this hour of night.

Having finished cooking, she changed her clothes and returned to bed. When morning came, he asked:

Did you have a good sleep last night?

I slept very well. What about you?

I slept like a log!

So who cooked breakfast? You have surprised me. It is as delicious as when I cook.

He smiled, but did not reveal the truth.

The next night, he waited nervously.

It was the same. Right at 12 oclock, when he pretended to snore, she got up. But she did not cook anything this time. She cleaned the toilet and the house. No emotion was on her face. He tried to contain his laughter. Its interesting that she does a lot of things while sleeping. If only I could sleepwalk so that I could do things at night like her, he thought.

The next night came.

It was 12 oclock, but she did not get up. She slept soundly. How strange! Or didnt she sleepwalk any longer? He waited and waited. Half an hour went by and then one hour went by, but nothing happened. He felt sleepy

The next day when he opened his eyes, she was cooking. She asked:

Did you have a good sleep last night?

I slept very well

Yes, you need not get up and cook my breakfast. I can do it very quickly!

Or we could eat out now?

Wed better not because food in the shops is not healthy these days. Better to cook at home, my dear! We will have to save so we can live in a nicer house

He got up and embraced her:

Im lucky to have you, my dear wife!

What a man you are! Do brush your teeth before we have breakfast!

Yes, Maam!

***

One week after that she did not get up at midnight anymore! The reason for sleepwalking was unclear. As he read on the internet, it could be that she was stressed about having a house or a child.

Having thought about it, he loved her much more. He could not earn more money for her, so he should be a good, faithful husband, he thought. He now did the washing and the tidying up. She seemed more cheerful.

One month went by. He forgot about her sleepwalking. Yet, out of the blue, at 12 oclock one night, she got up. She changed her clothes and started doing house work and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

Every two nights, she got up and did the same thing. He felt a chill running down his spine, thinking she was possessed. He intended to film her so that he could show her the next morning. He wanted to tell her that she was ill and should have treatment.

***

She got up at 12 oclock and changed into a beautiful dress. She put on perfume. She opened the door lightly. Oh, God, she is seriously ill. She even went out at midnight. He had heard that sleepwalkers could walk onto roofs and could fall down if they woke up.

But he got curious and wanted to see what his wife was doing sleepwalking outside. He tip-toed after her. She walked very slowly through the alley and turned right. It was pitch black outside. Then she stopped in front of a house. Whose house was that, he wondered? The door opened slowly. A bearded man took her hands and they embraced each other. The mans hands were touching her breasts and her bottom. A few seconds after that, she went into the house. The door was closed. The night was quiet. His heart was thumping. His limbs weakened. Were all the messages she had sent to him saying that she was coming home late a lie? He ran back to his bedroom. No, it was not true. All that he had witnessed was not true. It was only a dream. He had to get back to the reality as soon as possible. After this night, when he woke up, everything would be in order. They would have breakfast together cooked by her and they would kiss each other before going to work. He would carry her on the motorbike to the company.

Then he closed his eyes. His forehead was wet with sweat. He wondered if he was a sleepwalker and not her. He mumbled: one sheep, two sheep and three sheep, a hundred sheep. He plunged into a sound sleep. Suddenly, there was a cry of a baby that startled him. He turned to where his wife had lain by his side. She was there with her eyes closed; her hands were on her chest as if nothing had happened.

The room smelt faintly of perfume.

Translated by Manh Chuong
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Unequal Budget funding for the Yes vote wont give Australians equal say If you seek to ensure not all Australians get an equal say in the debate about an enshrined voice, then dont be surprised when millions of them cry foul about the integrity of the result.

Heartbreaking family update after mother-of-six was killed in horror crash Hannah Fraser's father and stepmother are trying to make it from the United Kingdom to Australia in time for their daughter's funeral.

Firefighter unions latest message to Andrews Government More than a hundred fire trucks in Victoria will carry pointed messages about the Andrews Government as part of a union campaign in the lead up to next month's state election.

Family of Aboriginal teen who died in apparent suicide after sexual abuse back calls for inquiry Police believe 15-year-old Layla Leering took her own life after being raped in the Northern Territory community of Bulla in 2015.
WATERLOO  A Minnesota couple is breathing new life into a 118-year-old horse carriage company in the Cedar Valley.

Erik and Shelli Lee acquired Jerald Sulky Co. at 3050 Wagner Road just north of West Airline Highway and have improved the facilities. In just seven months they have drummed up new national and international business, finding a niche in highly crafted, stylized show carts for horse shows. They also hope to re-enter the harness-racing sulky business the company built its reputation on through several generations.

One day last week workers  rehired by the Lees  put the final touches on a show cart headed for a national horse competition in Louisville, Ky. The cart, along with the animal pulling it, is part of the presentation and judging at the competition.

This ones worth spreading the word, you know? Erik Lee said, showing off his staffs work. Theres no test run for this one. Certainly having the best equipments in your favor.

And the Lees believe their equipment is the best.

Youre standing in the last commercial manufacturing facility for horse-drawn show vehicles on the planet, Erik Lee said. For us we bought Rolls-Royce from the Maserati of the horse business. Its simply the best. And its about all thats left. So were just so jazzed about it.

The Lees, who have a horse farm east of the Twin Cities, saw a need and a market for the companys products when it fell on hard times and ceased production.

For those of us in the horse business, for which this is important, it was like it took away air. Jerald Sulky was part of the deal, he said.

The Lees needed a cart. They ended up buying the company Samuel Jerald founded in Osage. He brought it to Waterloo in 1898 to be near rail transit and operated here through several generations. Its been at the Wagner Road site since 1962.

February of last year, we had a pony we needed a pleasure cart for, and we called down here to order it and nobody was home. We found it very recently closed. We bought the place. We still havent built our own pony cart. But its literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Erik Lee said.

The cart and its components are virtually all locally manufactured.

The Lees are entrepreneurs, mainly in technology. Erik holds a degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. He also has been involved with show horses for about two decades.

We have a very established life in the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. We turned our world on its head to do this. This is a huge deal for us, Erik said. This is our commitment here.

The emphasis is on show carts. People who are consumers of this kind of product are always capable of consuming this product. So there is a limited but constant demand for it, which I think will be here permanently. And if we run the company well, we can grow it, Erik Lee said.

Its our employees who have made this happen too, Shelli Lee said. Because we couldnt have done this without the craftsman we have. They went and got other jobs, but they still were devoted to the Jerald Sulky Co. Plenty of them came back.

Our ability to resuscitate this company was 100 percent dependent on our ability to bring back the employees, said Erik Lee. The staff of about nine has a combined 200-plus years of experience.

Theres a possibility for re-entering the racing sulky market, with training and practice carts for horses. We still have the best work and conditioning carts anywhere, Erik said, and are working on technical innovations. Theres a lot of brand loyalty with the company.

They hope to re-enlist technical help from the Center for Industrial Research and Service at Iowa State University, which helped the company previously with testing.

The companys dealers report customers are excited. Our dealer left here last week with our single order of the year. His trailers just buried in carts on the top. People just run him down to tell him how excited they are.

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart toured the plant last week.

The Jerald Sulky Co. is an unsung hero locally in Waterloo, Hart said. I was very impressed by the craftsmanship, their professionalism and their creativity that they brought into the carriages. We thank Erik and Shelli Lee for all theyve done to carry on this company.

Waterloo Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson said the city is working on an possible incentive package for the company.

This is a tremendous success story, Anderson said. And this is a world-leading company in its industry. This is the type of company that prides itself on a well-developed and sculpted product, as well as bringing recognition for the Waterloo, Iowa, name to Australia, Africa, Europe and other countries across the globe, Anderson said.

And the Lees said company is here to stay.

Its a great site, its a great facility, and we couldnt pick a better town, Erik Lee said. If we need anything industrial, its in this town.
WATERLOO -- Sunday in the Park, a worship and picnic event for neighborhood and community hosted by Grace Reformed Church, is planned for Sunday at Galloway Park, corner of Maxwell and Stratford streets, beginning at 10 a.m.

The event will feature an inspirational message by Pastor Dave and music by the Spirit of Grace praise band. Participants may dress casual and should bring lawn chairs or blankets.

Hamburgers and hot dogs will be served, with table service and dessert provided free of charge. There also will be games, prizes, balloon artist and face painting. A ball diamond is available for all ages following the picnic.

In case of bad weather, the event will take place at Grace Reformed Church, 520 Maxwell. For more information, call 233-4341 or email pastordavevannetten@mchsi.com.
MASON CITY  The trial of a Hampton man accused of killing his girlfriend will start Monday.

Ronald Rand, 51, is charged with felony first-degree murder.

Hes accused of fatally shooting Michelle Key, 51, of Waterloo, with a shotgun on Dec. 15 after an argument in his home on First Street Northeast.

His attorney, Susan Flander, and state prosecutors discussed a series of ground rules with District Court Judge DeDra Schroeder at a pretrial conference Friday at the Cerro Gordo County Law Enforcement Center courtroom in Mason City.

At the hearing, Schroeder ruled on a series of motions regarding what could and could not be shown to the jurors during the trial in Osage.

She will allow Flander to show portions of transcript of Rand talking with police and his daughter after the incident, but barred much of Keys mental health history and allegations of past drug or alcohol use from the trial.

The judge also denied a request by Keys father, brother and mother to restrict media coverage of their testimony.

Jury selection will begin Monday morning at the Mitchell County Courthouse in Osage. The trial was moved there from Hampton due to press coverage.

Rand will remain jailed in Mason City, where he has been held since shortly after his arrest.
INDEPENDENCE  A Waterloo man was arrested in connection with a Saturday morning robbery in Buchanan County.

Eddie Lavar Wade, 37, was arrested for first-degree robbery, going armed, willful injury causing bodily injury and fourth-degree theft.

Wade was also cited for improper use of a median and failure to maintain control.

According to the Buchanan County Sheriffs Office, deputies were sent to Interstate 380 around mile marker 49 at 8:30 a.m. after a passerby discovered someone who had been beaten.

The victim had been assaulted, and someone fled the scene in his vehicle, deputies said. Troopers with the Iowa State Patrol stopped the vehicle in Black Hawk County a short time later.
Good morning, Cedar Valley! It's Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016.

Today's forecast: Sunny, with a high near 73. West northwest wind 7 to 10 mph.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 54. West northwest wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable in the evening.

Today in the Cedar Valley:

--- Sunday in the Park, a worship and picnic event for neighborhood and community hosted by Grace Reformed Church, is planned for today at Galloway Park, corner of Maxwell and Stratford streets, beginning at 10 a.m. The event will feature an inspirational message by Pastor Dave and music by the Spirit of Grace praise band. Participants may dress casual and should bring lawn chairs or blankets.

--- The Black Hawk R/C Pilots moved their model air show to today due to yesterday's weather. The flying will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with an airshow starting at 1 p.m. You are encouraged to bring a lawn chair, sun screen and enjoy lunch at our noon cook-out. Throughout the day, spectators and guests of all ages will be able to fly our radio controlled trainer aircraft with the assistance of our trained pilots. Profits from the cook-out and any donations will go to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). The location is rural New Hartford.

--- Today is the final day of the Old Time Power Show at Antique Acres, 7610 Waverly Road, Cedar Falls. See history come to life. Admission is $7; kids 12 and under are free.

--- The Waterhawks will have a ski show at 7 p.m. at Eagle Lake in Evansdale. Admission is free.
WATERLOO  A plan to require better security camera coverage in local businesses is up for approval.

Waterloo City Council members are scheduled Monday to consider upgrading the surveillance camera ordinance by replacing references to outdated technology and requiring more types of businesses to install them.

The current ordinance drafted in 1993 required only convenience stores and liquor stores to have cameras, which are designed to deter crime or catch those responsible for bad acts.

The change proposed by the police department would add banks and credit unions, carry-out restaurants, coin dealers, payday lenders, firearm dealers, hotels, cellular phone dealers, money transmission services, pawn brokers, pharmacies, scrap metal dealers and second-hand goods dealers.

The proposed ordinance also sets minimum standards for the equipment and dictates where cameras should be located within a business.

Safety Service Director Dan Trelka said most businesses potentially affected by the ordinance already have security cameras. Those needing upgrades would be given time to come into compliance.

Other scheduled council business includes:

An ordinance giving homeowners affected by the citys foundation drain disconnection program another year to come into compliance. The disconnection area is a triangle bounded by the Cedar River, Black Hawk Creek and western city limit line with Cedar Falls.

Property owners in that zone were required in the 2014 ordinance to disconnect their foundation drains from the sanitary sewer lines by the end of 2016 or face a $50 monthly sewer surcharge. Building Official Craig Clark said the program is working but wanted to push the deadline to Dec. 31, 2017.

Supporting the Black Hawk County Conservation Boards application for a Community Attraction and Tourism program grant to help cover a shortfall in the Hartman Reserve Nature Center interpretive center renovation. The city would provide a nearly $4,000 grant match.

The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday in the council chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
DES MOINES  GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence spent Saturday getting a taste of Americana  and a hot beef sundae topped with a cherry tomato  during a stroll through the Iowa State Fair.

Pence, 57, the Indiana governor and Donald Trumps running mate, stopped to take a selfie with his wife, Karen, and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in front of the iconic butter cow. He flipped chops at the pork tent and cast a kernel of corn for Trump in an unscientific poll during two-hours at the fairgrounds.

Whos that? Donald Trump? asked one fairgoer whose attention was diverted momentarily from the blur of corn dogs and funnel cakes by the entourage of TV cameras, reporters and secrity that accompanied Pence.

Pence paused near the stage in Jalapeno Petes bar and restaurant to shake hands, greet babies and navigate the mass of humanity on the grand concourse en route to the Beef Quarters and the aforementioned beef sundae.

He said its something hes always wanted to do, said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, who met privately with Pence to talk trade and agriculture before touring the fairgrounds with him. So I think its a perfect fit for him to be here.

The vice presidential candidate got his most boisterous greeting at the GOP booth in the Varied Industries Building, where Republicans chanted We like Mike, Trump and USA! Two detractors held up signs saying Make Misogyny Great Again a few yards from where Pence briefly addressed the crowd.

Pence said he was honored to celebrate the agricultural tradition on display at the fair before rallying the GOP troops for the 2016 presidential campaign that lies ahead.

Iowa always plays such an important role in the choice that America makes. I know this fall Iowa will lead the way when we elect Donald Trump the next president of the United States of America, Pence said.

Lets all work our hearts out, he told Republicans gathered at the GOP fair booth. Theres a little over 80 days, but I know in my heart of hearts if all of us do all that we can, we will elect leadership in America that will make America great again.

Exiting the Ag Building, a man stopped Pence to wish him luck and a woman shook his hand.

They asked me how this compares to the Indiana State Fair, Pence said, nodding back at reporters still gathered near the butter cow exhibit, I said butter flashing a grin before making his way to the pork producers tent.
Work continues on

University

CEDAR FALLS  Beginning Monday, construction crews will begin removal and reconstruction of the south half of University Avenue between Holiday Road and the Black Hawk Village entrance by shifting traffic head to head on the north half of University Avenue from Grove Street to just west of Black Hawk Village Entrance.

The lane closures will be in effect for three to four months, depending on the weather.More information about the project maybe obtained on the city of Cedar Falls website or the projects Facebook page.

Big equipment simulator offered

WATERLOO  IowaWORKS Cedar Valley and Hawkeye Community College welcome the public to experience the construction equipment operation trailer Monday through Wednesday.

The trailer includes heavy equipment simulators for forklift, excavator and backhoe. It provides individuals with an in-cab environment that is safe, risk-free and unintimidating. Events are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the following locations:

Monday and Wednesday, IowaWORKS Cedar Valley, 3420 University Ave., Waterloo; Tuesday, Village Square Shopping Center, 1211 Fourth St SW, Waverly.

TechWorks offers program

WATERLOO  CenturyLink is offering the program Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail as part of its continuing techology series 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Thursday on the third floor of the Tech1 building of Cedar Valley TechWorks, 360 Westfield Ave.The program will cover developments in Cloud, Hybrid and disaster recovery. Breakfast will be available.

Registration may be made by contacting Deb Auer at (319) 334-7004 or deborah.auer@centurylink.com.

Fill the Boot campaign starts

WATERLOO  Members of the Waterloo Fire Department have kicked off the firefighters annual Fill the Boot fundraising campaign to help the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Firefighters were out Friday with boots in hand, but will again be out this Friday and Sept. 2.
WATERLOO  Tickets are on sale for the 14th annual Parade of Homes, featuring 12 homes.

This years tour takes place 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Sponsors are Courier Communications, Veridian, Cedar Valley Home Builders/Home Builders Association of Northeast Iowa and James Hardie.

Admission is $7 in advance, available at Hy-Vee Food Stores, The Courier, 100 E. Fourth St., and Veridian credit union branches. Tickets are $10 at the door. Children under 5 are free.

Were excited to have 12 homes in the parade. Its a tremendous opportunity for the public to meet and get to know contractors in a less formal setting, and lets them show their pride in their workmanship, said Bob Manning, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Northeast Iowa.

People can see whats new and what continues to make home building popular  from solid surface counter tops to smart-home technology, and its a tremendous opportunity for contractors to market their product, he explained.

Some of the parade homes are already sold and others are for sale, Manning notes. There are custom builds and remodels as well.

Courier Niche Manager Sheila Kerns, who has spearheaded the parade for 14 years, praises the partnership between The Courier and parade sponsors, including new sponsor James Hardie.

We have builders who are willing to take the risk and spend the time it takes to get ready for the parade, homeowners who are willing to let the public see their homes, sub-contractors who work so diligently to get homes completed for the showcase, and of course, the communitys support, Kerns said.

Featured homes are: 1407 Falcon Ridge, Waterloo, Skogman Homes; and 100 Vista Circle, Waverly, Panther Development. In Cedar Falls, featured homes are 4104 Wedgewood Drive, 4314 Berry Hill Drive and 3614 Gloria St., LGC Homes; 5231 Sweet Basil Lane, Western Home Communities; 1710 Vera Way, Kugler Construction; 2022 Donald Drive, 2004 Donald Drive, and 1716 Vera Way, Panther Builders; 2922 Arbors Drive, Skogman Homes; and 3006 Pendleton Drive, Schuerman Homes.

Look for The Couriers Parade of Homes magazine in todays paper, which includes descriptions of featured homes and a map to locations.

Proceeds from the parade are used in part to award scholarships for local students pursuing careers in construction-related fields.
Job fair in Waverly Tuesday

WAVERLY  IowaWorks Cedar Valley, the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber, Waverly Economic Development and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. will sponsor a hiring fair 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday at The Centre at Village Square Shopping Center in Waverly.

The hiring event will feature more than 55 employers wanting to hire for immediate openings.

Individuals are encouraged to come dressed to impress and bring a copies of their resumes and a positive attitude to meet potential new employers. Employers are looking for workers to fill a wide variety of positions in manufacturing, welding, production and assembly and more.

For more information on the hiring event, call IowaWORKS Cedar Valley at 235-2123.

Big Four Fair plans set

NASHUA  The Big Four Fair will be held in Nashua Sept. 1-5.

On Sept. 2, the third annual Tractor Ride will be held starting at 10:30 a.m. at the fairgrounds, and will be a different route from last year. The Floyd County Pullers truck and tractor pull will be held in front of the grandstands at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2.

Sept. 3 will begin with a bean bag tournament at 11 a.m. At 1 p.m. is the Family Fun Day in the grandstands. Magician Keith Leff will entertain. Figure 8 races will start in front of the grandstands at 6:30 p.m., followed by fireworks.

On Sept. 4, the Iowa-Minnesota chuck wagon races will take place in front of the grandstands at 2 p.m. (rain or shine).

A karaoke contest with cash prizes will be 5 p.m. in the beer tent. A new evening event of tough truck races will start at 7 p.m. Stage Write will perform following the races.

The fair will close out Sept. 5 with chuck wagon races at 2 p.m.

The entire schedule is available at www.big4fair.net.

Volga event aids opera house

VOLGA  The annual Volga city truck cruise is slated for Aug. 27 and 28.

Gates open at 8 a.m., a vendor fair will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. inside the Volga City Opera House, while a truck wash runs from 9 a.m. to noon in front of the Opera House.

The food booth opens at 9 a.m., with the beer booth opening at 10 a.m.

A donuts and figure 8 freestyle event starts at 10 a.m.

The main event of the truck cruise starts at 1:30 p.m. The burn-outs and tug-a-truck competition kicks off at 4 p.m.

A Volga City truck pull is planned for Aug. 28.

Proceeds will go to further renovations of the Opera House, along with rebuilding other attractions in Volga City.

Fiber the topic

in Charles City

CHARLES CITY  A fiber town hall meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Charles City Public Library.

It is an opportunity for the public to learn more about at possible community fiber broadband network in Charles City.

Charles City is considering whether a fiber optics network operated as a city utility is an option for access to broadband services, said Curtis Dean of SmartSource Consulting who has done research for the city.
The Waterloo Police Department and the community at large had one very bumpy week recently. Yet there are positive signs and a lot of groundwork being laid to help the community and police rise above it.

The city settled for $2.5 million three lawsuits regarding the use of excessive force by white officers against black civilians between 2012 and 2015. The news came just eight months after an identical financial settlement with the family of a man shot and killed by police in 2012.

A day after the three abuse settlements were announced, a Waterloo officer testifying during a murder trial admitted to making crass, insensitive and stupid remarks at the scene of a fatal shooting in 2013. Waterloo Safety Services Director Dan Trelka responded by launching an internal investigation.

We dont tolerate these kind of remarks, Trelka said.

Regarding the three excessive force settlements, Trelka said officers made honest mistakes due to deficient training. He said officers have been instructed to stop arresting people who wont give their names, a practice that is illegal absent additional criminal activity.

They were errors that we felt we could correct from training that didnt rise to the level of needing discipline, he said.

We appreciate Trelkas and the citys clear-eyed approach and candor in response to incidents no one in Waterloo can be happy about  not residents, not police, not city officials and certainly not victims and their families.

That said, we need to keep in mind police have a tough job. Many in the community realize it. Theyre ready to support police  and police need to know it.

There are numerous initiatives the city, police, neighbors, faith communities and everyday citizens are taking to foster good relations between authorities and the community they are sworn to serve and protect.

There have been several in the past few weeks.

Operation Public Relations, a community-law enforcement event organized by a group of black and white volunteers headed by Kris Jones, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Several hundred people attended the family event in July at Sullivan Park.

National Night Out, the annual event held by Waterloos strong network of neighborhood associations throughout the city with the support of the city and law enforcement. Police and firefighters showed off equipment and received hugs from ordinary citizens.

For the second year in a row, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, one of east Waterloos leading predominantly African-American churches, hosted a law enforcement appreciation day as part of its regular Sunday service.

One day after National Night Out activities, the Waterloo Human Rights Commission conducted a well-attended program, Reaching for Respect: Our Police, Our Partners, at Jubilee United Methodist Church at East Fourth and Newell streets. It was designed for law enforcement and residents to meet as neighbors and have some courageous conversation with each other, said Rev. Abraham Funchess Jr., Jubilee pastor and Human Rights Commission director.

We want to make sure we dont unduly attack our police, or that were being too soft, Funchess said. We understand police feel they have received the brunt of criticism. We want a civil society.

We all want a civil society. People want to be safe in their homes, and officers who have sworn to protect them want to return to their homes and families at the of their shifts.

We must continue initiatives to address the root issues of inequality, poverty, racism and disparate opportunities that lead disadvantaged young people to the poor choice of crime.

That includes initiatives such as the Mayors Summer Youth Employment Program, the Youth Empowerment Services program through the Jesse Cosby Center and numerous programs offered by the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education and Boys and Girls Clubs of the Cedar Valley.

Neighbors and police must work together to ensure safe communities, but the entire community must extend a hand and provide guidance and leadership to our young people and families. We wish for them not only a safe community, but a secure future.
Iowas religious diversity includes Christian (76 percent), Jewish (1 percent), Muslim (1 percent), Buddhist (less than 1 percent), Hindu (less than 1 percent), other world religions (less than 1 percent), and 21 percent unaffiliated (e.g., atheist, agnostic, etc.). As such, Iowas spirit should be harmonious, where we practice loving our neighbors as ourselves.

But listening to our politicians and the news media it is apparent intolerance, bigotry and hate reign.

Yes, the brutality of radical jihadists screams loudly of hatred. But these groups do not define Islam any more than white supremacists groups define Christianity.

Sixty-four Christian supremacist groups are responsible for thousands of murders and hate crimes in the U.S. Lets call them what they are, radical Christian terrorists. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many Americans have been killed by right-wing white Christian supremacists and anti-government fanatics than by radical Muslims.

If you believe we should start limiting the rights of Muslims, then lets start rounding up members of Christian-based white supremacy groups. We need to deal with all radical terrorists, regardless of their proclaimed faith.

Its ironic our most loudly self-professed Christians are the predominant peddlers of ethnic and religious hate. Christian history mirrors the gruesome atrocities of todays jihadists. Christians ruined the treasures of classical Greece and Rome and embraced witch burnings and lynchings.

It is imperative our leaders recognize this in their rhetoric. Fear-mongering and prejudice  especially spewed by political candidates and their surrogates  only exacerbates our problem.

If you extend beliefs to all Muslims based on the actions of some ignorant radical jihadists, then you too are an extremist version of whatever religion or non-religion you uphold, permitting your self-righteousness and moral superiority to judge others as if you are God.

Before casting stones at others, recognize the word self-righteousness appears more than 500 times in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and 200 times in Greek Scripture (New Testament). If the shoe fits walk carefully, as what goes around comes around.

Many religious leaders are supporting the transition from an inflexible, exclusive, overbearing doctrine to a more tolerant, modern and progressive spiritual perspective. How are you doing in this journey? Are you becoming inflexible or flexible, exclusive or inclusive, overbearing or progressive?

To those who are worried about protecting their faith, relax. Your faith is protected in the Constitution and Americas Bill of Rights.

Let us recognize we live in a religiously plural world and are obligated to love our neighbors  which I also struggle with at times.

Permit us to better understand each other, remove false stereotypes and learn to see our neighbors as persons rather than as representatives of a religious tradition or ideology.

As the cartoonist Walt Kelley wrote in 1970 for his classic newspaper comic strip Pogo, which made slyly perspective comments about the state of the world and politics: We have met the enemy and he is us.
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 19, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 19, 2016 | 05:32 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Drivers in the Kentucky Oaks Mall area will now be monitored by video camera when going through one of Paducah's busiest intersections.



The Paducah Police Department says it has placed a "NetVision 360" camera system at the intersection, and will be using real-time video to catch traffic violators. Officers say they will be watching for westbound drivers turning left onto James Sanders Boulevard and running the red light at the intersection. Officers can monitor the camera feed from their cruisers and stop vehicles that run the light.



Officer Brian Kopischke said the point of the camera system is to cut down on the number of people running the light and ultimately the number of accidents at that intersection. "It also should help the congestion in the eastbound lanes caused when people are not able to proceed when their light turns green because of the people running the turn light. Kopischke said.



Capt. Anthony Copeland stressed that this is not the same as a traffic camera, and said no tickets will be sent through the mail.
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Big Bears apple was stolen! The apple I have watched for a month as it grew bigger and bigger everyday. Bears apple and along came a little sneaky girl and she snatched the apple up after I finally removed it from the tree. Poor Bear, No Apple!

Seriously; what a beautiful apple. I have had too many apples and still eating too many, but my sweety who only comes once in awhile, deserves the best apple from the trees. Svetochka is #1 in my book and she was watching that apple from the first day she showed up this time. What makes Sveta happy, definitely makes me happy and besides she shared the apple with me! 

* * * * * * * * * *

Today we are going to the Big Village and gather supplies from the huge market. Maybe Svetochka will take pictures of the market? Sveta leaves tonight and Boza and I are sad! 

So we will be busy today and then Boza and I will get back on a pattern again and wait for Svetochka to come again. In October, I have to leave Russia and therefore, that will be the next time that Sveta comes around. It is always a pain in the you know what, to have to leave Russia for a short time. Time to get a Russian Passport

* * * * * * * * * *

Some interesting quotes in the news today and or yesterday. I like them

At the time, I told the Americans: you are trying to impose your democracy on the people of different countries, spreading it around like coffee in bags, but we must give the people a chance to make their own choice. But they continued and continue to pursue this foreign policy. Even President Obama, democratically elected and enjoying in this regard a significant authority in the country, could not change this course  the course on imposing one-legged solutions. However, I doubt that he wanted to, Gorbachev said.

And

I guess George Soros is in charge of America? Well.He is isnt he?

George Soros responded to a question from the US Ambassador Pyatt in Ukraine, Obama has been too soft on Putin, and there is a need to impose potent smart sanctions. He then called on the US government to impose sanctions on Russia for 90 days or until the Russian government recognizes the results of the presidential elections. and or In a separate meeting, titled Civil Society Roundtable Meeting, George Soros directly calls for the formation of a Ukrainian fifth column  a group whose sole purpose is to undermine a larger group  in order to push Ukraine away from Russia.

Actually you need to read the article linked above in the quote. Even Gorby from Russia is saying that Obama has no power and that the president of the US is just a puppet!

Do as I say, Be a good puppet president!

* * * * * * * * * *

Hmm! Svetochka and Boza out chasing the local wild life

WtR
Fresh from becoming the first British female triathlete to claim an Olympic Games medal here in Rio, Vicky Holland opened up to the worlds press about beating her housemate Non Stanford to bronze in the sprint finish.

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I have such mixed emotions [about winning bronze ahead of Non Stanford]. I was absolutely delighted when I crossed the line and I still am. To come and win a medal for Team GB and for myself is absolutely what I came here for. But to have to beat out your best friend, your training partner, your housemate is hard. And I guess about 5km into the run, I knew that it was going to come down to me or Non for a medal.

Weve always said its fair game when it comes to the run. We knew we wanted a medal and we didnt want to let Barbara Riveros [of Chile] back in from behind. So at that point we just had to keep the pressure on and keep running for the bronze. I wanted both of us to do it.

Non is a huge part of what I do. Half of this medal is hers. I wouldnt be the athlete I am if it wasnt for her. I moved in with Non at the end of 2013 and Ive become an exponentially better athlete for it. I have to give so much credit to her and shell be back in four years time. I wouldnt bet against her in Tokyo.

I had to put out of my mind that it was Non. I had to imagine it was another competitor. I had to find her at the finish line and say Im sorry as fourth is the worst position to finish, especially at the Olympic Games. But shes the strongest person Ive ever met.

The first time we ever raced each other was a 1,500m event at U18 level, I think I outsprinted her then but I was a few years older. Maybe Ill give it a few weeks before I hang my medal up in the house! I wanted it to be both of us and I think Non deserved a medal as much as I do. I dont know if I wouldve won a medal if it wasnt for Non and I hope she knows that.

Both myself and Helen [Jenkins] have both had a virus, but being athletes neither of us had told each other! Ive had problems with my stomach for the last day, but Ive been patched up by the great medical team here and given plenty of Imodium!

WELSH HEARTBREAK

Vicky Hollands eventual winning margin over Welsh athlete and 2013 ITU world champ Stanford was just three seconds after almost two hours of racing, and Stanford suggested that her tactics had cost her the reverse result or better.

I was within 20secs of winning a medal and maybe I played it tactically a bit wrong, Stanford said post-race. I didnt feel great out there but I wanted to try and push on and make sure we got rid of Barbara [Riveros] so one of the medals was secure. Maybe I pushed a bit too hard and sacrificed my own race.

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The third of the British trio Helen Jenkins, who was fifth at the last Olympics in London in 2012, admitted she wasnt good enough after placing 19th in Copacabana in her third Olympic appearance. The Welsh athlete said: I dont want to make excuses; I wasnt good enough. It isnt anything too serious, on this kind of course if you are a per cent off its not going to happen.
Aug 21, 2016 | By Benedict

According to director UB Desai, the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is looking to secure up to $15 million in research funding over the next two years as it seeks to contribute to the fields of 3D printing, 5G broadband, internet of thing (IoT), and clean energy storage.

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

Established in 2008, IITH is one of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology created by the government as part of the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2011. The public university is home to over 2,000 students and 165 faculty members, and has an average of 3.7 PhD students per faculty. According to director UB Desai, the institution is now looking to strengthen its research and development activities through sponsored research funding.

Since its inception eight years ago, IITH has already secured around $20 million of sponsored research projects in a range of fields. However, university faculty wish to increase the cumulative workload in order to make a significant mark in industries like 3D printing, 5G broadband, and IoT. We are already working on several large proposals in the realm of Rs two crore to Rs 30 crore [$300,000 to $450,000 each], Desai told Press Trust India (PTI). In two years, we should hit the $30 million mark; we may reach a target of $35 million in two years. We want to be looked upon as a research institution.

With the 3D printing industry maintaining its global ascent, IITH is looking to expand its additive manufacturing operations. The reasons for this adoption are, according to Desai, twofold: by acquiring significant 3D printing resources such as 3D printers, 3D printing materials, and even staff with expertise in AM, the university can better educate its students on a seemingly future-proof manufacturing technology. Furthermore, by committing to serious additive manufacturing research projects, the university could develop advanced technologies for the industry, potentially putting IITH on the global 3D printing map.

In addition to potential 3D printing research, IITH hopes to secure sponsored research funding in the area of telecommunications. 5th generation mobile networks, or 5G, is the term used to describe the next phase of mobile telecommunications standards, following the now-commonplace 4G. With 5G expected to be rolled out by 2020, IITH wants to contribute significantly to its development in order to heighten the universitys reputation worldwide. We want to do a lot of work in 5G, Desai added. We want to get some of our ideas and patents in 5G standards. The university will also pursue research in the areas of IoT and clean energy storage.

IITH director UB Desai

The universitys commitment to securing new sponsored research projects, 3D printing-related and otherwise, reflects its overall philosophy concerning teaching methods. Today, students engage best when they are doing something, Desai explained. They are unable to engage in a situation where they are in the classroom and I am talking for one hour. After ten minutes, they are turned off. We want to create a space or some sort of system where lot more doing is involved. You learn the same principles, theories, concepts, everything, but by doing and playing, creating a nice harmony between the doing and the theory part of it.

IITH has so far filed 30 patents and hopes to add 30 more over a two-year period. The university is also in the process of building a corpus, a task which is being aided by the recently established IITH Foundation in the U.S.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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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.
Can you earn $33 an hour for an administrative assistant job?

An Albuquerque woman who found such an offer while doing an online job search is highly skeptical.

I am looking for an administrative assistant/secretarial/clerical position and would be happy to earn that much, but realistically I know the pay for such is around $10-$12 hour, she said.

While there are many legitimate businesses using online sites to find employees, its good to remember that if you take that route, you should use precaution so you dont get ripped off or have your identity stolen.

Some advertised positions are more likely to be scams than others, according to Craigslist. The site advises being extra cautious about ads for jobs with generic, vague titles. That would include administrative assistant or customer service representatives.

These often dont require special training or licensing, so they appeal to a wide range of applicants, Craigslist says.

Raise an eyebrow if you see phrases like no experience needed, teleworking OK or immediate start, or if theres a sense of urgency advising you to apply immediately.

Also, beware of claims of high pay for little effort  work only hours a week, for example.

Another tip-off: the supposed employer travels a lot and will find it difficult to meet you in person.

And that brings up something else thats common in a wide range of scams: Is the ad riddled with grammatical errors, strange sentences and typos? Another reason to run in the other direction.

Craiglist recommends taking the extra step of searching for the company and its job opening on Google. If the result comes up in many other cities with the exact same job post, it is likely a scam, Craigslist says.

As always, be hyper-vigilant about requests that you disclose personal information or hand over money. Bogus employers might ask for these details under the guise of running a credit check, setting up direct deposit or paying for training.

You also should be able to ask and get answers from a prospective employer about what the job entails. Some suggested questions:

What tasks will I have to perform? Ask the employer or the contact for a detailed list of job duties.

Will compensation be based on a salary, hourly wage or on a commission?

Who will pay me, and when will I get my first paycheck?

Remember that if youre unsure, you can always call the business to ask about the position. But find the contact information independently rather than relying on websites or phone numbers listed in the advertisement.

As for posting your resume online, never include your drivers license number, bank account and credit card information, passwords or date of birth, advises Monster, another employment website.

Dont fall for a call regarding supposed changes to one of your accounts. It goes like this: a very serious-sounding man tells you they (doesnt say who) have tried but failed to get your signature on certified documents regarding your account (doesnt say which.)

The guy then asks that you or your legal representative contact him, at this number: 509-588-1437.

Dont do it.

Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-866-627-3249.
AT BOOKWORKS: Ross Hassig will discuss Polygamy & the Rise and Demise of the Aztec Empire at 3 today.

Margaret Randall will sign and discuss Talking Stick with Barrett Price and Lauren Camp at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25.

Randall is a prolific author and social activist. Talking Stick is a collection of interviews others have done with her over a 30-year period. Some of the interviewers live in New Mexico, including Price and Camp, who will be in conversation with Randall for this event.

Francis Healey will discuss Eat to Beat Alzheimers at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27.

The book offers a practical guide and an empowering tool to bring nourishing, healthful and delicious food into the lives of people concerned about Alzheimers and other cognitive problems. Almost 9 million people in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimers and other forms of dementia, and the toll is rapidly increasing.

Bookworks is at 4022 Rio Grande NW. Call 344-8139.

AT COLLECTED WORKS: Mark Beauregard will sign The Whale: A Love Story at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24.

In the summer of 1850, Herman Melville finds himself hounded by creditors and afraid his writing career might be coming to an end  following early literary acclaim, his last three novels have been commercial failures and the critics have turned against him. In despair, Melville takes his family for a vacation to his cousins farm in the Berkshires, where he meets Nathaniel Hawthorne at a picnic  and his life turns upside down.

Collected Works is at 202 Galisteo St., Santa Fe. Call 505-988-4226.
Bear Medicine (2004) by Rick Bartow. CS Indian (2014) by Rick Bartow. Crows Creation V (1992) by Rick Bartow. Things You Know but Cannot Explain (1979) by Rick Bartow. Deer Spirit for Frank LaPena (1999) by Rick Bartow. Prev 1 of 5 Next

The art of Rick Bartow reconciles a multiplicity of selves: Native American, European American, veteran, musician, recovering alcoholic, husband and father.

One-third of the contemporary Native American art trailblazing triad that also included Fritz Scholder and T.C. Cannon, the Pacific Northwest painter died in April. The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts is offering Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain, A Retrospective Exhibition, with more than 120 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints spanning 40 years. The show is a traveling exhibition organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon.

Born in Oregon, Bartow was a member of the Mad River Band of Wiyot Indians in California. His fathers family was of Wiyot heritage; his mother was non-Indian. He graduated with a degree in art education, then shipped out to Vietnam in 1969.

He served as a teletype operator and musician serenading military hospital patients. Although he was awarded the Bronze Star, he carried guilt about surviving when so many others emerged disfigured, dismembered or dead.

As Bartow struggled to return to some semblance of normalcy, art became his therapy, Institute of American Indian Arts curator Manuela Well-Off-Man said.

Often infused with rabid brushstrokes and relentless energy, his paintings and sculptures capture transformations of humans into animals dancing with drama, joy and wit. Bartow traveled extensively, specifically to New Zealand and Japan, incorporating Maori influences and working with a master Japanese printmaker. The distorted raw ambiguity of some of his portraits cross the sensibility of the British figurative painter Francis Bacon with Scholders explosive brushwork.

Self-portraiture is one of the key themes he explored throughout his career, Well-Off-Man said.

The pastel and colored pencil work of hisCS Indian (2014) mirrors his Vietnam experience in its grotesque features, multiple eyes and text.

Bears, crows and deer emerge in his mythologies and artwork. The transformation of humans into animals unfolds, blurring the lines between both. Coyotes and ravens become tricksters. The tale of the bear lover, in which a woman takes a bear as her partner and ultimately turns into the animal, recurs, as bears represent healing medicine. The bear also acts as a role model by raising its cubs.

Im just an artist that thinks that people and animals share the same bed, Bartow said in an interview. If the bed isnt comfortable for (the animals), its not going to be comfortable for us for long.

Deer Spirit for Frank LaPena (1999) reveals his reverence for transformation and honors another visionary Native American artist.

He expresses how the natural world and spiritual world connect and balance one another, Well-Off-Man said. He explores the profound relationship between the human and animal realm.

Splashes of bold color permeate his works, as do stretches of white canvas.

There are so many areas he left blank, Well-Off-Man said. His use of white space is absolutely stunning. Its part of the dramatic composition.

Bartows work hangs in more than 60 public institutions, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts. In 2012, he created We Were Always Here, a monumental pair of cedar sculptures 20 feet high, commissioned by the Smithsonians National Museum of the American Indian and installed on the National Mall. Until his death, Bartow sang and played lead guitar with The Backseat Drivers every week in Newport, Ore.

WHAT: Rick Bartow: Things You Know but Cannot Explain, a Retrospective Exhibition

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays-Saturdays. Noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Closed Tuesdays. Runs through Dec. 31.

WHERE: IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe

HOW MUCH: $10 adults; $5 seniors (62+), students with ID and New Mexico residents. Members free. Native people, veterans and their families, youths (16 and under) and New Mexico residents on Sunday free. Call 505-983-8900.
Its more than 6,500 miles from New Mexico to Beijing, the capital of China, but an international exchange program helped bridge that distance for an Albuquerque student in a very special way this summer.

Recent Cottonwood Classical School graduate Sage Herrick was one of a small group of U.S. teens chosen to visit China in late July to foster better understanding between the two countries.

The trip was hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and funded by the Beijing-based Yihai Education Group, for 12 students  all either Presidential Scholars or Intel finalists  who were selected through a highly competitive process.

Herrick, 18, was named a 2016 Presidential Scholar, one of two from New Mexico. Growing up in the tiny northern New Mexico town of Santa Cruz near Espanola and later Albuquerque, Herrick has long been interested in the foreign relations aspect of politics, and China in particular.

China was fascinating to me because a lot of Americans have a very poor attitude towards China  a little scared of it  dont really understand how it functions; and I wanted to move past that, said Herrick in an interview after she returned.

The two-week trip July 12-29 was her first exposure to international travel. The six boys and six girls in her group had a challenging itinerary that included a stay in Beijing, flying to Guiyang, about 1,000 miles to the southwest, and on to the cities of Beichuan and Chengdu.

They were very busy. The goal is to give them the broadest representation in two weeks, from very official outings to cultural and social experiences, said Kathy Thompkins, CEO of Yihai North America in New York.

Herricks most memorable day was in Beijing when they visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square is a large square in the center of the city that contains the Great Hall of the People, the mausoleum of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong and was the site of political protest demonstrations in 1989. The Forbidden City was the imperial palace from the early 15th century to the early 20th century.

That (experience) was definitely very eye opening, said Herrick, adding that she appreciated being able to get the Chinese perspective on many current issues.

During their time in Beijing, Herrick and the other U.S. students visited schools established by the Yihai Educational Group where they learned some martial arts and tried their hand at calligraphy.

Another highlight of the trip was their visit to Beichuan. The city was the epicenter of a devastating earthquake that struck in 2008. The group toured the Memorial Museum and afterward danced around a bonfire with children of their host families.

It was a wonderful way to end a tragic and eye-opening visit because it reminded us of the ephemeral nature of life and how the human spirit can conquer tragedy, Herrick wrote, describing the experience.

Herrick and the other students stayed with host families in each location. She was intrigued by some of the misconceptions her Chinese hosts had about American women. In many cases they were convinced that American women ate a lot of bread. Herrick said her hosts were worried they might not have enough bread for their guest.

She also experienced many food items not often found in the U.S.

I won a little award for the most adventurous eater, Herrick said. Her eating adventures included chicken feet, the intestines of several animals and fish heads.

Her hosts were mostly only aware of U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles. Eager to expose them to the culture of New Mexico and the Southwest, she brought gifts such as turquoise jewelry, Hopi sand paintings and small Navajo rugs.

It was cool for them to see the Southwest side of the country, Herrick said.

This fall, Herrick is bound for Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where she will study mechanical engineering. After her experiences this summer, she hopes to find ways to connect her twin interests in engineering and foreign relations by pursuing a minor in foreign relations.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, which hosted the trip, is a nonprofit organization that promotes understanding between the two countries. The Yihai Education Group is part of a global company involved in real estate development, education, property management and fitness centers. In addition to supporting the U.S. China Student Leaders Exchange, the Yihai Education Group has established several schools in China.
Victor Zamora, left, and Andrew Lopez apply mud to a structure at the San Gregorio Mission at Abo at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Marc LeFrancois, acting superintendent for Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, oversees the work of the HOPE Crew at San Gregorio Mission at Abo. HOPE stands for hands on preservation experience, a federal program that connects young people seeking jobs with opportunities to get paid while they learn preservation skills from experts. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) A student applys mud to a structure on the premises. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Emilio Lovato, left, and Joseph Moseley are members of the HOPE Crew that worked on the walls of the San Gregorio Mission at Abo this summer. Many of the crew members are from nearby Mountainair and have historic family ties to the area. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) The walls of San Gregorio Mission church at Abo, near Mountainair. The mission is one of three in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument built by the Spanish in the 1620s, which attract many visitors. The walls must be repointed every five to seven years to prevent further deterioration. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) From left, Park Ranger Patrick Romero, Garrett Green and Victor Zamora grab handfuls of mud and press it between the stones to stabilize the walls of a historic structure beside the San Gregorio Mission church. Romero started doing this work during the summers while in high school and is now a full-time National Park Service employee. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 6 Next

The century-old National Parks Service has enlisted some strong young arms to continue the fight to preserve New Mexicos historic legacy from the ravages of time.

Thanks to the National Trust for Historic Preservations HOPE Crew program, a team of high school and college students has spent the summer learning new skills to help stabilize the stone walls of the San Gregorio Mission at Abo.

San Gregorio is one of three sites in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The missions were built by the Spanish in the 1620s near the present-day town of Mountainair but drought, disease and Apache raids led to their abandonment by the mid-1670s. Although the structures are ruined, the walls that still stand attract many visitors each year.

Several members of the team are students at Mountainair High School, many of whom have cultural ties to the sites they are preserving.

Crew member Daniel Sisneros is a descendant of the family that built some of the residential structures and his grandparents still occupy a home on Monument land near the church.

The work is hard, and you cant be afraid to get dirty. The stucco and soil mortar for the church walls has to be mixed by hand, bucket by bucket to avoid drying too quickly.

Mudding involves slinging handfuls of squishy red mud on the walls and repeatedly smearing it in by hand. Crew members T-shirts, jeans and boots are caked with dirt.

To keep the walls from deteriorating, the mortar between the stones must be renewed, or repointed, every five to seven years. The work is time-consuming and requires skill.

Since early June, the HOPE Crew of 15 young men has repointed the walls of the mission church at Abo and by early August they were re-mudding walls of a former residential structure at the site. This years crew is all young men but the program is open to women.

Crew members report for work each day at the Salinas Monument headquarters in Mountainair and a Park Service van takes them to the site.

Hard work pays off

The hard slog has the potential for a big payoff. HOPE stands for hands-on preservation experience, a national program that connects young people seeking jobs with National Trust projects where they can learn preservation skills from experienced craftspeople and gain the opportunity to follow a career path.

Many people are retiring and leaving the workforce, taking with them the skills theyve developed over years, said Monica Rhodes, associate director for the HOPE Crew program. We created this program to help bridge that gap between those who have the skills and are leaving the workforce and those who are looking for an opportunity to get into a field.

Since its inception in early 2014, the HOPE Crew program has trained 350 young people and completed 73 historic preservation programs nationwide.

Career path

The National Park Service hired local youth to work at the Salinas Monument each summer since about 2005 through federal programs that have been replaced, said Marc LeFrancois, Salinas Monuments acting superintendent.

HOPE Crew members at Salinas are now hired through the federal Pathways program, started in 2010, which offers paid internships for students to work in federal agencies.

The application process to be accepted into the Pathways program is more competitive than the previous programs, LeFrancois said, but it gives young people 16 years and older an opportunity for a federal career. As long as they maintain a 2.0 GPA and stay in school, they remain Pathways employees and they can return to project work each year until they graduate from college.

The whole idea of the program is to generate a workforce from the youth that can become the next leaders in the Park Service, said LeFrancois.

Thats especially important for young people from small towns in remote rural areas.

This project is not just about preserving ruins, LeFrancois said. Its about preserving the community.

Patrick Romero from Mountainair, who is supervising the crew, started as a summer employee and was hired as a permanent National Park Service employee.

Crew member Garrett Green, a student at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, found out about the Salinas project on the Pathways website, usajobs.gov/StudentsAndGrads. He hopes to get a job in the U.S. Forest Service or the National Park Service.
Facebook, one of the worlds largest internet service companies, has announced that it is seeking to locate a massive datacenter in either New Mexico or Utah. It makes business sense that Facebook would do so, as it is looking to power its electricity-intensive infrastructure with renewable energy that, in places like New Mexico, is now cost-competitive with conventional sources and  perhaps even more critically  enables the company to establish its green credentials.

Its no secret that Facebook has been criticized for placing enormous demand on electricity suppliers who, at the margins, have only fossil-fuel plants available to provide huge new power demands.

Is it technically feasible for New Mexicos largest utility, PNM, to provide the additional renewable energy? Yes, but it isnt going to be easy.

While the specifications of Facebooks datacenter havent been publicly released, we can look at other similar such centers to see what the requirements might be.

For the Facebook datacenter in Ft. Worth, Texas, housing mostly computers and a few offices, something like 70 megawatts of power are required continuously. To put that into perspective, that would be around 3 percent of PNMs overall generating capacity from all sources.

So, there is no doubt that the datacenter would be one of the single largest electricity consumers in the state  using about as much as Sandia National Laboratories.

Since renewable resources have a capacity factor of only about 25 percent (which means that, over the long run, they produce on average about a quarter of their peak or nameplate maximum) that, in turn, means that a 300 MW facility would be needed to provide the Facebook datacenter with all of its energy from renewable sources on average.

And 300 MW is about exactly the entirety of PNMs existing renewable portfolio.

Thus, if my estimates are correct, PNM would have to double its current renewable energy resources to supply the Facebook datacenter.

A 300 MW solar photovoltaic plant would be mammoth, consisting of about 1 million solar panels and requiring about 2,400 acres of land  about 4 square miles. There is only one other example of a photovoltaic plant this large: Agua Caliente in Arizona (297 megawatts), installed in 2013-14 at a cost of about $1.8 billion.

Alternatively, wind turbines dotting the landscape over 26 square miles would be needed to do the same job.

There are many upsides to this project, though no one should minimize the engineering challenges of managing a large, variable electricity output from sunshine or wind.

Solar and wind intensity in New Mexico are far better than in Utah, so the cost to provide solar energy should be commensurately less. Emissions from fossil fuel burning would go down in the state, clearly a benefit to public health.

PNMs national leadership in developing very large battery storage of electricity augmenting the companys technical leadership in making renewable energy even more practical. And, of course, there would construction employment and jobs at the datacenter itself.

But, more important than all of these is the potential for revival of the moribund New Mexico economy.

Other smaller businesses might come to realize that our solar energy could be used to offset what is probably their biggest environmental impact: transporting employees from home to work and back.

With electric cars now practical, forward-looking companies could provide charging stations for their workers vehicles at precisely the time of day when solar power peaks.

With a project this large, there are many competing interests, both financial and political. Thoughtful leadership from the Public Regulation Commission and the governors office  commodities seldom in adequate supply  and a bit of foresight on the part of the rest of us will help us weigh the inevitable short-term impacts on electricity rates with the prospect of a revitalized economy built on an environmentally benign 21st-century energy industry.

The opportunity is here for the taking. Lets make it happen.

Dr. Alan Zelicoff is an Albuquerque physicist and physician.
WASHINGTON  Last week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Irans intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. Thats what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. Thats what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Irans international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obamas withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Irans orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assads regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand  a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military  he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldnt he? Hes pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administrations response to these provocations? Urging both sides to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijings territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesnt care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because hes convinced that in the long run it doesnt matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking  primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers  China, Russia and Iran  know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And theyre going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however  Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands  it matters greatly.
Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson said at a rally in Albuquerque on Saturday afternoon that the presidential race has gotten crazy.

Is this the craziest election ever? You know how crazy it is? Im going to be the next president of the United States, Johnson said as hundreds of his supporters cheered at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Johnson, a two-term Republican governor who resides in Taos, brought his campaign message of fiscal conservatism and social inclusiveness to the Duke City. Johnson and his Libertarian Party running mate, former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, said their campaign is gaining momentum and the pair is optimistic that they will soon start polling at 15 percent, which would gain them entry into the presidential debates.

Johnson has pushed for equal rights for LGBT couples, marijuana legalization, criminal justice and immigration reform and for less American military intervention. He has also advocated for smaller government, tax reform, term limits and a reduction in government spending.

His views were well received by his supporters, who filled a conference room at the convention center and held up supportive signs and cheered frequently during Johnsons speech. There was a festive atmosphere at the campaign stop, with many people parking classic cars and lowriders outside the convention prior to the rally.

Jerry Huckabee of Belen said he used to be a registered Republican and has voted for candidates from both major parties before. Hes casting a ballot for Johnson this year.

The Republican party has gotten way off track. Its the party of the rich and the party of bias, he said. I hope Gary wins. Hes a stable leader.

Linda Sawyers of Colorado made the drive down from her home near Fort Collins to attend the event. She said shes considering voting for Johnson because she doesnt like Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

I dont feel like Hillary is trustworthy, she said at the rally. And I never been a fan of Trump. He shoots from the hip too much.

Michele Clement of Albuquerque said Johnsons support for personal freedoms is why shes voting for him.

I would not ever vote for one of the main party candidates, she said. They are not honest, and they have no integrity.

Johnson and Weld met with media for about 45 minutes prior to the rally.

Johnson was critical of Clintons time as Secretary of State. He said the United States shouldnt be getting involved in regime changes in other countries.

In my lifetime, I cannot think of one situation where we have involved ourselves in a regime change where it turned out positive, Johnson said. Were not hands-off. Were not isolationists Were non-interventionists.  If were attacked, well attack back.

He said Trumps plan to build a wall separating the U.S. from Mexico and to deport people in the country illegally shows that the candidate isnt informed about the issue. Johnson said immigrants commit fewer crimes than American citizens and work jobs that others arent interested in doing.

Johnson said America needs criminal justice reform. He said there are tens of millions of convicted felons who would be law-abiding, tax-paying citizens if not for drug laws. Johnson also said that, on his first day of office, he would take marijuana off the countrys most restrictive list of drugs, which include heroin and cocaine, and leave it up to the states to decide if it should be legal or illegal.

Just like alcohol. There are still dry counties in this country and there were dry states. That will be the case with marijuana, he said.

Johnson said he is a Second Amendment supporter but hes open discussions about how to keep guns away from the mentally ill and possible terrorists.

Both Johnson and Weld said they were optimistic about their standing in the race so far. Weld said Johnson was polling at around 10 percent or higher in the polls that will be used to determine who will get in the presidential debate. He said those numbers should increase because Johnson is gaining name recognition and momentum.

If you have your choice of money, organization or momentum, in the last month of a major political campaign, any pro will pick the momentum, Weld said.
Ive had quite enough of Donald Trumps insults, especially now that they are directed against my colleagues and me.

Trumps recent tweet to the contrary, journalists as a class are not disgusting and corrupt. Press coverage of his campaign is not the reason Hillary Clinton is beating Trump in most of the polls. Voters who oppose Trump appear to think hes a crude narcissist who has no credible policies but does have a frightening contempt for facts, truth and evidence.

Its not the medias fault Trump claimed to be against the Iraq War from the beginning when theres audio of him telling Howard Stern six months before the invasion that he supported going to war. Its not our fault he attributed a female reporters tough questioning to her menstrual cycle. Its not our fault he denigrated John McCains time in the Hanoi Hilton.

The press didnt badger dozens of Republican defense and security experts into saying Trump is unfit to be president. Republican Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Susan Collins of Maine are refusing to back Trump for president for their own reasons, not because we told them to.

On those rare occasions when Trump offers actual policy details, we cover them, but he seems to think the press is not supposed to ask how he can balance the budget when independent analysts say his tax plan will create trillion-dollar deficits.

Trump has no track record in public office, so the only record the voters have by which to judge him is that of his business and charitable activities. Is the press supposed to bury the news that a host of small-business people say Trump stiffed them, that he got millions of dollars in New Jersey tax forgiveness from his pal Chris Christie or that we cant find any evidence that he actually donated the millions of dollars that he claims to have donated?

Its hard to know what exactly Trump meant when he tweeted that message about disgusting reporters. Best guess, given the timing of the tweet: He thinks somehow its the news medias job to figure out when hes joking, when hes sarcastic and when hes serious. The tweet came not long after he said that Barack Obama was the founder of the Islamic State terrorist group. Over the course of the next few days, Trump said both that he was serious and that he was being sarcastic.

Maybe Trump could come up with a tell for reporters. Maybe he could pull his right earlobe or something when were supposed to know hes being sarcastic.

But whats really galling is that I have to agree with the substance of Trumps stupid tweet  that the media are betraying a bias, perhaps in Hillary Clintons favor, but definitely against Trump. I agree with T.A. Frank, who wrote in Vanity Fair, Currently, many journalists appear to view themselves as duty-bound to ensure the defeat of Trump, with any resulting hits to credibility left for future repair.

Some of this is Trumps own fault. He is constantly demanding the medias attention, so he gets it, which means there is less time for us to take a hard look at Hillary.

He always manages to trip on his own tongue. When the media should be looking at Clintons emails, we end up covering the way Trump insulted the grieving parents of an American soldier killed in action. Instead of a scrupulous look at her tax returns, at least part of the story is that Trump wont release his.

The narrative I glean from the national press is that Trumps campaign is in disarray, that Republican regulars are in despair, that no one wants to donate to him, that the Koch brothers and George Will have abandoned him. From the Clinton beat, I hear next to nothing. Rarely is it mentioned that it is approaching 300 days since Clinton subjected herself to questioning at a press conference. Her campaign events are tightly controlled and completely scripted, according to the reporters covering her. There is no opportunity to challenge the candidate.

Significant and completely justifiable attention has been paid to Trumps suspect charitable activities. Clintons tax returns show nearly all of her donations went to her familys foundation. The press has spent very little time during this election asking if the Clinton Foundation actually does any good and even less following the foundation money to see if anything interesting pops out.

A day does not pass without The Washington Post or The New York Times publishing a couple of opinion pieces explaining that no one likes Trump and that he is dangerous. Clinton has produced detailed policy proposals, some of them interesting and some of them crazy, that only occasionally get a glance on those op-ed pages. Her recent conversion to the cause of restricting trade barely merits a raised eyebrow, even though its not only a significant flip-flop; it is truly bad public policy.

I hate to agree with Trump about the media, but since I am neither disgusting nor corrupt, I must go where the facts take me.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Winthrop Quigley at 823-3896 or wquigley@abqjournal.com. Go to www.ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

If you want to know about a fire that burned in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains a thousand years ago, chances are that a bristlecone pine tree that can tell you all about it.

Here in the Southwest, New Mexico and Arizona, pine forests are growing in dry, rocky landscape and they get to be really old  up to 1,000 years old lying on the ground, said Tom Swetnam, former director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona.

There are probably some living trees, bristlecones up in the Sangre de Cristos, that are a thousand years old.

Swetnam is part of a team of tree-ring researchers working on a long-term study of fire history in the forests near Taos in an effort to chart a course for better fire management in the future.

The idea is to use thinning to restore forests to some semblance of the shape they were in when fires burned naturally, before people started messing with things better left alone.

The trees remember how it used to be.

Using chain saws, researchers cut cross sections out of dead trees or employ a coring process to extract pencil-shaped sections from living trees.

Then, by analyzing burn scars, the cooked resin between tree rings, they can determine when a fire burned, how big it burned and how hot it burned. Even if that fire blazed hundreds of years before Smokey Bear was a cub in the Capitan Mountains.

For the most part, pine  ponderosa and white  have better fire scar records, said Ellis Margolis, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and part of the Taos fire-history team. These trees have evolved so that they have characteristics  thicker bark  that survive fires. We look for pines that have survived five, to 10 to 15 fires.

Besides Swetnam and Margolis, other members of the team include Craig Allen, also a USGS research ecologist, and Lane Johnson of the National Park Service who heads up the projects field team.

Margolis said that the Taos study cranked up about six months ago and that field work started in June. It focuses on the forests in the Rio Hondo, Rio de Pueblo de Taos and Rio Fernando watersheds.

Im not sure just how many acres that adds up to, but its a lot of country, he said.

The project is a collaboration between the Nature Conservancy, an environmental organization, and the USGS.

Tracey Stone, a Nature Conservancy spokeswoman, said the study is part of the conservancys Rio Grande Water Fund program, which uses private and public funding to enhance forest thinning. Stone said the Taos Ski Valley Foundation provided the water fund with a $125,000 grant and that, combined with $115,000 in federal and local money, is paying for the fire-history survey.

The goal of the study is to determine what areas of the forests were historically the targets of healthy fires, those low-intensity fires that consumed debris and seedlings, thinning out woods naturally without killing off mature trees.

If you find trees that have five, six, eight fire scars on them, you know they were in low-severity fire areas, Margolis said. You thin out those areas. Those are the areas that have changed the most because we have all those young trees that were waiting for fires to kill them out. But those fires did not come, and the place filled in and got really thick.

Why didnt the fires come?

Sheep, Margolis said. Sheep ate all the grass.

The arrival of the railroad in New Mexico in the late 1870s spurred settlement of the territory and with settlement came livestock, lots of livestock.

Swetnam said there were 5 million to 6 million sheep, cattle and horses in New Mexico by 1900.

He said sheep in the high country grazed down the grasses, the fine fuels that used to feed those low-intensity fires. And the gaps in the terrain created by herds of sheep being driven back and forth to water every day made very effective firebreaks.

Thats when we see the first decrease in burning, Swetnam said. After World War I, the Forest Service cut back on the grazing. But thats when fire-prevention efforts started.

As a result, forests that were once relatively sparse grew dangerously dense. When fires started in these choked sections, they burned hot and high, destroying most things in their path and setting the stage for floods that sent ash and sediment into rivers and reservoirs, tainting precious drinking water supplies.

But the trees that might feed a catastrophic fire tomorrow also hold the clues to preventing them in years to come.

New Mexico is such a rich cultural and ecological landscape, said Swetnam, who was born in Ruidoso, the son of a ranger working in the Lincoln National Forest. There are lots of examples of Pueblo and Hispanic people living in these (forest) areas without catastrophic fires burning up their pueblos or villages.

Swetnam, who now makes his home in the pine forest north of Jemez Springs, hopes it is possible to return to those days when people lived more in harmony with the forest and the fires that burned in them, a time when fires maintained a more stable situation.
A member of the Las Cruces police honor guard carries a U.S. flag at a funeral for Hatch police officer Jose Chavez, who was killed last week while conducting a traffic stop. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez presents a New Mexico flag to the family of Hatch police officer Jose Chavez during his funeral at the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez walks by the flag-draped casket after presenting a New Mexico flag to the family of Hatch police officer Jose Chavez during his funeral Sunday. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) New Mexico State Police honor guard members fold the flag on Hatch police officer Jose Chavez's casket during his funeral Sunday in Las Cruces. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Vietnam War veteran John Pummell carries a flag as a hearse carrying Hatch police officer Jose Chavez approaches the Pan American Center on Sunday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Ana Soriano cries during a Sunday afternoon funeral for Hatch police officer Jose Chavez. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Pallbearers carry Hatch police officer Jose Chavez's casket during his funeral at the Pan American Center on Sunday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Family members of Hatch police officer Jose Chavez enter the Pan American Center on Sunday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Aurora, Colo., and New York City police officers attend the funeral for Hatch police officer Jose Chavez on Sunday afternoon at the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Relatives of Hatch police officer Jose Chavez enter the Pan American Center. Chavez was killed last week while conducting a traffic stop. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez and first gentleman Chuck Franco extend their sympathies to officers during a funeral for Hatch police officer Jose Chavez on Sunday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Philip Alvarez sings the national anthem at Hatch police officer Jose Chavez's funeral at the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Hatch volunteer firefighter Manny Contreras and his wife, Yvette Contreras, pause for a moment of prayer in front of officer Jose Chavez's police cruiser, which was parked outside of his Sunday afternoon funeral held at the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Officers salute the hearse carrying Hatch police officer Jose Chavez while it backs up a ramp at the Pan American Center. Chavez was killed last week while conducting a traffic stop. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Bishop Oscar Cantu of the Diocese of Las Cruces eulogizes Hatch police officer Jose Chavez at the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez speaks at the funeral for Hatch police officer Jose Chavez on Sunday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Officers attending Hatch police officer Jose Chavez funeral sign the condolence book at the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Bagpipers lead the flag-covered casket of Hatch police officer Jose Chavez as it enters the Pan American Center. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Pallbearers carry the flag-draped casket of Hatch police officer Jose Chavez at the Pan American Center. Chavez was killed last week while conducting a traffic stop. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Las Cruces Fire Department ladders hold flags over the roadway as a hearse carrying Hatch police officer Jose Chavez approaches the Pan American Center on Sunday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Albuquerque firefighters and an Albuquerque police chaplain salute the hearse carrying the body of slain Hatch police officer Jose Chavez on I-25 from Albuquerque to Las Cruces on Monday afternoon. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal) Hatch officer Jose Chavez at his graduation from the police academy on Oct. 31, 2013. (DACSO) Hatch officer Jose Chavez at his graduation from the police academy on Oct. 31, 2013. (DACSO) Rincon Fire Chief Jorge Au, right, and his wife Joann Au leave flowers and balloons at the memorial where Hatch Police Ofc. Jose Chavez was shot Friday, Saturday, August 13, 2016, in Hatch, N.M. Chavez was shot Friday afternoon during a traffic stop along Franklin St. in Hatch, N.M. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 24 Next

LAS CRUCES  A wreath of white flowers in the shape of badge No. 105, American flags and blue bouquets decorated the stage at a funeral Sunday for fallen Hatch police officer Jose Ismael Chavez that drew thousands.

A funeral procession that began in Hatch  watched by a solemn crowd amid the smell of roasting green chile  stretched nine miles long. It arrived in Las Cruces to the wail of hundreds of sirens and a constant drizzling rain.

Chavezs police vehicle led the procession aboard a wrecker, a choice by Hatch Police Chief James Trey Gimler, who requested that no one be allowed to drive the unit, according to Dona Ana County Sheriffs spokeswoman Kelly Jameson. The unit bore silent witness outside the Pan American Center at New Mexico State University, where the funeral was held.

Inside, hundreds of law enforcement officers of all stripes from local, state and federal agencies across New Mexico and the region stood at attention in their uniforms among thousands of other mourners.

Bagpipes played as the Hatch police departments five officers, Chief Gimler and Lt. Corey Watkins bore in a flag-draped casket.

Chavez was described as a hero, an exceptional officer, and his final acts on the day of the Aug. 12 traffic stop that would lead to his fatal shooting in the farming village of 1,600 people, brave.

Authorities have three men in custody in connection with his death, including two Ohio fugitives accused of murder in that state.

Originally from Mexico and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Chavez joined the tiny police department in the Village of Hatch two and a half years ago and displayed exactly the qualities Chief James Trey Gimler was looking for in a new officer: character, work ethic, honesty and commitment, he said in a letter read by Dona Ana County Sheriffs spokeswoman Kelly Jameson, with Gimler at her side.

These traits and many others were beaming through the eyes of Jose Chavez, she said. Jose was dressed like a Wall Street banker that day and you could tell he was miserable dressed like that. I just need a chance to prove myself, Jose said. He exceeded all expectations.

Gov. Susana Martinez spoke at the funeral, her voice breaking.

He achieved the American dream of becoming a law enforcement officer and wore a uniform with amazing pride and purpose, she said.

Then, addressing Chavezs two girls, 6-year-old Aryam and 14-year-old Jannely, Martinez said through tears, Its never easy to lose a loved one  but you should know that your daddy will be walking alongside you for the rest of your life as your guardian angel. And his brothers and sisters in law enforcement will be there for you as well because they are your family.

Bishop Oscar Cantu of the Las Cruces Catholic Diocese spoke of a love that is more powerful than death, more powerful than fear, and addressed Chavezs family in Spanish.

Officer Chavezs decision to become a police officer to protect and to serve was a decision of love. His putting his life on the line every time he responded to a call or made a traffic stop was a decision to love.

Chavez stopped a 1991 silver Lexus on the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 12, and was fatally shot.

Jesse Hanes, 38, faces a murder charge and federal firearms and carjacking charges in connection with the shooting. The second fugitive, 36-year-old James Nelson, faces multiple drug trafficking charges. A third man believed to be a hitchhiker in the car with them that day faces a drug possession charge.

Hatch Mayor Andy Nunez also spoke at the service, as did 3rd Judicial District Attorney Mark DAntonio, U.S. Attorney in New Mexico Damon Martinez and U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce, R-NM.

Representatives of the Chicago and New York City police departments were in attendance, Jameson said, as were representatives from law enforcement in Texas, Arizona and Colorado.

Many people expressed disbelief that something like this could happen in a close-knit community.

Frank Angel Sr.s son Frank Angel Jr. is one of the Hatch police departments five officers. When he heard the news that a Hatch policeman had been shot, he believed for a time that it could have been his own son.

In the village, everybody just keeps talking about it, he said before the funeral. They cant comprehend that it happened in Hatch, just how sad they are for his family and what they are going through now.

The sad reality is this can happen anywhere and it happened to us, Sunland Park Police Chief Jaime Reyes said during the service. Today, we are all officers of Hatch. We lost a great officer, one of our own and well never get him back. We pray to never feel this pain and loss again.

After the forlorn call of horns playing taps and a flag-folding ceremony, a womans voice from the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority radioed over the loudspeaker as she would have on a normal day, repeating the call three times: Central to unit 105 please respond.

Finally, choking back tears, she said, You will never be forgotten for your ultimate sacrifice.
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A roundup of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Greenbelt, Md.: A federal court has held preparer Barbara Lynn McCarthy in contempt for preparing federal income tax returns in violation of a prior order that prohibited her from acting as a preparer.

In 2014, the district court enjoined McCarthy, who formerly operated as Barbaras Tax Service, from preparing returns. After entry of injunction, the IRS discovered that she continued preparing returns despite the courts order.

At a hearing this month, the government established that McCarthy violated the courts order; the court has ordered McCarthy to return to her customers the portions of their refunds that she diverted to herself. The court also ordered her to pay the federal government $2,500 for her actions after the injunction and provide the government with a list of all returns she prepared since the injunction was put in place.

Stuart, Fla.: Preparers Earl Moise and Shahab Shaukat have been indicted on one count of conspiring to defraud the U.S. and nine counts each of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns.

According to allegations, Moise and Shaukat conspired to prepare false and fraudulent individual returns for others for the 2010 through 2012 tax years. Moise and Shaukat operated a branch of Tax R Us, preparing false returns in that office. Moise is also charged with one count of fraudulently filing his own federal income tax return for 2011.

These returns allegedly included false education credits and American Opportunity Credits, as well as false statements regarding business income or deductions.

If convicted, the pair each face a maximum of five years in prison for the conspiracy count and three years in prison for each count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false returns. In addition, Moise faces a maximum of three years in prison for the one count of filing a false return. Both defendants also face terms of supervised release, monetary penalties and payment of restitution to the IRS.

Odessa, N.M.: Preparer Juan Alfonso Gonzalez-Camacho has been indicted on 14 counts of aiding and abetting the preparation of a false tax return on accusations that he filed fraudulent deductions from January 2011 to April 2013, according to published reports.

Gonzalez-Camacho, who owned Latinos Assistance Income Tax, was reportedly indicted in June but first arrested recently on the 14 federal charges, which authorities estimate resulted in $162,000 of fraudulent refunds.

A cited Department of Justice news release reported that Gonzalez-Camacho prepared and filed income tax returns that claimed deductions to which the defendant knew the taxpayers were not entitled.

News outlets added that Gonzalez-Camacho was indicted in 2013 on 23 counts of tax fraud and was sued by the U.S. government in 2015 because of reported improper deductions. Those charges against him were reportedly dropped in 2013. Reports said that the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department reported he was accused of filing false returns on behalf of local residents, costing the state more than $40,000.

That lawsuit reported that of the 276 returns examined by the IRS from 2007 through 2013, 275 showed understated tax liabilities and only one was free of problems, reports said.

The lawsuit reportedly claimed that Gonzalez-Camacho included deductions on many returns that were exaggerated or completely fabricated, including made-up business expenses and farms that did not exist.

One couple cited in the lawsuit that they were audited from 2010 to 2012, reports said, adding that at one point Gonzalez-Camacho filed a Schedule F based on the couple simply having a dog, a fish and a bird.

According to published reports, another couple reported that Gonzalez-Camacho allowed deductions for vacations and home expenses, and when he was done completing their 2012 tax return asked if the refund was enough or if they wanted more.
King Mohammed VI on Saturday addressed a speech to the nation on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People.

Here follows the full text of the Royal speech:

Praise be to God

May peace and blessings be upon the Prophet, His Kith and Kin

Dear Citizens,

The commemoration of historical events is not simply a cause for celebration. It is also an opportunity to ponder the values and principles that inspired earlier generations and that help build the present and confidently look to the future.

In this regard, the commemoration of the glorious Revolution of the King and the People is no exception. It is a constantly renewed revolution whose torch is carried generation after generation.

Besides having deep-rooted national significance relating to the Moroccan citizens strong attachment to their King and their sacrifice for the freedom and independence of the homeland, the celebration of this event is also associated with Morocco being part of the Maghreb and of Africa.

That historical era was characterized by coordination and solidarity between the leaders of the Moroccan resistance movement and the Algerian Liberation Front.

It was agreed to turn the commemoration of the second anniversary of the Revolution of 20 August into an opportunity to extend the revolution to Maghreb countries. As a result, popular uprisings took place across Morocco and Algeria.

Moreover, the Moroccan resistance movement provided moral and material support to the Algerian revolution which, at the time, was facing a fierce campaign by colonial forces seeking to quash it before it celebrated its first anniversary.

That uprising and that solidarity breathed new life into the Algerian revolution, and the two countries also played a major role in the liberation and independence of Africa.

Today, given the current circumstances facing Arab peoples and the Maghreb region, we are in great need of that spirit of solidarity to enable us to rise to common development and security challenges.

We hope that the commitment and sincere solidarity which have always bound the Algerian and Moroccan peoples will be rekindled so that we may continue to work together, honestly and in good faith, to serve Arab and Maghreb causes and rise to challenges in Africa.

Dear Citizens,

The problems plaguing African peoples today, such as backwardness, poverty, migration, wars and conflicts, in addition to despair and succumbing to extremist and terrorist groups, is the result of the disastrous policy adopted for decades by colonial powers.

The latter looted Africas resources, stifled the potential of its sons and daughters, mortgaged their future, impeded the continents development and sowed the seeds of discord and strife among African countries.

Despite the extensive damage caused by colonialism, I believe Africa has the means to ensure its development and to take its destiny into its own hands, thanks to the resolve of African peoples and to the continents human and natural resources.

Our decision that Morocco should take its natural place, once again, within the African institutional family clearly illustrates our commitment to continue supporting the causes of African peoples.

For Morocco, Africa means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent. Africa also means sincere affection, appreciation, close human and spiritual relations as well as tangible solidarity. Furthermore, Africa is the natural extension of Morocco and the embodiment of the countrys strategic depth.

This multi-dimensional relationship puts Morocco in the center of Africa; it also means Africa holds a special place in Moroccans hearts. For this reason, Africa has been given top priority in Moroccos foreign policy.

I believe what is good for Morocco is good for Africa  and vice versa. Theirs is one and the same destiny. I also believe there can be no progress without stability: either the two go together, or they do not exist.

Morocco always gives to the peoples of its continent; it does not expect to take from them. Its commitment to African issues and concerns was never made with the intention of exploiting the continents assets and natural resources  unlike neocolonialist practices.

While it is natural that Morocco should benefit from cooperation with African sister nations, my country always makes sure that our cooperation is mutually profitable.

Morocco does not view Africa as a market for the sale and promotion of Moroccan products, or as a continent for making quick profit. We see Africa as a forum for joint action, for promoting development in the region, and for serving African citizens.

In this respect, Morocco contributes, along with other African countries, to the implementation of human development projects and the provision of social services which have a direct bearing on the lives of people in the region.

For instance, Morocco does not merely export medicines to Africa; it also makes sure to set up pharmaceutical companies and healthcare centers.

It develops infrastructure, builds vocational and technical training centers and implements projects that offer steady jobs and income  such as fishermens villages  and that support smallholders and encourage the preservation of ecosystems.

A case in point is the project for the protection and development of Cocody Bay, in Abidjan, within the framework of a unique model of cooperation between the relevant public institutions in Morocco and Cote dIvoire, with the effective involvement of private sector operators from both countries.

This integrated, solidarity-based vision which underpins Moroccos relations with African sister nations requires all the stakeholders that we have invited to take part in this endeavor to shoulder their responsibility and to fulfill their obligations in order to maintain Moroccos credibility.

For us, Africa is not about goals and objectives; dealing with Africa involves a commitment towards the African citizen, wherever he or she may be.

We attach as much importance to improving the livelihood of Africans in their countries as we do to African migrants in Morocco. As a result, they do not suffer the same hardships endured in many parts of the world.

Dear Citizens,

Morocco was one of the first countries of the South to adopt a genuine solidarity-based policy regarding sub-Saharan migrants. This integrated policy, which is rooted in humanitarian values, is designed to make sure migrants rights and dignity are safeguarded.

As part of the implementation of this policy, my country has, without any arrogance, pomposity or discrimination, regularized the situation of migrants using fair and reasonable standards. It has provided the conditions needed for migrants to reside, work and lead a dignified life within our community.

This is hardly surprising on the part of Moroccans, considering the way they always treat their guests. Generosity, hospitality and the warmth of their welcome have long been deep-rooted features of our identity and culture.

Needless to say, our African brothers and sisters are facing some difficulties in Morocco. But these difficulties have nothing to do with the color of their skin, their nationality or their status as migrants. They enjoy the same rights.

I am deeply satisfied to note that migrants are hardworking people, who are known for their good behavior, their commitment to the rule of law and their respect for Moroccan values and sanctities.

Let me add, in this regard, that we are only fulfilling our duty towards these people, whose circumstances have led them to risk their lives and leave their families and homeland.

This humanitarian policy has earned Morocco the honor of co-chairing, alongside Germany, the Global Forum on Migration and Development for 2017-2018.

Morocco, which has long rejected the methods adopted by some to address migration issues and which have turned out to be a failure, is proud of what it is doing in terms of receiving and integrating migrants. It will keep up this practical, humanitarian approach.

As for those who criticize Morocco, or dare to disparage my country, they have yet to provide migrants with something  if only a fraction of what we have offered.

I regret that a distorted approach to migration issues was adopted in the Mediterranean. As a result, there has been no real policy to integrate migrants.

All that migrants have been offered are job opportunities, but with near to impossible requirements which very few of them can meet.

Dear Citizens,

The entire world is talking about migration and the tragedies migrants have to endure.

The situation is further compounded by the spread of the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism, and by attempts to link it  rightly or wrongly  to migrants, especially in Europe.

In this respect, I wish to call on Moroccans living abroad to remain firmly committed to their religious values and to their time-honored traditions as they face up to this phenomenon which has nothing to do with their culture or background.

I also urge them to maintain their good reputation, to show forbearance in these trying circumstances, to close ranks and to be, as always, staunch advocates of peace, concord and co-existence in their country of residence.

I realize how difficult the situation is for them. They suffer from the distortion of the image of Islam; they also suffer from terrorist attacks, which have already claimed the lives of many of them.

Our community abroad also suffers from the backlash of terrorist activities and from accusations levelled against them, by some, because of their faith.

Naturally, I strongly condemn the killing of innocent people. Killing a priest is forbidden by religion; murdering him inside a church is unforgivable madness, for he is a human being and a religious man  even if he is not a Muslim. Islam commands us to take good care of the people of the Book. The Almighty says: We make no distinction between one and another of His apostles. He also said: But it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers.

Those who engage in terrorism, in the name of Islam, are not Muslims. Their only link to Islam is the pretexts they use to justify their crimes and their folly. They have strayed from the right path, and their fate is to dwell forever in hell.

They think  out of ignorance  that they are engaging in jihad. Since when has jihad been synonymous with killing innocent people? The Almighty says: Do not transgress limits, for Allah loves not transgressors.

Is it conceivable that God  the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate  could order someone to blow himself up or kill innocent people? Islam, as a matter of fact, does not permit any kind of suicide  whatever the reasons or circumstances. The Almighty says: if any one slew a person  unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land  it would be as if he slew the whole people.

Islam is the religion of peace. Almighty God says: O you who believe! Enter into peace whole-heartedly.

As for jihad in Islam, it is governed by specific conditions, including the fact that it is to be resorted to only for defense purposes  not for murder or aggression. It is forbidden to kill people under the pretext of jihad.

Also, to be valid, jihad would have to be called for by the Commandership of the Faithful  and not by an individual or group of people.

Those who call for murder and aggression, those who excommunicate people without a legitimate reason, those who interpret the Quran and the Sunnah to suit their purposes, are actually lying to Allah and His Messenger.

That, in fact, is the real blasphemy, for the Almighty says: Who, then, does more wrong than one who utters a lie concerning Allah, and rejects the Truth when it comes to him; is there not in Hell an abode for blasphemers?. My ancestor, Prophet Muhammad  may peace and blessings be upon him  said: Whoever tells lies about me deliberately, let him take his place in Hell.

Terrorists take advantage of some young Muslims  particularly in Europe  and of their ignorance of the Arabic language and of true Islam, to spread their distorted messages and misleading promises.

How could anyone of sound mind believe that the reward for jihad is a number of virgins ? How could one possibly accept that anyone who listens to music will be swallowed by the depths of the earth, and other such lies?

Terrorists and extremists use all means to convince young people to join them in order to attack societies profoundly committed to the ideals of freedom, openness and tolerance.

Moreover, several Muslim groups and societies perceive themselves as authorities on Islam, arguing that they represent true Islam  which implies others do not. In reality, however, they could not be further from Islam and its tolerant values.

Such attitudes encourage the spread of the extremist ideology, of excommunication and terrorism, for terror advocates believe that this is the path to true Islam. These people need to take a hard look at themselves and decide to what extent they are responsible for the crimes and human tragedies perpetrated in the name of Islam.

All of us are targets. Whoever thinks or believes in what I have just said is a target of terrorism. That scourge hit Morocco in the past, then it struck in Europe and in many parts of the world.

As ignorance spreads in the name of religion, Muslims, Christians and Jews have to close ranks in order to tackle all forms of extremism, hatred and reclusiveness.

As attested by the history of mankind, it is impossible to achieve progress in a society which is plagued by radicalism and hatred, for the latter are the main ingredients of insecurity and instability.

There are countless examples, in human civilization, of success stories which show that religious interaction and coexistence produce open societies in which love, harmony and prosperity prevail.

This was also illustrated by the Islamic civilization, especially in Baghdad and Andalusia, which were among the greatest, most open civilizations of mankind.

Dear Citizens,

Moroccos national responses to many complex regional and international issues  such as development, migration and the fight against terrorism  are in line with a firm commitment to serve African peoples.

That should not come as a surprise since Morocco has always been at the forefront of advocates calling for the liberation of our continent. In this regard, I am following in the footsteps of my pioneering ancestors who believed in Africa, and who worked earnestly for the unity, openness and progress of its peoples.

So it is with great reverence that we remember the heroes of the Revolution of the King and the People, my revered grandfather, His Majesty King Mohammed V, and my venerable father, His Majesty King Hassan II  may they rest in peace  as well as all the nations glorious martyrs.

Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullah wabarkatuh.
King Mohammed VI on Saturday addressed a speech to the nation on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the throne day.

Here follows the full text of the speech:

Praise be to God

May peace and blessings be upon the Prophet, His Kith and Kin

Dear Citizens,

Several years have passed since, with Gods help and assistance, I undertook the mission of leading you. It is a noble mission to have the honor of serving you. It is also a major mission as it implies a responsibility before God, as well as a historic responsibility and a commitment towards all Moroccans.

Today, as we celebrate the 17th anniversary of my accession to the glorious Alawite Throne, I am most proud of the solid bonds of allegiance and unbreakable symbiosis between us. I am also more determined than ever to continue my endeavors to fulfill your legitimate aspirations.

What I want for all Moroccans, in villages, cities and remote, isolated areas, is to give them access to a dignified life now, reassure them about the future and ensure their security and stability at all times, with a balance between rights and obligations.

Dear Citizens,

During the last 17 years, we have managed to implement thorough political reforms and carry out major economic and human development projects, which have reshaped the country.

There is still much more to do, particularly as we are entering a new era, starting with the upcoming parliamentary elections.

As the guarantor of respect for the Constitution, the smooth running of institutions and the safeguard of the democratic choice, I do not take part in polls, nor do I belong to any political party. I am the King of all Moroccans, candidates and voters  and also of those who do not vote.

Furthermore, I am the King of all political organizations, without any discrimination or exception. As I said previously: the only party I am proud to belong to is Morocco.

The King has a special status in our political system. All actors, candidates and parties should therefore avoid involving the King in any electoral or party rows.

It is a watershed moment when we put things back on track: turn the page of an era when political parties used elections to gain access to power and inaugurate an era when this power lies with citizens, who have the duty to choose their representatives and hold them to account.

Indeed, citizens are the core element in the electoral process, not the parties, nor the candidates. Citizens are the source of power, which they delegate to their representatives. They have the power to hold them to account and replace them, on the basis of what they have achieved during their mandate.

I therefore urge voters to act in good conscience and to have in mind the citizens and nations interest during the poll, regardless of considerations of any kind.

I also call on political parties to endorse representatives who meet the requirements of competence, integrity, responsibility and keenness to serve citizens.

The governing parties have to defend their action during their tenure, while the opposition is required to offer constructive criticism and propose realistic alternatives, within the framework of fair competition, to find tangible solutions to citizens real issues and problems.

The government, which oversees the electoral process, under the authority of the Prime Minister and the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice and Liberties, also has to fulfill its duty in making sure this process is fair and transparent.

Should there be any violations  something that happens in any election  they have to be addressed in accordance with the law and examined by the competent judicial authorities.

I am, however, astounded to see some parties indulge in practices that are contrary to the ethics and ideals of political action, making statements and using expressions that tarnish the reputation of the nation and the credibility and sanctity of institutions, in their attempt to gain voters support.

I would like to give examples of serious violations and misconduct that are specific to electoral periods and which should be combatted, while perpetrators should be punished.

As soon as election dates draw near, confusion reigns, people turn their backs on each other and everyone, government and parties, candidates and voters, lose their minds and create chaos and conflicts that have nothing to do with the process of free choice, which is incarnated by elections.

I would like to say to everyone, the governing parties and the opposition: stop using the nation to settle personal accounts or achieve strictly party-related purposes.

Dear Citizens,

Representing citizens in the various institutions and organizations is a major duty. It requires honesty, responsibility and keenness to serve citizens first and foremost, beyond any other consideration.

As I have said repeatedly, positions of responsibility require commitment to the new concept of authority I have launched since my accession to the throne.

This concept of authority is my ruling doctrine. It is not limited, as some people may think, to Walis, Governors and local authorities, but covers all those who have access to power, including elected and public officials, whatever position they hold.

The new concept of power is based on accountability, through monitoring and control mechanisms, law enforcement and, for elected officials, through elections and citizens trust.

It is also based on fighting all forms of corruption: during elections and in the government, justice and other sectors. Dodging duty is a form of corruption.

Corruption is not inevitable and has never been part of Moroccan nature. However, it has become so commonplace that society considers it normal.

As a matter of fact, nobody is infallible, except prophets, messengers and angels.

I should nonetheless stress that fighting corruption must not be seen as an opportunity for politicking.

No one can fight corruption alone, be it an individual, a political party or an association. Furthermore, no one has the right to combat corruption or take the law into his own hands.

Fighting corruption is a cause championed by both the State and society. The State, with all its institutions, has to fight this dangerous trend through the appropriate legal mechanisms and by incriminating all its aspects and severely punishing those involved in it.

Society, with all its components, has to fight corruption by rejecting it, publicly exposing those who are involved in it and educating its members to stay away from it, keeping in mind the precepts of our pristine faith and true Moroccan values based on decency, integrity and dignity.

Dear Citizens,

I believe that political progress, whatever the level reached, remains insufficient on its own and needs to be supported by development, which should, in my view, be based on complementarity and balance between economic, social and environmental dimensions.

To live up to the multiple and intertwined development challenges, all Moroccans are required to engage, individually and collectively the decisive, global, economic battle underway.

The progress our country is looking forward to is not that which is assessed solely on the basis of indicators, which often ignore the specific features and achievements of each country, but genuine economic and social progress which all Moroccans can benefit from.

If, today, we are proud of our development achievements, I urge all stakeholders, from public and private sectors alike, to work twice as hard for Morocco to rise to a higher rank, among emerging nations, thanks to the assets I mentioned earlier.

This requires serious work to boost the competitiveness of our national economy, as well as an objective assessment of our public policies, together with continued updating of our sectorial and social strategies.

Despite the constraints linked either to the international context or to its national economy, Morocco is achieving constant progress, thanks be to God, with no gas or oil resources, but by the work of its citizens.

This is best illustrated by an increase in the number of international companies which have decided to invest in Morocco and launch projects worth millions, such as Peugeot, the Chinese companies involved in the Tangier strategic industrial zone project  which will cover 1000 to 2000 hectares  Russian companies, etc.

These companies would not take the risk of spending all this money, if they were not sure they were investing in the right place. They are aware of and appreciate the security and stability Morocco enjoys, as well as the prospects for their investments.

A number of international companies have also shown interest in the Noor-Ouarzazate project, the largest solar energy farm in the world.

The number of foreigners who have chosen Morocco as their country of residence is also on the rise, particularly French and Spanish nationals, some of whom have set up their own private businesses.

They enjoy the peace and tranquility of life here, under the protection of the Commander of the Faithful and the responsibility of the Moroccan State. They are also well received and respected by Moroccans.

The same determination and resolve prevail with regard to the security and safety of Moroccans and when it comes to safeguarding the stability of the country and maintaining public order.

Dear Citizens,

Maintaining order is a major responsibility, which is not limited in time or space, and a great mission incumbent upon all of us.

In this context, I would like to say how much I value the tireless efforts and major sacrifices made by the various security services when discharging their national duty.

I would also like to commend their effective response in anticipating and foiling all desperate terrorist attempts to target our citizens, security and public order.

I am aware of the difficult working conditions of the security forces, due to the limited resources available. They work day and night and are subject to tremendous pressure, as they are exposed to danger when they are on duty.

I therefore urge the government to provide the security authorities with the necessary human and material resources to enable them to carry out their duty properly.

It is also imperative to continue the ongoing action aimed at raising the moral standards of the police force and eliminating any aspects that can affect its reputation or undermine the incommensurate efforts its members are making to serve citizens.

For police action to be credible, a firm response to criminals and advocates of extremism and terrorism is required, within the framework of the law and in respect of rights and liberties, under the control of judiciary.

At a time of mounting security challenges and increasing conspiracies hatched against our country, I call for more mobilization and vigilance.

I also stress the need for coordination between security departments, at home and abroad, as well as with the Royal Armed Forces, with all their components, and with citizens, as all bear responsibility when it comes to national causes.

The security of Morocco is a national duty that leaves no room for exceptions. It should not be the subject of any trivial disputes, complacency or leniency. It requires positive competition safeguard the unity, security and stability of the nation.

It is not shameful for a nation to be strong and secure thanks to its citizens, nor for Moroccans to be mobilized for the defense of their national causes.

At the international level, the coordination and cooperation of our countrys security services with their counterparts from a number of sister and friendly nations has contributed to foiling numerous terrorist operations and preventing major human tragedies in these countries.

Dear Citizens,

My concern with citizens issues inside Morocco is only matched by the importance I attach to the issues of the members of our community abroad.

I deeply value their contribution to their countrys development and their involvement in upholding its causes.

I am also proud of their attachment to their country and of the increasing number of those visiting their families back home every year, despite the long, tiring journeys they have to undertake and all the difficulties they have to overcome.

It is true that on every occasion, I reiterate my thanks to them and I insist on the need to address their problems, both in Morocco and in host countries, but I am not exaggerating. They actually deserve more.

I have previously stressed the need to improve the services provided to them and noted the procedures adopted to serve this purpose.

The reforms and measures introduced in this regard are nonetheless still insufficient. More dedication and stronger commitment are required on the part of consuls and civil servants in charge of this communitys affairs.

Dear Citizens,

Our countrys foreign policy is based on words and action, be it when defending the cause of the Moroccan Sahara, diversifying partnerships or addressing current international issues and problems.

If some are trying to make 2016 a year of decision, for Morocco it is a year of determination as far as our territorial integrity is concerned. Convinced that ours is a just cause, with firm determination, we have faced the fallacious statements and irresponsible behavior related to the management of the Moroccan Sahara issue and taken the necessary measures, dictated by the circumstances, to put an end to these serious deviations.

We will continue defending our rights and will take the required measures to counter any future deviations. We will not give in to any kind of pressure, nor any blackmail attempts regarding the sacred cause of all Moroccans.

Morocco will however remain open and ever ready to engage in constructive dialogue in order to find a final political settlement to this artificial dispute.

In this regard, I would like to call again for continued vigilance and mobilization to counter the maneuvers of Moroccos opponents, who are infuriated by the development and progress witnessed in the Moroccan Sahara.

All conspiracies, overt or hidden, will not undermine our determination to go on with the implementation of our southern provinces development model.

The development projects I have launched in the region, along with the opportunity for the populations effective involvement in managing their affairs, thanks to the advanced regionalization scheme, will transform the Sahara into an integrated economic pole that will allow it to play its historic role as a hub and an exchange platform between Morocco and the rest of Africa, as well as countries of the North.

Dear Citizens,

This policy, based on word and action, pursued by Morocco could not give the desired results, without the credibility the Kingdom enjoys as far as international relations are concerned.

This has allowed Morocco to diversify its partnerships. It is not a move or a reaction to suit the circumstances or serve short-lived calculations or interests, but rather a strategic choice in line with the countrys evolution and global changes.

It also reflects the status of our country as a valued and cherished partner, thanks to its development and political model, as well as its role as a major player in promoting security and stability in the region and defending the cause of Africa.

As I have already pointed out, Morocco is not the exclusive preserve of any country. Its openness, however, is not an indicator of a change of direction, nor will it ever affect its partners interests. Morocco will continue to honor the commitments made to its historic partners.

In this regard, the summit held last April with my brothers, Heads of States of the Gulf Cooperation Council, endorsed the Moroccan-Gulf partnership as a strategic, unified bloc, and laid solid foundations for building a unique model of Arab alliance.

Furthermore, Morocco spares no effort to boost strategic solidarity-based South-South partnership, particularly with African sister nations, both bilaterally and within West-African regional groupings.

To strengthen our sincere African policy, during the 27th African Union Summit, I announced Moroccos decision to return to its African institutional family.

This decision does not, of course, mean that Morocco will relinquish its legitimate rights, nor recognize a pseudo entity lacking the basic elements of sovereignty which was imposed on the African Union, in flagrant violation of the latters charter.

Our countrys return to its natural place reflects our keenness to continue defending our interests from within the African Union and to enhance cooperation with our partners, at the bilateral and regional levels.

It will also open up new prospects for Morocco, mainly in East and Equatorial Africa, and consolidate the countrys position as a player with regard to the continents security, stability, human development and solidarity.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all African sister nations for supporting Morocco in defending its territorial unity and for responding positively to its decision to return to its institutional family, particularly leaders of the 28 states which have signed the statement, as well as those who have contributed to the initiative.

I should also like to express my gratitude and esteem to the Republic of Rwanda, which hosted the summit, and to its president, His Excellency Mr. Paul Kagame, for their support and collaboration.

In addition to being open to major economic and political spaces, such as Russia, China and India, we remain committed to consolidating our strategic partnership with our French and Spanish allies. We also work with the European Union to develop our traditional partnership on solid bases.

This diversification of partnerships is based on mutual esteem and the commitment to boost win-win cooperation, as illustrated by the strategic agreements signed in vital sectors, such as energy, infrastructure, agriculture, the fight against terrorism, military cooperation, etc.

Dear Citizens,

Moroccos keenness to diversify its partnerships is only matched by its strong commitment to address current international issues.

Indeed, Morocco is a key partner in the fight against terrorism, both at the level of security cooperation, with a number of sister and friendly nations, and through its unique approach to managing the countrys religious affairs. This position allowed Morocco to co-chair, with the Netherlands, the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

Our country is also actively involved in international efforts to fight climate change and, in November, is hosting the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This conference will offer Morocco the opportunity to show its commitment to ensuring the implementation of the Paris Agreement and continuing its support to developing countries in Africa and small insular states, most affected by climate change.

As a major player in triangular cooperation, Morocco has also placed development issues, particularly in Africa, at the top of its political agenda.

Dear Citizens,

I am not interested so much in records and achievements as I am in the impact the work has had on improving citizens living conditions.

In fact, the human dimension is a top priority and what matters first is the citizen, and more generally the human being, wherever they are.

I thank God for what we have managed to achieve in Morocco, a construction and development site and an oasis of security and stability, despite an international context characterized by a succession of crises and increasing tensions.

On this auspicious occasion, I would like to thank all members of civil society and true patriots, who are keen to serve their country, for their strong commitment at my side to build a unified, free and developed nation, as well as for their firm action against the vile conspiracies hatched against our country.

I should like to pay tribute to our Royal Armed Forces, the Royal Gendarmerie, the Auxiliary Forces, the National Security Forces, the Emergency Services and the local authorities for their devotion and constant mobilization to defend the nations unity and sovereignty and preserve its security and stability.

I pray that God assist me in fulfilling the mission I inherited from my ancestors, whom I remember with deep respect, most particularly my venerated grandfather and father, Their Majesties King Mohammed V and King Hassan II, May they and all the martyrs of the nation rest in peace.

We will continue our march together, with determination and resolve, to achieve the glory of Morocco and serve its citizens.

Dear Citizens,

I will continue to be, as I have always been, your first servant, who cares for your concerns and problems and responds to your aspirations at all times and under all circumstances.

Say, This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. True is the word of God.

Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullah wabarkatuh
King Mohammed VI on Saturday urged Moroccans living abroad to remain firmly committed to their religious values and to their time-honored traditions as they face up to the extremist and terrorist phenomenon which has nothing to do with their culture or background.

I also urge them to maintain their good reputation, to show forbearance in these trying circumstances, to close ranks and to be, as always, staunch advocates of peace, concord and co-existence in their country of residence, the Sovereign underlined in a speech to the Nation on the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People.

I realize how difficult the situation is for them. They suffer from the distortion of the image of Islam; they also suffer from terrorist attacks, which have already claimed the lives of many of them, the King stressed, adding that the Moroccans living abroad also suffer from the backlash of terrorist activities and from accusations levelled against them, by some, because of their faith.

For the Monarch, those who engage in terrorism, in the name of Islam, are not Muslims. Their only link to Islam is the pretexts they use to justify their crimes and their folly. They have strayed from the right path, and their fate is to dwell forever in hell.

The King stressed that those who call for murder and aggression, those who excommunicate people without a legitimate reason, those who interpret the Quran and the Sunnah to suit their purposes, are actually lying to Allah and His Messenger.

Terrorists take advantage of some young Muslims  particularly in Europe  and of their ignorance of the Arabic language and of true Islam, to spread their distorted messages and misleading promises, the Sovereign said, adding that terrorists and extremists use all means to convince young people to join them in order to attack societies profoundly committed to the ideals of freedom, openness and tolerance.

Moreover, several Muslim groups and societies perceive themselves as authorities on Islam, arguing that they represent true Islam  which implies others do not. In reality, however, they could not be further from Islam and its tolerant values, the Monarch noted, underlining that such attitudes encourage the spread of the extremist ideology, of excommunication and terrorism.

Terror advocates believe that this is the path to true Islam, the Monarch said, pointing out that these people need to take a hard look at themselves and decide to what extent they are responsible for the crimes and human tragedies perpetrated in the name of Islam.

All of us are targets. Whoever thinks or believes in what I have just said is a target of terrorism. That scourge hit Morocco in the past, then it struck in Europe and in many parts of the world, HM the King warned.

The King called on Muslims, Christians and Jews to close ranks in order to tackle all forms of extremism, hatred and reclusiveness.

As attested by the history of mankind, it is impossible to achieve progress in a society which is plagued by radicalism and hatred, for the latter are the main ingredients of insecurity and instability, the Monarch said.

There are countless examples, in human civilization, of success stories which show that religious interaction and coexistence produce open societies in which love, harmony and prosperity prevail, the King said.

This was also illustrated by the Islamic civilization, especially in Baghdad and Andalusia, which were among the greatest, most open civilizations of mankind, the Sovereign added.
The decision of Morocco to return to its African institutional family does not mean that the Kingdom will relinquish its legitimate rights on its Sahara, King Mohammed VI said in a speech to the Nation, on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the Throne Day.

The decision of Morocco to return to its African institutional family does not mean that the Kingdom will relinquish its legitimate rights, nor recognize a pseudo entity lacking the basic elements of sovereignty which was imposed on the African Union, in flagrant violation of the latters charter, the King noted.

The Sovereign underlined that Moroccos return to its natural place reflects our keenness to continue defending our interests from within the African Union and to enhance cooperation with our partners, at the bilateral and regional levels.

This return will also open up new prospects for Morocco, mainly in East and Equatorial Africa, and consolidate the countrys position as a player with regard to the continents security, stability, human development and solidarity, the King said.

The Moroccan monarch took this opportunity to thank all African sister nations for supporting Morocco in defending its territorial unity and for responding positively to its decision to return to its institutional family, particularly leaders of the 28 states which have signed the statement, as well as those who have contributed to the initiative.

The King also expressed His gratitude and esteem to the Republic of Rwanda, which hosted the summit, and to its president, His Excellency Mr. Paul Kagame, for their support and collaboration.

In another vein, the King noted that in addition to being open to major economic and political spaces, such as Russia, China and India, we remain committed to consolidating our strategic partnership with our French and Spanish allies.

We also work with the European Union to develop our traditional partnership on solid bases, the King added.

This diversification of partnerships is based on mutual esteem and the commitment to boost win-win cooperation, as illustrated by the strategic agreements signed in vital sectors, such as energy, infrastructure, agriculture, the fight against terrorism, military cooperation, etc, the King noted.

Morocco is a key partner in the fight against terrorism, both at the level of security cooperation, with a number of sister and friendly nations, and through its unique approach to managing the countrys religious affairs, he said. This position allowed Morocco to co-chair, with the Netherlands, the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

Our country is also actively involved in international efforts to fight climate change and, in November, is hosting the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Sovereign added.

As a major player in triangular cooperation, Morocco has also placed development issues, particularly in Africa, at the top of its political agenda, the King stressed.
More countries have joined the group of 28 member states of the African union, which addressed last Monday a motion to the AU chair expressing support to Moroccos return to its African family and demanding the suspension of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Republic from the pan-African organization.

In this vein, Egypts Ambassador in Rabat, Ihab Jamaleddine said his country welcomes and supports the will of brotherly Morocco to join the African Union and to resume its role in African bodies.

The diplomat also expressed Egypts hope to see Morocco regain its role within the African family as soon as possible, adding that there is a permanent coordination on this issue between the two countries.

Madagascar has also expressed support to Moroccos legitimate return to the African Union.

An official statement, initialed by President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, states that Madagascar welcomes Moroccos decision and will work to ensure that this legitimate return be effective as soon as possible.

Madagascar warmly welcomes the message sent by King Mohammed VI to the 27th Summit of the African Union, the statement said.

The President of the Republic of Madagascar, while being aware of the particular circumstances in which the SADR was admitted to the Organization of African Unity, has decided to take action to enable the African Union play a constructive role and contribute positively to UN efforts for a final and mutually acceptable settlement of the regional dispute over Sahara, said the statement.

Last Sunday, Morocco officially requested to regain the African Union after 32 years of an empty seat policy within the pan-African organization.

Today, Morocco wishes resolutely and unequivocally to regain its place within its institutional family and to continue to live up to its responsibilities, with even more resolve and enthusiasm, King Mohammed VI said in a Royal message addressed to the 27th summit of the African Union held in the Rwandan capital Kigali on July 17.

The following day, 28 member states of the African union welcomed in a motion Moroccos decision to rejoin the African Union, and pledged to work so that this legitimate return be effective as soon as possible.

The 28 signatories of the motion also promised to act for the immediate suspension of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from the activities of the African Union and all its bodies, to enable the AU to play a constructive role and contribute positively to UN efforts for a final settlement to the regional dispute over the Sahara.

Several African heads of State applauded Moroccos decision to reintegrate the African Union, stressing that Moroccos place is within the African Union.

Morocco is a great African country that has been contributing much to security and prosperity in the continent, but also to diplomatic relations and cooperation, said President of Cote dIvoire Alassane Ouattara. Within our grouping, this will only strengthen its role, its place and its leadership, said the Ivorian Head of State.

Rwanda also expressed its strong and unequivocal support to Moroccos return to the African fold hailing the move as extremely positive and beneficial for the Kingdom and for Africa after an absence of 32 years.

Without Morocco, the African unity lacks an essential component, said Rwandan Foreign Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo at a press conference, at the end of the AU summit.

I speak on behalf of my country and I can speak about this specific question on behalf of several other African countries, who attended the Summit, Morocco is welcome within the AUIt would be shameful to continue to see Morocco outside the AU, she insisted.

Outside the continent, France has also encouraged Moroccos return to the African Union, deeming that this decision constitutes an important contribution to the growing integration of the African continent.

Moroccos return to the African Union would make an important contribution to the growing integration of the African continent, which France is encouraging, French Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Romain Nadal, said at a press briefing.

A united Africa is indeed a factor of peace, stability and development for the continent and the rest of the world, he stressed.

The motion addressed to the AU acting Chairman was signed by Presidents of Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, the Congo, Cote dIvoire, Djibouti, Eretria, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sau-tome, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo and Zambia.
King Mohammed VI on Saturday called for Revitalization of Solidarity doctrine which have always bound the Algerian and Moroccan peoples.

We hope that the commitment and sincere solidarity which have always bound the Algerian and Moroccan peoples will be rekindled so that we may continue to work together, honestly and in good faith, to serve Arab and Maghreb causes and rise to challenges in Africa, the Sovereign said in a speech to the Nation on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People.

Recalling that the commemoration of the Revolution of the King and the People is associated with Morocco being part of the Maghreb and of Africa, the King recalled that that historical era was characterized by coordination and solidarity between the leaders of the Moroccan resistance movement and the Algerian Liberation Front.

The Monarch noted that given the current circumstances facing Arab peoples and the Maghreb region, we are in great need of that spirit of solidarity to enable us to rise to common development and security challenges.

The Sovereign recalled that it was agreed to turn the commemoration of the second anniversary of the Revolution of 20 August into an opportunity to extend the revolution to Maghreb countries. As a result, popular uprisings took place across Morocco and Algeria.

Moreover, the Moroccan resistance movement provided moral and material support to the Algerian revolution which, at the time, was facing a fierce campaign by colonial forces seeking to quash it before it celebrated its first anniversary, the Monarch added.

For the King, that uprising and that solidarity breathed new life into the Algerian revolution, and the two countries also played a major role in the liberation and independence of Africa.
Women and youth members in the new Tunisia government

Tunisias premier-designate has announced nominees for a new national unity government. Task No. 1 for the incoming ministers will be rejuvenating the economy

Tunisias newly nominated prime minister has announced that his government will include members of the previous administration in key posts.

Defense Minister Farhat Horchani, Interior Minister Hedi Mejdoub and Foreign Affairs Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui would all maintain their portfolios in the new cabinet. The current transport, tourism, education and equipment ministers would keep their posts as well.

All Tunisians are expecting from us, Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed said. We have no right to let them down. Chahed, a member of the secularist Nidaa Tounes party, called on all political parties and unions to take their responsibilities, support this government and put the countrys interest ahead of any consideration.

Chahed, a 40-year-year-old agricultural sciences specialist and university professor, became prime minister after his predecessor lost a confidence vote last month. He had served as a junior minister, handling the Fisheries portfolio.

Should parliament approve his government, Chahed would become Tunisias youngest prime minister since the countrys independence from France, in 1956.

New faces

The proposed cabinet, which parliament must approve, includes 26 ministers and 14 junior ministers, five of them younger than 35, from several political parties and independents. Judge Ghazi Jeribi would become justice minister.

Fifty-five-year-old state bank director Lamia Zribi, one of eight women nominated to the new government, would become the finance minister. Chahed also chose a woman, Samira Merai, to head the Health Ministry.

Mohamed Trabelsi would lead the Social Affairs Ministry, and Abid Briki, a former union official, would become minister of public functions. Both men have close ties to a union that in the past has resisted austerity measures.
Typically in the high season, Tunisias beaches are packed with visitors from France, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.

But this year Russians and Algerians are more likely to be filling the sunloungers as two Isis terror attacks targeting holidaymakers in 2015  including the deaths of 38 people on a beach in the popular resort of Sousse  have seen many European visitors shun the country. Their absence has dealt a severe blow to an industry that is a critical source of foreign exchange and employment in the north African state.

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Tunisia has been feted as the only successful democratic transition after its 2011 revolution sparked the Arab Spring. However, those upheavals left the country suffering from sluggish economic growth.

In a nation struggling to lure investment and create jobs for its disaffected youth  many of whom are attracted to and swayed by the propaganda produced by Isis  the decline in tourism presents a serious challenge.

In 2010, Tunisia boasted 7m tourist arrivals and revenues reached $3.5bn. But arrivals fell to 5.5m last year and tourism receipts plummeted to $1.5bn.

Those declines helped stifle economic growth pushing it to less than 1 per cent and added to pressures on the Tunisian dinar, which hit record lows against the US dollar in July.

The tourism sector and travel agencies have been in crisis since the 2011 revolution, said Hedi Hamdi, spokesman for the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies.

Most hotels have reopened after the 2015 attacks, which also included an assault on a museum in the capital, Tunis, and authorities have strengthened security measures at tourist zones, with hundreds of extra police and patrols. But the cruise ships that stopped visiting the country after the attack on the capital have yet to return.

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Tunisias industry has reacted by seeking to benefit from the troubles of regional competitors: slashing prices and targeting new markets, particularly Russia and Algeria.

Both Egypt and Turkey have historically been popular with Russian tourists, but a diplomatic row with Moscow has hurt the Turkish industry. Moscow imposed sanctions on Turkey  including a ban on Russian tour packages  after it shot down a Russian fighter jet over the Syrian border in November. Russia also banned flights to Egypt after an Isis bomb destroyed a Metrojet airliner carrying Russian tourists in October shortly after take-off from an Egyptian airport, killing all 224 passengers and crew.

These incidents have helped Tunisia to lure 350,000 Russian tourists to its resorts so far this year  a record number, Mr Hamdi said. The expectation is that Russian visitors could reach 700,000 in 2016, but Mr Hamdi and others say it will not compensate for the losses of French, British and German tourists.

It is the only European market in which we are seeing an increase, the others are very bad, Mr Hamdi added.

In 2014, France provided about 1.4m tourists, but this year just 213,000 French have chosen to visit the north African country.

Mohamed Daoud, whose company, One Hotels and Resorts, runs two hotels with a total of 1,500 rooms in the resort of Monastir, said it has been a battle for hotels to stay open.

Unfortunately we have had to reduce prices, as we have just the Russian market now, he said. We were obliged to offer special rates to attract them. The average rate is now 30 per cent less than it used to be in 2014.

Riadh Ben Jelili, an economist and a founder of Joussour for Public Policy, a Tunisian think-tank, said the average daily spend per tourist has also slumped. In 2014, it was between 50 to 60 a day, but he estimates it has dropped around 30.

He said this was because operators are having to offer all-inclusive packages, even at more upmarket hotels, making it impossible for the sector to become profitable.

The ripples are likely to be felt in the fragile banking sector, he said, which is burdened with hefty non-performing loans related to tourism.

The vulnerability of the banking sector is highly linked to the proportion of NPLs in tourism, Mr Jelili said. Almost a fifth of the new NPLs over the past two years are from the sector.
Chads President Idriss Deby Itno on Monday took oath for a fifth five year term in office extending his 26-year grip on power during an occasion graced by 14 African heads, including President Museveni amidst a torrid political atmosphere in the background.

The alluring inaugural ceremony at the Grand Hotel in the Chadian capital, NDjamena, took place a day after violent protests in the impoverished Central African nation with the opposition contesting his re-election which they described as an attempt to die in power.

President Deby, 64, who is also the African Union (AU) chairperson, has been in power since 1990 and was re-elected in April with about 60 per cent, trouncing the main opposition candidate Saleh Kebzabo who was said to have garnered only 12 per cent.

Dignitaries

Other Presidents who graced the swearing-in ceremony were Benins Patrice Talon, Central African Republics Faustin Archange Touadera, Burkina Fasos Roch Kabore, Malis Ibrahim Boucbacar, Nigerias Muhammadu Buhari, Sudans Omar-al Bashir, DR Congos Joseph Kabila, and Rwandas Paul Kagame, among others.

President Deby, who was among the 14 heads of state who graced President Musevenis swearing-in in Kampala on May 12, in his speech according to a statement issued by presidential press secretary Linda Nabusayi, saluted the African counterparts for gracing his inauguration ceremony saying that their attendance demonstrated a close bond of brotherhood existing between respective countries and the people of Chad.

A former army commander, General Deby like President Museveni, also got rid of term limits in 2005 and is similarly, despite his repressive government, a darling of the West in the efforts to fight terrorism against the Islamist militias, the Boko-Haram.

President Museveni, while on a two-day visit to NDjamena also toured Chads refinery complex accompanied by select petroleum officials in the ministry of Energy from Uganda.

The background

In 2011, Chad finished construction and started refining oil at Djrmaya refinery after a Chinese company, the Chinese National Petroleum Company Incorporation (CNPCI) offered the country a helping hand. Oil revenues contribute about 70 per cent of the countrys budget. Chad is Africas seventh biggest oil producer at 180,000 barrels per day.
A 26-year-old businessman from Mumbai has reportedly travelled to Syria with his wife, infant daughter and cousins to join the Islamic State even as the NIA continues to tighten the noose around ISIS suspects in the country.

Ashfaque Ahmed, a Mumbai based businessman sent a message to his younger brother towards the last week of June informing him that he had travelled to ISIS territory and did not wish to return. Take care of mother and father, his message reportedly read.

His cousins 22-year-old Mohammed Siraj who is a businessman, and 30-year-old Ejaz Rehman, a medical practitioner, also accompanied Ashfaque.

Blaming a Kerala based school teacher Mohammad Hanif for radicalising his son, Ashafques father Abdul Majeed filed an FIR on August 6.

Majeed, who owns several guest houses, stated in his FIR that Ashfaque, who belongs to the Barveli sect, was drawn towards the Ahl-e-Hadees sect of Islam, and converted in 2014. He married later the same year, but informed his family only after the wedding was over. Ever since conversion, he began exhibiting worrying changes, and stopped listening to music, watching television. He changed his dressing style and started sporting a beard and had the family worried, Majeed told the police. The FIR also mentioned that Afshaque and his wife went to Sri Lanka earlier this year for religious education. It is however unclear if Afshaque took his wife against her will or if she accompanied him on her own accord. Mohammed Hanif, a cleric and teacher from Keralas Wayanad, was taken into custody on August 14 by Kerala police and has reportedly influenced 11 of the 21 people from Kerala who are suspected to have joined ISIS. Ashfaque wrote in a message to his youngest brother that I have had migrated to IS territory and did not want to come back, take care of mother and father.

The father of Ashfaque, Abdul Majeed filed an FIR on 6th August naming Abdur Rasheed, Haneef, a Kerala school teacher who travelled to Syria with Ashfaque, Kalyan resident Rizwan Khan and Navi Mumbai resident Arshi Qureshi as the ones who allegedly instigated his son to join the terror outfit Islamic State.
GoAir plans to hire 500 personnel, including pilots, in the coming months as the budget carrier prepares to expand its aircraft fleet and fly overseas next year.



Gearing up to implement its ambitious expansion plans, the Wadia group carrier is looking to have 26 aircraft by end of March next year from the current fleet strength of 21, a senior official said.

The airlines CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said plans are on for listing and it would happen at the right time.

We will expand our fleet by up to 26 aircraft by the end of March next year. We need to build up for the expansion that we are going for. Every aircraft (inducted) needs 100 increase (in manpower) approximately. So we will naturally hire, he said.

This would translate to hiring requirement of at least 500 personnel, including a significant number of pilots.

At present, GoAirs head count is around 2,300, Prock-Schauer said.

GoAir has 21 Airbus A320 aircraft, including A320neos  which are more fuel-efficient. Generally, an Airbus 320 plane needs maximum 14 pilots for its operation, with seven commanders and an equal number of first officers.

A back of the envelope calculation indicates that addition of five such aircraft would mean the need for about 70 pilots.

In June 2011, the Mumbai-based airline had placed an order with European aviation major Airbus for 72 new A320 neo aircraft valued at about Rs 32,400 crore on list price.

Besides, the carrier inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus for another 72 A320neo aircraft at Farnborough International Airshow in June.

Earlier this month, GoAir got governments approval to fly to nine countries, including Iran, Uzbekistan and Kazakhastan. It expects to start international operations from the next summer schedule  which generally spans from the last Sunday of March and extends to the last Saturday of October.

GoAir would be the first Indian private carrier to fly to any CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). CIS countries, for which the carrier has got flying nod, include Uzbekistan, Kazakhastan and Azerbaijan.

On the much-awaited initial public offering (IPO), which has been in the works for sometime, Prock-Schauer said it would hit the market at the appropriate time.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] seized conversation, where gangster Chhota Rajan claims to have accepted responsibility for killing senior journalist J Dey, forms part of the evidence against him in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI. The assumed conversation took place between Rajan and a relative of now-deceased accused Vinod Asrani, less than a month after Dey was shot by bike-borne assailants near his Powai residence on June 2011. The conversation had also been part of the earlier chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police against journalist Jigna Vora, another accused in the case. The CBI, in its present chargesheet, has claimed that the authenticity of the intercepted communication has been verified by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. It states that the conversation proves Rajans involvement as his voice samples match the intercepts.

The dramatic J. Dey murder case brought to the fore the nexus more clearly than other occasions. Having covered the crime beat for around three decades, Dey had naturally developed affiliations in legitimate as well as illegitimate way in his working life. Bootleggers, matka-den operators are regular paymasters of crime reporters residing in respective areas. Visionless and routine crime reporters thrive on their money and retire peacefully. Dey-like ambitious reporters aim high and possess heavy appetite. Their morals become flexible in the initial period of their career and later vanish. Switching of loyalties is not a great affair, when it comes to money. It may not be as frequent in underworld as it is in journalism.

The police told the Sessions Court that journalist Jigna Vora, then an accused in J Dey murder case, had fuelled the dispute between gangster Chhota Rajan and the slain journalist, which likely led to the killing. Crime Branch, which was investigating the Dey murder case, claimed that Vora was aware of the issues between Rajan and Dey, but Mumbai police could not produce any substantial evidences against Vora and finally she got bail. Since then, the never ending saga on Deys murder is unfurled in episodes.

During the investigations, media made police authorities life miserable and Home Department was always on their radar. To control media pressure, police traced those reporters who have spoken to Chhota Rajan or any other underworld don. Based on their published interviews and reports, police called these journalists and asked questions in the name of investigations. They were harassed and warned, and thats how, the story was twisted in many angles. Reporters gave excuses, but police made them stand, arrested some and asked them to give explanation in court. In that series, Jigna became victim of circumstances and trapped by police. Police Department was aware that Jigna is not at fault. However, she was made scapegoat to control the nuisance of media. Surprisingly, when Jigna got arrested, no media came forward to protest against her. Rather, J Deys murder investigations news took a back seat. Now, suddenly J Dey got news space.

The police earlier claimed that Vora had called Chhota Rajan 36 times before J Deys murder. The chargesheet shows that there were only three calls between Chhota Rajan and Vora, all made for an interview that Rajan gave to her for the The Asian Age newspaper. Vora had sent emails to Rajan containing the photographs and residential address of Dey and the registration number of his motorcycle. The chargesheet does not mention any such emails. Police requested Google to provide her inbox details but under privacy act Google refused to obey the same. Crime Branch officers told the media that Vora abruptly booked tickets to Sikkim on June 2011 and took off without a sanctioned leave, knowing well that Dey was to be murdered. Vora had travelled to Sikkim along with six friends. All tickets were booked in the first week of April. She had also given an advance notice of leave to her editor. However, police didnt include these records in the chargesheet. The police claimed that there was professional rivalry between Dey and Vora and that was her motive to get him killed. Dey wrote that Dawood had left Pakistan. Vora wrote that Dawood was hiding in Pakistan. Bizarrely, the police have used these two stories to argue that there was rivalry between the two journalists. The smear campaign against Vora went to the extent of accusing her of being an extortionist. Nobody asked the police for the evidence before publishing such claims. Reports have been published about her that she was mediating between two builders. In the final chargesheet, the police have not mentioned a word on any such mediation activities. However, the objective has already been achieved.

After four years, the CFSL report received in May 2016 is part of the chargesheet, stating that the voice is the probable voice of the person (Rajan) matching with the specimen. The CBI had taken permission from the special MCOCA court to take a voice sample of Rajan, who is lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi since his deportation from Bali, Indonesia, in November last year. The chargesheet, however, does not have emails or other evidence on exchange of emails between Rajan and Vora, allegedly through which details of Dey were shared by her. Rajan had told journalists after the murder that Vora provided him with details of Deys motorcycle number, his photograph, address, etc. through emails. The CBIs claim is that Dey was killed by Rajan over the two books he was writing. In its chargesheet, the CBI has details of exchange between two publishers and Dey on his books. Now, only God, Rajan or Dey can tell the truth, else this murder case will revolve with saga like daily soaps.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
The Life Insurance Corporation of India has been asked to cough up Rs. 1.24 lakh after the company failed to honour a legitimate claim made by the widow of a beneficiary.



In a recent order pertaining to the case, the Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum held LIC to be deficient in its services as it failed to verify the credentials of another woman, who also claimed to have married the deceased Nitin Kishid.

Forum President Sneha Mhatre and member N D Kadam ordered LIC to pay the claim/insured amount of Rs. 50,000 from the date of the death of the deceased in September 2000, along with interest at 8 per cent per annum (amounting to Rs. 64,000) besides Rs. 5,000 for mental worries and Rs. 5,000 towards legal expenses to the legally married woman.

The claimants Anita Nitin Kashid and her daughter, residents of Nuribaba Dugha road of Thane, claimed in their application that the deceased worked with the Thane Municipal Corporation since 1990 and he had in 1998 taken the LICs money back policy for Rs. 50,000, valid for 20 years.

The duo stated that Nitin died on September 2, 2000 after which they lodged their claim with LIC.

The insurance company, however, rejected the claim stating that the policy holder had given the name of one Shakuntala as the nominee instead of the present claimant in the policy papers.

LIC contested the claim and submitted that the claimant/applicant was not the legal heir of the deceased and hence the claim cannot be settled against her.

They also came up with the argument that the complainant had not submitted a succession certificate issued by the judicial magistrate to her along with the claim papers.

The Forum, however, in its order observed that the complainant had submitted the marriage certificate, the birth certificate of the daughter of the deceased and NOC from Shakuntala (Nitins alleged second wife).

LIC insisted on the complainant getting the additional succession certificate even when it was proved that the complainant was the wife of the deceased.

The Forum also observed that the LIC while including the name of Shakuntala in the policy failed to verify her as the legally married wife of the deceased.

All these amount to deficiency in services and hence LIC needs to in the first place honour the claim and also pay an interest at 8 per cent per annum from the date of death of the deceased, the Forum said.

It also needs to pay the compensation for mental suffering and legal expenses it added.
Political parties have been demanding a ban to be imposed on Sanatan Sanstha and declare the outfit as unlawful. Despite this the state government has failed to take any action against the outfit. Earlier even Goa Congress had called for ban on the organisation and mentioned about its role in the assassination of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. The CBI had arrested Sanatan Sanstha activist Virendra Tawde in connection with the murder of Dabholkar. Also another activist Sameer Gaikwad was arrested for his alleged role in the murder of CPI leader Govind Pansare.



In the year 2012, the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had filed an affidavit for declaring the organisation as unlawful under section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the government would take action against Sanatan Sanstha if any concrete evidence is found against the organisation in October 2015.

Sanatan Sanstha was established in 1980 and is registered as a charitable trust in Goa. The activities of the organisation have come under scanner for some time now. Its members have been involved in various anti-social activities. The members of the outfit were arrested in 2008 for planting a crude bomb during the screening of a Marathi play.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant has made a demand to ban Sanatan Sanstha. Sawant said, Since the BJP government has assumed the power the communal forces have become active. In the name of religion open vandalism is adopted by these organisations. Now this is high time to ban Sanathan Sanstha so the government can curb their activities.

Former Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Arif Mohammad Naseem Khan, also demanded that the state government ban the Sanatan Sanstha. He said, The Sanatan Sanstha has been indulging in terror activities for quite sometime and the then Special IG Hemant Karkare who was subsequently was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack had exposed this organisation.

On the other hand, Sanatan Sanstha has claimed that the allegations made against its activists are baseless and they are being framed. Innocent activists have been arrested and are being persecuted merely due to pressure exerted by the progressive elements. To oppose this, all patriotic and devout Hindu organisations had held a protest march on Sunday at Dadar.

Eleven months have passed since Samir Gaikwad, was arrested in connection with the killing of Govind Pansare. A chargesheet has been filed, but various obstacles are created in further proceedings of the case; thus denying him of natural justice, said Abhay Vartak.

We are demanding to stop the persecution of innocent seekers of Sanatan Sanstha and investigate thoroughly whether the killing of Dabholkar was due to financial scams in Dabholkars Trust and huge fund received illegally from foreign countries. We will raise all this issues with the Government, he added.

Since CBI has failed to apprehend the real culprit in the killing of Narendra Dabholkar, Dr. Virendra Tawade has been arrested, and now, the case against him is being framed with the help of a fake witness, said Vaibhav Raut leader of Hindu Gou-vansh Raksha Samiti.

Instead of effecting a Court trial, a Media trial is being run. The investigating agencies and Dabholkar-Pansare family members are more interested in defaming Hindus; even, the High Court has admonished them in this regard, he added.
An Uber taxi driver has been arrested for allegedly molesting a foreign national when she was travelling alone in the cab from suburban Bandra to Versova in Mumbai, police said.



The incident took place on Wednesday night but came to light only after a friend of the woman posted about it on Facebook the next day following which the victim approached Santacruz police and lodged a complaint against the accused driver Shehbaaz Shaikh (32).

On the basis of the details provided by the complainant, our team contacted the cab aggregator and sought the drivers details following which he was picked up and arrested on Friday, said a senior police officer.

Soon after Shaikhs arrest, Uber suspended the driver immediately and said it has a policy of zero tolerance in such instances.

Issuing a statement, Uber said, We have suspended the driver from our platform and have shared all details related to the trip and the driver with the relevant authorities (Mumbai police) for official investigation.

According to the Facebook post, the driver first asked the woman passenger to sit in the front seat with him but when she refused to do so, then he came to the rear seat and on the pretext of cleaning the seat, touched her inappropriately.

The woman then tried to push him off and he relented only when she started shouting. She then got off the cab and rushed to her home.








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Dirty cops do not reflect who we are as humans who are beings of empathy. Instead, dirty cops reflect ego-driven minds void of empathy that is at the very heart of our identity as human beings.



When Detective Robert Griffin decided that he was going to engage in the illegal obstruction against justice for Dezrin Carby-Samuels, he was not defending the supposed ideals of the police that is to serve and protect. Indeed, what kind of human police officer would seek to prolong the neglect and abuse of a more than 80 year old woman who had recently lost the ability of talk, walk and write? What kind of human police officer would pursue illegal activities that sought to prevent a son from helping his own mother who had recently lost the ability to walk, write and talk? Is this the action of a human being, or does such behaviour represent an alien consciousness that is responsible for the systematized oppressions of humanity and the destruction of our Earth?



It was Friday, June 2015. Raymond had finally got to see Dezrin, his Mom who was escorted to the Nepean, Rideau and Osgoode Resource Centre on Merivale Road in Ottawa. It was a sunny and relatively warm day. Raymond had fought weeks to see him Mom. Raymond had been illegally evicted by officers of the Ottawa Police on the direction of Horace, his father. Raymond cried for days after seeing his the state that his Mom had been which was not the state he left her when Raymond was forced out of his home by Horace Carby-Samuels in late April 2015. It was apparent that the Ottawa Police Services Elder Abuse Unit has lied that his Mother was okay.



Raymond had expressed on-going concerns about continued abuse and neglect by Horace against his father, and Horace was to be able to abuse his wife without further objections from the son. In the old-style Jamaican culture, the man rules and the woman obeys and if she is subjected to physical, emotional and other abuse in the process, then tough! So, Horace made up some story to the Police that Raymond was violent and suffered from mental illness and ought not to be believed  Even though Raymond presented a note for Police written by Dezrin that she was being abused. Marcella Carby-Samuels, his sister, backed up Horace's lies to the Police so that she could get her brother out of the way and hopefully in prison so she could then lay claim to family assets as being the only sane sibling.



Raymond had only saw his Mom after weeks of struggle and an Ottawa lawyer wrote a Legal Demand letter to Horace Carby-Samuels that he was to enable Raymond to see his Mom and give back his belongings still in his parent's home or face imminent legal action.



After Raymond had met his Mother on 12 June 2015, Ms Alison Timons and her colleague confided in Raymond that Horace was blocking their ability to assist his Mom that contributed to her precipitous decline in health. Furthermore Ms. Timons and her colleague said they would be willing to testify in court to affirm that Horace had been blocking their access. Ms Timons also promised further access.



Marcella became concerned that Raymond was getting back into the picture and would upset her plans for control. Horace became concerned that he would no longer we free to abuse his wife in peace. So, do you know what Horace and Marcella did next? They did what any responsible people would do. Hire a dirty cop to prevent Raymond from helping his Mom.



Detective Robert Griffin was hired by Marcella and Horace and sent to collect information from Raymond on his visit with his Mother.



Raymond told Detective Griffin that he was distraught at seeing the condition of his Mother, but he was hopeful after Ms Timons and her colleague volunteered to be witnesses against Horace and Marcella, and that they would also seek to pursue further meetings with his Mom.



Detective Robert Griffin after hearing this told Raymond that he would talk to Ms. Timons at the Resource Centre on the following Monday, 15, June 2015. Right after his Meeting, Raymond was then promptly issued a letter by the Resource Centre that he was to never contact the Centre again.



Detective Robert Griffin shortly afterward, visited Raymond's residence and made a series of threats that if he continued to inform family and friends about the abuse that he has witnessed against Dezrin, that he would be arrested with the trumped up charge of criminal harassment.



He would then reinforce his personal visitations with harassing messages like the one shown in the video above.



It became apparent that Detective Robert Griffin was in fact not a neutral police officer that Raymond had thought he was, but instead, a hired operative of Horace and Marcella that threatened / intimidated Ms Timons specifically and the Nepean, Rideau and Osgoode Resource Centre, in general, not to help Raymond under corresponding threats.



How much empathy do you think that this Detective has for either Dezrin or her son seeing each other?



When humans listen, read or watch science programs which discuss humanity's search for intelligent alien life could it be possible that we may already be in direct of indirect contact with aliens without even knowing it? Maybe your favourite sportscaster on TV is an alien? Maybe your famous niece was cloned along with your neighbour police officer? If a human dresses in a bear suit, does that make it a bear? Of course not! So, why should we potentially call aliens who dress in a people suit human?



Arguably, if we recognize humans to be beings of empathy, apparent beings who don't appear to posses empathy are either aliens; clones; or other entities that, in turn, and fully controlled by manipulative aliens.



As Michael Cremo elaborates in the video below, a human beings is not simply a physical presence but also has mind and consciousness or more precisely is of spirit and soul. Such a spirit and soul is apparently lacking in the kind of entity that Detective Robert Griffin represents.
Panalpina Egypt has moved its country head office and all of its Cairo operations to the newly developed Cairo Cargo City at Cairo International airport.

Fouad A. AbouElela, country head of sales and marketing, said: Being in the heart of action and close to the governments business related entities, such as the import and export authorities and the cargo terminals, will enable the team to serve our local and international customers better.

Likewise, this will benefit our customers as the proximity to the cargo handling and customs clearance will make our day to day airfreight operations more agile.

Cairo International airport is the busiest in Egypt and serves as the primary hub for several airlines.

At present, the total tonnage in and out of Cairo International Airport is approximately 290,000 tons per annum.

Cairo Cargo City was built to provide state of the art facilities to support growth in cargo traffic through the airport. Encompassing an area of 150,000sq m including three main terminals  export, import and express terminals  the facility can now accommodate more cargo traffic than the current capacity of Cairo Airport.

The export terminal includes a general cargo zone and a perishable Centre with a total capacity of 240,000 tons/annum, while the import terminal operates over an area of 12,837sq m with a general cargo zone and perishable centre that can handle a total tonnage of 90,000 tons/annum.

Panalpina said it is investing in the Egyptian market because it believes there is ample opportunity for growth in a currently fragmented freight forwarding industry.

The acquisition of Afifi was the latest milestone in the companys strategic expansion.

The forwarder sees the greatest growth in Egypt in the oil and gas, capital projects, telecom, automotive and healthcare sectors.

The Egyptian government has stepped up efforts in recent years to encourage the exploration of oil and gas, in particular in the Nile delta, which begins approximately 20 km north of Cairo.

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August 21, 2016

After the Egyptian officials clamped down on satirical programs in Egypt, notably "Al-Bernameg," which had been hosted by media presenter Bassem Youssef, Egyptian satirists have resorted to social media as a supposedly safe haven where they can pursue their favorite hobby  taunting heads of state, especially President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The Egyptian satirists idea was to create pages on various social media platforms that carry the name of the political character whom they make fun of. Therefore, they created pages that held the names of Sisi and former President Hosni Mubarak, in addition to the latters wife, Suzanne Mubarak, and his son, Gamal.

Sources have told Al-Monitor that many of these pages are administered by a young man who is 16 years old.

The administrator of the satire page usually ridicules the politician by publishing posts on the latters virtual daily life.

On June 21, an Egyptian administrative court ruled that Tiran and Sanafir  two islands that the Egyptian government ceded to Saudi Arabia during the visit of King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud to Egypt in April  are Egyptian. Thereafter, the satirical Facebook page that held the name of Sisi posted a purported photo of Sisis cellphone showing 12 missed calls from Salman demonstrating the kings anger over the ruling of the Egyptian court.

However, Egyptians satire against Sisi and other politicians did not last long, as the page  which had more than 800,000 followers  was shut down after its existence was reported by a large number of users.

The Sisi satirical page was shut down a few days after the satirical page on Mubarak was closed as well. However, the administrator of the Mubarak satire page created a new page with the same name, indicating June 28 that the original page was shut down because of the reports against it, after it reached more than 590,000 followers. The new page has since been closed as well.

Although a new satire page was created for Sisi and gained more than 99,000 followers, the administrator of the page said Aug. 6 that the page was at risk of being shut down because of reports against it.

Sisi has indicated that it is possible for online accounts to be created in order to shut down the pages taunting him. With the assistance of two web brigades, I can shut down the [opposing] pages, take them over and make them my own, Sisi said.

Sisi commented on this issue during his meeting with Egyptian community representatives at Al-Ittihadiya Palace on April 16 that was held to discuss the Egyptian-Saudi border demarcation agreement that handed the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir over to Saudi Arabia.

In the meeting, Sisi warned against what he called fourth- and fifth-generation warfare involving the internet, saying "plots are being made [against Egypt].

Sisi expressed disdain at what he described as questioning of everything. He said, Religious and community leaders should work together to recover trust among Egyptians. Why are people living in such a state of distrust?

Egyptian actor Khalid Abu al-Naga criticized the web brigades on Twitter on May 15, saying, Most of the insolence and insults come from Sisi's online supporters who leave their consciences behind. The circle is closed and people are fed up.

Egyptian satirist Muhammad Zughbi said he does not believe the satirical social media pages were shut down because of the web brigades, indicating that Sisi has a large number of supporters who can pressure and block the pages without receiving any direction from the regime.

Zughbi told Al-Monitor by phone that he opposes any kind of satire that contains personal insult, indicating that some of the satirical pages cross the line at some point; still, he is against shutting them down.

Creating fake accounts on the internet for the purpose of shutting down opposing pages or disseminating certain ideas in favor of the regime is not new to the Egyptian political arena. For instance, the Muslim Brotherhood previously used web brigades to support Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi before he was ousted in July 2013.

On March 31, 2013, the privately owned Egyptian daily Al-Watan published a report revealing the names of the Brotherhoods web brigades administrators. Al-Watan quoted Abd al-Jalil al-Sharnubi, a former editor-in-chief of the Brotherhoods website who had previously worked with Khairat al-Shater, deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, as saying, Shater ran the web brigades as if they were isolated islands, indicating that these brigades had an open budget and aimed to spread rumors against [the Brotherhoods] opponents.

Online marketing analyst Ibrahim Hazem told Al-Monitor that Facebook cannot shut down a page for merely mocking a head of state. As long as there is no sexual or racist content, the Facebook management does not have the right to shut down any political satire page, Hazem said.

Hazem noted that he does not rule out the possibility that Sisi's official page filed a complaint to Facebook against the sarcastic page, since they both had the same name. A Facebook web developer, who preferred not to be named, said there could be truth in Hazems assumption that Sisi's official page might have reported the other page that held the same name and therefore it was shut down.

The web developer told Al-Monitor, If the page did not openly indicate that it is unofficial, then the administrator of the official page has the right to ask for its closure on the basis of impersonating a public figure.

But the developer ruled out the possibility that Facebook management closed the page for merely posting content opposing the regime, saying, Even if the number of reports against an opposing page have increased, those who are responsible for dealing with such reports carry out their own investigations and will not close any page unless it contains violent, terrorist, nude or racy content.
August 21, 2016

On this day three years ago, my 21-year-old sister was murdered in cold blood. I knew then that I no longer belong here.

This bitter comment was published Aug. 14 by IT specialist B. Ibrahim, 28, in a private posting on social media shown to Al-Monitor. Ibrahim was referring to the day in 2013 when 817 protesters were brutally killed by security forces in a bloody dispersal of their encampment in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in the northeast Cairo suburb of Nasr City.

The Rabaa protesters  mostly Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi  had camped out at the square after the removal of Egypts first democratically elected president from power by street protests backed by the military on July 3, 2013. The sit-in demanding a return to legitimacy lasted more than five weeks during which the pro-Morsi demonstrators transformed the area around the mosque into a tent city.

Braving the scorching summer heat and with the majority of protesters observing a dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast, the Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers had taken turns to address the crowd from a makeshift stage. Many of them hailed from provinces outside Cairo and were convinced that they were fighting a jihad in defense of Islam. Some of those who took to the podium made fiery speeches and others incited violence against the coup leaders. Morsi wanted Egypt to be the best country in the region but [Abdel Fattah al-] Sisi and his corrupt police officers took him down, Islamic cleric Safwat Hegazy said in a speech from the Rabaa platform. Hegazy was arrested one week after the Rabaa dispersal and has since languished in prison along with tens of thousands of other Muslim Brotherhood supporters, detained in the weeks after Morsis overthrow.

Despite the loss of hundreds of lives in what has been described by rights groups as the worst mass unlawful killings in the countrys contemporary history, few in Egypt are willing to acknowledge that what happened during the Rabaa dispersal was a massacre. Many of Egypts so-called liberals who had feared the Islamist regime that rose to power in June 2012 argue that the Muslim Brotherhood  designated a terrorist organization by the authorities who replaced the deposed Islamist president  was a fascist group that would have driven Egypt to ruins. They dismiss Western media reports equating the violent dispersal of the Rabaa pro-Morsi sit-in with the 1989 armed suppression of a pro-democracy movement at Beijings Tiananmen Square, and insist that security forces had allowed the protesters safe passage out of the square. Some reiterate complaints by residents in the area that the protesters had blocked off the streets leading to the square, disrupting traffic and making life difficult for the locals. Citing local media reports that the protesters had used weapons against the police, others vengefully declared that the Islamist protesters had gotten what they deserved.

The use of excessive force is justified against those who carry weapons against the police or army, Ahmed Maarouf, a former banker and supporter of the current regime, told Al-Monitor.

Eight police officers were killed in the Rabaa dispersal. Despite reports  some from reliable sources  that there was a cache of arms at the Rabaa sit-in, I remember clearly that when I had gone to check out the terrorist encampment July 23, I had only seen some protesters wielding wooden clubs at the entrance into the square. For a group whose aim was to avert any attempt by the police to storm their sit-in, they had looked woefully unprepared.

Photographer Eman Helal, who was at the scene on the day of the dispersal, told Al-Monitor that she saw women breaking stones for the men on the front lines to pelt security forces with. She recalled that her shirt was splattered with the blood of a wounded protester who had been shot at by police.

A journalist who was with Sky News cameraman Mick Deane when the latter was shot and killed by security forces recounted what he witnessed in those few hellish hours at Rabaa. He told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, When we arrived there at 6:30 a.m., it looked like the clashes had started at least an hour earlier. Police were not allowing any journalists in and we could hear the sound of gunfire from a distance as we approached. After being turned away by police at a checkpoint, we had no option but to make our way over the rooftops of nearby buildings from where we jumped into the square below. We could hear the loud bursts of gunfire that sounded like they were coming from every direction. We miraculously made our way safely to the field hospital inside the mosque. It was already filled with scores of wounded protesters who were being tended to by volunteer doctors. Most appeared to have been shot in the head or chest. Their moans of agony still ring in my ears to this day. The bodies of the dead were carried into an adjacent 'morgue' where corpses were fast piling up. The stench of raw blood filled the air. Already, there were too many bodies there for us to count.

"We decided to venture outside to take more pictures and were immediately met with a fresh round of bullets. It was terrifying to be in the open space without cover. Bending low, we ran as fast as we could from one tent to the other, finally seeking shelter in a narrow corridor between the stage and the staircase of the mosque. We felt safer there than in the open space. After about 20 minutes, Mick decided to go out again for more photographs. It was only a matter of minutes before he came running back, shouting that hed been shot. He was still on his feet, however, so we assumed that his injury wasnt serious. We rushed back to the field hospital where a doctor told us that the bullet had hit him in the chest, narrowly missing his heart. He advised us to take Mick  who was still conscious  to a hospital in Nasr City. We tried to get out but were told by a group of protesters who were sheltering behind sand piles that security forces were shooting randomly and that anyone trying to exit the square would almost certainly get hit. They tried to help us, raising water bottles to deflect attention from us as we ran under a shower of bullets. At one point we dropped Mick to the ground, dragging him by the feet until we reached the exit. The ordeal lasted several minutes. I could see that his condition had worsened; he was now shivering and his voice was barely audible. Undoubtedly the security forces were mercilessly trying to wipe out everyone there. When we got to Nasr City Hospital minutes later, it was too late. Mick died shortly after being whisked into the emergency room.

Rokaya, another journalist who was at Rabaa and who requested that she be mentioned by her first name only, claimed she saw security forces pour gasoline to set the field hospital on fire. Not everyone there was dead. There were several wounded protesters who were too weak to get out, she told Al-Monitor.

The Rabaa dispersal signaled the start of the ongoing crackdown on dissent that has since seen tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters detained and tried in what rights groups have described as kangaroo courts. Three years on, many are still mourning the loss of their loved ones. Many more, however, remain oblivious to their suffering.
August 19, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The last Israeli soldiers withdrew from the Gaza Strip on Sept. 11, 2005, as per the Israeli disengagement plan, which was set forth and started by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Aug. 15 of that year. The Palestinians dubbed the plan the unilateral withdrawal, as Israeli soldiers were redeployed on the border of Gaza. The Israeli army withdrew from more than 15,000 dunums (roughly 3,700 acres) of land it had occupied during the Six-Day War and the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967.

Gaza has a population of nearly 2 million people in an area of no more than 365 square kilometers (141 square miles). Meanwhile, the former 25 Israeli settlements in Gaza  which Palestinians call the liberated areas  constituted additional territory, after Palestinians had been deprived of that land for 38 years under the Israeli occupation. The pertinent question, however, is how Palestinians might take advantage of and invest in these liberated areas.

When traveling to the former Israeli settlements across the Gaza Strip, one sees largely untapped areas, save for a few residential projects carried out by international institutions, even though the Israeli withdrawal took place over a decade ago.

The Palestinian Land Authority (PLA) in the Gaza Strip is the government agency concerned with the lands. Amal Shimali, the head of the PLA's public relations and media office, told Al-Monitor, The total of the liberated areas amounts to 5,000 dunums, where some international parties such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the United Nations Development Program implemented housing projects, in addition to other similar projects for Palestinians funded by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Qatar.

Shimali said that there are a few agricultural projects inside the liberated areas that promote domestic production and try to achieve self-sufficiency, in addition to other recreational projects and schools.

However, others argue that there is a lack of investment in these large empty lands in Gaza. Political analyst Akram Atallah told Al-Monitor, It is true that Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip, bringing the killing and restrictions on Gazans to a temporary halt, but they returned a year later to besiege Gaza.

He added, Nevertheless, we cannot deny that the departure of the Israeli soldiers is positive. The occupation meant killing and clamping down on people. As settlers departed, the Gaza Strip was open to free movement, but unfortunately it was besieged from the outside. Yet generally speaking, Gazans have certainly benefited from the withdrawal of the Israeli army as the lands turned into Palestinian properties, which is the most important upside of the Israeli withdrawal."

Attallah said that the liberated areas revealed a lack of experience on the part of the Palestinians in terms of optimizing the use of available resources. These lands are certainly not for distribution as they belong to the future generation of Gazans and serve as a strategic reserve, he said.

He added, However, these lands ought to be cultivated appropriately, especially since Gazas food basket is located to the east of Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza. This area [central Gaza] has recently been experiencing turmoil because of wars and the concerns of farmers to cultivate the lands [there] in light of the constant Israeli threat. Hence the liberated areas ought to be turned into a food basket, helping to regulate local agricultural products in Gaza.

For his part, economist Moin Rajab blames the PLA for not being able to properly manage these lands.

These liberated areas are ostensibly public lands and thus they fall under the responsibility of the PLA, which is supposed to manage them and use them for different purposes. Gazans ought to be taking advantage of these landscapes that were denied to us throughout the years of occupation. However, following the Israeli withdrawal, some random and hasty projects were set up, Rajab said.

He added, The [available] area of the lands is gradually decreasing given the ongoing projects such as private and charitable projects. Thus, it is imperative for the concerned authority to optimize its use as they not only belong to the current generation of Gazans, but also to future ones.

Rajab stressed the importance of not having any party monopolize this land in the absence of sufficient study.

It is through so-called central or structural planning that this can be done. The establishment of new schools is inevitable, and so we ought to know the future needs of schools. New hospitals, ministerial facilities, parks and houses are indispensable too. When we take these things into account, we find that there is a high demand for lands and little supply of liberated lands, which is why such lands must be invested well and appropriately, he said.

More than a decade into the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from the Gaza Strip and its deployment on the border with Gaza, the Palestinian governmental authorities seem to have failed to successfully invest in those lands.
August 21, 2016

Iraqi militia leaders cite government "corruption"

Iraqs popular militias have no plans to merge with the army, Jean Aziz reports from Beirut, where a meeting was held among Western diplomats and representatives, nongovernmental organizations and officials from Iraqs Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

We will be a military force that is part of the Iraqi state, but not part of the Iraqi army. This is due to many reasons that we explained to them, namely the corruption spread within the Iraqi government institutions, and I think they understood our point of view. We made it clear that we will be an alternative army subordinated to the state, just like Iran's [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps, an Iraqi militia leader told Aziz.

The PMU official sought to downplay the perception of the militias as sectarian and instead stressed the PMUs bona fides as Iraqi nationalists, rather than Shiite partisans.

We have no other enemy in Iraq but terrorism and extremist organizations represented by the Islamic State [IS], and we have no problem with any other party, said the PMU official. In terms of our relations with the various components of the Iraqi people, we stressed that the PMU emerged from all spectrums of the Iraqi people. The Western participants noticed from the start of our meetings that our delegation is composed of members representing the various spectrums of the Iraqi people, as we included Shiite officials, two commanders from the Sunni factions within the PMU as well as a commander of a Christian faction. As for the neighboring countries, we explained that we want our country to be sovereign and stable and to open up to its regional surroundings. This is what we will seek to achieve.

Russia-Turkey "not easy partners"

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Aug. 9 to bury the hatchet over Turkeys shooting down of a Russian Su-24 in November 2015, but Paul Saunders writes that notwithstanding the important common strategic interests that have energized Russian-Turkish relations for more than a decade, Moscow and Ankara are not easy partners.

No surprise that despite talk of increased economic cooperation, the biggest hurdle to improved ties remains differences over Syria. Maxim Suchkov reports, Erdogans position on other forces fighting in Syria reflects his domestic concerns. He [Erdogan] called it a 'wrong approach' to list Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist organization while not doing the same with the Syrian Democratic Forces [which include Syrian Kurdish armed groups]. 'If fighting [the Islamic State] is the criteria of an allied group, then Jabhat al-Nusra shouldnt be considered a terrorist group.'"

The same day of the Putin-Erdogan summit, Vitaly Churkin, Russias ambassador to the United Nations, said, Turkey needs to understand that including the Kurds in the discussion is one of the things that should be important for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. And Turkey has a vested interest in the territorial integrity of Syria. There are some complicating factors in the mind of the people in Ankara, but this is something that we believe should be done as quickly as possible.

At a closed meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria, Churkin reportedly scolded Turkey for not doing more to shut down supply lines for terrorist groups in Syria, according to Foreign Policy.

The reset in Russian-Turkish relations, whatever its limits, also cant be separated from a broader decline in NATO-Turkey ties, as reported by Metin Gurcan. A flashpoint is Turkish Vice Adm. Mustafa Zeki Ugurlu, who had been posted to NATO's Allied Command Transformation in the United States. On July 12, three days before the failed military coup against Erdogan, Turkey issued a warrant for Ugurlus arrest because of alleged ties with the Gulen movement. NATO did not end Ugurlus assignment, and even allowed him to represent Turkey at a NATO industrial workshop on July 26, more than a week after a second warrant after the coup attempt. Ugurlu has since gone missing, fueling suspicion in Turkey of US and NATO complicity in the failed coup.

Gurcan concludes, The coup attempt has certainly opened a new existential fault line in Ankara-NATO ties, already made shaky by the Syrian crisis, refugees, combating the Islamic State and the Kurdistan Workers Party, and power balances in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. NATO appears to prefer a low profile in its relations with Turkey. In turn, Ankara interprets that as lack of adequate support. It's no surprise that the Turkish public has adopted the same position.

Time to finish US-Russia deal on Syria

The Pentagon warned Damascus Aug. 19 to avoid striking US and coalition-backed forces after Syrian airstrikes targeting Kurdish positions in Hasakah, which prompted the United States to scramble its own fighter jets to protect them.

The incident represents the latest, compelling reason for the United States and Russia to conclude, as soon as possible, negotiations to deepen military and intelligence coordination over Syria. Both countries seek to avoid any potential accident or miscommunication that could lead to an escalation. In this specific case, it also seems to us that the United States and Russia might have a shared interest in preventing the Assad governments attacks on Syrian Kurdish positions, given that both Washington and Moscow  to varying degrees and for different reasons  back Syrias Kurds.

Another reason to get the deal done is US concern over Russian airstrikes on IS positions in Syria from Iran, which some US officials speculate may violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which requires Security Council approval for supply, sale or transfer of combat aircraft to Iran.

While the interpretation of the resolution may require a very detailed, legal analysis, according to a State Department spokesman, it might also be worth recalling UN Security Council Resolution 2249, passed in November 2015, which calls upon Member States that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular with the United Nations Charter, as well as international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, on the territory under the control of ISIL [IS] also known as Daesh, in Syria and Iraq, to redouble and coordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by ISIL also known as Daesh as well as ANF [Jabhat al-Nusra], and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups, as designated by the United Nations Security Council.

So while there may be some dispute over Resolution 2231, it seems to us that coordination by Iran and Russia to prevent and suppress IS through military action falls within the spirit if not the letter of Resolution 2249, and overall US and coalition interests in Syria.

This column has consistently argued that the United States should seek to leverage Russian and Iranian shared interests in combating terrorist groups in Syria and throughout the region, as called for in Resolution 2249 and numerous other resolutions. In September 2014, commenting on the emerging Iran-Syria-Iraq counterterrorism axis against IS, we acknowledged that while the United States and Iran cannot formally link arms in Syria  the trend to watch is the tentative emergence of what may be a truly regional counterterrorism coalition, with potential for a transformation in regional security, if managed carefully.

Nearly two years later, the potential for a transformation in regional security, brokered by the United States and Russia, working through the United Nations, seems both within reach and more urgent than ever.
August 18, 2016

After much diplomatic activity by European Union headquarters and several European capitals, principally Paris, to revive a Middle East peace process, it seems today that the EU is about to give up on any chance to revive a two-state solution process in the foreseeable future. Europe is preoccupied with domestic challenges, first and foremost the refugees crisis, which is linked to Islamic State-inspired terror. European security, for the first time since the war in the Balkans, is now the main concern of Europeans in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, Nice and other places. These security threats challenge the pragmatic European democracies, sparking a rise in power of extreme right-wing parties. Also, following the "Brexit" vote, the cohesion of the EU is in question with the upcoming negotiations with the United Kingdoms government of Prime Minister Theresa May.

There is therefore lesser interest in the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The diplomatic efforts that were made over the past few months by the EU were spearheaded by the dynamic EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, together with the French Foreign Ministry. Yet the French Initiative and the Paris conference June 3 led nowhere.

A senior EU official close to Mogherini told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Brussels is extremely concerned about possible significant violence erupting between the Palestinians and Israel, but that at this time there is not much the EU can do about it. We must be realistic, the EU cannot impose a peace process. The European leadership is frustrated with all parties, and mainly with Israeli settlement policies. We will not say this publicly, but, at this point, we are giving up on launching a meaningful diplomatic effort, the official said.

The official listed several reasons for this resignation. The first is the lack of enthusiasm among some prominent member states, primarily the United Kingdom and Germany, for the EU to be in the forefront of initiating a Middle Eastern peace process. May is preoccupied with the Brexit process and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hesitant to publicly express her critical position of Israeli settlement policies.

The second reason is related to the US elections. Brussels had hopes for a more proactive position on a two-state solution by US President Barack Obama, even on the eve of the elections. But now the EU assesses that the Democratic Party leadership does not want to confront the American-Jewish community on a two-state solution proposal. Europe realizes that without US involvement, the Israeli side is unlikely to shift any of its positions.

Third, the French Foreign Ministry (Quai dOrsay) is disappointed with the lukewarm Egyptian position toward the French initiative. Cairo under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seems less preoccupied with the Palestinian statehood issue, focusing mainly on the weakening of Hamas and the defeat of Islamist terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas needs Egyptian backing for his pragmatic positions  backing that he is not receiving at the moment.

The same official said that the Palestinians have not shown much moderation on permanent status issues such as the refugee crisis. Brussels needs to see such moderation on the Palestinian side to convince Washington to move together on a realistic policy initiative. The EU is very concerned with the political weakness of Abbas, given the peace process vacuum and a beginning of a succession battle in Ramallah.

The last reason cited by the EU official was Israel's unwillingness to engage in a diplomatic process. EU leadership clearly sees Israel as the main culprit for the prevailing diplomatic stalemate. Jerusalem has not been receptive to any of the EU moves  be they in the context of the French initiative or the Quartet recommendations. Settlement expansion, de facto annexation policies in Area C and Defense Minister Avigdor Libermans hawkish position all make a viable process impossible in the view of Brussels.

A senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official reacting to these positions told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the EU had never played a role in the Middle Eastern peace process as the position of most member states is tilted toward the Palestinians. The official said, The EU initiatives this year only hardened Palestinian opposition to direct negotiations, as they create an illusion in Ramallah that a state can be realized without negotiations. If the EU becomes a more passive observer, we would welcome it.

Indeed, the EU giving up on a realistic peace process in the foreseeable future would present a diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it is a dangerous development as, together with the US transition, it could lead to even greater despair among the pragmatists in the Palestinian Authority. If the Israeli-Palestinian issue remains on the international diplomatic back burner, there will be only two options left: a process of a binational state in the making or a process of violence. This is the grim outlook for 2017.
August 19, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Gaza's Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) believes it is necessary to support farmers and to achieve a minimum of self-sufficiency in agricultural crops, and so it is applying a policy of crop diversification, especially of those that are most profitable.

On Aug. 2, the UAWC announced that it will start an experiment to grow pineapples in the Khan Yunis governorate for the first time in the Gaza Strip, and that if successful the land allocated for the cultivation of pineapples will be expanded.

After the announcement, academics at agriculture and environment faculties called for an economic feasibility study of this experiment to be conduced before applying the crop diversification policy because Gaza suffers from a severe water crisis and a shortage of agricultural areas.

The water from the coastal aquifer in Gaza is not drinkable due to the high salinity caused by seawater intrusion, not to mention the decreasing rainfall and the lack of a sewage system to collect rainwater.

Bashir al-Ankah, the UAWC director of projects, told Al-Monitor that the idea to grow pineapples falls within the scope of the program aimed at promoting sustainable development through the most profitable crops, which is implemented by the UAWC with funding from the Dutch government through the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. He recalled a similar successful experiment where pineapples were grown in the city of Tulkarm in the West Bank two years ago, which encouraged the UAWC to continue to plant this fruit in the Gaza Strip.

In regard to the experiment in Khan Yunis, he said, The UAWC rented from the government in Gaza 15 dunums [3.7 acres] in the liberated lands in Khan Yunis to construct laboratories for experiments, research and guidance centers to monitor the crop development in light of the need of freshwater and suitable soil.

It should be noted that the surface area allocated for the cultivation of pineapples is 1 dunum only (out of the 15 dunums available), where a greenhouse is set, containing 6,000 seedlings that were brought in from the greenhouse in Tulkarm. The remaining dunums of the rented land will be planted at a subsequent stage with other crops such as papaya, lychee and star fruit (carambola).

Ankah pointed out that crop diversity would cover part of the local market needs, reduce imports and provide an opportunity for exportation, which could give the farmers and traders economic prosperity. He added that the UAWC is trying to take into account, when considering to plant new crops, the high salinity of water in the Gaza Strip.

In the same vein, the projects general supervisor, Samir al-Shaer, said the experiment has a 90% chance of success since it overcame the critical stage that is the germination stage, noting that some of the seedlings caught a fungal disease.

He said that sandy soil was mixed with clay soil to allow the seedlings to retain moisture as much as possible, which will reduce the water consumption rate, given that the plant needs approximately 18 months to bear fruit.

Regarding the training received by the UAWC staff before the start of the cultivation of pineapples, he said, We went to Tulkarm, where we received hands-on training. If this experiment succeeds, the expected profits will reach up to 120,000 shekels [roughly $32,000]."

Although this is the first experiment of pineapple cultivation to be officially announced in the Gaza Strip, it was preceded by several limited governmental attempts. Six years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture tried to plant a small number of pineapple seeds in the ministrys nurseries and after three years  which is the plants life cycle  the plants provided some fruit but not of high quality. A year ago, the ministry repeated the experiment, this time using the hanging technique; it is still waiting for the results.

On July 1, farmer Ayman Sobeh started planting pineapples at his farm in Beit Lahiya per the cultivation method he learned in Latin America years ago; he planted nearly 150 seedlings imported from Israel at his own expense.

In regard to why he chose pineapple, Sobeh said, This crop is not available in Gaza and the fruit sells at a high price of up to $4.

Nizar al-Wahidi, the director general of the Guidance and Rural Development Department in the Ministry of Agriculture, told Al-Monitor that the cultivation of pineapple using the hanging technique is better since it saves water and fertilizer. Each plant saves 90% of water and 85% of fertilizer. The hanging technique is less costly and leads to greater production, he said.

Wahidi indicated that the ministry is using water culture systems to save on fertilizer and water. He explained that these systems are eco-friendly, since they do not generate harmful residues, do not require agricultural pesticides  especially sterilizers  save agricultural areas, maximize production and need fewer workers.

He said, Diversifying the agricultural crop is part of the ministry's 2010-2020 strategic plan aimed at introducing and developing new varieties and to find alternatives for traditional crops. Some alternative crops are no longer competitive or economically profitable as a result of climate conditions. For example, water salinity excluded citrus crops from the agricultural productivity scope in Gaza. The ministrys plan also aims to improve the traders' and farmers' economic situation and to achieve a state of self-sufficiency in all crops.

On the possibility of banning the importation of pineapples at a later stage if the experiment succeeds, he said that the ministry is applying a policy aimed to maintain balance between demand and price, as it permits the importation of crops from Israel and the West Bank if the traders increase prices, to protect the consumers purchasing power.

Ahmed Abu Shaaban, the head of the Plant Production and Prevention Department at Al-Azhar University's faculty of agriculture, spoke to Al-Monitor about the economic feasibility of growing pineapples. He said, Growing pineapples is a new experiment in the Gaza Strip; it is too early to judge its economic feasibility."

He explained that determining the feasibility of the experiment requires researching the plant's need of water, as well as the marketability and the Gazan consumers demand of the fruit. He noted that pineapple is not an important consumer good in the Gaza Strip.

Pineapple consumes large quantities of freshwater [800-1,000 cups per year] and it takes the plant a long time before it produces fruits, which leads to the depletion of soil nutrients, especially potassium. Gaza is suffering from a severe water crisis and cannot afford to take the risk of growing crops that consume a great deal of water, Abu Shaaban said.

He stressed the need to draw crop-related policies based on experiments conducted in private research centers, and to rely on the outcome of such experiments before starting any experiment. He emphasized the need for policies that take into account the long-term technical, economic and national aspects of such a project.

He pointed to the institutional chaos in the Gaza Strip, since each institution operates according to its own vision without coordinating with the other concerned institutions. The Ministry of Agriculture planted a limited number of seeds according to the hanging technique while the UAWC planted thousands of seeds according to the traditional method, which would damage the soil and affect the available water supply, he said.

Abu Shaaban calls on the government to energize the role of agriculture and environmental scientific research institutions to support decision-makers, so as to serve the national agenda and alleviate the water crisis in the Gaza Strip.
August 19, 2016

The presidential election is still far off, at least as time is measured in politics, and both candidates will have plenty of chances to fall victim to their own shortcomings.

RealClearPolitics latest average of national polls shows Democrat Hillary Clinton leading Republican Donald Trump 47.2% to 41.2% in the US presidential race.

It is actually remarkable that Trump is only down by a handful of points considering his lack of self-control and unexplained diarrhea of the mouth. This is the same guy who spent his first press conference as the Republican nominee talking about former rival Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

This week Trumps campaign hired its third manager in three months, Kellyanne Conway, and named Steve Bannon chief executive. The second campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was demoted; he resigned Aug. 19.

Bannon is executive chairman of Breitbart News. He served as a US Navy officer, graduated from Harvard University and was a banker with Goldman Sachs. He is seen as quite the bulldog.

Steve is a fighter. He loves the fight. He loves the scrum, documentary filmmaker Andrew Marcus told The New York Times. Marcus met Bannon while making a documentary about Breitbarts founding editor, Andrew Breitbart, who died in 2012.

While Trump tweaks his campaign once again, people are questioning whether the Republican nominee still has a chance of winning in November. With a little less than 80 days before the election, a lot can happen. The candidates still have debates and as we have seen, neither candidate can go a week without some sort of controversy.

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Last week, a letter from more than 70 influential Republicans was sent to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus essentially saying he should not waste any more money on Trump and should instead use the funds raised by the RNC to help elect Republicans in tight House and Senate races. Another letter was sent to the media by 50 top-tier Republicans.

Does Donald Trump really need people such as conservative news analyst Bill Kristol to endorse him to win the presidency? These 120 Republicans are what is wrong with the Republican Party. It is not their party and it is not Trumps Party; it is the Peoples Party. If Trump got more votes than any other Republican in history, well, lets not underestimate or try to prove the electorate wrong. If its the Peoples Party, then it is not Priebus job to dictate who should or should not be part of it.

And how could the 120 Republicans be part of the Republican Party for 20, 30 or 40 years and all of a sudden even consider voting for Clinton? To be honest  and unfortunately for those 120 people  they will not decide the election.

This election is far from over. If the election is about Trump, then Trump will lose. If the election is about Clinton, then Clinton will lose. Winning elections is about making your opponent look unelectable. Neither candidate is liked by the general public; they have the highest negatives of any two major-party candidates running for president in decades.

The RealClearPolitics average polling shows that Trumps favorable rating is 32.6%. His negative rating is 61.8%, which is nearly a 30% spread. Clintons favorable rating is 42.1% and her negative rating is 53.6%, a spread of 11.5%.

Many argue that Trump cannot win. Many thought Ronald Reagan could not win in 1980 when 52% of American voters polled thought Reagan "puts his foot in his mouth, says things without thinking or considering the consequences. We have more than two months before this election, but things can change rapidly. Mistakes are definitely on the horizon for these two candidates, so lets not rush to judgment as to who will win in November  the nearly 80 days left until the election is considered a lifetime in politics.
A man who has been trying to float to Bermuda in a plastic bubble has been stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard for the third time, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Reza Baluchi first tried to float in his homemade "hydro pod" bubble in 2014. He was rescued by the Coast Guard after he became fatigued.

Baluchi said he was making the trip to raise money for "children in need" and to inspire people.

The Iranian man was granted asylum in American in 2013 after spending more than a decade in jail for pro-Western ideals in Iran, and the Coast Guard said he was a U.S. citizen.

Baluchi's bubble is made of .11 inch-think plastic in an aluminum frame. It is propelled forward by Baluchi pushing it with his arms.

Officials tried to make Baluchi call off his trip before he started, but Baluchi refused. He was rescued about 70 nautical miles off the coast of St. Augustine.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, that "hydro pod" was destroyed. Baluchi spent a year making a new bubble. The newspaper reported the second bubble trip ended in April, when Baluchi got about seven miles off the coast of Jupiter.

The Coast Guard told the newspaper they followed the man "to ensure his safety and to prevent other vessels from colliding with the hydro pod," and told him he would only be allowed to make his journey if someone followed him in a boat. He denied that request, and the Coast Guard said that he violated their order.

They returned the bubble.

Last month, Baluchi managed to get 90 miles off the coast of Jacksonville before the Coast Guard caught up to him.

While telling Baluchi that he could die inside of the bubble, Baluchi allegedly told Coast Guard officials that he was "prepared to die" and held a knife to his chest. He threatened to kill himself if he was not allowed to continue the journey.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Coast Guard sank his bubble.

"Everything got messed up. My bubble is at the bottom of the ocean," Baluchi said.

"They had no right to sink my bubble, that was my personal property."

Authorities took Baluchi to Jacksonville Medical Health Resource Center for a psychiatric evaluation, and he was released shortly after.

Will he try again?

"I'm coming back to build another bubble," he said.
The Mobile County Sheriff's Office has identified the victims in Saturday's quintuple murder in Citronelle.

The victims are Robert Lee Brown, 26; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Shannon Melissa Randall, 35.

Chelsea Reed was five months pregnant when she was killed.

The suspect, Derrick Dearman, will be charged with six counts of capital murder.

Police said that Dearman's girlfriend, Laneta Lester, fled to a relative's house Friday afternoon to escape Dearman, who she said was abusive. Dearman arrived at that home, on Jim Platt Road, around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. Police came to the home after someone inside the house said that Dearman was trespassing, but Dearman was gone when police arrived.

The suspect came back to the Citronelle home sometime between 1:15 a.m. and daylight, police said. He attacked and killed five victims while they were sleeping.

Multiple weapons were used in the killings, authorities said.

Multiple law enforcement personnel and ambulances are on the scene. (Lawrence Specker/lspecker@al.com)

Dearman then forced Lester and a three-month-old infant into his car and drove them to Mississippi. He released Lester and the child when he arrived at his father's house.

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said the extradition process will take place immediately.Dearman and his father went to the Greene County Sheriff's Office, where Dearman turned himself in.

"We've cleared the scene," Mobile County Sheriff's Capt. Paul Burch said today. "We got an overwhelming amount of evidence and I feel we got what we needed to get for Ms. Rich to prosecute the case."

No news conference was planned for Sunday.

"I can safely safe it appears to be domestic-related," he said.

Burch said Dearman has an extensive criminal record in Mississippi, and had been wanted on an outstanding warrant for burglary.

He anticipates Dearman will be extradited to Mobile County next week.

"He's been cooperative," Burch told the Associated Press. He added that Dearman confessed to the crimes.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised as to why two Citronelle police officers were unable to locate Dearman after receiving an initial 911 call between midnight and 1 a.m. that he had been trespassing.

Two Citronelle police officers drove down the remote and graveled Jim Platt Road, but could not locate Dearman before the murders occurred.

Acting Chief Matt Dyas could not be reached for comment.

Burch deferred questions about the initial call to Citronelle Police, but said: "Just from being up there, it is a heavily and wooded area. It would be really easy for someone to disappear quickly."

AL.com reporter John Sharp contributed to this post.
Citronelle homicide.jpg

Five people were found dead inside a Citronelle residence on Aug. 20, 2016. Mobile County Sheriff's Office says they were murdered, and the attacker used multiple weapons. Multiple law enforcement personnel and ambulances are on the scene. (Lawrence Specker/lspecker@al.com)

Five people were found dead Saturday afternoon inside a Citronelle home, authorities say.

A 4-month-old baby was found alive inside the residence, authorities say. One of the victims was believed to be pregnant.

The murder victims were found in a residence in the 17000 block of Jim Platt Road, police said.

Mobile County Sheriff's Capt. Paul Burch and District Attorney Ashley Rich described the crime scene as the worst they have seen in their careers due to number of bodies.

"We have a horrible scene here," Rich said.

Burch said the scene is going to take a couple of days to process.

Multiple weapons were used in the attack, he said.

A suspect, identified as Derrick Dearman, is in police custody, Burch said.

Dearmon walked into the Greene County Sheriff's Office Saturday afternoon and confessed to the crimes, he said.

Police were first notified of a possible multiple homicide by a woman who walked into the Citronelle Police Department on Saturday afternoon, he said.

The woman told police she had been kidnapped late Friday night or early Saturday morning and got away from her captor, he said.

The motive behind the slayings hasn't been released.

Robert F. Brown identified himself as the father of one of the victims, Robert Lee Brown, who was in his 20s.

"My mother was murdered in 1974. I was with her in the ambulance when she died. To have to go through this again...," he said. "If I could get my hands on (the killer), I'd kill him myself."

Nearby resident Megan Shirley said one of the women killed has a 4-month-old child. Shirley heard "through the grapevine of Citronelle" that Citronelle police had gone hunting for diapers and baby formula earlier today.

Burch said he doesn't know when the actual homicides took place. He also doesn't know if the victims were members of the same family.

This report will be updated.

AL.com reporter Lawrence Specker contributed to this report.
A crash yesterday in Sumter County left a York man dead.

The wreck happened at 9 p.m. Saturday, when a 2005 Ford Mustang left Pine Grove Road and hit multiple trees.

Senior Trooper Reginal King said that the car's driver, Xavier Antonio Rice, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Rice, 27, was not wearing a seatbelt.

King said the preliminary investigation showed alcohol and excessive speed may have been factors in the accident.

The crash happened three miles south of Livingston.

Alabama State Troopers are continuing to investigate the incident.
The announcement shows that the country is becoming more confident in asserting itself and declaring its intentions.

Tallha Abdulrazaq is a researcher at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute.

In a surprising moment of transparency and clarity, one of Irans former most senior military leaders confirmed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran in Persian, had established a Shia Liberation Army (SLA).

Speaking to the Mashregh news agency, which is close to the Pasdaran and the Iranian regime, retired General Mohammad Ali Al Falaki said that the new armys primary objective would be to fight in Arab countries and would recruit heavily from non-Iranian Shia Muslims across the world.

Haj Falaki, as he is honorifically and respectfully known in Iran, announced that the SLA was formed in Syria and would be commanded by Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani, the enigmatic commander of the Pasdarans Quds Force.

In essence, the Quds Force, the Pasdarans elite unit engaging in operations abroad, would be responsible for an entire army of foreign fighters.

This could be because, according to the interview, Falaki does not believe that it would be wise for  Iranian forces to be directly thrown into war in Syria.

When news of this interview broke, Mashregh subsequently edited the word Shia out of the organisations name to leave it as just the Liberation Army, but not before it was picked up by many news agencies.

This was likely an editorial decision to reduce the sense that the SLA was a sectarian force designed to further the cause of exporting the ideology and fervour of Ayatollah Khomeinis 1979 revolution.

But if the Iranians already have the Quds Force for waging low-intensity  yet no less bloody  conflict overseas, why is this announcement so important?

Iranian use of foreign fighters nothing new

The reality is that none of this should be surprising in the slightest. Since Khomeinis revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran has been actively involved in the internationalisation of its revolutionary ideals.

The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988 was, in large part, fought out of fear of the revolutions spread, and many of the Arab countries now at risk of SLA operations funded and supported Saddam Hussein in his bid to contain the mullahs.

Iran has long made use of ideologically committed non-Iranian Shia to further their own foreign policy objectives, and this has greatly increased their asymmetric warfare capabilities. by

Falakis admission that the SLA was now operating across three fronts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen is not a real revelation.

Iranian involvement has been heavily documented in Syria already, with Pasdaran commanders and other Iranian troops having met their end in the war-torn country.

Indeed, Iranian support has long been a critical pillar of ensuring the survival of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose refusal to relinquish his grip on power has led to the deaths of almost half-a-million Syrians.

Similarly, Iran has been a pivotal player in post-2003 Iraq, influencing the state and its institutions at every single level. Indeed, the aforementioned Soleimani has featured ubiquitously across Iraqi battlefields against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

OPINION: Iran and its neighbours

Soleimani first organised the defence of Baghdad in 2014, and was also seen assuming command of Iraqi forces and allied Shia militia organisations like the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) during operations to retake Tikrit and Fallujah, all while under the United States air cover.

More recently, reports indicate that he is heavily involved in plans to recapture ISILs last stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Outreach beyond the Gulf

It is also no secret that Iran has long supported their coreligionists in Yemen, the Houthi rebels.

This is likely so that Iran can extend its strategic influence across the Gulf of Aden as well as reinforce its current friendly relations with Oman to secure its interests in the Gulf of Oman.

OPINION: The US had no choice but to involve Iran in Syria talks

With Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon already under its sway, Irans control over critical southern Red Sea and Gulf energy trade routes would mean that it would have almost entirely encircled its regional rival, Saudi Arabia.

In all of the above fronts, Iran has heavily relied upon an veritable army of militant jihadists, ranging from the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation who have been fighting in Syria for years, to the dozens of sectarian Iraqi militias such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, to the Fatemiyon Division of tens of thousands of Afghan Shia, some of whom have been given a choice of either being pressed into military service or else facing judicial sentences for drug trafficking  an offence that carries the death penalty in Iran.

Whats new?

Therefore, and while Falakis announcement may seem like a damning revelation, he actually merely stated what most observers of Iranian military and foreign affairs already knew.

Iran has long made use of ideologically committed non-Iranian Shia to further their own foreign policy objectives, and this has greatly increased their asymmetric warfare capabilities.

After all, it is cheaper to field multiple, infantry-heavy armies across many fronts than it is to field conventional forces. In light of that, the SLA is no different from many other Iranian military ventures  forces commanded by Iranians, but manned by foreign fighters.

This could also mean issuing a recruitment call, as many who fight in these paramilitary forces do so for financial as well as ideological reasons.

By using foreign fighters to reduce the burden on Iranian soldiers, Iran aims to stifle growing public discontent at its many military adventures.

The SLA announcement shows that the country is becoming more confident in asserting itself and declaring its intentions clearly to its regional rivals.

In so doing, it is showing countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey that its regional designs are here to stay, and that they would be better off giving into Iranian ambitions rather than expending any further resources being in conflict with it.

Tallha Abdulrazaq is a researcher at the University of Exeters Strategy and Security Institute and winner of the 2015 Al Jazeera Young Researcher Award.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policies.
Khanabad becomes latest district to change hands in ongoing turf war between government forces and armed group.

Afghan government officials say security forces have retaken control of a key district that fell to the Taliban in the northern province of Kunduz.

Soldiers were able to retake control of the heart of Khanabad from Taliban fighters, who had hoisted their flag in the centre of the district, Mawlawi Abdullah, a provincial council member from Kunduz, said on Sunday.

The fighters seized the district, which connects Kunduz to Takhar and other northern provinces, on Saturday morning, with heavy clashes reported in several other districts.





The Taliban attacked the district from different positions and we resisted for hours but we received no support. The district fell to the Taliban, said Hayatullah Amiri, the Khanabad district chief.

The Taliban has intensified its attacks in Kunduz and also carried out raids in other key districts in the province in the past weeks.

The fall of Khanabad came just five days after the Taliban captured a district in neighbouring Baghlan province, seizing a number of government forces vehicles and ammunition.

The fighters launched a coordinated attack on Dahana-e-Ghori on August 12, leading to heavy clashes in the area until the fighters took control of the district on August 15.

Fighting has intensified in Afghanistan as the Taliban campaign spreads from its traditional strongholds in the south and east of the country to once peaceful regions in the north.

The provincial capital, Kunduz city, fell to the Taliban for the first time in September last year, in one of the biggest victories for the fighters since they were toppled from power by US and coalition forces in late 2001.

READ MORE: Afghanistan  Surge in civilian, children death tolls

Fighting has also escalated in other Afghanistan provinces.

Fierce Taliban assaults have targeted Baghlan and Helmand, where the Taliban has encircled the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

The Taliban government collapsed after the US invasion of 2001; since then, the groups control over parts of Afghanistan has fluctuated wildly.

NATO officially ended its combat mission in December 2014, but US forces were granted greater powers in June this year to strike at the Taliban as President Barack Obama pledged a more aggressive campaign.
Local government headquarters and emergency responders targeted in Galkayo, leaving at least 20 people dead.

At least 20 people have been killed and several others wounded in twin suicide blasts in the central Somali town of Galkayo, according to a Somali health official.

The first vehicle explosion on Sunday targeted the local government headquarters; the second targeted emergency services at the scene of the first blast.

There were two huge bombs. The first one was a truck bomb, followed a minute or so [later] by another car bomb. My brother was injured at the scene, Halima Ismail, a local resident, told Reuters news agency.





Authorities initially put the death toll at 13, including civilians and security forces personnel, but a medical official said that number had risen.

Death toll is over 20 and it may rise further, said Ahmed Sugule, a doctor at Galkayo hospital. He said another 30 people were wounded in the attack.

Al-Shabab, the armed group fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Mogadishu, claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The UN mission in Somalia condemned Sundays explosions. Terrorist attacks will not stop 2016 electoral process, UNSOM said via its Twitter account.

Somalia is scheduled to hold elections later this year.

The attack in Galkayo comes just days after Somali security services captured a wanted al-Shabab commander there.

US-trained commandos called Danab arrested Abdullah al-Sudani and four other suspected fighters.
More than 500 Syrian civilians have been killed in a single week, mostly in government and Russian air raids and shelling, across several cities in the wartorn country.

Casualty figures released on Saturday by the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a grassroots network of activists in Syria, recorded 508 civilians killed between August 13 and August 19, including 96 children and 73 women.

Most of the deaths occurred in Russian and Syrian aerial bombardment across Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus, and Hama, according to the LCC.

In the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and its suburbs, at least 205 of the total 508 were killed in shelling of the citys previously-besieged eastern neighbourhoods, and in clashes with Assad forces in the battle to break the siege. Deaths were also reported from landmines left by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group around the town of Manbij.

Moataz Hamouda, an Aleppo-based activist with the LCC, said civilian deaths have increased as the Assad regime has lost ground.

Russia is responding to its military defeats on Aleppos fronts after the strong blow that the rebels dealt to government loyalists, Hamouda told Al Jazeera, referring to the breaking of the Aleppo siege.

The breaking of the citys siege and the takeover of military forts by rebels has also frustrated Syria and Russia, he said.

They have also frantically increased their use of banned weapons  from cluster missiles to white phosphorous and napalm.

Numerous reports have emerged in recent days of Syrian government forces using cluster munitions, which are banned by more than 100 countries due to the weapons indiscriminate targeting and risks posed to civilians.

Once Syrias largest city, Aleppo has been divided between opposition control in the eastern half and government control in the west since mid-2012. Government forces launched an offensive to retake the rebel-held half of the city, imposing a month-long siege that was eventually broken.

READ MORE: Syria opposition says rebels break siege of Aleppo

Civilians fear the warplanes

The LCC also recorded the killing of 93 civilians in Idlib, 52 in Homs, 51 in Damascus, 38 in Deir Ezzor, and 34 in Hama, with the majority being killed in air raids and fighting involving forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian and Iranian forces.

Residential areas, mosques and markets are being increasingly hit, said Zouhir al-Shimale, a local journalist and resident of Aleppo.





Apart from the daily targeting of Aleppos neighbourhoods with cluster bombs in an unprecedented way, tens of activists and civilians have been killed and injured in recent days, Shimale told Al Jazeera.

This is causing a large exodus from the city, from Aleppos liberated neighbourhoods in the eastern half, to the suburbs, and to Turkey as well, in spite of the availability of food supplies, he said.

Civilians fear the warplanes that are always in the sky.

Shimale said that close to half of the citys residents are estimated to have left the city amid the ongoing aerial bombardment of main roads and residential areas.

Staffan de Mistura, United Nations special envoy to Syria, called for a 48-hour truce around Aleppo last week, to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

Ibrahim al-Hajj, media centre director in Aleppo for the Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said the Syrian governments recent loss of strategic areas in the besieged city, particularly al-Ramosa and the artillery school, had prompted the increase in attacks.

Russia and the Syrian regime have been targeting civilians and residential areas the most, Hajj said.

They want to free the area of civilians and coerce them into leaving so that they can bomb their targets freely.

A coalition of rebels calling themselves the Army of Conquest claimed to have captured a strategic military base as well as an armament school and an artillery school in the al-Ramosa quarter of Aleppo earlier this month. The rebels reportedly then used the captured base to launch their offensive to break the regimes siege of Aleppo.

READ MORE: Battle for key military base rages in Syrias Aleppo

The Syrian conflict began as a mostly unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly escalated into a full-blown civil war.

Monitoring groups estimate that more than 280,000 Syrians have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed and millions displaced.
General strike called for Tuesday, marking significant escalation in country where 40 protesters died in January 2015.

The Democratic Republic of Congos main opposition alliance has rejected talks with the government of President Joseph Kabila over elections that were due to have been held in November but have been delayed, and called for a general strike on Tuesday.

The opposition wants Kabila to end his 15-year rule in December as mandated by the constitution but authorities say the vote cannot be held until at least next July, and the top court has said Kabila can stay in power until the election is held.

The strike call, issued on Saturday, represents a significant escalation of opposition action in a country where about 40 demonstrators died in anti-government protests over the issue in January 2015.

READ MORE: DR Congo protests against Joseph Kabila turn deadly

It is also a setback for Edem Kodjo, the African Union mediator who earlier said the way was open for all-party talks to begin on Tuesday to secure agreement on the election.

Opposition parties call on the Congolese people to hold a dead city strike [general strike] on Aug. 23, said a statement on an opposition website.

The opposition accuses Kodjo of favouring the government and asked him to step down.

Kabila succeeded his assassinated father in 2001, then won his first election in 2006.

The constitution limits a president to two terms, though opponents accuse him of stalling the election to cling on to power.

Congo is plagued by rebel violence in the east and has never experienced a peaceful transition of power.

Poll delay expected

Congos voter registry will not be complete until July 2017, the electoral commission said on Saturday, in a fresh signal that the election would be delayed.

A drive to register more than 30 million voters started in March and will take 16 months to complete, Corneille Nangaa, election commission president, told representatives of political parties in the capital, Kinshasa.

The issue before us today in Congo is how to reconcile the electoral cycle  with the technical constraints we face, Nangaa said, referring to the logistical challenges of holding elections in a nation roughly the size of western Europe.

Congos highest court ruled in May that Kabila could remain in office if no election was held by November.

Kabila said this month a revised election timetable would only be published once a new voter registry is ready.

The government has said it prefers to hold local and provincial elections before the presidential poll, and some political analysts say that suggests Congo will not go to the polls to choose Kabilas successor until 2018 or 2019.

The opposition fears Kabila will seek a constitutional referendum to extend term limits as the presidents of Rwanda and Congo did last year.
President denounces world body after call by two UN rights experts for an end to extra-judicial executions and killings.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has denounced the United Nations after it called for an end to killings blamed on his war on drugs, saying that he might leave the organisation and invite China and others to form a new one.

Two UN human rights experts last week urged the Philippines to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.

About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.

Duterte on Sunday denied that the government was responsible and, in a late night news conference in his home town, Davao, said that the deaths were not the work of the police and invited UN experts to investigate themselves.

READ MORE: Rodrigo Duterte  Shoot a drug dealer, get a medal

I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert, he said, urging them to count not just the number of drug-related deaths but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.

He then launched an attack on the UN and its members  including by inference the Philippines traditionally close ally, the United States  saying, it could not fulfil its own mandate but was worrying about the bones of criminals piling up.





I do not want to insult you. But maybe well just have to decide to separate from the United Nations, he said.

Why do you have to listen to this stupid?

Criticising the UN for not doing enough to address hunger and terrorism and for not being able to do anything about Syria and Iraq and allowing big powers to bomb villages and kill innocent civilians, he said he would invite China and African nations to form another global organisation.

READ MORE: Rodrigo Duterte  I dont care about human rights

You know, United Nations, if you can say one bad thing about me, I can give you 10 [about you]. I tell you, you are an inutile [useless]. Because if you are really true to your mandate, you could have stopped all these wars and killing.

Asked about the possible consequences of his comments, he said: What is  repercussions? I dont give a sh*t to them.

He said that the UN should have acted according to protocol by sending someone such as a rapporteur to talk to him.

You do not just go out and give a sh*tting statement against a country, he said.
Demonstrators gather in Turkish city of Istanbul to protest over the brutal murder of iconic LGBTI activist Hande Kader.

Hundreds of people have protested peacefully in Istanbul, calling for justice after the brutal murder of a transgender woman earlier this month.

The body of Hande Kader, an LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, intersex) rights activist and a sex worker, was found in a forest in Istanbuls high-end Zekeriyakoy neighbourhood on August 8.

The murdered sex worker became an iconic figure in the LGBTI community after she sat in front of water cannons and anti-riot police officers in June last year as authorities tried to ban a gay pride parade in Istanbul.

Kader was last seen getting into a car with a client in the citys Harbiye district in late July, according to Turkish daily Sabah.

The 22-year-olds body was believed to have been heavily mutilated before her corpse was set on fire, possibly to avoid identification of the perpetrator or perpetrators.

No arrests have yet been made in Kaders case.

Lets fight for our survival

More than 200 demonstrators carried banners saying Justice for Hande Kader and Lets fight for our survival under the supervision of anti-riot police close to the famous Istiklal Avenue near Taksim Square on Sunday.

We will not stop until we find those responsible for Hande Kaders murder, Ebru Kiranci, spokeswoman for Istanbuls LGBTI Solidarity Association, said.

Demonstrators also asked the Turkish public to condemn Kaders brutal murder just as they had condemned the murder of another young woman, Ozgecan Aslan, last year.

Life of a trans woman should be as valuable as the life of a cisgender woman, protesters carrying Kaders photographs chanted.

Cisgender refers to a gender identity that matches a persons assigned sex.

OPINION: Will #OzgecanAslan change Turkey?

Aslan, a cisgender student, was mutilated and burned in southern Turkey after a rape attempt.

After Aslans death, tens of thousands of protesters, mostly women, poured into the streets of cities across the country to protest against rising violence against women and the governments failure to respond.

Kaders murder did not cause similar large-scale protests.

Highest rate of trans murders in Europe

In a report published in March this year, the rights group Transgender Europe said Turkey had the highest rate of trans murders in Europe.

Between January 2008 and December 2015, 41 trans and gender-diverse individuals were killed in Turkey, compared with the second highest in Italy of 33, the group said.

READ MORE: Turkey bans Istanbul gay pride due to security fears

Kader was the second murder to shock the LGBTI community in recent weeks after Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a Syrian refugee, was found mutilated and decapitated on July 25 in Istanbul, his friends said.

Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey throughout the period of the modern republic and was also legalised in the Ottoman Empire from the mid-19th century.

But LGBTI individuals in Turkey regularly complain of harassment and abuse in a largely conservative Muslim society where open displays of same-sex love are strongly frowned upon.

Authorities in Istanbul banned Gay Pride in June this year over security concerns, sparking anger from gay rights activists.

In previous years, Istanbul Pride was the biggest LGBTI gathering in a Muslim country in the region.
Decision follows prime ministers recent vow to expedite execution of convicts sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

Iraq has hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre of hundreds of military recruits, government officials say.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the Speicher massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where up to 1,700 recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison, a spokesman for the governors office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, told AFP.

The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri, and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions, Abdelhassan Dawood said.

READ MORE: Escaping an Islamic State execution in Iraq

They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions.

Dawood was referring to the necessary green light from Iraqi President Fuad Masum.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi prime minister, had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

Nasseri confirmed to AFP news agency that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that about 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from Dhiqar, which is predominantly Shia and located in Iraqs south.
Patients seek treatment in Indian-administered Kashmir after being hit by pellet guns as officials try to calm tensions.

Hundreds of people have been treated for serious eye injuries at a hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir since violence broke out over a month ago in the troubled region.

The Indian Express newspaper reported on Sunday that doctors at Srinagars Shri Maharaja Singh hospital have treated at least 446 patients with injuries sustained from being shot at with pellet guns, which have been used against protesters by Indian forces in the region.

A majority of victims have multiple structural damage to their eyes, the state government told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, according to the daily.

Pellet guns have been widely used to quell protests in Kashmir that erupted after a popular rebel commander, Burhan Wani, was killed in a gun battle with Indian security forces last month.

At least 66 people have been killed in the almost daily anti-India protests and rolling curfews prompted by the killing of Wani on July 8.

The Central Reserve Police Force, an Indian paramilitary unit, told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that it had used 1.3 million pellets in 32 days, adding that it was difficult to follow the standard operating procedure given the nature of the protests.

It is the first time I have seen so many pellet-injured people. Pellets were also used during the 2010 unrest, but this time they [government forces] are using them on a large scale, a doctor from Kashmir, who did not want to be named, told Al Jazeera.

We get, almost every day, people injured with pellets and many of the patients lose their eyesight, he said.

Police say the pellets are a non-lethal weapon that helps breaking protests without casualty, but rights groups reject that assertion, saying the pellets blind people and must be banned.

The use of pellets and bullets on civilians in Kashmir is inhumane and unacceptable. In a real democracy, these things should never happen, Kavita Krishnan, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), told Al Jazeera.

India has witnessed agitations in many parts, but the pellets and bullets were never used against civilians anywhere in India.

It is a war against civilians. The government of India should realise it is a political problem and should sit with the people and listen to their demands, she said.

A senior official from government of Jammu and Kashmir state, when contacted, declined to comment.

The news of eye injuries came as Jammu and Kashmir opposition leaders from the disputed region met Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian President, and asked him to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue.

According to the Indian Express, in a memorandum to Mukherjee, the group said: The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation.

The central governments refusal to deal with the situation through a political approach is disappointing and can have serious long-term implications on peace and stability in the state, the wrote.

The meeting of Kashmiri leaders came a day after Indias Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda called for talks with separatist leaders to end the bloody unrest in the region.
At least three killed and 24 injured in Mora town, with authorities suspecting involvement of Boko Haram.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed three people and wounded 24 at a market in north Cameroon, where armed group Boko Haram has been waging an armed rebellion since 2009, authorities said.

A senior military official told Reuters news agency that the bomber was also killed in the attack in Mora, in Cameroons Far North province.

He said that it was possible that one of the three victims was also on the motorcycle. Another security source said authorities were convinced that the attack was the work of Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and wants to create an Islamic state in a region spanning four countries.

READ MORE: Boko Haram attacks Cameroon with kidnapped girls

A regional offensive against Boko Haram led by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger  the four countries most affected by the armed group  has chased fighters out of towns in the Lake Chad region.





In response, Boko Haram has launched a guerrilla campaign mostly targeting the civilian population.

Sunday is a big market day, Cameroons Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma said by telephone, confirming the death toll in the Mora attack.

There were also six people seriously wounded who were transported out by helicopter to Maroua.

He said that the situation is currently under control.

Cameroon has been hit frequently by suicide attacks.

At the end of June a suicide bomber killed at least 11 people when he blew himself up close to a mosque in Cameroon near the Nigerian border, and two suicide bombers killed at least 12 people and injured 50 others in a market in Meme, northern Cameroon, in February.

READ MORE: Boko Haram releases purported video of Chibok girls

Boko Haram pledged its allegiance to ISIL, also known as ISIS, last year but the groups have apparently split, with ISIL naming Abu Musab al-Barnawi three weeks ago as the groups leader for West Africa in a two-page interview in its weekly magazine, Al Naba.





In the interview, Barnawi said that he is planning to bomb churches and kill Christians while ending attacks on mosques and markets used by Muslims.

The interview with Barnawi indicated a major shift in strategy for the fighters, who have killed many more Muslims than Christians in attacks on mosques with suicide bombers and armed men.

Boko Harams previous figurehead, Abubakar Shekau, or someone claiming to be him, rejected Barnawis appointment.

People should know we are still around, Shekau said in a 10-minute message after Barnawis appointment earlier this month.

In March 2015, Shekau switched allegiance from al-Qaeda and declared that Boko Haram should be known as the ISILs West Africa Province.

At the time, Boko Haram was the most powerful military force in northeast Nigeria, controlling a huge area and was better equipped and motivated than Nigerian forces.

READ MORE: Iceland deports Boko Haram victim from Nigeria

Under Shekau, Boko Harams seven-year campaign spread to neighbouring countries, killed more than 20,000 people and drove more than 2.2 million from their homes.

The movement created what aid workers are calling a catastrophic humanitarian emergency with children dying of starvation daily.

Boko Haram last week ambushed a humanitarian convoy, killing three civilians including a UN employee and causing the suspension of UN aid to newly liberated but still dangerous areas of Nigerias northeast.












A new report alleges police tortured some of the 42 suspected members of a drug cartel killed in a 2015 raid.

A new report alleges that police tortured some of the 42 suspected members of a drugs cartel killed in a 2015 raid.

Discrepancies plague the official account of a deadly assault last year in which Mexican police allegedly executed 22 members of the cartel.

Federal police officers, backed up by a Black Hawk helicopter, raided a farmhouse, apparently attacking the cartel as they slept, according to a scathing report published by Mexicos National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on Thursday.

The incident described by the CNDH represents one of the most egregious rights violations by security forces in Mexicos dark decade of drug violence, a menacing mix of murder, cover-ups and ineptitude.

Only one policeman died in the May 22, 2015 fight. The one-sided death toll was one of the highest since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in 2012 and pledged to end years of violence. Police executed 22 suspected gang members, burned bodies, manipulated the crime scene and tortured survivors, newly revealed details show.

Renato Sales, Mexicos national security commissioner, rejected the charge of executions, saying police responded with legitimate force.

But the 696-page report presents a grim laundry list of apparent malfeasance by the police, who were smarting from a series of painful Jalisco New Generation cartel attacks in the weeks leading up to the incident.

Images in the report show charred cadavers. In others, bodies lie soaked in pools of blood and mud, with spotless assault rifles laid suspiciously beside them.

Various witnesses, including the wives of victims, told investigators they heard police officers bragging about how they had caught the men unawares.

It was the easiest job weve ever done. We hit them like little birds, asleep in their nests, one police officer was said to have boasted.

Federal police was not the only institution singled out for blame. For example, in three separate cases, the Michoacan state prosecutors forensic (PGJEM) team was found to have written up two different autopsies for the same person.

The experts and medical forensic officers of the PGJEM implicated were involved in acts and omissions that affected the legality, honour, transparency, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency [of the investigation], the report said.
The threats have come via emails, phone calls, and once with flowers delivered directly to the front door.

Amid months of sustained intimidation, harassment and threats, Palestinian human rights defenders are coming forward to denounce a campaign that they say aims to plant fear into their efforts to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations.

This is a very organised and advanced campaign, said Shawan Jabarin, director of Al Haq, a prominent Ramallah-based Palestinian human rights organisation.

The goal is to stop us [from] dealing actively with the [International Criminal Court], cooperating actively with the ICC, Jabarin told Al Jazeera. They want to plant fear on our side  when it comes to accountability [and] when it comes to our advocacy work.

READ MORE: Israel seeks to publicly shame human rights groups

Earlier this month, Al Haqs researcher at the ICC, Nada Kiswanson, told the Dutch press that she had received death threats and other intimidations for several months, including letters, emails and phone calls to her home and family members. A man phoned Kiswansons family members in Sweden and, in heavily accented Arabic, told them she would disappear if her work at the ICC continued, Jabarin said.

Kiswanson also received a call from a woman purporting to be from the Dutch Health Ministry, who asked for her home address to send her a survey and information about the Zika virus. Shortly thereafter, Kiswanson received flowers at her door, a threatening note attached to them. Jabarin said the delivery originated in Amsterdam.





Previous death threats levied against Al Haq staff members have been directly connected to their work at the ICC, according to Amnesty International. At the same time, leaflets misrepresenting Al Haqs work  which featured the organisations name and logo and asked for donations in support of refugees  were also distributed to homes in The Hague, Jabarin said.

In addition, Al Haqs international donors have received calls alleging that the organisation was being investigated for corruption, while faked internal emails told staff members that the organisation was having funding problems and that they should find new jobs, he said.

Dutch authorities have been investigating the Kiswanson case, but Al Haq did not have any information about potential suspects for that or any of the other incidents.

Israel is behind it, Jabarin alleged. Criminals, all the time, they are afraid. When you start searching and looking to identify them, they will become afraid. For them, its easy to defeat politicians, but its not easy for them to defeat the human rights defenders.

A spokesperson for the Israeli prime ministers office did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment on the allegations. Emmanuel Nahshon, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a curt email: We do not react to such preposterous allegations.

Defending justice and looking for justice is not a job. We know that we will face difficulties, we will face challenges. And we are ready. by Shawan Jabarin, director of Al Haq

Al Haq is not the only Palestinian rights group to receive threats recently.

Gaza-based organisation Al Mezan said in a news release this month that its workers have faced a protracted campaign of intimidation, harassment and threats since last year, including suspicious emails and Facebook messages, along with calls to staff and donors.

Recently, the campaign against Al Mezan became much more serious, much more explicit, involving death threats against one of our staff members, in particular, and death threats against his family, said Nuriya Oswald, Al Mezans international advocacy coordinator, noting that the email threat contained recent images of the staff members house taken at close range.

Oswald told Al Jazeera that most of the threats were levied against Al Mezan staff while they were working in Europe, with local police investigating threats in three separate countries. While the perpetrators have not been identified, the threats seem to be related to Al Mezans accountability work, she said.

READ MORE: Israel narrowing the space for freedom of expression

Alaa Tartir, the programme director at Al Shabaka, the Palestinian policy network, noted that such threats appear to be motivated by the fear of Israel being isolated internationally and held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.

The campaign is an act of fear, first and foremost, Tartir told Al Jazeera, citing a wider pattern of Israeli intimidation of activists and aid groups. Israel recently announced the creation of a special body to identify and deport boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists, and has launched a campaign against international aid groups that it alleges diverted funds to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Death threats against individuals working at the ICC have intensified recently because that effort is becoming more tangible [and] more organisations are working together, Tartir said.

This is a worrying sign for Israel and its friends, so this is why they are doing what they are doing now, he said, adding that the international community must ensure human rights defenders are protected and freely able to do their work.

Palestinian human rights workers will continue with their work, despite the intimidation, Jabarin added.

For us, working in human rights is a belief. Its faith  Defending justice and looking for justice is not a job. We know that we will face difficulties, we will face challenges, he said. And we are ready.
Residents breed bees in urban spaces, providing a welcome addition to South Koreas polluted, industrialised capital.

Seoul, South Korea  Unused rooftops provide a perfect environment for breeding bees, residents of South Koreas capital Seoul have discovered.

Over the past year, the number of bee hives in the region has almost doubled from 180 to 300.

Urban bee-keeping lets you realise that people dont exist alone in an urban space, but have to coexist, says Park Jin, the founder of Urban Bees Seoul.

It shows you the importance of honeybees. Breeding them in a city helps pollination, helping to improve the ecology as well.

Bees, he says, are a welcome addition to the environment.

In a polluted, industrialised city that lacks greenery, Park Jins bees have to work particularly hard for their nectar.

READ MORE: Saving the bee

Choi Kwang-Bin, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, says environmental issues are high on the agenda.

Seoul is surrounded by mountains. But daily life, green space within the reach of your hands is more important than greenery you can look at, he said.

Constantly providing more green space within living areas is one of Seouls core policies.

It is hoped that greenery will attract more bees. That would help to pollinate more plants as environmentalists foresee a dramatic decline in the global bee population.

While beekeeping cannot reverse the trend, it can raise awareness.

In the largest metropolis of South Korea, people have signed up to study the art of keeping bees in the city, which could cast a greener light over a grey cityscape.
UN envoy says truce can save lots of lives as fighting between Syrian forces and rebels rages on in Aleppo and Hasaka.

The UN special envoy to Syria has called for a truce again around the city of Aleppo as activists report more deaths in fighting around the country.

Activists said 33 people were killed in fighting in Aleppo on Saturday when air strikes targeted the citys southern edges and intense battles raged, the AFP news agency reported.

More than 300 civilians have been killed in a three-week surge of fighting in the city and bombardment, according to a monitoring group.

READ MORE  Syrias Civil War: One conflict, multiple battles

Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy, has long called for a 48-hour halt in fighting each week to allow aid delivery and medical evacuations from both rebel-held eastern and government-controlled western Aleppo.

You may wonder whats the good of a truce in such a terrible war. Well, I can assure you and Ive seen it in the past that a truce can save lots of lives and is a breath of fresh air for people being besieged, De Mistura said on Saturday.

A truce can give the possibility for people to stop and think that it is probably best to negotiate because no one is winning and those who are losing their lives are the Syrians.

Among those who died in Aleppo on Saturday was the older brother of Omran Daqneesh, the little Syrian boy who was pictured sitting in an ambulance dazed and covered in blood after an air strike.

Ali Daqneesh died from wounds sustained in the August 17 attack on the familys apartment in Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ali, aged 10, succumbed to his injuries. He was badly wounded in the same bombardment as Omran 
Southeast Asian nations economy expected to do well, whether the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership succeeds or fails.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam  Vietnam, with its strong export-led economy and potential for growth, is tipped to significantly benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The country expects revenue to increase by as much as 50 percent when tariffs are applied under the 12-nation trade deal.

Vietnam wants to have an open economy, says Tran Du Lich, a former government trade adviser.

We have been integrating with international and regional economies, with a number of free trade agreements.

However, the TPP is in doubt due to opposition in the US.

READ MORE: The secret US trade deal causing trouble

President Barack Obama has been trying to push the deal through before the end of his term in January.

If he runs out of time, prospects for the deals success are dimmer because the two main candidates to replace him oppose the agreement.

US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has voiced her opposition to the trade pact during her campaign.

I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I oppose it now, Ill oppose it after the election, and Ill oppose it as president, Clinton said.

Door open for China

If the US Congress does not ratify the agreement, it will effectively collapse.

If the TPP does not happen, it could leave the door open for China to forge closer economic ties with some member nations.

In this region, that could undo a lot of President Barack Obamas so-called pivot to Asia.

The United States and China are vying for influence in the region, and Vietnam is a key factor.

Despite strained political relations between Vietnam and China, the two countries are big trading partners.

READ MORE: Critics challenge US plans for the TPP

China is not part of the TPP. If the pact fails, Vietnam may become even more reliant on its neighbour to the north.

Analysts believe the Vietnamese economy will continue to grow regardless.

TPP will be good for Vietnam, but that doesnt mean the economy in the future depends on it, says Lich, the former government adviser.

Weve ratified more than 10 Free Trade Agreements, and we are a member of the World Trade Organization.
Philippine president lashes out at the UN for criticising his anti-crime campaign and reported extra-judicial killings.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is known for following through on his threats. His latest one is to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations.

UN criticism of how he runs his country has angered Duterte. He says he is going to encourage China and African countries to also leave the UN and create a new global organisation.

Dutertes verbal attack comes after two UN human rights experts said the presidents crackdown on crime might be illegal. Its a policy Duterte has pushed since his presidential campaign.

He has encouraged citizens to carry out vigilante justice, to kill anyone suspected of buying or selling heroin, crack, meth and other drugs.

Police say more than 600,000 drug dealers and users have turned themselves in to avoid being killed.

And at least 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since Duterte won the presidential election in May.

So, can Duterte really win his war on drugs?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

Richard Heydarian  Political science professor at De La Salle University

Rachel Chhoa Howard  Philippines researcher with Amnesty International in London

Criselda Yabes  Author and columnist with Asia Sentinel
A look into the booming e-cigarette industry and the potential misinformation behind its growing success.

The e-cigarette industry is enjoying great success across the United States with over 10 percent of all American adults  an estimated 20 million people  currently vaping. Profits are high, with revenue from the vaping industry doubling in value from $1.75bn in 2013 to $3.5bn in only a two-year space of time.

Based by Iliana

. It could be higher nicotine concentration; it could be lower. Although lower might sound better, youre going to need to smoke more to get what your body is used to.]

Most e-cigarette users are either former or current smokers, with many taking a gamble on vaping being less detrimental to their health than traditional tobacco, simply because less is currently known about the new device.

But with research into e-cigarettes already struggling to keep up with new developments and changing statistics, how do consumers know which products to trust?

In terms of mechanics, the way an e-cigarette works is mostly straightforward. A battery-powered atomiser heats up a liquid mixture known as juice, which is then transformed into vapour and then inhaled by the user. It is both the juice and the evolving vaping device that are creating health-related concerns for organisations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and researchers alike.

Monique Williams is a researcher at the University of California at Riverside and fears that the developments in the vaping world have not actually improved on any of the initial concerns  including finding heavy metal residue in the actual devices which are then easily inhaled into users lungs.

Inhalation of metals, especially things like tin, can cause stenosis, and that could constrict the bronchioles and the airways in the lungs, explains Williams.

The University of California at Riverside is also looking at discrepancies with nicotine labelling on a lot of the juice used in vaping. Researchers purchase juice samples at random from online vendors and then test the concentration of nicotine against what the labelling claims. The results are shocking.

In a recent paper that we published, we found out that this specific sample was 59 percent higher in nicotine than the advertised label, says researcher Iliana Cordova, pointing to a random result in a long list of testing samples at the UC labs.

While vaping lobbyists continue to fight the notion that e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco are equal in their effects on peoples health, researchers agree that until the longevity studies are executed, there can be no concrete evidence for or against these claims.
A decade-long search for a disappeared girl leads to what could be one of the largest urban mass graves in the world.

Margarita Restrepo has been searching for her daughter who disappeared during the Colombian civil war more than a decade ago.

She believes her daughters body may be in a mass grave on the edge of the infamous Comuna 13 slum in Colombias second largest city, Medellin.

Many of those who disappeared at this time are believed to be victims of the notorious military operation known as Orion. In this operation, government soldiers and paramilitary death squads worked together to disappear opponents.

As Margarita struggles to find her missing daughter, she meets the lead forensic investigator working on the grave site hoping to find closure for the families.

Also assisting with this process is a former death squad commander, Mobile 8. Now behind bars, Mobile 8 provides a rare account into the operations behind the disappearances, and potential insight into what may have happened to Margaritas daughter.

FILMMAKERS VIEW

By Simone Bruno, Javier Castaneda and Toby Muse

After years of covering Colombia, we know that it is a country of happiness and tragedy. The country that regularly tops the global happiness charts is also the site of a long-running civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands.

Among a variety of cruelties, perhaps the most heartbreaking is the issue of Colombias disappeared. Victims simply never return home and the families are left for ever ignorant of what happened. Without a body, without knowing if they are dead or alive, these families never get a sense of closure.

That was the story we set out to film when we started this documentary. When we began following Margarita Restrepo, we found a nuanced story of unbearable pain mixed with an inspiring dedication to trying to change her country.

Margarita is typical of many in Colombia who struggle to earn a living. In the midst of a war where having the wrong political opinion could get you killed, she had remained apolitical. And while she had forgotten about politics, politics hadnt forgotten her. Her daughter Carol disappeared in the middle of a notorious military operation to root out Leftist rebels from Medellins infamous Neighbourhood 13, once known as the citys most dangerous and poorest neighbourhood.

It is ironic, she says, that she voted for Alvaro Uribe, the president who would order the military operation in which her daughter disappeared. She feels an impotent rage that she somehow contributed to her own daughters disappearance.

During the making of this documentary, we came to see that being a victim in Colombia carries its own stigma  as if your familys suffering is itself proof of guilt. Still after all this time, when everyone knows the violence is random and motiveless, there are still those who when they see a victim think to themselves, they must have done something wrong.

It was interesting for us to see the reaction of the people of Medellin to the dig to find the bodies. While many supported the dig and the mothers of the disappeared, others thought it a waste of time.

One taxi driver told us: They ought to hire a priest. Send him up to bless the earth and then go home. That way youll save a lot of money.

We also spent a lot of time thinking about Medellin. The mayors office is keen to present a city of the future, made up of shiny new buildings and a population looking forward. In this, they have had willing accomplices in the international media  journalists spend three days in the plushest hotels and restaurants and fly home to write about the citys perceived renaissance.

The families of the disappeared, like Margarita, say the foundations of the new city cannot be the bodies, unclaimed and unnamed, of their loved ones.




           2005     ..        
The Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) has recently formally endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign which has been recognized by a variety of leading Jewish groups as serving as nothing more than a systemic method to sanitize Jew hatred by wrapping itself in the politically-correct cloak of social justice. Additionally, the platform of the Movement for Black Lives, a recognized coalition under the BLM umbrella, has fortified the relationship between BLM and a variety of Antisemitic groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), by labeling Israel an apartheid state that, it asserts, enacts genocide against the Palestinian people (Click here for why this is an inaccurate claim).

Naturally, Jews around the world are becoming increasingly alarmed with this ideological collusion, and for many Jews it has become challenging to understand what has motivated this alliance, especially as most Jews sympathize with the systemic oppression of Blacks and other minorities of color in America.

How did an ostensibly positive movement towards improved race relations in America devolve into institutionally supporting Antisemitic policies?

It is apparent that one of the dominant elements that appeals to many supporters of the BLM movement is a deep resentment towards the concept of white privilege, which has recently been codified in the new BLM platform which states that American society is underwritten by, white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. Compounding this dynamic is the aforementioned ideological kinship between some in the BLM movement and those in the SJP movement, which offers uncritical empathy for the perceived occupation and oppression of Arabs who reside in Gaza and the West Bank  a purported oppression carried-out by privileged Jews  a dynamic not unlike that, in the eyes of the BLM movement, between White America and Black America (Click here to learn why the claim of Israeli occupation is spurious).

American Jews are mostly known to the Black community and to adherents of the BLM movement in their Ashkenazi (Eastern European) variety, and therefore get folded into this societal resentment primarily (but not exclusively) due of the biological accident of a shared phenotype with privileged white non-Jews. America has witnessed this phenomenon before from the Black community in the heyday of the Civil Rights movement such as in the Columbia Avenue Riots in Pennsylvania in 1964 and the Watts Riots in LA in 1965, to name only a couple of prominent examples.

But, as the argument goes, Jews shouldnt be lumped together with all Caucasians, right?

It is at this juncture where some Jews get stuck in their thinking because they know, rationally, that historically the American Jewish community has been at the leading edge of progressing the cause of race relations. But even though there has been recognition in Black communities of the contributions of Jews, the simple fact is that the Jewish community places a far greater emphasis on the ultimate importance of Jewish civil rights advocates than does the Black community, especially in contemporary society.

Almost without question there also exists a subtle, but palpable, degree of cultural suspicion from the Black community  bordering on mistrust  that is in play. While Jews are absolutely a minority group with an ongoing track record of oppression, the Jewish community perhaps represents the prototypical privileged minority in American society (but not the only one, e.g. Asian privilege). This ideologically dovetails with the too often ignored reality of the existence of Antisemitism[1] in substantial pockets of Americas Black community. The outrage emanating from the BLM movement has begun to activate these (mostly) latent Antisemitic beliefs and has reached a tipping point where this latency has transformed into activity. This is not good for the Jews.

Of course most Blacks are not Antisemitic, but compared to the general population, there remains an elevated level of entrenched Antisemitism in Americas Black communities, which at least partially includes the popular cultural belief based on well-known stereotypes of the "sheister Jew" who achieve success in business by means of patronizing intellectualism mixed with baseless thievery. So the logic would be as follows: while the average white person has an unfair advantage in American society, the average Jew has an even more unfair advantage by utilizing exclusive social guilds and wielding social and political power (mainly via financial means). Oh, and lest we forget the deadly Antisemitic race riots in Crown Heights in the summer of 1991 that were incited by Al Sharpton, where he led a Black mob chanting kill the Jews.

If Jews are a privileged minority in America, then why not the Blacks? The System Must Be Rigged Towards the Jews!

This is exactly the type of Antisemitic conspiratorial garbage that the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has been spewing for over 30 years (and, by the way, Farrakhan is not as unpopular in the Black community as much as the average Jew wishes to believe). Naturally there is overlap in ideology between Farrakhans project and the BLM movement, chiefly around the shared tenant of unapologetic Black pride up to and including more militant forms of Black nationalism.

How does this relate to Antisemitism in the BLM movement? As those who are students of history will verify, it does not take a majority of citizens to destabilize the temporal comfort of Jews living in an open society; a democratic government today does not guarantee safety for tomorrow. This, I believe, is an uncomfortable but intractable aspect of the Jewish experience that many Jews desire to disavow.

Even if the more virulent Antisemites within the BLM movement consists of a vocal minority among their ranks (of this we cannot yet be certain), their decision to integrate Antisemitic principles into their organizational charter generously contributes to the growing trend of publicly defaming Israel and the Jews. This enough represents a slippery slope to a real existential threat to Jews worldwide and therefore deserves a strong and unapologetic response from every responsible corner of the Jewish community . The BLM organization and its permutations should not be recipients of Jewish support, but this is not to say that the American Jewish community should abandon supporting the ongoing cause of improved conditions for our Black brethren.

There must be alternative options in public discourse for the Jewish community to support the advancement of race relations in America without aligning ourselves with an organization that makes bedfellows with Antisemites. As Rabbi Ari Hart, from the Bayit Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, New York recently posted on his public Facebook page: I am struggling with #BlackLivesMatter but I believe black lives matter.

Paul Cantz, PsyD, ABPP is Associate Director of Training and Associate Professor at Adler University  Chicago; Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine; and part-time faculty at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership
To the list of victims, common folks, and politicians left in the wake of that runaway bus of crime and corruption known as Clinton, add one more -- former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Leaks emerging from the Congressional acquisition of the heavily redacted FBI interview with Hillary Clinton that took place in July, indicate that part of the discussion with Democrat nominee centered on Clintons claim that she set up her private email server on the recommendation of Powell.

This account of the origins of the server is in line with the coincidental assertions contained in a soon to be released book by longtime Clinton sycophant and nominal journalist Joe Conason, whose previous book The Hunting of Hillary accepts as a fact that indeed a vast right wing conspiracy has been pursuing this paragon of political virtue and her husband for decades. According to Conason, Powell advised Hillary to use private email in an off-the-cuff remark during a dinner party for former State Secretaries at the home of Madeline Albright in 2009.

Powell reportedly has no recollection of the comment, but did acknowledge using private email for efficiencys sake in the darker ages before the use of email was ubiquitous and computers and servers more powerful. (Powell served from 2001-2005.) By the time Hillary took over the State Department had formalized rules regarding private email use for official business, which is to say it was prohibited. Regardless, according to Conason, Hillary had already decided to use private email before Powells alleged comment, the dinner party chat only confirming her decision, or more likely tucked away as a useful excuse for wrongdoing should she need it later, as indeed she did.

Of course, even assuming Powell made such a comment, he certainly did not have in mind that Hillary would establish a private server in her home, and Powell in his documented comments on the use of private email was clear to specify it was only for unclassified material. Hillary, of course, used it for both. And Powell didnt operate a phony private charitable foundation to line the pockets of his family and a host of cronies during his tenure, manipulating American foreign policy to that end. If he had, he might have needed such a private server to keep his corruption secret and avoid jail, like Hillary.

That Hillary evidently mentioned Powell in her FBI interview to explain away her use of the server, as a precedent of sorts, despite the fact it was clearly against the rules of the agency she headed at the time, demonstrates that the interview was just a sham. Powells statements and actions, even assuming he made the dinner party comment, in no way shape or form would absolve Hillary of her violations of State Department policy, or those concerning the security of classified information. Its like trying to get out of being charged because your bus ran a red light and killed a pedestrian on the basis that the car just in front of you did it too and didnt hit anyone.

But it would have bolstered the justifications that FBI Director James Comey planned to use a couple days later to announce that that he would not recommend charges against Clinton. Comeys comments centered entirely on whether Hillary deliberately intended to compromise national security when she set up the server and then used it for almost all of her State Department business. He ignored the fact that the relevant statute also made it a crime to handle such documents in a grossly negligent manner, which Hillary, by his own admission, did. Plus an investigator or prosecutor determined to enforce the law and put an obvious wrongdoer in jail could have found plenty of evidence for intent as well, from the planning, cost, and premeditation that went into the establishment of the server, to Hillarys deletion of thousands of emails on the lame and demonstrably false excuse that they concerned wedding plans and yoga, to her public lies and explanations about the entire enterprise.

But Comey had no intention of doing this. The interview as noted here was a pretense, no doubt chock full of canned questions that allowed Hillary to excuse her actions without perjuring herself. Her claims that she was only innocently following the advice of Powell -- regardless of how preposterous they really were -- helped provide the rationalization Comey needed for himself, and his agents, to let Hillary skate. When Comey claimed that he, the investigating agents and his staff all agreed that no charges should be brought, how much easier it was to say that well Colin Powell did it too and She was only taking his advice, right? With that rationalization, a couple shots of whiskey, some Xanax, and a glance at paychecks, it no doubt helped them all get to sleep that night.

If Powell did indeed make that dinner table comment, he must rue it today, having served honorably (if unspectacularly) in the same role, only to be tarred with the stink of Clintonian corruption for his trouble. Even if he did not make the comment, he ought to equally regret that he merely sat down to dinner with Hillary. Unfortunately, that can happen when you eat with or lie down with the Clintons. You may come out of it rich and connected, or more likely raped, broke, dead or soiled (too many examples here, but add one named Powell.)
On August 7, 2016, after days of fierce and bloody battle, Syrian rebels broke through the siege on opposition-held areas of Aleppo. Having backed Syrian president Bashar Assad financially and militarily, the significance of the defeat dawned on the Iranian regime and struck home how deeply it is bogged down in the Syrian quagmire.

It is necessary to remember Tehran's decision for a military surge in Syria in early 2015. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his allies in the Revolutionary Guards, who were perceived as the main losers of the nuclear deal, believed that a military victory in Syria could compensate for their nuclear defeat, weaken the rival "moderate" factions, strengthen the Iranian hegemonic position in the region, and keep the main contour of Iranian regional policy intact.

In April 2015, Qassem Soleimani, chief commander of the Iran Quds Force, traveled to Moscow and met with Vladimir Putin to coordinate Russian military intervention in Syria. During the summer of 2015, the Quds Force mobilized its proxy militias in Iraq, Lebanese Hezb'allah, and Afghani units, sending thousands of additional fighters to Syria. The capture of Aleppo was considered the top prize, with Hezb'allah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, calling Aleppo the "grand strategic battle."

Simultaneously, the Iranian regime launched a large-scale public campaign inside Iran to justify intervention in Syria and reinvigorate the regime's base. The campaign that continues to this day includes religious ceremonies, conferences, speeches, and various television programs defending the regime's policy and honoring the martyrs. In May 2016, a film festival was organized in Tehran featuring documentaries about the "defendants of the holy shrines," a term used by the regime to refer to the fighters deployed to Syria. The supreme leader has received the families of "martyrs" several times, with the meetings being broadcast on national TV. A series of documentaries featuring the wives of the martyrs is aired on TV in which they describe their relationship with their husbands and how their husbands sacrificed all worldly pleasures and their families in order to fulfill their Islamic duties by enlisting to fight in Syria. The regime aims to demonstrate that the martyrs are venerated and respected by Iranians and that the regime takes care of their families. The campaign further attempts to create an ideological and emotional connection between the public and the Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria.

In May 2016, the supreme leader received some of the families of the Afghanis killed in Syria belonging to "Fatemiyoun," the Afghani division of Quds Force. On June 28, a rally was organized to honor the martyrs of the "Zeinabiyoun" brigade, which consists of Pakistani Shi'ites recruited and organized by the Quds Force to fight in Syria.

The internal divisions

The staunchest critic of the supreme leader and Revolutionary Guards' increasing military involvement in Syria has been Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Iranian Expediency Council. During a speech on August 30, 2013, Rafsanjani denounced Bashar Assad's war crimes, stating that he has used chemical weapons against his own people. Then, during a meeting with a group of Iraqi dignitaries and officials, he again denounced the Assad atrocities that would empower radical Sunni groups and threaten Iranian and Iraqi security.

More recently, in an interview with the Iranian Aftab News published on May 30, 2016, Rafsanjani warned of Iran's untenable involvement in several countries in the region and stated: "Now the Arab and Muslim countries in the region are confronting us, and this is a serious challenge that should be addressed. To safeguard our interests, we are currently stuck in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Such involvement is difficult to sustain and cannot be abandoned easily, either. We are facing a difficult situation in the region, and we should resolve it by adopting wise policies."

More broadly, the so-called moderate and reformist factions are voicing their concerns that Iran's current policies in the region and military involvements are real obstacles to the government's efforts in improving diplomatic and economic relations with the West and convincing foreign companies and financial institutions to deal with and invest in Iran's depleted economy. These factions demand a change in Iranian foreign policy.

The Iranian supreme leader has repeatedly criticized these factions for being naive and not understanding the Iranian regime's interests. During a speech on August 1, 2016, he praised Iran's influence and position in the region and declared: "In the present time, the Americans are asking us to go and speak to them about regional matters. Well, this experience [nuclear deal] tells us that this is a deadly poison for us."

The supreme leader has repeatedly declared that a failure in Syria and a withdrawal from the region will result in the downfall of Iranian regional policies altogether, a scenario that could weaken the regime's position inside Iran and threaten its survival. His vision was well illustrated in a major speech that he gave in the city of Mashhad on March 20, 2016, posted on his English website.

The road ahead

A large number of Iranian analysts see many similarities between the supreme leader's current position on Syrian and regional issues and his stance on the nuclear issue prior to 2012-2013, when economic sanctions helped cripple the Iranian economy. Ultimately, he was forced to change course and engage in serious negotiations with the U.S. to dramatically curb the nuclear program in return for lifting the sanctions. These analysts rightly believe that the costs of the Syrian quagmire could eventually force the Iranian regime to change course in Syria and the region altogether.

In addition to the human and financial cost of military presence across the Middle East, Iranian policies have been fueling sectarian tensions. Furthermore, in the absence of an active U.S. role, Israeli and Arab governments who feel threatened by Iran's hegemonic drive are forcefully confronting Tehran. These growing hostilities against Iran are costly and will inevitably lead to a situation described by Rafsanjani as "untenable." Moreover, the Iranian economy is in shambles, with Iranian regional policies preventing the integration of economy into the global market in order to relieve economic hardships inside Iran and reduce social and political tensions.

The supreme leader's only hope of overcoming these challenges is a decisive military victory in Syria, but the battle of Aleppo demonstrated that the civil war will continue, with the Syrian quagmire continuing to weaken the Iranian regime. Thus, the clock is ticking for Iran until the day that it can no longer continue its ongoing involvement. The failure will have a devastating impact on the regime, not only regionally, but also inside the country, which is the prospect that the supreme leader has been repeatedly warning about.

Hassan Dai is an investigative journalist and political analyst specializing in Iranian regime activities in the Middle East and pro-Iran activities in the West. He is the editor of Iranian American Forum.
A "silent swell" of family units from El Salvadore is creating another immigration crisis on our southern border.

Fusion:

Salvadorans are fleeing to the United States in massive numbers, and now theyre bringing the whole family along. Though the number of unaccompanied Salvadoran minors crossing the border has not returned to the surge numbers seen in 2014, the number of Salvadoran family units apprehended on the southern border has increased by a whopping 96% over the past year.

Undocumented Salvadoran families are arriving in the U.S. in greater numbers than immigrants from any other Latin American nation. Ten Salvadoran families are apprehended here for every one Mexican family, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics.

There are now more Salvadorans in U.S. immigration deportation proceedings than any other nationality.

For those paying attention to the situation in El Salvador, the timing of the new surge might seem strange considering that the countrys murder rate, which was the highest in the world in 2015, has dropped significantly during the first half of this year. The countrys death toll has dropped from an average of 25 murders each day in January to around 11 murders per day over the past four months.

At first blush, that looks like good news. But behind the numbers there could be a gathering storm thats hard to see from the outside, but one that Salvadorans can feel in the air. And that sense that the center cannot hold might explain why so many families are pulling up sticks and heading out now.
A young boy 12-14 years old carried out a suicide attack on a wedding in Turkey that killed at least 50 and wounded almost 100.

Fox News:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke in a live nationally-televised address in front of Istanbul city Hall. At least 50 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. Erdogan added that there was absolutely no difference between ISIS, Kurdish rebels and the movement behind the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorists. The remains of a suicide vest have been recovered at the site, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, citing a statement by the chief public prosecutor's office. Turkey has been the target of attacks in the past year that have been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or were blamed on ISIS. In June, suspected Islamic State militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on ISIS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims. Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  year-long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict. "This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told NTV television.

There have been no bombings attributed to the Gulen movement and no one outside of Erdogan is sure that the US based cleric was behind the coup. Erdogan is cynically using this latest atrocity by ISIS to consolidate his gains made in the post-coup purge.

No doubt that Erdogan finds himself in a very tough place. Caught between Kurdish terrorists and ISIS, Turkey has suddenly become a very dangerous place. Given that tourism is a major industry in Turkey, the bombings are having a negative effect on the economy.

Meanwhile, Erdogan continues his crack down on opponents with thousands more arrested after the government released almost 40,000 people who were being held. Those who aren't arrested are being cowed into submission. Erdogan is creating a new Islamist nation ruled by fear and intimidation where no opposition is permitted and parliament is submissive to the whims of a tyrant.
It seems even the New York Times, the de facto house organ of the Democratic Party, is troubled by operation of the Clinton Foundation. Amy Chozick and Steve Eder report there today, on the Clinton Foundation via, that:

With Mrs. Clinton facing accusations of favoritism toward Clinton Foundation donors during her time as secretary of state, former President Bill Clinton told foundation employees on Thursday that the organization would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations should Mrs. Clinton win in November. But while the move could avoid the awkwardness of Mr. Clinton jetting around the world asking for money while his wife is president, it did not resolve a more pressing question: how her administration would handle longtime donors seeking help from the United States, or whose interests might conflict with the countrys own.

According to the Times, the Foundation has received money from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and other countries with questionable, to say the least, records on human rights, such as gay and womens rights. The Saudis have contributed between 10 to 25 million. We import a significant amount of oil from the Saudis. Hillary and Obama have opposed the Keystone oil pipeline, fracking, and offshore drilling, all of which would lessen our reliance on Saudi oil.

Even Bubba seems to realize it is a conflict of interest, or the appearance of a conflict of interest, for a President Hillary to continue receiving contributions from foreign governments and corporations to the Clinton Foundation. If it is a conflict of interest for a President Clinton to receive such contributions to the Clinton Foundation, then it surely was a conflict of interest for the Clinton Foundation to receive such contributions while Secretary of State. And it is a conflict of interest to receive such contributions while a candidate for the Presidency because foreign governments and corporations are simply giving the money to the Foundation before she takes office.

Only a Clinton would believe that it is ok to receive these contributions while Secretary of State and while a candidate. So these foreign countries and corporations that want to influence Hillary give their money to the Foundation while she is a candidate. It achieves the same result. Money to the Clintons, and the expectation of what such money brings.

But a cynic or realist would believe that Bill is telling the foreign countries and corporations to make their contributions now, in the proper amount. You never know, Hillary may lose and then there would be no reason to make such contributions.
We understand that Hillary Clinton is not going to Louisiana. I agree with her that candidates on the ground may be more distracting than helpful. Nevertheless, a little show of support would help, especially after what these media folks said about President Bush in 2005.

She is not going to many other places, either.

I think there are a couple of things going on here:

1) Her health is an issue, as it should be with any 68-year-old person running for president. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump (who is 70) should release their medical records. In all fairness, Mr. Trump shows a lot more vitality, but that's more of his personality than an objective health finding.

I'm old enough to remember all the questions about then candidate Reagan in 1980. Remember the Saturday Night Live sketch about President Reagan getting a bit old to be president? It wasn't the only time jokes were made about his age.

2) The latest RCP average has Mrs. Clinton up by 5.7%. The electoral college looks even better!

So why put her out? She is very stiff in public. Furthermore, the news media does not seem to mind that Mrs. Clinton does not hold press conferences. Why fight the media if they are ready to carry your water all the way to Election Day?

So why risk it? Let her run on mute until the debates and take a chance on Mr. Trump saying something that dominates news coverage for another week.

To be fair, the strategy has its risks, as we are seeing in Louisiana, where Mr. Trump looks more concerned by talking to real voters.

Furthermore, the polls are tightening, a reflection that her convention bounce may be evaporating.

And, most importantly, there is a lot of uncertainty about the economy, and God only knows what October surprise is out there. Unlike other elections, I'm a bit skeptical of these polls, because people are not in love with Mrs. Clinton.

My guess is that we won't see a lot of Mrs. Clinton until the debates. I think her team is betting on Mr. Trump taking the limelight and fumbling again with another round of self-destructive comments.

Frankly, she is a horrible candidate, so why not run out the clock if you can get away with it?

Staying away is the best strategy!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
At a fundraiser at the Minneapolis Convention Center, protesters spat on, pushed and punched donors as they exited the event.

Donors were forced to run a gauntlet of protesters who arrived with scarves over their faces, clearly intending violence.

The Hill:

Protesters pushed, verbally harassed and spat on donors attending a Donald Trump fundraiser in Minneapolis on Friday night, the Star Tribune reported. The Minneapolis Convention Center area became unruly as attendees left after the event, according to the newspaper. "Some fundraiser attendees were pushed and jostled, spit on and verbally harassed as they left the convention center," the Star Tribune's Patrick Condon reported. Trump never appeared in public, according to the report. A peaceful protest formed earlier in the evening, organized by the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee. Youve got somebody out there saying things that used to only be said in the shadows, said Giselda Gutierrez, a demonstrator who lives in Minneapolis, in an interview with the Star Tribune. I think what hes saying represents something pretty dangerous for our country. The aggressive demonstrators reportedly didn't arrive until later. The later group of protesters hid their faces behind scarves.

Some protesters got aggressive at the end of the night as Trump supporters left Minneapolis fundraiser. @StarTribune pic.twitter.com/gNcZGYhqBm  Renee JonesSchneider (@reneejon) August 20, 2016

Trump himself was not at the fundraiser, which makes the actions of the protesters even more idiotic.

The press is downplaying the violence, but as you can see from the video it was pretty intense. Perhaps the media realizes that the more they cover the anti-Trump violence against Trump supporters, the candidate's numbers go up.

Expect more violence from the anti-Trump thugs the closer we get to the election.
You should never say never in politics which is why Donald Trump may be softening his position on illegal aliens.

In a bid to win back at least some Hispanic voters, Trump said at a meeting of his Hispanic Advisory Council that he would have a plan this week on how to deal with illegal aliens in the US beyond deportation.

NBC News:

Three of the Hispanics who are part of Trump's Hispanic Advisory Council spoke with NBC Latino after the meeting. Each spoke of an "open-minded" Trump who asked for their ideas on how to address the estimated 11 million people in the country without legal status. Trump is to hold a news conference and rally in Colorado next Thursday and they said they expect details will come then. RELATED: Republican Latinos in Swing-State Florida Publicly Support Trump "I think on Thursday we are going to have a plan that every Latino Democratic or Republican can be proud of as a very realistic, compassionate way of solving the problem," said Jacob Monty, an immigration attorney from Houston who also chairs the Latino-Jewis Alliance. There was some discussion after the meeting that Trump was going to back a legalization plan for the 11 million undocumented, but none of those interviewed would verify that. "If all we got was touchback, I think that would be huge," Monty said referring to a policy that would require immigrants here illegally to return to their home countries and apply for a visa to return to the U.S. Such a policy was proposed in 2007 and was part of a plan floated by Trump's running mate Mike Pence, when he served in Congress. "If all we got was re-examining the three and 10-year bars, even if we got a guest worker program that just allowed for some of the people to take advantage I would be very happy," he said. The three- and 10-year bars are part of immigration law that came about in the Bill Clinton administration and prohibit anyone who has been found to have been in the country illegally from returning to the U.S. for three years or 10 years depending on how long they were in this country illegally. Trump has been slumping in the polls. The latest NBC battleground map shows Clinton surging past Trump in electoral votes. He has done poorly with Hispanics, hurt from the beginning when he opened his presidential bid by declaring that Mexico sends Mexicans who are rapists and bring crime and drugs. Polls have shown about 80 percent of Latinos opposed him.

There are polls, and then there are polls. Where many polls show Trump support among Hispanics at 20% or less, other recent polls have shown the candidate receiving about as much Hispanic support as Mitt Romney received in 2012 - about 27%.

But for every Hispanic vote he gains by perhaps going with the "touchback" option, he is likely to lose support with his base. It's a balancing act where Trump is going to have to appear tough on illegals while holding out hope that many of them can return someday.

Many Hispanics are still willing to listen to Trump if he has something meaningful to say. Can he reverse the opinion many Hispanics have of him?

Never say never in politics.
In what some defense analysts are calling a serious escalation of the Syrian civil war, Syria's air force bombed Kurdish units with embedded American advisors. The US scrambled its own jets to chase the Syrian planes away but that didn't stop them from hitting the Kurds anyway.

Daily Mail:

Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria for a second day, even after the US-led coalition scrambled jets to protect its military advisers working on the ground. In another escalation of Syria's bloody conflict, warplanes from President Bashar al-Assad's regime were bombarding the city of Hasakeh -- targeting Kurdish forces that for months have worked closely with coalition military advisers helping local fighters combat the Islamic State group. On Thursday, the United States sent fighter jets to head off air strikes conducted by regime planes and to protect coalition advisers, but the Syrian planes had left by the time they arrived.

If Assad has decided to take his chances and accept the possibility of hitting Americans in targeting the Kurds, it will almost certainly lead to conflict with coalition planes.

It was apparently the first time the coalition had scrambled jets in response to a regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces coming close to killing American or coalition advisers. "This was done as a measure to protect coalition forces," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. "We will ensure their safety and the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them at risk... We view instances that place the coalition at risk with the utmost seriousness and we do have the inherent right of self-defense." But the Pentagon warning appeared to fall on deaf ears. Two Syrian regime warplanes attempted to fly to the area again on Friday, but were met by coalition aircraft, a US defense official said in a statement. "The presence of the coalition aircraft encouraged the Syrian aircraft to depart the airspace without further incident," he said. "No weapons were fired by the coalition fighters." Most of Hasakeh city is controlled by Kurdish forces, while the rest is held by fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Since Wednesday, clashes between the two forces have rocked the city, leaving 23 civilians -- including nine children -- and 16 combatants dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Davis said no coalition injuries were reported in Thursday's strike by two Syrian SU-24s, and US special operations advisers have been moved to a safe location.

What does Assad hope to gain by threatening Americans? It's a safe bet that President Obama would pull any forces we have embedded with the Kurds back from the action if there was a chance there would be American casualties. The fact that special operations forces have moved to a "safe location" confirms that.

You have to wonder what the Kurds think of their American allies disappearing at the first sign of danger. They must also be frustrated when their American allies have a perfectly good air force that is doing nothing to protect them from either Russia or Syria. Ultimately, Assad may be demonstrating to the Kurds the powerlessness of their American allies.
Reports of the death of the Trump campaign look greatly exaggerated. Check the photos from his Friday afternoon (who goes to a political rally on a summer Friday afternoon?) rally in solidly Democrat mid-Michigan. I've attended lots of events at this place and have never seen a crowd that large.

Undoubtedly, Trump was juiced. You know he knew they'd hit it out of the park by touring the damage in Louisiana. There couldn't have been a shortage of high-fives on Trump Force One on the flight to Lansing. The standing room only audience, in a facility where Romney or Hillary would have trouble filling the lobby, had Mr. Trump juiced. You could hear it in his voice.

His speech was a new modified Trump, parts on teleprompter with facts and figures and details, then parts off the cuff  and from the heart. "What the hell do you have to lose?" he intoned to black voters.

To them he spoke with a fact-filled bluntness heard only on conservative talk radio. The Detroit News reported that his message hit home to at least one listener.

Jamie Anthor of Flint, a 28-year-old who was among a handful of black Americans in the crowd, said Trump's message resonated with her.

"He's totally for African-Americans and getting them jobs, and I'm searching for a job myself," she said. "It would just be nice to have someone back us up."

"I don't believe he's a racist, and I'd like to see some evidence on that," Anthor said. "I'd like to see one ounce of evidence of him saying the n-word or being racist towards anybody."

Trump also called for big-city Democrat leaders to be held accountable for the results of their policies over the past fifty years. Now here's some red meat for every conservative commentator (Charles Krauthammer, NRO, George Will, etc.) to write follow-up commentary about, rather than complain about Trump and provide support to backslid Republicans.

Make no mistake: this event, in the heart of Democrat-dominated Michigan shows that no one should underestimate the life and energy of the Trump campaign. My guess is that the attendance exceeded expectations.

The only sad thing is the intimidation (both real and imagined) that's made support for Trump so taboo. Supporting Trump itself is a protest against the suppression of political correctness.
Despotic political movements always have resorted to violence when the mood has suited them. And it seems theyre often in the mood. They cannot tolerate those with opposing views and will do whatever it takes to shut them down.

Its the communist (and Islamist) way.

So it should come as no surprise that attacks against Trump supporters have become commonplace. Despite this sickening reality, media coverage rationalizes these attacks (often blaming Trump and his supporters for the hell that is heaped on them), if there is any coverage at all.

Most recently, over the weekend Trump supporters attending a fundraiser in Minneapolis had to pass through a mass of violent leftists who pressed in on people and tried to block access to the building. The protestors shouted through bullhorns and verbally harassed people. They chased people down. They spray painted obscenities on the convention center walls. They punched, beat, and spit on people. They banged and jumped on peoples cars. They blocked traffic. They tried to block Trumps motorcade, with reports that protestors were able to close in and beat on his car. Some donors had to leave through alternative exists and be escorted to their vehicles by the police because the threat was so great.

And as is predictable at these scenes where human beings behave like rabid dogs, protestors burned the American flag.

Michelle Bachmann, who attended the fundraiser, said the mob was running in a wild frenzy, targeting Trump supporters as well as the police, screaming F*** the police! F*** the police!

Some media reports noted that the protestors who were gathered at the outset were later infiltrated by a smaller group who became violent, attacking Trump donors as they were exiting the building. But from the videos I saw, the mob seemed unruly from the outset.

Its a frightening time in America. Threading the needle this November may be our last chance to attempt to resuscitate our nation. I dont write that to sound dramatic. I just think its the truth.

To follow this subject matter closely, in addition to Breitbart, Western Journalism has been providing excellent coverage, here. Additional research for this blog, here, here, here, here, and here.

Hat tip: Breitbart
For those who want to get rich off of politics, the surest racket is to become the media buyer for a major campaign. For the underwhelming task of actually buying television airtime and print space, one receives a huge commission of 15%. If a campaign spends ten million bucks on television advertising, the buyer gets a million and a half.

For the Bernie Sanders campaign, which raised over $90 million, who received this generous bounty? In the VTDigger, a CPA named Don Kellan looked into the question. (hat tip: Clarice Feldman)

If there is anyone reading this column who might have donated $5, $10 or $25 to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, you may want to take note of what goes on at a house at 4507 Penwood Drive, Alexandria, Virginia. The 1988 vintage, 2,700-square-foot, $550,000 house, located on a cul-de-sac in a subdivision just off a major highway, is also the legal address for a media company that was created on April 8, 2014, Old Towne Media LLC. It is not clear as to who actually owns Old Towne Media LLC, but what is clear is that it is located in Shelli Hutton-Hartigs home. Working out of the home alongside Hutton-Hartig is Barbara Abar Bougie. Both are very close friends of Jane OMeara Sanders. Collectively, they were responsible for close to $90 million in revenue that came to the company from the Sanders presidential campaign. In essence, it was the job of Hutton-Hartig and Bougie, acting through Old Towne Media LLC to redistribute a substantial portion of the $90 million plus to newspapers, TV/radio stations, and Internet outlets. The money was to pay for the promotion of the Vermont senators presidential campaign message. The key words here are substantial portion. According to recent reports and reports as far back as April of this year in VTDigger, The Washington Post and Slate Magazine, substantial portion amounts to approximately $76.5 million or about 85 percent of the funds transferred to Old Towne Media LLC. It is generally accepted that the company placing the ads retains 15 percent as a commission.

So who owns Old Towne media? Nobody knows.

Hmm.

This raises an awkward question:

why did his campaign officials feel that it was necessary to place the funds with a company, not two years in business, with no employees, working out of a private residence in Alexandria, Virginia? According to the 2016/17 Vermont Business Directory, there are 62 long-established advertising/media firms in Vermont. Were any of them given an opportunity to do the ad placements? Also, did his campaign use Vermont banks for the depositories of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in campaign contributions?

There must be a motive to go out on a limb with an inexperienced company. Maybe the owner has some relationship with the two employees? As Jane Sanders does.

Kellan is also concerned about the balance of the funds leftover from the campaign (90 million minus the 76.5 million spent with OTM):

Another question is who will be the recipients of the millions of dollars of commissions still left in the company now that the campaign has come to an end? Legally, the balance does not have to be returned to the campaigns accounts in that it has been earned by Old Towne Media LLC.

So, does Jane Sanders own Old Towne Media? If she does, that would explain how Bernie and Jane were able to spend more than their reported net worth on a third home.

With socialist leaders, you cant be cynical enough.


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AAR will assume nose-to-tail management of components and repairs for flydubais Next-Generation Boeing 737-800 fleet, starting with 53 aircraft and increasing to 60. The deal is expected to help flydubai reduce aircraft-on-ground time and contribute to its on-time performance.

In November 2013, flydubai announced an order for 75 737 MAX 8s and 11 Next-Generation Boeing 737-800s valued at US$ 8.8 billion at list prices, in addition to purchase rights for 25 more 737 MAXs. Last year, flydubai carried more than nine million passengers across its network of more than 85 destinations, becoming the second largest carrier, by passenger numbers, operating out of Dubai International.

As flydubai continues on its robust growth trajectory, it must optimize its fleets performance while minimizing costs and aircraft-on-ground time, said Deepak Sharma, President, AAR international supply chain.

Mick Hills, SVP Engineering and Maintenance at flydubai said: We continue to invest in technologies and partnerships that strengthen our commitment to maintain the highest levels of reliability and safety in our operations.


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.
Hello my fiancee and i applied for a tourist visa first time last yr March 2015 and it was 3mos visa. I got pregnant and was given a bridging visa but then we leave australia Dec 2015.



We want to apply again for a tourist visa to visit his family in australia and for them to meet our daughter. Shes a citizen so i am the only one who needs visa.



Is it possible that we could get a multiple visa? As we are planning to save money and apply for a partner visa onshore. We dont want to be apart that is why we would try our best luck in this. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you!
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21 August 2016 10:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Armenian armed forces have 7 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported on August 21.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the village of Barekamavan of Armenias Noyemberyan district, opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located on the nameless heights and in the village of Farakhli of Gazakh district.

Azerbaijani positions also underwent fire from the positions located near the Qarakhanbeyli village of the Fizuli district.

Moreover, Azerbaijani positions took fire from the positions located on the nameless heights of the Goranboy and Fizuli districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 August 2016 12:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has expressed his condolences to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on August 21.

"We were deeply saddened by the news of a ruthless explosion during a wedding ceremony that resulted in heavy casualties and injuries in Gaziantep province.

We are extremely outraged by this horrible tragedy and other terror acts treacherously committed in your country, and consider it important and necessary to carry out a joint, consistent and resolute struggle against terrorism and all its manifestations.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deep condolences to you, the bereaved families, the loved ones of those who died and the brotherly people of Turkey, and wish the injured the swiftest possible recovery. May Allah rest the souls of the dead in peace!" said President Aliyev in his letter of condolences.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 August 2016 15:29 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The military budget for the current Iranian fiscal year (which started March 20) is twice that of the previous year, President Hassan Rouhani told a conference of high-ranking military commanders of the country on the occasion of the national Defense Industry Day.



This year Iran also has a greater chance regarding aerospace technology to use its talents as well as the opportunities that exist at the international level thanks to the nuclear deal, the president said, Fars news agency reported on August 21.



The nuclear deal, put into practice on January 16, has given the chance to defend its positions on regional development more forcefully. Iran is being threatened by the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) which currently reins over swathes of Iraq and Syria to its west.



Last week the country accommodated Russian bombers in one of its military bases from which to launch air raids on the IS in Syria.



During the same conference, Iran unveiled its first home-made turbojet engine. The engine dubbed Ouj is fully designed and manufactured by Iranian experts, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said.

The engines operating altitude reaches 50,000 ft and can be installed in various aircrafts with maximum takeoff weight of 10 tons, Dehghan said.



The minister also revealed that in the near future Iran will build an underwater cruise missile.

The Islamic Republic says that has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems in recent years.

Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter planes since 1992. Iran also unveiled its first domestically-manufactured long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2010.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 August 2016 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Irans intelligence ministry announced that several terrorists were arrested in western country in a joint operation with the IRGC on August 18.

Other members of a recently dismantled Takfiri terrorist team in western Iran were identified and arrested, the ministry said in a statement, the Iranian governments official website reported.

A significant amount of weapons including Kalashnikov and the US-made M6 rifle, as well as bomb making equipment, grenades and suicide vests and belts were discovered and seized from the terrorists' hide-out, according to the statement.

Iranian officials refer to the extremist Sunni armed groups, in particular in Syria and Iraq, as Takfiri.

Earlier four terrorists linked with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group which had entered Iran through the border to carry out terrorist operations in central Iranian cities were killed in armed clashes in Irans western Kermanshah province in two days (August 15 -16).

The provinces Governor-General Asadollah Razani said that on August15 night security, intelligence, and police forces engaged a first batch of the groups members, killing the key IS agent and arresting some others.

On Aug. 16 morning, forces swooped on a safe house used by the terror cell in Kermanshah city, killing three more terrorists and seizing suicide vests and belts, grenades, and various automatic weapons.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 August 2016 17:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Russias President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the terrorist attack in Gaziantep, where dozens Turkish civilians were killed, the Kremlins press service said on Sunday.



"The crime, committed in the middle of a wedding party, shocks by its cruelty and cynicism," the Russian president said in a telegram. "Once again we see terrorism would not care for laws of civilized society or the very basic norms of human morality."



Putin said the tragedy once again proved it is necessary to unite realistically efforts of the entire international community in fighting terrorism, and confirmed he is ready for the overwhelming anti-terrorist cooperation with the Turkish counterparts, including following the agreements reached recently in St. Petersburg. Vladimir Putin offered condolences and support to relatives and friends of the victims and wished soonest recovery to the injured, the Kremlins press service said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
21 August 2016 18:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

A high-ranking Syrian official has attended a security meeting of the Iranian Parliament.

Hussain Raqib al- Hussain, deputy head of Syrias Committee on National Expediency, accompanied Iranian MPs in the days meeting of the Iranian Parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Tasnim news agency reported August 21.



Tehran has stood behind the Syrian government since civil unrest broke out in the Arab country in 2011, which took a new turn as the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) took swaths of land in the country.

Iran stresses that it does not partake in on-ground military operations in Syria, but backs President Bashar al-Assad forces with military consultation.



Recently, Iran opened one of its airbases to Russian bombers which would launch air raids on terrorists in Syria.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Christian Voice (CV) is a Christian advocacy group based in the United Kingdom. Its stated objective is to uphold Christianity as the Faith of the United Kingdom, to be a voice for Biblical values in law and public policy, and to defend and support traditional family life. It is also an LGBT hate group.

Last night the Christian Voice, took to Twitter after openly gay Olympian Tom Daley failed to qualify for the final of the mens 10 meter diving contest because he turned gay.

The group tweeted: Turning gay doesnt seem to have done Tom Daley any favors at Rio 2016.

They later added: And we need to remember that Tom Daley only went gay because he was seduced by an older man.

The posting caused a Twiiter to explode with anger against CV and put them right.

The leader of Christian Voice is Stephen Green, a former Chairman of the Conservative Family Campaign who has expressed support for the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill (aka. The Kill The Gays Law  2009) and its associated penalty of death, stating The Bible calls for the ultimate penalty for sodomy A Parliamentarian in Uganda is trying to protect his nations children. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is trying to corrupt ours.

Greens former wife, Caroline Green, accused him of repeatedly physically assaulting her and their children, including one incident where he allegedly beat her with a weapon until she bled, and another in which their son allegedly required hospital treatment after having been beaten with a piece of wood. The couple subsequently divorced. Stating that the article was highly defamatory and calling it a catalog of smears and distortions stitched together, Green denied the allegations. On his blog he wrote: I sincerely tried to lead my marriage and household in a loving and responsible way, and one which was faithful to the Lord.

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A global manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies is planning a move to Auburndale.

Medline to build distribution center near Polk Parkway

Proximity to nearby hospitals reasons for site selection

New facility opening represents 100 new area jobs

The company, Medline, recently announced it will build an 830,000 square-foot distribution center on vacant land near Old Dixie Highway and Polk Parkway, close to I-4.



Reportedly, Auburndales central location and close proximity to several nearby hospitals were reasons the company chose the site.



The city's Community Development Director said the project represents a capital investment of around $50 million.



Weve had a lot of people out in the community looking for work. Hopefully, theyll be able to find some work with Medline," said Auburndale Community Development Director Amy Palmer. "It also represents a lot of construction jobs. A lot of contractors and engineering firms have contacted the city looking for work to help construct the facility.



Workers are expected to break ground and begin building the facility in the fall. Construction on the distribution center is expected to be completed by late 2017, according to Palmer, who helped bring the company to the city.



Medline's headquarters is located in Illinois, outside of Chicago. The company has more than 350,000 products that can be found in hospitals, doctors offices, and nursing homes, according to Vivika Panagiotakakos, the companys spokesperson.
The Crazy, Hazy Tale of a Spectacular Oregon Coast Real Estate Failure

Updated Periodically

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  These days, it's a pleasant if not mysterious and crusty tourist attraction on the central Oregon coast, one that's part castle-like ruins and part lovely viewpoint. Splattered in graffiti on its battered, broken concrete walls, the remains of this condo construct-gone-awry sit next to a parking lot at the end of NW 11th in Newport, not far from the buzz of Nye Beach. All of this, in turn, sits on a quickly-crumbling headland known as Jump-Off Joe, which is actually the third incarnation of a rock structure to have that name in a little over 120 years. [UPDATE: Newport's Jump-Off Joe Gets Dangerous, Oregon Coast Landmark Closed Off]

Jump-Off Joe is a wacky and twisting, turning bit of history on the Oregon coast, one that goes back all the way to the area's very initial years as a tourist destination in the late 1800's. Jump-Off Joe was a name applied to no less than three different structures in the ever-sizzling destination of Nye Beach, each a famed and beloved attraction in itself, with the first two crumbling out of existence.





Yet it was this final spot to have the name that had the most intriguing and scandalous history, where a real estate venture gave the term epic fail new and grand dimensions in meaning.

It all came down to the geology of the place. Newport's Nye Beach is mostly composed of concretionary sandstone  meaning it's sandstone mixed with some other stuff, and it's pretty soft. It's prone to disintegrating.





Biggest case in point: in the mid 1800's there was a second headland just south of the current Jump-Off Joe headland. That had eroded by the 1890's into a large rock structure, becoming separated from the cliffs and becoming a favorite with locals, That was the original Jump-Off Joe, which eventually featured a giant arch. But by 1916 this arch crumbled, and by the '90s, there was little left but a few nubs at the tide line (see here).

By the '70s, this current headland got the name Jump-Off Joe, and it too had a famed arch for awhile. That crumbled with a mighty crash in 1994, heard by several witnesses, and since then less and less of it exists.

Even so, in the late '70s, a couple known for their enterprising real estate ventures came up with the kooky idea there should be 39 condominiums on that area overlooking Nye Beach  some on the bluff itself.

So began a long fight with locals. Owners Richard and Barbara Anderson kicked things off when they knocked down a dozen or so trees on that bluff, enraging residents.

In 1980, their struggle to get permits for the Beachland Estate Condominiums started, with various sections of the community fighting them at every step. Most troubling, the Anderson's had considerable issue finding a geologist who would sign off on the idea. They went through several, and finally found one man from Waldport who actually wrote the construction might even stabilize the wobbly Jump-Off Joe.

This was an area that had had several landslides in recent decades. At least one geologic report cited as much as 500 feet disappearing into the beach since the mid 1800's. One landslide took out 200 feet of cliff in a single swoop.

Ironically, the same Waldport geologist had done a survey of that spot six years before and had declared it unbuildable. The man  whose name seems to have disappeared from most historical documents  said in his newer report that Jump-Off Joe would be safe from erosion for another 20 years, however.

The Newport Planning Commission heard endless amounts of testimony, with almost no local in favor of the site. But in 1981, the commission gave initial approval and the city council followed in 1982. Part of the plan even included a seawall to be built somewhere around that bluff, which local government decided would be a ruse and false sense of security. That part of the permits was denied.





Also denied was the larger development, interestingly enough, leaving only the Jump-Off Joe bluff condo units given the green light.

In '82, the Anderson's began construction. Three years later, they were in financial trouble and the building stopped. Just a few short months later, the ground around the unfinished condos began to shift and move, and it was obvious to the naked eye the foundation was sinking. Old newspaper clips from the time show a cracked building that quickly developed new cracks. There were even giant gaps in the walls at some point.

The couple filed for bankruptcy and defaulted on nearly one million dollars in loans, and some local businesses associated with the construction  such as an insurance company and a lumber outfit  went down with that ship. Most of the land went to a bank, and then eventually to the city. Sometime in the late 2000's a paved parking lot was built there for visitors to enjoy the spot.

After the demise of the Beachland project in the '80s, the city was soon charged with the responsibility (and the cost) of bulldozing the buildings. A citizens group called the Friends of Lincoln County got stuck with most of the legal bills.

The unnamed Waldport geologist had his license revoked by the Oregon State Board of Geology Examiners, citing incompetence and gross negligence. His reputation now ranks right up there with the Oregon official who in 1970 decided a beached whale in Florence should be blown up with dynamite (the infamous Exploding Whale).

Now, the old condo ruins host a couple of stairways that seem to go nowhere and a lot of graffiti that ranges from creative to creepy. An ever-shrinking ledge used to be near the top, sitting about 50 feet above the sand and creating a very romantic spot. But that too has mostly disappeared since 2010.

See more of this shrinking Oregon coast wonder here. Below: the outcropping at right would eventually become the new Jump-Off Joe, while the old, crumbling Joe is seen in the middle, circa 1920 or so. Oregon Coast Lodgings for this - Where to eat - Maps and Virtual Tours







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The comment was made on This Morning.

An English TV presenter has made an apology after she made a "joke" about the Irish famine.

Alice Beer was presenting a segment on ITV's This Morning where she was showing the correct foods to store in a fridge.

This Morning host Eamonn Holmes was questioning her on the storage of potatoes when she made the gaffe live on air.

The presenter of the segment, 'The Great Fridge Debate', suggested people should store their potatoes in the fridge.

Im from Ireland, Eamonn Holmes protested.

"You dont put potatoes in the fridge.

Beer responded: "You want to preserve the life of your potatoes.

"You Irish should know that.

There was a bit of a shortage once upon a time," she added.

A quick camera shot of Eamonn Holmes' face showed his disdain as the presenters continued the discussion.

Angry viewers took to the social media platform Twitter to complain about the quip.

One person wrote; "Nothing like a bit of casual racism & making light of a million people's deaths but its only the Irish so it doesn't matter."

Another tweeted: Shortage of potatoes comment was a bit of a low blow.

Beer took to her own Twitter account to apologise, writing: "I apologise for the insensitivity of my comment which of course was never intended to offend. It was stupid.

Source Irish Independent
Lord Rix, the master of West End farce who went on to become a leading campaigner for people with learning difficulties, has died. He was 92.

Mencap, the charity of which he remained president until his death, said the one-time actor-manager beloved by theatregoers died on Saturday morning.

The peer, who knew he was suffering from a terminal illness, recently wrote to the Speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness D'Souza to appeal for a change in the law to legalise assisted dying so he could "slip away peacefully".

Mencap chief executive Jan Tregelles said: "Lord Rix was a beloved colleague and friend to so many people with a learning disability and their families.

"His unique charm, personality and passion have been invaluable in helping Mencap grow into the UK 's leading learning disability charity, and with his passing the charity has lost a very dear friend."

Once a fixture in the West End appearing in innumerable Whitehall farces, Lord Rix was a tireless champion of people with learning disabilities after his eldest child, Shelley, was born with Down's Syndrome.

After becoming a life peer in 1992, he spoke regularly in the Lords on the issue, voicing his frustration that he was unable to do more for his daughter who died in 2005.

Previously an opponent of assisted dying because of concerns people with learning difficulties may become the unwilling victims of euthanasia, in an interview with the Press Association earlier this month he described how his experience with terminal illness had led him to change his mind.

"I have wrapped up my affairs and I am ready to go and I can't do anything but lie here thinking 'Oh Christ, why am I still here?' They won't let me die and that's all I want to do," he said.

"I have no fears of dying because it will put an end to this misery, this pain and discomfort. I am constantly woozy and hazy but I can't sleep.

"I think it's wrong that people like me are stranded like this. I'm not looking for something that helps me only, I'm thinking of all the other people who must be in the same dreadful position."

Brian Rix was born into a wealthy Yorkshire family in 1924, the son of a successful shipowner father and a mother who was a producer of amateur dramatics.

He joined a touring company as a trainee actor at 18 and made his first West End appearance in Twelfth Night in 1943, but his burgeoning theatrical career was disrupted by the Second World War in which he saw service in the RAF and down the mines as one of the Bevin Boys.

After the war he formed his own repertory company, serving his apprenticeship in Ilkley, Bridlington and Margate before taking Reluctant Heroes, one of his early productions, to the London's Whitehall Theatre in 1950 - the start of a brilliant association which was to last for nearly three decades.

His shows, featuring the likes of Tommy Cooper and Sid James, were hits on stage and television, while he earned a reputation for his trousers always falling down.

He became increasingly involved in campaigning for people with learning disabilities and in 1980 he became secretary general of Mencap, going on to become the organisation's chairman in 1988.

He was made a CBE in 1977, followed by a knighthood in 1986 and a life peerage in 1992, sitting in the Lords as a cross-bencher

Mencap chair Derek Lewis said: "Through his tireless campaigning he brought about vastly improved life opportunities for those with learning disabilities compared with the situation when his daughter was born with Down's Syndrome.

"He will be greatly missed but his extraordinary achievements leave us all with the inspiration to continue his vital work."

Mark Atkinson, the chief executive of disability charity Scope, said: "We are very sad to hear the news that Lord Rix has died.

"Lord Rix worked passionately and tirelessly to improve society for disabled people. He will be remembered for the great contribution he made to the disability sector.

"Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this time."

Baroness D'Souza said: "We feel a sense of profound relief that Lord Rix is no longer suffering. I will write to his family remembering his significant contributions both within and without the House of Lords and offering our deepest sympathies."
Britain's decision to leave the EU is being used to make a "land-grab" for Northern Ireland, a senior Irish government minister has claimed.

Leo Varadkar, Social Protection Minister in Dublin's minority Fine Gael administration, said he foresees a united Ireland in the future but warned immediate moves by some in that direction after the Brexit result is counterproductive.

The reunification of the island of Ireland must be brought about through "respect and consent" and by accepting the identity of unionists and "finding a special place for them to thrive", he said.

Mr Varadkar was speaking at a commemoration of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffiths, key figures in the fight for Irish independence, at Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.

"It was easy for some to jump on the Brexit result, and use it to make a land-grab for Northern Ireland," Mr Varadkar said.

"And it was counterproductive."

The shock Brexit result in June has sparked a renewed debate about a potential referendum on the Irish border.

A majority of voters in Northern Ireland want to remain as part of the European Union.

Citing Mr Griffiths's talks with Ulster unionists during the partition of Ireland, Mr Varadkar said his "inclusive vision" is the "only chance we have of securing lasting peace and achieving genuine unity on this island".

"I share the vision of An Taoiseach that foresees a united Ireland at some point in the future, and I share his belief in how it should be achieved," he added.

"Through respect and consent, by accepting the identity of the minority tradition and honouring their values by finding a special place for them to thrive, not through assimilation or the crude majoritarianism in a border poll."

Earlier in the summer, Taoiseach Enda Kenny suggested a border referendum could be closer after the UK's decision to leave the EU, but he later appeared to retreat from his position.

Last month, an opinion poll by Red C showed two out of three people in the Irish Republic would vote for a united Ireland - a sharp rise in support for reunification since a similar opinion poll six years ago.

Separately, President Michael D Higgins addressed the annual commemoration of Mr Collins at Beal na mBlath in Co Cork, where the Irish revolutionary was killed in an ambush in 1922.

Mr Higgins said Mr Collins accepted that some form of partition was regarded as inevitable at the time for unionists "seeking a separate status in the north-east corner of the island".

"With the benefit of hindsight, it has become easier, perhaps, to appreciate the merits of the path of compromise which Michael Collins, however reluctantly and heavy-heartedly, chose to follow," he added.

"Few today would challenge the wisdom of his conscious decision 'not to coerce the North-East'.

"Yet, a century later historians differ as to the motivation of Michael Collins in relation to the assistance he sought to provide to forces in Northern Ireland in this period."
Northern Ireland's police chief has been forced into an embarrassing apology over a late-night tweet suggesting officers overwhelmed by the job should "dry your eyes" or "move on".

Chief Constable George Hamilton was responding to an anonymous person on Twitter shortly after midnight on Sunday as he posted a light-hearted appeal for new recruits.

One Twitter user, apparently a police officer who says he lives with depression and pain, responded that police were expected to be social workers, paramedics and child minders as well.

"I know - more complex & challenging but we are here to serve so let's get on with it rather than wallowing in self pity!" Mr Hamilton replied on his verified Twitter account.

When the man denied he was wallowing in self pity, Mr Hamilton again responded: "well you're allowed to leave & seek another job - nobody is asking you to stay.

"Dry your eyes, do the job or move on!"

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents more than 10,000 rank and file PSNI officers, accused him of a "stunning misjudgment" and demanded an apology for what they described as "offensive comments".

Later on Sunday afternoon, Mr Hamilton posted a video of himself saying sorry for his remarks.

"Last night's frank Twitter conversation was what the police actually do, however such important issues are not best dealt with in the 140 characters of a tweet," he said.

"I've clearly caused some offence in what I've said and for that I apologise.

"You see, I'm hugely proud of the officers and staff who go out and serve the public every day.

"I want to encourage and support them and I accept that my comments last night would have not have conveyed that support. For that I'm sorry."

Mark Lindsay, chairman of the Policing Federation of Northern Ireland, said the pressures endured by officers "are nothing short of monstrous".

"The Chief Constable knows the extent of the problem - we have highlighted it often enough - which makes his remarks all the more bewildering.

"It shows how out of touch he is with his own officers and that is deeply disappointing."

Mr Lindsay said officers are grappling with psychological conditions because of the appalling things they have to experience and witness in the line of duty.

"To cap it all, we have a chief constable who tells the men and women he commands that if they don't like it, they can leave and get another job," he added.

"Mr Hamilton has got this badly wrong.

"To say to officers to 'dry your eyes, do the job or move on' amounts to great insult and a stunning misjudgment."

Mr Hamilton's remarks also drew a fierce response from other users on Twitter.

The Chief Constable had posted an advertisement from 1839 calling for recruits to Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police.

He said: "Think about career in policing - we want citizens to serve from ALL backgrounds. Terms & Conditions have improved."

Doug Beattie, Ulster Unionist MLA and party justice spokesman, said Mr Hamilton's remarks were "wrong".

"There are genuine concerns within the rank and file of the Northern Ireland police service that officers are being used to fill the gaps that other services should be filling," he said.

"That includes being a medical first responder, dealing with mental health and social service issues, and all while delivering policing services within our communities fragmented by terrorism, paramilitary activity and a divided society."

Mr Beattie said he is "incredibly disappointed" by the chief constable's Twitter account remarks.

"He has a difficult task on his hands with an ever-decreasing budget and political masters who are slow to make decisions," he said.

"But there comes a time when he must say enough is enough and stand up for his officers when they raise genuine concerns.

"I hope he reflects on his poorly-formulated tweet, deletes it and makes it known that he is not a 'carry on regardless' chief constable but a man of integrity who will not allow our service to degrade to little more than a political football."
More than a tonne of cocaine with a street value of 80m has been recovered from a boat off the south coast of England, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.

Three men have been arrested and charged following the operation, which Border Force has described as "one of the most significant drug seizures ever made in the UK".

The haul was discovered on vessel Bianca, a British registered converted fishing trawler, on Thursday, in UK waters just south of Falmouth, in Cornwall.

It was seized during a joint operation involving NCA and Border Force maritime command officers, who boarded the boat and found around 50 bags suspected of containing cocaine.

The NCA said the seizure would have a "significant disruptive impact" on the supply chain.

The owner and captain of the boat, Michael McDermott, 67, an Irish national, and his crew, Dutch national Gerald Van De Kooij, 26, and Briton David Pleasants, 57, appeared at Bodmin Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with importing cocaine.

They have been remanded in custody until their next hearing at Bristol Crown Court on September 20.

Mike Stepney, director of national operations at Border Force, said: "This is one of the most significant drugs seizures ever made in the UK and a testament to the multi-agency approach we adopt to secure the UK's border and territorial waters.

"By working closely with the NCA and our other national and international partners we were able to intercept this vessel before it could deliver its 80 million of cargo to the UK.

"This seizure is a fantastic example of the vital role our officers play in preventing drugs from reaching the UK and keeping our communities safe."
Michaella and Melissa Reid shortly after their arrest in Peru

Convicted drug smuggler Michaella McCollum pictured leaving her Dungannon Home in Co Tyrone on Sunday Morning. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Convicted drug smuggler Michaella McCollum has spoken out about how she rose to become "top dog" in her Peru prison cell block, running a business and bribing security to send pictures to her family.

The 23-year-old is currently back in Northern Ireland and was pictured arriving back into the country last week.

It is the first time the convicted drug smuggler had been home in over three years after she was arrested at Lima airport in August 2013.

Read more:

Read More

McCollum and Scotswoman Melissa Reid- nicknamed the Peru Two - were working in Ibiza for the summer when they travelled to South America three years ago.

They were arrested as they attempted to smuggle the cocaine in their suitcases. However, they denied knowing the luggage contained drugs, claiming they had been kidnapped and forced to become drug runners.

They later came clean and were jailed for six years and eight months.

McCollum was released from prison in Peru on March 31 after spending less than three years behind bars with Scot Melissa Reid.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Michaella McCollum Connolly in one of the Ibiza clubs where she worked as a dancer Michaella McCollum Connolly in one of her club hostess outfits Michaella McCollum Connolly with Brad Houston from England Michaella McCollum Connolly Michaella McCollum Connolly Michaella McCollum cradling her newborn twins Michaella McCollum Connolly pictured during an interview with RTE in 2016 after being released on parole from a Peruvian prison Michaella McCollum Connolly, handcuffed, arrives for a court hearing, in Lima, Peru (AP Photo/Karel Navarro) AP Michaella McCollum Connolly, handcuffed, arrives for a court hearing in Lima, Peru, clutching the book 'Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know: Ten principles for spiritual and emotional fulfillment' (AP Photo/Karel Navarro) AP Michaella McCollum Connolly arrives to court for her sentencing in Callao, Peru (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) AP Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum, both handcuffed, arrive for a court hearing in Lima, Peru (AP Photo/Karel Navarro) AP Michaella McCollum Connolly, handcuffed, arrives for a court hearing, in Lima, Peru (AP Photo/Karel Navarro) AP Michaella McCollum, left, and Melissa Reid listen to a translator during a hearing at court in Callao, Peru (AP) AP Police escort Melissa Reid, front, and Michaella McCollum to a hearing in Lima, Peru (AP) Police escort Michaella McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid from the National Police anti-drug headquarters in Peru (AP) Michaella McCollum Connolly (left) and friend Melissa Reid in the airport after they were arrested Michaella McCollum Connolly with rugby star Tommy Bowe while doing promotional work at an official Ulster Rugby event Santa Monica female prison in Peru AP SECRET STASH: The drugs found in food packs in the girls luggage CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Michaella and Melissa caught on CCTV loading bags into a car in Peru Michaella McCollum, centre, and Melissa Reid leave the court after being sentenced in Peru. Lawyer Peter Madden, who represents Michaella McCollum, has claimed his client has suffered from a lack of food. Belfast solicitor Peter Madden said Michaella McCollum and co-accused Melissa Reid have been well treated by the authorities PA Michaella McCollum, right, and Melissa Reid, left, were jailed in Peru last year after they admitted trying to smuggle cocaine worth 1.5 million pounds from Peru to Spain (AP) Michaella McCollum's mother Norah McCollum and sister Samantha McCollum vist the Peru prison Michaella McCollum Connolly with reality TV star Mark Wright at a promotional night hosted by Belfast's M Club / Facebook

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Whatsapp Michaella McCollum Connolly in one of the Ibiza clubs where she worked as a dancer

In an interview with the Daily Mail, McCollum said she hopes her story will be a warning to others - and that they won't end up in the situation she did.

"I thought it was totally innocent just experimenting with drugs on holiday and look where it put me", she said.

The Dungannon woman revealed how she secretly took pictures on a mobile phone she got by bribing a prison guard to send home to her family to reassure them she was coping with prison life.

In one picture she is seen blowing out candles on a cake, alongside other inmates, as they celebrate her 22nd birthday.

She told how she rose to "top tog" in her block being elected "general co-ordinator" and also ran a beauty salon offering prisoners treatments which she made about 230 a week from - while also taking part in dance competitions against rival blocks.

The Mail reports she used the money she made to bribe a security guard to get her a mobile phone to send pictures to her family.

But she said while the photos appear in stark contrast to the realities of prison life she said "crying and sulking" every day wasn't going to make a difference.

She told how she shared a cell with seven other inmates including Melissa Reid, slept on concrete bunks and the toilet was a hole in the floor.

She said: "We would prepare ourselves for a long time because I was taking them pictures to send to my family, so obviously I wanted to look as good as possible.

"Those days the pictures were taken, there was always an event or something happening.

"Weirdly, I look kind of happy. You crying and sulking every day, thats not going to make any difference. Of course you do have laughs in there, you do have sometimes a good time.

"You can make fun and obviously that helps pass the time even more. Especially when theres a birthday party  thats just an excuse for everybody to get together and listen to music and to dance."

Michaella also claims she received over 500 love letters while she was in prison - and a marriage proposal.

She claimed a married prison psychologist told her they could "live happily ever after".

He tried to propose. Once I rejected him he sent letters to the court saying I was the head of a drug mafia. He told me I would never see the light of day", she told the Daily Mirror.
Security forces have hit back at those responsible for atrocities

Tunisia's newly nominated prime minister has announced his government will include members of the previous administration in key posts.

Youssef Chahed said on Saturday that he was keeping seven ministers of the former government, including the defence, interior and foreign affairs portfolios.

He told reporters this choice was inspired by recent "successes" in the security field and the fight against terrorism.

Tunisia suffered two major jihadi attacks last year - at a beach resort and at the well-known Bardo Museum - that killed around 60 people including many Britons.

The new governmental team of 26 senior ministers and 14 junior ministers includes eight women - up from three previously.

Mr Chahed, 41, was minister for local affairs in the government that fell last month. His government still needs approval from parliament.

AP
What is the difference between an ordinary toy shop and a Christian one? As The Entertainer store opens its doors in Belfasts CastleCourt Shopping Centre, now we know. No Harry Potter merchandise, no Halloween-related products and definitely no toy machine-guns. Oh, and no Trolls either. Gary Grant, the born-again Christian owner of the Entertainer chain, said the tufty-haired dolls made him feel uneasy in my spirit. The Entertainer only sells toys that he considers wholesome. And he keeps his shops closed on a Sunday.

Why not, you might say. Its Mr Grants business, and hes entitled to sell  or not sell  whatever he likes, whenever he likes, according to whichever value system he chooses.

Thats true. But whats so soul-threatening about Harry Potter? To hear some evangelical Christians talk, youd think that JK Rowlings books  not to mention the films and all the spin-off toys  are some kind of instantaneous portal to hell. And not a grain of floo powder in sight.

Its the references to cult practices such as witchcraft and sorcery, which apparently may attract children to the occult, that the toy shop boss objects to. I am ultimately responsible and accountable for all that goes on within the business, he said. I have to oversee the products and make sure I feel happy with the items we are selling.

Im sorry, but I simply dont understand how reading an exciting story about witches, wizards and other fantastical creatures, or watching a film about them, or even just playing with a Lego figurine of Harry Potter, is in any way damaging to a child. Theyre not going to turn round and say: Hey Mum, can Santa bring me a ouija board for Christmas?

Likewise, its difficult to comprehend how a Troll doll is invested with the extraordinary power to corrupt a childs morals. Id ban Trolls from the house all right, but purely on aesthetic grounds, because with their wrinkly faces and their garish hair, theyre just so revoltingly ugly. Not because theyre Satans little plastic emissaries.

This is yet another instance of the conservative Christian hysteria that periodically flares up about all kinds of innocuous, everyday things. Yoga, for example. For me, its a weekly practice which I use to stretch, unwind and hopefully relax. But for people like Londonderry priest Father Roland Colhoun, its one step closer to the Kingdom of Darkness. Last year, he warned that taking up yoga  and even having Indian head massages  meant taking a real risk with your spiritual health.

For Christians of a fundamentalist bent, evil is always hovering in frighteningly close proximity, waiting for its moment to strike. If youre not constantly on the lookout, keeping your eyes peeled, then whoops  youre a goner.

The thing I object to with Mr Grants toy shop empire is the pre-selection process. He has already personally determined, in advance, whats acceptable for our children to play with.

But surely thats up to us, as parents, and as consumers, to decide. Most of us dont consider a model of Voldemort, or a spooky Halloween mask, to be an existential threat to our offspring. So why not give us the choice?

Besides, once you start banning items from your stores on moral grounds, you leave yourself open to all sorts of questions about ethical consistency. The Entertainer may refuse to stock toy machine-guns, but on my trip to the store I noticed that they do sell a toy gun shooting set, complete with a pistol and a large rifle bearing the name Speedy Kid. Suitable for cowboys aged three and up, apparently.

Why is that perfectly acceptable, yet a Harry Potter jigsaw, or a colouring book, is considered to be halfway to Hades?

None of this is a worry to Gary Grant, however. Despite donating 10% of its profits to charity, The Entertainer is flourishing. Its the fastest growing toy store in the UK, and the companys 2015 accounts show a 22m increase in turnover. Far from being an impediment to profit, Mr Grants faith and his much-publicised ban on anything he regards as unwholesome or unsuitable for children is proving to be very good for business.

I dont believe that this is because customers long for moral guidance on their shopping preferences. Rather, in a field of identikit toy stores, virtually indistinguishable from each other, it provides The Entertainer with a unique selling point.

Fair enough. But Id prefer to shop in a place where my choice  not the owners superstitions  comes first.
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The first night of the Loeries 2016 Awards took place at the Durban ICC on 20 August. Although a rainy evening, the creative and excited atmosphere quickly heated things up.

The hosts of the evening were Zizo Beda and John Vlismas, who gave an account of the perfect world where everyone gets along, but in reality things are different. We need the world exactly as it is. We need variety, diversity, anger, frustration, discomfort, restlessness, anxiety and ambition, because those are signs of life, and life is creativity, said Vlismas.

Gallo Images

They introduced the chairperson of the Loeries, Neo Mashigo, who stated how important it is to the captains of the industry to contribute to and build our regional and national agenda. The persistence of agencies is strong, even when they aren't navigating with GPS and have a vague idea of tuning off. Why persist? Because we know that the navigation of this terrain is an investment we are making in the future of our children and the future of the entire globe.

Mashigo then touched on a few changes that have taken place within the Loeries, like the transition from Cape Town to Durban, the growth of the award entries and the quality of work. An important change theyve made is being more gender mixed in the judging panels and rotating judges in the different categories.

The Loeries will also be looking into increasing the amount of bursaries provided to students, we want to focus on education. For our industry to transform, we need to give students the opportunity to join our industry.

Transformation is a big topic within the industry at the moment and the crowd was thrilled when Mashigo announced the new chairperson of the Loeries  Suhana Gordhan, the creative director at FCB Africa. The greatest challenge we face today is an industry which isnt evolving fast enough, she said.

Gordhan believes that the advertising is not progressive or appealing enough to young women talent, and stated how the desire to fix this is urgent enough in everyone. She says that its up to the industry leaders to build a bridge for the young women, so that they can become the same.

Suhana Gordhan - Gallo Images

To the young women coming up, I ask this of you  be more demanding to us, ignore the crippling thoughts in your head, banish the subtleties and become more outspoken, she said.

Gordhan stated that the Loeries is about honouring fresh, bold thinking. Its about the power creativity has to shine a light on our people and culture. Its about the work we can whole-heartedly believe in.

Martin Luther King Jr. called it the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time we build the bridges, now is the time when we rebuild the trust in the industry, now is when we update our ways of doing so that in the years to come the young women and all of us, have far better stories to tell, says Gordhan.

She concluded by saying that these stories need to be about great creativity, stories that will push us all forward, because great creativity is that which hates something, changes something and makes something better.

View the full list of winners of the Saturday Awards evening.
I cannot lie. I became a big Jimmy Smith fan at this year's DStv Seminar of Creativity. Besides imparting a whole lot of knowledge on the advertising world, he also gave a botany lesson that probably would serve as good advice when venturing into your own business and pretty much life in general.

First, let me remind you who Smith is. He is a great big bear of an ad man, in fact theres a passing resemblance to Samuel L Jackson in The Cavemans Valentine, with an impressive pedigree, who owns Amusement Park.

Taking the plunge

The blurb on the companys website  we craft engaging brand stories that connect with consumers on every media platform. Pretty standard ad agency sell, right? But if you can persuade your client to risk their brand reputation on a man hurtling through the air from 25,000ft (more than 7,000 metres) and landing safely, then youve got a serious pair on you.

"When it was brought to us, we were looking for a way to launch our new Stride gum, whose brand identity is that its mad intense," said Laura Henderson, global head of content and media monetisation at Stride parent, Mondelez International. "We knew that Heaven Sent would be one of the most mad intense stunts ever attempted, and it was the perfect embodiment of what new Stride gum is all about.

The gamble paid off, the stunt has generated more than 700 press hits and 500m impressions internationally.

Anyway, thats not the botany lesson, but illustrates that you have to be resilient and take risks to really achieve what you want. And this all relates to one of the points Smith made about ownership in his seminar presentation.

We all need stress wood

He talks about the Biosphere 2 experiment, where scientists built a mini world in the Arizona desert to see it they could replicate the earths environment, just in case global warming goes completely haywire, theres a Zombie Apocalypse or something equally catastrophic.

One of the anomalies that came out of the experiment is that even though trees grew much faster in the fake world, they reached a point where they just stopped thriving. The scientists concluded that trees need wind to survive.

Trees need to be put under pressure by the wind to build up a load-bearing structure. This is called stress wood. This structure positions the tree where itd get the best light, or other optimum resources, and is the reason why trees are able to contort towards best light and still survive loads in even awkward shapes. Think of some of those bent-out-of-shape trees in Cape Town, which despite the almost constant pummelling by the wind, still grow.

Can you see where this is going?

Smith uses stress wood as an analogy for starting your own business. I had to sell my house and my car, I needed a little stress wood to create some magic, he says. In other words, you have to be adaptable and be willing to bend and take your failures as lessons to eventually reach your goals.
Czech islamophobes attempted to stage an Islamic state invasion in Prague, several people were hurt

21. 8. 2016

cas cteni 1 minuta

Marking the 48th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which took place on 21st August, 1968, Czech islamophobic activists from the "Martin Konvicka Initiative" tried to stage an Islamic State invasion at the Old Town Square in Prague on Sunday afternoon. They arrived in military vehicles, disguised as Arabs, wielding airsoft weapons, replica machine guns and Islamic State flags. When they started shooting, this produced panic amongst the passers-by, mostly foreign visitors, and several people were hurt.

Czech islamophobes see all muslims as terrorists. They do not distinguish between an ordinary muslim and an Islamic State fighter. They also see all refugees as potential terrorists.

Prior to the event, the Czech police had inspected the replica guns and found them acceptable, but when panic arose, Prague local authority officials cancelled the event.

Miroslav Adamec, "The Martin Konvicka Initiative" spokesperson, said that the event was supposed to remind people of "what is daily happening several thousand kilometres from here and is now coming even to us, in Central and Western Europe."

Czech police is now assessing whether the event had infringed the law and whether it can be classified as the offence of disseminating alarmist news.

#Konvicka zadneho uprchlika na svou demonstraci nenasel, tak mu nezbylo nez se za nej sam vydavat.



Foto: P. Malina pic.twitter.com/BoS5dT8BBZ  Tilwaen (@Tilwaen) August 21, 2016

Source in Czech HERE

There are stories like this in the Czech Republic every day that never make it to the outside world because of a lack of translation. You can support us and help reveal what's happening in Central Europe today. Please make a contribution today on www.paypal.com and send your donation to redakce@blisty.cz. We fully rely on crowdfunding in our work. Thank you.

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/08/2016 (2260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three men face charges following an early Saturday morning melee on Waterloo Crescent.

At approximately 6:20 a.m., police were called to a residence on Waterloo Crescent after shouting could be heard.

Upon arrival, officers nabbed three men exiting the house, while a fourth man fled the scene, running away on 34th Street.

The Brandon Police Service Dog Unit tracked the fourth subject, locating and securing him a short time later.

Brandon Police Servce Brandon Police Service

BPS investigation revealed that the men showed up at the residence and were let into the garage. Once inside, they assaulted a man who was trying to help them locate another man that they were looking for.

One of the men then broke into the rear door of the home, causing damage. After gaining access to the home, they kicked in a door to a bedroom and attempted to steal some items from the room.

Before leaving, the man who was assaulted and his girlfriend were threatened with a knife and told not to call police.

As a result, three men  a 27-year-old from Portage la Prairie, and a 19-year-old and 26-year-old from Brandon  face charges including break and enter, committing a robbery while armed with a weapon, assault with a weapon, threat to cause death and mischief to property.

The fourth man, an 18-year-old from Cranberry Portage, played no role in the incident and wasnt charged.

 The Brandon Sun
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prairie Mountain Health received its poorest marks in medication management, according to a national survey performed by Accreditation Canada.

The survey, which examined 47 Westman hospitals and health centres in June, assessed the health regions performance in 21 different areas of organizational practices, service delivery and patient care and safety.

Medication Management Standards met 49 of 70 high priority criteria or 70 per cent and scored a 73.2 per cent in other criteria for an overall score of 71.4 per cent. It was the worst mark PMH received in any of the 21 areas examined.

PMH CEO Penny Gilson said the health authority is in the process of addressing the surveys concerns and in many cases policies had already been drafted to close standard gaps.

The survey identified a number of areas that need to be addressed.

The survey found there are storage issues with some products such as chemotherapy drugs, anaesthetic gases and volatile liquids.

Aging health centres are the No. 1 reason the authority failed to meet the criteria, according to Gilson, who pointed out that many of the facilities storage areas are safe, but need to be upgraded to meet newer, up-to-date standards that have been modified since their construction.

Many of our deficiencies in this area relate to the reality that we have a lot of old capital infrastructure that doesnt meet todays standards, Gilson said. Processes are put in place to mitigate the risk associated with that. If risks cannot be mitigated sometimes we need to centralize at sites where they can be.

Gilson said infrastructure gaps has been identified at the regional and provincial level, while Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living is evaluating facilities to prioritize infrastructure projects.

The survey identified that the region needs more stringent regulations on the type and dose of drugs available in client service areas, particularily when it comes to opioids and concentrated electrolytes.

It also said that the medical carts in Dauphin are old, not locked or secured.

Gilson took umbrage with the criticism of Dauphins carts.

We will be correcting this with Accreditation Canada, Gilson said about the carts. All of the medication carts are reasonably new. All are lockable and most of the carts are code locked with a double code required for controlled items. The carts also have a security wall attachment making it difficult to move without detaching from the wall.

Gilson said each of the three amalgamated regional health authorities  Brandon, Assiniboine and Parkland  had their own policies as it related to stocking certain types of drugs in client service areas.

A new PMH regional high-alert policy will be released in September which restricts access and requires a review of the medication by the medication system safety committee before stocking in a client service area, she said. High-alert products that need to be stocked are flagged with special labels.

An audit of opioid and concentrated electrolytes conducted in 2015 caused the removal of the medications from many client service areas, while another audit is ongoing, according to Gilson.

Other areas where PMH fell down were listed as more oversight on antimicrobial stewardship, soft and hard limits for smart infusion pumps and the implementation of a regional drug library, among others.

The survey also said pharmacists should review prescription and medication orders with the health authority prior to administrating the first dose, something Gilson said is unrealistic given the scope of PMH.

Absolute compliance with this would require 24 hour pharmacy services at all sites in PMH, which is not feasible so Accreditation Canada expects organizations will put in place processes to ensure review within a timely manner with the resources available, she said.

A region-wide pharmacy system has been implemented post-amalgamation, which allows some remote review that assists in this timely review. Pharmacists are reviewing orders now from multiple communities through new computer system technology which has just been newly implemented.

There is also a project underway to expand the implementation of automated distribution cabinets in the region, which adds safety measures prior to administration of the first dose, according to Gilson.

To view the entire survey, go to PrairieMountainHealth.ca.

 ctweed@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @CharlesTweed
Thousands of people are expected to attend the annual Michael Collins oration at Beal na mBlath in Co Cork today.

Michael Collins was killed in a Republican ambush on August 22, 1922.

President Michael D Higgins will become the first sitting Head of State to deliver the oration this afternoon.

Chairman of the Beal na mBlath committee Dermot Collins has described it as an historic occasion.

"It has never happened before that a President in office delivers an oration at Beal na mBlath," he said.

"We're certainly looking forward to him and we're delighted and honoured that he has accepted our invitation.

"I hope today is good and I just might encourage people to travel in time - don't leave it late."

Elsewhere, Government Minister Leo Varadkar will give the oration at the annual Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith commemoration at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin at 12 noon.
Donald Trump doubled his campaign expenses last month, yet was still spending at a far slower rate than Hillary Clinton.

New finance documents show the Republican presidential nominee's campaign spent about US$18.5m in July.

By comparison, the Democratic presidential nominee spent about US$38m.

The New York businessman gave his campaign another $2m in recent weeks. He had pledged to contribute as part of a fundraising pitch to small donors, telling them he would match their efforts up to that amount.

In all, his campaign brought in $37m for the month. Clinton's campaign raised $52m.

Mr Trump has continued to increase the size of his operation, putting $5m this week into his first batch of TV ads.

Mrs Clinton has been running general election ads for months.

Last month Mr Trump brought in some new consultants and firms, July reports to the Federal Election Commission show.

At the end of July, the campaign paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with Republican opponent Ted Cruz.

Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2m to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.

The Trump filings also show some old ties.

Two weeks after campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was ousted, the Trump campaign sent his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 cheque.

That is about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.

At the time of the latest payment, Mr Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.
A three-year-old boy has been flown to hospital with serious injuries after he was crushed under a wall at a store, the Great North Air Ambulance Service has said.

Police cordoned off a street close to the store in Darlington around 3.30pm on Sunday to allow the helicopter to land.
The Philippines' brash-talking president has threatened to withdraw his country from the United Nations in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.

President Rodrigo Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the US and the UN to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.

The US State Department and two UN human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations.

Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gun battles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.

Agnes Callamard, the new UN special rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that "claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings".

Criticisms of the president's crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference that dragged on for more than two hours.

"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you're that rude, son of a bitch, we'll just leave you," Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city's longtime mayor.

Duterte also belittled UN work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions, for example, about the performance of the world body's agency that fights hunger.

If the Philippines breaks off from the UN - which Duterte called "inutile" (useless) and "stupid" - he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body.

The UN, he said, should return Manila's financial contributions.

"Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it," Duterte said, referring to the photo of a five-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that has gone viral online.

"Why is it that United States is not doing anything? I do not read you," Duterte said.

"Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?"

When asked about the possible repercussions of his remarks, Duterte replied: "I don't give a s**t about them. They are the ones interfering."

Duterte wondered whether UN officials were threatening to put him in prison and repeated that he was ready to sacrifice his life and presidency for his country.

Reacting to US criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the US.

"Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?" he asked.

"Answer that question, because even if it's just one or two or three, it is still human rights violations."

Duterte's drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30.

Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed.

The arrests have further overwhelmed the Philippines' overcrowded jails
SAN FRANCISCO: US tech titans looking to the future are seeing growth take a beating in the face of foreign...
The house was sold earlier this year for more than $510,000. The government accepts the woman is an innocent victim of fraud but disagrees that she is entitled to recover damages from the government. "The plaintiff has a remedy against the fraudster under section 154 of the Act and must first take action against him or her before she may take action against the defendant," the government said in its submission. The case was heard in the ACT Supreme Court last week and Associate Judge David Mossop has reserved his decision in the case. The fraud spanned several months over 2013 and 2014 and began when the scammer impersonated the woman, contacting her property manager on a fake email address and asking to change their contact details with "immediate effect" claiming her old email, which they provided, had been compromised. They also provided a contact number.

It is unclear how they knew who the woman's property manager was or her old email address. It is believed the fake email address may have originated in South Africa. The fraudster instructed the agent to sell the home, even telling them to sell it for $400,000 without contacting her first or to get in touch if any offers below that were made. The scammer also provided a signed authority for the agent to act on her behalf for insurance claims or enquiries about the property. The agent told the fraudster the suggested $400,000 asking price would be undervaluing the property and they should aim for a higher figure.

But the fraudster persisted, instructing the agent to "use their discretion to achieve the best price without delay". The house eventually sold for $430,000 and the fraudster again impersonated the owner and engaged lawyers in Canberra to act for them for the sale. When the lawyers asked for her loan account number, the scammer claimed the documents were destroyed in a fire. Contracts were then exchanged with the brazen criminal forging the victim's signature on the contract. They also asked for the money from the sale to be deposited into an Indonesian bank account and even called the real estate agent.

The scammer's lawyers were able to get the victim's certificate of title and discharge of mortgage from safe custody at her bank. The sale settled in February 2014 and the fraudster again forged the victim's signature on the transfer. The scam was complete and the fraudster rich. Several months passed and it was only in July 2014 that the real owner learnt that the home she purchased in 1991 had been sold. She had paid off her home loan in 2005. The woman, who moved to South Africa in 2002, said that in the early years she had monthly contact with the real estate agent, but "as the years went on", she would hear from them from about six times a year and only if there was "tenant issue, maintenance issue, insurance and rates to be paid or if the rent was to be reviewed".

Her lawyer Michael Orlov argues his client should be compensated under the Land Titles Act. "The facts establish that a fraud has been committed and that the plaintiff has been deprived of land as a result, but not the identity of the fraudster," he said in a submission to the court. In court, Mr Orlov described the fraudster as an "anxious seller", keen to get whatever they could for the property. An international police investigation failed to catch the scammer, with ACT Policing recently confirming the investigation was now considered closed. The fraud raised questions about whether enough has been done to protect Canberra home owners from being scammed and prevent another scam from happening.
Barry and Rosemarie Millar of Isabella Plains want the owner of the dog that killed their 12-year-old poodle, Lily, and savaged their house sitter to face court to answer for their negligence.

The couple, who live in an over-55s retirement complex near the designated off-leash area where the attack occurred on June 26, were on holiday in Europe at the time.

Barry Millar and his wife Rosemarie were on holidays in Europe when poodle Lily was attacked and killed. Credit:Jamila Toderas

"We received a phone call from our daughter," Mr Millar said. "Her first words were: 'we have to talk'."

The couple were horrified, not just at the loss of a beloved family member but because their house sitter, Rima, suffered serious injuries to her hands and arms defending the dog.
The primary threat to the dominance of Christianity in Australia is not from Islam, or from Buddhism, or Judaism, or any other religion. It comes from those having no religion at all.

This is the supposedly alarming future in which she founds her campaign of fear, one in which fewer than one in 20 people will be followers of Islam. Australia as we know it will likely survive.

As useful as her fake campaign against Muslims and squat toilets is to her political fortunes, just 4.9 per cent of Australians will be Muslims by 2050.

It comes, increasingly, from the irrelevancy of the church to most of our lives. By 2050, atheists will be part of the second largest religious group, those with no affiliation, along with agnostics and others of no faith.

According to last year's Future of World Religions report by the Pew Research Centre, they will be on the way to a majority. About two-thirds of Australians identify with Christianity, with those without religion accounting for a quarter, meaning most Australians are one or the other  91 per cent.

It's a long way back to other faiths, with Muslims and Buddhists about 2.5 per cent each, and Jews fewer than 1 per cent. But by mid-century, assuming current trends continue, the numbers of Australian subscribers to Christianity will have collapsed to 47 per cent. On this measure, Australia will no longer be a Christian country.

It will be one of a handful of Western countries to lose an existing Christian majority, along with New Zealand, Britain, France and the Netherlands. Unlike the West, the world as a whole will become relatively more religious, not less. Islam will have almost as many followers as Christianity, possibly for the first time in history.

The projected growth in Islam is largely due to demographics  its main populations have much higher birth rates than Christians. The global share of those with no religion will decline, hurt especially by China's low birth rates. Few people convert from one religion to another, but of those who do change their faith, by far the greatest movement will not be converts to Islam. They will be those leaving Christianity and choosing to have no faith at all, a movement concentrated in the West.
The news there will now be two separate inquiries, one of which is to be carried out by former Commonwealth Auditor General, Ian McPhee, into how the Land Development Agency has handled some of its recent, and, on occasion, controversial, property transactions is very welcome.

These include the LDA's 2015 decision, reported in June this year, to buy land at Glebe Park from private developers for more than four times its initial valuation.

Land Development Agency chief executive David Dawes. Credit:Graham Tidy

While the McPhee inquiry will not look at specific transactions it will throw a spotlight onto what LDA chief executive David Dawes, has called "the governance framework" for ACT land sales involving both the agency and the Procurement and Capital Works divisions that fall within the ministerial orbit of Andrew Barr.

The other inquiry, which has now been running for some time, is being conducted by the territory's auditor general, Dr Maxine Cooper.
Opinion columns, including this one, all too often criticise politicians and governments for their regular mistakes. So allow me to applaud that rare and marvellous thing: a policy that has actually worked and, in the process, commanded broad public and political support. I am referring to the border protection policies that John Howard and his immigration minister Philip Ruddock put in place.

From 1999 to 2001, more than 12,000-plus boat people are known to have paid for unauthorised passage to Australia. As a result, public confidence in our immigration system was diminishing dramatically. All that changed 15 years ago this week when the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, packed with boat people, entered our waters.

John Howard and immigration minister Ruddock denied entry to 430 people aboard the Tampa 15 years ago this week. Credit:Jacky Ghossein

On August 26, 2001, the ship's captain had turned away from Indonesia and towards Christmas Island, because he had been intimidated by a group of those he had saved. What Bob Hawke had once called "queue jumpers" had come here via several safe ports where they could have easily disembarked.

Howard, with strong public support, refused them entry. His government subsequently implemented tough policies, such as offshore processing. (Paul Keating had already introduced mandatory detention.)
Police were investigating after a shot was fired inside a Gold Coast unit on Sunday night.

Police were called to a unit complex on Albert Avenue at Broadbeach after reports a shot was fired about 8pm.

Police were on scene at the Gold Coast unit.

While a spent casing was found inside the unit, police were unable to find a bullet or firearm.

Three men, some of whom were inside the unit when police arrived, were assisting with inquiries.
Two boys, aged nine and 10, reported missing from Caboolture have been located safe and well on Sunday afternoon.

Police said the two boys were found near an educational centre on Smiths Road, after being last seen riding their bikes on King Street about 3pm on Saturday.

Police thanked the public for their assistance in locating the two missing Caboolture boys.

With AAP
Byron Bay woman Sara Connor told her boyfriend a "bad cop" pushed her to the ground and lay on top of her on Kuta beach in Bali, according to the boyfriend's lawyer.

Ms Connor and her British DJ boyfriend David Taylor have been declared suspects in the alleged murder of Balinese police officer Wayan Sudarsa, whose bloodied corpse was found on the sand near a smashed Bintang beer bottle on August 17.

Mr Taylor's laywer, Haposan Sihombing, told Fairfax Media his client had been interrogated from 2pm to 7pm on Saturday. He had not admitted to committing the murder.

Mr Haposan said Mr Taylor had been asked 35 questions. Mr Taylor said he and Ms Connor had a date on the beach at Kuta.
Phillies complete comeback with 10th inning HR to win Game 1 of World Series

Philadelphias catcher hit a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the 10th after his team had rallied out of an early 5-0 deficit.
Hyperloop concept was first released in 2013 by Tesla and SpaceXs Elon Musk as an alternative to high-speed rail. Musk said he wanted to make Hyperloop an open-source project for high-speed transportation. Several separate entities have since been formed to explore the possibilities. Musks white paper had the basic concept of how a pod could propel over 100,000 people at the speed of sound, from one city to another in vacuum tubes. It felt like an idea from the world of HG Wells. Within a year, two said they had raised money. One is Hyperloop Transportation Technology (HTT) and the other Hyperloop One  a Boeing or Airbus of the Hyperloop world. They have slugged it out in the press for months, claiming to have an upper hand in technology. Bibop Gresta, COO, HTT, spoke to Patanjali Pahwa on Sunday at the i5 summit organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. Edited excerpts:



Your visit comes at a time when India is betting big on high-speed trains? Do you see a market here for HTT?



We are here primarily to speak to your politicians and see if there is a real interest in solving the transportation problems of this country. The population density and the lack of infrastructure are two primary reasons to look at India as a market. India is talking about implementing new ways of transportation. You have been talking, for years, about high-speed rail. I believe, this could be the worst thing to do. It is obsolete technology and it will be a burden on the next generation. India doesnt need to repeat the mistakes of other countries. And high-speed rail is a mistake. These high-speed rail systems mean you spend too much money and cant recoup the investment.
InCred, the non-banking financial company (NBFC) floated by former Deutsche Bank senior executive Bhupinder Singh, has garnered high-profile backers including the banks former co-chief Anshu Jain. It will start operations soon with a capital base of Rs 500-600 crore.
Home-grown mobile phone maker Jivi Mobiles plans to invest up to Rs 200 crore in setting up a new manufacturing unit in Lonavala with initial production capacity of 5 lakh units per month.

"We are selling around 3-3.5 lakh feature phones per month. By Diwali, we expect to reach sales of 6 lakh units a month. Based on demand, we expect to sell 10 lakh units per month by 2017-18 for which we are setting up additional plant in Lonavala with investment of Rs 180-200 crore," Jivi Mobiles CEO Pankaj Anand told PTI.

Jivi at present has a mobile assembly unit in Delhi where it produces 3-3.5 lakh mobile feature phones per month.

"We could have opted for a contract manufacturer but due to issue of quality control and supply issues, we have started our own unit in Delhi with investment of Rs 150 crore," Anand said.

He, however, said that recent announcement by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of increasing minimum wages to about Rs 14,500 will adversely impact its mobile phone business which is a very low margin business.

"We get average discount of about 13 cents, which is around Rs 35, when we bring parts of mobile phone to India such measures to mandate minimum wage will hamper growth prospect in Delhi. That is one more reason that we are now planning expansion in Lonavala," Anand said.

The company will hire 500 skilled people to work at Lonavala plant.

"The Lonavala plant will have 10 assembly lines. We will use 1-2 assembly for mobile phone accessories -- battery and charger. We expect that plant to produce 30 thousand mobile batteries and 15-20 thousand chargers per month, " Jivi Mobiles Director Gurdeep Singh said.

Jivi has plans to enter into low cost smartphone market to cater both 3G and 4G users which will help company ramp up its sale.

"We will sell smartphones in the range of Rs 2,000-5,000 because Chinese players with their government support are giving tough competition in smartphone priced above Rs 5,000 a unit. It is really tough for Indian to compete with Chinese smartphone companies," Anand said.

He said the company is focusing on offline retail and presently reaches out to 25,000 retail outlets across the country.

"In this financial year, we will double distributors from 550 to 1,000 and accordingly sell out products from 40-50 thousand retail outlets," Anand said.

He also said that Jivi sells 50 thousand feature phone units per month in the US and 25,000 units every month in Nepal.

"Some people still like to carry feature phone along with smartphone which is the reason we see demand for our phones in the US. We are in talks to expand sales in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar," Anand said.

Meanwhile in a statement, Jivi Mobiles said the company has begun its manufacturing operations in its first fabrication unit in Delhi.

The company took a major step by setting up two new facilities with a phased investment of Rs 200 crore.

Jivi Mobile's first factory is in Mahipalpur, New Delhi, which would cater to the demand of the North and East part of the country, it said.

The first facility has an installed capacity of manufacturing 7 lakh phones per month with the current manpower of over 300 employees.

The second facility at Lonavala, Maharashtra would cater to the South and Western parts of the country, it added.

"With its affordable handsets starting from Rs 699 - 1,199, the company proposes to tap the huge potential for feature phones in the country in the days to come," it said.
Navaratna company Ltd, which comes under the Ministry of Coal, is planning to add over 6,821 megawatt (Mw) of power, with an investment of over Rs 27,740 crore in these projects.
To attract more foreign investments into the state, Karnataka will tap the burgeoning sector. The state has sought ideas from the private sector to give the space a boost in the short term.
Acknowledging that situation in Kashmir is "serious", senior union minister on Sunday asserted that there can be no compromise with those indulging in violence as he described stone-pelters as "not satyagrahis but aggressors" who target police and security forces.

He slammed Pakistan for the current unrest, saying it was "attacking the integrity of India" in a "new way" after failing to snatch Jammu and Kashmir by waging wars and fuelling trouble ever since partition in 1947 and vowed to defeat this design too.

As the unrest continues in Kashmir, Jaitley outlined the Modi government's priorities, asserting that there will be no compromise with those indulging in violence even as efforts will be made for development of the state which was "denied" for the last 60 years.

"Now this time, a serious situation has emerged in which Pakistan, separatists and religious forces have joined hands and now with a new way, they are attacking the integrity of India," he said addressing a rally on the outskirts of Jammu city while talking in the context of ongoing 44-day unrest in Kashmir.

Referring to stone pelters, he said, "they are not satyagrahis but aggressors. If a police post manned by 10 police personal is attacked by 2000 stone pelters, it is an attack, but some people do not realise it."

Describing the situation as a "major challenge", he said, "today in such a challenge, the need of the country is that we don't compromise with the integrity and security of the nation."

He asked people of Jammu and Kashmir to stand with the country in the "struggle against the separatists" so that "this new phase of Pakistani strategy of war is defeated this time as well".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has three priorities for Jammu and Kashmir, said Jaitley, Minister of Finance.

Listing these priorities, he said, "There will be no compromise on the security and integrity of the country and no compromise with the people who indulge in violence.

"Secondly, as Jammu and Kashmir has faced violence and wars, it needs development which was denied for past 60 years by Conference and Congress governments. Thirdly, Jammu, being the support base of BJP, needs added attention."

His outlining of the priorities assumes signficance as the opposition has been accusing the Modi government of having no policy with regard to dealing with the unrest. The opposition parties have been pressing for a political solution and dialogue to address the unrest.
A Parliamentary panel has rejected Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi's contention that there cannot be preparation for a disaster like the which "occurs once in 100 years".

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs in its report on 'Disaster in Chennai caused by torrential rainfall and consequent flooding', submitted to the Rajya Sabha, strongly recommended that the Ministry of Home Affairs, through its subordinate concerned agencies, bolster its disaster preparedness.

Deposing before the committee, headed by Congress MP P Bhattacharya, the Union Home Secretary had said, "There can be no preparation for a disaster that occurs once in hundred years because the cost of preparing for the disaster would be disproportionately high."

The panel said it does not quite accept the argument that since the rainfall was unprecedented and was more than the hundred years' average the damage was also huge.

"In the opinion of the committee, any natural disaster of bigger intensity has the propensity to cause damage. Thus instead of putting the blame on the forces of nature, we should use advanced technology to fight it," it said.

The standing committee suggested that separate action should be taken to prepare calamity map of all important cities by developing standard vulnerability indices so as to minimise loss of life, loss of private and public property and vital installations.

"Moreover, the administration of both centre and state should work together and remain vigilant to tackle the situation," it said in its 198-page report.

When contacted, a Home Ministry spokesperson said the Ministry would examine the Parliamentary standing committee's report.

"However, mitigation efforts are largely a state subject and Government of India can assist to the extent possible through various central government schemes," the spokesperson said.

The committee also observed that natural disaster of high magnitude will always adversely affect people in large numbers and the administration has to respond in a fastest possible manner.

"Accordingly, the Disaster Management Authority and all concerned bodies of central and state governments should have established procedures so that vital time is not lost in wriggling out procedural delays," it said.

The panel observed that since urban floods are taking place in cities like Mumbai, Surat, Srinagar and Chennai, these indicate that the problem may further escalate in future.

"Therefore, the committee recommends that the guidelines prepared by NDMA should be scrupulously followed and they should also review town planning of each city by giving due importance to clear flood channels, proper drainage, safe passage to excess water in lakes, other water bodies, desiltation of river bed, removal of illegal encroachment," it said.

Devastating floods submerged Chennai and its neighbouring areas in November-December 2015 claiming the lives of over 400 people.
Union Minister on Sunday escaped unhurt, when his car met with a minor accident in Bihar's Chhapra, Saran district.

"The minister's (Rudy's) car was hit after one of the vehicles of his cavalcade suddenly applied brakes. Rudy is safe and moved on further to attend a function at Garkha block.

"His car received a minor dent in the incident," Garkha police station SHO Mithilesh Kumar told Press Trust of India.

The incident occurred on Chhapra-Garkha road, when the MoS for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was going to participate in a function at Garkha block for distribution of LPG connections among BPL and differently abled families.
Alarmed over the rise in attempted 'Vishing' frauds, has alerted customers not to fall prey to fraudulent callers and disclose key information like credit card PIN and passwords.

"Of late, through media reports, our own experience and interactions with other banks in the industry, we have noticed several instances of attempted 'Vishing' frauds in the card industry," it said in a communication to its customers.

A 'Vishing' call involves a fraudulent caller posing as an employee from a financial institution, bank or credit card firm, asking for credit card, bank account as well as certain other personal details.

The modus operandi of such calls is to offer you a very attractive discount, gift, package, card, upgrade, reward, redemption offer or credit limit increase and lure you into sharing sensitive card and bank account information.

After procuring details such as CVV, one time password, PIN, internet account password the fraudsters may attempt fraudulent transactions on your credit card or bank account.

"We at never ask for any such sensitive and confidential information like CVV, PIN, one time password and internet login user ID and password," stressed.

SBI Card is the third largest credit card provider in the country with 2.86 million customers.

It said that if a customer is suspicious of any call asking him or her to verify such information, please call SBI Card helpline immediately to report the matter.

Recently, outgoing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan had warned public of fraudulent prize winning e-mails in the name of RBI, saying the central bank does not give money to citizens directly even though it prints currency notes.
Institute of Business Management, Hyderabad (SIBM-H) is launching an incubation zone to promote innovative startups. The institute seeks to support ten startups from the International University(SIU) in the initial stage.
Terming any move to link usage charges (SUC) to revenue as "disastrous", ISP Association of India (ISPAI) today said it plans to approach Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and also the telecom secretary to express its concern over the latest consultation paper by the sector regulator.

"We are going to make a representation to the telecom minister and telecom secretary this week and seek a meeting with them to voice our concerns," ISPAI President Rajesh Chharia told PTI.

The sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), last week, sought public feedback on levying usage charges linked to annual revenues for internet service providers (ISPs), something similar to the norms for mobile companies.

The move could potentially push up broadband costs for consumers as ISPs currently pay "formula-based charges".

According to Chharia, the formula-based spectrum charges work out to Rs 7.2 lakh for 6MHz spectrum for one year.

"We are opposed to Trai's proposal of imposing SUC linked to revenue. Also it is not clear as to which revenue it will be linked to... The revenue derived from that spectrum or the entire revenue, which also involves our optical fibre backbone. SUC should not be linked to our entire revenue" Chharia said.

At present, the service providers with Cellular Mobile Telephone Services and Unified Access Service Licence are assigned spectrum through market-based mechanism (auctions). They pay SUC on the basis of percentage of their gross revenue called AGR.

"However, there are certain categories of telecom and broadcast licensees to whom spectrum is assigned administratively and SUC is based on a formula-basis. ISPs are among such licensees... Present criterion of spectrum allocation to ISPs is city-wise basis, subject to the availability of spectrum," the regulator noted in the consultation paper.

The discussion paper sought views on whether there is "a need to introduce SUC based on percentage of AGR for ISPs or should the existing formula-based spectrum charges continue". Companies offering internet services include names like Tikona, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Communications.

"We have had a meeting of office bearers of ISPAI on the issue. It is our view that the present system should not be disturbed, when things are moving smoothly... Otherwise it will be disastrous," he said.

Chharia pointed out that spectrum is being used as the last mile access where optical fibre does not reach, in order to connect the unconnected people.

"So, any additional charge on spectrum will lead to a hike in the cost of service and will have an adverse impact on internet proliferation in rural areas," he added.

Trai has set September 19 as the last date for receiving comments and October 3 for counter-comments.
Karnataka is looking to tap the burgeoning sector and has sought ideas from the private sector to give the space a boost in the short-term, in a bid to attract more foreign investment into the state.
The authorisation will be issued for "the import of only the relevant fabrics, including inter-lining, as input. No other input, packing material, fuel, oil or catalyst will be allowed for import under this authorisation



The commerce ministry has notified a special advance authorisation scheme for articles of apparel and clothing accessories. Duty-free import of fabrics will be allowed for export of items covered under chapters 61 and 62 of ITC (HS) Classification of Export and Import.
In another two and a half years, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will seek a fresh mandate from voters for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. However, it may be difficult for her to repeat the success of the 2013 assembly elections, in which her party had won a landslide victory by winning 163 seats out of a total of 200 seats.
A distinguished panel took part in the Business Standard Rajasthan Round Table 2016, held recently in Jaipur. The panellists by and large felt that though the state was industry-friendly, this positive climate had yet to fully percolate down to the local level, and that government and industry representatives needed to meet more frequently to identify problem areas. It was also felt that Rajasthan needed to market itself more aggressively to investors in other states. The availability of skilled manpower was considered adequate. However, it was agreed that much more needed to be done to make the state a more attractive tourism product for Indian travellers.
Last week, the government shared the second version of "Income Tax Return Statistics" for assessment year 2012-13. As such, the data correspond to the 2011-12 financial year. The first version was released in April but there were significant enough inconsistent entries - 150,000 of them - and so the government has come out with a second version. Income tax data were shared, triggered by the demand from economist Thomas Piketty, who had criticised the lack of transparency in India's income tax data. He had said the existing data sources for studying inequality are inadequate and they underestimate inequality in India.
Edited excerpts from the speech of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at the Business Standard Round Table, held recently in Jaipur:



It gives me immense pleasure to share with this august gathering my thoughts about the progress of Rajasthan and its people.
A move is afoot to change the ranking of the Reserve Bank of India governor to the level of principal secretary in the central governments protocol order, after Urjit Patel assumes office.
Leaving no stone unturned to win the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, the Congress Party on Sunday said that it would through their '27 saal-UP behaal' bus yatra focus on the loop holes creating hindrances in the state's development.

Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the yatra will lay emphasis on all pertinent issues, especially the deteriorating law and order situation, in the state.

"The Samajwadi Party has already collapsed. The law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh has broken down. There are lot of issues like corruption, farmers issues and many more in the state, but the main issue in UP is of the deteriorating law and order," said Joshi.

"The Congress Party is very alert. We also have a meeting tomorrow in this regard, where we will decide the future course of action," she added.

Buoyed by the encouraging response received by party president Sonia Gandhi during her road show in Varanasi, the Congress today kick-started the second leg of its yatra in western Uttar Pradesh.

The grand old party will during the three-day yatra try to highlight the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh in the last 27 years.

AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, flagged off the yatra from Lucknow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After the delegation of leaders of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir held a meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the restive situation in the Valley, J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Sunday said 44 days have passed but the state and the central governments had not taken any initiative to mitigate the problem, except controlling law and order situation, as happens in other state, even as the situation here is very different and serious in nature.

Emerging out of the meeting, Mir told ANI, "Around 20 leaders of various opposition parties spoke to Rahul Gandhi in detail for 70 minutes. We apprised him in detail about the situation in Kashmir, including Jammu and Ladakh. We also said 44 days have passed but the state and the central governments have not made any initiative to mitigate the problem, except controlling law and order situation like in any other state, even as the situation here is very different and serious in nature."

"Kashmir needs attention of the leadership of the country, especially of the opposition leaders. They should express solidarity with the people of Kashmir and pressurise the government to take immediate measures for normalising the situation there," he added.

The delegation had on Saturday called on President Pranab Mukherjee to apprise him of the situation in the Valley and also handed over a memorandum to him in this regard.

The delegation will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

Asked about Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's statement that India wants to see pens and computers in the hands of the Kashmiri youth and not stones and firearms, Mir said somewhere the present governments both the state or the Centre were also responsible for that.

"We want to ask the same question to Rajnathji that when their coalition government came to power, we thought that you would do away the shortcomings in the state. We also want that the children and youth of Jammu and Kashmir should have laptops, pens and mobile, instead of stones and guns, but they shoulder greater responsibility because they are ruling the nation and the state," he said.

"They should ask what shortcomings and the promises they had made to the people; if they fulfil their promises, there will come a day when the children will have computers and laptops instead of guns," Mir added.

In an attempt to reach out to the Kashmiri youth, the Home Minister on Saturday insisted that India wants to see pens and computers in their hands and not stones and firearms.

Addressing a gathering at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rajnath Singh said, "The people of this country want to see pens and computers in the hands of Kashmiri youth and not stones and firearms. We want to see employment in your hand. We want to see you working hard."

"There can be no solution by protests. We first want that peace is established in the Valley and only after that we can mutually find a solution. The people of this country not only love the land of Kashmir but the Kashmiri people as well," he added.

With Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today accusing Pakistan of waging a war against India using new methods of spreading unrest and inciting violence among masses in the Kashmir Valley, Mir said, "See, nobody is overruling the Pakistan factor. Pakistan is active for the past 25 years and they have a purpose of their own. But what is our responsibility; Kashmir belongs to India, and thus, we should perform our duty towards the people of Kashmir. Dealing with Pakistan is a job of the Government of India."

"We want to apprise the leadership about the situation in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and want to tell them to deal with our problems; how you deal with Pakistan is your part," he concluded.

Addressing the BJP's 'Tiranga Yatra' in Jammu, Jaitley said India's unity has been challenged and the forces behind it need to be defeated.

He said a new serious situation has arisen as Pakistan and various other forces are involved in the violence, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir should once again jointly fight against this aggression.

Speaking on the occasion, Minster of State in the Prime Minister's Office Dr. Jitendra Singh also held Pakistan responsible for the prevailing unrest in the Valley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was 'not serious' to tackle the ongoing unrest in Kashmir and said President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention and suggestion may bring some desirable result.

"Now, when the State and the Union are unable to enforce itself and get the normalcy restored then the only democratic method by which the opposition and people of Kashmir will seek relief would be through the President," NCP leader Majeed Memon told ANI.

"The President has no direct powers, but the President's intervention and suggestion to the Council of Ministers and Union may bring some desirable result," he added.

Memon further said there has been fire throughout Kashmir and the life of people there has been completely stagnated since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

"First the Chief Minister was persuaded to act, but she failed. Then the Union Home Minister was asked to interfere and do something, but his trip also could not extinguish fire and thereafter we have asked the Prime Minister to somehow intervene," Memon said.

"But the Prime Minister doesn't seem to be very serious about this matter and an all-party meeting was held toward the end of the Monsoon Session, but that also remained where it was," he added.

Earlier on Saturday, a delegation of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir met President Pranab Mukherjee to seek political solution to the ongoing crisis in the state.

The five-member delegation led by former chief minister and Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah sought President Mukherjee's intervention to impress upon the Central Government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the issue.

The ruling BJP at the Centre, however, lambasted the delegation, reminding the Conference and the Congress of not offering "azadi (freedom)" to Kashmiris when they jointly ruled the state during the 2010 agitation.

"They talk of political solution bt nvr clarify what it is 2 d rants of Azadi. In power they nvr offered it when stones were pelted at them," BJP general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

"Talk of political solution is only to score political points. They did nothing to help State bring normalcy. In stead helped spread unrest," he said in another tweet.

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After the delegation of leaders of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir held a meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the restive situation in the Valley, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI-M today said that political problems needs to be addressed through political means so that a consensus could emerge.

CPM leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami said the delegation of opposition parties are in Delhi for the last two days to meet leaders .

"We met President of India, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, and tomorrow we are meeting the Prime Minister," said Tarigami , adding "The purpose is to apprise the political leaders about the grave situation which we are facing in Jammu and Kashmir."

"We have expressed our concern and appealed to the national leadership, including Mr. Rahul Gandhi, so that they use their influence and help in building a national consensus and a common approach is formed in addressing the issues of this present unrest," Tarigami added.

"In our opinion, it is essentially a political unrest and a political problem, which needs to be addressed through political means ," he said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah led a delegation of members of opposition parties and submitted a memorandum to the President . Omar said this is the first time in his memory that initiatives that should have been taken by the government are actually being taken by the opposition.

"This afternoon a delegation of opposition parties that had previously met in Srinagar, called on his Excellency the President to present him a memorandum and to apprise him of the situation currently prevailing, particularly in the Kashmir Valley, but also showing signs of spreading to Pir Punjal, Chenab Valley region of Jammu and Kargil part of Ladakh as well," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing his agony to see stones and firearms instead of pens, books and computer in the hands of the youth of Kashmir, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has appealed to the students across India to treat the Kashmiris as their brothers and not to discriminate against them in any manner.

Alleging that some people with vested interests were playing with the future of Kashmiris, he said, "It is sad to see stones, firearms in the hands of small kids in Kashmir. The youth should instead have pens, books and computers in their hands. But some people, for their selfish motives, guide them to take stones and firearms in their hands. Is it not true that they are playing with the future of these children?"

"Which father will ask his children or youth to give up studies and pick up stones? I want to tell those having such nefarious intentions not to encourage the innocent kids of Kashmir to pick up stones," he said.

Singh further said the Kashmiri youth should be given proper respect and love.

The Union Minister made these comments at a function to unveil a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at the Lucknow University on Saturday.

Asking the Kashmiris to give up violence and help in restoring normalcy, Singh said despite being politicians, they too get immensely hurt and disturbed whenever any young man or a woman is injured and dies.

The Union Home Minister had earlier trained his guns at Pakistan, saying it has constantly been trying to create unrest in the Kashmir valley.

"I don't have any doubt in saying that Pakistan wants our Kashmir to be divided into pieces. It has been regularly trying to de-stablise the conditions there," he said addressing a gathering as a part of the 70th Independence Day celebrations 'Yaad Karo Qurbani' to pay tribute to freedom fighters in Shahjahanpur.

Recalling his recent visit to Islamabad, where he attended the SAARC Home Ministers' meet, Singh said, "Recently I went to Pakistan. I said in straight-forward words that a terrorist is a terrorist and he/she cannot be glorified."

Kashmir valley has been witnessing unrest after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8.

As many as 65 people, including two police personnel, have been killed and several thousand injured in the clashes so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Sunday called for an equal citizen law for all, adding that the families should decide on the number of children it should produce.

Speaking to ANI, RSS ideologue M.G. Vaidya said all rules should be equal for all the citizens of India.

"The families should think about the number of children they will be producing. Everyone has their opinion. He (Mohan Bhgwat) said it in some other words. The reality is all the rules should be equal for the all citizens of India. This is the direction of our Constitution," he added.

Vaidya said the Supreme Court has informed about this to the government.

"The criminal law is same. It doesn't mean a Muslim does not remain a Muslim. A special citizen law should also be there. The law should be equal for all. The Hindu families should decide on the number of children it should produce. This is the question of one's opinion. There is no need to do any politics on this," he added.

Vaidya's comment come in wake of RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat recent assertion that there is no law in the country which prevents Hindus from having more children and they should take such decision keeping their family circumstances and interest in mind.

Responding to a question on the RSS' stand on the 'disproportionate' rise in population of the Muslims vis-a-vis Hindus and fears that this could make India an 'Islamic state' in years to come, Bhagwat said, "No law prevents Hindus from growing their population. These decisions are personal in nature and they need to be taken keeping both, personal circumstances and interest in mind.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taking potshots at Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK Government over the recent FIR lodged against Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin and fellow party legislators, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Sunday said this clearly reveals that the Tamil Nadu Government is afraid and not in a position to counter the opposition's charges.

"This government is afraid and cannot face the people. Facts are spoken in the assembly. They are afraid. They don't want to reply to the Opposition's charges. They don't want to speak to the media; they don't want to face the media. That is why they are taking all these steps," said DMK leader TKS Elangovan.

Expressing his ire over the FIR lodged against his party colleagues, Elangovan asked how it was unlawful for an MLA to enter the state secretariat premises.

"On 18th (July), an FIR has been filed against the Leader of Opposition Mr. Stalin and 40 MLAs for having entered the state secretariat. They have not entered the premises of the assembly, they have entered the state secretariat to go to the assembly or to go to the Leader of Opposition's room," Elangovan told ANI.

"Another case was filed on 19th (July) also against the Leader of Opposition and our 60 MLAs for having gathered in the Secretariat stating that it is unlawful gathering...If it is unlawful, then I don't know what is lawful," he added.

Earlier in the day, the police filed cases against Stalin and other DMK legislators for holding protests inside and outside the state assembly last week.

The FIR was registered against 60 MLAs even as the DMK announced plans for a similar protest outside the assembly tomorrow.

The DMK legislators were protesting against the August 17 decision of Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker S. Dhanapal for suspending them from the House for a week.

The MLAs have challenged their suspension in the Madras High Court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the stage set for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll out from April 1 next year, the State Finance Ministers would be meeting the representatives of trade and industry on August 30 to sort the issues concerning registration of entities and intra-company services.

The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on the GST, headed by West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, will meet representatives of the CII, FICCI and Assocham, among others.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has already held meetings with 10 sectors, including telecom, IT/ITeS, banking, e-commerce and tourism, to understand their concerns.

Also, a special session of Gujarat and Chhattisgarh Assemblies will be convened from August 22 to ratify the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST.

A two-day special session of the assembly will be beginning in Gujarat tomorrow.

GST will be a comprehensive indirect tax on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services throughout the country to replace taxes levied by the central and state governments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Sunday demanded immediate arrest and strict action against Amnesty International India for allegedly raising anti-India slogans.

Yeddyurappa said such things should not be promoted and no one should support such causes.

"The government should take necessary action against those violating these things. They must be arrested immediately and I have been telling this frequently that nobody should support such things," said Yeddyurappa.

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara had yesterday said Amnesty International was not wrong in organising the event and it did not amount to sedition.

On August 14, an event was organised by Amnesty International 'Broken Families', which had Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims, who shared their experience in Jammu and Kashmir.

During the event, anti- slogans were allegedly raised. The ABVP has been staging protests, demanding the arrest of organisers and people who raised anti- slogans.

The police are still investigating the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 43 Taliban militants were killed as Afghan security forces mounted an operation in the country's Kunduz province, authorities said on Sunday.

"Joint Afghan security forces backed by army's air power also injured 14 militants in Khan Abad, Ali Abad and Imam Sahib districts during an ongoing operation codenamed 'Thunder 14' on Saturday," Xinhua news agency cited an army statement as saying.

The Taliban on Saturday seized Khan Abad but the security forces regained control of the strategic district which is located 25 km east of the provincial capital Kunduz city.

"Taliban district governor Hussain from Khan Abad was also killed," the statement said.

Sporadic clashes were going on in the militancy-hit province, sources said.

Kunduz and neighbouring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

--IANS

sm/py/vt

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A blast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, leaving at least eight people killed and over 60 injured, security sources told local media.

Governor Ali Yerlikaya said a terrorist attack hit the wedding hall in downtown Gaziantep, Xinhua news agency cited Dogan News Agency.

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party's local deputy Mehmet Erdogan told CNNTurk that the blast was "probably a suicide attack".

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack. Local media reported that the blast occurred at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT).

--IANS

lok/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australians will head to the polls in February 2017 to vote on legalising same-sex marriage.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to inform members of the Liberal National Party (LNP) of the new timeline for the vote at a party meeting in September, officials said on Sunday.

A February plebiscite on the issue would break Turnbull's election promise that the Australian people would vote on the issue in 2016, Xinhua news agency reported.

A spokesperson for Turnbull said that a recommendation from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) warned against holding the vote in 2016.

"The government has always said that a decision on same-sex marriage will be made by a vote of all Australians in a national plebiscite to be held as soon as practicable," the spokesperson said on Sunday.

The plebiscite would be a non-binding vote which would ask voters "do you approve of a law to permit people of the same sex to marry?"

A bill to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia would then be introduced in parliament with MPs expected to vote yes or no depending on how their electorate voted on the plebiscite.

Conservative MPs from Turnbull's LNP have already said that they will be voting against the bill regardless of the result of the plebiscite, prompting same-sex marriage advocates to label the process as a waste of time and money.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten is expected to launch a last-minute bid to legalise same-sex marriage by introducing a bill to parliament in the coming weeks.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The cash-strapped Kerala is heading for a tough time as it needs to pay out more than Rs 7,000 crore around the festival season, said a top Finance Ministry official here.

The Onam festival is celebrated across the communities here and employees of the state government and private sector get either a bonus or a festival advance for celebrations.

However, this time the state government employees have not received any advance payment of salary or festival bonus.

This time Onam, celebrated according to the Hindu lunar almanac, falls in the second week of September.

The ministry official told IANS that salaries, bonus, pensions and pension arrears will have to be paid out and hence it is a tough task for the state government.

"We have already issued bonds worth Rs 2,000 crore, which is a routine affair when there is a cash crunch and the Reserve Bank of India has given the nod," said the official.

He said the rest would be made up when various welfare fund boards take loans.

"This is also a common practice and the loans and the interest would be paid by the state government. The rest would come by way of the state's own resources," said the official.

He pointed out one of the reasons behind the figure to be so high is that there are pension arrears from social schemes like agriculture, old age, widows and many others to be paid out to about 37 lakh former employees and other persons.

"The previous Congress-led UDF government had left behind a few months in arrears in pensions, besides from June the new Pinarayi Vijayan government raised all pensions to a minimum of Rs 1,000 per month," added the official.

--IANS

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Do you believe there are only four seasons in a year? The researchers from the University of Washington will prove you wrong: Tthey have found a season of divorce too.

Associate sociology professor Julie Brines and doctoral candidate Brian Serafini found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of filings for divorce.

The researchers analysed filings in Washington state between 2001 and 2015 and found that they peaked in March and August -- the periods following winter and summer holidays.

Their research, presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Seattle, suggests that divorce filings may be driven by a "domestic ritual" calendar governing family behaviour.

Winter and summer holidays are culturally sacred times for families, Brines said, when filing for divorce is considered inappropriate, even taboo.

"People tend to face the holidays with rising expectations, despite what disappointments they might have had in years past," Brines said.

"They represent periods in the year when there's the anticipation or the opportunity for a new beginning, a new start, something different, a transition into a new period of life. It's like an optimism cycle, in a sense," Brines added.

At the same time, holidays are also emotionally charged and stressful for many couples and can expose fissures in a marriage.

Couples may decide to file for divorce in August, following the family vacation and before the kids start school.

--IANS

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The first batch of 340 pilgrims left from Telangana for Saudi Arabia on Sunday to perform the Haj pilgrimage.

The Air India flight carrying the pilgrims, clad in "Ihram" or special white clothing for Haj and amid chanting of prayers, took off from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here.

Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mehmood Ali and Haj Committee of India chairman Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser flagged off the first flight for Jeddah.

Earlier, Ali also flagged off the buses carrying the pilgrims from Haj House to the airport.

The pilgrims, including 146 from Hyderabad, boarded the buses after completing customs, luggage and immigration formalities at Haj House.

Emotional scenes were witnessed as relatives and well-wishers bid adieu to the pilgrims with requests to pray for them at the holy places.

Hyderabad is the embarkation point for Haj pilgrims from three states. Air India will operate daily two flights from August 22 to August 27 and one flight on August 28 to carry a total of 5,000 pilgrims from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and four districts of Karnataka.

Seven flights were arranged for the pilgrims leaving from Telangana, four for Andhra Pradesh and one flight for Karnataka. The other three flights would have pilgrims from all three states.

Haj House is serving as the transit and boarding point for the pilgrims. The authorities have made boarding and lodging arrangements for the pilgrims.

All arrangements have been made under one roof for safe departure of pilgrims.

All the flights from Hyderabad will leave for Jeddah and on the return journey they will take off from Madinah. The pilgrims are scheduled to return from Madinah between October 4 and October 8.

Over 1.56 lakh Indians will perform Haj pilgrimage this year. According to the central Haj committee, 36,000 pilgrims will be going through private operators.

--IANS

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Five people were killed and more than 50 others injured when the roof of a jute factory collapsed in Bangladesh's central Faridpur district on Sunday afternoon, police said.

"The roof of the tin-shed jute factory collapsed during a storm," Xinhua news agency quoted a police official as saying.

The official said that around 400 people were working in the factory when its roof collapsed.

Quoting officials involved in the rescue operation, the officer said the death toll may increase as more people were believed to be trapped under the debris.

--IANS

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Gujarat Congress leaders on Sunday submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee highlighting "atrocities" against Dalits in the state, and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "having the time to think about people of Balochistan" but turning a "blind eye towards the suffering of Dalits" in his home state.

Demanding a time-bound action against the perpetrators, the Gujarat Congress leaders also sought the President's intervention in the matter.

The delegation included Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Congress president's Political Secretary Ahmed Patel, Congress legislature party leader Shankar Sinh Vaghela, and AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry.

"The Prime Minister has time to acknowledge the suffering of people in Balochistan but it is unfortunate that he and his party have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the marginalized and underprivileged in his home state," Gujarat PCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki said.

"We have apprised him (the President) of the rise in social terror in Gujarat, a phenomenon that has manifested over the past 18 years of BJP rule. The atrocities in Una is not an exception but the norm. And the fact that even after the Una incident shook the nation's conscience, atrocities against Dalits still continue with impunity shows the extreme insensitivity embedded in the Gujarat administration," he added.

Solanki said: "He (Prime Minister) spoke eloquently over rogue cow vigilantes but did not tell us how as Chief Minister he encouraged the very business of such vigilantes. For a party whose ideology is based on dividing society, we have no hope that they will take any serious action to erase the deep fault lines in Gujarat."

Congress leaders also requested Mukherjee to intervene in the matter through the Governor of the state.

"We have come to seek the protection of the President and have urged him to use his good offices and issue relevant directions to the administration," said Solanki.

--IANS

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President Pranab Mukherjee will be on a three-day visit, beginning on Monday, to West Bengal, it was announced here on Sunday.

The President will inaugurate a CII-IIEST conference on 'Enabling Make in India through Industry Academia Innovation Platform' in Kolkata on the first day of his visit to his home state.

He will also attend a function, 'The Legacy to Humanity: Celebrating 150 years of Homeopathy', on the same day, an official statement issued here said.

On August 23, President Mukherjee will launch in Kolkata Akashvani Kendra 'Moitree' service in Bangla for listeners in Bangladesh and attend 125th anniversary celebrations of 'Bangiya Sahitya Parisad', it said.

He is scheduled to inaugurate a new building of Bharat Chamber of Commerce and address the first foundation day of Bandhan Bank in Kolkata on the same day.

On the last of his visit to the state, the President will inaugurate a Food Park at Jangipur in Murshidabad district, and will attend a convocation of Management Development Institute-Murshidabad before returning to New Delhi.

--IANS

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The Manhattan District Attorney has indicted a former theatre agent named Roland Scahill for stealing $165,000 from investors in a fake Broadway play that would have starred actress Lupita Nyong'o.

According to the office of the district attorney, Scahill, the owner of a firm called RMS2 Productions, is alleged to have fraudulently raised money from seven investors for a non-existent one-woman show about the opera star Kathleen Battle, with Broadway's Booth Theater lined up for a production that would star Nyong'o, reports variety.com.

Scahill also claimed a deal had been made with American on-demand streaming website Netflix to film the play.

Representatives for all those parties, however, had no knowledge of the project. Scahill has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The district attorney said the scheme, which involved raising $15,000 per share in the fake production in exchange for subsidiary rights that would generate revenue in the future, began in October 2014 and stepped up with the Netflix claim in January 2015.

"Mr. Schahill has pleaded not guilty. He is, therefore, entitled to the presumption of innocence. He should receive that," attorney James R. DeVita said.

--IANS

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday demanded removal of the Farakka barrage on the Ganga river and formulation of a national silt management policy to protect the state from devastating floods.

"It is not possible to protect Bihar from devastating floods without removal of Farakka barrage on the Ganga river," Nitish Kumar told the media here before going for an aerial survey of the flood-affected six districts -- including Patna, where the situation has worsened due to rising water level in the Ganga and its tributaries.

Nitish Kumar made the demand a day after the overflowing waters of the Ganga river entered Patna city and created fear among residents living in localities near its banks.

"I have been raising this demand for some time but the central government has so far ignored it," he said.

Nitish Kumar said the Farakka barrage on the Ganga river in West Bengal has brought big disadvantage for Bihar. "It is for the central government to make a fresh study or research on damage by the Farakka barrage to Bihar."

He said silt deposited in the Ganga in Bihar due to the barrage is something the central government should take care of to save the state from devasting floods every year.

Nitish Kumar said silt management is the right answer to the problem. "Formulation of a national silt management policy is a must now for ensuring uninterrupted flow of water not only in Ganga, but all the other rivers."

Meanwhile, Bihar Disaster Management Department Principal Secretary Vayasji told media here that there is no threat of flood to Patna. "I would like to appeal to people not to go by rumours or reports in some media; there is no threat of flood in Patna, it is safe," he said.

The Chief Minister said five teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) have been deployed in flood affected districts for relief and rescue operations.

According to officials of the water resources development department, the Ganga has been flowing above the danger mark and the situation is alarming. All the drains, which lead into the river, have been sealed in view of the rising river water level.

An alert has been issued and the administration has appealed to people to keep calm.

--IANS

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Spain's Ruth Beitia surprised the field to win her maiden major title of high jump at an age of 37 at the ongoing Rio Olympics here.

The Spaniard took the gold medal on a count-back after being one of four competitors with a best leap of 1.97m on Saturday, reports Xinhua news agency.

As Mirela Demireva of Bulgaria, Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and Chaunte Lowe of the US all posted a best effort of 1.97m, Beitia came out the sole jumper succeeding in all her efforts of 1.88, 1.93 and 1.97 metres on her first attempts.

Demireva took the silver after failing her first attempt on 1.88, while Vlasic settled for a bronze with failure on all her first attempts of three heights.

Lowe, who leaped over 1.88 and 1.93 once for all, narrowly missed a podium finish as the 32-year-old didn't clear the 1.97m bar until her third attempt.

--IANS

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The suicide bomber who carried out the deadly wedding attack in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, which claimed at least 51 lives, was aged between 12 and 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

The Saturday night terror attack was carried out by a teenager, and initial findings showed it was perpetrated by the Islamic State militant group, Xinhua news agency quoted Erdogan as saying in Istanbul.

He said security forces were conducting counter-terrorism operations against the IS group, and were intensifying their fight against terrorists in Gaziantep.

At least 51 people were killed and more than 69 injured in the attack.

As many as 17 persons were in critical condition, Erdogan confirmed.

--IANS

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In the first high-level visit from India after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) assumed power in Myanmar earlier this year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit the eastern neighbour on Monday.

Sushma Swaraj will be calling on Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw and hold discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor and Foreign Minister of Myanmar.

The discussions are expected to focus on the bilateral content of the relationship as well as plans for the upcoming outreach summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) in India.

According to the External Affairs Ministry, the day-long visit reaffirms India's commitment to heightened partnership with Myanmar in areas accorded priority by the new government of Myanmar.

India and Myanmar share close relations with a development cooperation programme in areas such as agriculture, information technology, human resource development, infrastructure development and culture.

During the visit, Sushma Swaraj will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and other senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs.

India and Myanmar reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral issues during the 15th round of Foreign Office Consultations here earlier this month including high-level visits, security and defence-related issues, boundary matters and border management, trade and commerce, development cooperation, connectivity, cultural and consular matters.

They also exchanged views on issues of mutual interest at regional and multilateral forums.

The consultations are of special significance as these were the first institutionalised exchanges between India and Myanmar after the swearing in of the new NLD government in Myanmar on March 30 this year.

In the intervening period, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Myanmar as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16, 2016, and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman led a high-level business delegation to the eastern neighbour for the India-Myanmar Business Conclave on May 18-20, 2016.

Last month, in a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Suu Kyi said that she looked forward to visiting India.

As her country's constitution bars her from becoming President, the Nobel Peace laureate serves as the State Counsellor and Foreign Minister.

Suu Kyi made her first visit in her current capacity to China last week.

--IANS

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Three guerrillas were killed on Sunday when they were engaged by the security forces in a gunfight in Tangdhar border town of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, defence sources said.

The sources told IANS that a group of three to four guerrillas were spotted by the army's 4 Para commandos.

"The terrorists have been engaged in an encounter and escape routes for the terrorists have been sealed. The operation is going on in the area," the defence source said.

Army commander of Udhampur-headquartered Northern Command, Lt. General D.S. Hooda, had told reporters here on Thursday that operations against separatist guerrillas have been continuing in north areas.

He also said that operations against those suspected to create law and order problems in south areas would be re-started soon.

--IANS

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has assured his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko that he would not recognise Crimea's annexation by Russia, the Ukrainian presidency said,

Erdogan assured Poroshenko over the phone on Saturday that despite Turkey and Russia's improving relations he would not recognise the annexation, Efe news reported.

"Erdogan confirmed that Turkey's support for Ukraine's territorial integrity is invariable," the statement on Saturday said, insisting that Ankara would also unfailingly continue to back the Tatars in Crimea.

Since Russia's annexation of the peninsula, Erdogan, who backed Ukraine in the conflict, had frequently denounced the persecution of the Tatar minority by local authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea on Friday, days after he accused Ukrainian military troops of attempting to infiltrate Crimean territory.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission estimated that nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict area in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

--IANS

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Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday that his country will play a more active role in helping address the Syrian crisis within the next six months.

"Turkey supports the territorial integrity of Syria and will do its best to prevent the country from being ethnically divided," Yildirim told the foreign press in Istanbul.

He said Iran, the Gulf countries, the United States and Russia can make joint efforts to end the war in Syria and set details over a transition period in the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

The premier added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be accepted as an actor during the transition period but he has no place in Syria's future, as he would not be able to keep the integrity of the country in the long run.

On Wednesday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described Ankara's policy on Syria, under which al-Assad's ouster had been insisted upon, as "a source of many sufferings for Turkey today".

Kurtulmus was referring to repeated terror attacks and the influx of Syrians into Turkey, among others.

Turkey and Russia have moved toward ending the Syrian war after they started in late June to repair bilateral relations battered over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane in November 2015.

--IANS

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When police officials from the traffic department in Mumbai started getting calls from their senior officers enquiring about the reasons for a snarl-up in an area, they were flummoxed.
With reference to "Jaitley meets Modi over new RBI Guv's appointment" (August 19), the reported remarks of the finance minister (FM) are ironical. Arun Jaitley said: "We will let you know when we decide. You will come to know about the conclusion, not the process."



Have the people of this country lost their right to be informed of the "process" followed by the government even in such crucial matters? The continued dithering over finalising the name of the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) spoke volumes about its "catch-22" situation on the matter. The government should blame itself alone for the mess it created in this context.
Avadhut Co-operative Housing Society had entrusted the redevelopment of its society property to Kamla Ankur Developers. One of the free sale flats in this project was sold to Chaya Bavadekar. According to the agreement for sale on January 20, 2011, flat number 703 was to be sold to Bavadekar for Rs 1,82,40,000, and possession was to be given by March 31, 2012.
Kumar Karpe, chief executive officer (CEO), TechProcess Payment Services, an electronic payments services firm, remembers the harrowing experience of a person who used his credit card in the US. Even after he came back to India, his card was used again. When he lodged a complaint with the bank, he had to prove the fraud by showing his boarding pass, stamp of immigration and other documentary evidence. "Currently, the onus is on the customer to prove fraud and it is a tricky situation,'' he says.
The Cabinet has approved summoning of a 'special' session of the state Assembly to ratify the Constitution Amendment Bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for its implementation in the State.

However, the date for the session was not finalised.

The Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Pema Khandu here on Saturday approved summoning of the special session.

Khandu, in his 70th Independence Day speech, had announced that the state government was committed to implement the GST regime in the state according to the guidelines and norms fixed by government of India.

"GST implementation will ease the process of Registration, Return Filing and Refund Claims as all will be done electronically through an online system.

GST will reduce the burden of tax on consumers by totally eradicating 'Tax on Tax '(Cascading effect) and multiplicity of taxes," Khandu had said.

The Cabinet, after a threadbare discussion on all the announcements made by the chief minister in his Independence Day speech, ratified the same and directed all the Commissioners and Secretaries to come out with a time bound action plan for their implementation.

Specific directives were issued to all the departments concerned for preparation of a holistic roadmap to ensure successful and timely implementation of all the schemes as announced by Khandu, the communique added.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal asserted that the real fight in the upcoming would be between AAP and the ruling BJP, claiming Congress would not be able to win even a single seat in the 40-member House.

He alleged that BJP wants to win Goa just "to make money," and in the upcoming polls, people of Goa will vote in favour of the "honest" party.

Kejriwal, while talking to reporters after addressing the gathering of SC/ST community members at Quepem village in south Goa, also took a potshot at BJP saying that since the saffron party is afraid of losing Goa, its chief Amit Shah held a public meeting here instead of going to Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

"Congress would be completely wiped out from Goa and would not win even a single seat. The straight fight is between BJP and AAP," Kejriwal said while appealing people not to "waste" their vote by supporting Congress.

"As far as BJP is concerned, people rallied behind the party during the 2012 Goa polls. Voters who would not vote for BJP even in their dreams, supported the party because they felt Manohar Parrikar would make a difference. But in the last five years, BJP has cheated the people. The party has turned out to be worse than Congress," he said.

Amit Shah was in Goa on Saturday to launch BJP's election campaign for the Assembly polls due next year.

The Delhi chief minister said Shah does not have a connect with the people of the state.

"He came, addressed a gathering and went. He did not meet people. AAP is meeting people. BJP wants to win Goa to make money," Kejriwal claimed.

He said even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid of losing the party's hold in the state.

"You must have heard that when Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar went to meet him (Modi) in Delhi, he was enquiring about the response to my rally in Goa. What does this indicate?," Kejriwal said.

He said the kind of energy that is visible in Goa is the same that was in Delhi before it went to polls.

Taking a dig at BJP leaders, Kejriwal pointed out that during his meeting in the state Shah claimed that Delhi has not seen development in AAP regime.

"I challenge Shah, Parrikar and Parsekar to come to Delhi. I will take them around mohalla clinics and polyclinics. I will show them what development AAP has done. On the other hand, let BJP show me what development they have done in Goa. I can't see anything happening here," he said.
Targeted over the issue of atrocities on Dalits, BJP on Sunday hit out at BSP supremo claiming that Uttar Pradesh witnessed heightened attacks on members of the community under her rule and said her speech at the Agra rally proved she is frustrated at her party's prospects in next year's state assembly elections.

In a statement issued here, BJP accused of trying to fool the electorate of Uttar Pradesh and of invoking Dalit issues for electoral gains.

"People of UP know that whenever BSP has ruled the state, the graph of Dalit atrocities has increased. A Home Ministry report points out that between 2008 and 2011, 30,000 cases of Dalit atrocities were registered and 1,074 Dalits killed," party secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

He said for votebank politics, she reaches Una in Gujarat but does not meet the rape victim in Uttar Pradesh.

"She invokes Dalits for electoral gains ahead of elections. But in reality she has no interest in uplift of the community," he said.
It is not much of a secret that Narendra Modi and Pravin Togadia, working president of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), have an ambivalent relationship. A long way from Togadia boasting in 2002: "Narendrabhai is riding the horse but the reins are in my hand." In Modi's second term as Gujarat chief minister, there was nothing private about Togadia's ambitions. "I was offered the chief ministership of Gujarat twice by the sangh parivar," he declared once, revealing that plans were afoot to create a new political formation to take care of the interest of the Hindus. This was because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had become a "B-team of the Congress".
At least 13 families were evacuated to safer places due to subsidence of land in Hunthar locality of Mizoram's state capital.

State Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Director C. Lalpeksanga told PTI that at least 50 families were affected with many living with relatives while temporary accommodation were arranged for others in the government buildings constructed for the urban poor and the proposed office of the Legal Metrology.

At least 13 families were thus evacuated to safer places, he said.

The landslide and subsidence of land occurred after heavy downpour for days which also severely affected the road linking the lone Lengpui Airport as the road itself had been caving in, Lalpeksanga said.

Lalpeksanga said that experts from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Shillong would be arriving in Aizawl on Monday to conduct a detailed study of the area.

A detailed project report (DPR) would be submitted to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to prevent the area from sinking further and reclamation of the area in accordance with the GSI report, he added.

Two houses were swept by massive landslide at Kepran village, on Mizoram-Manipur border, in Aizawl district on Friday night.

No one was killed or injured in the incident.

Heavy rain lashed Mizoram during the past two weeks causing landslides and road blocks in many places.

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Fifteen people suffered minor injuries today when the ceiling of an Oslo concert venue collapsed during a show, police said.

"15 injured. They're being attended to by medics," Oslo police wrote on Twitter, adding: "No reports of serious injuries."



Around 1,800 students from the Norwegian Business School were attending a show by American house DJ Steve Aoki at the Sentrum Scene venue when the accident happened.

"The ceiling fell in and it was total chaos. The fire alarm sounded right away," a student attending the concert, Charlotte Nilsen, told agency NTB.

Police evacuated the building immediately and cordoned off the area while fire officials secured the site.

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At least two policemen were today killed and five others, including two civilians, were injured after unidentified gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Egypt's Sadat city.

The attackers, who were riding a vehicle, opened fire on the checkpoint and later escaped, the sources said, adding the area was cordoned off.

Many terrorist attacks that targeted police and military personnel took place in different parts of Egypt since the January 2011 revolution that toppled the ex-president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks even increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

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At least four persons, including a woman and a child were today killed and 50 injured after the roof of a jute mill collapsed during a tornado in central Bangladesh, police said.

The incident occurred around 2.00 PM (local time) when around 350 workers were working in the jute mill in Faridpur district, some 100 kms from here, local media reported.

A portion of the tin roof of the mill collapsed during the storm, Jamil Hassan, superintendent of Faridpur police, was quoted as saying.

Four workers, including a woman and a child, were killed in the incident.

The bodies were recovered from the spot while the injured were admitted to Faridpur Medical College Hospital. The condition of 22 of them is said to be critical.

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At least nine persons, including five children and three women, were killed and 35 others injured when a bus collided with a truck in Pakistan's southeastern Sindh province while trying to overtake it, police said today.

The bus was heading to Shahdad Kot from here when it collided with the truck in Thatta district, police officials said.

The bus was trying to overtake a truck carrying a load of stones when it collided with the vehicle, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Thatta Fida Hussain Mastoi.

Five children and three women died when a collision took place between a truck and a bus. The identities of those killed have not been confirmed as yet.

The injured were admitted to hospitals, the Dawn reported.

No case has been registered so far.

In a separate accident in Sindh, a speeding pick-up truck hit a motorcycle from behind crushing two riders to death yesterday on the Tando Bago-Juddo road in Tando Bago town, 40 kms from Badin.

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Active involvement of women Parliamentarians in the development process will result in meaningful and inclusive growth, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said today.

"As development partners, we can involve citizens in the process of development and can also strengthen innovative partnerships with civil society organisations to scrutinise and assess the effectiveness of various Government programmes.

"Therefore, active involvement of our women Parliamentarians in the process will result in a greater responsiveness towards citizen's needs and will lead to greater harmony, meaningful development and inclusive growth," Mahajan remarked at the valedictory session of BRICS Women Parliamentarians' Forum here.

She also stressed on inclusiveness in development to make it sustainable and effective while underlining the role of laws and legislations to achieve sustainable development.

Noting that the members of Parliament are a better interface between citizens and government, the Speaker said, sustainable development can be brought about by this interface and also through laws and legislations.

"Development must be inclusive if it is to be equitable, sustainable and effective.

"Therefore mainstreaming equity is vital for ameliorating the socio-economic conditions of people within the framework of sustainable development," she said, while pointing that women have natural instinct towards development and progress.

Talking about the Sustainable Development Goals, she said that the 17 goals and 169 associated targets have the potential to transform the future.

"It must be our endeavour to achieve these goals in our own interest and in the global interest as well. As law makers, it is our responsibility to oversee and monitor the implementation strategies and mechanisms of the SDGs put in place by our respective Governments," she noted.

The Speaker said that climate change affects humanity as a whole but developing countries also have their own challenges to deal with.

Delivering the concluding remarks at the session, Mahajan called upon the delegates to learn and benefit from the best practices in the BRICS member countries.

She highlighted the practices followed in the member countries for women's welfare.

"In Brazil, five-minute programmes are run on radio and television to promote women oriented programmes targeting specific social groups. In Russia, there is special focus on preventive medical check-up and serious efforts to lower the incidences of non-communicable diseases.

"China's four-point action plan involves women's all round development and protection of women's rights and interests and fostering a global environment favourable for women's development. In South Africa, the Select Committee and Portfolio Committee on Women in Parliament and Multi-party Women Caucus in both Houses of Parliament have been a major development," she said.

Mahajan hoped the three important subjects discussed during the two-day meeting, which began yesterday, would encourage women parliamentarians to meet regularly to discuss and exchange views on the problems and challenges faced by them as lawmakers.

Delivering the valedictory address, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said irrespective of differences in development indices and growth levels, all member countries of BRICS have a large population which needs to prosper.

"To achieve this end, it is important that development processes are sustainable.

"BRICS can play a catalytic role in forging partnership among women lawmakers in mainstreaming SDGs," she said.

"We need to make safer and resilient model and we need to bring all together to bring down inequality," she said.

Raje also stressed on improving the level of education among people and informed the delegates at the Forum about Rajasthan government fixing minimum education qualification for public representatives to contest (Panchayat) polls.
Actor Kamal Haasan has been chosen for the coveted French honour of Chevalier Award.

"Kamal Haasan has been appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts Arts et Lettres (Knight in the National Order Arts and Letters) by the Minister of Culture and Communication, France," his spokesperson said here today.

"The award will be conferred on the 61-year-old veteran star at a special ceremony," he added.

Haasan is the second Tamil star after thespian Sivaji Ganesan to be honoured with the French award, with the latter being chosen for it in 1995.

The Tamil Cinema industry was all praise for the "Vishwaroopam" star. Actors Nasser, Karthi and Prasanna, directors KS Ravikumar, Lingusamy and Venkat Prabu among others congratulated him.

Having made his debut as a child actor in 1959 in the Gemini Ganesan-starrer "Kalathur Kannamma," Haasan rose to become one of the icons of Indian cinema.

Hailed as a multi-faceted professional, the actor-filmmaker is known for his penchant for experimenting with different scripts and characters.

His roles as an ageing freedom fighter in the movie "Indian" and a woman in "Avvai Shanmugi," besides donning ten diverse roles in the 2008-hit "Dasavatharam," have been well received by the movie-goers.

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Union minister Ananth Kumar today charged the Congress government in Karnataka with "sympathising with supporters of terrorists" and taking action against nationalists following Amnesty International incident where pro-freedom Kashmiris allegedly raised "anti-India" slogans at an event last week.

"It is unfortunate that the Congress government under the Chief Ministership of Siddaramaiah has taken action against nationalists and sympathised with supporters of terrorists," he told reporters here.

Kumar made these allegation after meeting the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyatharti Parishad (ABVP) activists, who are staging a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue here over the issue.

The Union chemicals and fertiliser minister spent at least 45 minutes with the protesting activists, during which he appreciated their efforts to protect the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country.

"It is the duty of the Union and state governments to protect the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country. I am very happy about ABVP activists' efforts to do so by waging a fight against the present Congress government in Karnataka," he said.

The protesting activists submitted a memorandum demanding an National investigation Agency (NIA) investigation into the whole episode.

In reply, Kumar said he "would meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and convey the sentiments and feelings of the protestors and submit the memorandum seeking NIA investigation into the incident".

More than 300 protestors had assembled at the site, with ABVP National Secretary Vinay Bidre and Bangalore Central MP and BJP Leader P C Mohan participating in the protest.

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Amul Managing Director R S Sodhi has been appointed as independent director on the board of Payment (IPPB) -- the payments bank arm of postal department.

"GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi has been appointed independent director on the board of IPPB," an official source told PTI.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) sells the Amul brand of milk products.

Sodhi is one of the five independent members to be appointed on the board IPPB, which is set to be operational in March 2017.

The board will have four in-house representatives.

IPPB came into existence after it received certificate of incorporation from the Registrar of Companies on August 17.

Payments bank allows mobile firms, supermarket chains, and others to cater to banking requirements of individuals and small businesses. It will be set up as a differentiated bank and will confine its activities to acceptance of demand deposits, remittance services, Internet banking and other specified services.

The Payments Bank aims to become the most accessible bank in the world, riding on advanced banking and payments technology. Coupled with physical presence across 1.55 lakh post offices and the reach of the postman, the Payments Bank plans to become a powerful and effective vehicle of real financial inclusion in the country.
Traffic began to file through central Baghdad's busy Karradah street today for the first time in nearly two months.

After the July 3 attack that killed close to 300 people, the street was sealed off and within days the shells of the charred buildings around the scene of the blast were covered in death notices.

For weeks after the attack, grieving families and loved ones gathered at the site to light candles in the evenings, others marched in protests.

Local Baghdad authorities began to sweep all of that away yesterday after a group of local officials visited the site. By this morning the streets were almost entirely cleared.

"Today we must return to our normal lives and work," said Silwan Walid, a 29-year-old perfume shop owner who works on the street. Walid said watching construction equipment haul off broken glass and charred debris gave him hope for the future.

"Now we feel like life can return to normal again and we can go back to providing our families with a decent living," he said, referring to his shop that has been unable to reopen while the site was blocked off.

Three teenage boys walking by the site remembered a friend killed in the blast. He was working at one of the clothing stores in Laith mall. They said they don't want to forget their friend, but seeing the bombed-out buildings in the middle of their neighborhood everyday has made it more difficult to move on.

"I don't want to see these shops (like this)," Yousef Omar, a 13-year-old student said, "when I see this destruction, it brings back my sadness like new."



A team of engineers at the site said the reconstruction project would take at least four months. One of the most difficult aspects will be determining which buildings can be restored and which will need to be completely demolished, said Saleh al-Obeidi, one of the engineers.

The Karrada disaster put the Iraqi government under intense pressure, both to improve security in the capital and to reign in rampant corruption.

Many of the dead from the July 3 attack survived the explosion but burned to death inside the two neighboring malls due to a lack of emergency exits and insufficient fire-suppression systems something critics blamed on a corrupt system allowing building owners to circumvent basic safety standards and regulations.

Earlier this month, a fire at a maternity ward in Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital killed 13 babies. While the Ministry of Health later said an investigation determined the cause of the blaze to likely be arson, officials said the high death toll was due in part to the lack of fire equipment and safety standards in the building.

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Authorities said they found the body of a 5-year-old Minnesota girl just hours after they had issued an Amber Alert saying she had been abducted by a family friend.

The body of Alayna Jeanne Ertl was found yesterday in Cass County, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis. The suspect in her disappearance, family friend Zachary Anderson, 26, has been arrested and a vehicle found, police said.

Ertl's body was found shortly after 5.00 PM (local time) in the rural town of Motley, Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze told the Star Tribune. She was dead when police arrived on the scene, he said.

"That's part of our follow up right now, to figure out- why there?" Cruze said.

Police said Anderson was staying overnight at the girl's home in Watkins, about 75 miles west of Minneapolis. The girl's mother discovered them gone at 8.00 AM (local time).

No other details were immediately available.

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The assisted reproduction industry may have brought smiles to the faces to many a childless couple but there is a huge risk of genetic thefts, human and ova trafficking and hyper-medicalisation affecting the woman, warns a new book.

In 'Politics Of The Womb: The Perils of IVF, Surrogacy & Modified Babies', author Pinki Virani presents a complete picture of what is sold to desperately wanting-to-be parents as miraculous medico-technology.

The book, published by Penguin Random House, states the factual failure rates of IVF and other reproductive techniques, points to the futility of such artificial assistance if a father passes on his genetic infertility to his IVF-child, and uncovers the 'IVF package' which becomes the woman and her unborn, through which a newly born baby is denied colostrum - its fundamental foremost-hour feed - from breastmilk.

It also tracks the death of commercial surrogates; the emotional exploitativeness of female egg-freezing; the destruction of humaneness around "donations" of sperm and ova; the genetic thefts; the rampant human and ova trafficking; the moral compass-lost procedures behind "designer offspring"; and the very real risk of broken babies and breaking mothers, according to the publishers.

According to Virani, who has previously authored books like 'Bitter Chocolate: Child Sexual Abuse in India', 'Once Was Bombay', 'Aruna's Story: The True Story Of A Rape and Its Aftermath' and 'Deaf Heaven', poverty is not the sole reason why young women are selling their eggs, easy-money is.

"Easier, at any rate, than renting out their vulvae as call girls; more discreet, taking comparatively much less time, than renting out their uterus as commercial surrogates. College-going girls are doing it for the 'extra cash' as are aspiring starlets and models; young women studying to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, air hostesses, these are the diva donors. It's all done under-the-radar..."



She claims infertile women availing of IVF are "stimulated with high doses of synthesised hormones to produce a larger number of eggs for harvesting for their own embryos.

"Egg-selling women are sought out - by the agents, some of whom were once sellers themselves - because they are fertile; proof of this tends to be glossed over in medically mysterious ways since not all oocyte sellers have children of their own.

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Laying emphasis on global cooperation to address the challenge of climate change, women parliamentarians from BRICS nations today expressed the need for coordination and balance between economic development and environment protection for sustainable development.

The women parliamentarians, who are in the city for the two-day meeting of their Forum, shared their experiences and initiatives taken by their respective countries in the area of climate change on the last day of the meeting today.

Lok Sabha MP Bhavna Gawali, who chaired the session on 'Containing Climate Change-Imperatives of Global Cooperation', said that India takes care of the issue of climate change in its development agenda and suggested that consistent efforts to get clean energy are needed in striking ecological balance in the race of development.

She said that stakeholders of BRICS, especially women parliamentarians, will have to work together in a better way to meet the challenge.

Brazilian MP Dorinha Seabra Rezende, who co-chaired the session, said the role of women parliamentarians can be crucial on the issue of climate change.

She said challenges like flood, drought and others are emerging out of the climate change and coordinated efforts are immensely needed at the global level.

She said that every nation should play its role actively in the area of climate change.

Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan said that every nation should fulfill its commitment at the global, national and regional level to counter the challenge of climate change.

Brazilian MP Leandre informed the delegates about the initiatives taken up by her country to face the challenge and said the nations will have to adopt best practices to reduce green house gas emissions.

Russian MP Elena Bibikova also informed the delegates about Russia's new climate plan.

Women Parliamentarians from South Africa and China also expressed their views during the discourse on the issue and presented solutions, according to a release.

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Union minister Piyush Goyal today said the Modi government at the Centre was committed towards spreading the ideals of freedom fighters among the present generation.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for spreading the ideals of freedom fighters, who had liberated the nation 70 years ago, among the present generation. As part of the campaign, we are visiting the birth places of freedom fighters across the country," Goel said after visiting the birth place of Rash Behari Bose at Subaldaha village in Burdwan district.

Paying rich tributes to the revolutionary, Goel said the government will preserve his memory and build a marble plaque if land was made available.

He also went around the ruins of the freedom fighter's birth place spread over several acres of land and spoke to villagers who demanded that it be developed as a heritage spot and be properly maintained.

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China blamed fierce competition for their Rio flop and promised to examine their "shortcomings" after slumping to their worst Olympic performance in 20 years.

China sent 410 athletes, their biggest team at a foreign Olympics, but by the penultimate day they had won just 24 gold medals, their fewest since Atlanta 1996.

Worse, China trailed not only the United States but also Britain on the medals table, a fact that has prompted splutterings of indignation in Chinese media.

China topped the table in 2008 and were second in 2004 and 2012, but Chinese Olympic committee chief Liu Peng said rising standards had taken them by surprise.

"There are a few problems we cannot overlook. In the Rio Games we didn't win so many medals... We didn't assess objectively the challenges we might face at these Games," said Liu.

"In recent years more countries have attached importance to the Olympic Games, so the level of play internationally has come up and the competition has become fierce.

"We need to employ a new mentality and new understanding how to improve our performances and ability. We need more experiences and learning."



Liu said inexperience particularly had cost China, whose team was young with three-quarters of them competing at their first Olympics.

"We have trained these athletes but the training isn't enough," he said.

"Because when these athletes are facing fierce competition and challenges they have to too much to think about and too many mental burdens and they didn't play at their highest level."



But he had warm words for swimmer Fu Yuanhui, whose bubbly personality and frank comments -- rare for a Chinese athlete -- won hearts at home and abroad.

"Her happiness, starting from the bottom of her heart, fully demonstrated her spirit to continue to challenge herself and achieve excellence," said Liu.

"This is something that touched audiences on the very deepest level. Her 'prehistoric strength' as she put it fully demonstrated the modern Chinese athletes: they're confident, they're active and they've fully pushing forward."



Liu also praised China's athletes for competing in the right spirit and not appearing desperate to win at all costs.

"We have fully demonstrated our Chinese spirit. We're not arrogant when we win, we don't give up easily and we continue to strive forward," he said.

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China's largest high speed train maker has announced that its first USD 63.4 million joint venture plant in India to repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines has started operations.

The state-run China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) is the first foreign company to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled his ambitious 'Make in India' campaign in 2014, the company said in statement.

The joint venture named CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Co. Ltd., is housed in Haryana.

The plant was set up with an investment USD 63.4 million and the Chinese side holds 51 per cent of the share, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The India plant will repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.

It will also provide technology support to India's rail system and supply electric transmission systems to oil drilling, wind power generation and mining equipment making in India, the report said.

This is China's first major investment in Indian Railways after the two worked out a multi-pronged collaboration for Chinese participation in the modernisation of Indian railway systems.

While Indian Railway engineers are getting trained in China in heavy hauling, China is also cooperating with India to set up a railway university similar to the one it developed.

Besides the high speed train, India and China have agreed to cooperate to identify the technical inputs required to increase speed on the existing railway line from Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.

China is also conducting feasibility study to build a high speed railway line between Chennai and New Delhi.

Japan has bagged the first bullet train project to build a high speed rail line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

CRRC Vice President Yu Weiping said the new plant will create jobs and tax revenue for local people and help improve infrastructure.

It will advance cooperation in industrial capacity and local equipment manufacturing, he said.

India has one of the world's largest railway network spanning about 64,000 kilometres.

Since its presence in the Indian market in 2007, CRRC has supplied it with subway trains, locomotive engines and other railway vehicles and parts, the report said.

"Given more than 60,000 kilometres of railways in India, it is far from enough to build a single locomotive engine plant in India," Yu said.

"CRRC will build more plants (that are) able to produce trains, locomotive traction systems and other key parts in India," he said.

CRRC, formed from the merger of former rivals CNR Corp. And China CSR, has been aggressively reaching out to overseas markets, exporting rail transportation equipment to 101 countries and regions.

Its first plant in North America started operations in September 2015 in Massachusetts.

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The Chinese delegation of women parliamentarian today left for home after attending the two-day meeting of BRICS Women Parliamentarians' Forum.

The delegation, led by Wen Ma and Caixia Lv, departed from Sanganer airport to Delhi to leave the country for China after attending the two-day meeting which concluded here today.

Protocol officers were present at the Sanganer airport for their departure.

Delegates from other member countries will participate in post-conference tour of Albert Hall, Amber Palace and other places tomorrow before leaving the city on Tuesday.

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Hillary Clinton's campaign is halfway to its goal of raising a billion dollars for the 2016 race, according to her finance director.

Dennis Cheng announced the achievement today in a meeting with staff at the campaign's headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, according to a campaign aide who was present for the meeting but wasn't authorized to discuss internal campaign strategy and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Her campaign has resisted publicising a fundraising target for the general election, fearing it would draw attention to big donors at a time when voters angry about the role of money in politics. She aimed to raise $100 million for her primary bid.

Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic party committees in July, according to finance reports released yesterday. She's maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads. This week, she'll spend at least $10 million more on ads. GOP rival Donald Trump raised $80 million for his campaign and the Republican party, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself.

He's kept his payroll to about 70 employees, only began airing ads in recent days and has not undertaken a significant operational buildout across the country.

Instead, nearly half the money he spent in July went to one web design firm, whose president is the campaign's director of digital marketing.

Clinton's campaign is in the midst of a fundraising blitz, with 43 events planned in 14 states over the next two weeks, according to a schedule obtained by The Associated Press.

She was spending the weekend greeting donors on Massachusetts' Cape Cod before heading to California for a series of events at the homes of Hollywood celebrities and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Later this month, she will head to the Hamptons on New York's Long Island for another fundraising swing.

President Barack Obama hosted an event last Monday on Martha's Vineyard, off the Massachusetts coast, where he was vacationing. Her running mate, Tim Kaine, and former President Bill Clinton also have events planned around the United States.
A 54-year-old constable was mowed down by a speeding car allegedly driven by an 18-year-old youth, who did not have a driving licence, near Welcome metro station in northeast Delhi this morning.

Naresh Pal Malik, a Head Constable in Delhi Police's Special Branch, was knocked off his scooter on his way to work around 8.30 AM.

Locals chased the car and caught hold of Shubham who was driving it. He does not have a driving license, a senior official said.

Pal, who suffered serious head injuries, was taken to GTB Hospital, where he was declared brought dead, police said.

He was a resident of Surya Vihar, Ghaziabad, and had joined Delhi Police in 1982.

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Former "Friends" star Courteney Cox's reluctance to leave Malibu and move to Ireland has reportedly frustrated fiance Johnny McDaid.

The couple reconciled earlier this year following a brief split, but their friends are now worried about their future following a string of rows during their recent European vacation, largely triggered by the musician's desire to return to Ireland and Cox's unease at being away from home, reported Female First.

"They really love each other but they can't resolve their issues. Courteney is such a homebody and hates leaving Malibu but Johnny is desperate to return to Ireland with the wedding pegged for autumn it's causing huge rifts," a source said.

"Their trip to Europe has been stressful, not just because of tension between Courteney and Johnny's family but also because she's feeling suffocated and uncomfortable away from her own home in Malibu. She hates being away for any length of time. Johnny gets frustrated by how restricted that leaves their life, and the thought of being holed up in some LA mansion for the rest of his life is not what he wants.

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Details of kidney donors will be linked to their Aadhaar card in a bid to bring transparency in kidney donation across Maharashtra, state Health Minister Deepak Sawant today said.

"To bring transparency in kidney donations across Maharashtra, the details of the donors will be linked to the Aadhaar card. With this, no person can be cheated," the minister, who visited various government hospitals in the district, told reporters here.

The move follows bust of an alleged kidney transplantation racket at the Mumbai-based Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital.

Sawant, who is from Shiv Sena, said a meeting has been convened in Mumbai tomorrow where the issue of setting up a special committee for bringing in transparency in kidney transplantation will be discussed.

With regard to issues faced by hospitals and patients, he said a review meeting would be held soon in which shortage of medical staff and doctors would be discussed.

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The Maharashtra government will expedite inquiry against Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Bhagwan Sahay, who has been divested of his charge following the alleged suicide of a son of a junior official of the department.

A decision over his future will be taken by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the coming week.

State Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fundkar said the government had initially planned to wait until Joint Secretary of Agriculture Rajendra Ghadge, whose 23-year-old son had committed suicide, returned here.

"The Agriculture Joint Secretary may even take a month before he returns to work. That does not give us the liberty to keep investigation against Sahay on hold till then. We have thus now decided to send a team to his native village and record his statement," Fundkar told PTI.

"I will, in my meeting with the Chief Minister tonight, brief him about the status of the case. Once we have the Joint Secretary's statement, the Chief Minister will take a final call on the ACS in the coming week. Till then he remains divested of his charge," said the Minister.

Sahay has been under the cloud after Ghadge's son allegedly killed himself.

Sources in the Agriculture Department had said in the afternoon on August 12, Ghadge (posted at department office in Mantralaya here) got a panic call from his son, who was suffering from depression, asking him to come home in Navi Mumbai as soon as possible, failing which he (the son) would end his life.

Panicked by the threat, Ghadge requested Sahay to let him go home early. However, Sahay turned down the request and made him work till regular office hours.

The protesting members of the Employees Union said that Sahay in his file notings wanted to know whether Ghadge had submitted a leave application or not.

Meanwhile, the charge of Sahay's department has been handed over to Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, D K Jain.

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Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed for last month's failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has "infiltrated" India, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Asserting that FETO is "secretive transnational criminal network" with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, "Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools."



In an interview to PTI after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish Foreign Minister also said, "I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart."



The visiting minister said, "In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories."



Asked for a response to the Minister's comments, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side is "sensitive" to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were "looking into" Ankara's demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities.

Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said, "Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial."



"This is what both Turkey and India are focused on," he said.

Talking about last month's coup attempt, the visiting



dignitary said that a clandestine faction led by FETO within the Turkish Army attempted to stage a coup on July 15 to overthrow the democratically elected government.

"We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Swaraj," Cavusoglu added.

More than 240 people died and over 1,500 others were injured as a fallout of the failed coup.

Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. Gulen currently lives in self-imposed exile in the US.

The Turkish minister also expressed concern over the situation in Syria, maintaining that his country was directly impacted by every dynamic of the conflict there.

He also asked the international community to work together to bring about the much-needed political transition in Syria. "This is not only a prerequisite to end the conflict, it is also essential to effectively fight terrorism," the minister asserted.
Government is considering imposing a minimum import price on to help stem a surge in cheaper shipments coming from overseas hurting domestic manufacturers.

Revenue Department in the Ministry of Finance is studying the case made by domestic manufacturers led by Vedanta, Nalco, Hindalco and Balco for imposing minimum import price (MIP).

Chief executives of domestic manufacturers met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on August 18, with their demand for protection from cheaper imports.

They sought expeditious imposition of import restrictions like MIP on import on lines of the once imposed on steel, sources said.

China, the biggest producer and consumer of metals, is exporting surplus amid weak domestic demand.

Vedanta CEO Tom Albanese said discussions are on with states and the government to find a long-term solution so that supply chain for the aluminium business is actually a domestic supply chain.

"Right now steel industry has a number of protections from imports but only about 15% of steel comes from imports whereas 50% of aluminium comes from imports in India. So, you have much greater import penetration in the aluminium sector than you have of the steel sector," he told PTI.

He said China has the world's biggest unutilised aluminium production capacity. And considering that China subsidises electricity, "if that Chinese capacity gets turned out with subsidised power, it is likely we will see flood of new imported aluminium coming into Indian market".

India, he said, had bauxite resources to produce aluminium and should use that instead of resorting to imports.

In their representation, the aluminium industry told the revenue department that primary aluminium producers have incurred huge losses of Rs 4,025 crore in 2015-16 fiscal, which was substantially higher than Rs 1,480 crore loss in fiscal year 2014-15.

"The country is facing a situation wherein 50% of its demand is met through imports, particularly from China, where aluminium industry is subsidised by the Chinese government," the industry said.

The increasing imports have rendered less than 60% capacity utilisation of primary producers and creating immense threat for the domestic aluminium industry, they said.

Government entity MECON Ltd is conducting study and analysis of MIP and will come up with final recommendations by September-end.

Aluminium industry told the finance minister that the government has imposed MIP on steel to protect the domestic industry from the impact of global slowdown in commodity prices.

The government had on February 5, fixed MIP of up to USD 752 per tonne on certain steel products for six months. Later on August 4, it extended MIP on 66 steel products till October 4.

On August 9, India also imposed anti-dumping duty on certain hot-rolled steel products from six nations including China and South Korea.

On August 18, it also slapped anti-dumping duty on certain cold-rolled flat steel products from four nations including China and South Korea.

Stating that there has been a surge in imports of aluminium in India, Albanese said, "In the long term it does not make economic or environmental sense for us to be producing aluminium in India with African bauxite. We should be producing aluminium in India with Indian bauxite".

The aluminium producers are working with the government to find a permanent solution "so that our supply chain for the aluminium business is actually a domestic supply chain," he said.
Veteran actor Kamal Haasan today dedicated the French honour of Chevalier Award for him to his "admirers and audience" and said the prestigious recognition humbled him.

"On this occasion, I bow before my more deserving forerunners Satyajit Ray and Sivaji Ganesan who made even the common man realise the value of Chevalier award," the 61-year-old actor said in an audio message.

"I dedicate this award to my admirers and audience who give me the tenacity of purpose to pursue to this day and moment my arts," he said.

He said the award "humbles me rather than stiffening me with pride."



Though there was the "melancholy" of his parents not being alive to "see this day", other elders and youngsters were there in the family to "enjoy it," he added.

The Nadigar Sangam (Artistes' Association) and DMK Treasurer and Opposition Leader in Tamil Nadu Assembly M K Stalin greeted the actor for getting the French award.

The award was a "recognition" of the Tamil cinema industry, a sangam release said, adding the actors wanted to felicitate Haasan by conducting a function but said a decision on this would be taken after consulting him.

Stalin hailed Haasan as a "multi-faceted" actor and extended his hearty greetings to him.

In a Twitter post, Stalin wished more such awards to the actor "who has come up due to hardwork.

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Indian authorities need to examine "benefits and costs" of non-banking financial companies being permitted to raise funds from public in the context of financial stability, global body FSB said.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) also said Corporate Affairs Ministry, which is currently the oversight authority for non-financial companies, sees "its role mainly as a repository of corporate information rather than a regulator per se".

While these companies' deposit-taking activities are subject to a number of restrictions, information on the extent and nature of those activities is limited, it noted.

Noting that not all deposit-taking activities are regulated by RBI, the report said industrial, manufacturing and other non-financial companies are allowed to take deposits -- both from their employees and others -- under the Companies Act 2013 which is overseen by the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

According to FSB, the practice appears prima facie inconsistent with RBI's policy to discourage deposit mobilisation activities outside banks.

"It may therefore be useful for the authorities to examine the benefits and costs of this activity from a financial stability perspective," FSB said in its peer review report of India.

The suggestion comes against the backdrop of rising instances of investors getting duped by illegal money pooling schemes even as various Indian regulators and agencies have been taking steps to curb the menace.

FSB, which brings together entities from 24 countries and jurisdictions, works towards promoting effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies in the interest of financial stability.

India is represented by RBI, Sebi and the Finance Ministry at FSB.

Besides, the peer review report has recommended that authorities should continue to improve the timeliness and granularity of data collected from NBFEs (Non Banking Financial Entities) and enhance their analysis by carrying out horizontal reviews across different types of entities operating in the same market segment.

In its report, FSB has also emphasised that India needs to do additional work for having a comprehensive macroprudential policy framework with "clearer boundaries" for various authorities including RBI.

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plans to hire 500 personnel, including pilots, in the coming months as the budget carrier prepares to expand its aircraft fleet and fly overseas next year.

Gearing up to implement its ambitious expansion plans, the Wadia group carrier is looking to have 26 aircraft by end of March next year from the current fleet strength of 21, a senior official said.

The airline's CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said plans are on for listing and it would happen at the "right time".

"We will expand our fleet by up to 26 aircraft by the end of March next year. We need to build up for the expansion that we are going for. Every aircraft (inducted) needs 100 increase (in manpower) approximately. So we will naturally hire," he told PTI.

This would translate to hiring requirement of at least 500 personnel, including a significant number of pilots.

At present, GoAir's head count is around 2,300, Prock-Schauer said.

has 21 Airbus A320 aircraft, including A320neos  which are more fuel-efficient. Generally, an Airbus 320 plane needs maximum 14 pilots for its operation, with seven commanders and an equal number of first officers.

A back of the envelope calculation indicates that addition of five such aircraft would mean the need for about 70 pilots.

In June 2011, the Mumbai-based airline had placed an order with European aviation major Airbus for 72 new A320 neo aircraft valued at about Rs 32,400 crore on list price.

Besides, the carrier inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus for another 72 A320neo aircraft at Farnborough International Airshow in June.

Earlier this month, got government's approval to fly to nine countries, including Iran, Uzbekistan and Kazakhastan. It expects to start international operations from the next summer schedule  which generally spans from the last Sunday of March and extends to the last Saturday of October.

GoAir would be the first Indian private carrier to fly to any CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). CIS countries, for which the carrier has got flying nod, include Uzbekistan, Kazakhastan and Azerbaijan.

On the much-awaited initial public offering (IPO), which has been in the works for sometime, Prock-Schauer said it would hit the market at the appropriate time.

"We are preparing ourself (for the IPO). Its a question of timing, it is about the right timing. We are not in a hurry. We will wait for the right timing. We want to be well prepared. There are many things which we need to look at (before going to stock exchange)," he said.

About the recent MoU with Airbus, Prock-Schauer said the order is expected to be in place in the next two-three months.

"Economic things are stipulated in the MoU and only legal issues are to be worked out," he added.
The government is planning to set up a Centre of Excellence (CENEX) on food security in Delhi, on similar lines of Brazil, that would act as a think-tank and support government initiatives.

The centre would be set up in collaboration with the UN agency World Food Programme (WFP).

The WFP and Brazilian government had in November 2011 in a joint initiative launched the Centre of Excellence to fight against hunger and improve food security.

A delegation led by India's Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, was on a three-day visit to Brazil to study its food security policies and programmes.

"India is proposing to set up a CENEX on food security in Delhi," Paswan told PTI.

The proposed centre would be an institution which will act as an inter-ministerial think-tank and support government initiatives, he said.

"In matters relating to food security and social welfare, the centre would play an important role," Paswan said.

Earlier this year, the minister had signed a Letter of Intent with Etharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) in this regard.

"We are firming up the strategy for starting the Centre of Excellence in Delhi," he added.

During its visit to the South American country, the delegation studied the Brazilian Food and Nutrition Security policies, food production and distribution system.

Paswan informed Brazilian ministers about initiatives for food security taken by the Indian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The main objective of the centre is to collate the best practices followed to ensure efficient procurement, distribution and storage, among others, within India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India-born former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Guptas latest bid to have his insider-trading conviction overturned should be rejected, prosecutors have told an appeals court, asserting that he got a fair trial and the jury convicted him for his criminal conduct.

In a lengthy brief filed before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit this month, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said Guptas conduct of repeatedly tipping his business partner Raj Rajaratnam with material non-public information in ways that furthered Gupta and Rajaratnams shared financial interests remains criminal and he is not actually innocent.

Bharara said Guptas appeals from an order denying his motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence should be rejected and he is not entitled to the relief he seeks.

In May, Gupta, 66, had filed an exhaustive brief in the appeals court, arguing that the judgement of the Manhattan district court finding him guilty of insider trading should be reversed and his conviction should be vacated.

Guptas appeal came on the back of a landmark ruling by the Manhattan appeals court that for an insider trading conviction prosecutors must show that a defendant received a personal benefit for passing illegal tips.

Guptas lawyers have cited the ruling that led to the reversal of insider convictions of hedge-fund managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson in December 2014.

Asserting that there is no legal basis to overturn Guptas verdict, Bharara said Gupta was convicted by a jury in a fair trial for repeatedly and brazenly disclosing material non-public information to Rajaratnam in violation of the fiduciary duties Gupta owed to Goldman Sachs and Procter and Gamble, companies on whose boards of directors he served.

This conduct, which was motivated by Guptas substantial financial entanglements with Rajaratnam and his multi-billion dollar hedge fund, is as criminal today as it was before Newman, Bharara said.

Gupta received a fair trial before a properly instructed jury; that jury simply agreed with the governments evidence of guilt, rejected Guptas proffered defences and convicted Gupta for the conduct he committed. There is no legal basis to disturb that verdict, he said.

The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan noted that at no point did the District Court instruct the jury to convict Gupta based on a Newman-invalidated mere friendship theory of benefit.

Indeed, the friendship does not appear in the jury instructions at all. The District Court instead instructed the jury that tipping in furtherance of Guptas good and frequent business relationship with Rajaratnam would suffice under the law. Newman says nothing to the contrary, he said.

Gupta is a free man now, having completing his two-year prison term on insider trading charges in March this year.

Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing confidential boardroom information to now jailed hedge fund founder Rajaratnam.

He is currently subject to a term of supervised release.

Guptas lawyers are arguing that in the wake of the Newman ruling, the looser standard that Gupta would have shared confidential company information with Rajaratnam because of a friendship or good relationship is no longer valid.

The government tried this case and the district court instructed the jury on that prior basis. was convicted on that prior basis  and served the entirety of his prison sentence for conduct that is not criminal. Accordingly, the judgement of the district court should be reversed, and Guptas conviction should be vacated, they have said.
Torrential rains triggered by the South West monsoon have created flood-like situation in four districts of Rajasthan where six persons have been killed and over 70 airlifted, officials said today.

The Met department has issued a warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall for isolated places in Eastern parts and heavy rainfall for isolated areas in Western parts of the state in the next 24 hours.

Baran, Pratapgarh, Chittogarh and Jhalawar are the worst affected districts.

Army, NDRF (National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) and RAC (Rajasthan Armed Constabulary) have been deployed in the affected areas and several people have been shifted to safer places.

Army has been deployed in Baran while many people were airlifted by Air Force from different locations in Baran and Pratapgarh district since yesterday, Relief Secretary Rohit Kumar told PTI.

He said Army, NDRF and RAC were deployed in Baran while NDRF and RAC teams were in Chittorgarh and NDRF in Jhalawar and Pratapgarh was having RAC teams doing the rescue work.

Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha said that a total of 72 people have been airlifted since yesterday.

"34 people were airlifted in Baran district yesterday and 38 were airlifted today in Pratapgarh. More airlifting is also likely," Ojha said.

Six persons of a family died when a portion of their house collapsed in Baran district yesterday.

The house collapsed leaving Laxmi Narayan (72), his wife Shanti Bai (70) and four others of their family members namely Deepu (18), Anita Bai (26), Aishwarya (10) and Suraj (9) dead, police said.

Four others were also injured in the incident and are admitted at the district hospital, police added.

The South West Monsoon has been vigorous for the last two days, triggering torrential rains at isolated places in Udaipur division, heavy to very heavy in Kota and Udaipur divisions and light to moderate at many places.

According to Met department, Danpur (Banswara), Arnod Sr (Pratapgarh), Badesar and Nimbahera (both in Chittorgarh) each have received 23 cm rainfall since yesterday.

Badi Sadri (Chittorgarh) and Pipalkhunt (Pratapgarh) recorded 22 cm and many other places received below 22 cm rain during the same period.

Dabok, Barmer, Kota, Jaipur and Ajmer have also recorded 56.2, 30.59, 2.6 and 0.3 mm of rainfall respectively, it said.

Meanwhile, water level in Chambal river in Dholpur today crossed the danger mark.

The water level is posing threat of flood-like situation in more than two dozen villages near the river.

(REOPENS DES59)



Rajasthan Agriculture Minister Prabhu Lal Saini and Minister of State for Transport Babu Lal visited the rain-hit areas in Baran and reviewed rescue and relief works.

They also distributed cheques of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of the kin of those killed in a house collapse in Karwai area.

They distributed total Rs 24 lakh as compensation, a release said.

The ministers also gave necessary directions to official to provide relief to the affected people and conduct assessment of losses caused by the heavy rain.
has proved everyone wrong who had questioned its chances of survival at the time of independence, Indian high commissioner in the UK Navtej Sarna has said at a mela organised here to celebrate India's 70th Independence day.

Addressing the gathering of over 10,000 people of Indian-origin India's High Commissioner to the UK Navtej Sarna said the country has proved wrong those who questioned India's chances of survival.

"70 years ago, there were many who questioned India's chances of survival, but had proved them wrong.

"This is an occasion to reflect and collectively thank the thousands of freedom fighters, not just the leaders of the freedom movement but also those who remained anonymous.

" at 70 is the greatest experiment in the history of the world. People around the world were sceptical if India could survive. They have been proved wrong. Today nothing on earth can stop India's growth," he said.

Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who attended the event said, "India has the most unique governing institutions enshrined in the constitution which was developed by stalwarts of the freedom struggle such as Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar."

Paswan recalled the contributions by leaders from various religious communities towards India's freedom struggle.

He also visited the house in north London where Ambedkar lived as a student in the 1920 which is being converted into a memorial in his honour.

Labour MPs Virendra Sharma and Mrs Seema Malhotra were among those present.
Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay today said that Indians live for the pride of their country only at the time of crisis whereas people in other nations do it on a daily basis by proving themselves as good citizens.

"We all have to care about our country. We live for the pride of country at the time of crisis. If there is any war like Kargil today, the people of the country will sacrifice all their things for the nation," Upadhyay said.

"But in other countries, people live for the pride of their nations by being good citizens in their daily lives which we also need to do," he said.

Upadhyay was addressing his party's 'Purav Sainik Ekta Manch' unit at Constitution Club here. He, however, clarified that he was commenting in his personal capacity and not as the Delhi BJP President.

"If we prove ourselves good citizen, then it takes care of all things required for service of the nation. (agar hum apne aapko acha nagrik prove karten hai, to woh sari batein aa jati hain jo desh ke liye karne ki jararut hai).

Speaking on the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue, the BJP leader also said that Modi government had taken care of ex servicemen by accepting their long-pending demand.

"In the last 68 years, no governments have taken care of our soldiers. Modi government has accepted ex servicemen's long-pending OROP demand," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 50 people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber, between 12-14 years of age is linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack in Gaziantep late Saturday (in local time) that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in "the abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding".

Erdogan said in a statement there was "no difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep".

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us  you will not succeed!" he said.

Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom  Besna and Nurettin Akdogan  were in hospital but their lives were not in danger.

Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey such as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines".

Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921 when it defeated French forces in Turkey's Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

"Our grief is great but be sure our unity and togetherness will defeat all these diabolic attacks," he said.

Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said there was a "high possibility" it was a suicide attack, comments echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek.
At least 50 people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said today.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, in Gaziantep late yesterday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor's office said in a statement today, broadcaster CNN-Turk reported.

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an "abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding".

Erdogan said in a statement there was "no difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep".

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us -- you will not succeed!" he said.

World leaders quickly condemned the attack including French President Francois Hollande who denounced the "vile" incident.

"France stands with all who fight against the scourge of terrorism," the presidency said in a statement.

The US ambassador to Turkey John Bass condemned the "barbaric attack on innocent civilians", adding that Washington would "continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism" in a statement shared on the official US embassy in Turkey Twitter account.

Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. The Dogan agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom -- Besna and Nurettin Akdogan -- were in hospital but their lives were not in danger.

Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines".

Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921, when it defeated French forces in Turkey's Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip by air and with tank fire today after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave crashed into the Israeli city of Sderot.

Police said the rocket hit "between two buildings on a road" in Sderot, which is less than four kilometres from Gaza, causing no casualties.

Army spokesman Peter Lerner said Israeli forces retaliated by hitting targets of the Palestinian Islamist movement in northern Gaza.

"In response to the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the IAF (Israeli air force) and tanks targeted two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip," Lerner said in a statement.

Palestinian health and security sources said two people were lightly wounded by the Israeli fire.

"One of them is a 20-year-old (young man) who was hit by shrapnel in the face," said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Security sources in the territory said several targets in northen Gaza were struck by Israeli fire, and that a reservoir in Beit Hanun was destroyed.

Witnesses said a base of Hamas's military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in nearby Beit Lahya, was also hit.

Israeli media said it was the first time downtown Sderot had been hit by a rocket from Gaza since the last war with Palestinian militants in the territory in 2014.

On July 2, Israeli air raids hit four sites in Gaza after a rocket struck a building in Sderot. There were no casualties in either incident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) today expressed concern over alleged harassment of journalists and employees by security forces.

"Congress expresses concern over the way the employees, journalists and common people are being treated on roads by the security forces. What is the use of curfew passes when these are not being considered as a valid document by the forces," JKPCC said in a statement here.

It was commenting alleged incidents of beating of journalists, government employees and ambulance drivers by security forces in curfew-bounds areas of the unrest-hit valley.

"This is unfortunate that despite having curfew passes issued by the Administration, the employees, journalists and other people are being harassed and thrashed by the forces.

"When the curfew passes issued by DM is not valid, how can the administration pressurize the employees to attend duties? Even the ambulances are not being allowed to move freely, which is highly unfortunate and unacceptable," he said.

The spokesman said there seems to be a huge communication gap within the Administration and asked the government to come clean on this issue, "as people have every right to know who is ruling the state".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With Kashmir under curfew for the last 44 days, former state chief minister Omar Abdullah today led a joint delegation of opposition parties for a meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi where he pitched for efforts to find a political solution to the violent unrest which has claimed 64 lives so far.

The delegation had called on President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

The opposition leaders from the troubled state asked Gandhi to make efforts at the national level for finding a "political rather than administrative" solution to the current spell of unrest, the longest in recent memory, in the aftermath of the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani by the security forces on July 8.

The PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir led by Mehbooba Mufti has been flayed by Abdullah's National Conference and other opposition parties for "creating disaffection" in the Valley, particularly among the youth, by trying to find an administrative solution to end the current spiral of violence.

"Discussed the current political crisis in J and K with a delegation of opposition leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar (Omar Abdullah)," the Congress leader tweeted after the meeting.

CPI-M MLA M Y Tarigami, who was part of the delegation, told Gandhi that the ongoing stir in Kashmir should be considered a national problem and a consensus be built among political parties for evolving a political approach to deal with the situation.

"The present crisis should not be looked through the prism of another round of violence but needs a closer look keeping in mind the scope and implication of this serious crisis," Tarigami said.

State Congress chief G A Mir, who was also in the delegation that called on Gandhi, said "There is an urgent need to reach out to the people and not treat the present situation as a mere law and order problem."



He thanked the Congress vice president for taking up the issue in Parliament and forcing the government to a debate on the issue.

"Violence and bloodshed is leading to no solution. The political doors need to be opened urgently before the situation turns more violent," he said.

The delegation also comprised senior National Conference leaders including A R rather, Ali Mohammed Sagar, Nasir Wani, Davinder Rana and independent MLA Hakeem Yasin.

The delegation had met President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and submitted him a memorandum urging the Centre to deal with the present crisis "politically" rather than administratively.

It would meet Prime Minister Modi tomorrow to impress upon him the need for finding a "political solution" to the crisis by initiating a dialogue with "all stakeholders".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tokyo protested to Beijing today after Chinese coast guard ships sailed into territorial waters surrounding disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japan said.

Four Chinese vessels entered the waters surrounding islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, around 10.00 AM local time, according to Japan Coast Guard.

They left the territorial waters within an hour, the coast guard said.

The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets.

Tokyo has lodged at least 32 protests through diplomatic channels since August 5 over what it says have been about 30 intrusions by Chinese vessels in the territorial waters.

The director general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, Kenji Kanasugi, issued a protest today to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, saying that the ships' "incursion" violated Japan's sovereignty, the ministry said in a statement.

"Despite Japan's repeated strong protests, the Chinese side has continued to take unilateral actions that raise tensions on the ground, and that is absolutely unacceptable," the statement added.

China is also involved in maritime disputes in the South China Sea with countries including the Philippines, but a UN-backed tribunal has ruled that Beijing's claims were invalid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana Tourism Minister Ram Bilas Sharma today said the Kala Amb memorial site at Panipat will be developed as a national-level tourist destination during the golden jubilee year of the state's inception.

The site, where the Third Battle of Panipat was fought in 1761, will be developed with the assistance of the Centre and Maharashtra government, he said after presiding over a review meeting of his department here.

Besides, 48 sites falling under '84 kos' as mentioned in the Mahabharata, will also be developed as tourist attractions under the Krishna Circuit project, Sharma said.

Special concessions will also be given to visitors at tourism centres and restaurants in various destinations during the golden jubilee year, the minister said.

Muni Tarun Sagar Ji Maharaj will deliver a discourse at the Vidhan Sabha complex on the first day of the Assembly Session on August 26, he added.

Sharma, who is also the state education minister, said 200 eLearning Centres and 100 'Happy Schools' would be set up in the state with the assistance of Rotary Foundation under its 'Rotary India Literacy Mission'.

He was speaking at an event organised by Rotary Club of Mohali, SAS Nagar, an official release said.

Rotary district governor Raman Aneja said 75 Rotary Clubs in Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are engaged in the literacy mission.

He said training would be provided to 1,000 teachers, and around 15,000 adults imparted basic literacy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Kashmiri Hindu Cultural Welfare Trust on Sunday asked the Karnataka government "not to play politics" over the incident in which anti-India and anti-Army slogans were raised at an event organised by .

Chairman of the Trust R K Mattoo said those who shouted 'Azadi' and anti- slogans should be identified and booked under the law to prevent such incidents in future.

"I appeal to government of Karnataka not to play politics in this as the whole incident is of security and anti- forces raising their heads. Nip the evil in the bud please and do not allow this to spread to other parts of our dear nation ...Have a Heart and do not play politics," he said.

"Interestingly, the Karnataka government has chosen to give a clean chit to even as a probe into the sedition charges (following an FIR by the ABVP) is underway," he added.

On Saturday, the state Home Minister G Parameshwara had said India has never involved itself in any kind of anti-national activities. "... I have not heard of Amnesty International being involved in any seditious activity so far," he had said.

Mattoo said Amnesty International should come out openly and condemn the "slogan shouting at the function organised by them and own the responsibility for the same... It (Amnesty) cannot take shelter under freedom of speech and at the same time ignore the responsibilities under the Constitution."

Mattoo, a Kashmiri Pandit, accused Amnesty International of being selective in its protest against human rights violation and urged the NGO to publish a report on the "human rights violations and atrocities perpetrated by Lashkar-e- Taiba, Hijbul Mujahideen and its followers like Burhan Wani."

"Their reports should focus on the Sikhs under threat by separatists in the Valley and the victims in Shopian incident, where more than 2,000 Kashmiri Pandit employees were tortured and forced to flee and their reports should reflect on the bloodbath and terror unleashed by separatists in the Valley," he said.

He also demanded "imposition of ban on Amnesty International in India which has till date focused only on so called human rights violations by armed forces in Kashmir and totally ignoring killings of Kashmiri Pandits, security forces and role of terrorists in the valley.
Lashing out at former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah for accusing the BJP of bringing about demographic changes in the state, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits today said the statement has potential to aggravate the unrest in the Valley.

"The statement of former chief minister has the potential to aggravate the unrest in the Valley," President KP Sabha, KK Khosa said here today.

"BJP's basic agenda is to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution and change the demography of the Muslim-majority state," Abdullah had claimed on Aug 19.

Khosa said that at a time when Kashmir was facing unrest, senior leaders like Farooq Abdullah should have tried to "douse the fire rather than further fuelling it."



"We all know that Article 370 cannot be scrapped from the Constitution of India unless the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly also ratifies it," he said.

He said that while PDP which was part of the government was committed to strengthening Article 370, the statement by NC leadership shows that it was not keen to see normalcy back in the Valley.

Khosa said that in the past 27 years, the National Conference "never made any worthwhile efforts" to ensure the return of the Kashmirir Pandit community to the Valley except playing politics over it.

"Even today NC has not spoken about the demographic change that took place in the Valley due to the ouster of the community," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today cautioned against tendencies like paid existing in journalism in the country, saying media persons should be trained to fight such evils.

"Beware of wrong tendencies like paid . Only journalists with social commitments could fight such tendencies," he said, adding, budding journalists should be treated in such a way.

"Journalists used to uphold values like honesty, sincerity and accuracy in olden times. Their personal interests did not get reflected in their writings", Vijayan said addressing the state conference of senior journalists forum here.

The Chief Minister said his government would respond favourably towards the demands of veteran journalists such as timely payment of their pension dues.

Earlier in the day, addressing the conference, Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala criticised the growing tendencies of political leadership evading questions of journalists.

"Journalists are engaged in correcting the errors of government, political leadership and bureaucrats. Blaming them for asking unfavourable questions is not good," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Kenya where he is expected to hold talks with leaders of the East African nation focusing on regional security and extremism.

Kerry's plane touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last night, where he was welcomed by Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed.

Presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu had earlier said Kerry will hold discussions with President Uhuru Kenyatta on regional security and stability.

Esipisu says specific issues likely to be discussed include stabilising northern neighbour South Sudan, which is dealing with a recent upheaval, and developments in Somalia and Burundi.

Somalia faces key parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election in October. Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza won a third term that many consider unconstitutional.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rejecting Gujarat government's decision to form an SIT to probe the 2012 Thangadh police firing case, the families of the three Dalit youths killed in the incident today demanded a CBI inquiry.

To protest against the government decision, the family members took part in a rally at Gandhinagar, organised under the banner of 'Scheduled Castes Ekta Manch'.

They also announced that their sit-in agitation will continue at Satyagrah Chhavni area of Gandhinagar city until they "get justice".

Talking to reporters before the rally, Manju Parmar, whose son Prakash was killed in the firing, said she has no faith in the SIT.

"We have no faith in the government-formed SIT. We want the CBI to investigate the whole case and book all those policemen involved in the firing. I believe that announcement of forming an SIT is just an eyewash by the government," said Parmar.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths-- Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod-- were killed when police opened fire to disperse a mob during a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

Mehul's mother Jayshreeben Rathod said she will take the fight to Delhi if they do not get justice.

Jayshreeben's husband Valjibhai Rathod along with some other dalits of Thangadh have been on an indefinite hunger strike at Gandhinagar since last three weeks.

According to Jayshreeben, the hunger strike will continue despite government's assurance.

"The formation of SIT is not enough. We want CBI to investigate the case. We don't want government's sympathy. If we don't get justice, all the dalits will march to Delhi. We would rather die, but will not go back to Thangadh without getting justice for our sons," said Jayshreeben.

Earlier yesterday, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani decided to constitute a three-member SIT to investigate the incident, which had taken place four years back.

It was also announced that the government would form a special court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case and announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of the victims, over and above what was decided earlier.

The State CID investigation into the case remained inconclusive and it filed a closure report. No charge sheet has been filed into the incident so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hitting out at Amnesty International for hosting an event where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised in Bengaluru, displaced Kashmiri Pandits today demanded a probe by central investigating agency into its activities in India.

They also dared the NGO to publish a report on the human rights violations and atrocities perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hijbul Mujahideen and its followers like Hizb terrorist commander Burhan Wani.

"A central investigating agency should probe into all the activities of Amnesty International for being selective in its protest against human rights violation.

"The NGO should come out and openly condemn slogans raised during the event organised by them," said RK Mattoo, Chairman of the Kashmiri Hindu Cultural Welfare Trust (KHCWT) said.

Earlier this week, the Trust had filed a complaint against the NGO for "allowing" anti-national slogans to be raised during an event organised by it on August 13.

"Amnesty International's report titled 'Denied: Failures in accountability for human rights violations by security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir' provides a biased perspective and negatively contributes to protection of human rights in the Valley.

"So, Amnesty should immediately introspect and inquire into their report making process," Mattoo said in a statement released today.

The Trust had demanded the NGO also focus on the plight of five lakh Hindus who fled Kashmir decades ago and pursue rehabilitation of Pandits with the Indian government.

"Their reports should focus on the three lakh Sikhs under threat by separatists in the Valley and the victims in Shopian incident, where more than 2,000 Kashmiri Pandits employees were tortured and forced to flee and their reports should reflect on the bloodbath and terror unleashed by separatists in the Valley," he said.

Questioning the neutrality of Amnesty, Mattoo narrated the sequence of events that lead to sloganeering.

"The programme was initially not designed to include the voices of the Kashmiri Pandits. But after I questioned them through my Facebook post, they invited me to speak.

"I spoke on the exodus of five lakh Kashmiri pundits after brutal killing of around 800 of them by Islamic militants in 1989-90," he claimed.

"My positive remarks about the Indian Army was shouted down by some people in the audience. And chaos followed," alleged Mattoo.

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Krishna Pushkaram-2016 presented some inspiring case studies with the free food distribution for pilgrims standing out as the best.

A staggering 68,21,714 persons were provided food in the first nine days of the 12-day river festival in Vijayawada, the central point of the Pushkaram in Andhra Pradesh, Krishna district Joint Collector Gandham Chandrudu told PTI.

By the end of the festival on the August 23, the aggregate number is expected to cross over 90 lakh.

This is a record of sorts and the entire exercise is now being documented so that it could find place in the Guinness World Records, the official said.

In the Amritsar Golden Temple, one lakh pilgrims are provided free food, the same in Tirumala. About 50,000 to one lakh pilgrims are served everyday at Dharmasthala Manjunatha temple in Karnataka and about 40,000 in Shirdi in Maharashtra.

The food distribution during Krishna Pushkaram clearly eclipsed those numbers.

On August 18, the highest number of 9,91,440 pilgrims were served free food and yesterday the number was 9,54,990, Chandrudu said.

Everything was meticulously planned and executed by a core team comprising Krishna district Joint Collector, district Supplies Officer Ravi Kiran and Assistant Supplies Officer Komali Padma, with Pushkaram Special Officer B Rajasekhar guiding them.

Pilgrims rated the food as excellent, very good and good with not one adverse remark or complaint about the quality or quantity.

The fare dished out also had a good variety from upma and hot pongal for breakfast to regular meal, tamarind rice, tomato rice and even vegetable biryani for lunch and dinner.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is also



occasionally supplying a special sweet item rava kesari. The TTD's food is rated excellent by pilgrims on all days.

Iskcon-affiliate Akshaya Patra Foundation and TTD were the main food providers serving about 3.5 lakh pilgrims a day, while over 50 other organisations like Lion's Club, BSR Infratech and Rice Millers' Association also did their bit.

Besides, individuals also arranged food for 500 to 5000 people daily.

"The government is paying Rs 10 for a 250-gram meal and we have also arranged for supply of LPG cylinders at a subsidised price of Rs 750 each. All others are providing the food free," Chandrudu said.

"We have ensured there are no loose ends and tied up everything very well. Detailed planning has gone into all logistics, the important being transportation of food from special kitchens to all the supply points. Apart from 21 Pushkar Nagars, 60 other points were notified where food was distributed," Chandrudu said.

A team of officials, led by a deputy collector-rank officer, was stationed at the kitchens to taste and certify the food before it was sent to the respective distribution points.

"This is the first time that the TTD has constructed a kitchen outside Tirumala and provided free food to devotees. On an average we fed 1.25 lakh pilgrims per day during the Krishna Pushkaram," TTD Joint Executive Officer K Srinivasa Raju pointed out.

"It is all God's grace," he remarked.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India has been asked to cough up Rs 1.24 lakh after the company failed to honour a legitimate claim made by the widow of a beneficiary.

In a recent order pertaining to the case, the Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum held LIC to be deficient in its services as it failed to verify the credentials of another woman, who also claimed to have married the deceased --Nitin Kishid.

Forum President Sneha Mhatre and member N D Kadam ordered LIC to pay the claim/insured amount of Rs 50,000 from the date of the death of the deceased in September 2000, along with interest at 8 per cent per annum (amounting to Rs 64,000) besides Rs 5,000 for mental worries and Rs 5,000 towards legal expenses to the legally married woman.

The claimants Anita Nitin Kashid and her daughter, residents of Nuribaba Dugha road of Thane, claimed in their application that the deceased worked with the Thane Municipal Corporation since 1990 and he had in 1998 taken the LIC's money back policy for Rs 50,000, valid for 20 years.

The duo stated that Nitin died on September 2, 2000 after which they lodged their claim with LIC.

The insurance company, however, rejected the claim stating that the policy holder had given the name of one Shakuntala as the nominee instead of the present claimant in the policy papers.

LIC contested the claim and submitted that the claimant/applicant was not the legal heir of the deceased and hence the claim cannot be settled against her.

They also came up with the argument that the complainant had not submitted a succession certificate issued by the judical magistrate to her along with the claim papers.

The Forum, however, in its order observed that the complainant had submitted the marriage certificate, the birth certificate of the daughter of the deceased and NOC from Shakuntala (Nitin's alleged second wife).

LIC insisted on the complainant getting the additional sucession certificate even when it was proved that the complainant was the wife of the deceased.

The Forum also observed that the LIC while including the name of Shakuntala in the policy failed to verify her as the legally married wife of the deceased.

All these amount to deficiency in services and hence LIC needs to in the first place honour the claim and also pay an interest at 8 per cent per annum from the date of death of the deceased, the Forum said.

It also needs to pay the compensation for mental suffering and legal expenses it added.

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In a second such incident in the last two days, a 52 years old tribal man was killed by a leopard in Murbad tehsil of the district today.

Yesterday, a woman had been killed by a leopard in the same region, prompting the forest officials to set traps to capture the animal.

Barku Bhoir (52) was attacked by the big cat when he was grazing his cattle in the Palu-Sonawale dam area today.

Angry villagers later stoned the vehicles of forest officials who visited the area, police said.

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A 24-year-old man was allegedly heckled by a group of people for carrying a leather bag as they suspected it to be made of cow hide, police said today.

The incident took place on Friday in suburban Andheri when the victim, who identified himself as Barun Kashyap, was commuting to his workplace in an autorickshaw, whose driver started raising suspicion over his bag.

"I started off from my home to work in an auto. The auto driver was quite curious and intrigued by my long hair and nose piercing right from the beginning and asked me about my native place. He stopped at a traffic signal and started looking at my leather bag," Kashyap, who works as a creative director in a private firm, claimed in his Facebook post.

Kashyap, who hails from Assam, further said the auto driver then touched his bag and concluded that it was made of cow hide, a charge which he denied.

The youngster then clarified that the bag was made of camel leather, which he had bought from Pushkar.

"Not satisfied with the reply, the auto-driver moved forward and stopped the auto near a small temple on the way to my office. Before I could say anything, I saw the driver signalling at three men sitting in front of a temple, smoking," he said.

"The three men then approached the auto and started conversing in Marathi, which I could not decipher. They asked me to step out of the auto which I refused. When I was busy protesting, one of the men came to the other side of auto and started checking my bag."



"One of them asked my full name. He looked at the other two and said something in Marathi out of which I could only understand the word 'Brahmin'. Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin and left the spot," he said.

Kashyap said he got off the three-wheeler at the next traffic signal and noted the auto number. He said he also asked the driver his phone number, "which he (driver) proudly gave to me saying 'aaj toh bach gaye'."



Kashyap said he then approached D N Nagar Police Station yesterday and filed a complaint against the suspected cow vigilantes (driver and three others).

A senior police official of D N Nagar Police Station said, "Since no physical harm was done to the complainant, we have registered a non cognisable offence. Further investigations into the matter are on.

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At a time when the debate over incidents of cow vigilantism in Gujarat and other parts of the country is fresh, a 24-year-old man was allegedly stopped and questioned by some men in Mumbai who suspected that the leather bag he was carrying was made of cowhide.

The incident took place in suburban Andheri on Friday. As he shared his experience on social media and it went 'viral', Mumbai police today said they have started an enquiry.

"All such actions will be dealt with strictly as per the law," Mumbai police's spokesperson, DCP Ashok Dudhe said.

"We have started an enquiry to identify those involved and will take up investigation immediately after getting an approval of the metropolitan magistrate," he added.

According to the complainant Barun Kashyap, who works as a creative director, he was travelling to his workplace in an autorickshaw when the driver became curious about his identity.

"He was quite curious and intrigued by my long hair and nose piercing right from the beginning and asked me about my native place. He stopped at a traffic signal and started looking at my leather bag," Kashyap, a native of Assam, said in his Facebook post.

The autorickshaw driver then touched the bag and concluded that it was made of cowhide. Kashyap told him the bag was made of camel leather and he had bought it from Pushkar.

"Not satisfied with the reply, the auto-driver moved forward and stopped the auto near a small temple on the way to my office. Before I could say anything, I saw the driver signalling at three men sitting in front of a temple, smoking," he said.

"The three men then approached the auto and started conversing in Marathi, which I could not decipher. They asked me to step out of the auto which I refused. When I was busy protesting, one of the men came to the other side of auto and started checking my bag.

"One of them asked my full name. He looked at the other



two and said something in Marathi out of which I could only understand the word 'Brahmin'. Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin and left the spot," he said in his post.

Kashyap said he got off the vehicle at the next traffic signal and noted the autorickshaw number. He said on asking the driver his phone number, "he (driver) proudly gave to me saying 'aaj toh bach gaye' (you got away today)."



Kashyap said he approached D N Nagar Police Station yesterday and filed a complaint.

A senior official of D N Nagar Police Station had earlier said since no physical harm was done to the complainant they registered a non-cognisable case and further probe is on.
An inordinate delay from the Meghalaya Electricity Corporation Ltd (MeECL) to power flood lights along the Indo-Bangladesh International Border has put the Border Security Force in "undue hardship" in managing the 443 km-long border, officials said today.

The MeECL is to provide floodlights along the Indo-Bangladesh border and Rs 14.7 crore have been deposited since 2012 for the same.

"We are serving under severe and undue hardship in view of the lack of proper power for the floodlights. This process should ideally have been completed by 2009," Border Security Force (BSF) Meghalaya Frontier IG P K Dubey told PTI.

Although the MeECL has been told to have the flood lights powered, the tendering process from their part has been delayed, he said.

Currently, the BSF has 125 Border Outposts and the floodlights are running on diesel generator sets meant to light the BOPs only, Dubey said.

Noting that the BSF personnel have to perform duties under severe condition in view of the situation arising out of the absence of proper lighting system, he said incidents of cross border crimes and smuggling had risen.

According to a seizure list of the BSF this year, hundreds of cattle were attempted to be smuggled across the border every month.

Till July, over 1200 cattle were seized within few meters from the zero line along the Indo-Bangladesh border, he said.

Apart from cattle smuggling, logs and contraband items worth several crores were also seized during the same period.

Involvement of local criminals in connivance with smugglers from Bangladesh has always been a great cause of concern for the BSF, Dubey said.

These trans-border criminals not only trespass into Indian territory but also damage the Indo-Bangladesh Border Fence with fence cutting tools and causing loss to government properties, he said.

All these could have been cut to size had the flood lighting process been completed, Dubey said.

An attempt to get a reaction from MeECL did not fructify.

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Police investigating a daring theft by an eight-member gang posing as vigilance personnel at a house in Perumbavoor near here last week are looking into the role of some men with links to extremists.

An official part of the probe team said the role of some extremist elements was being investigated in the theft of valuables including 60 sovereigns of gold ornaments worth lakhs of rupees at the residence of one Siddique Abdul Rahman.

"Investigation is progressing. We suspect role of some extremist elements in the robbery", the official said, refusing to divulge more details.

Last week, a gang posing as vigilance and anti-corruption bureau officials had conducted a "search" at Siddique's house and decamped with goods including gold jewels.

The eight-member gang robbed Siddique's house when he had gone for prayers at a mosque in their neighbourhood last Friday.

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A two-day meeting of the ministers of Disaster Management from BRICS countries will be held in Rajasthan's Udaipur from tomorrow to focus on two themes of 'Flood Risk Management' and 'Forecasting of Extreme Weather Events in the context of Changing Climate'.

Three technical sessions on areas of disaster risk management challenges, forecasting and early warning on flood and disaster risk in a changing climate will be held during the meet.

"The objectives of this meeting are to share experiences on flood risk management, current systems in each country for forecasting extreme weather events and to identify opportunities for collaboration between institutions of respective BRICS countries in the area of flood risk management and extreme weather-related events," according to a release.

This is the second meeting and in the follow up of the first meeting of the BRICS Ministers for Disaster Management convened by the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg in April this year.

"Recognising the common challenge posed by natural and man-made disasters, the BRICS countries have identified Disaster Management as an important area of collaboration.

"The Ufa Declaration signed by BRICS Nations in July last year identified the need to promote cooperation in preventing and developing responses to emergency situations," the release said.

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Actress Tamannaah Bhatia says the team of "Baahubali 2" is not bogged by the audiences' expectations of the film, but is rather excited about the second instalment of the blockbuster historical action-adventure.

Telugu director SS Rajamouli's multi-lingual movie "Baahubali: The Beginning" was not only a huge box-office success but also won the best feature film honour at this year's National Awards.

Tamannaah said the stress was apparent before the release of the first part but the team is more relaxed about the upcoming movie.

"We were more stressed out that time (referring to response for 'Baahubali'). We did not how people in the South would react and whether the Hindi audience will accept it or not. Today everyone is excited to watch the film," Tamannah told PTI.

"We have got very good response commercially not only in India but abroad as well. So we are excited more than being scared for 'Baahubali 2'."



"Baahubali: The Beginning" and was simultaneously made in Telugu and Tamil. The epic historical fiction film starred Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah and Anushka Shetty in lead roles.

Its Hindi version was presented by filmmaker Karan Johar.

"If you look at the first part all women had strong roles. Its an action-war film. Its a rarity that in a war film which is ideally men centric that it had lot to do for me in the film," Tamannaah said.

For her role in the sequel, the 26-year-old actress for the first time learnt horse riding and sword fighting.

"My role in part one of 'Bahubali' was feminine, had song and dance. This time I have a very unconventional part. In part two I will be doing action, horse riding and sword fighting. I had trained for this film."



There is already a lot of curiosity about "Bahubali: The Conclusion" as part one ended on a cliffhanger and everyone wants to know why Katappa killed Bahubali.

"That big question will be answered in the part two of the film. Wherever I go people often ask me the same question (why Katappa killed Bahubali). But I can't reveal anything as I have a contract signed with the company (producers)," Tamannah said.

The much-awaited second part of the magnum opus will hit theatres on April 28, 2017.

According to Tamannah, 20-25 per cent of the shoot for part two of "Bahubali" is pending.

"It is shaping up very well. I think the shoot will go on till November. We are shooting the climax. It is going to be bigger than the first part. It has lot more content than the first part."



Besides Tamannaah, the second part repeats the original cast of Prabhas, Rana Daggubati and Anushka.

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Hundreds of people affected by the Narmada dam project today blocked a road at Kevadia in Narmada district of Gujarat, disrupting movement of traffic for nearly two hours.

The protesters blocked the road leading to the dam at Wagharia village, 5 kms from the dam site, to press their 23-point demands.

It caused a huge traffic jam as hundreds of vehicles, including those carrying tourists, got stuck. The overflowing dam has become a tourist attraction on week-ends.

"The blockade continued for nearly two hours... Only after we told the protesters that the government has taken note of their demands, they relented," Deputy Superintendent of Police R M Bhadoria said.

People from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra who were affected by the construction of Narmada dam have been demanding cultivable land, jobs and amenities such as water supply and roads in the colonies to where they were relocated.

"Among our demands are cultivable land against the land that was taken away from us... Several persons have not received the land as promised under the rehabilitation and resettlement package," said Jikubhai Tadvi, who heads Narmada Asargrast Yuva Mandal.

"Living conditions in these colonies (for rehabilitated people) are very bad, with no proper water and road facilities. We demand improvement of living conditions," he said.

People from over 200 such colonies from the three states have been camping at Kevadia for the last 36 days to press their demands. Tadvi said the agitation would continue until they receive a written assurance from the government.

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Pitching for infrastructure status to the ATM industry to make it more viable, market leader on Sunday said that the ATMs are key for last mile delivery of the government's ambitious financial inclusion programme in the country.

Lauding government's Jan Dhan programme, NCR Corp's India head Navroze Dastur said in order to fulfil the ambition of financial inclusion and getting more people into the banking fraternity, one needs to provide relevant infrastructure and the last mile is an ATM.

"The objective of the government is to give you a bank account and get you into the banking fraternity so that you start transacting and using the account. So, ATMs are something that will fulfil the last mile," Dastur said.

He further noted that funding is a big issue for ATM deployers. Infrastructure status to this sector would make the sector more viable.

"When I say infrastructure status, you get loans at lower rates because ATM deployment is a capital intensive industry. They should get funding at lower than market rates or funding with longer repayment cycle. You need to look at ATMs as an infrastructure for financial inclusion," he said.

is a leading player in the global ATM industry and has 48% market share in India. It has a manufacturing facility at Chennai and a global R&D Centre at Hyderabad.

He said the whole purpose of opening a bank account and allotting crores of debit cards will be useless if it is not convenient for the customer to withdraw and deposit money.

According to Dastur, there is huge prospect of growth in the ATM business. Moreover, India is a highly under penetrated country as far as the ATM numbers are concerned.

There are about 120 odd ATMs per million people, while for China it is 350, and for the US it is 1,500.

Opening an ATM is much more viable than opening a bank branch. Besides, it will provide round the clock services, while a branch would function only during office hours.

He further noted ATM segment will not lose its market share or relevance because of mobile banking largely because the rural India, where majority of people reside, does not have infrastructure to support mobile or digital banking. Moreover, the country continues to be cash driven at large.

Most of the banks have launched their mobile banking apps, which facilitate cashless transactions and allows customers to seamlessly use and manage multiple bank accounts through their smartphones.

However, Dastur said: "To move out of a culture of cash to non-cash will take its time. It is not something that is going to happen overnight. It is a process. The process will evolve in different regions differently. In metros, the process will be faster".

"Economies and markets will behave differently. In the US, they have been able to cut down cash but they have not been able to eliminate cash. So, cash will be there. Technology is going to evolve. ATM will stay and it will evolve with technology," he added.
Real estate-focused fund Nisus Finance Services Co (NiFCO) plans to raise USD 50 million (around Rs 335 crore) through an offshore fund in the next 4-5 months.

The fund will invest the proceeds in mid-income residential projects in seven key markets across the country, a top official of the company said.

This will be the company's maiden offshore fund. It had successfully raised Rs 80 crore since the start of its operations in August 2014.

"Our focus is on raising small funds and invest in mid-income residential projects. International investors especially the high networth individuals (HNIs) are keenly looking at the Indian real estate market and we are hopeful we will be able to complete raising the funds in the next 4-5 months," Nisus Finance Services Co Chief Executive Amit Goenka told PTI.

He said the company will invest the funds in key markets, including Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi-NCR.

The fund will have a tenure of four years, and the company will look at investing around Rs 30-40 crore in every project. The investment will be made for around two to two-and-half years.

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The Niger Delta Avengers have pledged to lay down their weapons and resume talks with the Nigerian government after months of attacks on the country's oil and gas infrastructure that have crippled the economy.

In a message posted on the group's website late yesterday, the NDA said it would "observe a cessation of hostilities" in the Niger delta.

It also said it would support any effort to negotiate with "the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational oil corporations and neutral mediators."

There have been unconfirmed reports for several weeks of talks under way between Abuja and the NDA, but the rebel group never publicly acknowledged that it was engaged in negotiations.

The NDA pledged to observe "our cessation of hostilities ... Unless the ruling political APC (All Progressives Congress party) continues ... To arrest, intimidate, invade and harass innocent citizens and invade especially Ijaw communities."

The Ijaw ethnic people have long dominated oil rebel groups operating in the area, though experts say militants from other communities have also set up new branches.

Since the start of the year, the NDA has carried out a string of devastating attacks on Nigeria's oil pipelines and facilities.

Oil majors including Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Eni and the state-run oil group NNPC have all been targeted this year.

The attacks have reduced Nigeria's output by a third, hammering government revenue at a time of low global oil prices.

The oil sector accounts for 90 per cent of the nation's foreign exchange earnings and 70 per cent of government revenue.

The NDA has claimed to seek a fairer share of Nigeria's oil wealth for residents of the region as well as self-determination and political autonomy.
Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today said the number of farmers opting for the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' this year is expected to cross four crore, as against three crore last year.

As many as 200 mandis across the country would be brought under the ambit of the scheme by next month. 400 mandis would be made online by March next year, while 585 mandis would go online by 2018, he said.

Singh said, "The scheme aims to make agricultural practice risk-free for the farmers, but the leaders in order to serve their own political agenda are not able to comprehend it."



"Earlier, crop insurance schemes profited insurance companies and farmers were not compensated for the losses due to crop damage caused by natural calamities after the harvest. Besides, premium rates differed according to location," he said.

But this scheme is farmer-friendly. The farmers are required to pay only minimal premium and can claim compensation for losses caused by natural calamities up to 14 days after the harvest, the Union minister said.

Reiterating the government's commitment towards increasing farmers' income, the minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi understood the problems of the poor and the farmers and has taken several initiatives to alleviate their sufferings and provide amenities to them.

Bank accounts of more than 22 crore families have been opened in the last two years under the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana' and the government has made it a mission to provide electricity to each household by March, 2018, he said.

Addressing a public meeting, Singh said the Tiranga Yatra was launched throughout the country on August 9 to mark 70 years of freedom and would continue till August 22.

He also visited the ancestral house of Sir Chhotu Ram, one of the most prominent pre-partition politicians in the British India's Punjab Province.

Haryan Minister of State for Cooperation (Independent Charge) Manish Kumar Grover and state BJP chief Subhash Barala also spoke on the occasion.

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A youth allegedly stabbed his parents after they refused to give him money to buy liquor at Itapur village in Jajpur district, police said today.

While his father, identified as Vijay Mukhi succumbed to his injuries on way to the hospital, his mother Pramila Mukhi was rushed to local government hospital in a critical condition after the incident last night.

She was later shifted to the district head quarters hospital, the police said.

The police said Kalia Mukhi (25) used to quarrel with his parents over money for buying liquor. He demanded money from his father, Vijay for liquor late last nigh and when his father refused to give him money, Kalia started an argument with him over the issue.

"In a fit of rage, Kalia stabbed his father and when his mother came to the rescue of her husband, the accused stabbed her also injuring both of them critically," Jajpur Superindent of Police Anup Kumar Sahu said.

The accused fled from the scene.

The police have launched a manhunt to nab the accused and a case has been registered in this connection.

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Nepal's new Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' will embark on a three-day official visit to India on September 15, his maiden foreign trip, official sources here said today.

Highly-placed sources confirmed the date for Prachanda's India visit though it is yet to be officially announced.

This will be Prachanda's first foreign visit after assuming office earlier this month.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi, who was on a visit to India as Prachanda's special envoy, had discussed with Indian officials regarding the visit, according to Indian embassy sources here.

Today's confirmation of the date comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended an invitation to Prachanda to visit India at the earliest when Nidhi called on him. He also conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the new government of Nepal led by Prachanda.

Nidhi had briefed Modi about the latest developments in Nepal.

Modi said India is fully committed to support the government and the people of Nepal in the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. He also reiterated India's commitment to strengthen the traditional bonds of friendship and kinship with the people of Nepal.

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Five adults, including one pregnant female, were found murdered at a southern Alabama home, where an infant was also found alive, authorities said today.

It may take investigators days to untangle the grisly murder scene after victims were found yesterday afternoon inside the residence located in the city of Citronelle, about 30 miles northwest of Mobile, police said.

A four-month-old infant also was found alive at the home.

Authorities were still working to identify the bodies and notify relatives, Capt Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office told reporters early this morning.

"Given the way the scene looks, we're going to be here a couple of days," Burch said. "It's obviously a horrific scene."



Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told Al.Com that the crime scene where five people were "brutally and viciously murdered" was the worst she had seen in 20 years as a prosecutor.

Burch said suspect Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Miss, was taken into custody after he walked into the Greene County Sheriff's Office yesterday afternoon and confessed to the crimes. Burch said he expects Dearman to face five or six counts of capital murder.

"Sad to say, one of the females was about five months pregnant," Burch said.

Burch and Rich revealed few specifics of the scene, but said it was clear that firearms and at least one other type of weapon had been used. Burch said that it was not immediately clear whether the victims had been attacked while sleeping or had engaged in a prolonged struggle.

"We're not there yet," Rich said, when asked about details of the deaths. "We have a horrible scene here."



Burch said it appeared events began unfolding in the early hours of yesterday morning. Somewhere between midnight and 1 AM, residents of the house had called 911 to report a trespasser.

Burch said it was his understanding that during the call Dearman had been identified as the trespasser.

Burch said he understood that Citronelle police responded to the call, but found no one.

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With the rise in level of the Ganga, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today expressed apprehension of further rise in water level by tomorrow in view of release of water from Bansagar dam as flood-like situation prevailed in state.

Kumar, who held a high level meeting to assess the situation, later went on an aerial survey of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Begusarai and Khagaria.

He told reporters there is at the moment no possibility of flood waters entering into Patna city.

Meanwhile the rising water level of Ganga has more or less created flood-like situation in all the districts situated along the banks of the river in Bihar.

Ganga and six other rivers were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur, Buxar and Hajipur districts, a disaster management department statement said.

Ganga was flowing above danger mark at six places in various parts of three districts - Digha ghat, Gandhi ghat, Hathidah in Patna, Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district, Munger district and Buxar district.

The districts which are witnessing flood-like situation included - Patna, Vaishali, Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar, the department statement said.

Around 15,000 people are sheltered in 82 relief camps after being evacuated from flood affected areas, it said adding that all camps have the facilities of medical team with medicines.

Stating that several districts of Bihar have been facing the threat of inundation, Kumar said that "The water level of Ganga has increased due to release of water from Indrapuri barrage and other rivers merging into Ganga.

"Besides, a huge volume of water has been released from Bansagar dam and it is expected that water level, which has reduced, will once again rise by tonight or tomorrow morning," Kumar said.

The chief minister held Farakka dam responsible for slow discharge of water from Ganga which has become shallow due to heavy siltation. This causes flood water to spread to other areas.

He appealed to people to vacate the rivebank areas and come to relief camps which would provide them proper food and shelter.

National and State Disaster Response Force have already



been deployed in the affected districts, Kumar said and added that apart from taking help of big boats meant to ferry sand to evacuate people and animals, the government has made all preparations to airlift the people if needed.

Besides, Army has been put on alert to help the people out from the flood affected areas, Kumar added.

"We want to assure the people that we are alert... People should not get panicky and should tackle the situation bravely," Kumar said adding that government is taking every necessary step to provide relief to the people as "victims of disaster have the first right on state's coffers."



A disaster management department statement said altogether 1,326 boats are being plied by the government to evacuate the affected people to safer places.

The statement said several other rivers, apart from Ganga, were too flowing above danger mark and they were Sone at Koilwar (Bhojpur) and Maner (Patna), Punpun Sripalpur (in Patna), Ghaghra at Gangpur-Siswan in Siwan and Saran districts, Gandak in Hajipur, Kosi at Baltara and Kursela in Katihar district and Burhi Gandak in Khagaria.

Kumar said all the relief camps would be set up as per 'Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) prepared after Kosi tragedy and people coming to camps will be given utensils and basic minimum clothes for which the payment would be made through Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

Kumar gave necessary directions during the meeting convened to review the flood situation in the state capital. The CM assessed the flood situation with the District Magistrates of affected districts through video-conferencing.

Villages, which have been inundated, will be monitored regularly through patrolling, he said.

(Reopens CAL3)



The chief minister said that the leaves of all the officers have been cancelled in order to facilitate their deployment in flood affected areas.

All the DMs and SPs of flood affected districts would keep moving in order to assess the ground realities, he said adding that DMs would carry out aerial survey of their respective districts.

He was accompanied by Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Water Resources Department's Principal Secretary Arun Kumar Singh and CM's Principal Secretary Chanchal Kumar during the aerial survey.
Rural distress as a result of two back-to-back drought years has begun to show signs of easing following good monsoon rains and is reflected in the substantial decline in the number of labourers employed under the MNREGA in last two months, a top government official today said.

"Monsoon rainfall has been better so far and therefore area under cultivation is also higher than in past two years, when severe rainfall deficiency hit farmers. As a result the number of workers engaged under various Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) projects has also declined," Rural Development Secretary Amarjeet Sinha told PTI.

The Met Department has forecast better than normal rains for the four-month season ending September.

The number of workers and demand for work under MNREGA rises sharply during the time of drought. As the small farmers and peasant move away from agriculture and look for other options to earn their livelihood.

In the first week of June more than 1.37 crore workers were engaged in MNREGA which has come down to about 40 lakh at the start of this week, according to official data.

"This clearly shows that rural distress in the country is easing, but still there are small patches in one or two states which witnessed uneven rainfall. We will continue to provide them all essential support and funds," Sinha added.

He said, in the April-June period this year, the 89 crore person days of employment was generated as against 54 crore person days under the government's flagship rural employment programme last year.

Sinha, however, made it clear that the government would not scale down the works and funds under MNREGA, despite the situation easing in rural areas.

The government had last year increased the number of workdays under MGNREGA from 100 days to 150 days in drought-hit areas.

The objective of MGNREGA is to enhance livelihood security of rural households while creating durable assets and discouraging migration.

The focus of the scheme is on water conservation, water harvesting, drought proofing, land development, flood control and rural connectivity, among others. The scope of the scheme has also been extended from time to time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Singapore's Malay-Muslim community leaders have called for stricter norms for registration of religious teachers amid growing concerns over radicalisation in the country, media reports said.

The leaders want all Asatizah (Islamic preachers) to be registered with the Asatizah Recognition Scheme (ARS), started in 2005 to help Muslims to assess and recognise qualified religious teachers, The Sunday Times reported.

According to media reports, this wasdiscussed during a closed-door dialogue yesterday between Malay-Muslim leaders, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim and Minister for Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli as part of regular engagements with the community.

About 80 per cent of Muslim religious teachers are currently accredited under the scheme, which is run by the Asatizah Recognition Board and Singapore Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association.

Many community leaders said making the scheme mandatory would be a progressive and pro-active step.

Earlier this week, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) highlighted the importance of ARS, in the wake of an announcement that four Singaporeans were dealt with under the Internal Security Act for supporting Islamic State extremists.

Two Singaporeans were detained under the Act after they made plans to travel to Syria to fight for the terrorist group, said the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday.

The other two Singaporeans were issued restriction orders, which do not allow any one of them to change home address, joband travel.

Since January last year, eight Singapore citizens have been detained under the Internal Security Act for terror activities.

Singapore has so far detained 18 Singaporeans and four Bangladeshi nationals and put 24 Singaporeans are on restriction orders. All were related to ISIS, according to media reports.

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Seeking "sexual favour" can be considered as bribe and people can be penalised for it under a new law proposed by a Parliamentary Committee.

In its report on new anti-corruption bill, the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha has endorsed Law Commission's report and recommended inclusion of "undue advantage" in a relevant provision of the proposed legislation to cover "any gratification other than legal remuneration", including sexual favours, to explain offence relating to public servant being bribed.

In a first, the Parliamentary Committee has recommended criminalising private sector bribery by bringing in corporates and their executives in the ambit of proposed anti-corruption law and recommended jail term of upto seven years along with fine.

Besides, it has suggested punishment for bribe givers too.

The instances of graft are covered under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. To enlarge the definition of taking bribe and cover private sector bribery, the government has decided to introduce Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which is pending. The term used in the bill to define bribery related offences was "financial or other advantage".

In November last year, some official amendments were moved to replace the term "financial or other advantage" with "undue advantage" to make "any gratification other than legal remuneration" punishable.

The Select Committee of the Upper House examined the bill and submitted its report recently.

"Members of the Committee also felt that the purport of the words 'undue advantage' used in the proposed amendments includes all forms of pecuniary and non-pecuniary gratifications and appears to be wide enough to be misused by the enforcement agencies," the report said.

The Committee, apprehends that the enforcement or probe agencies may misuse the expression to harass public servant as well as members of civil society in corruption cases and advises that adequate precautions be taken in this regard, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale today said India should take control of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) if the neighbouring country did not stop its mischief.

"We do not need a war with Pakistan. But if Pakistan interferes in our internal matters, I think we should take control of PoK," Athawale said, speaking to reporters during the 'Tiranga Yatra' here.

"Forces like Pakistan are conspiring against India by spreading terrorism. Pakistan should stop anti-India activities as the Indian army is far stronger than Pakistani army," the RPI (A) chief said.

"We appeal to Pakistan to give up its control of PoK. The part of Kashmir which is occupied by Pakistan is India's integral part," the minister stressed.

China too should not encroach upon Indian territory, Athawale added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Calling it a "step in the right direction", Sikh-Americans here have welcomed the Indian government's decision of removing the names of 225 Sikhs from a blacklist.

"This is a step in the right direction and a promise fulfilled by the Modi government," said Jasdip Singh Jasse, founder of Sikhs of America, at a joint conference with the Overseas Friends of BJP-USA, which was attended by leaders of Sikh American community.

Last year, a delegation of Sikh-Americans led by Singh had submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited the Silicon Valley.

Singh, along with a delegation of OFBJP-USA, had also submitted a similar memorandum to Home Minister Rajnath Singh last year.

Names of 225 Sikhs, chronicled in the government's blacklist for their alleged involvement in subversive or anti-India activities, have been removed over the last four years.

The pruning has been done in a list of 298 Sikhs which was prepared at different levels by security agencies since 1980s.

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Actress Sonia Braga has joined Julia Roberts, Jacob Tremblay and Owen Wilson in an upcoming drama, "Wonder".

The movie, which is currently shooting in Vancouver, will see the 66-year-old "Kiss of the Spider Woman" star playing Robert's mother, confirmed The Hollywood Reporter.

"Wonder" is based on R J Palacio's novel of the same name.

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" director, Stephen Chbosky, is heading the heartwarming drama.

The story revolves around a boy, Auggie Pullman (Tremblay), born with a facial deformity, whose mother (Roberts) and family is trying hard to make everyone understand that he is just another ordinary kid.

Braga, the Brazilian-born actress recently starred in "Aquarius," a drama that was nominated for the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Gearing up for the roll out of from April 1, the state finance ministers will meet representatives of trade and industry on August 30, to sort out vexed issues like place of delivery of services, registration of entities and intra-company services.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of certain procedural issues raised by the trade and industry with regard to implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will create an unified market with a single rate of tax.

The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST, headed by West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, will meet representatives of CII, Ficci and Assocham, among others.

During the meeting, industry is likely to demand that location of supplier of goods and services and location of recipient of goods and services need to be defined in the subsequent legislations so that there is no ambiguity.

The government targets to roll out from April 1, 2017, and to this effect it has to bring two legislations -- CGST and IGST -- detailing the new tax code in the Winter Session of Parliament in November. Similar tax law SGST will also have to be passed by the states.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed by Parliament earlier this month and so far three states, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand, have ratified the Bill. A constitutional amendment requires ratification by at least 50 per cent of the states.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has already held meetings with 10 sectors, including telecom, IT/ITeS, banking, e-commerce and tourism, to understand their concerns.

During the meeting, e-commerce players flagged compliance issues under GST as these operators would be responsible for collecting tax at source from sellers.

The ecommerce companies want that onus of paying taxes to be shifted to the supplier, an official said, adding this is not possible as tax compliance has to be borne by an aggregator.

Further tourism sector wants that foreign tourists stay in India be treated as exports and no GST be levied on them.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill did not have the GST rate and the GST Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states, will now work out a rate.

The subsequent legislations Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) -- would mention the GST rate.

A panel headed by Arvind Subramanian had last year suggested 17-18 per cent 'standard' rate for bulk of goods and services while recommending 12 per cent for 'low rate goods' and 40 per cent for demerit goods like luxury car, aerated beverages, pan masala and tobacco. For precious metal, it recommended a range of 2-6 per cent.
Government has asked online retailers to strictly comply with the e-commerce guidelines following complaints by offline players on the advertisements being given by them in newspapers announcing sale.

This was instructed to the online retailers during a recent meeting held in the Commerce and Industry Ministry.

"In the meeting, it was made clear to the online companies that they can not announce any kind of sale discounts and if they are giving advertisements, then it should clearly mention that those discounts are extended by their vendors and brand owners only," an official said.

The official said the ministry has received lot of complaints by stakeholders including traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).

Demanding immediate action, CAIT had filed a complaint with DIPP alleging that major e-tailers are blatantly violating FDI norms.

It has stated that during the past few days companies have given big advertisements in media announcing sale on their online platform which is a violation of FDI guidelines on e- commerce.

The meeting was attended by Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ramesh Abhishek, the consumer affairs secretary and some big online retailers.

In March, the government had allowed 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in the marketplace format of e-commerce retailing.

As per the guidelines issued by the DIPP, foreign direct investment (FDI) has not been permitted in inventory-based model of e-commerce.

The guidelines also states that such entities will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods and services and shall maintain level playing field.

"E-commerce guideline allows owner of inventory that is seller registered on marketplace to determine price including by giving discount," another official said.

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An association of college students accused the Mangaluru University administration of granting permission for organising a "political programme" by renting out an auditorium in the campus for BJP President Amit Shah's programme today.

The association has also written to Karnataka Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi to take action against the university.

The 'Tiranga Yatra' which was flagged off by Shah at Pumpwell here culminated in the campus where the 'Balidana Smarane' (honouring martyrs) was organised.

Dinakar Shetty, president of the All College Students' Association alleged that the university has granted permission for organising a "political programme" as such programmes should not be encouraged in the campus.

The government should take action against those who gave permission for it, he said.

The university could have granted permission for the programme if it was attended by the Prime Minister, he said.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said the programme would be an apolitical one and no flags and symbol of BJP would be used in the programme in which contributions of Rani Abbakka, who was the queen of Ullal and fought the Portuguese in the latter half of the 16th century, and other freedom fighters would be remembered.

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The suspect in the killing of five people at a home in Alabama attacked them while they slept and then abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant both of whom were found alive, authorities said today.

It could take investigators days to sort out the grisly murder scene in Citronelle, a small town 30 miles northwest of Mobile. Authorities said the dead included a pregnant woman and were found yesterday afternoon inside the home.

Capt. Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office said the crime was of a magnitude rarely if ever seen in this corner of rural, southern Alabama.

"It's unprecedented here," Burch told The Associated Press.

Earlier, Burch told reporters at the scene that investigators expect to be at the scene for a couple days.

"It's obviously a horrific scene," he said.

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told reporters near the scene that in her 20-year career as a prosecutor, she's never encountered a crime "where there were five people who were brutally and viciously murdered, and that's what we have here."



She said "multiple weapons" were used.

Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, was taken into custody after he walked into the Greene County Sheriff's Office yesterday afternoon and confessed to the crimes, Burch said.

Dearman will be charged with six counts of capital murder, Mobile County sheriff's spokeswoman Lori Myles said today. Five counts stem from the killing of the adults, and the additional count is because one of the slaying victims was pregnant, Myles said.

Though connections between Dearman and the five people killed were not immediately clear, investigators have determined that his ex-girlfriend, Laneta Lester, had gone to the home on Aug. 19 to get away from an abusive relationship with Dearman, the sheriff's office said in a statement. Lester was staying with a relative there.

Around 1 AM yesterday, someone inside the residence called 911 and reported that Dearman was on the property, the statement said. Citronelle police came to the house, but Dearman had left before the officers arrived, sheriff's officials said.

Later, sometime between 1:15 AM and daylight yesterday, Dearman returned to the home and attacked the victims while they were sleeping, the statement said.

After the killings, Dearman forced Lester and the 3-month-old infant the child of the one of the murder victims into a vehicle at the residence. The three drove to the Mississippi home of Dearman's father.

After they arrived there, Dearman released Laneta and the infant and then turned himself in to authorities in Mississippi, Burch said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress today came under fire from top ministers in the Modi government for "sympathising with supporters of terrorists", a day after Karnataka Home Minister gave a "clean chit" to Amnesty International over an event where anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

Leading the charge, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said 'Azadi' slogans cannot be treated as freedom of speech and slammed Congress and its Karnataka government, accusing them of indulging in vote bank politics over the issue.

"Four days ago, in the capital of Karnataka, during a programme in Bangalore, 'Azadi' (freedom) slogans were raised by a few people. An organization, which gets funding from abroad, organized the event and yesterday I read the statement of Karnataka Home Minister in which he said that whatever happened is nothing wrong," Jaitley said.

"After so many sacrifices this country has made, some political parties do it for vote bank politics," he said addressing a rally on the outskirts of Jammu city.

The Finance Minister recalled a similar incident at JNU in January and said raising slogans to advocate the disintegration of the country cannot be seen as freedom of speech as advocated by some.

Union Minister Ananth Kumar, who met a group of ABVP activists on a dharna in Bengaluru, charged the Congress government in Karnataka with "sympathising with supporters of terrorists" and taking action against nationalists.

"It is unfortunate that the Congress government under the Chief Ministership of Siddaramaiah has taken action against nationalists and sympathised with supporters of terrorists," he told reporters.

"It is the duty of the Union and state governments to protect the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country. I am very happy about ABVP activists' efforts to do so by waging a fight against the present Congress government in Karnataka," he said.

The protesting activists submitted a memorandum demanding an National investigation Agency (NIA) investigation into the whole episode.

In reply, Kumar said he would meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and convey the sentiments of the protesters and submit the memorandum seeking NIA investigation into the incident.

However, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor defended Parameshwara's clean chit to the human rights organisation, saying national security does not get compromised when a few people chant anti-national slogans.

"National security of our country is not going to be compromised by few people shouting slogans. We are stronger than that, we are bigger than that, we are better than that," Tharoor told PTI on the sidelines of a conference on IPR organised by O P Jindal Global University (JGU) in Delhi.

"Charging Amnesty with sedition law was already a big mistake. The NGO has not advocated violence and no one at the conference did so," he said, adding "we are not at war at the moment. We don't have to think in terms of treason and all," he told PTI.

Parameshwara had yesterday said,"Amnesty International is



not new to Bengaluru,this organisation has been functioning here for a long time. I don't know nor I have heard in the past about it (Amnesty) or anyone from it involving in any anti-national activities."



"They (Amnesty) had organised a programme about Army's excesses in Kashmir. They had called a few families (from Kashmir) to console them and give them some sort of mental support, in which certain incidents took place about which an FIR has been registered," he said in remarks that were viewed as giving a clean chit to the rights advocacy group.

Amnesty International had on Saturday last organised the event as part of a campaign to seek justice for "victims of human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir, which took an ugly turn with heated exchanges and alleged raising of slogans in support of Kashmir's independence and against the Indian army.

ABVP activists had submitted a CD containing video recording of the event after filing a complaint with police, who registered an FIR against Amnesty International under various penal laws, including those related to sedition.
Russia is at the "core" of Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican nominee himself could be a "puppet" for the Kremlin, the rival Clinton Campaign alleged today.

"The hand of the Kremlin has been at work in this campaign for some time. It's clear that they are supporting Donald Trump," the Clinton Campaign Manager, Robby Mook told ABC during a Sunday talk show.

"But we now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign. There's a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed. And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race?" he alleged.

"You're saying he's a puppet for the Kremlin?" Mook was asked.

"Well, real questions are being raised about that. There's a web of financial ties to the Russians that he refuses to disclose. We've seen over the last few week, him parroted Vladimir Putin in his own remarks. We saw the Republican Party platform changed," he alleged.

"She saw Donald Trump talk about leaving NATO and leaving our Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack. The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone who's on the payroll of the Russia Times, which is a basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin. He was sitting two seats away from Vladimir Putin at heir 10th Anniversary gala," he said.

"There are a lot of questions here. We need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin," Mook alleged.

Responding to a question on Clinton Foundation's decision not to take foreign money as donation if Hillary Clinton is elected as the president she said it is unprecedented.

"The steps that are being taken if she should become president are unprecedented. We're happy that that planning is taking place. But I think when we talk about transparency, when we talk about disclosure, Donald Trump needs to release his taxes. He needs to explain his financial ties," he said.

"Just yesterday, we read in The New York Times, that his businesses owe millions of dollars to the Bank of China. Donald Trump talks all the time about a trade war with China. How can he really do that when millions of dollars of his own bottom line could be affected directly by the Chinese government?" he asked.

Mook, according to the Clinton Foundation, is saying that they don't want to become a distraction, that they want to go as far as they possibly can to make sure there's no possible conflict of interests.

"But again I just want to be fair here, Donald Trump is refusing to disclose deep financial ties that potentially reach into the Kremlin, which could influence his foreign policy decisions, but also where countries like China have leverage over him and could potentially distort his decision making there," he said.

"None of this is being disclosed. You and I are having this conversation because the foundation has chosen on the take unprecedented steps to disclose their donors from the last few years," Mook said.

(Reopens FGN1)



Trump said despite the "heated" back and forth between them during the three debates and the election campaign, "we have proved that we can actually be civil to each other".

"Just before taking the dais, Hillary accidentally bumped into me and she very civilly said 'pardon me'," he said, drawing the most laughs from the audience, even from Clinton.

"And I very politely replied 'Let me talk to you about that after I get into office'. Just kidding," he said.

Taking a swipe at the way Trump talks about women, Clinton said people look at the Statute of Liberty and see a "proud symbol of our history as a nation of immigrants, a beacon of hope for people around the world".

"Donald looks at the Statue of Liberty and sees a four, may be a five if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair," she said, a jab at Trump's way of using numbers to describe a woman's size.

"Come to think of it, you know what would be a good number for a woman? 45," Clinton said, referring to the number of the next US president.

All eyes were on the two presidential candidates as they arrived for the dinner. Clinton and Trump did not shake hands at the beginning of the dinner and only did so very briefly at the end of the event. The two had not shook hands at the third presidential debateas well.

Clinton began her remarks with a self-deprecating joke, saying the event was so special that she took a break from her "rigorous nap schedule to be here". She said it was a "treat" for those present in the room too to listen to her because she "usually charges a lot for speeches like this".

With Trump calling for Clinton to take a drug test before the final debate, Clinton said she was "flattered" that Trump felt she had used some sort of performance enhancer.

"Actually I did," she said, "it's called preparation."



She joked about her infamous "basket of deplorables" comment that she had made to describe Trump's supporters.

"There are a lot of friendly faces in the room, and I would put you all in a basket of adorables," she said.

On Trump's criticism that Cinton does not have the stamina to be president, she said she had to listen to him for three full debates "and he says I dont have any stamina".

"That is four and half hours, I have now stood next to Trump longer than any of his campaign managers," she said.

Clinton said if Trump does not agree with anything she is saying, heshould feel free to stand up and shout "wrong while I'm talking" and added that if Trump is not happy with the way the event turns out "it must be rigged".

Trump said he has known her for a long time "and this is the first time ever that Hillary is sitting down and speaking to major cooperate leaders and not getting paid for it".

He was heckled again when he said, "I wasn't really sure if Hillary was going to be here tonight because, I guess, you didn't send her invitation by email. Or maybe you did, and she just found out about it through the wonder of WikiLeaks."



"We've learned so much from WikiLeaks. For example, Hillary believes that it is vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private," Trump said as he was booed by the crowd.

Being heckled at a charity dinner attended by some of the most elite names in US politics, media and business was seen as unprecedented.
Britain's most dangerous extremists will be locked up in specialist isolated high-security units within prisons to prevent them from radicalising other inmates, authorities said today, days after the conviction of well known radical Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary.

The plan is part of a broader strategy to tackle radicalisation in British prisons to be launched next week by UK justice secretary Liz Truss under which inmates will receive targeted treatment to deal with their dangerous views.

She said: "The rise of Islamist extremism poses an existential threat to our society. I am committed to confronting and countering the spread of this poisonous ideology behind bars.

"Preventing the most dangerous extremists from radicalising other prisoners is essential to the safe running of our prisons and fundamental to public protection."



The new units will be built inside some of the UK's highest security jails and they will only accommodate the most extreme inmates who promote terror and violence, according to 'The Sunday Telegraph'.

Although the units will be sealed off from the main prison, extremists will not be isolated from each other.

Measures will be put in place to manage the inmates' ability to plot together, a source told the newspaper, after concerns were raised that the units could help extremists form bigger networks within the UK.

The move comes soon after the conviction of one of the UK's most extremist preachers Anjem Choudary.

He is expected to be jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of pledging allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS) at a sentencing hearing scheduled for September.

As many as five of his associates have since been placed under draconian anti-terror controls in a new crackdown on domestic extremism.

A summary of a report into prison extremism by Ian Acheson, a former UK Home Office official, will be published tomorrow with details of specialist units to separate extremists from other inmates.

Of the12,300 Muslims in British prisons,131 are convicted terrorists,but Acheson will warn that they make up a hardcore who could be influencing impressionable and potentially violent convicts.

Currently, Muslimsmakeup about 12 per cent of the prison population, althoughare only about 5 per cent of the overall UK population.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister Mahesh Sharma today visited the house of freedom fighter Thyagi Kumaran in Chennimalai, near here and paid tributes to the martyr.

Sharma garlanded the portrait and statue of Kumaran also knmown as Tirupur Kumaran, in Chennimalai town.

Later, speaking to media persons, he said he came to Chennimalai and Chavadipalayam to meet the family members of freedom fighters and held discussions with the heirs.

The visit was part of Centre's plans to celebrate in a big way the festival of Independence.

Kumaran was an Indian revolutionary who took part in the Indian independence movement.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today inaugurated Bennett University of the Times of India Group at Greater Nodia



Addressing a gathering at his official residence, Akhilesh congratulated Vineet Jain, MD of Times Group, for opening the university in a record 16 months time.

"It's probably the first university in the country which has opened in record time. We are happy that Times Group respected the relations it had with the state," he said.

Hailing performance of Indian girls at the Rio Olympics, Akhilesh said that it was matter of pride for the country that our "daughters" have won medals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a shocking incident in the US, a father allegedly murdered his four-month-old daughter by punching her 22 times as she was making baby noises while he was watching television.

Cory Morris, 21, from Minneapolis, has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly punching the baby girl named Emersyn in her face and chest to quiet her "baby talk".

According to the charges, Morris called police on August 13 and admitted he had just killed his daughter. When police arrived, they found the 4-month-old unconscious on a changing table.

Morris, who was alone watching the child at the time of the incident, told police that he punched the child approximately 15 times in the face and 7 times in the chest with a closed fist, then squeezed her chest with his hands in an attempt to quiet her.

The Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed the baby died from blunt force trauma.

After he did this he called both his mother and his wife and said, "'I did something bad', but didn't tell them what he actually did," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman was quoted as saying by KMSP-TV.

Morris told police he was watching TV when his daughter began making 'baby talk' noises. He took the baby out of her swing and carried her into a bedroom, placing her on a changing table. Morris said he started punching the baby because she continued to make noises.

According to the criminal complaint, Morris was left to care for the baby girl three to four times per week while his girlfriend worked. His girlfriend reported that Morris went from happy to mad easily, and has grabbed her or thrown things in the past.

"Family members have suggested there may be mental health issues here. These will need to be evaluated during the course of this case," Freeman said.

Morris remains in the Hennepin County Jail, with bail set at USD 2 million.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a novel bid to keep over- protective parents at bay, a US school has banned them from delivering forgotten lunches or books as part of efforts to inculcate a "problem solving" attitude among the students.

The Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, Arkansas, has instructed parents to "turn around and exit the building" and let the child learn how to deal with forgotten lunch, homework et al in their "absence".

The instruction put on the front door of the school with the red 'stop' sign reads, "If you are dropping off your son's forgotten lunch, books, homework, equipment, etc., please turn around and exit the building. Your son will learn to problem-solve in your absence."



The instruction has gone viral after it was posted on the school's official Facebook page.

School's principal Steve Straessle defended the idea, saying that it was an attempt to teach the students the importance of "soft failures".

"We put a sign up on the front door to not only alert new parents to the policy, but to remind people why we do it," Straessle was quoted as saying by KARK.

"It's simply to help boys avoid the default switch of calling mom and dad when things don't go right to bail them out," he said.

The school's Facebook post received over 1,20,000 shares and over 3,700 comments, igniting a debate if the instruction was to be appreciated or it accounted for unnecessary pressure on the students.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after Rahul Gandhi's veiled attack on the BJP and Sangh Parivar, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today blasted him saying one who expresses solidarity with extremists, fundamentalists and communalists was trying to preach about the unity of the country despite having "no moral right" to do so.

Terming Rahul's remarks as "the pot calling the kettle black", Naidu also lashed out at the Congress and said its politics of appeasement and vote bank has widened the divide between majority and minority. He also asked why the party has encouraged fundamentalist and communal forces.

Holding Congress responsible for complicating the Kashmir issue, the senior BJP leader accused it of being hard on nationalists, while going soft on terrorists.

Yesterday, while addressing a function in New Delhi, Rahul had made a veiled attack on the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, saying there are forces which are "promoting" disharmony and are seeking a "divided and divisive" India.

Taking a strong exception to the remarks, Naidu said the Narendra Modi-led government was trying to bring social harmony and focusing on oneness in nation.

"The remarks are like the pot calling the kettle black. It is the Congress party which has preached, practiced divisive politics in the country in last 50 years and it has always encouraged fundamentalist forces and communal elements. It has thrived its politics on caste, region and religion," he alleged.

"It is divisive politics coupled with vote bank politics practiced by Congress that has brought our country to the present situation," Naidu alleged.

"It is the appeasement politics of Congress that has widened the divide between majority and minority, though nothing worthwhile has been done to minorities...And it is the legacy of the Congress regime that has complicated the Kashmir issue," he said.

"Don't raise an accusing finger against the BJP, it will boomerang on you. You have played vote bank politics; you never bothered to bring unity in the minds of the people; you have ruled the country for more than 50 years and ruined the country. How dare you criticise our ideology, you have no moral right to do that," Naidu said.

Questioning Congress on what social harmony that the party has brought in all these years, Naidu asked who is responsible for the present state of affairs right from the practice of untouchability, to social disharmony amongst the people.

"It is your politics, it is your divisive agenda which is responsible for the present situation," he said.

"Our government came to power only two years back, we are



steadfast working hard. The Prime Minister has brought in social security and we are trying to bring social harmony. We are focusing on oneness in nation and we are focusing on development and good governance by uplifting the poorest of poor, which is out priority," Naidu added.

Alleging that Congress is silent on ISI, but violent on RSS, the former BJP president said, "You are hard on nationalists and soft on terrorists...That has been your line and now you try to criticise us forgetting what has been said by your leader."



He further said, "On issues relating to foreign affairs, we should all be extra careful, that means the country has to speak in one voice. But Congress itself is speaking in many voices."



"I expect the Congress party to be more mature in responding to such situations where the unity and integrity of the country is involved and particularly dealing with terrorists and their sponsors," he said.

"We should not fall prey to the tactics of our neighbour. Some of the statements made by Congress leaders may be music to Pakistan's ears, but people of India are not willing to tolerate," he said accusing Congress of being "consistently inconsistent" on critical national and international issues.

Accusing the Congress of sympathising with forces that celebrate and try to make icons of Kashmiri separatists, Naidu said, "You (Rahul) went to JNU to express solidarity with sympathisers of terrorists Yakub Memon, Makbul Bhat and Afzal Guru and others who always tried to wreck the country and its constitution, challenge the unity and integrity of the country."



"Now you are sympathising with Amnesty International, who has provided a platform where divisive slogans and anti Indian slogans were raised.

"You supported such activities even in Hyderabad. You expressed solidarity with these extremists, Maoists, fundamentalist, communalists, who all came together to celebrate (the martrydom of) Yakub Memon and Makbul Bhat and Afzal Guru and now you try to preach us about the unity of the country and you accuse us that we are responsible for divisiveness.
A woman was injured as an old 3-storey building, apparently weakened by the heavy rain of last two days, collapsed in Narsinghpur district, while overall there was a lull in the rainfall across Madhya Pradesh today.

Heavy rain lashed the state for the last two days and till last evening rain-related mishaps had claimed 15 lives.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today met the flood-affected people in Rewa district. He assured help for the victims of the rain fury across the state.

"There might be less rainfall activity over MP for two more days. Rainfall is likely to occur in the evening in some districts," Meteorological Department's Bhopal Centre Director Dr Anupam Kashyapi told PTI.

However, he said, rainfall was likely to increase in east MP again from the evening of August 23 and elsewhere in the state in the following days.

Sangita Jain, a woman in her forties, sustained injury when the old three-storey building where she lived collapsed at around 5 am in Narsinghpur town today. She was pulled out of the debris after more than three hours' efforts, district superintendent of police Mukesh Jain said.

Four other residents of the building escaped unhurt.

Meanwhile, heavy downpour alert has been issued to Agar- Malwa, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ratlam and Rajgarh districts, while rainfall alert has been issued to Guna, Indore, Shajapur, Ujjain, Vidisha, Dewas and Jhabua districts for the next 24 hours by the IMD's Bhopal Centre.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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TUESDAY

Seminars on financial statements offered

A seminar designed for entrepreneurs with no financial statement background will be from 2-4:30 p.m. at the Del Mar College Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St. CED 118. Free. Information: www.seminarscc.com

Business with TAMUK

The SBA, Del Mar College Procurement Technical Assistance Center and Texas A&M University-Kingsville will host a seminar for businesses on how to partner up with the university. Programs and services of the SBA and PTAC will be detailed to assist businesses with opportunities in contracting with local, state, and federal agencies. The seminar will be from 10 a.m. to noon or 1:30-3:30 p.m. at the university, 955 University Blvd., Kingsville, College Hall Room. 121. Information: 361-879-0017 ext. 301. or 361-698-2221

WEDNESDAY

Orientation set for small businesses

A small business orientation is from 4-6 p.m. at the Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St., CED 146. The seminar will provide new business owners information to start a business. Topics include small business loans and financing requirements, business plan, licensing, contracting and permit information and resources. Free. Information: www.seminarscc.com.

Government contracting seminar

A business registration for government contracting seminar is from 10-11:30 a.m. at Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 1823 N. Chaparral. The seminar will provide guidance to establish business credentials and enhancing business profiles on various governmental search engines. Free. Information and registration: 361-879-0017, ext. 301 or email elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov.

Meet and greet for business owners, entrepreneurs

A meet and greet forum will introduce resources for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs from 6-8 p.m. in the Brooks County Courthouse, 408 West Travis, Falfurrias. Free. Information: www.seminarscc.com

THURSDAY

Seminar on customer service offered

The Texas Friendly model will provide training in best customer service practices for business. The training will be from 2-4 p.m. at the Del Mar College Center for Economic Development, 3209 S. Staples St. CED 140. Cost: $25. Payment deadline is noon Wednesday. Information: www.seminarscc.com

Business financial aid seminar offered

The SBA will offer a seminar on financial assistance to start or expand a business from 10-11:30 a.m. at the Alice Chamber of Commerce, 612 E. Main St., Alice. SBA Guaranty Loan Programs can be an option to take care of financial needs, including working capital, land and building purchase, equipment, inventory and leasehold improvements. Information on government contracting and business consulting services will be provided. Information: 361-879-0017, ext. 301 or elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov

Seminar for small business offered

The SBA's Business Start Toolkit workshop will lay the groundwork for helping new and aspiring entrepreneurs launch a business idea and understand the free resources and steps available. The seminar will be from 4-5:30 p.m. at the San Diego Public Library, 315 South Doctor East E. Dunlap St., San Diego. Information: 361-879-0017, ext. 301 or email elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov.

FRIDAY

Business financial aid seminar offered

The Small Business Association will offer a seminar on financial assistance to start or expand a business from 9-10:30 a.m. at the SBA office, 2820 S. Padre Island Drive, Suite 108. SBA Guaranty Loan Programs can be an option to take care of financial needs, including working capital, land and building purchase, equipment, inventory and leasehold improvements. Information on government contracting and business consulting services will be provided. Information: 879-0017, ext. 301 or elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov

Government contracting seminar

A business registration for government contracting seminar is from 1:30-3 p.m. at SBA Corpus Christi Branch Office, 2820 S. Padre Island Drive, Suite 108. The seminar will provide guidance to establish business credentials and enhancing business profiles on various governmental search engines. Free. Information and registration: 361-879-0017, ext. 301 or email elizabeth.soliz@sba.gov.

LATER

Society of CPAs meeting

The Corpus Christi Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs will host a meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Solomon Ortiz International Center. Cost: $35/before Sept. 2. $40/after Sept. 2 and at the door. Information: 800/428-0272, ext. 279

Compiled by Natalia Contreras
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES FILE PHOTO Construction material technician Juan Melgoza hammers out a core sample from the newly rebuilt County Road 20. Roads will be on the minds of voters in the fall, when residents will have the option of approving several propositions intended to fund residential reconstruction programs.

SHARE RACHEL DENNY CLOW/CALLER-TIMES FILE PHOTO Fox Run Road and other city residential streets, are failing throughout Corpus Christi. City leaders are asking voters in the upcoming General Election to approve measures to fund a residential reconstruction program.

By Kirsten Crow of the Caller-Times

Would you like those streets with cash or credit?

Come November, voters can choose one. Or both. Or neither.

In a freewheeling discussion last week, the City Council decided to bring both credit and cash options  a bond program, and a route to raise property taxes  to residents for permission by ballot. Both would help fund residential street reconstruction, estimated in 2014 to be an $881 million endeavor.

If voters turn down both propositions, a solid waste fee could be in consideration sometime in the future.

Financing the reconstruction of residential streets, disintegrating rapidly with time and each rain, has been a question that has dogged city leaders for years.

Although the City Council is continuing to explore possible resources, and some funding has been secured  a portion of revenue from the industrial district and the general fund have been allocated  there's still no doubt that more is needed, officials have said. Much more.

It's projected that as of Oct. 1, $2.64 million will be in the residential reconstruction fund, according to a proposed budget. Several months ago, an ad hoc committee charged with researching the issue recommended $17 million in new annual funding.

"It's such a difficult issue," said City Councilman Rudy Garza Jr. "Figuring out what gets us there the fastest with the least amount of pain has been challenging."

Many meetings and discussions culminated Tuesday with split-vote decisions to push forward two propositions while shooting down a third proposal to raise solid waste rates.

One ballot proposition gives voters the option of approving an $18.35 million bond package, which will include $11 million for what's now dubbed as the residential street rebuild program. The other is a charter amendment that would give the city the OK to create a fund exclusively for residential street reconstruction, and stock it with dedicated property taxes. It would allow officials to raise the tax rate by as much as 2 cents per year, with a cap of 6 cents, per $100 property valuation.

Several council members have said neither option is perfect  but at least it's a start.

There's an ongoing search for a dedicated revenue source, said Mayor Nelda Martinez.

"We will continue to look for sources and options ... we do need (a dedicated revenue source)," she said. "That's not even a question."

BOND

The $11 million earmarked for the residential street rebuild program in the bond would represent significant change: the city's most heavily trafficked streets have largely been the beneficiary of past bond elections.

On Tuesday, the $18.35 million bond was approved for voters' ballots in a 2-7 vote, with city council members Lucy Rubio, Carolyn Vaughn, Chad Magill, Brian Rosas, Michael Hunter, Garza and Martinez voting in favor, and Mark Scott and Colleen McIntyre voting against.

The program hasn't yet been fully defined  such as the exact parameters of eligibility and the criteria to determine priority. The city would flesh out details of the program later, and city staff is also working on a test project.

The bond is within the city's debt capacity, meaning it wouldn't require a tax increase or fee, said Magill, who recently brought the proposal forward.

But using debt has been a firing point.

There's disagreement among council members on whether using bonds this year would affect the capacity for the city's bond series in 2018, and if so, by how much and whether it would present a problem. The city has generally planned $55 million in bonds for the reconstruction of arterial and collector streets, every two years, for voter approval. Staff estimates show there could be $45 million in debt capacity available in 2018.

There's concern "that we consider using our debt capacity living within our means," McIntyre told the council Tuesday. She suggested foregoing the bond could be an opportunity to begin shifting more funding away from debt payments, and toward maintenance and operations instead.

"We need to stop looking at our debt capacity as an income stream," McIntyre said.

The council will need to discuss in its next retreat what the goal is for 2018, Magill said. The city can "free up debt capacity by being fiscally responsible and using zero-based budgeting," he added.

Several council members said using debt for the program wasn't ideal, and that a constant revenue stream will need to be identified  but the program needed a funding injection.

Issuing bonds to launch a residential reconstruction program is OK this time, but he doesn't want to rely on them in the future, Garza said. The problem "is so large that floating a small bond is treating the smallest symptom of an illness," he said.

Still, it gives the city the opportunity to prove to the public the value of the program they deliver, and showing results could play an important role in selling the program, Garza said.

FEES

For some, a $4 to $6 solid waste fee on residential accounts presented a better solution  an option proponents said would be steady, no-interest revenue for funding a long-term program.

But the fee wouldn't have applied to commercial businesses that use private collection services. And there were questions about how competitive the city's rates would be against private collection agencies. Without that information, there wasn't a way to know what a recommended fee would be, and discuss whether there could be revenue lost or if it could create hardships for the city's residents already under economic strain, some council members said. Opponents said there was also concern about adding a solid waste fee, knowing wastewater rates will likely rise in the future to fix the city's wastewater treatment system.

The proposal  recently brought to the council by McIntyre  was rejected in a 5-4 vote, with Martinez, Scott, McIntyre and Garza voting for it, and Vaughn, Rosas, Magill, Hunter and Rubio voting against.

The solid waste fee would have been in lieu of the charter amendment, which has been under increased scrutiny in recent weeks.

The amendment spawned out of a desire by the council last year to get voters' permission to raise property taxes for residential streets. But upon learning the city's charter wouldn't permit it, the discussion moved to raising the property tax rate without approval of voters by as much as eight cents  an idea was eventually scrapped. The council then looked for a different avenue to seek voter approval for a property tax increase  through the charter amendment.

With the voters' blessing, it would provide a cash-flow route to overhaul the worst of the city's crumbling residential streets.

TAXES

Proponents have said it would represent a valuable, interest-free tool that could be used judiciously to fund a portion of a residential street reconstruction program. And if voters approved the cash-flow option, that would be a clear indication of where they stood.

Critics have said it is problematic, in part, because it leans on property owners to foot the billing, and relies on future councils to enact it. Because the council sets the tax rate each year, even if voters give the all-clear, it would be up to future councils to raise the taxes. To reach full funding, it would take at least three years of voting to raise taxes by the maximum amount  two cents  each year.

Full funding would bring in about $10 million per year.

The measure was passed by the council unanimously, although some council members have stood firmly against it.

Vaughn opposes the charter amendment's street tax, saying it's not a property owners' issue  it's about residential streets, and everyone should chip in.

But she ended up voting for it Tuesday, not because she agrees with it, but because she didn't think there was a chance it would be taken off the ballot at that point.

"I did not want it on there and I personally hope it fails," she said.

McIntyre has also spoken out against the charter amendment, but voted for it Tuesday.

"I could have easily gone either way," she said. "I disagree with it. I won't vote for it as a voter. But I felt like we had killed the tools available ... and I couldn't walk away saying we couldn't provide anything."

Should the charter amendment and bonds fail at the polls, the solid waste fee may need to be revisited, several council members said.

What happened Tuesday was disappointing, said Scott, who supported the solid waste fee. The council failed to make any long-term change, he said. He also believes funding for arterial and collector reconstruction will be impacted by the council's decisions.

Scott suggested the council "kicked two cans down the road."

"We had an opportunity to make substantive change in the way we rehabilitate streets," he said. "We blinked  the solution was looking us in the eye and we didn't take it."

Magill disagreed with Scott's assessment.

"I don't see it as kicking any cans down the road," he said. "I see it as focusing on a solution for residential street reconstruction that citizens have been waiting decades for."

Twitter: @CallerCrow

CURRENT STREET PROGRAMS

STREET PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

Funded largely through fee on utility bill

Maintains residential, arterial and collector streets already in good or fair condition

Does not include any reconstruction

ARTERIAL/COLLECTOR STREET RECONSTRUCTION

Funded through $55 million in voter-approved bonds, proposed every two years

Reconstructs high-traffic streets in too bad condition for preventative maintenance

Does not include residential street reconstruction

2016 BOND PROGRAM

$18.35 million

$11 million for residential street rebuild program

$2.35 million for matching federal and state funds on transportation projects

$2.5 million for ADA improvements

$2.5 million to cover the city's portion of street construction funding related to new development

Source: City of Corpus Christi

ELECTION PROPOSITIONS FOR STREETS

CHARTER AMENDMENT

Amendment to city's charter that would allow the council to create a fund only for residential street reconstruction. Also authorizes council to use dedicated property taxes for the fund. The tax could be raised by no more than 2 cents per $100 property valuation per year, with a 6 cent cap.

TYPE B

Replaces the 1/8 cent sales tax authorized by voters for a Type A fund for a 1/8 cent sales tax in a Type B fund  the primary distinction being that a Type B program has more flexibility to fund improvements to arterial and collector streets considered important for economic development.

The proposition would allocate 50 percent of the revenue to economic development and as much as $500,000 for affordable housing. The remaining funding would go toward repairs for arterial and collector streets.

BONDS

$11 million in bonds, included in a $18.35 million bond package, for a residential street rebuild program.

BY THE NUMBERS

RESIDENTIAL STREET RECONSTRUCTION

$881 million

2014 estimate on cost to repair all residential streets to "good" condition

$17 million more per year

Funding recommended by ad hoc committee

$2.64 million

Projected balance of residential street reconstruction fund as of Oct. 1

Source: City of Corpus Christi presentations, staff, budgets

RESIDENTIAL STREET RECONSTRUCTION FUNDING

TIMELINE FROM JULY 2015  PRESENT

July 21, 2015: Council considers asking voters for permission to raise taxes for a residential street reconstruction program.

July 28, 2015: It is discovered the charter will not permit the City Council to bring a tax increase to voters. The council considers raising taxes by as much as 8 cents, without voter approval. It would have exceeded the rollback rate.

Aug. 18, 2015: Council doesn't move forward with the tax increase, but seeks information on a charter amendment that would allow the city to use property taxes for a road reconstruction fund. The council also requests information on creating an ad hoc street committee.

May 23: Ad hoc street committee advises the city will need $17 million in new annual funding to begin the first phases of a program that would address residential road repair.

June 14: Charter review committee recommends a charter amendment proposition. The proposition asks voters whether to give the council the power to create a fund only for residential street reconstruction, and use dedicated property taxes to fill its coffer. The recommended proposition would raise taxes by no more than 2 cents per $100 property valuation per year, with a cap of 6 cents.

June 21: Public hearing held on charter review recommendations.

July 19: Council discusses the charter amendment, and whether a sunset clause should be included.

July 26: Council discusses the charter amendment, and motions to move forward with the ballot language

Aug. 9: City Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre introduces proposal to use solid waste fees to fund a residential street reconstruction program. In the same meeting, City Councilman Chad Magill proposes a $16.1 million bond to fund a residential street rebuild program.

Aug. 16: Last regular meeting for the City Council to finalize its election ballot. City Council votes down proposed solid waste fee after details aren't available on some questions. An $18.35 million bond proposal is approved to go to voters, including $11 million in funding for a residential street rebuild program. The charter amendment was also approved to go to voters.

Oct. 24 -Nov. 4: Early voting

Nov. 8: Election Day
When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas
They were handed over on August 7, 2015, in Yaounde, to heads of railway stations by the Minister of Transport.

ADS





The Minister of Transport, Robert Nkili, accompanied by the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence, Jean Baptiste Bokam, have handed security equipment to the subsidiary of the Bollore Group, Cameroon Railway, Camrail, owing to the spate of terrorist attacks. The ceremony at the Yaounde office of Camrail brought to the table government and the Board Chair of Camrail, Hon. Hamadou Sali, the Regional Director of Bollore Africa Logistics, Mohamed Diop and the Director of Camrail, Quentin Gerard, in an in-camera discussion that saw the latter debrief the former on tightened security measures already put in place since February 2015 to preempt any form of terrorists attacks.



The over 20 metal detectors handed to Camrail on Friday are only part of equipment intended to reinforce security in railway stations. The equipment are expected to be distributed to all Camrail stations wherein they will be used for searches in train stations and trains, it was revealed. We received only a part, and more will be coming by next week, the General Manager of Camrail, Quentin Gerard, told the press, saying over 80 were awaited.



He however revealed that the country stepped up security since the upsurge of insecurity in Cameroon. Passengers have since February this year been submitted to obligatory identification during ticket purchase. Identity cards are now mandatory for each passenger before the issuance of any ticket, after which the passengers identity is systematically saved and archived on a special document. The company is also reported to have considerably reinforced its security staff with over 550 of them already spread on the companys network and working to monitor passengers. Vigilante groups have also been solicited as the population throws its weight behind government in the thorny battle against terrorism.

ADS
Faith made the speech on Thursday afternoon, just hours after girls at the state school in Melbourne's south-east were hauled into an assembly and told to stop wearing short skirts, make-up, and sending "sexy selfies". They were allegedly told that they would lose respect and integrity if their skirts didn't touch their knees, and boys would be distracted by their legs.
The minister and the operator are complaining about the way Icasa invited applications for spectrum licences for wireless broadband services.

Earlier in August the minister, Siyabonga Cwele, said he was suing Icasa was usurping the governments policy-making role by calling the auction without consulting him.

Now reports from South Africa say Telkom is also considering legal action.

Local media have quoted Telkom spokeswoman Jacqui OSullivan saying that Telkom has some fundamentally different views about the approach Icasa has adopted on the matter of spectrum.

She added, according to Business Day: We are currently considering the legal merits of Icasas approach and are exploring our own potential legal action with regard to the Icasa process.

Cwele, who is Minister of Postal and Telecommunications Services, complained in early August that the government was preparing a white paper on open access spectrum, but Icasa decided to call an auction on 700MHz, 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands without consultation and prior notification to government as the policy maker.

The minister added: A further concern is the haste with which Icasa is proceeding to dispose of the spectrum given that this spectrum will not be immediately available.
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.
Audi is currently preparing their second-generation A1 supermini for its 2018 launch and reports point to it becoming more sophisticated and slightly larger.



According to AutoExpress, the biggest changes will be in its design (still more evolutionary than revolutionary, though), improved comfort levels and tech, plus its increased practicality. The new A0 platform will allow the A1 to grow in size, gaining around 90mm (3.5 in) over the current model and offering bigger space for rear passengers.

Along with a new platform come new engines, and for the A1 this means a re-engineered version of its current 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbo, with around 100 HP. Its also possible Audi will fit the A1 with the VW Groups new 1.5-liter petrol and diesel engines, though its more likely theyll make their debut on the next A3 first.

In terms of overall aesthetics, reports indicate we could be looking at sharper headlamps with new and unique daytime running light signatures, wider taillights (similar to those on the refreshed A3) and scrolling indicators that would be offered as an option across the range. Inside, the A1 would get Audis 12.3 Virtual Cockpit as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on an updated version of the automakers MMI infotainment system.

As for the possibility of an RS1, multiple reports from last week talked about a 280 HP proper pocket rocket that might be arriving at next years Geneva Motor Show.

Finally, its production will be moved from Brussels to SEATs Martorell plant in Barcelona, where Audis smallest hatchback will be built alongside the Ibiza.

Rendering courtesy of Theophilus Chin
`

The Chevrolet Sprint was designed and developed by Suzuki as a cheap and cheerful supermini and assembled by a number of GMs franchises. This one, however, wants to scare you to death.



Originally named the Cultus, this little car was marketed worldwide as the Suzuki Swift  although it had many names. The first generation model was assembled in Japan, Colombia, Ecuador, and Kenya (just to name a few), and it was powered by with either a carbureted 1.0-liter inline-three cylinder or a fuel injected 1.0-liter inline 3-cylinder turbocharged engine. There was a GTI model in some markets, with 100 hp and 112Nm (83 ft-lb) on tap, but that was the models zenith.

So, why would you buy this blue one on eBay for $44,995? Well, because its not a regular model, but a highly modified custom-built Sprint, with a 402 ci (6.6-litre) all aluminum V8 lurking somewhere under the hood  which makes it the ultimate sleeper.

Granted, the chunky rear wheels are the dead giveaway, but youll most likely hear it from afar anyway. Thats because the engine is a custom, twin turbo 402 ci dry-sump small-block built by Duttweiler Performance, Ventura CA, and uses the best components in order to develop 954 hp on pump gas  which is great since the car is street legal.

Professionally reconstructed from the ground up in 2007 by Fatman Fabrications, the entire rig is built on top of a custom square-tube street rod frame that incorporates the unitized body; it also has Macpherson strut front suspension and Nissan truck brakes, while the rear differential is a narrowed Ford 9 with Detroit Truetrac and 2:50:1 gearing.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Getty Images

Overview for all signs

Get the word out Monday. Positive communications and presentations are well received.

Walk through any doors of opportunity, putting your best foot forward. Those with the right credentials get the position as others have faith they will get the job done.

There is no need to manipulate the facts as they are obvious to those who make the decisions in the end.

Some are edgy as they dont know how they will be received; be patient. There are some restrictions to work around. Consult with authorities regarding laws.

Take responsibilities seriously. Gossip may be misleading or misinterpreted as emotions slant the truth. Dine out or attend special events to lift spirits.

ARIES: Being in the spotlight may not be all its cracked up to be if the results you seek dont materialize.

TAURUS: Acting on an inside tip can make you feel like a winner. Be selective when it comes to sharing.

GEMINI: Meet with others in private or visit secluded destinations. Use leverage when making choices.

CANCER: Exchange of information back and forth may be recorded or monitored in some way. Be calm.

LEO: You can pull nebulous circumstances together that would benefit all involved. Lay out the details.

VIRGO: Dont react to those who try to manipulate you directly. Power plays evaporate with enough time.

LIBRA: You are on the inside track to good fortune, but you need to play it cool for desired, ultimate gains.

SCORPIO: Important individuals communicate with you in private to let you know they are on your side.

SAGITTARIUS: Take charge of a situation that has some covert aspects to it. Demonstrate leadership.

CAPRICORN: Keep talks between a select few in order to have the impact you want. Others will wait.

AQUARIUS: You benefit from the past in unexpected ways. Follow protocol to get the results you seek.

PISCES: Personal relationships have an effect on other areas of your life. Avoid those who are gossips.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
The Jackpine Lake blaze is now 100 per cent contained.

According to the BC Wildfire Service 21 personnel were on site overnight, and 23 will remain in the area along with heavy equipment throughout today.

The fire is still reported to be a Rank 1 smoldering ground blaze at this time.

UPDATE: 9 P.M.

The BC Wildfire Service says firefighters are still working on fighting the fire, which is reportedly still at a Rank 1 rating.

Planes cease their service at dark, and transition to a night crew of 20 will likely be completed at by 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. according to the service.

UPDATE: 7:30 P.M.

The BC Wildfire Service says the fire by Jackpine Lake is about 75 per cent contained at this point.

The service has 47 firefighters still fighting the fire, which is still reported to be about 14 hectares in size.

The fire has also been downgraded to Rank 1, or a smouldering ground fire.

That means, there are no visible flames at this point.

Twenty firefighters will remain to battle the fire overnight.

UPDATE: 3:30 P.M.

The BC Wildfire Service has confirmed the position of the fire as being 2.5 kilometres east of Jack Pine Lake.

Previous reports from the service had placed it at Gottfriedson Mountain.

No other updates are currently available.

Castanet will have more details as they become available.

UPDATE: 1 p.m.

The BC Wildfire Service now estimates the wildfire burning 18 kilometres west of West Kelowna is 13 hectares in size.

Fire information officer Max Birkner says the growth in estimated size is due to more accurate mapping of the fire, not growth of the fire itself.

Provincial fire crews are fighting the blaze from the air and the ground as they work to contain the blaze.

The fire is still approximately 2.5 kilometres east of Jack Pine Lake Resort and Birkner says structures are not threatened at this time.

Smoke is being reported throughout the valley.

Castanet will have more details as they become available.

UPDATE: 11 a.m.

Now that provincial firefighters on are on scene and more accurate mapping has been conducted, the wildfire is now estimated at six hectares in size.

The BC Wildfire Service says the wildfire is burning 18 kilometres west of West Kelowna on Gottfriedson Mountain.

Fire information officer Max Birkner says 27 firefighters are now on scene or en route to battle the blaze.

The wildfire is currently displaying Rank 3 fire behaviour which means it is considered a moderately vigorous surface fire with a moderate rate of speed and occasional candling along the perimeter and/or within the fire.

The fire is still 2.5 kilometres east of Jack Pine Lake Resort and Birkner says structures are not threatened at this time.

Smoke is being reported throughout the valley.

Castanet will have more details as they become available.

ORIGINAL: 10 a.m.

Provincial firefighters are battling a small blaze west of West Kelowna.

The BC Wildfire Service says a one-hectare wildfire is burning 18 kilometres west of West Kelowna on Gottfriedson Mountain.

There are seven firefighters and a bird dog en route and one helicopter is bucketing the fire, explains fire information officer Max Birkner.

The fire is currently 2.5 kilometres east of Jack Pine Lake Resort, but Birkner says structures are not currently threatened.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Castanet will have more details as they become available.

Send your fire photos and video to [email protected]
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
Parents of new Lee University students packed Dixon Hall on Saturday to hear about Cleveland.The session is called Cleveland 101. Speakers included Mayor Tom Rowland; Senior City Planner Corey Divel ; Officer Jennifer Samples of the Cleveland Police Department; Melissa Woody, Vice President Tourism Development, Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce, and Bethany McCoy, coordinator Community Relations at Lee.The speakers covered a wide variety of topics including safety and personal security, things to see and do in Cleveland, bus transportation, health and medical services.In a question and answer session, parents raised still more issues from voter registration to the police department's self defense course for women and how to receive campus and community emergency alerts via the Internet.Mr.Divel reviewed city ordinances such as parking along with downtown events.Ms. McCoy noted students will have opportunities to be involved with community activities. "The community values your students. The knowledge they can bring to the table is so important."Mayor Rowland reminded the parents that the Rev. Billy Graham was once a student on this same campus. "We are so proud Lee is a part of our community," the mayor said. It is common to have students, and parents, move here, he said.Ms. Samples told the parents that local police and campus security officers work closely together. Since the city police department is only a few blocks away, she said students will often see officers on or near campus.Meanwhile, students were having their own orientation sessions around campus.
DuoSkin temporary tattoos can control and communicate with electronic devices, such as smartphones or laptops. (Vimeo)

Scientists at the MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research have designed metallic body art that can control and communicate with electronic devices, such as smartphones or laptops.

DuoSkin temporary tattoos, which can be made at home and wash off in a day, use the electrodes present in inexpensive gold leaf to create a conductive surface. There are three different types of tattoos: those that act as a touchpad to control a computer cursor, those that change color based on temperature, and those that can store personal data such as photos.

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The scientists wanted to show that wearable technology can be customizable.

"It's something that you own and not a one-size-fits-all wearable. You can design it and it can really cater to your needs and your personal sense of style," said Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, one of the researchers behind the project.

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More than just a fashion accessory, the DuoSkin tattoos further blur the line between the human body and technology.

The wearable technology trend pioneered by smartwatches and eyeglasses has exploded in recent years, as a broad range of devices and sensors that affix to the body have become popular with consumers. In many cases these gadgets collect personal information about users' health and activities on the premise that they help to optimize our everyday lives.

But as much as consumers have embraced wearable technology, a Pew Research study from last month shows people are decidedly less bullish on technology that enhances our abilities from inside the body. A majority of Americans surveyed expressed at least some concern about brain chips, synthetic blood and gene editing, three technologies that could improve human health and performance by altering our physical being.

DuoSkin is not nearly so invasive, but the epidermis is, quite literally, our final barrier.

"What we found is people in our studies appreciated that they had control over it. They could decide when to wear it and when to remove it," Kao said.
The Flauta Plate offers a choice of three or four flautas, a crispy taco. Available with ground beef, chicken or chorizo, or with potato, with or without peas, and topped with lettuce, onion, avocado, sour cream and cheese. (Shonda Talerico Dudicek / News-Sun)

"If it's not on the menu, I don't feel strongly about it." This is Sergio Rivera's response when a customer asks, "What's good?"

Rivera, co-owner of Momcorn in Gurnee, moved to Round Lake and found himself craving the food he ate during his years in Mexico.

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"I am from Madrid," he said with a smile, "but I lived in Mexico for many years, and I tell everyone that because who would believe a Spaniard could make good Mexican food?"

Before moving to Illinois, Rivera owned Spanish restaurants in Miami.

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"They were too big. There was no way to focus. I wanted something smaller. I wanted something I could feel passionately about."

After meeting Kathy Ross, who recently retired from 40 years of teaching and administration in Park Ridge, the two decided to become business partners, and four years ago they opened a different kind of Mexican restaurant.

Momcorn serves dishes prepared in the traditional way, not "highly spiced" like Tex-Mex or Americanized Mexican, Rivera said.

"We want people to taste and enjoy their food," he said. "The flavor is different and healthier with no preservatives. Zero trans-fats. No cholesterol. No peanuts or peanut oil. No shellfish."

Everything is made fresh: tortilla, tortilla chips, quesadillas, enchiladas, tamales, etc. A detailed menu displays pictures of every dish.

Momcorn's preparation methods make many of the foods naturally gluten free. Ross' ex-husband had celiac disease, and she remembers how hard it was to enjoy a meal out back in the 1980s.

"When people ask what on your menu is gluten free, it's a shorter list to tell you what isn't," she said. "We use a big fryer for our gluten-free foods and cook things separately in smaller pans that are not."

"Many customers say it reminds them of their home cuisines, from their grandmas or moms," Rivera said.

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One of the big sellers is on the kids' menu: a flauta dog  a hot dog wrapped in a crispy tortilla with ketchup.

"Kids really do like it," Ross said of the Momcorn original that's enjoyed in hot lunch days at Gurnee schools. "Kids come in picky eaters and aren't picky eaters here. We love when families come in and say this is their favorite place, and they celebrate birthday parties here."

Through their commercial division, Momcorn Foods, Rivera and Ross recently started to serve their tamales at five Marcus Theatres in Gurnee, Addison, Elgin and Wisconsin.

Every customer who enters is greeted and thanked personally when they leave by Rivera and Ross. Rivera said that's very important.

"We may always be hurrying to answer the phone, but we are never too busy to greet and thank customers," he said.

Pricing: Appetizers from $2.99 for chips to $6.99 for melted cheese with chorizo and tortillas. Soups from $2.99 for a cup of soup of the day or $4.59 for bowl of tortilla soup or pozole. Traditional favorites from $2.39 for hot or sweet tamales to $4.99 for sope with meat. Tacos and flautas from $2.19 for one taco to $9.99 for fish taco plate. Salads, sandwiches and wraps from $2.99 for house salad to $8.99 for jibarito. Breakfast plate from $5.49 to $6.99. Kids' meals from $1.69 for taco to $3.50 for burrititito. Homemade beverages from $1.99 for small atole to $2.79 for large chicha morada. Treats and snacks from $1.29 for an ice-cream scoop to $3.99 for sweet plantains in ice cream.

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Hours: Summer hours through Oct. 31: Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Hours starting Nov. 1: Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.

Address: 5101 Washington St., No. 2, Gurnee.

Contact: 224-610-0407 or visit momcorn.com

Shonda Talerico Dudlicek is a freelance writer.
This story is part of Being There, an occasional series that focuses on place and everyday life in the Chicago area.

Summer, as Kanye would put it, was fadin'. Northbrook, on the northern edge of the Chicago suburbs, was dead and heavy, the August air wet. Chicagoland sweat. And yet inside Northbrook Court, established in 1976, the kind of shopping mall you have in your head when someone mentions a shopping mall, the air was crisp and the lighting was placid. A young man walked past wearing a long-sleeve shirt that read "Perfect" across the back. It cost him $95 at the Kanye West pop-up shop. Then four students from Loyola University walked by, carrying Kanye bags of Kanye merchandise, totaling $490.

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They had been in the mall for three hours Friday, waiting in line for most of that time, to get inside the Kanye store called Pablo. One of them mentioned that he would be returning the next day.

MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR

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The Kanye West pop-up shop was built to vanish from Northbrook after 72 hours, Friday to Sunday. It occupied the former Abercrombie Kids spot, next to Janie and Jack, the children's clothing store chain, with its fashion lines named Jetsetter Prep and Pumpkin Festival. Behind the counter in the otherwise empty Janie and Jack shop was Lory Duberstein, of Northbrook. "A Kanye's store?" she asked a visitor, regarding the crush of customers next door. "You're kidding? That's what that is? I can't believe it!" She read a Kanye store clothing menu. "No! What? Expensive! After what he did to Taylor Swift! I have no use for Kanye. But he is talented, and he's cute. I'm just more of a Bob Hope person."

Francisco Garcia and Tony Esposito, both of Logan Square, couldn't believe it, either.

Esposito said: "I'm surprised I'm standing in a suburban mall right now. I hate the mall."

Sneh Pandya and Justin Zotos, students at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights  Pandya does not have a summer job right now, Zotos hands out craft sausage samples at supermarkets  couldn't believe they had spent $55 (Zotos) and $110 (Pandya) on Kanye clothes. Zotos held up the label tag of his new Kanye T-shirt: Gildan, a commonplace label, found in your finer Targets. "Highway robbery," Pandya said. Zotos nodded: "Yeah, but after three hours, you feel obligated to get something."

Indeed, no one in line seemed to believe the size of the line they were standing in to get into the Kanye store to buy merchandise they couldn't believe they would buy. This line wrapped around the railing of the mall's second floor. Security watched from the wings.

The store itself had a featureless white slate of a facade. A doorman stood outside the threshold, holding a stack of clothing menus, to be handed to each new customer, who would then note the quantity and size of each item they wanted to purchase. Hip-hop pounded from inside, the sound reaching as far as the Sunglass Hut across the way. A pair of friends deliberated whether to stand in line. "It's surprising this is in Northbrook," said Jake Philip, of Glenview, which is what many in line were saying. "The funny thing is, the people who would really want this stuff, they don't live in Northbrook."

Let's go inside.

Inside the Kanye West store, you were greeted with little. A wall that read "Chicago," in Nemek Gothic font, the kind you used to see in old restaurants that thought they were fancy. Nail holes still visible from the Abercrombie Kids days. Two speakers, playing Kanye's latest album, "The Life of Pablo," on a loop. The style was Heaven Chic. White walls, two mirrors, five racks of clothing. Only five racks. Not six. Not four. A sign read: "Do not remove the items from the racks." Also: "No Refunds." Also: "All Sales Final."

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What was for sale?

Twelve items of clothing. Hoodies ($105), hats ($45), military jackets ($325), black satin jackets ($250). On the left side, clothes were white; on the right side, black. Coats had "Pablo" cascading down the backs in gold script. Shirts read (in Nemek Gothic): "I Feel Like Pablo." Hoodies read: "Any rumor you ever hear about me is true n' legendary." Kids stood in clusters with their order forms, deliberating over how many and what, circling items. A woman in yoga pants walked through and exhaled and left in tears. A surgical technologist grabbed the satin jacket, said "Kanye for president" to this reporter and headed for a register. A teenager in a shirt that read "Staff" deliberated on a satin jacket but, recognizing he just couldn't pull off something so hip, settled for a hoodie.

"Sir, you can't take that off the rack," an employee told a startled man in his 30s.

Kanye stores opened across the world last weekend. The Northbrook store had about 32 employees, all wearing black. The store was run by the Mosaic marketing firm. (Curiously, not to be outdone, Frank Ocean opened a pop-up store in Evanston on Saturday. The line to buy his new album "Blonde" stretched for blocks.) There were five registers in Northbrook, aka iPads. A guy in a stocking cap leaned into an employee standing next to the coats and asked: "You get free (expletive)?"

"Nope," she said.

Frank Ocean used a pop-up store in Evanston to sell his new album "Blonde." The album sold out at the 860 Chicago Ave. location within hours of the store opening. (Molly Davis/Chicago Tribune)

Tami White, 58, of Chicago, left with a satin jacket. Her adult children watched her try it on and shook their heads and smiled. "She does stuff like this," her daughter said. "I'm not reselling this," White said, ignoring them. "I'm wearing this." She was referring to many of the Kanye customers, who said they were buying Kanye clothes to resell Kanye clothes online. For instance, Sam Katz-Berger, of Buffalo Grove, a self-described artist, musician and fashion stylist. A clerk handed him a military coat. He tried it on, took it off, tried it on, scrunched up his face with indecision. This went on for the length of maybe four Kanye songs. He spent more than $600 that day. "If I need the money, I could always resell it."

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cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

The Pablo pop-up shop at Northbrook Court, 2171 Northbrook Court, is among 21 U.S. and international locations this weekend and is open until 6 p.m. Sunday.

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Review: Frank Ocean's 'Blonde' worth the wait







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
I have a question about a recent reservation I made for a hotel apartment in Barcelona, Spain, through Hotels.com.

In the fine print of my reservation, it instructed me to call 24 hours before I arrived to make arrangements to pick up the key. For me, that was an international call. The phone number was printed incorrectly on the form, so I couldn't reach the hotel.

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I called Hotels.com, and a representative put me on hold for five to 10 minutes. I asked to be called back. Someone called after an hour, by which time my husband and I were already at sea and could not receive any calls.

Hotels.com didn't send me a text or email. The next day, we arrived at the hotel, in the rain. No one was there. We found the correct phone number on the door, made another international call, and discovered that the hotel had no record of my reservation.

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I called Hotels.com. A representative said the company's computers were down, and he refused to do anything. I asked him to write down the reservation number and to cancel my reservation once the computers were running, so I could book elsewhere.

The representative refused; he told me to call back in one to two hours, when the computers were up. I asked for a supervisor but got nowhere. He hung up on me. By then, I had been on the phone for 40 minutes at 40 cents per minute. The hotel finally sent someone who looked at my written reservation and got a key.

I've contacted Hotels.com by email but have not received an answer. I'd like a refund of my phone bill and an apology. Can you help?

 Gail Jaworski, West Palm Beach, Fla.

A: Wow, talk about a streak of bad luck. First, the wrong number for your property. Then the rain and the missing reservation. And Hotels.com didn't make things any better with its computer failures and lack of service. I think you deserved better  much better.

Hotel apartments are not like standard hotels. Sometimes, there's no lobby where you can check in, which means you either need a key or you'll be left standing outside in the rain. So a company like Hotels.com, which rents these accommodations, needs to be extra careful to make sure the numbers it lists are right.

A Hotels.com representative shouldn't have hung up on you or forced you to call back to cancel your reservation because the company's computers were down. Instead, a representative should have politely helped you find a solution instead of telling you to phone back later, from a foreign country, at your expense.

Incidents like these are what give online agencies a bad name  and frankly, keep human travel agents in business. A person you know, with whom you had booked your vacation, would have worked directly with you to make sure you had a key to your hotel room. A real agent wouldn't have left you standing outside in the rain.

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I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the customer service managers at Hotels.com's parent company, Expedia, on my consumer-advocacy website: elliott.org/company-contacts/expedia. A brief phone call to one of them might have resolved this when you arrived in Barcelona.

After you returned, Hotels.com should have responded to you promptly, not ignored you for three days. I contacted the company on your behalf. It offered you an $89 gift card and an apology as compensation.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of "How to Be the World's Smartest Traveler." You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org, or email him at chris@elliott.org.

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A car crashed into a restaurant in Logan Square on Saturday night at Kimball and Fullerton avenues. (Jim Jaworski / Chicago Tribune)

The driver who crashed a car into a Logan Square restaurant Saturday night, sending nine people to the hospital, has been cited for several traffic offenses, according Chicago police.

A 30-year-old man was driving an older model Honda Civic west in the 3400 block of West Fullerton Avenue around about 8:50 p.m. when he drove through a red light at Kimball Avenue, said Jose Estrada, a Chicago police spokesman. The Civic struck another vehicle before plowing into a Puerto Rican restaurant, Jibaritos y Mas, on the northwest corner of the intersection.

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The driver of the Civic was cited for causing an accident, striking a fixed property, operating without a driver's license, driving without insurance and failure to stop at a stoplight, Estrada said.

Officials say nine people were hospitalized after the car crash.

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Two people were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious to critical condition, four were taken in fair to serious condition to Norwegian American Hospital and Lurie Children's Hospital, and three were taken in good to fair condition to Norwegian and Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

The driver, Estrada said, was among those who suffered minor injuries, but it was unclear whether he was taken to the hospital.

A car crashed into a restaurant in Logan Square on Saturday night at Kimball and Fullerton avenues. (Jim Jaworski / Chicago Tribune)

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Twitter @_tonybriscoe
An Illinois State Police trooper shot and wounded a teenager in a stolen car Saturday evening after its driver attempted to run the trooper over, according to state police.

Troopers on Saturday evening had been pursuing the vehicle, which was reported stolen at gunpoint in Chicago earlier in the day.

The chase lasted until about 6:50 p.m., when the vehicle stopped in traffic on the Chinatown feeder ramp.

State police approached it, at which point the driver attempted to run over a trooper, according to police.

The trooper fired shots at the vehicle, which continued to drive away. The trooper was "fearing for his life," according to a statement from state police.

State police again began pursuing the vehicle until it stopped near the intersection of 11th Street and Wabash Avenue in the South Loop.

Four people then left the car and tried to get away on foot. Three of them were taken into custody shortly afterward, police said.

A fourth person, a 15-year-old boy, was found later at Stroger Hospital with gunshot wounds to the body. Information was not available about where on the body he had been shot, but police said the injuries were not considered life-threatening.
A 66-year-old man was fatally stabbed inside his home in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood on Saturday night, police said.

Around 10:30 p.m., an unknown male entered the 66-year-old man's home in the 2500 block of West Moffat Street, where the offender stabbed the man multiple times in the chest before fleeing on foot, Chicago police spokesman Jose Estrada said.

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Police earlier said the man was 68. The medical examiner's office identified him as John Alexander. He was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about 11:25 p.m.

No one was in custody in connection with the stabbing as of Sunday morning, Estrada said. The Chicago Police Department's Area North detectives are investigating the case.

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tbriscoe@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_tonybriscoe
Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who has made opposition to a U.S.-led nuclear agreement with Iran a major theme of his re-election campaign, likened home-state President Barack Obama to "drug dealer in chief" over a $400 million payment linked to the release of American prisoners.

Kirk's controversial rhetoric has been an issue as the first-term senator is viewed as perhaps the most vulnerable Republican incumbent nationally this fall. He is being challenged by two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates.

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The latest eyebrow-raising comment came as he spoke last week to a Downstate newspaper. Kirk echoed GOP criticism that the U.S. cash payment of $400 million to Iran was a ransom for the release of American prisoners held by the country.

The money was part of a previously announced settlement in a case stemming from money owed since 1979. The U.S. has had a long-standing policy of not paying ransom for hostages, and the Obama administration described the payment as "leverage" for the release of U.S. prisoners.

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"We can't have the president of the United States acting like the drug dealer in chief," Kirk said, "giving clean packs of money to a  state sponsor of terror. Those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East.  We're going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them."

Kirk's comments, made to the editorial board of The State Journal-Register of Springfield on Tuesday, were first reported online on Saturday by the paper's political columnist, Bernard Schoenburg.

The senator has made national security issues paramount in his bid for a second term  a campaign complicated by a controversial GOP presidential nominee and Illinois' tradition of voting overwhelmingly Democratic in presidential years.

Kirk has unendorsed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and has gone through a back-and-forth series of statements of whom he would write in for president, settling on former U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, though the vote would not be counted under Illinois election law.

Kirk's comments are not the first time he has criticized Obama over the deal aimed at reducing Iran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon.

Shortly after the multination agreement was announced in July of last year, Kirk contended Obama wants "to get nukes to Iran" and called the president "Barack Hussein Obama," using the full name that conservative detractors often use.

Kirk later apologized for those remarks made to a Boston radio station, saying, "Actually (Obama) doesn't want to get nukes." Asked about those comments shortly after he made them, Kirk explained: "That was me being too carried away with, I've been pretty angry about the Iran deal."

In the same interview with WRKO-AM, Kirk compared the nuclear agreement to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Germany's Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler prior to World War II.

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"This is the greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler," Kirk said then. Obama "is doing this because of his very poor understanding of history and what happened to Neville Chamberlain." Kirk went on to contend the deal "condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf."

Kirk, who holds Obama's former U.S. Senate seat, has made numerous controversial comments. He called Senate Republican colleague Lindsey Graham of South Carolina "a bro with no ho," adding "that's what we'd say on the South Side," an allusion to Graham being single. Kirk also suggested to the Peoria Journal Star last year that people drive faster through African-American neighborhoods out of fear of crime.

Kevin Artl, Kirk's campaign manager, said the senator used the comparison of drug dealing because of the administration's decision to send "pallets of cash, not even U.S. dollars, but euros and Swiss francs, in a clear ransom payment to Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism."

"The decision sets an awful and dangerous international standard that should be investigated and the lack of transparency from the administration clearly indicated they knew their actions were not aboveboard," Artl said in a statement.

But Matt McGrath, Duckworth's campaign spokesman, called Kirk's comments "disgracefully insulting (to) the president whose Senate seat he now holds."

"It's no surprise Mark Kirk is embracing a conspiracy theory first articulated by Donald Trump  one that has already been debunked by numerous fact checkers," McGrath said.

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The White House did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Kirk's latest flap came as Duckworth launched a new TV ad in which she recounts her oft-told story of growing up as her former Marine father lost his job and the family lived on food stamps.

"I know what it's like to overcome tough times," says Duckworth in the 30-second spot.

"I will fight China's unfair trade deals that take our jobs, and I want to cut taxes for our middle-class families," she says.

rap30@aol.com

Twitter @rap30
DAVAO, Philippines  The Philippines' brash-talking president threatened Sunday to withdraw his country from the United Nations and lashed out at U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.



President Rodrigo Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the U.S. and the U.N. to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.



The U.S. State Department and two U.N. human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations. Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gunbattles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.





Agnes Callamard, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that "claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings."



Criticisms against Duterte's crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference after midnight Saturday that dragged on for more than two hours.



"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you're that rude, son of a bitch, we'll just leave you," Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city's longtime mayor.

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Duterte also belittled U.N. work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions, for example, about the performance of the world body's agency that fights hunger.



If the Philippines breaks off from the U.N.  which Duterte called "inutile" and "stupid"  he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body. The U.N., he said, should return Manila's financial contributions.



"Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it," Duterte said, referring to the photo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that has gone viral online.





"Why is it that United States is not doing anything? I do not read you," Duterte said. "Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?"



When asked about the possible repercussions of his remarks, Duterte replied: "I don't give a shit about them. They are the ones interfering."



Duterte wondered whether U.N. officials were threatening to put him in prison and repeated that he was ready to sacrifice his life and presidency for his country.



Reacting to U.S. criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the U.S.



"Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?" he asked. "Answer that question, because even if it's just one or two or three, it is still human rights violations."



Duterte's drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30. Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed. The arrests have further overwhelmed the Philippines' overcrowded jails.



Associated Press
White nationalist writer Jared Taylor, in his Oakton, Virginia, home, found reasons to celebrate when Donald Trump made Breitbart's Stephen Bannon his campaign chief executive. (Pete Marovich / For The Washington Post)

OAKTON, Va.  Jared Taylor hits play, and the first Donald Trump ad of the general election unfolds across his breakfast table. Syrian refugees streaming across a border. Hordes of immigrants, crowded onto trains.

"Donald Trump's America is secure," rumbles a narrator. "Terrorists and dangerous criminals kept out. The border, secure; our families, safe."

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Taylor, one of America's foremost "racialists," is impressed and relieved. "That's a powerful appeal," he said. "If he can just stick to that, he is in very good shape."

From his Fairfax County home, Taylor has edited the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance and organized racialist conferences under the "AmRen" banner. He said that Trump should "concentrate on his natural constituency, which is white people," suggesting that winning 65 percent of the white vote would overwhelm any Democratic gains with minorities.

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When Trump made Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon his campaign's chief executive last week, Taylor found reasons to celebrate. It was the latest sign for white nationalists, once dismissed as fringe, that their worldview was gaining popularity and that the old Republican Party was coming to an end.

The rise of the alt-right - named for the Alternative Right website that the "identitarian" nationalist Richard Spencer set up in 2010 and adopted by those opposed to multiculturalism and mass immigration - has come to define how many of its adherents see Trump. There's less talk now about a "pivot," or a moment when Trump will adopt the ideas of people that he conquered. His strategy now resembles the alt-right dream of maximizing the white vote - even as polling shows his standing with white voters falls short of Mitt Romney's in 2012.

Trump's newest speeches, read from a teleprompter, hit all of their favorite notes. "I don't think Trump had mentioned 'sanctuary cities' previously," Spencer said in an interview. "There's reason to believe that Bannon is returning him to his powerful, populist message - indeed, honing it. [Former campaign chairman Paul] Manafort was turning Trump into a standard Republican, with the [Mike] Pence [vice-presidential] choice, the economic policy, talk of how 'Hillary is the real racist,' if not quite in those words. Bannon is making me hope again, making Trump Trump again."

Although there is no data gauging the size of the alt-right, its adherents point to Trump's primary victories as proof that their ideas have been winning. They are so active on social media, from Twitter to Reddit, that critics are beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Breitbart, not founded as part of their movement, became a welcoming place for it. The site found millions of new readers clicking on stories about "black crime" and the threat of Syrian refugees. At Breitbart, undocumented immigrants are "illegals," Black Lives Matter activists venerate "cop-killer heroes," and Gold Star father Khizr Khan is a busy promoter of sharia law. Michael Brown, the man whose death kicked off the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, was unfairly mythologized by the media.

Kurt Bardella, who handled Breitbart's public relations until the spring, said that Bannon's staff meetings were roiled by discussions of Islam and mass immigration.

"It was stuff like 'these people don't belong here, they're overrunning our country,' " he said. "That kind of white nationalist sentiment."

Trump, who has frequently linked or retweeted white nationalists and decried them only under pressure, gave frequent interviews to Breitbart. Already supportive of the Trump campaign, people like Taylor see Bannon's move and the change in Trump's tone as validation.

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"Imagine a media that was more Breitbart than New York Times," Taylor said. "Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown have been even more important than Trump, in one respect. They are the people who make whites realize that what the media have been telling them about race relations is simply wrong."

Hillary Clinton's campaign has treated all of this as a gift. Hours after Bannon's hire was official, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook held a conference call denouncing Breitbart - a taster for a series of email pitches and finger-wagging statements to come.

Breitbart News was dismissive."They say that we are 'anti-Semitic,' though our company was founded by Jews, is largely staffed by Jews, and has an entire section dedicated to reporting on and defending the Jewish state of Israel," site Chief Financial Officer Larry Solov and editor in chief Alex Marlow said in a statement. "They call us 'racist,' even though her husband's law enforcement policies led to mass incarceration of blacks."

That reaction didn't reflect Breitbart's coverage of crime or of the alt-right. Last month, Breitbart reporter Katie McHugh referred to the criminal justice overhauls favored by some Republicans as "prison break legislation" that's "un-compassionate to crime victims."

Bannon, who directed conservative documentaries before he took over the site, kept Breitbart and its companion Sirius XM series entertaining. Sam Nunberg, a former Trump staffer, recalled that Breitbart interviewed Trump even when much of the media considered him a celebrity joke candidate.

"The problem in the conservative movement is it's boring," Bannon said in a May 19 exchange with the site's technology editor and rising star Milo Yiannopoulos. "[If] you're boring me, you're losing my attention."

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The alt-right was decidedly not boring. Its arguments about what a winning, identity-based politics might look like were embraced by readers. Its writers embraced the torrent of jokes and memes from the alt-right, which portrayed Trump as a sort of trickster god, and establishment Republicans as low-energy "cucks" - the derogatory name referencing cuckolding and given to anyone seen to be selling out to liberals.

"Had they been serious about defending humanism, liberalism and universalism, the rise of the alternative right might have been arrested," Yiannopoulos wrote in a sympathetic March profile of the alt-right. "All they had to do was argue for common humanity in the face of black and feminist identity politics, for free speech in the face of the regressive Left's censorship sprees, and for universal values in the face of left-wing moral relativism."

Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter recently after leading a short harassment campaign against "Saturday Night Live" star Leslie Jones.

Breitbart's coverage, and the alt-right in general, advance a theory that a left-behind wing of conservatives have screamed about for decades. In the 1980s, figures such as Pat Buchanan and the late Sam Francis warned that the left was transforming the country without much resistance from the Republican establishment. In an essay, Francis argued that "Middle American Radicals" hardly understood their potential influence.

"MARs form a class - not simply a middle class and not simply an economic category - that is in revolt against the dominant patterns and structures of American society," Francis wrote. "Liberalism and cosmopolitanism were able, through their immense appeal to an intellegentsia, to portray localism and decentralized institutions as a mask for bigotry and selfishness."

But Francis and other "paleoconservatives" lost a battle inside the Republican Party to people who thought it could grow its appeal to non-white voters. In an interview with The Washington Post this month, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, used the term "alt-right crowd" to refer to the people that Jack Kemp, his mentor and former congresssman from New York, had helped to purge. Ryan called the group out of the mainstream and, in other interviews ahead of his primary, which he won by 66 percentage points, he did not argue with radio hosts when they linked the alt-right to racist elements.

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The National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru, whose project to reform the mainstream conservative movement was waylaid by the Trump victory, said, "The alt-right just isn't much of a movement, something that separates it from Goldwaterite conservatism after the 1964 election.

"Bannon isn't willing to own his own site's comment section, which is mainstream alt-right," Ponnuru said. "I have grave concerns about the future of conservatism and the Republican Party, but the alt-right sweeping all before it isn't one of them."

In the meantime, the alt-right theory of politics is going through its first presidential campaign. Trump's latest "pivot" has streamlined his arguments, not moderated them; it has promoted the people who agree with the alt-right, not a bid for the center.

"I'm honestly delighted that Trump is putting a team together that has such reasonable views on immigration," said Jason Richwine, a policy analyst who left the Heritage Foundation after a backlash to his study of race and IQ and who has appeared on Breitbart's XM show. "This was almost impossible to imagine even just a year ago. Whatever you might think of his campaign in general, it's clear that Trump has opened up space to talk about immigration in a way we haven't been able to before."

At this year's American Renaissance conference, Trump's success was a popular and unifying subject. Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDare.com - named for Virginia Dare, the first white person born in America - used his speech to mock the failure of the Republican establishment and ask whether white voters were ready to become the dominant political bloc.

"What the GOP needs to do is Southernize the white vote," Brimelow said. "You need to have everybody in the country voting the way that Southern whites vote."

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Trump's new message - the combination of immigration restriction and the appeal to black voters - was no contradiction. Last year, in a November interviewwith Bannon, Trump regretted the loss of a worker who took his skills back to his native India.

"We've got to be able to keep great people in the country," Trump said. "We have to be careful of that, Steve. I think you agree with that, Steve?"

Bannon did not. "A country is more than an economy," he retorted. "We are a civic society."

In his speeches this week, Trump has twinned his pitch to black voters with his warning about unchecked immigration. "Hillary Clinton would rather provide a job to a refugee from overseas than to give that job to unemployed African American youth," he has said. That pitch, said Buchanan, could help Trump with the white voters who worry that by voting for him, they are endorsing racism.

"White folks are not monolithic," Buchanan said. "You want middle America and moderates to know that you care about these folks, too. They're the first ones who suffer when the shopping centers burn down."

At Trump's rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the first of the Bannon era, the message was sinking in. Frances Johnson, 68, said that the polls were not reflecting Trump's real level of support, and that she sometimes emailed the campaign with ideas on how to change that. The pitch to black voters, she said, was smart.

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"I really don't think that African Americans want to be stuck where they are," Johnson said. "They're basically glorified slaves - they get free this, free that, free this, free that, and they can't get a good job and depend on the government. What else do you call it?"

Ken Baswell, 55, was worried that Trump had not put enough TV ads on the air. If he did, he said, he would be trying to inject some truth into a media landscape that lacked it.

"I just want something other than what they're pushing in mainstream America," he said. "I want to know the real stuff going on behind the scenes, because I'm not stupid. I'm not a sheep."

The Washington Post's Robert Costa, Jenna Johnson and Frances Sellers contributed to this report.
Citizens should vote for Donald Trump. It's pretty clear that the establishment is going all out against him. It is throwing the kitchen sink  and anything else it can throw  at him. Attack, discredit and accuse Trump of anything and everything. Magnify any remarks that can be used against him, twist them and condemn Trump vociferously to the public. The establishment is purposely trying to turn the public against Trump.

Hillary Clinton cannot run on her record. It's abysmal. Further, the Democratic platform is the most liberal platform in the history of the party. The Democrats and establishment Republicans have to attack Trump in order to try and take him out. That way, they place Clinton into the presidency and continue their dismantling of this nation. Trump is not an elitist. He's not one of them. Trump is for the people. Trump is a patriot.

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Our military is in shambles. Our economy is on exceptionally thin ice. Our immigration laws are not being properly enforced. Our Muslim immigration policies defy logic. Morality has sunk to new levels. If Clinton is elected, it will be continuation of these same detrimental policies, and perhaps even worse.

Trump is not politically correct. In so many ways, this is used against him. Even so, Trump is the much better choice. He's doing this for his nation and the American people. He's doing this because he loves America. Vote for Trump.

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 Michael Imhof, Aurora
County officials and residents gathered at the Waukegan Public Library Thursday for a forum on local relations between the community and police.

Sponsored by Lake County Black Lives Matter, the event was an opportunity for people to express their feelings in a safe environment, said the group's chairman, Clyde McLemore.

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Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles and Reginald Mathews, chief of the State's Attorney's Gangs and Narcotics Division, were among the guests Thursday, invited only to listen and not take part in the discussion. Organizers said that decision was made, in order to provide residents enough time to speak within the 1 1/2 hours allotted for the event.

"When we say 'black lives matter,' we know all lives matter, but we're the ones hurting in a controlled environment," McLemore said.

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The controlled environment, McLemore said, are jails and segregated areas of the community.

With a microphone in hand, those who spoke among the group of varied ethnicities stood in front of the room and shared their perspectives on racism, which was mentioned as not inclusive to Lake County but widespread across the nation.

Some who spoke gave examples of times they were hurt and offended by experiencing discrimination. Others offered some solutions.

Gurnee resident Carol Giomondo, who identified herself as a white woman and an educator, said she doesn't judge people on their skin color. Giomondo said that the problem of racism stems from ignorance and not skin color.

"I believe this is a time in history where we can have these type of conversations  but it's ignorance that you're fighting and it comes in all colors," Giomondo said.

James Washington, who said he goes by Ahmed El-Sudan, said that as a black man, he's proud to see "white people stand alongside blacks," in the fight against discrimination and mistreatment. But, he added, "don't expect to understand racism as we do, white people. It's absolutely impossible. You have to be born in it to understand it."

The 69-year-old added that as an Army veteran who has lived with racism all of his life, what he hopes for now is "trying to enjoy the same things that everyone else has."

Tio Hardiman, president of the Chicago-based Violence Interrupters, said that he was happy to see the Black Lives Matter chapter bring the community together Thursday. Hardiman added that those who cause problems are not in the majority.

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"There's a few people in every race that mess it up for the everyone else," Hardiman said. "Police across the nation have to do a better job at holding their officers accountable when they do wrong.

"We can't talk and protest forever. It's time to make changes," Hardiman added. "We as a people need to unify, because America is our country."

At the conclusion of the event, Mathews said that the dialogue between the community felt like progress.

Black Lives Matter members said they hope to continue to host forums in other areas of the county, such as Round Lake and North Chicago.

Yadira Sanchez-Olson is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Round Lake resident Megan Bos receives a Day of the Dead tattoo Saturday afternoon at the first annual Fox Lake Land & Lake Days festival. ( Jim Newton / Lake County News-Sun)

Fox Lake unveiled a new festival with a novel twist this weekend  permanent and temporary body art.

The tattoos were made during the first annual Fox Lake & Lake Days festival, a three-day event that ended Sunday. The festival also included live music from local acts, food and even psychic readings.

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But one of the more popular activities were people receiving tattoos.

Megan Bos, of Round Lake Beach, was at the festival Saturday to add to her tattoo collection. She has about 25.

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"I think it's awesome," said Bos in the midst of the hours-long process of receiving a new upper arm tattoo featuring a Latino Cultural Day of Dead motif.

Bos said she thinks the ability to purchase tattoos during a community festival is a great idea and she will return if, as village officials expect, the festival becomes an annual event.

"I just think (tattoos are) totally an experience of who you are and your attitude," she said as tattoo artist Joey Spooks, of Electric Art Tattoos in Fox Lake, etched a colorful portrait of a beautiful but spectral woman on Bos's arm.

The All Stars rock Saturday afternoon in Lakefront Park during the Fox Lake Land & Lake Days festival. ( Jim Newton / Lake County News-Sun)

Bos, who is used to having tattoos, wasn't flinching as Spooks did his work. She said she didn't even notice the pain.

"All tattoos hurt, but it's a different kind of pain," she said.

At the same time, on the other side of the Electric Art booth, Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit also was well into the three-hour process of receiving a new tattoo on his shoulder featuring a Native American in full headdress.

Schmit said the image was the village's logo for over 100 years, and remains the logo of the Fox Lake police and fire departments. He said he decided to get the tattoo to support both those first responders and the new festival.

"I'm supporting the efforts of the village," Schmit said, praising the decision to add body art as a significant part of the new yearly festival.

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"We're thinking outside the box, building new traditions. We want Fox Lake to be a destination," he said.

Although he joked, "how do you spell ouch," Schmit also maintained receiving his new tattoo, applied by tattoo artist Maxwell Borchardt, was not a painful experience.

The village received a prominently-displayed temporary permit from the Illinois Health Department to allow tattooing at the Land and Lakes Days festival.

Tattoo artist Maxwell Borchardt works on a tattoo at the Electric Art Tattoos booth Saturday at Fox Lakes Land & Lakes Days. ( Jim Newton / Lake County News-Sun)

Not everyone is inclined to permanently modify their body at a weekend village festival, and there were painless alternatives for kids and adults not interested in real tattoos.

Melaine Rubin of Laine Too Temporary Body Art offered both glitter and non-glitter temporary tattoos that take only a few minutes to apply and last two to three weeks. Face painting also was available.

Rubin said about 75 percent of her temporary tattoo customers both at the festival and in general were adults.

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"This morning it was little kids, but last night it was all adults," she said of her work at the festival.

Grace White-Barncard, 7, of Ingleside, chose a peace sign temporary tattoo, which was quickly applied.

She said her choice of the peace sign from hundreds of options was "random,' but added "I like what it stands for."

Her father, Adam Barncard, gave the new festival and its offerings high marks.

"It's very different; I like that. It's definitely something new in town," he said. "I grew up in Fox Lake and it seems like the only thing to do was go out on the Chain (O'Lakes). This is something new to do. I hope they do it again next year."

Non-body art projects also were underway.

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Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit receives a new tattoo at the Fox Lake Land & Lakes Das festival on Saturday. (By Jim Newton / Lake County News-Sun)

Studio 25 Art Creations, expected to soon open a studio in Fox Lake, was in the midst of creating an 8-foot by 6-foot permanent tile mosaic to be located outdoors in the village, likely in Lakefront Park. For $1 dollar, participants could create their own tile for the mosaic using a predetermined color scheme.

Amanda Munsen, of Studio 25, said the mosaic, once finished, would feature a large anchor over a backdrop of waves and sky in a three-dimensional effect.

"It's both to let the community know we're coming and to add color to the town," Munsen said. She said that the $1 charge was strictly to cover supplies. "We're not making anything on this."

Amy Serafin, coordinator of Fox Lake Parks and Recreation, said the idea to add body art came from village Trustee Brian Marr and quickly gained traction among officials.

"It's something that isn't done frequently," she said.

jrnewton@tribpub.com

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Twitter @jimnewt5
Seven-year-old Henry Heun, of Highland Park, learns how to use a compass during a program at the Great Lakes Naval Museum Saturday. (Yadira Sanchez Olson / News-Sun)

A replica compass used by soldiers in World War II was provided to all who took part in the Great Lakes Naval Museum's navigational class Saturday.

"The first compass in the western world appeared in Italy around 1300," museum intern Kelli Akioka-Smith told her students.

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Back then, the navigational tool was used by the Italians, Portuguese, English, Spanish and Dutch in their explorations of the Atlantic Ocean and in their journeys to barter and trade for goods.

Now, in addition to sailors, it's used by hikers, campers and athletes who practice orienteering.

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But the Chinese knew about magnetism as early as 2637 B.C. And that's how the compass works, Akioka-Smith said. The north end of a compass magnet is always drawn to align with earth's magnetic field.

For 11-year-old Peter Makula, of Wheeling, the lesson was fascinating.

"I'm a science fan so I'm into technology," Makula said.

Christine Davis and her sons, 10-year-old Alex and 5-year-old Zach, look at their compasses Saturday during a Great Lakes Naval Museum navigational class. (Yadira Sanchez Olson / News-Sun)

Although the compass could barely be considered new technology, Akioka-Smith said ships and air crafts still use it for navigation to this day. It's part of the military's basic training, she said.

While the GPS has revolutionized how people get around, a compass doesn't need an electrical system to work. And in an emergency, "you want to be prepared with something manual to use," Akioka-Smith told the kids.

Never Eat Shredded Wheat is how 10-year-old Alex Davis, of Great Lakes, remembers directions and what the N-E-W-S in his compass represent. He said his mom taught him that.

On Saturday, Alex and his younger brother 5-year-old Zach were among a handful of kids who used those cardinal points to make their way through a scavenger hunt outside the museum that tested their newly learned skills.

The groups, joined by their parents, resembled players of "Pokemon Go" as they held their compasses out in front of them with heads down to see where it was taking them.

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"This is very informative and educational," said Philip Heun, of Highland Park. The Navy dad was there with four sons Saturday.

"We try to make the lessons fun as well as educational," Akioka-Smith said.

Each month the museum offers a Navy-themed, STEM-based class, free of charge to the public. Once there, families are invited to explore the museum to learn about the Navy.

"The more they come, the more they learn," Akioka-Smith said.

Yadira Sanchez Olson is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Illinois is among the states offering a seal of bilingual education to be placed on high school diplomas. (The Gazette-Times, Andy Cripe / AP)

Seniors at Warren Township High School in Gurnee will have the opportunity to participate in a language initiative that advocates say can give them a leg up on higher education and careers after graduation.

The State Seal of Biliteracy Program identifies high school students who have graduated with proficiency in a second language, in addition to English.

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Through testing, those who show a high level of writing, reading, speaking and understanding skills in both English and a second language earn the Seal of Biliteracy on their diploma, and the status is recognized in their transcripts.

The recognition can make a student more attractive to college admission representatives and future employers, said Wileen Gehrig, the school's assistant superintendent of instructional services and personnel.

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This is the first school year Warren has offered the program, which is voluntary.

A potential 150 seniors could be eligible to participate, Gehrig said, not including those who are proficient in other languages that aren't offered at the school, which offers courses in Spanish, German and French.

"This is going to open doors for students," Gehrig said.

The program began late in 2013 after legislation authorizing it passed unanimously in the Illinois House and Senate, said Julio Cruz, who pushed for the initiative along with other organizations, such as the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Nearly 1,000 students in the Chicago Public Schools system have earned the seal, Cruz said, and in California, where the initiative began, 30,000 students were awarded the seal last year.

"It's to the country's advantage to encourage the understanding of other cultures and languages," Cruz said. "If I'm a business person who deals with foreigners, I'm going to need a team who speaks different languages and understands other cultures."

Officials at Warren Township High School District 121 said they wanted to hold off offering the program until other Lake County school districts had a chance to work with it to see how it was received by students.

At Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, where officials said they began offering the seal late in the 2014-15 school year, 147 students earned the seal that year.

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Last year at Stevenson, that number increased to 163 recipients, with students showing proficiency in Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Latin, Japanese and Italian.

Other states where the initiative has passed and school districts can offer the program include Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

In Lake County, Grayslake Community District 127 will also be participating with a small pool of students at first, officials said.

Amy Mason, who teaches French at Warren Township High School, said she's excited for her students and hopes all who feel qualified go for it.

Through school counselors and an awareness campaign that will start immediately, Gehrig said Warren families will be informed about the school's new language program.

Yadira Sanchez Olson is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a national meeting on health held from Aug. 19 to 20 in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for full protection of the people's health, stressing that public health should be given priority in the country's development strategy.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a national meeting on health held in Beijing Friday through Saturday.

"The all-round moderately prosperous society could not be achieved without people's all-round health," Xi said, urging efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, strengthen health services, improve health protection, build healthy environment and develop health-related industries.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave a speech at the meeting. Other senior leaders including Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the meeting.

Xi said health is a prerequisite for people's all-round development and a precondition for economic and social development. It is also a common aspiration of all people.

Since its founding, the CPC has paid great attention to the correlation between people's health and national independence and liberation, he said.

The president expressed his respect and thanks to the service and dedication of health workers nationwide in protecting the people's health.

However, he pointed out that facts such as industrialization, urbanization and an aging population, combined with changes in the environment and people's lifestyles, have put the health of Chinese people under multiple and complicated risks.

"China is facing health problems that occur in developing countries as well as developed countries," the president said.

"If these problems are not effectively addressed, people's health may be seriously undermined and economic development and social stability will also be compromised," he said.

Xi stressed that work to ensure people's health should focus on the grassroots and use reform and innovation to create momentum.

He urged the inclusion of health in government policies, to ensure that all people enjoy the health benefits of policies.

Xi called for an improved system and quality of basic medical services so that the public can enjoy accessible and continuous health services which cover prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

The government should perform its duty in basic medical services, and the market should be vitalized in the fields of non-basic services.

Xi stressed prevention work in the health sector as well as efforts to provide relevant services for people through their entire lives.

Health for young children and young students in the country's less-developed areas should be emphasized alongside the need to provide proper nutrition for their growth, he said, pointing out the need for care of other key groups such as pregnant women, infants and senior citizens.

Xi said a sound environment is the cornerstone of the people's lives and health, stressing that green development must be implemented and the "strictest system of environmental protection" should be adopted.

He noted that reform of the country's health and medicine systems had entered a difficult stage, calling for breakthroughs in modern hospital management, medical insurance, medicine supply, comprehensive supervision, and a diagnosis and treatment mechanism based on the severity of illnesses.

The president particularly stressed the role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in promoting people's health, underlining innovation as well as coordinated and complementary development of TCM and Western medicine.

"Efforts should be made to boost the salary and treatment, development space, professional environment and social status of health workers so as to make them more active," Xi said, adding that they should be better cared for both physically and mentally and society should be guided to respect them more.

While urging health workers to stick to professional rules and ethics, Xi ordered a severe crackdown on health-related crimes, especially violence targeting health workers.

According to Xi, local governments are encouraged to draft their own health development plans based on their own situations, and all policies and projects should be "systematically evaluated" to gauge their influence on people's health.

"We will actively participate in research and discussion concerning the making of international standards and criteria for health-related fields, and improve our country's work mechanism to offer assistance in major international public health emergencies," Xi said.

In particular, he vowed to strengthen health cooperation with countries in areas involving the Belt and Road Initiative.

During the meeting, Premier Li urged the devotion of more health resources to rural and impoverished regions, with greater insurance support to relieve the medical spending of patients.

Li called for efforts to support cutting-edge medical research, prevent excessive prescription and treatment, boost medical capacity at grassroots level, encourage health investment from social groups and individuals, reduce medicine costs and relax rules on market entry and talent exchanges.

Calling for "stable and sustainable" investment in health, Li said the government will guide financial institutions to offer greater support to the health industry and strive to make it a pillar industry in the national economy.
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The world's oldest woman, Fu Suqing, living in Chengdu of southwest China's Sichuan province, welcomed her 119th birthday on August 21, 2016. [Photo: Chengdu Business Daily]

The world's oldest woman, Fu Suqing, living in Chengdu of southwest China's Sichuan province, welcomed her 119th birthday on August 21, Chengdu Business Daily reports.

With a great-great-grandson born four days ago, the senior now has 68 offspring.

One day earlier, Fu's family had begun preparing a birthday banquet for more than one hundred guests.

According to 83-year-old Xu Shuhua, Fu's second daughter, twice cooked pork had been Fu's favorite food. Now Fu likes to eat boiled green peas and drink boiled water.

Results of a physical examination last month show that Fu Suqing's health is very good. Her great-granddaughter, Leng Ting, said Fu could still do some cleaning in recent years.

However, in the last six months, Fu lost some weight and eats less, and she spends most of her time sleeping, Xu said.
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H-6 bomber of a bomber squadron with the East China Sea Fleet which have recently conducted a long-range combat drill in the Sea of Japan. [Photo: Sina.com]

The Chinese military has revealed a bomber squadron with the East China Sea Fleet have recently conducted a long-range combat drill in the Sea of Japan.

The bombers traveled thousands of kilometers and conducted saturation attacks on vessels of a simulated enemy to improve their capability of continuous strikes at maximum range.

Navy officials say the drill was routine and in accordance with international law, and not aimed at any specific country, region or target.

Last week, Chinese naval warships also held a confrontation drill in the same waters.
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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho has reportedly defected to the South to escape punishment for committing crimes.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, said a commentary released by the official news agency KCNA.

The DPRK had recalled him in June to put him under investigation, and on July 12, the country's Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, the KCNA added.

The commentary also slammed South Korea's coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish the DPRK's image and step up anti-DPRK campaigns.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that Britain, in disregard of international extradition practices, ignored the DPRK's request to send Thae back, but instead handed him over to South Korea, which is keen on North-South confrontation.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that the DPRK's deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to South Korea with his family. If it is true, Thae would become the highest-ranking DPRK diplomat who has fled to Seoul.
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Pakistan on Saturday deported a "blacklisted" American national two weeks after he was arrested in Islamabad, officials said.

Matthew Barrett was blacklisted and expelled in 2011 for his suspicious activities in Pakistan, according to the Interior Minister.

Barrett was questioned by the police about his arrival in Pakistan. The Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said last week that the U.S. national will be expelled as he is not welcomed in Pakistan.

"Matthew Barrett was deported from the city of Lahore Saturday morning," officials said.

The interior ministry had suspended two immigration officials at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport for allowing the blacklisted man to enter Pakistan on Aug. 6.

The Interior Ministry has also sought clarification from the Pakistani consulate in Houston of the United States for issuing him the visa. Endit
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Turkey has been joining efforts to make the G20 summit a success, which is slated for early September in Hangzhou, China, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

Turkey, host of the last G20 summit last year, has been working hard under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek to make the Hangzhou summit a success, said Yildirim in meeting with the foreign press in Istanbul.

He noted that leaders of the world's major economies will discuss on G20, among others, the slowdown in global trade and growth, tax evasion, money laundering and IMF quota reform.

The root causes of tax evasion and money laundering have to be revealed and the defects have to be fixed to prevent the illegal acts, he said.

"The taxes have to be dragged to the acceptable levels rather than to keep them high in order to increase production and boost economic prosperity," Yildirim said.

On China-Turkey relations, Yildirim said the two countries have been working together on common projects as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
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The death toll from a bomb blast near a wedding hall in the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night has risen to 30, in addition to 94 injuries, according to Turkish authorities.

Rebel fighters ride a tank in an artillery academy of Aleppo, Syria, August 6, 2016. [Photo / Xinhua]

"We condemn the traitors who organized and carried out this attack," said the Gaziantep Governor's Office, which raised the death toll from an earlier report of 22.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Samil Tayyar, a deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on twitter that the attack was carried out by the Islamic State terrorist group.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, however, said the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

Local media reported that the blast occurred in the Sahinbey District of Gaziantep at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT) in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighborhood of the city. Local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey.

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack. The site of the explosion was sealed off by police. Hundred of residents gathered near the site, praying for the dead and denouncing the attacker.

The blast in Gaziantep occurred on a day when Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in helping address the Syrian crisis within the next six months.

Yildirim has also pledged a fierce response to the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

The security situation in Turkey has deteriorated recently following a spate of deadly attacks in the wake of a failed coup attempt last month.

On Thursday, five soldiers were killed and six others injured by a roadside bomb believed to be planted by PKK militants in Turkey's eastern Bitlis province.

Also on Thursday, suspected PKK militants killed a villager and wounded a soldier near Nazar village of Hizan district in Bitlis province.

Early Thursday, another bombing near police headquarters in the eastern province of Elazig killed at least three police officers and injured 217, including 85 police officers.

A car bombing on Wednesday night occurred in the eastern province of Van, injuring at least 73 people, including 20 policemen.

In late June, three attackers, alleged to be IS militants, fired at crowds in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport and then detonated their explosive vests, killing 44 people and wounding more than 200 others.

Since July 2015, over 500 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group first started anti-government attacks.
A Chinese customer tries out smartphones in front of logos of (from left) China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom at a mobile phone store in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province, January 13, 2016.[Photo/IC]

China's major telecom operators have announced plans to cancel domestic roaming charges as they are instead turning to 4G services as a major source of profit.

China Mobile Communications Corp, the country's largest telecom operator, recently said they will stop charging domestic roaming fees by the end of this year.

Since July, they have stopped selling new service packages that include domestic roaming charges on cross-province phone calls.

Mobile users are currently charged 0.6 yuan (9 cents) to 0.8 yuan per minute for the roaming service under different payment schemes.

This nearly doubles costs for subscribers, which angers consumers. Industry regulators have also urged operators to gradually abolish fees.

With 4G services developing rapidly, China's major telecom operators saw their net profit grow at remarkable pace in the first half of this year thanks to fast growth in 4G subscribers.

In July, China Telecommunications Corp, China's third largest mobile telecommunication provider, announced it will cancel roaming fees this year. On Thursday, China Unicom, another telecom heavyweight, said it will scrap such fees from October.

Analysts said that eliminating roaming fees will not incur big losses for operators, as the data flow business has become a major source of profit for them.
President Xi Jinping has urged authorities at all levels to consider public health when drafting policies, as he spoke for the first time on the proposed Healthy China strategy at a top-level meeting.

The goal of "an all-around moderately prosperous society cannot be achieved without the people's all-around health", he said at the national meeting on health attended by all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The meeting reached a consensus that health authorities alone cannot ensure a healthy populace, as there are many complex socioeconomic, policy and personal factors, such as the environment and education.

Xi called for comprehensive efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, strengthen medical services and disease prevention, and develop health-related industries.

Complicated risks resulting from China's industrialization, urbanization and aging population, combined with the negative changes in the environment and people's lifestyles, pose serious health challenges, he said.

"If these issues are not addressed effectively, the people's health may be seriously undermined, and economic development and social stability will be compromised," he said.

The Healthy China strategy was first proposed early last year, but the authorities are still discussing the fine details.

Wang Longde, chairman of China Preventive Medicine Association, said the CPC meeting ushered in a new era in which public health is given priority in the national development strategy.

Despite achievements such as longer life expectancy and universal health insurance, he said new challenges have emerged from rapid aging and the rise in chronic diseases.

Official statistics show 300 million people in China have been diagnosed with a chronic diseases, such as diabetes or hypertension. Half of them are aged under 65.

Liang Xiaofeng, deputy director the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the problems cannot be solved by hospitals alone.
WASHINGTON - Chinese President Xi Jinping's forthcoming meeting with his US counterpart Barack Obama is expected to enhance mutual trust, widen win-win cooperation and deliver guidance for management on differences between China and the United States.

"The upcoming meeting between the two heads of state, just as every strategic talk they have held in recent years, will produce very positive and important influence on China-US bilateral relations," Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the United States, said in a joint interview with Chinese-language news media here on Saturday.

Xi is scheduled to meet Obama during the G20 summit in east China's Hangzhou City next month.

Under the G20 mechanism, the two leaders have already conducted very much coordination and cooperation for years, Cui said, noting that it is also the world's wide expectation that China and the United States can work together to ensure the G20 Hangzhou Summit to achieve a full success.

As the top two economies in the world, China and the United States have responsibilities to play a larger role in ensuring that the Hangzhou summit can yield constructive results as many as possible, Cui said, adding communication channels between the two countries have always been running well.

More than 40 years ago, Hangzhou witnessed the negotiations for the first ever China-US joint communique, the ambassador recalled, stressing "a return to a place full of historic meaning reveals a lot about the direction we should follow."

"The history of their relationship has fully proven that the two global heavyweights must cooperate with each other and must become cooperative partners," said Cui, referring to the building of a new type of major-country relationship.

The ambassador also revealed that China has kept frequent contacts with the United States on the South China Sea issue, reiterating that the issue should not be allowed to define China-US ties since the two countries have neither disputes over even one inch of territory nor fundamental clash of interests in the South China Sea.

The upcoming meeting between Xi and Obama in Hangzhou is the most important agenda of China-US relations in the next stage, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his telephone talk with US Secretary of State John earlier this month.

At the time, Kerry said that the Xi-Obama meeting in Hangzhou is very important, noting the United States is willing to work together with China to ensure a full success of the G20 Hangzhou Summit.

The upcoming G20 summit, with the theme "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy", will be held in Hangzhou City on Sept 4-5.
You are a new company just starting out. You have a great product and you have no other options but to have your product made in a foreign country to which you have never been and know little to nothing about. What do you do?

You essentially have two choices. You bring in and pay a person or a company to help you find the right foreign manufacturer or you do it yourself. Both of these have their pros and cons.

In working with an intermediary to get your products manufactured overseas, you must understand how you are paying them and even how much. There are multiple ways to pay these intermediaries, including the following:

1. You pay the intermediary an upfront flat fee for the intermediary to, among other things, find you a manufacturer and to negotiate with the manufacturer on your behalf. Typically, in this sort of arrangement, the intermediary drops out after you place your first order and that order is completed. The biggest pro to this method is that you pay once and the intermediary has less incentive to permit the foreign manufacturer to overcharge you. The biggest con is to this method is that you must come up with a large chunk of money right away and it is still possible (and not all that uncommon) for your intermediary to strike a side deal with your manufacturer to get a 5-40%+ secret commission on every sale. If your intermediary does have a side deal with your manufacturer, it also has incentive to use a too-cheap manufacturer so as to be better able to hide its secret commission from you. Too-cheap manufacturers are more likely to have quality control and delivery problems.

2. You pay the intermediary by the hour to, among other things, find you an overseas manufacturer and to negotiate with the manufacturer on your behalf. In this sort of arrangement, it is not uncommon for the intermediary to remain on board indefinitely to help with quality control issues. The pros and cons of this payment method are similar (though a bit reduced in terms of the upfront payment) to the pros and cons of method one.

3. You pay the intermediary some percentage on top of what the manufacturer charges. In this sort of arrangement, it is typical for the intermediary to find you a manufacturer, negotiate on your behalf with the manufacturer, and remain on board indefinitely to help with quality control and to keep collecting the percentage payment. The biggest pro to this method is that you do not have to pay anything up front. The biggest con to this method is that it seems like 60% of the time when our international manufacturing lawyers have been called in on one of these once problems have arisen, we discover the intermediarys 5% commission was actually anywhere from 20% to 300%  yes 300%. Again, to the extent your intermediary is hiding the amount of its commission from you, it has incentive to use a too-cheap manufacturer, which heightens your risk of quality control and delivery problems.

4. You pay the intermediary some predetermined fixed amount for your widgets and the intermediary steps in and essentially becomes the seller. This means that the intermediary is clearly responsible for quality control issues and  if you have an appropriate contract with this intermediary, this also means that the intermediary is legally liable for bad quality and late deliveries, etc. The biggest pro to this method is that it is usually the most honest. You know what you are paying for your widgets and the intermediary does not lie to you about what it is paying for your widgets because that figure is irrelevant. When I buy cheese at my grocery store for eight dollars, I hardly care what my grocer paid for the cheese and no representations about what it paid are being made. If the cheese is bad, the grocer is on the hook, plain and simple. But, I am no doubt paying more than if I were getting my cheese straight from the dairy farmer.

We have seen competent and incompetent and legitimate and illegitimate intermediaries use all four methods. Is going it alone better? Sometimes it is, but certainly not always. When is it best to go it alone and when is it best to use an intermediary? Answering that would take a book and in the end, you pretty much just have to trust yourself and your own comfort level.

BUT, no matter whether you go it alone or use an intermediary, there are certain things you can do to reduce your chances of problems. On what problems should you focus and how can you minimize those problems? I will discuss these issues in parts 2 and 3 of this mini-series.
(Photo : Getty Images) Baidu is dropping its drone delivery takeaway service.

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Chinese tech giant Baidu has filed a lawsuit against two Chinese tech companies Tencent and Sohu, charging them with destroying its reputation. Baidu clams that Tencent and Sohu posted articles online that have seriously damaged the image of the company's takeout service, Baidu Waimai.



According to China.org, Baidu Waimai said that some public accounts of Tencent's social networking platform WeChat posted discriminatory stories about employees of Baidu-owned restaurants claiming that they were using toilet water to wash food. Baidu Waimai added that stories posted on Sohu's platform claimed that it is serving expired foods.



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Baidu Waimai claims that the stories circulating on Tencent and Sohu's platforms are completely false and were fabricated to paint a negative picture of the company. As a result, Baidu is demanding that Tencent and Sohu shut down public accounts that are circulating these discriminatory stories. Baidu is also demanding that the two tech companies provide information about the account holders spreading the untrue stories.



Beijing's Haidian district court stated that "The plaintiff believes that the article's content was seriously inaccurate. It caused serious adverse effects on the plaintiff's reputation."



Aside from taking down the malicious posts and providing the information of social media accounts linked to the posts, Baidu is also seeking compensation and court fees amounting to more than $75,000. According to Bloomberg, Baidu is also asking Tencent and Sohu to issue a statement of apology which is to be printed in national newspapers.



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TagsBaidu, Tencent, Sohu, Baidu lawsuit, Tencent news, Baidu Waimai
(Photo : David Ramos/Getty Images) Visitors visit the ZTE pavilion on the opening day of the World Mobile Congress at the Fira Gran Via Complex on Feb. 22, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.

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Chinese multinational tech company ZTE Corp. has just been granted a three-month extension for its operation in the US.



This is a temporary general license that would allow US companies to do business with the Chinese firm, including one of its affiliates that have been mandated to strictly observe export restrictions, ZTE Kangxun, until Nov. 28.



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The announcement was published by the Commerce Department in the Federal Register on Friday, China Daily reported.



In a statement, the Chinese tech giant said that "This further extension of interim relief will let ZTE continue serving customers, partners and suppliers in the US as we address any remaining compliance issues with US authorities."



"ZTE is fully committed to complying with the laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which it operates," it further noted.



ZTE is the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer in the US, only next to Apple, Samsung and LG.



The company, which has 14 offices and six research centers in the United States at present, was imposed with export restriction by the Commerce Department on March 7 following reports of alleged violation of US export controls on Iran. These restrictions were also imposed on its three affiliates.



Fifteen days after, the Commerce Department presented a three-month relief from the export restrictions to ZTE and ZTE Kangxun in the US. This temporary license was eventually extended until Aug. 30, prior to the release of the new extension.



The company's operation in the US has paved way for the employment of 350 Americans, which comprise 80 percent of its entire manpower. Of the total market for smartphones in the US, the report revealed that ZTE currently captures seven percent of it.



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(Photo : Getty Images ) China has protested against Japan's plan to deploy military to the South China Sea.

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China has strongly objected to the possible deployment of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to the disputed South China Sea.



Beijing issued a stern warning to Tokyo saying that it would consider "military action" if Japan goes ahead with its plan to deploy its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to back up U.S. operations in the contested waters.



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A few months ago, China's Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua hinted about the possibility of Chinese military action if Tokyo sends its SDF to the South China Sea. "Japan will cross a red line if SDF vessels take part in so-called freedom of navigation operations," Yonghua had said, Kyodo reported.



Japan's new defense minister Tomomi Inada is aiming to expand the country's military role abroad. Japan's SDF troops, under revised security laws, will soon take part in training on overseas deployment. "The defense ministry will take all appropriate measures so that the [SDF] can adequately conduct missions given to them," she said in the first week of August.



China is claiming a large portion of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory. The Asian power is engaged in a bitter dispute with its neighbors, including Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan, over the ownership of territories in the South China Sea. It is also building up military infrastructure as well as artificial islands in the contested waters.



Last month, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China's claims over disputed region saying that the country has no legal basis to claim the contested territory. Japan and the United States have repeatedly asked China to abide by the ruling of the court.



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Tagschina, Japan, SDF, South China Sea, US
(Photo : Getty Images) The Philippines has called on China to avoid provocative actions in the disputed South China Sea.

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The Philippines has concerns over China's actions in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.



The Philippines Foreign Affairs Department on Friday urged China to halt all provocative activities in the contested waters and islands of West Philippines Sea ( South China Sea) to avoid further escalation of tensions between two countries.



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"We are always concerned about Chinese actions in the contested waters and islands," foreign department spokesperson Charles Jose told reporters in Manila. "We continue to call on all parties to refrain from doing anything that would further escalate the tension."



"WE continue to call on all parties to exercise self-restraint and work with the regional effort to promote peace, security, and stability in the region," he said.



Manila is also worried about Beijing's alleged plan to start reclamation work in the Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc). Jose stated that the Philippines need to first verify the reports aboutChina's planned activities in t he disputed atoll.



Last week, reports surfaced that China has decided to begin reclamation work on the Scarborough Shoal after the G20 meeting in Hangzhou.



"Since the G20 will be held in Hangzhou next month, and regional peace will be the main topic among leaders of the great powers, China will refrain from reclamation plan," a source told South China Morning Post.



The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration last month rejected China's claims over the disputed South China Sea and ruled in favor of the Philippines. China is claiming ownership of nearly 80 percent of disputed region.



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(Photo : Getty Images) The Philippines' President Duterte has said going to war with China over territorial dispute on the South China Sea was not an option

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Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte has said that going to war with China over disputed territories in the South China Sea would be the "most stupid thing" for Manila to do given that Beijing is one of the world's military superpowers.



"We maintain good relations with China. Let us create an environment where we sit down and talk directly. That is the time we would say we proceed from here," Duterte said, referring to the impending Sino-Philippine formal talks on the South China Sea dispute.



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President Duterte made the announcement during a press conference on Sunday in his Davao hometown, reiterating that fighting China is not an option to secure Manila's territorial claims in the international waterway.



Stupid



Duterte said if Beijing refuses to talk with Manila, there is nothing more he can do. Declaring war on China, he said, would be the most "stupid" thing to do



A Philippine supreme court justice had earlier shared the president's position on the South China Sea issue, rallying Filipinos to follow the Constitution and international law despite China's refusal to accept the July 12 international arbitral court decision favoring the Philippines.



"We do not fight China directly. When we talk of China, its huge naval fleet, its huge air force with its nuclear warheads aimed at us, how do we respond? We cannot start a war we know we will certainly lose. So we will do it through legal and diplomatic means," Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Friday in an interview at a law university in Cebu City.



Philippine Constitution



Carpio, who was part of the Philippines' legal team that arguing its case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, said that although Manila is seeking formal talks with Beijing on the South China Sea dispute, it should not kowtow to the demands of China if they run contrary to the Philippine constitution and the arbitral court ruling.



"We will stick to the ruling of the tribunal and the Constitution. That means, we will not give up the benefit of the ruling. We will follow the Constitution. For me, that's good enough," he said.



Carpio called on Manila's special envoy for the Sino-Philippine talks, Fidel Ramos, and the negotiating parties to uphold the constitution and the arbitral court ruling once formal talks with Beijing begins.



Sino-Philippine talks



While Manila insists on conducting talks with China based on the arbitral court ruling, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that Beijing will not accept any actions and future propositions by any nation based on the tribunal ruling.



Carpio said the recent tribunal ruling denying China's massive territorial claims in the South China Sea is an opportunity to unite the Filipinos. He called on the international community to press China to honor the ruling.



Carpio said despite China's rejection of the court's decision, the world continues to support the Philippines' stance on the South China Sea row.



He pointed out that the ruling was not "useless" and that the Philippines will not give up its sovereign rights to the disputed sea.



"We can't give up our sovereign rights and jurisdiction. We've won the battle already. For us to walk away from that and say we don't need that, what would the next generation of Filipinos will say?" he said.



On July 12, an international arbitral court ruled that China territorial claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis.



UNCLOS



The court ruled that China violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Philippines' rights to explore resources in its exclusive economic zone.



China has dismissed the ruling as "illegal" and "null and void" as it refused to abide by the verdict despite calls from the international community for it to do so.



This month, Manila's special envoy for negotiations with China, Fidel Ramos, flew to Hong Kong and conducted "ice-breaker" talks with high-ranking Chinese officials to ease the rising tensions between the two nations.



The two sides have agreed to start laying the groundwork for the start of the formal talks and to pave the way for President Duterte's first state visit to China.



Part of the talks focused on the possible opening of the disputed Scarborough Shoal to fishermen from the two nations.



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TagsPresident Rodrigo Duterte, arbitral court ruling, Sino-Philippine formal talks, Chinese President Xi jinping, china
(Photo : US Navy) FA-18 Hornet launches from the USS Harry S. Truman.

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The U.S. Navy will win against China's much-ballyhooed but technologically imperfect anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) network covering the Sea of Japan, East China Sea and South China Sea using a combination of naval maneuverability and stealth aircraft. Submarines will also play a key role.



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Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, Commander, Naval Air Forces, said he's convinced of the Navy's ability to maneuver in a hostile environment such as that in an A2/AD zone. He also said the Navy can "create a battle space to do what we need to do, maneuver again and operate -- not with impunity -- but certainly with awareness of the risk that's out there."



He noted China's land-based A2/AD strategy that relies on anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) fired from the Chinese mainland means the Chinese defenses have a lot of sea to attack.



"That's a very long kill chain, "noted Adm. Shoemaker. "We have lots of things we do to disrupt that from all angles."



That kill chain will be disrupted by the speed and maneuverability of the Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear supercarriers that can travel at speeds of up to 30 knots (56 km/h) and maneuver quite well for a warship weighing over 100,000 tons.



"If you're not maneuverable, you're not relevant," said Adm. Shoemaker.



He explained the problem with long range missiles is that while they're excellent at destroying land targets, they're not quite as effective against moving targets such as ships in a US Navy carrier air wing. The Lockheed Martin F-35C (the version operated by the US Navy) will be used for the critical task of combat target identification inside enemy airspace.



US Navy warships will use a combination of speed, maneuverability and defensive systems to fight while being attacked by enemy anti-ship cruise missiles and ASBMs, he said.



Meanwhile, the carrier air wing will rely on the F-35C; the forthcoming MQ-25A Stingray aerial tanker drone and its Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft to defeat modern enemy air defenses such as Russia's S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.



Adm. Shoemaker said the Navy will create what he called "sanctuaries" at sea to allow the strike groups on each Nimitz-class carrier to fight in an A2/AD environment.



The sharp end of the spear that will pierce and defeat China's A2/AD strategy will be the F-35C and the MQ-25 aerial drone tanker currently under development. Adm. Shoemaker said these advanced aircraft will be the keys for naval aviation to operate against advanced threats in the post-2025 environment.



The Navy is also transforming Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) into very heavily armed underwater "battleships" with more than enough missile tube firepower to invalidate China's A2/AD strategy in the Asia.



Called "Virginia Payload Modules," (VPMs) the new missile tubes will increase each Virginia's load of UGM-109 Tomahawk sub-sonic cruise missiles to 40 from 12 by adding 28 more missile tubes. The VPMs will more than triple the offensive strike capability of the Virginia-class SSNs. Each module consists of four 87-inch vertical payload tubes.



The new missile tubes now being built and assembled will equip the 10 Block V subs, the next generation to the Block IV now in service. The U.S. Navy has 12 active Virginia boats out of 48 that will be built until 2043. Five boats are building.



Increasing its undersea strike capability is vital to the Navy's plans to degrade China's A2/AD strategy aimed at keeping U.S. surface warships as far away from the Chinese mainland as possible using ASBMs such as the DF-21D.



China's A2/AD strategy, however, is ineffective against submerged submarines launching cruise missiles.



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TagsU.S. Navy, anti-access/area denial, A2/AD, South China Sea, Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, Nimitz-class nuclear supercarriers
(Photo : US Army) Surveillance photos of China's naval base in Djibouti. (Left) Before construction. (Right) Military facilities almost completed.

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China is building its first overseas naval base and military outpost at the small port town of Obock in the Republic of Djibouti on ground originally intended for use by the U.S. Army.



The Chinese base on a 364,000 square meter (90 acre) plot will house supply stores; barracks for a small force of Chinese marines or Special Forces; maintenance facilities for aircraft and ships and weapons sites.



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Obock or Obok is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura, where it opens out into the Gulf of Aden.



China refers to the Obock naval base as a "support facility" and said they don't have plans of building large bases such as those the U.S. military favors. It also denies the base is ratcheting up tensions with the U.S. whose Camp Lemonnier, the largest U.S. military base in Africa, is located only eight miles away.



Camp Lemonnier currently houses over 4,000 U.S. troops and is used for Special Forces and drone operations against jihadist groups in the region.



The Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China claims its Obock base will "better uphold international responsibilities and duties, and to protect China's legal interests."



China's push into the world stage starting in Africa is part of President Xi Jinping's foreign-policy priorities, based on the strategy of "Steadily advancing overseas base construction."



As part of this strategy, The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) first used commercial ports that were built or financed by Chinese companies for resupply and recreation. The Obock naval base is the first departure from this standard model.



Ironically, the base was first developed by the U.S. in 2009 under the government of then Djiboutian Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita. In 2014, however, the new government led by pro-China President Ismail Omar Guelleh kicked-out the Americans and welcomed the Chinese.



The increasingly despotic Guelleh, who is relentlessly suppressing dissent, has received billions of dollars from China for Djibouti's development. China is also financing a two proposed airports, a railroad, a port terminal expansion, fuel and water pipelines, a natural gas liquefaction plant and highway upgrades.



Some media reports claim China also funded Guelleh's campaign for an unprecedented fourth term in office after he amended the Constitution that previously limited a President's service to two terms.



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Tagschina, Djibouti, Obock, Camp Lemonnier, President Ismail Omar Guelleh
(Photo : DOJ) Chinese spy Wenxia Man

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Wenxia Man, a naturalized Chinese-American born in China, was sentenced to 50 months in prison in the U.S. for "conspiring to export and cause the export of fighter jet engines, an unmanned aerial vehicle --commonly known as a drone -- and related technical data to ... China."



The U.S. Department of Justice said the 45 year-old Man of San Diego, California was convicted of the crime on June 9 for attempting to steal jet engines that power the stealthy F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as well as the F-16 Flying Falcon jet fighters and the MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.



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DOJ prosecutors said evidence showed that between March 2011 and June 2013, Wenxia conspired with a contact named Zhang Xinsheng to send the equipment to China. She described Zhang as a "technology spy" that worked on behalf of the Chinese military.



Last May, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a report on military and security developments that said China is using extensive cyber and human espionage to acquire U.S. and foreign military technology.



She was also found to have tried to export a $50 million General Atomics drone to China, and technical data for the different hardware items



Wenxia's conviction is the latest in a continuing series of espionage cases in the U.S. involving spies working for the Chinese military or intelligence services. Last March, a Chinese man pleaded guilty to cyber spying on Boeing and other U.S. firms. He hacked into their networks to steal sensitive information he attempted to send to China.



The biggest stumbling block to modernizing the People's Liberation Army Air Force is China's inability to develop the sophisticated and high-powered engines necessary to power fifth generation stealth aircraft such as the F-22. China has allegedly tried to overcome this drawback by ramping-up espionage activities directed against U.S. aerospace firms and their contractors.



China's newest five-year development plan identifies domestic development and production of engines and planes as a major goal. China's failure to develop engines at par with the best of the outside world can be seen in data that shows engines accounted for 30 percent of all imports into China.



Russian analysts have said the shortage of engines remains an obstacle to the development of China's aviation industry.



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TagsWenxia Man, U.S. Department of Justice, Zhang Xinsheng
COMMENTARY: What your vote does and does not do 20 August, 2016 by Barry McCarty , |

FORT WORTH, Texas (Christian Examiner)  A lot of you are confusing the "consent of the governed," which is what happens in a political election, with some sort of absolute moral affirmation of everything the candidate you vote for has ever said or done.

Your vote does nothing of the sort.

The question on November 8 is very simple: do you prefer that Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump be president.

One of them will be president. You get to say which of those two you prefer.

There is no magic "none-of-the-above" box on the ballot that will exempt you from having to live under the government of the president who is elected.

If you abstain or vote for a 3rd party candidate who has no chance of being elected, you have simply decided to let the people who do vote make the decision for you.

2016 is the 11th presidential election in which I have voted. My general election vote has always been for the Republican candidate because each time that candidate has been the more conservative choice. But only 3 of the eleven have been the candidate I voted for in the primary.

As a delegate to the 1984 RNC, I voted at the convention to put Ronald Reagan on the ballot for a second term. He was one of my first choices. In 1988 I was a Jack Kemp delegate going into the RNC, but by the time the convention convened, Kemp had pulled out of the race and released all his delegates to George Bush. So at the convention, I voted to put George Bush, my second choice, on the ballot.

Political elections are about making the best possible choice you can at each stage in the process.

I voted for Cruz in the primary. We lost. Trump won. Won it fair and square. I supported the anti-Trump fight during the rules process at the 2016 RNC. We lost. Trump won. Whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, Donald Trump is the Republican candidate and the only realistic option to having Hillary Clinton become the next POTUS.

No one is going to be handing out "I'm so Holy I Didn't Vote for Either of Them" prizes on November 9.

If you cannot in good conscience vote for either one of the candidates, that's fine. But keep the sanctimonious pronouncements about the virtue of not voting to yourself. You're annoying the rest of us who are out here trying to do something useful for the country by making the best choice between the only two real options being offered.

Barry McCarty is professor of preaching and rhetoric at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
home World Cambodian branch of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries denies being a front for drug dealing

A Cambodian branch of a Nigerian church was linked to drug trafficking after eight Nigerians were arrested for allegedly selling methamphetamine in Phnom Penh. A spokesman for the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) church denied that the arrested Nigerians were its members.

The eight Nigerians were arrested along with a Cambodian woman named Morn Vinyung in January 2015. According to Khmer Times, the group's operations were discovered by the police when Vinyung allegedly delivered drugs to undercover agents in three separate occasions at a supermarket in Chamkarmon district.

Vinyung and a Nigerian man was initially arrested while delivering drugs to the agents. The remaining seven Nigerians were arrested in three separate homes in the Boeung Tumpon commune.

The group initially denied the drug charges and insisted that they were Christian missionaries but some eventually admitted to their involvement in dealing drugs. The trial ended on Aug. 12 and a verdict is expected on Sept. 12.

Nnamezie Victor, one of the arrested men, was named as the leader of the Phnom Penh branch of the MFM church. He claimed that he was forced by the police to confess to the charges during his interrogation.

"Police arrested me while I was praying at my own home. They handcuffed me and called me a drug dealer," he told Khmer Times, adding, "But I don't know anything about this case or about any drugs. I am the victim of accusations and arrest by the police."

In an interview with Sunday Punch, Oladele Bank-Olemoh, chairman of MFM Media Committee Worldwide, denied that the arrested men were members of the church and said that the church in Cambodia is still active.

"The MFM church is not shut down. Our pastor is there and he's busy in the ministry. Those arrested are not members of the church. They are neither our missionaries nor workers in the church. The MFM church is the only African church in Cambodia that many black people attend," he said.

Bank-Olemoh falsely claimed that Cambodia is a Muslim country and went on to say that linking the accused to the church could be "a vendetta against the church."
home World China bans religious activities in hospitals in Zhejiang province

Religious activities such as praying and preaching are now forbidden in hospitals in Zhejiang province, a region known as China's Jerusalem for having a high number of practicing Christians. Patients and visitors at the Central Hospital in Wenzhou were made aware of the ban through a public notice posted in the main hall.

The ban also applies to pastors and ministers holding prayer meetings for the patients at the hospital. Radio Free Asia (RFA) spoke to an unidentified employee over the phone to confirm the new regulations. "Religious activities in hospitals have never been encouraged ... but some people have been doing it on the quiet, which is understandable, seeing that we are all here to support patients," the employee told RFA.

"Some people were really giving it their all, praying aloud and reading out the Bible. That's not allowed," the employee added. According to the source, the notice will be shown to patients who are admitted to the hospital. "If they do that here, then the nurses and doctors will have a word with them," said the employee, referring to religious activities.

Ma Ke, the pastor of Guangfu Church in Guangzhou, told RFA that the ban is against the constitution and it interferes with people's religious beliefs. "I think it's perfectly normal ... people depend psychologically on their religious beliefs to a certain extent," Ma said. "If they are dying, for example, they know that they have nothing to fear," he added

Bob Fu, founder of China Aid, told RFA that the crackdown is not limited to Zhejiang. Other provinces such as Anhui and the northern region of Inner Mongolia are also affected by the government's crusade against religious practice, according to Fu.

The Chinese government banned crosses from church buildings in Zhejiang in 2015, citing construction regulations. According to a BBC report in February 2016, members of the Communist Party are forbidden from believing or practicing a religion. The rules also extend to retired officials. In May, AP reported that the government banned religion from schools after a video of a kindergartener reciting the Quran circulated online.
home World Chinese house church pastor Yang Hua to stand trial August after eight month imprisonment

Prominent house church pastor Yang Hua will finally be tried in court this month after spending eight months in prison in Guizhou, China. Yang, who was only allowed to meet with his lawyers a month after being detained, was accused of "illegally possessing state secrets." The charge was escalated to "divulging state secrets" on Jan. 22.

Yang was informed by his lawyer, Zhao Yonglin, on Aug. 5 that the Nanming District Procuratorate intends to use a videotape as evidence against him. No trial date has been set but Yang's lawyers believe that he will be tried soon. In March, Zhao reported that Yang was pressured by authorities to confess to his crimes by threatening to portray him as a "greedy pastor" in the state-ran media.

Authorities have refused Yang's family to see him, but Yang was allowed to send letters. In one of his letters to his wife, Yang described the prison as a good place to rest where he is "cut off from the rest of the world and brought closer to God."

Yang's letter contained part of Psalm 23 and he encouraged his wife to copy the whole chapter. "Remove all of the negative thoughts and voices from your life. Amen. Let the words of God make you stronger. This is incomparably good; that you encourage each other with the words of God," Yang added.

The Huoshi (Living Stone) Church, the church pastored by Yang Hua, started with just 20 Christians meeting for Bible study. According to Release International, the church membership grew to 400, including students, bankers, government officials, activists and lawyers. Authorities took notice of the Huoshi Church when it moved to a larger venue in 2014. There are claims that as of early this year, the church has about 700 members.

On Oct. 21, 2015, Yang received a notice from the Chinese authorities stating that three rooms in his building was being used for illegal gatherings. Yang was given a month to return the rooms to their approved usage or they will face a daily penalty of 12,960 Yuan ($2,030). The officials raided the church in November 2015 before Yang's arrest on December 9, 2015.
home World Christians India outraged over the use of a cross in advertisement

Christians in Bhopal India are upset with Baba Ramdev, a prominent yoga teacher, when a cross appeared in his advertisement for Patanjali products. The cross shown in the video commercial was a part of the British East India company logo which was used to represent foreign products. The advertisement encouraged viewers to celebrate India's Independence Day by using Patanjali natural products instead of foreign ones.

The advertisement showed the animated logo forming three crosses with a voice-over in Hindi saying, "Foreign companies are very dangerous for our country." Jerry Paul, the convener of a Christian organization called the Sarva Isai Mahasabha, expressed his dismay at the use of the cross in the advertisement and wrote to Ramdev calling on him to stop airing the advertisement.

"They must oppose foreign companies and promote their own products but no one should use cross for the purpose and must not unnecessarily link Christianity with them," Paul said.

He also mentioned in an interview with IBTimes India that a lot of Christians across the country use Patanjali products and would want to continue but they do not want their sentiments hurt. Paul threatened to launch a campaign to boycott the brand and take legal action if the advertisement continues to air.

Paul had filed a different complaint against Ramdev for distributing pamphlets containing disparaging words against Christians. Earlier this month, Ramdev lamented the fact that Christians are commended for their charitable works while converting people but Hindu sadhus and charitable trusts are doing the same thing without attempting to convert anybody.

The series of "freedom" advertisements by Patanjali was also criticized by advertising executives for a different reason. A printed version implied that multinational companies are still enslaving and looting India by "selling soap, shampoo, toothpaste, cream, powder and similar daily items at exorbitant price."

Piyush Pandey, the executive chairman and creative director of Ogilvy & Mather India, condemned the advertisement for its negative tone. "Calling MNCs thieves and using words like lootna is not a nice thing to do. I have a problem with the usage of these words. Some of the MNCs are more Indian than many Indian companies for they have been in India for over 70 years," he told First Post.
home World Pastor whips teenage couple with belt during church service in Ghana

A controversial pastor in Ghana is being criticized by the public on social media for flogging a teenage couple with a belt during a church service. A YouTube video circulated on social media showing Daniel Obinim, the Bishop of International God's Way Church, whipping the couple and chastising them for fornication in front of a cheering congregation.

As seen in the video, Obinim repeatedly whipped the young man while questioning him about his financial status and called the couple "foolish" for their act. In the translated transcription from Africanews, he told the teenage girl: "You are foolish. You are now learning a trade, you joined barely three months now, you are foolish. I will hit you with the hook." The girl is apparently learning to be a hairdresser and make-up artist, according to the transcript.

Obinim refuses to apologize for flogging the couple. "Any person who is demanding an apology from me or calling for my arrest for flogging my adopted children is unintelligent," he stated in a report from MyJoyOnline.

Adom Online reported on Friday that lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Obinim for assaulting the couple. Francis Xavier Sosu, a human rights lawyer, and two others are claiming that the pastor violated the dignity of the victims and dehumanized them. The complainants also mentioned that the incident is not the first time members of the church were subjected to cruel treatment from Obinim.

Nana Oye Lithur, The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection posted on her Facebook account that she has reported Obinim to the Accra Regional Domestic Victims and Violence Support Unit (DOVVSU) Office for investigation.

"We have been informed that the Police has commenced investigations into the matter and a complaint has also been filed against him at the Tema Regional Police. We will keep you posted on further developments," Lithur declared in her post.

Obinim has been involved in different controversies in the past. According to a 2011 article from Vibe Ghana, the pastor admitted to having sex with the wife of a junior pastor.
home US Donald Trump says he regrets remarks that 'caused personal pain'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump included uncharacteristic comments of regrets and visits in another revamp of an unsettling political campaign.

The presidential contender for the GOP party almost apologized when he offered words of regrets for comments he previously made.

"Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that," the former host of "The Apprentice" told the crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday evening. "And believe it or not, I regret it a and I do regret it a particularly where it may have caused personal pain."

The 70-year-old real estate mogul did not specify which of the previous remarks he regretted, but those he made against the American soldier killed on duty in Iraq, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, and the tirade he exchanged with the Muslim American parents proved most damaging, according to the post-convention poll conducted by Washington PostaABC News.

The poll showed that his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, benefitted from her party's National Convention and also from Trump's incendiary remarks, making his decisions his own undoing.

According to the Associated Press, Trump's finally shown he's serious about winning the race to the White House by delivering formal speeches and even following a teleprompter.

Trump also visited the flood victims of southern Louisiana on Friday to express solidarity and provide relief effort.

"Nobody understands how bad it is," he told reporters while unloading a truck of supplies. "It's really incredible, so I'm just here to help," the presidential candidate added.

That same day, Trump accepted the resignation of his second campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who's accused of working for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. His new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, praised Trump for leading the overhaul.

"All the people who have been saying, 'Let's get Trump to pivot, let's get him to be more presidential.' That is presidential," Conway told ABC in an interview.
home US Freedom From Religion Foundation sues Lehigh County to remove cross from county seal

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) along with four residents filed a lawsuit against Lehigh County in Pennsylvania, seeking to remove the Latin cross from the official county seal and flag. The group claimed that the use of the symbol in the flag and other government property violates the First and 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The FFRF and the four residents, Stephen Meholic, David Simpson, John Berry and Candace Winkler, filed the suit on Tuesday, Aug. 16. The complainants are requesting the district court to declare the use of the Latin cross on the seal and flag as unconstitutional and issue a permanent injunction against displaying the seal. The group is also demanding compensation for "injury to their constitutional rights" and costs including attorney's fees.

In their complaint, the FFRF highlighted the religious significance of the cross and included email excerpts from other residents to the Board of Commissioners urging them not to remove the symbol.

One email reads: "I would like to encourage you and your office to stand firm on the use of your seal. As I understand it, you've been using this since 1940. A cross is a religious symbol and this country was founded on religious freedom. The absence of religion is not the same thing as religious freedom."

Local members of the FRFF believes that the symbol is effectively an endorsement of Christianity and ignores the diversity of the population. "Lehigh County is not a Christian county, it should be equally welcoming to all its citizens regardless of their religion or their reject of religion. A redesign to comply with the Constitution is imperative," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

The FRFF initially sent letters to the county requesting a new seal in November 2014 and January 2015. County officials held three closed-door sessions with the group to discuss possible solutions. In a meeting held in March 2015, the commissioners read a draft of a letter to the FRFF emphasizing the historical significance of the symbol honoring the first Christian settlers.

Part of the letter reads, "It is the position of Lehigh County that the presence of the cross on the seal, among other items of historical significance, has the secular purpose of recognizing the history of the county." The county officials have not yet issued an updated statement about the litigation.
home World ISIS' latest battle cry: Kill Christians, bomb churches

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has set its sights on a wider stage and a greater prize: Christians and churches.

According to Charisma News, politicians view the battle with ISIS as a non-religious war. But for ISIS, it is clearly a religious battle until the end. The group has plans to kill as many Christians as possible and bomb churches whenever they come across one.

With previous attacks still fresh in people's minds, the new order to kill and strike anytime, anywhere, should prompt Christians and the Church, especially in the West, to consider their security.

The report said that Boko Haram, a brutal and infamous terror group, has pledged loyalty to ISIS. The group has previously targeted both Muslims and Christians. Under its new leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, Boko Haram has promised to follow ISIS' lead and focus on killing Christians and bombing churches.

According to The Daily Beast, Western nations are plotting to spread Christianity in the region using charity groups as a front to achieve this goal. This was published by the Islamic State newspaper al-Nabaa and was translated by SITE Intelligence Group.

Al-Barnawi reportedly said, "They strongly seek to Christianize the society. They exploit the condition of those who are displaced under the raging war, providing them with food and shelter and then Christianizing their children."

The group's anti-Christian statement has already started in Europe, as evidenced by the ISIS attacks in the area. In the latest issue of ISIS' online magazine, "Dabiq," ISIS described Christianity as a false religion and referred to Christians as cross worshippers. The paper encouraged attacks on churches similar to what happened in France last month.

The global focus on "cross worshippers" may be traced back to ISIS' jihadist past, a war waged by the likes of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri against the so-called "Crusaders and Jews" around the world, the Daily Beast said.
home US Obama transgender bathroom policy to include federal buildings

U.S. President Barack Obama mandated that the widely contested transgender bathroom policy should include not just public schools but also federal buildings.

The Federal Register posted a bulletin on Thursday the General Services Administration's (GSA) clarification on the Federal Management Regulation's nondiscrimination policy that now officially extended to federal workplaces a 9,200 of which are classified as federal buildings in more than 2,000 cities all over the country.

This means federal employees can now use bathrooms and changing facilities according to their gender identification instead of their biological sex.

"Federal agencies occupying space under the jurisdiction, custody, or control of GSA must allow individuals to use restroom facilities and related areas consistent with their gender identity," read the guideline.

The GSA order pointed to the guidance that came from the Department of Justice, Department of Education, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the government's inclusion of gender identity in the Title IX law.

It also offered the use of single-user restrooms for those uncomfortable with the new policy.

"Further, Federal agencies may not restrict only transgender individuals to only use single-occupancy restrooms, such as family or accessible facilities open to all genders," it said. "However, Federal agencies may make individual-user options available to all individuals who voluntarily seek additional privacy."

Roger Severino, The Heritage Foundation's director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, agreed that the use of single-user restrooms could minimize the impending conflict and lawsuits he's sure would ensue from the GSA memo but criticized the solution as costly and perfunctorily offered.

"They would rather just say, 'If you are a woman made uncomfortable by a man in a locker room or shower, get over it,'" said Severino in a briefing with The Christian Post on Wednesday.

He also warned that the new mandate would soon be followed by another that would subject federal employees to address co-workers according to their gender identification pronoun.

This became the case in May with a fifth grade teacher at Gresham-Barlow School in Oregon named Leo Seoll, who sued co-workers for using the wrong gender pronouns. Officials did not find any wrongdoing, but the school went ahead and compensated Seoll with $60,000 for emotional damages and then later required school staff to use the correct names and pronouns.
home World Scientists discover new evidence of massive flood in ancient China

Scientists have discovered evidence of a massive flood that occurred in China 4,000 years ago. The evidence conforms to ancient Chinese flood legend about the founding of China's first dynasty. An international team of scientists gathered fossils, rocks and ancient text to find out whether the physical evidence holds up to early historical texts.

According to the legend, Emperor Yu was given a heavenly mandate to rule when he made the floodwaters recede by constructed ditches. For Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, this story is just one of many flood legends. "Whether it's the American Indians or the Fijians, Hawaiians, the Eskimos, Australian Aborigines ... back to the Babylonians, there are flood legends in cultures all over the world," Ham said in an interview with One News Now.

"There are thousands of feet of Flood sediment all over the globe a evidence of a catastrophic global Flood," Ham further claimed. Ham says that the scientists are not prepared to look at the evidence of the global flood because they were "indoctrinated to believe that that was laid down over millions of years."

A paper published in Science journal on Aug. 5 presents evidence that a great flood occurred in 1900 B.C. coinciding with the beginning of the Xia dynasty. The scientists have been working on the scientific paper about Emperor Yu's flood since 2007. Qingwei Sun considers the study "groundbreaking" but explained that they need more data before their findings are widely accepted.

Qinglong Wu, geologist and the paper's lead author, first investigated the Jishi Gorge while working as a postdoc at the China Earthquake Administration's Institute of Geology in Beijing. Wu had to keep quiet at first when he thought that his discoveries from his investigations could be a basis for China's great flood.

"I didn't tell others because it would invite laughter," he told the Science journal. Wu admitted that the paper could be controversial for the scientific community but the team agreed that they still need further study.
home Faith UN Special Envoy denounces Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for passing resolutions unfavorable to Israel

UN Special Envoy Laurie Cardoza-Moore condemned the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) when the church group overwhelmingly voted on two resolutions that could be disadvantageous to the state of Israel. Cardoza-Moore considered the vote as anti-Semitic for fixating on Israel.

One of the resolutions passed by the ELCA calls on the U.S. government to freeze financial and military aid to Israel unless it stops building settlements in Palestinian lands. The resolution also calls on the U.S. government to recognize Palestine as a state and to allow their application for membership to the United Nations.

A separate resolution asks the church council to set up investment screens against companies that exacerbate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The same resolution named Hewlett-Packard Company, Caterpillar Corporation, Motorola Solutions and Group 4 Securicor (G4S) as companies that are providing products and services that Israel uses to continue their occupation of Palestinian territories.

According to Yeshiva World, Cardoza-Moore called the resolutions "anti-Christian" and pointed out that the church group is echoing Martin Luther's anti-Semitism. "It would seem that the Lutheran Church has chosen to follow in the path of their founder Martin Luther, who, later in his life, became a vehement anti-Semite," she remarked.

The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), United Methodists, Unitarian Universalists and the Southern Baptists have recently voted on resolutions regarding Israel with different outcomes. The United Methodists, Unitarian Universalists and the Southern Baptists have voted in favor of Israel while the PCUSA has voted to pressure Israel into leaving occupied territories in Palestine.

Cardoza-Moore has been actively campaigning against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movements (BDS) and she is currently serving as the president of the pro-Israel group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN).

Last May, Cardoza-Moore opposed a UNESCO resolution to declare the Temple Mount as a Muslim holy site, claiming that it would threaten Jews and Christians. She also called on UNESCO to condemn the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf for the destruction of artifacts under the Temple Mount.
home World Zimbabwe movement #ThisFlag now divided after Pastor Mawarire leaves for USA

Followers of #ThisFlag are now unsure about the future of the movement against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe after Pastor Evan Mawarire went to the United States. The pastor has not confirmed whether he is staying in the United States for good but some supporters criticized him and started to use the hashtag #ThisAsylum. Other supporters felt that it is better for him to lead the movement in the United States where he would be safe.

Mawarire dismissed his critics in a video saying, "You are so quick to tell me to come back home but you can't tell Bob (Robert Mugabe) to go away."

The pastor was detained in Zimbabwe last July for "inciting public violence" but was eventually released after public protest. After his release, he went to South Africa to meet with Zimbabweans who fled their home country. The pastor admitted that he feared for his life during an interview with EWN. "These are things that we've seen over the last few weeks, as thousands of young people that support the president marched against myself as an individual. So, it does scare me, for me and my family that a place that I call home has become the unsafest place for me to live in," he stated.

Mawarire has since recorded a video while traveling in Atlanta, Georgia to encourage supporters of the movement telling them, "She (Zimbabwe) needs your support now more than ever before. This is not the time for you and I not to give the support to Zimbabwe that she needs." He also apologized to the supporters who got upset by his past actions and encourage each Zimbabwean to unite and build the country whether he is a part of the movement or not.

The pastor started #ThisFlag by recording videos of himself draped in the Zimbabwean flag. On the 36th anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence, he recorded a video talking about the significance of the colors in the flag of Zimbabwe. President Mugabe has since labeled Mawarire as a fake pastor and accused him of being "foreign sponsored."
Catholic schools being burned down in Kenya, and officials are already alarmed

We would think that just like churches, schools are generally considered as respected areas since these are where children's minds are honed to be productive members of society. However, in Kenya, educational institutions are being burned down, triggering fear and confusion among officials.

Principals of Roman Catholic schools in the African nation recently gathered in a conference in Nairobi to discuss how to come to terms with the unprecedented number of school buildings and dormitories that have already fallen prey to arson.

According to a report on the Radio Vatican website, the administrators of the Catholic schools believe that some radicalised vulnerable children are behind the burning incidents. Some non-teaching staff members also reportedly helped the children carry out the crime to further frustrate the school principals.

During the conference, Bishop Anthony Muheria of the Kenyan town of Kitui told the Roman Catholic school administrators that while the investigations on these cases of arson are still ongoing, they should also seek to further enlighten today's youth.

Bishop Muheria said schools in Kenya need to instill solid moral values among students now more than ever. He also urged them to further motivate the youth to get involved in community service.

In a separate report by BBC, it is said that more than 100 government secondary schools have been set on fire this year alone. This left over 6,000 Kenyan students without school buildings to go to.

The British news agency also reported that some of the school buildings were burned down by some students themselves who wanted a holiday due to heavy workload given to them by teachers.

Some parents, however, said this is not enough reason to raze a school. Moses Ongesa Ombari, whose child goes to Tabaka High School in Kenya, for instance said it is just "silly" to commit arson because of this reason.

"The idea that this is a protest against a high work load and a lack of holidays is silly because they come to school to learn," Ombari told BBC.
Chinese believer says Christianity is growing in communist country: 'Lord make me a martyr'

Christians have long been facing persecution in China and one of those facing persecution is Yu Jie, whose father was an engineer and a Communist Party member.

It was actually Yu's wife who first became a Christian in 2001. She started a small Bible study in their home, according to Charisma News. Yu became a Christian two years later and was even baptised on Christmas eve.

The test of his faith came on Dec. 10, 2010, when he claims he was secretly kidnapped by the police and taken to the outskirts of Beijing. Charged with undermining state security through his proselytisation ministry, he was beaten and tortured for hours. He says the police broke his fingers one by one, and his wife was forced to stay under house arrest without knowing what happened to her husband.

Thankfully, God spared Yu's life. On Jan. 11, 2012, Yu and his family fled from China and settled in Washington D.C. He has written several books detailing the challenges he faced as a Chinese Christian. One of his books won him the Civil Courage Prize by the Train Foundation, the first Chinese to earn the distinction.

Yu reveals in his book "First Things" that despite the persecution, there is actually a significant growth of Christianity in China. There are an estimated 60 million Christians in the communist country. If the trend continues, China could become the world's largest Christian nation by 2030.

"The people's belief in Marxism-Leninism and Maoism was destroyed," says Yu. "These events opened up a great spiritual void, and the Chinese began searching for a new faith."

The government assumes that torture might bring some sense into Chinese Christians. But Yu says people cling to their faith more during those circumstances. "One of the phrases I have heard most often among them is: 'The greater the persecution, the greater the revival,'" he shares.

When he was being tortured, Yu remembers that he was praying heavily before losing consciousness. He told God, "Lord, if you take me, then make me a martyr. I am not worthy, but I am willing."
Lutherans, Catholics mend church-dividing issues

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) has approved a historic document to mend religious conflicts with the Catholic Church.

In a 931-9 vote, the ELCA assembly approved the "Declaration on the Way" on Aug. 10 in New Orleans, declaring that "there are no longer church-dividing issues" with the Catholic Church.

This comes nearly 500 years since Martin Luther posted his 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Germany.

The action brought about reformation and the birth of many Christian Protestant denominations, including the Lutheran Church, according to World Religion News.

Inluded in the document are 32 "Statements of Agreement" where Lutherans and Catholics do not have conflicts on church, ministry and the Eucharist.

ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton called the occasion a "historic moment."

"Though we have not yet arrived, we have claimed that we are, in fact, on the way to unity. After 500 years of division and 50 years of dialogue, this action must be understood in the context of other significant agreements we have reached, most notably the 'Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification' in 1999," she said.

Easton said the document "helps us to realise more fully our unity in Christ with our Catholic partners, but it also serves to embolden our commitment to unity with all Christians

Bishop Denis Madden, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and co-chair of the "Declaration on the Way" task force, responded by saying, "I thank you for allowing me and my colleagues to join you in the Eucharist celebrations which have been a great joy and always a remembrance that soon we will be celebrating these together as one body."

Pope Francis courted controversy last November when he appeared to suggest that a Lutheran could receive Communion in the Catholic Church.

The Pope will be in Sweden on Oct. 31 to preside a joint service with Lutherans, Religion News Service reports.
Pastor flees Christian persecution in Syria only to face death threats in faraway Norway

This pastor thought he had escaped from the horrors of war in his native land, Syria.

Eventually ending up in faraway Norway after failing to find asylum in Russia, Pastor Saeed Ziadah thought he had found peace at last while sharing God's love to fellow Mideast migrants in the hope of leading them to Christ, CBN News reports.

He thought no one could do him harm in the sleepy Norwegian city of Finnsnes located above the Arctic Circle.

Sadly, he was mistaken.

After he started sharing Christ on social media and comparing biblical teachings to Quranic doctrine, in the hope of warning Norwegians about the dangers of militant Islam, Saeed began receiving death threats through Facebook.

It appeared that his social media posts angered Muslims both inside and outside of Norway. As a result, Pastor Saeed started receiving death threats, with one of them warning him "that they are so close to us," living in the same immigrant housing centre where he and his wife Rana are staying and could easily kill him if he did not stop posting his thoughts and beliefs on the Internet.

But Pastor Saeed has gotten used to receiving such threats and refused to allow himself to get intimidated.

"I didn't stop writing on Facebook because I believe in free speech, I also believe in the power of God's Word. The Western world has to know what is inside the Quran. The world is in trouble and chaos because of radical Muslim teachings. A lot of them are coming to Europe and America," he said.

Dismissing the death threats, Saaed and Rana still venture outside their immigrant apartment house to meet new friends and share the love of Christ with other immigrants.

Refugees with serious illnesses invite him to their houses to pray with him, knowing his reputation as a healing evangelist when he was still conducting his ministry in Syria.

Saeed and Rana say despite the challenges of adapting to life in a foreign country, they have actually grown to love their new home.

"A lot of Norwegian people have drifted far from Christ. But I believe they will return to Him and they will not allow other cultures and religions to destroy this beautiful society which was built on biblical, Christian principles of peace, love, charity, forgiveness and human rights," Saeed says.
Police beat thousands of protesting Christian fisherfolk already suffering from mass fish deaths in Vietnam

Thousands of Christians in Vietnam recently got a double whammy.

First, their main source livelihood was gravely affected when illegal waste dumping into the sea by a foreign company resulted in an environmental disaster, contaminating and killing much of the fish in the coastal area, Asia News reports.

Second, when some 4,000 Christian residents of the fishing community of Ky Anh staged a rally to clamour for protection and assistance from the local government, instead of helping them, the local leaders sent in the police to beat them up, leaving several protesters injured by truncheon blows.

International Christian Concern, a group that monitors Christian persecution, noted that the mass fish deaths have left thousands of families living in the coastal town in a state of panic.

"Fishing is a vital and important source of income and food for Vietnam and would have a major impact on the economy if the situation continues without proper counter measures. As a result, protests have continued and local authorities, in an attempt to quell the situation, have resorted to violence," the group said in its report.

"Vietnam continues to harass, intimidate, and beat religious minorities as countless Christian pastors remain in prison merely for their beliefs," it added.

Open Doors USA, another persecution watchdog group, ranks Vietnam 20th in its World Watch List of nations where Christians face the most severe persecution. Open Door points out that the Communist government in Vietnam opposes the Catholic Church, which constitutes the largest Christian community in the country.

Christians in Vietnam face persecution not just from local authorities but also from people opposed to their faith. Last month, three houses belonging to new Christian converts were reportedly stoned repeatedly by a mob in the Quang Ngai district of central Vietnam.

"The only thing our brothers did was believe in Jesus. They are new believers. The local authorities and cops forced them to give up what they believed  an American religion. But since they refused to do as they had been commanded, the cops and the local officers came to the village to destroy and harass them," one of the villagers who witnessed the attack told Open Doors.
Roman Catholic officials in Malta stand firm against pills that kill babies, euthanasia

Malta may just be a small European nation, but its Roman Catholic Church leaders are speaking big about the protection of life.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Bishop Mario Grech recently issued a joint pastoral letter where they reminded the faithful to "always protect life, everywhere and at every stage."

"We Christians have a special duty to cherish life because for us, human life is a gift from God, who alone is its master from the beginning to its end. No human being, therefore, can assume for himself the right to directly destroy the innocent life of another, or to regard some persons as having no value or as obstacles," the Church officials said in the pastoral letter posted on the Maltese Church's official website.

Scicluna and Grech also cautioned Christians in Malta about the use of "morning after" pills, which they said can kill unborn babies.

"The life of the human being, from the very first days of its existence, can be threatened when pills or other medicines are taken with the aim that the life that has been conceived in the womb is prevented from developing, rather, destroyed. The effect of certain pills in certain circumstances can be abortifacient," the two prelates stated.

They added that in case a Christian still has doubts about the scientific effects of these pills, the decision should "always be in favour of protection of life."

Aside from warning about this abortifacient, the Roman Catholic Church officials also warned about the practice of euthanasia, reminding the Christian faithful that death should take its natural course.

"Certainly we do feel for each person who is experiencing such suffering. However, we also believe that the value of human life does not depend on whether the person is healthy or satisfied with the quality of his or her life. We also believe that euthanasia can never be in the best interest of the patient," they said.

They also urged health officials should improve giving care and encouragement to patients who are experiencing suffering, instead of offering them death.
U.S. federal court resurrects Ten Commandments monument lawsuit

An appeals court has ruled that a parent has legal standing to seek the removal of a Ten Commandments monument in front of a school in Pennsylvania.

In its ruling, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit filed by parent Marie Schaub who filed the case in 2012 together with the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) against the New Kensington Arnold School District over the monument at Valley Junior-Senior High School.

The lawsuit said the monument violated the Establishment Clause under the First Amendment.

In the decision, the appeals court said U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry wrongfully dismissed the case as Schaub only had infrequent contact with the Ten Commandments monument, Trib Live reported.

"A community member like Schaub may establish standing by showing direct, unwelcome contact with the allegedly offending object or event, regardless of whether such contact is infrequent or she does not alter her behavior to avoid it," said Judge Patty Shwartz who penned the decision.

Schaub said she is "very pleased the Court of Appeals has reversed the lower court's ruling on standing and we're looking forward to having our case heard on its merits."

"We are prepared to take this case to the [U.S. Supreme Court] and urge the District to relocate this religious monument to an appropriate location to save the taxpayers from wasting any more money on this unconstitutional endorsement of religion," she said.

However, the court ruled that Schaub's daughter did not have legal standing in the case.

The daughter was transferred to another school to avoid getting in contact with the monument.

In remanding the case, the appeals court told the district court to rule whether Schaub was a member of the FFRF when the case was filed.

"If anybody has suffered injury by the presence of a Ten Commandments monolith at this community high school, it is Marie Schaub and her daughter, whose lives and education have been disrupted just for speaking up for the First Amendment," claimed FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor.
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The Confederate flag waved in front of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Houston office Sunday. The red flag with its blue X holding white stars hung over the shoulder of a White Lives Matter member who was joined by others in his group in a protest against the NAACP.

"We came out here to protest against the NAACP and their failure in speaking out against the atrocities that organizations like Black Lives Matter and other pro-black organizations have caused the attack and killing of white police officers, the burning down of cities and things of that nature," White Lives Matter member Ken Reed said.

The protest drew much attention as people took photos of the group which held assault rifles and white supremacist signs on the Third Ward block.

RELATED: Southern Poverty Law Center to list White Lives Matter movement as a hate group

"We're not out here to instigate or start any problems," Reed said. "Obviously we're exercising our Second Amendment rights but that's because we have to defend ourselves."

Though area residents agreed with the message of equality that, at times, was shouted from the bull horn, some were taken aback by the Confederate flags and the presence of firearms.

One member of the White Lives Matter group held a sign with the slogan "14 words" on it. The phrase "14 words" is a popular white supremacist slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

"That's a bold statement," resident Quintina Richardson said. "You come into their home, front door, and say 'hey!' You've got some nerve."

SEE ALSO: Why law center says White Lives Matter is a hate group but Black Lives Matter is not

"The Conferderate flag throws me off," Richardson said. "You're saying Black Lives Matter is a racist organization but when you're throwing the Confederate flag up and saying White Lives Matter, are you saying you're racist?"

Reed said the flags were being flown as a symbol of Southern heritage.

"It has nothing to do with racism on our part," Reed said. "We're proud to be Southern. It has all to do about heritage, nothing to do with hate."

At one point, an African-American man walked up to the barricade and began asking the White Lives Matters crowd questions.

"But you understand more white people are well fed than anybody else," he told the crowd.

A White Lives Matter member responded, "Statistically," before being led away by Reed. "They're trying to ruin it," Reed told him.

Police began clearing out the crowd of roughly 20 White Lives Matters supporters at 3:30 p.m., but some residents lingered. Some said that they were angry the protest was happening in the Third Ward, which is a predominantly black neighborhood.

"You going to arrest me now? Do we come to your neighborhoods? We've got no guns out here," one neighborhood resident said to police. Others joined in, listing off recent officer-involved shootings that have resulted in the deaths of African-Americans.

The last crowd to disperse was a group of African-American and white people joined in prayer. They held hands in the parking lot of Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, which faces the NAACP building.

READ MORE: Here's what you need to know about the alt-right movement

Supporters from both sides took to social media to share their thoughts.

NAACP Houston's director Yolanda Smith's son, Andre Smith, posted an image on Instagram to share that the protest and counter-protest happened on his mother's birthday.

"Little did they know the executive director of this particular branch birthday was today, which so happens to be my mom," he captioned the photo. "So we spent the day celebrating a black life that did matter and will continue to do great work at this place you protest! Thank you and try again! #blacklivesmatter #NAACP"

"We know y'all matter we just wanna matter too," another Twitter user posted.

Sunday's Houston rally comes almost a month after a similar protest in Buffalo, N.Y.
Houston's two public universities - which sit practically across the street from each other in the Third Ward - share the same roots, their histories a local reflection of racism that long plagued public education across the nation.

The precursors to the University of Houston and Texas Southern University were started in the 1920s, as a segregated college system when the Houston school district launched two junior colleges: One for whites, one for blacks. Over decades the two grew into full universities and morphed into public institutions. Some have suggested the two be rolled into one university. That never happened and probably never will. The reason, in large part, is rooted in issues of race.

"Locale and racial identity gave birth to these campuses, aided by the state, creating separate and unequal institutions, building parallel campuses with adjoining borders and service areas, and spending extraordinary legal and political resources to maintain these insular enterprises," Michael A. Olivas, director of UH's Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance, who is also serving as interim president of UH-Downtown, wrote in 2005 in an article in the Cornell Law Review.

Both schools began in 1927, when the Houston school board agreed to fund the creation of two junior colleges: Houston Junior College and Houston Colored Junior College.

More Information Timeline 1927 Houston school board creates two junior colleges, one for white students and one for black students. 1934 The junior colleges are turned into two private, four-year universities: the University of Houston and Houston College for Negroes. 1946 Heman Sweatt is denied admission to University of Texas at Austin law school because he is black. His case later reaches the Supreme Court. 1947 Texas buys the Houston College for Negroes for $2 million. It eventually becomes Texas Southern University, the first public university in the city. 1962 The University of Houston admits its first black student. 1999 The federal government finds Texas is underfunding TSU and Prairie View A&M. Texas agrees to give the schools extra funding. Collegiate religious education begins in Houston in 1947 As public higher education in Houston was being born through an effort to keep schools segregated in the mid-1900s, religious universities began to flourish in the city. In 1947, the Basilian Fathers, a group of Catholic priests devoted to teaching, established the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic college in the Montrose neighborhood. The first class of 40 students, according to the Texas State Historical Association, was taught by eight faculty members. St. Thomas originally offered liberal arts degrees to undergraduate students, but eventually began adding graduate programs, beginning with the School of Theology in 1968, through which students could earn a master of divinity degree. In the 1960s, the Baptist General Convention of Texas established a four-year liberal arts college in Houston, according to the Texas State Historical Association. A freshman class of 191 students attended the college in 1963. The college grew rapidly over the next decade and became Houston Baptist University in 1973. See More Collapse

"Things started very quickly," said Mary Manning, an archivist at UH.

By the fall of 1927, 232 students had enrolled in the white school. Seventy-five students enrolled in the black college. Just seven years later, by 1934, the student body had grown to more than 900 at the white college and 700 at the black college. The Houston school board decided to make them full four-year private universities. The Houston Colored Junior College became the Houston College for Negroes. Houston Junior College became the University of Houston.

The universities eventually moved to permanent homes, just blocks from each other. Millionaire oilman Hugh Roy Cullen donated 53 acres to the black university. He gave money to help UH begin building its campus, declaring that the school must always be a college "for working men and women and their sons and daughters." Left unsaid was that those men and women must be white.

By the 1940s, Texas was becoming a major battleground in the fight to end school segregation. The college that would become Texas Southern was at the heart of it.

In the 1940s, the University of Texas at Austin's law school denied admission to Heman Marion Sweatt of Houston because of "the fact that he is a negro." His case, argued by Thurgood Marshall, for whom TSU's law school is named, would eventually go all the way to the Supreme Court. Before it got there, Texas lawmakers got to work trying to build a case to show black students in Texas had equal - but separate - opportunities in the state. They bought the flourishing black college in Houston for $2 million in 1947 and set to work building a school that at least seemed equal to UT.

And thus, Houston's first public university was born - not as an effort to expand educational opportunities, but to keep the state from having to integrate its flagship in Austin. If state leaders could show black students had their own version of the University of Texas, then the courts, state leaders hoped, wouldn't require the white University of Texas to admit black students.

By the time Sweatt's case reached the Supreme Court in 1950, the newly renamed Texas State University for Negroes was nowhere near equal to the much older and more established UT-Austin. In a ruling that was influential to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down the "separate but equal" segregation of the time, the Supreme Court decided UT had to admit Sweatt.

Almost immediately the state lost interest in the black college they'd established in Houston. In 1951, the Legislature cut its budget by 40 percent, said James Douglas, a longtime law professor at TSU.

For more than a decade, TSU was the only public university in Houston. "Ironically, it shared a city street and border with the private white institution established originally by the Houston school district," Olivas wrote. Though the University of Houston is now one of the most diverse universities in the nation, it was long a school for whites. As a private school, it didn't have to integrate in the 1950s like UT-Austin did. In rejection letters from the time, UH President Clanton W. Williams pointed black students toward nearby TSU or the reluctantly integrating UT-Austin.

UH eventually changed its policies and admitted its first black student in 1962. Its status as a private school didn't last long. In 1964, the state moved to make it public in an effort "to eclipse the neighboring black institution," Olivas wrote. Texas Southern leaders, predicting as much, objected.

"The argument TSU made was rather than opening another public university, you ought to put more money into TSU," Douglas said. "This was in the '60s, and you know how far that argument went with the white leadership in Texas. ... In 1964, I don't think the people in Austin really thought integration was going to stick. ... I don't think they ever thought this whole idea of having two universities close to each other was ever going to be a problem."

The idea of integrating the two schools was floated, somewhat seriously, by the Legislature in the mid-1980s, Douglas said. Such talk stopped, however, Douglas said, when Wilhelmina R. Delco, an Austin Democrat who chaired the House Higher Education Committee at the time, pointed out that, by law, if the two were combined, they would have to take the name of the school that first belonged to the state: Texas Southern University.
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A Texas A&M student died Saturday from an apparent drug overdose at a fraternity house where four others were arrested on charges of possession of illegal substances, according to College Station police.

College Station police were dispatched at 4:40 a.m. Saturday to the Sigma Nu house at 550 Fraternity Row regarding a report of an unconscious person, authorities said.

Police found an unresponsive 19-year-old fraternity member who was not breathing. The teen was transported to the College Station Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to a statement from College Station Sgt. Steven Taylor.

The preliminary cause of death of the teen, whose identity was not released, is an undetermined substance, according to the statement.

After finding illegal substances in the house, police took four College Station residents into custody. Police arrested Samuel Patterson, 21, for possession of LSD and MDMA; Michael Frymire, 20, for possession of cannabis hash oil; and Ty Robertson, 21 and Christian Sandford, 18, for possession of marijuana, Taylor said.

It is not known if those arrested are A&M students, and police did not provide any other information Saturday.

A university official notified Sigma Nu of the member's death this morning, according to a statement from the fraternity.

"Our hearts are filled with sorrow as we grieve the loss of this young man," said Sigma Nu Executive Director Brad Beacham. "Our thoughts, prayers, and deepest condolences are with his family and loved ones. We will be working with Texas A&M officials to provide as much continuing support as possible to those affected. The Fraternity will assist, however possible, with the investigation by local authorities. At the appropriate time, the Fraternity and University will complete their own investigations."

Police are encouraging anyone with more information on this incident to contact the College Station Police Criminal Investigation Division at 979-764-3601.

"This is still an ongoing investigation," Taylor said.
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.
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
Brook Park police brick sign.jpg

Brook Park police are working with a regional SWAT unit to speak with a man barricaded inside a house following a shooting.

(File photo)

BROOK PARK, Ohio - A man accused of shooting another individual Saturday evening is barricaded inside of a Brook Park home, police say.

Brook Park police responded about 7 p.m. to Richard Drive on a report of a man shot, according to a news release from the Brook Park police department. Officers arrived on scene and found the victim.

The shooting victim was taken to an area hospital for treatment, the release states. His current condition is unknown.

The man accused of shooting the victim is believed to be barricaded inside of a Richard Drive house, and negotiators from the Southwest Enforcement Bureau are currently attempting contact with the suspect, police said.

The Southwest Enforcement Bureau is a multi-department SWAT unit comprised of officers from 18 different suburbs.

Brook Park police ask residents to avoid the area until the shooting suspect is contacted, the release says.

This post will be updated when more information becomes available.

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21DARCY-OBAMA.jpg

The State Department has confirmed the payment to Iran and release of American prisoners were linked. Atena announced it will leave seventy percent of Obamacare exchanges.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- This week it was confirmed that President Obama's claims about the $400 million cash payment to Iran and the Affordable Care Act were as credible as Ryan Lochte's claim of being robbed at gun point in Brazil.

Based on how Obama, Clinton and Trump have been shown to be treading water when it comes to swimming in truthfulness, it could be argued Lochte has honestly represented his nation, or at least, its leaders.

Iran payment and prisoner released linked.

Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the payment of $400 million in cash to Iran was contingent on American prisoners being released. The Wall Street Journal had reported that the U.S. held the payment to "retain maximum leverage" until the prisoners were airborne flying out of Iran.

"We deliberately leveraged that moment to finalize these outstanding issues nearly simultaneously. With concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release... we of course sought to retain maximum leverage until after American citizens were released. That was our top priority," said Kirby.

Was it really Iran's money or U.S. taxpayers ?

Despite confirming what had been the obvious cash for prisoners link, the administration is still maintaining it wasn't a ransom payment because, they argue, they were simply returning Iranian arms deal funds frozen decades ago. Money a Hague tribunal was going to order the U.S. to pay back. But according to Newsweek, President Clinton had already reallocated those funds.

In January, Newsweek reported that in 2000, President Bill Clinton had reallocated the $400 million to Americans who had won legal judgements against the Iranian government. So was the $400 million paid to American victims of Iran by Clinton taxpayer dollars? Or was the $400 million in cash the Obama administration just paid to Iran, really taxpayer dollars?

Aetna pulls the plug on Obamacare.

President Obama infamously once declared that if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. That turned out not to be true for individual Americans. And now Obamacare itself can't keep health plans it would like to.

Aetna announced it's leaving close to 70% of Obamacare exchanges. Aetna will remain active in exchanges in just four states, Virginia, Delaware, Nebraska and Iowa. United Healthcare also has announced it will leave most exchanges in the fall.

Since January 2014, Aetna claims it has lost $130 million in the exchanges. But in April, Aetna's CEO Mark Bertolini told investors the losses were "well, well below" the insurance giant's pain threshold, telling them, "we see this as a good investment."

What changed the Obamacare prognosis from Aetna? Apparently the Department of Justice blocking Aetna's merger with Humana was not "well, well below" their pain threshold.

In a July 5 letter to the Department of Justice, Bertolini, speaking about the planned Aetna-Humana merger, threatened to "immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint" if the DOJ "sues to enjoin the transaction." In that same letter Bertolini had said Aetna was planning on expanding to 20 state exchanges in 2017.

Bernie Sanders used Aetna's exit to renew his call for a single payer system. Sanders said he will reintroduce his legislation for his "Medicare-for-all" system during the Senate's next session. "In my view, the provision of health care cannot continue to be dependent upon the whims and market projections of large private insurance companies whose only goal is to make as much profit as possible," said Sanders in a statement released Thursday.

Just as Obama is leaving ISIS and Syria for the next president to deal with, he will be leaving Obamacare for the next president to fix. The only question is if it will morph into Hillarycare or Trumpcare?
Ambulance

A 21-year-old Cleveland woman was killed early Saturday in a Lorain County motorcycle crash.

(File photo)

EATON TOWNSHIP, Ohio - A Cleveland woman was killed early Saturday in a motorcycle crash in Lorain County, police said.

Sara N. Bevelacqua, 21, died at the site of the crash, which took place about 2:30 a.m. on Ohio Route 57 in Eaton Township, according to a news release from the state highway patrol's Elyria post. Bevelacqua was the passenger on a 2001 Kawasaki motorcycle.

The motorcycle's driver, a 19-year-old Cleveland man, was heading northbound on Ohio Route 57 when he rode off of the east side of the road, the patrol said. The motorcycle overturned and both the man and Bevelacqua were ejected.

The man driving was taken to University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center with minor injuries, the release states.

Bevelacqua and the driver were wearing helmets at the time of the crash, the patrol said.

Alcohol is a suspected factor in the crash, but the incident remains under investigation, the release says.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland woman is accused of intentionally setting a fire at her West Side duplex that killed her friend and two dogs.

Elizabeth Scott, 49, is charged with aggravated murder. She is in the Cleveland City Jail awaiting her first court appearance, likely Monday or Tuesday.

The fire killed 46-year-old Frank Salamone, who police records say was a border and a friend of Scott's. A police spokeswoman said the two were boyfriend and girlfriend. Neighbors said two German Shepherds also died in the fire.

The death, if officially ruled a homicide, would be the city's 68th this year. Police said Salamone appeared to suffer from smoke inhalation and that he also had a cut on his forehead.

The fire broke out about 5 a.m. Saturday at a brick duplex in the 8600 block of Platten Avenue, between West 85th and West 87th streets, fire department spokesman Larry Gray said.

Gray said a man later identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner as Salamone was found dead in the first floor of the home. Neighbors said he was found near the backdoor to the home. The medical examiner will determine how Salamone died.

A neighbor called 911 after seeing smoke coming from the right side of the duplex. The fire burned quickly. Flames soon shot from the first floor out of the porch windows and the side windows on both floors.

A 27-year-old man also living on the same side of the duplex jumped out of the second floor window in his boxers and yelled for everyone to get out, neighbors said. He sprained his ankle, police said.

A family of three living on the other side of the duplex escaped unharmed. Their side of the duplex had a working smoke detector, but the other side didn't, Gray said.

The other side of the duplex never caught fire, but that side of the home still had smoke and water damage, Gray said. The Red Cross is assisting the family in finding temporary housing.

Neighbors said Scott has become known in the neighborhood as an odd person who was regularly seen walking up and down the road arguing with herself.

In one incident about two weeks ago, police were called after the woman through block-glass windows on to the street. Police made the woman sweep up the glass, neighbors said.

She's been convicted of drunken disorderly conduct three times since 2011, court records say.

Neighbors also said they saw Scott and Salamone drinking heavily Friday evening.

Scott hid around the corner after the fire started and the neighborhood swarmed with firefighters and homicide investigators. She was arrested after being interviewed by detectives and was booked into the jail about 1:30 p.m.

Gray said investigators the cause is currently listed as "undetermined."

The fire did not spread to adjoining homes. Kim Dobek, whose home is less than four feet from the duplex, said her cat woke her up after the fire started.

"I looked out of the window and there was a huge ball of orange flames," Dobek said. "I grabbed the baby and the cat and we got out of there."

Neighbors said the duplex owner had been trying to evict the man and woman for at least several weeks.

Betty Adkins, who has lived on the street for some four decades, said a young boy died in a fire at the same duplex.

The 10-month-old boy, Jordan Mann, died March 25, 1985 after his 3-year-old brother set fire to an imitation fur coat inside the duplex, Plain Dealer archives say. The intensity of the fire kept the boy's mother and a live-in babysitter from getting to the boy, who was asleep in his crib in an upstairs bedroom.

A fire battalion chief at the time said the duplex did not have a working smoke detector and that the fire would have likely been discovered soon if it did.

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watch now

Angela Versch worked as a day-care teacher for Bon Secours Health System in Richmond, Virginia, for 17 years. She retired in 2010, but after less than a year, she was back on the job as a substitute teacher. Versch, now 76, was bored with retirement and wanted to get out of the house. She was able to schedule her work days around visits with her four grandchildren and earn more to supplement her retirement savings. "My job gives me extra money for the little things, like going out with my grandkids or paying someone to do work around the house," said Versch, who wants to keep her job until she turns 80. "More older people can put a lot more into working. I've been working since I was 17."

Angela Versch Source: Bon Secours Health System

Versch may be the future of retirement and work. By 2024, 1 in 4 U.S. workers will likely be 55 or older, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The growth rate of older workers in the labor force is more than three times that of all workers. An aging workforce means employers and employees will have to be more flexible.

Phased retirement

A fluid approach to retirement, known as phased retirement, is already happening at the federal government's largest employer. The U.S. Department of Defense announced in June that it would allow civilian employees to partially retire while remaining on the job part-time to help better manage its workforce needs. About 77,000 federal workers are eligible for the program though fewer are expected to participate in phased retirement, said a Defense Department spokesman. The private sector also provides phased retirement to their employees. About 30 percent of large employers  those with over 1,000 employees  offer workers some flexible retirement option, whether it is allowing older employees to work part time or in job sharing with colleagues, according to WorldatWork, a global association of human resources managers. Informal arrangements are more common than formal programs. Only about 6 percent of large employers have formal phased retirement policies, benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt found, though 42 percent of employers are considering them this year.

Most employee benefit designs have been around since 1960s and are geared toward families with kids We want to be flexible with our benefits. Jim Godwin Vice president of human resources at Bon Secours Health System

The availability of formal programs depend on the industry, said Roselyn Feinsod, senior partner at benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt. For example, programs are more available in health care, which often struggles to retain nurses and other professionals. Phased retirement is not just for highly skilled workers. Jim Godwin, Bon Secours' vice president of human resources, said the appeal of its phased retirement benefits attract older workers to be patient sitters, who monitor the sick to allow nurses to focus on more urgent cases. "Most employee benefit designs have been around since 1960s and are geared toward families with kids. We want to be flexible with our benefits," Godwin said. Bon Secours changed several of its benefits to make them more appealing to older workers like Versch who want to ease into retirement. The company changed how its pension plan calculates payouts. It based benefits on the five highest-paying years of service instead of the last five years of service. That move allowed people who reduced their work schedule retain their top pension benefit. It also extended health coverage to part-time employees and allowed employees to use day-care centers for their grandchildren. "We want our benefits to encourage older workers to stay, not push them to leave," Godwin said.

Evaluate your options

Phased retirement is not for everyone. Winding down work has a psychological effect that may cause people to lose motivation on the job. People who downshift don't "fully anticipate the knock to their psyche and how phased retirement changes how they measure themselves at work," said Chris McMahon, a Pittsburgh financial advisor. About 20 percent of his clients are offered phased retirement packages, he said. He often encourages them to work full time until they reach their retirement savings goals. The most important consideration about a phased retirement offer from your employer is figuring out if you will have enough money to maintain your lifestyle. "Almost always, phased retirement results in a reduction in income," McMahon said.

Almost always, phased retirement results in a reduction in income. Chris McMahon financial planner
For Americans, prescription drugs are a mixed bag. To some, they are a necessary evil: Medications that are needed to treat ailments but are also expensive and sometimes come with side effects.

The good news? A record fifty new drugs were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015, which increases supply and may put eventual downward pressure on prices.



The bad news, however, is cost relief appears further away than ever, with brand-name medications prices soaring by 16 percent in 2015. Between 2008 and 2015, the prices for these medications rose a whopping 164 percent, according to Express Scripts, a company which provides prescription benefits.



One reason for the increase is that the price for specialty drugs, those used to treat complex and costly conditions, such as cancer, Hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis, is prohibitively high.



New treatments for Hepatitis C, a liver infection which can cause long-term health problems and even death, have 90 percent cure rates. Unfortunately, it also comes with a huge price tag: 12 weeks of treatment in the U.S. with Sovaldi is $80,000 and with Harvoni is $94,5000. Both drugs are manufactured by Gilead.



"We have these drugs that can wipeout this horrible disease and wipeout an epidemic but the cost is so prohibitive. So we'll never stop the epidemic this way if we can't afford the drugs," Dr. Ken Davis, President and CEO of Mt Sinai Medical, told CNBC's "On the Money" in a recent interview.
Donald Trump's campaign cash haul ballooned in July even as spending increased, but the Republican still trailed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the money race.



Trump's campaign reported $36.7 million in receipts for the month, compared with $52.3 million for Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission data released Saturday. Trump's campaign ended July with $38.4 million on hand, short of Clinton's $58.5 million.

Trump's spending jumped to $18.5 million, more than double its $7.8 million in June. Clinton's campaign reported $38.2 million in disbursements for July, up from $34.5 million in the prior month.



In July 2012, Mitt Romney's campaign reported $32.7 million in disbursements. President Barack Obama's committee said it spent $58.9 million.



The fundraising haul came as both candidates formally accepted the presidential nominations at their parties' conventions. The financial data for August, in which Clinton gained a solid polling advantage amid self-inflicted wounds from her opponent Donald Trump, is not due until next month. Recent gaffes from Trump have raised speculation that the Republican Party could move funds away from Trump and down the ballot.

Clinton was expected to raise more money than Trump's campaign in July and end the month with more cash available. In a separate statement, the Clinton campaign said it saw $62.3 million in total contributions for July. Those are pledged donations that may not have gone to the campaign's coffers during July.

However, Trump has spent significantly less than Clinton throughout the election. Trump has relied on intense news coverage and social media to push his message throughout his campaign, largely shunning traditional advertising channels and some methods of voter outreach.

The Clinton campaign put up its first general election TV ads more than two months ago and has since spent more than $60 million on them. The Trump campaign's first ad buys this month in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio cost about $4 million, according to NBC News.

It remains to be seen if the increase in July spending means the Trump campaign will be more willing to burn cash to make up the deficit against Clinton in August and beyond.

A large part of Trump's spending jump went to Giles-Parscale, a San Antonio, Texas-based web design and digital marketing firm. Trump's campaign reported nearly $8.4 million in expenses to the firm, about 45 percent of its total, and up from about $1.6 million in June.

The firm designs Trump's campaign website and aids it with online marketing efforts. The campaign reported the payments for "digital consulting/online advertising."

Its spending on payroll and ground operations did not budge much.
CARTHAGE AREA HOSPITAL

KELSEY MOLLURA has joined Carthage Area Hospital as its latest primary-care provider at Carthage Family Health Center in Carthage.

She received her bachelors degree in biological sciences from Duquesne University and her masters degree in physician assistant studies from Arcadia University.

Previously, Mollura worked in an internal medicine/geriatric office in Pittsburgh and in an ENT/sleep medicine office in Greenbelt, Maryland.

FORTUS HEALTHCARE RESOURCES

Fortus Healthcare Resources has appointed ANDY BARBERIO as director of sales and development.

He started at Fortus in 2007 as project coordinator. He soon assumed an account-executive role in the Dialysis Division.

In 2014, Barberio took on the challenge of leading the Ambulatory and Perioperative Division.

OSWEGO HEALTH

Two psychiatrists, OMAR COLON, M.D., and BENTLEY STROCKBINE, M.D., PH.D., recently joined Oswego Healths Behavioral Health Services (BHS) Department.

Colon has completed a four-year psychiatry residency program at Bergen Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. He was named chief resident of the centers outpatient clinic during his third year of residency and in his fourth year of residency, he was named chief resident of academics.

Colon has extensive training in child and addiction psychiatry as well as in different psychotherapy modalities. He earned his medical degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana, located in Santo Domingo and obtained his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University.

Strockbine will provide outpatient care to residents ages 18 and older at Oswego Healths BHS facility on Bunner Street in Oswego. He recently completed a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at Upstate Medical University and fulfilled his four-year residency in psychiatry at Stony Brook University.

Strockbine earned his medical degree at St. Georges University School of Medicine on the island of Grenada. Along with earning a medical degree, Strockbine has a doctorate of philosophy in molecular and cellular pharmacology from Stony Brook University. He also earned his undergraduate degree in pharmacology at Stony Brook.

ST. JOSEPHS PHYSICIANS FAMILY MEDICINE

St. Josephs Physicians Family Medicine has hired DENISE LOUGEE for its Radisson Health Center location in Baldwinsville. She received her masters degree in physician-assistant studies from Le Moyne College, and her bachelors degree in psychology, with minors in chemistry and health-care missions, from Harding University in Arkansas. Lougee has practiced as a physician assistant in a family care setting for seven years, her most recent appointment was at Village Family Care in Baldwinsville.

Her experience includes family practice management at Joseph Lorenzetti Family Practice in Seneca Falls, and as an urgent-care provider at Northeast Medical Center Urgent Care in Fayetteville. Her extensive clinical training includes: primary care; emergency medicine, and urgent care; general, orthopedic, and gynecological surgery; geriatrics; behavioral health; cardiology; and obstetrics and gynecology. In 2004, Lougee, as part of a multi-disciplinary team, provided health-care services to nearly 7,000 patients in Zambia in Africa, as a participant in a medical mission trip.

SYRACUSE ORTHOPEDIC SPECIALISTS

Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists recently hired JUSTIN A. IORIO, M.D., to its Neck & Back team. He is a fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in the management of complicated spinal deformities, degenerative and arthritic conditions, infections, and fractures. Iorio earned his medical degree at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and completed an orthopedic residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

He has completed a fellowship in spinal surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, where he was accepted into the Cobb Fellowship, which focuses on the treatment of scoliosis.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com
Photo credit: Rome Memorial Hospital

ROME  Rome Memorial Hospital (RMH) has named Dr. Frank Ehrlich its chief medical officer (CMO), taking over for Dr. Ankur Desai, who has served as interim CMO since 2014.

Ehrlich most recently was the CMO at HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley in Kingston, where he was involved in the development of the systems clinical-integration program and population-heath efforts, RMH said in a news release.

Ehrlich has more than 50 years of medical experience involving many aspects of both private practice and administration, according to RMH.

He is also board certified in general surgery, pediatric surgery, emergency medicine and surgery for critical care/trauma, the hospital said.

As a member of the hospitals administrative team, Ehrlich will serve as a liaison between the medical staff and the hospitals administration and staff.

Dr. Ehrlich has extensive experience in private practice and administration that provides him with the critical insights to help support Rome Memorial Hospitals medical staff as the health-care environment undergoes transformation, David Lundquist, RMH president and CEO, said in the hospitals release. Having worked with Dr. Ehrlich previously, I know that his leadership will be a tremendous asset to our hospital.

Lundquist served as CEO at Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley before joining RMH on March 1.

Were also deeply grateful to Dr. Desai, who has diligently served as our interim chief medical officer for the last two years, said Lundquist. While maintaining a busy ob/gyn practice, Dr. Desai has provided the hospital and our medical staff with his leadership to advance our goals.

Goal as CMO

Health-care delivery is undergoing incredible changes, Ehrlich said in the RMH release.

Having spent the better part of my career as both a private-practice general surgeon and an academic general surgeon, as well as a residency-program director and chairman of an academic department, I believe I have an understanding of the issues faced by every physician and practice today, whether that practice is primary care or specialty based, said Ehrlich.

Ehrlichs primary goal is to help the RMH medical staff to adapt their practice to these health-care changes.

The need for that assistance will vary from physician to physician and practice to practice. My job is to understand that need and to help those doctors build a bridge to encompass whatever their needs are in adapting to todays healthcare delivery, he added.

Ehrlich, a Buffalo native, earned his medical degree at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, RMH said.

He completed graduate medical education at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; the Naval Hospital at Chelsea, Massachusetts; Boston City Hospital; and Lahey Clinic in Boston.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
North Korea may be planning assassinations and kidnappings in revenge for recent defections, according to Seoul.

An official from South Koreas Unification Ministry said the defection of North Koreas deputy ambassador in London Thae Yong Ho and his family was among those that had put the North in a very difficult situation.

Considering (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Uns character, it is very dangerous, said the unidentified official.

It is highly likely that North Korea will make various attempts to prevent further defections and unrest among its people.

The official said assassination attempts on defectors in the South and the kidnapping of South Koreans overseas were possibilities.

He said there had been attempts to kill Hwang Jang-Yop, former tutor to the previous leader Kim Jong-Il, who defected to South Korea in 1997 and died of natural causes 13 years later.

Last week Thae Yong Ho became the highest-ranking diplomat to defect to South Korea, reportedly saying he was unhappy with the regime in Pyongyang and wanted better for his family.

North Korea responded by describing him as human scum, adding accusations that he had embezzled state funds, raped a child and spied for the South.

State news agency KCNA said: He deserved a legal punishment for his crimes but he took flight, betraying his country and parents and other kith and kin.

He thus revealed himself as human scum bereft of elementary sense of moral obligation and conscience.

Defections are a source of contention between the rival Koreas  North Korea says Seoul kidnaps or entices its citizens to defect and South Korea sometimes keeps silent on high-profile cases.

The North has already responded angrily to a US plan to place an advanced missile defence system in South Korea, warning of retaliation and firing several missiles into the sea earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang said it has no plans to stop nuclear tests as long as perceived US threats remain.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has raised alarm as regards the circulation of two confirmed falsified versions of Quinine Sulphate.

According to a statement released by the Federal Government states that Federal Ministry of Health received a medical alert that the two falsified drugs contain zero active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Mrs Boade Akinola, Director, Media and Public Relations of the ministry, signed the statement which was released on Saturday, and according to the statement the drugs were circulating in West and Central Africa.

She said, the two version of the drug were circulating in Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo. She further said that the quinine Sulphate was used in the treatment of malaria.

Mrs Boade Akinola also the implication of using the falsified version of the drug is that it will not be effective and may also lead to other health challenges.

She also stated that one of the fake products was named Quinine Sulfate 300 mg with 1000 Tablets per container, Batch Number 10H05, expiry date 09/2018 and it manufactured 09/2014.

She made it known that the other version of the fake drug was Quinine Sulphate 300mg with 100 Tablets per container; batch F4387, expiry date 11/18 and its date of manufacture is 12/14.

The product was manufactured in India by CAD Pharm, and it was discovered in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, she explained.

She also advised Nigerians to be vigilant and report any case to the nearest National Agency for Food and Drug Administration office anywhere the drugs were spotted including hospitals and pharmaceutical shops.

The ministry urges Nigerians to also report it the following GSM no +234-8037881120, +234-8055056727 and +234-8035902679.

If you are in possession of these products, please do not use them.

If you have taken this falsified product or if you suffer an adverse effect following its uptake, please seek immediate advice from a qualified healthcare professional and report the incident to NAFDAC.
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Boone County high school football district scores and roundup

Heres who survived and advanced, and who finished for the season, on Friday.
Bells Pizzaor Bells Greek Pizza, as it was properly calledon a pizza-slice of land at Packard and State has closed. Until recently, the property, though not the business, was still owned by grandchildren of founder Christos Bell, who died in 2015. Grandchildren Christos and Aristea sold the property to Faramarz Farahanchi. Bells obituary last October says that he opened the first Bells Greek Pizza in East Lansing in the 1970s and duplicated them in Ann Arbor and elsewhere. Christos and Aristea didnt return messages left for them at the Bells Greek Pizza that still operates in East Lansing. The manager there said they dont own it, but frequently stop in.



Got a retail or restaurant change? Email sallymitani@gmail.com or leave voicemail at (734) 769-3175 x 305.
February 17, 2014 - Kellogg Co. employee Sandra Henderson sits on a picket line outside the Memphis cereal plant in 2014. A federal appeals court overturned an order siding with Kellogg workers who were locked out in 2013 and 2014. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Wayne Risher of The Commercial Appeal

Kellogg Co. reaffirmed its commitment to a Memphis cereal plant Monday after a federal appeals court ruled last week that a 2013 lockout of unionized workers was legal.

"In Memphis, we see the potential for a strong future, for our people and for our business," Kellogg spokeswoman Kris Charles said. "We want to continue to provide great jobs and we remain committed to the community. We look forward to the path ahead  and with the help of our employees  a sustainable, successful future for the Memphis plant."

The appeals court on Friday overturned a National Labor Relations (NLRB) order siding with workers, who contended the lockout was illegal.

A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday granted the companys petition for review, denied the NLRBs application for enforcement and vacated the NLRBs May 2015 order.

The ruling dimmed employees hopes of winning compensation for earnings and benefits lost during the nine-month lockout. It could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court or re-heard by the full 6th Circuit.

Charles said the court "confirmed that Kelloggs proposals during the 2013 local negotiations, in Memphis, were entirely lawful. While we always have been confident in our position and agree with the courts decision, there is no victory here, simply resolution."

"This case was the result of the inability to address very real business challenges at the bargaining table. More importantly, our employees have been back to work since August 2014, and we since have reached a new master agreement that covers all four of our U.S. Ready-to-Eat-Cereal plants. We are moving forward together," Charles said.

Tennessee AFL-CIO president Billy Dycus expressed disappointment about the ruling.

Dycus said in a statement that "this recent decision drags out a nearly three-year struggle. For almost a year, workers were locked out of their jobs after refusing to be replaced with lower-paid, part-time replacements."

Dycus continued, "We stood with these hard-working employees in 2013 and will continue to do our part to support and assist our brothers and sisters in Memphis until they have received all wages that were lost during the lockout and this fight is finally over."

Kellogg brought in replacement workers to run the Memphis plant after an October 2013 lockout of more than 200 employees represented by Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 252G.

Kellogg declared a stalemate and locked out workers after the union, during negotiations on a local labor agreement, balked at a company proposal to expand use of lower-paid casual workers.

Kellogg said the labor proposal was designed to reduce the plant's cost structure and increase staffing flexibility.

The local agreement covers issues not addressed by a master labor agreement governing Kellogg cereal plants at Memphis, Omaha, Battle Creek and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The NLRB agreed with the unions argument that Kellogg was improperly trying to modify the master agreement.

But the appeals court panel, in an opinion written by Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of Memphis, concluded Kellogg was within its rights to push the casual worker proposal as part of local contract negotiations. Also on the panel were Judge Alice M. Batchelder and Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler Jr.

The lockout ended in August 2014 after U.S. District Judge Hardy Mays of Memphis granted an injunction sought by the NLRB.

Charles said, "We expect to negotiate a new supplemental agreement in the fall and will fulfill our obligation to bargain in good faith."

We expect to negotiate a new supplemental agreement in the fall and will fulfill our obligation to bargain in good faith.
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By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal

Memphis police have arrested a man accused of shooting inside a Frayser apartment complex and injuring multiple people.

Marlon Bobo, 24, was arrested Friday and charged with criminal attempt first-degree murder, five counts of reckless endangerment, employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, convicted felon in possession of a deadly weapon and vandalism $500 or less.

According to an affidavit, police responded to a call at the Ridgecrest Apartments in the 2500 block of Bethlehem Avenue April 8, and a victim told officers Bobo shot into her apartment repeatedly. Bullets struck a window, walls and television while the pregnant woman was home with her three young children.

Officers were informed soon after that two men arrived at Methodist North Hospital from the apartment complex, the affidavit said. One of the men was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds and taken to Regional Medical Center.

The other male victim was taken to the MPD Felony Response Bureau, where he told the police the man responsible was known as "BO," the affidavit said. MPD detectives searched the name through a database and developed Bobo as a person of interest. One of the victims identified him in a photo lineup.

At 11:05 a.m. Friday, members of the Shelby County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Task Force and MPD Old Allen Task Force arrived at a home in the 2500 block of Elbert Drive to execute an arrest warrant, the affidavit said. A woman answered the door and allowed the officers to search the home, where they found Bobo hiding in a bedroom closet under a pile of clothes. Police also found a loaded handgun and separate magazine inside a box spring.

In 2012, Bobo was sentenced to one year in prison after he was convicted of reckless endangerment, the affidavit said.

Bobo is in jail on a $250,000 bond. He is due in court Monday.
Ginger Leonard

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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  Leticia Flores didn't believe for a second that Donald Trump was standing up for equality when he pledged to keep Muslims from entering the country if they support the death penalty for gays.

What the GOP presidential nominee was doing, she said, was pitting Muslims against the LGBT community.

"These are two groups that already get plenty of hatred directed at them," said Flores, incoming Knox County chairwoman of the Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide gay-rights group. "In our eyes, we need to unite people and not constantly divide people."

On the opposite end of the state, Ginger Leonard had the same reaction to Trump's vow to keep out anti-gay Muslims.

"We don't need him using our community to foment hate for another group," said Leonard, who lives in Memphis and is chairwoman of the Tennessee Equality Project. "He needs to leave us alone."

Trump's promise to protect gays from Muslims who want to kill them came last week when he announced his strategy to keep America safe from radical terrorists.

In a speech, Trump said that, if elected, he would put in place a tough new screening process for anyone applying to enter the country. The process would include an ideology test in which applicants would have to guarantee that their beliefs are in line with U.S. values on religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights.

Many Muslim countries do, in fact, have harsh laws condemning homosexuality. In at least 11, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, gay sex can be punishable by death. Others, including Algeria, Malaysia, Syria and Somalia, make homosexual activity illegal.

But gay activists in Tennessee see Trump's ideological test as a cynical ploy, not serious policy.

"There's a long effort on the right to pit the LGBT community against the Muslim community, and that's what this kind of line is about," said Chris Sanders, the Nashville-based executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project.

"Really, if we're concerned about people who want the death penalty for LGBT people, there are several in the United States already," Sanders said. "And they are operating under a variety of religious banners."

Pointing the finger at anti-gay Muslims is a strategy the religious right often falls back on when challenged about its own attitudes about gays, Sanders said.

"If we complain about the religious right that has been active in America, one of the responses we sometimes get is, 'Well, you never say anything about radical Islam,'" he said.

"Well, if radical Islam starts moving elections and electing state legislatures in this country, then we'll talk about whoever is having an influence on our public policy and culture. But right now, that's really not the case in the United States. The hate that's directed at us in the United States is a form that has been homegrown here in America."

Sanders finds it especially ironic that Trump would suggest he wants to protect gays from religious extremists, given that his running mate is Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Last year, Pence faced a huge backlash in his home state and across the nation after signing a "religious freedom" law that critics said would allow businesses to legally refuse service to gays and lesbians. Pence relented and signed a revised version that explicitly bars a business from denying service to someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Gov. Pence is someone who went along with and encouraged hate-based discrimination against LGBT people," Sanders said. "That didn't have a thing to do with radical Islam."

If presidential candidates want to know what gays and lesbians need, Sanders said, they should ask the LGBT community. Banning anti-gay Muslims would not be at the top of the list.

"What we want," Sanders said, "are things like the federal equality law passed, which offers protections in employment, housing and public accommodations  in other words, a comprehensive civil rights law."
June 9, 2016 - Gov. Bill Haslam (Photo by Jane Roberts/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Anita Wadhwani, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

After taking office, Gov. Bill Haslam reconstituted an obscure board that enforces environmental rules for the industry that helped make him the richest elected official in America.

Since then, the Underground Storage Tank and Solid Waste Disposal Control Board has taken steps to shift the financial burden of cleaning up toxic spills at gas stations and truck stops from business owners to taxpayers.

The 14-member board, 12 of whom are appointed by the governor, sets rules for the $50 million environmental fund overseen by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or TDEC. The fund has been paying to clean up spills since 1990. It is financed by a combination of a gas tax paid by consumers at the pump and an annual fee paid by owners of petroleum tanks.

Since the board has been reconfigured, members representing consumers have been eliminated.

The board, which retained its four petroleum industry members, has since voted in favor of a resolution to increase the state dollars available to private companies for environmental spills caused by failures or accidents from $1 million to $2 million. That became law in 2015.

This year, a new law gives the board the power to give all gas stations and truck stops a big break  suspending their annual fees to the cleanup fund entirely. Some board members have signaled their support for eliminating those fees this year  despite hearing from the man in charge of the state's underground storage tank program that a "historically high burden of this funding has shifted onto the public."

Suspending the industry's financial contributions would leave taxpayers, who haven't gotten the same breaks as gas stations and truck stops, holding the entire tab for toxic spills.

Tennessee drivers continue to shoulder most of the cost of petroleum spills at Pilot Flying J, Chevron, Exxon and other companies, large and small, through a one-fourth of a cent per gallon gas tax that added up to about $18 million last year. Companies contribute about $2 million in fees each year.

The fund has paid out millions to private petroleum companies since it began operating in 1990, including $10 million to Pilot Flying J, the Haslam family truck stop chain worth an estimated $33 billion. The governor continues to hold an undisclosed financial stake in the company.

A spokeswoman for Haslam noted that the governor took steps to consult with counsel before restructuring the board to ensure there was no conflict of interest. The new structure was proposed by TDEC, said Jennifer Donnals, the spokeswoman.

"The governor has never suggested any measures at the request of his family or his family's company, and any insinuation or suggestion otherwise is factually incorrect and a disservice to your readers," Donnals said.

Even before the reconstitution of the board, members who had been appointed before Haslam took office voted to cut industry fees, Donnals noted.

Board member George Hyfantis acknowledged that members of the public bear a large share of the cleanup costs  a proportion that will increase if the board votes to suspend industry fees.

But it is a step Hyfantis said he and his colleagues are considering taking, he said, as long as they believe it will not jeopardize the health of the fund.

The industry in 2004 ponied up $10 million to prop up the fund as it teetered on the verge of insolvency, with more than 1,200 tanks requiring remediation. Hyfantis said he wanted the board to return some of that money to the companies that paid it.

"We have been having discussions about whether we need that much money in the fund," said Hyfantis, citing the fund's roughly $48 million balance, which accountants have said is already obligated for approximately 283 current and all future spills. "We would like to be able to get some of that $10 million back to tank owners that contributed way back when."

Citizen advocates like Dick Williams, who is chairman of Common Cause Tennessee, question why taxpayers should be subsidizing the costs of environmental accidents and failures at filling stations.

"Most, if not all of it, should be borne by the industry that's causing the issue, frankly," he said.

Soon after taking office in 2011, Haslam immediately faced public controversy when he issued a blanket suspension of all pending state rules and regulations  including a new rule that would have cost Pilot Flying J hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrofit or replace gas tanks to be double-walled to meet new Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Then in 2012, Haslam successfully passed legislation that reconfigured the board overseeing gas tanks  a step he took to consolidate many boards across state government.

It was part of an effort, he said, that would streamline government and make it more customer focused. The old board had met fewer than half the times it was scheduled in 2009, 2010 and 2011, his spokesman noted.

The new board eliminated two consumer representative slots.

Representatives of the Tennessee Fuel and Convenience Store Association, the Tennessee Petroleum Council and of two private petroleum companies remain on the 14-member board, which also includes representatives from county and local governments and an environmental representative.

The board oversees rules and regulations of the program, which was started in 1988 after new EPA rules designed to protect people from the toxic effects of oil leaks were put in place. The EPA counts petroleum tank leaks as one of the biggest polluters of the nation's drinking water.

Those EPA rules required gas station and truck stop owners to be able to demonstrate $1 million in financial responsibility in the event tanks leaked. But private liability insurance to pay for the leaks was difficult to obtain for small mom-and-pop gas stations, so some 35 states, including Tennessee, created funds that serve as insurance. In these states, taxpayers largely serve as the insurers in the event of an environmental leak.

Since the year before Haslam took office, the portion of contributions from gas stations and truck stops in the cleanup fund has decreased by nearly half  shifting more of the burden to taxpayers.

In 2010, companies were contributing nearly 19 percent of the annual fund contributions. By 2015, their share was down to 10 percent, leaving taxpayers to contribute the remaining 90 percent.

The contributions have decreased in part because there are 1,306 fewer tanks in the state this year than there were in 2005, according to data provided by Stan Boyd, director of the Division of Underground Storage Tanks.

They also decreased because the board  after Haslam took office but before his reorganization of state boards  voted to cut the amount of annual fees paid by industry in half, further reducing their contribution.

This year, at the request of the Tennessee Fuel and Convenience Store Association  which has a designee on the board  TDEC introduced legislation to give the board the new authority to completely eliminate fees.
Barney Sellers/The Commercial Appeal files August 22, 1959  The five-man team who will lead the governmental destinies of Memphis for the four years beginning in January 1960 includes (from left) Henry Loeb, mayor; William W. Farris, public works commissioner; Jimmy Moore, finances and institutions commissioner and John T. "Buddy" Dwyer, public service commissioner. The fifth member, Claude A. Armour, police and fire commissioner, whose vote total was second only to Mr. Loeb's, was vacationing when this photograph was made on Aug. 22, 1959.

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Aug. 21

25 years ago: 1991

Memphis lawyer William Farris has donated land in Whitehaven valued at more than $1 million to Shelby State Community College and State Technical Institute at Memphis. It is by far the largest individual donation ever to either of the two-year public colleges. Farris said Tuesday he'd like the two colleges to build a joint branch campus on the 18 acres, which has been appraised at $1.04 million. The land is on the southwest corner of Interstate 55 and Shelby Drive.

50 years ago: 1966

Lewiston, Maine  President Johnson Saturday prescribed for the nation "a strong dose of self-discipline" in order to carry on in Vietnam, bring racial peace and social justice at home and to maintain a strong, prospering economy. The President said at Lewiston there will be racial strife in America until there is "a domestic good neighbor policy on every block in every city."

75 years ago: 1941

Washington  Only a 10-day reserve of gasoline for public use was left on the Atlantic seaboard as of last week and the "danger point" is approaching rapidly, Acting Petroleum Coordinator Ralph K. Davies revealed yesterday.

100 years ago: 1916

One of the most beautiful and inspiring names in Judaism was selected by the new Jewish congregation for their temple on Poplar Avenue. The name is Beth El Emeth, meaning "The House of the True God." It is symbolic of the daily admonition to worship God.

125 years ago: 1891

A large number of young Democrats of Nashville have organized a club for the purpose of combatting "a secret political organization hostile to the Democratic Party, and in its methods seeking to control the Democratic Party in Tennessee."
Gerald Herbert/Associated Press Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke during a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wis., where he gave a law-and-order speech Tuesday.

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By Dan Balz, Washington Post

The latest shake-up in Donald Trump's campaign is rightly described as a move to "let Trump be Trump." In reality, the sudden changes highlight the fact that a politician whose instincts appeared so sure during the Republican primaries has lost his way as a general election candidate. It remains questionable whether he can find the equilibrium and the discipline needed to turn his flailing campaign around.

That is likely what is behind the shifts that were formally announced in a release emailed by Trump's campaign at the unusual hour of 5:38 a.m. Wednesday, hours after the Wall Street Journal first reported the news. Coming 82 days before the general election, the staff changes had the distinct bouquet of desperation rather than the kind of routine and orderly "expansion" Trump and his senior advisers were saying.

Trump has been in a downward spiral for weeks, a descent that has come with remarkable  and to GOP leaders alarming  swiftness. In the weeks since the Republican and Democratic conventions ended, his position has deteriorated dramatically, turning what was already a difficult path to victory against Hillary Clinton into one that now requires a dramatic change in fortunes to succeed.

Perhaps the changes will produce such a turnaround. The recruitment of former banker Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News to become chief executive signals a kind of go-for-broke return to Trump's anti-establishment message and posture, but not without risk. The elevation of pollster Kellyanne Conway to the role of campaign manager will provide Trump with what he has lacked for some time now, which is a seasoned hand who will travel with him on his plane and who can try to keep him focused.

Staff intrigue is catnip to political insiders, and there will be efforts to analyze how the changes announced Wednesday will affect the inner dynamics of the Trump operation. In particular, there are questions about the degree to which they diminish the role of Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman who was brought in last spring and supplanted  and ultimately helped force out  previous campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Wednesday that the changes were already having a positive impact. "Anecdotally," he said, "if you're watching cable news shows, you could make the case this was the best morning for us in weeks."

He pointed to positive reviews for the law and order speech Trump delivered Tuesday in Wisconsin and the generally encouraging reception he said the staff changes had received.

Miller said the staff moves underscored Trump's focus on winning. "Mr. Trump is making it clear how he wants the campaign to be run and how he wants it organized, and how much he wants to win this race and what he's prepared to do to win this race," he said.

Staff shake-ups, however, are no substitute for a candidate with a clear sense of himself, his message and what it takes to win a general election in 2016. By almost every indication, Trump has fallen short on all these measures. Blaming his staff does not absolve his own failures as the leader of his campaign. Letting Trump be Trump won't instantly solve the weaknesses he has shown as a general election candidate.

For months, Trump has been pulled and tugged by campaign officials and party leaders. He's been urged to be more stable and presidential, and to blast out his anti-establishment message with even greater intensity. He's been urged to use a teleprompter and offer more policy. He's been urged to let it rip at his rallies.

He's done some of all of that in recent weeks  as well as unscripted digressions that have overshadowed his better moments. As Labor Day nears, he is trailing nationally and in all the battleground states.

Trump has been resistant to advice from so-called experts because he beat them in the primaries. But he began the general election with a distinct lack of understanding of the differences between the primaries and the general election. He appeared not to understand the dynamics, the demographics or the geography of a winning general election campaign.

He commented during an interview with The Washington Post last May that he could put California and New York in play and even said the reception he had received in the state of Washington during the primaries gave him a belief that he could compete there. He hasn't acted on any of those claims, obviously, but last weekend, he was campaigning in Connecticut, which Republicans have lost in six straight elections. Who thought that made sense?

His messaging and behavior have opened up demographic deficits that are now crippling his candidacy. The first is among Republicans. Nationally and in key states, Trump is significantly underperforming among Republicans. Clinton has consolidated the Democrats, now winning 90 percent or more in most surveys. Trump is far short of that level, now winning about 80 percent, give or take, among Republicans. He needs that number to move up, and if it does, the race will begin to look more competitive.

The other big problem is with college-educated voters. Trump has been bleeding in that category and it has grown worse over the summer. Republicans traditionally win whites with and without college degrees. Trump has solid support among whites without college degrees but he is significantly underperforming Mitt Romney's 2012 numbers among those with college degrees. In many places, he's losing those voters. Additionally, there is a risk that he could see his support among white women without college degrees deteriorate.

Trump has shown little of the confidence he displayed earlier in the year. With the polls turning against him, he has little to brag about. With conflicting advice on what to say and how to act, he's appeared off balance and unhappy. Where he once dominated news cycles through his accessibility to the media, particularly all the cable channels, he's become far more a creature of Fox News than he was during the primaries.

The changes announced Wednesday amount to hitting a reset button for Trump and his campaign. But he has tried this before. The question now is whether the new team will find a way to build back his support or put him on a path that will simply harden the support he already has.
Associated Press FILEs Hillary Clinton has voiced support for adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act. Whether or not she'll make it a priority if elected hinges on the support of other Democrats.

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By Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg View

Hillary Clinton supports adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act  that is, a government-run insurance program to compete with private health insurance. She announced her support in July, and the public option was the only specific change to Obamacare that she mentioned in her economics speech this month.

This position makes a lot of practical sense, as the New Republic's Brian Beutler has noted. The Congressional Budget Office has scored a public option as deficit-reducing, which means Democrats wouldn't have to raise taxes or cut spending to pay for it. A public option has also polled well. For example, back in December 2009 a CBS News/New York Times survey found 59 percent favored including a public option in Obamacare, with only 29 percent opposed.

It was a big disappointment to liberals during the 2009-2010 legislative fight over the ACA when the public option disappeared from the bill. So it would seem to be a logical next step for liberal politicians seeking to improve Obamacare.

But it's one thing for Democrats to support a policy. It's quite another for it to be the kind of high priority they would fight for. Parties have many more goals than they'll ever have the opportunities to enact, even if they win large victories. Getting bills through Congress is hard, even if majorities in both chambers favor a measure. So especially for a major proposal such as the public option, the question isn't whether the party supports it. It's how much.

Unfortunately for public-option advocates, the candidates most likely to become new Democratic senators in 2017 don't seem especially interested in advocating that policy.

Only one of 11 candidates, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, mentions support for a public option on the issues section of his campaign website. Indeed, only six of the 11 that I surveyed even had a "health care" section on their websites. Kamala Harris, in solidly Democratic California, has nine different subject areas, from immigration to the environment and "protecting animals." She has separate tabs for higher education and K-12 education. But no health care.

Sure, given the opportunity, the Democrats might move some relatively uncontroversial or small health care measures. But their campaign messages suggest that they may not be up to a battle over consequential health care legislation, which is what a push for a public option would be.

That doesn't mean it won't happen. Some of these candidates won't be elected. Incumbent senators may have different priorities. And some of these candidates may yet add a ringing endorsement of the public option before the election.

But if Democratic Party actors were demanding a public option, campaigns would have highlighted it in their campaign materials. Indeed, candidates with tough primaries such as Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania or Patrick Murphy in Florida (whose primary is still to come), might well have become vocal champions of the public option. They didn't.

Campaigns are as much about choosing priorities as they are about choosing policies. Clinton has clearly committed to adding a public option to Obamacare, but she's also committed to dozens of other positions. If it isn't a priority for the rest of the party, it won't be a priority for her either.
Associated Press FILE Aetna, headquartered in Hartford, Conn., is pulling its health care plans from the Obamacare exchanges of more than two thirds of the states it currently services, citing substantial financial losses in those markets.

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By Megan McArdle, Bloomberg View

Aetna is pulling out of 11 of the 15 states it serves on the Obamacare exchanges. The reason: It is losing substantial amounts of money on its exchange policies.

That is not necessarily the only reason, of course. Companies in heavily regulated industries  and health care is now probably our most heavily regulated sector outside of nuclear power plants  spend a lot of time engaging in n-dimensional chess games with the various government entities that have jurisdiction over their operations. Public statements and market moves may be just what they look like. Or they may be part of a complicated strategy involving some third, fourth or eighth factor that does not at first appear to be much related.

In this case, it has been delicately suggested that the company may have in mind its proposed merger with Humana (and that related announcements by Anthem are designed to aid Anthem's Cigna merger). The government is suing to block both mergers; the companies would like them to go through. The deals would consolidate an industry that now has five major insurers down to three, giving them considerably more pricing power with customers and providers.

Because the individual market is a relatively small piece of their business, those mergers are probably worth a lot more to them than whatever good will the companies earn by losing money on the exchanges.

The losses are not to be ignored. Insurance regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission do not give the firms much room to claim they are losing money if they're actually making it hand over fist. Even if that weren't the case, the failure of so many co-ops, which don't have other lines of business, suggests these markets are not, on the whole, a good place for insurers to make money. But it's at least plausible that if the government weren't blocking their mergers, these companies might be willing to absorb those losses for a few years to build regulatory good will for their broader business.

If that's the case, the question is: What matters to regulators more  blocking the mergers or keeping the exchanges healthy? That's not an easy question.

As of this writing, it looks as if Aetna's withdrawal will leave at least one county  Pinal, in Arizona  with no insurers selling exchange policies. It seems unlikely Pinal County will be the last one unless something drastic changes in these markets.

But allowing the mergers to go through could well mean price increases in other markets. Bigger insurers gain more pricing power against rapidly consolidating provider networks. They also gain more pricing power with customers. Industries dominated by a few major players are not, in general, known for high quality and low costs. Letting the mergers proceed could fend off the immediate problem with the Obamacare exchanges at the cost of raising insurance costs for everyone else  and giving Democrats big headaches in 2018 and 2020.

The calculation is further complicated by the fact that the exchanges and the mergers are regulated by different agencies. Health and Human Services ultimately oversees the exchanges, while the attorney general is trying to block the mergers.

Whatever the truth of the matter, and whatever the outcome, we can expect to see a lot of such quandaries going forward. The exchanges seem to be growing more unstable over time, particularly outside large urban areas where there are enough providers and slack capacity in the health care system to provide some check on the problems that have plagued insurers elsewhere.

Insurers cannot simply eat those losses forever. They certainly won't do so for free. Unless the exchanges get a rapid infusion of healthier customers who pay substantial premiums without using much care, insurers will keep pulling out of areas where they are losing money. Or at the very least, they will demand benefits from the government to make it worth their while to stay.
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The shuttered Vance Middle School sits on the eastern edge of an area that is about to undergo significant redevelopment.

Rev. Kenneth Whalum, pastor of The New Olivet Baptist Church and a former city school board member, wants to make sure that the school is part of that redevelopment, in a meaningful way.

He wants to establish "Urban Oasis" inside Vance that would be a neighborhood center offering a variety of educational, economic and social programs for children and adults.

It is an idea that would mesh nicely with the city of Memphis' and Memphis Housing Authority's South City redevelopment initiative that will use federal, city and private funding to redevelop an area south of Downtown.

Under the plan, the last of the city's old public housing projects, Foote Homes, will be demolished and replaced with modern rental units that mimic single-family homes.

The federal money will come from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant. Choice Neighborhoods grants require a broader neighborhood development plan that goes beyond just demolishing and replacing old public housing complexes.

Redevelopment plans also must include a host of services that will help residents climb out poverty and stay out. Vance, which closed in 2014, could be an anchor for some of those services.

With that in mind, we hope the Shelby County Schools Board of Education and SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson give Whalum's proposal serious consideration. Whalum envisions what could be a realistic and sustainable model for vacant SCS inner-city schools and for schools on the list to eventually close.

Finding new life for these facilities could be a boon for struggling neighborhoods, where the schools were the chief anchors and sources of community pride. Also, empty schools have a strong possibility of exacerbating the city's blight problem.

This is not just a Memphis issue. Pew Charitable Trusts researchers took a look at 12 big-city school districts in 2013 and found that since 2005, the districts had found new owners or uses for 267 properties, but still had 301 unused sites for sale. Some of the more creative reuses for closed schools have been pubs, apartments, hotels and a brewery. In 2012, St. Louis sold an elementary school to the Universal Buddhist Congregation for use as a monastic institute.

Except for apartments, those kind of rebirths probably would not be feasible for closed schools in impoverished neighborhoods, or maybe not. Reuses such as Whalum's proposal would have more positive impact on the neighborhoods and residents who could take advance of badly needed social services.

The school district closed Vance because of extremely low enrollment and because it was a failing school. SCS has followed those criteria in its decision to shutter other schools.

We understand the neighborhood angst over the closings and proposed closings.

Still, we have said several times in this space that it would be fiscally irresponsible for a district that faces consistent budget challenges not to close underutilized failing schools.

Whalum wants to lease Vance from SCS for a dollar a year, with the understanding that Vance would be maintained as a school in case SCS wants to reopen it. He told The Commercial Appeal's editorial board last week that his request to SCS is supported by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael. The minister also said the plan has caught the eye of one of the city's leading corporate executives.

As elements of the Black Lives Matter movement express frustration over the lack of resources flowing into poor neighborhoods, we agree with Whalum that the Urban Oasis concept for Vance offers corporate Memphis a doorway to make a more tangible impact on poor neighborhoods and their residents.

The residents living in these neighborhoods need to see something positive happening that can improve their lives. Finding feasible reuses for closed schools is one way to show that the community cares.
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By Kimberly K. Estep, Special to Viewpoint

Three years ago, I participated in a well-publicized announcement that was both exhilarating and terrifying.

Gov. Bill Haslam and other government, business and education leaders from across the state announced the formation of WGU Tennessee, the state-based affiliate of Western Governors University. WGU is the self-paced, competency-based, accredited, not-for-profit online university formed in 1997 by a group of governors of Western states seeking to improve and supplement workforce development.

Three years in, the fear has faded, but the excitement has not. I knew WGU Tennessee would change lives, and I was honored to be part of it. As we celebrate our third anniversary, it has already impacted thousands of Tennesseans, particularly in the Memphis area.

When we launched WGU Tennessee, there were about 690 Tennesseans enrolled in the WGU system. Today there are more than 2,700  340 in Shelby County. That doesn't include the more than 1,300 Tennesseans who have already graduated from WGU Tennessee.

We will relentlessly push to produce more highly qualified graduates to fill Tennessee jobs in business, information technology, nursing, and teaching.

WGU Tennessee students are part of the 900,000 working adults in Tennessee who had completed some college courses, but needed a flexible way to learn, advance their careers and provide a better life for themselves and their loved ones. We have focused on working adults as we have worked hard to grow WGU Tennessee as one of the original components of Gov. Haslam's "Drive to 55" initiative to increase the number of college graduates in Tennessee to 55 percent by 2025.

My team and I have met with mayors and county executives, print and broadcast news media, business leaders and chambers of commerce, and local education practitioners, as well as students and potential students, graduates, and faculty in every major market in Tennessee. I have driven more than 100,000 miles crisscrossing the state. Today we have students from 91 of the state's 95 counties, and we have awarded more than $730,000 in scholarships to Tennesseans.

We especially are proud that we have developed formal partnerships with more than 50 businesses, all of which need a highly educated workforce. Some of the largest include Memphis-based companies like FedEx and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare  not to mention our partnerships with the city of Memphis and Shelby County Schools.

Our partnerships with major health care companies in our state are helping them boost the percentage of their nursing staffs that holds a nursing degree  in a convenient, cost-effective way. We have begun the task of providing more STEM teachers to fill the gap in Tennessee's schools.

Many of these new teachers are second-career adults with real-world experience. We are also helping train the tech workforce with degree offerings, including data management and analytics, software development and information technology security.

We have signed articulation agreements with all 13 of the state's community colleges, including Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis. WGU Tennessee limits its offerings to bachelor's and master's degree curricula in four subject areas: education, nursing, IT and business. Our tuition is approximately $3,000 per six-month term, or $6,000 per year, and has not been increased in the past eight years.

Students complete as many courses as they can for a flat rate. When students move faster through their program, they save money as well as time.

While we have achieved a great deal in the past three years, there is still much work to be done. Tennessee is poised to become a national leader in education and workforce development, but challenges lie ahead.

WGU Tennessee and its 120 employees are honored to be part of this important work as we strive to help our state fill a critical gap in the higher-education landscape.

Dr. Kimberly K. Estep is the chancellor of WGU Tennessee.
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One of the joys of travel is learning something new on every journey  while also seeing some of the most magnificent places on earth. But travel can also be a wake-up call to the perils that our planet faces. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the retreat of the glaciers in the Canadian Arctic brought about by global warming. Now I've seen first-hand the far-reaching effects of the King Fire still raging near Lake Tahoe in northern California. One of the largest fires in the state so far this year, it was likely set by an arsonist, but exacerbated by California's severe drought.

As my girlfriends and I drove up I-80 toward Lake Tahoe last Thursday evening for a long-anticipated getaway, we began to see and smell the smoke that hung in the air even though the fire was still more than 20 miles southwest of the lake. The blaze was the main topic of conversation the next morning at Rosie's Cafe (www.rosiescafe.com) in tiny Tahoe City, a local favorite for breakfast, and later in the day as we took a tram up the mountain at Squaw Valley ski resort (site of the 1960 Winter Olympics) for a bird's-eye view of Lake Tahoe. The 22-mile-long and 12-mile-wide lake is the second largest alpine lake in the world, renowned for both its clear water and remarkable setting amid mountain peaks.

Museums on the West Shore recount the area's development from Native American hunting and fishing grounds to a logging and mining center, and ultimately a tourism destination. As we ate lunch on the deck of Sunnyside (www.sunnysideresort.com), a lakeside institution (left) that recalls the simpler days of mid-20th century tourism, we hoped that the relatively smoke-free air meant that firefighters were besting the blaze.

By Sunday morning, we were ready to head to more rugged South Lake Tahoe, where the narrow road climbs quickly as it snakes through a landscape of glacier-carved granite. Emerald Bay, a National Natural Landmark, is generally considered the most stunning spot on the lake. I can't confirm the claim as the smoke grew thicker as the day progressed. (See photo at right.) Even though firefighters were making some progress at containing the 80,000-plus acre blaze, we decided to cut our trip short.

I will definitely try to return to hike the Balancing Rock Nature Trail, take a lake cruise, ogle some of the historic old estates, and take way too many photos of Emerald Bay. But I'm not going to take our most special places for granted ever again. This brush with fire was a vivid reminder of just how vulnerable they can be.

Photos by Patricia Harris for the Boston Globe


Andrea Iannone dropped out of rostrum contention in Brno when the factory Ducati rider was powerless to prevent his front tyre rapidly diminishing in the final third of the race.

The Italian, who celebrated his maiden MotoGP victory in the previous round in Austria, was in a strong position as he led for a long period in the Czech Republic, but with seven laps remaining, Iannone began faded drastically as his tyres finally wilted.

The 27-year-old's front tyre was completely destroyed in the centre but he managed to limp across the line to finish eighth.

"I am disappointed about how the race went because I believe that today we once again had very high potential. I started the race without pushing really hard in order to try and save the tyres as much as possible and was still in the lead with seven laps to go," Iannone said.

"But unfortunately in the last seven laps it was very difficult to control the situation because my front tyre was destroyed. I don't think it was a bad decision [to use the front front], but the problem was the track was not fully wet.

"Other riders such as Dovi, Scott [Redding] and Jorge [Lorenzo] had their problems before me, maybe because they pushed harder right from the start, whereas I had a good margin and could ride well without pushing and was in any case quick.

"I choose the soft tyres because I was sure I would change the bike after half the race. But instead the track was very slow to dry. The soft rear tyre was not a problem, only the front tyre was destroyed.

"We only rode in the wet here this morning, only three laps, and we didn't have a lot of data. So we risk a little bit and without full wet conditions this new front tyre from Michelin is a little bit too soft.

"But we learned a lot and I think next time will be better. I'm happy to improve my feeling in the wet and improved a lot compared to the Sachsenring."

His team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, was not so lucky and was forced into the pits as the centre of his front Michelin tyre wore out.

Dovi, who had been in the fight for the top three with Iannone and Scott Redding, switched to his second machine, which had been fitted with intermediates, but retired on lap 16 after finding them unsuitable for the wet track.



"I feel really bad about the way the things went in the race because I was very competitive and was in a position to get a good result. For the race we opted for the same tyres we had used in the morning warm-up and which, in very wet track conditions, had proved to be excellent.

"Before the race however it stopped raining and, even though the track stayed damp, the front tyre soon began to deteriorate in an abnormal way," Dovizioso explained.

"I am not so surprised because the front tyre we are using was really, really soft. So with not a lot of water, it can happen. But I'm not happy about the tyre allocation we have [to choose from]. Because we have the extra soft we used in Sachsenring or we have the hardest tyre in our allocation.

"The gap is too big for me. For example, almost nobody put the hard front because already in the past with a softer spec than the hard tyre we had today everybody had a problem with the grip. Some riders took a risk [with the hard front tyre] and it was the right decision.

"Cal won with that and it would have much better, but like I say it is really hard. It worked here because the grip is good and the water was very low. But this morning the extra soft tyre was completely new after nine laps.

"So to manage the situation is really difficult. I think Michelin still don't have the situation under control with the rain, so we need more spec at this moment. I was the first rider to have a problem but other riders had the same problem and when you lose a piece of the tyre it is dangerous."
Museum-goers seeking a break from the crowded paintings galleries at the Louvre in Paris (www.louvre.fr/en) should head to the decorative arts galleries that reopened in June after a nine-year, $33.7 million renovation. The 33 rooms contain more than 2,000 objects that trace French taste and style during a particularly fascinating period in history. They begin with Louis XIV, who ruled over arguably the most powerful country in Europe, and end with the more unfortunate Louis XVI, who was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.

Noted French interior decorator Jacques Garcia, a collector of royal art objects and designer of the interiors of a number of Paris hotels and restaurants, worked with museum curators on the new installations. Although some small and precious items are grouped in display cases, the highlight of the new galleries is a series of period rooms that suggest how members of the royal family may have lived amid what are now priceless examples of the work of the most talented French artisans and artists of the period.

The curators have taken a refreshingly non-didactic approach to the galleries. For starters, they have not encrusted the spaces with wall text that would distract from the sense of time and place that the galleries evoke. Portraits from the Louvre collection help to give a personal (albeit, royal) touch to the interiors, which range from grand salons for conducting state business to intimate sitting areas perfect for exchanging gossip. The curators trust that visitors will easily discern the changing styles from the Classicism of Louis XIV through a somewhat flashy Rococo period characterized by lots of bright pinks, blues, and greens to the more sedate Neoclassicism of Louis XVI. In all, the galleries cover the decades from 1660 to 1790, a span of 130 years easily traversed in an hour or so of careful looking.

Photos by Patricia Harris for the Boston Globe


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Bermuda may not be the warmest winter option for New Englanders, but by comparison to our weather, its average high of the upper 60s could be seen as downright toasty. And at only a couple hours from Boston by plane, its a popular destination for our area.

Taking advantage of that is Elbow Beach, a luxury lodging staple on the island since 1908. Since May, it has been under management by the Burns Group. One of the first new moves it made was opening year round. Under prior management of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, it had been closed during the off season.

Elbow Beach is also a hotspot for newlyweds, proven by its new "100 Years of Honeymoon package, with rates starting at $725 a night. Regular off-season rates kick in around $450.





We visited the resort in late October, and found more new stuff: The 70 rooms in the iconic yellow main building, which have been closed since 2008, are being renovated into 35 suites over the course of the next year or so. The resorts lodging now consists of 98 bungalow rooms and suites dotting the landscaped hill below the main building, affording great views of the pink-sand beach.





Also new will be the reopening of the Sea Horse Grill. Already new is work done on the buildings main floor (which includes an ornate lobby and class library with bar): Huge conference/function rooms have been fashioned out of little-used spaces, and carpeting pulled up throughout to highlight long-hidden wooden floors. Also revealed was an antique compass rose in the flooring, now restored and protected.





There are several categories of room sizes in the bungalows, from very comfortable 450-square-foot premier ocean-front cottages (which we had), to the sprawling 2,500-square-foot Bird of Paradise cottage.

Our room was more than big enough for two, with a small patio overlooking the Seaside Terrace restaurant below, and the ocean just a couple hundred yards away. It was nicely appointed and comfortable, with relatively speedy WiFi, HD TV, roomy bath with rainhead shower, and Nespresso coffee machine. Best bet: Get room service for breakfast and enjoy your meal on the patio with the morning sun.





The beach, about a half-mile long, is as good as it gets, with pink sand and ample lounging chairs and umbrellas, along with attendants who always seem to be there when youre thinking of getting something to eat or drink. Our usual guy was Arturo, quick to deliver dark n stormy cocktails or fabled Bermuda fish chowder whenever the mood struck.





The food scene in Bermuda has vastly improved over the last 20 or so years, and it shines at Elbow Beach. At Cafe Lido one night we had a ridiculously large  and exquisite  double lobster tail dinner, perfectly cooked and seasoned. Lunches are best had at the Sea Breeze Terrace, where the Mediterranean salad is packed with squid, shrimp, scallops, octopus and greens, along with killer ocean views.

Other dining options here, some closed in winter, include Blue Point Restaurant (poolside), Mickeys Beach Bistro & Bar (right on the beach) and The Deep Lounge, a moody, sexy lounge that can be booked for private functions.





The spa is a must at Elbow Beach as well, refurbished in 2012 with six private spa suites and done up in soothing colors and organic textures, with handcrafted granite soaking tubs, bamboo flooring and river pebble-lined steam showers. I had the Oasis massage ($225), 80 minutes of knot-melting bliss.





Another must is the pool, and tiny bar alongside, where Cameron, the barkeep-du-jour, told us all about the work being done at the hotel while doling out masterful drinks. The young man is also a diver, and told us one popular activity at Elbow was taking out kayaks to snorkel at a shipwreck just offshore.





The resort, already pretty posh, should be noticeably more so in coming months under new management headed by Edmund Burns -- a man who seems to know his stuff. With more than 30 years in the hospitality industry, Burns has been part of developing, building, and opening more than $2 billion worth of hotel real estate.

This resort has all the assets needed to be successful, Burns said in a press release.





Sitting on his beach with a drink in hand, we couldnt agree more.





For all information, visit www.elbowbeachbermuda.com



Photos courtesy of Elbow Beach






This might be the year that travelers get their wishes for smoother entry into the U.S.

Our government is currently negotiating with countries around the world to expand the USA Preclearance program that allows travelers to clear U.S. Customs and Immigration at their overseas departure airport.

Flying back from Dublin Airport's Terminal 2 after a New Year's holiday, we spent a little extra time in Ireland and saved a whole lot of time at Logan. Dublin and Shannon are the only airports with USA Preclearance facilities in Europe (the others are in Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Aruba, and Abu Dhabi.)

Clearing at Dublin added one more line to the departure process, but since flights to the US are staggered a few hours apart, the lines are never all that longcertainly a whole lot shorter than clearing Immigration at Logan when a jumbo jet has just landed ahead of you. You go through security first, and then have plenty of time to mill about in the duty-free shops loading up on Irish whiskey and woolens. The final line is USA Preclearance, where you can declare all those purchases to keep the Customs inspector happy.

Photo by Patricia Harris for the Boston Globe
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
If you're in Auburn, Maine or Auburn, Washington, you can find an Uber driver and get around using the ride-sharing service.

In Auburn, New York, that option isn't available. Yet.

"History's Hometown" isn't alone. In other upstate New York cities, from Albany to Buffalo, you won't find Uber drivers. Other ride-sharing companies, such as Lyft, aren't operating there either.

That could change in 2017 if legislation is approved by the state Assembly and Senate. Uber is pushing for passage of a bill that would revise the state's insurance law and allow it to operate in Auburn, Syracuse and other upstate cities.

It sounds so simple. You change the law and the companies can set up shop in these cities. But like any other issue in Albany, it's subject to much scrutiny  and outspoken opposition.

WHAT IS RIDE-SHARING?

One thing ride-sharing isn't is your traditional taxi service.

With taxis, you can call or hail a cab. Some taxi companies have apps or online portals you can use to set up rides.

To catch an Uber, the most prominent ride-sharing service, you need to access the company's mobile app.

Through the app, you can set up a ride, see who the driver is, what type of car they have and track their location. No cash is exchanged. You set up your payment through the app and that's how the transaction is completed.

The drivers use their own cars and tend to work for Uber as a second job. Under the "Drive With Uber" section of the company's app, you can learn more about driving opportunities. "Earn money in your spare time," the section reads. "Drive when you want, earn what you need," says one slide.

Critics note that this is what separates Uber and other ride-sharing companies from taxi services. While Uber appeals to prospective drivers as a part-time job opportunity, taxi drivers tend to work longer hours and the job is their main source of income.

Currently, Uber is available in most major U.S. cities  including New York City. The company is able to operate there because it's regulated as a black car service. That option isn't available statewide, though. That's why the insurance changes are needed.

THE HURDLE

What's preventing Uber, Lyft and other companies from operating in upstate New York is the state's insurance law.

Uber has a commercial insurance policy which covers each of its drivers to up to $1 million. When the drivers, who use their personal vehicles, turn on the app and accept rides, the commercial insurance policy would take effect.

The problem? New York currently doesn't allow this type of group insurance policy.

State Sen. Jim Seward, who chairs the state Senate Insurance Committee, said he first had discussions about the issue in 2014. Last year, legislation was introduced.

It wasn't until November 2015 that the push for ride-sharing in New York gained momentum. Seward, R-Milford, said a roundtable discussion with several stakeholders  representatives from Uber, the taxi industry, local government officials and insurance companies  was held in Albany.

Seward is the sponsor of the bill that would make the necessary changes to the state's insurance law. He said the measure is based on a model agreed to by the insurance companies and the ride-sharing operators. He said that model is being used in at least 35 other states.

"It's very important to have the proper insurance in place because under this business model with these (ride-sharing companies), it's basically personal automobiles that people use when they have the vehicle and some extra time and they can sign up with one of these (companies)," he said.

It appeared Seward's legislation, which was carried in the Assembly by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, was going to pass during the 2016 legislative session. But some changes were made to the Assembly's bill that led to a stalemate.

The amendments, according to Seward, included increasing the required insurance coverage up to $300,000 for when the app is turned on and to $1.5 million for when a rider is in the vehicle.

The changes concerned Seward, who said he heard from Uber and other companies that this would drive up costs to operate in upstate New York.

"It just made it economically not feasible," he said. "What's working well in 35 other states I would like to bring to New York in terms of the insurance coverage. (The Assembly) upped the numbers so dramatically. That was a deal-killer here for this year."

Josh Gold, a policy adviser for Uber, blamed Albany dysfunction for why the legislation wasn't adopted this year.

He cited the results of a Siena Research Institute poll which found 70 percent of New Yorkers support legislation that would allow Uber and other ride-sharing companies to operate in upstate.

Among upstate voters, 65 percent support ride-sharing. Only 19 percent said they oppose it.

"All across upstate, we have this large amount of support and it's unfortunate that Albany hasn't acted yet to give us the ability to buy that insurance so that we can operate," Gold said.

UBER IN AUBURN?

Ride-sharing companies have set up shop in major cities throughout the United States. But you can find Uber drivers in some smaller cities, too.

Case in point: Summit, New Jersey.

Amy Cairns, Summit's public information officer, said Uber launched a promotion in the city offering $5 rides during the holiday season. The rides were subsidized by the city and encouraged people to visit the downtown area, Cairns said.

"It was really successful," she said. "People loved it."

The city of 21,457 is now exploring how Uber can help address its parking problem.

Cairns said Summit, which is located roughly 25 miles west of New York City, is densely populated. One of the issues facing local residents is parking. A passenger train runs through the city and a station is located there. Commuters who live outside of Summit will drive into the city, park there for the day and ride the train into New York City.

By partnering with Uber, Summit hopes to address this problem.

"For what it costs you to park, you could be picked up at your front door and dropped off in front of the train station," Cairns said. "We free up those spaces for maybe employees that work in Summit."

In upstate New York, ride-sharing companies want to establish operations in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. They also want to expand into smaller markets, such as Auburn, Binghamton and Ithaca.

Auburn does have two companies operating three taxi services, but Mayor Michael Quill thinks ride-sharing could be a good alternative for those in need of transportation.

"I think competition in any market is good because the consumer usually wins from the competition," he said. "I would probably go for it. I think I'd be interested in looking at it and moving forward with it."

Quill, a voting member on the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority, said ride-sharing has been raised by the panel during meetings. One of the challenges he wants to address is how travelers can get from Syracuse Hancock International Airport to Auburn.

It's also a problem the tourism industry is trying to tackle.

Meg Vanek, executive director of the Cayuga County Office of Tourism, said the cost of transportation between Auburn and Syracuse is also an issue. Uber and ride-sharing, she said, could be a "fairly inexpensive" alternative if it's permitted.

"It would give them another option because this transportation issue for all of us in the rural areas of the Finger Lakes," she said. "It's really a big issue that nobody has been able to solve."

Vanek said she used Uber when visiting Philadelphia and Washington D.C. She gave a positive review of her experiences. The drivers were friendly, she said, and the vehicles were clean.

"They came on time, they picked you up, dropped you off," she said. "It's all trackable. It was a much better experience than I thought it was going to be."

Seward, too, has used Uber before. He was with Assemblyman Will Barclay, an Oswego County Republican, in Charleston, South Carolina. Barclay launched the Uber app and got a ride for the legislators.

"It was seamless and very easy to use," Seward recalled. "It's just another option for people and I'd like to bring that business model to our communities."

THE TAXIS

While local officials are hopeful that Uber will be able to operate here, Auburn does have transportation options available for those without vehicles of their own.

There are three taxi services  Any, Deluxe and Total Taxi  licensed to operate in the city. The Auburn Police Department is tasked with enforcing the city's taxicab ordinance, which regulates the cab companies.

The city's ordinance requires cabs to be "regularly cleaned and maintained in such a manner as to render adequate and proper public service." The vehicles are also required to be in good mechanical shape. Small dents or scratches are fine, but more significant damage  such as a dangling bumper  must be fixed.

Taxi drivers are subject to strict guidelines. Each applicant must have a New York chauffeur's license, be at least 18 years old and must not be addicted to drugs or alcohol. They also must be "neat in dress and person," according to the ordinance.

Once the application is received, the police department conducts a background check.

In 2015, APD received 52 taxicab driver applications and 12 were denied. So far in 2016, there have been 35 applicants and eight denied.

Auburn Police Chief Shawn Butler supports allowing Uber and other ride-sharing companies commence operations in the city  as long as they abide by the rules and regulations.

If the state adopts legislation to address the insurance issues, it will be left to local municipalities to regulate ride-sharing in a similar manner as taxis.

Officer Greg Gilfus, the department's traffic coordinator, said there will be a learning curve. Dealing with individual drivers will be more challenging than dealing with a taxicab company which has a physical headquarters in the city.

Butler added that they would look to avoid "growing pains" by seeking out advice from other law enforcement agencies.

"We would reach out to other departments similar to our size," he said.

Butler, like Seward and Vanek, has used Uber before. He said he used Uber during trips to Louisville, Kentucky and Columbus, Ohio.

"It gives the consumer different options," he said. "To me, I think the more options the better. The wider the range of choices the better."

He conceded, though, that there would be backlash from the local taxi companies. He said it boils down to one word: competition.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a group that mostly represents cab drivers in New York City, has been one of the most outspoken opponents of allowing ride-sharing in the state. One of the alliance's claims is that Uber drivers earn less than minimum wage and have to work on multiple apps  Lyft, among others  to make full-time pay.

Locally, there's some concern about the impact of ride-sharing on taxi companies.

Amy Giovannetti, a manager for Total Taxi, thinks Auburn is "pretty small" for Uber. She believes the company would focus more on bigger cities, such as Syracuse.

But she does wonder how ride-sharing would affect existing taxi service, especially her own business.

"I would hope if they came to town that it wouldn't be something that would affect us," she said. "But at the same time, it is nerve-wracking when any business comes to town and wants to open a taxi company. Auburn is really small for us to have three, four or five separate taxi companies."

Giovannetti doesn't think she would lose drivers to Uber, mainly because her most of her employees don't have their own vehicles to use for ride-sharing purposes.

She also doesn't believe ride-sharing will affect the company's customer base. Most of their customers, she said, don't use smartphones. To access Uber, you can use the company's app or its mobile website.

Kim Moore, a driver who's worked for Total Taxi for two years, is concerned that the company could be put out of business by Uber and other companies.

"I heard about them and I'm not too fond of them," she said. "I haven't used them before. I've heard things about them. We're a cab company, but we know our customers  and they know us."

WHAT'S NEXT?

For now, Uber waits.

Since the state legislative session ended without an agreement on the insurance bill, they must wait until the 2017 session to push for passage of the measure.

Uber's Josh Gold called upstate New York "the final frontier" for the company, which has set up operations in  of all places  Kazakhstan.

Legislators aren't in Albany at the moment, but Gold said Uber's lobbying effort hasn't stopped.

"We're going to do what it takes to make sure that the coalition of New Yorkers who want this in their communities are heard over special interests in the Capitol," he said.

Seward is optimistic an agreement can be reached next year.

"There's a lot of consumer demand for this, but I've also heard from so many local officials  mayors, county executives  they want this business model in their communities," he said. "I'm hoping we can, in 2017, work out the differences here in a way that we can bring this model to cities (in upstate)."
Just before departing for the summer recess, a group of Labour MPs stood on the House of Commons terrace discussing the impending leadership contest.

Were going to have to bite our tongues quite a bit over the next few weeks, said one modernising former Labour Minister. By that, he meant they would have to suppress their lingering doubts about Owen Smith  and his efforts to ingratiate himself with Jeremy Corbyns Left-leaning base  in a desperate bid to arrest their partys death spiral.

They can stop biting their tongues now. Theres no longer any need to maintain the pretence. Owen Smith has blown it.

Scroll down for video

'Pin-up for mendacity': Owen Smith's performance has been like Frank Underwood in political drama House of Cards

Beating Corbyn was always going to be a tough task. It became an almost impossible task when his disciples managed to circumvent the restriction on non-members voting in the contest, and signed up tens of thousands of supporters at 25 a pop. But against a strong candidate, running an aggressive, well-focused campaign, Corbyn could have at least been forced to put up a fight.

Owen Smith is not that candidate. He has run a spineless, incoherent, incompetent campaign.

As a result, Corbyn is shambling along to another victory.

When Smith was selected as Corbyns challenger, he was sold as 'clean skin'

When Smith was selected as Corbyns challenger  or rather, when he brutally elbowed Angela Eagle aside  his supporters explained to me that he had three big selling points. He was a clean skin  ie not one of the usual anti-Corbyn suspects. He was a polished media performer. And he was a tough political street-fighter.

It took precisely 24 hours for Smiths clean skin to be scarred by the stigmata of Blairism. He had worked as a consultant for Big Pharma. He had welcomed private sector involvement in the NHS. He had guardedly backed the Iraq War.

His skill as a media performer was demonstrated on Wednesday, when he tried to boast of his pivotal role in the Northern Ireland peace process. When this John Terry-style glory-hunting fell flat, he tried to further embellish his credentials in international conflict resolution by announcing he would happily sit down for talks with Islamic State.

Whereas most Labour politicians content themselves with waving the red flag, Smith opted to wave a black one. An hour later Corbyns camp issued a statement distancing themselves from his stance, leaving Smith the only person in British political history to be outflanked by Jeremy Corbyn on the issue of national security.

Questioned about the ongoing bullying and intimidation of Labour members who do not support Corbyn, Smith the dogged street-fighter pleaded: I am not a Blairite, I am a socialist just the same as you. I have never been a Blairite.

That last exchange perfectly encapsulates Smiths strategy. His message has essentially been: I am just like Jeremy Corbyn. I believe in the same things as Jeremy Corbyn. Ditch Jeremy Corbyn.

Amazingly, this Dump Corbyn, Get Corbyn line isnt resonating with the Corbynite true believers. For the simple reason that while many of them are stark-staring mad, they arent stupid. This is how Smith thought he could secure the Labour leadership. Jeremy Corbyns supporters are very Left-wing, he told himself, and I need them to vote for me. So Ill pretend to be very Left-wing too. Thatll fool them. Then I can start dragging Labour back to the centre-ground, which is where it has to be if Im going to get to be Prime Minister.

Corbyns camp distanced themselves from Smith's offer to 'negotiate with ISIS'

Owen says he's not a Blairite - he was elected under Ed Miliband

As a master-plan for wooing Corbyns supporters into his warm and pragmatic arms, it was utterly brilliant. Except it had one fatal flaw: It was so childishly transparent and craven, every Corbyn supporter in the land knew it was his master-plan.

Maybe Smith did while away the hours at his desk at Pfizer dreaming of the true socialist alternative. But if he did, Corbyns diehards arent buying it. And nor, frankly, is anyone else. To be fair, when Smith says he was never a Blairite, I believe him. But thats because by the time he was elected an MP, Tony Blair was long gone. If Smith had been an MP when Blair was leader, he would have been a Blairite. Under Brown, hed have been a Brownite. As it was, when he was elected in 2010, he became a Milibite.

And now, in 2016, hes conveniently become a born-again Corbynite  albeit one who can read an Autocue.

Ask any Corbyn supporter why they back their hero and they will cite the same thing  his personal integrity and political consistency. Ask them what they hate about his opponents and they will again speak in unison  their say-anything-do-anything-to-win mendacity.

Smith has made himself the pin-up for that mendacity. So when he launches  as he did last week  an attack on Tory plans to privatise the NHS, the Corbynites dont think Wow, theres the new Nye Bevan! They just Google his 2006 interview in which he insists, If private finance initiative works, then lets do it. What people want to see are more hospitals, better services, and then think, Theres the new Frank Underwood from House of Cards.

There is also one other gaping flaw in Smiths grand stratagem. His message to Labour members is that whatever their ideals, if they want to see them put into practice they must win the next General Election. They have to, in his own words, smash Theresa May back on her heels.

His message to Labour members is that whatever their ideals, if they want to see them put into practice they must win the next General Election

The problem is, Smith cant win the next Election. He no more passes the Downing Street test  can you picture that person standing on the doorstep of No 10  than Ed Miliband did. And if he ever tried to smash Theresa May back on her heels, Theresa May would chew him up, spit him out, and parade around the Despatch Box wearing his glasses as a trophy.

Labour members needed to be forced to make a choice. A genuine choice: Do you want to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, or do you want to vote for the next Labour Prime Minister? But they havent been presented with a choice between Corbyn and the next Prime Minister. Theyve been presented with a choice between Corbyn and a confidence trickster: Do you want to vote for the real Jeremy Corbyn or do you want to vote for a fake one?

To stand any chance, Smith needed to hurl himself at Corbyn with an unbridled political ferocity. Instead, he has tried to cower and wheedle and ingratiate himself towards the Labour leadership.

There are a large number of Labour Party members who do understand the party needs to win power

Everything Corbyn believes in is wrong, but at least he believes in something. Smiths convictions appear to extend to repeating everything Corbyn says, then screaming but we need to be in power! in an increasingly broad Welsh accent.

What Smith doesnt seem to understand is that his party is in a fight to the death. And there are only two sides doing the fighting. There are the Corbynite Jets and the Moderate Sharks. There is no longer any hiding place  somewhere where people can cower, meekly trying to keep a foot in both camps.

The hiding place, in other words, that Smith has been trying to find over the past few weeks.

In one respect, Smith is right. There are a large number of Labour Party members who do understand the party needs to win power. Many of them  maybe even a majority  would be prepared to compromise on some of their principles if they thought it would deliver their party a victory.

But what they are not prepared to do is compromise those principles for another defeat.
Respect for John Majors worthy but dull style in No 10 grows by the day.

Invited to respond publicly to praise for his decision to give Olympic athletes Lottery cash, he refused.

A spokesman said: He has been enthralled by Team GB in Rio, but believes Olympians alone should be the focus of attention rather than turning their extraordinary feats into political self-congratulation. Can you imagine image-obsessed Blair or Cameron being so Trappist?

Invited to respond publicly to praise for his decision to give Olympic athletes Lottery cash, John Major refused

Saucy comments about newly bearded Michael Goves, ahem, profile in shorts are not first time he has been involved in below-the-belt speculation.

A young Gove once enraged Mick Jagger by joking about his tackle after they stood next to each other at a urinal at an Oxford University event. When Gove asked for a lift back to London, Jagger snarled: In the f****** boot. And Goves wife Sarah says: It wasnt Michaels big heart that first attracted me.

Saucy comments about newly bearded Michael Goves profile in shorts are not first time he has been involved in below-the-belt speculation

Gove is not the only former Minister to experiment with an unshaven look. Former Deputy PM Nick Clegg has also sprouted designer stubble on his summer holidays. However, friends believe it may not have been a success with his feisty Spanish wife, Miriam. It made him look really hip but he suddenly shaved it off, said one pal. There can only be one reason for that

Can Ed finally strike a chord on Strictly

Dog hopes Ed Ballss new bid to soften his bruiser image by appearing on Strictly fares better than the last such attempt.

After boasting he had taken up the piano, Balls was interviewed by LBC Radios Iain Dale, who suddenly produced an electric keyboard and invited him to play live on air. Ed duly knocked out a few mangled chords. Who arranged the secret Joanna? Time for Dog to confess

Dog hopes Ed Ballss new bid to soften his bruiser image by appearing on Strictly fares better than the last such attempt

Someone should tell Ed Vaizey that now hes been sacked as Arts Minister, he can stop pretending to be down with the kids. Dog hears that Vaizey, 48, is still planning to attend next months Grime music awards and rub shoulders with rapper Bugzy Malone, composer of grime classics such as Watch Your Mouth and Relegation Riddim  which sounds like what Theresa May did to Ed in last months reshuffle.

Written in the Stars

Allies of Jeremy Corbyn have been reminiscing about former Morning Star editor Tony Chater, who has died aged 86.

They recalled Chaters fury over his failed attempt to ban the Daily Star  a nudes and Elvis found on Mars  red-top  on the grounds that it could be confused with his lumpen, pro-Soviet rag. Throwing out Chaters plea, the judge said only a moron in a hurry could mix them up.

Dimwit television presenter John Inverdale is not the only BBC person to flirt with controversy at the Olympics. When a camera chanced upon a scruffy member of the Rio audience at one of the events, Inverdales fellow commentator, the usually matchless Andrew Cotter, could not resist comparing the chap to Jeremy Corbyn.
'I am an experienced asylum judge in a major British population centre - our immigration controls are broken and the country cannot cope'

I am an experienced asylum judge in a major British population centre and you must believe me when I say this: our immigration controls are broken and the country cannot cope.

Britain has a proud tradition of helping the oppressed, which is why I am pleased to have spent the past two decades reviewing the cases of people seeking a place of safety.

In my time, I have seen a number of moving and entirely deserving cases, victims of torture meted out by oppressive regimes, for example.

My rulings have helped them stay here to build new lives.

Such people still need our support today, but to describe them as a minority of those who appear before me is a tragic understatement because the truth is that the great majority of the claimants at my tribunals are not attempting to escape persecution at all. They are economic migrants, pure and simple.

Often, the stories they tell me are palpably false and in some cases absurd, and I have no hesitation turning them down.

Yet  and this is the truly frustrating part  only a tiny proportion, between five and ten per cent of the people I recommend for removal, are ever taken from these shores.

I was in no way surprised by last weeks government figures showing that thousands of false and retrospective asylum claims are clogging up the system, because I have seen this with my own eyes.

Some of these claims are lodged years after the migrant first arrived. Only when the authorities catch up with them do they find a solicitor.

I am barred from speaking without the permission of the Home Office, so today I must remain anonymous and so must the cases I have dealt with.

Yet some of the stories told to me and my fellow judges beggar belief. Take the example of the middle-aged woman from West Africa who claimed that she was escaping from a grandmother threatening her with female genital mutilation (FGM).

Now FGM is a horrific practice that is carried out on millions of young girls but never  according to my investigations  on very mature women. Especially not by their elderly grandmothers.

Another scam is worked by Chinese claimants. Many come before me saying they have joined the Falun Gong religion and therefore cannot go back to China, which has a record of persecuting the sect. Sorting out the truth in such cases is difficult.

Then there are those who claim the right to a family life, which is the last resort of the rascal in my opinion.

Only a tiny proportion, between five and ten per cent of the people I recommend for removal, are ever taken from these shores, according the an asylum judge

A colleague of mine had before him the case of a Muslim from Asia who had lived here for years with a wife and children, and then went back to his country of birth to marry three other wives, as he is allowed to do under Islamic law, and had more children.

Those later children then claimed British nationality, even though we dont recognise polygamy in our marriage laws, and the mothers also claimed the right to come over here with the children on the basis of a right to family life. That obligation was imposed on the UK Government by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Right.

Astounding as it might seem to you or to me, they were successful on appeal.

I also know of the case of a girl from West Africa who claimed to have been abducted, raped and fallen pregnant, but then had a child only five months after the dates she gave.

Then there was the West African man who claimed to have escaped from captivity as a child soldier and walked home.

As Im familiar with the geography of that area, I knew that the place where the army was supposed to have taken him was 3,000 miles away from his home  and the route was mostly jungle.

As for Afghan asylum seekers, most of them that come here are underage children sent on by their parents. The Government automatically gives them temporary leave to stay. Then, as soon as they reach 18 and are ordered home, they claim asylum.

The Government automatically gives unaccompanied underage Afghan children temporary leave to stay

I must say that the ones Ive encountered  they are all boys of course  have been highly intelligent and charming. If, however, they cant explain an unreasonable delay in making their claim, we rule against them. I sometimes wonder why we bother. The appeal process can go on for years, by which time some claimants have married a British national or had a child with one.

David Cameron said he would reduce the problem of illegals to the tens of thousands but it is little wonder that he failed to do so.

It is a straightforward lack of political will. In my view the authorities have concluded that it is simply not cost effective to enforce the law; not that they will admit it.

Nor will they tell the truth about the sheer scale of the problem in the first place.

Can Europe really sustain three million people coming to its shores every year? More than 200,000 people claimed asylum in this country in the decade up to 2014, and another 40,000 last year. The ways of entering the country are numerous and often impossible to police.

It is easy, for example, to acquire forged passports, birth and death certificates in many foreign countries.

More than 200,000 people claimed asylum in this country in the decade up to 2014, and another 40,000 last year

The fact is that mass immigration is a world phenomenon and a booming business.

One group of British judges who went abroad on a work trip were astonished to find themselves being offered false papers by a man in the street. It was done as casually as if they were touting tickets for a pop concert.

British colleges and universities take lucrative fees from foreign students. Some of them overstay their visas, only finally claiming asylum if the authorities track them down.

People without the proper papers can go below the radar for years. How do I know this?

Partly because of the cases that come before me, but also because of the evidence from the sewage industry  an excellent way of gauging how many people are really living in this country.

The discrepancy between the official figures and what is actually going down the pipes shows there are a million more people in London than are legally registered, and another half a million more outside the capital.

In a way, we should be honoured that we are a decent country and people want to come here. It is to our credit that we are not racist like some other parts of the European population.

Even so, there is a practical limit to tolerance. The British public will not put up with housing all who come here.

You can be as liberal as you like about the issue, but it has a big impact on our poorer communities where resources are scarce and there is competition for jobs and housing.

Our population is growing at the fastest rate for nearly a century, at around half a million people a year. It has been suggested this means building the equivalent of a city the size of Liverpool every year.

British colleges and universities take lucrative fees from foreign students

Those champions of freedom of immigration tend to live privileged lives away from the problems of overcrowded schools and surgeries. Their children are not going to schools where they are the only ones who speak English and the others have to have lessons that hold everyone in the class back by several years.

As it happens, I am politically liberal. But neither Left or Right are honest about the problem.

The Conservatives do not want to spend the necessary money sorting it out, while New Labour under Tony Blair helped create the mess by realising that migration, legal and illegal, is a source of cheap labour to boost the economy.

In addition, most on the Left are too fearful of being considered racist if they criticise immigration levels.

Until recently, no politician was prepared to discuss it, which is daft. Grow up!

In the long run, the answer to the immigration explosion is a fairer distribution of resources worldwide.

North African countries, for instance, need access to European markets; they need developed economies and a decent life for their citizens.

Until that happens, those false claimants we do manage to remove will continue to return.

But there are measures we can take in the short term, too. I would like to see us going back to the old system of questioning people about their claims as soon as they arrive.

That was stopped after it was decided that it was too traumatic to question people immediately.

I question the automatic right of people to live here permanently by marrying a British national or by having a child with a British national. Too many of these arrangements are short-lived.

I have never understood the logic of why EU citizens have the right to bring their entire families over here simply because they are based here to work.

A colleague of mine presided over the case of a European citizen with an African wife, who produced her marriage certificate as proof that she was entitled to stay here.

At the time the husband was actually living in America  for rather a long time as it happened, since he was doing ten years in an American jail.

We should clamp down still further on the black market in labour that allows illegals to stay below the radar.

And, of course, we need to give the Borders Agency adequate resources and real political backing so that when my fellow judges and I decide that a claim is false  and, remember, this undermines those in genuine need  our rulings are met with action.

We are lucky that Britain is an island with its own natural barrier, but at the moment immigration judges like me are presiding over an impossible situation.

It is essential that we grasp the nettle. For that, however, we must first tell the truth about the disastrous state we are in.

The author has received no payment for this article.
SENNETT  Behind Simple Roast Coffee is a simple truth: It's the only place in town to get coffee that was roasted in town.

Well, it will be. Tentatively set to open Saturday, Sept. 3, in in the former Nana's Cafe in Grant Avenue Plaza, Simple Roast will serve coffee personally roasted by owner Matthew Peirson, of Camillus.

A coffee lover, he began roasting it as a hobby while studying entrepreneurship at SUNY Oswego. He'd then sell his beans and grounds at farmers markets.

"Watching people enjoy something I created was really a big part of it for me," he said Friday.

Coffee Mania in Cortland, which roasts and serves its own coffee, seeded in Peirson a desire to open his open shop. But he was content to run his roasting business  until Nana's closed.

Alerted to the opportunity by Coffee Mania owners Craig and Michelle Brooks, Peirson jumped on it. He said the Brookses told him their drive-through customers in Cortland had expressed hope a similar place would open in the Auburn area, and Peirson feels the Sennett hut is perfectly located to meet the demand.

"It seemed like the town was ready for this type of thing," he said.

Peirson will work full-time at Simple Roast, along with another full-time employee and a part-time one.

The menu includes hot and iced coffee, lattes, mochas and more in 12-, 16- and 20-ounce servings, all made from his fair trade, organic roasts. Espressos will be prepared on an "old school" semi-automatic E61 Legend machine, Peirson said. And none of the beverages will be served more than two weeks past their roasting date.

Additionally, Peirson will serve loose-leaf teas from Salt City Roasters in Syracuse and muffins from Half Moon Bakery & Bistro in Jamesville. He's also leaving room for Simple Roast to expand, either in its hours or in the inventory of its baked goods.

Unlike the space's previous occupants, however, Peirson won't be serving ice cream. He'll instead refer sweet tooths to Scoops Ice Cream Shop down Grant Avenue, as he's been doing since he began setting up shop as Simple Roast.

For now, Peirson is focused on establishing Simple Roast in the Auburn area as an approachable local brand. He encourages the curious to ask questions; he and the staff will be happy to explain any unfamiliar drink on the menu in order to help make people comfortable with Simple Roast Coffee.

"Even though I have a superior product, my goal is to be the every-person coffee," he said. "I want my grandparents to be able to come here, too."
A mother who took her three young children abroad for their first family holiday has described her horror after her baby daughter became seriously ill on the trip.

Debbie Middleton's eight-month-old daughter, Emily, fell so unwell after eating from mouldy place-mats in their hotel that she needed medical care for four weeks after returning home.

The family, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, has now been awarded 6,900 in compensation following their nightmare stay at the Holiday Village Algarve.

Debbie Middleton's eight-month-old daughter, Emily, fell so ill during the holiday that she needed medical care for four weeks after returning home. From left to right: Callum, seven, Debbie, 40, Emily, Ben, nine and husband Brian, 41

The family, from Stonehaven, Scotland, were all ill apart from Ben. Emily, pictured, was so ill that her food went straight through her tiny body

Debbie, 40, says: 'It was supposed to be a holiday to celebrate Emily's addition to the family  our first holiday with all three children. Instead, she was so ill that her food just went straight through her tiny body.

'I had a beautiful new purple dress for the holiday, but one night I was holding Ellie and all this horrible green slime leaked from her nappy  all over my dress.

'It was like a river of sludge.

'She was so poorly and even after we came home she had to see a doctor.

'We had a big family room in the hotel which we thought would be ideal, but instead it was like a scene from a medical drama every night, with my husband running to the toilet, my son throwing up at the side of his bed and me changing disgusting nappies every half hour.'

The hotel dining room had brightly coloured place-mats on each table which initially looked clean, but Debbie soon noticed that they were all wiped with the same cloth after mealtimes

Debbie and her husband Brian, 41, had travelled to the First Choice hotel in May 2014 for their first family holiday with their three children.

Yet just three days into their stay, their baby daughter Emily fell violently ill with sickness and diarrhoea.

Debbie says: 'Emily was really poorly. I have never seen anything like it. Her nappies were overflowing with green slime.

'I had a lovely new purple dress for the holiday and one night, her nappy leaked out all over my dress and it was ruined.

Just three days into their stay, baby Emily fell violently ill with sickness and diarrhoea

'The hotel dining room had brightly coloured place-mats on each table which looked lovely, but we soon noticed that they were all wiped with the same cloth after mealtimes.

'Then another guest  who had also fallen ill  showed me the mould under the mats and I was horrified.

'Because Emily was a baby her food went all over the mat as she learned to feed herself  and she was obviously eating all those bugs.'

Another guest at the hotel  who had also fallen ill  showed Debbie the mould under the mats and she was horrified

Soon after Emily, dad Brian also became unwell, and his illness was so violent that he was unable to leave the bedroom. Then, their son Callum, seven, also fell ill.

Debbie says: 'There was a long queue of holidaymakers filling in sickness forms in the hotel lobby. The bug was rife and yet there was no support from the hotel staff.

'The night times were the worst. We were all in one room and literally we were running past each other with dirty nappies and buckets of sick.

Soon after Emily, Brian also became ill, and his illness was so violent that he was unable to leave the bedroom. Then, their son, Callum, seven, also fell ill

'I had to keep phoning down to reception to ask for clean bedding and more loo rolls. It was horrendous.

'I had never seen Brian so ill and I was genuinely very worried.'

Relieved to fly home after a week, Debbie then fell ill on the plane  meaning that only the couple's eldest son, Ben, nine, was unaffected by the illness.

Relieved to fly home after a week, Debbie then fell ill on the plane  meaning that only the couple eldest son, Ben, nine, was unaffected by the illness

Baby Emily  who was still dehydrated by the bug  had to see a doctor when the family returned to the UK. She remained ill for a further four weeks.

Debbie says: 'It was a really worrying and upsetting time. We'd looked forward to our first holiday together with the three children for so long, and not only was it ruined but it left us ill and stressed for weeks afterwards.'

Debbie made a complaint to First Choice but they failed to address her concerns, and so she took legal advice.

Debbie made a complaint to First Choice but they failed to address her concerns, and so she took legal advice

She has recently received 6,900 in compensation from First Choice.

Sue Robinson, the holiday illness expert from Farnworth Rose Solicitors who handled the case, commented: 'The illness Mrs Middleton and her family suffered at the Holiday Village Algarve was extremely concerning.

'Where there are failings in food and hygiene standards in all-inclusive package holiday hotels, outbreaks of illness can spread quickly and ruin holidays.

They'd looked forward to their first holiday together with the three children for so long, and not only was it ruined but it left them ill and stressed for weeks afterwards

'We are delighted to have now helped Mrs Middleton and her family receive compensation for the illness they suffered.'

A First Choice spokesperson said: 'First Choice is sorry to hear of the Middleton familys experience.

'As this has been the subject of legal proceedings it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.
A personal trainer who was left devastated after going bald at the age of 19 reveals how she helps other women with alopecia by sharing her no-holds-barred photos on Instagram.

Yasmin Taylor, 24, who's originally from Wisborough Green, West Sussex, was diagnosed with the hair-loss condition when she was 15.

The teen desperately tried to hide her bald patches from family and friends by wearing a wig but she finally ditched the hairpiece last year and says she has never felt so comfortable in her own skin.

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Yasmin Taylor, 24, has ditched the wigs and is now comfortable in her own skin

Now, Yasmin, who lives in Abu Dhabi, embraces being bald and uses her Instagram account to help inspire other young women who may be suffering from hair loss.

To date, she has nearly a thousand followers and receives plenty of messages from women admiring her 'bravery'.

Yasmin said: 'I was devastated when I lost my hair, my grandma would say it was my best feature and I was always complimented on my curly thick brown hair.

'You expect old men to lose their hair, not teenage girls.

For years, she desperately tried to cover her bald patches from family and friends by wearing a wig but explained that she felt like a 'fraud'

As soon as Yasmin stopped wearing the wig, 80 per cent of her hair began growing back and her recent selfies (pictured) show the regrowth on her scalp

'But now I'm happier without the wig, and alopecia has made me appreciate everything I have, it's made me more comfortable in my skin.'

Yasmin's condition was first diagnosed in 2007, after her mum noticed her teenage daughter's locks had started to thin.

She recalled: 'My mum one day was like "oh my God, your hair has receded". It had completely disappeared up to the top of my ears. 'There was hair on my pillow, it was coming out when I pulled at it and eventually found out from a dermatologist it was alopecia.'

Yasmin, pictured before her hair loss, was diagnosed with alopecia at just 15 years old

Alopecia is a type of hair loss that occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles.

Yasmin would undergo 60 steroid injections a month at a private dermatologist to prevent her hair from receding further but, when she turned 18, the injections stopped being effective.

'It was on a six-month trip to South East Asia when I noticed large chunks had fallen out,' explained Yasmin. 'It was really worrying but I tried not to let it get in the way of my trip.

Yasmin was 'devastated' when she first started losing her hair

'All I could do is wear my hair in a low ponytail to hide the bald patches.'

When she returned to the UK in 2011, she went to the doctor and had her diagnosis changed from alopecia areata, hair loss in patches, to alopecia totalis - which can result in losing all the hair on the scalp as well as eyebrows and eyelashes - and carried on with the painful 60 injections a month for four months.

But with no medical cure and the steroid treatment becoming ineffective, Yasmin's mum bought her a dark, straight-haired wig to disguise the bald patches.

Yasmin pictured on her very first outing without her wig

She said: 'I wouldn't let anyone see me without it, not my family or my boyfriend at the time. He was really great about it and always helped me cover it up. I just felt so ashamed and embarrassed of what was happening to me.'

As the months rolled into years, Yasmin began to resent her wig and felt as if she wasn't being true to herself, but worried about what people would think.

It was only after facing the sweltering heat during a year-long trip to Australia last year that she considered going wig-free for the first time.

'I felt jealous watching my friends jump into the sea while I watched from the shore,' she admitted. 'I was too afraid my wig would get wet and displace in the water.'

Six months after she'd arrived in Australia in March last year, Yasmin mustered the courage to go outside without her wig for the first time since she was diagnosed nearly eight years previously.

The personal trainer said she felt 'ashamed and embarrassed' when she started losing her hair

She said: 'I realised that while I was wearing a wig, I was pretending to be someone I'm not, so I thought I'm going to have to be brave and just take it off.

'I was in Byron Bay and I just took it off, it was so liberating.

'At first I'd take the wig off in the morning and wear it in the evening, but I couldn't be bothered after a week or so and just kept it off all the time.

'I don't know what it was, but as soon as I stopped wearing the wig 80 per cent of my hair had even grown back.'

I was pretending to be someone I'm not, so I thought I'm going to have to be brave and just take the wig off

Yasmin said her boyfriend was generally supportive but the pair ended their seven-year on and off relationship a month before she left for Australia.

She said: 'I was too embarrassed to take off the wig in front of him, and I'd sleep in a beanie.

'We broke up nearly two years ago because we just kept arguing a lot.

'But he was very supportive and didn't see it as a problem.'

Yasmin found the experience of removing her wig while travelling in Australia last year 'liberating'

Yasmin said she'd sometimes get stares and people would ask her if she had cancer, but ultimately felt better without her wig.

She said: 'While sometimes I get comments, most of the time I don't acknowledge it. On a day when I do notice it, I feel like I want to cover up, but those are the days that I force myself not to.'

Now I am like it's just hair why does it matter? I'm not dying.

Now Yasmin takes pictures of her alopecia progress and posts them to her Instagram account, inspiring other women to feel at ease with their condition.

'I've been getting the most wonderful comments from teenage girls who say my Instagrams inspire people - it makes my heart so warm.

'I never realised this could actually help other people.

'It took me so long to get to grips with my alopecia, it is so worth it, even if I'm helping just one person.'

Yasmin now keeps her Instagram followers up-to-date on her alopecia progress and receives 'the most wonderful comments' from teenage girls

Yasmin said she's experienced funny looks because of her appearance, but they just make her more determined to show off her condition.

She explained: 'I think we live in a world where everyone wants thick luscious hair, my grandma once said my hair was my beauty.

'I am proud of myself, having alopecia made me a better person, I appreciate the small things I have.
Chontel Duncan, a fitness model and mother-of-one based in Brisbane, is no stranger to hurtful comments on social media.

The stunning fitness guru, 27, made headlines for her incredible abs while pregnant and boasts over 575,000 Instagram followers.

And while Ms Duncan has a tough exterior, she shared a post on Saturday revealing that even she struggles with the inevitable trolling and inappropriate comments that come with social media stardom.

'I am human': Chontel Duncan, a fitness model and mother-of-one based in Brisbane, is no stranger to hurtful comments on social media

'Feeling meh': And while she has a tough exterior, she shared a post on Saturday revealing that even she struggles with the inevitable trolling that comes with social media stardom

38 weeks: The stunning fitness guru, 27, made headlines for her incredible abs while pregnant and boasts over 575,000 Instagram followers

'Sometimes people forgot [sic] that I am human.... That I have paths that I won't cross.... Things I don't feel comfortable sharing,' she wrote.

'That I have a personality which makes me different an [sic] unique... That I read EVERY comment, private message & email... That I am just one person & not super women.

'Sometimes I feel like there's these crazy expectations but I am just one person & I feel like people forget that #NOHATE #GOODVIBES #FEELINGMEH #WISHPEOPLEWEREMOREUNDERSTANDING.'

'Don't let anyone get you down': Ms Duncan's post received more than 11,000 likes, with many praising the model for her honesty and encouraging her to keep sharing

Positive: 'Those who say bad things about you are probably jealous and don't realize that you too are just human,' one woman wrote

Ms Duncan's post received more than 11,000 likes, with many praising the model for her honesty and encouraging her to keep sharing.

'Don't let anyone get you down keep doing you you're amazing and inspiring to all! Those who say bad things about you are probably jealous and don't realize that you too are just human,' one woman wrote.

'There's just a general lack of tact. Being public figure doesn't mean every aspect of your life is for public consumption. You share more than enough of your life,' another said.

Fit: Ms Duncan made headlines when she was pregnant and even when she was 28 days away from giving birth, she was working out every day

Impressive: And after giving birth, she regained her physique quickly, sharing snaps of her incredible post-baby body, almost four weeks after giving birth to her son Jeremiah

Ms Duncan shot to fame when she was pregnant and even when she was 28 days away from giving birth, she was working out every day.

And after giving birth, she regained her physique quickly, sharing snaps of her incredible post-baby body almost four weeks after giving birth to her son Jeremiah.

Ms Duncan revealed that she had full medical clearance to start walking again and that she would be returning to training at the gym two weeks later.

Comparison: A photo of Ms Duncan comparing her belly with a friend who was at the same stage in her pregnancy went viral

Recreation: The pair recreated the photo after they had both given birth

'I am such an OCD person with my body, I MUST get full approval for everything before I'll go do it,' she wrote.

'I'd absolutely be shattered if I caused myself injury or any damage for not listening an just jumping the gun. If I feel a slight bit of change in straight on the phone to my midwife lol asking every question under the sun [sic].'
Great British Bake Off winner: The whole world has been taken over by Nadiya Hussain

I feel as though Ive been kidnapped by a cult. The whole world has been taken over by Nadiya Hussain, a young woman who baked iced buns on telly. On Friday morning my ears were assaulted by her choices on Desert Island Discs (The Backstreet Boys, really?). She told host Kirsty Young that her mum would make, from scratch, eight curries a day for her six children. This left Kirsty reeling  shes a woman who is used to ordering room service at the swanky Soho Farmhouse owned by her husband. Kirsty described her guest as someone who had conjured culinary magnificence and wit winning the Great British Bake Off watched by millions .

At 19, Nadiya had two jobs. She had an arranged marriage. She was at home with her three kids for ten years. She talked about her grandma, who would wash the childrens hair with Fairy Liquid. She wears a headscarf. She said she experiences abuse on a daily basis but that there is dignity in silence (there was no irony in the air that she was on the radio, talking non-stop).

To Nadiya, baking is sorcery. She has in the piping bag a new BBC series about to be broadcast where she goes back to her parents village in Bangladesh, cookery books, novels, childrens books, a column in The Times. Good grief, she even baked a birthday cake for the Queen.

The reason Nadiya has the world at her feet is that we need someone like her to make us feel good about ourselves

I think someone aged 31 is too young to be asked to appear on Desert Island Discs. Yes, she has a TV-friendly backstory, but who cares, really, that she is one of six, and that her mum made curry from scratch, or that her dad worked really, really hard. Weve all been there, weve all been pushed and shoved. Im one of seven; my mum never once bought a ready-meal, a coffee in a cardboard mug, or drank bottled water. I had a job aged 11 washing up in a pub. Oh, and sorcery? How hard is it to follow a recipe, put flour, eggs and sugar in a food processor, and bung the mixture in the oven?

Why are we worshipping at this womans altar? Why is there no murmur of dissent? Her recipe for pecan and white chocolate blondies contains 225g of sugar  equivalent to six and a half cans of Coke.

Why are we worshipping at this womans altar? Why is there no murmur of dissent?

Nadiya has said: I love sweets. They are one of the four great loves of my life. I have sweets hidden inside my pillowcase so I can chew on them if I cant get to sleep. My dentist will be horrified.

No wonder Theresa May has abandoned any fight against obesity in children if this woman has been crowned the new Nigella. The reason Nadiya has the world at her feet is that we need someone like her to make us feel good about ourselves.

No matter that children are being bombed in Syria, or that we give a wide berth to any man with a beard at the airport. If we embrace Nadiya, who is tethered to her range cooker, has lovely, dark, liquid, expressive eyes, is a mum and a wife who thinks baking carrot cake is art, then we are all nice people who can live with ourselves.

Never mind that she told the Radio Times that, aged five, she used to slaughter animals. Goats, sheep, cows, chicken  I can do all that. It was completely normal to us. Ducks as well.

Like Jack Monroe, the single mum who was on benefits and posted a blog about cooking on a budget but never thought to eschew meat, Nadiya is a sacred cow, lauded because we need someone we deem worthy to make us feel liberal, like announcing at a Notting Hill dinner party that we have lots of black friends.
When it comes to yoga and intense gym workouts, most women have struggled with their active wear bunching, twisting or falling down at some stage.

But a unique new activewear trend promises to free women of these issues forever.

Thousands of gym junkies the world over have turned to the workout onesie, a figure-hugging catsuit that ensures a non-restrictive, comfortable and bunch-free workout experience.

Freedom: Thousands of gym junkies the world over have turned to the workout onesie, a figure-hugging catsuit that ensures a non-restrictive free workout experience

Paisley catsuit: The Upside has embraced the onesie trend, with one of their signature pieces being an 'Etched Paisley' catsuit (pictured)

The garment has been so popular, that mainstream activewear brands have introduced it into their new collections.

Australian company The Upside is known for their uniquely refined prints and easy sleek style and their activewear is worn by some of the most influential fitness gurus.

And they too have embraced the onesie trend, with one of their signature pieces being an 'Etched Paisley' catsuit.

For everyone: Stella McCartney has also welcomed the trend, with her activewear line for Adidas, Stellasport, including a $70 'short onesie'

Eye popping: Protokolo sells an array of brightly coloured neon numbers featuring intricate detailing and stitching selling for between $70 and $100

The catsuit costs $199 and, according to The Upside, is perfect for yoga and pilates.

The pieces has reinforced elastic bands around the underbust, it is shaped to flatter the figure and is made using a stretch fabric that is dense, firm, lightweight, lustrous and quick drying.

Stella McCartney has also welcomed the trend, with her activewear line for Adidas, Stellasport, including a $70 'short onesie.'

'Fun and sporty, the adidas STELLASPORT collection is all about bold patterns, pops of colour and super-fresh style,' the description reads.

Serious about the gym: The chic catsuits are described as being perfect for those who are serious about working out

'Train in the stretchy, body-hugging coverage of this women's one-piece. Styled with a sporty racer back, it's made with sweat-wicking fabric to keep you dry and comfortable.'

The onesie comes in a bright green and 'lucky blue' colour and is stamped with the company's logo.

Black Milk Clothing's workout onesie has been so popular, it has sold out and is unavailable.

The company describes the chic black catsuit as being perfect for those who are serious about working out.

'Because its super fitted and all one piece its like wearing a second skin': Black Milk Clothing's workout onesie has been so popular, it has sold out and is unavailable

'Because its super fitted and all one piece its like wearing a second skin. Theres no need to adjust or reposition, no shirt to creep up, no pants to creep down, no bunching, no twisting, no catching on stuff, no awkward sweat patches. Just total freedom of movement,' they write.

'We've sourced the most high-tech fabric in the world for these garments. Its got built-in 4-way stretch to move with you, shrink-resistance, fade-resistance, pilling-resistance, UV protection, and breathability.

'It keeps you dry, wont restrict your movements, and holds everything in so you can just focus on training harder.'

For the gym junkie: 'It keeps you dry, wont restrict your movements, and holds everything in so you can just focus on training harder,' Black Milk claim

Among other companies selling the workout onesies are Protokolo and Free People.

Protokolo sells an array of brightly coloured neon numbers featuring intricate detailing and stitching selling for between $70 and $100.

Free People's Sonata jumpsuit is less figure-hugging than the others - the $153 piece featuring a deep V-neckline and cross back straps with knotted detail.
Ivanka Trump is back to her hectic lifestyle after enjoying a vacation in Croatia with her husband.

The 34-year-old shared an Instagram video on Friday, showing herself getting in a workout in a nearly empty gym before getting on with her weekend plans.

'Quick workout in before the #weekend. #FitnessFriday,' the mom-of-three wrote on the video, which shows her engaging in suspension training.

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Putting in the effort: Ivanka Trump shares one of her workout moves in an Instagram video

Back and forth: The mother-of-three is seen in the clip engaging in suspension training

Smiles for mom: Four-and-a-half-month-old Theodore is 'pure sweetness' in this photo, shared by Ivanka on Sunday

Wearing a pair of grey leggings and a long-sleeved blue workout shirt, Ivanka takes hold of the ropes and lifts her self up, lifting one knee upwards, before lowering herself down into a kneeling position, but without letting her leg touch the floor.

After her vacation, Ivanka is clearly elated to be back with her babies, including little Theodore, who stars in a post shared by Ivanka on Sunday.

The picture shows the tot in a khaki colored outfit, smiling broadly at mom from the couch, and is captioned with: 'pure sweetness'.

Ivanka also took to Instagram on Friday to kick off the weekend with an adorable video of her four-and-a-half-month-old son laughing up a storm.

'Baby giggles are the best!' she captioned the precious clip, which sees her youngest child flashing a gummy smile while cracking up.

What's so funny? Ivanka also took to Instagram on Friday to share an adorable video of Theodore laughing hysterically

The little boy, who is propped up in a chair, is the spitting image of his father in a blue button-down shirt and khaki pants.

And while he isn't even six months old yet, Theo looks like he is ready for the boardroom in his sophisticated getup that is still a bit too big on the growing tot.

In the clip, Theo's upper body is shaking as he gleefully giggles at something he is watching in the background.

The week before, Ivanka and 35-year-old Jared were enjoying some sightseeing in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Too cute: In the clip, the little boy is the spitting image of his father Jared Kushner in a button-down shirt and khaki pants that are a bit too big

Although the couple were 4,500 miles away from their Park Avenue apartment, they still managed to cause a stir as they were photographed by the paparazzi as they went for a leisurely walk in the city's old town.

Ivanka and Jared appeared to have been without their three children, Arabella, five, Joseph, two, and baby Theo, but they did spend time with some old friends.

On Sunday, Ivanka shared a photo of herself posed with her good friend Wendi Deng Murdoch.

The photo shows the pair of gorgeous ladies standing in front of a ledge overlooking a sea of orange roofs with mountains in the background.

Rest and relaxation: Ivanka shared a photo of her and Jared enjoying a 'morning hike in Hvar' on Monday during their trip to Croatia

Striking a pose: The businesswoman also visited her good friend Wendi Deng Murdoch in Dubrovnik during the visit

'Sight seeing with @wendimurdoch in Dubrovnik,' Ivanka wrote in the picture's caption.

Wendi, the former wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, actually helped Ivanka and Jared reunite after they broke up in 2008 because of their religious differences.

According to the New Yorker, Wendi brought them back together on a weekend yacht trip and they married in 2009 after Ivanka converted to Judaism.

Six years later, the couple seem closer than ever, and on Monday morning, Ivanka shared a photo of them enjoying a 'morning hike in Hvar' during their trip.

Back to work! Ivanka was already back to business on Wednesday when she sat in on her father Donald's national security meeting with his new team of advisers

Family affair: Ivanka has been campaigning tirelessly for her father throughout, and she is pictured with her dad and her brother Donald Jr. at the Republican National Convention

However, the businesswoman got right back to work when she returned home this week, and on Wednesday she sat in on her father Donald's national security meeting with his new team of advisers after his recent slump in the polls.

Ivanka and and her husband have been tirelessly campaign for the GOP presidential nominee, however, Jared hasn't been able to convince his younger brother Josh, 31, to get on board with The Donald.

In a new article in Esquire, a spokesman for Josh Kushner confirmed that Ivanka's brother-in-law would not be voting for the Donald come November.

'Through a spokesman, he said he loved his brother and did not want to say anything that might embarrass him.
With just days to go till the end of August, it's time to broach the strangest footwear turnabout of the year: the suddenly fashionable, unfashionable sandal.

I refer to basic beach and walking footwear of the sort you might buy in a camping shop, or find at a beachside stand alongside the buckets and spades.

I mean anything that smacks of a geography teacher or 'Dad sandal'.

Supermodel Heidi Klum has been rocking the traditionally uncool Birkenstocks this summer

Anything that embraces the teutonic comfort of the Birkenstock or the good old-fashioned jelly shoe.

Basically, anything you had previously filed under 'only on holiday' has now been elevated into the style ranks of the deeply desirable.

This turnaround is down to the staff of American Vogue, who posted a video online about their secret love of cheapie sandals at the beginning of the summer.

To put it mildly, it was quite a surprising coming-out for a community you'd assume would never encase their well-pedicured tootsies in anything that isn't by Manolo Blahnik or Chanel.

I hasten to add that editor Anna Wintour did not participate in this mass confession. But, even so, if it's a thing at American Vogue... then, well, it's a thing.

And so it was with the (formerly) ugly sandal. Soon the internet was alive with praise for Dr Scholl's, Tevas (those velcro-fastening sandals with side strap), felt-lined Birkenstocks and a mass-market American hiking shoe brand called Chaco  which is famous for its deeply practical Z-strap style.

Basically, anything you had previously filed under 'only on holiday' has now been elevated into the style ranks of the deeply desirable

Other fashion influences have helped bolster this trend. One is that Celine's Creative director Phoebe Philo (who is regarded as the nearest thing to a goddess of chic), has showed furry-lined versions of Birkenstocks on the catwalk.

Second is that Miuccia Prada presented what looked like a camping and walking collection this summer.

Turns out that Theresa May is not the only middle-aged woman leader who likes hiking in mountains - Miuccia's been at it for absolutely ages.

Added to this is the fact that the comeback of Nineties fashion has been a strong undercurrent this summer.

So we're back to slip-dresses worn with Birkenstocks and tea-dresses worn with trainers  a look you may well have experimented with the last time around. But therein lies the problem for the grown up.

THE WAY TO WEAR THEM Don't jolly this look up - plain white, black or tan looks most chic. Confidently buy styles online as Velcro fastening is easily adjusted to fit. Platform styles elongate your calves and slim your ankles. No flowers on jelly shoes. Ever. Leave those designs to the little girls. Advertisement

There is the finest of lines between knowingly sporting a casual sandal in a modern-looking way  and the disaster of being assumed to have opted for a comfy granny-shoe.

My middle-way solution has been a pair of J. Crew's Malta, one-bar leather sandals (currently 19 at jcrew.com) which, I fancy, do not look too like something recommended by the chiropodist. Meanwhile Whistles have a Teva-esque style, now 60 at whistles.com.

If you don't want to splash out on Birkenstocks in the dying days of August, then H&M have a platform slide style for just 19.99 (hm.com).

So how to wear ugly sandals beautifully? I'd keep the look elegant with a long, slim dress, fluid cropped trousers or even a jumpsuit.

Avoid anything that might amplify the beach-sport/hiking side, in other words steer clear of shorts, cargo pants or any kind of ath-leisure wear.
Six million of us now employ a cleaner  but for more and more women, that's nowhere near enough.

A thoroughly deep-cleaned house  from a regularly steamed mattress to spotless tiles around your power shower  is the new middle-class status symbol.

And the real test of how well-off you are nowadays is the number of specialist cleaners you employ.

Real test of how well-off you are nowadays is the number of specialist cleaners you employ

At school gates in Cheshire, mothers whisper the name of the best oven cleaner in the area to favoured confidantes, while in the Home Counties they pass around the phone number of a firm that will buff your stone fireplaces to perfection.

And if you're really serious about impressing your dinner party guests, you won't just have your curtains dry-cleaned on the High Street  you'll have them removed, deep-cleaned and re-hung by Royal Warrant-holding upholstery cleaners Pilgrim Payne.

'People are increasingly busy and have less time for regular household cleaning, particularly when it comes to big jobs, such as oven or fridge-cleaning,' says Elin Swain, managing director of Home Counties-based cleaning firm Domestic Innovations.

'It's much easier to call in professionals than to spend a precious weekend doing it yourself.'

Quite. But who to call, and how often? Here's your definitive guide . . .

'People are increasingly busy and have less time for regular household cleaning'

The oven grease-buster

Every six months. Cost: 145

A recent survey about our deep-cleaning habits by Mintel found that oven-cleaning is the task most likely to be passed to a professional, with 67 per cent ranking it among their top dislikes.

'When I started in 2006, I had to convince people it was worth it  but it's now totally normal to have your oven professionally cleaned,' says Henk van Molendorff, founder and director of Your Oven Cleaner.

Based in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, his firm strips down ovens, boils the parts in softening liquid in their van and replaces them all.

Having your fridge cleaned by someone else seems the height of decadence

The fridge cleanser

Every six months. Cost: 70 per fridge

Having your fridge cleaned by someone else seems the height of decadence, but it's increasingly popular, says Tim Hopkins, of cleaning firm A Brighter Home, covering the Home Counties.

'People who are cash-rich and time-poor are a big part of our market,' he says. 'We started fridge cleaning around seven years ago in response to customer demand. We steam clean the whole fridge freezer, so you don't have to wait for it to defrost.'

Despite his well-off clientele, Tim says: 'We've seen some alarming sights. We have customers who have it done fairly regularly, and 'restoration cleans'  that's when it's in quite a state.'

The mattress steamer

Every six months. From 60 for a double

Few of us clean our mattress, but as we spend a third of our lives on them, experts advise a thorough wash at least twice a year.

'Mattress sanitisation is becoming a more important part of our service with the rise of allergies,' says a spokesperson for Bone-Dry, an organic floor and mattress cleaners in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham.

'Every home has dust mites. You spend a lot of time in bed, and it's the ideal environment for them.

'A six-month-old mattress may have been slept in for 1,500 hours  plenty of time for the mite population to grow.' The company will dry-clean and sterilise mattresses  one of the few jobs you can't do yourself.

The window polisher

Every week. Cost: From 25

There are cleaning firms offering a thorough going-over of the inside of your window panes

Many people have a window cleaner, but just having sparkling panes on the outside is no longer enough  now, there are cleaning firms offering a thorough going-over of the inside of your window panes, too.

'Stains on the inside of a window become more noticeable once the outside of the windows have been cleaned,' says a spokesman for London-based Spick & Span Window Cleaning.

The sofa sprucer

Every year. From 25 for an armchair

Sofas and armchairs are tough to clean at the best of times. But in one's country residence  full of mud, wellies and jumping spaniels  it can be impossible.

Andrew Patterson, who runs a carpet and upholstery cleaning business in the Scottish Borders, says: 'I've never had a customer tell me they have attempted to clean their own couch.

'But it should be done once a year. It's not just about mud  you need to think about dust mites. If pets are allowed up, it will need sanitising, too.'

For up to 50 per couch, his company will vacuum thoroughly, pre-spray to loosen stains, then use a hot-water extraction method, and 'it's dry in hours'.

The fireplace restorer

Every year. From around 450

Real fires are back and, while they look great, the surrounds are quickly stained

A few years ago, the stylish middle-classes coveted Victorian radiators  now, real fires are back, and while they look great, the surrounds are quickly stained. That's when a marble fireplace restoration specialist is required.

'Over time, natural stone surfaces can become worn, discoloured or damaged, but with the right restoration and cleaning, they can be returned to their natural beauty,' says a spokesperson for JR Marble, based in Oxfordshire.

The firm takes commissions across London, Essex, Sussex, Kent and Surrey.

The shower scrubber

Every six months. From 20 an hour

An increasing number are calling in the cleaners to get their tiles sparkling

Cleaning the shower is surely just a case of a quick wipe-down when you've finished  but not for some exacting householders. An increasing number are calling in the cleaners to get their tiles sparkling. 'We're noticing a huge rise in requests for bathrooms to be deep cleaned,' says Elin Swain, head of Domestic Innovations.

Building and home renovations firm Bromley & Gaines, based in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, agree. 'It's important this area makes a good impression for guests.' They promise to remove all tile stains and deep clean the shower, bath and tiles.

The curtain reviver

Every year. From 40 for a small pair

If you want your swags and pelmets properly primped, you'll head straight to Pilgrim Payne, upholstery cleaners to the Royal Household.

Because while most of us might occasionally drag our curtains to Johnsons in a bin bag, the well-off expect a home visit, to have the curtains removed, sent to a state-of-the-art cleaning plant, returned and rehung, then sprayed to smooth out 'transit creases', says the firm's managing director, Graham Doyle.
A hand-held radar used by NHS surgeons to detect hidden tumour cells may prevent thousands of breast cancer patients from a relapse.

The new device has halved the need for repeat surgery among women on whom it was used.

Previously patients faced an agonising wait while lab tests were carried out to discover if all cancer cells had been removed.

A hand-held radar used by NHS surgeons to detect hidden tumour cells may prevent thousands of breast cancer patients from a relapse (file picture)

But the MarginProbe System, used while the patient is on the operating table, takes as little as five minutes to give results.

Almost 60 per cent of the 50,000 Britons diagnosed with breast cancer each year undergo a lumpectomy, where, unlike a mastectomy in which the entire breast is removed, only the diseased portion is taken away.

But research shows that further surgery is required in 25 to 30 per cent of patients because cancer cells are later found at the edges of the removed tissue.

During a lumpectomy, the tumour is cut away along with some of the apparently healthy tissue around it, known as a margin. This is then sent to a lab and tested.

If no cancerous cells are discovered, it is deemed to be a negative margin. However, if cancerous cells are found in the margin, a second operation must be carried out to remove more tissue, and some women may potentially face a full mastectomy after all.

The pen-like MarginProbe gives surgeons an accurate way to detect potential cancer cells hiding in otherwise healthy-looking tissue around a tumour.

Professor Nigel Bundred, professor of surgical oncology at the University Hospital of South Manchester, said: Research shows that using it to scan the surface of the tissue during surgery, rather than sending it off to a lab, can reduce the need for second operations by more than 50 per cent.

Previously patients faced an agonising wait while lab tests were carried out to discover if all cancer cells had been removed (file picture)

It could be a major advance and lead to a reduction in the number of repeat operations.

The MarginProbe emits the same kind of radiofrequency waves found in radar signals.

The device measures the amount of energy that is absorbed or reflected from the tissue. As cancerous and healthy cells absorb and reflect energy at different rates, computer software can distinguish between the two.

In about five minutes, the software provides the surgeon with detailed information to help decide whether additional tissue should be removed, or whether to complete the lumpectomy procedure and close the incision.

Surgeons at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, and six other breast cancer centres in the UK, are treating about 500 women with the new technology in a study to assess its usefulness and cost effectiveness.

While this is the first UK study, research carried out in America has demonstrated that using the MarginProbe System can be highly effective.

A trial reported to the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium compared re-operation rates in about 300 breast cancer patients undergoing a lumpectomy, of which 150 procedures used the MarginProbe.
Model Daisy Lowe is one of the coolest but most down-to-earth girls we know. We caught up with her ahead of her role as ambassador for next months London Fashion Weekend to talk peplums, perfume and Pinterest.

'Ive always wished Id gone to university and studied something brainy like neuroscience,' says model Daisy Lowe

The shop where you could spend the most time and money? Liberty of London. I could spend a day there. The clothes, the vintage stuff, the furniture  and I recently splashed out on some Byredo perfume in the beauty hall.

What do you wear when you have five minutes to get ready? Jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket. I love that old-Calvin-Klein-ad-campaign vibe.

Fashion pet hate? Im not a fan of peplums because, having boobs and hips, they just dont suit me. I appreciated them when they were in, but Id never get away with wearing one.

Handbag of choice? Im a sucker for Saint Laurent.

And shoes? My grandmother will hate me for saying this, because she thinks they should all be sent to boot hell, but Dr Martens. I own several pairs.

Coolest person you know? My godmother, the artist Zoe Grace. Shes bold and strong and genuinely doesnt care what anyone thinks about her. Its because of her that I love things like transcendental meditation and reiki.

In a parallel life you would have been? Ive always wished Id gone to university and studied something brainy like neuroscience.

Latest obsessions? Pinterest  I use it for everything. Interiors, places to travel to, ideas for my best friend Portias wedding  Ive become obsessed with wedding lighting! Oh and its where I find those old Calvin ads too

Secret to a good selfie? Im a bit selfie-phobic. Theyre not very British, are they? But Ive been told that the trick is to always face the light.

Snappy dressing

Orlebar Brown is known for its photo-print swim shorts  particularly since David Cameron was seen splashing around in a pair earlier this month. Now you can personalise them with your own holiday snaps via the Orlebar Brown app (or order in store). The service is available for mens sizes only right now, but they make the perfect gift  plus whats his is hers, right? 395, orlebarbrown.com.

Fenn Wright Mansons petite range is a great new go-to for work and occasion wear, specifically designed for anyone 5ft 3in and under. It arrives in store on 7 September. fennwrightmanson.com

DRESS, 189, and COAT, 289, Fenn Wright Manson

Wear where...

Is it just us or is everyone in Greece this year? Cretes Blue Palace resort is the perfect spot for some late-summer sun and fun. Rooms from 228 including breakfast; bluepalace.gr/en




A man was shot near the corner of North Fulton and Seymour streets in Auburn Saturday morning. A handgun was recovered at the scene, but no arrests have been made.

State troopers and Auburn police responded to reports of shots fired at 3:20 a.m. Saturday. According to Capt. Mark Schattinger of the Auburn Police Department, a man was shot in the "back end" on North Fulton Street. The 24-year-old, whom police did not identify, was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment of injuries police described as non life threatening.

State police stopped a vehicle on Nelson Street shortly after the shooting and detained five people, but the APD said in a news release that they questioned the group and made no arrests in connection with the shooting. The APD said that the five people were turned over to state police on charges related to the traffic stop.

The Auburn Police Department requests that any witnesses to the shooting contact detective Chris Cooper at 255-4706 or detective Meagan Kalet at 255-4702.

"We're not certain of the motive," Schattinger said, "but there have been numerous issues in that general area that we've responded to before."

The APD said it was assisted in this investigation by the New York State Police and the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office.
In 2008, model Katie Piper, then 24, was left profoundly disfigured and blind in one eye after her ex-boyfriend arranged for an accomplice to throw sulphuric acid in her face. Now married with a two-year-old daughter, Belle, Katie is a TV presenter and writer, and runs her charity, the Katie Piper Foundation (katiepiperfoundation.org.uk).

Katie Piper has set up a mentoring scheme for people with burns and scars to offer contact and support throughout sufferers' lives

Trauma affects people in different ways. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a big problem and often, despite treatment, rears its head again years later. My own mental recovery has been a rollercoaster and Ive dipped in and out of therapy.

Ive learnt that confidence and happiness are life choices, not luck. When I was first dating Richard (Sutton, now my husband), I thought, Hell never fancy me, whats the point in going out with him? But then I thought, What have I got to lose?

The mentoring scheme I run for people with burns and scars offers contact and support throughout sufferers lives. Its about being a consistent person who understands their journey and can empathise.

STARS OF SKIN CAMOUFLAGE  Changing Faces Skin Camouflage Service (changingfaces.org.uk/skin-camouflage). Consultations are free and products may be available on prescription from your GP.  The British Association of Skin Camouflage (01254 703107, skin-camouflage.net) has a nationwide network of fully trained members who offer a consultation service  some within the NHS, some privately.  Dermablend corrective make-up (dermablend.co.uk) provides information on products, advice and tutorial videos and stockists on its website. Advertisement

When my face was rebuilt, I had to relearn make-up. I had some not-so-great experiences with camouflage at the hospital: shades, tones and colours were dated and the application was poor.

But things have improved greatly (see right). Nowadays I am happy to go barefaced when Im not working.

When Im on TV, I use high-street brands such as LOreal and Im a fan of High Definition make-up (beautyinhighdefinition.com).

Collagen wave facials, which use radio frequency energy to heat skin at deep levels, are brilliant for softening tight scar tissue and hydrating the sore parts.

Once a week I sleep with my face covered in Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream (from 2.37, boots.com).

Areas around my nose, mouth, chest and hands have tough scar tissue, so I massage them nightly and then apply silicone-based Remescar gel.

My surgeon Dr Mohammad Ali Jawad at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital recommended Remescar to me years ago to help reduce my scarring. I have used it ever since.

I recently agreed to be an ambassador for Remescar. It helps the healing process for new and old surgical and burn scars, smoothing and softening the tissue. Remescar Silicone Scar Stick SPF 15 (19.99, boots.com) is my hero product. I use it on my face under make-up and on my body where I have scarring from skin grafts.

I will need more surgery, but I live a very happy life with Richard and Belle. Also, the Foundation has just launched a pilot rehabilitation centre in Liverpool, which is exciting.

Give relief to restless legs

Q I was at a play last night when my legs began twitching. It has been happening quite often since I reached late middle age. Is there anything I can do about it?

A Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common condition of the nervous system. As well as involuntary twitching, RLS, which is often worse at the end of the day, can cause an irresistible urge to move your legs voluntarily (and sometimes other parts of the body) and/or a creeping crawling sensation in the legs. The charity RLS-UK offers information and support (01634 260483, rls-uk.org).

Symptoms are more common in women and in middle age. Many women, including myself, find that taking a magnesium supplement relaxes the muscles. (It also helps prevent night cramps.)

Pharmacist Shabir Daya recommends taking Solgar Magnesium Citrate (17.04 for 120 tablets, victoriahealth.com) twice daily. If the symptoms occur, topical Better You Magnesium Oil Sensitive Spray (12.20, victoriahealth.com) may help.
Delhi University is preparing to release its seventh cut-off list for vacant seats.

For the first time, admissions have stretched on so long that the entire process will only be complete by the end of August.

Last year, the university came out with nine cut-off lists and the seats were full by August 15.

This is the first year that Delhi University has done its admissions process entirely online

The new merit system experimented by the university this year has delayed the admission process. Students who are joining late will have to face some trouble as the colleges have already started the classes, a senior professor told Mail Today.

DU had earlier announced it would only issue five cut-off lists and that admissions for the vacant seats would be done on a merit system - but the admissions under the fifth list were done as far back as July 22.

The seventh cut-off list will come out on August 24 and admissions will go on until August 26.

The eighth cut-off list will be out on August 29 and admissions will be done by August 30.

Not only the admissions, but even the results of first and second-year students have been delayed this year.

Teachers have likened the new online admissions system to a game of musical chairs as some students are cancelling their applications and going to other varsities.

There is confusion among colleges and the staff. The new merit system is like a game of musical chairs - one leaves and the other takes it. During the cut-offs, we used to have extra students against the required number of seats which used to help us fill the vacant ones, said a south Delhi college principal.

Admissions for the vacant seats were done using a merit system after the fifth cut-off. Registered students had to apply again for vacant seats and a merit list was brought out by colleges.

Students will always leave and the seats will be left vacant. This is something which is going wrong in this admission season. The colleges are also feeling helpless and confused, said another professor.

Meanwhile, the tussle between DU and the Bar Council of India (BCI) over reducing the number of seats, scrapping evening classes, and accreditation finally reached a conclusion on Sunday.

BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said that in the interest of the students, the decision to reduce seats would be implemented only from the next academic year.

The Dean of Law Faculty at Delhi University, Dr. SC Raina, gave an undertaking stating that the conditions imposed by the BCI would be complied with from the next academic year.

Three centres will be allowed to take 767 students each, i.e, total of 2,310 students for this academic year, the BCI said.

Also, from 2017-18, only 480 students per centre will be admitted and there will be no evening classes.
India's move to deploy BrahMos cruise missiles in Arunachal as a deterrent against China has provoked a sharp response from the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

The NDA government had given the final go-ahead for the Army to induct and deploy an advanced version of the BrahMos missile for mountain warfare in the northeast earlier this month.

The PLAs official mouthpiece, the PLA Daily, has warned India that doing so could attract countermeasures from China and bring a negative influence to stability of border areas.

The 290km range BrahMos is a tactical or non-nuclear missile jointly developed with Russia, and has become the preferred precision-strike weapon for the Indian Armed Forces

India deploying supersonic missiles on the border has exceeded its own needs for self-defense and poses a serious threat to Chinas Tibet and Yunnan provinces, said the commentary, published this weekend in the PLAs influential official newspaper.

The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by PM Narendra Modi, had cleared this fourth BrahMos regiment at a cost of over Rs 4,300 crore.

The regiment consists of around 100 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers on 12x12 heavy-duty trucks, and a mobile command post.

The PLA Daily claimed that Indias views of counterbalance and confrontation were behind the move, noting other steps to bolster the border such as deploying Sukhoi Su-30MKIs and drones in border areas as deterrence to China to create a military advantage in the boundary.

India, however, is still playing catch-up after China set up massive infrastructure in Tibet and Xinjiang, including airports, roads, and a rail network that is set to reach the border.

The PLA Daily suggested deploying the BrahMos could threaten some of this infrastructure.

The supersonic BrahMos cruise missile has excellent dive attack capabilities, and fits in the Sino-Indian border where its mostly mountain topography," the commentary said, adding that the low observable nature and penetration capabilities of the 2.5 Mach-speed missile posed a threat to China's border areas.

The commentary, written by an expert from the PLA Navy's Engineering University, also presented a detailed assessment of the nature of the threat posed by the deployment of an advanced version of BrahMos with steep div" capabilities suited to mountain warfare.

The deployment of the missile could increase suddenness and effectiveness of attacks and land crushing blows on time-sensitive targets like missile launchers and solid targets like command centres, it said.

Deploying BrahMos missiles is bound to increase competitiveness and confrontation in Sino-Indian relations and bring a negative influence to stability of the region, the commentary concluded.

On the other hand, the newspaper suggested, the missile also had certain defects, such as a relatively short range that cannot threaten China's deep zones as well a heavy weight that makes it difficult for even a Sukhoi Su-30MKI to carry more than one.

The 290-km range BrahMos is a tactical or non-nuclear missile. Jointly developed with Russia, it has become the preferred precision-strike weapon for the Indian armed forces.

The missile has been tested by the Army, and the last known test in the Eastern sector was done in May, 2015.

The steep-dive attack cruise missile can hit enemy targets hidden in the shadows of mountains. The BrahMos can be launched from multiple platforms including submarines, ships, aircraft, and land-based Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL).
A Mail Today investigation has revealed that sex workers in Gurugram are using auto-rickshaws to avoid public scrutiny and police action.

A late night visit to Mall Mile, an infamous 2km stretch on MG Road which hosts several shopping malls and night clubs, revealed plenty of examples.

The area has been in the media spotlight several times in the past as a hub for unlawful activities in public view, drawing a police crackdown on the night clubs situated there.

A suspected sex worker moves out of her auto-rickshaw into the car of a prospective client late at night on Gurugram's Mall Mile

The business begins after 1am, which is the deadline for pubs to down their shutters, as the Mail Today team found out.

As club goers start moving out in their vehicles, several auto-rickshaws begin to court them. These autos have two to three girls sitting inside as passengers. The negotiations take place even as both vehicles keep moving, albeit at a slow pace.

If the deal is struck, the vehicles pull over to the roadside, money is exchanged, and the woman moves out of autorickshaw and into the car.

The business is all but apparent when one sees an auto-rickshaw and a luxury car moving parallel at a slow pace on a busy road.

As many as seven autos were involved with sex business on Mall Mile on the night when our team visited the spot.

Police admit that the sex trade is thriving on the stretch, but said they lack the personnel required to carry out a crackdown

A deal starts from Rs 1,000 and can go up to Rs 5,000, an auto driver disclosed to our team.

Another auto driver, who identified himself as Tayab Hussain, told Mail Today: I have been doing night shift to earn quick money. My daily earnings are between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 without much travelling.

Hussain picked up these girls outside Sahara Mall around 1am.

We continued to move up and down this road for about half an hour before a deal was finalised for Rs 2,000. I was paid my cut and then I moved on in search for other girls, he said.

Little police presence

There were only three police personnel - one Haryana Police constable and two contractual employees - performing duties at IFFCO Chowk on the night, with little patrolling on the stretch.

Gurugram police spokesperson ACP Hawa Singh refused to comment on the matter when our correspondent tried to seek his reaction to our findings.

A police constable posted at IFFCO Chowk, however, admitted that the sex business thrived on the stretch but said there was hardly any manpower to trap the players. The constable requested anonymity.

This kind of trend has possibilities of ending into a tragedy, the constable said.

A deal may go wrong; there could be a gang-rape; a drunk client may get involved into an accident or act violently with the sex worker. There could be a major case waiting to happen.

Several policemen who have worked in the area on night shifts said that these activities have been going on for some time. Some of the nightclub staff may also be involved in these activities, they said.

They keep finding new ways to avoid police, one of the policemen approached by Mail Today said.

It is difficult to prove the act where the players could act as club goers or late shift workers travelling back, he pointed out.

Ironically, newly-appointed Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar has recently launched a drive against three-wheelers. The police have impounded 1,835 vehicles, the majority of them being auto-rickshaws, for violating rules and endangering the lives of common road users.

The drive is being seen as a part of an effort by Khirwar to inculcate a sense of discipline among the auto-rickshaw drivers in the city and ensure better traffic management.

Many autorickshaws drivers in the city are notorious for violating traffic norms, leading to jams, and plying without valid documents.

The drive has led to strong resentment among the autorickshaw drivers who have threatened to go on a strike if the drive continues.

As many as 350 auto-rickshaws were impounded on Thursday and another 690 auto-rickshaws on Friday.

Besides this, 108 cars were impounded for wrong parking on Thursday.
Surely, it can't be beyond the wit of intelligent bankers  and extremely well paid individuals at that  to come up with a more cohesive and socially acceptable response to the decline in bank branch usage than the ruthless one currently being pursued?

A bit more TLC (tender loving care) is required as opposed to the present strategy of slash and burn  culling last banks in town at will, without giving a thought to the damage their actions cause.

Of course, all the statistics show that more people now prefer to do their banking via the internet and their smartphones.

Branch closures: Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds

Yet, as our three-page special report today highlights, a big slice of our society (young families, the elderly, small businesses, charities, readers of physical newspapers, people who live in vibrant towns and villages up and down the country) still want to go into a bank branch and do their banking the personal way.

The bank branch is seen by millions of people as an integral part of 'community'  as important as the convenience store, library, newsagent's, pharmacy, pub and post office.

Those at the top of our country's leading and increasingly impersonal banks (HSBC and Lloyds in particular) should not forget this irrefutable fact.

Indeed, they should get out a bit more and see with their own eyes how important the bank branches they are shutting are to communities up and down the country, especially when they are the only bank in town.

If Antonio Horta-Osorio, boss of Lloyds, were to find time in his hectic business and social diary to visit Colyton in East Devon  a delightful part of the country with the Jurassic coast within spitting distance  he would surely come away knowing that his bank's decision to pull the plug on the last bank branch in town is a crass one. It defies logic and will do untold harm to the town.

Bosses should get out more and see how important branches are to towns and villages

The same could be said if he were to visit Bourne End in Buckinghamshire (his chauffeur wouldn't have to drive him so far) where a town on the up is being undermined by Lloyds' withdrawal, again leaving the community without a high street banking presence.

Indeed, if he visited most  not all  of the communities reeling from the shock news that their Bank of Scotland, HSBC or Lloyds branch is being shut between now and November, he would get the same response: 'Why?' Although the big banks are keen to state that branch closures are in response to customers' changing banking patterns, they are not quite telling the whole truth (quelle surprise).

Over the past five years, the banks have pursued an aggressive online banking agenda.

At one stage, Lloyds, for example, set targets for its sales people that required them to push an increasing number of customers online (we have the memo to prove this)  as well as sell more personal loans and packaged bank accounts.

So, bank bosses, how about a bit more honesty for a change? The increase in online banking is not entirely buyer driven. You're pushing us down the online route.

Pro-branches: Nationwide is a passionate believer in the future of branches

Not all the big banks are so besotted with closing last banks in towns and villages. Nationwide  admittedly a building society, not a bank, but offering the same personal banking services as the HSBCs and Lloyds of this world  is a passionate believer in the future of branches.

It has 700 countrywide (not as many as the big banking four  Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland) and is currently investing 500million in the network over the next five years.

While Nationwide is a big player in online banking, it understands that a majority of its customers still want a personal service that only branch staff can provide. Interestingly, this personal touch is demanded by customers of all ages.

It says that some 80 per cent of new FlexOne accounts are opened in the branch even though the current account (available to those aged 11 to 17) can be opened online by anyone aged 14 or over.

Joe Garner, Nationwide boss, believes its blend of digital banking innovation and personal service through branches is the way forward.
Alastair Brown is a man on a mission. Appointed as chief executive of Lombard Risk Management in December 2015, he is determined to make the business a market leader in the provision of software to banks and insurers. If he succeeds, Lombard shares should rise considerably from their current 7.75p.

Midas tipped the shares in June 2011 at 7p. The stock rose to more than 15p by March 2015 before the company issued a profit warning, chief executive and founder John Wisbey resigned and the board was restructured.

Under Brown's stewardship, Lombard has been streamlined, focused and placed in a strong position to deliver substantial growth.

Costly: Work outsourced to Shanghai is returning to Britain

The firm spent many years developing a range of technology products for the financial services industry.

But as a relatively small business, it spread itself too thin. Now Brown is focusing on two products  one of which, Colline, helps banks and insurers to trade financial derivatives, while the other, AgileReporter helps them to file the right documentation for regulators globally.

On the derivatives front, regulation has been severely tightened up since the financial crisis, so firms can only trade them if they can prove that their balance sheets are strong.

Calculations are complex and change all the time, so they need expert software to support them. Many use their own technology, but this is often slower and far less efficient than Colline.

To date, 70 firms use Colline, ranging from small fund managers to international banks, but over the next few years the number of customers should rise substantially.

All financial firms have to have software in place to manage derivatives trading and Colline is considered the best in the market.

There is also real potential for AgileReporter. Filing the correct documentation to regulators is mandatory for banks and insurers and again, Agile is faster and more cost-effective than old, in-house systems.

Lombard already has 250 customers for Agile, but recently signed an agreement with Oracle under which the US software giant will offer Agile as part of a package of products that it sells to financial firms globally.

This should boost Lombard's revenues significantly, particularly as Oracle has 500 bank customers already, which will now be offered Agile.

Lombard raised 8million on the stock market in June, partly to fund investment in Agile and Colline, but also to help set up a software development centre in Birmingham.

The company's technology work had largely been outsourced to Shanghai. Brown is bringing most of it back to the UK because there are lots of good people here; Birmingham is closer to customers than Shanghai; and Chinese offices are no longer a cheap option.

Sales are expected to jump by 35 per cent to 32million in the year to March 31, 2017, though the company is not expected to make a profit. In the year to March 2018, however, brokers forecast sales of 40million with profits of 1.8million, rising rapidly in subsequent years.
Marks & Spencer's performance is expected to hit the doldrums this year and may not recover until 2020 at the earliest, according to worrying new forecasts.

Figures which have been collected from a host of banks and stockbrokers, say profits could fall 12 per cent to just over 600million in the financial year to March 2017.

Analysts expect them to stay at that level for at least another two years despite M&S paying former chief executive Marc Bolland more than 17million during his six-year tenure to turn the performance round.

In the doldrums: Marks & Spencer could see profits fall by 12% in the year to March 2017

Retail experts said the situation is disappointing after Bolland spent 2.3billion re-engineering the firm's supply chain and online business.

New boss Steve Rowe, who has previously been widely credited with reinvigorating the retailer's food business, has taken personal control of the clothing business in an effort to stop sales shrinking.

'I think Bolland took M&S backwards on many fronts and spent a lot of money in the process,' said retail expert Richard Hyman. 'Rowe is a significant upgrade, but there are no silver bullets to restore M&S's fortunes.

Former M&S boss Marc Bolland was paid more than 17m during his six-year tenure to turn the performance round

'There are lots of things that need to be done and it's going to take a lot of time. One key imperative for Rowe is to be crystal clear with the City about the size of the task and how long it will take.

'You can't change the fortunes of a company this size quickly. It would be difficult anyway, but in the current market the difficulties have multiplied.'

But he added that, with grim times expected for the high street, 'if M&S stands still over that time, it could still outperform many high street rivals'.

Jonathan Pritchard, an analyst at stockbroker Peel Hunt, said few expect Rowe to return M&S to its 'halcyon days' in the 1990s when the firm had a 'love affair' with the British public.

He said: 'These forecasts are based on the view that like-for-like declines in clothing will persist.'

But he added: 'Expectations are so low that if he can tighten things up, generate some like-for-like growth in the medium term and generally become a better retailer, then that will outstrip current expectations in the City.

'Some might argue that is within his reach.'
American steakhouse chain Black & Blue Restaurants has revealed a sizzling set of results  as turnover in the 12 months to October 31 last year doubled from 6.9million to 13.7million, and pre-tax profits soared almost fivefold, from 135,000 to 654,000.

Directors at the chain, which operates restaurants in Central London, said that they were 'satisfied' with the company's performance and results, saying the group was 'performing well in the current market'.

The company was founded by friends Alan Bacon and Nick Hill, who met each other in the Bahamas in 1970 and decided to start a restaurant chain.

Popular: Black & Blue operates in Central London

They went on to found the Tootsies burger chain which they sold to a private equity company for 9.5million.

Meanwhile, Salford-based brewery and pub operator Hydes has reported a 24 per cent increase in turnover to 27.7million for the year to April 3, 2016.
Turnover jumped 64 per cent at the payment protection insurance claims company set up by the family behind debt brokerage firm Yes Loan, which was stripped of its operating licence in 2012.

Accounts for the year ending October 31, 2015, for We Fight Any Claim show sales jumped from 17.4 million to 27 million while pre-tax profits rose from 4.1 million to 5.6 million.

We Fight Any Claim was set up by the family behind debt brokerage firm Yes Loan
The retreat of banks from Britain's high streets is in full flight. Branches across the country are being axed at a rate never witnessed before as the big banking organisations seek to ruthlessly cut costs and push more people online.

In many instances, the closures are leaving villages and towns without a bank, forcing both residents and retailers to travel further afield to do their banking.

Communities that a year ago had a choice of banks have now become banking wastelands with only the local post office and the odd cash machine  banking tumbleweed  providing locals with access to cash and basic services.

Deserted: Communities that a year ago had a choice of banks have now become banking wastelands

Although some towns and villages  such as Colyton in Devon  are furiously fighting the imminent closure of their last branch, fearing it will have an adverse impact on the rest of the community, the banks are playing hardball and refusing to budge.

The Mail on Sunday has long campaigned for banks to share high street premises in communities which would otherwise be bankless.

While charities and business groups such as Age UK, the Federation of Small Businesses and Which? support such an idea, the big banks have resisted and now appear to have crushed the concept.

The Campaign for Community Banking Services, led for the past two decades by ex-NatWest banker Derek French, has quietly been dismantled  leaving the banks to steamroller through branch closures in their droves.

Last week, French confirmed the campaign's website was being taken down 'so as not to give any encouragement to communities which think they can save their branch once its closure has been announced'.

He added: 'Community banks would have been right for everyone  communities and the banks. But the battle has been lost and we must now brace ourselves for a bout of branch closures that in terms of scale and adverse impact has never been witnessed before in this country. High streets are going to take an almighty pounding.'

French is right to be gloomy. The Mail on Sunday has exclusively obtained details of the branches that two of the country's biggest banking groups, HSBC and part state-owned Lloyds, have put on notice of closure by early December. The closure lists make for frightening reading.

Last week, HSBC shut seven branches, bringing its total closures this year to 145. It has also informed customers at a further 61 outlets that their branch is being axed. Five of these 61 will close as early as this Friday.

HSBC has been the most eager among the big banks to decimate its high street network. In the past three years, it has steadily ramped up its closure programme  from 47 in 2013, 95 in 2014 to 109 last year.

This year's total  equivalent to nearly four closures per week  is already double last year's total and further closure announcements by the year end cannot be ruled out.

The bank says the closures are in response to a 40 per cent reduction in usage of its branches over the past five years  with 93 per cent of contact with the bank now made via the telephone, internet or smartphone. Some 97 per cent of cash withdrawals, it says, are via a cash machine.

Lloyds has also provided The Mail on Sunday with a list of 60 branches that will be culled by November. Closures affect all its high street brands  Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Lloyds.

And 200 branches will go next year, bringing total closures between 2014 and 2017 to 400. The closures, it says, are in response to changing 'customer behaviour'.

Royal Bank of Scotland, which embraces the NatWest brand, has shut 51 branches this year. It says there are no branches currently on notice of closure but it is busy reshaping its branch network.

The bank is creating 600 'main' branches out of a network of 1,300 where customers will be able to access the full range of services.

The rest of its branches will be 'local' outlets, offering basic services such as cash banking and with opening hours tailored 'to the needs of the local community'.

Barclays has cut 24 branches this year. Its Bexley branch in South London shuts early next month. It declined to reveal if other branches were on notice of impending closure.

Last week, we spoke with the residents of three communities where the plug is being pulled on their last branch in town.

Battle: Lloyds closure plan has caused an uproar in historic Colyton, Devon

COLYTON, DEVON

The town of Colyton in Devon prides itself on its rebellious past. In the late 17th Century, 105 of its residents backed a quest by the Duke of Monmouth to overthrow King James II.

The Monmouth rebellion failed spectacularly but it is still spoken about in the town to this day with residents labelling Colyton the 'most rebellious town in Devon'.

It is not surprising therefore that Lloyds' decision to close the only bank in town on October 12 has caused an uproar among the 3,000 residents, various local business groups and councillors.

Jacqueline McCullogh, chairwoman of the 'Promote Colyton' group, believes Lloyds should be ashamed of itself.

She says: 'We have had a bank in Colyton for some 200 years. It's part of the town's fabric as is the local pharmacy, the two convenience stores, the library and the health centre.

'By deserting us, it has put its pursuit of profits before the proud people of this great community of ours who strive every day to make Colyton great.'

She adds: 'I am sick to death of hearing about online banking and how the young are eagerly embracing it.

'But what about a more financially inclusive society where the banks not only look after the internet-comfortable but those who like or need to use a high street branch  the elderly, local retailers and charity workers who fundraise tirelessly. Colyton needs and deserves a bank, plain and simple.'

Liz Berry, parish clerk, says the bank's closure will particularly hit the elderly who will have to travel to Axminster or Seaton, seven and three miles away, if they want to use a Lloyds branch in the future.

'Public transport around here is virtually non-existent,' she says. 'So it is going to take some effort for many of our elderly residents to use these alternative Lloyds branches.

'My fear is that once these people go to Axminster or Seaton for their banking, they will do their shopping there as well. That in turn will threaten the viability of many of the shops in Colyton.'

Local retailers are not only worried about a possible downturn in business once Lloyds shuts up shop.

They are also concerned about how they will bank their takings. Cathy Richards, who runs the local newsagent's with her husband, says the bank's closure will cause them a 'real headache'.

She says: 'We run a cash-only business and rely on Lloyds to bank our takings. Given I don't drive and my husband is busy in the shop from dawn to dusk, how are we supposed to pay in our takings?

'Most of our customers are elderly. What are they going to do once the bank goes? At the moment, we have a vibrant town centre but I am afraid it will take a turn for the worse once Lloyds disappears.'

LLOYDS' RESPONSE: We invited Lloyds to comment on its decision to close its Colyton branch. It said the branch had only 46 regular weekly customers and nine in ten personal customers used other branches such as at Seaton.

It also said these customers could use the town's post office to do basic banking. Berry disputes Lloyds' statistics, as do local residents and businesses who complain about constant queues in the branch.

BLAENAU FFESTINIOG

Robert Jones's plea to The Mail on Sunday, made last week, was heartfelt: 'If there is anything you can do to help an area in dire need of a bank, we would be very grateful.'

A retired secondary school teacher, Robert has spent the last 46 years living in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, a town famous for its roofing slate and the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway that used to transport the slate to the harbour of Porthmadog where it was shipped to all four corners of the world.

Steam-rollered: Robert Jones faces a 24-mile drive after HSBC announced the closure of its Blaenau Ffestiniog branch

As long as he can remember, Robert, 73, has banked with HSBC  or Midland Bank as it was previously known. But now he doesn't know what to do, given the bank has decided its Blaenau Ffestiniog branch must close next month.

He is faced with three choices, none of which he likes  to use the local post office to do his banking; drive to HSBC's branch in Porthmadog (a round trip of 24 miles); or bank online.

Robert, recently widowed, says: 'What annoys me about HSBC's decision is that it comes just a year after NatWest pulled out of the town. To lose two banks is awful. To be left with no bank is inexplicable.

'Blaenau Ffestiniog has its economic challenges but if a community of 5,000 people does not warrant a high street bank, it does not bode well for hundreds of other towns.'

Like many people, Robert is not keen to use online banking. 'I am loath to use a banking system where I cannot see the person I am dealing with. I also do not want to leave myself open to internet fraud.'

HSBC'S RESPONSE: The bank, not deflected by an 800-strong petition against the closure, says it is doing all it can to help customers consider 'alternative ways of banking' with it.

HSBC also says customers will be able to use the local post office to bank. It boasts it has kept councillors and local MP Liz Saville Roberts fully in the picture.

BOURNE END, BUCKS

Like Blaenau Ffestiniog, Bourne End had two banks a year ago  NatWest and Lloyds. First NatWest closed and now Lloyds is shutting. In early October, the town will be bankless.

Martin Sharpe, a retired banker, lives in Bourne End and says Lloyds's decision is illogical. 'The branch is one of the busiest in this part of Buckinghamshire. I just don't understand the economics behind the closure.'

Dianne Lake, a retired personal assistant, agrees. Although she lives in Marlow, she does most of her banking in Bourne End because it is easier to park and the staff are so helpful.

She says: 'Lloyds has given no thought whatsoever to the local community. I call it dire customer service.'
AUBURN  A bit of ancient Japanese swordsmanship was put on display and taught to enthusiastic students at the Auburn Karate studios in Auburn Plaza on Saturday afternoon.

Traveling from his home city of Sakai, Osaka prefecture, Japan, the world renowned and world-record-holding Mitsuhiro Saruta arrived in Auburn ready to demonstrate, as well as teach students from across the country in the centuries old art of the Samuri tradition of Budo.

Bushido is the art of removing the katana, (the sword) from its scabbard, striking the intended target and then returning it to its sheath in the most fluid and quickest way possible. A swordsman art that dated back to the 15th century.

"I studied under him and have since kept in touch," said Auburn Karate's chief instructor, Tim Hillman. "It is such a great honor to have him travel so far to put on such an event here in Auburn. Several people who have come today have come from other states. This is definitely considered a treasure."

Saruta holds the 1998 world record for 1,000 successful consecutive strikes to individual targets which was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records the following year.

He is the founder of the Ryuseiken Battodo Association, as well as founder of the international Battodo Shizan federation.
New research has revealed in stark relief the shocking damage wreaked on small firms by customers that delay payment for goods and services.

A survey of the insolvency profession by trade body R3 revealed that late payment for goods or services was a primary or major cause of 23 per cent of insolvencies in the past 12 months, while the failure of a supplier or customer was the primary or major factor in 20 per cent of cases.

R3 president Andrew Tate said: 'A business can have a great product and great staff, but if it doesn't get paid for what it sells, or if it is over-reliant on one supplier or customer, things can go wrong very quickly.'

Late payment: This was a primary or major cause of 23 per cent of insolvencies last year

The research shows the problem has worsened since 2014, when a previous survey found that late payment was a primary or major factor in 20 per cent of corporate insolvencies.

According to the Insolvency Service there were 15,958 in the past 12 months. In May last year, Sajid Javid, who was then Business Secretary, announced Government plans for a small business commissioner to tackle late payments.

Tate said: 'Unfortunately, Government promises and other initiatives don't appear to have yet made any real impact.'

Previous research by R3 found that 6 per cent of UK businesses, equivalent to 113,000 firms, were creditors in an insolvency last year.

More than half of insolvency practitioners identified construction as the sector with the worst record for late payment.

... and victims can't afford to sue Businesses and individuals seeking money owed to them are being 'priced out of court', the Bar Council has warned. There were 42,091 county court judgments against firms in England and Wales in the first half of 2016, a 19 per cent drop year on year, according to the Registry Trust. Their value was 149 million, a fall of 12 per cent. The Bar Council said the falls were the biggest since before the financial crisis in 2008. High Court judgments fell by 50 per cent to 33 over the same period. The Ministry of Justice raised fees for money claims, which include late payments, in March last year. The Bar Council said the change  to 5 per cent for small firms and individuals bringing claims of between 10,000 and 200,000, with fees of up to 10,000 payable up front  represented an increase of 660 per cent for a claim of 200,000. Chantal-Aimee Doerries QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said: 'The courts risk becoming out of bounds for many.'

Tate said: 'The failure of one company can have a serious knock-on effect.

Both late payment and the domino effect have been identified as leading causes of insolvency by the profession, so more needs to be done.'

Meanwhile, Britain's 3.3million sole traders lose a total of 8.1billion a year from late, delayed or underpayment, research has found.

The study by mobile payments firm Paym found self-employed traders lose out an average of 2,472 each per year.

Three in ten sole traders  about 990,000 businesses  have written off a payment in 2016, compared with 23 per cent of those surveyed in 2015.

Paym said the problem was worst in the South West, where 37 per cent of sole traders gave up on money they were owed by customers.

Simon McVicker, director of policy at IPSE, an association for the self-employed, said: 'Almost three-quarters of the disputes the self-employed have with clients are because of late payment.

'The Government must now get on with it and appoint a small business commissioner of stature.

'We need a strong figure who can spearhead better payment culture.'
One of Baroness Scotlands closest allies has had his knighthood revoked, following an investigation by The Mail on Sunday.

Anthony Bailey, a PR adviser and dear friend of the embattled Commonwealth Secretary General, was informed by the government of Grenada that his knighthood from the island nation was to be rescinded after questions of its legality were raised.

Opposition leaders on the island reacted in shock after it emerged that Bailey arranged four knighthoods for himself and allies in one day from the country, despite only two being allowed per year by law.

Anthony Bailey, a PR adviser and dear friend of the embattled Commonwealth Secretary General has had his knighthood revoked, following an investigation by The Mail on Sunday

Following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Grenadian foreign minister Nickolas Steele announced that the award had been rescinded following legal evaluation and interpretation.

Bailey was given the knighthood in July 2015 when travelling to Grenada to reveal a raft of donations from his unrecognised Catholic order, the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George.

The award had remained unknown until the Foreign Office received a request earlier this year, on behalf of Labour Party donor Bailey, a 'dear friend' of Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Patricia Scotland Baroness Scotland of Asthal (pictured)

This trip followed meetings between Bailey, Baroness Scotland and the prime minister of Grenada, during which investment on the island was promised by the order.

The award had remained unknown until the Foreign Office received a request earlier this year, on behalf of Labour Party donor Bailey, for his knighthood to be recognised. A spokesman for Baroness Scotland insisted she was not involved in any decisions about honours.
The artwork naturally eroded since its discovery in June 1998 by air

A mysterious giant figure of an Aboriginal man etched in the Australian outback which can only be viewed from the air has returned after being gradually eroded since its discovery in 1998.

The re-emergence of South Australia's iconic Marree Man has been hailed as a tourism boost for the state's far north.

The 4km long petroglyph, the origins of which remain a mystery, had all but faded from view after its discovery southeast of Lake Eyre.

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The re-emergence of South Australia's iconic Marree Man has been hailed as a tourism boost for the state's far north

Marree Hotel owners Phil and Maz Turner and William Creek Hotel owner Trevor Wright joined forces to bring the Marree Man back to life

Marree Hotel co-owner Phil Turner on his bulldozer during the restoration process

The group collaborated with the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation, and compiled imaging data from GPS and images from space to ensure they were retracing the original

But a determined group of mates, Marree Hotel owners Phil and Maz Turner and William Creek Hotel owner Trevor Wright, has used imaging data and a grader to bring him back.

'We could see it was fading rapidly and, from a tourism perspective, to lose such an extraordinary myth and mystery would be a tragedy,' Phil Turner, 65, told AAP on Saturday.

The group collaborated with the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation, and compiled imaging data from GPS and images from space to ensure they were retracing the original.

'Then it came to, "What do we use as a paintbrush to restore this work of art"? And we came to a grader,' Mr Turner said.

Mr Turner said the re-emergence of the icon would be a significant boost for year-round tourism in a region largely reliant on seasonal attractions such as Lake Eyre when it filled

Marree Man in 1998: A determined group of mates has used imaging data and a grader to bring him back

'It will be there forever not because of the work we've done but because we've created wind grooves.

'The graded wind rows trap water ... so over time Marree Man is going to turn green.'

It is the world's second largest geoglyph, which is a large design produced on the ground, and depicts a man hunting with a throwing stick or boomerang.

The largest geogylphs recorded are the 'Nazca lines' which span 500 square kilometres in Peru representing a variety of animals, plants and geometric shapes.

Outback explorer Bardius Goldberg (pictured) is the rumoured creator of the original Marree Man

The 4km tall geoglyph, which has a perimeter of 28km, is situated on a plateau at Finnis Springs 60km west Marree in South Australia

Mr Turner told Adelaide Now he wanted to pay homage to the original creators of the giant artwork.

Mr Turner said the re-emergence of the icon, which will last about 15 years, would be a significant boost for year-round tourism in a region largely reliant on seasonal attractions such as Lake Eyre when it filled.

He expected a 10 per cent increase in overnight stays to inject millions into the far north.

The restoration process took about five 12-hour days.

ORIGINS OF THE MARREE MAN The creators of the Marree Man remain unknown, but some believe the late South Australian artist Bardius Goldberg is responsible for creating the figure after talking to his friends about the artwork, yet never confirmed it. The 4km tall geoglyph, which has a perimeter of 28km, is situated on a plateau at Finnis Springs 60km west Marree in South Australia, portrays an Indigenous man wielding a boomerang or throwing stick used for hunting. The artwork was reportedly discovered on June 26 1998 by a Central Air Services pilot. But the site was closed by the SA Government one month later after Native Title claimants took legal action. In 2012 the case was settled, but the figure faded overtime due to natural causes. While it is the second largest geoglyph recorded, its origin remains a mystery. An anonymous press release was sent to media outlets via fax by those believed to have created the figure. They named it 'Stuart's Giant' after the outback explorer John McDouall Stuart. A plaque with an American flag and Olympic rings was found 5m south of the figure's nose, believed to be buried by the original creators. Advertisement

The 4km long outline (pictured recently), the origins of which remain a mystery, had all but faded from view after its discovery southeast of Lake Eyre in 1998
A young woman who just started a new chapter in her life by moving to Los Angeles from the Reno, Nevada, area died tragically on her first full day in her new hometown.

Lorena Barrera, 21, was found dead on Friday after falling 100 feet onto the rocks that lie at the base of a San Pedro cliff overlooking the ocean.

According to CBSLA.com, Barrera was with friends at Point Fermin Park, a popular destination that offers visitors scenic views along the coast from atop its steep bluff.

Lorena Barrera, 21, was found dead on Friday after falling 100 feet onto the rocks

Point Fermin Park is a popular destination in San Pedro that offers visitors scenic views along the coast from atop its steep bluff

Investigators said that she climbed over a three-foot wall in an effort to get a better view so that she could take a picture of the ocean.

Just before she could snap a photo, she tripped and fell to her death. Friends said she was wearing flip-flops at the time.

Barrera had just moved to the area from Sparks, Nevada, a small town just east of Reno.

'These places are not that stable,' Andres Juarez, a local resident, told NBCLA. 'You have to be careful wherever you go especially if you're just trying to get a good view.'

Visitors to Point Fermin Park are warned about the slippery drop.

Friends say Lorena Barrera was wearing flip-flops when she climbed atop a three-foot concrete wall and slipped, causing her to fall 100 feet onto the rocks at the cliff's base

Coroners and rescue crews evacuate Barrera's body at the base of the cliff in San Pedro

'You can see that it's a steep ledge,' said Ashley Guerra, a local resident. 'It's unfortunate.'

'It happens all the time over here, left and right, a lot of young people,' said Cecil Reynolds of San Pedro.
A video of a sheriff's deputy showing off his moves to the tune of Beyonce's Formation has gone viral, winning him a spot on major TV networks.

But Deuntay Diggs, a lieutenant with the Stafford County Sheriff's Office in Virginia hopes his routine will not only connect with viewers, but reflect a different side of law enforcement.

The song was was a bold move considering Beyonce was criticized for being 'anti-police' after the music video was released - but Diggs said he was simply trying to 'get the crowd involved'.

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A video of Deuntay Diggs, a lieutenant with the Stafford County Sheriff's Office, showing off his moves to the tune of Beyonce's Formation has gone viral

Diggs, who performed at a lip sync battle among first responders on August 6, said he watched a video of Beyonce numerous times in preparation

Having won the competition last year to Beyonce's Single Ladies, Diggs said the music wasn't so much a political choice as an attempt please the crowd and defend his title

Diggs, who performed at a lip sync battle among first responders on August 6 hosted by the Fredericksburg Parent and Family magazine, won first place for his routine, which ended with an impressive split.

Having won the competition last year to Beyonce's Single Ladies, Diggs said the music wasn't so much a political choice as an attempt please the crowd and defend his title.

Diggs, who spoke on the local radio station B101.5, said: 'Kids are my heart, so anything that I can do to have a positive reflection or interaction with kids or youth, I'm going to do it.

'When they see me dancing and cutting up, its a good representation of law enforcement for them. It's a positive image in their minds.'

He added: 'It's been a tough time, nationally. This gets to show people cops are human too, we have emotions and we like to interact and be funny at times.'

Diggs hoped to connect with young people, saying: 'When they see me dancing and cutting up, its a good representation of law enforcement for them'

Diggs, who also works as a motivational speaker, has been open about his difficult upbringing in Maryland, where he experienced physical, sexual, and mental abuse

Diggs went on to study history and Middle Eastern studies at the Virginia Military Institute, becoming the first openly gay cadet to graduate from the school

Diggs, who also works as a motivational speaker, has been open about his difficult upbringing in Maryland, where he experienced physical, sexual, and mental abuse.

Diggs went on to study history and Middle Eastern studies at the Virginia Military Institute, becoming the first openly gay cadet to graduate from the school.

He is also the first openly gay deputy within the sheriffs office.

The video of his performance has been viewed more than 20,000 times on Instagram, and Diggs has been invited on major networks like ABC and FOX to show off his moves.

While he has received an 'overwhelmingly positive' response from both online fans and fellow police officers alike, Diggs' message has been clear.
Dour, sexless, perpetually unamused Queen Victoria has had a notoriously bad press since her death in 1901.

Yet according to A.N. Wilson, the historical adviser to ITV drama Victoria, this reputation is not only wide of the mark, it was deliberate propaganda masterminded by a Royal Family desperate to suppress the truth about her passionate nature.

The court appointed two misogynistic homosexuals to get this message across  the suave courtier Viscount Esher and the academic and writer Arthur Benson, who wrote the lyrics to Land Of Hope And Glory. Together, they sanitised her letters for publication.

According to A.N. Wilson, the historical adviser to ITV drama Victoria, Queen Victoria's reputation was deliberate propaganda masterminded by a Royal Family

It is quite clear that towards the end she was a rather terrifying old lady and her children were frightened of her, says Wilson.

Also, they were embarrassed by parts of her nature, the physical side, the emotional side  the fact, for example, that she had a very unsuitable relationship with John Brown and then another with her Indian servant.

When she died, influential people in the court were determined to make her into a figurehead of the British Empire and put these two very stuffy, public-school-educated, woman-hating gays in charge of reinventing her.

A.C. Benson and Viscount Esher edited her letters for publication and deliberately left out her enthusiasm for gossip, her jokes, any of her obsession with the female body, with babies and health.

What you were left with was this figure who was tremendously stiff, boring and pompous.

Edward VII, her eldest son, was absolutely clear what he wanted  to suppress the fact that his mother had from an early age disliked him.

He went round smashing pictures and portraits of John Brown.

Such was the determination of senior courtiers to control her image they tried  but failed  to obtain every single piece of Victorias correspondence to be locked away in Windsor Castle in the Royal Archive.

Courtiers tried to obtain every single piece of Victorias correspondence to be locked away in Windsor Castle in the Royal Archive

Arthur Bensons collection of Victorias letters was published in 1908, and from then on she was presented to the world as a humourless, sexless old bag. Its a travesty, says Wilson.

The historical evidence of the passion between the young Queen and her older political mentor, Lord Melbourne, was, in fact, overwhelming.

For a start they spent all their time together.

They went riding together, they played cards together, they told jokes together, they gossiped together, they were absolutely constant companions.

The court appointed two misogynistic homosexuals to suppress the truth about Victoria's passionate nature

Obviously it raised eyebrows. It was like the kind of thing that happens when a young person goes up to university and falls in love with their tutor. But because of the nature of the relationship it never could be consummated, which in a funny way made it more passionate.

They were in love, but they couldnt do anything about it.

She had no father while he had endured a disastrous marriage to Lady Caroline Lamb. He had a string of affairs. He was a loveless Regency rake but also a very inward, deep sort of person in many ways.

She responded to his need for love.

One of things that I really like about this depiction of Victoria is that it brings out all of her passion and humour and humanity.
The Cancer Council in New South Wales is pushing for e-cigarettes to have the same restrictions as tobacco.

While individual premises in NSW still have the power to ban e-cigarettes, which emit a vapour rather than smoke, they can still legally be used in places where smoking is prohibited, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Restricting the use of e-cigarettes would bring the the state's laws into line with other states including Queensland, the ACT and Victoria.

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The Cancer Council in New South Wales is pushing for e-cigarettes (pictured) to have the same restrictions as tobacco

While individual premises in NSW still have the power to ban e-cigarettes (pictured), which emit a vapour rather than smoke, they can still legally be used in places where smoking is prohibited

However, laws in NSW currently make it illegal to use e-cigarettes in a car with children aged 16 and under.

NSW Cancer Council lead prevention and tobacco control manager Scott Walsberger told the Daily Telegraph if smoking e-cigarettes was banned in cars to protect young people, then it should be banned in public places,

He described it as a major gap in Australia's smoke free laws.

However, Associate Professor Colin Mendelsohn of the UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine said smoking e-cigarettes was at least 95 per cent safer than smoking and there was minimal risk to bystanders.

Health Minister Jillian Skinner said NSW Health was reviewing evidence about potential harm.

In May, data showed adult smoking rates have dropped by more than two per cent since 2014.

Restricting the use of e-cigarettes would bring the the state's laws into line with other states including Queensland, the ACT and Victoria

Health minister Jillian Skinner said the 2015 adult smoking rate in NSW was 13.5 per cent, down from 15.6 per cent in 2014.

'This is no small feat - just a few decades ago smoking was so prevalent it was allowed in our workplaces, homes, cars, buses and trains,' Mrs Skinner said.

'These reductions are significant and represent a growing number of people who choose not to smoke and therefore increase their quality of life and longevity.'
A new biography reveals the tumultuous life of acclaimed author Beryl Bainbridge

Six months after she had split up with her lover Austin Davies, Beryl Bainbridge sent him a sealed letter she said he was not to open.

It was March 1952. Ignoring her injunction, Austin read it straight away and was shocked: Beryl, then a 19-year-old actress at the Liverpool Playhouse, had allowed herself to be picked up by a man and taken back to his flat, where he raped her.

The letter read: I screamed and he tore my clothes off and hit me in the eye with his elbow, and jammed his knee into my mouth. And still I thought I could talk him out of it. I shouted and shouted and he told me to carry on as no one could hear.

Afterwards, he kept repeating: Now I havent harmed you, darling  you came of your own free will.

The violence was considerable. His blow had dislodged one of Beryls teeth, and for the next year or so she would be plagued with toothache and a bleeding gum.

She would eventually get a dental plate made and a false tooth to replace the one that had been knocked out.

Beryl was rarely shy of discussing her own past  even if her accounts did not always match the truth  yet about this episode she remained silent. Only now, after years of research in the papers of her own massive archive and the collection she sold to the British Library, has this assault and its damaging consequences been uncovered.

The scars were not just physical. She told Austin that in the wake of the attack she went through a period when she no longer cared who she got involved with and had slept with many men, seven or eight perhaps because it didnt mean anything. I didnt even know the names of some of them, I didnt care whether I died.

In later life Beryl would claim she had often given in to mens sexual advances out of a perverse sense of politeness. In the 1970s, she admitted: For years and years, though not perhaps recently, I despised myself Ive never yet had a relationship with a man where I thought anything a man did to me was out of the ordinary. I used to be a terrible masochist. I used to make men treat me badly.

Haunted by fear of rejection, she already had a propensity to form chaotic, not to say disastrous, relationships with men. As Beryl would herself say: I go on making messy relationships, fail, and fling myself into a fresh one. I seem to have an intense craving for narcissistic gratification. I have to get love by all sorts of means.

Even, as it was to prove, if that meant betraying not only one of her closest friends but the woman who would do so much to build Beryls own career and reputation  the literary editor Anna Haycraft, also known as the novelist Alice Thomas Ellis.

In early 1971, Beryls son Aaron was playing upstairs at home in Camden, North London, with his friend William when the phone rang. It was Williams mother, Anna Haycraft, wondering what time her son would be home. The two women began to talk and, after a moment, Anna asked: I recognise your voice. Whats your name?

Aged only 19, Beryl was brutally raped by a man at his flat during which he knocked out one of her teeth

When Beryl told her that her maiden name was Bainbridge, Anna replied: Ive read your two books; they are pretty awful. Have you got anything else?

She then told Beryl she was the fiction editor of Gerald Duckworth Ltd, a publishing house run by her husband Colin Haycraft. That at least was the public version of events, as recounted by Beryl many years later.

Yet something important was missing from this version: that she and Annas paths had first crossed nearly 20 years earlier when both fell in love with the same man. Anna Lindholm, as she then was, had become messily entangled with Austin Davies shortly after the collapse of Beryls own relationship with him.

Nor did Beryl say that she had later embarked on a 15-year affair with another man in Annas life her husband and the father of her children  an extraordinary double love triangle of the sort that would recur so many times in Beryls life and in her fiction.

Beryl had been a gamine 18-year-old when she fell head-over-heels in love with Austin, an artist drafted in to help with the backdrops on a Liverpool Playhouse production of Bernard Shaws Caesar And Cleopatra in early 1951.

Tall, handsome and bearded, Davies looked every inch the bohemian in his chunky sweater and black duffel coat. He lectured at Liverpool College of Art, where he went on to teach John Lennon.

It is difficult to overstate his impact on Beryl, who seemed to have no middle gear once her emotions were engaged; it was all or nothing.

He was her first experience of a committed sexual relationship, and of the crushing humiliation that comes from rejection.

Davies ended the affair that autumn, a trauma Beryl never truly got over. She was ill for months. His rejection set the pattern for her subsequent relationships.

Its rejection that gets one down, she wrote towards the end of her life. I felt that happened an awful lot to me Always rejected by men.

Davies went on to date Anna, who discovered she was pregnant by him in the autumn of 1952.

I felt that happened an awful lot to me Always rejected by men Beryl Bainbridge

Anna agonised over her baby, but in the end had little choice but to have a backstreet abortion paid for by Austin. She was traumatised, suffering what she later admitted was a nervous breakdown. The affair with Austin had been disastrous on so many levels and the abortion was something she never came to terms with emotionally. She gave up her art course, became a devout Catholic and, for a period, a postulant nun.

She never forgave herself for what became her dark secret: a web of deceit, humiliation and lies playing on her mind until the end of her life.

It did, however force Austin to consider his treatment of Beryl.

Barely a month later, he proposed and Beryl accepted. Even though the marriage lasted only five years, Austins financial support would allow her to become a writer. He bought a house in Camden Town for her and their two children. Austin had the basement flat below. This was the house where Beryl was living when Anna, now Anna Haycraft, called.

Despite their shared past, the two women became friends. More than that, Anna served as Beryls mentor at Duckworth, providing much-needed encouragement while her husband Colin edited Beryls prose. The Haycrafts published Beryls breakthrough novel Harriet Said... in 1972 and nurtured her career until Beryl became one of Britains most critically acclaimed novelists, a writer shortlisted five times for the Booker Prize.

The most influential independent publisher of the 1970s, and certainly the most flamboyant and contrarian, Colin Haycraft had the complexion and waist measurement of a seasoned claret drinker. He sported a bow tie, thick-rimmed glasses, and the kind of tweed jacket that denoted a desk-bound literary man, although in earlier life he had been an accomplished sportsman.

He met and married Anna Lindholm in 1956, and now they lived with their family in a rambling house in Gloucester Crescent, Camden, where they hosted book launches and literary parties: writer Alan Bennett lived next door, while Jonathan Miller, artist David Gentleman and poet Ursula Vaughan Williams had homes nearby.

The impact Colin and Anna had on Beryls career is obvious, but the impact that Beryl and her success had on Duckworths fortunes should not be overlooked. She had an effect on Anna, too, who made her own debut as a novelist in 1977 under the pseudonym Alice Thomas Ellis.

For most people, friendships are founded on a sense of openness and mutual trust. With Beryl Bainbridge and Anna Haycraft (both pictured), the situation was entirely the opposite

For most people, friendships are founded on a sense of openness and mutual trust. With Beryl and Anna, the situation was almost entirely the opposite. From the very start, it was a friendship at the centre of which was a kind of mutual, unspoken pact: that both would never reveal the traumatic event that had linked their destinies. It was never openly spoken about between them, and each expected the other to keep quiet in public.

So deeply ingrained was this feeling of secrecy that Beryl did not allude to the abortion even under the guise of fiction, and only referred to it in public once, several years after Annas death.

That unspoken secret inevitably skewed the relationship, and their friendship was conducted almost entirely on Annas terms.

It was always Beryl who would go to the Haycrafts house: Anna would have found it unthinkable to go to Bainbridges home, where there was a possibility of a chance encounter with Austin.

Beryl became a prominent figure in London literary life. She also gained a reputation for heavy drinking, embarrassing scenes and flirtatiousness. There were innumerable relationships with married men.

By the late 1970s, having once again come off second best in an unsuitable romantic encounter, one might have assumed that Beryl would be more wary.

Prudence and emotional restraint were not in her nature, however, and she allowed herself to become emotionally entangled with Colin. It was an affair that would have a profound effect on her personal and professional life, not to mention on her children and the Haycraft family.

On one level it is easy to see how Colins affair with Beryl started. He felt he had been spurned by Anna  he slept on a small bed in his book-lined study and she spent most of her time in the kitchen and was often in bed by 9pm.

There were the quantities of drink consumed whenever Beryl was around and the fact that Beryls house was only ten minutes away. It was natural that Colin should walk her home.

But the roots of the affair went back much further. Beryl had been captivated by Colins wit and erudition from outset. As early as 1973 she had confided to her next-door neighbour Penny that she had feelings for him  a dangerous desire even in a semi-playful fashion, especially as, with drink inside her, the normal boundaries dissolved.

The affair between Colin Haycraft and Beryl can also be seen as Beryls revenge for Anna stealing Austin years earlier

Untangling such a complicated emotional web is not easy. Beryls view was that Colin and Annas marriage had broken down well before the start of her affair and Annas own public pronouncements about love and marriage  The marriage was unimportant to me because the children were everything  were hard to reconcile with a happy union.

To prevent her children finding out, Beryl rented a room on Parkway in Camden Town, nominally as a place to work but actually as a place to enjoy trysts.

Colins feelings for Beryl cannot be truly known. That it was something deeper than a purely physical relationship seems clear given its duration and the number of trying circumstances it survived. At the very least it allowed them a degree of companionship and affection otherwise lacking.

But there were other factors. In 1978 Colin and Annas second son, Joshua, fell through the roof of a railway shed and died after nine months in a coma. Anna found it impossible to come to terms with the loss: The death of a child is like the end of your life, she wrote. The family fragmented, everyone retreating into their own bit; you cant share grief.

The affair between Colin and Beryl can also be seen at least at a subconscious level as Beryls revenge for Anna stealing Austin years earlier.

Certainly Beryl found Annas attitude unsettling. She was unsure how much Anna knew or was colluding in it, and suspected she harboured lofty feelings of contempt for her.

Anna never hinted at the affair in public, nor let it affect her attitude to Beryl until much later, though it resurfaced in her own novels, in which infidelity is a recurring motif.

In 1993 Colin suffered a serious stroke. According to Beryls diary, their final meeting, marked by a large asterisk, was on September 20 1994. The following day she received a call to say Colin had died.

Beryl found it hard to grieve in secret and saw Colins death as marking the end of her eventful sexual life. When the affair began she had been in her 40s. Now, at 62, she would close down any discussion of romance with a brusque Oh, Im too old for all that now.

A year after his death, in a collection of reminiscences in his honour, Beryl described her early days at the Crescent, sitting cross-legged at his feet, and how he had served as her mentor in language and literature. Her tribute ended with an unequivocal declaration: I loved him.

Anna died in 2005. When Beryl enquired about coming to see her in her last days, she was told Anna didnt want her to visit. Beryl had been the cause of two irreparable humiliations in her life: unintentionally in Austins case, deliberately in the affair with Colin. To have Beryl look down on her now, on her deathbed, was too much. It was a final renunciation of their friendship.

 Brendan King 2016
Brownstein's father, Marc Brownstein, said that the lawsuit 'should have never happened in the first place', calling it a 'big misunderstanding'

Two sorority sisters at Pennsylvania State University have 'hugged and made up' after roommate drama escalated causing one girl to file a federal lawsuit.

A lawsuit filed by rising senior Rachel Lader in which she claimed breach-of-contract and defamation against the parents of her Alpha Sigma Alpha sister and fellow rising senior Molly Brownstein, has been dropped.

Brownstein's father, Marc Brownstein told Daily Mail Online that there was a 'big misunderstanding' and the lawsuit 'should have never happened in the first place'.

He added that everything is all good between the girls.

A lawsuit filed by Penn State rising senior Rachel Lader (right) against the parents of her Alpha Sigma Alpha sister and fellow rising senior) Molly Brownstein (left) has been dropped

Lader (left) and Brownstein (right) are expected to live together for their senior year. Brownstein's father, Marc Brownstein, said that the lawsuit 'should have never happened in the first place', calling it a 'big misunderstanding'

Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority members are pictured in 2013 - but none of the girls in the above photo are implicated in the lawsuit

'The girls hugged and made up,' March Brownstein, who is CEO of the Center City ad agency the Brownstein Group, said. They're back to focusing on their education, and enjoying their senior year of college'

Brownstein and Lader are expected to live together for their senior year - which starts on Monday - and Marc Brownstein said living arrangements are still a go.

'The suits been resolved,' he told Daily Mail Online. 'Everything is all good, they're living together and everything's all good.'

Lader initially filed suit earlier this month claiming that Brownstein's parents used their influence and position as active donors to the university to encourage a disciplinary investigation against Lader that resulted in her being put on academic probation, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The rift between the two women started when they were studying abroad and living together in Barcelona, Spain, last spring.

In a memo filed with the university, Brownstein and her parents claimed that Lader bullied her throughout their international stay in Spain.

The rift between Lader (center) and Brownstein (second from left) started when they were studying abroad and living together in Barcelona, Spain, last spring

In a memo filed with the university, Brownstein and her parents claimed that Lader bullied her throughout their international stay in Spain

Brownstein claimed that Lader bullied her in Spain, played loud music, threw pasta in her bed and brought a male guest home to their place

Lader denied the claims and argues that she was the actual target of an attack to ruin her academic record. Together they're pictured above with their sorority sisters

Brownstein along with her parents claimed that the bullying brought her to contemplate suicide.

'Rachel bullied me to the point where I had to leave in the middle of the night in an area where people get stabbed outside my building,' Brownstein wrote in a memo that Lader, who aspires to be a lawyer once she finishes school, included in her lawsuit.

'Whenever I think about it, it brings me to a full on terrible place and makes me completely depressed.'

In the memo, Brownstein and her parents alleged that Lader brought a male back to a shared hotel room on a trip to Prague that forced Brownstein to find another place to stay, played music too loudly in their Barcelona apartment and dumped a colander full of pasta onto Brownstein's bed.

In an eight-page memo titled 'A Mother's Perspective', Brownstein's mother claimed that Lader actively attempted to leave behind her daughter and even excluded her on a trip to Copenhagen.

Brownstein's mother filed the memo with the university.

In her lawsuit, Lader claimed the Brownsteins used their influence to the school to encourage them to have her put on academic probation

'In the sorority, it is generally understood that you do not cross Rachel Lader - better to pretend to be her friend, than be her enemy,' Brownstein's mother wrote in the memo.

'The other girls were frankly scared of Rachel.'

Lader denied the claims in the lawsuit and argued that she was the actual target of an attack to ruin her academic record - claiming that the Brownsteins used their connections to do so.

Back in March, the university started an investigation while both girls were still in Barcelona at the request of Mr and Mrs Brownstein, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Lader added that the allegations against her from the Brownsteins caused her to suffer migraines, anxiety and colitis which led her to be hospitalized for five days last month.

She asked a federal judge to erase the disciplinary charges against her and award damages for defamation and subsequent emotional distress.

Back in March, the university started an investigation while both girls were still in Barcelona at the request of Mr and Mrs Brownstein (pictured)

Brownstein (pictured with her sister) along with her parents claimed that the bullying brought her to contemplate suicide

Brownstein (above) wrote in a memo: 'Rachel bullied me to the point where I had to leave in the middle of the night in an area where people get stabbed outside my building'

'This willingness of Penn State to acquiesce to the inappropriate and harmful demands of a large money donor shocks the conscience,' Maurice Mitts, Lader's lawyer, wrote in court filings earlier this week.

'Similarly, the extent to which Marc A. Brownstein is willing to pervert his power and influence as a large money Penn State donor for the purpose of intentionally harming Rachel [Lader] is equally disturbing.'

In addition, Lader claimed that Brownstein excluded herself from being around the other roommates in their apartment.

She added that the male she brought back to the room they shared in Prague was a friend from high school who happened to be locked out of his own apartment.

Lader says the male slept on the couch during his stay.

In terms of the colander full of pasta being dumped on Brownstein's bed, Lader denies doing so. But she admitted to putting an empty colander in her bed to suggest that Brownstein was not doing her share of housework.
Two people have been charged after a man was beaten and robbed in Auburn.

According to Capt. Mark Schattinger of The Auburn Police Department, three people were walking in the area of State and Wall streets at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday when people got out of a car and assaulted two of them.

"The victims reside out of town and they encountered a group that stopped and assaulted them and stole property from one of the victims," Schattinger said.

Police said that an Auburn Correctional Facility officer called police after witnessing the robbery from a guard tower. The APD said that they found a man at 140 State St. who was unconscious and had been robbed of his wallet, and a description of the vehicle involved was broadcast to patrol units.

Officers then stopped a car in the area of Delevan and Arch streets and arrested two of the four occupants after finding proceeds from the robbery in the vehicle.

Junnell Copes, 30, 0f 89 Osborne St., Auburn; and Vann MackNail, 32, of 14 James St., Auburn were charged with second-degree robbery and criminal possession of stolen property.

Two female passengers were not initially charged, but the APD said in a news release that officers had not ruled out additional arrests.

Police said that two people suffered minor injuries during the robbery but did not require hospitalization.

The APD asks that anyone in the area of State Street between the Kwik Fill across frm the prison and the ExpressMart at the corner of Seymour Street between 2 and 2:30 a.m. Saturday, and believe they have information related to this case, to call the detective bureau at 258-9880. Police said that callers may remain anonymous.
Two cousins radicalised by Anjem Choudary fled to Syria and were killed within months of each other, leaving behind a British woman they both married.

Haroon Khurshid, 21, and Bilal Safdar, 24, both from East London, attended talks by Choudary and his group in the capital and in Luton.

Khurshid then abandoned his studies at Queen Mary University of London and went to Syria to join IS three years ago.

Haroon Khurshid, (pictured) 21, and Bilal Safdar, 24, both from East London, attended talks by Choudary and his group in the capital and in Luton

Within months, his maternal cousin Safdar, an IT engineer, joined him.

Safdars wife Musfira, now 24, and their six-month-old daughter Wardah followed him shortly after.

But last November, Safdar was killed by a barrel bomb, having become a father to another daughter, then aged two months.

His wife observed a three-month waiting period called Iddat, required by Islamic law, before marrying Khurshid. But he was killed by a sniper a month ago.

Khurshid then abandoned his studies at Queen Mary University of London and went to Syria to join IS three years ago

This weekend, Khurshids father, Ashfaq, 46, an acupuncturist, told The Mail on Sunday: I believe Anjem Choudary recruited my son Haroon and is responsible for his death.

However, it is against my religious belief to condemn a man. My son attended his talks and his behaviour changed. Haroon travelled to Syria three years ago without my knowledge. He has recently been killed and the family are in mourning.
Sabine Schmitz, above, started on Top Gear after the departure of Jeremy Clarkson and is likely to have a bigger role in the next series

She joined Top Gear after the controversial departure of Jeremy Clarkson and Co, and since then she has seen Chris Evans quit the hit show. Yet nothing seems to faze driving ace Sabine Schmitz. And it will come as no surprise to her legion of fans that the German racer now looks set to prosper with an expanded role in the next series.

Sabine is, after all, the Queen of the Nurburgring, one of the world's most terrifying circuits. 'It's the longest, fastest and scariest rollercoaster in the world,' says Sabine. 'And it has jumps  you don't have jumps on a rollercoaster. It's the most dangerous race track in the world, that's for sure.'

The tragic statistics bear this out. About 200 people have been killed on the Nurburgring  incredibly, it is open to normal traffic as a no-limit toll road when it's not hosting a race.

Sabine actually grew up nearby. Her family runs a hotel and restaurant, and she spent her early years serving breakfast to F1 legends such as Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna.

But Sabine was never going to settle for serving sausages and eggs to racing drivers  she planned to be one herself.

Her greatest achievement was winning the Nurburgring's gruelling 24-hour race  proof, were it needed, that women have the physical and mental toughness to compete alongside men in motorsport.

'It's dangerous enough in the daytime, but when you're racing there at night you have to drive with your nose. If you smell oil, then someone has leaked some and you have to be careful. If you smell freshly cut grass, then someone has spun off.'

Schmitz already had a huge following in the motorworld and was able to drive some of the fastest cars in the world, something Clarkson and his co-presenters could not do

Following the departure of Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, diehard Top Gear fans were ecstatic when Sabine was unveiled as one of the new presenters alongside Evans and US actor Matt LeBlanc.

It wasn't because she brought some much-needed gender balance to the show but because she already has a huge following among petrolheads. They know she can climb aboard the fastest, most powerful, most expensive road and race cars and drive them beyond their limits: something Clarkson, Hammond and May simply couldn't do.

Schmitz and Clarkson go way back  she famously made him turn green while teaching him how to drive around the Nurburgring circuit in 2004. Clarkson then set a lap time in a Jaguar  a time Sabine demolished while driving the same car, and nearly beat in a humble Transit van.

Following her appearance, she almost joined the show. 'I had some conversations with [then producer] Andy Wilman,' Sabine says. 'But a German girl on Clarkson's show? Could you imagine that? No way.

Schmitz had to ask who Matt LeBlanc, left, was when she joined the show, but recognised his face when she Googled him. Right, Schmitz poses with Top Gear's The Stig

'But when those three left the show there was another chance. And when the call came, I said yes straight away.'

So what did Sabine think when she was told that former Friends star LeBlanc would be one of her new colleagues?

'When the BBC called to say they were going to announce that Matt LeBlanc would be one of the new hosts, I said, 'Who is Matt LeBlanc?' I don't have much time to watch television. I'd heard of Friends, of course, but I had to Google him. But when the results came up, I thought, 'Yes, I know that face.' '

Chris Evans, above on the show last series, will not be returning to the show. He stepped down saying his best shot was 'not enough'

Although Evans will not be coming back for the new series, BBC insiders say the other presenters will return, and that the studio-based segments will be revamped. Pre-production is already under way and filming starts next month  not that Sabine is at a loose end. She has spent the summer at her farm near the Nurburgring, where she and her boyfriend, Klaus Abbelen, are building a Canadian-style log home. 'There's a chainsaw on my back seat right now,' she laughs.

There's a Porsche 911 GT3RS in her garage but her daily transport on the farm is a Ford Ranger Wildtrak pick-up truck and a Fendt tractor. 'I love my tractor. I actually love going slow,' she says.

She and Klaus also run the Frikadelli Racing team, and Sabine owns small chain of hotels near the Nurburgring, including one popular with Brits. They can store their cars there, and when they want to have some fast laps on the circuit, Sabine's team will collect them from the airport and take them straight to the pits, where their vehicle will be fuelled and ready.

Schmitz, above, said she enjoyed working with Chris Evans in his time on the show and she hoped it wasn't her driving that made him leave

For the first post-Clarkson Top Gear series, Sabine flew out to a Top Gun air base in Nevada to recreate a dogfight with Evans in high-powered Corvettes and Vipers.

'It was fun,' she says. 'But I was a bit worried when the Top Gun pilot started throwing up in my car. He was supposed to be one of the top pilots in the world, right? Shouldn't he be used to the G-forces?

'I really enjoyed working with Chris and was sorry to hear that he wasn't coming back.
The wife of jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary is today unveiled as an extremist herself, spouting vile diatribes supporting Islamic State and predicting destruction for Britains non-Muslims.

Drawing parallels with a Koranic verse, Rubana Akhtar told a secret meeting: Allah destroyed them all their houses, Allah completely ruined them see their houses in utter ruin because of the evils they committed.

She even gets a cheap laugh from her audience of impressionable young women and children as she mocks the plight of an IS victim who was burned alive.

The wife of jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary is today unveiled as an extremist herself, spouting vile diatribes supporting Islamic State and predicting destruction for Britains non-Muslims

Rubana, 41, was caught on camera without her face veil by an undercover reporter last year, but she can only now be identified as the mother of Choudarys five children. She is being investigated by police while her husband faces up to ten years in jail after being found guilty of inviting support for IS.

Akhtar is the former leader of the womens section of Choudarys Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, whose aim is to make Britain an Islamic state. After it was banned 11 years ago, Akhtar simply took her lectures underground.

Last year, an undercover documentary reporter from Channel 4 Dispatches infiltrated her group  known as the Sisterhood  and recorded a hate-filled rant.

But today we reveal recordings that were not broadcast, revealing the true depth of her contempt for Britains values and people. In her most ominous passage, she draws a parallel with British non-Muslims and non-believers from a Koranic verse who were punished with the wrath of God.

Referring to the Muslim prophet Salih, she says: He warned them, he said Allah is gonna punish them, they couldnt care less.

Akhtar is the former leader of the womens section of Choudarys Islamist group al-Muhajiroun

Its like the kuffar [non-Muslims], they couldnt care less, they mock you when it comes on youll be sorry see how [this] was the end of their plot, because we destroyed them and their people altogether. See their houses in utter ruin because of the evils they committed.

This is what I want to talk about you know you can imagine in the Houses of Parliament, in the secret room at Downing Street where they concoct these plans against the Muslims and they ring up Obama and have these meetings about what theyre going to do to Allah destroyed them all their houses, Allah completely ruined them.

In her most shocking outburst, Akhtar mocks the appalling plight of Jordanian Air Force pilot Moath Youssef al-Kasasbeh, captured by IS last year and burned alive in the most sickening video the barbaric jihadis have produced.

Discussing the concept of shaheed, or martyrdom, she talks about the belief that all of the Pakistani army die in service of their country and die in shaheed [martyrdom], they go to Jannah [paradise], and thats the case with the Saudi army and same with Jordanian [sic], like the Jordanian pilot that was killed, be accepted in shaheed Inshallah [God willing]. Then to callous laughter from her audience, she adds: My foot.

She portrays the butchers of IS as being unfairly demonised, and says: So theyre going to make these people into the bogeyman, the terrorists or whatever David Cameron called them. I think he ran out of adjectives, he called them this death cult outfit everything bad they want to apply to this group of so-called terrorists.

Akhtar clearly has sympathy with the jihadis and places herself and her audience squarely on the same side, saying: In a situation like this, when the whole world is coming against you in Syria and Iraq and here, it just seems like everything is going against the Muslims now in this country.

She dismisses the Governments Prevent anti-radicalisation strategy as the Orwellian-type Big Brother state spying on Muslims and criticises the courts for taking into care the children of Britons trying to take their families to Syria.

She says: May Allah release them and let them be with their parents.

Choudarys WhatsApp circle included members of the pressure group Cage and the brother of one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby

In a rallying cry to her followers, she vows: Rule of Allah will spread all over this earth from the East to the West, from the West to the East.

The Mail on Sunday tried to contact Akhtar last night through her husbands solicitor, but did not receive a response.

Meanwhile, it emerged last night that Choudary was in contact with two members of a group that supported IS executioner Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John.

Choudarys WhatsApp circle included members of the pressure group Cage and the brother of one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby. Cage has blamed MI5 for turning Emwazi into the publicity-seeking serial killer who beheaded captives and released the bloody results on video.

A spokesman said last night: These Cage members were never invited to a WhatsApp group by Anjem Choudary.

The very nature of our advocacy work means that we come into contact with many individuals who at some stage come under the spotlight of the anti-terror laws  thats inevitable. It must not lead to an assertion that we support the views of our clients or their contacts.
The older brother of the Syrian boy whose bloodied face shamed the world has died of his injuries.

The pair were pulled from rubble after an air strike destroyed their home in battle-ravaged Aleppo.

But doctors said yesterday that Omran Daqneesh's brother Ali, ten, died of injuries to his liver and kidneys. Omran, five, had been photographed in the back of an ambulance after the strike, covered in dust with a shell-shocked look in his eyes.

The image was shared around the world, leading to widespread condemnation of the Syrian civil war. Yesterday, a picture emerged of Ali, showing him lying unconscious at the M1 hospital in Aleppo, his breathing aided by a tube.

The image of Omran Daqneesh sitting bloodied in an ambulance (left) shocked the world but now his family must endure further heartache after his brother dies on injuries sustained in the same air strike (right)

The Daqneesh family's flat was struck on Wednesday night. Omran's father said he had been sitting in the living room on the first floor with Omran when the building was hit.

His wife, another son and two daughters were also inside, while Ali was just outside with friends and also caught in the explosion. The father, who gave his name only as Abu Ali  meaning 'father of Ali'  fearing reprisals from the Syrian regime, said: 'It is very painful to watch your children falling in front of your eyes.'

A source close to the family said: 'They seem so lost and confused. I think they are very shocked. There have been many offers to help, even to get them out of there, but the father is refusing. He said, 'I don't want money. I don't want help.' '

Russia has denied being behind the strike on the Qaterji district which killed at least eight.
It's thought of as a world of dead-letter drops, hidden cameras and cutting-edge gadgetry.

But the truth behind modern espionage may actually be rather more mundane.

Foreign spy agencies are now using Freedom of Information requests to turn up intelligence, according to a Government source.

Foreign spy agencies are now using Freedom of Information requests to turn up intelligence, according to a Government source

The requests, which can be made by anyone to publicly funded bodies, can be denied for national security reasons.

But a former intelligence officer said even information that appears relatively unrevealing can be useful to foreign nations.

The appetite for information is vast and indiscriminate, they said.

Much of the data was said to be requested in order to embarrass the Government, exposing policies and communications that would otherwise remain locked away.

A large amount of the released data is redacted, but on at least one occasion the Information Commissioner forced the Foreign Office to release further, previously denied information

Through extremely specific requests, foreign nations have obtained diplomatic telegrams and policy documents.

A large amount of the released data is redacted, but on at least one occasion the Information Commissioner forced the Foreign Office to release further, previously denied information.
An Alabama defense attorney was arrested on Friday by authorities in the state who allege that he was trafficking in methamphetamine.

According to AL.com, police in Tuscaloosa arrested John Fisher Jr., a 48-year-old defense lawyer, and another man, Christopher Shane Rushing.

John Fisher Jr., 48, runs a law firm in Tuscaloosa specializing in general litigation

The two men were alleged to have been in possession of 'one-pot' meth labs.

One-pot labs are methods by which individuals can manufacture the drug with chemicals and a plastic bottle, thereby making it harder for authorities to track down offenders who eschew the large, traditional drug laboratories.

Police in Tuscaloosa say that Fisher and Rushing were discovered to have 369 grams of meth oil.

The two men are being held in a county jail on a combined bond of $500,000, according to WIAT.

Law enforcement officials zeroed in on the suspects after receiving a tip indicating that Rushing was dropping off a backpack containing drug-making paraphernalia at an unspecified location.

According to Tuscaloosa News, Fisher took the backpack and drove it back to his office nearby.

The West Alabama Narcotics Task Force followed Fisher to his office. Soon after, Rushing was seen walking into the location and then walked out with the backpack. That was when authorities arrested both men.

Authorities said that they expect to make more arrests soon.

Fisher is a graduate of the University of Alabama's School of Law. His firm, The Fisher Law Firm, PC, deals mostly with general litigation. Its emphasis is on business law, personal injury, criminal defense, mediation, family law, estate planning, and probate.

Fisher and Christopher Shane Rushing were arrested at his firm's office in Tuscaloosa (seen above). Narcotics agents say that the two men were in possession of 369 grams of meth oil

Rushing, 42, is an employee of a nearby concrete company. Judging by his Facebook page, he has struggled with drug addiction in the past

Rushing is an employee of a nearby concrete company.

Judging by his Facebook page, he has struggled with drug addiction in the past.
It sold a almost $2 million worth of product online in less than an hour

Australian retailer Chemist Warehouse only needed 46 minutes to offload more than $1.9 million worth of products to Chinese buyers using the shopping website Alibaba.

The discount pharmacy found success distributing its products through Alibaba's Tmall Global commerce website in November 2015 after realising the international demand, particularly in China, for non-counterfeit health and beauty products.

It became the fastest retailer on Alibaba to hit one million yuan, or $198,076 in sales on last year's Singles Day - a well known online shopping event - and the first on the popular site to sell ten million yuan, or $1,980,765, worth of merchandise.

Australian retailer Chemist Warehouse have tapped the Chinese health and beauty market

The discount pharmacy found success distributing its products through Alibaba's Tmall Global commerce website after realising the demandfor non-counterfeit products

Alibaba spokesperson Damien Gance told Mashable the retailer had a 'very successful launch' and that Chinese buyers didn't appear to mind that the discount prices offered Down Under could not be matched after Alibaba added its own fees.

He said Alibaba users - who are able to buy from around 1,300 Australian brands through the Tmall website - were far more concerned with purchasing high quality Australian goods than scoring cheap deals.

'It's really saying to the consumer: You want this product? We can supply it at or near the price you can buy it elsewhere, but you know 100 percent this is legitimate product,' he told Mashable.

He said Alibaba users were far more concerned with purchasing high quality Australian goods than scoring cheap deals (stock image)

Chemist Warehouse's most popular products are Swisse and Blackmores vitamins

'They'd rather spend a dollar buying Australian products with proven provenance, where they know the legitimacy of the supply chain and the legitimacy of the product, than 50 cents on a product where they can't find the provenance,' he added.

Chemist Warehouse's most popular products are Swisse and Blackmores vitamins, and the Australian made Goat Soap brand, Mashable reported.
Actor and disability campaigner Brian Rix has died aged 92, less than two weeks after he called for a law on assisted dying.

Lord Rix, who had been suffering from kidney failure, was for years a fixture on the West End stage. He found fame in a string of Whitehall farces, and in dozens of TV comedies.

He became a dedicated champion of people with learning difficulties after his eldest child, Shelley, was born with Downs syndrome.

The actor and disability campaigner Lord Brian Rix (pictured with his daughter Louisa Rix) has died aged 92

Lord Rix was married to Elspet Gray (pictured together) from 1949 until her death in 2013

Lord Rix (pictured right with Leslie Phillips and Joanna Lumley in Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!) was best known for his Whitehall farces

Lord Rix became president of Mencap after also serving as secretary general and chairman.

He had previously opposed an assisted dying law, voting against such a Bill in 2006 because of his concern that people with learning disabilities might become unwilling victims of euthanasia.

But earlier this month, he revealed he had changed his mind after his own illness had left him in constant discomfort. He wrote to Lords Speaker Baroness DSouza to appeal for a change in legislation so he could slip away peacefully.

Lord Rix made his first West End appearance in Shakespeares Twelfth Night in 1943.

He saw service in the RAF and was a Bevin Boy during the Second World War, working in the mines to help keep Britain supplied with coal.

Lord Rix had four children (Louisa, Jonathan and James are pictured) with wife Elspet

Lord Rix (pictured right with Leslie Phillips) had recently called for assisted suicide to be legalised so he could be allowed to slip away peacefully

He later formed his own repertory company and took a production to Londons Whitehall Theatre in 1950, starting an association which would last nearly three decades.

Lord Rix was made a CBE in 1977, knighted in 1986 and made a life peer in 1992, sitting in the Lords as a cross-bencher. His daughter Shelley died in 2005 and his wife Elspet in 2013. He is survived by three other children.
One of two girls accused of trying to kill a 12-year-old classmate to please horror character Slender Man two years ago arrived in court and pleaded not guilty Friday by reason of insanity.

Morgan Geyser, 14, entered her plea to one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide during a status conference in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

Judge Michael Bohren appointed two doctors to examine her.

Her attorney, Tony Cotton, said in a telephone interview after the conference ended that he felt the facts of the case fit an insanity plea.

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Morgan Geyser (pictured on Friday), pleaded not guilty Friday by reason of insanity. She is accused of trying to kill a classmate two years ago to please horror character Slender Man

Geyser (above) entered her plea to one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide during a status conference

Experts have testified already that Geyser suffers from schizophrenia and oppositional defiant disorder and maintains relationships with imaginary characters.

Bohren said he will look to schedule a trial in March or as soon as prosecutors and Cotton are ready.

If Geyser is convicted, the insanity plea necessitates another trial to determine her mental state at the time of the crime, Cotton said.

If she's found mentally deficient, she would be ordered confined to a mental hospital.

If she's deemed sane, she would serve up to 40 years in prison and 20 years on extended supervision.

The other girl in the case, Anissa Weier, who is now 14 as well, also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

She pleaded not guilty last year. Bohren on Thursday said he would look to schedule her trial for March as well.

Experts have testified already that Geyser (above) suffers from schizophrenia and oppositional defiant disorder and maintains relationships with imaginary characters

The other girl in the case, Anissa Weier (above), 14, pleaded not guilty last year to one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide

Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz, who is leading the prosecution of both girls, didn't immediately return a voicemail message Friday.

Anyone 10 or older charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide is automatically considered an adult under state law.

The Associated Press hadn't previously named the girls because their attorneys had been seeking to move their cases into juvenile court, where they could be incarcerated for three years and then supervised under age 18.

A state appeals court, however, ruled last month that both girls' cases should remain in adult court, saying the crime was planned and violent.

That leaves the state Supreme Court as the girls' last hope of being moved into juvenile court, but Cotton said Friday he won't ask the high court to take Geyser's case because it doesn't present a novel question of law.

The other girl's attorney, Maura McMahon, didn't immediately respond to a voicemail asking if she planned to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Geyser (pictured left at 12) and Weier (pictured right at 12) allegedly stabbed Payton Leutner 19 times as they tried to appease Slender Man, a fictional Internet figure they claim told them to murder Leutner

Leutner (above) was also 12 years old at the time of the incident. She crawled to a road where a bicyclist found her. She recovered from her wounds and returned to school that fall

According to court documents, the girls invited their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a birthday sleepover in May 2014. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

The next day they lured Leutner into some woods at a Waukesha park, stabbed her repeatedly and then fled.

Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds, including one that doctors said narrowly missed a major artery near her heart. Leutner crawled to a road where a bicyclist found her.

Police captured Geyser and the other girl on Waukesha's outskirts later that day.

They told investigators they had hoped killing Leutner would gain them favor with Slender Man, a demon-like character featured in online horror stories.

They said they were planning to walk 300 miles to the Nicolet National Forest, where they hoped to live as Slender Man's servants in his mansion.

Leutner recovered from her wounds and returned to school that fall.
Anarchists are set to stage protests at next weekends Notting Hill Carnival over police brutality against black people  sparking fears for the safety of one million revellers.

Hard-left activists plan to celebrate black resistance at Europes biggest street festival. Veteran anarchist group Class War is promoting the protests.

There will also be a march in memory of black people killed by police in both the UK and the US, where the Black Lives Matter movement emerged.

Notting Hill Carnival: Hard-left activists plan to celebrate black resistance at Europes biggest street festival (file picture)

One British offshoot of Black Lives Matter has called for a lively intervention at the carnival.

The London Black Revolutionaries  blamed for violent clashes at Downing Street after last years Election  is also calling for a fight against social cleansing and gentrification.

It said: Carnival is one of the last bastions of black Caribbean culture and resistance. Rise up, learn and defend what our grandparents and parents created.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has organized a National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, in hopes of connecting with a larger Hispanic audience.

Trump met with the new council on Saturday, to work toward focusing his message. The body will provide assistance with the campaign's Hispanic outreach.

Later on Saturday Trump said that is party must do a better job appealing to African-American voters and that he wants the GOP to become their political home as it was in the era of Abraham Lincoln.

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Donald Trump met with his National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump on Saturday to work toward focusing his message

The group, which met in Manhattan on Saturday, will provide assistance with the campaign's Hispanic outreach

'I fully recognize that outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better, and will do better,' Trump said during a rally in Fredericksburg, located between Richmond and Washington in the critical battleground state of Virginia.

In spite of past fiery rhetoric that alienated many minority voters, Trump said that he wants 'an inclusive party'.

He noted that the 'GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln' and said, 'I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again'.

Meanwhile, Trump has taken the lead over Clinton in the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Daybreak poll for the first time since August 3.

The race remains too close to call, according to the poll, with Trump at 44.2 per cent and Clinton at 43.6 per cent.

The daily tracking poll surveys approximately 3,000 eligible voters on which presidential candidate they support.

The data is weight from the previous week and is then broken down by gender, age, and other demographics.

There were approximately 20 people in the Trump Tower conference room for the Hispanic Advisory Council meeting on Saturday

Trump talks with Jovita Carranza, former Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator, as he holds a Hispanic advisory roundtable meeting

Trump has been working in recent days to boost his appeal among African-American voters - declaring Friday that he could win 95 per cent of the black vote at the end of his first term in office, if he is elected.

Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, an overwhelmingly white suburb outside of Lansing, the GOP nominee argued that Democrats, including his rival Clinton, have taken advantage of African-American voters and taken their votes for granted.

'Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future,' Trump told the crowd.

'What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?' he asked them. 'You're living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed - what the hell do you have to lose?'

He also made a bold prediction: 'At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you.'

Most polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. President Barack Obama won roughly 93 percent of black voters in his re-election campaign in 2012.

Later on Saturday Trump said that is party must do a better job appealing to African-American voters

Trump's new minority outreach efforts followed a shake-up in his campaign management in the face of falling poll numbers that quickly prompted noticeable changes to his campaigning tactics.

In Fredericksburg, he spoke with the aid of a teleprompter, as he has at rallies all this week, and the result was a more measured delivery that lacked the rants and tangents that marked many of previous speeches.

Polling shows Trump lagging significantly behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton among minority voters, partially due to some of the more wayward comments he has made since entering the race.

He launched his campaign last year with a speech that accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the border, and has since vowed to deport all of the estimated 11million people living in the United States illegally.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, called the Hispanic outreach meeting a 'game-changing' opportunity.
Chinese buyers are increasingly dominating home auctions as they race to get on the property ladder soon after arriving in Australia.

Such is their enthusiasm that in some suburbs it is rare to find house hunters of other nationalities bidding on family homes, even in crowds of 50 or more.

All but one of seven auctions Daily Mail Australia visited in Sydneys northern suburbs this weekend was won by a Chinese bidder, with one home only contested by Chinese buyers.

Chinese buyers are increasingly dominating home auctions as they race to get on the property ladder soon after arriving in Australia

Though Chinese property foreign investment has quadrupled from $5.9 billion in 2013 to $24.3 billion last year, about half of which is residential, its not just offshore buyers helping to drive Australias housing boom.

Real estate companies say Chinese-origin buyers who are Australia citizens or permanent residents are among the biggest groups visiting their open homes and attending auctions.

Kitchen supplies wholesaler Andrew Shen was one of dozens of bidders for a four bedroom house in Epping that sold for $1.8 million on Saturday.

Andrew Shen (centre) was one of dozens of bidders for a four bedroom house in Epping that sold for $1.8 million on Saturday

The 26-year-old, who moved from Jiujiang, near Shanghai, in 2010 and is now an Australian citizen, was looking to move his new family out of their cramped flat

Like many young Chinese homebuyers, he got help from his parents to buy his first property  a flat nearby he acquired in 2014

The 26-year-old, who moved from Jaixing, near Shanghai, in 2010 and is now an Australian citizen, was looking to move his new family out of their cramped flat.

He said he had been house hunting in the area for more than two months and had his heart set on the brick home next door to West Epping Park, but was priced out by another Chinese buyer.

'I think this price was a bit too high for the market. It was incredible, crazy. I hope I can find another one, he said.

'I've worked so hard to get money and buy a home for my family.

A mostly Chinese crowd contest for a house in Epping

Buyers assemble for an auction in Eastwood

Bidding gets underway in the all-Chinese auction

Mr Shen first came to Australia to study at university, following his older sister who moved years before, and was soon joined by his parents.

He is now married with a five-month-old daughter and his parents and sister now own property in Sydney, and came to the auction to support him.

Like many young Chinese homebuyers, he got help from his parents to buy his first property  a flat nearby he acquired in 2014  but said he had to finance the new house himself.

'I have to work very hard to hopefully get a big house, that's my dream. I hope it comes true, he said, adding that he also planned to keep the flat as an investment.

A property in North Ryde goes under the hammer, and was won by a Chinese bidder over some local competition

Chinese-origin buyers who are Australia citizens or permanent residents are among the biggest groups visiting their open homes and attending auctions

In nearby North Ryde, the changing face of many suburbs was apparent as the only people of European descent present were the auctioneers and the family selling the house.

The modest three bedroom house was owned since 1961 by well-known jazz musician Ken Flannery, who died in June aged 89.

Patrick and Sue, who declined to give their last name, snapped up the 1950s property for $1.505 million after a three-year hunt for the perfect home.

Patrick (left) and Sue (right, placing a bid) snapped up the 1950s property for $1.505 million after a three-year hunt for the perfect home

A rival Chinese bidder competes for the home in North Ryde

The couple had attended more than a dozen auctions and displayed many of the bidding skills that have allowed increasingly savvy Chinese buyers to beat local competition.

'It comes down to how ready you are and how much homework you do but you also have to go with your heart, he said.

Like many successful Chinese auction winners, Patrick deliberately joined the bidding late as 'you don't want to start a horse race that you're not going to win'.

'The ones that are keen to bid will go early but you'll find out who you're really up against close to the finish line, he said.

'If you start from the beginning you'll just waste a lot of breath.'

Chinese property foreign investment has quadrupled from $5.9 billion in 2013 to $24.3 billion last year, about half of which is residential
A white supremacist was arrested for stabbing an interracial couple outside a Washington bar in what police believe was a hate crime.

Daniel Rowe, 32, admitted to attacking a 47-year-old black man and his white girlfriend while they were outside a dive bar in Olympia on Tuesday night, a police spokesperson said.

Rowe, who has 'skinhead' and 'white power' tattooed on his body, told police he would go to a Donald Trump rally and 'stomp out more of the Black Lives Matter group', if they would let him go, court documents state.

Daniel Rowe, 32, (left, appearing in court via a closed circuit TV, and right, a police handout) admitted to attacking an interracial couple

The hate crime occurred on Tuesday evening, when a black man was standing outside China Clipper Bar (pictured) in Olympia, Washington, smoking and kissing his girlfried

Around 8.30pm on Tuesday, a black man was standing outside China Clipper Bar, smoking and kissing his 35-year-old girlfriend, according to Olympia police.

The woman yelled out in pain, and her boyfriend thought he had been punched in the side.

Rowe, who didn't say anything to them before the alleged attack, ran off, and was knocked unconscious after the male victim tripped him.

The victim then realized he had been stabbed in the abdomen, while the woman suffered a superficial graze wound, police said.

Rowe told police if they let him go, he would go to a Trump rally and defend them against Black Lives Matter protesters

The 47-year-old was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

According to Lieutenant Paul Lower, Rowe later said: 'Yeah I stabbed them. I'm a white supremacist,' the Washington Post reported.

Rowe told police he was defending them and 'took a blood oath to fight on the street, and if he was let go tonight, he planned on heading down to the next Donald Trump rally and stomping out more of the Black Lives Matter group,' according to court documents cited byKOMO.

Rowe also told authorities he was in downtown Olympia because anti-police graffiti had been left in the capital, which he attributed to Black Lives Matter protesters.

An investigation into the vandalism is ongoing, and authorities have not pinpointed any suspects.

Rowe, who is held on $500,000 bail, was charged on Wednesday with two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of malicious harassment under Washington's hate crime law.

'This has all the hallmarks of a hate crime. This black-and-white couple was simply expressing their love for one another,' Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler said.

Rowe also told authorities he was in downtown Olympia because anti-police graffiti (pictured) had been left in the capital, which he attributed to Black Lives Matter protesters. An investigation is still ongoing

Rowe told police he had recently been released from the state penitentiary, but they have not been able to confirm his account.

Rowe was convicted in 2008 for second-degree robbery, the Olympian reported.

Public defender Christian Cabrera said Rowe, who previously lived in Richland, had moved to across the state to Olympia about three weeks ago.
A mother-of-two has told of the heartbreaking moment she and her distressed children tried to save an echidna after watching the Australian native get run over by four different cars.

Melanie Bradshaw-Dunn, 41, was driving in West Pymble, a suburb on Sydney's upper north shore, with her two young children on Saturday when she saw an echidna get struck by a car and curl up into a tight ball.

Ms Bradshaw-Dunn was shocked to see the car drive off without checking on the spiny critter, but her shock turned to disgust when the echidna was hit by three more drivers, none of whom made an effort to see if the native animal survived.

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Melanie Bradshaw-Dunn (left) was driving in West Pymble with her two young children on Saturday when she saw an echidna get struck by a car and curl up into a tight ball

The animal lover's three-year-old son became very concerned about the echidna once noticing her foot was 'falling off', while her daughter questioned why no one stopped to help

'By the time I stopped and got out she was starting to unfurl and her tongue was hanging out and she was bleeding,' Ms Bradshaw-Dunn wrote on Facebook.

'No one could take 5 minutes out of their lives to stop and let her pass, they all had somewhere to be in their luxury cars,' she added.

Ms Bradshaw-Dunn said she 'caused a traffic jam' when she stopped, bundled the injured animal into a jacket and put her in the back seat of the car.

She said her children, aged three and four, are quite used to stopping to help injured animals as she works in wildlife rescue but they had never seen an animal in such a dire state.

Ms Bradshaw-Dunn said she 'caused a traffic jam' when she stopped, bundled the injured animal into a jacket and put her in the back seat of the car

The animal lover's three-year-old son became very concerned about the echidna once he noticed her foot was 'falling off', while her daughter questioned why no one else stopped to help.

'They were very upset and kept asking why there was all the blood,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'My daughter asked why did the cars squish the poor echidna and why wasn't she able to go home with us.

'[She] was also worried that cars kept trying to manoeuvre around us whilst I was getting the echidna into the car,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'The lack of concern of those before and behind me was astonishing.'

'My daughter (pictured) asked why did the cars squish the poor echidna and why wasn't she able to go home with us,' Ms Bradshaw-Dunn said

Ms Bradshaw-Dunn rushed the echidna to a nearby vet in nearby Wahroonga but her injuries were too severe and the 'sweet little native animal' passed away before they arrived

Ms Bradshaw-Dunn rushed the echidna to the Fox Valley Veterinary clinic in nearby Wahroonga but her injuries were too severe and the 'sweet little native animal' passed away before they arrived.

'I'm sorry you lost your precious life, I'm sorry I wasn't four cars earlier, you deserved better,' she wrote.

The dedicated animal advocate made an impassioned plea on Facebook for drivers to take more care when navigating roads where wildlife is nearby and posted it along with a video of the injured echidna twitching during its last moments alive.
also found the two violated federal law banning acquisition of Chinese munitions

While the new film War Dogs is certainly a Hollywood dramatization of two American arms dealers, the facts of the true story still remain shocking.

Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz were stoners from Miami Beach when they landed a $298million contract from the Department of Defense to supply ammunition to the Afghan military in 2007.

Now played by actor Miles Teller in the movie, which hit theaters on Friday based on a Rolling Stone feature, Packouz was a 25-year-old massage therapist when his high school friend Diveroli, enlisted his help.

Efraim Diveroli (right) and David Packouz (left) were stoners from Miami Beach when they landed a $298million contract from the Department of Defense to supply ammunition to the Afghan military in 2007

Their incredible true story has now been turned into the movie War Dogs, with actor Jonah Hill playing Diveroli, and Miles Teller portraying Packouz

After Diveroli was kicked out of school in the ninth grade, he sold guns to law enforcement for his uncle in Los Angeles, according to Guy Lawson's profile, which he later expanded upon in the book Arms and the Dudes.

Two years later, he branched out on his own and took over the shell company AEY Inc, realizing he could focus on the US military by finding the cheapest arms to beat out big corporations.

The Department of Defense was required by law to open up each purchase to public bidding, all of which were posted on a website known as FedBizOpps.

The government was also looking to supply militias in Iraq and Afghanistan with weapons from Eastern Europe, utilizing private brokers to act as proxies.

Under George W Bush's administration, a quota of the contracts were allotted to small businesses like AEY.

Soon, Diveroli won a $15million contract selling old rifles made in Russia to the US government, which would then pass on the weapons to the Iraqi army.

The young arms dealer was only 21 when he enlisted the help of his old friend Packouz, who signed on to AEY in 2005.

They holed up in a one-bedroom apartment, perusing federal contracts while smoking pot.

Packouz (left) posted this photo from the set of War Dogs, with Teller (center) and director Todd Phillips (right)

Packouz said: 'It was surreal. Here I was dealing with matters of international security, and I was half-baked'

Diveroli would win State Department deals, only to persuade the government to substitute high end equipment for cheaply made versions in order to increase his profit margin.

Packouz described his business partner as someone possessed with the bottom line, saying: 'Efraim was a Republican because they started more wars.

'When the United States invaded Iraq, he was thrilled. He said to me, "Do I think George Bush did the right thing for the country by invading Iraq? No. But am I happy about it? Absofuckinglutely."

'He hoped we would invade more countries because it was good for business.'

As for his own role, he said: 'It was surreal. Here I was dealing with matters of international security, and I was half-baked.

'I didn't know anything about the situation in that part of the world...There were all these shadowy forces, and I didn't know what their motives were.

'But I had to get my shit together and put my best arms-dealer face on.'

By the time the 'non-standard' contract appeared in 2006, Packouz was ready to step up to the plate, spending six weeks calling arms manufacturers in Eastern Europe to source the ammunition.

The contract called for 100million rounds of AK-47 ammunition as well as dizzying numbers of grenades, rockets, and rifles.

It also stated the ammunition could be 'serviceable without qualification', a point Diveroli and Packouz ran with, according to a government investigation.

Packouz described his business partner as someone possessed with the bottom line, saying: 'Efraim was a Republican because they started more wars' (pictured, a still from War Dogs)

Diveroli pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy in 2009, and was sentenced to four years in prison, while Packouz, was under house arrest for seven months (pictured, a still from War Dogs)

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform later wrote in a 2008 report: 'When the Defense Department awarded its $300 million contract to AEY, it failed to establish adequate standards for the age, quality, or shipping of the ammunition.

'The documents indicate that AEY took advantage of the inadequate standards...'

The Committee also found the arms dealers violated federal law banning the acquisition of Chinese munitions.

'Kosta Trebicka, an Albanian businessman hired by AEY, told the Committee that his job was to remove ammunition from wooden crates with Chinese markings and repack it into cardboard boxes before shipment to Afghanistan,' the report stated.

Diveroli pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy in 2009, and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Packouz, who was sentenced to seven months of house arrest, said: 'We were the Army's favorite contractors when we got the deal  poster boys for President Bush's small-business initiative.

'We would have saved the government at least $50 million. We were living the American dream, until it turned into a nightmare.'
The twisted accomplice of 'bunny boiler' murderer Sarah Williams feared the killer would poison her by lacing her food with prawns and then frame her by writing a suicide note.

Katrina Walsh, 56, has a serious allergy to the seafood and reportedly believed Williams would use it to kill her and make it appear like a suicide.

She feared Williams - who was jailed for a minimum of 30 years after stabbing her love rival Sadie Hartley to death - would then write a note pretending to by Walsh which confessed to the murder.

The pair were both jailed for life after a seven-week trial at Preston Crown Court.

Katrina Walsh (pictured) has a serious prawn allergy and feared Sarah Williams would use the shellfish to kill her

Sarah Williams (left) was jailed for the murder of Sadie Hartley (right) after being convicted following a seven-week trial at Preston Crown Court

The court heard Williams, 35, initially shot 60-year-old Hartley using a 500,000 volt stun-gun she bought in Germany.

The jury was told Williams had become obsessed with Ms Hartley's partner, former fireman Ian Johnston and carried out the attack to try and win him back.

Walsh's paranoia was revealed as footage emerged of the moment Williams was woken in her bed by police and arrested over the businesswoman's murder.

In letters sent from prison while awaiting trial Walsh told her ex-husband that she suspected Williams would trigger her life-threatening allergy with the shellfish and hide her medication before leaving a note admitting killing the mother-of-two.

In one of the letters seen by the Sunday Mirror she wrote: 'All she (Williams) needed to do would be to contaminate something I ate with prawns and remove my EpiPens.

The court heard Williams, 35, initially shot 60-year-old Hartley (pictured) using a 500,000 volt stun-gun she bought in Germany

Ms Hartley's partner Ian Jonhston (centre) was photographed after the two women were jailed for life

'Then add a "suicide" note confessing & she'd maybe have got away with this.'

Walsh sent more than 20 letters after being arrested as she was on remand at New Hall Prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

In the letters, addressed to her ex-husband Kevin Walsh, 58, she wrote that she thought Williams was drugging her and she believed the murderer was also using a second accomplice.

And she brazenly wrote in the letters that she believed she would walk free from court and thought she would convince the jury that that she was innocent.

But she also claimed she was 'gullible' and had been used by Williams, a woman she described as being a 'scheming vicious heartless slime'.

Walsh also believed the speed of Williams' arrest in the wake of the brutal murder prevented her from carrying out the plot.

Then, in a bizarre attempt to bring levity to an apology to her ex-husband, she said: 'Sorry to mess your life up. Hope you can see the lighter side of it.'

The two women were convicted of murdering Ms Hartley at her home in Helmshore, Lancashire, after scheming for 18 months in an bid to carry out the 'perfect murder'.

Williams (left) wanted to kill Ms Hartley (right) because she was obsessed with Mr Jonhston and wanted to win him back

Police investigated the murder scene at Ms Hartley's luxury home in Helmshore, Lancashire

Williams was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years and Walsh a minimum term of 25 years.

Mr Justice Turner said the 'unimaginable ferocity' of the murder of the 'loving mother' was like the 'slaughtering of an animal'.

Williams immobilised Ms Hartley with the stun-gun, then using an eight-inch carving knife to stab the semi-paralysed mother-of-two through the face and neck, inflicting more than 40 stab and slash wounds in the attack on January 14.

The killer's arrest three days later was caught on camera by documentary makers following Lancashire Police at the time.

In the clip Williams is woken by officers storming into her bedroom as she slept at 3am. The killer is seen sitting bolt upright, her face blank.
Ms Connor told her boyfriend a 'bad cop' had tried to sexually

The Australian woman charged with the murder a Bali police officer told her British boyfriend a 'bad cop' tried to sexually assault her.

Sara Connor and her DJ boyfriend David Taylor are accused of beating First Inspector Wayan Sudarsa to death with a beer bottle on Kuta Beach.

His bloodied body was found on the sand with 17 head wounds, thought to be caused by a smashed Bintang bottle lying nearby.

Police said a 'struggle' seems to have occurred between the victim and Ms Conner, who appears to have substantial bite marks around her finger.

Ms Connor's lawyer Erwin Siregar revealed her client also has a bite mark on her inner thigh, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Sara Connor claims a 'bad cop' tried to sexually assault her on the same beach where the body of a Bali cop she allegedly murderd was found

Ms Connor is escorted by police officers as she was arrested over the alleged murder of a police officer in Bali. Ms Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor have been charged

Ms Connor's lawyer Erwin Siregar has revealed her client has a bite mark on her inner thigh, but it is unknown where the mark came from

Mr Taylor's lawyer Haposan Sihombing said the couple had separated to look for Ms Connor's lost bag on the beach when she was allegedly attacked.

Mr Taylor said Ms Connor complained she had been down at Kuta Beach and a 'bad cop' was there.

'She said that she was pushed and he lay on top of her on the sand,' Mr Taylor's lawyer said on Sunday.

'She screamed and there were some people helping her. And then the police officer left.'

But Ms Connor's lawyer said his client has yet to tell police what happened that night.

'We never said that. We haven't reached the details of the incident yet,' he added.

British national David Taylor is escorted by police officers as he was arrested over the alleged murder

Ms Connor, pictured, and her British boyfriend David Taylor admit to being at the scene of the crime on Kuta Beach, but have not admitted to any involvement in the murder

The claims come after a hotel security guard earlier said he heard screaming and went down to the beach where he allegedly saw five people, including a woman, with the policeman.

Thinking the group was 'just fooling around', he went back to the hotel. The body was discovered about an hour later.

According to Mr Haposan, the couple moved to another hotel after the alleged incident, where a friend called from Australia and told them according to news reports they were wanted by police.

She advised they go to the Australian Consulate-General in Denpasar, where they were arrested on Friday after police put out an immigration alert to stop them leaving the island.

Mr Haposan said his client had been interrogated by police from 2pm to 7pm on Saturday, during which he was asked 35 questions, but had not confessed to the murder.

Earlier, details emerged about the heated exchange between and the victim and the pair before his death.

On Friday Mr Taylor was hauled away in Bali after he and Ms Connor turned themselves into police

Sara Connor (pictured), from Byron Bay on the NSW north coast, and British man David Taylor were taken into custody in Denpasar on Friday

Indonesian police have detained David Taylor, pictured, over the brutal murder of a policeman on a popular Bali beach

Denpasar Police chief Hadi Purnomo said the couple admitted they had clashed with Mr Wayan shortly before he was found dead.

The altercation reportedly began when Ms Connor asked for help over her missing handbag.

'Sara (Connor) said that she clashed with the victim at the beach gate. They had pulled each other,' Mr Purnomo told The Daily Telegraph.

'Sara said because her bag was gone she asked for help from the victim but then they pulled each other.'

Mr Taylor told police the victim had bitten him on his finger during an altercation, and that he had later tried to help the dying man.

Mr Siregar, who also represented convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby, said Ms Conner will face three alternate charges of murder, manslaughter and assault causing death.

Mr Taylor is understood to be facing the same charges. If convicted of murder the pair could face a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Mr Siregar said Ms Connor was exhausted and missed her two children, aged 9 and 11.

Ms Connor and British man David Taylor (pictured) have been taken back to the beach where a police officer was murdered in Bali

Briton David Taylor is escorted by Indonesian in Denpasar with a black mask covering his face

Sara Connor is escorted by Indonesia police officials at a station in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali

'She's sad, of course, that's normal. She's tired,' he said.

Despite reports Ms Connor said she was too drunk to remember the incident, her lawyer insisted she was not intoxicated.

The night the officer was killed the couple had gone to a restaurant and had some beers before going to the beach where they began 'kissing'.

During that time, Ms Connor said she lost her purse and wounded her arm and leg, but it remains unclear how those injuries occurred.

Hours later, Mr Sudarsa's sand-covered body was found. He had significant wounds to his head and leg, and his shirt was unbuttoned and bloodied with smashed beer bottle was found nearby.

Blood from Mr Taylor and Ms Connor was reportedly found at the murder scene.

Ms Connor's black leather purse, her driver's license and a credit card were also found near the body.

Police searched what is believed to be Ms Connor's hotel room on Thursday and claimed to have found blood on the bed, doors, walls and floor.

The hotel room Ms Connor (pictured) was staying in allegedly had bloodstained walls and floors

It is believed Mr Taylor, pictured, had been living with Ms Connor in Byron Bay

A towel was also found in the hotel with a blood stain on it, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Ms Connor and Mr Taylor were arrested near the Australian Consulate-General in Denpasar on Friday after police put out an immigration alert in a bid to stop the pair from leaving the island.

After spending their first night in custody in Bali, the pair were taken to Kuta Beach at dawn where they were asked to carry out a re-enactment.

'We wanted to find out the suspects' position during the incident and the suspects admitted that they were there,' Police Chief Purnomo said.

They were also taken to the nearby Kubu Kau Beach Inn - the hotel where Mr Taylor was staying before heading to Trijata Hospital in Denpasar.

On Friday Mr Taylor was hooded and hauled away after he and Ms Connor turned themselves into police.

Security guards discovered the body of Insp Sudarsa (pictured), 53, who police believe was hit in the head with a beer bottle

Insp Sudarsa had wounds to his forehead and leg, while his shirt was unbuttoned and bloodied (pictured)

Tourists walk past the site where an officer was murdered on Wednesday

'They're being interrogated. I did the interrogation myself,' Bali Provincial Police Chief Sugeng Prayitno told reporters shortly after the couple were arrested.

Police claimed Ms Connor said she was too drunk to remember the incident, while Mr Taylor refused to answer questions and was waiting for his lawyer.

'According to female suspect, she admitted that she was drunk at the time. She couldn't remember all the events that night,' Mr Prayitno said.

The community of Ms Conner's hometown Byron Bay on the NSW north coast has rallied around the mother-of-two and released a statement shortly after news spread of her arrest.

'Sara is a very honest, reliable and generous person; she is a great organiser and is very supportive in bringing people together and looking after her friends,' the statement read.

'The accusations laid against her are totally out of character for this beautiful person.'

Police searched what is believed to be their hotel room (pictured) on Thursday after the couple checked out

Officers claim to have found blood on the bed, doors, walls and floor (pictured)

Insp Sudarsa's motorcycle was parked in the Pullman Hotel car park and his walkie talkie and hat were found 20 metres away

The victim's brother Putu Yudi Krisna said the victim had been a policeman for 35 years.

'He's a kind person, loving his family and living modestly. He had two children and so far, he had no enemies whatsoever. We're very shocked,' he said.

Mr Sudarsa's family are making preparations for his cremation, which is expected to take place on Sunday.

'We leave it all to the police to catch all the perpetrators and to reveal what happened,' Mr Krisna said.

He said he was contacted by the Australian consulate on Friday night.

This picture shows an entry gate cordoned by police line at the site where the policeman was killed

A security officer at the Pullman Hotel told police he heard screaming at about 1.15am on the Wednesday and went down to the beach (pictured)

This picture shows a police cordon at the site where a policeman was killed

A security guard allegedly saw five people, including a woman on the beach with the policeman

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was 'aware of media reports of a tourist or tourists possibly being implicated in the death of a Balinese policeman in Indonesia.'

'We stand ready to provide consular assistance, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter,' it said in a statement.

Authorities initially told reporters they were looking for Ms Connor along with a man called Thomas Schon.

But late on Friday it appeared they had given out the wrong name and they were then looking for a man called Mr Taylor.

Mr Schon told Fairfax Media he was in Europe and 'had never been to Bali in his life'.

Mr Taylor is believed to have entered Bali on July 29 while Ms Connor came on August 16.

David Taylor, pictured, was taken into custody on Friday over the murder of police officer Wayan Sudarsa

Ms Connor's black leather purse, her driver's license and a credit card were found at the crime scene (pictured)
The girl young girl was flown to Royal

at a rural property in Dunolly, Victoria on Friday

after being bitten on the face by a dog

A toddler has been flown to hospital with serious injuries after being bitten on the face by a dog at a regional property.

Paramedics rushed to the property on Pain Killer Gully Road in Dunolly, Victoria, at about 7.10pm on Saturday after a girl aged between one and three suffered facial injuries from a dog attack.

The young girl was taken to Bendigo Airport and then flown the Royal Children's hospital in a serious but stable condition.

The young girl was taken to Bendigo Airport and then flown the Royal Children's hospital in a serious but stable condition

Maryborough police Sergeant Steve Cunningham told The Herald Sun the dog that inflicted the injuries was not owned by the girl's family.

'The owner has since put the dog down,' Sergeant Cunningham said.

A police spokesperson said police would not investigate the attack as it was a matter for local council.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Central Goldfields Shire Council for comment.
Retired brigadier general Chuck Yeager might be 93, but proved he knows a thing or two about tweeting after a hilarious days-long AMA on Twitter.

Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight, spent hours on social media answering dozens of questions posed to him by users.

Since Thursday, Yeager has responded to a host of questions tweeted at him.

Retired brigadier general Chuck Yeager (pictured), 93, took to Twitter for an incredible AMA

Some of the general's responses were humorous while others were straightforward.

Topics ranged from the upcoming election to whether the general preferred flying or sex.

One person asked: 'Who would you vote for this November? Am at a loss.'

Yeager responded: 'My Dad refused to shake Pres Truman's hand. He never met a Democrat he liked. He'd feel even more so about Clinton.'

One Twitter user asked him what would have happened if social media had existed during World War II, which he served as a private in the United States Army Air Forces before being promoted through the ranks to a P-51 fighter pilot.

He responded that Twitter would have 'created a mess'.

Yeager also told one person he would be fine with a transgender commanding officer as long as that person did their job well.

Topics ranged from the upcoming election to whether the general preferred flying or sex. While some responses were straightforward others were humorous

A man tweeted asking how to help his girlfriend get over her fear of 'breaking the sound barrier' when flying.

Yeager joked: 'No commercial airplanes are flying near MACH 1 or the sound barrier. It's no longer there - I broke it.'

When asked why he never went to space, he replied: 'Didn't want to wipe the monkey crap off the seat before I sat down'

Several people asked if Yeager had joined the 'mile high club' or if her preferred flying or sex.

To each query he simply responded: 'Secret.'

Yeager seemed to get annoyed after several people asked him about his thoughts on Colonel John Richard Boyd.

Yeager implied that only drunk pilots spot UFOs and said he never went to space because he didn't want to wipe 'monkey crap off the seat'

'7th time asked in 12 hrs. Same answer: Not impressed,' he responded to one person.

During the session he implied he doesn't believe in climate change, prefers cats to dogs and said Amelia Earhart looked like Charles Lindbergh

When asked about Edward Snowden, the general simply replied: 'The traitor?'

During more serious questions he said he wouldn't mind a transgender commanding officer, called Snowden a traitor and discussed the French resistance helping him get to Spain

He also threw a not-so-subtle jab at the Navy when someone asked if he thought the military division was better than the Air Force.

His response? 'HAHAHAHA.'

One person asked how many UFOs the general had encountered during his flights.

'None. I don't drink before I fly,' he tweeted back.

While he refused to delve deep into politics, Yeager mentioned his father would not have liked Hillary Clinton

Yeager also mentioned the last time he broke the sound barrier was four years ago and said it 'felt like yesterday'.

He also called the newer F-22 and the F-35 fighter jets a 'waste of money' but said despite not wanting to predict the future, he can see the merit in using drones.

'Any time a pilot doesn't have to bleed, that's a good thing,' he wrote.
A search for a missing girl in Minnesota came to a tragic end Saturday evening when authorities found her body in a rural area about 90 minutes away from her home.

Alayna Ertl, 5, was discovered missing at 8am on Saturday by her mother, who put her to bed only a few hours before in Watkins, according to an Amber Alert issued by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Also missing the next morning was the girl's father's white pickup truck and 25-year-old Zachary Todd Anderson, a friend to the family who had stayed over at the home the night before, the Star Tribune reported.

Video courtesy of Fox 9

Tragic: A search for a Alayna Ertl, 5, who was reported missing came to a tragic end Saturday evening when authorities found her body in a rural area about 90 minutes away from her home in Watkins, Minnesota

Ertl's body was discovered near Wildnerness Park outside of Motley in rural Cass County about nine hours later.

Police arrested Anderson for the girl's murder in Cass County, after they found him alone around 4.20pm in a secluded area.

Anderson was a co-worker of Ertl's father and had stayed at the home on previous occasions, Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze said Saturday night.

Police arrested Zachary Todd Anderson (above) for the murder of Ertl on Saturday

According to the Tribune, Anderson does not have a previous criminal record outside of traffic violations.

It's unclear why Anderson drove to the Motley area, but a tip led authorities to his location.

'That's part of our follow up right now, to figure out  why there?' Cruze said.

'This is not a stranger-type situation,' Cruze said of the girl's abduction.

He said that the little girl was dead when police found her, but would not reveal anymore information about the condition of her body or if she had been sexually assaulted.
This is the moment an Arkansas police officer's patrol car crashed and overturned, throwing a teen suspect through the back window.

Video taken from inside the police vehicle showed 19-year-old Logan Younger ejected from the car after partially freeing himself from his handcuffs.

At the time, Jonesboro Police Officer Justin Thompson was taking Younger to jail after responding to a report of an intoxicated person at the Mall at Turtle Creek, according to KAIT.

Scroll down for video

This is the moment an Arkansas police officer's patrol car crashed and overturned, throwing a teen suspect through the back window

Video taken from inside the police vehicle showed 19-year-old Logan Younger kicking the back of Jonesboro Police Officer Justin Thompson's seat

The patrol car pictured following the crash. The cause of the crash is currently under investigation

In the video, Younger is seen in the back seat banging on the bulletproof glass divider and violently kicking the back of Thompson's seat.

Using his left hand, which he managed to free from the handcuffs, Younger digs an object out of his pocket only seconds before he is suddenly hurled out the car.

After the crash, Younger reportedly fled the scene on foot and a chase ensued, but he was caught moments later, according to KRON.

Moments before Younger was ejected from the car he had partially freed himself from his handcuffs and started banging on the bulletproof divider

Using his left hand, which he managed to free from the handcuffs, Younger digs an object out of his pocket only seconds before he is suddenly hurled out the car

Meanwhile, fire crews had to cut the patrol unit in order to free Thompson who was left trapped inside.

He was transported to a Memphis hospital and the extent of his injuries are not known at this time.

A bruised and bloodied Younger is pictured following the crash. He was taken to jail where he is being held on charges including escape, public intoxication, fleeing on foot and minor in possession charges

Younger was also taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.

He was then taken to jail where he is being held on charges including escape, public intoxication, fleeing on foot and minor in possession.
The prime minister wants to slash the $700 family welfare supplement

Malcolm Turnbull is set to cut tax benefits for families earning over $100,000 but claims the loss will be offset by a new childcare assistance scheme.

Parents earning over $100,000 currently qualify for a $700 family welfare supplement however if the Turnbull government are able to negotiate a deal with Labor that figure could be halved, Daily Telegraph reported.

Mr Turnbull has vowed to block further child care assistance unless the Senate agrees to the cuts in order to pay for it.

Malcolm Turnbull is set to cut tax benefits for families earning over $100,000 but claims the loss will be offset by a new childcare assistance scheme

The Liberal party proposed slashing the family welfare payment for families all together but later suggested cutting it for those who receive the Family Tax Benefit.

But Labor have instead argued to reduce it by $350.

WHAT DOES THE 'FAMILY TAX BENEFIT' CUT MEAN FOR YOU? Previously, families earning over $100,000 per year were eligible for a payment of $700 per year. Under the new reforms families could lose half that money. Labor has proposed that families earning over $100,000 have their supplement reduced from $700 to $350. Advertisement

The prime minister said he will 'reach across the aisle' to try and appease Labor in an attempt to get the cuts through the Senate, the Daily Telegraph reported.

'We are ready to reach across the aisle.

'But Labor must be prepared to bring an open mind and some fiscal rationality to any discussions, as well as a commitment to support spending reductions they have already said they will back,' Mr Turnbull said.

The cuts are a part of the Liberal party's plan to reduce middle class welfare and decrease the budget deficit.

The cuts are a part of the Liberal party's plan to reduce middle class welfare and decrease the budget deficit (Mr Turnbull pictured on Thursday)
Selfie queen Karen Danczuk said she feared for her life when her Labour MP husband lashed out in a jealous rage on a family holiday.

Simon Danczuk, 49, reportedly shattered the glass door to their Spanish holiday home while his wife was standing outside after she spoke to another man.

Mother-of-two Karen, 33, needed 40 stitches following the row and was later photographed with bandages on her chest and hand after being taken to hospital.

Mr Danczuk appeared at a court specialising in crimes of violence against women earlier this week, but no charges were brought and the case was dropped.

Bloodied: Selfie queen Karen Danczuk said she feared for her life when her Labour MP husband lashed out in a jealous rage on a family holiday

Mother-of-two Karen, 33, needed hospital treatment following the row and was later photographed with bandages on her chest (left) and hand (right)

Simon Danczuk (pictured with Karen), 49, reportedly shattered the glass door to their Spanish holiday home while his wife was standing outside after she spoke to another man

Today Karen said she had dropped the charges for the sake of their children.

Speaking about the row for the first time, Mrs Danczuk told Jane Atkinson at the Sun on Sunday: 'I thought he was going to kill me. I know I will be scarred for life.'

Mr Danczuk had flown out to Algorfa, near Alicante, to join his estranged wife and their sons, Milton, eight, and Sebastian, six.

The couple reportedly got into a row after Mrs Danczuk took a call from another man. Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Danczuk only said her behaviour had been 'wholly inappropriate'.

Witnesses said the Rochdale MP snatched her phone and threw it into a swimming pool.

An onlooker said: She retrieved [the phone], went indoors and shooed him out. He began banging and screaming.

Another added: The whole neighbourhood was awake. Some got so concerned they ran over to intervene. Karen appeared to have a large cut to her chest. I think she had been cut by glass shattering. It looked quite nasty.

A shirtless Mr Danczuk allegedly screamed, Karen, Karen, I just want to talk to you, as he was led away in handcuffs by police.

Selfie queen Karen Danczuk was spotted in Spain with a bandage on her chest following a row with her husband Simon. She reportedly refused to press charges for their sons' sake

MP Simon Danczuk, pictured here in a Spanish bar, appeared in a Spanish court earlier this week after his arrest on Sunday night following a dispute with his estranged wife Karen

Karen was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where she was treated for the cut which officers said she sustained in a fall.

Mr Danczuk told the Sunday Times that there had been absolutely no physical violence, adding: 'Karen didn't report any violence. The police made assumptions.'

The MP later appeared in court but was released without charge.

In the interview with the Sun on Sunday, Mrs Danczuk said she did not press charges because she did not want their children to see him behind bars.

She said: 'Do I want to be the person who tells my sons their dad is in prison? No'.

A court official in Alicante said on Tuesday: Court Number One in Orihuela, which specialises in dealing with violence against women, has archived, at the petition of the State Prosecution Service, the case opened against British MP Simon Danczuk, who was arrested on Sunday on an alleged crime of domestic violence, after being reported by his estranged wife.

The man in question has today appeared in court. His estranged wife has also appeared in court and declined to ratify her initial statement.'

Simon Danczuk, left, and his wife Karen, right, were on holiday with their two sons at the MP's holiday retreat in Algorfa, Costa Blanca when an incident happened on Sunday night

Karen, pictured here at a London train station in July, reportedly told friends that she couldn't put her sons through the trauma of seeing their father behind bars

It is the latest scandal to hit the MP who was suspended from the Labour Party after being caught sending lewd text messages to a 17-year-old girl and asking her if she wanted to be spanked.

Earlier this month he also admitted to having sex with a 22-year-old woman in his taxpayer-funded constituency office after meeting her on Twitter just days earlier.

Sources close to Mr Danczuk told the Manchester Evening News earlier this week that he had not assaulted Karen and that the incident had been blown out of proportion.

They said that Karen, who remains in Spain, now wants to concentrate on looking after her children. Karen, who rose to fame after posting cleavage-baring selfies online, married Mr Danczuk following his election as Rochdale MP in 2010.

She served as a councillor in Rochdale but resigned in autumn 2015 during the couples break-up.
Staff at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital attempted to calm him down

The man, high on meth, had no idea his friend, 44, was already dead

Drug-affected man took his dead friend to a Perth hospital last month

A man who had been dead for over a day was taken to the emergency department of a Perth hospital by his friend, who was 'high on meth' at the time.

The drug-affected man drove his truck up to the main entrance of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital on July 8, completely unaware of his friend's deceased state.

Witnesses told Perth Now that hospital staff attempted to keep the tragic news from the intoxicated man, who was already acting agitated and confused.

A man 'high on meth' drove his truck up to the main entrance of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital on July 8 to seek medical assistance for his friend - who was already dead

Patients waiting for treatment in the emergency department were subjected to some delays, with only 'priority one' ambulance and walk-in cases receiving attention.

Western Australia police said that the death of the 44-year-old man, from Cannington in Perth, was 'sudden' and 'non-suspicious'.

They confirmed they had cordoned off the area to investigate.

A spokesperson from the hospital told Perth Now that they had been forced to create alternative entry and exit points as a result of the incident.

However, the incident reportedly had minimal impact on the ED and was 'largely business as usual' insisted the spokesperson.

The man, who witnesses claim was high on methamphetamine (known as ice in Australia), was in an agitated state when he arrived at the emergency department

It comes amidst reports that a man posing as a doctor snuck into restricted areas of the public hospital this year - wandering through different wards, hanging out int he doctor's lounge and checking patient's charts.

Staff at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth became suspicious after seeing the man repeatedly visiting the hospital and using areas restricted to hospital employees, according to the West Australian.

Security guards questioned the man after being alerted by staff and he has not been seen at the hospital since, but the incident has called into question the hospital's security risk.
What's wrong with this picture? In Wednesday's The Citizen, a front page article touted the news that the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse will soon serve alcohol. Good for them! However something doesn't ring true. The "Broadway in the Finger Lakes" will feature items from California and other places. Should not the emphasis be local?

Everyone touts the craft beers and wines from this area, yet it seems the theater slighted the Finger Lakes. Do you think there might be a brewery or winery close by that might love to partner with the theater? I think we could guess the answer to that question.

Our area produces exceptional wines and craft beers  award winners. We should be embracing that and supporting it in all areas, but especially at Broadway in the Finger Lakes, which is host to people from all over the East Coast and beyond! Let's show our New York and Finger Lakes pride!

Russell Harkins

Auburn
A puppy has swallowed a 20cm-long steak knife and endured almost one hour of surgery after it became lodged next to her heart.

Lexie, a six-month-old Staffy, was believed to have had an upset tummy when she was taken to the vet after repeatedly vomiting.

But a shocking X-ray revealed Lexie had swallowed a serrated knife, and was rushed to see specialists for life-saving surgery at Animal Referral Hospital (ARH) in Homebush in Sydney's west.

Scroll down for video

An X-ray revealed Lexie, a six-month-old Staffy, had swallowed a 20cm-long steak knife

She appeared to have luckily swallowed the knife handle-first.

'I thought she was going to die,' Lexie's owner said, according to video posted to the ARH Facebook page.

Lexie underwent 45 minutes of surgery to have the knife delicately pulled back up her oesophagus.

Dr Jody Braddock, the medical specialist at ARH, said she had never seen anything like it - and said the team had to work fast.

'We knew that Lexie's best chance of survival would be to remove the knife as soon as possible before it could cause more damage.'

The serrated knife was pulled back up Lexie's oesophagus in surgery at Animal Referral Hospital in Homebush in Sydney's west

Lexie spent the next three days in intensive care and remains on strict bed-rest at home for the next 10 days

'But to do that required a team effort with my veterinary technicians, guiding the endoscope with its camera in such a way that we could see the serrated edge and the tip of the knife and prevent it from cutting Lexie's tissue as it was slowly and gently inched out with forceps.'

Lexie spent the next three days in intensive care and remains on strict bed-rest at home for the next 10 days.

The Staffy's owner said the specialists 'who saved Lexie's life' were 'amazing'.

The owner could not explain how Lexie managed to swallow the knife.

'Lexie's always grabbing things to hide under the couch and play with them when we're not looking - so that's the only thing we can think of,' she said.

But Dr Christine Hawke, a veterinary dentist at ARH, said she noticed Lexie's teeth push into her gums.
Now a campaign is growing to persuade the Czech government to give them a proper burial

Pair were later killed and are believed to be buried in an unmarked

A campaign is growing to give a proper burial to the two daring Czech assassins who killed a chief of the Holocaust and one of Hitler's most fanatical henchmen.

British trained Czech paratroopers Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis are credited with killing Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, by ambushing his car on the streets of Prague.

They are believed to have been buried in the Czech capital in an unmarked grave in the Dablice cemetery when they were later killed in an attack on their hideout by the SS.

Holocaust chief Reinhard Heydrich, left, who was assassinated in Prague in 1942. A campaign is growing to give his two assassins a proper burial

It is thought their final resting place is close to a plot where political prisoners are buried after they were killed by the former Czechoslovakia communist regime.

Now Czech campaigners are calling on the government to five Gabcik and Kubis a proper burial after claims the government have refused in the past to face its totalitarian past.

Neela Winklemann of the European Platform of Memory and Conscience in Prague, told the Observer: 'In Britain and France, resistance fighters are treated with the utmost respect. Ours are in mass graves and people are turning away from them.

'It's disrespectful what they have done to Gabcik and Kubis. They killed the only Nazi leader to be assassinated in the war, and he just happened to be one of the main architects of the Holocaust.'

The Czech ministry of defence says no final decision has been taken on exhuming the assassin's remains and giving them a new burial.

British trained Czech paratroopers Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis are credited with killing Heydrich in 1942, by ambushing his car on the streets of Prague, pictured

The mission to assassinate Heydrich, code named Operation Anthropoid, was organised by the British special forces and by Czechoslovakia's government-in-exile.

Gabcik and Kubis ambushed Heydrich's car on the streets of Prague.

Although their guns proved to be mostly useless, a grenade explosion fatally injured Heydrich - he died one week later.

Kubis and Gabcik escaped the scene of the attack but were later killed when their hideout was surrounded by the S.S.

In reprisal for Heydrich's death, German forces destroyed two villages and killed at least 5,000 people

In reprisal for Heydrich's death, German forces destroyed two villages and killed at least 5000 people.

Despite this, Operation Anthropoid was considered the only successful state-sponsored assassination of a Nazi leader.

The events of Operation Anthropoid are set to be recounted in the film called Anthropoid, which is being released next month starring Fifty Shades of Grey actor Jamie Dornan.
An airline refused to let a woman board her flight to see her sister in hospital because she was three minutes late.

The Melbourne woman identified as Lenny, 27, was flying to Sydney after learning her sister had been hit by a truck.

But when Lenny attempted to check in with Tigerair at the airport after being unable to check in online, she was told she would have to get a later flight.

'I could barely speak because I was crying so much, but all the [Tiger employee] said was: 'Do you want to pay $92 for the next flight?',' Lenny told to The New Daily.

Lenny, 27, was told she couldn't was fly to Sydney to see her sister who had been hit by a truck because she was three minutes late

Knowing that her sister was undergoing emergency surgery and facing a possible leg amputation, Lenny understandably upset when she arrived at Melbourne Airport.

'The website wouldn't let me to check-in online, so I had called Tiger on the way and they said I would have to do check-in when I got there,' she told The New Daily.

But when she reached the check-in desk, Lenny learned she was three minutes late and was unable to board her flight.

She was told she would have to wait for a later plane, despite her original flight not being due to fly out for another 42 minutes.

The distressed Lenny said the representative seemed to ignore her distressed plea, as did the surrounding Tigerair employees.

Lenny was forced to pay a $92 fee to check-in for the next flight, even though her original flight still hadn't boarded by the time she had gone through security.

Lenny had to pay $92 dollars to check-in for her original flight, which hadn't started boarding by the time she got through security

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, a Tigerair spokesperson said their system acts like most other airlines, once check-in has closed, they are unable to reopen the system to check anyone in who is running late.

'If you're late to check in for your flight or board our aircraft we can't wait, because it delays all the passengers who were on time and has a knock-on impact throughout the day,' they said.

'Our check-in desks close strictly 45 minutes before departure.
Supermarket giants better watch out, a player on the scene is rolling up it's sleeves and making an aggressive online push.

Aussie Farmers Direct has grown from delivering milk in 2005, to competing with market movers Coles and Woolworths, with their online grocery platform, The General Store.

Aussie Farmers Direct offers their growing base of 130,000 customer's fresh groceries supplied by farmers from across the country, News.com.au reports.

Aussie Farmers Direct has grown from delivering milk in 2005, to competing with market movers Coles and Woolworths, with their online grocery platform, The General Store

Aussie Farmers Direct's ove to expand nationally from its Victoria base comes after thousands of customers had their private information leaked online in November last year

The move to expand nationally from its Victoria base comes after thousands of customers had their private information leaked online in November last year.

A six-figure sum was demanded by hackers before they posted the information of 5000 customers.

However, Aussie Farmers Direct said in a statement to News.com.au was no real risk to customers in the leaked data.

'The data elements that were released are generally all used publicly, so we think any risk to customers is low, but we understand concerns about identity theft.'

The company hope their plan to match prices in Coles and Woolworths and support Australian farmers will appeal to its customers.

'Aussies have a huge appetite for wanting to buy Australian,' Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey told News.com.au.

'A lot of consumers are willing to pay a bit more so the group's expansion is a welcome addition.

'They're up against some big players and I wouldn't expect Coles and Woolies to take this lying down.'

A Choice spokesman says Aussie Farmers Direct are 'up against some big players and I wouldn't expect Coles and Woolies to take this lying down'

The company hope their plan to match prices in Coles and Woolworths and support Australian farmers will appeal to its customers

Ten per cent of imported product profits go to charities supporting Australian farmers

The majority of the products on offer on the Aussie Farmers Direct site have carry the Australian Made logo.
BBC did not renew Clarkson's contract after he punched producer

He questioned why Chris Evans tried to 'impersonate' Clarkson on show

Thompson, 59, said BBC could not afford to lose the controversial star

Former director-general Mark Thompson said the BBC made the wrong decision by ditching Jeremy Clarkson

Mark Thompson, former director-general of the BBC, has suggested the corporation made the wrong decision by ditching Jeremy Clarkson.

He said that despite the former Top Gear presenter being a 'deeply objectionable individual' at times, the BBC could not afford to lose him.

Thompson, 59, was forced to deal with a number of Clarkson's controversies during his time at the corporation, forcing him to apologise for calling Gordon Brown a 'one-eyed' idiot.

The BBC did not renew Clarkson's contract last year after he punched a Top Gear producer during a row about a steak in a hotel in Yorkshire.

Thompson, who is now CEO of the New York Times, said the corporation should have kept the controversial star.

He told the Sunday Times: 'Clarkson can be a deeply objectionable individual, and I say that as a friend. I dont think people should punch their colleagues. Its hard to keep them if they do.

'But I would say his pungent, transgressive, slightly out-of-control talent was something the BBC could ill afford to lose. He spoke to people who didnt find much else in the BBC.'

Thompson, 59, was forced to deal with a number of Clarkson's controversies, forcing him to apologise for calling Gordon Brown a 'one-eyed' idiot

Audience figures for Top Gear plummeted after Chris Evans, who has now quit the show, took to the helm. The series finale drew in an all-time low of 1.9million viewers.

Thompson said that Evans had done himself no favours on the show by trying to 'impersonate' Clarkson.

Speaking about dealing with the star's controversies, Thompson recalled: 'Clarkson phoned up out of the blue when I was on a day off. His first words were: "I wont apologise. I dont care what you say: I wont."

'I said: "Er, why would I want you to apologise?" He told me that hed just called Gordon Brown, who was then prime minister, "a one-eyed Scottish idiot" and a c***. We agreed that he would apologise for calling him one-eyed.'

The BBC did not renew Clarkson's contract last year after he punched a Top Gear producer during a row about a steak in a hotel in Yorkshire
The oldest working scientist in Australia has been told to pack up his office at a university after the 102-year-old was deemed unfit to make the 90-minute commute to work.

David William Goodall, an ecologist, has been told he must work remotely from Edith Cowan University in Perth.

But the 102-year-old, who has three doctorates and was this year made a member of the Order of Australia, has objected to the move.

David William Goodall (pictured), 102, has been told he must work remotely from Edith Cowan University in Perth over safety concerns

Vice-Chancellor Steve Chapman said the university had identified some risks associated with Dr Goodall's travel to and from the Joondalup campus, and also had concerns about his general wellbeing when there.

'To minimise these risks, we have consulted with him and his family and reached an agreement to set up a home office at a location of his choosing,' Professor Chapman said.

His daughter, Karen Goodall-Smith, said she had been contacted by the university for her input earlier this year  and said the change would have an impact on his mental wellbeing.

'I said it would be the worst thing you could possibly do, I don't know if he would survive it,' Ms Goodall-Smith told ABC News.

Dr Goodall said he would be 'glad if [university staff] did reconsider' their decision.

He had also been forced to give up his love of theatre a few years ago when his deteriorating eyesight stopped him from driving.

Dr Goodall took two buses and a train on his 90-minute commute to the university (pictured)

He had also been forced to give up his love of theatre a few years ago when his deteriorating eyesight stopped him from driving (pictured doing theatre)

Dr Goodall has been taking a 90-minute commute to the university at least four days a week by catching two buses and a train.

Professor Chapman said Dr Goodall would continue to be valued at the university.

'David will always be welcome at ECU and we will make travel arrangements, at no cost to him, to attend pre-arranged meetings and events,' Professor Chapman said.

'His honorary appointment expires this December and we look forward to renewing this for another three years in recognition of the many contributions he has made, and continues to make, in the field of ecology.'
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Big spending investors and cashed-up Sydneysiders hunting their dream homes have spent a whopping $170million on just 10 harbourside properties in 2016.

Super-rich Sydneysiders are spending big money on the most exclusive properties in the city, despite growing concerns about market instability.

The Rose Bay property at 19 Bayview Hill Road is the most expensive Sydney property sold this year at $33million.

This Rose Bay property at 19 Bayview Hill Road is the most expensive Sydney property sold this year at $33million

This property at 28A The Crescent in Vaucluse sold for $20.3million and is the second most expensive house in Sydney to be sold this year

Super-rich Sydneysiders are spending big money on the most exclusive properties in the city. 28A The Crescent in Vaucluse (pictured) sold for $20.3million

It was bought by billionaire retail king Brett Blundy in 2013, but a settlement wasn't agreed upon until February this year.

The five-bedroom, five bathroom home is now back on the market for $45million.

The second most expensive property sold this year in the harbour city was 28A The Crescent in Vaucluse, for $20.3million.

Mining magnate Jun Qiu sold this home for $11.8 million in March to Karen Leon, wife of Infomedia chief financial officer Richard Leon

Residents who live on Burran Avenue in Mosman described the strip as the 'golden mile'. Pictured, number 15 on the exclusive street, which Jun Qiu sold in March

In June 2002 it was sold for less than half that price.

Residents who live on Burran Avenue in Mosman described the strip as the 'golden mile'.

Two properties on the exclusive street fetched well over $10million earlier this year.

Pictured, the home Commonwealth Bank executive Doug Dovey sold at number 25 Burran Avenue in Mosman for $12.8 million in March

Two properties on the exclusive Burran street fetched well over $10million earlier this year. Pictured, number 25 which fetched $12.8 million

Commonwealth Bank executive Doug Dovey sold his house at number 25 for $12.8 million in March.

A stone's throw away, mining magnate Jun Qiu sold his home for $11.8 million the same month to Karen Leon, wife of Infomedia chief financial officer Richard Leon, The Daily Telegraph reported.

A stunning nine-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion on New South Head Rd, Vaucluse went for $20million in June.

This stunning nine-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion on New South Head Rd, Vaucluse went for $20million in June

Raine and Horne agent Max Spartalis, who sold this property for $20million, said supply shortages were pushing the prices of luxury homes up

Raine and Horne agent Max Spartalis, who sold the property, told the publication supply shortages were pushing the prices of luxury homes up.

'We haven't got enough homes for buyers. Between $20million and $30million there's a big stock shortage,' Mr Spartalis said.

'Wealthy expats, executives, local Chinese families, they all want the trophy home.'

TEN MOST EXPENSIVE PROPERTIES SOLD IN SYDNEY IN 2016 1. 19 Bayview Hill Road, Rose Bay - $33million. 2. 28A The Crescent in Vaucluse, - $20.3million. 3. 37A New South Head Road, Vaucluse - $20million. 4. 26 Trioli Avenue, Rose Bay - $16.85million. 5. 4 Shellback Parade, Cremorne - $16.5million. 6. 29 Challis Avenue, Potts Point - $13million. 7. 25 Burran Avenue, Mosman - $12.8million. 8. 36 Chamberlian Avenue, Rose Bay - $12.5million. 9. 15 Burran Avenue, Mosman - $11.8million 10. 28 Lucretia Avenue, Longueville - $11.8million Advertisement

This stunning property at 28 Lucretia Avenue in Longueville came in at number 10 on th elist and sold for $11.8million in June

Number four Shellbank Parade in Cremorne (pictured) fetched $16.5million earlier this year - the fifth most expensive property in Sydney sold this year
A former Australian soldier at the centre of 60 Minutes' abduction scandal in Beirut has claimed to have performed another child recovery, only weeks after being released from prison.

Adam Whittington, a long serving soldier and the current chief executive of Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI), was detained alongside journalist Tara Brown during the botched recovery attempt of Sally Faulkner's children in April.

But despite having been granted bail from a Beirut prison less than one month ago, Mr Whittington was back at work on Friday rescuing a six-week-old baby.

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Former Australian soldier Adam Whittington has gone back to work for Child Abduction Recovery International less than one month after being released for a Lebanon prison

Mr Whittington was in a Beirut jail for close to three months for his role in the 60 Minutes botched abduction scandal. He was left out of a Nine deal that saw the TV network pay a reported $500,000 to secure the release of the program's crew

Pictures posted to CARI's Facebook page show him holding the young girl after the successful recovery, believed to have happened in the West of Europe.

According to the post, Mr Whittington was called into action after the girl's family contacted CARI when she was illegally abducted by her dad just one week after birth.

'Due to Anastasia's (not her real name) age, CARI acted urgently without hesitation and within days of being contacted for help by her very concerned family,' the post said.

'Up until four days ago Anastasia was missing without a trace as the abductor like many others went on the run.'

Mr Whittington reportedly negotiated the final stage of the child's release.

In April, Mr Whittington was in charge of orchestrating the recovery of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's two children from her ex-husband Ali Elamine in Lebanon.

A 60 Minutes crew, led by experienced journalist Tara Brown, journeyed to Beirut alongside Mr Whittington to capture the moment the children were recovered.

Experienced journalist Tara Brown was leading the 60 Minutes crew which accompanied Mr Whittington in his efforts to get Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's two children back

However Beirut police intervened before Mr Whittington and three accomplices could retrieve ms Faulkner's (pictured left) two children from her ex-husband Ali Elamine (pictured right)

However the operation went pear-shaped when police intercepted the group and charged them with attempted kidnapping before they could recover the children.

The 60 Minutes crew was released when Channel Nine paid Mr Elamine a reported US$500,000 to drop the charges.

But while the 60 Minutes team returned free to Australia after two weeks in jail, Mr Whittington, associate Craig Michael and two Lebanese men hired to help were detained for a further three months.
The teenager who killed three former high school classmates including his ex at a house party last month spoke about his desire to murder his former girlfriend in text messages sent to friends in the days before the deadly attack.

Allen C. Ivanov referred to himself as a 'future shooter' in the messages, The Daily Herald newspaper in Everett reported Friday.

He has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder.

He tried to get back together with his former girlfriend Anna Bui the day before the July 30 attack, but she refused, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell wrote in new charging papers filed Friday.

A few days prior to that he texted one of his friends after learning that his ex was dating another man, writing: 'Ima f***ing kill her.'

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No emotions: Allen C. Ivanov (above in police car after his arrest), 19, texted his friends for five days expressing his desire to murder his ex-girlfriend before shooting her dead

Rage: 'Ima f***ing kill her,' texted Ivanov on July 25 to a friend when he was told that his ex (Anna Bui above) was dating another person

Stripes: Ivanov has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder

Ivanov texted one friend 12 hours before the attack, saying he was going to take a gun safety class before the shooting because he didn't want to 'mess up,' according to the court documents.

The friend told him to go deer hunting instead and stop dwelling on his ex-girlfriend.

Investigators said that Ivanov responded: 'No. I'm killing everyone at a huge party.'

Later that night, Ivanov sent another text to the friend that read, 'I'm 2 minutes from shooting.'

About 90 minutes after that, Ivanov began firing his newly purchased assault-style rifle, police said.

He was so unfamiliar with the weapon that he read the instruction manual outside the party just before the attack.

Jake Long, Jordan Ebner and Ivanov's ex-girlfriend, Anna Bui, all 19, were killed.

'For two hours prior to the shootings, he surveilled guests at the house party, read an instruction manual for his weapon, and texted a friend about the impending killings,' Cornell, the prosecutor, wrote in court papers about Ivanov.

'Soon after he spotted Ms. Bui and a male partygoer interacting, he decided to approach the home with his weapon.'

Jordan Ebner (left) and Jake Long (right with girlfriend) were shot dead by the University of Washington student at a party in Seattle on July 30

Will Kramer, 18, also was shot in the back but ran to safety in a nearby wooded area.

He called 911 and police took him on the hood of a patrol car to waiting medics, who stayed away from the scene because officers didn't know if the shooter was still there.

Kramer was released from the hospital earlier this week.

Tim Leary, a lawyer for Ivanov, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment Friday.

He previously noted his client's age and relative immaturity.

Leary also has questioned why Ivanov was allowed to buy a rifle when he would have been turned away if he tried to buy a six-pack of beer.
A murder investigation was launched today after a 25-year-old man was shot dead in a north London street last night.

The unnamed man was found wounded after residents called 999 when they heard gunshots in Islington just before 9pm.

He was taken to hospital in east London but died three hours later.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'A murder investigation has been launched following the death of a man in Islington.

The 25-year-old man was shot dead in Sunnyside Road, Upper Holloway in Islington (pictured)

'Police were called shortly before 9pm on Saturday to reports of gunshots heard in Sunnyside Road, Upper Holloway.

'Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and found a 25-year-old man suffering a gunshot wound.

'He was taken to an east London hospital where he was later pronounced dead at around 0.10am on Sunday.

'His next of kin has been informed.

'A post-mortem examination and formal identification will be scheduled in due course.

'Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating led by Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams.

'No arrests have been made and enquires continue.'
In less than one week an irreplaceable asset may be lost here in upstate New York. In 1996 New York state made a promise to the citizens of New York to restore the railroad track in the North Country to allow the popular Utica-to-Lake Placid line to once again operate. Now, New York state has not only broken that promise, they have said they want to rip up the 34 miles of tracks from Tupper Lake to Lake Placid.

This Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, in Franklin County Supreme Court, the case will be heard. There should be no case. The rail corridor should remain as is  allowing hikers, skiers, snowmobilers and certainly trains to use this route through our beloved Adirondacks as it has for all of our lives!

Probably the best example of private/public cooperative development in a protected area, this state-owned corridor is the main artery for the flow of economic health for hundreds of businesses, thousands of users of all kinds and the more than 1.5 million paying travelers who have helped sustain this vital piece of our heritage in the Empire State.

Why rip up the rails when common sense says let the growing, conserving and restoring of this region help our children and theirs to enjoy this national treasure. What or who benefits from this negative act? And why did New York state and our governor decide to break their word?

Please ask your government representatives to support "Keeping the Corridor open for all!

Paul Barrus

Auburn
Demonstrations turned nasty at a private Donald Trump fundraiser in Minneapolis on Friday as masked activists pushed and spit on donors attending the event.

A largely peaceful demonstration by activists outside the Minneapolis Convention Center turned violent after nightfall as people covering their faces with balaclavas arrived.

Police were forced to push crowds back as scenes turned ugly, with demonstrators blocking Trump's motorcade as it left the building, hitting the windows and jumping on the hood of one SUV.

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Protests at a private Donald Trump fundraiser turned nasty on Friday night as masked activists pushed and spat on donors trying to leave the event in Minneapolis

Among the peaceful demonstrators were those from Minneapolis's large Somali community, angered by Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, criticized Trump for 'anti-Muslim and anti-Somali rhetoric.'

Giselda Gutierrez, a demonstrator from the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee, also hit out at Trump, telling the Star Tribune that his anti-immigrant stance is 'dangerous for our country'.

The Republican nominee was in town to try and bolster his war chest accumulated from the state, having raised just $110,000 so far compared to Clinton's $2million.

Suggested donations for couples attending the event ranged between $1,000 and $100,000, though it is not clear how many people attended, or how much was raised.

Trump, who was making his first visit to Minnesota on the campaign trail, did not appear or speak in public at the event.

Earlier peaceful protests turned nasty after nightfall as activists confronted those leaving the event, at one point blocking Trump's motorcade and jumping on the car

Some of his remarks were broadcast on streaming app Periscope from inside. He said: 'If I could win a state like Minnesota, the path is a whole different thing.

'It becomes a much, much different race. Were going to give it our greatest shot.'

While many prominent Minnesota Republicans stayed away from the event, former congresswoman Michele Bachmann did attend, and had harsh words for the demonstrators.

She told Breitbart: 'The deranged left was on hand at the Trump event last night in Minneapolis looking for pre-planned, predictably choreographed trouble.

'They were swearing at attendees as we arrived, spitting at whomever they could reach. They werent protesting as much as they were looking to beat people up.

'After Donald Trump had our wildly enthusiastic crowd riled up and on our feet with multiple standing ovations, the crowd tried leaving the building.
Jacenko attracted much of the attention throughout the trial

An interview with Ms Jacenko was aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday night

His wife, PR queen Roxy Jacenko, says she never asked if he was guilty

Oliver Curtis was jailed for two years over insider trading in June

PR queen Roxy Jacenko has said she never questioned husband Oliver Curtis about the insider trading charges which saw him jailed for up to two years.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Jacenko said she had never asked her husband about his role in the scandal which happened years before the pair met.

Jacenko has maintained her husband's innocence throughout, despite admitting they haven't discussed his role in the scandal which occurred in 2007 and 2008.

'We don't discuss it. At all,' Jacenko told interviewer Allison Langdon.

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Roxy Jacenko has said she has never discussed her husband Oliver Curtis' role in an insider training scheme in 2007 and 2008 with him

Curtis was sentenced to up to two years in prison for his role in the scheme in June this year. He has since appealed his sentencing, but not the conviction

'You also have to remember (it occurred) I think years and years and years ago - it happened well before my time.'

Curtis, 30, was sentenced to two years jail in June after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading.

He has since appealed the length of his sentence, but not the conviction.

But Jacenko, wasn't backing down during the occasionally fiery interview, even when questioned about how she could be sure he wasn't guilty.

'Look, call me crazy, some people would want to know, the ins and outs of everything, but I haven't asked,' Jacenko said.

'A lot of people find it strange that of all the questions that's the one I haven't asked.'

Jacenko (pictured right) was interviewed by Allison Langdon in the 60 Minutes episode on Sunday night

Despite saying she had never asked Curtis about the scheme, Jacenko has defended his innocence throughout

A PR Queen, Jacenko also has a prominent social media following and regularly posts photos of her luxurious lifestyle and two young children, Hunter and Pixie

The NSW Supreme Court heard the investment banker and his private school friend John Hartman made $1.43 million off a scheme from 2007 and 2008.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum said Curtis, 30, knew what he was doing was 'very wrong'.

But, she said, he had used his insider trading with his former best friend to fund a 'lifestyle of conspicuous extravagance'.

The trial of the father-of-two riveted Sydney - and not just for because of what happened inside the courtroom.

An emotional Ms Jacenko is pictured after her husband was sentenced to two years prison in June

Ms Jacenko would post her court wear to Instagram. Left: a $2,835 Mary Katrantzou dress (left) and a striking $1700 pink-and-black Christian Dior dress and Aviator sunglasses (right)

Curtis (sketched in court) was mostly expressionless in the dock as the decision was read out

Much of the spotlight was on Curtis' wife, Roxy Jacenko, and the Sweaty Betty PR founder's extravagant lifestyle.

Her wide range of outfits quickly caught the attention of the paparazzi. And throughout the trial, she would post elevator selfies of the day's outfit to her 96,000 Instagram followers.

The dresses - which often cost thousands of dollars - were captioned with the name of the elite designer brand she wore, including Gucci and Dior.

Throughout the trial, Ms Jacenko kept up her high profile personal and business schedule.
A person has died while warning oncoming traffic of a car crash on a New Zealand highway.

Two cars and a motorcycle were involved in a fatal crash on one of Auckland's major highways, State Highway One late Sunday afternoon.

According to a report by the NZ Herald, the person got out of their car to warn on coming traffic, but was struck by a motorbike and died at the scene.

A person died after being struck by a motorbike on State Highway One in Auckland and died at the scene

The person got out of their car to warn other motorists of the vehicle accident

The highway was closed as emergency services tended to the scene a short time after.

This comes after another accident on State Highway Five earlier involving three cars, resulting in the death of another person.

Senior Sergeant Mike Membery of Bay of Plenty District Police said it was a difficult accident to explain as all people involved in the State Highway Five were wearing seat belts and the weather was good.

One person died, while a 58-year-old woman with serious injuries to her pelvis, chest and abdomen and her husband were taken to Waikato Hospital.

On another motorway another person was killed in a car crash involving multiple cars

While the other four were taken to Rotorua Hospital with serious injuries.

A woman who witnessed the accident said: 'When I saw the car wavering across the centre line I honked my horn to try and warn the driver.'

'It all happened very fast,' she added.
At least three people were injured by the homemade

More bombs have been discovered in a Kentucky woods after a counselor, who booby trapped a popular trail, was killed in a stand off with police.

Mark Sawaf, 39, of Harlan, Kentucky, was shot dead by cops after grabbing an officer's gun during an attempt to escape, according to a court document filed Friday.

Sawaf was arrested earlier this year after a hiker had his fingers blown off in May while following a trail through the east Kentucky woods.

Mark Sawaf (left and right, on arrest) was shot dead by cops after grabbing an officer's gun during an attempt to escape, according to a court document filed Friday

The explosive had been attached to a trail camera - which hunters mount across the woods to get images of prey.

At least three people were injured by the bombs, police say.

According to court documents, police connected Sawaf to the incident, and when they went to search his home found bomb making equipment at his home.

A federal grand jury indicted Sawaf July 14 on eight charges of making or possessing unregistered destructive devices, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Lex 18 reports.

Sawaf was arrested earlier this year after a hiker had his fingers blown off in May while following a trail through the east Kentucky woods (pictured)

Police believe there are more explosive devices, scattered over an approximately 5-mile radius in the eastern Kentucky woods

Sawaf agreed to help them find them but then tried to flee from cops during the search

Police later found child porn on his computer while searching for further evidence of bomb making.

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent discovered a naked girl, aged between sic and eight, with her legs spread, the court heard.

Sawaf was denied bail and was to be held in custody until his trial.

But police believe there are more explosive devices, scattered over an approximately 5-mile radius in the eastern Kentucky woods.

Jacobs said the group had found several cameras  which are usually attached to trees  rigged with explosives and was still searching near a subdivision in the Woodland Hills community.

'We know that there are more explosives there,' he said.

Police say he was shot when he reached for an officer's gun during the escape attempt

Police say they found bomb making equipment and child porn on his computer at his house

The 39-year-old, who ran Harlan Counseling Inc., agreed to help but had then attempted to flee on August 11.

Sawaf, who was shackled, helped officers find seven explosive devices in the woods near Harlan but told officers there were several more to find.

He did not say why he had set the booby traps along the trail.

The authorities planned to resume the search with Sawaf the following day when the suspect tried to flee, police say.

Officers had caught up with him but there was a struggle and when he reached for an officer's gun, he was shot by Capt. Brad Dobrzynski, a Lexington Fire Department investigator - according to State police Trooper Shane Jacobs.

Following Sawaf's death (left) police have found two more devices and believe there could be more

'He tried to flee, and once they caught back up to him, an altercation took place and that's when deadly force was utilized,' the trooper said.

Sawaf died at the scene. His body was taken to the state medical examiner's office in Frankfort for an autopsy.

His father Ali Sawaf, told the Herald-Leader that his son had not intended to hurt anyone.

He said that Sawaf, an avid hunter, was simply trying to prevent thieves from stealing his cameras.

Sawaf, originally from Michigan, had owned and operated Harlan Counseling Inc. since 2014 and had a master's degree in mental health counseling.

Neighbor Tracy Medford told the Herald that Sawaf was a quiet man who 'kept to himself.'

'He acted like he didn't want to talk to nobody,' she said, adding that he made her nervous.

'I was worried that he might go crazy and shoot somebody,' Medford said.

Sawaf often went out to shot guns at explosive targets in the hills behind teh community late at night, neighbors say.

But his work colleagues described him as an intelligent, liberal man, bordering on genius'.

Police found recovered two more bombs after his death but are still searching for explosives and have warned people in the area to be careful and report anything suspicious.
Embattled: Simon Danczuk, pictured in Spain following his arrest earlier this week

Embattled MP Simon Danczuk has criticised the public interest in his private life, claiming 'minor issues' been 'blown out of proportion'.

Mr Danczuk, 49, who was suspended from the Labour Party after being caught sending lewd text messages to a 17-year-old girl, said his life is no more 'colourful' than Boris Johnson's, but that only he is lambasted by the Press.

The MP has faced fresh media interest this week after he was arrested following an explosive row with his estranged wife Karen at their Spanish holiday home.

He reportedly smashed a glass door in a jealous rage after he discovered she had been on the phone to another man.

Karen, 33, needed hospital treatment for her injuries while Mr Danczuk appeared in court on suspicion of domestic violence.

He was later released after Karen declined to press charges for the sake of their children.

The father-of-two denies any suggestion that he was physically violent.

Speaking to Rosie Kinchen at the Sunday Times, Mr Danczuk said that the string of scandals that have plagued him are simply 'minor issues' that had been 'blown out of proportion'.

Claims: Mr Danczuk said Boris Johnson, pictured with his wife, had a colourful private life

Selfie queen: Karen Danczuk was spotted in Spain with a bandage on her chest following a row with her husband. He reportedly lost his temper after she spoke to another man

He argued that while married Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson is allowed to conduct his private life behind closed doors, his dirty laundry is aired in public for all to see.

Mr Danczuk, who became MP for Rochdale in 2010, has rarely been out of the headlines over the last year.

He has been accused by his first wife, Sonia Rossington, of bullying her into having sex and was suspended from the Labour Party after being caught sending lewd messages to a teenager, asking if she wanted to be 'spanked'.

Speculation: The MP has faced fresh media interest this week after he was arrested following an explosive row with his estranged wife Karen, pictured together, at their holiday home

The MP is also alleged to have exchanged more than 6,000 explicit messages with a 22-year-old blonde woman he met on Twitter.

The pair reportedly had sex in his taxpayer-funded constituency office.

Mr Danczuk is also embroiled in an expenses row after he was ordered to pay back 11,500 he claimed for extra accommodation costs for two children who did not routinely live with him. He insisted he had made an honest mistake.
Candice Brown (pictured) is dating a man who was jailed for dealing cannabis

A contestant set to star in the new series of the Great British Bake Off is dating a man who was jailed for dealing cannabis.

Candice Brown, 31, from Bedford, has been in a relationship with her partner Liam Macaulay, 30, since April 2012.

The physical education teacher has already caught the eye of fans of the hit show - watched by more than 13 million people last year - before it starts next week.

But the revelation about her boyfriend Liam is likely to upset her fans, with many saying that they've already got a 'crush' on her.

One year before the couple met, Mr Macaulay, from Scotland, was serving a 16-month jail term for dealing cannabis, reports The Sun.

He was arrested after police caught him with 6,970 worth of cannabis in his car as he an accomplice drove from Edinburgh to Inverness in 2009.

Mr Macaulay then admitted supplying cannabis.

Sources close to Miss Brown, who lives with her boyfriend, insisted she had nothing to do with the crime committed by Mr Macaulay as she was not dating him at the time.

Candice Brown (left) uploaded a photograph with her boyfriend (right) as they enjoyed a trip to Argostoli, Greece

Candice and Liam (pictured with their pug Dennis) met in April 2012 - after Liam was jailed for supplying cannabis

The couple (pictured) have been dating for four years and Candice revealed she was going on the hit show by posting a message on Twitter

She recently revealed she was going to be on the BBC show with 11 other amateur bakers and tweeted: '#GBBO oh my gosh that's me!!!!! I'm on bake off!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeeeekkkkkk'.

Listing her interests online she says: 'I love baking, I love cake, I love vintage, I love my Scottish one, I love my family, I love my friends and I love my pug Dennis'.

Fans of the show have admitted they have been impressed by the stylish school teacher.

@bronia_ tweeted: 'Bake off hasn't even started yet and I've already developed a crush on Candice'.

Jen Crothers wrote: 'Calling it now, I think I'm going to develop a huge crush on Candice from the Bake Off.

@Holy_Hippogriff said: 'I can already tell that from the new Bake Off contestants Candice is going to be my fave'.

A BBC source told the newspaper: 'Candice was not with Liam at the time of his offence, so it's a shame she is now tarnished by it.'

A spokeswoman for the show declined to comment.

Candice posted the picture on the left as part of an online modelling competition and says she loves wearing vintage clothes, right

Sue Perkins, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood talk to Miss Brown during this year's BBC1 cookery contest
A 15-year-old student has told her school that 'the length of my skirt does not matter' in response to their short skirt ban.

Year nine student, Faith Sobotker expressed her outrage after girls at Kambrya College in Melbourne's south-east were called into an assembly and told to stop wearing short skirts, make-up, and sending 'sexy selfies'.

'You can't tell me what lady-like is because we don't live in the '50s any more. I am looking for equality,' Faith protested in a video posted on Wednesday.

'My self-respect is doing what makes me happy.'

The 15-year-old student has told her school that 'the length of my skirt does not matter' in response to their short skirt ban

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Faith said the issue wasn't about the school asking students to wear longer skirts or dresses, but rather how they handled the situation itself.

'They said that we 'do it for boys' and that 'boys don't actually like it and they find it unattractive', she said.

'They mentioned that we have no self-respect or morals and really with that, that annoyed me.

'It's simply how they addressed the issue, they could've done so without being discriminating and without the slut-shaming.'

The students were allegedly told that boys are distracted by their legs, and don't respect girls who wear short skirts.

They also claim they were told that if their skirts didn't touch their knees or below by Monday morning it would be deemed inappropriate.

'I am looking forward to being able to show off my body without being sexualised,' Faith in the video.

'I am 15 years old. You do not get to sexualise me like that, you do not get to tell me that my body is sacred, because it isn't.'

Her passionate speech has already been viewed over 8000 time since its upload on Wednesday evening.

Year nine student, Faith Sobotker, 15, expressed her outrage after girls at Kambrya College in Melbourne were told to stop wearing short skirts, make-up, and sending 'sexy selfies'

Faith says the reaction to the video has been mixed.

'I'm getting a lot of support, I know a lot of people have my back, but the negative comments I expected.

'A lot of people don't understand what we were really trying to get at and what our point was and that's just too bad.'

While most viewers were supportive of the video, many seemd to miss the point Faith was trying to make.

'Your school just meant you might think about not indulging all the boys just yet - because you are too young to know all the consequences ,' one posted.

The students were allegedly told that boys are distracted by their legs, and don't respect girls who wear short skirts

Faith says the reaction to the video has been mixed: 'A lot of people don't understand what we were really trying to get at and what our point was and that's just too bad'

A parent at the school, Carol Manning, also expressed outrage over the schools decision on how they handled the topic.

'I've received messages from the girls telling me they are feeling extremely uncomfortable at school,' Ms Manning posted online.

'They feel judged and victimised by school staff, like all eyes are on them, and they don't feel comfortable around their male peers.

'They feel their school has sexualised and demonised them, and compounded the problem by sending a strong message that it is them, the girls, who are responsible for the boys' behaviour.'

According to Faith, the male students also had an assembly but did't know much information about what was said.

'Some of the boys don't agree with what us girls are trying to say, but its mainly because they don't understand what were really upset about.'

Earlier this week the school had been named on a pornographic website which featured images of school girls. The website has since been shut down

Earlier this week the school had been named on a pornographic website which featured images of school girls.

The website has since been shut down by authorities.
Donald Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway gave CNN's Dana Bash a 'to be determined,' when the journalist pressed her on whether the Republican nominee still supported a 'deportation force.'

Trump met Saturday with Hispanic leaders and reports coming out of the meeting suggested that the businessman had started softening his hard-line approach to immigration as a majority of recent public opinion polls saw him trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Univision quoted Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting, as saying, 'I really liked that Trump acknowledged that there is a big problem with the 11 million [undocumented] people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane.'

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Donald Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Sunday 'to be determined' when asked if her boss supported a 'deportation force' to remove illegal immigrants

CNN's Dana Base (left) asked Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway (right) what happened inside a meeting with Hispanic leaders that Trump held yesterday

According to Monty, Trump also told the group of conservative Hispanic leaders that he planned to announce a plan that would grant legal status 'that wouldn't be citizenship, but would allow them to be here without fear of deportation.'

Speaking on CNN today, however, Conway first suggested that Trump's immigration plans remained the same.

'So what Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting differed very little from what he's said publicly, Dana, including his convention speech last month in Cleveland,' Conway began.

She had formerly served as the campaign's pollster, until Trump promoted her this week amid a campaign shake-up, which brought Breitbart's Stephen Bannon on board, and saw the end of campaign chairman Paul Manafort's time at the struggling campaign.

'Is that we need a "fair" and "humane" way to deal with what is estimated to be about 11 million illegal immigrants in this country,' Conway continued. 'That was part of the discussion. It was a very robust discussion.'

Conway added that much of what Trump talked about with Hispanic leaders was about business  making sure Hispanic-Americans had access to capital and that they were able to buy homes  she said, calling the conversation 'very animated.'

'Nothing was said yesterday that differed from what Mr. Trump said previously,' Conway said.

But Trump previously kicked off his campaign by railing against illegal immigration.

'When Mexico sends its people they're not sending their best,' Trump said during his June 2015 campaign kick-off at Trump Tower. 'They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us.'

'They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists, and some, I assume are good people,' Trump added.

During the meeting yesterday, Trump reportedly said he regretted those remarks.

In November 2015, he called for a 'deportation force,' during an interview on 'Morning Joe.'

Bash played a clip of those remarks for Conway this morning, asking the pollster-turned-campaign manager if that's where Trump stands.

'What he supports and if you go back to his convention speech a month ago, what he supports is to make sure we support the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs, and that we are fair and humane to those who live among us in this country,' Conway said.

'As the week unfolds, he will lay out the specifics of that plan that he would implement as president of the United States,' she continued.

Bash tried one more time, asking Conway if Trump still supported a 'deportation force.'

'To be determined,' Conway said.




It may have become extinct for 4,000 years, but the woolly mammoth could be about to get the highest level of wildlife protection.

The move has been made after a huge number of ivory tusks were discovered in the Siberian tundra - with fears that it could link to an increase in illegal elephant ivory trading.

Due to rapid climate change, the permafrost has melted revealing tons of ivory, which could be collected and traded.

It is feared the emergence of tonnes of ivory could actually increase the sale of elephant ivory around the world

It is believed the move, set to be debated in South Africa next month at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) conference, could actually limit the trading of elephant ivory.

Dealing in elephant ivory is illegal, but trading in mammoth ivory is not, and confusion between the two could lead to a surge in illegal sales.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, John Scanlon, secretary-general of Cites said: 'The problem is that mammoth ivory gets confused with ivory from endangered elephants.

'This is the first long-extinct animal considered for a restriction in trade.'

The report to be debated states that: 'The rise in trade in mammoth ivory poses an indirect threat to elephant populations in the wild by creating a simple way to enable trade in 'laundered' elephant ivory.'

Due to climate change, the permafrost on the tundra has melted revealing tonnes of ivory

150MILLION MORE MAMMOTHS? ANIMALS MAY BE BURIED IN PERMAFROST The last colony of woolly mammoths lived off Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia until 1,700BC. It is thought 150million mammoths are still buried under the permafrost. The animal's age can be easily discovered from the rings of its tusk, much like looking at the rings of a tree. Mammoths lacked the large ears of today's elephants, minimising frostbite and heat-loss. In 1951, mammoth meat was allegedly served in New York. It was claimed to have been taken from a frozen carcass found on an island in Alaska. Advertisement

The Cites treaty is an international agreement between 182 governments around the world.

Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

It accords varying degrees of protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.

Earlier this month MailOnline reported on how a team of scientists at the University of Exeter and the University of Cambridge have used statistical analysis to point towards humans being the cause of the mammoth's extinction.

They found that whenever prehistoric humans spread to on continents and islands, the megafauna quickly died out.
A Melbourne man accused of some the most shocking child-sex crimes in history has demanded to be pampered with luxury food and a mobile phone in jail.

Peter Scully, 53, an alleged child-porn kingpin, is awaiting trial in the Philippines on charges of sexually abusing 11 children, including one who was 18 months old.

Mr Scully's lawyer sensationally quit the case saying he was 'mightily sick' of the alleged paedophile's constant demands, including that he be visited in prison at least twice a week.

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Melbourne man Peter Scully (pictured), 53 who is accused of some the most shocking child-sex crimes in history, has demanded to be pampered in jail

The alleged child-porn kingpin, is awaiting trial in the Philippines on charges of sexually abusing 11 children, including one who was 18 months old

'I withdrew as his defence counsel last February as I can't withstand his crazy and eccentric attitude and personality,' Alejandro Jose Pallugna told The Age.

'He wants five kilos of fresh beef, pork, chicken, anything  like he lives in a resort.

'Demanding is an understatement,' he said about Scully, who he described as a 'crazy guy'.

Scully, a former businessman, fled to the Philippines from Melbourne in 2011 after being accused of 117 fraud and deception offences.

He is accused of an array of offences against children, including sexually abusing two girls, aged 10, and 11, and forcing them to dig their own graves while they were held captive in his house in the Philippines.

He also allegedly raped an 18-month-old infant and murdered a 12-year-old girl whose remains were found under his house.

Scully, a former businessman, fled to the Philippines from Melbourne in 2011 after being accused of 117 fraud and deception offences

Videos allegedly show one of Scully's victims, a 13-year-old girl, being forced to perform lewd acts with a baby aged one and girl toddler aged five

Scully, being arrested in the Philippines above, is accused of an array of offences against children

Scully is accused of establishing a lucrative international business live-streaming videos in a 'pay for view' online child pornography business.

Police allege Scully would undertake acts in response to requests from his clients from across the globe, who paid to live-stream videos of children being tortured and sexually abused.

Videos allegedly show one of Scully's victims, a 13-year-old girl, being forced to perform lewd acts with a baby aged one and girl toddler aged five.

The videos, including one called 'The Destructi on of Daisy' shows torture and other horrific acts, and was described by police as the most shocking child pornography that has ever been discovered in the Philippines.

He also allegedly raped an 18-month-old infant and murdered a 12-year-old girl whose remains were found under his house

Scully is accused of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10, and 11, and forcing them to dig their own graves while they were held captive in his house in the Philippines

But it was revealed last in September last year that much of the physical evidence against Scully had been destroyed in a fire, according to Fairfax.

'If the new lawyer knows how to take advantage of this fact, then Scully could go free or get convicted of a lesser offence,' his former lawyer told The Age.

Scully is reportedly convinced he will be found not guilty.

'If I get sentenced, I get sentenced. That is something out of my control,' he told The Sydney Morning Herald last year.

Scully is accused of establishing a lucrative international business live-streaming videos in a 'pay for view' online child pornography business
Among the top 20 entries on Bucketlist.orgs list of most popular items are these two: Go skydiving, visit the Grand Canyon.

Now you can check off both items at the same time.

In March, Aoife Murphy and Jason Theuma opened Paragon Skydive at Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Tusayan. Since then, a steady stream of customers has exited their small airplane attached to an instructor, plummeting (at up to 124 mph) and then drifting to the ground in full view of the majestic Grand Canyon.

Murphy, who trained as an engineer in her native Ireland, said she never expected to open a skydiving business. Then she experienced her first skydive.

After the first time all I wanted to do was do it again, she said.

She met Theuma in Australia and it was on a Southwest US road trip that they first visited the Grand Canyon. Immediately upon seeing the canyon they knew it would be an epic location for a dropzone.

Because they are the first and only skydiving business at a Federal Aviation Administration towered airport in the country, the work required to open their doors was extensive. Murhpy said the FAA and the tower manager at the airport were both supportive of the project and very helpful in getting the idea off the ground.

After three years of paperwork, risk assessments, safety checks, permits and more, they were cleared to open their business inside the main terminal of the Grand Canyon National Park Airport.

I cant actually describe the feeling of doing the first jump here, Murphy said. It just really went like perfection. It was amazing to actually be doing it after all the work weve put in.

Since then, the business has had a steady stream of business from customers from around the globe.

On a recent Friday morning, Fion Fong and Stanley Fong, a young couple from Macau, sat in chairs at the airport watching a training video. Fion was visibly nervous but Stanley had talked her into the adventure during their vacation. Stanley said he found Paragon Skydive online while researching destinations for their trip.

We wanted to try something different, he said.

Paragon is licensed to provide customers with a tandem skydive (in a tandem jump, the customer is harnessed to the skydiving instructor who wears the parachute) from 15,000 feet. The staff is an international mix of professionals, including manager Patricia Andrade from Brazil and Raj Balakrishnan, who is originally from India. Both have extensive experience in the business and were drawn to the exotic dropzone location.

Murphy said business has been even better than she expected. Shes working with local partners in Williams and Flagstaff to offer travel and accommodation packages that include a skydive and hopes to create additional partnerships.

The business recently began flying customers to Tusayan from Las Vegas for a half-day trip that includes a visit to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, a skydive and lunch. Longer bus trips are also available.

Right now the company owns one small airplane but high demand has Murphy planning to add a much larger aircraft to accommodate more jumps. Plans for the future also include sunset skydives, high altitude skydives for a longer free fall experience, and more.

The experience appeals to all sorts of people, Murphy said. Its a bucket list thing and its a different way to do the Grand Canyon as well, she said.

And for Stanley and Fion?

They had a wonderful time. It was an unforgettable experience, Stanley wrote in an email from back home in Macau.

Also in an email, Fion called it "a very special way to see how great the Grand Canyon is. It is absolutely an unforgettable memory to me," she wrote. "I know that if I did not do it, I must regret. It is really an amazing activity, I would recommend all of my friends to do it at least once in our lifetime."

They had only one problem.

We want to skydive one more time since we were too nervous and couldn't really remember the moment and scenery when we stepped out of the plane, Stanley wrote.
Hearst Castle has closed to the public as the Chimney Fire edged to within two miles of the historic building.

Firefighters have doused trees surrounding the castle, once the home of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, with fire retardant in the hopes of keeping the blaze at bay.

The Chimney Fire has already burned through almost 20,000 acres after starting on August 13, and has destroyed 43 structures along the way.

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Hearst Castle, the historic home once occupied by media mogul William Randolph Hearst, has been closed to the public as a wildfire burns just two miles away

The Chimney Fire, which has already torched 20,000 acres and destroyed 48 structures, is threatening to engulf the property, which is a major tourist attraction

Amber Anderson, Chimney Fire Public Information Officer, told KSBY: 'What we're doing today is taking a look at some of the ridge lines in the area where we can make a really strong hold on the fire on this edge, to stop that threat of the fire moving.'

This is the first time the mansion, which houses Hearst's art collection and is a hugely popular tourist attraction, has been closed because of a fire.

Fortunately the wind is blowing north, crews say, meaning the fire will move away from the property unless the weather changes.

While workers at the property have taken measures to ensure the art is not damaged by smoke, officials say the threat is not great enough to consider removing anything.

Staff added that the castle will remain closed while the fire is regularly assessed, and will reopen when it is deemed safe.

Firefighters say they have doused trees close to the estate with fire retardant in the hopes of keeping the blaze, which has been raging since August 13, at bay

Fortunately crews say the wind is now blowing to the north, driving the flames away from the property, though warn this could change

The Chimney Fire has been burning since Aug. 13, growing to around 19,900 acres on Sunday - up from around 15,400 acres earlier in the day - and the blaze was 35 percent contained, Cal Fire said.

Hearst Castle is estimated to be worth anywhere between $200million and $300million, and contains several significant works of art, including Egyptian and Roman sculptures.

Elsewhere the Blue Cut fire, one of the most destructive in the state's history, has been largely surrounded.

The fire, named after a narrow gorge where it ignited about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles on Tuesday, has burned more than 37,000 acres and destroyed 105 homes and 213 outbuildings.

At its height, the blaze forced authorities to order more than 80,000 residents to evacuate their homes.

The fire is just 35 per cent contained, according to CalFire, which has been focusing its efforts on battling the Blue Cut blaze, located north of Los Angeles

But with the fire 73 percent contained, many residents were allowed to return home, Lopez said.

Overnight, firefighters built strong containment lines near Wrightwood, which allowed residents of that ski resort town to repopulate the area on Saturday, he said.

Residents of 7,000 other homes in the Cajon Pass area were still potentially in the path of the fire, which is burning in heavy brush, and they remained under evacuation orders, Lopez said.

"We feel confident we can keep continuing this aggressive attack," he said in a telephone interview.
The repeated rape of a teenage girl with special needs by a man who worked at her foster home is alleged to have been covered up by a government office after her death.

It is alleged that although DNA evidence showed the odds of her attacker being innocent were '100 billion to one', the shocking abuse was 'conveniently' overlooked by the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Despite the seemingly strong case against the 26-year-old man - known as 'BJQ' - the DPP dropped the case following her death, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The repeated rape of a 14-year-old girl with special needs by staff at her residential foster home was allegedly covered up by the office of the Director of Public Prosecution after her death

Charges against the man were reportedly 'dismissed after committal, before trial, after her unfortunate death'.

It is also alleged that the girl was raped on multiple occasions by another member of staff while he was on a 'sleepover shift' at the residential foster home.

The names of the two offenders have been suppressed.

Details of the sustained abuse against the teen only came to light as a result of the offender applying for a Working With Children Check.

Lloyd Babb (pictured) the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecution, is the head of the government office that allegedly covered up the sustained sexual assault. Forensic evidence against the main offender showed the odds of him being innocent were '100 billion to one'

The man's application was rejected, however during an appeal against the decision the numerous sexual encounters with the girl were revealed.

After one of the sexual assaults the girl was taken to hospital to receive medical attention.

Police then became involved in the matter, charging 'BJQ' with aggravated sexual intercourse with a girl aged 14.

The girl told police that the sexual encounters occurred over a five-month time frame.

Brad Hazard (pictured), the New South Wales Family and Community Services Minister, described the cover up as 'beyond disturbing'

Forensic evidence reportedly also discovered the man's semen on her underwear.

In addition to the series of sexual assaults, it is also alleged the man had explicit images of another girl who was under his on his mobile phone.
Airline passengers could be charged 25 for making a complaint against an airline under new aviation rules.

Previously the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) used to mediate between passenger and airline when the former was not satisfied with dispute resolution.

However due to a scaling back of services, the CAA will now only get involved with those airlines not registered with an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.

British Airways are signed up to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), that charges customers a 25 fee for unsuccessful claims for compensation

Nineteen airlines have so far registered for the scheme. However, one of the services, the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), will impose a 25 charge on the customer if their case is unsuccessful.

British Airways, easyJet Thomson and Thomas Cook are all signed up to the CEDR service.

An easyJet spokesperson told MailOnline: 'easyJet, like other airlines, uses a CAA approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) company, who are also the designated company by the Department of Transport to handle air travel complaints, to offer dispute resolution services as an alternative to a court process.

'easyJet's current ADR was chosen based on its competence and suitability to provide alternative dispute resolution procedures for us. This is a service easyJet pays a higher fee for than other ADRs charge.'

An easyJet spokesperson told MailOnline that it pays 'a higher fee' to be a part of the CEDR

ALL ADR SCHEMES MUST HANDLE THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF COMPLAINTS Denied boarding, delay, or cancellation. Destruction, damage, loss, or delayed transportation of baggage. Destruction, damage, or loss of items worn or carried by the passenger. Problems faced by disabled passengers or passengers with reduced mobility when using air transport services. and... Any more general disputes arising where the consumer alleges that the business is not trading fairly, for example into paying more for the flight or into buying something that they didn't actually want, where the consumer has been harmed by the use by the business of an unfair contract term, or where the consumer has been otherwise harmed by the breach by the business of general consumer protection law. Source: Civil Aviation Authority Advertisement

A customer can lodge a case with the ADR if they feel their complaint to the airline has not been resolved correctly.

Previously, the CAA would mediate between customer and airline in disputes concerning flight delays, cancellations, missing or damaged luggage, and compensation.

The aviation authority has, however, pointed out that their rulings are not legally binding, and should the airlines refuse to pay, the customer often has to pursue their case through the courts.

The new CAA-approved ADR bodies provide passengers with a legally-binding decision on their complaint.

The Sunday Times reports there are three other ADR scheme set up. The Retail Ombudsman will be used by Flybe, Ryanair and Air Canada and does not charge customers to use the service.

Eurowings and Lufthansa have signed up to Germany company Sop, and this will also not levy a fee on the claimant.

And NetNeutrals, who have eight prospective airlines ready to sign in, will only charge a 10 fee, that will be refunded should the customer win their case.

MailOnline has contacted BA, Thomson and Thomas Cook for comment.
Obscure research projects at universities are costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Government grants are being used to research warfare in ancient Tonga, Tibetan philosophy, and whether colleagues chatting in an office is disruptive.

The Australian Research Council (ARC) set aside $105,000 for Monash University in Melbourne to research 'a new philosophical vision of what it means to be human', Daily Telegraph reported.

A research group will investigate 'truth, realism and epistemic justification' in Tibetan philosophy for $414,000 at Australian National University (ANU)

The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra is pictured

The same university will research 'an important collaboration between a leading filmmaker, a neuroscientist and a psychologist' in 1920s Russia, at a cost of $333,000.

The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra will 'investigate warfare in the ancient Tongan state through a study of earthwork fortifications' using $467,997 of taxpayer dollars.

Another research group at ANU will investigate 'truth, realism and epistemic justification' in Tibetan philosophy for $414,000.

A further $405,000 was dished out to the University of Sydney to find out whether colleagues chatting in open-plan office spaces is annoying.

The grants have been called 'absurd and obscure', the paper reported.

ARC awarded 899 research projects with a total of $357 million this year.

On its website, ARC describes it plays an 'important role in the provision of Government support for research in Australia'.

Monash University in Melbourne will research 'an important collaboration between a leading filmmaker, a neuroscientist and a psychologist' in 1920s Russia, at a cost of $333,000 (Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia is pictured)

The Australian Research Council (ARC) set aside $105,000 for Monash University in Melbourne to research 'a new philosophical vision of what it means to be human'

'Our mission is to deliver policy and programmes that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit the community,' the website says.

Professor Aidan Byrne, Chief Executive Officer of ARC, said the suggestion the research was 'absurd' was misguided.

'Research from all fields of knowledge, including the humanities, plays a valuable role in advancing Australian research and innovation globally and benefiting the community. A strong research capability across all research disciplines is important for Australia's future,' Professor Byrne said.

'Research in the humanities and social sciences is just as important as science and technology.

'Humanities research enhances our understanding of, and provides new frameworks for the analysis of humanity, and its history, ideas, cultures, languages and social structures. It is also particularly important to developing interdisciplinary solutions to complex challenges such as climate change, resource management, health and welfare.

'It is misleading to judge the short titles or brief descriptions of research projects and infer that they are not useful research without looking at the detail of the project, which is extensively considered by the ARC expert assessors in determining its worthiness for funding.

'All projects funded by the ARC are awarded on the basis of a competitive process and rigorous peer review,' he said.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the Turnbull government would ensure every dollar was for evidence-led and outcome-focussed projects.

$405,000 was dished out to the University of Sydney (stock image) to find out whether colleagues chatting in open-plan office spaces is annoying

'High quality research from all fields of knowledge makes a vital contribution to Australia's wellbeing and global progress and is an important contributor to securing an innovative, prosperous and sustainable future for Australia,' Minister Birmingham told Daily Mail Australia in a statement.

'Final decision making in these long established research grant programs has long been based on the advice of independent experts.

'However, the Turnbull Government has been steadily reforming research programs to better encourage collaboration between industry and universities so as to ensure our research dollars ultimately get the best possible outcomes for Australia in STEM and humanities.

'We will continue to look for ways to improve the value for money from research programs, without undermining decision making based on independent, expert advice.'

Professor Byrne said 'success rates of ARC proposals in the humanities was comparable to other groups'.

'In ERA 2015, 99 per cent of all research grant income reported was within units rated as 3, 4 or 5that is, above at or world standard. The Australian Government's investment and the ARC's peer review process underpins this identification of research excellence.
Filmer drops camera in panic as the whale slams back into the water

But it soon gets too close and its enormous body leaps

A group of kayakers couldn't believe their luck when they were treated to an up close and personal show by a humpback whale.

The astonished party were off the coast of Canada's Discovery Islands when they spotted the huge animal breaching the surface of the sea.

'Woah!' the woman filming cries in amazement as the humpback's iconic tail flips into the air as the whale rolls around on the surface of the water.

'Woah!' the woman filming cries in amazement as the humpback's iconic tail flips into the air as the whale rolls around on the surface of the water

The crowd whoop and cheer excitedly before the animal leaps high into the air, its body breaking entirely free of the sea in a majestic display of power

The crowd whoop and cheer excitedly before the animal leaps high into the air, its body breaking entirely free of the sea in a majestic display of power.

It slaps back down with an enormous splash to the glee of the kayakers.

However their happiness quickly turns to shock as - in a scene reminiscent of Moby Dick - the huge whale breaks out of the water right next to their boat.

Its large body is incredibly close to the camera as it soars upwards in the breathtaking footage.

The filmer cries out in alarm as the whale falls back to the water - and the camera tumbles from her hand as she faces the frightening situation at hand.

However their happiness quickly turns to shock as - in a scene reminiscent of Moby Dick - the huge whale breaks out of the water right next to their boat

Its large body is incredibly close to the camera as it soars upwards in the breathtaking footage

The filmer cries out in alarm as the whale falls back into the water - and the camera tumbles from her hand as she faces the frightening situation at hand

Splashing and shouts can be heard before the video comes to an end.

However the group clearly escaped unscathed as the clip was later uploaded to YouTube.

The filmer wrote: 'I was on a 5 day kayaking expedition in the Discovery Islands with Wildcoast Adventures in August 2016 when we were lucky enough to come across three humpback whales.
A mother is suing her doctor and the public health system for hundreds and thousand of dollars for failing to terminate her pregnancy.

The unidentified Victorian woman, 20, says she has suffered psychological trauma and wants compensation to cover the costs of raising a son she didn't want, as well as medicals expenses.

She had decided to terminate her pregnancy in August 2013, but despite a visit to her GP, she gave birth to a little boy named 'Cooper' in April 2014, the Daily Telegraph reports.

A mother is suing her doctor and the public health system for hundreds and thousand of dollars for failing to terminate her pregnancy

In a statement of claim lodged with the Supreme Court, the 20-year-old claims that the hospital and her doctor ignored signs she was still pregnant on three instances after her termination.

Two days after the termination, a pathology report by the hospital found no evidence that the woman was still pregnant.

She says she returned to her GP a month later feeling tenderness and a prickling sensation in her lower abdomen, according to the Daily Telegraph.

She claims she was given another blood test which indicated high levels of a hormone made by an embryo known as chorionic gonadotrophin.

However she says she should have been given an ultrasound, which she believes would have confirmed she was still pregnant.

Further blood tests in early December indicated high levels of the hormone were still present, and an ultrasound performed five days later showed the 20-year-old was 20-weeks pregnant.

The unidentified Victorian woman, 20, says she has suffered psychological trauma and wants compensation to cover the costs of raising a son she didn't want

In a statement of claim lodged with the Supreme Court, the 20-year-old claims that the hospital and her doctor ignored signs she was still pregnant on three instances

The Victorian woman has claimed negligence and now wants 'compensation after being 'exposed to the cost of supporting and raising Cooper.'

This includes covering food, clothing and schooling expenses, which would amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The specific amount she is seeking has not been disclosed.
Jamie Baldwin was spotted with a smirk on his face and even gave two thumbs up as he walked free from court

A former soldier laughed and grinned as he walked free from court despite being convicted of posting revenge porn photos of his former partner.

Jamie Baldwin was spotted with a smirk on his face and even gave two thumbs up as he walked free from court.

The 24-year-old, of Parkinsons Drive, Chelmsford, Essex, uploaded explicit videos and images of his former partner, shot on his mobile phone, to the adult website PornHub.

These were viewed more than 8,000 times by people across the world.

The ex-army army man had previously told his victim he had deleted the content but had actually saved the material to a separate hard drive without her consent.

Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard how the couple endured an on-off relationship for 12 months before splitting up in December last year.

Baldwin, who pleaded guilty to the charge on Wednesday, reappeared in the same dock on Friday afternoon, dressed in a navy suit and black shirt, as he was sentenced for three other offences.

Prosecuting, Lesley Chipps said: 'On December 16, at 2.45am, Mr Baldwin went to the complainant's home and pushed himself through the door.

'The police were called, and while they were en route, Mr Baldwin became aggressive and pushed the complainant on to the kitchen floor.

'He then threw a plastic bin on top of her, as well as a vase, which showered the complainant in glass. As he went to leave in the hallway, he pushed her with both hands against the wall.'

The court heard how Baldwin, who has been working as a trainee kitchen fitter for six months, reversed his car into his ex-girlfriend's, ripping off her bumper, causing 1,000 of damage.

When the police caught up with him they discovered he was drink-driving.

Shockingly once he was released on bail, he began uploading the explicit material, clearly identifying his victim.

The victim was made aware of the explicit material which was online after she received a message on January 8 from an old school friend she had not seen in ten years.

The 24-year-old of Parkinsons Drive, Chelmsford, Essex uploaded explicit videos and images of his former partner, shot on his mobile phone, to the adult website PornHub

In her impact statement read to the court, she said: 'I was in a state of panic. I felt humiliated and embarrassed. I didn't want to go out in public.

'My emotions have been affected. I am unable to go out like before because I'm afraid people will recognise me and pass judgement.

'I find it difficult to sleep at night and have been prescribed medication for the stress and anxiety I suffer with as a result.

'I feel people are constantly watching me. This has taken away my confidence and reduced the time I spend with friends. My social life has been affected.

'It's been horrible. I have suffered at work as well because I get distracted and cannot focus on my work.'

The court then heard how Baldwin spent five years with the army, but was medically discharged three years ago after injuring himself on a tour of duty. He also has problems with impulsive behaviour.

Defending, Natasha Nair, who represented Baldwin, explained that her client had expressed remorse for his actions and empathy towards his victim.

'He accepts that what he did was extremely stupid,' she said.

'He accepts that a custodial sentence would bring to an end his career for five minutes of drunken madness.

'He is trying to piece his life back together. These offences date back to December last year and he has not been able to move on since then. But to his credit he has secured employment.'

Sentencing Baldwin over the charges of assault and disclosing private sexual photographs, magistrate David Williams concluded: 'Both offences justify a sentence of imprisonment.

'The photos were highly explicit and could have been seen by anybody. Then throwing a bin and a vase over her in her own home in the early hours; both are very serious.

'However, in view of the fact you have expressed remorse, we are prepared to suspend the sentences.'

Baldwin was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to complete a 30 day rehabilitation programme as well as carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay 1,000 for the damage he caused to his ex-girlfriend's car, 250 in compensation for the injuries he caused her, as well as 400 in prosecution costs and an 80 victim surcharge.
Earlier articles appeared to claim that women who wore revealing clothes were inviting rape

That bomb 'had to explode and explode it did on September 11'

In 2002 journal published an article blaming US for the 9/11 attacks

She was the assistant editor under her mother Saleha Mahmood Abedin

Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin worked at a radical Muslim publication that opposed women's rights and blamed the US for 9/11, it has been revealed.

Abedin, who could become the future White House chief of staff if Hillary wins the election, was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs until as late as 2008, NY Post reports.

The aide was at the journal in 2002 when her mother Saleha Mahmood Abedin, who remains editor-in-chief to this day, published an article which appeared to blame the US for bringing the 9/11 terror attacks on itself, according to the Post.

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Human Abedin (right with Hillary Clinton, left) worked at a radical Muslim publication that opposed women's rights and blamed the US for 9/11 before being appointed as Clinton's top aide

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd L) is pictured with Saleha Mahmood Abedin (3rd L) at a women's college in Jeddah on February 16, 2010

The article stated that the United States' 'spiral of violence' was creating intense 'anger and hostility' while the sanctions and 'injustices' imposed on certain Muslim countries was creating a 'time bomb'.

'It was a time bomb that had to explode and explode it did on September 11, changing in its wake the life and times of the very community and the people it aimed to serve,' Saleha wrote, according to the New York Post.

Huma was listed as 'assistant editor' on the masthead of the 2002 controversial issue.

Abedin has never spoken directly about the articles posted in her mother's magazine, while she served as assistant editor.

But the admiration she has for her mom is clear.

In a recent Vogue piece, she described her mother as a feminist who was unhappy when the family moved to the conservative Saudi Arabia.

Abedin (left) who could become the future White House chief of staff if Hillary wins the election, was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs - run by her mother Saleha Mahmood Abedin (right)

'My mother was traveling around the world to these international women's conferences talking about women's empowerment, and it was normal,' she said.

But that viewpoint jars with other articles written in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

Shortly after Clinton gave her seminal 'women's rights are human rights,' speech in Beijing in 1995, the journal published a series of articles hitting back at the speech.

A 1996 piece titled 'Women's rights are Islamic rights', that appeared to claim that women who wore revealing clothes were inviting rape.

The author wrote that revealing clothes 'directly translates into unwanted results of sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and indirectly promote violence against women.'

It also states that single or working moms and gay couples with children should not be classed as a family.

'A conjugal family established through a marriage contract between a man and a woman, and extended through procreation is the only definition of family a Muslim can accept,' the author, a Saudi official with the Muslim World League - which funds the journal.

Abedin's mother Saleha Manmood Abedin wrote an article in 1996 claiming Clinton's women's rights stance was advancing a 'very aggressive and radically feminist' agenda that was un-Islamic

'Pushing [mothers] out into the open labor market is a clear demonstration of a lack of respect of womanhood and motherhood,' it added.

While the journal published the articles, Abedin had just started working for then-First Lady Clinton as a 19-year-old intern in 1996.

Abedin's mother Saleha Manmood Abedin wrote an article in 1996 claiming Clinton's women's rights stance was advancing a 'very aggressive and radically feminist' agenda.

She continued that empowerment 'does more harm than benefit the cause of women or their relations with men' and 'Among all systems of belief, Islam goes the farthest in restoring equality across gender.'

Incredibly, Saleha Abedin claimed that 'more men are victims of domestic violence than women.'

She also helped to edit a book which claims that the practice of female genital mutilation - which has been internationally denounced as barbaric and cruel - was justified under Islamic law, the Post reports.

The aide was at the journal (pictured) working under her mother, who remains editor-in-chief, when it published an article in 2002 claiming that the US brought the 9/11 terror attacks on itself

The articles have only come to light in recent months.

And it may surprise many that someone who looks likely to become the next Chief-of-Staff allowed such views on the devastating 9/11 attacks to be published on her watch.

Neither Abedin nor Hillary Clinton's campaign have responded to requests for comment.

DailyMail.com also reached out to the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

The nature of the articles have even led some opposition members to claim Abedin is a 'spy.'

Last month, Roger Stone, an informal adviser to Donald Trump's campaign publicly stated his belief that Abedin could be a 'Saudi spy' and encouraged the candidate to raise the issue.

'She has a very troubling past,' Stone told Breitbart News Daily. 'She comes out of nowhere. She seems to have an enormous amount of cash, even prior to the time that she goes to work for Hillary,' he added.

'So we have to ask: Do we have a Saudi spy in our midst? Do we have a terrorist agent?' he asked.

Stone didn't offer any evidence for Abedin's supposed terror ties or any proof of spying. He pointed to press reports about Abedin's family history and time living in Saudi Arabia as a child.

Abedin has never spoken directly about the articles posted in her mother's magazine, while she served as assistant editor

Secret agent? Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone is asking whether longtime Hillary Clinton (left) aide Huma Abedin (right) is a 'Saudi spy' or a 'terrorist agent'

'I also think that now that Islamic terrorism is going to be front and center, there's going to be a new focus on whether this administration, the administration of Hillary Clinton at State was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans,' Stone said.

'I speak specifically of Huma Abedin, the right-hand woman, the now vice-chairman or co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.'

Stone urged Trump to start raising the issue.

'It's not just Huma. It's her mother and her father who are, who are hardcore Islamic ideologues,' he said.

There aren't any comments in the public record of Huma Abedin making hardcore Islamic ideological statements. She has offered very few pronouncements over her career as a behind-the-scenes operative, although she did weigh in on Twitter after Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said a Muslim shouldn't be in charge of the country.

'You can be a proud American, a proud Muslim, and proudly serve this great country. Pride versus prejudice,' Abedin tweeted in response to the comment.

Advisor Roger Stone wants Donald Trump to start raising the issue of Abedin's family ties

Stone has participated in bare-knuckled politics since Richard Nixon's reelection

'I'm not talking about her personal relationship at this point  I'm talking about her political relationship,' Stone continued.

Abedin is married to ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, who quit Congress after a sexting scandal.

Stone alluded to press reports including a February Vanity Fair article that examined her late father, Syed Zainul Abedin's ties to the Institute of Minority Muslim Affairs, a think tank, and served as editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

National review columnist Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney, claims the publication is a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The article claimed that the Abedin family moved to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, when Abedin was two with the backing of Abdullah Omar Nasseef, president of King Abdulaziz University.

Abedin got her start working for Clinton when the candidate was first lady. She later followed her to the Senate and the State Department

Many politicians, of both parties, strongly support Abedin including Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.

'Put simply, Huma represents what is best about America: the daughter of immigrants, who has risen to the highest levels of our government on the basis of her substantial personal merit and her abiding commitment to the American ideals that she embodies so fully,' McCain said then. He added: 'I am proud to know Huma and to call her my friend.'

Abedin was born in Kalamazoo Michigan, the child of two academics. Her father was born in New Delhi, India, while her mother was from Pakistan. She attended George Washington University and was a board member of a Muslim students association.

The Clinton campaign didn't respond to a request for comment, but Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told Vanity Fair, 'There are few things that President Obama and John McCain agree on. One is that  [Rep. Michele] Bachmann's lies about Huma are baseless and bigoted fear-mongering.'

The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, first published in 1979, is produced by the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs and published three times a year.
Dozens of ISIS fanatics involved in the massacre of 1,700 Iraqi army recruits have been hanged in front of their victims' relatives.

The 36 jihadists had been found guilty of involvement in the 'Speicher' massacre, named after a base near Tikrit in Iraq where the recruits were kidnapped before being butchered by terrorists.

Officials say relatives of some of the extremists' victims attended the mass hanging at Nasiriyah prison.

The Iraqi government hanged 36 jihadists who were responsible for murdering 1,700 army recruits in Tikrit in 2014. The ISIS killers were executed in front of their victims' families

Dozens of ISIS fanatics involved in the massacre of 1,700 Iraqi army recruits have been hanged in front of their victims' relatives. Pictured are forensics teams discovering their mass graves

ISIS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after seizing Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit in 2014.

The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former US base just outside the northern city.

Shortly after taking Tikrit, ISIS posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie face down in a shallow ditch.

The Speicher massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilisation of Shiite militias in the fight against ISIS, a Sunni extremist group. The militias now rival the power of Iraq's conventional armed forces.

Iraqi forces arrested dozens of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015 with the help of US-led airstrikes.

The men executed on Sunday were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

Thousands of soldiers based at Camp Speicher were taken prisoner by the militants as they surged across northern Iraq as they tried to conquer the country in 2014

A Dhiqar governor confirmed to AFP that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq's south.

'Tens of relatives attended the executions,' said Dawood. 'They shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), they were happy to see those people dead.'

Among them was Najla Shaab, a 30-year-old woman whose husband was killed in the massacre, leaving her to raise their children alone.

'Thank you God, it's a fair punishment for the worst crime, a triple crime of killing, throwing bodies in the river and burying people alive,' she told AFP by phone.

One of the sites of the massacre was the former river police building inside former president Saddam Hussein's palace complex in Tikrit.

Video footage subsequently released by ISIS showed an assembly-line massacre in which gunmen herded their victims towards the quay, shot them in the back of the head and pushed them in the water one after the other.

Iraqi soldiers salute the graves where the soldiers were found. The fanatics had taken them to a riverbank where they were lined up and shot dead at close range

The trials that have led to Iraq's latest batches of death sentences have been severely criticised by rights groups as failing to meet basic standards.

Amnesty International had slammed Iraq's systematic resort to the death penalty following the execution of 22 other people in May this year.

'The use of the death penalty is deplorable in all circumstances, and it is particularly horrendous when applied after grossly unfair trials marred by allegations of confessions extracted under torture as is frequently the case in Iraq,' the group's Iraq researcher Diana Eltahawy said.

The United Nations had criticised Abadi's call to speed up executions, which according to Amnesty already topped 100 for 2016 before Sunday's hangings.

'Fast-tracking executions will only accelerate injustice,' UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said earlier this month.

The Speicher massacre is considered one of IS's worst crimes since it took over large parts of the country in 2014.
Fifteen people suffered minor injuries on Sunday when the ceiling of an Oslo concert venue partly collapsed on to a concert crowd.

Authorities said a layer of plaster about 2cm thick fell from a 1 square metre area of the ceiling at the Sentrum Scene venue in the Norwegian city.

About 1700 students from the Norwegian Business School were attending a show by American house DJ Steve Aoki when the accident happened.

Concertgoers cleared out of the area at Sentrum Scene when the section of roof fell on them

Police and emergency personnel work at the entrance of concert venue Setrum Scene in Oslo on Sunday after parts of the ceiling fell down, injuring 15 people

However, there were conflicting reports from news agencies and social media about whether the concert had begun or not when the incident occurred.

A student attending the concert, Charlotte Nilsen, told news agency NTB: 'The ceiling fell in and it was total chaos. The fire alarm sounded right away.'

Police evacuated the building immediately and cordoned off the area while fire officials secured the site.

'15 injured. They're being attended to by medics,' Oslo police wrote on Twitter.

'No reports of serious injuries.'

The Oslo Fire and Rescue Department tweeted a photo of the section of ceiling responsible for the incident.

The section of collapsed roof identified by authorities. It was about 1 square metre in size

Emergency personnel discuss the incident outside the Sentrum Scene music venue

Fifteen people suffered minor injuries when the ceiling of an Oslo concert venue collapsed during a show, police said

'There is a 1.5 to 2 cm thick layer of plaster that has fallen from an area on the ceiling around 1 square meter,' the department said.
In the name of inclusion and tradition, artists across the Flagstaff area will fling open the doors to their most treasured spaces: their studios.

Entering its 19th year, the Artists Coalition of Flagstaffs annual Open Studios tour will welcome guests into places where the creatives among us lead brand new conversations and demonstrate their processes and techniques. Forty-eight artists will divide among six sectors from Doney Park to West Side.

The studio tour lasts from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27 and 28. With so much to explore, the Prelude to Open Studios exhibition will also be on display at the ACFs Arts Connection in the Flagstaff Mall, 4650 N. Highway 89, for visitors to plan the perfect artful weekend. See the complete brochure at Flagstaff-arts.org.

Desert dweller

Growing up on a ranch overlooking the desert vistas of southern Arizona, Cathy Jolma developed a connection with the landscape and the untamed flora and fauna covering the dusty mountains. She remembers watching her grandmother paint horses and natural elements, and still channels this inspiration into her artistic passions.

Having painted for years, Jolma decided to dive into another artform reminiscent of ranch life. Last year, she spent several days at the leather workers conference in Prescott learning how to apply the multi-step process of leather tooling  one that is intense and laborious, but worth every second to achieve custom designs on bound journals, dog collars, purses and bracelets.

Here I am many years later, and now Im painting leather and doing leather tooling, Jolma explained, also noting the jewelry she cobbles of silver and precious stones.

As an Open Studios location host, Jolma will demonstrate a bit of her technique. First, the piece of quality, raw leather from an elk or cow hide is cut to the dimensions of the project, then sprayed with water, or cased, for pounding and carving designs with special tools.

One difference for Jolma, though, is she also uses acrylic paints, preserved with layers of lacquer to distinguish her pieces from other leather works.

The final product has to be polished by hand using a piece of sheeps wool, she explained. After that it has a nice luster to it and will last a long time if you take care of it and oil it every year.

Jolmas art is also community-centric. When she is not teaching at the Flagstaff Medical Center, she is dreaming up a new project, or donating pieces to organizations like the Arboretum and the Flagstaff Arts Council.

Unbridled participation, Jolma said, will help her create even more. Of Flagstaffs artistic community, she added, Its an arts center. I wanted to be involved in that community from the beginning.

About face

When Marie Gearhart was a little girl, during her familys move from Phoenix to Flagstaff, she remembers drawing a cactus  and hasnt put down a brush or pencil since.

The painter, a location host in the Country Club area, has developed her artwork to embrace figurative representations of her dreams. In communicating emotion in her paintings, Gearhart described a time she became frustrated and covered the offending area with paper.

That result was so appealing, she said, the added texture has found a prominent place in her portraiture that continues to capture a haunting, dream-like quality.

Between happy accidents, Gearhart also moved around the western U.S. After studying art at Eastern New Mexico University and the University of Arizona, she later married and had three daughters  all the while accepting commissions for portraits.

I used pastels since they were safe around the kids and my studio was in the kitchen, she exclaimed.

But she became bored of the repetition, remedying that situation in classes at the local college near their then-home in Wyoming. Gearhart explained that those new techniques opened doors to a number of approaches  and even led to her opening a gallery with a friend.

After another move, the family found itself again in New Mexico, and Gearhart was encouraged to sell her experimental pieces. It was here she began using paper, and incorporating the face ever since. To achieve a look that nearly mimics watercolor, the artist covers her oil paintings in a glaze that creates a stunning effect. Combined with tissue and photographs, the striking works bring a face renewed life.

And since returning to Flagstaff in 2010, Gearhart has stuck true to her roots, painting at an easel her husband crafted for her years ago; continually developing in the arts community through organizations like the ACF.

She added, I'm certainly looking forward to meeting people at my home with the Open Studio event  this will be the first time for me.
Nine living marijuana plants will be displayed at the Oregon State Fair in a first of its kind event for the United States starting next Friday.

The exhibit of the non-flowering, immature plants brings pot cultivation more into the agricultural mainstream less than two years after Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana.

The Oregon Cannabis Business Council, which organized the exhibit, says it's the first time live cannabis will be shown at a state fair anywhere in the U.S.

Green ribbon: Ed Rosenthal, nicknamed the 'Ganja Guru', judges marijuana plants at a competition to select nine specimens for display at the Oregon State Fair

Fairgoers over the age of 21 can see the plants at the Oregon Cannabis Business Councils booth in an exhibition hall. It is the first time pot plants will be featured at a state fair

The group last year had an informational booth about marijuana at the fair and there were no complaints  a key factor in allowing them to go one step further and offer live plants for viewing this year, said Dan Cox, spokesman for the Oregon State Fair.

The specimens were selected by judges at a competition last weekend who chose three winners each in the sativa, indica and hybrid categories.

The entire exhibit will be housed in a translucent tent and extra security will be on hand to check identification so only people 21 and over can enter, Cox said.

None of the plants are allowed have buds, which are more potent than the leaves.

Emilio Gurule, right, a plant tender at a hydroponic marijuana farm called Uplifted, helps a customer fill out a raffle ticket during the Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair in Salem

That's because the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which will regulate the recreational marijuana business, is still finalizing regulations for the nascent industry and it's currently illegal to transport a flowering plant, said Donald Morse, director of the Oregon Cannabis Business Council.

Those regulations and a licensing process for recreational producers are expected by 2017. The industry hopes to have plants with buds at the fair next summer, Morse said.

The event has raised some eyebrows, but Cox said the Oregon State Fair has always played a role in displaying the latest and sometimes controversial fads in agriculture and state culture. Nearly 20 years ago, he said, the fair had an exhibit on tattoo body art that caused a similar sensation.

'It is a showcase for traditional things. And yet it's always been a show place for the new, the different and the innovative,' he said.

Judges rate marijuana plants at the Oregon Cannabis Grower's Fair marijuana plant competition in Salem, Oregon. Nine winners will be on display at the Oregon State Fair

Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana in a November 2014 ballot initiative after medical marijuana was legalized years earlier.

Recreational marijuana remains illegal in 46 states and under federal law. But in Oregon, the pot business has been booming.

Anticipated state revenue from recreational marijuana through June 2017 was recently quadrupled by Oregon's Legislative Revenue Office, from $8.4 million to $35 million.

The exhibit of live marijuana plants will run from August 26 to September 5 and will mark the first time real pot plants have been open for public viewing at the agricultural showcase

Cox said there aren't plans to expand pot's place at the fair beyond the small exhibit, which is in a space rented by industry proponents.

But for weed fans, just getting a place at the table is worth celebrating.

'It's pretty awesome to be judging actual cannabis plants that are going to go into a state fair,' said Tom Lauerman, one of six judges and an organic marijuana grower who was once arrested in a law enforcement drug raid targeting pot. 'It kind of gives me goose bumps even talking about it.'
A man has had his speeding ticket overturned after it was revealed this his vehicle was confused with another.

Paul Clamp, 61, received a summons threatening a months' driving ban and a 400 fine after it was believed that he had been doing 77mph in a 50 mph zone.

However, after requesting documentation of the event, Mr Clamp noticed that the cameras on the A14 in Corby, leicestershire, had combined the speeds of his van and another with a similar registration plate.

Paul Clamp, 61, received a summons threatening a months' driving ban and a 400 fine after it was believed that he had been doing 77mph in a 50 mph zone (stock image)

For, as Mr Clamp was pictured entering the stretch of road, the other vehicle was snapped leaving it.

As a result, the automated system logged the two vehicles as one and averaged their speed at 77mph.

Following the revelation, Mr Clamp contacted the police who dropped the case and apologised for the misunderstanding.

Mr Clamp also claims that they said that errors like this were often made, despite neither the drivers nor vehicles looking alike.

However, he coincidentally knew the other driver.

Mr Clamp told the Sunday Mirror: It was like a game of spot the difference. The other lad is small - I'm twice as big. He had a hi-vis vest, I didn't.

The automated system logged the two vehicles as one and averaged their speed at 77mph (stock image)

'The number plates are similar but there is one character difference. Even the graphics are different.

'A blind man on a galloping horse could see it was two different vans. This needs looking at. How many people are being wrongly prosecuted?'

Jonathan Clarkson, safety camera partnership spokesperson, told MailOnline: 'This was an isolated error and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience we have caused Mr Clamp.

'We took no further action once the mistake was highlighted and, in all cases, if our camera images are poor we will not proceed with prosecution.

'Drivers can request copies of our photographic evidence after receiving a notice of intended prosecution to confirm the identity of the vehicle.
Paedophile Sir Clement Freud (pictured) was nominated for his knighthood by former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Steel

Paedophile Sir Clement Freud was nominated for his knighthood by former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Steel, it has been revealed.

The disgraced MP and former TV and radio star became a Sir in 1987 and when he died in 2009 aged 84 Lord Steel paid tribute with a glowing obituary.

The peer, who also backed another child abuser - Sir Cyril Smith - for a knighthood, called Freud 'one of those rare characters who managed to excel in several spheres'.

According to The Sun on Sunday's Mike Sullivan, the Cabinet Office originally refused to say who proposed Freud for a knighthood.

But after an appeal it was revealed that Lord Steel was the sponsor.

Freud was exposed as a paedophile in June. One of his victims, Sylvia Woosley, told how he had ruined her life after sexually abusing her from the age of ten.

Meanwhile Vicky Haynes, 64, who was raped as a teenager by Freud, even alerted the Madeleine McCann investigation after realising that the serial child predator had befriended Kate and Gerry McCann in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where he had a villa.

Another woman to come forward, Rosemary Rimmer-Clay, said Freud had lunged at her with a horrible slobbery kiss when she was 19.

Mrs Rimmer-Clay, 62, had been a student at Dundee University, where Freud was the 51-year-old Rector  as well as being an MP  when in 1975 he invited her for coffee one evening.

Lord Steel (pictured left) also backed child abuser Sir Cyril Smith (right) for a knighthood

She agreed because he was a bit of a hero of mine. She said: Im older and wiser now but at the time I thought he just wanted to chat about university.

It was also claimed earlier this month that Freud got a 17-year-old teenager he hired as a nanny pregnant before throwing her out of his house.
Patterson faces stiffest penalty if convicted, since possession of LSD and ecstasy is a felony in Texas

Four students arrested were identified as Michael Frymire, 20; Ty Robertson, 21; Samuel Patterson, 21; and Christian Sandford, 18

University, fraternity both vowed to cooperate with the investigation

19-year-old man was found unresponsive at Sigma Nu frat house in College Station

A Texas college student died of an apparent drug overdose at a fraternity house on Saturday.

Police in College Station have arrested four other students in connection to the incident at Texas A&M University, according to KXAS-TV.

Authorities said that the victim, a 19-year-old student who has not been named, was found unresponsive at the Sigma Nu house in College Station on Saturday.

The four students under arrest have been identified as Michael Frymire, 20, Ty Robertson, 21, Samuel Patterson, 21, and Christian Sandford, 18.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Texas police say that Michael Frymire (left), 20, and Samuel Patterson (right), 21, along with two other students were in possession of drugs and drug-making paraphernalia

The other two students arrested in connection with the death - Ty Robertson (left), 21, and Christian Sandford (right), 18 - appeared to be smiling in their mugshots

Video courtesy of KBTX

They are alleged to have been in possession of drugs and drug-making paraphernalia.

According to the Bryan Eagle newspaper, Patterson is alleged to have been in possession of LSD and MDMA, which is a felony in Texas.

If found guilty, he could face up to two years in prison.

Frymire was arrested for allegedly being in possession of a small amount of hash oil, which is also a felony.

Sandford and Robertson were arrested for possession of marijuana.

He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities were called to the Sigma Nu fraternity house (seen here) in College Station, Texas, where the victim was found unconscious and not breathing

The university and the fraternity's national office both told the Bryan Eagle that it would fully cooperate with authorities in the investigation of this incident.

'Our hearts are filled with sorrow as we grieve the loss of this young man,' said Sigma Nu Executive Director Brad Beacham.
A young boy carrying a suicide vest in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad claims he was kidnapped by armed ISIS terrorists who strapped on a suicide vest and ordered him to attack.

TV footage of the dramatic incident shows Iraqi security forces disarm the young boy, who was aged around 12, before bundling him into a truck.

The incident happened one hour after another suicide bomber targeted a Shiite mosque in the city.

Detained: An ISIS child suicide bomber 'aged between 12 and 13' was thwarted in his attempt to detonate an explosives belt after being arrested by security forces in Iraq

Taken away: The boy was ushered into a nearby vehicle by security services and led away

Kirkuk intelligence official Chato Fadhil Humadi said the boy in the latest incident 'claimed during interrogation that he had been kidnapped by masked men who put the explosives on him and sent him to the area'.

The boy had earlier fled Mosul, Iraq's second city, which is still under ISIS control although government troops are trying to force out the terrorists.

The boy, who was wearing a Barcelona football shirt with FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi on the back, reportedly burst into tears as he was detained by Iraqi police in the city of Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, yesterday.

His arrest came less than 24 hours after another child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and injured 100 more at a wedding party in Turkey.

It has led to fears children are increasingly being used by ISIS to carry out deadly attacks. Two other suicide bombers blew themselves up in Kirkuk on Sunday.

The boy, who was wearing a Barcelona football shirt with FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi on the back, reportedly burst into tears as he was detained by Iraqi police

The security forces quickly removed the explosive device after spotting the youngster

The boy told police he had been abducted by masked men who strapped a vest to him

Three people were injured in one while in another there were no casualties.

The Kurdish media group Rudaw revealed that the apprehended suspect was stripped of his explosives belt by security forces before being led away.

'There is a dangerous campaign tonight against Kirkuk,' a security official told the network.

It has been claimed the boy was planning to blow himself up outside a Shia mosque. The belt was later detonated safely away from members of the public.

The attacks follow recent successful military offensives by Peshmerga forces against ISIS.

Earlier this year it was revealed that ISIS had released an app teaching the Arabic alphabet to its 'cubs of the caliphate' - using cartoon images of weaponry.

The terror group uses pictures of tanks, ammunition and swords to help children remember certain letters in its bizarre learning aid.

Apprehended: His arrest followed two other suicide bomb attacks in Kirkuk hours earlier

Dramatic: The Kurdish media group Rudaw revealed today that the apprehended suspect was stripped of his explosives belt by security forces before being led away

'There is a dangerous campaign tonight against Kirkuk,' a security official told the network

It is the latest move by ISIS aimed at indoctrinating children in its Iraq and Syria stronghold.

Videos have previously been released of boys - dubbed 'Cubs of the Caliphate' - being put through rigorous training regimes and even being ordered to carry out brutal executions.

Meanwhile, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that ISIS was behind the attack which saw a bomber, thought to be aged between 12 and 14, blow up people dancing in the street at a party in the city of Gaziantep last night.

Iraqi security forces detain a boy after removing a suicide vest from him in Kirkuk in Iraq

Controlled explosion: The belt was later detonated safely after the suspect was led away

The boy was detained in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, less than 24 hours after a child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and injured 100 at a wedding party in Turkey (pictured)

Erdogan added the blast near the Syria border 'was the result of a suicide bomber who either detonated (the bomb) or others detonated it'.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.
A naked suicidal woman jumped from the window of an apartment  but was saved when she landed on an air conditioning unit two stories below.

The woman, who has not been named, jumped out of the window of a building in Marble Hill in The Bronx, New York, on Saturday morning.

Officers from the Emergency Service Unit managed to convince the woman not to take her life and pulled her back inside, the New York Post reports.

A naked suicidal woman jumped from the window of an apartment  but was saved when she landed on an air conditioning unit two stories below

She tried to fight them off, but they managed to get her inside, clothed her and then carried her out on a stretcher.

The woman was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital, where she will have a psychiatric evaluation.

She wont be facing any criminal charges, a police source told the Post.

One witness said the womans mother had been holding on to her, but lost her grip and she fell.

Officers from the Emergency Service Unit managed to convince the woman not to take her life and pulled her back inside

When she landed on the air conditioner, she sat on it and began screaming in English and Spanish to passers-by.

She was saying that God is coming and everybody has to be better people, and we have to love each other, Dahiana Rosario told the Post.

She was saying God loves us  and God loves everybody and clean your house of bad things, bad energy.

Neighbors called authorities and had placed pillows and sofas underneath the air conditioner in case the woman jumped again.
'We've never been trained to handle a crowd like that,' security guard said

False gunman scare led to evacuations and a sweep of two terminals

Those traveling to and from New York's main international airport have reason to worry.

Last week's shooting scare at John F. Kennedy International Airport only highlighted the unpreparedness of its employees in dealing with a potential terrorist attack, workers told the New York Daily News.

A false gunman scare last Sunday night led to evacuations and a four-hour sweep of two terminals at JFK.

Passengers were told to take cover behind 'anything' they could find by police - as unfounded reports of gunfire in Terminal 8 caused mass panic.

Scroll down for video

Police at John F. Kennedy International Airport evacuated two terminals and grounded flights after it was mistakenly reported that a gunman had opened fire

It took authorities four hours to conduct sweeps of two terminals, after which it was determined that nobody was shot. Masses of travelers were forced to evacuate

Every passenger was evacuated from the terminal, some onto the runway, as an army of heavily armed police moved in to hunt for an apparently non-existent gunman.

One passenger said an officer screamed: 'If you're forgetting anything it's not worth your life, everyone move now!'

Flights were grounded and authorities spent four hours searching the terminal - as well as Terminal 1 - where there was also a report of gunfire.

But the scare turned out to be a false alarm, with one theory speculating that 'cheering' for Usain Bolt's victory in the 100m final may have been misinterpreted as gunfire.

A Twitter user snapped this image of police evacuating a terminal at JFK. The scare may have stemmed from people cheering for Usain Bolt on television, a noise that may have been mistaken for gunfire

Now workers are going on the record, saying that the incident illustrated just how ill-prepared they are for future emergencies.

'We've never been trained how to handle a big crowd like that,' Jose Martinez, a contracted security guard who was on duty during the scare, told the Daily News.

'We haven't been told where a safe place for passengers is or anything like that. I was just trusting myself,' he said. 'I was just doing what came to mind.'

When the incident started, Martinez said he ran toward a Terminal 1 jet ramp that was crowded by frightened passengers. At this point, he was unsure of what to do next.

'We've never been trained how to handle a big crowd like that,' Jose Martinez, a security guard on duty that night, said

Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered a review of the incident. Airport security is under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority Police Department, a state-run agency

The incident and its aftermath was so grave that it compelled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to initiate a review of the conduct of the Port Authority Police Department, the state-run agency in charge of security in New York and New Jersey's transportation hubs.

Martinez told the Daily News that he was surprised when his superiors on Monday did not hold a 'post-mortem' discussion on what had occurred the previous day.

Another airport employee told the Daily News that she was stricken by panic and anxiety at the sight of masses of people running in and out of the terminal during the incident.

'It's not good,' said Jennifer Holley, a terminal cleaner. 'It's a very scary situation.'

'If we had proper training then we would know what to do.'

The head of a union representing airport workers said that the authorities need to invest in security personnel so that they are better prepared the next time.

'The violent episodes and scares in airports across the world have shown us that subcontracted airport workers serve as first responders for any airport emergency,' said Hector Figueroa.
A chief constable apologised yesterday after telling a stressed officer: Dry your eyes, do the job or move on!

A chief constable apologised yesterday after telling a stressed officer: Dry your eyes, do the job or move on!

Police chief George Hamilton was accused of stunning misjudgment over his jibe on Twitter.

He accused the officer of wallowing in self-pity when the man complained that police were expected to do the job of social workers, paramedics and childminders as well as their other duties.

In an exchange shortly after midnight yesterday, Mr Hamilton, who has headed the Police Service of Northern Ireland for two years, posted a light-hearted appeal for new recruits, sharing an advertisement from 1839 calling for recruits for Sir Robert Peels Metropolitan Police, adding: Think about career in policing  we want citizens to serve from ALL backgrounds. Terms & Conditions have improved.

One officer, who said he lives with depression and pain, responded: Yes but police expected to do far more roles than ever anticipated by Sir Robert! Social worker, paramedic, childminder etc.

In a withering rebuke, the chief constable wrote: I know  more complex and challenging but we are here to serve so lets get on with it rather than wallowing in self-pity!

When the officer, who has not been identified, denied he was moaning, Mr Hamilton continued: Well youre allowed to leave and seek another job  nobody is asking you to stay.

Dry your eyes, do the job or move on! Last night the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents more than 10,000 rank-and-file PSNI officers, accused the police chief of misjudgment.

Chairman Mark Lindsay said the pressures endured by officers are nothing short of monstrous.

He said: The chief constable knows the extent of the problem  we have highlighted it often enough  which makes his remarks all the more bewildering.

It shows how out of touch he is with his own officers and that is deeply disappointing.

Officers are grappling with psychological conditions because of the appalling things they have to experience and witness in the line of duty, Mr Lindsay said.

He added: To cap it all, we have a chief constable who tells the men and women he commands that if they dont like it, they can leave and get another job.

Mr Hamilton has got this badly wrong. To say to officers, Dry your eyes, do the job or move on amounts to great insult and a stunning misjudgment.

Police chief George Hamilton was accused of stunning misjudgment over his jibe on Twitter

Ulster Unionist Doug Beattie, a Northern Ireland assembly member, said: There are genuine concerns within the rank and file of the Northern Ireland police service that officers are being used to fill the gaps that other services should be filling.

That includes being a medical first responder, dealing with mental health and social service issues, and all while delivering policing services within our communities fragmented by terrorism, paramilitary activity and a divided society.

Mr Beattie said the chief constable had a difficult job but there comes a time when he must say enough is enough and stand up for his officers when they raise genuine concerns.

Yesterday Mr Hamilton posted a grovelling video statement on Twitter apologising for his remarks.

Last nights frank Twitter conversation was what the police actually do, however such important issues are not best dealt with in the 140 characters of a tweet, he said.

Ive clearly caused some offence in what Ive said and for that I apologise. You see, Im hugely proud of the officers and staff who go out and serve the public every day.

I want to encourage and support them and I accept that my comments last night would not have conveyed that support. For that Im sorry.

Mr Hamilton is known for his light-hearted remarks on social media. In May 2015, Belfast comedian Jake OKane asked him on Twitter: Why arent there more ginger police officers? Gingerism? Give us sun block factor 50 and well do the job!
When a law enforcement agency arrests a suspect on a felony charge and puts them jail, an initial hearing must be held in Justice Court within 24 hours.

At that time, the judge will inform the defendant of the charges against them, inform them of their basic rights, appoint an attorney if the defendant is indigent and set release conditions. That includes whether the defendant will be supervised by the courts Pretrial Services Unit.

The defendant can be held in jail, be required to post bond for release, be released to a third party or be released on their own recognizance.

Neither the county attorney nor law enforcement has the power to determine release conditions (), said Coconino County Attorney David Rozema. Many defendants bond-out or are released on their own recognizance. In the more serious cases, our office will appear and request high-bonds or no bonds.

Arizonas Rules of Criminal Procedure calls for most defendants to be released on their own recognizance unless they are accused of certain serious felonies  like capital murder or child molestation  or the court determines there is a good chance they will not show up for future hearings.

The criminal charges are considered informal at the initial appearance. The County Attorneys Office then has 48 hours from the beginning of the business day after the initial appearance to file formal charges with the court. The county attorney can choose to decline prosecution or, if the police report is complete, file formal charges immediately. The court will then set a preliminary hearing to establish there is probable cause to move forward with criminal prosecution.

Often, however, the county attorney will return the police report to the law enforcement agency for additional investigation.

Lieutenant Larry Jones with Page Police Department said in a sampling of three months worth of in-custody felony arrests in 2016  35 cases  his agency filed a police report with the County Attorneys Office within the required 48 hours in all but one case. He said he believes that accurately reflects Page PDs practices.

When the county attorney asks the police for more investigation and no formal charges are filed in the 48-hour window, an in-custody defendant must be released from jail.
Militant trades unions are plotting a wave of strikes this autumn in a bid to topple the Government.

Leaders of strikes by junior doctors, rail guards and teachers have joined the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) for talks over co-ordinating walkouts to increase chaos.

The National Union of Teachers and the British Medical Association (BMA) have already held discussions about simultaneous autumn strikes, it has emerged.

At an NSSN union meeting in London last month, Yannis Gourtsoyannis, a hard-Left member of the BMA junior doctors committee, spoke under a banner saying: Link up the strikes. Organise to take on the Tories. Get all the Tories out.

Yannis Gourtsoyannis, a member of the British Medical Association's Junior Doctors' Committee, has issued a call for arms against the Tories

Dr Gourtsoyannis, a Jeremy Corbyn supporter who works at University College London Hospital, said: Building links between our unions is vital. Now is the time to ramp things up. We need to defend Corbyn and show the Government the door.

The call to arms was echoed by Sean Hoyle, president of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, which has inflicted misery on Southern rail commuters.

He told the gathering: We need co-ordinated action. We will take action regardless of what the law says.

Mr Hoyle came under fire this month after he and colleague Steve Hedley posted a picture online of themselves on holiday during the rail strike.

Linda Taaffe, secretary of the NSSN, said: This Government needs to be changed. The first step is action which links up all the disputes in as big and strong way as possible  then the whole thing could go up.

National Union of Teachers (NUT) activist Mrs Taaffe  married to Socialist Party leader Peter Taaffe  revealed there had already been discussions between junior doctors and teachers.

She told The Sunday Times: The NUT has said we will have a day of action as soon as possible in the new term. If we understood that the doctors were going to take action at, say, the end of September, or the beginning of October, I think it would be right in thinking that the teachers would delay and co-ordinate with the doctors. And the RMT wouldnt need much persuading about joining in.

Strikes this autumn are already likely. Representatives of junior doctors have called on the BMA to authorise industrial action from early next month in their contract dispute.

Walkouts on Southern rail, Eurostar and Virgin East Coast are also possible.

Tory MP and Commons Health Select Committee chair Sarah Wollaston said recent strikes had damaged the government

Last night Tory MP Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Commons health committee, said: It is really regrettable and damaging if strikes are being launched for political purposes.

Tory MP Will Quince, who sits on the Commons transport committee, said there was no question some recent strikes had been to damage the Government.
The case was adjourned until the 26th of October

A 20-year-old appeared in court on rape charges on Monday

A man broke into her house at 5.30am on Sunday morning

A woman has been repeatedly raped by a stranger who broke into her far north Queensland home, it is alleged.

The woman was asleep about 5.30am on Sunday when she was raped six times by a stranger in her home in the cane farming town of Mossman, north of Cairns, police said.

A 20-year-old Mossman man appeared in the Cairns Magistrates Court on Monday on charges including six counts of rape.

A sleeping woman has been repeatedly raped by a stranger who broke into her far north Queensland home on Sunday morning (stock image)

Queensland police earlier released a statement.

'Detectives have charged a man after a woman was allegedly raped this morning at Mossman,' the statement read.

'It will be alleged at about 5.30am the man has entered the womans house in the town of Mossman.

'The woman was sleeping and man has raped the woman a number of times.

'The man is not known to the woman.'

The case was adjourned until the 26th of October.

The woman was asleep about 5.30am on Sunday when she was attacked by a stranger in her home in the cane farming town of Mossman, north of Cairns
National study is likely to show most of 600 marker species in decline

Report likely to suggest leaving the EU has created chance for reform

More than 120 species of wildlife are facing extinction in Britain because of intensive farming methods, a major report will warn.

Hundreds more could also be at risk due to the industrialisation of agriculture, driven by EU subsidies.

The State of Nature 2016 report, due to be published next month, is set to detail the devastating losses of British wildlife species, according to the Sunday Times.

More than 120 species of wildlife, including woodpeckers (above) are facing extinction in Britain because of intensive farming methods

TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough is expected to warn of a crisis and the report is likely to suggest that Britains decision to leave the EU has created a unique opportunity to reform the damaging subsidy system.

We have assessed the status of 4,000 British wildlife species, looking at the threats and pressures they face, said Richard Gregory, who is leading the project.

What emerges is that there are many threats to Britains wildlife but by far the biggest is the steady intensification of farming, which leaves no room for wildlife and is driving many species towards extinction.

So-called intensive farming practices, designed to increase the yield of crops, can have damaging side effects to wildlife because of the use of pesticides.

The national study, being drawn up by more than 50 of the countrys leading conservation groups, is likely to show almost all of 600 marker species are in decline.

Farmland birds, such as skylarks, rooks and turtle doves, will be shown to have declined by 54% since 1970, leaving some close to extinction.

The wryneck, a woodpecker found in woodlands and around farms, may already be extinct. No breeding pairs have been seen since 2002. The golden oriole has not bred since 2009 and skylark numbers are down 60% since 1970.

Butterfly numbers are also said to have plummeted, with the abundance of farmland species down 57% since 1990.

Farmland birds, such as skylarks, rooks and turtle doves, will be shown to have declined by 54% since 1970, leaving some close to extinction

We assessed 1,118 farmland species, including birds, mammals and plants, finding that 123 are facing extinction in the UK, which is a terrible statistic, said Dr Gregory, head of species monitoring and research for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Peter Dixon, director of land, landscape and nature at the National Trust, blamed industrialisation of agriculture driven by subsidies rather than individual farmers.

He said a new subsidy system could also protect wildlife and the environment.

The State of Nature report will also examine species found in woodlands, uplands and in freshwater and marine environments.

The previous State of Nature report in 2013 indicated 60% of animal and plant species studied had declined in the past 50 years.

Among the finding was that Turtle doves have declined by 93% since 1970 and hedgehogs have declined by around a third since the millennium.
Sherroll Foster gave Mark Hamilton her life savings after he vowed to rescue her from her lonely life and carry her off to luxury retirement in the sun

When Sherroll Foster met Mark Hamilton on an online dating website, she thought shed found her soul mate.

The retired administrator poured her 65,000 life savings into helping the man who vowed to rescue her from her lonely, humdrum life in a west London suburb and carry her off to luxury retirement in the sun.

But after she plunged into debt taking out credit cards, bank loans, pay day loans and letting him use her bank account in a bid to release 4million in gold from Ghana that he promised her, the 65-year-old found not only had she been conned and financially ruined, she also faced a conviction for money laundering.

This week a judge spared Foster jail as the romance fraud victim was convicted for money laundering in one of the first cases of its kind.

Although thousands of British victims, mainly middle class women, have been duped by online dating scams losing an average of 10,000, none have ever been prosecuted.

But police decided to act arresting Foster last year after discovering that her bank account had been used to funnel cash from other victims conned by the fraudster.

The former GlaxoSmithKline administrator first met Hamilton on an online dating site for the over-50s in 2012.

He claimed to be a rich businessman with 4million in gold deposits in Ghana and said he needed funds to reclaim his money from the bank.

Besotted, Foster began wiring money to his bank account in Ghana in February 2013 after he promised her they could live off his fortune.

For two years, she took out credit cards, payday loans and used her overdraft, scraping together every penny to send to Hamilton as he assured her that they were one payment from realising their dream of retiring together.

Foster then allowed him to use her bank account to receive funds which Hamilton claimed were friends of his also helping him to free up his investment.

But in reality, the payments were made by other women over 60 tricked like her by the same gold ruse after being approached on dating websites.

Two other women who fell for the same conman were wary of sending money abroad.

But they were persuaded to wire funds to Fosters UK bank account after they were told she was his mother.

In April 2014, Foster received 8,000 from the first victim which she forwarded to Ghana via international money transfer without question the next day.

Two months later, another woman sent 19,000 which was forwarded to Ghana by Foster.

Eventually both victims sensed something was not right and contacted Action Fraud.

Foster was then arrested on 10 February 2015 on suspicion of fraud and money laundering.

But after she plunged into debt, the 65-year-old found not only had she been conned and financially ruined, she also faced a conviction for money laundering

When she was interviewed by police, she said she wanted to believe that Hamilton was genuine, describing him as her soul mate.

Even when she was released on bail she continued her online relationship with Hamilton and sent more of her own money to Ghana.

She also agreed to help him again, receiving 3,500 from another victim of the romance scam which she sent on to Ghana.

She later charged with money laundering and pleaded guilty in the face of overwhelming evidence.

But on Monday Judge Andrew McDowall said he was sparing her a jail sentence at Isleworth Crown Court because she had been left financially ruined.

He ordered to repay 3,500 to one of the victims.

Last night neighbours of her 400,000 semi-detached home in Uxbridge said they were shocked by her conviction.

They said the scam had taken its toll, leaving her broken-hearted and penniless.

One neighbour said: She has been single for a number of years to my knowledge. She has lived in that house for about 40 years. Her husband went to Spain around 25 years ago and she has been on her own since then.

Shes a very quiet woman. An unassuming person.

A very private, lovely woman. As far as we are aware she hasnt had a relationship since her husband and hasnt got any kids.

Its sad, but I dont think she has any or many friends. Ive never seen her with anybody else and she hasnt mentioned any friends or family.

She must have been lonely.

She looks different now with what has gone on. It must have taken its toll.

Police have been unable to trace Mark Hamilton.

The latest figures from the City of London Polices National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) show that online dating fraud in the UK cost victims 27 million last year.

Over 2,700 online dating related crimes were reported to Action Fraud over 12 months with the average loss standing at 10,000.

Almost two thirds of the victims were aged between 40-69.

Yesterday Detective Constable Mark Cresswell said: This may not be a unique tale, but it most certainly should be treated as a cautionary one.

These fraudsters target vulnerable people and exploit them not only financially, but emotionally, making their victims believe that true happiness is almost within reach and just a bank transfer away.
A former California student who had a baby at age 16 with his teacher in 2013 has won a multi-million dollar payout from the school district.

The unidentified student, now 21, will reportedly receive $6 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Redlands Unified School District officials placed all the blame on teacher Laura Whitehurst and admitted no fault by settling the suit.

A former California high school student who father a baby with his teacher Laura Whitehurst (pictured) has won a $6 million settlement from the school district

'In the long run, $6 million is high, but it could have been much higher if this had been left to an empathetic jury in another city looking past the facts to find a financial scapegoat for the unprofessional, criminal actions of one individual,' District spokesman Tom DeLapp said.

The former AP English teacher gave birth to a girl in June 2013 after engaging in a year-long relationship with the student, CBS News reported.

The suit claimed that the district failed to inform the student's parents after they had reason to believe Whitehurst was sexually abusing the student

She faced 41 felony counts but took a plea bargain after agreeing to plead guilty to six of the 41 counts.

The suit was brought against the school district the following year after the student's lawyer, Vince Finaldi, claimed the district 'turned a blind eye' to the improper conduct.

'The size of this settlement represents the gravity of the damage done to this young victim and his family and it also highlights the extreme malfeasance and neglect by school officials who turned a blind eye to the criminal conduct of a teacher and failed to protect a student,' Finaldi said.

The suit claimed that the district failed to inform the student's parents after there was reason to believe sexual abuse was taking place.

Sexual contact between Whitehurst and the student began in 2012 when the boy was 16.

The student claimed he was stalked bu Whitehurst prior to their relationship and that she told him she could not get pregnant.

Redlands Unified School District officials placed all the blame on Whitehurst and admitted no fault by settling the suit

The student was present at the birth of their daughter and share custody of the baby.
The Tory leader in Scotland has become the most senior Conservative to urge Theresa May to hold an early election.

Ruth Davidson said a conversation with Sir John Major had convinced her that having a small majority in the Commons made it difficult to govern effectively.

Sir John famously struggled after the 1992 General Election, which delivered him a 21-strong majority and was whittled down to nothing within five years.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, with Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, has revealed a conversation with Sir John Major convinced her the government could not rule properly with a small majority

On one occasion he even suffered a Budget measure defeat at the hands of Right-wing rebels.

Mrs Mays majority is just 12, and that could be effectively wiped out if Eurosceptic backbenchers try to prevent her getting legislation through.

Interviewed in The Observer, Miss Davidson said she could see the temptation of an early election in Westminster.

She pointed out that Jeremy Corbyns Labour party, which is far behind in the polls, had demanded one when Mrs May became Prime Minister  meaning they could not complain if she did call an election.

Miss Davidson said: John Major came up to help during the referendum, and we had dinner, and he was talking about how draining it is to have a small majority in the Commons, how it gets you down dealing with your own side.

He had a larger majority than Theresa, so I can see the temptation. She knows if people want to cause problems, they can do that quite quickly. I would like to think the usual suspects might behave in a different manner [now], but we shall see.

However the MSP added: It might be seen as opportunistic to hold a snap election less than two years after the last one. There is an aspect of her needing to get on with the job.

But Im torn. Why not get a mandate? Labour called for an election after she became Prime Minister, so they cant criticise her if thats what she does.

Asked if she was ready for an election, she said: If one is required, I will make sure the partys ready. Were organised. We will do well. We will increase our number of seats.

Miss Davidson says Labour would be unable to complain about an early election given it had called for one after the new government was installed

Technically, Britain has a Fixed-term Parliaments Act which rules out a vote until 2020.

But experts believe it would be possible to get round this with a parliamentary vote.

Other senior Conservatives have ruled out an early election  and during her leadership campaign Theresa May herself said she did not want one.

At the same time, polls are consistently showing the Tories holding a double-digit lead over Labour, with some forecasts suggesting Mrs May could win a majority of more than 100 seats.

Her Commons majority is currently smaller than the number of ministers she sacked in her brutal reshuffle  creating a lot of dissatisfied backbenchers.

Eurosceptics want to see freedom of movement scrapped during Brexit negotiations and also want the country to leave the single market. This has raised fears the group could wreak chaos for the Tories if it does not get its way.

The 2020 election date can be brought forward but only if two-thirds of MPs back the move, meaning Mrs May would need the support of Labour.
One Los Angeles luxury apartment building has come up with the perfect perk to lure the Hollywood crowd - on-site Botox injections.

Deep-pocketed and frozen-browed residents who wish to remain ageless-looking can take advantage of the Century City rental tower Ten Thousand's 'wellness studio', where on-call doctors can keep those wrinkles at bay with doses of botulinum toxin, according to Bloomberg News.

On call doctors will be there in a jiff for residents who want to wipe away those facial lines with a little Botox and not have to get in a traffic snarl to do it

The pricey building is on the edge of Century City and has spectacular views of the surrounding hills

Rental apartments range from $8,500 to $25,000 a month and will appeal to those who want hotel living but with more stability

The complex offers three luxury in house cars for residents' use including a Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Cadillac Escalade

Traffic in the city of angels is the main reason to have such a personal service, saving residents perhaps an hour or more trip to a doctor's office.

Rich people who would rent at the Ten Thousand 'just dont want to take care of the hassles that everyday life brings, and they want someone else to take care of it for them,' said Roman Speron, vice president at Ten Thousand's developer.

And the amenities don't stop at Botox.

Residents and their pampered pooches can romp in the tower's one-acre private park that comes with pool and dog run

A gym overlooks the peaceful vista of the Los Angeles country club, so unique in downtown Los Angeles

The new 283-unit high-end rental building, where rents start at $8,500 and go up to $25,000 a month, also offers a 75-foot indoor lap pool with underwater speakers, exercise studio, game room, screening room, board room a private one-acre outdoor park with outdoor pool, outdoor chefs kitchen, dog-run lawn and theater with an 84-inch screen and fire pit, and a house Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Cadillac Escalade for use.

For those who don't want to battle LA's notorious traffic, especially while the Botox is settling, there are four butlers to run your errands for you.

The apartments come with the most modern design, including this large bathroom with soak tub and double sinks

The 75-foot indoor lap pool boasts underground speakers

'Theres a bit of an amenities arms race, where each building wants to have the latest, greatest and newest features to outdo each other,' Krishna Rao, an economist at real estate listings website StreetEasy told Bloomberg.

Another perk is that residents' smartphones and tablets can be synced up to allow staff to know when someone might want coffee or to have their car driven from the garage.

'Things will magically get done for you,' said Nikolay Tevekeliyski, the buildings general manager.
When Bruce Sidlinger moved to Flagstaff, he had goals to expand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the city, and create resources for students in the area interested in the subject, but without the means to access expensive equipment.

Now, nearly four years later, Sidlinger says hes left with an incomplete warehouse, continuous trespassing and litter on his properties and a ridiculous demand from the city regarding leasing his property to a tenant. Ridiculous enough, he said, to halt the whole project.

Sidlinger, a computer programmer, inventor and business owner turned teacher, said the final straw for him with bringing his business to Flagstaff was the terms required under a conditional use permit, which he needed in order to lease a portion of his property on Plaza Way.

Sidlinger said when he bought the property, which contains large pine and aspen trees, three non-native aspen trees, much smaller than the surrounding trees, were dead.

The three trees that were dead stayed dead, and everything else here is thriving, Sidlinger said.

However, when he and his tenant, Insurgent Fitness, applied for the conditional use permit, city officials said the permit required the dead trees to be replaced. The property, which is zoned as a light industrial area, needed the permit for the gym to use it for commercial recreation.

Sidlinger said the property came with three water meters: two for use inside the buildings and one for irrigation. Sidlinger requested the city turn the irrigation meter off when he bought the land, because he said a heavily wooded area does not need the extra water, which he considers to be wasteful.

However, when he replaced the aspen trees with three new ones, he was told by the landscaper that the trees would certainly die without the irrigation line, which Sidlinger has since reopened.

While Sidlinger said he was told the trees must be replaced with the same type of tree in the same place, city officials maintain otherwise.

Elaine Averitt, the planning development manager who reviewed and prepared the recommendation, said the topic was discussed at the Planning and Zoning Commissions hearing on June 22.

When staff read the condition of approval to replace the trees, one of the council members commented that aspen trees dont do very well here, Averitt said in an email. As I recall, I responded that I agree and that the condition of like species would allow a similar deciduous type tree to be planted instead of aspen. Staff would have supported a low-water using native deciduous tree as a replacement.

Averitt said inspectors did give credit for the existing trees on the property, but said the law still requires the dead tress be replaced.

The demand, Sidlinger said, was one step too many. Sidlinger said he has been faced with lack of enforcement on his properties, including large amounts of littering and trespassing on his personal property. One walk through his property showed two areas of empty bottles of alcohol, broken glass, food wrappers and other garbage, which he said is a constant nuisance for him.

However, Averitt said Sidlinger was not present at the hearing for the conditional use permit, and had not voiced his opposition to the ruling to the city at the time.

Sidlinger was using the property to create a store of sorts with items he bought when Radio Shack went out of business. He said students would be able to visit the area and use items for free for educational purposes.

He also wanted to use a portion of the property as a small manufacturing plant to make science kits for schools. He said he planned to subsidize the kits himself to allow schools or other educational organizations to purchase them without regard for the cost.

Sidlinger, who spent many years developing computer parts and computers, first for Texas Instruments and then for his own company, Sidlinger Computer Corporation, also wanted to create a museum of fully functioning computers that he had worked to develop that had become obsolete. The warehouse is full of decades worth of computers, he has developed, which he hoped to one day display for the public.

Now, Sidlinger said, he does not want to continue with his plans for Flagstaff developments, and said if he decided to continue manufacturing the kits, he will do it elsewhere.

The red tape with the trees, for him, represented a question that has been eating at him since relocating to Flagstaff, he said.

We have so many people whose job it is to bring business to Flagstaff, he said. But I come in, ready to create jobs, and Im faced with all sorts of issues. And I wonder, does Flagstaff really want this? Does Flagstaff really want capitalism here? I didnt come here to make money. I came here to basically give all my money away.

Sidlinger said he did not want to seek special treatment, and said replacing the small trees in a heavily wooded area would be a ridiculous request for anyone.

I think this is something Flagstaff could take to heart if they wonder why no businesses want to move here, he said.

Flagstaff, Sidlinger said, has all the regulations that come with living or doing business in a bigger city, but without the conveniences.

Sidlinger said he might decide to stay in Flagstaff, but no longer wants to continue with his business ventures.

Flagstaff is a great place to be a consumer, he said. But I dont really like to just be a consumer.
When a squid is startled the muscles in its skin contract, producing colourful patterns that help camouflage it while jellyfish use wrinkles to warn off predators.

Now these incredible properties of the sea creatures' skin have inspired researchers to develop new materials that could help make your phone easier to read in bright sunlight.

The scientists say by giving materials these same properities they can find uses in anti-glare screens and for spy-like encryption methods.

When a squid is startled the muscles in its skin contract, producing colourful patterns that help it camouflage, and when a jellyfish (pictured) is scared its skin wrinkles to warn off predators. Now these properties have inspired researchers to solve new problems

'When they're scared, some types of jellyfish form a wrinkled surface that is opaque and warns off predators,' said Songshan Zeng, from the University of Connecticut.

'That same surface is transparent when it's flat.'

This wrinkly skin is now being used to create anti-glare screens for phones, the researchers say.

HOW A SQUID CAMOUFLAGES To change the colour of its skin, an octopus has thousands of colour-changing cells known as chromatophores beneath the surface of its skin. These contain an elastic sac full of pigment, the colour of which can be altered. The sacs can also be expanded or contracted by an array of nerves, and when it is expanded the colours become more visible. By controlling the size of projections on its skin known as papillae, an octopus can also change the texture of its skin from bumps to spikes. This means they can not only match the colour of a reef, but its texture as well. Advertisement

It works because wrinkles scatter light rays in multiple directions, rather than reflecting them directly back at the person viewing.

'Our experimental materials use cracks, folds or wrinkles to mimic the surface engineering of skin,' said Professor Luyi Sun, who lead the research.

Even more impressive is the reaction of a squid when it is startled.

Its muscles in its skin contract, exposing colored pigments that serve as camouflage.

'These new materials are unique because they change colour or transparency when they're stretched or exposed to moisture.'

The wrinkly materials could also be used to make James Bond-style secret messages.

'Like finger skin, whenever part of the film is exposed to moisture, it swells slightly, generating wrinkles,' Professor Sun said.

A coating on a circuit board is unobservable when dry, pictured. But it contains a material that wrinkles when exposed to water, and the wrinkles will never disappear

The board wrinkles to display 'H2O' when exposed to moisture (pictured). This could be used for showing manufacturers when phones have been damaged by water, indicating the customer has voided their warranty

The films can be made so that wrinkles can be generated by moisture, and if they are smoothed out they will not form again.

This property lends itself to a way of writing encrypted messages that could be read and then erased for good.

Another kind of film creates wrinkles generated by moisture can never be erased.

This kind of film could be used to make a small label incorporating the technology that could go inside a phone. If the phone fell into a toilet, permanent wrinkles would form on the label, which could warn companies if a customer had voided the warranty by dropping it in water.

The researchers will present their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

As the video progresses, the octopus starts to become visible. 'I dove down to have a look at the shell that you can see just under where the octopus appears and as I approached the octopus came out of hiding,' said Jonathan Gordon, the diver who captured the footage
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This shocking photograph shows youngsters risking their lives as they jump into a storm-lashed cove at a British beach.

Huge waves can be seen crashing down in the creek at Barricane beach in Woolacombe, North Devon.

And the photographer hopes that by releasing the image, children, as well as their parents, can be educated as to how dangerous the sea can be.

This shocking photograph shows three boys risking their lives and playing the stormy waters in North Devon as waves crash all around them

The woman - who did not want to be named - said: 'You can see the power and surges of the waves and rips. It is unusual to see a storm of this strength in August, which means potentially more people can be hurt.

'Those in the water had no control of their bodies at time, only the sea did. It was luck and nothing more that saved their lives.'

Her photo shows some boys waiting to jump into the storm lashed sea which hit the north coasts of Devon and Cornwall on Friday evening.

Another local said: 'They were dicing with death. Other people around the coastlines of Britain were not so lucky and lost their lives. And they weren't 'having fun' like these youths.'

MailOnline Travel has contacted North Devon Council for comment.

The rescue operation began at around 5.20pm yesterday after a 999 call was made by witnesses to the tragedy

Newquay Coastguard Rescue Team and two RNLI lifeboats were dispatched into the water for the rescue, pictured

MOTHER AND SON DIE IN ABERDEEN In Aberdeen, a seven-year-old boy and 37-year-old woman died in hospital after a rescue operation on the citys beach beach. Emergency services were called to reports of five people in difficulty at around 4.45pm yesterday (Saturday). The woman and the boy, believed to be her son, later died. A man aged 28, a woman aged 25, and 13-year-old boy remain in hospital for treatment. Advertisement

Yesterday (Saturday), MailOnline reported on how a father died and his two-year-old daughter was left fighting for her life last night after they were swept into the sea by 10ft waves in Newquay, Cornwall.

The RNLI and Coastguard managed to rescue the mans partner, while the couples terrified sons looked on from rocks.

The family of five had walked to a rocky outcrop at Fistral Beach on Friday to watch a storm surge.

The group from Surrey, who were visiting the area, were unaware of the peril until a wave on the incoming tide broke over them.

Initially, all five managed to stay on the rocks.

But then a second huge wave swept the parents, both in their 30s, and their two-year-old daughter into the surf. As their two young sons looked on helplessly from the rocks, the parents and the little girl were sucked 65 yards from the shore.

RNLI lifeguards on Fistral Beach were 1,000 yards away and unable to see the danger the family had placed themselves in.

Alerted by Falmouth Coastguard, they launched a jet-ski and managed to recover the unconscious father and his frantic wife.

However, the treacherous surf meant that rescuers could not return both to the beach safely, so the man was transferred to a RNLI boat which had also been sent to the scene. Their little girl was pulled from the waves by a second boat.
She's previously spoken about the struggles of maintaining a long distance relationship.

And Sam Frost looked delighted to have boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek back by her side for the weekend as they stepped out in Bondi Beach on Friday.

The couple put on an affectionate display and were even spotted sharing a romantic kiss at The Bucket List restaurant.

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The look of love! The Bachelorette Sam Frost (right) and her boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek (left) looked smitten as they enjoyed an afternoon outing in Bondi Beach on Friday

Sam flaunted her figure in a pair of tight black jeans, which she teamed with a crimson turtleneck top.

The reality TV star added height to her look with a trendy pair of lace-up booties as she strolled along the promenade with her beau.

The blonde beauty styled her long locks in loose waves and kept her make-up fresh and natural for the outing.

Pucker up: Sam was clearly happy to have her long distance lover back in Sydney as Sasha leaned in for a kiss

Lay one on me! The 31-year-old hunk wasted no time locking lips with his girlfriend

Sam highlighted her chiselled cheek bones with some bronzer and added drama to her eyes with black liner.

Sasha meanwhile, appeared to have just arrived in Sydney straight from his office in the NSW Southern Highlands.

The former reality TV contestant looked smart in a pair of black pants and a blue work shirt, which had the logo of his company embroidered on the chest.

Stylish: Sam put her slender figure on display in a pair of tight black jeans and a crimson top

Yummy! The radio was seen enjoying some snacks with her cocktail

Stunning: The blonde reality TV star wore her long locks in loose waves and kept her makeup natural with just a hint of bronzer highlighting her cheek bones

The couple - who met on The Bachelorette last year - looked in happy spirits as they enjoyed drinks at the beachside hot spot.

Sam was seen enjoying some snacks with her cocktail throughout the afternoon.

Sam and Sasha have been dating since the she chose the construction manager out of 16 eligible men on the Network Ten dating show.

Good mood: The couple looked in happy spirits as they strolled along the promenade, with Sasha wrapping his arm around his girlfriend

'We miss each other a lot': Sam previously told Daily Mail Australia of the ups and downs of being in a long distance relationship

Since then, the couple have been living in separate cities, with Sam taking on a new role as 2Day FM's breakfast radio host while Sasha works in Bowral.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in April, Sam admitted long distance relationships have their ups and downs.

'We miss each other a lot but the best thing is we just make it work,' she said.

'Love every single second we spend together': The blonde beauty said she doesn't mind spending time apart from her boyfriend as it keeps the spark alive

She went on to explain she doesn't mind having time apart with her boyfriend because it keeps the spark alive.

'I dont actually mind missing him, I think it is the nice part of the relationship because then the time we do spend together, we appreciate it and love every single second we spend together,' she said.

Sam's comments come after Sasha revealed his plans to relocate to Sydney in the near future.

'I have got plans in place to move down to Sydney sooner rather than later which would make my life a whole lot easier and help the relationship,' he told DMA.
She exudes confidence when strutting down the cat walk for big fashion houses such as Victoria's Secrets and revealed that acting has always been on the cards for her future.

But Shanina Shaik admitted that while she's been offered auditions for roles in movies such as Superman 2, she lacked the 'confidence' and feared she wouldn't remember her lines.

The 25-year-old model and aspiring actress has revealed that getting older and the added bonus of acting lessons has helped her get ready to take on her first role in the reboot of The Mummy.

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Practice makes perfect: Shanina Shaik will appear in the reboot of The Mummy admitting she delayed her acting career because she lacked the confidence

After launching Seafolly's spring '16 campaign in Sydney, Shaik flew over to the scorching Namibian desert to start filming for her role in the film, which also stars Tom Cruise.

'There's a lot of sand!' she told The Daily Telegraph. 'It's a small part, a cameo but I'm just so excited this is my first movie,' she added.

The Melbourne-born model who shot to fame in 2008 on the show Make Me a Supermodel said that for five years she had offers for auditions but never had the confidence to go ahead with it.

'There's a lot of sand': The 25-year-old Victoria's Secret model (pictured on the runway of the annual VS fashion show) packed her bags up to head to the Namibian desert to film

'But getting older and more confident I thought, "Why not try it?"

'What made me fear acting was remembering lines, as that's different from modelling, but with practice, you gain confidence and you become better at your craft.'

Little is known about her role and the new plot of the revamped Mummy series but will be set in the modern day.

Budding superstar: The Melbourne-born model who shot to fame in 2008 on the show Make Me a Supermodel (pictured on the show) said that for five years she had offers for auditions

All loved up! Shaik (right) will fit practice for her 'cameo' role in the film around planning her wedding to fiance DJ Ruckus (left) at the end of the year

This is a stark contrast to the period setting of the last three titles under The Mummy umbrella, which starred Brendan Frasier.

Star Trek and Transformers writer Alex Kurtzman has been brought on-board to helm the project, and will take up the reigns as director.

The latest take on the classic monster flick is slated for a 2017 release at the moment, with the film due to hit screens in June.

Shaik will fit practice for her 'cameo' role in the film around planning her wedding to fiance DJ Ruckus at the end of the year, while also prepping for her fifth Victoria Secret's show in November.
The Queen seems almost besotted with her Prime Minister, wrote the courtier and diarist Charles Greville. Her feelings for him are sexual if she but knew it...

These words come as quite a shock to most of us. Queen Victoria as an amorous young woman? In love with Lord Melbourne, a silver fox more than old enough to be her father? It hardly seems credible, so used are we to thinking of the frumpy widow in black.

Yet when the 18-year-old Queen came to the throne she was indeed a party-loving teenager who wanted to enjoy life.

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When the 18-year-old Queen Victoria came to the throne she was indeed a party-loving teenager who wanted to enjoy life

It was this side of her that I discovered through her diaries and letters while researching the script for our new drama, Victoria, which starts next week.

I became convinced that it was time to bring her early life to the screen  and in particular the story of this passionate friendship with her first Prime Minister. It is a story that has never really been told

Victoria was immediately taken with the charming peer, still handsome at 57, who like a 19th Century Boris Johnson was as famous for his romantic involvements as he was for his political views.

It would be difficult to think of a greater contrast between the worldly Melbourne, played by Rufus Sewell, and the sheltered teenager, played by Jenna Coleman, who woke up that morning to find herself the most powerful woman in the world.

Yet it turned into one of the most important relationships of Victorias life.

She met him on the day in June 1837 when she became Queen, and he was only the second man she had ever been alone with.

Melbourne was Victorias first love and the Queen was the Prime Ministers last conquest. I am sure that none of your friends are as fond of you as I am, dear Lord M, she wrote.

Victoria was immediately taken with the Prime Minister, still handsome at 57, who like a 19th Century Boris Johnson

It was a relationship that was hidden in plain view, eclipsed by Victorias famous devotion to her husband Albert, but in many ways it was the formative influence of her life.

We may think of Victoria as an old bag in a bonnet but her life was as charged with passion as anything in Versailles or even, whisper it, Poldark.

Queen Victoria liked her men. There was her passionate 20-year marriage to Prince Albert that produced nine children.

After his death there was her amitie amoureuse with her ghillie John Brown, and then in the last decade of her life, her close friendship with her Indian servant, the Munshi.

But Melbourne was the first man to make Victoria feel like a woman.

Reading the diaries that she kept at the time, even though they were heavily censored, is to discover a record of the young Victorias obsession with her Prime Minister: she records his views on everything from earrings  Lord M thinks they are barbarous  to cannibalism and flogging.

Melbourne was Victorias first love and the Queen was the Prime Ministers last conquest

They spent the best part of every day together; he decided to act as her unofficial private secretary so every morning they went through her boxes together, then went riding in Hyde Park in the afternoon, and Melbourne had dinner at the palace most evenings.

Victoria wrote in her diary three months after becoming Queen: I have seen a great deal of him every day these last five weeks and I have always found him in a good humour, kind, good and most agreeable; I have seen him in my Closet for Political Affairs.

I have ridden out with him (every day), I have sat near him constantly at and after dinner and talked about all sorts of things.

We may think of Victoria as an old bag in a bonnet but her life was as charged with passion as anything in Versailles or even, whisper it, Poldark

Melbournes attention was hugely welcome to Victoria, because before she became Queen she was kept a virtual prisoner at Kensington Palace by her mother and by her power-hungry adviser, Sir John Conroy; she was forced to sleep in her mothers bedroom, and was not even allowed to walk down the stairs on her own.

So to have one of the most charming men in the country as her constant companion was intoxicating  the more so because Victoria had never known her father, the Duke of Kent, as he had died when she was a baby.

Melbourne taught her about government, how to make conversation with strangers and helped her turn from a shy girl into a poised young queen.

More surprising, perhaps, was how ready Melbourne was to dance attendance on the vivid young queen. He was a man who loved the company of women, but whose romantic life had been studded with disaster.

His marriage to the tempestuous Lady Caroline Lamb had gone terribly wrong when she fell publicly in love with the poet Lord Byron.

Queen Victoria liked her men. There was her passionate 20-year marriage to Prince Albert that produced nine children

When Byron ended the affair, Caro had a nervous breakdown and behaved very badly, even sending the poet a letter containing her pubic hair.

Melbournes mother begged him to divorce her but, to his credit, he refused, and he looked after her until her death in 1828.

They had one child, a boy called Augustus, who had epilepsy  but unlike most parents at the time he did not hide his disabled child away, but looked after him tenderly until Augustuss death in 1834.

The year before Victoria became Queen, the Prime Minister had become friendly with a beautiful woman called Caroline Norton.

When Norton left her husband, a Tory MP, because of his drunken behaviour, the husband became convinced that his wife and Melbourne were having an affair.

After trying to blackmail Melbourne for 10,000, which he refused to pay, the MP sued him for having what was then called a criminal conversation with his wife. Melbourne was forced to appear in court, but was acquitted by the jury.

One shot from the ITV series showed Jenna, 30, in a tiara and royal blue dress as she cosied up to Rufus Sewell - who plays former Prime Minister Lord Melbourne

The scandal nearly brought down the Government, but Melbournes career survived the affair. But it meant an end to his friendship with Mrs Norton and so, like Victoria, he was ready for a new relationship.

The closeness between the young Queen and her Prime Minister quickly became the subject of gossip and the rumours gained more currency as Victoria appointed the wives of Melbournes friends as her ladies in waiting.

In some circles the Queen was known as Mrs Melbourne. When Melbourne lost a vote in the House and decided to resign, Victoria burst into tears when he told her and said to him: Do you really mean to forsake me?

This is one of the many lines in the TV series that I took from Victorias diaries. This is not the way that a sovereign addresses a Prime Minister, but the cry of a heartbroken young girl to the man she loves.

This was a lovesick teenager. Recalling the situation in her diaries, Victoria wrote: I sobbed much, again held Lord Melbournes hand in mine, and kept holding it for some time as if I felt in doing so he could not leave me.

The closeness between the young Queen and her Prime Minister quickly became the subject of gossip

OF course, the intimacy between Victoria and Melbourne could only last as long as she was single. Rumours circulated that she might marry her Prime Minister, but my feeling from reading their letters and diaries is that while she may have wished for this, Melbourne knew it was impossible.

Not only was he so much older than her, but it would break all precedent for a Queen to marry a subject  and a politician at that.

I think that he knew he had to keep her at arms length for her own sake. Certainly, the bond between Victoria and Melbourne could not survive the arrival of Prince Albert, who married the Queen in 1840.

Victoria turned all her passion on to her new husband with whom she was physically besotted. Victoria was the one Victorian maiden who did not lie back and think of England but obviously enjoyed sex as much as her husband did.

When Melbourne lost the Election in 1841, he passed pretty much out of her life. There is a sad story of how Melbourne was driving in his carriage past Buckingham Palace and saw Victoria and Albert through the window lighting candles on their Christmas tree. He could not be part of that idyllic family life.

Soon after this he had a stroke and his health declined rapidly. I cant help thinking that he died of a broken heart. After his death Victoria burnt all the letters he had written to her.

She didnt want the world to know how close they had been. But one record of their close relationship that cannot be erased is the fact that the Australian city of Melbourne is named after him. It is the capital, of course, of the state of Victoria.

Victoria was the one Victorian maiden who did not lie back and think of England but obviously enjoyed sex as much as her husband did
Paris Hilton suited up as 'Army Barbie' for the Mert and Marcus Army of Love Party in Ibiza on Friday night.

The 35-year-old DJ donned a black cut-out swimsuit, body harness choker, tiny camouflage shorts, and studded booties.

The reality TV icon sported her signature blonde hair extensions, false lashes, and blue contacts lenses for her night out.

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'#ArmyBarbie all decked out!' Paris Hilton suited up as 'Army Barbie' for the Mert and Marcus Army of Love Party in Ibiza on Friday night

Paris was joined at the Spanish bash by Suicide Squad star Cara Delevingne, her older sister Poppy, photographer Marcus Piggott, and 'Queen of Ibiza' Cathy Guetta.

'Amazing evening at #MertAndMarcus #ArmyOfLove Party in #Ibiza! #LoveMyBoys #LoveisLove,' Hilton - who boasts 24.4M followers - wrote.

The Manhattan-born, LA-raised celebutante recently revealed how numerous gentleman callers pop the question to her as she mans the decks at Amnesia club.

'So many guys propose to me. I've had guys run up to the DJ booth with rings,' Paris boasted to the Daily Star earlier this month.

Playing dress-up: The 35-year-old DJ donned a black cut-out swimsuit, body harness choker, tiny camouflage shorts, and studded booties

Never change: The reality TV icon sported her signature blonde hair extensions, false lashes, and blue contacts lenses for her night out

Squad: Paris was joined at the Spanish bash by Suicide Squad's Cara Delevingne (2-R), her older sister Poppy (3-L), photographer Marcus Piggott (3-R), and 'Queen of Ibiza' Cathy Guetta (R)

Hilton - who boasts 24.4M followers - wrote: 'Amazing evening at #MertAndMarcus #ArmyOfLove Party in #Ibiza! #LoveMyBoys #LoveisLove'

'I'm single right now and I love it. I don't think that will change for a while.'

The Ramez in Control guest star - who split with Austrian millionaire Thomas Gross in March - has only been engaged once, to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis back in 2005 (for five months).

'I'm all about girl power. I think all women should believe in themselves and never feel like they have to depend on a man for anything,' Hilton said.

'Success fulfils me and it makes me want to get up every day and work hard. I dont ever stop. I am on a plane every three days.'

Available: The Manhattan-born, LA-raised celebutante recently revealed how numerous gentleman callers pop the question to her as she mans the decks at Amnesia club

Paris boasted to the Daily Star earlier this month: 'So many guys propose to me. I've had guys run up to the DJ booth with rings. I'm single right now and I love it. I don't think that will change for a while'

Last love: The Ramez in Control guest star - who split with Austrian millionaire Thomas Gross (R) in March - has only been engaged once, to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis back in 2005

The 5ft8in socialite's summer residency at Amnesia, now in its fourth year, happens every Saturday through September 3.

'I've learned so much more now. I've been DJing for six years. I produce my own music and I remix live. It's all me,' insisted the former sex tape star.

'Top name DJs that I really respect [were] like: "Oh my god Paris Hilton DJing, she can't do that." Well now those haters come to my nights and they get in the booth with me and are blown away.'

Cash Money Records has yet to put out Paris' EDM-style album, which was supposed to include her singles - Crazy, Come Alive, and High Off My Love.

'I've learned so much more now. I've been DJing for six years': The 5ft8in socialite's summer residency at Amnesia, now in its fourth year, happens every Saturday through September 3

Come watch my set at my #FoamAndDiamonds Party at @AmnesiaIbiza tonight around the world on @Facebook Live in 1 hour! A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Aug 20, 2016 at 5:02pm PDT

Stalled singing career: Cash Money Records has yet to put out Paris' EDM-style album, which was supposed to include her singles - Crazy, Come Alive, and High Off My Love

When asked about her old friend, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Hilton kept her mouth shut.

'My mother always told me not to talk about politics,' the hotel heiress said coyly.

'I do follow the US election but I have learned not to express my opinion. If I were President Paris, which maybe I will be one day, I would have everyone get along. Theres so much controversy and so much hate. I would want to throw one hell of a party and then make peace in the world. Why not?'

The selfie enthusiast will soon launch a new line of luxury hotels bearing her nepotistically-privileged name in Dubai, New York, and Las Vegas.

'I do follow the US election but I have learned not to express my opinion': When asked about her old friend, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Hilton kept her mouth shut (pictured in 2001)

The hotel heiress said coyly: 'My mother (Kathy, 3-L) always told me not to talk about politics' (pictured in 2012)
Looks like Leo found a replacement 'Justin time.'

Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel will host an upcoming Hillary Clinton fundraiser after Leonardo DiCaprio pulled out.

The couple were asked by the 41-year-old Oscar winner himself, according to Variety.

Can't stop the fill-in! Leonardo DiCaprio has asked Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel to take his place as host of a Hillary Clinton fundraiser

The actor was unable to return to Los Angeles by Wednesday because he has to complete a picture he is working on in time for its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9.

DiCaprio is producing a documentary about climate change called Before The Flood.

It explains how society can 'prevent the demise of endangered species, ecosystems and native communities across the globe'.

The film features a number of Hilary's fellow Democrats, including her husband former president Bill Clinton, her Secretary of State replacement John Kerry, and President Barack Obama himself.

Busy and not too busy: Leo, pictured on February 28, is busy completing a film in time for its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9 but Justin, pictured on May 11, is free

'Justin time': Hillary (pictured on August 16) may have lost Leo as host of her fundraising event but she's found a pretty good replacement in Justin

Other contributors include Pope Francis, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Tickets for the Clinton fundraiser - one of a series she has planned for Southern California - cost $33,400 per person.

However Hillary's campaign only stands to benefit $2,700  the rest goes towards the Democratic National Committee, as well as state and local campaigns.

Pricey: Tickets for the Clinton fundraiser - one of a series she has planned for Southern California - cost $33,400 per person

Justin and Jessica might not even have to find a sitter for one-year-old Silas, as they will host the event at their LA home.

Meanwhile Leo isn't spending all his time on the east coast just working.
She was hailed a 'hero' after calling out racism, sexism and the snail-like pace of change within the Australian TV industry in her scathing Logies 2016 speech.

And now veteran TV star Noni Hazlehurst has spoken out about why she believes her stirring words struck a chord with so many viewers and rapidly went viral.

'That was probably because you don't see many people speaking from the heart on television,' she told Daily Life.

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Powerful words: TV star Noni Hazlehurst called out racism, sexism and the snail-like pace of change within the Australian TV industry in her scathing Logies 2016 speech

'We don't see anything that real very often.'

The Australian actress received a standing ovation for her powerful comments during her Logies Hall of Fame acceptance speech in May.

She took aim at the industry, saying it was slow to accept women and Logie nominees Waleed Aly and Lee Lin Chin.

Scathing speech: She has now spoken out about why she believes her stirring words struck a chord with so many viewers and rapidly went viral

'I fear that our hearts are growing cold. The fact that I'm only the second woman to be given this honour is merely a reflection of the prevailing zeitgeist,' she said.

'As is the odious suggestion in some quarters that the eligibility of our esteemed colleagues, Waleed Aly and Lee Lin Chin, to be considered for the gold is questionable.

'Things are clearly changing, but they are changing glacially slowly. The great thing about glaciers is that if you aren't on them you go under.

'I've been riding that glacier for 40 years and I'm staying on top of it.'

The 63-year-old said she looks forward to the day when it's 'not an issue whether a man or woman or an Asian person or a Muslim gets anything in this country'.

Popular: The Australian actress received a standing ovation for her powerful comments during her Logies Hall of Fame acceptance speech in May

She also touched on depression in her game-changing speech.

Noni told Daily Life that she will have to drive her next move as no television network has approached her to discuss her ideas.

The former Play School presenter, who has two sons, Charlie, 28, and William, 22, from her second marriage to Wolf Creek star John Jarratt, is now single.

She said she was 'happy working' for now.

But she admitted that her divorce from John had been hard on their two sons.

Now starring in A Place To Call Home as Elizabeth Bligh, her career stems back to the mid-1970s.
He is one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors.

So it's no surprise to hear that acclaimed Mr Selfridge actor Jeremy Piven has reportedly found love - with a Welsh model.

According to a report in The Mirror, the handsome 51 year-old is dating Danielle Paige after meeting her at a party in Los Angeles.

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Loved-up? Jeremy Piven has reportedly found love with Welsh model Danielle Paige after meeting her at a party in Los Angeles

A source told the newspaper: ' Theyve been close ever since [the party], despite Dani working away in Hong Kong while Jeremy is based in Miami.

'She shares his love of yoga so theyve been working out together, as well as going to posh parties.

'When they met he was flirting straight away. He kept asking her to go running or do yoga.It heated up pretty quickly. She likes him  but its early days.'

MailOnline have reached out to a representative for Mr Piven, but are yet to receive a response.

Big star: Jeremy is known to millions for his acclaimed performance in Mr Selfridge

Dapper dude: A source told the newspaper: ' Theyve been close ever since [the party], despite Dani working away in Hong Kong while Jeremy is based in Miami.'

The news comes just months after it was claimed Piven turned to celebrity favourite dating app Raya in a bid to find love.

According to reports, he was an 'active' user on the digital dating tool, which bills itself as an 'exclusive platform' for single people in the 'creative industries'.

Other celebrities who are reported to have used the app include Lily Allen, Cara Delevingne and Matthew Perry, so Jeremy is in good company.

Man about town: Adrian Grenier, left, Mark Wahlberg, center, and Jeremy Piven in Entourage

Piven - who first became a household name playing fast-talking agent Ari Gold in Entourage - suffered cruel allegations from his last girlfriend, Kate Nardi.

She had accused him of sending her creepy texts and of being a tantrum-throwing diva.

But he rubbished her offensive claims, telling the Daily Mail: Im not a wildly offensive, abrasive guy.Who I am, the way I live my life, my philosophy are all very different from the characters I play. My friends and family know who I am.

'But, unfortunately, dragging someone through the mud is what sells.
The article in the Daily Sun Wednesday August 11 arguing that "Trump needs to be more like McCain" asks Donald Trump to show the fundamental decency that John McCain showed as a presidential candidate in 2008. Most readers will agree with that sentiment, unlikely as it is to have much effect on the egregious Mr. Trump.

But we should also note that the John McCain of eight years ago, the maverick we treasured, is not the McCain of today, the tired politician whose party loyalty overrules his ethics. He then stood up to those telling lies about his opponent; today he is unwilling to stand up to the candidate who has personally insulted him and his heroic service, as well as immigrants, women, and the handicapped.

The new McCain is no model to follow these days and he needs to retire. Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick is a vigorous, experienced, and worthy replacement who will stand up for Arizona and our values. I urge those who valued the man McCain used to be to consider voting for her in November.

EDWARD M. WHITE

Flagstaff
The jump from appearing in front of the camera to working behind-the-scenes was just the type of challenge she wanted.

And Natalie Dormer has been talking about what it was like to co-write the screenplay for the psychological thriller In Darkness with her fiance Anthony Byrne.

'It's tough! I don't know if you've ever been in a writing room but I wouldn't recommend it with your other half.' she confessed to People.

Power suit: Natalie Dormer opened up about her latest film, In Darkness, which she co-wrote with fiance Anthony Byrne. Here she is pictured on Friday at United Nations Headquarters

However difficult, the 34-year-old actress told the magazine she did find the process ultimately satisfying.

The Hunger Games star also spoke to The Telegraph about her latest project revealing: 'I try to look for the thing that is going to challenge me next, for the thing that takes me out of my comfort zone.'

Adding: 'I've learnt so much about the mechanics of how a film is made. To see and appreciate that you're a cog in a wheel of a much bigger thing happening in front of and behind the camera is a healthy thing for an actor.'

'Now I'm just dying to get on set and tell the story. It's scary because we don't have a lot of time. But nothing worth doing isn't scary, right?'

Power couple: Natalie and Anthony, who have been together for five years, will start production in September for the upcoming thriller

'I'm very excited:' The Hunger Games star, who rocked a white and black pant suit, spoke about the challenges of working on the film with Anthony

The UK native - who is a strong voice for gender equality - also gave a powerful speech at Friday's event on the terrible conditions of women all over the world who suffer from domestic violence.

Telling People, Natalie said: 'Don't be apologetic for the fact that local and national government needs to do more for gender equality. Women should speak up for other women.'

She also told the outlet how important it is to support charities that are helping female victims, adding that 'money and attitude' are what people can do everyday to start fighting for women.

Voice of change: The 34-year-old actress also spoke at the event where she brought attention to gender equality and women who suffer from domestic violence

Natalie and Anthony - who have been together for five years - are set to start production in September.

The thriller centers on a blind musician, played by Natalie, who hears a murder committed in the apartment above her that sends her down London's criminal underworld.

The pic also stars Emily Ratajkowski, Ed Skrein and Stacy Martin.
Roxy Jacenko kept a casual and low profile on Saturday when spotted in Sydney.

The 36-year-old's outing with two-year-old son Hunter came a day ahead of her highly anticipated interview 60 Minutes set to air on Channel Nine on Sunday night.

The mother-of-two was seen wearing a grey coloured hooded jacket teamed with a pair of blue denim shorts.

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Casual: Roxy Jacenko kept a casual and low profile on Saturday when spotted in Sydney

The mini shorts revealed a glimpse of her toned legs, and she opted for comfortable footwear with a pair of white running shoes.

With her golden locks worn out in loose waves, the PR maven completed her look with a pair of dark sunglasses.

She was seen helping son Hunter into the car, with the tiny tot looking very cute in his own vest and shorts ensemble.

Spotted: The 36-year-old's outing with two-year-old son Hunter came a day ahead of her highly anticipated interview 60 Minutes set to air on Channel Nine on Sunday night

Keeping it cool: The mother-of-two was seen wearing a grey coloured hooded jacket

Shady lady: She concealed her eyes with a pair of dark sunglasses

The countdown is on until Roxy's explosive interview with 60 Minutes will air on Sunday, in which the media personality is believed to speak about her recent breast cancer diagnosis, as well as her husband Oliver Curtis who was sentenced to two years in prison in June for insider trading.

A promotional clip for the upcoming interview showed the mother-of-two facing tough questions about her jailed husband Oliver, as reporter Allison Langdon stated bluntly: 'Your husband is a criminal.'

But Roxy did not seem happy with the journalist's choice of words to describe Oliver's conviction for conspiracy to commit insider trading.

Be careful: Roxy was seen taking caution as she opened the door of her black car

Leggy: Her toned pins were on show thanks to a pair of denim blue shorts

Very cute: Little Hunter wore a white top and navy vest

'Your husband is a criminal,' Allison said matter-of-factly during the interview.

'He was accused of stealing 1.43 million dollars,' she continued.

Looking quietly frustrated, Roxy responded: 'I don't know that we should use the word "steal"'.

On Tuesday, 60 Minutes released another preview showing a confrontation between Allison and Roxy.

Blonde beauty: Roxy's golden locks were worn out in loose waves

Solo: Roxy is currently parenting her children by herself as husband Oliver is in jail

Comfort first: Roxy ditched her red carpet ready heels for a pair of white running shoes

Allison told Roxy some 'normal' people may question the timing of her breast cancer diagnosis - which came shortly after Oliver was jailed.

'Well they're not normal Alison, change your friends,' Roxy said. 'You've got too much time on your hands if you say that. I don't really give a f*** what they think on my timing.

'They can say that, the reality is, it's not something that I ever thought I would face.'

Keeping close: The PR maven was seen holding onto her two-year-old son's hand

'Your husband is a criminal': In a promo clip for Roxy's 60 Minutes interview to air on Sunday night, Roxy faced more tough questions from Channel Nine reporter Allison Langdon

'I don't know that we should use the word "steal"': Roxy kept her composure when replying to Allison's provocative question about her jailed husband Oliver Curtis

The Sweaty Betty PR boss also denied having an 'image problem' following her recent struggles.

Last month, Roxy revealed she had discovered a lump in her breast - just three weeks after Oliver was sentenced to two years in prison.

Roxy later confirmed to Daily Mail Australia she will undergo radiation therapy.

Tense relationship? The 36-year-old previously snapped at Allison in another preview clip after the reporter suggested there was 'cynicism' over the 'timing' of her cancer diagnosis

'Well they're not normal Alison': Roxy criticised Allison (pictured) for suggesting 'normal' people may question why her cancer diagnosis came three weeks after Oliver's sentencing

Battle: In another 60 Minutes promo, Roxy was seen being pushed through a hospital ward before going into surgery to remove a tumour on her breast

Despite a turbulent few months, Roxy is determined to keep life as normal as possible for her young children - Pixie, five, and Hunter, two.

'It is what it is. I'm unfortunately the person who has got the cancer, my husband is in jail and I'm now a single mother,' she said.

'I can't believe I'm even in this position. I don't want to let down the children.

'There is me and only me. So I've got an obligation to all of those people to keep running, in heels.'

Treatment: Roxy revealed the news of her breast cancer diagnosis last month and has since confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that she will undergo radiation therapy

Challenging: She also revealed how Oliver's jail term for insider trading has left her as a single mother to their two young children, Pixie, five, and two-year-old Hunter
Shockjock Kyle Sandilands and his model girlfriend Imogen Anthony enjoyed a short trip to Los Angeles in July.

And already the Australian pair are returning to California, with Imogen, 25, sharing shots of herself and her man at the airport as they prepared to head off.

And before they hopped on their flight, the duo spent time smoking unhealthy cigarettes together, posing for some Instagram pictures on Sunday.

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Getting ready to jet: Shockjock Kyle Sandilands and his model girlfriend Imogen Anthony spent time smoking unhealthy cigarettes together before heading to LA

Imogen put her trim figure on display in a pair of tight leather pants which she teamed with an over-sized black printed T-shirt and heeled boots.

She had her long pink coloured locks tied into a bun and wore a full face of makeup including dewy foundation and a soft pink lip.

The model hid her eyes behind a pair of Versace sunglasses and carried a black bag, which had a slogan on it, reading: 'You fake like this Birkin.'

Airplane attire: Imogen put her trim figure on display in a pair of tight leather pants which she teamed with an over-sized black printed T-shirt and heeled boots

Kyle, 45, meanwhile wore an all-black outfit including a zip-up cardigan and T-shirt, with a cap.

He covered his eyes with dark tinted sunglasses.

Imogen captioned one shot to her more than X followers: 'We are off to the Cali sun.'

Another she captioned: 'En route to the City of Angels.'

Quality time: The pair - who have a house in LA- were last there last month (pictured) and split their time between the US and Australia

The pair - who have a house in LA- were last there last month and split their time between the US and Australia.

Fashion designer Imogen recently told Daily Mail Australia that the pair aren't planning on getting engaged anytime soon, having been dating since March 2012.

'There's always rumours, there's rumours we've been engaged for three years, no we just chill, we don't need rings and stuff,' she said.

Later adding: 'It's just another little something that could be done if we wanted to.'

Leaving little to the imagination: Imogen - who regularly shows off plenty of skin in racy Instagram selfies - flashed her tattoos going topless in bed this week

Imogen - who regularly shows off plenty of skin in racy Instagram selfies - flashed her tattoos going topless in bed this week.

Sharing a shot to her social media page, she has her back turned to the camera as she poses.

She appeared to be wearing just tiny grey shorts.

She also shared a shot of herself facing the camera, posing in bed topless with her arm protecting her modesty.
Tyra Banks has admitted she is struggling to juggle her work life with looking after her seven-month-old son York.

The America's Next Top Model host, who transformed her runway success into a business empire, also revealed how she would like to adopt her next child.

She welcomed her first son via a surrogate in January and has spoken about the challenge of adjusting to life with a newborn.

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Challenge: Tyra Banks has admitted she is struggling to juggle her work life with looking after her seven-month-old son York

'You can't always be an amazing mum and an amazing businessperson at the same time - it's a continuous struggle,' she told Sunday Style.

The world-famous model, who shares the baby with her partner Erik Asla, said she gets frustrated when people assume she no longer has the time to work.

She said: 'The most insulting thing is when people come to me with ideas but follow it up with 'Oh, but now you won't have time because you're a mum'.'

Motherhood: The world-famous model welcomed her first son via a surrogate in January

'People don't say that to his father. Let me make that decision for myself.'

Despite the every day struggle, Tyra revealed she is planning to have another baby with her Norwegian photographer partner.

But the model said she was having to consider other options as she is not able to bear children.

'I might adopt one day - I've always wanted to adopt actually,' she said.

Couple: The world-famous model shares the baby with her partner Erik Asla (right)

Popular: She ventured into the world of reality TV in 2003 when she created, produced and hosted the UPN show America's Next Top Model

The supermodel is planning to teach a branding course at Stanford's graduate school of business.

The 42-year-old will be teaming up with professor Allison Kluger after she completed a nine-week management program at Harvard Business School in 2012.

She ventured into the world of reality TV in 2003 when she created, produced and hosted the UPN show America's Next Top Model.
He is famous for directing explosions, robots, and exploding robots in CGI heavy movies.

But Michael Bay doesn't need any special effects to make these stars look good on screen.

The 51-year-old Transformers director in in Paris with the Victoria's Secret angels as they film their famous Holiday Campaign ad.

BTS: Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge (pictured) shared a behind the scenes look at Michael Bay's Victoria's Secret ad shoot in Paris via social media

Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge have been sharing behind the scenes glimpses as they film at the Paris Opera House.

Along with fellow models Martha Hunt and Lais Ribeiro, the foursome were spotted donning the famous angel wings as they strutted their stuff around the City of Lights.

Both Lily, 30, and 35-year-old Alessandra posted a number of close-ups of their sculpted faces on their Instagram acocunts, showing off the work of the make-up artists each day.

A photo posted by Alessandra Ambrosio (@alessandraambrosio) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:59am PDT

Perfection: Alessandra posted a number of close-ups of their sculpted faces, showing off the work of the make-up artists each day

Annual: Victoria's Secret's famous Holiday Campaign ad this year is being shot at the Paris Opera House

Ambrosio also posted a sneak peak at her full costume, a sheer blue leotard with her enormous feathered wings trailing behind her.

'Angel mode,' she captioned the stunning shot, with the hashtag grouping the model's shots together on Instagram: #vsholiday16.

'Channeling Vamp,' she captioned another close-up, as she stared smoldering into the camera.

Out of the sun: Allessandra ducked under a brolly with Martha Hunt in one Snapchat vid

At work: Alessandra grabbed a vid with the director smiling behind her

Behind the scenes #VSHoliday  @JeromeDuran @VictoriasSecret  A photo posted by Lily Aldridge (@lilyaldridge) on Aug 18, 2016 at 1:36am PDT

Lily shared the most pulse-racing shot of them all, wearing lacy bra and panites with a matching choker and thigh-high leather boots.

In the black and white pic, she kneels provocatively on a bed while Bay can be seen just in front setting up the shot.

It's not the Bay's first time working with the lingerie house; he has directed several TV ads, and was behind their 2009 holiday campaign too, entitled 'A Thousand Fantasies'.

Been here before: It's not the Bay's first time working with the lingerie house; he has directed several TV ads, and was behind their 2009 holiday campaign too, entitled 'A Thousand Fantasies'

Come hither: 'Channeling Vamp,' she captioned another close-up, as she stared smoldering into the camera
He's been adjusting 'really well' to having not one but two women in the house after his engagement to fiancee Snezana Markoski.

And Sam Wood can't get enough of his new family as he posts heartwarming pictures on Instagram for the world to see.

A snap shared on Saturday captioned 'It's been a long week #love' is not the only indicator that the loved up former Bachelor star is ready to take on the job as husband and father-figure.

Loved up! Former Bachelor star Sam Wood uploaded a heartwarming picture of fiancee Snezana Markoski and her daughter Eve sleeping on the couch together

Instagram followers were quick to send their praises to the 35-year-old commenting on how 'things have changed in the last 12 months'.

Another user wrote: 'You are the most gorgeous little family.'

Sam has plastered his social media account with pictures of his new family with another snap with Snezana and her daughter Eve as they headed to the zoo last weekend.

Talented: Earlier this week the 35-year-old Macedonian beauty was announced as the OzSale Australia, a discount shopping website, guest editor for September

'Family time': Former Bachelor star Sam Wood snapped a selfie with his fiancee Snezana Markoski and her daughter Eve as they headed to the zoo on Sunday

The trio sported matching sunglasses and all flashed peace signs in the snap, which was captioned: '#zoolife #familytime'.

Sam wore a casual white T-shirt and had his dark locks styled away from his face.

Meanwhile, Snezana sat next to him in the passenger seat wearing a long sleeve black knit and her dark chocolate locks loose around her shoulders.

Not just a pretty face: The talented mother has a degree in molecular genetics and earlier this year launched her lifestyle blog which explores fashion and beauty among other things

Her ten-year-old daughter Eve leaned in between them, dressed in a pink knit and beamed a bright smile.

The 35-year-old Macedonian beauty was recently announced as the OzSale Australia, a discount shopping website, guest editor for September.

She cut a stylish figure at a luncheon held by the brand in Sydney on Thursday in an oversize white blazer which was paired with skintight black trousers.

The talented mother - who has a degree in molecular genetics - recently launched her lifestyle blog which explores fashion and beauty among other things.

Love-nest: Sam and Snezana purchased their new Melbourne home in January for a whopping $1.4million after announcing the news of their engagement a month earlier

New life: The 35-year-old personal trainer announced the news that Snezana and Eve were moving to the house at the start of July after the pair found love on The Bachelor

Sam and Snezana purchased their new Melbourne home in January for a whopping $1.4million after announcing the news of their engagement a month earlier.

The handsome personal trainer announced the news that Snezana and Eve were moving to the house at the start of July.

He posted on Facebook: 'When you've spent all night cleaning the house as your fiance and her beautiful little girl are finally coming to live and you know it still isn't clean enough (sic)'.

Sam and Snezana found love on 2015's series of The Bachelor and although they lived in different cities made things work dating long distance.
They're a playful couple, and Lydia Hearst and TV host Chris Hardwick made sure that their wedding was as lighthearted as it was elegant.

The ceremony took place in front of around 450 guests at The Langham Huntington in Pasadena, California and saw Lydia wear a custom pink Christian Siriano gown while Chris wore a custom-made Prada tuxedo, according to ET.

And there were plenty of references to their love of sci-fi and horror throughout the day - including Doctor Who cake and a Walking Dead save the date.

Chris shared a snapshot which showed him cuddling Lydia as she showed off her graduated white to pink gown, and revealed some of the quirky items that featured in their big day.

'Wedding day w/ @lydiahearst! Dress by @csiriano, tux by @prada. Photo by @laraporzak. More to come!!!' he shared on Sunday. 'We had Jawas, astromech droids, zombies and a TARDIS cake. Also an incredible 1st dance performance by Clay Walker.

'We were also surrounded by the most wonderful collection of good humans and it was an honor to share this a day with them. More pics to come when we get them!!! Btw @amctalkingdead was pretaped the next two weeks and @atmidnightcc is on hiatus so I can go on honeymoon! Byeeeeeeeeeeeee.'

Lydia, 32, started the countdown to their big day on Thursday with a fun post of her lying in the grass holding a partially eaten apple.

Truly happy: Lydia Hearst and @Midnight host Chris Hardwick made sure that their wedding was as lighthearted as it was elegant

'The Wedding Date': The nuptials included plenty of references to the couple's love of sci-fi and horror

Her caption revealed that the setup was an allusion to the Snow White fairy tale: 'I'm so lucky to have found my Prince Charming.'

On Friday, she kept things cheery with a post of the couple as cartoon zombies, which was no doubt a reference to fiance Chris' hosting gig of The Talking Dead.

She got quite clever with the caption, which read 'my love for you will never die @hardwick.'

Clever: Her caption revealed that the setup was an allusion to the Snow White fairy tale: 'I'm so lucky to have found my Prince Charming'

Till death: On Friday, she kept things cheery with a post of the couple as cartoon zombies, which was no doubt a reference to fiance Chris' hosting gig of The Talking Dead

Interestingly, groom Chris seemed to be the sentimental one, posting an adorable photo of the couple sharing a kiss during the rehearsal along with the description 'Wedding rehearsal! #AllTheEmoji.'

He did also post a picture of the official water for the wedding, which was bottled and labelled with the couple's initials shaped into the form of the Tardis from the famous Dr. Who television series.

It seemed the couple was in perfect sync throughout the engagement process.

Back in July, Lydia posted an artistic black and white photo of Chris standing against a glass wall during his tuxedo fitting.

Geek heaven: He did also post a picture of the official water for the wedding, which was bottled and labelled with the couple's initials shaped into the form of the Tardis from the famous Dr. Who television series

They match! Back in July, Lydia posted an artistic black and white photo of Chris standing against a glass wall during his tuxedo fitting, while she took a similar photo for her fitting

Among many other praises, she gushed 'I just love EVERYTHING about you, and cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you!'

Then, only a week ago, she took her own matching black and white photo for her wedding dress fitting.

She also couldn't help but express her love in that caption, admitting 'I am truly blessed to have you in my life @hardwick. I love you, and I will never stop loving you.'
She revealed that she vigilantly cares for her daughters Grace and Maggie - a trait developed after the loss of her younger brother Yoris to T-cell leukaemia 35-years-ago.

But Marta Dusseldorp admitted that 'motherhood is still a juggle' as she opened up about returning to the stage in a new theatrical role in the play Gloria - which is set to hit Sydney's Griffin Theatre on August 26.

Written and directed by Benedict Andrews, Dusseldorp's role requires her to play a celebrated actress named Gloria, who immerses herself into the role of a woman after surviving a sadistic crime.

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'I always help them with their homework': Marta Dusseldorp reveals the pressures of parenthood while revealing her transition back to the stage in her new role in the play Gloria

As Gloria, Dusseldorp is seen falling down the rabbit hole while trying to study Gloria's new role, with audiences eventually watching her unravel to the point that she fears she is losing her mind.

'Of all the plays I read, it was Gloria that reached out and grabbed me by the throat,' she told Sydney Morning Herald.

With a powerful presence on screen in Australian television shows such as Janet King, A Place To Call Home and Jack Irish, Dusseldorp explained she thinks theatre needs to be 'brutal and funnier'.

She added: 'If you want to touch people and make them feel something, you have to create it in this tiny space.'

' Back to my roots': Taking a break to return to stage Dusseldorp has been described as a challenge who is looking for complexity in her new roles

Taking a break to return to stage has been described as a 'challenge' by Dusseldorp, who is looking for complexity in her new roles.

'Television takes people to all these places and makes them believe in what they see. Theatre is more difficult, in that sense  I find that challenge exciting.'

But her challenges aren't isolated to her bold theatrical endeavours, the blonde beauty explained that although parenting can be a struggle that she's always there to help with their homework.

'The rehearsal room at work': The 43-year-old will play a celebrated actress named Gloria who immerses herself into the role of a woman who has survived a sadistic crime

Theatrical trailer: A trailer for the new dramatic role was posted to Dusseldorp's Instagram in a hope to promote the show which will cater to an audience of only 100 people

'I read somewhere that there is no such thing as getting the right balance as a parent,' she remarked. 'I have days off, like every woman, and I make sure its time spent with them.'

Gloria will be staged in front of an intimate audience capacity of 100 at the Kings Cross theatre and will be the second Andrews play that she has been in since her role as Queen Margaret in Sydney Theatre Company's production of War of Roses.

Dusseldorp won a Helpmann Award in 2009 for this role with Andrews explaining that she was 'perfect' for the role of Gloria.

Award winning actress: This will be the second Andrews play since her time in War of Roses (pictured) in which she won the Helpmann award in 2009

Australian starlet: Dusseldorp has a powerful presence on screen in Australian television shows such as Janet King, A Place To Call Home (pictured) and Jack Irish

'Marta possesses a fierce intelligence and great emotional vulnerability.'

The 43-year-old actress admits that losing her brother when she was just eight-years-old 'makes you feel older than you need to be at that age and more weighted - burdened.'

She said: 'There was a part of me that tried to be strong for my parents, because I could see the devastation in them.'

Dusseldorp will have just one week off before starting season three of ABC's legal drama Janet King but explained she is 'lucky' to get back to her roots.

Multi-tasker: Dusseldorp will have just one week off before starting season three of ABC's legal drama Janet King (pictured) but explained she is 'lucky' to get back to her roots
She recently returned from a mini getaway in Southampton Beach, New York.

And on Saturday, Nicky Hilton showed off her sun-kissed look as she strutted down the streets in the East Village neighborhood of New York City.

The 32-year-old opted for a bright red flannel while running errands in the city.

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Flannel fun! Nicky Hilton cut a petite display as she stepped out in New York on Saturday in a red checkered shirt and mini skirt

The mom-of-one, who recently gave birth to her six-week-old daughter Lily-Grace, flaunted her petite figure in a tight grey mini skirt.

Nicky opted for a flowy black tank top and threw over a checkered-printed red flannel to brighten up the outfit.

The blonde-haired beauty wore black, high-top sneaker boots, carried a black purse decorated with a silver chain and lock and sported Ray Ban sunglasses.

On-the-go: The mom-of-one talked on her cellphone while strutting through the streets

Casual chic: The blonde beauty wore a flowy black tank top underneath and high-top sneakers as she ran errands

Sun-kissed: The sister of Paris Hilton shared this snap to her Instagram on Saturday from Southampton Beach captioning the photo: 'good morning'

Wearing her hair in a half-way up ponytail, the fashionista accessorized with a white gold Lola James necklace bearing her daughter's name, a black watch and her wedding ring - which she was gifted with from husband of one year, James Rothschild.

The socialite doesn't only sport her high-fashion taste with her clothing, but also with her newborn daughter.

The sister of Paris Hilton has been doting on her daughter with comfort and luxury as she bought a $1,699 stroller for her little one.

Luxury, baby! The fashionista bought Moschino designer Jeremy Scott's baby stroller for 1,6999 for her daughter Lily-Grace

Designed by Moschino creative Jeremy Scott - whose work has been featured on Rihanna and Britney Spears - the Cybex Priam Carry Cot has a three-in-one feature.

The stroller comes equipped with a memory foam mattress, infant car seat and a luxe stroller seat, while signature gold wings stick out from the sides and matching shiny gold spokes jazz up the wheels.

Jeremy told The New York Times in 2015 about the safety of the stroller: 'I mean, this is a German company. They are very rigorous, to say the least, about safety tests.'

'Heaven:' The 32-year-old welcomed her daughter with husband James Rothschild on July 8

In-love: The couple got engaged in August 2014 in Lake Como, Italy and tied the knot at Kensington Palace in London in July 2015

Nicky and her banking heir husband welcomed their daughter on July 8th, two days prior to celebrating their one-year anniversary.

The couple got engaged in August 2014 in Lake Como, Italy and tied the knot at Kensington Palace in London in July 2015.

She previously wed Todd Meister in a quickie Vegas wedding in 2008, but the marriage was annulled after just three months.

Meanwhile, Nicky's aunt Kyle Richards told the DailyMail.com last month that the socialite has embraced motherhood.

'Nicky's an amazing mom and the baby looks just like her,' Kyle shared. '
She's dressed to impress when reading the news on Channel Nine breakfast program The Today Show.

But during her time off, Sylvia Jeffreys likes to keep her look relaxed.

The 30-year-old newly engaged presenter was spotted makeup free on Sunday, after a gym session in Sydney's beachside suburb of Bondi.

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Spotted: The Today Show's Sylvia Jeffreyswas spotted makeup free on Sunday, after a gym session in Sydney's beachside suburb of Bondi on Sunday

With her golden tresses pulled back in a tight bun, Peter Stefanovic's fiancee revealed her barefaced complexion, and was seen wearing a simple workout ensemble.

Sylvia sported a grey sweatshirt from The Upside, teamed with a pair of sleek black leggings.

She ditched her red carpet ready heels for more comfortable footwear, by slipping her feet into a pair of black Nike branded running shoes.

Natural: The newly engaged star revealed her barefaced complexion

Casual look: She was seen wearing a simple workout ensemble

Covered up: Sylvia sported a grey sweatshirt from The Upside for her gym session

When the weather took a cooler turn, Sylvia slipped on a navy coloured jacket.

The statement number also featured a faux fur-lined hood, to protect her from more extreme weather conditions.

With a brown bag slung over her right arm, the television personality completed her look with a pair of dark sunglasses.

Hands full: The blonde beauty was seen holding onto her navy jacket

Trim pins: Sylvia teamed her top with a pair of sleek black leggings

Feeling chilly? The media personality was later seen putting her jacket on

In June, while still on holiday in Europe, Sylvia and beau Peter, who also works for Channel Nine, announced their engagement to fans via social media.

At the time, Peter captioned a shot of the pair, posted to Instagram: 'Asked my missus to be my wife and she said yes @sylviajeffreys.'

Sylvia also shared a shot of the pair and flashed her diamond sparkler, writing: '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.'

Shady lady: She covered her eyes with a pair of dark sunglasses

Accessoriser: A brown handbag was slung over Sylvia's right arm

Comfort first: The Channel Nine star ditched her glamorous heels for a pair of running shoes

After returning from their idyllic getaway, Peter has gotten straight into party planning mode - recently discussing his upcoming bucks party with Fitzy and Wippa.

Keeping the location under wraps the news reporter joked: '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 said.

The comments came after Sylvia revealed recently to the radio duo that Peter's brother Karl Stefanovic suggested a week in Thailand, which she promptly 'shut down.'

Texting Peter? The fiance of Peter Stefanovic was seen typing away on her mobile phone

Television star: Sylvia usually reads the news on Channel Nine breakfast program The Today Show

Day off: She was no doubt enjoying some down time before appearing on television on Monday

Sylvia recently told Show + Tell about how they first fell in love and how Peter would write her love letters.

'It was just nice things, about having a nice time working together and wishing me well,' she said.

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.'
We have known Gary Pearlmutter for more than 10 years and are proud to support him for Coconino County Attorney. Gary, who attended the Southwest Leadership Institute, has demonstrated the leadership necessary to be the chief prosecutor for the county by virtue of his 33 years of experience as a law enforcement officer and criminal attorney. For the past 11 years for the county, he has been responsible for administering balanced budgets, developing standards and guidelines for attorneys within his office and under contract, and supervising attorneys and support staff.

Gary is a collaborative leader. He brought stakeholders together to found the Veterans Treatment Court and the Marijuana Juvenile Diversion Program and serving on the Coconino County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. He is an adept mediator, having mediated civil disputes in the county for over 20 years.

Gary serves has served on national and state organizations and committees such as the American Council of Chief Defenders and the Arizona State Bar Continuing Education Committee, where he is the current chair.

Gary and his wife, Lori, have been active members of our community. Gary was on the FUSD School Board and president of his synagogue. Lori is a past president of the YMCA and Northland Family Help Center.

LYNNE NEMETH and LANNY MORRISON

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Lynne Nemeth and Lanny Morrison
Viewers were hit with the explosive storyline of Paul Coker's death last month.

And it seems that BBC1 soap EastEnders is only about to get even more dramatic.

In a new teaser photo revealed by the BBC, Paul's grandfather Les is seen at loggerheads with his son's boyfriend Ben Mitchell, as he pleads with the young mechanic to leave the death's investigation to the police.

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Tensions mounting: In a new teaser photo for EastEnders, Paul's grandfather Les is seen at pleading with his son's boyfriend Ben Mitchell to leave the death's investigation to the police

The photos shows the grandfather and boyfriend standing face-to-face in the funeral parlour with a huge tension between them, as a traumatised Louise looks tearfully.

Last month, Paul Coker was brutally murdered in a homophobic attack outside a London nightclub.

The Mitchells were informed that Ben was dead, only to be led in to see Paul Coker's body.

While a distraught Ben, played by Harry Reid, agreed in a recent episode to leave the finding of his boyfriend Paul's killers to the police, it seems now he is ready to avenge the death of his loved one alone.

Seeking revenge: Ben has expressed his desires to find Paul's killers alone already in recent episodes, asking Phil for a gun which was met with a furious talking to by Jay

He has already expressed these fury-fuelled desires recently, even asking Phil Mitchell for a gun.

However Paul's father Les, portrayed by Roger Sloman, appears less than keen on the idea, wanting to leave his son at peace and the investigation to professionals.

Alcoholic Les has been plagued with heartbreak in light of the news alongside his stricken wife Pam, whose grief has caused her to not want to leave the house.

Secret lovers: Paul and Ben kept their relationship under wraps for weeks in fear that their gay romance would not be accepted

She also refuses to talk to Ben, who she blames for her son's untimely death and horrific attack.

Paul and Ben, who had struggled with his sexuality for years on the soap, kept their relationship under wraps for weeks in fear that their gay romance would not be accepted.

They announced their love earlier this year however, by sharing a steamy smooch in the Old Vic, shocking all of Albert Square.

Coming out in the emotional episode, Ben declared: 'I'm tired of pretending to be something I ain't.

Kiss me: They announced their love earlier this year however, by sharing a steamy smooch in the Old Vic, shocking all of Albert Square

I want to be with you. I want to be your boyfriend.'

However Ben's new interest in wanting to hunt down those responsible for Paul's death is likely to only fuel further rumours of his own involvement.

While Ben had been at the club with Paul on the night of his death, he was nowhere to be seen when the body was identified by Phil Mitchell and Ian Beale.

Speculation began to circle among fans on social media that Ben may have had something to do with the attack due to his conflicted sexuality, having also embarked on relationships with girls in the past.

One user wrote among many fan theories on Twitter: 'So sad to see Paul Coker leave Eastenders but Ben Mitchell is missing, Could he be the killer? #EastEnders.'

EastEnders continues on Monday at 8pm on BBC1.
Theyve been enjoying a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles this summer in style.

So its no wonder that Tamara Ecclestone's little girl Sophia is taking style notes from her mother as they worked matching oversized sunglasses on Saturday afternoon while heading to their hotel.

Carrying her adorable daughter, the 32-year-old yummy mummy flaunted her incredible curves in a chic skin-tight black camo dress that hugged her figure.

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Sweet: Tamara Ecclestone displayed her enviable fashion sense once more on Saturday afternoon while heading to her LA hotel with her daughter Sophia on her hip

The sleeveless look fell to the brunette beautys knees as she proved what an inseparable bond she has with her little tot.

As she soaks up the sun with her two-year-old girl, the Formula One heiress kept her eyes shielded behind a pair of reflective aviator style sunglasses.

Tamara opted to swap her usual sky-high heels for stylish comfort with her youngster as she worked wear a pair of on-trend black Puma furry sliders.

Looking glamorous, the stunner styled her caramel toned tresses into tousled waves as her locks cascaded to her bust.

Like mother, like daughter: Carrying her adorable daughter Sophia, the yummy mummy flaunted her incredible curves in a chic skin-tight black camo dress

Flaunting her flawless sun-kissed complexion, Tamara plumped her pout with a swipe of nude matte lipstick as she contoured her enviable cheekbones to perfection with a touch of bronzer.

Not wanting her doting mother to take all the attention, Tamaras little one Sophia looked adorable as she donned a pretty pastel floral sun dress equipped with girly frills and a sweet bow in her hair.

Protecting her chocolate brown peepers, Sophia worked a pair of baby pink sunnies which complimented her sweet ensemble as she delicate shoes with bow detail as she carried her toys.

Adorable: Tamaras little one Sophia looked adorable as she donned a pretty pastel floral sun dress equipped with girly frills and a sweet bow in her hair

Tamara and Sophia, who live in London, arrived in California earlier this month for one of their regular visits to sister Petra, who is also mum to twin sons Andrew and James, one.

It's also been a typically jet-set summer for Tamara, who only days before had been taking in the sights of Croatia after soaking up the sun in Mykonos.

She was joined by her incredibly youthful-looking mother Slavica and daughter, bringing three generations of the family together.
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She just reached a $7million divorce settlement with Johnny Depp, following their very public and messy split.

And it seems that Amber Heard was ready to put the acrimonious end of her marriage behind her, as she joined her A-List pals Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne for a fun-filled evening out in London, on Friday.

Heading out for a meal before sampling some of the British capital's famed nightlife, the 30-year-old Rum Diaries star looked to be in high spirits as she partied with the Suicide Squad stars - although they did reportedly get turned away from strip club, SophistiCats in London's Marylebone.

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What divorce? It seems that a buoyant Amber Heard was ready to put the acrimonious end of her marriage behind her, as she joined her A-List pals Margot Robbie and Cara Delevinge for a fun-filled evening out in London

Something to celebrate? Heading out for a meal before sampling some of the British capital's famed nightlife, the Rum Diaries star, 30, looked to be in high spirits as she enjoyed an evening out with the Suicide Squad stars and their friends

A source told MailOnline: 'They were seen talking to security and then not entering the club. Cara threw her hands up in the air in a frustrated fashion before they all headed for Chiltern Firehouse. '

Just days after her divorce was settled with 53-year-old Johnny, the Magic Mike actress cut a care-free figure as she enjoyed more time away from the US in London.

Possibly getting a guided tour of some of the capital's best spots, the Texan star was accompanied on her night out by Margot and her boyfriend Tom Ackerley, and Margot's Suicide Squad co-star and BFF, Cara.

The friends looked to have gone all-out to plan a fun-filled day for Amber, with the group heading to The Rolling Stones' exhibition on the King's Road before dining at Ivy Brasserie in High Street Kensington.

Famous friends: The actress made sure her night out was a star-studded affair, and linked up with the Wold of Wall Street actress and her BFF, Cara - although they were reportedly turned away from a club in Marylebone

Joined by a wider group of friends for their meal at the swanky eatery, owned by Richard Caring, the actress could barely keep a smile off of her face.

Clearly happy to put her recent relationship woes behind her once and for all, The Danish Girl star oozed a chic indie vibe for her evening out in London.

Looking the epitome of Indie rock 'n' roll cool in her all-black ensemble, Amber teamed a slim-cut black blazer with a tank by US Blanks and skin-tight jeans.

Kicking-back with the crew: Just days after her divorce was settled with 53-year-old Johnny, the Magic Mike actress cut a care-free figure as she enjoyed more time away from the US in London

All loved-up: Possibly getting a guided tour of some of the capital's best spots, the Texan star was accompanied on her night out by Margot and her boyfriend Tom Ackerley (picutred), and Margot's Suicide Squad co-star and BFF, Cara

She's all smiles: Joined by a wider group of friends for their meal at the swanky eatery, owned by Richard Caring, the actress could barely keep a smile off of her face

Magic moments: Clearly happy to put her recent relationship woes behind her once and for all, The Danish Girl star had an air of care-free happiness about her as she enjoyed the balmy London weather

Rounding her look off with a flash of fasionista inspiration, the blonde beauty added some definition to her slender pins with a pair of peep-toe shoes.

And sticking to her achingly cool look, she rounded her whole look off with a wide-brimmed tiller hat; though she made sure to take her headgear off in the restaurant.

Wearing her blonde bock in two dangling pigtails, the striking silver screen siren allowed her pretty looks to take centre-stage.

A weight off her shoulders? Laughing and japing around with her girl friends after dinner, the Driver Angry star didn't bother to make a Hollywood exit from the popular eatery; choosing instead to mingle with her friends on the pavement

Right at home: The Hollywood star appeared to feel right at home in Central London, and looked to be enjoying her evening out with the two Suicide Squad actresses - with Amber sticking particularly close to runway star Cara

A knowing look: The group were all still deep ion conversation as they left the eatery, and Amber in particular looked to be deep in the midst of a conversation with several of her fellow diners

A big goodbye: The stars were all smiles as they said goodbye to some of their friends after the meal, with Margot looking particularly up-beat

Two peas in a pod: The two Suicide Squad stars burst into fits of giggles at almost the exact same moment

Hug it out: Though Amber seemed nonplussed at the joke, choosing to chat with another pal instead

Adding a hint of bold colour to her look, Amber ensured the eye was drawn to her plumps lips and gleaming smile thanks to a flash of red lipstick.

Cara meanwhile opted for a similar edgy style, and donned a sheer black lace shirt which she teamed with skintight jeans and Chelsea boots.

The actress and model kept her modesty thanks to a low-cut vest, which she wore beneath her see-through top.

Wearing her blonde locks loose, the 24-year-old runway queen and actress made sure her hair was kept under control thanks to a funky orange beanie.

Best foot forward: Cara meanwhile opted for a similar edgy style, and donned a sheer black lace shirt by McQ which she teamed with skintight jeans and Chelsea boots

A bright light in the night: Wearing her blonde locks loose, the 24-year-old runway queen and actress made sure her hair was kept under control thanks to a funky orange beanie

Casually does it: Margot meanwhile opted to for a casual look, and teamed a denim shirt and black tee with a pair of fitted leather trousers

A little quirk here and there: The Aussie Wolf of Wall Street star rounded her look off with a pair of gold slip-on trainers, whilst she accessorised her look with a quirky fluffy clutch

Margot meanwhile opted to for a casual look, and teamed a denim shirt and black tee with a pair of fitted leather trousers.

The Aussie Wolf of Wall Street star rounded her look off with a pair of gold slip-on trainers, whilst she accessorised her look with a quirky fluffy clutch.

Laughing and japing around with her girl friends after dinner, the Driver Angry star didn't bother to make a Hollywood exit from the popular eatery; choosing instead to mingle with her friends and fellow actresses on the pavement.

Not quite the answer she was looking for? However, it wasn't all smiles and jokes for Margot, as the actress was seen having what appeared to be quite a serious phone call

Shake it off: She was soon back to her usual upbeat self, though Tom had made sure to check on her whilst she had the phone call

However, it wasn't all smiles and jokes for Margot, as the actress was seen having what appeared to be quite a serious phone call.

Though any hint of stress from the chat vanished as her beau came tops it with her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

Following their dinner the group looked to have trouble deciding on a place to party the night away, though they eventually settled on A-List hot-spot, the Chiltern Firehouse.

Amber's appearance comes after it was revealed she is giving away every penny from the $7million divorce settlement she got from Johnny.

Back in black: Looking the epitome of Indie rock 'n' roll cool in her all-black ensemble, Amber teamed a slim-cut black blazer with a US Blanks tee and skin-tight jeans

Hats the way to do it: And sticking to her achingly cool look, she rounded her whole look off with a wide-brimmed tiller hat; though she made sure to take her headgear off in the restaurant

Earlier this week the actress revealed she is donating the money to both the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where she says she has worked as a volunteer for 10 years.

The money will be divided equally between the two charities.

'Money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and hopefully help those less able to defend themselves,' Heard said about the bitter divorce battle with her famous ex-husband.

The couple, who wed in February 2015, settled their divorce on Tuesday, just one day before a court hearing for the temporary restraining order Heard had been granted in May.

A quiet word: Amber was seen chatting in a hush-hush manner with Cara throughout the evening on several occasions, with the two friends looking both happy and serious in equal measure

Where to next? Following their dinner the group looked to have trouble deciding on a place to party the night away, though they eventually settled on A-List hot-spot, the Chiltern Firehouse

Not the right place? The group had tried to gain entry to the Sophisitcats strip club in Mayfair, but were reportedly turned away on the door

Over their?! The group of bright young things appeared to be in no rush when it came to making a decision on the outcome of their evening

Getting over it all: Amber's appearance comes after it was revealed she is giving away every penny from the $7million divorce settlement she got from Johnny

Getting over it: Earlier this week the actress revealed she is donating the money to both the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where she says she has worked as a volunteer for 10 years

'Money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and hopefully help those less able to defend themselves': Amber said money was not a motivating factor in the bitter divorce battle

'Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love': Heard withdrew allegations that Johnny had been physically abusive toward her, with the couple releasing a joint statement to Daily Mail Online

Heard withdrew her allegations that Depp had been physically abusive toward her and the couple released a joint statement exclusively to Daily Mail Online.

The statement read: 'Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have agreed to resolve their divorce proceedings privately.'

'They are issuing this joint statement: "Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love."'

'Neither party has lied nor made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.

'Amber wishes the best for Johnny in the future. Amber will be donating financial proceeds from the divorce to a charity.'

A little bit of culture: Earlier on in the day the group headed over to the Saatchi Gallery on the King's Road to check out The Rolling Stones' exhibition

Margot looked to be keen to get inside the gallery and check out the exhibit, which is no in its final few weeks after launching earlier this year

Just a quiet day out: The Hollywood star's looked just like any other twenty-somethings looking to enjoy a weekend together

Laugh it up: Margot was full of the joys of the world, and the bubbly Aussie star frequently burst into fits of laughter throughout the day
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They are famous for being some of the sexiest women in the world.

And four of the most prominent Victoria's Secret Angels took to Paris on Saturday to shoot the trademark Victoria's Secret Holiday ad in their usual sizzling, show-stopping style.

Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge alongside Martha Hunt and Lais Ribeiro headed to the Opera in Paris with Transformers director Michael Bay to film their famous campaign, showing off their incredible physiques in a selection of raunchy lingerie.

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Wow: Four of the most prominent Victoria's Secret Angels took to Paris on Saturday to shoot the trademark Victoria's Secret Holiday ad in their usual sizzling, show-stopping style

Power four: Alessandra Ambrosio, Martha Hunt, Lais Ribeiro and Lily Aldridge (L_R) headed to the Opera in Paris with Transformers director Michael Bay to film their famous campaign, showing off their incredible physiques in a selection of raunchy lingerie

The four stunners, clad in shimmering, skimpy bras and some huge white angel wings, used the front of the Opera in Paris as a catwalk, as they strutted their stuff for the Christmas campaign.

Walking like only they know how and posing with impeccable style, the beautiful Angels showcased their incredible slender figures, complete with the washboard abs and gorgeously tanned and toned legs that they are so famous for.

Brazilian beauty Alessandra Ambrosio, 35, kicked things off as she put her best foot forward for the advert in a glitzy blue and silver bodysuit, complete with a silver belt and saucily rising high up her endless pins.

Angelic: The four stunners were clad in shimmering, skimpy bras and some huge white angel wings

Model material: Brazilian beauty Alessandra Ambrosio, 35, kicked things off as she put her best foot forward for the advert in a glitzy blue and silver bodysuit

Best foot forward: Walking like only they know how and posing with impeccable style, the beautiful Angels showcased their incredible slender figures

Leggy ladies: Martha, Alessandra and Lily (L-R) showcased their gorgeously tanned and toned legs that they are so famous for

Pout for me: Alessandra and Lais oozed sex appeal as they pulled fierce faces for the camera

Co-ordinating for the advert, Lily Aldridge, 30, and Lais Ribeiro, 25, wore a delicate two-piece set of the same colour and material, formed of floral race and mesh paneling.

Meanwhile blonde Martha Hunt, 27, opted for a more sultry crop-top style bralet of black, featuring a high-neck and cut out at the bust to reveal her cleavage.

She paired the saucy top with a matching barely-there thong, showcasing her toned figure for all to see.

Beautiful: The girls showcase their incredibly glowing skin with perfectly contoured make-up and a flash of red lipstick

Strut: They used the front of the Opera in Paris as a catwalk, as they strutted their stuff for the Christmas campaign

Matching: Co-ordinating with Alessandra, Lais Ribeiro wore a delicate two-piece set of the same colour and material as she delicately posed for the shots

Superstar: Lily Aldridge showed off her incredible abs in the same set as her co-star Ribeiro

Strike a pose: Lais proved she knows how to work the camera as she switched angles and poses to score the perfect frame

The dynamic foursome embarked on a selection of group and solo shots, filming in various locations of the Opera from the front to a more romantic balcony setting.

At one point, Brazilian Lais took to a platform to pose solo, looking incredible as she shone under a golden spotlight, highlighting her already glowing, smooth skin.

She later changed from her thong to a fuller pair of high-rise briefs to pose balletically and elegantly on the balcony in the Parisian sunshine.

Pow: The dynamic foursome embarked on a selection of group and solo shots, filming in various locations of the Opera from the front to a more romantic balcony setting

Gal pals: It wasn't all work and no play on set, as the girls giggled with each other and their director Michael Bay

In their element: Martha and Alessandra put on elegant displays as they walked across the front of the Opera - a skill they have practised many times as walkers in the famous Victoria's Secret Fashion Show each year

What a line up: The advert is bound to be a sexy success with four of the most prestigious Victoria's Secret Angels taking centre stage for it

All four girls sported glistening high heels for the shoot, proving why they were chosen as Angels as they fiercely powered down their runway with ease.

They were glamorously clad in flawless bronzed and highlighted makeup, which they paired with varying shades of scarlet lipstick.

Hair impeccably styled in sleek curls, the girls looked the image of elegance and showed off their head-turning beauty as they filmed for the advert, set for debut in .

Flick my hair: Lais and Alessandra flicked their hair in the wind to add action to each of their shots

Ready, set, action! Michael Bay (pictured) directed the girls in the campaign

Black vixen: Meanwhile Martha Hunt opted for a more sultry crop-top style bralet of black

Superstar: Lais looked every inch a supermodel as she flaunted her flat stomach and ample bust by posing for some solo shots under a spot light

Alessandra was the only one who appeared to change her full outfit during the shoot, switching from the edgy long-sleeved leotard into a raunchier black lace set.

The famous Angel showcased her incredible womanly curves in the push-up long-line bralet top, revealing far more than the long-sleeved bodysuit.

Looking comfortable on the balcony, the model smiled and waves at crew, friends and family alike down below.

She even blew a kiss to her observers, which she made her trademark move at the Victoria's Secret Fashion show, as she laughed and posed with ease.

Bonjour: Alessandra then moved up to the balcony for some more romantic shots, waving to the crew and fans down below

Busy day in the office: Alessandra then changed into a lacy black set to shoot a different scene on the Opera's balcony

Both Lily, 30, and 35-year-old Alessandra posted a number of close-ups of their sculpted faces on their Instagram acocunts, showing off the work of the make-up artists each day.

Sharing the selfies with fans, the girls displayed their glowing, bronzed skin and perfectly contoured and highlighted make-up for all to see.

Ambrosio also posted a sneak peak at her full costume, a sheer blue leotard with her enormous feathered wings trailing behind her.

'Angel mode,' she captioned the stunning shot, with the hashtag grouping the model's shots together on Instagram: #vsholiday16.

BTS: Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge (pictured) shared a behind the scenes look at Michael Bay's Victoria's Secret ad shoot in Paris via social media

A photo posted by Alessandra Ambrosio (@alessandraambrosio) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:59am PDT

Perfection: Alessandra posted a number of close-ups of their sculpted faces, showing off the work of the make-up artists each day

Annual: Victoria's Secret's famous Holiday Campaign ad this year is being shot at the Paris Opera House

'Channeling Vamp,' she captioned another close-up, as she stared smoldering into the camera.

Lily shared the most pulse-racing shot of them all, wearing lacy bra and panites with a matching choker and thigh-high leather boots.

In the black and white pic, she kneels provocatively on a bed while Bay can be seen just in front setting up the shot.

It's not the Bay's first time working with the lingerie house; he has directed several TV ads, and was behind their 2009 holiday campaign too, entitled 'A Thousand Fantasies'.

Out of the sun: Allessandra ducked under a brolly with Martha Hunt in one Snapchat vid

At work: Alessandra grabbed a vid with the director smiling behind her

Behind the scenes #VSHoliday  @JeromeDuran @VictoriasSecret  A photo posted by Lily Aldridge (@lilyaldridge) on Aug 18, 2016 at 1:36am PDT

Been here before: It's not the Bay's first time working with the lingerie house; he has directed several TV ads, and was behind their 2009 holiday campaign too, entitled 'A Thousand Fantasies'

Come hither: 'Channeling Vamp,' she captioned another close-up, as she stared smoldering into the camera
Simon Cowell is set to sign a new deal with ITV for his prime-time shows X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent.

The deal reportedly worth 150million will keep the nation's favourite programmes on screens until at least 2019.

The future of both shows has been uncertain as Simon, 56, negotiated with producers in six months of 'intensive' talks.

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Tycoon: Simon Cowell is reportedly set to sign a new 150million deal with ITV for his prime-time shows X Factor and Britain's Got Talent

But ITV bosses hope to confirm the deal at the Edinburgh TV Festival this week, reports the Sunday People.

An insider told the paper that TV executives 'played hardball' to pay as little as possible for the contracts but BGT's good ratings increased Simon's bargaining power.

The source said: 'Finally after months of intense talks, all sides are happy and the new deal has been agreed. It just has to be signed off.

In the money: The deal reportedly worth 150million will mean nation's favourite programmes will stay on screens until at least 2019

'A formal announcement will be made shortly  hopefully in Edinburgh  as no one is expecting any major hitches.'

It is said that Simon, already worth of cool 325million, will take a 25million cut of the deal.

His representative declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

Happy man: It is said that Simon, already worth of cool 325million, will take a 25million cut of the deal

This year's show will feature the return of judges Sharon Osborne, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger alongside presented Dermot O'Leary.

The host revealed his X Factor return was sparked by a late-night call from Simon Cowell - which saw the music mogul swallow his pride.

Speaking to The Sun, the popular TV personality said 56-year-old Cowell reached out and admitted: 'Ive made a mistake, Id love to get you back.'

He's back! Dermot O'Leary has revealed his X Factor return was sparked by a late-night call from Simon Cowell - which saw the music mogul swallow his pride

'It was a lot less awkward than I thought it was going to be,' Dermot admitted, before elaborating that he was flown over to Hollywood for an urgent meeting.

'Simon and I spoke about where we thought the show had lost its way and how to bring the heart and soul back.'

He then went on to say the break improved their relationship, adding: 'Actually, I think were closer now than we ever have been. We text all the time.'

Swallowed pride: Speaking to The Sun , the popular TV personality says 56 year-old Cowell reached out and admitted: 'Ive made a mistake, Id love to get you back'

Then: Dermot last hosted the show when it was judged by Cheryl, Mel, Louis and Simon

The comments come after claims Dermot's brand new, four-year contract is estimated to be worth a staggering 8 million.

If true, the sum makes the 43-year-old Britain's highest-paid solo television presenter.

Dermot's new reported deal would see only Simon Cowell and Ant and Dec paid more than him, although they can only work with ITV, while the star is free to continue with his lucrative gigs for BBC TV and BBC Radio 2, giving him an annual pay check of at least 3million.

He's in the money! The comments come after claims Dermot's brand new, four-year contract is estimated to be worth a staggering 8 million

Back in the fold: Dermot has always been good friends with Louis Walsh, who will also return

The first series of The X Factor began in 2004 with Simon, Louis and Sharon on the judging panel and Kate Thornton as presenter.

Whilst no changes were made to the line-up for the first three series, since 2007 Dannii Minogue; Cheryl; Gary Barlow; Kelly Rowland; Tulisa; Nicole Scherzinger; Mel B; Nick Grimshaw and Rita Ora have all acted as judges on the show.

Since Dermot took over as presenter in season four, only Caroline Flack and Olly Murs have taken on the role, but were widely slammed by viewers.

Recently speaking to the Daily Mirror about the 2015 team, show creator Simon said of Caroline, Olly, Rita Ora, Nick Grimshaw and Cheryl: 'The fans didn't like last year's panel, you can't ignore them.'
Roxy Jacenko has revealed she ignored doctors' advice to undergo a mastectomy and even filmed the tumour's removal from her breast to prove to online trolls she does have cancer.

The PR maven defended herself against claims she made up the diagnosis as she spoke to 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon, saying: 'S o much s*** has happened this is just another thing.'

The mother-of-two was almost in tears as she spoke of the hurtful comments posted on social media questioning the truth to her cancer battle just weeks after her husband, Oliver Curtis, was sent to jail for insider trading.

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Opening up: Roxy Jacenko ignored doctors' advice to undergo a mastectomy and filmed the tumour's removal from her breast to prove to online trolls she does have cancer

'Yes, I'm tough but I'm also probably broken into in a million pieces of glass on the inside,' she admitted.

During the interview, the 36-year-old revealed she chose not to have a mastectomy, despite doctors recommending the surgery for her 10mm tumour.

Speaking of her choice to have a lumpectomy instead, Roxy noted: 'I wasn't in the headspace to make rash decisions.

Standing up: The PR maven defended herself against claims she made up the diagnosis as she spoke to 60 Minutes, saying: 'So much s*** has happened this is just another thing'

'I suppose, unlike everything else in my life where I'll go full pelt, I wanted to do this one thing in a phased approach'.

The mother-of-two, who is known for getting back to work within hours of giving birth to her children, claimed she wanted to go 'slow for the first time in my life'.

Journalist, Allison questioned Roxy's decision, asking her: 'T hey're just boobs! And yours are fake anyway...Are they that important to you?'

Deflecting the question somewhat, Roxy replied with a giggle: 'Thanks, now the world knows. They were thinking I had this lovely set.'

Nothing's off limits: During the interview, the 36-year-old revealed she chose not to have a mastectomy, despite doctors recommending the surgery for her 10mm tumour

While in Melbourne, Victoria, having the surgery to remove the lump, Roxy allowed film crews to document the procedure, even displaying a close-up of her bloody tumour after it's removal, which doctors described as the size of a 'small mandarin'.

The social media queen also admitted she had taken a selfie of her bare breasts before undergoing the surgery to compare the difference after recovery.

Following the procedure, surgeon Professor Bruce Mann from Epworth Freemasons Hospital said the prognosis looked positive.

'It felt good,' he told Allison straight after surgery, adding: The cancer felt well-localised and was nicely removed.

Documenting: Roxy allowed film crews to document her surgery in a Melbourne hospital

Visual: The program even displayed a close-up of her bloody tumour fresh after its removal, which doctors described as the size of a 'small mandarin'

Success: Following the procedure, Professor Bruce Mann from Epworth Freemasons Hospital said the prognosis looked positive and the tumour had been 'nicely removed'

'The lymph node felt negative. In that situation, the chances are it will be good, but let's wait and see,' he added.

During the televised interview, Roxy opened up about life as a 'single mother' as she continues to raise her children, Pixie, five, and Hunter, two, while her husband serves a two-year sentence in jail.

'I won't lie, its a challenge,' she admitted, adding the last two months have been 'very hard'.

'I put up a facade that shows the days are not hard, but behind that facade it is very hard.'

Difficult: During the interview, Roxy opened up about life as a 'single mother' while her husband serves a two-year sentence in jail

While she remained by her husband's side every day during the court proceedings, Roxy has since revealed she has never asked Oliver if he was guilty or not guilty of insider trading.

'We dont discuss it at all,' she claimed, adding: 'I think you have to remember it happened years and years ago, well before my time.

'Look, call me crazy. Some people would wanna know the ins and outs of everything but I haven't asked.

'A lot of people find it strange that I haven't asked all of the questions but he's got no reason to lie to me.

'The important thing for me is to maintain my focus because he pleaded not guilty.'

Behind the scenes: She admitted: 'I put up a facade that shows as the days are not hard, but behind that facade it is very hard'

Roxy was also quick to defend her partner of nine years when Allison called him 'a criminal and a thief who has shown no remorse' for his actions.

'They're all sensational headlines from a newspaper or a TV show,' Roxy hit back.

'Facts at the moment but an appeal has been lodged.'

She added: 'I do think of if he hadn't married me, it wouldn't have become such big news.

'I hope that I didn't contribute to it,' she said, adding, 'It was like I was on trial even though I was just there supporting him.'

Unknown: While she remained by her husband's side every day during the court proceedings, Roxy has since revealed she has never asked Oliver if he was guilty or not guilty

Roxy went on to recall the day she witnessed Oliver being sentenced during his court hearing in Sydney.

She admitted she was in denial of her husband's conviction until she saw a picture of him in handcuffs.

'Seeing the picture of Ollie with the handcuffs, being led into the prison van was a very horrible feeling,' the businesswoman explained.

Blind sided: The businesswoman explained: 'Look, call me crazy. Some people would wanna know the ins and outs of everything but I haven't asked'

'It was the worst. You never, ever wanna see a picture like that. It was like the picture I never thought I would see.'

Roxy added she quickly changes the television channel whenever a picture of Oliver surfaces because she doesn't want to expose her children to the imagery.

She added she was emotional when she arrived home to her kids following the court hearing.

Tough: She later admitted she was in denial of her husband's conviction until she saw a picture of him being led away from the court in handcuffs

'The day Ollie was sentenced, I remember when I came home the kids opened the door and they were so excited to see me and I remember I started to cry because all of a sudden there were these two little kids who had no idea of what was happening,' she explained.

'Pixie sort of pat me on the back and she was like, "Oh, Mum, did you have a bad day in the office? Was someone mean to you?" And I was like, "Very bad day" and she gave me a little cuddle.

'I guess it was at that point I was like "Get your s*** together, you've got to get on with it".'

Emotional: She explained: 'Seeing the picture of Ollie with the handcuffs, being led into the prison van was a very horrible feeling...You never, ever wanna see a picture like that'

But while Roxy continues to parent the two young children, she remains determined to keep the truth about their father's whereabouts a secret.

'I think there's certain things you choose to tell a child. I've said he's in China,' she revealed.

She added she has told Pixie and Hunter, Oliver will be home at Christmas 'because they've got no idea when Christmas is, it could be 12 months or two years to them.'

Keeping quiet: She said she is determined to keep the truth about their father's whereabouts secret, admitting she has told her children Oliver is in China

Roxy explained her daughter wasn't coping without her father, while Hunter was doing 'exceptionally well'.

'Pixie's very upset. Every day's hard with her now and she cries for her dad.

'Making a happy birthday video for him last night was horrible. Absolutely awful. She cried and slept in bed with me,' Roxy explained adding it was a situation she 'never wanted to be in'.

Hard: Roxy explained her daughter wasn't coping without her father, while Hunter was doing 'exceptionally well'

The Sweaty Betty founded explained she decided to tell her children about her breast cancer diagnosis and not their father's jail sentence because 'cancer goes away'.

'If you watch a cartoon these days, the baddie always goes to jail and I don't want that instilled in their mind.

'Whereas for me to tell them I have cancer, it's just a few scars, and it is very different to not seeing your dad again.'

Truth: The Sweaty Betty founded explained decided to tell her children about her breast cancer diagnosis and not their father's jail sentence because 'cancer goes away'

When asked by Allison if she had an 'image problem' following her husband's court case, Roxy hit back saying, 'jealousy is a curse'.

The mother-of-two also slammed online trolls who labelled her cancer battle as 'fake' in a bid to release Oliver from prison earlier.

'You've got too much time on your hands if you say that. I don't really give a f*** what they think of my timing.

Not taking it: When asked by Allison (L) if she had an 'image problem' following her husband's court case, Roxy (R) hit back saying, 'jealousy is a curse'

'They can say that, the reality is, it's not something that I ever thought I would face.

'If someone I knew had been diagnosed with cancer and their husband went to jail, I certainly wouldn't be saying, "Is that convenient timing?", I would say "What can I do to help them?"

'It makes me angry. You'd have to be sick in the head to think that someone can put a timeline on cancer. People die from cancer.

No worries: She also slammed online trolls who labelled her cancer battle as 'fake' in a bid to release Oliver from prison earlier saying she doesn't 'give a f*** what they think of my timing'

'And to be honest, I think it's pathetic they can say that.

'This is about someone who has been diagnosed with cancer, whose husband has just gone to jail and whose two children have lost their father. I don't care about image. Forget image,' she abruptly stated.

Though with the tough times hopefully soon behind her, Roxy has agreed 2016 will be a year she will 'never forget'.

Anger: She added: 'This is about someone who has been diagnosed with cancer, whose husband has just gone to jail and whose two children have lost their father. I don't care about image'

'I will never forget 2016 thats for bloody sure. I'll never forget it. I'll probably need to get a tattoo but I'm not allowed.

'Twelve months seems like a long time but we will get over it. We will look back and go and say, "You know what, it's finished, and it's done".

'I sure as hell don't want to let down the children. You know they've only got me, so I've got an obligation to keep running...In heels,' Roxy concluded with a smile.
Jessica Wright has once again responded to vile taunts from body shaming trolls by posting a racy new Instagram snap from her current stay in the United States.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday afternoon, the TV personality shared a snap of herself sporting a white bikini while soaking up the sun on Malibu Beach.

With her hands behind her head, brunette Jessica is hard to miss as she gazes out at the Pacific Ocean, her eyes shielded behind a pair of Aviator sunglasses.

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Looking good: Jessica Wright has once again responded to vile taunts from body shaming trolls by posting a racy new Instagram snap from her current stay in the United States

Captioning the snap, she wrote: Footprints in the sand.

Jess was previously forced to defend herself after social media trolls criticised her bikini body during her sunshine break in LA.

The 30-year-old hit back by sharing a stunning video of herself as she modelled a beautiful white bikini.

Captioning the post, she wrote: 'This video is REAL, UNEDITED, NORMAL EVERY DAY LIGHTING and this is ME, flaws and all.

'Yes I've put weight on': Defiant Jess Wright uploaded a stunning bikini video as she slammed trolls who criticised her appearance during recent trip to LA

Swirling around as she filmed herself with her mobile phone in hand, she showed off toned abs in her white two-piece.

Her bikini had red tie sides and flattered her figure, as well as her golden tan, perfectly.

'I've enjoyed my past year and yes I'll be the first to say I have put weight on.

Harsh: Jess' words were in response to some unkind comments she received after she was pictured on holiday in LA - despite the fact she looked incredible

'I have an extra couple of lbs I'd like to shift but I'm a normal girl and just like anyone my weight fluctuates especially during certain times of the month.

'I've been on holidays, I've had tonnes of cheat meals, I've had more vinos than normal, met amazing people & I wouldn't change a thing.

'Life is for living and I'm doing exactly that.'

As she concluded her message, she wrote: 'What kind of message are we sending out to women and young impressionable girls?!?

'I am by no means fat, I'm a UK size 10 yet I am being body shamed for putting on weight. #EveryBODYisbeautiful.'

Captioning the post, she wrote: 'This video is REAL, UNEDITED, NORMAL EVERY DAY LIGHTING and this is ME, flaws and all

Jessica's words come after she was pictured wearing a blue bikini while on holiday in Los Angeles earlier in the week.

She looked incredible and showed off her curves as she topped up her tan and cooled off in the water with her agent, Benji Rom.

She wrote on Instagram at the time: 'Everything's better with palm trees & sunshine'.

Her fans commented on her post and were largely positive and supportive.

@lorna4683 wrote: 'Don't let haters drag you down x'

@jadsyxx said: 'Why rise to it? You're clearly comfortable with yourself.'

She continued: 'I've been on holidays, I've had tonnes of cheat meals, I've had more vinos than normal, met amazing people & I wouldn't change a thing'

While @donnawhitemore said 'Go on jess..you are absolutely beautiful and a true inspiration..xx'

The sister of Mark Wright recently spoke about her health and fitness regime in an interview with Now magazine.

She said: I try and work out as much as possible but a lot of the time, Im working. I go at least 4 days a week.

Speaking about her least favourite body part, she added: 'Probably the middle part of my stomach. I find if I put on weight, thats probably where it goes first.

She also told the magazine: 'If I dont feel comfortable in something I know that I need to lose a couple of pounds or tone up a little bit.
Thomas Searle, the guitarist for Brighton metal and hardcore giants Architects has passed away after a three year battle with cancer aged 28.

His brother Dan, the band's drummer, confirmed that Tom had passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning on the band's social media accounts.

Taking to the band's Facebook page, he said it was with 'unbelievable pain and sadness' that he had to reveal Tom had passed away.

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A great loss: Tom Searle, the guitarist for Brighton metal and hardcore giants Architects has passed away after a three year battle with cancer aged 28

Tom, who played in the band alongside his brother, Sam Carter, Ali Dean and Adam Christianson, passed away at 12:22am after fighting the disease for three years.

Sharing the heartbreaking news of his brother's passing on the band's social media pages, Dan wrote:

'It is with unbelievable pain and sadness that I have to announce that at around twelve minutes past midnight on August 20th my amazing brother, Tom, passed away after over 3 years living with cancer.

'He was an incredible songwriter and guitarist. He was my closest and oldest friend. He was a funny, intelligent and sweet man and he leaves an enormous void in all of our lives.'

'Completely devastated': His brother Dan, the band's drummer, confirmed that Tom had passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning on the band's social media accounts

Describing the last months of Tom's battle against the disease, Dan stated his brother's last two gigs, in Germany were 'unforgettable shows' for the band.

'He got on stage and performed his last two shows at Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, which took him an incredible amount of strength but those are two shows that we will never forget.'

While the band will be touring their critically acclaimed All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us LP, the drummer was unable to say if they would return without Tom following the end of the tour.

'I dont know what will become of Architects,' wrote Dan. 'Me and Tom started playing in a band together when we were 13 and, really, Architects is just an evolution of the band that we started all the way back then, over half my life ago.

'To pretend that Tom wasnt at the heart of everything that the band created would be to show a complete lack of respect to the amazing talent that he was.'

'Life will never be the same:' Tom (centre left in 2012), who played in the band alongside his brother, Sam Carter, Ali Dean and Adam Christianson, passed away at 12:22am

'Unbelievable pain and sadness':Sharing the heartbreaking news of his brother's passing on the band's page, Dan wrote that Tom had been battling cancer for three years

'Love you Tom': The band's other guitarist Adam Christianson wrote: 'The most inspirational and influential person I've ever met. Love you Tom.'

He added simply and poignantly: 'The band will never be the same and there is simply no denying it.'

In another touching post to his brother on Twitter, he wrote: 'Completely devastated and heartbroken. I loved Tom More than I can express in words. Life will never be the same X.'

The band's other guitarist Adam Christianson, who joined the metalcore giants full-time in 2015, wrote: 'The most inspirational and influential person I've ever met. Love you Tom.'

News of Tom's passing spread quickly on social media, and many of the biggest names in the UK metal scene expressed their sadness at his death.

Gone but not forgotten: News of Tom's passing spread quickly on social media, and many of the biggest names in the UK metal scene expressed their sadness at his death

'RIP buddy': Max Heyler from You Me At Six, tweeted: 'My thoughts are with all the friends and family of Tom Searle. Such terrible news, a good friend and great musician. RIP buddy'

'You've given the UK scene so much': Fellow metal shredders Gallows wrote a touching tribute to their freind

'We were fans before we were friends': UK pop punkers Neck Deep expressed their love for a musical hero as well as a friend

'Music lost a beautiful soul': Deaf Havana simply said it was a loss to all of the musical world

Max Heyler from stadium pop-punk rockers You Me At Six, tweeted: 'My thoughts are with all the friends and family of Tom Searle. Such terrible news, a good friend and great musician. RIP buddy.'

Meanwhile London punk and metal act Gallows wrote: 'Rest in peace Tom Searle. You've given the UK scene so much and so many bands like us respect and admire what you've achieved. Our deepest sympathy to Tom's family and rest of the guys in Architects. Gonna be blasting All Our Gods.. all day.'

Tom was a founding member of the Metalcore giants, who alongside the likes of Dead Swans and Bring Me The Horizon became champions of a new generation of British metal.

All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, released in May this year, is the band's seventh and highest charting album.

Regulars on the alternative summer circuit in Europe and the US, the band have played the liked of Warped Tour, Download, Reading and Leeds and Rock Am Ring to name a few.
She's a fan favourite to win over the heart of Richie Strahan on The Bachelor.

But despite her appeal, Olena Khamula revealed in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, that she does not consider herself famous at all.

The 23-year-old finds it bizarre when people look at her on the street and thinks, 'Do I have something on my face?'

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Bizarre: The Bachelor's fan favourite Olena Khamula, 23, revealed in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, that she doesn't consider herself to be famous

'I don't feel famous,' Olena shared with the publication.

'I sometimes catch people looking at me and I think, "Do I have something on my face?",' she continued.

The Ukranian-born beauty also shared that despite having thousands of Facebook requests, she's yet to accept any.

'I'm not accepting anybody on Facebook, not at the moment,' she said.

Is she the one? The Ukranian beauty - who has claimed she 'attacks' a potential love interest 'with the eyes' - is still in the running to win Richie Strahan's heart on the dating show

The Sydney make-up artist - who has claimed she 'attacks' a potential love interest 'with the eyes' - is still in the running to win Richie's heart on the dating show.

Last week, Richie and Olena enjoyed their first kiss on their second solo date.

The pair enjoyed a romantic picnic in Mudgee and Richie finally kissed her after breaking down her walls.

Steamy: The pair enjoyed a romantic picnic in Mudgee and Richie finally kissed her after breaking down her walls

Looking for love still? On her Bachelor profile, she explained that work prevented her from settling down with someone

She had told him: 'I do like you in many ways. You have, you know, amazing qualities about you, and I am putting myself out there.'

He answered: 'The moment I saw you, I wanted to kiss you,' he said, before presenting her with a rose.

On her Bachelor profile, she explains why she is still searching for Mr Right.

'I was travelling around the world for three years for work until a few months back, when I opened my own business here in Australia,' she said.

'I've always wanted to accomplish my dreams first and then settle down with someone I can share my life with.'

Appeal: Olena is a fan favourite to win over the heart of Richie Strahan on The Bachelor




She is known for being one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood.

And on Saturday, Kate Beckinsale was a vision as she headed to LA hot-spot, The Nice Guy, in West Hollywood.

The 43-year-old stunner put on yet another fashionable display, successfully remaining modest while showing off her excellent taste in style.

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What a beauty: Kate Beckinsale, 43, was a vision as she headed to LA hot-spot, The Nice Guy, in West Hollywood on Saturday evening

Flawless: The British actress paired a white off the shoulder top with leather slacks

Kate was trendy in an off-the-shoulder, ruffle top, which she paired with an of-the-moment choker necklace.

The Love & Friendship star added a set of leather skinny trousers and heeled ankle boots.

Kate's ensemble was complete with a chic, chain purse.

These boots are made for... partying! The brunette babe had on four inch heeled boots

Style icon: The stunner put on yet another fashionable display, successfully remaining modest while showing off her excellent taste in clothing

Feminine finds: Kate was trendy in an off-the-shoulder, ruffle top, which she paired with an of-the-moment choker necklace

Added touch: Kate's ensemble was complete with a chic, chain purse

The mum-of-one styled her multi-toned locks in her signature look; loose waves and a volumized updo.

The British actress showed off glowing skin in bronzer and highlighter make-up.

Kate chose metal, earth-toned shades for her eyes and a sheer, pink gloss for lips.

Classic: The mum-of-one styled her multi-toned locks in her signature look; loose waves and a volumized updo

Indie queens: In June, Kate starred as Lady Susan Vernon opposite pal Chloe Sevigny in the Jane Austen period piece, Love and & Friendship

In June, Kate starred as Lady Susan Vernon opposite pal Chloe Sevigny in the Jane Austen period piece, Love and & Friendship.

Later this year, Kate will appear in The Disappointments Room alongside X-Men star Lucas Till.

In January 2017, she'll return to her role as Selene in Underworld: Blood Wars.
It seems to me that the city council and other entities are spearheading the rush of Flagstaff growth to their targeted 90,000 by stepping on parts of our solid industrial base, ie., Purina and maybe Gore in the near future.

As one Purina employee told me, that odor "is the smell of money" (and happy pets).

We will very soon not "smell" coal thanks to the E.P.A., and the future of wood-burning fireplaces here is in doubt.

Student housing and tourism will surely turn Flagstaff into Aspen, Colorado, as projected.

For the rest of us that live here year-round and love it, slow down! Flagstaff was still a wonderful place at 45,000.

Don't wreck it for the "old timers" who helped build this place.

DOUG MILLER

Flagstaff
She recently split with fiance Egor Tarabasov following a public spat.

Now Pust govoryat - the most popular talk show in Russia - wants to speak with Lindsay Lohan about the relationship.

And the 30-year-old is leveraging the offer with quite the hefty list of demands, even asking for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin and to get photos with him, as reported by TMZ.

Quite a request! Lindsay Lohan reportedly wants to meet, and take photographs with, President Vladimir Putin as part of her demands to appear on Russian TV show Pust govoryat

The Parent Trap star also reportedly wants a private jet, security, one year Russian visa with extension, 500,000 British pounds, hair, make-up, and a manicurist on board the jet, and a Ritz-Carlton penthouse suite.

The publication had obtained a copy of Channel 1's - a state-owned station - letter to Lindsay, in which they had asked for Lindsay's demands.

TMZ also reported that the Mean Girls actress was negotiating with the network, and that some of her demands had been met.

Lots to discuss: The most popular chat show in Russia wants to discuss Lindsay's relationship and split with Russian businessman Egor Tarabasov, to whom she had been engaged

Her ex, Egor, is the son of Russian businessman Dmitry Tarabasov, and himself owns the U.K. real estate agency Home House Estates and is a shareholder of Moscow's Ivy Bank.

Lindsay and Egor were said to have been together for a year before calling it quits, with the star posting to Snapchat in July: 'I guess I was the same at 23 S***ty time-it changes at 26/27 @e2505t thanks for not coming home tonight. Fame changes people.'

Lindsay then accused Egor of cheating on her with a hooker, as she posted a video of the star partying, according to E!

Moving on: Back in July Lindsay shared this snap after a public spat with her now ex-fiance

The actress also seemed to hint that she was having a baby - with her father saying that she was and a close pal saying that she was not - before accusing her former fiance of abuse. The two were also pictured in a public fight over a cell phone.

At the end of the month, following the couple's public fights, she posted: 'Dear friends. I'm good and well. #ATM I am taking time for myself with good friends. I am sorry that I've exposed certain private matters recently. I was acting out of fear and sadness...'

She added: 'Maybe things can be fixed... Maybe not.. I hope they can. But I am 30 years old and I do deserve a #GENTLEgiant Life is about love and light. Not anger Thank you to those who stand by my side.'
He arrived in Australia on Saturday to continue filming for American television series, The Leftovers.

And Justin Theroux wasted no time in looking for some left overs, as he was seen looking for props to use on the set at an antiques store in Sydney on Sunday.

The 45-year-old, who is married to Jennifer Aniston, cut a youthful figure in all-black attire, as he visited the Mitchell Road Antique and Design Centre in Alexandria.

Celebrity spotting: Justin Theroux, 45, was seen visiting an antiques store in Sydney's Alexandria on Sunday as he prepares to film American television series, The Leftovers

Cutting a cool figure, Justin opted for all-black attire consisting of a pair of skinny-leg jeans, a zip-up jacket and pair of trendy boots.

Accessorising with a leather bomber jacket, he shielded his eyes from the sunny glare at one stage with a pair of aviator sunglasses.

As he made his way to his next destination, the Hollywood actor and director carried his belongings in a simple backpack and had a black cap tied onto one of the bag's straps.

Casual: As he made his way to his next destination, the Hollywood actor and director carried his belongings in a simple backpack and covered his eyes in aviator sunglasses

Justin is currently in the country to film scenes for season three of his popular HBO show, The Leftovers.

The drama series also features Liv Tyler and takes place three years after an event called the Sudden Departure.

The global event sees the disappearance of 140 million people and results in the creation of cults.

Inked: Just a week ago, Justin celebrated his 45th birthday with an unusual tattoo which read 'Never Again Again'

Off set, Justin celebrated his 45th birthday a week ago with an unusual tattoo.

The inking by his tattoo artist friend Scott Campbell, featured the text, 'Never Again Again.'

Posting a snap of the artwork to Instagram at the time, the caption read: 'Thanks @scampbell333 and fellow birthday boy @lousyleo for letting me bite it,' he captioned an Instagram photo of the design on his right leg.

Permanent momento: The screenwriter got the tattoo one week after he and wife Jennifer Aniston (L) 47, celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary

Low-key: The couple tied the knot at at their Bel-Air mansion in a surprise wedding, after telling guests the bash was Justin's 44th birthday party

The screenwriter got the tattoo one week after he and wife Jennifer Aniston, 47, celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary.

The couple tied the knot at at their Bel-Air mansion in a surprise wedding, after telling guests the bash was Justin's 44th birthday party.

Justin has a number of tattoos, and previously told Vanity Fair that he'd also given his tattoo artist pal Scott - who is wed to actress Lake Bell - a few inkings after 'drunken tattoo nights.'
She's recently bid farewell to ITVBe stalwart The Only Way Is Essex after 18 series.

But not letting her decision get her down, Billie Faiers displayed her ample assets in a daring burgundy form-fitting dress on Saturday.

Adding serious sex appeal to the streets of London, the 26-year-old reality star flaunted her toned pins in the skin-tight ensemble that boasted a racy thigh-split.

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She's letting her hair down: Billie Faiers displayed her ample assets in a daring burgundy form-fitting dress on Saturday

Exhibiting her best assets, the sultry number paraded her enviable hourglass figure as she strolled through the wet city streets in the thigh-grazer.

Injecting some height into her petite frame, Billie teamed a cream strappy sandal to her look that hugged her slender ankles.

The yummy mummy of two-year-old Nelly accessorised her look with a simple but chic gold necklace with two stylish discs as she adorned her wrist with a statement watch.

Flashing her impressive engagement ring, Billie, who has been engaged to Greg Shepherd since 2014, held on tight to her beige studded clutch.

Va-va-voom: The 26-year-old reality star flaunted her toned pins in the skin-tight ensemble that boasted a racy thigh-split in London

Going all out glam, the blonde bombshell styled her shoulder length golden tresses into a tousled wave as she worked a retro deep side parting.

Flaunting her golden tan, Billie contoured her flawless complexion to perfection as she applied a touch of highlighter to her high cheekbones.

Chanelling a 1940's screen siren, Billie worked a pale red glossy lip as she applied a dramatic feline flick.

Billie's ultra glam appearance comes after she sensationally left TOWIE this season.

Speaking to the MailOnline about her decision to bow out of the series, the mother-of-one insisted she ended things on a 'high note'.

'It's the end of an era really. It was a little bit emotional when I watched the show back last night and I saw Nelly waving and stuff.

'I think Ive left on a really high note. I get on with everyone so its been brilliant and its such a massive part of my life but it was time for me to move on.

'I just feel like this is a new chapter of my life, hopefully I wont be fizzling out anytime soon. Hopefully something else TV wise will come around.'
She usually hits the town with her fiance DJ Ruckus - real name Greg Andrews- to watch him behind the decks.

But on Saturday, Shanina Shaik, 25, stepped out with her girls as she attended Olivia Pierson's birthday in Los Angeles.

The Victoria's Secret model looked flawless during the night out as she showed off her ample cleavage and slender figure as she slipped in a black fitted dress.

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Night on the town: Model Shanina Shaik showed off her ample cleavage and slender figure on Saturday as she slipped in a black fitted dress for a girls night out in LA

The sleeveless garment hugged tightly around her runway-ready body while featuring a low cut front and a thigh-high split.

While displaying her sun-kissed tanned skin in the ensemble, she accessorised with a black leather choker and strappy high heels.

Shanina pulled her thick brunette locks back and styled them in a high ponytail while allowing her fringe to fall to the side of her face.

True beauty: The 25-year-old pulled her thick brunette locks back and styled them in a high ponytail as she flaunted her blemish-free complexion

The Australian flaunted her blemish-free complexion as she opted for a nude-base make-up, defining her cheekbones with a gold shimmer bronzer.

She also added a touch of colour to her look with a plum lipstick.

Earlier in the week, Shanina revealed she's been offered auditions for roles in movies such as Superman 2 but she lacked the 'confidence' and feared she wouldn't remember her lines.

The aspiring actress said getting older and the added bonus of acting lessons has helped her get ready to take on her first role in the reboot of The Mummy.

Practice makes perfect: Earlier in the week, Shanina revealed she's been offered auditions for roles in movies such as Superman 2 but she lacked the 'confidence'

Shanina flew over to the scorching Namibian desert last month to start filming for her role in the film, which also stars Tom Cruise.

'There's a lot of sand!' she told The Daily Telegraph. 'It's a small part, a cameo but I'm just so excited this is my first movie,' she added.

The Melbourne-born beauty said for five years she had offers for auditions but never had the confidence to go ahead with it.

'There's a lot of sand': The Victoria's Secret model recently switched the runway for a film set as she filmed a cameo role for The Mummy

'But getting older and more confident I thought, "Why not try it?"

'What made me fear acting was remembering lines, as that's different from modelling, but with practice, you gain confidence and you become better at your craft.'

Little is known about her role and the new plot of the revamped Mummy series but will be set in the modern day.

Co-star: She will appear in the film with Tom Cruise (pictured) which is slated for a 2017 release and due to hit screens in June

This is a stark contrast to the period setting of the last three titles under The Mummy umbrella, which starred Brendan Frasier.

The latest take on the classic monster flick is slated for a 2017 release at the moment, with the film due to hit screens in June.

Shanina will fit practice for her 'cameo' role in the film around planning her wedding to fiance DJ Ruckus at the end of the year, while also prepping for her fifth Victoria Secret's show in November.
She's been enjoying a much-needed break from her busy TV schedule.

And now it looks as though Amanda Holden has found her inner zen in the sun as she went topless on her Instagram.

Sharing the saucy snap to her 340,000 followers, the 45-year-old beauty displayed her incredibly svelte figure as she faced her back to the camera as she posed with her feet crossed and hands facing up on her knees.

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Picture of health: Amanda Holden has found her inner zen in the sun as she went topless while sitting by the pool on holiday on Sunday

The BGT judge simply captioning the racy pic: '#meditationmandy'.

Displaying her perky derriere, the yummy mummy worked a pair of paisley print bikini bottoms with flirty tie sides which highlighted her toned legs.

Exhibiting her even bronzed tan, Amanda, who is mum to nine-year-old Hollie and four-year-old Alexa, looked the picture of health as she practiced her meditation.

Fairy Godmother: Amanda is set to appear in Cinderella as the Fairy Godmother at the London Palladium later this year

Working a large black fedora, the TV host teased her golden tresses as she carefully pinned her locks underneath her stylish hat.

It was previously revealed in July that Amanda will undertake the role of the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the London Palladium later this year.

The blonde bombshell signed a deal to star with Paul O'Grady (Wicked Stepmother), Julian Clary (Dandini), Lee Mead (Prince Charming) and Nigel Havers (Lord Chamberlain) in the stage show, which will run for five weeks from December 9.

Earlier this year, Amanda's decision to don racy frocks for the Britain's Got Talent's semi-final - along with co-host Alesha Dixon - received a number of complaints from viewers.

But media watchdog Ofcom has decided to not pursue an investigation over viewer complaints after assessing the matter.

Speaking to MailOnline a spokesperson from the watchdog said: 'We assessed a number of complaints about the suitability of clothing worn by two female judges before the watershed, but wont be taking the matter forward for investigation.

'The dresses worn by the judges did not raise issues under our rules on nudity, and the judges were not portrayed in a sexualised way.'
She underwent a 'non-surgical tummy tuck' last week before her getaway to Punta Mita, Mexico, with her girlfriends.

And Kim Kardashian returned to her beloved cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Simon Ourian's Epione center in Beverly Hills on Saturday night for more work just hours after returning from her holiday.

'Late night service,' the 35-year-old reality star boasted as she headed for a 'cool laser' on her hands.

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'Cool laser': Kim Kardashian gushed over a hand rejuvenation she received at the Epione dermatologist center in Beverly Hills on Saturday

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star shared a Snapchat video and photo as she visited the celebrity surgeon's office.

'Did cool laser on my hands to keep hands looking young!' she gushed over the hand rejuvenation.

The Epione website describes the process as a modern technique which utilizes 'everything from laser technology to microdermabrasion and chemical peels to injectable fillers.'

Getting beach ready! Dr Simon Ourian's post about Kim's 'non-surgical tummy tuck' she got just days before her vacation to Mexico

'Late night service': The 35-year-old reality star was thrilled as she headed to the Beverly Hills clinic just hours after she returned from her getaway

'Keep hands looking young!': Kim underwent hand rejuvenation which is a technique that utilizes 'everything from laser technology to microdermabrasion and chemical peels to injectable fillers' according to the Epione site; here she is pictured on August 5

'Late night, what is it called?' the E! star could be heard off camera as she approached the exclusive skin care clinic.

'Not a house call... late night service... Dr Ourian at Epione.'

The wife of rapper Kanye West, 39, had just returned from a vacation in Mexico only hours before.

White hot! The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star visited the famed cosmetic surgeon's office hours after returning from a vacation in Mexico where she posed in a wet tee which left little to the imagination

Bootylicious! The mother-of-two also gave her Instagram followers an eyeful of her shapely derriere as she twerked in a black thong

Miracle maker: Kim has been outspoken about her support for the famed celebrity surgeon

She stayed at Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis' Casa Aramara mansion where the brunette beauty flaunted her new skin tightening procedure.

After losing nearly 70lbs since the birth of her son, North West in December, Kim was more than happy to flaunt her weight loss and new taut tummy.

The mother-of-two still showcased her slender waistline and shapely derriere in a tiny white thong and wet white tee.

She posed up a storm in the drenched top which left little to the imagination while snapping photos with her gorgeous gal pals - Stephanie Sheppard and Jasmine Sanders.
Shes only just confirmed her blossoming romance with Wallabies player Drew Mitchell.

But it seems Delta Goodrem has not only been swooning after her sporting beau as it has been claimed that she has been flirting with her male co-stars on the set of House Husbands.

According to Womans Day, the 31-year-old has ruffled a few feathers on set, especially among her female counterparts thanks to her flirty behaviour.

Cheeky? It has been claimed Delta Goodrem has been flirting with her male co-stars on the set of House Husbands

Delta arrived and within minutes she was flirting up a storm with her male co-stars, a TV insider revealed to the publication.

Even the shows leading ladies Julia Morris and Natalie Saleeba noticed it  and they were not impressed, laughing and rolling their eyes behind her back.

People have their noses out of joint because Delta was able to walk straight into a role handed to her by Nine executives, the source added.

'He's dreamy': Last week, the singer paid tribute to her House Husbands co-star Hugh Sheridan in a gushing post on Instagram

New girl: According to Womans Day , the 31-year-old has ruffled a few feathers on set, especially among her female counterparts thanks to her flirty behaviour

Last week, Delta paid tribute to her House Husbands co-star Hugh Sheridan in a gushing post on Instagram.

'When u know you're going into another week of work with this handsome, SUPER-talent, gorgeous amazing soul @hugh_sheridan,' she captioned the post.

'So lucky. Thanks Hugh for being you!!!!' [sic]

The former Voice Australia judge also added in the hashtags 'House Husbands,' 'he's dreamy,' and 'here we go'.

Going public: Delta recently confirmed her blossoming romance with Wallabies player Drew Mitchell

She recently heaped praise on the three-time Logie Award winner in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, confessing he has been 'a dream to work with' so far.

He has made me feel totally at home,' she confessed. 'It's really wonderful to be surrounded by such a high calibre of talent.

'I'm honoured to be working with them,' the bubbly personality continued.

Delta is the newest household name to join the Logie Award-winning Australian drama, House Husbands.

The Voice Australia judge will play the character of Izzy Dreyfus - a new teacher at Nepean South Primary School with a dark past.

New role: The Voice Australia judge will play the character of Izzy Dreyfus - a new teacher at Nepean South Primary School with a dark past
At least 30 killed in Turkey wedding attack near Syria border

At least 30 people were killed and dozens more wounded in an attack possibly carried out by a suicide bomber on a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, officials said.

The explosion is the latest attack to have rocked the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen a string of strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 30 people had been killed and 94 wounded in "an abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding".

First aid officers carry an injured man to hospital August 20, 2016 in Gaziantep following a late night militant attack on a wedding party in southeastern Turkey Ahmed Deeb (AFP)

A previous toll had put the number of dead at 22.

"We condemn the traitors who organised and carried out this attack," he said, vowing that those responsible would be "brought to account".

Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said it was not clear who was responsible for the explosion but there was a "high possibility" it was a suicide attack.

The lawmaker added that it was the type of attack that could have been launched by the Islamic State (IS) group or the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

- 'IS the culprit' -

The explosion took place in the Sahinbey district of the city which is said to have a large number of Kurdish residents, fuelling speculation of Islamic State (IS) jihadist involvement. Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence.

"Initial information suggests it is Daesh (IS) who did this," Gaziantep MP for the AKP, Samil Tayyar, was reported as saying by Dogan news agency.

He added: "It is an area where many of our Kurdish brothers live."

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

"The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament, adding that a suicide bombing was the likely cause.

A major city lying just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Images from the scene showed bodies covered in white sheets while distraught relatives of the victims were comforted in the street.

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara in deadly attacks, while IS suicide bombers have twice killed tourists in the centre of Istanbul.

Meanwhile the country is still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his supporters from all state institutions.

Twelve people were killed on Thursday in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup.

As has been the case in previous attacks, Turkey's broadcasting regulator RTUK banned broadcast of footage from the scene of the attack in Gaziantep.

Information and Communication Agency (BTK) head Omer Fatih Sayan told state-run Anadolu news agency that those sharing images of the bombing would face prosecution.

- 'More active Turkey' -

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the over five-year Syrian civil war.

In a sign that Turkey's position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russia and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.

Iran and Russia are the main allies of Assad whereas Turkey has always insisted his exit was a precondition for the end of the conflict.

Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of IS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies.

However Western states say Ankara has begun to move strongly against the group and seal its borders to jihadist traffic after the attacks blamed on IS on its soil this year.

Ambulances arrive at the site of an explosion on August 20, 2016 in Gaziantep following a late night militant attack on a wedding party in southeastern Turkey Ahmed Deeb (AFP)

People gather near the explosion site on August 20, 2016 in Gaziantep following a late night militant attack on a wedding party in southeastern Turkey

A man takes a pictures of a child's shoe in the debris of the explosion at a wedding party, in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep Ahmed Deeb (AFP)

Relatives grieve at hospital in Gaziantep following a late night militant attack on a wedding party in southeastern Turkey Ahmed Deeb (AFP)
Felix eyes London after golden finale

Allyson Felix is targeting next year's World Championships after bagging a record sixth Olympic gold as the United States defended their 4x400m crown.

The 30-year-old darling of US track and field brought home the American quartet of Courtney Okolo, Natasha Hastings, and Phyllis Francis with a perfectly judged last leg.

Felix, the reigning 400m world champion, crossed in 3min 19.06sec, with Jamaica winning silver in 3:20.34 and Britain claiming bronze in 3:25.88.

(From L) USA's Natasha Hastings, Phyllis Francis, Allyson Felix and Courtney Okolo celebrate after they won the Women's 4x400m Relay Final Pedro Ugarte (AFP)

The win came only 24 hours after Felix had picked up a fifth gold medal in the 4x100m relay.

She now has more Olympic golds than any other woman track and field athlete in history.

"It's amazing to come together with these women tonight and to be able to finish it off. It was a good night," Felix said.

The relay golds offset the disappointment of an individual season disrupted by a freak ankle injury after a gym accident.

That setback left her scrambling to regain full fitness, ending her hopes of a 200m-400m double in Rio.

She suffered an agonizing defeat in the final of the 400m and failed to qualify for the 200m after missing out at the US trials.

Asked to assess her season, she replied: "The toughest without a doubt. You make plans and you want things to go to a certain schedule -- and nothing went according to the schedule.

"But that's okay, it's about growth and character and I think I learned a lot of lessons throughout this Olympic Games."

The conclusion of her fourth Olympics -- she made her debut at the Athens 2004 Games -- left Felix reflecting on her career with satisfaction.

"I can look back at the things I've accomplished and be really proud," she said.

"And really be grateful for what track and field has brought to my life. I'm really passionate about it and it's brought me a lot of joy."

Her medal collection will remain with her parents though.

"They like to show them off. I let them do that," she said.

Felix expects to race once more in Europe this year before turning her attention to the World Championships in London next August when she will be 31.

She would not be drawn on the possibility of returning for a fifth Olympics in 2020.

"London is next on the agenda," she said. "As far as the next four years -- I'm just taking it year by year. I think that I probably have one more race this season, maybe in Zurich."

The relay win was the latest in a a 20-year unbeaten reign in the event for the United States.

They have not lost a 4x400m relay since finishing in silver behind the unified team of former Soviet Union states at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Benin revives hopes of getting railway back on track

At the old train station in Benin's economic capital Cotonou, a rundown locomotive imported from France in the 1960s arduously roars to life, ready to haul 600 tonnes of goods to an inland city.

"If it doesn't break down, it will get there in 12 hours," says Marcel Agon, who has been stationmaster since 1985, about the 430 kilometre (270 mile) trip to Parakou.

Only 20 good trains leave the small terminus each month, yet a fine new regional express passenger train with blue seats and bright paintwork, also from France, has never rolled out of Cotonou.

In barely three months, Bollore Africa Logistics (BAL) renovated the station in Cotonou, paid wage arrears and imported track to link Cotonou with Niger's capital Niamey Yanick Folly (AFP/File)

When French industrial giant Bollore took Benin's rail network in hand in April 2014, railway employees thought things were getting back on track, until a court stopped work the next year. It upheld a complaint from a Beninese businessman with his own plans to knock the railroad back into shape.

Now Benin's new businessman president has promised to find a solution to the conflicting interests that have blocked the hopes of modern rail transport.

"We are going to get out of this hornet's nest soon," President Patrice Talon recently told journalists.

- Going off the rails -

It was in November 2013 that the heads of state of little Benin and landlocked Niger to the north initially decided to establish Benirail, a multinational firm with Bollore as a strategic partner.

In barely three months, Bollore Africa Logistics (BAL) renovated the station, paid wage arrears and imported track to link Cotonou with Niger's capital Niamey, with further plans to extend the railway to Burkina Faso and Togo and on to Abidjan in Ivory Coast.

The aim was to kickstart growth in five of the world's poorest countries in West Africa.

Railroads came to Benin, then called Dahomey, in 1936. But like other African nations the railway was just internal. No significant international network exists except in South Africa.

BAL's start however was a bit too fast for its Beninese rival, millionaire businessman Samuel Dossou, CEO of Petrolin, who had his own rail plans and filed a suit against Bollore.

This is "a project that he started himself and paid out of his own pocket for the studies," Dossou's wife and Petrolin board member Claudine Afiavi Prudencio said at the time.

The days when "people can trample on the rights of Beninese businessmen in their homeland are over," she added.

Indeed, BAL had no legal authorisation to begin work. In a ruling handed down on November 19, 2015, the Cotonou court of appeal upheld Dossou's complaint and ordered "the end of all work undertaken" immediately.

Dossou has been trying to take charge of the rail network in the former French colony since 2004, the year the state relaxed its grip on the OCBN (Joint Benin-Niger Organisation of Railways and Transports).

But for lack of funds, no tenders were honoured until 2010, when Dossou and the two states finally negotiated to integrate a rail network. Studies were carried out, but came to nought, according to Gustave Sonon, a former minister of public works.

"Dossou didn't have the resources," Sonon said.

"When I went into government, I had a choice between allowing Bollore to continue or totally blocking the project," the former minister told AFP. "Good progress had been made and for that reason I pushed things on a bit."

- Oxidising in the sun -

But since the court brought work to a halt last year, a huge stock of new track intended to cover a distance of 500 kilometres (310 miles) has been lying in Cotonou, oxidising in the sun.

Across the border in Niger the Bollore group has begun to lay 150 kilometres of track in the vast and partly desert nation, which sorely needs access to the sea, and is threatening to bypass Benin.

"They are threatening to build a railway through Togo and abandon the port of Cotonou if Benin doesn't choose Bollore," said a source close to the case, who added that "in any event, everything will be negotiated in Paris."

Both Petrolin and BAL declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

But Talon, a cotton tycoon who was elected president with 65 percent of the vote and took office in April, declared that negotiations were under way when he gave a press conference after returning from Paris, where he had talks with industrial magnate Vincent Bollore.

"What has been done up until now has many flaws because it was done in haste," Talon admitted, but insisted the impasse would end soon.

Marcel Agon, the elderly stationmaster, sure hopes that a working compromise can be reached -- before his retirement in the next two or three years.

"God willing, before I retire, I shall see this station full of passengers and my country moving forward," he says as the rusty old goods train trundles towards the horizon.

At the central railway station in Cotonou a fine new regional express passenger train with blue seats and bright paintwork, has never rolled out of Cotonou Yanick Folly (AFP/File)

Railroads came to Benin, then called Dahomey, in 1936, but like other African nations the railway was just internal Yanick Folly (AFP/File)
N. Korea demands repatriation of restaurant defectors

North Korea on Sunday demanded the repatriation of a dozen restaurant workers who jointly fled to South Korea, a day after blasting Seoul over a separate high-profile defection.

Sunday's statement was Pyongyang's first reaction to Seoul's announcement last week that the 12 restaurant staff and their manager had been released from government custody.

The group had been "released into society", the South's unification ministry said, after the intelligence service had completed investigations into their case.

North Korea has claimed that a group of restaurant workers who made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years, had been kidnapped Ed Jones (AFP/File)

North Korea claims the group was kidnapped.

A spokesman for its emergency committee set up for "rescuing" abductees described the ministry's announcement as a "mean plot" aimed at "covering up the truth behind the group abduction".

"Keeping them hidden from the public... citing 'safety reasons' shows that the puppet government's announcement is a complete fabrication," he said.

"We will continue fighting until we can rescue and bring back our female citizens," the spokesman added in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

The waitresses had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China. They made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years.

While Seoul said they fled voluntarily, Pyongyang claimed they were kidnapped by South Koreas National Intelligence Service and waged a vocal campaign through its state media for their return.

The campaign has included emotional video interviews with the women's relatives in the North, angrily denouncing South Korean authorities and demanding a meeting with the women.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression at home to settle in the capitalist South.

But group defections are rare, especially by staff who work in the North Korea-themed restaurants overseas and who are handpicked from families considered "loyal" to the regime.

In another high-profile case, the South said last week that North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had defected to Seoul.

It said Thae Yong-Ho was driven by his disgust for the Pyongyang regime, admiration for South Korea's free and democratic system and concerns for his family's future.

North Korea on Saturday lashed out at Thae's defection, claiming that the "human scum" had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for the South and had fled "for fear of legal punishment for his crimes".

It said the South had brought the "fugitive" to Seoul to use him in its anti-Pyongyang smear campaign.

Thae was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years.
Duterte threatens to pull Philippines out of UN

President Rodrigo Duterte threatened on Sunday to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations, as he launched another profanity-laced tirade against the organisation for criticising his bloody war on crime.

More than 1,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office and immediately began his law-and-order crackdown, according to police statistics, triggering fierce criticism from the UN and rights groups.

Duterte, a lawyer famous for an acid tongue who has repeatedly told the UN not to interfere, on Sunday stepped up his rhetoric against the organisation.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte stepped up his rhetoric against the UN saying he may even look to set up another international organisation Noel Celis (AFP/File)

"Maybe well just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you," Duterte said in a press conference in his home city of Davao that started about 1:00 am.

Duterte said he may even try to set up a rival international organisation.

"I would invite everybody. I would invite maybe China, the African (nations)," he said.

The UN's special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, last week said Duterte's promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated international law.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June also strongly criticised Duterte, who during the election campaign promised to kill 100,000 people and dump so many bodies in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

"I unequivocally condemn his apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms," Ban said.

Duterte frequently peppers his public comments with swear words -- he has also called Pope Francis and the US ambassador to Manila sons of whores -- and days after his election win used typical language to criticise the UN.

"F**k you, UN, you can't even solve the Middle East carnage... couldn't even lift a finger in Africa," he said then.

- Tirade against UN -

Duterte lashed out in a similar fashion on Sunday, accusing the "stupid" UN of not doing anything in Middle East hotspots Syria and Iraq.

Duterte referenced a haunting photo taken last week of a little Syrian boy, who was pictured sitting in an ambulance dazed and covered in blood after an air strike, as evidence of the UN's ineffectiveness.

"Is that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death? Look at the iconic boy taken out of the rubble. When he was made to sit in the ambulance, and we saw it. So what's the difference?"

And Duterte asked why police killings in the United States were not attracting the same kind of criticism as the Philippines.

"What do you think the Americans did to the black people there? Is that not rubbing off also? And (critics) say what?"

Duterte also accused the UN of doing nothing for the Philippines -- ignoring its poverty reduction programmes and enormous help following typhoons and other natural disasters.

On the day he was sworn into office, Duterte called for people in slums to kill neighbours whom they believed were drug addicts, repeating a campaign line.

His aides have since said such comments are merely hyperbole and not meant to be taken literally.

However nearly 900 people have been murdered by unknown people during Duterte's time in power, with police killing another 665 alleged drug suspects, according to the national police chief.

The killings represent a massive increase on crime deaths since Duterte took office.

Duterte has repeatedly insisted police have only killed in self defence, while maintaining the other deaths are due to drug syndicates killing each other.

Duterte and his aides have given conflicting positions on whether they would allow UN experts to come to the Philippines to investigate allegations government security forces are carrying out extrajudicial killings.

On Sunday, he contradicted his spokesman's comments from the previous day and challenged them to come.

"You law experts of the United Nations, come here and face me and make the accusations," he said.

On Wednesday last week he said if an investigator came to the Philippines, "I'd like to box him in the head".
China opens world's longest glass-bottomed bridge

The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened in China's spectacular Zhangjiajie mountains -- the inspiration for American blockbuster Avatar.

Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans the canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in China's central Hunan province.

Six metres wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass, the bridge can carry up to 800 people at the same time, an official in Zhangjiajie -- a popular tourist destination -- told the Xinhua news agency.

Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans a canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in China's central Hunan province Fred Dufour (AFP)

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line.

"I wanted to feel awe-inspired by this bridge. But I'm not afraid -- it seems safe!" Wang Min, who was visiting the new structure with her husband and children, told AFP Saturday.

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure.

They organised a string of media events, including one where people were encouraged to try and smash the bridge's glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it.

"It's crowded today and a bit of a mess. But to be suspended 300 metres in the air, it's a unique experience," said Lin Chenglu, who had come to see the bridge with his colleagues.

Only 8,000 people each day will be allowed to cross the bridge, Xinhua said, and tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan ($20).

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, and people wearing stilettos will not be allowed to walk on the bridge, Xinhua said.

Local authorities have said that one of the summits in Zhangjiajie Park inspired the floating mountain which appears in the American blockbuster Avatar.

A Hollywood photographer visited the area in 2008, taking images which were used for the film, according to media reports.

A tourist takes a photograph on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan province Fred Dufour (AFP)
Foreign volunteers take aim at IS while they still can

Growing numbers of Westerners appear to be trying to join the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq before it's too late, frontline volunteer warriors say.

IS group jihadists have suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq and Syria in recent months, including the loss of key towns and facilities surrounding the remaining major strongholds in their self-declared "caliphate" -- Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria.

Although limited or unreliable public data make it difficult to track numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests aspiring anti-jihadists -- many of them military veterans -- recognize they may be running out of time to fight IS in a pitched battle as the group loses territory and morphs into a traditional terror group.

Fred, a French volunteer in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, looks towards a jihadist position in Daquq, north of Baghdad on December 7, 2015 Jean-Marc Mojon (AFP/File)

The volunteers are eager despite being strongly discouraged -- and sometimes banned by their home countries -- from doing so.

With the fight for Mosul expected to begin in the coming months, US-led coalition advisors, warplanes and drones are conducting "shaping operations" that will lay the battle groundwork.

Louis Park, a 26-year-old Texan who returned to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region for a second stint with local anti-IS forces in June, told AFP he had seen a sharp uptick in queries from aspiring Western fighters.

"People know that the end is near and they are trying to get in while they can," said the US Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan.

Park, a Christian, has embedded with the Dwekh Nawsha, an Assyrian Christian militia working with US-backed Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect the towns of Telskuf and nearby Baqufa, around 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Mosul.

"I'm getting inquiries from all around the world -- 60 or 70 since I've been back," he said in a phone interview from close to the Baqufa frontline.

According to a study released last week by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, of the 300 or so foreign fighters it tracked via social media heading to fight the IS group, more than a third are Americans.

The fighters are motivated by various factors, including wanting to make a difference or do something meaningful in their lives, and anger over a perceived inadequate international effort to counter the IS group's barbaric acts.

"The primary grievance relates to atrocities being committed against civilians, with many accusing world leaders of turning a blind eye to the ongoing suffering of those caught up in the conflict," the report said.

Park headed to Iraq largely because he missed combat and wanted to serve.

"I don't want to die, but I'd rather be in this position than someone who doesn't have to be," he said.

- 'Broke and disappointed' -

Another volunteer fighter who goes by the nom de guerre "Mike" said he is getting around a dozen messages a day from people who want to join the fight. A year ago, it would have taken him a week to get as many.

The uptick in foreigners heading to the Iraq's Kurdish region has put authorities in a bind, with increasing scrutiny of volunteers and the equipment they bring.

"My advice for them would be: don't bother coming down here," the former Norwegian soldier with Kurdish roots said in an email.

"You will most likely not be allowed to fight and will leave broke and disappointed."

The Kurdish government is under considerable pressure to keep Western volunteers away from the front line, he added.

"So they often place them at inactive fronts or in camps, where they are safe and free to post pictures of themselves with gear and weapons on their Facebook page," Mike, 31, said.

Instagram, Facebook and other social media sites are filled with images from volunteers -- sometimes showing dead IS fighters, sometimes depicting the monotony of life on the front.

Park and Mike have garnered tens of thousands of followers under their Instagram handles, "louis_tex" and "peshmerganor," respectively.

While most requests come from Americans, Mike said he's received inquiries from Australians, Europeans and even from an Iranian.

"I'm guessing people are realizing ISIS is coming to an end and want to be able to tell people back home they have fought them in the battlefield," he added, using an acronym for IS.

Different countries have different rules regarding nationals fighting alongside friendly foreign forces.

The United States strongly discourages, but does not prohibit, such actions.

"Our ability to provide consular assistance to individuals who are injured or kidnapped, or to the families of individuals who die as a result of taking part in the conflict is extremely limited," the State Department warned.

Some 250 private Americans have gone, or tried to go, to Syria and Iraq to fight, the FBI said last year, although it did not differentiate between those fighting the IS group and those joining the jihadists.

The agency did not provide more recent numbers.

US Customs and Border Patrol said returning fighters, like all travelers, may be subject to extra scrutiny.

"CBP does coordinate with other law enforcement agencies to provide the appropriate support as requested," the agency said in a statement.

Other countries, such as Australia and Belgium, bar their citizens from fighting with foreign forces, even those perceived as friendly.

Attacks by Islamic State on Western targets since 2015 Iris ROYER DE VERICOURT, Paz PIZARRO (AFP/File)

IS group jihadists have suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq and Syria in recent months Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)
Indian soldiers kill three militants near Kashmir border

Indian soldiers killed three suspected rebels in a gun battle Sunday in Indian-administered Kashmir, the army said, as the region reels from weeks of deadly violence between protesters and security forces.

The rebels were killed in Tangdhar north of the main city of Srinagar after crossing over from the Pakistani side of the heavily militarised border that divides the area between the two countries, it said.

"Three terrorists were killed in the fight. Three assault rifles were also recovered from the site of the gun battle," army spokesman Colonel N.N. Joshi told AFP.

Indian Kashmir has been under curfew since protests erupted over the death last month of a popular young rebel leader, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight with security forces Rouf Bhat (AFP/File)

The army was trying to determine if the rebels were part of the same group that attacked an Indian ammunition depot in the area on Friday, injuring at least three border guards.

Indian Kashmir has been under curfew since protests erupted over the death last month of a popular young rebel leader, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight with security forces.

More than 60 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan region since 2010.

Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan region in full.

Wani's Hizbul Mujahideen and several other rebel groups have fought for decades an estimated 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence for the region or its merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting since 1989 when the armed rebellion began.

India blames Pakistan for arming and sending rebels across the de facto border to launch attacks on Indian forces.
Iraq hangs 36 over 2014 massacre of recruits

Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of up to 1,700 military recruits, officials said.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where the recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group.

"The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison," a spokesman for the governor's office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, told AFP.

The "Speicher" massacre, named after a base near Iraq's Tikrit where up to 1,700 military recruits were kidnapped before being executed by Sunni jihadists and allied militants Haidar Hamdani (AFP/File)

"The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions," Abdelhassan Dawood said.

"They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions," he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

The Dhiqar governor confirmed to AFP that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq's south.

"Tens of relatives attended the executions," said Dawood. "They shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), they were happy to see those people dead."

Among them was Najla Shaab, a 30-year-old woman whose husband was killed in the massacre, leaving her to raise their children alone.

"Thank you God, it's a fair punishment for the worst crime, a triple crime of killing, throwing bodies in the river and burying people alive," she told AFP by phone.

- Botched trials -

One of the sites of the massacre was the former river police building inside former president Saddam Hussein's palace complex in Tikrit.

Video footage subsequently released by IS showed an assembly-line massacre in which gunmen herded their victims towards the quay, shot them in the back of the head and pushed them in the water one after the other.

The trials that have led to Iraq's latest batches of death sentences have been severely criticised by rights groups as failing to meet basic standards.

Amnesty International had slammed Iraq's systematic resort to the death penalty following the execution of 22 other people in May this year.

"The use of the death penalty is deplorable in all circumstances, and it is particularly horrendous when applied after grossly unfair trials marred by allegations of confessions extracted under torture as is frequently the case in Iraq," the group's Iraq researcher Diana Eltahawy said.

The United Nations had criticised Abadi's call to speed up executions, which according to Amnesty already topped 100 for 2016 before Sunday's hangings.

"Fast-tracking executions will only accelerate injustice," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said earlier this month.

The Speicher massacre is considered one of IS's worst crimes since it took over large parts of the country in 2014.

Combined with a call by the country's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to take up arms against them, the Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass recruitment of Shiite volunteers to fight the jihadists.

Iraqi security forces work at the site of a mass grave containing the remains of people believed to have been slain by jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group at the Speicher camp in the city of Tikrit, on April 12, 2015 Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)
Sri Lanka airline suspends drunk pilot in Frankfurt

Sri Lanka's national carrier has suspended a captain who failed a breathalyser test just before he was due to fly 274 passengers and crew from Frankfurt to Colombo, the airline said Sunday.

"Upon receiving the results (of the test) SriLankan Airlines took immediate steps to suspend the services of the said captain and took alternative measures to operate the flight to Colombo," the airline said in a statement.

An airline source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Flight UL554 was held up at Frankfurt airport for more than 15 hours on Friday as staff scrambled to find another captain for the Airbus A330.

SriLankan Airlines said an internal investigation was underway into the incident in Frankfurt and it would cooperate with any probe by German authorities Ishara S. Kodikara (AFP/File)

The crew raised the alarm after noticing that the captain was visibly drunk, the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told AFP.

The airline said an internal investigation was underway into the incident and it would cooperate with any probe by German authorities.

The cash-strapped airline is due to stop its flights to Frankfurt from October as it slashes routes to European destinations.
S. Korea warns of possible N. Korean assassination squads

South Korea warned Sunday of possible North Korean assassinations and kidnappings in revenge for recent high-profile defections to the South.

With tensions also high before a large-scale South Korea-US military exercise starting Monday, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said Pyongyang was bent on provocation.

A ministry official told reporters the defection to Seoul of North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had put the North in "a very difficult situation".

"Considering (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un's character, it is very dangerous," an official at South Korea's Unification Ministry said on condition of anonymity Ed Jones (AFP/File)

"Considering (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un's character, it is very dangerous," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"It's highly likely that North Korea will make various attempts to prevent further defections and unrest among its people."

The official cited assassination attempts and terror attacks against defectors in the South as well as the abduction of South Koreans abroad as possible provocations.

He noted attempts to assassinate Hwang Jang-Yop, the North's chief ideologue and former tutor to previous leader Kim Jong-Il, who defected to the South in 1997 and died of natural causes in 2010.

The official also said Kim Jong-Un had dispatched squads to the Chinese border "to harm South Koreans" following the defection in April of a group of North Korean overseas restaurant workers.

Deputy ambassador Thae Yong-Ho was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years before his defection announced last week.

The South said he was driven by disgust for the Pyongyang regime, admiration for South Korea's free and democratic system and concerns for his family's future.

North Korea, in a vitriolic response Saturday, claimed that the "human scum" had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for the South and had fled "for fear of legal punishment for his crimes".

The 12 waitresses and their manager had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China. They made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years.

While Seoul said they fled voluntarily, Pyongyang claimed they were kidnapped by South Koreas National Intelligence Service and waged a vocal campaign through its state media -- including interviews with family members -- for their return.

-'Mean plot'-

Seoul said last week the 13-strong group was now free to settle in South Korean society after the intelligence service completed investigations into their case and allowed them to leave custody.

A spokesman for the North's emergency committee set up for "rescuing" abductees described that announcement as a "mean plot" aimed at "covering up the truth behind the group abduction".

"Keeping them hidden from the public... citing 'safety reasons' shows that the puppet government's announcement is a complete fabrication," he said.

"We will continue fighting until we can rescue and bring back our female citizens."

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression at home to settle in the capitalist South.

But group defections are rare, especially by staff who work in the North Korea-themed restaurants overseas and are handpicked from families considered "loyal" to the regime.

On Monday Seoul and Washington begin their annual joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise involving tens of thousands of troops.

"With the start of the UFG drills tomorrow, we ask all citizens to be on guard for North Korean terror threats and cooperate with the government's efforts," said the unification ministry official.

The two-week drill is one of a number of annual joint exercises viewed as provocative rehearsals for invasion by Pyongyang.

On Sunday a spokesman for North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Pyongyang's determination to retaliate "will only grow stronger" if such exercises continue.

"It is our firm position that we will mercilessly attack the threats of invasion and provocation from the enemies with our nuclear deterrence," the spokesman said in a statement on the North's official KCNA news agency.

The defection of a top North Korean diplomat to the South is the latest strain on relations Katie Schubauer (AFP/File)

A diplomatic car drives away from the office and residence of the North Korean Embassy in a residential area of Ealing, west London on April 30, 2003 Adrian Dennis (AFP/File)
Afghan forces retake district from Taliban

Afghan forces have recaptured a district that had fallen briefly to the Taliban, officials and residents said Sunday, after thousands of people fled their homes in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province.

Khan Abad district, which is around 30 kilometres east of Kunduz city -- the provincial capital where militants last year scored their biggest ever victory -- had fallen to the Taliban after they launched a pre-dawn attack on the district centre on Saturday, according to local officials.

Several hours later Afghan special forces were deployed to the area -- a key route to Kunduz city -- to retake the district.

Afghan security personnel prepare for an operation against Taliban militants in Kunduz province on May 31, 2016 Najim Rahim (AFP/File)

The district was recaptured by government forces on Saturday evening, according to Sayed Mahmood Danish, a Kunduz governor spokesman.

"Taliban are now being chased away. The threat to the city is gone. We are expanding our operations beyond the district," Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told AFP.

A shopkeeper in Khan Abad district, Khalid, told AFP that people were still worried about the Taliban making a return to the city.

"The roads are empty, few shops are open in the city. People do not have access to food and drinking water. We still cannot come out of our houses," he said.

Another resident, Mohammad Sahim, said the militants had looted and set fire to government buildings.

"People are in fear, you don't see many people in the streets, schools are closed," he said, adding that there is a danger of food shortages.

The Taliban briefly captured Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war.

The militants were driven out almost two weeks later by Afghan forces backed by US aircraft and NATO soldiers, but it marked the first time since 2001 that the Taliban were able to take control of a major city in the country.

After the brief Kunduz city takeover, US and Afghan officials insisted that they would not allow another urban centre to be captured.

Earlier this month, the Taliban launched a major offensive in volatile southern Helmand province, surrounding the capital Lashkar Gah, a town of 200,000 inhabitants, but were stopped by Afghan forces supported by American air strikes.

The fighting in Helmand and Kunduz comes as Afghan troops are stretched on multiple fronts across Afghanistan -- including eastern Nangarhar province where the Islamic State group is making inroads.
Suicide bomber kills 3 in north Cameroon

Three civilians were killed and around 20 others wounded on Sunday in a suicide attack in northern Cameroon, officials and a vigilante group said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a security official told AFP the attack took place in Mora, a town in Cameroon's far north near the Nigerian border -- an area which has suffered repeatedly from attacks by Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists.

"A man riding a motorbike blew himself up on a bridge near the market in Mora," he said.

Mora is home to the headquarters of a multi-national force fighting Boko Haram, which groups troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger Reinnier Kaze (AFP/File)

He said the blast had killed three civilians and the bomber.

An official from a local vigilante group confirmed a toll of "four dead and many wounded", saying the attack took place at around 7:00am (0600 GMT).

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region, confirmed a "provisional toll" of three civilians plus the suicide bomber.

He identified the victims as a teacher, a high school student and a person from a neighbouring town, and said five of the wounded were in "serious condition". He said a helicopter was on hand to take them to hospital in Maroua, the regional capital.

Mora is home to the headquarters of a multi-national force fighting Boko Haram, which groups troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

There are currently more than 8,000 Cameroonian soldiers deployed in the far north to counter Boko Haram, and there is a large military base for the motorised infantry brigades in the Mora area.

A similar suicide attack in the same area killed at least 10 people in Djakana at the end of June.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has killed at least 20,000 people in Nigeria and border areas of neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

It has also left more than 2.8 million homeless, fleeing attacks by militants who have ransacked villages across the poverty-stricken region.
Protest over election ban on Hong Kong pro-independence activists

Hundreds of protesters marched through Hong Kongs main streets on Sunday against a ban on pro-independence candidates from running in an upcoming legislative election, as fears grow over Beijings influence in the city.

In the last month five candidates who advocate a split from China were rejected from standing in the September 4 vote, with officials saying their stance went against Hong Kongs mini-constitution.

Critics have slammed the move as censorship as fears grow over Beijing interference in the semi-autonomous city in a range of areas, from politics to media and education.

Protesters participate in a rally against the banning of pro-independence candidates in the upcoming legislative council elections, in Hong Kong on August 21, 2016 Tengku Bahar (AFP)

The idea of independence is dismissed as illegal by Beijing and Hong Kong authorities, and was a taboo subject until recent months, when new parties emerged campaigning for a breakaway.

"I hope that people are aware of the political vetting. It is something that every Hongkonger should be concerned about because damage has been done to the rule of law as well as fairness in elections," protest organiser Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, of Civil Human Rights Front, told reporters before the rally.

Marchers held banners with the slogans "No political vetting!" and "Watch out! Iranian-style election in Hong Kong!" and shouted: "Give me back fair elections!" and "Defend freedom of speech".

"Talking about independence is part of freedom of speech. I'm worried that in future people will have to watch what they say," 20-year-old student Arry Tsui told AFP.

Police said up to 760 people participated in the protest, with organisers claiming more than 1,000 supporters.

Support for the independence movement has surged since the five were banned from standing in the elections.

Earlier this month, they led the city's first pro-independence rally as tension over the upcoming vote escalates.

The growth of "localism", and new calls for self-determination and independence, grew out of frustration among many young activists at the failure of mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 to win any political reforms from Beijing.
Briton, Australian named suspects in Bali policeman murder

A British man has been named a suspect, along with an Australian woman, in the murder of an Indonesian policeman on the resort island of Bali, police said Sunday.

Forensic teams have identified the blood of the slain policeman in a hotel room occupied by the suspects, Sara Connor and David Taylor, police added.

Connor, a mother from New South Wales, was named a suspect on Saturday.

Briton David Taylor (centre, black mask) is escorted by Indonesian officials at a police station in Denpasar on the resort island of Bali on August 19, 2016 Sonny Tumbelaka (AFP/File)

Traffic police officer Wayan Sudarsa's body was found with wounds to the head and neck early Wednesday on Kuta beach, a popular tourist hangout in the south of the island.

Denpasar police chief Hadi Purnomo said forensic tests had matched blood found in the pair's hotel room with the victim, as well as samples taken from the crime scene.

"There is evidence we have found that allows investigators to declare him a suspect," said Purnomo of Taylor.

Police had also gathered shards of glass from a bottle found at the crime scene they believe may have been used in Sudarsa's murder, Purnomo added.

Police formed a guard of honour Sunday at the funeral for the murdered officer before he was cremated in a Hindu ceremony.

Naming the pair as suspects is a formal step in the Indonesian legal system, which means detectives have enough evidence to consider filing charges.

The murder charge they could face carries a maximum penalty of 15 years, though they could also face lesser charges.

A manhunt was launched for the pair after Connor's ATM card and driver's license were found at the crime scene.

They were arrested at the Australian consulate Friday afternoon and taken to a police station in the Balinese capital, Denpasar.

Connor's lawyer Erwin Siregar said the couple had drunk beer before going to the beach around 11pm on Tuesday, where there was "kissing". No drugs were involved, he added.

Purnomo said there were nine witnesses assisting with their investigation. Police previously said witnesses had claimed they saw a man with dreadlocks -- like Taylor -- arguing with a police officer.

A man and woman matching their description were later spotted asking a motorcycle taxi to take them to a hotel but the driver refused as the man was covered in blood.

Bali, a pocket of Hinduism in Muslim-majority Indonesia, is a popular tourist destination known for its tropical climate and palm-fringed beaches.
Kurds deny Hasakeh truce deal agreed with Syria regime

Syria's military said Sunday a truce deal has been reached with the Kurds in the flashpoint city of Hasakeh, but a Kurdish source said it has yet to be finalised.

The northeastern city has been rocked by deadly clashes between US-backed Kurdish forces and fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since Wednesday.

In a bid to calm tensions, a delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in the nearby city of Qamishli on Saturday for talks with the two sides.

Fighting between a pro-government militia and Kurdish forces in the Syrian city of Hasakeh has left at least 43 people dead including 27 civilians since Wednesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)

A Syrian military source told AFP the deal was struck between regime forces and Kurdish fighters after two days of mediation by regime ally Russia.

The three-point agreement calls for a "halt to all hostilities and the return to regime forces of any positions seized by Kurdish fighters" since Wednesday, the Syrian military source said.

It also stipulates that casualties would be transferred north to Qamishli.

The military source said additional negotiations would take place on Monday.

However, a Kurdish military source told AFP from Hasakeh that none of the three points had been agreed.

"No agreement has been reached on a ceasefire or the return of positions to the regime," said the source, who declined to be named, stressing that more negotiations are due on Monday.

Earlier a source from the Hasakeh governorate said a delegation of Russian officials and members of the pro-regime militia National Defence Forces (NDF) had arrived at Qamishli airport for a meeting to take place on Monday.

- Common enemy -

A local journalist working with AFP toured seven army checkpoints that had been seized by Kurdish fighters and confirmed that regime forces were back in control.

But Kurdish fighters still held three positions previously controlled by the NDF in Al-Nashwa, a southern district of Hasakeh, the journalist said.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, but there have been growing tensions between them in Hasakeh.

Clashes erupted last week after Kurds demanded the NDF be dismantled in Hasakeh, and violence escalated on Thursday when regime warplanes bombarded Kurdish-held positions in the city for the first time.

Regime aircraft overflew the city on Sunday morning but without carrying out attacks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The unprecedented regime strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as they battle IS in northern Syria.

Since Wednesday, the fighting has left 43 people dead including 27 civilians, among them 11 children, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

Thousands of civilians have fled Hasakeh, where electricity has been cut and bakeries shut.

In the northern province of Aleppo, the scene of heavy clashes all month between government forces and rebels allied with jihadists, 28 civilians were among 38 people killed Saturday in strikes by the regime and its Russian allies, the Observatory said.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.

A wounded child lies in a hospital bed in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on August 20, 2016, a day after he was reportedly wounded in an airstrike by Syrian government forces on the city of Hasakeh Delil Souleiman (AFP)
Indian minister weighs in on Amnesty free speech row

A senior Indian minister appeared Sunday to support police in a row over free speech that saw Amnesty slapped with sedition charges for an event about the disputed Kashmir region.

Police in the southern city of Bangalore filed the initial charges last week following complaints that slogans on independence for the troubled region had been chanted at the event organised by the rights group.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley compared the freedom slogans to those at another event earlier this year at a prestigious New Delhi university that saw a student leader arrested on sedition charges.

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses a press conference in New Delhi on August 4, 2016 Prakash Singh (AFP/File)

"During an event in Bangalore, there were slogans for freedom (from India)... it was organised by a group that receives a lot of funding from abroad," Jaitley said at a rally in the Jammu part of the Himalayan state that includes Kashmir, without directly naming Amnesty.

"In Delhi, there were slogans calling for destruction of the country... raising slogans that advocate breaking the nation into pieces cannot be seen as freedom of speech and expression," he said.

Jaitley was referring to the rally in February at the university in which slogans were chanted that led to the student's arrest, sparking a major row over freedom of expression in India.

Sedition carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, although convictions are rare.

In the latest case Amnesty denied its staff made any such comments on independence for Kashmir. It said the charges showed a lack of "fundamental rights and freedoms in India".

Amnesty has said the event was focused on human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir which has been reeling from weeks of deadly violence between protesters and security forces.

Police have said they will investigate who made the comments following complaints from a Hindu nationalist student group.

Rights campaigners have long accused India's governments of using the British-era sedition law to clamp down on dissent.

Sedition charges have been used in the past against supporters of independence for Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.

Indian forces have since 1989 been fighting militant groups seeking either independence for Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan.
West Indies face condemnation for India Test farce

Officials remained tight-lipped on Sunday even as condemnation rained down on administrators deemed responsible for the fiasco of a waterlogged outfield that has ruined the fourth and final Test between the West Indies and India.

Only 22 overs were bowled before lunch on the first day of the match at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad, with the West Indies reaching 62 for two after choosing to bat first.

Not a single ball has been bowled since due almost entirely to areas of the field being completely saturated from the heavy rains of Thursday afternoon which initially interrupted play.

Umpire Nigel Llong (2ndL) illustrates a point to West Indies head coach Phil Simmons (3rdL) while inspecting the field at Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad August 21, 2016 Randy Brooks (AFP)

Umpires Nigel Llong and Rod Tucker, following a brief inspection of the ground and in consultation with West Indies and India team officials, abandoned play for the third consecutive day on Sunday less than an hour after the scheduled start.

The decision was taken as it became clear that the conditions would not have improved, even with the continuous sunshine that had prevailed over the previous two days.

Even if there is the chance of play on the scheduled final day on Monday -- and this remains a remote possibility - the match is already doomed to a draw which would give India the series 2-0 but also means they will lose their number one Test ranking to Pakistan.

India needed to win the series 3-0 to stay at number one as Pakistan's 2-2 series draw in England meant they had earned enough points from that campaign to displace their arch-rivals from the top position.

- Embarrassing -

The umpires, match referee Ranjan Madugalle and officials of the West Indies Cricket Board and the Queen's Park Cricket Club, have so far avoided commenting on the embarrassing situation.

However, the West Indies Cricket Board's regional curator, Kent Crafton, acknowledged that hosting international cricket at the venue was always going to be a challenge.

"We have been having rain constantly for the past few weeks so any additional rain would not have helped the situation," he explained to local media on Saturday.

"With the downpour on Thursday the rain would have come off the covers and concentrated in certain areas around the square which have become over-saturated."

However Crafton, a native of St Lucia, was proven to be overly optimistic when he suggested that a full day's play would have been possible on Sunday.

"As long as we don't get too much rain, we should be able to have a prompt start," was his confident prediction.

There was no rain at all overnight and the sun shone brightly through the morning, yet again no play was possible despite the best efforts of the groundstaff.

It remains to be seen what the consequences of this ground management fiasco will be but the situation represents yet another embarrassment to the WICB, which escaped from two similarly shambolic situations previously without sanction from the International Cricket Council.

In 1998, the first Test of the series against England at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica was abandoned after less than an hour's play when the umpires determined that the pitch conditions were too dangerous for batsmen against fast bowling.

In 2009, the scheduled second Test of the series, also against England, lasted less than two overs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua due to a sandy outfield that made the free movement of fielders and especially the bowlers almost impossible.

No senior international match had ever been staged previously in July or August at the Queen's Park Oval.

At one time, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board refused invitations to host matches after the month of May precisely because of concerns with the weather from the month of the June, the official start of the rainy season.

However that position was overturned subsequently as the establishment of the Indian Premier League in the months of April and May, along with other high-profile international scheduling, left Caribbean authorities with no choice but to schedule international fixtures in the rainy season over the past decade.
Israel hits Hamas targets in Gaza after rocket attack, 4 wounded

Israel targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip by air and with tank fire Sunday, injuring four people, after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave crashed into the Israeli city of Sderot.

Police said the rocket hit "between two buildings on a road" in Sderot, which is less than four kilometres (2.5 miles) from Gaza, causing no casualties.

Army spokesman Peter Lerner said Israeli forces retaliated by hitting targets of the Palestinian Islamist movement in northern Gaza.

Israeli soldiers manoeuvre tanks during a military exercise in the northern part of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria on June 23, 2016 Menahem Kahana (AFP/File)

"In response to the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the IAF (Israeli air force) and tanks targeted two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip," Lerner said in a statement.

Palestinian health and security sources said two people were lightly wounded by the Israeli fire.

"One of them is a 20-year-old (young man) who was hit by shrapnel in the face," said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Later on Sunday, two more Palestinians were wounded by further Israeli strikes in the area, Qudra added.

Security sources in the territory said several targets in northen Gaza were struck by Israeli fire, and that a reservoir in Beit Hanun was destroyed.

Witnesses said a base of Hamas's military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in nearby Beit Lahya, was also hit.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Sderot.

Israeli media said it was the first time downtown Sderot had been hit by a rocket from Gaza since the last war with Palestinian militants in the territory in 2014.
D.A. Henderson, doctor who eradicated smallpox, dies

Donald Henderson, an American doctor and public health official who led the successful global drive to wipe out smallpox in the 1960s and '70s, credited with saving tens of millions of lives, has died. He was 87.

Known as D.A., Henderson was a "giant" in public health, said Michael Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a position Henderson previously held.

Henderson "led the World Health Organizations successful 10-year effort to eradicate smallpox, one of the greatest public health achievements in history," Klag said in a statement announcing his death on Friday. "Smallpox is the only human disease ever to have been eradicated."

A nurse holds a vial of smallpox vaccine enough to inoculate 100 people as the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services starts to administer the vaccine to a limited number of health care workers in Los Angeles January 29, 2003 Mike Nelson (AFP/File)

Henderson died Friday in Baltimore of complications from a broken hip, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center -- where he was serving as a scholar -- said in a statement.

An official at the Communicable Disease Center, which later became the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he was selected in 1966 to lead the then seemingly futile effort to eradicate smallpox.

First known as the "pox," the disease was one of the deadliest in history, killing an estimated 300 million to 500 million people in the 20th century alone.

Caused by the variola major virus, smallpox inflicted great pain on victims, beginning with fever, nausea and other flu-like symptoms before leading to lesions on the face and body. A third of victims died. Survivors suffered disfigurement and occasionally blindness.

Heading an army of field workers around the world under an initiative of the World Health Organization, Henderson oversaw the implementation of a systematic vaccination program that focused on isolating outbreaks instead of attempting mass vaccinations.

Throughout the relentless effort, he often relied on his personal charm to urge leading officials to ensure their countries kept the drive going. The campaign was declared a success in 1980.

The son of an engineer and a nurse who grew up in Ohio, Henderson served as dean of Johns Hopkins Universitys school of public health from 1977 to 1990 and later as a science and bioterrorism adviser in the administrations of Bill Clinton and both George Bushes.

His many international honors included the US National Medal of Science in 1986 and Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, in 2002.

"He was an incredible raconteur who had, it seemed, a million stories about his life in public health," Klag said, "ranging from the influenza epidemic of 1957 to running the WHO smallpox program to initiating and leading our nations preparedness and response efforts for bioterrorism."

"D.A. Henderson truly changed the world for the better," the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Tom Inglesby said in a statement. "With all of that, he still took the time to be a mentor to countless young people, and was a great friend. He is truly irreplaceable."

Henderson is survived by his wife Nana, daughter Leigh, and sons Douglas and David.
Lou Pearlman, Backstreet Boys founder, dies in prison

Lou Pearlman, the producer who launched the hit 1990s boy band groups Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, has died in prison while serving a 25-year sentence for bilking investors of $300 million.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said the disgraced businessman died on Friday, providing no other details. He was 62.

Inspired by the success of the boy band New Kids on the Block, Pearlman recruited a group of unknowns to form the Backstreet Boys, which soared to stardom in 1996, becoming one of the best-selling boy bands of all-time.

Record impresario Lou Pearlman, pictured on March 6, 2005, died in prison at age 62 Evan Agostini (Getty/AFP/File)

The group sold more than 130 million records, its website says.

Some members of Pearlman's other bands, including Justin Timberlake of NSYNC and Britney Spears, went on to achieve major stardom with solo careers.

But Pearlman was convicted in 2008 of fraud and cheating investors -- including friends and family -- out of more than $300 million through Ponzi and bank-fraud schemes that lasted two decades.

He had been serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas.

Timberlake tweeted Sunday that he hoped Pearlman had "found some peace."
Chinese march in Paris to demand better security

Around 1,800 people from the Chinese community in France took part in a march near Paris Sunday calling for greater security after a deadly robbery earlier this month.

To cries of "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" ("liberty, equality, fraternity"), demonstrators marched through the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers where Zhang Chaolin, a 49-year-old tailor died after being set upon by three thieves on August 7.

The trio had tried to snatch a bag belonging to a friend of Zhang, who died a few days later from injuries sustained in the altercation.

People hold a banner reading "You can be next" during a demonstration in Paris on August 21, 2016, organised by several associations of the Chinese community to ask for protection measures, after the death of Zhang Chaolin killed on August 7, 2016 Bertrand Guay (AFP)

"There are frequent attacks but we don't sue because we don't speak good French. And, we're working, we don't have time," said one protester, 26-year-old Paris bar worker Cai Jiang.

"We are appealing to the state because we are French citizens, even if we don't feel that we are considered as such," said another participant, 23-year-old shop owner Marina.

The protesters flew several French flags during the demonstration.

One banner read: "I was Charlie like you. I am Chaolin, where are you?" in reference to the "Je Suis Charlie" solidarity slogans widespread after the January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper.

There has been a tripling in violent robberies in Aubervilliers targeting the Chinese community, who are seen as lucrative prey as they are thought to carry large sums of cash on their person.

Police there have bolstered their forces and recruited a Chinese-speaking staff member to improve the service to the large community in the suburb.
Two French volunteers 'murdered off Madagascar'

Two young French volunteers found dead Sunday on an island off the northeast coast of Madagascar were likely murdered, French and Madagascan authorities said.

Local mayor Bessaou Ismak Ado Crophe on the resort island of Sainte Marie told AFP that the bodies of both victims, a man and a woman in their twenties, showed signs of head trauma, with officials suspecting murder.

"They spent the evening in a nightclub and were found on the beach nearby," he said.

Local mayor Bessaou Ismak Ado Crophe on the resort island of Sainte Marie told AFP both bodies showed signs of head trauma, with officials suspecting murder Rijasolo (AFP/File)

"I saw the bodies. Both had injuries to the head."

The two had in recent months been volunteering at Cetamada, a local environmental non-profit organisation working to protect ocean mammals.

The French foreign ministry in a statement condemned the "odious crime that claimed the lives of two French nationals".

It offered its condolences to the families and said an investigation was under way in Madagascar.

Madagascan Tourism Minister Roland Ratsiraka said he had spoken to the French ambassador to the Indian Ocean island and that the consul would be visiting Sainte Marie on Monday.

"The government strongly condemns this act and will ensure that the investigation will be transparent," he said.

Cetamada vice-president Jean-Jacques Ravello, who is also France's honorary consul to Sainte Marie island, called the incident "barbaric".

"I do not want to minimise this barbaric act, but we've been bringing dozens of volunteers here for 15 years and we've never had a problem this big," he told AFP.

He said fellow volunteers had gathered together following the incident and were "shocked psychologically".

In 2012, a French couple was found dead on a beach in southern Madagascar.
Tunisia Islamist party 'has reservations' on unity govt

Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party, the largest in parliament, said on Sunday it has "some reservations" about the line-up of the country's new unity government announced the previous day.

"We have some observations and reservations to pass on to the head of the government-designate," Abdelkarim Harouni, head of the party's top body the Shura Council, told reporters.

The council met for several hours on Sunday after premier-designate Youssef Chahed unveiled his unity government Saturday, pledging to work to try to resolve deep social and economic crises that plague Tunisia five years after the Arab Spring revolt.

Tunisian Islamist Ennahdha Party members raise their party ID to vote during the discussions on May 22, 2016, in Hammamet on the third-day of the Ennahdha congress Fethi Belaid (AFP/File)

If his cabinet is confirmed by parliament, Chahed, 40, would become the youngest Tunisian prime minister since the North African country won independence from France in 1956.

"We will not accept any suspicion of corruption (among the government members), nor any personality who would seek to exclude Ennahda or any other party," Harouni said, without naming anyone.

But he also added that Ennahda's reservations would not prevent it from given the line-up its vote of confidence, noting that the Shura Council had ratified the level of the party's participation in government.

"We will not go as far as to block the government," Harouni said, adding that the Ennahda parliamentary group "will announce its precise position later" on the confidence vote.

Two Ennahda ministers figure in the proposed cabinet, as opposed to one previously.

Parliament will on Monday set a date for the vote of confidence in the new government.

With 69 members in the 217-seat legislature, Ennahda is the largest party in parliament.

If his cabinet receives parliamentary approval, Chahed's main task will be to tackle the economic and social crises gripping the North African country since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Child suicide bombers: previous attacks

Turkey's president has blamed an attack on a wedding party in Turkey that killed at least 51 people on a suicide bomber aged "between 12 and 14".

Militants have used children or young adults as suicide bombers in several countries, notably Nigeria, but this appeared to be the first such attack in Turkey.

Here is the situation in other countries where children have been forced to carry out suicide bombings.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames an attack on a wedding party in the country that killed at least 51 people on a young suicide bomber, one of several attacks around the world where children have been forced to carry out suicide bombings Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)

- Nigeria -

In an April report, UNICEF said the number of children used by Nigeria's Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings had risen 11-fold in one of the most "horrific" aspects of the Islamist insurgency.

"The number of children involved in 'suicide' attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger has risen sharply over the past year, from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015," UNICEF said.

More than 75 percent of the children involved in such attacks are girls, added UNICEF, who described them as "victims" not "perpetrators."

At least 15 people were killed in November when two female suicide bombers, one said to be aged around 11, blew themselves up at a busy mobile phone market in northeast Nigeria.

In January 2015 a girl thought to be just 10 years old blew herself up in a crowded market, killing at least 19.

- Afghanistan -

In 2012, a suicide bomber struck outside NATO HQ in Kabul killing six people, including child beggars. Afghan authorities said the attacker was 16 although the Taliban, which claimed the bombing, denied this.

In March, a 12-year-old would-be suicide bomber surrendered to Afghan forces in eastern Nangarhar province.

The Taliban sent him to kill "infidel troops", he told local media, but he had last-minute misgivings after seeing soldiers praying inside a mosque.

The insurgents say "boys with no beards" are never used in military operations, but Afghan authorities routinely report intercepting Taliban child bombers - some as young as six.

Officials say children are used as "human missiles", their tiny bodies a nimble conduit of flesh-searing explosives, able to penetrate layers of security.

- Syria -

In July 2015, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State group was increasingly relying on children to carry out suicide bombings.

The observatory said IS had used 18 children as suicide bombers so far that year, most recently in its fight against Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria.

In an April report, UNICEF said the number of children used by Nigeria's Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings had risen 11-fold in one of the most "horrific" aspects of the Islamist insurgency, describing them as "victims," not "perpetrators"
Landmark Hearst Castle closed as California wildfires bear down

Firefighters in California said they are making progress slowing the advance of several devastating wildfires, but authorities ordered the temporary closure of a historic villa in the path of one dangerous inferno.

The iconic Hearst Castle, also known as San Simeon, is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the state, drawing millions of visitors each year, according to local tourism officials.

Administrators of the castle -- a national landmark once owned by newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst -- said on its website that the site is "closed until further notice due to wildfires in the area."

Firefighters are battling to bring some half-dozen active fires raging across California under control Jonathan Alcorn (AFP)

"Fire conditions will be assessed daily to determine when Hearst Castle reopens and tours commence," the site read.

Built in 1919, the Hearst Castle is the site of a museum and state park that houses a large European art and antiques collection.

Local media reported that the leading edge of the 24,000-acre Chimney Fire was just two miles from the castle, located some 40 miles from the town of San Luis Obispo.

The Los Angeles Times wrote that bulldozers, trucks and firefighters are digging containment lines around Hearst Castle, but that no evacuation orders have been issued for the area as yet.

Wildfires are raging across several US states, but have hit parched California -- a state suffering from a years-long drought -- particularly hard.

Firefighters are battling to bring some half-dozen active fires raging across California under control.

Officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the 19,000-acre Rey Fire in southern California is just 10 percent contained.

The Chimney Fire imperiling Hearst Castle is around 35 percent contained, officials said.

The Clayton Fire in the northern Clear Lake region -- near the Sonoma and Napa wine regions -- measures some 4,000 acres and is 95 percent contained. Four thousand people have fled the Clayton fire, started by an arsonist, according to police.

Another inferno, the Bluecut Fire, which has burned some 37,000 acres near San Bernardino in southern California, is now 85 percent contained, fire officials said.

Fires have scorched swaths of the Angeles National Forest in southern California, and displaced tens of thousands of Golden State residents, including the entire populations last week of Wrightwood and Lytle Creek -- towns of a few thousand people -- and most of those in nearby Phelan.

Since the beginning of the year, some 4,600 fires have ripped through 121,000 hectares of Californian scrub and forest.

Nearly 1,000 homes have been destroyed and several people have been killed this year due to fires in America's most populous state.

Firefighters attack the Bluecut Fire near Lytle Creek, California, August 17, 2016 Robyn Beck (AFP/File)
Russian stripped of women's shot put medal from London Games

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  For the third time in a week, Russia was stripped of a track-and-field medal Saturday after another athlete tested positive in a reanalysis of doping samples from previous Olympics.

Evgenia Kolodko was disqualified and stripped of the silver medal in the women's shot put from the 2012 London Games after her stored samples came back positive for two banned substances, the International Olympic Committee said.

The IOC asked the IAAF to modify the results and consider further sanctions against the 36-year-old Kolodko, who could face a two-year ban.

Kolodko was one of 98 athletes caught in the retesting of more than 1,000 samples from the London Olympics and 2008 Beijing Games.

The IOC stores samples for 10 years to allow them to be reanalyzed when improved methods become available.

The IOC said Kolodko tested positive for the steroid turinabol and ipamorelin, which is classified as a peptide hormone on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.

Kolodko's disqualification marks the latest shake-up in the medals in the women's shot put in London.

The Russian had been bumped up from bronze to silver after Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus was stripped of the gold medal the day after the London Games because of a failed drug test. New Zealand's Valerie Adams was promoted to the gold, with Gong Lijiao of China moved up from fourth to bronze.

Now, Gong could move up to silver and Li Ling of China from fourth to third.

Earlier this week, Russia was stripped of two women's relay medals from the Beijing Games. Russia lost the silver in the 4x400 after Anastasia Kapachinskaya tested positive, and gold in the 4x100 after Yulia Chermoshanskaya failed a test.
The Latest: McGregor wins over Diaz in decision

LAS VEGAS (AP)  The Latest from UFC 202, where Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz will fight in an anticipated rematch from UFC 196 (all times local):

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9:30 p.m.

Anthony Johnson celebrates his victory over Glover Teixeira in their light heavyweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Johnson won by knockout in the first round. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Conor McGregor avenged his only loss in the UFC with a majority decision victory over Nate Diaz on Saturday night at UFC 202.

In a highly anticipated rematch of their two-round welterweight thriller in March, the two put on an action-packed fight, with each taking control at different moments. The judges scored it 48-47, 47-47, 48-47.

McGregor forced the action early, landing multiple leg kicks to Diaz's lead leg and a straight left that knocked Diaz down. McGregor knocked Diaz down twice more in Round 2, bloodying his nose and taking total control.

Later in Round 2, Diaz found the energy to unleash a flurry of strikes, knocking McGregor down against the fence. Diaz continued to attack in Round 3, and for the final 90 seconds of Round 4, the fighters stood in the center of the cage and exchanged punches.

They traded punches again in the fifth, and neither gained an edge until the final ten seconds, when Diaz secured a trip and landed a few final shots from on top before the bell rang.

___

8:38 p.m.

Anthony Johnson landed a devastating uppercut 13 seconds into the first round to knock out Glover Teixeira in the co-main event between top-ranked light heavyweights.

Johnson (22-5) flattened Teixeira with the shot, forcing the referee to call an early end to the fight. Johnson got his 13th victory in his past 14 fights and put himself in position to challenge for the title.

"I'm coming for you Daniel," Johnson said, speaking to current light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who was seated near the cage.

___

8:20 p.m.

Donald Cerrone (31-7) got an impressive knockout victory over Rick Story (19-9) in a battle of ranked welterweights.

Both fighters started slow, but 14th-ranked Cerrone picked up the pace in the second half of Round 1, landing accurate strikes and effective leg kicks to take an early edge. Cerrone controlled the pace in Round 2, forcing the action by landing a three-punch combination followed by a head kick that left Story dazed. Cerrone followed with a knee to the head that dropped Story to the mat, and the fight was stopped at 2 minutes, 2 seconds of the second round.

___

6:55 p.m.

Bantamweight prospect Cody Garbrandt (10-0) notched his fifth UFC win with a devastating first-round knockout over veteran Japanese fighter Takeya Mizugaki (21-10-2). Garbrandt, known for his power, wasted no time in pressuring Mizugaki, landing a flurry of punches that sent Mizugaki to his knees. Garbrandt then pounced, landing crosses and hammer fists that forced the referee to stop the fight after 48 seconds.

"I respect him as a veteran," Garbrandt said. "I noticed I hurt him early on. I had to pick my spots and take him out."

___

6:50 p.m.

UFC 202 is underway, and Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz are nearly ready to begin their rematch of a two-round bout from March.

McGregor was originally supposed to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title at UFC 196, but dos Anjos pulled out due to injury. McGregor agreed instead to fight Diaz in a welterweight bout, and Diaz finished the flyweight champion with a rear naked choke in the second round, ending McGregor's 15-match winning streak.

A rematch was immediately set for the landmark UFC 200 card but canceled when McGregor announced his retirement and refused to meet with media. McGregor did not end up retiring, but UFC did drop him from the card.

Instead the anticipated rematch was set for UFC 202. The garrulous McGregor has promised to finish Diaz early this time around, and promotion for the fight included a bottle-throwing melee at a press conference Wednesday.

They are again fighting at welterweight, with McGregor planning to drop back down to lightweight following the bout win or lose.

The rest of the card includes Tim Means vs. Sabah Homasi, Hyun Gyu Lim vs. Mike Perry, Rick Story vs. Donald Cerrone and Anthony Johnson vs. Glover Teixeira.

Sabah Homasi reacts after losing his welterweight mixed martial arts bout against Tim Means at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Means won when the referee stopped the fight in the second round. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Mike Perry reacts after celebrates Hyun Gyu Lim in a welterweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Mike Perry, stands over Hyun Gyu Lim after knocking him to the mat during their welterweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Perry won the match. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Mike Perry punches Hyun Gyu Lim during their welterweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Perry won the bout. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Tim Means, right, punches Sabah Homasi during their welterweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Means won after the referee stopped the fight in the second round. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Anthony Johnson, left, punches Glover Teixeira during their light heavyweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Johnson won by knockout in the first round. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Anthony Johnson, top, punches Glover Teixeira during their light heavyweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Johnson won by knockout in the first round. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Donald Cerrone raises his hand after defeating Rick Story in a welterweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Donald Cerrone, left, punches Rick Story during their welterweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 202 on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas. Corrine won the bout. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)
Trump's campaign spending at half the rate of Clinton's

WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump doubled his campaign expenses last month, yet was still spending at a far slower clip than Hillary Clinton.

New finance documents show the Republican presidential nominee's campaign spent about $18.5 million in July. By comparison, the Democratic presidential nominee spent about $38 million.

The New York businessman gave his campaign another $2 million in recent weeks. He'd pledged to contribute as part of a fundraising pitch to small donors, telling them he'd match their efforts up to that amount.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In all, his campaign brought in $37 million for the month. Clinton's campaign raised $52 million.

Trump has continued to increase the size of his operation, putting $5 million this week into his first batch of TV ads. Clinton has been running general election ads for months.

Last month Trump brought on some new consultants and firms, July reports to the Federal Election Commission show.

At the end of July, the campaign paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with GOP opponent Ted Cruz. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.

The Trump filings also show some old ties.

Two weeks after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign cut his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 check. That's about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.

At the time of the latest payment, Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.

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Hearst Castle closes due to wind-driven wildfire

SAN SIMEON, Calif. (AP)  A wind-driven wildfire in central California led to more evacuations and the closure of the Hearst Castle on Saturday.

Flames from the 8-day-old wildfire in San Luis Obispo County came as close as 3 miles to the national historic landmark, prompting California State Parks officials to cancel tours and close the grounds to visitors.

A wind shift caused the fire to cross a containment line in the afternoon, leading authorities to issue evacuation orders for several communities north and west of Lake Nacimiento, about 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Yuli.

Smoke from a wildfire billows Saturday from a ridge line behind famed facade of Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. A growing wildfire in central California has forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle. Fire officials say the blaze was about 3  miles from the hilltop estate on Saturday. (Joe Johnston/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP)

The fire has burned 31 square miles and destroyed 48 structures since it began August 13. It is 35 percent contained.

Hearst Castle closes occasionally due to bad weather, but State Parks supervising ranger Robert Chambers said he couldn't recall a time when it closed because of a wildfire.

"A fire has never come this close before," Chambers said.

Chambers said the closure allowed fire crews to set up firefighting equipment to protect the hilltop estate. The visitor center, which is downhill from the castle, remained open.

Workers at the castle have spent several days cutting brush and putting in fire lines to create a defensible space around the castle, he added, and that a contingency plan is in place to move the large art collection belonging to media magnate William Randolph Hearst.

"We're not at the point where we need to move anything, our plan is to keep the artwork sheltered in place," Chambers said.

A popular tourist attraction along the Central Coast, the estate was conceived by Hearst to display his art collection. In its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, the castle was a playground for Hollywood stars.

A helicopter flies past Hearst Castle on its way to fight a wildfire in San Simeon, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. A growing wildfire in central California has forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle. Fire officials say the blaze was about 3  miles from the hilltop estate on Saturday. (Joe Johnston/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP)

Firefighters with Cal Fire watch a wildfire burn behind Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. A growing wildfire in central California has forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle. Fire officials say the blaze was about 3  miles from the hilltop estate on Saturday. (Joe Johnston/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP)

A plane aids in firefighting efforts behind Hearst Castle as a wildfire burns in San Simeon, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. A growing wildfire in central California has forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle. Fire officials say the blaze was about 3  miles from the hilltop estate on Saturday. (Joe Johnston/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP)
Chinese ships, planes hold war games in Sea of Japan

BEIJING (AP)  Chinese planes and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week, the military said, during which Beijing displayed its latest-generation frigate at a time of bitter territorial disputes with Asian neighbors.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website late Saturday that the long-range exercises staged Friday pitted a red army against a blue one in a simulated bomber attack on a naval task force.

It quoted the commander of an unidentified flight wing under the East Sea Fleet, Zhang Wenzhong, as saying the planes found, identified and struck their targets in a "radically short time."

FILE - In this undated file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Chinese planes and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week, the military said in a statement on its website late Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, during which Beijing displayed its latest-generation frigate Jingzhou and destroyer Xi'an at a time of bitter territorial disputes with Asian neighbors. The ministry said aircraft were guided to their targets with the aid of early warning planes. Other types of aircraft involved weren't identified, although China has been touting the capabilities of its latest-generation long-range H-6K strategic bomber equipped with the DH-20 land-attack cruise missile, giving it the ability to hit targets as far away as Australia. (Liu Rui/Xinhua via AP, File)

The statement made no mention of what sort of conflict the exercise was intended as a response to, prospective foes or why the Sea of Japan was chosen as the location of the drills. However, China has grown increasingly assertive over its claim to a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan, recently dispatching more than a dozen coast guard vessels as Chinese fishing vessels swarmed the surrounding waters.

The ministry said the main ships involved in the exercise were the Jingzhou, a latest-generation type 054A class stealth frigate of which China is planning to deploy more than two dozen, and the type 052C destroyer Xi'an.

The ministry said aircraft were guided to their targets with the aid of early warning planes.

Other types of aircraft involved weren't identified, although China has been touting the capabilities of its latest-generation long-range H-6K strategic bomber equipped with the DH-20 land-attack cruise missile, giving it the ability to hit targets as far away as Australia. Only Russia and the U.S. are currently able to launch cruise missiles from the air.

Along with its island dispute with Japan, China is involved in an intense rivalry with the U.S. over military dominance in the region. Tensions in the South China Sea have also risen after China refused to accept an international arbitration panel's ruling invalidating its claim to virtually the entire strategic water body.
Campaign, party officials insist Trump getting back on track

WASHINGTON (AP)  After a tumultuous stretch of gaffes and falling poll numbers for Donald Trump, top GOP campaign and party officials insisted Sunday that their presidential nominee is getting back on track and will catch up with Democrat Hillary Clinton by around Labor Day.

Clinton campaign officials dismissed the idea of a changed Trump as nonsense.

"Donald Trump has been disciplined and mature. And I think he's going to get this thing back on track," said Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a Hispanic advisory roundtable meeting in New York, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. At right is Jovita Carranza, former Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Polls now mostly show Trump lagging Clinton by 5 percentage points or more nationally, but Priebus predicted they will tighten up and Trump will be "ahead as we move through September."

Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, echoed Priebus' optimism, contending that the candidate just had the best week of his campaign, "mostly because he's able to be himself, the authentic Donald Trump" and "the pivot that he's made is on substance."

Conway, who supported Trump rival Ted Cruz during the primaries, was named to her post this past week in a shake-up in which the campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned and conservative media firebrand Stephen Bannon, who led Breitbart News, took over as campaign chief executive.

A new style was immediately evident as Trump, in a first, offered regrets for any remarks that had caused offense, stuck with his teleprompter at a series of events, and paid a visit to flood-ravaged Louisiana, where he briefly helped unload a truck of supplies. That type of one-on-one interaction with voters is a staple of most political campaigning, yet something Trump had mostly avoided in favor of large rallies.

Trump also announced his first ad buys of the campaign  more evidence of an acceptance of the traditional campaign elements most experts believe he will need in order to have a shot at winning. He made a direct appeal to African-American voters, who strongly support Clinton, and insisted he wants the GOP to become their political home as it was in the era of Abraham Lincoln.

Trump also met on Saturday with Hispanic supporters, representatives of a community that has been wary of the billionaire businessman's proposals to build a giant wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deport the 11 million people living in this country illegally. Questioned on whether Trump still intends to deploy a "deportation force" to carry that out, Conway said Sunday: "To be determined."

Conway, whose background is as a pollster, said the campaign wants to get away from a focus on Trump's personality and onto the Obama administration's record, and Clinton as a continuation of what it describes as unpopular policies such as the Obama's health care law.

"The Hillary people want this to all be about tone and temperament. We also want to it be about facts and figures," Conway said.

She said that the campaign would work more closely with RNC officials and try to expand the map of competitive swing states from seven or eight to 10 or 11. "Donald Trump is back in Hillary Clinton's head," Conway said.

Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, disputed such claims. "We're not seeing a pivot. Donald Trump himself said this was not a pivot. He wants to double down on letting Donald Trump be Donald Trump," Mook said.

Mook kept up his criticism over Trump's connections with Russia, arguing that despite the departure of Manafort amid questions over his work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, Trump should offer an accounting about his own ties to Russia.

"There are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race," Mook said.

Trump officials criticized the Clintons' charitable foundation in the wake of its announcement that it would not accept donations from foreign contributors if Clinton were elected president.

"The fact the Clinton Foundation is still taking foreign contributions until the election, but not after, is a sign they know those donations lead to conflicts of interest," Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement, calling for the foundation to immediately cease taking foreign contributions.

Mook defended the foundation's work, insisting it is saving lives around the globe through vaccine work.

Conway, Mook and Priebus were interviewed on ABC's "This Week." and Conway also spoke on CNN's "State of the Union."

___

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Kellyanne Conway, left, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, attends his Hispanic advisory roundtable meeting in New York, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. At right is Rick Figueroa, first vice president for FINC Firm of Houston. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Donald Trump's campaign expenses more than doubled last month, even as the Republican presidential nominee held his payroll to about 70 employees, aired no television advertisements and undertook no significant operational buildout across the country.

Instead, about half of the campaign's $18.5 million in spending was vacuumed up by Giles-Parscale, a web design and marketing firm new to national politics, Federal Election Commission filings show.

It's a crossover vendor from Trump's real estate organization.

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Virginia on Saturday

Donald Trump's campaign doubled its spending in July, but instead of hiring additional staffers or running ads, the money went to a firm that's helping with online fundraising

The campaign paid Giles-Parscale $8.4 million in July, about twice what the San Antonio firm had collected from it over the course of the preceding year.

Brad Parscale, the president, is the campaign's director of digital marketing.

The big expense came as Trump put a new emphasis on online fundraising, after paying for his primary run mostly out of his own pocket.

Millions more went to air travel. The campaign paid about $2 million for private jets other than Trump's own TAG Air, which also collected $500,000.

Some Trump's consultants are also well-paid.

Chess Bedsole, the campaign's Alabama state director, was paid $64,000 last month for field consulting. His last campaign payment was for $15,000 in December.

Yet the campaign's payroll remained thin, and there did not appear to be much new in the way of office leases across the country, including in Ohio and other crucial states.

Donald Trump's now former campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he did hire more staff, but their salaries wouldn't show up until the August FEC reports are out

Trump's ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said this month that the campaign had hired dozens more people, including expanding its team to directors in all 50 states.

He said they were all on payroll as of Aug. 1, meaning they won't show up in campaign finance reports until Sept. 20.

Trump has relied heavily on the Republican National Committee for conventional campaign infrastructure.

He's boasted of holding the line on his campaign spending.

But he's running critically low on time to build an operation that can compete with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

In addition to being ahead of Trump in polls in pivotal states, Clinton has maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads.

This week, she'll spend at least $10 million more on ads.

Trump made his first ad buy a few days ago, for nearly $5 million in commercials to air across Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Clinton's campaign spent $38 million in July, about double the Trump campaign's outlay.

She can afford her higher level of spending, the July campaign finance reports show.

Her campaign raised $52 million while his brought in $37 million for the month, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself.

The candidates also raise money for their parties, enabling them to ask for contributions far higher than the $2,700-per-donor limit to the campaigns.

Overall in July, Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic partners, while Trump raised $80 million for the campaign and Republican groups.

Trump did bring aboard some new campaign consultants in July.

He paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with GOP opponent Ted Cruz.

Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.

The Trump filings also show some old ties.

Two weeks after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign cut his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 check.

That's about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.

At the time of the latest payment, Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.

The campaign paid Trump Organization employee Meredith McIver, who has worked as a Trump ghostwriter over the years.

She took credit  and then blame for writing Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention that included similar lines from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Authorities lifted all evacuation orders on Sunday to allow thousands of wildfire evacuees to return to their homes in Southern California.

About 82,000 people had to leave their properties Tuesday when the fire broke out 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Not all of them will find their homes intact upon their return. A preliminary damage assessment found 105 homes and 216 outbuildings destroyed.

Large swaths of open land have been turned black across the rural, mountainous terrain.

Authorities lifted all evacuation orders on Sunday to allow thousands of wildfire evacuees to return to their homes in Southern California. Pictured, a scorched street in Phelan on Friday

'This fire did not go through a dense community, like some fires do,' fire spokesman Costa Dillon said Sunday. 'Almost all of this area is sparsely populated.'

The once-fast moving and erratic blaze that burned nearly 58 square miles was 85 per cent contained. Firefighters were going property-to-property in the areas most heavily hit to put out any lingering flames and hot spots.

'You don't want somebody to come back to a neighborhood where a fire could suddenly flare up on the property next door from something still smoldering,' Dillon said.

Fire officials briefed residents at an evacuation center Sunday morning at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds where about 15 residents remained.

About 82,000 people had to leave their properties Tuesday when the fire broke out 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Pictured, a scorched residential street in Phelan on Friday

A preliminary damage assessment found 105 homes and 216 outbuildings destroyed. Pictured, firetruck passes scorched cars and trailers in Phelan on Friday

Johanna Santore, 63, her husband and their 10-year-old granddaughter were among those who learned Sunday they are still not being permitted to return home.

The family's home and nearly all their belongings were destroyed in the blaze.

Santore said the family was 'holding up,' but that Saturday evening when everyone was asleep she'd gone outside and cried thinking of the family's lost pets and mementoes. The Santores were out running an errand when the fire broke out and were unable to return to save anything.

Four dogs, six cats and a hamster left behind are missing.

'I'm hoping someone is stuck around hiding someplace,' Santore said. 'And if I start calling, they might recognize our voices.'

In the meantime she has begun looking into how to replace birth certificates, their housing deed and other important documents they are unlikely to recover.

A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite. Six other wildfires were burning in the state, including one in San Luis Obispo County that forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle on Saturday. It remained closed Sunday.

A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite. Pictured, firefighters water down scorched compost material near Phelan on Friday

The wildfire began on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Pictured, firefighters in Phelan Friday

After a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. Pictured, Fire Marshal Mike Horton manages the damage assessment operations in San Bernardino on Friday

Assessing the damage helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Horton is pictured on Friday

That fire has destroyed 34 homes and burned 43 square miles since it began August 13. It remained 35 per cent contained. Fire spokeswoman Jaime Garrett said the fire was growing in the opposite direction of the Hearst Castle. The castle is a popular tourist attraction and houses a large art collection that belonged to media magnate William Randolph Hearst.

In rural Santa Barbara County, a 33-square-mile wildfire that forced the evacuation of two campgrounds was 20 per cent contained.

In the southern Sierra Nevada, another blaze feeding on dense timber in Sequoia National Forest forced the evacuation of several tiny hamlets.

In Northern California, fire crews were gaining control Sunday on an arson fire that destroyed 189 homes. Officials said the 6-square-mile fire in Lower Lake was 95 per cent contained.

A nearly month-long blaze burning near California's scene Big Sur is not expected to be fully contained until the end of September. The fire has destroyed 57 homes and charred 133 square miles, Cal Fire said. It is 60 per cent contained.

Firefighters kept a blaze in Lebec to 10 acres. Pictured on Friday, an air tanker makes a fire retardant drop on the Lebec Fire off Interstate 5

Six other wildfires were burning in the state, including one in San Luis Obispo County. Pictured, smoke billowing from a wildfire near Lake Nacimiento in the county Saturday
Young suicide bomber attacks Turkish wedding party; 51 die

ISTANBUL (AP)  A child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and wounded nearly 70 others at a Kurdish wedding party near Turkey's border with Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, decrying the attack as an apparent attempt by Islamic State extremists to destabilize the nation by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions.

"As of now, the preliminary conclusions by our governor's office and the police establishment point to an attack by Daesh," Erdogan said, using another common term for IS.

"It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times," he said.

The shoe of a young victim and a piece of metal lay near the scene just hours after Saturday's bomb attack in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killing dozens of people and wounding dozens more. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey. (IHA via AP)

The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

It comes amid ongoing struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, and as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.

Erdogan said immediately after the Gaziantep attack, which he blamed on IS, that any strategy "meant to incite the citizens against each other along ethnic and religious lines will not work."

Later, addressing the nation before Istanbul's city hall, Erdogan said the attacker in Gaziantep was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

He again blamed the attack on the Islamic State, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The pro-Kurdish political party HDP condemned the attack on the wedding, which it said was attended by many of its party members.

It said in a statement that it was "quite significant" that the attack, which it also blamed on IS, came hours after the Kurdistan Communities Union, a militant organization that includes the PKK, announced plans to try to negotiate to end a three-decade conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish government.

"This attack targets those determined and persistent in peace, resolution, and those struggling for democracy, equality, freedom and justice," the HDP said. "The attack was planned to disable the spread of peace and success of possible negotiations."

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldn't believe the party was targeted.

"This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party," Hamdullah Ceyhan told the state-run Anadolu Agency. "This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?"

The bride and groom weren't in life-threatening condition and were undergoing treatment, but the groom's sister and uncle were among the dead, Anadolu reported.

Multiple opposition parties denounced the attack, as did many foreign governments including the U.S., Germany, Austria, Russia, Egypt, Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan and global institutions including the United Nations, the European Union and NATO.

"We stand by our ally Turkey and pledge to continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism," said U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass.

In the Vatican, Pope Francis led hundreds of people in silent prayer for the victims of the attack, concluding by asking "for the gift of peace for everyone."

Security expert Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military officer and columnist for the online newspaper Al-Monitor, said that IS view the attack as "hitting two birds with one stone"  as retaliation for Syrian Kurdish advances on their forces in Syria, and for Turkey's attacks on IS targets.

Gurcan said in an email to The Associated Press that IS has been trying to agitate or exploit ethnic and religious tensions in Turkey, and "we know very well to what extent wedding attacks can sow disorder in nation's social fabric from the Afghanistan experience."

The suicide bombing follows a June attack on Istanbul's main airport where IS suspects killed 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 people.

Meantime, there have also been ongoing attacks claimed by the PKK or linked to the militant group, as well as the coup attempt blamed on Gulen's movement. Gulen has denied any involvement.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2 year peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In the immediate aftermath of the Gaziantep bombing, Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.

Gurcan said, however, that it was a "grave mistake" to lump the three together.

"Putting these three organizations with different political objectives, tactics and techniques into the same basket ... causes the failure of tailoring specific counter strategies," he said.

Following the attack, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Outside the perimeter, hundreds of residents gathered chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the country's health minister traveled to the scene, visiting the wounded and inspecting the site.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," Simsek told reporters. "We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield."

In Istanbul, HDP supporters organized a rally attended by hundreds Sunday evening to protest the bombing. One participant, shop owner Ercan Yilmaz, 36, told the AP it was "always those kinds of people being targeted  a Kurdish wedding party, opposition groups or people calling for peace in Ankara," referring to the peace rally attacked in October.

"On the other hand, the AKP (Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party) has gatherings and rallies everywhere but they're never bombed," he added.

___

David Rising in Berlin and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

People carry dead bodies into ambulances after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. A bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killed several people and wounded dozens. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. (DHA via AP)

People gather to view damage just hours after Saturday's bomb attack in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killed dozens of people and wounded dozens. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey. (IHA via AP)

A man cries over a covered body after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, late Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack. (IHA via AP)

People react after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack. (Eyyup Burun/DHA via AP)

People gather to view damage just hours after Saturday's bomb attack in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killed dozens of people and wounded dozens. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey. (IHA via AP)

People gather after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack. (Eyyup Burun/DHA via AP)e

People mourn as they attend funeral services for dozens of people killed in last night's bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey.(AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)

People mourn as they attend funeral services for dozens of people killed in last night's bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey.(AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)

A man mourns over a graveyard as people attend funeral services for dozens of people killed in last night's bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey. (AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)
Gunmen kill 2 policemen in Egypt

CAIRO (AP)  Egypt's state news agency says gunmen have shot and killed two policemen at a checkpoint north of Cairo.

MENA said another three police and two civilians were wounded in the attack early Sunday in the Nile Delta governorate of Menoufiya. No armed group immediately claimed the attack and the authorities said they were investigating.
The Latest: Vladimir Putin sends condolences to Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP)  The Latest on events in Turkey (all times local):

9:55 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences in a telegram to Turkey's president following the attack on a Kurdish wedding party, which he says shows the international community must work together in fighting terrorism.

A man cries over a covered body after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, late Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack. (IHA via AP)

The Kremlin said Putin on Sunday conveyed Russia's readiness to increase counter-terrorism cooperation with Turkey, including following through on agreements the two presidents reached during their recent talks in Russia.

Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met two weeks ago for the first time since they decided to mend relations soured by Turkey's downing of a Russian military aircraft along the Syrian border in November.

Putin's telegram said Sunday's attack was shocking in its "cruelty and cynicism" and once again showed that "terrorism doesn't recognize not only the laws of civilized society but also the very basic norms of human morality."

___

4:25 p.m.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has sent a condolence telegram to Turkey following the deadly attack on a Kurdish wedding party, saying Germany stands on Turkey's side in the "fight against terrorism."

Merkel said Sunday it was with her "deepest sorrow" that she learned of the attack.

She says "once again innocent men, women and children are the victims of cowardly and perfidious violence; I condemn this attack in the strongest terms."

She says Germany's thoughts are with the victims and their families, and she wished those wounded speedy recoveries.

Merkel says "I assure you that the German government will continue to stand closely at Turkey's side in the fight against terrorism."

___

3:35 p.m.

Turkey's president says the suicide bomber in the wedding party attack that killed dozens was between 12 and 14 years old.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the information in a live nationally-televised address in front of Istanbul city Hall.

At least 50 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. Erdogan blamed the Islamic State group for the attack.

___

3:30 p.m.

A pro-Kurdish political party has condemned the attack on a Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey that killed at least 50 people and wounded dozens of others.

The People's Democratic Party, or HDP, blamed Islamic State for the attack in Gaziantep after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said the extremist group was behind the bombing.

The HDP said "we condemn and curse the ones who launched this attack, both the forces and ideology behind their actions."

The party also suggested that IS carried out the attack hours after another Kurdish political party announced plans to negotiate to try to end a three-decade conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish government.

___

2:05 p.m.

The U.S. ambassador to Turkey has condemned the "barbaric attack" on an outdoor wedding party that killed 50 and wounded dozens of others.

John Bass said "we stand by our ally Turkey and pledge to continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism."

Turkey's president has blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria.

___

2 p.m.

Pope Francis has led hundreds of people in silent prayer for the victims of the Turkish wedding attack.

At his weekly Sunday noontime blessing, Francis said he had heard the "sad news" of the attack. After a moment of silent prayer, Francis led tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter's Square in reciting the Ave Maria.

He concluded by asking "for the gift of peace for everyone."

Turkey's president has blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing of an outdoor wedding party near Syria's border that killed 50 people and wounded dozens of others.

___

11:15 a.m.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency has reported that the death toll in the outdoor wedding party attack in southeastern Turkey has risen to 50.

The report said the new figure came from the Gaziantep governor's office. Previously, the number of dead was 30 with 94 others wounded.

Officials say Saturday's attack in Gaziantep, near Syria's border, appeared to be a suicide bombing.

Turkey's president has blamed the Islamic State group for the attack.

___

10:30 am.

Turkey's president has blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing of an outdoor wedding party in the southeast that killed 30 people and wounded 94 others.

Officials say Saturday's attack in Gaziantep, near Syria's border, appeared to be a suicide bombing.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement early Sunday saying that IS was "the most likely perpetrator of the Gaziantep attack."

Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and the movement of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorist groups.

Turkey has seen a spate of attacks in recent months and a failed military coup on July 15, which the government blames on Gulen's movement. Gulen denies any involvement.

People carry dead bodies into ambulances after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. A bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killed several people and wounded dozens. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. (DHA via AP)

People react after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack. (Eyyup Burun/DHA via AP)
Suicide bombing in north Cameroon kills 3, injures several

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP)  A local official says a suicide bomber has detonated explosives at a Cameroon market near the border with Nigeria, killing at least three people and injuring at least 11 others.

Cameroon's Far North region governor, Midjiyawa Bakary, says a young man suspected to be from Nigeria detonated his explosives Sunday morning after riding into the market in Mora on his motorcycle at high speed.

The governor says three people were seriously injured and rushed to the local hospital before being transferred to another town for specialized care.

No one has claimed responsibility.
Somalia bombings kill 17 at local government HQ, market

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)  A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gates of a local government headquarters in Somalia while another bomber targeted a nearby marketplace, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 30 others, police said Sunday.

Abdisalam Yusuf with the police said one bomber rammed the car into a checkpoint in Galkayo town Sunday morning after reaching the main gate of Puntland's local government. Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia, controls the northern part of the town, while the southern part is controlled by rival regional state Galmudug.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke condemned the twin blasts, saying that "evil-doers" had targeted innocent civilians.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group claimed responsibility for the attack. The town, unlike other parts of the country where al-Shabab continues a deadly guerrilla campaign, rarely sees such attacks.

The town's main hospital received more than 15 wounded people, including some with horrific wounds, a nurse, Abdikareem Ali, told The Associated Press.

"Some of them were burnt beyond recognition. It was a dark day," he said.

Some of the bodies were discovered in nearby houses destroyed by the blasts, said Col. Muse Hassan, a senior police officer.

Al-Shabab is waging an insurgency against Somalia's weak U.N.-backed government with the goal of establishing an Islamic emirate, ruled by a strict version of Shariah law.

More than 22,000 peacekeepers are deployed in Somalia in the multi-national African Union force. Al-Shabab opposes the presence of foreign troops in the country.

White House National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price issued a statement strongly condemning the bomb attacks in Puntland, accusing the terrorists of attempting "to weaken Somalia ahead of its historic scheduled political transition this autumn."
3 Filipino sympathizers of IS killed in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Philippine forces have killed three suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State group but failed to capture their leader in a clash in the country's south, an army official said Sunday.

Troops seized two rifles and an IS-style black flag of the slain militants, who belonged to a small armed group called the Ansar Al Khilafah Philippines, following Saturday's clash near Maasim town in Sarangani province, said army Maj. Gen. Rafael Valencia.

A militant was captured by the troops prior to the fighting near Maasim, Valencia said.

Military officials said the militants, led by their leader, Mohammad Jaafar Sabiwang Maguid, were spotted in a hinterland by villagers, who notified the troops.

Valencia said Maguid and several of his men, possibly including some foreigners, managed to escape before the clash, adding that the militants aspire to be affiliated with the Islamic State group.
Syrian refugees support each other in Britain

LONDON (AP)  A summer rainstorm pounded down on the eaves of Christ the Saviour church hall in London as Fardous Bahbouh poured tea and set up the makeshift classroom where she teaches some 25 Syrian refugees how to ask for directions in English, shop for groceries and navigate British norms in making new friends.

Bahbouh's class is part of a larger Facebook community called "Ahlan Wa Sahlan"  Arabic for welcome  one of many small local efforts that have sprung up across Britain to help migrants who have made their way to the country after fleeing civil war in Syria.

"Being a refugee myself, I know how it feels to be away from home and having no option to return," said Bahbouh on a recent Thursday. A language teacher in her 30s from Syria, she was studying for a master's degree here when war broke out and prevented her from going home. Now she teaches others as a way of giving back to those who helped her.

In this photo taken on Thursday, July 28, 2016, two Syrian refugees, left, concentrate during an English lesson with a volunteer teacher in London. As the U.K. struggles to implement its commitment to resettle more than 20,000 Syrians, the government is counting on charities and community groups to help the newcomers adjust to life in Britain. The Home Office has for the first time set up a program to allow local organizations to sponsor refugees and the agencys website directs volunteers to migrant charities that need their help. (AP Photo/Adela Suliman)

As the U.K. struggles to implement its commitment to resettle more than 20,000 Syrians, the government is counting on charities and community groups to help the newcomers adjust to life in Britain. The Home Office has for the first time set up a program to allow local organizations to sponsor refugees and the agency's website directs volunteers to migrant charities that need their help.

While Britain initially resisted international pressure to accept large numbers of refugees, more than 9,000 Syrians have filed for asylum in the U.K. since 2011. That is a tiny fraction of the 1.1 million Syrians who registered throughout Europe during the same period, including almost 377,000 in Germany alone, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Local groups say they can be incubators for programs, providing a blueprint for transition that will help larger efforts succeed. After all, local communities are fundamental to the success of any resettlement effort, said Maurizio Albahari, author of "Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border," and a social anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

"By working to facilitate every aspect of refugee resettlement, local communities quietly but steadily demonstrate to all levels of government that the arrival of refugees is neither unwanted nor impractical, and that xenophobia cannot be taken for granted," Albahari said.

One of the groups that is already serving refugees is Citizens UK, which helps them get health care, schooling and housing. Bekele Woyecha, a community organizer and former refugee from Ethiopia, said individuals  not the central government have taken the lead.

"This is a county known for offering sanctuary," Woyecha said. "We want to keep that tradition."

In addition to language classes, Ahlan Wa Sahlan hosts social events, such as recent communal meal during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Such occasions are important, because they offer the newcomers a chance to talk about home and speak with others who share similar stories about the war and the treacherous journey they faced to get here.

All ages and walks of life are represented in Ahlan Wa Sahlan: An elderly painter pulled from the rubble of Aleppo, a shy newlywed couple, and Karam AlHabbal, who dreams of going to a British university and becoming a pilot.

Confident and funny, his English is already so good that he volunteers to help others. He has just turned 18 and gained residency status but will reveal few details of his travels to Britain for fear of endangering others.

"I have a normal life now I've come to a safe country." he said. "My country has been destroyed."

At a picnic in London's Regent's Park, in the shadow of the golden dome of London's Central Mosque, Bahbouh's group meets once again. This time, bikes and biscuits replace notepads and pens.

Bahbouh arrived with two decorated cream cakes to celebrate AlHabbal's birthday and new residency status, and the aspiring pilot rushed to upload photos on Instagram.

Some of the young men took selfies in the sunshine, while another sat on the grass and broke into a melancholy Arabic song.

From the outside, they looked like any other group of Londoners enjoying a picnic on a rare day of sun, but they were also compatriots helping one another navigate a new society and piece together a new life.

While Bahbouh's group can't replace the jobs, property and prospects the refugees left behind in Syria, she is trying to replenish the intangible assets of love, hope and confidence.

"I am optimistic," Bahbouh said. "No war lasts forever."

In this photo taken on Thursday July 28, 2016, Fardous Bahbouh, a Syrian refugee, scrolls through her mobile phone showing the message 'Ahlan Wa Sahlan', 'Welcome' in Arabic, the homescreen of the online group created to bring together Syrian refugees newly arrived in Britain, in London. As the U.K. struggles to implement its commitment to resettle more than 20,000 Syrians, the government is counting on charities and community groups to help the newcomers adjust to life in Britain. (AP Photo/Adela Suliman)

In this photo taken on Saturday, July 30, 2016, Karam AlHabbal, a Syrian refugee, left, laughs with a volunteer at a picnic in Regent's Park, London, after gaining residency status but will reveal few details of his journey to Britain for fear of endangering others. Karam AlHabbal, who dreams of going to a British university and becoming a pilot, he is confident and his English is already so good that he volunteers to help others. As the U.K. struggles to implement its commitment to resettle more than 20,000 Syrians, the government is counting on charities and community groups to help the newcomers adjust to life in Britain. (AP Photo/Adela Suliman)
Iraq executes 36 men convicted in Islamic State massacre

BAGHDAD (AP)  Iraq on Sunday executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group's massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014, officials said.

The men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq, according to provincial Gov. Yahya al-Nasiri. A Justice Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, confirmed the executions.

IS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after seizing Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base just outside the northern city. Shortly after taking Tikrit, IS posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch.

FILE - In this April 3, 2015 file photo, an Iraqi man prays for his slain relative, at the site of a mass grave, believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers killed by Islamic State group militants when they overran Camp Speicher military base, in Tikrit, Iraq, 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Iraqi officials say the country has executed 36 men on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016 convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group's massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

The Speicher massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against IS, a Sunni extremist group. The militias now rival the power of Iraq's conventional armed forces.

Iraqi forces arrested dozens of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015 with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes. The men executed on Sunday were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year.

The head of the provincial council in Salahuddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, criticized the judicial process, saying some of the men executed Sunday had been tortured to extract confessions.

Some of them "were not even present at the scene of the crime," Ahmed al-Karim told The Associated Press. "We support the death penalty for those who committed crimes," but "the use of violence and torture (in Iraqi prisons) should be investigated."

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to fast-track the implementation of death sentences following a series of large-scale bombings in and around Baghdad in recent months.

The United Nations criticized that policy earlier this month, saying that "given the weakness of the Iraqi justice system," the rushed sentences risk causing "greater injustice."

Iraq ranks among the top five countries in the world in the use of capital punishment, according to figures compiled by the rights group Amnesty International.

FILE -This image posted online by Islamic State militants on June 14, 2014 shows Iraqi cadets captured by IS moments before they were killed in Tikrit, Iraq. Iraqi officials say the country has executed 36 men on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016 convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group's massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014.(militant photo via AP, File)
Suspect's ex-girlfriend lived at Alabama home where 5 slain

ATLANTA (AP)  The suspect in the killing of five people at a home in Alabama attacked them while they slept and then abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant  both of whom were found alive, authorities said Sunday.

It could take investigators days to sort out the grisly murder scene in Citronelle, a small town 30 miles northwest of Mobile. Authorities said the dead included a pregnant woman and were found Saturday afternoon inside the home.

The crime was of a magnitude rarely if ever seen in this corner of rural, southern Alabama, Mobile County sheriff's Capt. Paul Burch said.

Crime scene tape marks the home on Jim Platt Road near Citronelle, Ala., Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, where authorities said five people were killed on Saturday. Police said that Derrick Dearman, 27, of Leakesville, Miss., has been taken into custody in connection with the murders. (John Sharp/AL.com via AP)

"It's unprecedented here," Burch told The Associated Press.

Earlier, Burch told reporters at the scene that investigators expect to be at the scene for a couple days. "It's obviously a horrific scene," he said.

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told reporters near the scene that in her 20-year career as a prosecutor, she's never encountered a crime "where there were five people who were brutally and viciously murdered, and that's what we have here."

She said "multiple weapons" were used.

Derrick Dearman, 27, of Leakesville, Mississippi, was taken into custody after he walked into the sheriff's office in Greene County, Mississippi, about 20 miles west of Citronelle, Burch said. Dearman was accompanied by his father when he showed up at the sheriff's department and surrendered Saturday afternoon, the Alabama sheriff's office said in a statement.

Dearman has confessed to the crimes, Burch told the news site Al.com.

"He's been cooperative," Burch told the AP on Sunday.

Dearman will be charged with six counts of capital murder, Mobile County sheriff's spokeswoman Lori Myles said Sunday. Five counts stem from the killing of the adults, and the additional count is because one of the slaying victims, 22-year-old Chelsea Marie Reed, was 5 months pregnant, Myles said.

The other four killed were identified by sheriff's officials as Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; and Robert Lee Brown, also 26.

Prosecutors have already begun the process of trying to extradite Dearman from Mississippi to Alabama, Burch said on Sunday. The sheriff of Greene County, Stanley McLeod, could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Though connections between Dearman and the five people killed were not immediately clear, investigators have determined that his ex-girlfriend, Laneta Lester, had gone to the home on Aug. 19 to get away from an abusive relationship with Dearman, the sheriff's office said in a statement. Lester was staying with a relative there.

Around 1 a.m. Saturday, someone inside the residence called 911 and reported that Dearman was on the property, the statement said. Citronelle police came to the house, but Dearman had left before the officers arrived, sheriff's officials said.

Later, sometime between 1:15 a.m. and daylight Saturday, Dearman returned to the home and attacked the victims while they were sleeping, the statement said. After the killings, Dearman forced Lester and the 3-month-old infant  the child of the one of the murder victims  into a vehicle at the residence. The three drove to the Mississippi home of Dearman's father.

After they arrived there, Dearman released Lester and the infant and then turned himself in at the Mississippi sheriff's department, Burch said.

Dearman has some criminal history, including an active warrant for a burglary charge, Burch said.

The killings happened about 150 miles southwest of Rutledge, Alabama, another town in the southern part of the state where six family members were found shot to death at their rural home on Aug. 26, 2002.

In that case, Westley Devon Harris was given a death sentence after being convicted of slaughtering his girlfriend's relatives. Prosecutors said he was angry because he thought they were trying to keep him away from her.

After the killings, he fled with his girlfriend and child. The girlfriend, who was 16 at the time, ended up testifying against Harris.
Timbuktu mausoleum destruction suspect set to plead guilty

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  An Islamic radical accused of involvement in destroying historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu goes on trial at the International Criminal Court on Monday and has already told judges he intends to plead guilty.

A swift and relatively straightforward conviction is expected, marking only the fourth conviction since the Hague-based court was established in 2002. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of up to 30 years.

But activists say the court is missing an opportunity to file more charges against the al-Qaida-linked radical, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, for war crimes including rape and sexual slavery.

FILE - This is a Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015 file photo of Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi waits in the court room for his initial appearance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi an Islamic radical accused of involvement in destroying historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu goes on trial at the International Criminal Court on Monday Aug. 22, 2016 and has already told judges he intends to plead guilty. (AP Photo/Robin van Lonkhuijsen, Pool, File)

Prosecutors allege Al Mahdi was a member of Ansar Dine, an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida that held power in northern Mali in 2012. The militants were driven out after nearly a year by French forces, which arrested Al Mahdi in 2014 in neighboring Niger.

Al Mahdi was a Timbuktu-based expert on Islamic law recruited to enforce Ansar Dine's strict interpretation of Islam on the occupied Timbuktu, prosecutors told judges at a hearing earlier this year. He allegedly led an organization called the "Hisbah" tasked with upholding public morals and preventing vice.

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Gilissen, told a pretrial hearing in March that Al Mahdi was "concerned with doing what is right, seeking the means to allow his conception of good over evil to prevail."

The radicals destroyed 14 of Timbuktu's 16 mausoleums because they considered them totems of idolatry. The one-room structures that house the tombs of the city's great thinkers were on the World Heritage list and most of them have since been restored.

At the pretrial hearing, Al Mahdi told judges he planned to plead guilty, leading the court to schedule only a week for his trial. Other ICC trials have taken years to complete.

Al Mahdi, who is charged in attacks on nine of the mausoleums and a mosque, is the first suspect to face an ICC charge of deliberately attacking religious or historical monuments. The court's chief prosecutor has likened the case to the destruction last year by Islamic State extremists of historic ruins in the Syrian city of Palmyra.

Human rights activists accuse the "Hisbah" of going beyond targeting buildings and allege that its members also tortured and raped civilians.

International rights group FIDH says its member organizations have documented a litany of crimes and filed a criminal complaint on behalf of 33 victims in Malian courts naming Al Mahdi and 14 others as alleged perpetrators of crimes including rape and sexual slavery.
Zimbabwe: Supporters fume after protest pastor leaves for US

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  From a symbol of resistance and hope, a pastor who galvanized thousands of Zimbabweans into anti-government action has become a subject of derision, fighting accusations of being a coward.

Evan Mawarire became an instant hero after he organized this southern African country's biggest shutdown protest in nearly a decade through a social media campaign last month. His #ThisFlag campaign against economic stagnation and corruption concerns earned him criticism from the country's longtime president, 92-year-old Robert Mugabe.

Then Mawarire left for neighboring South Africa, citing safety. Now he is in the United States and promises to lead anti-government protests outside an annual United Nations gathering of heads of state next month.

FILE -- In this July 28, 2016 file photo Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire, holds his country's flag whilst singing the national anthem before addressing his supporters at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mawarire, a popular pastor who galvanized thousands of Zimbabweans into anti-government protests has become a subject of derision, fighting accusations of being a coward after he left neighboring South Africa citing safety concerns before going to the United States. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

Many of his supporters have been fuming on social media. Some are defending the 39-year-old's decision to leave. Others appear heartbroken.

They vent their anger, confusion and feelings of betrayal, not least because one of Mawarire's most popular hashtag campaigns in the local Shona language was #Hatichatya, or "we are no longer afraid."

"I wonder how your 11-year-old fan who penned a heartfelt letter would feel when she realises you left," one supporter, Stewart Muchapera, wrote on Facebook, questioning whether the #ThisFlag movement wasn't a farce.

"Come on man come back home and finish what u started," said Isiah Rondiwa on Facebook.

Others have defended Mawarire. "Ask not what Evan can do for u but what u can also do," Paul Nyikaz wrote.

In one of his social media posts, Mawarire seemed to take a dig at his critics.

"You are so quick to tell me to come back home but you can't tell Bob to go away," he said, using Mugabe's nickname. Mawarire later apologized for the statement, promising to grow the protest movement by adding youth and student wings.

"The public anger is understandable in that the youth thought they had found a leader in Mawarire. They had found their voice, now they feel deserted," said Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer and chairman of the South Africa-based Zimbabwe Exiles Forum.

"But then, he is more useful alive than dead, plus the movement has already taken root," said Shumba, who fled Zimbabwe in 2003 alleging torture by state security agents.

In an Aug. 11 video announcing his United States visit, Mawarire said: "I am going to the U.S. to meet some citizens and take time out to consider about my next move." He has been speaking at events in the U.S. and meeting Zimbabweans.

He also promotes daily protests in New York for Zimbabweans in mid-September, promising the biggest demonstration yet outside Zimbabwe during the annual U.N. General Assembly's general debate.

Frustrations over a rapidly deteriorating economy have been boiling over in Zimbabwe, the once prosperous but now economically struggling former British colony. Mugabe has been in power since 1980, but even some of his core loyalists started to turn on him in recent weeks as protests grew.

Shumba said Mawarire's campaign has been instrumental in emboldening a young generation disenchanted with life but too afraid to speak out.

Mawarire's first #ThisFlag video was posted in April. He ranted about how the Zimbabwe flag's colors have lost significance because of alleged political mismanagement. The video attracted over 120,000 views on the day it was posted.

The campaign then took on a life of its own. Other people now post videos of themselves wrapped in the flag and venting about their everyday problems.

In recent weeks, young activists have used social media to organize daily protests, prompting military commanders and cabinet ministers to describe them as "cyber terrorists."

They also have accused Mawarire of being supported by the West and now point to his move overseas as proof.

Information minister Christopher Mushohwe told reporters this week that "Mawarire has since shown his true colors and is now where he truly belongs in the arms of his handlers."

FILE -- In this July 13, 2016 file photo Pastor Evan Mawarire leaves the Harare Magistrates Court after the court freed him ruling that police violated his rights. Mawarire, a popular pastor who galvanized thousands of Zimbabweans into anti-government protests has become a subject of derision, fighting accusations of being a coward after he left neighboring South Africa citing safety concerns before going to the United States. (AP Photo/File)
How AP rates the presidential race and the Road to 270

WASHINGTON (AP)  Hillary Clinton heads into the fall out front in enough states to give her at least a tie in the Electoral College, meaning a victory in any of the several states now a toss-up would be enough to push her over the top and into the White House.

For Donald Trump, the electoral map is as daunting as it is friendly to Clinton. To win, he must sweep all of the toss-up battlegrounds and go on to pick off at least one state where the Democratic nominee now has a solid lead.

That's according to an Associated Press analysis of the map as it stands today, with 78 days until Election Day.

Supporters cheer as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The analysis considers preference polling, recent electoral history, demographic trends and campaign priorities such as advertising, travel and on-the-ground staff.

It finds that to capture the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, Clinton must merely defend traditionally Democratic states and those where recent polls show she has large advantages, and then add just one of the states that The Associated Press now rates as a toss-up.

Those states include Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

And that map may be a conservative estimate of Clinton's head start over the Republican nominee.

In several states the AP rates as toss-ups, including New Hampshire, North Carolina and Florida, recent polls suggest current conditions may be favorable to Clinton, though there are few polls in those states or they have given her a relatively narrow upper hand.

In other states, Clinton's advantage appears more formidable. In Pennsylvania, won by the Democratic nominee in every election since 1992, multiple polls conducted in July and August give the former secretary of state double-digit leads.

That state illustrates the depth of Trump's problem: It's considered a linchpin of his strategy to win over working-class white voters in the Rust Belt.

In Virginia, which handed its electoral votes to Barack Obama twice but was once a solidly Republican state, several August surveys show high single-digit to double-digit leads for Clinton.

Colorado, too, shows no signs of reversing itself after twice supporting Obama. Trump has consistently trailed by large margins in surveys released there since mid-July. Polls released this month in Wisconsin and Michigan also found Trump facing significant deficits.

Trump is left running from behind while also defending traditional Republican strongholds such as Georgia, where a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll suggests even that may be in play for Clinton.

___

Where the race stands today:

SOLID DEMOCRATIC: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maine 2nd District, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.

LEANS DEMOCRATIC: Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin.

TOSS-UP: Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio.

LEANS REPUBLICAN: Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska 2nd District, Utah.

SOLID REPUBLICAN: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming.

___
Does all voting happen on Election Day? Think again

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Voters in tightly contested North Carolina have seen the presidential candidates and their surrogates a lot this summer.

What helps make the state such a political hot spot is that voting begins before anywhere else.

Election officials begin mailing ballots Sept. 9 to any registered voter in North Carolina who formally requested one. That's the earliest in the country and 60 days before the Nov. 8 election.

A few other battleground states start mailing absentee ballots two weeks later. An array of states follows with differing forms of early in-person voting in the campaign's final weeks.

It's for that reason that North Carolina provides campaigns with an early test.

___

MAILING IT IN

People don't have to give a reason to vote by mail in North Carolina, such as out-of-town Election Day traveling or being too sick to leave the house.

A little over 200,000 mailed ballots were collected in 2012, which amounted to less than 5 percent of the state's 4.5 million voter turnout. Republicans historically have favored mail-in ballots and could be critical to who gets the state's 15 electoral votes. Republican Mitt Romney won the state by 92,000 votes in 2012, while Democrat Barack Obama won by 14,000 votes in 2008.

___

STILL IN COURT

Getting more attention right now in North Carolina is the early in-person voting the state offers in all 100 counties. It's wildly popular: 56 percent of the votes for the November 2012 elections were cast at early-voting centers and county election offices over a period of 17 days. Democrats generally favor this form of in-person "no excuse" absentee voting.

The Republican-led Legislature and GOP Gov. Pat McCrory reduced that period to 10 days in a 2013 law that also mandates photo identification to vote. Voters, civil rights groups and the U.S. Justice Department sued, and last month a federal appeals court struck down the photo ID mandate and ordered early voting restored to 17 days. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that elements of that overturned voter ID law heighten the possibility for a "rigged" election.

The state has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay the ruling. Otherwise, early voting will begin Oct. 20. While more days are now required for early voting, local election boards  each with Republican majorities  are considering whether to cut back the number of early voting sites or hours.

___

WHO'S NEXT?

Georgia election officials begin mailing absentee ballots Sept. 20, followed by Wisconsin on Sept. 22, Virginia on Sept. 23 and Michigan the following day. Iowa begins mailing ballots Sept. 29. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire start in October.

___

PLANNING AHEAD

In addition to North Carolina, early in-person vote is permitted in some form by 35 other states and the District of Columbia. Among battleground states, Iowa also opens early voting Sept. 29, followed by Ohio (Oct. 12) and Georgia (Oct. 17). Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire don't have early in-person options.

Three states  Oregon, Washington and Colorado  mail ballots to all registered voters, but Washington and Colorado also allow the option of voting early in person.

___
Flooding in South puts a damper on US rice harvest

LONOKE, Ark. (AP)  Heavy rain that brought record flooding to Louisiana recently has put a damper on the nation's harvest of rice, a food staple that usually likes water as it grows but can't be gathered by machine if fields are inundated.

While rice is an aquatic plant, this is the time of year when farmers drain their land and roll in heavy equipment for the harvest. Some fields remain unreachable in parts of Arkansas and Louisiana.

"I've heard from a lot of the farmers the water level has been higher than a lot of the past hurricanes," said Dustin Harrell, a rice agronomist at the LSU Agriculture Research Center near Rayne, Louisiana. Two feet of rain fell in parts of the state.

In this Aug. 18, 2016 photo, rain clouds build above maturing rice awaiting harvest outside Lonoke, Ark. Flooding in Louisiana, and a long period of wet weather in Arkansas, threatens to cut yields. Futures prices for rice have ticked up slightly, but economists say it is too early to say whether conditions could force grocery prices upward. (AP Photo/Kelly P. Kissel)

The 2016 crop was expected to be 26 percent larger than 2015's, according to Eric Wailes, an agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas. Losing part of this year's crop shouldn't trigger price increases for rice used for food, or for cereal or beer that use rice as an ingredient, he said.

"Having a much larger crop swamps this event," Wailes said from his office in Fayetteville, Arkansas. "It's premature to make a strong assessment of what it all means."

If anything, he said, an 8 percent bump in rice futures prices over the past week would offset some losses if a farmer cannot move his entire crop to market.

"The biggest losers are the farmers who are actually inundated," Wailes said. "The crop that was harvested is now more valuable."

According to USA Rice, a trade organization, Louisiana farmers had harvested about 80 percent of their crop before the deluge, not including second-season growth along the Gulf Coast. Louisiana had about 450,000 acres of rice this year or 15 percent of the U.S. crop.

Arkansas farmers, who grow half the nation's rice crop on nearly 1.6 million acres, had completed about 2 percent of their harvest when unusual August rains arrived last week. For the month, rainfall is running about 350 percent of normal and the next few weeks are critical.

"We cannot drain, and the rivers are backing up into the fields," said Larry Jones, who farms 1,500 acres in rice and 1,500 acres in soybeans at Clover Bend, south of Walnut Ridge. He worries the rains will continue.

"The Black River is out of its banks. The river has to run down, then the creeks, and then our fields can run down," he said.

November rice prices climbed from $9.515 per hundredweight Aug. 12 to $10.31 on Friday. For a time last week, they were at $10.70  up 12 percent over two business days.

"There is a window here for farmers" to get a good price in what was expected to be a glutted market, Wailes said. "It would take a fairly widespread and significant continuation of a bad harvest to support prices in the $10 to $11 range."

Foul weather can force the rice plants into the mud and excess moisture can make rice heads sprout, diminishing their quality. With hurricanes and tropical storms, systems dump heavy rain and then move on. The recent weather pattern has brought rain for days.

Rice is also grown in California, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. Half the nation's annual output is exported to 110 countries with top markets in Mexico, Japan, Haiti, Canada, Colombia and South Korea. Wailes said he expected that farmers, as a whole, would meet their obligations  though shipments might be delayed slightly.

___

Follow Kelly P. Kissel on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kisselAP and go to http://bigstory.ap.org/author/kelly-p-kissel to find his recent work.
As the number of freestanding ERs grows, so does scrutiny

DALLAS (AP)  Freestanding emergency centers have sprouted in recent years across the suburban landscape, taking root in affluent neighborhoods and directly challenging nearby medical clinics and hospitals.

Five years ago there were a couple dozen stand-alone emergency centers in Texas, and now there are more than 200. Colorado, Ohio and other states also have seen steady growth.

As these centers offer another choice for people tired of deflating wait times at hospital emergency rooms, their escalating numbers are sending ripples across the health-care field. Critics say they do little to help those in rural America with dire medical needs, siphon away skilled emergency physicians and too often stick patients with overinflated bills.

A Emergis emergency room facility sits behind a fence as construction continues, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Dallas. In just a few short years freestanding emergency centers have sprouted like mushrooms across the suburban landscape, taking root in affluent neighborhoods and directly challenging medical clinics and hospitals that may only be blocks away. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Groups such as the Texas Association of Freestanding Emergency Centers counter that people are getting an unprecedented level of care as the centers open close to consumers, don't keep them waiting, provide an ER physician around-the-clock, and are equipped for any medical emergency.

Researchers with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston conducted a study that found the number of stand-alone emergency departments grew from 222 in 2009 to 360 across 30 states as of March 2015. The most are in Texas, which in 2009 adopted a law that allowed private, for-profit ventures to provide the kind of emergency services that hospitals do.

"The idea of delivering fast, quick, high-quality emergency care ... is very innovative," said Dr. Jeremiah Schuur, lead author of the Brigham and Women's study published last month.

The freestanding ERs locate in zip codes with an attractive payer mix, Schuur said, meaning ones where more people are privately insured, have higher incomes and there are fewer Medicaid reimbursements. They're more likely to open in parts of Texas already served by traditional hospital emergency rooms, he said.

"Depending on your viewpoint, they offer competition or a duplication of services," Schuur said.

There doesn't appear to be market incentive for many of the stand-alone centers to open in rural areas that are home to poorer populations. At least 45 hospitals in less populated parts of the U.S. have closed since 2010, and a quarter of those were in Texas, according to the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals.

So far, the freestanding ERs have not filled the void left by those closings.

"It is important for policymakers to know that this is a service that's locating to serve one part of the population and not everyone," Schuur said.

A spokesman for the Texas Association of Freestanding Emergency Centers did not return phone messages seeking comment, but John McGee, an association board member, told The Dallas Morning News this month that rules dictating federal reimbursement rates and other regulatory hurdles make it difficult to open locations in poor areas.

As hospitals face greater competition in providing emergency services, they're also finding it more difficult to retain skilled ER doctors. Grant Douglass, president of Southwest Medical Associates, which contracts with hospitals and clinics in primarily rural parts of Texas to provide ER physicians, estimates that at least 1,500 doctors have been lured from Texas hospitals with the promise of better pay, less stress and a smaller volume of patients.

"It's created a tremendous strain on us to staff the small rural (hospitals)," Douglass said, adding that his company often must double the pay of doctors to ensure it can provide adequate staffing levels for hospitals.

But drawing the greater attention from consumer advocates are higher billing rates that can be found at freestanding ERs when compared to urgent care centers.

An analysis by the Colorado-based Center for Improving Value in Health Care found the cost of treatment at an emergency facility exceeded the rates at an urgent care center by $400 to more than $800. And of the top 10 reasons Coloradans used a stand-alone ER in 2014, seven were for nonlife-threatening conditions like sore throats and bronchitis.

"People are going to these freestanding emergency departments for non-emergent care," said Jonathan Mathieu with CIVHC. "It's for things that could likely wait."

McGee, with the Texas Association of Freestanding Emergency Centers, argues that freestanding centers are an industry simply meeting a demand. People are tired of having to wait hours at a hospital ER, he said.

But Vivian Ho, a health economist with Rice University's Baker Institute, counters that the motive is "people in the health care industry out to make a buck."

What's needed is a combination of legislation that provides greater oversight and consumer education programs so that people can learn to discern one medical clinic from another, she said.

"These places are so disarming," she said. "I mean, they're in shopping centers all over Texas."

___

Follow David Warren on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/WarrenJourno

A worker makes repairs to an exterior wall of a First Choice Emergency Room, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Richardson, Texas. Freestanding emergency centers have sprouted in recent years across the suburban landscape, taking root in affluent neighborhoods and directly challenging nearby medical clinics and hospitals. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

An Emergis emergency room facility sits behind a fence as construction continues, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Dallas. In just a few short years freestanding emergency centers have sprouted like mushrooms across the suburban landscape, taking root in affluent neighborhoods and directly challenging medical clinics and hospitals that may only be blocks away. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

A sign by a nearby road intersection advertises a First Choice Emergency Room, rear, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Richardson, Texas. Freestanding emergency centers have sprouted in recent years across the suburban landscape, taking root in affluent neighborhoods and directly challenging nearby medical clinics and hospitals. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Italy seeks to relaunch EU ideal with symbolic summit

ROME (AP)  Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has invited his German and French counterparts to pay their respects at the tomb of one of the founding fathers of European unity in a symbolic bid to relaunch the European project after Britain's clamorous decision to leave the EU.

The location for Monday's summit carries particular resonance as Europe confronts Islamic extremist violence, slow economic growth and continued anxiety over the implications of the Brexit vote. Italy has a lot to gain from a reinvigorated EU as it copes with flat GDP, the migrant crisis and political uncertainties over a constitutional referendum this fall on which Renzi has staked his government's survival.

The island of Ventotene off Naples, filled with sun-worshipping tourists in the waning days of summer, was where detained anti-fascist Altiero Spinelli in 1941 began co-writing the "Ventotene Manifesto," which called for a federation of European states to counter the nationalism that had led Europe to war.

The document is considered the inspiration of European federalism.

Renzi has called Ventotene the "cradle of Europe" and is keen to highlight its historic role as Italy seeks even greater integration, particularly on the security front to help it cope with waves of migrants, and flexibility from Brussels as it tries to rein in its record public debt.

"It seems strange, and in many ways it is, that from this tiny island the biggest political victory of the 20th century was borne: 70 years of peace between peoples who fought constantly and cyclically," Renzi said in January when he visited Ventotene and announced plans to restore its abandoned prison into a museum and European learning center.

Monday's mini-summit will serve as a warmup for an EU-wide summit in Bratislava in September designed to chart the EU's post-Brexit way forward. It follows an initial three-way huddle by Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Holland in Berlin in the days immediately following the June 23 British referendum.

Charting a course is difficult until Britain formally begins the exit process, probably next year, and lays out proposals for its future relationship with the EU.

In Berlin, the three leaders pledged their commitment to European unity and plotted a common proposal to relaunch the European project focusing on three key areas: improving security, boosting economic growth and strengthening options and programs for young people.

The summit also gives Renzi a chance to hash out options as Italy copes with slow growth and other financial worries, especially at its banks which are struggling under some 360 billion euros ($408 billion) in bad loans.

According to recent Eurostat figures, growth was flat in Italy in the second quarter, compared with 0.4 percent growth in the EU. Unemployment was 11.6 percent in June, well above the EU average of 8.6 percent. Youth unemployment was even worse: 36.5 percent in Italy, exceeded in the EU only by Spain, and nearly twice as high as the EU average of 18.5 percent.

Renzi, however, has a bigger concern on the horizon, a gamble that he brought on himself and is worrying Europe as it could affect Italy's political stability and strengthen the euroskeptic, populist 5-Star Movement.

Renzi has called a referendum for this fall proposing a host of changes to the constitution, including reducing the power of the Senate and giving the central government control of some policy areas now in the hands of regions. Renzi has suggested he would resign if it fails, an outcome that Italy's business lobby Confindustria has warned would create "political chaos" and lead Italy back into recession.

In an interview this weekend with La Repubblica, Renata Colorni, whose father helped spread the "Ventotene Manifesto" through Italy's resistance movement and whose mother married Spinelli, said she had little hope that today's Europe could ever meet the Ventotene founders' original ideals.

"Honestly, today I don't see first-rate politicians, I only see statesmen who move through the European scene worried about losing the next national elections," she was quoted as saying. "What's missing is the will to risk it all for an ideal."

___
Q&A: Former Treasury official Collyns on China's currency

WASHINGTON (AP)  A year ago, the People's Bank of China jolted financial markets by devaluing the Chinese currency. Investors were rattled again when China's yuan  also called the renminbi, or RMB  dropped last fall. They worried that China's economy was weaker than anyone thought and that Beijing was driving down the currency to make the country's exports more affordable overseas.

The currency fell again from April through July and is now down nearly 5 percent over the past year. But investors don't seem so worried anymore. The Associated Press asked Charles Collyns, a former Treasury Department official who is chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, to explain.

___

This undated photo provided by Institute of International Finance shows Charles Collyns. Collyns is the chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. Collyns spoke to The Associated Press about China's currency weakness and the strength of the country's economy. (Institute of International Finance via AP)

Why aren't markets worried about the Chinese currency's latest drop?

Collyns: The PBOC shifted their approach to more open communication. They've stressed that there is no intention among Chinese policymakers to engineer a sharp depreciation of the currency. They understand that any sharp move in the RMB can be disruptive to the global financial environment and have negative spillback on the Chinese economy. The Chinese are comfortable with a gradually depreciating currency. But they are going to let the process be driven by the market.

They also took a number of steps to support the economy, to increase the growth of credit and investment so that China looks to be broadly on track for their growth objective for this year of 6.5 to 7 percent.

___

Does the yuan's recent drop mean Donald Trump is right  that China is manipulating its currency?

Collyns: The facts are really not consistent with the view that the currency depreciated because they manipulated it. A few years ago, the U.S. Treasury raised concerns that they were resisting the appreciation of their currency for their own advantage. However, since early 2015, there's been a major shift. Chinese corporates started to repay (U.S. dollar loans), and a lot of Chinese residents began to look outside China for investments. That led to large net capital outflows. The Chinese authorities resisted the (resulting) depreciation of their exchange rate by intervening pretty substantially. So they were not manipulating to depress their currency. They were actually trying to (slow) the decline.

___

Overall, how do you assess the Chinese economy?

Collyns: I'm cautiously optimistic. China can grow at a strong pace for the next 10, 20 years. It's a huge economy, and parts of it are extremely modern, extremely efficient and quite innovative. On the other hand, large parts of the Chinese economy are highly inefficient. State-owned enterprises have excess capacity, excessive debt. A large number of people are living in poverty in rural areas. So there's room to increase productivity. There's big potential for China to continue growing at a pace that will substantially exceed what we see in mature economies and in most emerging market economies, too.

___
Italian soprano Daniela Dessi dies at 59 after brief illness

MILAN (AP)  Italy's La Scala opera house says soprano Daniela Dessi has died. She was 59.

Last month, Dessi wrote to her fans on Facebook saying she had to cancel all her summer performances due to an undisclosed health problem. The ANSA news agency quoted her companion, Fabio Armiliato, as saying she died in Brescia after a "brief, terrible and incomprehensible illness."

In a statement Saturday, La Scala said Dessi's solid technique, strong temperament and "rare interpretative sensibility" made her one of the "most notable figures on the international operatic scene."

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 file photo, Italian soprano Daniela Dessi' performs during the "Festival di Sanremo" Italian song contest, in San Remo, Italy. Italy's La Scala opera house says soprano Daniela Dessi' has died. She was 59. In a statement Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016 La Scala said Dessi's solid technique, strong temperment and "rare interpretative sensibility" made her one of the "most notable figures on the international operatic scene." (AP Photo/Alberto Pellaschiar, File)

It added that her performances "remain among the unforgettable pages of La Scala's history from recent decades."
The Latest: All wildfire evacuees allowed to return home

PHELAN, Calif. (AP)  The Latest on California wildfires (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

Authorities have lifted all evacuation orders for residents affected by a Southern California wildfire that drove thousands from their homes.

Scorched cars and trailers burned by the Blue Cut fire line a residential street in Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Thousands of residents chased from their mountain and desert homes were slowly beginning to take stock of their losses as the preliminary damage assessment was released for the blaze that erupted Tuesday in drought-parched canyons 60 miles east of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department made the announcement Sunday afternoon.

Residents must show proof of residency to return, and some may come back to a home without electricity as crews continue to work on restoring utilities.

About 82,000 people were ordered to leave their properties on Tuesday when the fire broke out 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Most of those residents are returning to find their homes intact, though not all. A preliminary damage assessment found 105 homes and 216 outbuildings destroyed.

___

10:25 a.m.

Fire crews continue to gain control on an arson fire that destroyed 189 homes in a Northern California town.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention said Sunday the 6-square-mile fire in Lower Lake is now 95 percent contained.

The blaze destroyed at least 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses.

More than 1,200 firefighters are battling the fire that started Aug. 13 and spread to the community's downtown area and many residential neighborhoods.

Damin Pashilk, of nearby Clearlake, is charged with 14 counts of arson in connection to the Lower Lake blaze and 11 other fires dating back to July 2015.

Meanwhile, a nearly month-old blaze burning near California's scenic Big Sur is not expected to be fully contained until the end of September.

Cal Fire says the fire has destroyed 57 homes and charred 133 square miles. It is 60 percent contained.

___

10:00 a.m.

More evacuation orders are being lifted for residents affected by a Southern California wildfire that drove thousands from their homes.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department announced Sunday residents in the Lytle Creek area will be allowed back to their properties.

Residents must show proof of residency to return.

At the height of the fire, some 82,000 people were under evacuation orders.

Most of those have now been allowed to return home, though a mandatory evacuation order remains in the El Cajon Valley area.

Fire spokesman Costa Dillon says that area is where the most active fire remains.

___

9:35 a.m.

Firefighters are continuing to make progress against a massive Southern California wildfire that destroyed at least 105 homes.

Fire spokesman Costa Dillon said Sunday containment of the blaze about 60 miles east of Los Angeles rose to 83 percent overnight.

Dillon added that there is no active fire along the perimeters.

Several other wildfires continue to burn across the state.

The Hearst Castle in central California remains closed Sunday as a result of a wildfire burning in San Luis Obispo County.

Fire officials say that fire is burning in the opposite direction of the historic landmark and that the blaze is 35 percent contained.

Scorched cars and trailers burned by the Blue Cut fire line a residential street in Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. More people returned to their homes Friday as firefighters made significant progress against a huge wildfire burning in Southern California's San Bernardino National Forest, but that was tempered by the announcement that at least 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were destroyed. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A firetruck passes scorched cars and trailers burned by the Blue Cut fire in Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. More people returned to their homes Friday as firefighters made significant progress against a huge wildfire burning in Southern California's San Bernardino National Forest, but that was tempered by the announcement that at least 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were destroyed. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Firefighters water down scorched compost material at a property burned near Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The wildfire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains. (AP Photo/Christine Armario)

Firefighters water down scorched compost material at a property burned near Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The wildfire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains. (AP Photo/Christine Armario)

In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department manages the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Operating from a mobile command center just south of the 58-square-mile blaze, Horton leads a team of 15 investigators, technicians, hazardous materials experts and others responsible for determining the extent and nature of the damages. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)

In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department manages the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Operating from a mobile command center just south of the 58-square-mile blaze, Horton leads a team of 15 investigators, technicians, hazardous materials experts and others responsible for determining the extent and nature of the damages. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)

In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department accounts the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Officials estimate that at least 105 residences and 213 outbuildings have been destroyed in the massive fire that burned ferociously through Southern California mountain communities this week and was still smoldering Saturday. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)

An air tanker makes a fire retardant drop Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 on the Lebec Fire off Interstate 5 in Lebec, Calif. Firefighters kept the blaze to 10 acres. (Casey Christie/The Bakersfield Californian via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; ONLINE OUT; TV OUT

This photo provided by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shows smoke billowing from a wildfire near Lake Nacimiento in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection via AP)

This photo provided by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shows smoke billowing from a wildfire near Lake Nacimiento in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection via AP)
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Prosecutors seek 30-year sentence for ex-Illinois guardsman

CHICAGO (AP)  Prosecutors want a judge to impose a maximum 30-year prison sentence on a former Illinois National Guard soldier, calling his plot to attack a U.S. military facility "a contemptible betrayal of both the Nation's trust and his fellow soldiers."

A government filing Friday in Chicago federal court says 23-year-old Hasan Edmonds deserves the sentence for two counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization because "betraying one's country while in its service is a particularly grave crime."

Prosecutors say the Aurora man and his cousin, 30-year-old Jonas Edmonds, devised a plan for Hasan to join Islamic State fighters overseas while Jonas attacked a National Guard armory in Joliet.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visits Srebrenica

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)  Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the Srebrenica memorial center on Sunday and met with the families of the victims of the 1995 slaughter of over 8,000 men and boys at the end of Bosnia's war.

Together with the British Ambassador Edward Ferguson, Sturgeon laid a wreath and paid tribute to the victims of the crime qualified by the World Court as genocide.

The victims were Muslim Bosniaks, executed by Serb forces that overran the east Bosnian town in the worst carnage in Europe since World War II.

Sturgeon told reporters her country has strong links with Bosnian people and she was keen to pay tribute on behalf of Scotland "to those who were murdered in the genocide but also to learn how we can use the memory of what happened in Srebrenica to help tackle intolerance and hatred wherever it occurs in the world."

Sturgeon also visited a day-care center in Sarajevo.
Clinton campaign halfway to $1 billion fundraising goal

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP)  Hillary Clinton's campaign is halfway to its goal of raising a billion dollars for the 2016 race, according to her finance director.

Dennis Cheng announced the achievement on Thursday in a meeting with staff at the campaign's headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, according to a campaign aide who was present for the meeting but wasn't authorized to discuss internal campaign strategy and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Her campaign has resisted publicizing a fundraising target for the general election, fearing it would draw attention to big donors at a time when voters angry about the role of money in politics. She aimed to raise $100 million for her primary bid.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton steps from her campaign plane as she arrives at Nantucket Memorial Airport in Nantucket, Mass., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016., en route to a fundraiser. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic party committees in July, according to finance reports released on Saturday. She's maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads. This week, she'll spend at least $10 million more on ads.

GOP rival Donald Trump raised $80 million for his campaign and the Republican party, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself. He's kept his payroll to about 70 employees, only began airing ads in recent days and has not undertaken a significant operational buildout across the country. Instead, nearly half the money he spent in July went to one web design firm, whose president is the campaign's director of digital marketing.

Clinton's campaign is in the midst of a fundraising blitz, with 43 events planned in 14 states over the next two weeks, according to a schedule obtained by The Associated Press.

She was spending the weekend greeting donors on Massachusetts' Cape Cod before heading to California for a series of events at the homes of Hollywood celebrities and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Later this month, she will head to the Hamptons on New York's Long Island for another fundraising swing.

President Barack Obama hosted an event last Monday on Martha's Vineyard, off the Massachusetts coast, where he was vacationing. Her running mate, Tim Kaine, and former President Bill Clinton also have events planned around the United States.

___
Manny Banuelos agrees to minor league deal with Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP)  Left-hander Manny Banuelos has agreed to a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels following his release by the Atlanta Braves.

A former top prospect in the Yankees organization, the 25-year-old Mexican was designated for assignment by the Braves on Aug 12 after being demoted from Triple-A to Double-A.

Banuelos had two strong minor league seasons, then missed 2013 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was traded to the Braves on Jan. 1, 2015, made his big league debut on July 2 last year and went 1-4 with a 5.13 ERA in six starts and one relief appearance.

He had surgery to remove a bone spur from his pitching elbow on Sept. 17 and felt more elbow discomfort this spring. He was 0-5 with a 5.33 ERA this year in 14 starts and three minor league levels.
Kerry in Kenya to discuss regional security and terrorism

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived Sunday in Kenya to hold talks with leaders of the East African nation that are expected to focus on regional security and extremism.

Kerry's plane touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Sunday night, where he was welcomed by Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed. Presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu had said earlier that Kerry will hold discussions with President Uhuru Kenyatta on regional security and stability.

Esipisu says specific issues likely to be discussed include stabilizing northern neighbor South Sudan, which is dealing with a recent upheaval, and developments in Somalia and Burundi.

Somalia faces key parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election in October. A homegrown al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab continues to launch deadly attacks in the capital. The country has been trying to rebuild after establishing its first functioning central government since 1991.

Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza won a third term that many in the opposition consider unconstitutional.

Kerry on Tuesday and Wednesday then visits Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of about 160 million people and one of its largest economies.

He will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the oil-rich country's worsening economy and its efforts to fight corruption. Kerry also will meet with leaders from the country's largely Muslim north, where the extremist group Boko Haram continues to carry out attacks.

Boko Haram appears to be snarled in a power struggle after a new leader was announced by the Islamic State group earlier this month and the longtime leader protested.

Kerry then heads to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and Thursday for discussions on the conflict in neighboring Yemen. The talks will include Saudi leaders, counterparts from Britain and in the regional Gulf Cooperation Council and the U.N. special envoy for Yemen.
The Latest: Public honors slain New Mexico police officer

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP)  The Latest on the public funeral for a Hatch police officer fatally shot during a traffic stop (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

Thousands are honoring Jose Chavez, a Hatch police officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop.

Vietnam War Veteran John Pummell carries a flag while the hearse carrying Hatch Police Officer Jose Chavez approaches the Pan American Center for a public funeral in Las Cruces, N.M., Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Chavez, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop, was remembered Sunday as a man who worked tirelessly to get a job in law enforcement, ultimately winning over the small village he was charged with protecting. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

Law enforcement officers, civilians and New Mexico dignitaries packed the Pan American Center Sunday afternoon in Las Cruces.

Gov. Susana Martinez said that for Chavez, who was born in Juarez, Mexico, obtaining U.S. citizenship was not enough to fulfill his American dream. He insisted on giving back to his community in uniform.

Chavez's flag-draped coffin arrived in a Navy blue hearse.

Officers and residents lined the 9-mile procession route that began in Hatch.

A father of two, Chavez was a two-year veteran of the Hatch police force. He was shot Aug. 12 and died at an El Paso, Texas, hospital.

Jesse Denver Hanes, of Columbus, Ohio, faces a murder charge in Chavez's death.

___

10:20 a.m.

Thousands are expected to gather to pay their respects to Jose Chavez, a Hatch police officer who authorities say was shot and killed by an Ohio fugitive during a traffic stop in southern New Mexico.

A public funeral for the 33-year-old Chavez is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces.

Law enforcement officers from across the region will participate in a procession through Hatch before heading south to Las Cruces.

A father of two, Chavez was a two-year veteran of the Hatch force.

He was shot Aug. 12 and died at an El Paso, Texas, hospital.

Jesse Denver Hanes, of Columbus, Ohio, faces a murder charge in Chavez's death. Authorities say Hanes also is a suspect in Ohio in the death of a 62-year-old man.
Andy Murray beats Wimbledon foe Milos Raonic to reach Cincinnati final

Andy Murray celebrated his 50th win of the year as he reached the final of the Western & Southern Open with a 6-3 6-3 defeat of Milos Raonic in Cincinnati.

In a rematch between this year's Wimbledon finalists, Murray, who won that showdown for a second All England Club title before claiming Olympic gold in Rio, was dominant on his way to clinching his 22nd straight win.

The Scot will play either Croatia's Marin Cilic or Grigor Dimitrov - the latter is unseeded here - in Sunday's final.

Andy Murray kept his winning run going (AP)

Four points were completed before rain forced an early break in play, with Murray returning to nab a crucial early break before establishing a 3-1 lead.

Raonic then made the best of the cross-court running in a hustling rally but Murray stood firm to wrap up the first set with another break.

The Canadian, despite sending down three aces in the final set, had no real answer to Murray's clinical counter-punching and the match was over inside an hour and 30 minutes.

Murray, who previously won this tournament in 2008 and 2011, beating Novak Djokovic on both occasions, told atpworldtour.com "I didn't get broken the last couple of matches and when I was in difficult situations I made good choices.

"That's helped keep the matches shorter. If you're a bit lower on confidence, regardless of how fresh you are, if you haven't played loads of matches you make bad decisions in those moments.

"And because I've won a lot the last few months, that's something that has been good, especially this week for sure. I've needed it to be because I haven't been feeling perfect. I've managed to get through the matches pretty well."

On Raonic, he added: "I think he was trying to be aggressive. I think he made maybe more mistakes than usual because of that.

"Maybe it appeared that he was being more aggressive, but I felt like he made more mistakes because he was trying to be more aggressive than usual.

"That's how it felt to me."
Conor McGregor keeping options open after Nate Diaz triumph

Conor McGregor does not expect his third tussle with Nate Diaz to be his next fight.

The Irishman edged out Diaz in a five-round thriller in Las Vegas on Saturday, to avenge his UFC 196 defeat to the American.

McGregor targeted a trilogy battle with Diaz, but later admitted he was eyeing other opportunities first, leaving open the possibility of the much-mooted boxing clash with Floyd Mayweather.

Conor McGregor atoned for his defeat at UFC 196 (AP)

The 28-year-old must defend his UFC featherweight title against Jose Aldo to hold onto the crown, but is yet to determine his next move.

When asked if a third bout with Diaz would be next on his schedule, McGregor said: "Probably not. The belt situation is lingering.

"I've got to talk. I've got to talk about what's next, there's a lot of options. Some might not be this sport, so we'll see.

"I've got to sit down and see what piece of the pie they're offering me now, and take it from there."

McGregor's immediate reaction to victory over Diaz was to target a third and potentially decisive battle with the 31-year-old California native.

"All I know is that it's 1-1," McGregor told BT Sport. "Let's regroup and do it again!

"This time I want to do it at 155 pounds, I came in at 170 with him as the bigger man and I overcame that adversity.

"Now this trilogy is on my terms, come back down to 155 and we'll do it."

When the dust had settled on his victory McGregor then revealed he would relish the chance to fight in Ireland.

"I'd love it," he said of a potential event in his homeland.

"I was over the moon when I walked into that weigh-in and they (Irish fans) were all there.

"I would love to fight at home in front of my countrymen.

"It's hard for my fans to come over here for fights and I understand that. So I don't know and we'll see, but hopefully."
David Willey ruled out of England ODI squad to face Pakistan

Yorkshire and England all-rounder David Willey has been ruled out of the Royal London one-day international series against Pakistan after suffering an injury to his left hand during the NatWest T20 Finals Day on Saturday.

The player underwent an X-ray on Sunday which has not excluded a significant injury.

The 26-year-old will have a further scan and be reviewed by a consultant on Monday. He will be withdrawn from England's ODI squad until a clear diagnosis has been established.

David Willey, centre, was injured trying to take a catch off his own bowling during Yorkshire's Finals Day defeat to Durham

Willey will be replaced in the squad by Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball, who will join his team-mates in Southampton on Monday ahead of the opening match at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday.
Lockerbie bomber release saw Scotland take rap, says Kenny MacAskill

Scotland was set up to "take the rap" for the release of the Lockerbie bomber, according to former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill.

Mr MacAskill likened the SNP government's involvement to "flotsam and jetsam, the same as the bags that fell upon the poor town of Lockerbie and the people there".

Mr MacAskill insisted the Scottish Government had not been complicit in any prisoner transfer deals for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the atrocity, and had "no control and little influence".

Kenny MacAskill, former Scottish justice secretary, discusses Lockerbie at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

The decision to return Megrahi to Libya in 2009 was taken by Mr MacAskill on compassionate grounds.

He said Scotland had not gained anything from the decision, and accused British and American politicians of hypocisy for criticising it while working to secure deals with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to further commercial interests.

The former politician made the comments at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, as he discussed his book The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search For Justice.

He said: "We got nothing out of it (Megrahi's release). The Scottish Government and indeed Scotland got a black spot, not simply the bomb that landed and devastated the town of Lockerbie."

He went on: "There was no deal done by us but there were certainly deals done internationally.

"We had no control and little influence, we knew things were happening, but you have got to remember it suited people to be able to put the blame on somebody and say it was Scotland.

"Because Obama, Clinton and Straw, all of them came out with it and said we don't agree with it, and they had been conniving and working for it.

"We had actually delivered what they wanted which was to let Megrahi go, but what I can give you an assurance on is that we did so following the rules and regulations of Scotland."

Mr MacAskill said: "We took the rap for Lockerbie but there were huge international deals going on that were commercial and were security.

"And we were just flotsam and jetsam the same as the bags that fell upon the poor town of Lockerbie and the people there."

Controversy continues to surround who was responsible for the 1988 bombing in which 270 people died.

The Pan Am flight on its way from London to New York exploded above Lockerbie, killing everyone on board and 11 people on the ground.

The politician argues that Megrahi, who died in Libya in 2012, was "a bit player" in an act of "state-sponsored terrorism".

He said: "The major person responsible for this was Colonel Gaddafi, supported by Senussi (Libyan intelligence chief) and various others in senior positions."

But while he described the Libyan's conviction as "extremely weak", he said the Scottish justice system and police had "acted honestly and with integrity".

Mr MacAskill said debate would "run and run", stating Lockerbie was "up there with the grassy knoll along with 9/11" in terms of international incidents in which conspiracy theories rage.
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."
Merkel sees no end to EU sanctions against Russia

BERLIN, Aug 19 (Reuters) - There is no reason to lift the European Union's sanctions against Russia as Moscow has not fulfilled all of its commitments under an international peace plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published on Friday.

Merkel told the RedaktionsNetzwerks Deutschland (RND) that Russia had caused a major crisis by annexing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and with its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Europe had to react against this violation of basic principles," Merkel said.

She added that she and French President Francois Hollande were working "with all one's strength" to urge Ukraine and Russia to implement the so-called Minsk ceasefire agreement despite all the difficulties.

"This is and remains the yardstick for the future of the sanctions," Merkel said.

Russia has been under U.S. and EU sanctions over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine for two years.

With fighting occasionally flaring and both sides blaming each other for failing to implement truce terms, the Minsk peace deal looks moribund.

The EU agreed in June to extend energy, financial and defence sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine until the end of January next year.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other leading Social Democrats, the junior partner in Merkel's ruling coalition, have struck a more conciliatory tone in the past months, saying the EU should gradually phase out sanctions if there was partial progress in the peace process.

But even Steinmeier has said that Russia and Ukraine have hardly made any progress in recent talks to implement the peace plan.

"There are no improvements, especially when it comes to security," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli said, adding the negotiations had reached deadlock also in other areas such as political reforms and local elections.
Philippines' Duterte threatens to quit U.N. after drugs war censure

MANILA, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organisation and invite China and others to form a new one.

Two U.N. human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.

About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.

Duterte on Friday denied that the government was responsible and in a middle-of-the-night news conference in his home town, Davao, said the deaths were not the work of the police and invited U.N. experts to investigate themselves.

The news conference was broadcast by local media and the full version was posted on Facebook by GMA news.

"I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert," he said, urging them to count not just the number of drug-related deaths but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.

He then launched an attack on the United Nations and its members - including by inference Manila's traditionally close ally, Washington - saying, it could not fulfil its own mandate but was "worrying about the bones of criminals piling up".

"I do not want to insult you. But maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations," he said. "Why do you have to listen to this stupid?"

Criticising the U.N. for not doing enough to address hunger and terrorism and for not being able to do anything about Syria and Iraq and allowing big powers to bomb villages and kill innocent civilians, he said he would invite China and African nations to form another global organisation.

"You now, United Nations, if you can say one bad thing about me, I can give you 10 (about you). I tell you, you are an inutile. Because if you are really true to your mandate, you could have stopped all these wars and killing."

Asked about the possible consequences of his comments, he said: "What is ... repercussions? I don't give a shit to them."

He said the United Nations should have acted according to protocol by sending someone such as a rapporteur to talk to him.
Croatia's politicians promise tax cuts, woo upstarts before vote

By Igor Ilic

ZAGREB, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Croatia's two biggest parties are promising tax cuts and toning down talk of tough reforms as well as building alliances with smaller, mostly upstart parties to try to convince voters they can produce a stable government in September's snap election.

Last November's election produced a fragile government embroiled in disputes over sensitive political appointments, reforms that would have meant massive public sector job cuts and a conflict of interest case. It collapsed after five months.

While opinion polls for the Sept. 11 vote point to a slight advantage for the SDP social democrats over the HDZ conservatives - who led the last government with the reformist Most party - neither is seen winning an outright majority.

"The parties know each other better now, so I expect the post-election coalition talks to be quicker than last year," the Economist Intelligence Unit's Maximilan Lambertson said, noting that Most and other newcomers are running for the second time.

"However, political instability may still persist amid possible disputes within a government on various reforms, like public administration or privatisation issues."

Opinion polls forecast that Most, or "Bridge", will come third again in the election, giving HDZ - with new leader, EU lawmaker Andrej Plenkovic - an advantage.

"I feel no responsibility for earlier difficulties in relations between Most and HDZ. I'm entirely open to cooperate, on a rational basis," Plenkovic has told national weekly Globus.

Most says it wants to put an end to two decades of control of Croatia's politics by the two biggest parties, which it accuses of clientelism and corrupt practices.

The SDP, which has formed a pre-election coalition with three other smaller parties, is also eyeing a partnership with the left-leaning regional IDS party from the western Istrian peninsula and national minorities groupings.

"We have a serious programme and experienced people ... we offer a safe course," SDP leader and former prime minister Zoran Milanovic told a rally this week.

The recent instability, combined with the major parties' promises to lower the tax burden for consumers and businesses, is raising eyebrows among business leaders and economists.

"I see two problems here. The parties largely offer partial economic ideas without offering a big, consistent picture. Also, the state is still a dominant factor in the economy and there is little talk about how to change it, about privatisation issues for example," independent economist Damir Novotny said.

"What basically prevails are talks about welfare transfers towards citizens."

Croatia's unemployment rate is close to 14 percent and growth at about 2 percent is not enough to create jobs, throwing into high relief the fact that SDP and HDZ are short on detail on issues such as how to overhaul the costly health and pension sectors, cut red tape and improve the glacial legal system.
Twin suicide bombs claimed by al Shabaab kill 20 people in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Aug 21 (Reuters) - More than 20 people were killed on Sunday when suicide bombers from the militant al Shabaab group detonated two car bombs at a local government headquarters in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, witnesses and officials said.

Residents of the town of Galkayo in north central Somalia said they heard two loud blasts in quick succession followed by heavy gunfire.

"There were two huge bombs. The first one was a truck bomb, followed a minute or so (later) by another car bomb. My brother was injured at the scene," Halima Ismail, a local resident, told Reuters.

Islamist al Shabaab, which has carried out a series of deadly attacks in the Horn of Africa country as it seeks to topple the Western-backed government, claimed responsibility for the bombings.

"There were two suicide car bombs," Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters.

Police initially put the death toll at 10, including civilians and security forces personnel, but a medical official said that number had doubled.

"Death toll is over 20 and it may rise further," said Ahmed Sugule, a doctor at Galkayo hospital. He said another 30 people were wounded in the attack.

Al Shabaab has become more active in Puntland, a large part of northern Somalia, since moving more forces there after being pushed out of strongholds farther south by an African Union force and the Somali National Army, experts and officials say.
Gunmen in Egypt kill informer, soldier at checkpoint north of Cairo

CAIRO, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed an informer and a soldier and injured five other people, including two civilians, in an attack at a police checkpoint in the province of Menoufia north of Cairo, the director of the ambulance services said on Sunday.

Security forces are searching for the men in that area, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Cairo, one security source said.

Egypt's government is facing an insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen, mostly in northern Sinai, since mid-2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate, which calls itself Sinai Province, mainly operates out of the northern Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal.
German minister wants facial recognition systems at airports, train stations

BERLIN, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Germany's Interior Minister wants to introduce facial recognition software at train stations and airports to help identify terror suspects following two Islamist attacks in the country last month.

Speaking to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Thomas de Maiziere said internet software was able to determine whether persons shown in photographs were celebrities or politicians.

"I would like to use this kind of facial recognition technology in video cameras at airports and train stations. Then, if a suspect appears and is recognised, it will show up in the system," he told the paper.

He said a similar system was already being tested for unattended luggage, which the camera reports after a certain number of minutes.

Other countries are also looking at such technology, but Germans have traditionally been sceptical of surveillance due to abuses by the Stasi secret police in East Germany and the Gestapo under the Nazis.

Germans are on edge after jihadist militant group Islamic State claimed two attacks in July, one on a train near Wuerzburg and one at a music festival in Ansbach, in which asylum-seekers injured 20 people.

As a result, organisers of the world's biggest beer festival, Munich's Oktoberfest, have raised security, including banning rucksacks, introducing security checks at all entrances and erecting fencing.

De Maiziere said a ban on rucksacks at large-scale events could also be useful, adding that it would be up to on-site security officials to take that decision.
Motorcycle suicide bomber kills 3 in north Cameroon market

YAOUNDE, Aug 21 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed three people and wounded 24 on Sunday at a market in north Cameroon, where Islamist Boko Haram is waging an insurgency for a breakaway Islamic state across four countries, security sources said.
Nigerian militant group says ready for dialogue with government

YENAGOA, Nigeria, Aug 21 (Reuters) - A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed a wave of attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, said it was ready for dialogue with the government.

"We are going to continue the observation of our announced ceasefire of hostilities in the Niger Delta against ... the multinational oil corporations," the group said in a statement received by Reuters on Sunday.
Hundreds swelter in Hong Kong protests at perceived election meddling

By Venus Wu

HONG KONG, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters rallied on Sunday against Hong Kong's disqualification of six candidates from legislative elections, the latest outpouring of anger at a perceived tightening grip on the city's freedoms by China.

The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under an agreement that gave ultimate control to Communist Party rulers in Beijing while promising Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy.

But Beijing's refusal to grant full democracy, which prompted widespread street protests in 2014, has triggered tension with growing calls for Hong Kong to split from China.

"Against the political filtering (of candidates), give us a fair election," chanted the demonstrators in sweltering heat of 32 degree Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).

Police estimates put the number of demonstrators at 760, while organizers said 1,300 took part.

The government took the controversial decision to invalidate six candidates' nominations on the grounds that they could be advocating for Hong Kong independence, an idea anathema to Beijing. But only three of the six showed up on Sunday.

One of the barred candidates, Edward Leung, a figurehead of the "localist" movement putting the financial hub's interests before those of Beijing, said he did not join because he was not invited, illustrating a growing split in the opposition camp.

Leung was barred from running despite declaring to the Electoral Affairs Commission that he did not promote Hong Kong independence.

"This split has been around for a long time," said Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who joined Sunday's protest and helped lead the 2014 protests that paralysed the main streets of Hong Kong for more than two months.

"There is an actual difference between the ideals of the localists and the democrats. Personally I think this is unnecessary and harmful to everybody, but this issue cannot be solved within a short time," Tai said.

The organiser of Sunday's march, Jimmy Sham, said the absentees might have had their own reasons for staying away.

"You can't say this shows there is a split just because they did not show up for one event," he said.

Among the disqualified candidates who did join the march, Alice Lai, of the pro-colonial days "Hong Kong-UK Reunification Campaign", said electoral freedom concerned everybody.

"This is about protecting our election rights and our freedom of speech," she said.

The government said in a statement its officers had been handling election matters in line with the law "as well as the principle of impartiality with a view to ensuring that the election would be held in an open, fair and honest manner".
Executions, burned testicles: apparent massacre stains Mexican police

By Gabriel Stargardter and Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Discrepancies plague the official account of a deadly assault last year in which Mexican police allegedly executed 22 suspected gang members, burned bodies, manipulated the crime scene and tortured survivors, newly-revealed details show.

In May 2015, a woman walked into a police station in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara and told investigators a group of about 50 men had broken into a local ranch she administered and said they wanted to buy the property.

It was not the first time the men, suspected members of the fearsome Jalisco New Generation (JNG) cartel, had visited the "Rancho Del Sol," just outside the town of Tanhuato: According to one of the ranch's tenants, they first appeared in 2014, demanding access to tap oil pipes that ran through the property.

The woman, whose husband owned the ranch until he disappeared after being kidnapped in 2012, asked security forces to go to the property and flush out the intruders.

Around 6.30 a.m. the following morning, dozens of federal police officers backed up by a Black Hawk helicopter raided the farmhouse, killing a total of 42 suspected gangsters, of which 22 were executed, according to a scathing report published by Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on Thursday.

The incident described by the CNDH represents one of the most egregious rights violations by security forces in Mexico's dark decade of drug violence, a menacing mix of murder, cover-ups and ineptitude.

Only one policeman died in the fight, in which police apparently attacked the cartel as they slept. The one-sided death toll was one of the highest since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in 2012 and pledged to end years of violence.

POLICE MALFEASANCE

Renato Sales, Mexico's national security commissioner, rejected the charge of executions, saying police responded with legitimate force.

But the 696-page report presents a grim laundry list of apparent malfeasance by the police, who were smarting from a series of painful JNG cartel attacks in the weeks leading up to the May 22 incident.

Images in the report show charred cadavers. In others, bodies lie soaked in pools of blood and mud, with spotless assault rifles laid suspiciously beside them.

Various witnesses, including the wives of victims, told investigators they heard police officers bragging about how they had caught the men unawares.

"It was the easiest job we've ever done. We hit them like little birds, asleep in their nests," one police officer was said to have boasted.

The pregnant wife of one of the victims said that when she went to identify the body of her husband, whose toes had been cut off and his testicles burned, the police made fun of her.

"That is the product of a delinquent," she said they told her, pointing to her belly.

TORTURED DETAINEES

The CNDH interviewed the three men who were arrested in jail, where they recounted how police beat them and threatened to shoot them. One of them said police made him fire a gun, while another said he was told to sign papers he was not allowed to read.

"One officer ordered (the police) not to kill any more detainees, because he had already reported there were survivors," one of the men recalled.

Nonetheless, the federal police was not the only institution singled out for blame. For example, in three separate cases, the Michoacan state prosecutor's forensic (PGJEM) team was found to have written up two different autopsies for the same person.
In my quest for truth and the American way, I often feel like the old Greek philosopher Diogenese, who became notorious for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. Here is Bobby Tony looking for an honest news source. ---------------->>>>

I make it a point to watch various morning news shows, during the week, MSNBC, CNN, and FOX. I was never so naive to think that Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Chet Huntley, or David Brinkley were unbiased; that condition does not exist in humans. But because we only had three of four networks, they enjoyed the position of the arbiters on "that's the way it is." (1960's Journalism)

In today's environment, one can find any number of news outlets to reinforce his personal biases. For many the internet is the go to place to find proof of their stance on every conceivable subject. Some do not bother with any research but make up their own facts for a basis of their pontifications. There is another segment of the population that is always wrong about any subject no matter what their belief is. It depends on who is using the term. We call them "Low Information" people. Hey, I have a pointer for you: Everybody is "Low Information" on some subject. Come on in the water's fine.

However, if you or I were truly trying to find some fact based discussion or research on any subject, where would we go? The argument over evolution has been going on since time began. I won't go there in this article but I do believe that it is possible for a species to DEVOLVE.

In one respect, we as a species have DEVOLVED into a political state of slime. I cannot find one source that I believe to be factual without any biased nuance. As a result, the first thing I do whenever I see something written by someone is to research that person to try and gain some context to opinions and observations. (Bobby Tony Profile here)

You would think that everyone would do the same but apparently, that does not work either. We have a President that was duly elected with a very week independent paper trail and history. We have two presidential candidates that have been around for quite some time and have a very strong paper trail, but much of what is available is suspect or lacking clarity.Some of it has been deleted and some has never been released or made public . Release is the current buzzword around politics now. The mantra Release your emails, release you tax returns does nothing but deflect the real issues at hand today.

I doubt that my research will ever point up an unbiased news reporter, but the closest I have found is Tim Russert, who was a Democrat, but did adhere to some basis of truth in his reporting. Tim passed in 2008, surely there is a more current example of Pseudo-bipartisanship.

Tim Russert  Fact Check on Hillary

How's that for fair and balanced? If you disagree with me you may be a 'LOW INFORMATION' person.
Syrian rebels prepare to attack Islamic State town from Turkey

By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

BEIRUT/AMMAN, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an attack to seize a town from Islamic State on the border with Turkey, a senior rebel said on Sunday, in a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand in the area.

The rebels, Turkish-backed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days, said the rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified.

"The factions are gathering in an area near the border (inside Turkey)," the rebel said.

Another rebel source said they were gathering at a Turkish military camp near the town of Qarqamish just opposite Jarablus.

"Every day there are groups of fighters entering from inside Syria across a secret crossing to a Turkish base where they are gathering in preparation of the assault on Jarablus," the source said.

Fighters mostly drawn from Failaq al Sham, Sultan Murad, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabha al Shamiya groups were coming from Syria's northwestern rebel-held Idlib province and also from the town of Azaz.

Another source, in Ahrar al-Sham, expected the assault on Jarablus to begin in the next few days.

Jarablus, on the western bank of the Euphrates river, is the last significant town held by the militant Islamist group on Syria's border with Turkey.

It is 34 miles (54 km) east of al-Rai, a border town FSA rebel groups recently took from Islamic State.

RIVALRY WITH KURDS

By taking Jarablus themselves, the rebel groups would preclude an assault on the town by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish-dominated militias who on Aug. 6 took the city of Manbij, 20 miles (30 km) to the south, from IS.

A group allied to the SDF and calling itself the Jarablus military council issued a statement on Sunday accusing Turkey of supporting radical jihadist groups and calling on the U.S.-led coalition to back the council.

The U.S.-led coalition has helped the SDF to make significant gains against Islamic State militants in northern Syria since it was established last year.

Turkey, an important supporter of the FSA groups, is worried that Kurds are using the SDF's westwards expansion against IS to extend their influence across northern Syria. The SDF already holds the eastern bank of the Euphrates opposite Jarablus.

On Saturday Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara would play a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the coming six months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines.

The rebel source from Ahrar al Sham said Turkish artillery had since Friday been pounding several Islamic State positions in villages on the outskirts of Jarablus near the border strip.

The mainly Sunni Arab rebel groups are now aiming to regain control of the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Marea in the northern Aleppo countryside, currently in the hands of the YPG, the powerful Kurdish militia.

Islamic State has pulled personnel out of Jarablus in recent days, the rebel leader said. On Friday families of IS fighters were evacuated from Jarablus and another city nearby, al-Bab, to the group's stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rebel operation aimed to effectively end Islamic State's presence on the Turkish border, the official said.
Anger in the Delta keeps oil majors quiet - and Nigeria's crude offline

By Libby George and Ulf Laessing

LONDON/LAGOS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Oil companies and even Nigerian officials are losing faith in a deal anytime soon with militants who have slashed the nation's oil output, casting doubt on a production recovery in what is typically Africa's largest oil exporter.

In the six months since the first major attack on Nigeria's oil - a sophisticated bombing of the subsea Forcados pipeline - dozens of attacks have pushed outages to more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), the highest in seven years.

Talk in the country has shifted from ceasefire optimism, and oil companies' assurances that repairs were underway, to hedged comments from the government and radio silence from oil majors.

On Sunday, the Niger Delta Avengers militants, which have claimed several major pipeline attacks, said in a statement they were ready to give dialogue a chance.

But highlighting the fracturing of militants into small groups, the previous day a group called Niger Delta Green Justice Mandate claimed an attack on a gas pipeline in the southern swamps lands.

Without a unified command and groups dominated by "generals" unable to fully control their own fighters, it is difficult for the government to identify the right people to talk to or enforce any ceasefire.

"People are giving up in the short term," one oil industry source told Reuters of a resumption in exports of key Nigerian grades such as Forcados or Qua Iboe, adding you "can't get anything" out of the majors, including Shell, Chevron , ExxonMobil or ENI, about when the oil might come back.

Shell declined to comment, while the other companies did not immediately responded to a request for comment.

In June, Nigerian government officials said privately it had a ceasefire with militants. But pessimism crept in, with even Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu telling journalists this week "we are talking but (it) is not an easy thing," and "we need a ceasefire" - a contrast to the belief that a ceasefire was underway.

He has also said another challenge to brokering a ceasefire is that there were several militant groups to talk to.

DEEP-SEATED ISSUES

The problems reflect deep-seated issues in the Niger Delta, which produces the bulk of oil but whose local communities complain of pollution, a lack of opportunities and what they say is an insufficient share of petro dollars. These problems are compounded by an economic crisis and a government battle with Boko Haram militants in the north.

"This is likely the beginning," Elizabeth Donnelly, deputy head and research fellow of London think-tank Chatham House's Africa Programme said of the unrest, adding that "the resolution that will come will not come quickly."

The government this month resumed cash payments to militant groups that it stopped in February, just before the launch of the worst violence since the payments began under a 2009 amnesty. But attacks continued anyway.

The Delta Avengers claimed the bulk of them, announcing strikes on Twitter even before oil majors themselves knew their remote pipelines had been hit. Twitter shut the group's account, but sources said the Avengers have extensive knowledge of oil sites, and follow the media closely to track companies' actions.

"With the Avengers, you don't want to say 'we'll be back up next Wednesday', because then you'll get a bomb next Tuesday," one oil executive said. "They have to be careful."

But new groups, such as the self-styled Revolution Alliance, which claimed an attack on a Shell-owned oil line, loom, while non-violent local protests have also exacted a toll.

Collings Edema, a local youth leader of the Itsekiri group that has blocked access to Chevron's Escravos tank farm for almost two weeks, said "the oil companies have not shown any sign that they are ready to improve our lives".

Experts warned that as long as people are unhappy, militants and their targets could evolve in unpredictable ways.

"This is also about frustrations of younger people coming up in the Niger Delta and needs not having been addressed," Donnelly said. "This isn't just about militancy, though the political and economic context feeds it."

Adding to the division of the militant scene, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), another group which agreed to a ceasefire in 2009, denounced the Avengers due to its "criminal and treasonable activities".
Indian army says kills three militants from Pakistan

SRINAGAR, India, Aug 21 (Reuters) - India's army said it shot dead three militants from Pakistan on Sunday following an attack by the gunmen two days earlier on an Indian border post in the disputed Kashmir region.

The militants were killed in the Tanghdar sector of North Kashmir, Lieutenant Colonel Manish Kumar told Reuters, adding that three rifles and military supplies had been recovered from the scene.

Indian troops have killed 103 militants in the restive Kashmir Valley so far this year, the highest toll in recent years. According to an official estimate, 56 militants have crossed into Kashmir this year through July, up from 36 in the same period last year.

India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, its northernmost state of which Kashmir forms a part. A Pakistani government spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday, but Islamabad denies any such activities.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been convulsed by protests since the killing by security forces of a field commander of an Pakistan-based militant outfit on July 8, with at least 65 people killed and 6,000 wounded in clashes with security forces.
Germany tightens Swiss border controls - Swiss minister

ZURICH, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Germany has tightened border controls with southern neighbour Switzerland to choke off a flow of illegal immigrants, Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said, calling it evidence that Germany has withdrawn its welcome mat for migrants.

Germany's interior ministry confirmed border staffing had been reinforced.

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere arrived in Germany last year. The mood towards them has soured after a spate of attacks on civilians last month, including three carried out by migrants.

Switzerland itself has cracked down on migrants -- many of them African -- trying to enter from southern neighbour Italy after crossing the Mediterranean. Humanitarian groups are scrutinising if the stance violates human rights conventions, which Swiss officials insist they will safeguard.

Maurer, who as finance minister oversees border guards, used the tougher German line to justify Switzerland's approach of sending back to Italy up to 1,000 migrants a day trying to transit to Germany or other points north without valid papers and without applying for asylum in Switzerland.

"Germany is consistently securing the border to Switzerland," Maurer told a weekend congress of the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), according to remarks reported by the NZZ am Sonntag paper and confirmed by his ministry.

The main transit path to Germany last year was the Balkan route via Austria, but as border controls have been tightened, more people are travelling via the Mediterranean and Italy.

NZZ am Sonntag cited German federal police in Berlin as saying they caught 3,385 illegal immigrants from Switzerland so far this year, up 40 percent from a year ago.

Maurer said German authorities had assigned an additional roughly 90 border guards and 40 police officers to the border segment to turn back illegal migrants from Switzerland, adding: "Germany has clearly moved away from its welcoming attitude."

Asked about Maurer's remarks, Germany's interior ministry confirmed that federal police were deployed at the Swiss border to detain and expel people who violate entry requirements and do not seek formal protection.

The numbers of such people has been increasing over the last few months and are in the low- to mid-double digits a day, a spokesman said by email, adding: "The development is related to the still significant Mediterranean route to Italy."
Gaza militant rocket hits Israel, Israel responds with air strike, shells

JERUSALEM, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket that landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot on Sunday and Israeli aircraft and tanks responded by shelling the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the army and police said.

The rocket caused no injuries or damage in Sderot, where it landed in a residential area, police said. An Israeli shell damaged a Beit Hanoun water tower and there were no casualties, local residents said.

The Israeli army said aircraft and tanks had targeted two Hamas posts belonging to Islamist Hamas militants.

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and has observed a de-facto ceasefire with Israel since a 2014 war but some small armed cells of Jihadist Salafis have defied the agreement and have continued to occasionally launch rockets at Israel.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.
Australia beat Sri Lanka by three wickets in opening ODI

Aug 21 (Reuters) - Steve Smith and Aaron Finch struck half-centuries to help Australia to a three-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first one-day international in Colombo on Sunday.

Sri Lanka, who lost the toss and were sent out to bat on a dry, turning wicket, set the visitors a target of 228, but Australia successfully chased them down with 19 balls to spare to give them the lead in the five-match series.

Earlier in the day, Mitchell Starc and James Faulkner took seven wickets between them to make life tough for the hosts.

Starc finished with three wickets for 32 runs in his 10 overs and drew first blood early in the Sri Lankan innings when he bowled opener Kusal Perera on one.

He became the quickest bowler in history to reach 100 ODI wickets, passing the record set by Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq nearly two decades ago, when he dismissed Dhananjaya de Silva for two.

Faulkner ended with four for 38, including two wickets in the same over.

First, he enticed Kusal Mendis into top-edging a slow offcutter to Travis Head at midwicket, before tempting Angelo Mathews into a drive that was caught superbly by Head at point to send the Sri Lanka skipper back to the pavilion with a duck.

Dinesh Chandimal top-scored for the hosts with a patient unbeaten 80 that contained just three boundaries, but his efforts were not enough to prevent Australia getting their first win of the tour after being whitewashed 3-0 in the test series.

Finch got Australia off to a blistering start, hitting seven boundaries and two sixes en route to 56 off 46 deliveries, while Smith struck five boundaries during a more measured innings that yielded 58 runs off 124 balls.

Smith and George Bailey piled on 62 runs for the fourth wicket, before the Australian skipper fell to an outstanding catch from substitute fielder Danushka Gunathilaka.

Australia had been given a solid platform, allowing them to ease their way to victory, with Faulkner and Starc, both not out on five apiece, easing them over the line.
Yemen's ex-president says could work with Russia to 'fight terrorism'

DOHA, Aug 21 (Reuters) - A newly-formed governing council in Yemen could work with Russia to "fight terrorism" by allowing Moscow use of the war-torn country's military bases, Yemen's former president said on Sunday.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, a former counter-terrorism ally of the U.S. who was toppled by mass protests in 2011, told state-owned channel Russia 24 that Yemen was ready to grant Moscow access to air and naval bases.

"In the fight against terrorism we reach out and offer all facilities. Our airports, our ports... We are ready to provide this to the Russian Federation," Saleh said in an interview in Sanaa.

The ex-strongman may lack the clout to implement such an offer. But officials from the party he heads now run a political council that controls much of the country along with the Houthi movement allied to Iran.

For the first time last week Iran let Russian jets take off from its territory to bomb armed groups in Syria.

Russia is the only major country that maintains a diplomatic presence in Yemen where a 16-month war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels has killed over 6,500 people and raised the prospect of famine in the Arab World's poorest country.

The war has allowed Islamist militants including al Qaeda and the Islamic State to flourish, even though the United States has for years launched drone strikes against groups in Yemen.

Russia abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution in 2015 that imposed an arms embargo on the Houthi rebels.

Moscow's relations with Yemen date back decades and until the break-up of the USSR, thousands of Soviet military advisers and trainers worked in the formerly-independent south.

On Saturday tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in the capital to show support for the Houthi-led bloc as the head of the group's new governing council vowed to form a full government in the coming days.
Italy to hold elections in 2018 whatever referendum outcome - Renzi

MARINA DI PIETRASANTA, Italy Aug 21 (Reuters) - Italians will vote in new general elections in 2018 no matter how a referendum on constitutional reform turns out later this year, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Sunday.

Renzi, who came to power two years ago by ousting grand coalition-leader Enrico Letta, has staked his political future on winning the referendum which he says is crucial to more stable and stronger government.

Asked in an interview before an audience at an outdoor festival in Marina di Pietrasanta in Tuscany whether elections would be held in 2018 whatever the outcome of the popular vote, Renzi said "yes".

But the 41-year-old indicated he would nonetheless step down from office if he lost the referendum.

"If the no wins I have already said what I will be doing," he said. Renzi has previously commented he would resign.

The referendum, the date of which has not yet been announced, seeks to do away with a parliamentary system in which the upper and lower houses have equal powers, effectively abolishing the Senate as an elected chamber and sharply reducing its ability to veto legislation.

Critics fear the proposed reform could give excessive powers to the government and its leader.

Renzi reiterated it had been a mistake to personalise a referendum in which he promised to resign if he failed to convince voters to support the need for constitutional change.

"I made a mistake and because of this the whole thing has become a debate about everything," he said.

No government has completed a full term in Italy since World War Two, making it difficult to reform an economy where debt-to-output is second only to Greece in the euro zone.

Asked about the next budget Renzi said common sense was needed but added taxes needed to keep coming down.
There are several commonalities between Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah, though they are in different political parties.

To begin with, they are almost the same age. Both of them are first generation politicians in their families, and both began their political journey within a few years of each other in the Janata Parivar. This political stable in the late 1970s and early 1980s widened the social and economic base of the political arena by providing a platform and opportunities for several underprivileged social groups.

Finally, both are currently pursuing certain questionable policies as chief executives of their states but are getting away with it because of their claim of leading front line forces in the defence of secularism in the country. By raising the bogey of the BJP and other members of its clan, the two leaders have avoided being questioned for some of their policies which in the long run will only strengthen the BJP's brand of politics.

Take for instance Nitish's much-publicised policy of imposing total prohibition in the state. After having given the indication of a slow roll-out, the government imposed complete ban almost overnight, thereby allowing the police to use strong-arm tactics against suspected violators.

In the public criticism of the opposition to the policy by JNUSU president, Kanhaiya Kumar, Nitish invoked the Directive Principles of State Policy.

The merit of Nitish's policy of imposing total prohibition in the state almost overnight is questionable.

The danger of drawing strength from moribund parts of the Constitution - described by TT Krishnamachari as "veritable dustbin of sentiment... sufficiently resilient as to permit any individual of this House to ride his hobby horse into it" - could not have been more evident than during the recent gau raksha debate.

The Bihar chief minister was on a sticky wicket because if one quotes the directive principles to justify prohibition, other groups cannot be denied the right to similar privileges to defend their stance on cow protection. Moral policing of any kind and on any issue can only strengthen anti-democratic and reactionary forces.

On the one hand, the Bihar chief minister swears by the words of socialist demagogue Ram Manohar Lohia, and on the other, he practises politics that will end up strengthening the Sangh Parivar. For short gains, Nitish is taking a long-term risk.

Earlier this week, 16 people died and several have lost their vision in the hooch tragedy in Bihar's Gopalganj district which demonstrates that prohibition encourages rise of the liquor mafia and induces people to seek alcohol whose safety and authenticity is not vouched by government agencies.

Data make it amply evident that illicit liquor takes a deadly toll almost in every part of India, even in states where liquor trade and consumption is banned. Government statistics, between 2012 and 2014, reveal that there were more than 3,000 incidents of consumption of spurious liquor in the country, resulting in the loss of 2,927 lives.

Going by records, one can say with a certain premonition that the deadly game has just begun in Bihar. Moreover, with the state law and order situation going out of hand, one can question the extent to which Nitish is justified in diverting police attention from the priority areas. Clearly, governance is being sacrificed at the altar of populism.

Bihar has also recently made worrisome amendments to its four-month-old legislation. In a nutshell, this amended law makes all adults in a family liable to punishment if any person drinks or keeps liquor at home. This violates the rights of adults because one can be prosecuted for violation of the law by the others.

It also provides the district administration with powers to extern a drinker for six months. The new law - Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 - is the most stringent among prohibition laws in the country. The law has several draconian clauses including providing the police with the right to confiscate premises where liquor is consumed or stored.

Nitish is pursuing prohibition with zeal because of the belief that it has pumped up his popularity among women for being able to force men in families to stay off bacchus. While no one should argue that drinking is one's constitutional right, it cannot be ignored that such a strict law is an incursion into privileges of an individual. Progressive governments must utilise alternative avenues to wean people away from alcoholism if it is indeed such a social and medical problem.

The spirit behind Siddaramaiah's decision to give priority to the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) FIR against Amnesty International India is no different. The basic issue is also the right of an individual to say and act in a manner which (s)he chooses.

The complainants in the Amnesty case have nowhere stated that the meeting endangered law and order. When the Karnataka government pursues the charge with such intent, it provides justification to the BJP's argument that anyone not agreeing with its vision of nationalism is anti-national. And any individual who questions any state policy is also guilty of treason and can be charged of sedition.
Billings is basking in the spotlight of Outside Magazine this month.

The New York-based outdoors magazine featured Billings in a video on its website, www.outsideoutline.com , titled Why Billings, Montana Is the Best Town Ever.

The nearly five-minute video includes interviews with Alex Tyson, director of Visit Billings, and local business owners in the tourism industry.

Highlights include the bustling downtown brewery district, ample biking opportunities on the Rimrocks and other trails and the growing locally-sourced restaurant scene.

The city is also featured in the print edition.

Outside Magazine has a digital reach of 2.4 million people, with a median income of $85,806, according to the company. It counts about 688,000 subscribers.

Sparked by an aggressive marketing campaign by Visit Billings, the city won Outside Magazines Americas Best Town of 2016 competition in May. The winner was determined through an online vote held by the magazine.

Billings beat out notable resort town Jackson, Wyo., and other renowned destinations, including Livingston, Leavenworth, Wash., Boise and Bend, Ore.

Hastings replacement sought

The owners of West Park Promenade say theyre looking for a new tenant to replace Hastings when it closes in October.

Syd Severe of Snoqualmie, Wash.-based MK Property Services, which manages the outdoor mall, said brokers will likely wait until Hastings liquidates its assets to pay debts before finding another anchor tenant.

Officials at Texas-based Hastings announced in July they would close all stores and liquidate all assets to pay creditors as part of their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

All Hastings stores nationwide will be closed by Oct. 31.

Albertsons offers app

Customers buying groceries at Albertsons can save a little more money with a new app on their smart phones.

The Just for U app, available for both Android and Apple devices, allows shoppers to check for deals while in the store, said Kathy Holland, a spokeswoman for the Boise, Idaho-based grocers Intermountain division.

The app combines a range of coupons, including manufacturer deals, newspaper ads and others, into one spot, Holland said. Customers need only punch in their phone number when paying to access the deals, and the app will highlight commonly purchased items over time, she said.

They dont have those random coupons on items they wouldnt normally purchase in their basket, she said.

Albertsons is Billings largest grocer with five stores. Holland said the company isnt planning to cut back on current coupon advertisements with the app. Its only available now for smart phone users, but the company is working on a web-based version, she said.

The idea was born in early 2015 after Albertsons completed the acquisition of rival Safeway, which has a similar card-based program, Holland said.

The app went live Wednesday, and workers are available at local stores to help customers download and use the app.

Laurel gets U-Haul dealer

A new U-Haul dealer has opened near Laurel.

U-Haul Co. of Montana announced last week that Save What Nots at 4 Gebhardt Lane south of town has signed up to serve the Laurel area.

The owner of Save What Nots, an antiques and vintage store, is Vern Gebhardt.

Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday and on call Sunday. The phone number is 406-530-2309.

Financial conference coming

Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Monica Lindeen is holding a Tuesday conference in Billings aimed at financial education for women.

Penny Conference: Money Matters for Montana Women runs 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Montana State University-Billings library room 148.

Local speakers include Barbara Wheeling, dean of MSUBs College of Business, Marsha Goetting of the Montana State University extension office and other professionals.

Karen Fagg, a longtime local executive, will also speak.

The keynote will be Ric Edelman, a personal finance expert and radio show host and syndicated columnist.

More information is available at www.csimt.gov/penny .

Haikus from the valley

One downtown project

Many questions remaining

Money the biggest
By the summer of 2014, 17-year-old Timothy Bates had all but given up.

On a steady stream of depression medications since he was 14 and prone to self-harm that included cutting  "I loved my razor blades for a while," he said  the Wyoming teen was depressed and suicidal when he was checked into Billings Clinic's psychiatric department for a two-week stay, his second such trip in just a few months.

"I was pretty much done," said Bates, now 19. "I had given up on all of it."

With other methods showing little to no improvement, staff there pitched a experimental but low-risk and low-cost approach involving sleep disruption and specialized light therapy that in limited studies had shown promise in quickly reducing depressive and suicidal tendencies.

Figuring he had little else to do, Bates agreed to be the first youth to undergo the treatment there. To hear him tell it, the results were not only rapid, but also remarkable.

"It was a realization that things can get better," he said.

Bates' turnaround was so dramatic and it piqued staff's interest so much that the psychiatric department sought and gained approval to undertake what appears to be one of the first studies on the effectiveness of the treatment, called triple chronotherapy, in teenagers.

The open label pilot study is only about halfway through, having been completed on a handful of teenagers so far, but its potential for helping to reduce depression has staff cautiously optimistic.

"You can see the differences it makes, but you need to see some more data, some more information, to really know," said Dr. Mariela Herrera, a psychiatrist at the clinic.

Sleep and light

Triple chronotherapy involves three distinct parts, beginning with 36 hours of sleep deprivation for the patient.

That is followed by advancing the patient's sleep cycle to a normal bedtime over the next three days. A typical cycle might begin with having the patient sleep from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. on the first day, 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. and finally from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., followed by a regular 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. sleep schedule.

Finally, every morning beginning after the first night of sleep deprivation, the patient undergoes 30 minutes of light therapy at the same time each day using a specialized, but common, light box.

The box is the same type used to help patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder and, for the purposes of the clinic's work, is a 10,000-lux light.

The therapy should never be done without supervision from trained medical professionals.

Diane Hurd, a registered nurse, said the therapy is aimed at reducing depressive and suicidal tendencies quickly, while longer-term efforts such as traditional therapy and medication are ongoing. It has been used with adults, and there have been limited studies in that vein, but there's just not much data on its long-term effect in youth.

"We started to realize there was a gap in the research, and it was such a great success here," Hurd said, noting that they'd used the therapy with several other youth before the study started in early 2016. "We saw a pilot study in the adult population and we looked at that protocol and went on to do more patients."

That study, conducted in 2014 by Dr. Gregory Sahlem at the Medical University of South Carolina, looked at the treatment's effect in 10 depressed and suicidal patients.

It found that the therapy is "feasible and tolerable" in such patients. It showed a significant decrease in depression and suicidal scale scores recorded by both clinicians and patients.

"Based up on the results of our small open label pilot study, triple chronotherapy is safe and feasible to administer in acutely depressed and suicidal inpatients," the study concluded.

However, staff at the clinic say there's still a lot of research to be done before its effectiveness can truly be determined, and larger data samples will be necessary in the future. As of early July, the initial study was about half completed and they're looking at a number of different elements.

"What's the effect on depression outcomes?" asked Herrera. "Are they suicidal? Is there self-harm or anxiety? We want to see if there's a positive or negative correlation with the quality of sleep."

'I'll always remember day 3'

Bates said he's struggled with depression almost as long as he can remember.

Late in the spring of 2014, it got to the point where he was on suicide watch at the hospital in Lovell, Wyo. When that stay ended, he spent time in two other facilities in Montana before coming to Billings for the first of two stays in the youth inpatient psychiatric center.

He said he'd use just about anything he could get his hands on to cut himself. Medications he'd been on for the previous three years were not only not working, but possibly making him worse, he said.

"At that point, I was just done," he said.

He'd been working with Dr. Eric Arzubi, a child psychiatrist and head of the clinic's psychiatric department, on finding a solution.

During Bates' second stay, Arzubi pitched triple chronotherapy.

"They offered up a couple of different ideas, and he said, 'We have this, but it's never been tried here before. Let's give it a shot,'" Bates said. "I thought, 'Well, I've got nothing to lose. I'm going to be here anyway.'"

As with Bates' case, the therapy and current study is being done with suicidal and moderately to severely depressed patients who are already there for inpatient care and aren't sought out outside of the department's confines.

And, like Bates, they must be motivated to complete the entire therapy. Hurd said some patients simply don't want to participate or don't think they'll be able to finish, and that's OK.

For Bates, the prospect of possibly going home to live with his grandmother was motivation enough. During the sleep deprivation phase, staff stayed up with him the entire time, playing games or shooting hoops.

Within a few days, he noticed a change  not only on paper in his depression scale scores, but in how he felt.

"Day three," he said. "Ill always remember day three. My score sheets, they always had a high depression score. Thats the day where my score was down, it was something better. It was a realization that things can get better."

He felt energized and wasn't drowsy all of the time, "actually awake and functioning," he said, and the results were encouraging, both for Bates and the staff.

By the time he went home a few days after the conclusion of the therapy, he'd reached an agreement with Arzubi to stay off meds but continue the scheduled bedtime and daily light therapy.

Bates did just that for about three to four months after and now, at the age of 19, says his life has completely turned around, from having a better handle on suicidal thoughts to higher quality sleep, and now hopes others can find hope in his story.

"It was just a new outlook," he said. "It was almost like a timeout from everything that happened. When you deal with depression, you dont ever get rid of it. You just learn to deal with it. Depression isnt something to be taken lightly, but its definitely workable. I came through it."

Today, Bates works with a Wyoming construction company. He's married and the couple recently celebrated their one-year anniversary. He hopes to go to college once his wife graduates from her own program in Lovell.

'It got everybody's attention'

Arzubi said that Bates' case led directly to the ongoing study.

"The results were good enough that it gave us hope to move forward and study it," he said.

The underlying idea of the study is to look at the impact of depression, suicidality and sleep. Problems with sleep have long been linked with depression, and resetting the circadian rhythm  sort of the body's internal clock, regulating sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day  can help some to get more sleep.

In addition, the light boxes, which can be purchased online or at home supply stores, have been shown to help with the depressive symptoms in conditions such as SAD.

Hurd and Herrera both noted that the study, and the therapy itself, is a team effort, with physicians, nurses, mental heath workers, social workers, statisticians and others across the hospital pitching in.

But because of the treatment's experimental nature, a lot had to go right for everybody to sign off on the study. They both credit what happened with Bates as a major driver.

"To see a patient turn around like that, it got everybody's attention," Herrera said. "There's a lot of reasons why something like this won't go forward, so we're happy it did."

It's too early to know what the results of the study will be, staff said, but they plan to continue tracking patients and the effect of triple chronotherapy and hope to be able to conduct a larger and more comprehensive study in the future.

Bates said he still uses the light occasionally on days he thinks he might need it and does his best to get at least eight hours of sleep each night. He knows his depression isn't gone, but also knows he feels better equipped to deal with it, thanks in large part to what he believes started with the therapy.

"Things are going to get better and worse," he said. "There are ups and downs, but I can say this: More days are better than not any more."
Tombstones can only hint at the story of the person buried there, often vaguely.

They have inscriptions like: He was a kind and loving father; or she was a beloved mother and sister. And a white cross inscribed with only the persons name and the dates of birth and death indicate the resting place of a soldier.

So maybe its not surprising to discover that two marked graves greeting visitors along a popular forest route to the Cloud Peak Wilderness in Wyoming, a short drive west of the community of Buffalo, hint at a larger but inaccurate story.

Pre-Buffalo

Buffalo, Wyo., was founded in 1879 along the base of the southeastern face of the Bighorn Mountains. The community was established next to Fort McKinney, which was built to establish control over Indian tribes deemed a risk to white settlement.

Two years earlier, in 1877, a French member of an Army survey crew died along North Clear Creek, a now popular entryway for hikers, horseback and off-trail vehicle riders.

Theres not an awful lot of information, said Sylvia Bruner, director of the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo.

But from a slim folder she pulled information gathered from earlier newspaper articles written based on the memories of some of the first forest workers. Within that folder the story of P. Garde seems somewhat unlikely, maybe an excuse concocted for a more tragic death.

He was cleaning his gun and accidentally shot himself, Bruner said the story of the 28-year-old Garde goes.

Garde was buried along the winding creek that is lush with willow. His grave was placed on a hillside that provides a broad view of the granite bulk of the Bighorn Mountains to the west. A cross must have marked the original gravesite.

Tie hack

Forty-five years later, in 1922, a lumberjack hired to cut, or hack, ties for the railroad  workers known as tie hackers  suffered an apparent heart attack while hiking back from nearby Seven Brothers Lakes after a day of fishing.

Carl Johnson, a Swedish immigrant, wasnt found until May of that year and was buried by his coworkers. His birth date was not printed on the tombstone. Tie hackers would often work in the winter since it was easier to peel the logs and skid them out in the snow, according to information on the Shoshone National Forests website.

Although Buffalo is situated in Johnson County, Bruner said Carl does not appear to have been related to any of the founders of the area.

There are a lot of Johnsons around and, from what I can tell, none of them are related to each other, Bruner joked.

Memorialized

Over the ensuing years the burial sites have been maintained and small, six-sided concrete headstones were added at some point, in addition to wooden crosses and log enclosures. Under P-Garde the stone reads: Soldier.

A 1925-era photo, probably shot by Forest Service regional manager John Spencer, shows three men and their horses standing next to the knee-high log-enclosed graves with large white crosses erected. Bruner provided the photo from the museums collection and noted the black and white shot was lushly hand-tinted.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the nearby large meadow was given the name Soldier Park on maps starting in 1979, although the name likely predated that official recognition in local lore because of the graves. Yet according to Bruners slim file of facts neither one of the men were soldiers.

People just must have though Peter Garde was a soldier, Bruner speculated.

And now people assume the gravesites are two soldiers resting places since the nearby field is named Soldier Park  an odd quirk of history.

Rough route

The road to reach the gravesites is a rutted, rocky and narrow route about three miles from the Hunter trailhead, a popular spot for horsemen and women to park and unload their trailers. Vehicles are allowed along the road in the summer, but only the most brave or ignorant drive the entire way to Soldier Park.

I have seen a LeBaron (sedan) all the way at the top, Bruner said, amazed that the low-clearance vehicle had driven so far. I guess they made it out, but weve found car parts on the way out.

The road cuts the distance to the Solitude Trail, one of Bruners favorite places to ride with her husband and their mules in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. Its also a popular route for hikers following the Clear Creek drainage up to Florence Pass.

The route is one of the most scenic and popular routes in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, according to Erik Molvars book, Hiking Wyomings Cloud Peak Wilderness. Its also a wilderness entryway with a unique, and maybe a bit misleading, history.
Environmentalists are challenging federal government plans to lease more than 19,000 Montana acres for oil and gas exploration.

The group WildEarth Guardians says federal officials have failed to consider the climate damage done by fossil fuel development on the land, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Spread across the state, the acreage is bundled into 91 parcels for oil and gas development.

Given the current oversupply of oil and gas globally, adding more federal leases to the mix doesnt make sense, said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians climate and energy program director.

We dont need this oil and gas. Theres no need for it, Nichols told The Gazette. What do we lose by saying Lets reassess things?

WildEarth Guardians is the third group to challenge developing the acres, which are slated for auction Oct. 18 in Billings. The BLM regional office in Billings confirmed Friday both the Center for Biological Diversity and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership had also filed protests.

The parcels up for lease are in the Hi-line District, mostly in Phillips, Toole and Valley counties. A handful of the parcels are in Big Horn and Rosebud counties.

WildEarth Guardians has been aggressively challenging BLM leases in several Western states, including Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, on grounds similar to those cited by the group in Montana on Friday. BLM hasnt disclosed the greenhouse gas emissions related to developing the leases, the group charges. It has leased more than 800,000 acres of federal land for oil and gas development last year alone.

BLM officials in Montana have been bracing for protests at lease auctions following similar protests in other Western states. In May, BLM relocated a gas lease sale from its Billings office to the Northern Hotel, one of Billings nicest venues, to make room for protesters.

The protest didnt materialize and interest in leasing the May parcels was scant. But in other Western states turnout to protest was palpable. Roughly 40 protesters showed up for a BLM lease sale in Reno, Nev., last March.

In February in Utah, a BLM auction drew 100 opponents and few bidders. At that sale, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, protesters cited the amount of greenhouse gases that would be released if the federal land was developed  a similar argument to the one WildEarth Guardians is making for the October sale in Montana.
WASHINGTON  Scientists carefully probe a placenta donated after birth, bluish umbilical cord still attached. This is the bodys most mysterious organ, and inside lie clues about how it gives life  and how it can go awry, leading to stillbirth, preterm birth, even infections like the Zika virus that somehow sneak past its protective barrier.

In labs around the country, major research is underway to finally understand and monitor this floppy, bloody tissue thats often dismissed as the afterbirth, the organ that lives about nine months and then gets thrown away.

The stakes are high. The placenta is the ultimate multitasker: It nourishes a fetus, acts as its lungs, kidneys and liver, provides immune defense and even produces key hormones.

We take it for granted, said Dr. Catherine Spong of the National Institutes of Health, which has spurred a research boom with its $50 million Human Placenta Project. Yet there are lifelong implications for both the mother and the baby.

Zikas shocking birth defects have brought into focus the desperate need to learn how a healthy placenta does its many jobs  and find treatments for when it is undermined.

Tomorrow, there may be a new virus, warned Dr. Yoel Sadovsky of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a leading placenta researcher. If I was a virus and wanted to attack humans, probably the best time to do it was during pregnancy, where youre attacking the next generation.

Doctors have few tools today to examine a placenta during pregnancy. And precious as that donated placenta is for research, studying one that already ushered in a birth reveals only so much, like counting the rings in a downed tree to visualize the sapling.

What scientists, and obstetricians, really need is a way to peek at how the placenta forms and changes in the different stages of pregnancy. That could help spot problems early  such as preeclampsia, a blood pressure complication that can be life-threatening to mother and baby. It affects up to 8 percent of pregnancies but typically isnt detected until the second trimester, even though its thought to stem from abnormal placenta formation.

How? In a Washington lab, engineer Avinash Eranki turns over the donated placenta, examining the side that attached to Mom. That outer layer is made up of cells called trophoblasts that had to invade the uterine wall and then burrow into maternal arteries, enlarging them to provide blood flow for the fetus.

The theory: If those cells get off course and the blood vessels dont widen enough, the downstream effects of a placenta struggling to support the fetus eventually stress the mothers own organs.

The research team at Childrens National Health System is using a 3-D bioprinter to create a unique living model of how a human placenta forms, to mimic how trophoblasts create that blood supply. The printer deposits layer after layer of human cells and other substances they need to thrive.

It can actually grow. Its a dynamic piece of tissue, said researcher Che-Ying Kuo of the University of Maryland and Childrens National, which is funding the work.

Once its complete, the model could help researchers test ways to detect brewing preeclampsia earlier, and intervene. Today, the only cure for severe cases is premature delivery of the baby.

At the NIH, researchers are targeting another critical gap: Its hard to tell how much oxygen is reaching the fetus. Doctors rely on indirect measurements, such as during labor when fetal heart rate can signal problems even if the babys fine.

Biomedical engineer Afrouz Anderson of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is developing a wireless device, called an oximeter, that uses near-infrared light to measure placental oxygen when held over moms abdomen.

Anderson, who is testing the device in a model that mimics blood flowing through a placenta, sees its potential use during preeclampsia or when the fetus isnt growing properly. In a study planned for early next year, shell team with military doctors to measure whats normal in healthy pregnant women.

My biggest hope is if the oxygenation status would give a more accurate picture, so that we dont have to go do a C-section because the babys actually happy, said Dr. Shad Deering, obstetrics chairman at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Its very exciting to see people focusing on the real-time changes that happen during a pregnancy and how those shape later outcomes, said Dr. Anna Penn, a neonatologist at Childrens National. She studies hormones the placenta produces that affect brain development, in search of protective therapies for premature infants. The whole idea is early detection of problems so that if things are going off in the wrong direction, hopefully we can get back on track.

But the Zika virus, which can destroy a developing brain when an infected mother passes infection to her unborn child, is proving a tough challenge. Only certain viruses can reach a fetus through the placenta and its not clear how Zika does. So far, researchers have found that it seems able to infect some types of placenta cells and not others.

The last epidemic of a birth defect-causing virus was rubella, or German measles, in the 1960s. Dr. Carolyn Coyne, a University of Pittsburgh virologist, calls it shocking that scientists still dont know how rubella sneaked through  because those studies ended once life-saving rubella vaccination began.

Even if Zika starts to fade, its critical to get those answers, say Coyne and Sadovksy, who are studying new pathways the virus may be using.

Really, societal health depends on the function of this organ, Sadovsky said.
According to the American Lung Association, a majority of lung cancers are diagnosed in the later stages, when the cancer is more advanced and, thus, more difficult to treat. This is one of the primary reasons lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S.  more than breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancers combined.

However, a recent national clinical trial confirmed there is a way to put a dent in this grim statistic. The key: Early diagnosis. Just as we have preventive screenings for breast and colon cancer, there is also an effective tool for identifying lung cancer when it is most treatable. The National Lung Screening Trial revealed that select patients screened for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography reduced their risk of lung cancer death by as much as 20 percent.

Because of these promising outcomes, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of low-dose CT for lung cancer screening in 2015. More recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began reimbursing for the procedure. Most private insurance companies now cover the screening as well thanks to preventive care provisions outlined in the Affordable Care Act.

Who should be screened?

Annual lung cancer screening is recommended for asymptomatic patients who meet the following criteria:

 Between the ages of 55 and 77

 Smoker of one pack a day for 30 years, or two packs a day for 15 years

 Current smoker, or someone who has quit within the past 15 years

Lung cancer is known as a silent killer because symptoms  cough, shortness of breath, weight loss  often dont appear until the disease is more advanced. So if you fit the profile above, screening is your best option for catching lung cancer sooner.

What to expect

Low-dose CT is an imaging procedure that uses special X-ray equipment to capture detailed slices of the body. The screening process is quick, easy and non-invasive, with no IV required and minimal radiation exposure.

Beyond the actual CT scan, effective lung cancer screening also involves education about the risk factors for lung cancer, smoking cessation programs and appropriate follow-up. At UVa Cancer Center, a dedicated lung cancer screening nurse practitioner, Melissa Stanley, guides patients through every stage of the process. She provides face-to-face counseling, education on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clearing the Air manual and prescriptions to aid in smoking cessation. She also arranges appointments with lung cancer experts when necessary.

Lung cancer screening currently is offered at five UVa clinic locations:

 UVa Radiology and Medical Imaging (UVa Medical Center)

 Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center

 UVa Imaging Zion Crossroads

 UVa Imaging Fontaine Research Park

 UVa Imaging Northridge

Through a grant provided by the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, UVa also will be extending this service to additional areas in Virginia where the need is greater due to high rates of smoking, but the resources are not available. Pioneer Community Hospital of Patrick, in Southwest Virginia, will be the first satellite location to offer lung cancer screening through this outreach program. Patients screened here will have full access to UVa Cancer Center resources, including remote consultations through the UVa telemedicine network and on-site appointments with UVa specialists, if necessary.

To learn more about lung cancer screening, visit UVAhealth.com/lungcancerscreening. Call (434) 924-9333 to schedule a lung cancer screening.

Dr. Michael Hanley is a thoracic radiologist at University of Virginia Cancer Center.
The bid kept going up and up and up. And tears formed in the Leiser family's eyes.

On Saturday during the Patrick K. Goggins Junior Livestock Sale at MontanaFair, Kamrey Leiser's sheep fetched a remarkable sale.

The sheep, Mr. Ramsbottom, garnered more than $14,000 from the sale at $105 per pound. Normally, the animals auction for $4 to $6 per pound, said Nicole Leiser, Kamrey's mother.

The bidding started, and went astronomically high," Nicole Leiser said. "It was pretty emotional for all of us.

The money will go toward medical bills for Leiser, 10, who endured months of intensive surgery after a hiking accident in June.

The Shepherd family was out camping with a group near Big Timber. During a hike, Leiser was leading the pack and got caught in a rock slide. After tumbling 45 feet, she was pinned beneath a boulder.

Leiser was flown to St. Vincent Healthcare with serious internal injuries. Two surgeries were done at the facility before she was flown to another facility in Salt Lake City. There, she went through four more surgeries.

"She went into septic shock the day after we got there, and she had all sorts of things wrong inside of her," Nicole Leiser said.

Leiser spent 44 days in intensive care before she was released onto the regular pediatric wing. A week ago, she returned to St. Vincent.

She was just released on Tuesday.

With help from the local 4-H community, Leiser's older sister was able to show the sheep on Saturday. Leiser and her family were in attendance when the bid kept rising.

And like the bid, Leiser's health has been improving.

"As of about three weeks ago, she just turned a corner and started regaining rapidly," Nicole Leiser said.

She said that the support from the community4-H, their church and their neighbors  has been incredibly generous. An old friend of Leiser's from Huntley sold rubber bracelets while she was hospitalized to raise money for the bills.

A long road of rehabilitation lies ahead, Nicole Leiser said. But the show of support on Saturday gave the family a feeling of grace.

Hence the tears, she said.

"Amongst all the crazy and evil in the world, there's still good people willing to get out and help," she said.
New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping almost all the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
Charlottesville police are investigating a reported sexual assault that occurred early Saturday morning on the University of Virginia Grounds.

According to police, the female victim, a UVa student, was approached from behind on Emmet Street near Thomson Road. The suspect had a knife, pulled the victim from the sidewalk and assaulted her.

The suspect is described as a white male, between 20 and 30 years old, of average height and with light-colored hair.

Police ask that anyone in the area between midnight and 1 a.m. who noticed anything suspicious contact Det. Sgt. T. Newberry at (434) 970-3280 or Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000.

Friday marked the beginning of Opening Weekend at the University of Virginia, which welcomed about 24,000 students to Grounds for the new school year.

This year, the university has gone to great lengths to keep students  especially the approximately 3,700 entering first-year students  out of trouble on opening weekend. This week, several administrators  including Dean of Students Allen W. Groves and President Teresa A. Sullivan  sent out notices urging students to stay away from Saturdays rowdy Wertland Street Block Party.

While the event is not in any way affiliated with, or sanctioned by, the university, it has nonetheless become a great concern for many of us, given the increasing size of the crowd and the demonstrated potential for negative (and highly serious) incidents to occur, Groves wrote. Sexual assault, dangerously crowded balconies, underage drinking, and other risks inherent in large crowds of individuals you do not know are all very real concerns.

The university had a series of alternative events planned for the same time as the block party, which typically attracts about 5,000 people.

The university sponsored a concert headlined by J. Cole, as well as several late-night events in the Aquatic & Fitness Center. Dining halls were open late, and several dorms hosted their own events.

UVa sent out a timely warning notification to students about the reported sexual assault, but many first-year students, such as Sabrina Lingenfelter and Kate Giesler, said Saturday they didnt know about it and had not received the notification. Both said they thought they had signed up for the notification system at orientation.

I still feel really safe on Grounds, though, because [of], I think, [my] peers, Lingenfelter said. Whenever Im walking with one of my classmates, I still feel really safe.

About 30 other first-year students said they also had not heard about the reported sexual assault. One first-year student said he did receive the email notification.

The university has two types of alerts: timely warnings about Clery Act crimes and emergency notifications for any incident that may be considered an immediate and ongoing threat, according to UVas Clery Act website.

The university is reviewing the email distribution system for timely warning notifications to confirm message delivery, UVa spokesman Anthony de Bruyn said in an email.

The Jeanne Clery Act, a consumer protection law passed in 1990, requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funding to share information about crime on campus and their efforts to improve campus safety, as well as inform the public of crime in or around campus, according to the Clery Center for Security On Campus.

The center says institutions have ongoing reporting obligations, and when an incident occurs, they must determine if a timely warning or emergency notification must be disseminated to the campus community. They should have specific policies for both timely warnings and emergency notifications, and they should not conflate the two in their policies or in any description of their policies, the center website says.

At UVa, the emergency notifications are sent via email and text, among other channels, said de Bruyn, and the timely warnings are distributed via email only.

Eva Cassada and Tom McLaughlin were on Grounds on Saturday to move in their first-year son. They said they had not heard about the reported sexual assault, from their son or otherwise.

All we knew about was this block party, said Cassada. President Sullivan put the word out that it was to be off limits, and so the J. Cole concert is a nice alternative. Thats all we had heard about.

It was not mentioned in President Sullivans address, the welcome to the parents  that was certainly not mentioned, she said.

The Presidents Welcome Address was at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Cassada and McLaughlin said administrators talked about alcohol safety and took questions from the audience. A representative from the UVa Police Department talked about the alert system and other safety measures they take for students and staff.

It was a good presentation, but that did not come up, McLaughlin said.

Reports of sexual assault at UVa have been in the national headlines over the past two years.

Second-year student Hannah Graham went missing in September 2014 from Charlottesvilles Downtown Mall. Her remains were found just over a month later on an abandoned property off Old Lynchburg Road in Albemarle. Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. pleaded guilty in March to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abduction with the intent to defile in the cases of Graham and Morgan Harrington. Harrington, a Virginia Tech student, went missing after a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in October 2009, and her remains were found the following January on a property in Albemarle.

In 2014, a debunked Rolling Stone graphically described a first-year UVa student identified only as Jackie being raped by seven men in a fraternity house. The story crumbled under scrutiny, and a city police investigation turned up no evidence to back it. The magazine issued an apology, saying it had found discrepancies in Jackies account.

UVa had 35 reported rapes on Grounds in 2014  the latest data available  and the rate of reported rapes is 1.5 per 1,000 students, according to data collected by the Department of Education.

In 2011, the education departments Office of Civil Rights launched a review into UVas sexual assault policy after UVa had been found to be in violation of Title IX. In a letter, the department was sharply critical of UVas old policies for dealing with sexual misconduct complaints, saying the university failed to eliminate a hostile environment and did not take steps to prevent its recurrence.

According a letter from the department, UVa did not provide a prompt and equitable response in many cases, often providing delayed responses and sometimes changing things on short notice.

The university was cleared in September 2015.

UVa created a new office to ensure the university complies with Title IX law, added new confidential outlets for reporting and hired designated experts to investigate assault claims. These changes were solidified in a new written policy adopted earlier in 2015.
RICHMOND  The Virginia State Police have issued a warning about what they described as an ongoing phone scam in which a caller claims hes from the IRS and makes threatening and intimidating demands for payment.

Adding to the confusion, police said, is that the Caller ID number for the alleged scammer displays a legitimate phone number for a Virginia State Police field office with an 804 area code.

State police said they have received numerous calls concerning this scam within the past few days.

In each case, police said, the caller appears to have a thick foreign accent and identifies him or herself as working for the IRS.

The scammer also has personal information on the person being called, but police said that information can be commonly found on the internet.

If the individual refuses to pay, then the fake IRS caller becomes very agitated and impatient, and begins threatening the individual with imprisonment or other severe punishment if the person does not promise to provide payment, police said.

The scammers use of a legitimate state police number is known as spoofing, which enables the caller to disguise his or her true identity.

Perpetrators of IRS phone scams commonly target senior citizens.

One victim reported to police on Wednesday that she had just sent the caller $2,000 in gift cards.

In addition, the Fredericksburg Police Department reported that a 72-year-old resident was targeted and scammed out of more than $12,000.

Police offered these tips if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS:

 If you know you owe, or might owe, taxes, call the IRS at (800) 829-1040. IRS employees can help you with a payment issue  if there really is one.

 If you know you dont owe taxes, then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at (800) 366-4484.

 You can file a complaint using the FTC Complaint Assistant: Choose Scams and Rip-offs and then Impostor Scams.

 If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words IRS Telephone Scam in the notes.
RICHMOND  House Speaker William J. Howell is trying again, perhaps for the last time, to transform Virginias retirement system for public employees from pensions to portability.

Howell, approaching what could be the final year of his legislative career, has tried previously to move the Virginia Retirement System away from defined pension benefits and toward a system that allows employees to make defined contributions to their retirement that they manage themselves.

If we have a plan that gives employees more control ... I think they would like it better, Howell, R-Stafford, said in an interview last week.

The speaker also made clear his overriding purpose in creating and leading the Virginia Commission on Employment Security & Pension Reform: to reduce the unfunded long-term liabilities of the $68.1 billion retirement system under defined-benefit pension plans for state employees and teachers.

The VRS actuary estimated the unfunded liability of the plans at $22.6 billion a year ago.

My biggest concern is the unfunded liability and the fact that its just going to grow, Howell said.

But as the commission prepares to meet Monday for the second time, the speaker acknowledged the outcome is likely to be shaped by economic forces that have left the state with a growing budget shortfall and upended plans to give raises to state employees and teachers this year, in the face of a potentially huge turnover in the public workforce.

I think we have some rough financial water to go through over the next couple of years, he said.

The debate over what kind of retirement benefits would most attract and retain new employees  from government workers to teachers  already has been affected by the $266 million state budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

The projected shortfall is sure to grow when Gov. Terry McAuliffe releases a revised revenue forecast Friday for the two-year budget that took effect July 1.

The shortfall triggered a provision in the budget that suspends plans to give a 3 percent raise to state employees and college faculty and the states share of a 2 percent raise for teachers and state-supported local employees, as well as money that had been budgeted to help state police and local sheriffs offices deal with salary compression.

***

For state employees, improving salaries is a bigger priority than establishing a defined-contribution plan that would require the state to provide a richer match of employee contributions than the hybrid retirement plan that took effect Jan. 1, 2014.

You dont have the money needed to deal with this right now, said R. Ronald Jordan, executive director of the Virginia Governmental Employees Association and a member of the commission.

Jordan, who lobbied hard for the pay increases that were deferred by the shortfall, suggested, I would start by fixing the pay.

The commission already has been presented with alarming news about the states workforce, currently numbering more than 105,000 full-time employees and almost 23,000 part-timers. One-quarter of state workers will be eligible to retire in less than five years, including about 32 percent of employees at the Department of Transportation and 29 percent at the Virginia State Police.

State workers received a 2 percent raise last year, their first increase since 2007, but salaries still lag the market by more than 23 percent and rank 47th among states compared with private-sector pay.

Salary has got to be at the forefront of what we contemplate, as it is the biggest part of the employees total compensation, said House Appropriations Chairman S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, who is a member of the retirement commission.

Retirement benefits also are a big part of the employment package. The traditional pension system has been especially attractive to long-term employees, because it guarantees a defined set of benefits financed primarily by the state. Since 2011, employees have contributed 5 percent of pay that the state also used to contribute.

Howell and former VRS Trustee Edwin T. Burton III, whom the speaker appointed to the commission, say the defined-benefit plan doesnt make sense for young workers, especially teachers, who may not plan to stay in the job long enough to benefit from the money that they and their employers have put into the system for their pensions.

Currently, employees who leave before retirement age receive only their contributions. Or they can leave their contributions in the system and receive 4 percent annual interest, with the ultimate retirement benefit based on their average salary and years of service when they left.

Burton said employees lose both by receiving only their contributions, not the state or school divisions on their behalf, and receiving interest thats less than the long-term actuarial return of 7 percent that the system assumes in setting rates.

The vast majority of employees have more than half of their benefits stripped away because they leave the system before reaching full retirement, he said in a fact sheet he compiled about the VRS.

Instead, Burton argues that young employees, if given the choice, would prefer a defined-contribution plan that they can take with them  both their contributions and the employer match  to another job.

He cites the experience of college faculty and senior government executives who almost always choose a portable defined contribution plan over a pension benefit.

Choosing defined contribution is the only rational choice for an individual, since they cant know at the time they begin their career whether or not they will stay for full retirement, he said.

***

But while Burton believes the traditional pension is especially unfair to teachers, they much prefer it to a defined-contribution plan, said Robley S. Jones, longtime lobbyist for the Virginia Education Association, which has a seat on the speakers commission.

They dont want it at all, Jones said, echoing the findings of a survey by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in 2011 that found relatively little desire among state employees and teachers to shift away from their pension plan to defined contributions.

With a defined-contribution plan, you shift the burden for paying for retirement from the employer onto the employee, he said.

VRS officials say a defined-contribution plan also shifts the investment risk from the employer to the employee, who also would lose the cost-of-living increases that are included in the state systems retirement benefits. They would pay for it themselves, said Rory J. Badura, the VRS senior staff actuary.

But the biggest concern is whether employees would save enough for their retirement, compared with a pension plan that pools the benefits for people regardless of how long they live.

In a defined-contribution plan, the employee has to put enough money aside to live to, say, age 100, Badura said. You cant say Im just going to fund to 65 and then you run out of money.

Sara Redding Wilson, director of the Department of Human Resource Management, said a defined-contribution plan requires employees to dedicate a percentage of their salary to a fund they manage for retirement.

To me, you have to address the compensation piece before you move to a [defined contribution] plan, because otherwise it wont be adequate, Wilson said.

Four years ago, the General Assembly enacted pension reforms that included a new hybrid retirement plan for most state and local employees, excepting hazardous duty positions, hired after Jan. 1, 2014.

The hybrid combined reduced pension benefits and a modest 401(a) defined-contribution plan, but lawmakers and VRS officials acknowledge that relatively few of the 49,000 employees in the plan elect voluntarily to contribute more to the plan than the required 5 percent of pay.

Four percent of the required contribution goes to the pension plan to pay annual costs and a portion of the unfunded liability, but legislation sponsored by Jones this year would have increased the amount going to employees 401(a) plan from 1 percent to 2 percent and increase the frequency of an automatic escalation of contributions unless the employees opt out.

Jones tabled his proposal to allow the commission to study the idea, but it hasnt gone away.

Jordan, who represents state employees, says the commission faces a policy choice for the state and local school divisions.

Do you want your retirement plan to be a reason for your employees to stay? he asked. Or do you want to make it easier for them to leave?

Michael Martz reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
In April of last year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order to institute a policy known as ban the box, prohibiting employers from asking job-seekers about their criminal history at the initial application stage. In doing so, Virginia joined 14 other states hoping to remove unnecessary obstacles in gaining employment after an incarceration, as McAuliffe put it in a statement.

Unfortunately, those efforts may be having an inverse effect for some demographics.

Research published recently by Jennifer Doleac, an assistant professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia, found that ban the box policies actually lowered the probability of employment by 5.1 percent for young, low-skilled black men and 2.9 percent for young, low-skilled Hispanic men.

According to Doleac, who conducted the study with the University of Oregons Benjamin Hansen, the lowered chance for employment comes from the unwillingness by employers to take chances on hiring someone without knowledge of their potential criminal history.

Simply taking away information about whether someone has a record doesnt stop employers from caring about someones criminal background, Doleac said. It just leaves them to guess based on the remaining information they do have.

Doleac said that in the United States, criminal history is highly correlated with race, age and education level. Because young, low-skilled black and Hispanic men are statistically more likely to have a recent conviction or incarceration than other groups, Doleac said, those correlations tend to make employers avoid interviewing applicants within those groups.

While the findings run contrary to the intent of ban the box policies, Doleac said that when she first heard of the practice, she immediately thought that it had the potential for unintended consequences.

When I first heard about ban the box, it struck me that this would likely lead to classic cases of statistical discrimination, Doleac said. When you dont have some information that you really want about someone, you use characteristics that you can observe to guess or infer something about the characteristic you actually care about.

After measuring employment rates in areas around the country that had adopted the policy, and incorporating controls for various other aspects that could affect those rates, Doleac and Hansen found their hypothesis to be correct for young, low-skilled black and Hispanic men.

Doleac is quick to point out that one factor they could not control for was the areas that were surveyed. Obviously, in an ideal experiment, the policy would be instituted in random locations around the country, rather than areas that self-selected the policy. That said, such a caveat likely would skew the results in favor of a positive effect for the policy.

The places that implemented ban the box are likely to be more motivated than usual to help ex-offenders and to try to reduce racial disparities in employment, Doleac reasoned. The negative estimates that we find, I think, are more striking.

It should be noted that the study only measured employment rates up to December 2014, months before the policy went into effect throughout Virginia. Nonetheless, Doleac said roughly a dozen communities in the state that had already instituted the policy autonomously were included in the research. Among those localities is one in Central Virginia, the city of Charlottesville.

When reached for comment on the findings, a spokeswoman for McAuliffes office said the governor remains committed to policies that help discourage employment discrimination, and that he recognizes that no single policy can achieve this goal.

It requires a comprehensive effort, the statement read. [McAuliffe] believes that job applicants should have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities up front, and he supports policies that give these men and women the chance to be considered based on their skills and experience.

Doleac and Hansens findings are not without some bright spots. The study found that employers were more likely to avoid younger men, but not necessarily older men with convictions or incarcerations. Older black men, for example, were more likely to get jobs in states with ban the box.

Thats supporting survey evidence that employers really are worried about recent incarcerations, Doleac said.

The pair found some evidence that employers would substitute young white men for young minority men, but not as much as wed expected, Doleac said. She added that the policy may increase the overall cost of hiring for a business, as businesses would have to interview more people to find the person matching their criteria, meaning that employers were simply less likely to hire anyone at all.

Since the study was published, Doleac said officials in various government roles have expressed interest in their findings, and that alternative policies should be explored to help re-entering offenders find employment and reduce recidivism without having unintended consequences for other groups.

Providing more information to employers about applicants increases employment rates for those groups more than taking information away did, Doleac said. One of the big challenges is finding ways to help more job-ready ex-offenders provide more information about themselves to employers.

Doleac is already embarking on a project with UVa assistant professor Ben Castleman that would help with the transition between incarceration and finding employment. But ultimately, the challenge may be an opportunity for the job market to solve. Doleac said background-check firms are showing interest in figuring out what additional information needs to be provided to employers by people with records, and that businesses often dont care about the record itself  they care about what they think the record is correlated with.

Ultimately, the best form of government intervention for helping ex-cons may be a focus on re-entry and job training, the researchers said.

Thats something thats just going to take a real investment of time and resources, but its something that were really going to need to do if were serious about helping these groups build stable lives, Doleac said.
ARRINGTON  In Nelson County, Hurricane Camille  an event that hit 47 years ago, on Aug. 19, 1969  will not soon be forgotten.

The Camille stories at Davis Creek are stories of devastation and tragedy, loss of life and treasured home places, Nelson County Historical Society President Bob Carter said during an annual commemorative event Saturday.

But they also demonstrate the resilience of Nelson County, its land and its people.

This year marked the 11th time the historical society has hosted the event. More than 200 people attended the presentation at Nelson United Methodist Church in Arrington.

Every year that we do this, we get more stories, more pictures and more information, historical society secretary Woody Greenberg said.  The more we get, the better off we are.

This years event was focused on the Davis Creek near Lovingston and Woods Mill.

Camille dropped more than 25 inches of rain on Nelson County on Aug. 19, according to The Washington Post. Of the more than 250 deaths caused by Camille, 124 people were killed in Nelson alone, the historical society said.

Fifty-two of those lives were lost in the community of Davis Creek.

An approximately 30-minute video shown at the beginning of the event featured interviews from a number of Hurricane Camille survivors, most of whom lived in Davis Creek at the time.

In the video, Carolyn Thomason recounted the numerous funerals for those who perished in the historic hurricane. As the pianist who played during funerals at Oak Hill Baptist Church, Thomason remembered the extended time it took to identify bodies  and one case in which a man was forced to go through the process of burying his loved one twice when the first body was incorrectly identified as his wife.

A total of 27 people who died when Camille hit are buried at Oak Hill.

Also during the video, Rhonda Deane told of the determination and quick thinking of a little boy who used a piece of tin roofing to keep the rain from overcoming him and his sisters.

Greenberg said even though hes been telling and hearing tales associated with the flood for decades, he hadnt heard that one. He explained because the rain was coming down so quickly, the group of kids probably would have drowned if not for the tin roof.

Yet another story featured in the video came from Charlotte Evans Connor, who told how she volunteered at Nelson County High School after the hurricane to help people who had suffered the loss of homes or of family and friends. She said she specifically remembers folding baby clothes, as several people who had survived had nothing to put on their little ones.

As Connor told her story for the video, thunder crashed and the flash of lightning could be seen through the sheer curtains hanging on the widows in the background, catching her off guard.

Every time theres a thunderstorm, Connor said after the noise had quieted, you relive it.

After the video, Tiffany Spencer, a Nelson County resident whose family lived in Davis Creek when Hurricane Camille hit, shared stories of each of the 52 people from the area who died nearly five decades ago.

There were so many of them lost on that day, Spencer said. We hear so much about the event, about Camille, Camille, but not actually about the people and their lives  learning about, you know, they had just celebrated their wedding anniversary or they had only been married a few months; little, personal details that I think should be remembered.

Though she wasnt alive at the time of the hurricane, Spencer spent most of her life hearing stories from her grandparents who survived the hurricane. According to Spencer, 22 blood members of her family, the Huffman family, and one other who lived in the Huffman household perished.

Shes also poured more than a decade of work into mapping out each house in Davis Creek that was destroyed or damaged and has compiled details of the lives of all who were killed in the area.

Saturdays packed program also featured a presentation by Dick Whitehead, whose father was sheriff in Nelson County at the time of Camille, on how the topography of Davis Creek contributed to the major loss of lives and property.

At the end of the event, a short video on the Ginger Gold apple showed the resiliency of the county in the aftermath of Camille.

Now distributed nationwide, the apple was found by Clyde Harvey on one of the few trees left on his Davis Creek property. The unique variety had never been discovered, and after a series of steps to identify the fruit, it was named Ginger Gold for Clydes wife, Virginia Ginger Harvey.

Each year the historical society focuses on a different aspect of the historic disaster to provide perspective. Past events have featured Camilles impact on various communities, individuals, families and first responders; rebuilding efforts; or a look at the hurricane as a weather event.

For the 50th anniversary of Camille, the Nelson County Historical Society plans to release a book of photos of the aftermath.
FREDERICKSBURG  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a pitch to broaden his support during a campaign rally in Fredericksburg Saturday, saying he wanted the party of Abraham Lincoln to be the home of the AfricanAmerican voter once again.

We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings, Trump said, continuing an outreach he began in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this week.

Trump touched on all the familiar themes of his campaign, but avoided some of the more provocative statements hes made in the past during a speech to a boisterous, mostly white crowd at the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center. Reading from a teleprompter, he got off to a rocky start when he thanked the audience and said, So Fairfax, on November 8, youve got to get out and vote, right? He never corrected himself  or mentioned Fredericksburg  but many of the more than 3,000 people in attendance cheered the opening line anyway.

Trump promised that he would restore law and order, appoint great Supreme Court justices, enforce immigration laws and protect the Second Amendmentwhich he claimed Clinton wants to essentially abolish.

We are going to take our country back, Trump said during his approximately 40-minute speech. Its going to be a new day in America; its going to be a great day in America.

Trump spent much of the speech criticizing Clinton, saying her policies as secretary of state had unleashed the Islamic State around the world. He paused a couple times as the crowd erupted into Lock her up! chants, but only referred to his opponent as crooked Hillary once.

The military, he said, has been sadly depleted under President Barack Obama and Clinton.

We face threats as never ever before, but the ObamaClinton administration is determined to keep shrinking our military, Trump said.

He criticized Clinton and Obama for refusing to say radical Islamic terrorism  Clinton has said she prefers the term radical jihadist  but did not repeat a previous statement that Obama founded ISIS and Clinton was its co-founder. He also never mentioned his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Some of the loudest applause of the evening came when Trump mentioned his controversial proposal to build a wall on the Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it. The crowd chanted, Build a wall!

Politicians think were joking, Trump said. We arent joking. This is a movement  and movements dont joke. Believe me.

He said a Clinton administration would give jobs and Social Security benefits to undocumented immigrants, many of whom he maintained are treated better than veterans. Later in the speech, he said many gang members are in the country illegally.

In addition, Trump, who visited the Stafford Sheriffs Office earlier in the day, received loud applause when he emphasized his support for law enforcement. I mean this from the bottom of my heart. We thank you and we are standing with you, he said.

He also took aim at Clintons running mate, U.S. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia, for approving a large tax increase after he became Virginia governor in 2006. Tim Kaine proposed nearly a $4 billion tax increase, and thats what theyd be doing to you again.

Recent polls indicate that Trump is trailing Clinton in Virginia, but the businessman wrapped up his speech by declaring, We are going to win in the state of Virginia.

We will make America wealthy again; we will make America proud again; we will make America safe again; and we will make America great again for each and every one of you.

State Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania County, and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, warmed up the crowd before Trumps arrival. America was founded on rugged individualism and American exceptionalism, Reeves said. We have that kind of candidate today, and he wants to do exactly what that red signs saysmake America great again.

Reeves did cause a little confusion when he appeared to be introducing Trump. But the mogul didnt appear until nearly an hour later, leading to a We want Trump chant shortly after Reeves left the stage.

Several audience members told The Free LanceStar that they thought Trump connected with the crowdeven if the speech was more scripted than some of his past appearances.

Spotsylvania resident James Perrow said he thought the speech was great and said Trump mixing up Fredericksburg with Fairfax was minute in the grand scheme of things.

It doesnt matter, his wife, Debra, said of the mistake. Hes got to be exhausted. Theres not many people that are as great as he is  to take a stand like he has against whats politically correct.

The couple came to the rally with friend and fellow Spotsylvania County resident Joey Neal, 36, who teaches middle school history in Alexandria. Neal, who said he is an undecided voter, actually came to the event wearing an Obama campaign button, but said he didnt receive any flak.

I saw nothing but smiles, he said.

Neal, who is black, said he thought Trumps appeal to the AfricanAmerican community was good, but said it will be hard for him to win over many of those voters.

Now, one thing that I hope would actually happen is that the AfricanAmerican community doesnt just think, Trump, oh, boo, racist. I mean, come on, hes clearly not racist.

They need to educate themselves  listen to the man speak, and then make your decision off what hes saying. Dont just go in there cloaked with a closed mind.
After 26 months of grueling classwork and eight clinical rotations, 36 Rocky Mountain College physician assistant graduates received their masters degrees and their white coats on Saturday.

The hour-long graduation, called a white coat ceremony, took place at Losekamp Hall on the RMC campus. The venue was packed with well-wishing family and friends.

The graduates of the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program listened intently as a series of faculty members imparted their thoughts and congratulations. Then the grads recited their PA oath and donned their white coats.

Afterward, the newly minted physician assistants toasted each other with champagne. They were joined at Prescott Hall for a reception by those who came to celebrate their achievement.

The students have one more requirement, to pass their Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam, before they can practice. Over the past five years, 97 percent of graduates of RMCs physician assistant program have passed the exam.

At the start of the ceremony, Program Director Heather Heggem told the graduates that the white coat is the symbol of a journey theyre beginning. Hours of studying and late nights of reading journal reviews will continue even after they begin their careers, she said.

But through all of this, and most importantly, you will learn how to heal, you will learn how to save lives, Heggem said. And when you cant heal, you will learn the importance of a hand held and the art of compassion, the importance of hope.

She urged them to treat each patient with respect and to often them a warm smile when the PAs walk into an exam room. Being a medical provider is a sacred gift, Heggem said.

Youll be caring for patients who are at the most vulnerable times of their lives, she said. You need to remember to be present. Lose yourself in the patient and dont forget to walk in their shoes for a moment.

Dr. Jeff Lakier, an associate professor with the program, told the students they were entering the profession at the most amazing time for PAs.

Dont squander the opportunity to develop and excel in whatever you choose to do, Lakier said. You have the foundation. Use your new-found skills well and continue to hone them. I am confident you will do well.

After reading to the students from a Dr. Seuss book, assistant professor Dwight Harley summed up his advice simply: Be a lifelong learner, listen to your patients and be kind.

Carry Hall, director of clinical education for the program, oversaw the students during their second year, of clinical rotations. She received many compliments from the medical practitioners who worked with the students.

"The thing I was most proud of is when they said 'my patients love them,' 'they were great at developing a rapport with my patients' and 'they always did the best by my patients,' " Hall said.

Class President Shaun Mickelsen drew a laugh when at the beginning of his comments, his baby daughter began to cry. He reiterated the challenges and the camaraderie he and his classmates shared over the past two years.

Mikelsen also spoke of their strong desire to help others and to make a difference in the communities theyve served.

Youve inspired me with your strong work ethic, your toughness and your compassion, Mickelsen said. I cannot wait to see what we will accomplish in the future.

Assistant professor Heath Hines led the students in the portion of the ceremony where they put on their white coats.

The white coat is a symbol of dedication, sacrifice, empathy and professionalism, Hines said. It represents hard work, trust, compassion and commitment.

After the ceremony, Darlene Sanders, an Air Force veteran and one of the oldest graduates at age 55, said the PA program has been unbelievable and everything she hoped for.

I found the academic portion, having been 35 years since Id been in school, the most challenging, she said, a glass of champagne in her hand. But the last year (of clinical rotations) has been a blast.

The staff did a wonderful job of preparing the students for those rotations and their careers, said Sanders, who lives in Big Timber. She already has been offered jobs at a couple of rural clinics, and may also spend part of her time in addiction medicine.

Meagan and Gage Henderson met and married during their time as graduate students at Rocky.

We came for PA degrees and got a marriage certificate, too, Meagan, 24, said, smiling.

The pair met in summer 2014 before school started, and spent untold hours in the library together studying.

We were able to help each other and support each other in the stressful times because we were both going through it," Gage, 27, said. "So that was just invaluable.

They got engaged in June 2015, and managed to squeeze in a wedding this summer, between their seventh and eighth clinical rotations.

Gage has been hired by Billings Clinic to work in urgent care. Meagen enjoys both internal and family medicine, and is weighing her options over which to pursue.

They have yet to go on a honeymoon.

Were going to jet off to Cancun the day after the (certifying) test, for our honeymoon and a well-needed break, Gage said.
WASHINGTON  The fight against the Islamic State may get the headlines. But it's the military threats from Russia and China that most worry top Pentagon officials  and are driving a new arms race to deter these great-power rivals.

This question of how to deal with Russian and Chinese military advances has gotten almost no attention in the 2016 presidential campaign. But it deserves a careful look. The programs begun in the waning days of the Obama administration could potentially change the face of warfare, in America's favor, but they would require political support and new spending by the next president.

A drive to build exotic conventional weapons may sound crazy in a world that already has too much military conflict. But advocates argue that strengthening U.S. conventional forces might be the only way to avoid escalation to nuclear weapons if war with Moscow or Beijing began.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work argued for the new deterrence strategy in a presentation this month to the bipartisan Aspen Strategy Group, amplifying comments he made to me in an interview in February. The approach, awkwardly named the "third offset strategy," would leverage America's technological superiority by creating new weapons that could complicate attack planning by an adversary.

The premise is that as Russia and China modernize their militaries, America must exploit its lead in high-tech warfare. In the world envisioned by Pentagon planners, the U.S. could field an array of drones in the sky, unmanned submarines beneath the seas and advanced systems on the ground that could overwhelm an adversary's battle-management networks. Like the two previous "offsets," battlefield nuclear weapons in the 1950s and precise conventional weapons in the 1970s, this one would seek to restore lost U.S. military dominance.

The concerns prompting the new strategy were previewed by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at his Senate confirmation hearing in July 2015: "If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I would have to point to Russia. And if you look at their behavior, it's nothing short of alarming."

China worries some Pentagon officials even more than Russia. A recent study by the Rand Corp., titled "War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable," warned: "Improvements in Chinese military capabilities mean that a war would not necessarily go the way U.S. war planners plan it. Whereas a clear U.S. victory once seemed probable, it is increasingly likely that a conflict could involve inconclusive fighting with steep losses on both sides."

Top Pentagon officials say that because of Russian and Chinese advances, the U.S. military's "overmatch" has diminished. Planners can no longer guarantee a president that the U.S. could prevail in the early days of a conventional conflict; they fear that the U.S. might lose "escalation dominance" (meaning, basically, the ability to call the shots) in a future confrontation.

Deputy Secretary Work urged European allies in a speech in Brussels in April: that the U.S. must maintain "a healthy margin of technological superiority, because an erosion ... might ultimately undermine our conventional deterrence, contribute to crisis instability, and greatly raise the potential cost of any future U.S. military operation."

A glimpse of what could lie ahead, if the next president continues the projects begun by the Obama Pentagon, came in a provocative 2014 study, "Toward a New Offset Strategy," by Robert Martinage of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Martinage recommended a dizzying new arsenal that would include: a new fleet of unmanned subs; a new array of undersea sensors; "seabed payload pods" that could hide drones underwater until they were needed in a conflict; electromagnetic rail guns and directed-energy weapons; high-energy lasers that could blind enemy sensors, and a range of other new technologies.

U.S. officials contend that this push to offset Russian and Chinese gains will have a stabilizing effect in great-power relations, rather than a destabilizing one. But in an unsettled world, this issue deserves broader debate during the presidential campaign.
In Great Britain recently, people who were voting to leave the European Union said they didnt know anyone who wanted to stay. Other people voting to stay in the EU said they didn't know anyone voting to leave.

The vote on June 23 was actually fairly close, with 52 percent choosing to leave and 48 percent voting to stay, so a random distribution of Brits would suggest that people voting to leave knew some people voting to stay.

That presumption could be as wrong as assuming that everyone knows someone who plays bagpipes, just because pipers know other pipers and we all recognize the eerie sound.

We do not randomly sort ourselves in Scotland, England, America or elsewhere.

Thousands of bagpipers must enjoy the sounds they blow, and they flock together. The other 7 billion of us around the world may know no one so musically inclined.

We Americans increasingly sort ourselves by lifestyle choices.

We have settled into a sort of political segregation, wrote Bill Bishop, author of the 2008 book titled The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart.

The tendencies to settle among folks who watch and read news with and talk and vote with their own sort of folks define our clusters.

Since 1976, Americans have chosen more and more to move to, and live in, landslide counties  greatly increasing numbers of counties won by one party or the other in presidential contests by 20 or more points.

A few journalists and Virginia political scientists have dubbed them Whole Foods Counties (leaning toward Democrats) and Cracker Barrel Counties (trending Republican).

The numbers of one-party landslide counties grew from 26 percent of all counties in 1976, to 38 percent in 1992, 45 percent in 2000 and 48 percent in 2004.

The trend to cluster in like-minded communities hasnt dissipated since 2008, just as partisan gridlock in Congress and elsewhere hasnt gone away.

Bishop found that Americans move, perhaps unconsciously, to neighborhoods where they expect to fit in culturally.

Technology amplifies the trend. In a nice turn of phrase, marketing analyst J. Walker Smith wrote that technology, migration and material abundance all allow people to wrap themselves into cocoons entirely of their own making.

We tend to cocoon ourselves into media environments that we design to fit our own partisan preferences and cultural cushions  often unchallenged by grating words of those with whom we disagree.

That way Sean Hannity can crown Donald Trump the savior of democracy, joining like-minded pundits; while Mika Brzezinski can tout Hillary Clinton as the only sane choice, with her own network chorus largely agreeing.

If, in the eyes of many, only one candidate wears the cloak of legitimacy, what do we get when the other candidate wins and many of his or her supporters feel angered, cheated, outraged or disenfranchised?

A political system that cannot agree on legitimacy faces greater challenges, more discord and the potential for real civil unrest.

Bishop described American sorting as describing people who were reordering their lives around their values, their tastes and their beliefs.

He noted that this creates enclaves more defined by communities of interest or ways of life where people can become distrustful or less understanding of those with different views or lifestyles.

Churches grew more politically homogeneous during this time, and so did civic clubs, volunteer organizations, and, dramatically, political parties, he wrote of the decades leading up to 2008. More than just political partisanship, it is a division in what [people] value, in how they worship, and in what they expect out of life.

But instead of a benefit of having a variety of opinions, newly sorted people can lose themselves to the righteousness that is the special entitlement of homogeneous groups, Bishop warned.

We all live with the results: balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over policies, but bitter choices between ways of life.

Are we so Balkanized that we no longer respect others individual choices?

Do we still recognize the value of pluralism and E Pluribus Unum, our traditional Latin national motto, which means Out of many, one"?

I hope so.

James Madison offered what could be a cure for the ills of The Big Sort.

According to Bishop, Madison believed that [i]nsulation from different ideas was a danger to democracy.  Isolated groups were seedbeds of extremism.  And the best hedge against extremism was the constant mixture of opposing opinion.

Americas schools and universities offer many people opportunities to rub different cultures and groups together.

We can stop stereotyping different groups as The Other. We need each other.

Americans are better than people who easily fall into the trap of demonizing The Other. Partly that is because we recognize we are all free individuals still endowed with the value of respect for individualism.

I do not want everyone to be like me, but I want to be me and to freely associate with anyone and everyone I choose. That places The Big Sort into an American context of pluralism.

Respecting individual rights remains the true American value.

Bob Gibson is senior researcher at the Academy for Civic Renewal in the University of Virginias Cooper Center for Public Service. The opinions expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of the academy.
Everyone knows that Hillary Clinton has the propensity to embellish her thoughts and actions. This has been legendary for decades now; however, now that she again is running for president of the United States, it seems she has stepped up her desire to make an art form of it.

Several statements have been especially enlightening, one being that she wanted to make America whole again. Here, she finally admits that the country has been become divided by Barack Obama, a man who she has full-heartedly supported in all of his endeavors.

Second, she responded to a question as to what accomplishments have been her legacy as secretary of state. She answered,  My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know. The remnants of prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused in a manner whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture and we didnt do that. Very proud. I would say thats a major accomplishment.

You, the reader, must translate this typical Clinton political gobbledygook for yourself.

In Fairfax, Hillary spoke out against the National Rifle Association, as well as others who firmly believe in the Second Amendment, So the gun lobby wont even let the Congress pass a law prohibiting the people on the no-fly list from buying a gun. What is it about being a terrorist that gives you Second Amendment rights that can be exercised potentially by someone who wants to do harm to Americans?

As a rational individual, I perceive this carefully disguised statement as pandering to her anti-gun Democrat base as well to those who are totally ignorant of the meaning and basis of the Second Amendment. Here, she purposely intends to make the public believe that everyone on the no-fly list is an outright proven terrorist.

In that case, why havent any of these people been interviewed, investigated, indicted, charged and prosecuted. Well, theres a simple reason.

Even the ACLU, not known as an organization reflecting conservative views, stated that Americans on these lists continue to be there despite never ever being charged for any terrorist activities. The fact is that the feds dont go through months of due process or attempt to vet anyone when adding names to the lists.

Our government, not the Congress as Clinton believes, has made lists of more than 300,000 people, some of whom are law abiding people whose names are the same or close to the spelling of other people possibly connected to terrorism or terrorists. Even Ted Kennedy was once on the list. Others are actually dead!

So for Mrs. Clinton to insist those on no-fly list ... have some connection to terrorists or terrorism is presumptuous, disingenuous and purposely misleading, if not outright lying. However, for the sake of forcing her gun control agenda down everyones throat, she has made these statements knowing full well that the mainstream media would never expose her fear-mongering with falsified facts and figures.

This is why Americans can not allow the executive branch to use these lists to decide who they dont want to own a gun.

The Founding Fathers penned the Second Amendment for this reason. It is a right not to be infringed upon. This is a God-given right that Mrs. Clinton has, in the past, vowed to attack, a direct assault on the Second Amendment. This is a dangerous agenda being pushed by Mrs. Clinton. To give her the power to institute her personal misconceived ideology would be the beginning of her rewriting the Constitution, especially since, as president, she would be able to stack the Supreme Court with progressive activists beholden to her for their lifetime positions.

I understand keeping keep certain people off of airplanes, but to use that list to quash the rights of American citizens is clearly unconstitutional and a first step toward confiscation. Mrs. Clinton knows that not allowing these people gun rights will not stop terrorists and criminals from getting guns, but thats not her ultimate game plan, is it?

She wants to take guns from us all even more than the present administration, and thats just her first assault on our Constitution. She has many more to come!
Construction company hires manager

Consolidated Construction Co. Inc. has hired T.J. Stewart as the strategic account manager for the companys western region, including the Dakotas.

Stewart will be responsible for developing and maintaining new and current business relationships for commercial, industrial and multifamily residential customers.

Stewart was most recently the director of North Dakota operations for the Braun Intertec Corp. He has more than 22 years of experience in business development.

He began his career in engineering and holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.

T.J.'s experience and versatility will be valuable to us and our customers as we continue to grow throughout North Dakota, said Mark Schwei, executive vice president.

Chiropractor seeks certification

Sarah Mack, a chiropractor at Chuppe Clinic, is seeking certification for pediatric and prenatal specialty care.

Mack attended a seminar held by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association in Bloomington, Minn., to partially fulfill certification requirements. The seminar covered the care of children with ADHD, ASD, LD and PDD, and evaluation and adjusting techniques for the pediatric patient.

Starion Financial hires two

Starion Financial has hired Chris Fraser and Brittany Stuhlmiller as mortgage banking officers in Bismarck-Mandan.

As mortgage bankers, Fraser and Stuhlmiller will work with customers to finance and refinance construction and home loans, identifying mortgage needs and guiding customers from qualifying through closing.

Fraser has worked in banking for three years, primarily in mortgage. Prior to the banking industry, he led sales teams in various industries. He is active with the Bismarck-Mandan Homebuilders Association and the Bismarck-Mandan Board of Realtors. Fraser earned a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Mary. He is located at the banks Mandan branch.

Stuhlmiller has worked in the mortgage industry since 2011, including four years as an escrow closing officer. Prior to working in the mortgage industry, she worked in the areas of retail and customer service. She is located at Starions branch on the corner of Highway 83 and Skyline Boulevard. Stuhlmiller attended Bismarck State College and the University of North Dakota.

Washburn hires economic developer

Washburn Area Economic Development Association named Tana Waldren Larsen its new economic development and marketing director.

This position will work with the city of Washburn, Civic Club and community organizations to better the Washburn area.

Larsen grew up in Washburn, left for college and career experience and, in recent years, returned to the community. Her hometown roots and familiarity with the community are definitely a benefit to this position, said Newly Voigt, WAEDA president.

Larsen will help establish, relocate or expand businesses in or near Washburn. Marketing and promoting the community, recreation and businesses will also be part of her role, as well as assistance in the planning and coordination of community development projects and assisting with economic development programs.

The WAEDA office has moved to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

Sanford Health hires two

Sanford Health has hired two new staff members.

Jason Rogers, ear, nose and throat physician assistant, joined Sanford Healths Seventh and Broadway Clinic in Bismarck. He received his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Jenna Scharmer, family nurse practitioner, joined Sanford Healths East Mandan Clinic. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of North Dakota.

Attorney recognized

David Maring, who practices law in Bismarck and Fargo at Maring Williams Law Office P.C., has been named to the 23rd Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, based on a peer-review survey. He was selected for inclusion in the practice areas of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Personal Injury Litigation-Plaintiffs and Product Liability Litigation-Plaintiffs.

DeLap earns designation

Steven DeLap of Vue Community Credit Union earned the Certified Credit Union Executive designation, graduating from CUNA Management School in Madison, Wis.

CUNA Management School is a three-year program that prepares attendees for roles in credit union leadership. Attendees study credit union executive responsibilities, leadership techniques and financial operations.

McDonald hired

Credit Union Association of the Dakotas hired George McDonald as director of multimedia services.

He will serve as project manager for association initiatives and will be chiefly responsible for multimedia content creation for the CUAD brand.

McDonald holds a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of North Dakota and is a charter member of the North Dakota Film Commission. His past professional experience includes instructing at the University of Mary in Bismarck, as well as acting as creative services director and operations manager of KX Television Network in Bismarck and operations production manager at Mainframe GRFX and Video in Bismarck.

Aesthetician hired

Sonya Schaner-Trapp has joined Luxe Beautique Salon as an aesthetician.

Schaner-Trapp has four years experience and has been a training specialist for major skin care lines. She offers a wide variety of services, including facials, waxing, body wraps and makeup applications.

Lawyers recognized

Fredrikson & Byron attorney Lawrence Bender was named the Best Lawyers 2017 Natural Resources Law "Lawyer of the Year" in Bismarck.

Only one attorney is honored per year in each practice area and designated metropolitan area.

Bender and William Pearce, another Fredrickson & Byron attorney, were both named Best Lawyers in the fields of Energy Law, Natural Resources Law and Oil and Gas Law.

Best Lawyers in America 2017 rankings are based on client and lawyer evaluations, peer review and additional information provided by firms.

Ligutom hired

Braun Intertec hired a project scientist, Anthony Ligutom.

Ligutom joined the Bismarck office in April and has more than 10 years of experience. His responsibilities include soils logging, groundwater sampling, soil sampling, project oversight, Phase I and II reporting, quarterly reporting and training.

Ligutom previously worked as a staff geologist for Earth Systems Inc. He has a bachelor's degree in geology from California State University of Los Angeles.

Sandy receives training

Blair Sandy, AVP RR manager with Choice Financial in Bismarck, graduated from the Dakota School of Banking sponsored by the North Dakota Bankers Association.

Students are enrolled for two years, attending the school one week each summer. The first-year session provides a general overview of the banking industry. The second-year session adds a computerized bank management simulation to reinforce technical and functional management skills.

Sandy also was named the Dakota School of Banking's Outstanding Banker of 2016, a designation given to the top-performing student in each graduating class.
As part of its effort to promote tourism on tribal lands, members of the newly formed North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance toured tourist amenities on each of the reservations.

The tour featured presentations by the Spirit Lake Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Three Affiliated-Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Tribe, Turtle Mountain Tribe and the Sisseston-Wapheton Tribe. Native Tourism Alliance Chairman Les Thomas said the purpose of the tour was to familiarize alliance members with each others' offerings and aid in the development of a statewide tribal lands tour for visitors.

Starting on the North Dakota side of the Standing Rock Reservation, for example, there is the Marina at Prairie Knights Resort with picnic areas, RV parking, a nature trail and a 3-mile mountain biking trail. Prairie Knights has lodging, dining and authentic Native American crafts.

Traveling south to Fort Yates, named for Capt. George Yates who later died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the fort's original stockade remains intact. In the Fort Yates cemetery, there is a monument for the Indian Police who were killed attempting to arrest the Lakota leader Sitting Bull. On the west side of Fort Yates is the Standing Rock Monument, which, according to legend, is the petrifaction of the Arikara wife of a Dakota man with her child on her back.

Two miles south of Fort Yates is Four Mile Creek, where Lewis & Clark camped on Oct. 14, 1804. There are also opportunities for visitors to take a wagon or saddle up horseback for a ride along the Cannonball River 30 miles west of Fort Yates as cowboys offer historical facts about the relationships between the Native Americans and settlers.

The South Dakota side of the reservation boasts the birthplace and burial site of Sitting Bull, as well as the resting place of Sakakawea, the Shoshone guide of Lewis and Clark.

The Sakakawea and Sitting Bull Monuments are located about a mile north of the Indian Memorial Area, which houses the Jedediah Smith Historical Monument describing the life and accomplishments of its famous explorer namesake. Theres also a camping area and cabins, a playground and a marina.

Four miles southeast is the Grand River Casino and Resort, complete with. lodging, dining and authentic Native American crafts.

In Kenel, S.D., is the newly reproduced Fort Manuel replicating the log outpost, constructed in 1811 by fur trader Manuel Lisa.

The Standing Rock Native American Scenic Byway, which winds through the whole reservation, is dotted with memorial markers, monuments, museums and sacred sites showing history from the Native American point of view.

Tour participant, alliance member and MHA Nation Tourism Department Official Jason Morsettet said they arrived on the Fort Berthold Reservations to the sounds of the drums and the bells of dancers. A trip on a yacht set sail out of the 4 Bears Casino & Lodge Marina and visitors viewed an earth lodge.

The Three Affiliated Tribes  the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara or Sahnish  which populate Fort Berthold, believe their presence in North America is from the beginning of time. Sahnish means the original people from whom all other tribes sprang.

Thomas said the Alliances hopes are to be able to attract the world traveler by working together to create a statewide experience, complete with hands-on, year-round activities. Before setting off on the tour, the Alliance members met with state tourism officials to share their action plan for promoting the amenities of each reservation and educating the public about the tribes.

Theres a whole big history here, Thomas said. Each (tribe) is different with its own language and culture.

For example, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa have a subculture which came from French fur traders mixing with the tribe. The Metis are known for their fiddle and guitar playing and style of dance called jigging, which was demonstrated during the Alliance tour.

"I feel there is an untapped market that Indian Country is finally getting into," Tribal Chairman Richard McLoud said of the Alliance.

Right now, were getting off the ground, developing our partnerships, Thomas added, and by partnering with state tourism, the tribes will be able to get their message out to all of the international markets targeted by the state.

The next step is website development for each of the tribes and creation of a tourism department on reservations that dont have one, according to Thomas, so potential visitors have a place to go to help plan their trips. The tribes also want to have a larger presence in the states tourism guide, as well as developing brochures.

Thomas said many of the tribes have had to put other priorities ahead of tourism, but bringing in tourism as an industry on the reservation, dollars can be generated to preserve tribal heritage.

For example, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribal Archives is home to a large collection of fine art by Native American artists, such as Paul War Cloud and Tino Walking Bull. There are also moccasins and other clothing items, such as a dent allium shell cape dated at 1880, as well as stone tools and numerous other items.

The tribe does not have a museum or cultural interpretive center  the paintings are on display in the Administration Building rotunda  and the staff that works with the tribes artifacts and collections contend there is a great need for one. That is something a successful tourism program could help fund, Thomas said.

Most of our history is handed down mouth to mouth, Thomas said. As elders pass on, the history goes along with them . We have to have a place to tell the stories.

The Alliance will give presentations starting at 9 a.m. Sept. 7 during the United Tribes Leadership Summit. For more information, contact Thomas at lesthomas52@yahoo.com.
Mumbai: Priyanka Chopra, who started shooting for the second season of her Hollywood TV drama 'Quantico', seems to be raising the temperature in NYC with her hotness.

Few new stills from the film's sets found its way on the internet and in the pictures, Priyanka aka Alex Parrish looks absolutely stunning. Dressed in navy blue bodycon dress, Priyanka was snapped while she was shooting for her scene.

Queen Pri #priyankachopra #alexparrish on the set of #quan2co #quantico #gorgeous #stunning #perfect #september #25th #cantwait A photo posted by Priyanka Fan  (@xadhaw7) on Aug 20, 2016 at 4:13pm PDT

#priyankachopra #alexparrish #quantico #quan2co @priyankachopra A photo posted by PRIYANKA CHOPRA MY LIFE (@priyankachopra_fanatics) on Aug 20, 2016 at 2:30am PDT

The actress, who made her debut on the small screen in the West with the first season of thriller series, is all set to appear on their silver screen in Dwayne Johnson starrer 'Baywatch'.

While the actress is busy conquering the world, she hasn't yet announced her next Bollywood project.
Shah Rukh Khan has joined his co-star Anushka Sharma in Prague to begin shooting for Imtiaz Ali's next.

Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan, who was holidaying with his family in the United States, has joined his co-star Anushka Sharma in Prague to begin shooting for filmmaker Imtiaz Ali's next.

Shah Rukh Khan plays the role of a tourist guy in the film. While taking a group on an European tour, SRK meets Anushka Sharma and the two fall in love. The actress plays the role of a Gujarati chokri. The team will start the film's first schedule in Prague.

Shah Rukh also shared a picture of himself from the sets and wittily captioned it saying he received permission to upload it, from director Imtiaz Ali.

Upon arriving in Prague, SRK visited a museum, from where he shared a video with his fans.

Pretty in Prague... A video posted by Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) on Aug 20, 2016 at 8:31am PDT

While this is Anushkas third film with Bollywoods King Khan after her debut and Jab Tak Hai Jaan, well see the actress and the star collaborating with the director for the very first time.

Wasting no further time, Shah Rukh Khan started shooting for the film and was spotted on the sets.

Check out the inside pictures here:

SRK on the set of #TheRing in Prague.  A video posted by Shah Rukh Khan Lovers  (@srk_lovers) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:38am PDT

SRK on the set of #TheRing in Prague.  A photo posted by Shah Rukh Khan Lovers  (@srk_lovers) on Aug 20, 2016 at 3:11pm PDT

SRK on the set of #TheRing in Prague.  A photo posted by Shah Rukh Khan Lovers  (@srk_lovers) on Aug 20, 2016 at 3:13pm PDT

Video 2 : #SRK @iamsrk on the sets of Imtiaz Ali's film #TheRing in Prague ..  A video posted by @awatif_srk on Aug 20, 2016 at 6:28pm PDT

11th picture from the set of #TheRing at Prague in #Czech_Republic Europe A photo posted by Raihan Sheikh (@sheikh1052) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:14pm PDT

13th picture from the set of #TheRing at Prague in #Czech_Republic Europe A photo posted by Raihan Sheikh (@sheikh1052) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:14pm PDT

15th picture from the set of #TheRing at Prague in #Czech_Republic Europe A photo posted by Raihan Sheikh (@sheikh1052) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:15pm PDT

9th picture from the set of #TheRing at Prague in #Czech_Republic Europe A photo posted by Raihan Sheikh (@sheikh1052) on Aug 20, 2016 at 10:13pm PDT
Mumbai: Amitabh Bachchan was snapped in this colourful bohemian look when he was on his way for shoot in Mumbai on Saturday.

No, this is not his look from an upcoming film but an advertisement. Big B seemed to warn the photographers against clicking his picture, perhaps to keep his look a suspense before the advertisement hits the screens.

Looks like Big B wanted to keep the look a suspense.

But after watching these pictures, his fans would definitely be eager to see what character the actor plays in the new ad.





Bachchan was last seen in 'Te3n' and will next be seen in 'Pink. Recently, the actor also announced the 2002 hit heist drama 'Aankhen's sequel, in which he will be seen playing the role of a baddie.
In past three years, the Mtown witnessed several films with Biju Menon in the lead role following the victory of Jibu Jacob-directed Vellimoonga. The majority of films featuring the actor in the lead role could enter the blockbusters list. The latest news is that Biju Menon has signed yet another film in which he will don the lead role.

According to the actor, he will be seen in the protagonist role in the movie directed by Ranjan Pramod. It is a socially relevant subject. I have not acted in a similar film before. The film focuses on the transformation of a village owing to the modernistaion, says the actor, whose latest release Marubhoomiyile Aana is getting good reviews.

This yet-to-be-titled film will be the third directorial venture of Ranjan after Mohanlal-starrer Photographer and Rose Guitarinal. The screenwriter-turned- filmmaker has earlier penned the screenplay for Meesa Madhavan, Manassinakkare, Randam Bhavam, and Naran. Mohanlal-starrer Sathyan Anthikkad film Ennum Eppozhum is his latest project as scriptwriter.
The Fort Union Trading Post, one of the largest fur-trading posts in the upper Missouri River region located near Williston on the North Dakota-Montana border, was in operation from 1828 to 1867 and, in 1961, was declared a National Historic Landmark.

On June 20, 1966, Congress proclaimed Fort Union to be a National Historic Site, and it was purchased by the National Park Service. After the archeological work was completed, reconstruction began on much of the fort. The Park Service was aided in this effort by drawings of the fort made by Rudolph Kurz in the early 1850s.

Rudolph Friedrich Kurz was born Jan. 8, 1818, in Langnau, Switzerland, to Johannes and Maria (Stoss) Kurz.

The younger Kurz realized that he had an artistic aptitude at an early age. Kurz wrote that one of his passions was to go to America and paint wild animals and Indians. Through persistence, he convinced his parents to allow him to become an artist. In 1838, after four years of private tutelage, Kurzwent to Paris for intensive art study.

While in Paris, Kurz met Karl Bodmer, a Swiss artist who had recently published American Indian prints of pictures that he painted while visiting the Upper Missouri from 1834 to 1838. After examining Kurz's pictures, Bodmer advised him to refine his technical skills before traveling to America. Kurz returned to Switzerland and found employment as a drawing instructor at Emanuel Fellenberg's Institution at Hofwil, which allowed him to refine his drawing.

Believing he was ready, Kurz boarded a ship in the fall of 1846 and arrived in New Orleans in December. Unable to find sustainable employment, he sailed up the Mississippi to St. Joseph, Mo., in the spring of 1848. Working part-time as a bartender, Kurz spent the remaining hours sketching fur traders, mountain men and Indians encamped nearby.

While at St. Joseph, Kurz became intrigued with the Iowa Indians. He had a special attraction to Witthae, the 16-year-old daughter of Kirutshe, the leader of the Iowa group in the area. In January 1850, the two were married, but she became homesick and returned to her tribe two weeks later. Kurz was heartbroken and never married again.

To alleviate his grief, Kurz traveled 16 miles north of St. Joseph to the small town of Savannah and attempted to go into business as a horse trader, but he was unsuccessful. He then went to Bellevue, Mo., where, on June 10, 1851, he met Honore Picotte and Alexander Culbertson, fur trading agents for Pierre Chouteau Jr. Chouteau was the owner of the American Fur Company.

Culbertson offered to take Kurz up the Missouri River by steamboat and informed him that one of the posts might be in need of a clerk. On July 9, Kurz was told that an opening existed at Fort Berthold, because the manager, James Kipp, was planning to return home to Canada for a short stay and needed someone to take care of business while he was gone.

When Kurz arrived at Fort Berthold, Kipp put on his coat to leave on the same steamboat that had brought Kurz to the fort. Kipp turned over his ledger and keys to the perplexed artist with no instructions. At the last minute, Kipp decided to postpone his trip, and Kurz breathed a sigh of relief. The Indians who resided around Fort Berthold were members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nations.

At first, Kurz was elated because he believed he had an abundance of subjects to draw and paint. However, the Mandan and Hidatsa people considered painting and drawing bad luck.

In just two months, the Indians' worst fears appeared to come true. In August, an outbreak of cholera hit the fort and many Indians became ill. Kipp warned the artist to put away his drawings, and, when blame for the sickness began to focus on Kurz, he fled to Fort Union.

It was at Fort Union Kurz's art work flourished.

"Since I came here, I seem to be at perfect peace with myself .... If I can spend my later life in the painting of pictures that portray the American Indian ... then my cherished aims will have been fulfilled," he wrote.

Edwin Thompson Denig was the manager of Fort Union, and he appreciated the artistry of his new clerk. Denig asked Kurz to draw pictures of all levels of the people in the American Fur Company's chain of command, as well as detailed pictures of Fort Union. The two men became very close, but the dull, dark winter of 1851-1852 made Kurz believe that his work at Fort Union was drawing to a close. On April 19, 1852, Kurz said his farewells and boarded a keelboat to St. Louis. From there, he traveled to New York and then proceeded by ship to Europe.

In 1855, Kurz became an art teacher at the Canton School in Bern. In 1871, he was chosen as the director of Bern's first independent art school.

Rudolph Kurz died on Oct. 16, 1871, leaving many pictures he had painted and drawn. After going through his artwork, his family had a number of the pictures destroyed because they displayed Native Americans in varying degrees of nudity. The remaining pictures were donated to the Bern Historical Museum and the Bern Art Museum.
Only in this Mythic Society would there be such an incredible collection of books that take you on a journey through time and space. From rare copies of the epic Ramayana and Mahabharata - on ageing palm leaves - to one of the seven original copies of the Indian Constitution where legends like Jawaharlal Nehru and B.R Ambedkar scrawled their signature, marking the historic moment that India became a republic, it's a book lover's paradise.

Except few even know it exists. This week RANJANI MADHAVAN takes the covers off a 107 year old library that still functions on Nrupathunga Road.

Old books evoke a strange fascination in me - their smell, feel, their history. They make me wonder who might have owned them, how they lived, what they felt," said Lauren Willig, the New York based author of historical novels.

Nothing would better sum up the atmosphere at Bengaluru's 107-year-old library at Mythic Society better. Here, dusty paperbacks, handwritten manuscripts, ancient books with aluring secrets and pale yellow pages line the rows of tall shelves. This forgotten treasure trove of the city on Nrupatunga Road, boasts of a unique and rich collection that only a few know of. Stroll through it and you can spot the rarest of rare books dating back to the 17th century, in every other shelf.

There are books on philosophy, religion, mythology, history, culture and literature which dominate this library. A hard-bound series of books on the Vedas written by Max Muller in 1856, the original handwritten Sanskrit manuscripts dating back to 1940, the old scriptures of Manusmriti and religious texts of every faith occupy the section near the entrance. 1,203 fragile pages of the Holy Bible printed in 1804, a coloured cloth wrapped around a 1934 edition of the Quran amongst others, are the priceless works at the library.

Of the seven original copies of the Indian Constitution available in the country, one is stored at the Mythic Society library. The reader can see the calligraphic writing and trace the last few pages where legends like Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R Ambedkar and others scrawled their signature, marking the historic moment.

Impossible to miss is the framed copy of the original Magna Carta, agreed to by King John of England in 1215 AD, a symbol of liberty that is still relevant to governments today.

For those who just love history, there is a separate shelf placed in a corner, containing rare books. For instance, there is the original collection of royal wedding invitations, accompanied by black and white pictures of those who carried on the legacy of the Kingdom of Mysore in pre- independent times.

This is perhaps the only library that still relies on the Catalogue system, making it easier for old-timers who visit the place. Since 2013, the library has turned digital as well, to cater to younger readers.

Not restricting itself to English, a separate section is available for Kannada and Sanskrit readers. Works of Kuvempu, a Poetic Anthology of Kannada poems dating back to 1960 and original manuscripts describing Hyder Ali's activities as king will spark the interest of local readers.

The Sanskrit section has some of the oldest editions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, along with a handwritten manuscript on dry leaf like material.

The other invaluable items include well preserved old maps of Bengaluru city. Folded several times these thin, fragile maps, when opened, open into a large canvas with the detailed geography of the city that would be unrecognizable to anyone in this age. An 1887 edition of Karl Marx' Das Kapital, the 1812 edition of 'Wealth of Nations' by Adam Smith and other such pioneering books in social sciences, fill the antiquarian book collection attracting bibliophiles to this place.

Book lovers should be indebted to the colonial founders, F.J Richards, the then collector of Bangalore Cantonment and Father Tabard, who with the help of 17 other members in 1909, made Mythic Society what it is today. Liberal donations to the vast collection, were made by the Mysore Royal Family.

Some 12 Volumes of original documents on British Foreign Policy from 1919-1939, the first edition of the 'Epic Fast' by Pyarelal who accompanied Gandhi on his fast for the rights of Harijans, publications of the Calcutta Gazette compiled together and other historical pieces, will seduce present-day historians and scholars seeking information.

With such an unparalled collection of books that date back to 1726, the Mythic Society unfortunately does not receive the attention and praise it deserves.

In this age of fast paced fiction and thrillers, these irreplaceable books lie unseen, untouched in the library with just a few scholars, researchers and students making extensive use of the ancient knowledge available.
By evening, Babitha Nair looks tired, but patient. With her is a family that had come to visit her first painting exhibition in Kerala, her fifth overall. Babitha listens to their comments and turns to the next visitor. It is not so common to find the Lalithakala Akademi in Thiruvananthapuram piling up with visitors, but then something about the wrinkled old woman that Babitha had put out in the posters of her exhibition seemed to call the passersby in.

I am always intrigued by striking faces and expressions. If you look at 10 different persons, you will see 10 skin tones. This picture of the old woman  I call it Daadima  is of someone I met in the Himalayas, Babitha says. The eyes of the woman in the picture are welled up with tears. She was telling us about her losses, Babitha recalls that moment from an old trip. She found more faces to paint from that same trip. A little girl called Kajol whose picture became so detailed that you could spot in her dark eyes, the reflection of the mountain goat she saw. Theres old Jamuna wearing a bindi on her forehead, and wrinkles on her face. If you then take a sweep around the room, you will find most faces too old or too young. The only exception is a dancer, striking a pose in Odissi. Inspired by the many Ravi Varma paintings, I wanted to see how to get the silk saree folds right, Babitha says.

Daadima

Its not just faces. She has on one corner of the hall, the picture of an old man in the rain directing the traffic of a Bengaluru street. I call that picture Never sleeps. The city is always busy. It is my most recent work, only two weeks old, says Babitha, who is settled in Bengaluru. She was born in Kannur, but then did most of her studies in Kozhikode before taking off to Bengaluru for her BFA and then a course in fashion designing. That was a phase. I had joined a company too. But then I realised it was much better to do my own work, and freelance as an artist, she says.

So, thats what she does now. Not that it always brings pleasant memories. Because of her perfectionist ways, Babithas pictures sometimes run the risk of looking like photographs. A painting of green leaves that she put up online received a lot of such comments. They said I shouldnt fool people like this. I felt like crying, but I also realised it is a sort of compliment. Babithas exhibition ends today.
Had Eric Favre not married an Italian woman, it's possible none of us would be drinking Nespresso. The man who conceived of single-portion coffee capsules four decades ago told AFP he was always destined to be an inventor, but some teasing by his wife Anna-Maria steered him towards the idea that revolutionised home coffee consumption.

A trained rocket engineer, Favre said he joined Nestle's packaging department in 1975 to learn the inner workings of a multi-national corporation before branching out on his own. That's when Anna-Maria told her Swiss husband that his country knew nothing about making coffee.

"I wanted to prove to my new wife that I have the capacity to make the best espresso," Favre, 69, said during a tour of his office in Saint Barthelemy, Switzerland, which includes a small museum devoted to his iconic invention.

In the coming months he scoured Rome in search of the perfect brew and developed a prototype espresso machine that looked like an unused prop from one of the "Back to the Future" films -- an awkward assembly of cylinders and tubes.

Resistance within Nestle against home-made espresso was stiff. Nescafe, its enormously popular instant coffee blend, was enjoying its initial boom and company executives saw little need to invest in expensive home espresso machines, certain the instant mix would remain home consumers' preferred brew.

Favre persisted and Nespresso was finally launched in 1986, with Favre as its director general. Thirty years on, the counter-top machine is a key revenue generator for Nestle, the world's largest food and beverage company. It no longer gives breakout statistics for Nespresso but the Bloomberg news agency estimated sales at $4.5 billion in 2015.

Yet challenges are mounting as competitors cut into Nespresso's market share and environmental concerns have risen about the waste generated by used pods. Favre left Nestle long before Nespresso became a massive global brand with a movie-star pitchman, but voiced hope that the coffee pod's creation story would not be lost. "It's not just about pictures of George Clooney," he said, referring to Nespresso's brand ambassador.

A curiously busy cafe

In 1975, Favre's coffee quest took him to the Caffe Sant'Eustachio, now listed in travel guides as a place serving one of the best espressos in Rome, but which at the time stood out because it was busier than everywhere else. Using Anna-Maria as his "spy", Favre said he discovered that a key to Sant'Eustachio's superior coffee and crema was repeated aeration while hot water was being pumped through the coffee grinds.

His idea for a machine that aimed for maximum aeration through a carefully formulated single-portion pod was born while watching Sant'Eustachio's barrista, Favre explained. In 1983, Nestle sent Favre on assignment to the Nescafe factory in Japan.

He decided to pitch Nespresso's merits to the chief executive there, hoping for better luck than he had with his bosses in Switzerland. The plan worked and Nespresso launched in 1986, but it suffered initial stumbles and Favre left Nestle in 1991.

'Cannibals' in the market

He went on to found a string of successful coffee pod companies, including Monodor, which developed more energy efficient pods that had more coffee and generated less waste from packaging.

Nespresso's popularity, meanwhile, exploded but several of its key patents expired in 2011, which represents "a major threat" to its future growth, said Virginia Lee, senior beverage analyst at market research firm Euromonitor International.

Competitors including companies that make Nespresso compatible pods "are growing rapidly and cannibalising Nespresso's share of coffee pods due to lower prices and wider distribution," Lee wrote in a 2016 report. In Western Europe, for example, Nestle's coffee pod market share fell from 41 percent in 2011 to 37 percent in 2015, according to Euromonitor.

Favre predicted this five years ago, telling the Global Coffee Review magazine in 2011 that Nestle would face threats from new capsule makers flooding the market and that to stay ahead, the company would have to maintain a rigorous focus on quality. And despite leaving the company a quarter-centry ago under somewhat acrimonious circumstances, Favre is still willing to help.

Moving through his homemade exhibit that details the evolution of his capsule from clunky prototype to the widely sold version shaped like a miniature bucket, the businessman seemed proud that Nespresso's current chief executive Jean-Marc Duvoisin made the trip to Saint Barthelemy two months ago.

Asked why a top Nespresso boss would visit him, Favre said: "to learn this story".
Chennai: The high value travelling and also the increasing propensity to travel are making many Indians prefer Australia for business, tourism and studies besides family trips. Chennai has emerged as the fourth largest source market for Australia and visitors from this metro has contributed to about Rs 500 crore to Australian economy through tourism.

This contributes to about 100 million Australian dollars. We have seen an increase of 21 per cent in the spends by the visitors from Chennai while Indians on the whole spent about 1.14 billion Australian dollars during their trips last year, says Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia.

India, he claims, is among the top 10 markets in the world for Australia and Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai are the fastest growing markets for Australia.

Indias contribution to Australian economy through tourism went up by almost 19 per cent and touched 1.14 billion Australian dollars. Indian visitors have spent around Rs 5,500 crore to the Australian economy over the last 12 months.

Australia has emerged as an ideal and cheaper destination compared to Europe. We desire to see India emerge as among the top five positions, says Michael Newcombe general manager, South South East Asia & Gulf countries, Tourism Australia.

Mr Michael who was in the city told this correspondent that Australia sees a huge potential in India as a source market and this needs to be unlocked. About 3,00,800 Australians visited India last year.

Though the bilateral trade agreement between India Australia has caused a surge of tourism activity, Australia wanted the aviation industry to participate in a robust manner. We want more direct flights between Australia and India we now have an open immigration policy.. 85 agencies in Australia can process visa applications electronically and we have also introduced three-year multiple entry visa, says Mr Michael. India has fascinating places. I like Mumbai. Indians are humble and proud of their heritage, Mr Michael whose wife is a yoga enthusiast, says about India.
So poorly maintained is the spot that the crystal clear water falling from a nearly 100 ft tall cliff, today enters a pond filled with filth and garbage, reeking of stench.

Bengaluru: Once the perfect weekend getaway, Pearl Valley or Muthyala Maduvu as it is called in local parlance, some 43 kms from the city, is now a den of hooligans. A pristine waterfall with a brook, the spot derives its name from the water droplets that take the shape of pearls on hitting the rocky terrain below.

Frequented by young picnickers, especially students, in the eighties and nineties, Pearl Valley is now home to mainly hooligans drinking, eve-teasing and polluting its serene environment with plastic, garbage and liquor bottles.

Numerous stray dogs and monkeys pouncing on visitors and snatching food packets and purses have completed the deterioration of this once popular tourist spot, easily accessible to Bengalureans from Hosur Road via Attibele or via Anekal on the Bannerghatta Road.

Nestled deep down a valley, the secluded falls were once a haven for photographers, but now they too give them a miss, put off by the depleted water and litter everywhere. So poorly maintained is the spot that the crystal clear water falling from a nearly 100 ft tall cliff , today enters a pond filled with filth and garbage, reeking of stench.

The roads leading to Pearl Valley also leave visitors frustrated. The roads were in horrible condition when I visited Pearl Valley two years ago. I am not sure how they are now , but I dont want to go there again, said one disappointed visitor, Badrinath, an investment consultant from Girinagar in the city.

A review posted by a visitor to the falls in August last year, is both graphic and disturbing. It reads, What this place needs is security. There were six of us (girls) and we ventured further into the forest thinking there would be more. The time was 4:30 pm. A drunk man approached us and grabbed my friend. We were scared and thought this was the end of our lives as it was pretty much obvious what he would do next. But luckily a few of his friends caught him in time and told us to run away. We ran and did not stop until we were out of that place.

Said one tourist about the hooligans who abound here, They come on bikes and cars with liquor bottles. They cook at the spot, consume alcohol, create a nuisance, and even indulge in eve-teasing and mugging. They break bottles and throw garbage around.

Sadly, the only Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) hotel , Mayura Nisarga, operating at this tourist spot, is not impressive either with visitors often complaining about its limited food and services.

But ask tourism department officials and they claim all is well at Pearl Valley. The department spent nearly Rs 1.5 crore for developing the spot. Even the roads were repaired around eight months ago. Hotel Mayura Nisarga is also doing well and has rooms for lodging. But we usually get day visitors, said a senior tourism official.
Volunteers help a child to get down from the roof of a submerged house to shift him to safety near Danpur in Patna. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: With the rise in level of the Ganga, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday expressed apprehension of further rise in water level by Monday in view of release of water from Bansagar dam as flood-like situation prevailed in state.

Kumar, who held a high level meeting to assess the situation, later went on an aerial survey of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Begusarai and Khagaria.

He told reporters there is at the moment no possibility of flood waters entering into Patna city.

Meanwhile the rising water level of Ganga has more or less created flood-like situation in all the districts situated along the banks of the river in Bihar.

Ganga and six other rivers were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur, Buxar and Hajipur districts, a disaster management department statement said.

Ganga was flowing above danger mark at six places in various parts of three districts  Digha ghat, Gandhi ghat, Hathidah in Patna, Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district, Munger district and Buxar district.

The districts which are witnessing flood-like situation included  Patna, Vaishali, Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar, the department statement said.

Around 15,000 people are sheltered in 82 relief camps after being evacuated from flood affected areas, it said adding that all camps have the facilities of medical team with medicines.

Stating that several districts of Bihar have been facing the threat of inundation, Kumar said that The water level of Ganga has increased due to release of water from Indrapuri barrage and other rivers merging into Ganga.

Besides, a huge volume of water has been released from Bansagar dam and it is expected that water level, which has reduced, will once again rise by tonight or tomorrow morning, Kumar said.

"This is the appropriate time to visit and gauge the problem but it should be impartial and not by someone who has already formed his own opinion," he added.

The chief minister held Farakka dam responsible for slow discharge of water from Ganga which has become shallow due to heavy siltation.

This causes flood water to spread to other areas. He appealed to people to vacate the rivebank areas and come to relief camps which would provide them proper food and shelter.

National and State Disaster Response Force have already been deployed in the affected districts, Kumar said and added that apart from taking help of big boats meant to ferry sand to evacuate people and animals, the government has made all preparations to airlift the people if needed.

Besides, Army has been put on alert to help the people out from the flood affected areas, Kumar added. We want to assure the people that we are alert. People should not get panicky and should tackle the situation bravely, Kumar said adding that government is taking every necessary step to provide relief to the people as victims of disaster have the first right on states coffers.

A disaster management department statement said altogether 1,326 boats are being plied by the government to evacuate the affected people to safer places.

The statement said several other rivers, apart from Ganga, were too flowing above danger mark and they were Sone at Koilwar (Bhojpur) and Maner (Patna), Punpun Sripalpur (in Patna), Ghaghra at Gangpur-Siswan in Siwan and Saran districts, Gandak in Hajipur, Kosi at Baltara and Kursela in Katihar district and Burhi Gandak in Khagaria.

Kumar said all the relief camps would be set up as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) prepared after Kosi tragedy and people coming to camps will be given utensils and basic minimum clothes for which the payment would be made through Chief Ministers Relief Fund.

Kumar gave necessary directions during the meeting convened to review the flood situation in the state capital. The CM assessed the flood situation with the District Magistrates of affected districts through video-conferencing. Villages, which have been inundated, will be monitored regularly through patrolling, he said.
Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed for last month's failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has "infiltrated" India, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Asserting that FETO is "secretive transnational criminal network" with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, "Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools."

In an interview after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish foreign minister also said, "I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart."

The visiting minister said, "In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories."

Asked for a response to the Minister's comments, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side is "sensitive" to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were "looking into" Ankara's demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities.

Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said, "Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial."

MEA Sushma Swaraj with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (Photo: Twitter)

"This is what both Turkey and India are focused on," he said.

Talking about last month's coup attempt, the visiting dignitary said that a clandestine faction led by FETO within the Turkish Army attempted to stage a coup on July 15 to overthrow the democratically elected government.

"We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, external affairs minister Swaraj," Cavusoglu added.

More than 240 people died and over 1,500 others were injured as a fallout of the failed coup.

Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. Gulen currently lives in self-imposed exile in the US.

The Turkish minister also expressed concern over the situation in Syria, maintaining that his country was directly impacted by every dynamic of the conflict there.

He also asked the international community to work together to bring about the much-needed political transition in Syria. "This is not only a prerequisite to end the conflict, it is also essential to effectively fight terrorism," the minister asserted.
Afshaque and his wife also went to Sri Lanka earlier this year for religious education. (Representational photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A 26-year-old businessman from Mumbai has reportedly travelled to Syria with his wife, infant daughter and cousins to join the Islamic State even as the NIA continues to tighten the noose around ISIS suspects in the country.

According to a report, Ashfaque Ahmed, a Mumbai based businessman sent a message to his younger brother towards the last week of June informing him that he had travelled to ISIS territory and did not wish to return. "Take care of mother and father," his message reportedly read.

His cousins 22-year-old Mohammed Siraj who is a businessman, and 30-year-old Ejaz Rehman, a medical practitioner, also accompanied Ashfaque.

Blaming a Kerala based school teacher Mohammad Hanif for radicalising his son, Ashafques father Abdul Majeed filed an FIR on August 6.

Majeed, who owns several guest houses, stated in his FIR that Ashfaque, who belongs to the Barveli sect, was drawn towards the Ahl-e-Hadees sect of Islam, and converted in 2014. He married later the same year, but informed his family only after the wedding was over.

Ever since conversion, he began exhibiting worrying changes, and stopped listening to music, watching television.

He changed his dressing style and started sporting a beard and had the family worried," Majeed told the police.

The FIR also mentioned that Afshaque and his wife went to Sri Lanka earlier this year for religious education.

It is however unclear if Afshaque took his wife against her will or if she accompanied him on her own accord.

Mohammed Hanif, a cleric and teacher from Keralas Wayanad, was taken into custody on August 14 by Kerala police and has reportedly influenced 11 of the 21 people from Kerala who are suspected to have joined ISIS.
The delegation led by former Chief Minister Jammu and Kashmir would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and stress on the need to end the ongoing Kashmir unrest through dialogue. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: With Kashmir in turmoil, a delegation of opposition parties from the state will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to impress upon him the need for finding a "political solution" to the crisis by initiating a dialogue with "all stakeholders".

The delegation led by former chief minister Omar Abdullah of the National Conference will apprise Modi of the ground situation in the state, which is in the grip of a prolonged spell of violence and lockdown since the gunning down of militant commander Burhan Wani by security forces on July 8, and highlight the plight of Kashmiri people.

The delegation will include CPI-M MLA Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, state Congress President G A Mir, senior leaders of National Conference and some Independent MLAs.

Sources in the opposition parties that would comprise the delegation said it would request the Prime Minister to impress upon the state government to stop dealing with the situation "administratively" as it was leading to "unprecedented disaffection", especially among the youth.

It would underscore the need to initiate a "credible and meaningful" dialogue with "all stakeholders" to bring an end to the unrest without "further waste of time", sources said.

The delegation would bring up the issue of use of pellet guns by security forces, which caused injuries to civilians on a large scale and pitch for an end to "mass harassment, raids and arrests" as these have worsened an already volatile situation in the state.

With the unrest in Kashmir showing no signs of abating, leaders of opposition parties ed by Omar had on Saturday called on President Pranab Mukherjee and requested him to urge the Modi government to find a political solution to it.

The visit to the President followed a meeting chaired the 46-year-old Omar where serious concern was voiced about the turmoil spreading to other parts of the state including Jammu and Kargil.

The former chief minister, who was also accompanied by senior leaders of NC including Nasir Wani, Davinder Rana, Ali Mohammed Sagar and A. R. Rather, had on Saturday said, "The fire that has been raging in Kashmir Valley has already started spreading across Peer Panjal and Chenab Valley in Jammu region and Kargil area."
Chadigarh: Nearly two weeks after he was booked, Punjab police on Sunday arrested the chief of Punjab Gau Raksha Dal for allegedly thrashing people in the name of cow protection.

ANI reported that Patiala police arrested Satish Kumar, Punjab Gau Rakshak Dal Chief. He was booked for abduction and under other sections of IPC.

The Patiala Police arrested Kumar from Vrindavan town in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday evening following a raid. His location was intercepted through mobile.

A case under sections 382 (having made preparation for causing death), 384 (committing extortion), 341 (wrongfully restraining any person), along with sections 148 and 149, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was also registered, said reports.

Several people who have been victimized by the Gau Raksha Dal in Punjab told the police that they were detained by the self-styled cow vigilantes, robbed and tortured. Shockingly, Satish Kumar also sodomised them.

Punjab police booked Satish Kumar earlier this month for allegedly assaulting some persons on pretext of cow protection, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the states to act against "fake" cow protectors.

The FIR was lodged on the basis of a video clip which appeared on social media, showing Gau Raksha Dal members brutally thrashing people, SSP Gurmeet Chauhan said on Monday.

A case under sections 382 (having made preparation for causing death), 384 (committing extortion), 341 (wrongfully restraining any person), along with sections 148 and 149, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered, police said.

Kumar had alleged that the Prime Minister's remarks against cow vigilantism were motivated by "votebank politics" due to upcoming elections in many states.

"The PM's statement is politically motivated. It is one-sided. If he had warned the butchers not to slaughter or smuggle cow, then his statement would have been justified.

"He is doing vote bank politics to get the butchers' vote," Kumar had said. He said the police were free to arrest him.

The Prime Minister's statement denunciating cow vigilantism came after a string of incidents of attacks on Dalits, including in Una, Gujarat where some youths were brutally assaulted for skinning a dead cow.
North Dakota voters will be casting ballots in November on an initiated measure that would add $1.73 to the present cigarette tax of 44 cents. It would be the first cigarette tax hike in 23 years.

After two bipartisan bills in the 2015 session failed, Rep. Jon Nelson (R-Rugby) predicted that refusal to act would result in an initiated measure and I hope you like what they come up with. It is highly unlikely that this initiated measure will be liked by the Legislature.

Public opinion polls consistently have indicated a strong support in the public for raising the tax but the tobacco lobby has been so influential in the Legislature that it wouldnt accept even token raises.

In 2003, Republican Gov. John Hoeven included an increase in his biennial budget for a tax increase of 35 cents. When that didnt fly, he offered to compromise at 15 cents but the Republican Legislature refused to budge. On this issue, political kinship meant nothing.

(In a review of cigarette tax politics covering the 1980s and 90s, the Center for Tobacco Control & Education at the University of California School of Medicine details the inner workings of the tobacco lobby in North Dakota.)

It seems that North Dakota cigarette policy can be divided into three segments.

In the early days, some folks eschewed smoking because it was a sin. Smoking was bundled with dancing, drinking and gambling as the forbidden evils of the day. However, most people continued to smoke.

Starting in the 1950s, smoking became a health issue when the medical people became alarmed at the connection between cancer and smoking. It took decades of research and thousands of deaths before public opinion could overcome the denials of a profitable tobacco industry.

North Dakota cigarette retailers have argued that a high tax would result in unfair competition across state boundaries. Meanwhile, North Dakota kept the tax at 44 cents while Minnesota raised the tax to $3; Montana to $1.70, and South Dakota to $1.53.

It doesnt take a mathematical genius to guess which state has been selling the most cigarettes to residents of neighboring states. North Dakota retailers, especially those in the Red River valley, have been making a killing on out-of-state smokers.

Another common argument from libertarian smokers has been put this way: This is my life. I should be able to do what I want.

In many instances, this would be a legitimate argument but not with behavior that burdens taxpaying nonsmokers who end up with the cost of increased insurance premiums and unfunded medical expenses passed on to the public.

This leads us to the argument that raising the cigarette tax would be an unfair burden on the lower income people who can barely afford cigarettes.

It is true that smoking is more prevalent in the lower socio-economic culture but it is also true that a disproportionate share of these folks will depend on taxpayer-funded Medicaid when they run up thousands of dollars during their last extended days in hospitals.

Past polling suggests that the public will support the increase. Not only that, half of the new revenue generated has been earmarked for veterans health programs and has the support of veterans organizations across the state. The other half goes to community health programming.

So where sin failed to end smoking and cancer didnt dissuade others, the out-of-pocket costs of a higher tax will convince many smokers that it is time to quit.

Research indicates that higher taxes will cut consumption, fewer people will die, and taxpayers will pay fewer hospital bills. More people will live to be happy ever after.
New Delhi: The fight between censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani and the board members has escalated and reached the information and broadcasting ministry. The chief of Central Broad of Film Certification (CBFC) is understood to have approached Union I&B minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and expressed his displeasure at the working of a few members of his board, including Ashoke Pandit.

It is also understood that the CBFC chief has sought clarification from the government over the appearance of a few board members on television debates during the time when it was embroiled in some controversial decisions without seeking the boards consent.

Sources stated that the move comes after the August 5 meeting of the CBFC, held in Mumbai after a gap of a year, which saw heated exchanges between a section of its members and chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani. These protesting CBFC members accused the CBFC chief of trying to gag them and take arbitrary decisions.

It is understood that the CBFC members and Mr Nihalani have been at loggerheads as they are seemingly upset with Mr Nihalani for trying to take certain arbitrary decisions without seeking their prior approval.

Some recent contentious decisions of the CBFC, like suggesting major cuts to films like Udta Punjab, were also a flash point between the two camps elicited protests from members.

It was felt that the board, which is responsible for certifying films, was overstepping its brief by imposing censorship. The controversy had led to a massive outrage in the film industry and the decision to impose almost 90 cuts by the CBFC was also reversed by the courts.

It is also learnt that not all members are in favour of the chairpersons orders asking all filmmakers to submit their work for certification on a digital cinema package (DCP) format. The difficulty to replicate technology was seemingly introduced to plug any incidents of leakage of recent films like Udta Punjab, Great Grand Masti and Kabali.
Hyderabad: The Centre is actively considering a proposal to assist PF members in getting a house by pledging their present and future accumulations, Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said.

This scheme would also contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modis ambition to ensure Housing for All by 2022, he said. The Union minister confirmed the increase in quantum of EPFO investments in Exchange Traded funds this year.

He said the investment would be raised beyond 5 percent and the figure would be when the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO meets in a fortnight.

As on July 31, the amount invested in ETFs by the EPFO was Rs 7,468 crore and the market value had risen to `8,372 crore, a positive return of 12.10 percent, the minister said. The finance ministry has given the nod to the labour ministry to invest between 5 to 15 per cent of its funds in equity or equity-related schemes.
Asserting that FETO is a secretive transnational criminal network with presence around the world, Mr Cavusoglu said, Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools.

New Delhi: Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation, blamed by Turkey for the failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has infiltrated India, Turkish foreign minister Mev-lut Cavusoglu has said.

Asserting that FETO is a secretive transnational criminal network with presence around the world, Mr Cavusoglu said, Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools. The minister made this statement in an interview to a news agency after talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.

MEA says India sensitive to Turk concerns

Stating that Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed by Turkey for the last months failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has infiltrated India, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup was quoted as saying that the Indian side is sensitive to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were looking into Ankaras demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities.
Hyderabad: Water in the Krishna is polluted by municipalities discharging untreated sewage into the river or its tributaries. Earlier this year, the National Green Tribunal during the hearing of a suo motu case on pollution in the Krishna, pulled up 11 municipalities for discharge of sewage into the river without treating it.

Pollution Control Board officials from both states said their powers were limited to sending notices to municipalities. APPCB officials had sent a proposal to the state government last year to prosecute the municipal commissioner of Kurnool, one of the 11 municipalities pulled up by the NGT, but no action was taken.

During the hearing, the NGT asked the principal secretary, municipal administration and urban development, AP, to submit an action taken report on the proposal sent by APPCB.

While the case is still going on, the NGT pressure seems to be working. The Kurnool municipality is preparing a detailed project report to build sewage treatment plants to treat the 40 million litres per day of sewage the city generates every day before the water reaches the river.

An APPCB official said that Vijayawada was set to achieve a target of treating the entire sewage of 150 MLD that the city generates daily. No work has been taken up by Macherla, Jaggaiahpet and Tadepalli municipalities and Amaravati, Ibrahimpatnam, Bhavanipuram, Avanigadda and Nagayalanka gram panchayats which were also pulled up by NGT.

In Telangana, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is the major culprit for the poor water quality in the Krishna. The GHMC discharges 598 million litres a day of the 1,250 MLD sewage that the city generates daily into the Musi river, which meets the Krishna at Wadapally in Nalgonda district.
Thiruvananthapuram: The state government and private medical college managements are on a collision course with the government remaining firm on its decision to take over the admission to all medical seats and the managements planning to approach the Kerala High Court.

The admission supervisory committee headed by Justice J.M. James committee will meet on Monday to discuss the next course of action on the allotment process to self financing medical colleges.

Kerala Private Medical College Management Association secretary Anilkumar Vallil told this newspaper that the association would make admission to all seats from the NEET list on their own if the government insisted to conduct a common counselling for self financing medical seats. We have the right to do so. The governments stand is arbitrary, Mr Vallil said.

Health minister K.K. Shylaja has said the government was willing to hold talks with the managements on the fee structure. The minister who informed her willingness to hold talks again, however, made it clear that the government would not go back on the stand that they would conduct a common counselling for all seats. This decision was taken to ensure merit of students admitted to medical colleges and was based on the directive of the Union health ministry, Ms Shylaja told reporters here on Sunday. It was the managements who withdrew from the talks, the minister said.

Ms Shylaja pointed out that the dental colleges had come out for an agreement for a common fee for both government and management quota fee. Sources said that as per the agreement, the fee for both the government quota and management quota was fixed at Rs 4 lakh for BDS courses. However, students admitted to 15 per cent seats in NRI quota would have to pay Rs 5.75 lakh and Rs 4 lakh as interest free deposit. Of the other seats, 10 per cent students in BPL category would get a scholarship which would mean that they would have to pay only Rs 50,000 from their pockets for BDS admisisons.

The admission process was not the only issue that has to be sorted out. The fee structure for self financing medical colleges have also not been finalised yet. Sources said that the KPMCA was ready to go for an agreement if the government agreed on uniform fee structure. Private self financing medical colleges had a multi-layer fee structure last year.

However, the four Medical Colleges under the Inter Church Council namely Puspagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Thiruvalla, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Christian Medical College, Kozhancherry, Amala Medical College, Thrissur and Jubilee Medical College, Thrissur who had entered into a three-year agreement with the government last year approving a single tier fee of Rs 4.20 lakh for both government quota and management quota had made clear that there was no need to go for a fresh agreement this year.

The Kerala Private Medical College Management Association (KPMCA) would also submit a petition in the High Court on Monday on the issue. The Christian Medical College Management Association was also planning to move the High Court on the issue on Tuesday.
Lucknow: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has made another controversial statement when he said that there is no law in the country that prevents Hindus from having more children. During an interactive session with teachers and students in Agra, the RSS chief said, Which law asked Hindus to produce fewer children? If their (Muslim) population is increasing then why your numbers are not growing?

Mr Bhagwat was responding to a question on RSS stand on the disproportionate rise in population of Muslims, While addressing a large gathering of university and college teachers, he said that to improve the current education system we have to change our attitude towards it.
Hyderabad: As per Census 2011s marital status data, more than 75 per cent of divorced, separated and widowed persons in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were women.

Of the 86,280 divorced persons in the two Telugu states, 66,691 were women; of 4,07,276 separated, 3,05,046 were women and of the 50,66,315 widowed, 42,97,481 were women.

The number of women widowed, divorced or separated was also much higher in the national level. In India, of the 5,55,38,707 widowed, 4,32,61,478 were women; of 35,35,202 separated persons, 23,72,754 were women and of the 13,62,316 divorced persons, 9,09,573 were women.

Activists working in the field of womens rights blame the skewed nature of this data on the fact that in India, remarriage is easier for a divorced, separated or widowed men.

Ms V. Sandhya, president of Progressive Organization of Women said, Remarriage is still not easy for separated, divorced or widowed women as compared to men, and that is a major reason why there are more women in these three categories. It is the same even among well-educated people in cities like Hyderabad. Higher mortality rate among men due to alcoholism is also a reason for there being more women in these categories.

Another glaring finding of the census data is that there were 13,032 persons under the age of 18 in AP and Telangana who were widowed. Of them 9,575 were girls. There were 5,890 separated of whom 3,683 were girls, and 1,050 were divorced, of whom 699 were girls. This shows that child marriage is still rampant in both Telugu states.

Mr R. Venkat Reddy, national convener of MV Foundation, which works in the field of child rights, said, Life becomes very tough for young girls who separate, divorce or are widowed. Their so cial status becomes very low, moving in public spaces becomes restricted, their families treat them like burdens and many of them end up as child labourers. Focused policies like waiving of school fees and professional training of school officials for providing counselling are required. Such girls are very hungry in life to stand on their feet but just need a little state support to succeed.
Hyderabad: Many people taking holy dips in the Krishna River during the ongoing Pushkaralu are complaining of itching, rashes and redness of skin.

These symptoms are not seen immediately but manifest later.

Senior dermatologist Dr Laxmi Shardha said, The rashes or redness is mostly noted on fingers, hands, neck and face. It subsides on its own in 90 per cent of the cases. But in 10 per cent of cases proper treatment is required as the body is not able to fight it on its own.

These infections are caused by myobacteria and vibrio bacteria in the water. People who have open cuts or wounds get infected faster and treatment is required for them.

Senior dermatologist Dr A. Jain said, During mass bathing, those with weak immune systems need to be careful as when they contract these skin infections, and if not treated properly, it spreads to the bones. If the rashes or open wounds do not heal within three to four days, patients must seek treatment.

While health camps have been organized at the ghats, the skin infections manifest later. Experts state that rashes or redness is not immediate when people come out of the water.

Senior physician Dr P.B.R. Rao said, The infections manifest after a few hours. For some people there is constant itching. Others suffer from itching as well as rashes. They can have baths with medicated soaps. If problems do not subside in a day or two than we recommend them to visit a dermatologist.
Hyderabad: The Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments are on the same page as far as the no detention policy is concerned. While 18 other states were in favour of modification of existing policy, these two states urged the Centre not to tinker with the existing policy.

The TS government made its stand clear to HRD minister Prakash Javadekar during his recent visit to the state. The AP government has also conveyed that the policy should be continued.

It may be mentioned that under this policy, students up to Class VIII are automatically promoted to the next class if they do not get a passing grade.

Education minister Kadiam Srihari stated that there was problem of dropouts in government schools in districts due to various reasons and any change in existing policy will aggravate the problem.

The Centre clarified that that it was not in a hurry to make changes to the no-detention policy. Union minister of state for HRD Upendra Kushwaha stated a few days ago there was no immediate proposal to scrap the policy.
Chennai: Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicts in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has submitted a petition to the National Commission for Women with a plea to impress upon the Union government to exercise its powers under Article 72 of the Constitution and release her from prison, since she is the longest serving woman prisoner in the country.

Noting that she had already completed 25 years in prison, Nalini said In all the states women life convicts are given preference in the matter of premature release after completion of 10 or 14 years of imprisonment.

In Tamil Nadu also, more than 2,200 life convicts were released after completion of only 7 years or 10 years or 14 years of imprisonment during the period between 2001 and 2008.

She pointed out that the state government had already taken a decision to release her from prison along with others convicted in Rajiv Gandhis assassination case and recalled that she had given birth to her daughter in prison in 1992 and she is abroad in her paternal uncles house in the UK. Her husband is also a life convict suffering imprisonment for life in prison. For 25 long years, I have not been able to live my life as an ordinary woman and I spend my days in prison watching hundreds of women prisoners getting released from prison time and again on important days like Perarignar Annas birthday. No day passes without tears. I have almost become depressed. My only longing is whether I would be able to see my daughter who is abroad and whether I would be able to arrange her marriage during my life-time, she said. Nalini added she had all along been eligible to be released from prison under various premature release schemes in Tamil Nadu.
WASHINGTON  This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Iran's intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. That's what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. That's what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Iran's international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Iran's orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assad's regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand  a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military  he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldn't he? He's pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administration's response to these provocations? Urging "both sides" to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijing's territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesn't care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because he's convinced that in the long run it doesn't matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking  primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers  China, Russia and Iran  know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And they're going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes' view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however  Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands  it matters greatly.
Chennai: The future of 55 Sri Lankan Tamil children aged between 11 and 18 hangs in balance as the Kancheepuram district administration has launched probe into complaints that they were falsely labelled as refugees and war survivors to get admission in government and private schools at Acharapakkam in the district. There are 21 girls in this distressed group.

Kancheepuram sub-collector V Anbu Selvan told DC that he, along with a child welfare committee (CWC) member named Zaheeruddin Mohamed inspected a house at Acharapakkam, about 35 km southwest of Chennai, on Saturday to check on the latters allegation that several kids were being kept there without proper documents and sans approval from the CWC. The facility is being run by an NGO called Bright Society, which earlier administered a free residential school near Bengaluru for Sri Lankan refugee children. They have shown us some papers, which we are scrutinising. But the question is how did this society get these children? Did they follow norms? he wondered.

The official, however, assured that no action would be taken to disrupt the education of the hapless kids admitted by the NGO into one private and one government school.

It appears that the private school had told the NGO to take away the wards as they did not get the transfer certificates on being shifted from the schools in Bengaluru.

There was a small delay in getting the TCs for our children but now we have all the papers with us and there should be no problem in the school taking the children back. We are sure the district administration too will appreciate our situation, said Bright Society secretary G. Gnanadeepan.

According to him, the NGO was running the Indira Gandhi International Academy School near Bengaluru since 1990 to provide quality education, free of fees, for 223 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. However, paucity of funds forced the Trust to wind up operations and send back all but 55 of the kids to their families living in the various refugee camps in TN.

These remaining 55 children have are either orphans or from single-parent homes, so we have decided to keep them in this temporary shelter at Acharapakkam. As we are keen on ensuring they did not lose out on their education, we admitted them to two schools there, Gnanadeepan said.

Interestingly, Bright Society and Indira Gandhi International Academy School were founded by Gnanadeepan's father, Gnanapiragasam Gnanasegeram alias Paranthan Rajan, founder-member, Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF), which had supported the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 and was a constituent  with two ministers  in the northeast provincial government headed by EPRLFs Varadarajaperumal. With the LTTE branding him a 'traitor' and putting him on the hit-list, Rajan chose to spend most of his time with his Bangalore school.

He had earlier tried to start the school in Tamil Nadu but the state government would not permit it. On the other hand, the Karnataka government helped with some funds but after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, that dried up and the NGO found it tough to find food and facilities for its children.
Chennai: A 24-year-old woman of Sivagangai, married to a Malaysian techie, is

stranded on foreign soil, after her husbands family took her daughter from her besides throwing her out of the house.

Rights activists cry foul over the spike in the recent past of youths relocated to Malaysia marrying girls from Tamil Nadu for a lucrative dowry and dumping them later citing wayward reasons to get married again for dowry.

Valli Kannu, an M.B.A graduate, got married to P. Palaniappan alias Sokkalingam (32), a Malaysian citizen, working in a data mining firm in Kuala Lumpur, three years ago with dowry.

Palaniappan insisted Valli to leave him since she gave birth to the child in Madurai at the behest of his father also Palaniappan and mother Rukmani.

However, Vallis father did what he could do to patch up and sent his daughter with the newborn back to Malaysia.

Palaniappans family deliberately sat on renewing Vallis visa until it got expired. As Valli sensed trouble and went to extend her visa on July 29, the family disappeared with the child and its belongings. She was also forced to leave. Valli who lodged a complaint with Malaysian authorities could not do much.

She later approached the court which ruled in her favour awarding custody of the child to her. In the meantime, her husbands family went underground and Palaniappan refused to accept the court order.

All I want is my daughter back. I havent seen her for about a month and she is still on mothers milk. I would rush back to Madurai as soon as I get my child, Valli told DC over phone from Malaysia.

The lone woman, who is fighting in Malaysia, has only a weeks stay left in the extended visa for her to get the child back. She is hoping she would be able to get the visa extended by a month. T. Kamalanathan, a rights activist based in Malaysia, said he had seen at least a dozen cases in the recent past of gullible families getting hoodwinked by advertisements of Malaysian grooms, Malaysian way of life, and a vicious cycle.
Hyderabad: The Krishna River Management Board had convened a meeting with representatives of Telangana and AP States on August 24 to draw up plans for water utilisation for both irrigation and drinking purposes using whatever water is currently available.

KRMB member-secretary Sameer Chatarjee on Sunday told Deccan Chronicle that available water was not sufficient to meet crop requirements fully in any project in the state; it would be possible to supply a part of the total requirement, which would be decided in the Board meeting.

The flood flows into Krishna projects considerably reduced a week ago and there are no predictions of heavy rain as of now at Mahabaleswar, the source of the river. We got less quantity this year which needs to be adjusted among two riparian states, he said.

On Saturday, Mr Chatarjee met Telangana state irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on his request to release waters for both NS Dam left canal and Alimineti Madhava Reddy canal to raise crops. The government also requested KRMB to convene a meeting to decide on the releases. AP government officials sought release of water for both drinking and irrigation.

Let the Board decide what to do about the releases. But at any cost the level at Srisailam and NS Dam shall not go below the Minimum Draw Down Level of 834 ft and 510 ft. This is to ensure meeting the drinking water requirements of Hyderabad and other areas in both states till the next onset of monsoon, he said.
The drive being conducted inside forests by Telangana forest department staff has come under criticism from wildlife activists. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: The number of saplings planted across the state has crossed the 50 per cent mark with the annual target of 40 crore since the Telangana ku Haritha Haaram sapling plantation drive started on July 8 this year.

Around 21.1 crore saplings were planted till August 5. However, of this only around 2.69 crore were planted inside forests making the target of the state government to plant 100 crore saplings in forests till 2018 seem a far-fetched dream.

The drive being conducted inside forests by Telangana forest department staff has come under criticism from wildlife activists. One activist from the city said,

The target set by the state government is impractical. Due to the pressure to plant as many saplings as possible, the entire forest staff, including beat officers in base camps and forest range officers whose chief duty is to guard flora and fauna of the forests are busy planting saplings. This leaves the forests unprotected. The entire forest department machinery is busy in achieving haritha haaram targets.

Recently when a leopard carcass was found in Khammam, the Divisional Forest Officer could not be reached because he was busy till late the previous night in a meeting on haritha haaram. Similarly, when 25 carcasses were discovered in Mahbubnagar, the concerned Divisional Forest Officer could not visit the spot.

The reason was, he was busy in haritha haaram work. When contacted, in charge Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of Telangana, P.K. Jha said that the target is not far-fetched and countered allegation by wildlife activists.

He said, The 100 crore target has two components. One is artificial regeneration of planting saplings and raising plantations and the other is raissing the number of trees by rehabilitation works in degraded forests. Apart from guarding forests the forest staff is also responsible for regeneration and rehabilitation works. Moreover, the intensity of this work changes from one division to another. In high divisions prone to high deforestation like Medak, Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad and Khammam more intensive work is required while in places like Adilabad and Warangal, less attention is required. It cannot be said that the entire staff is working on haritha haaram ignoring protection duty.

The most number of saplings were planted in Adilabad division  close to one crore  followed by Khammam, Nizamabad and Warangal.
Chennai: Former TNCC chief E.V.K.S. Elangovan on Saturday said the alliance between Congress and DMK would continue for local body elections and it would emerge victorious.

Elangovans remarks comes amidst reports of former Union minister P. Chidambaram asking his partymen to be prepared for going it alone in the local body elections at an activists meeting at Sivagangai. The two parties fought the recent Assembly elections together, but the DMK had not come out with its alliance strategy for the local body polls.

Elangovan also ruled out chances of taking over the TNCC president post again said the delay in the party would not cause problems since all are leaders in the party. Talking to reporters after the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the partys state headquarters Satyamurthy Bhavan, he said the TNCC leader would be nominated soon.

He also condemned the suspension of DMK MLAs from the Assembly and termed it an anti-democratic act. The Congress leader urged Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa to convene an all party meeting on the Cauvery issue and convey Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the disastrous consequences for Tamil Nadu if Karnataka built a dam across Cauvery at Mekedatu.

When reporters asked him if the TMC headed by G.K. Vasan would merge with the Congress again, he said there was no other option for Vasan. If he corrected his mistakes and approach the party, we will accept him magnanimously.

To a question on injecting poisonous injections to former LTTE activists kept in Sri Lankan camps, he said if the charges were true, murder cases should be filed against those responsible for the act and they should be given the punishment awarded to terrorists.
Mangaluru: An association of college students accused the Mangaluru University administration of granting permission to organise a 'political programme' by renting out an auditorium in the campus for BJP President Amit Shah's programme on Sunday.

The association has also written to Karnataka Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi to take action against the university.

The 'Tiranga Yatra' which was flagged off by Shah at Pumpwell here culminated in the campus where the 'Balidana Smarane' (honouring martyrs) was organised.

Dinakar Shetty, president of the All College Students' Association alleged that the university has granted permission for organising a "political programme" as such programmes should not be encouraged in the campus.

The government should take action against those who gave permission for it, he said.

The university could have granted permission for the programme if it was attended by the Prime Minister, he said.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said the programme would be an apolitical one and no flags and symbol of BJP would be used in the programme in which contributions of Rani Abbakka, who was the queen of Ullal and fought the Portuguese in the latter half of the 16th century, and other freedom fighters would be remembered.
Agra: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Sunday warned the people against the "communal designs" of the RSS and the BJP and urged them not to lose their cool in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

She accused the Modi government of raising issues of cow slaughter and 'love jihad' to keep the minorities "under fear" as well as of being "anti-Dalit".

Describing the NDA government at the Centre as "pro-capitalist", Mayawati alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had forgotten all of his promises made to the people before the 2014 general election.

"The black money from abroad has not been brought back nor have cheques of Rs 15 lakh per person been issued as promised," she told a rally at the Kothi Meena Bazar ground.

Referring to a recent statement of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, the BSP supremo said, "The RSS chief wants Hindus to produce more than two children. They cannot even provide for two children. Who will look after them?"

"They (BJP) came to power on the basis of lies and false promises but their performance has been dismal," she alleged.

Mayawati also attacked the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh alleging that it was 'run by goondas'.
Hyderabad: A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis veiled attack on the BJP and RSS, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday criticised the Congress leader, saying that one who expressed solidarity with extremists, fundamentalists and communalists had no right to preach about unity of the country.

Mr Naidu also lashed out at the Congress and said its politics of appeasement and vote bank had widened the divide between the majority and minority in the country. Holding the Congress responsible for complicating the Kashmir issue, he accused it of being hard on nationalists while going soft on terrorists.

On Saturday while addressing a function in New Delhi, Mr Rahul Gandhi had said that there were forces that were promoting disharmony and were seeking a divided and divisive India.

Mr Naidu on Sunday said that the Narendra Modi government was trying to bring social harmony and was focusing on oneness in nation. He said, These remarks are like the pot calling the kettle black. It is the Cong-ress party, which has preached and practised divisive politics in the country for the last 50 years, and it has always encouraged fundamentalist forces and communal elements. It has thrived on politics of caste, region and religion.

He added, You have played vote bank politics, you never bothered to bring unity in the minds of the people, you have ruled the country for more than 50 years and ruined the country. How dare you criticise our ideology? You have no moral right to do that. Mr Naidu said the Congress was responsible for the state of affairs right from the practice of untouchability, to social disharmony among people.
Prime Minister Modis comments on Balochistan, Gilgit and PoK were about 350 words in a speech that lasted more than one hour and a half. The subsequent commentary in India has been essentially about Balochistan with hardly any comments on whatever else Narendra Modi said about India  the economy, society and politics. But given Modis persona, one half-expected him to say something on August 15. Not saying anything would have equally invited comments from both Indian and Pakistani commentators. The former would have been critical about the silence and the latter, triumphant. So, damned if I do and damned if I dont.

Leading up to the speech were clenched fist speeches from Pakistani politicians led by Nawaz Sharif, their Home Ministers boorish conduct towards our Home minister Rajnath Singh, dire threats from the Ghazwa-e-Hind brigades and then their High Commissioner in New Delhi was shooting from the lip. One gets the feeling that this chorus was orchestrated by the man with the swagger stick and everyone was paying obeisance to the conductor in Rawalpindi. The Pakistan Army is obviously hurting that its surrogates are now running out of control and the latest evidence was the horrible bombing of the Quetta courts killing about 100, mostly lawyers, on August 8. The failure of Zarb-e-Azb and the National Action Plan must be hurting, so what better than get into denial and blame the evil Indians.

Narendra Modis comments brought headline news the next morning and animated, indeed chaotic debates on some TV channels as if India had made a path breaking policy change. The statement by itself does not show a policy change; what it might show is a change of tactic. One presumes though that this comment was not a bolt from the blue and had followed serious discussions weighing in the likely reactions in Pakistan and India before adding the reference to Balochistan, Gilgit and PoK in the speech. A policy change would be indicated by subsequent actions that are sustained over a period of time. It was unreal to expect the Prime Minister to disclose his plans. Our regional environment and our abilities impose some restrictions on what we can say in public.

In the context of the speech two issues are important  Balochistan and Gilgit and the two are strategically interconnected given the renewed Chinese interest exhibited through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The Chinese would like a quiescent Balochistan for progress on not only Gwadar but the linkages that flow from the port and lead to Xinjiang via Gilgit.

On the other hand, the Baloch have been suspicious that Islamabad was interested in developing Gwadar by importing manpower from Punjab and PakhtunKhwa provinces, that the locals would get no benefit and would be reduced to a minority in their own province. Even prior to this, Baloch nationalism, has cited social discrimination and economic deprivation as the main causes for seeking separation. They have viewed with hostility and suspicion the establishment of new military cantonments in Balochistan meant to control the Baloch and the deployment of special forces numbering about 10,000 to protect the Chinese.

The Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, killed in August 2006 under General Musharrafs orders, used to say that the coastal land from Jiwani (including Gwadar) to Karachi would one day be detached from Balochistan and given away to a foreign power. Quite obviously, given the higher than the skies and deeper than the oceans Pakistan-China relationship, China seems to be the best candidate for this transfer of land. Akbar Bugtis grandson, Brahmdagh Bugti was worried that China would usurp Balochistans natural resources.

The present battle in Balochistan began as a reaction to the rape of a woman doctor Shazia Khaled in 2005 and the cover up by the Pakistan Army. Akbar Bugti led the campaign and he was killed. Baloch nationalists have been fighting since then. Pakistan reaction has been harsh and brutal and any one visiting social media sites can see the campaign the Baloch have launched. Kidnappings, torture and disappearances are common and often a part of the kill and dump policy adopted by Pakistani agencies.

For the Chinese, however, Gwadar will remain of very limited strategic salience unless they have security and control in Gilgit Baltistan through which all infrastructure lines to Xinjiang will pass. The Chinese have now begun to refer to Gilgit as part of PoK. In our discussions with Pakistan or anywhere else we seem to have allowed all discussions to be centre around the Valley of Srinagar-Baramulla-Anantnag as if this was the only area that needed to be discussed.

We never seem to have stressed with Pakistan or any other power that the discussion would have to include Gilgit Baltistan and PoK. Any Chinese commercial dealing with Pakistan through Gilgit, Baltistan and PoK is thus through an area that has to revert to us. CPEC may benefit Pakistan and China, but a protest against any of its projects through these regions would be perfectly in order; in fact, silence would mean acquiescence.

Gilgit was very much a part of the Riyasat of Maharaja Hari Singh and surreptitiously handed over by the British to Pakistan after the Maharaja acceded to India. We did not protest but took the matter to the UN. Soon afterwards the Pakistanis began to change the demography of the region by sending in Sunni Pushtun settlers to try and balance out the Shias and Ismailis.

The campaign was particularly vicious under General Zia and there were massive riots in 1988. We responded with a parliamentary resolution in 1994 which said Gilgit Baltistan were a part of Jammu and Kashmir which was an integral part of India. That is where the matter rests today. Neither China, and bolstered by this, nor Pakistan are likely to change any of their actions unless there is something else at stake for either of them. If we want to alter the narrative now, we will have to work overtime and take policy initiatives, like seeking a relook at the Indus Waters Treaty.
Internet users in India may receive a three-year jail term along with Rs three lakhs as fine if they visit websites blocked by the government. (Representational image)

In a recent report, it has been revealed that Internet users in India may receive a three-year jail term along with Rs three lakhs as fine if they visit websites blocked by the government.

The Indian government, with support from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), have blocked numerous websites and URLs over the past few years but people do visit these websites, using varied techniques.

However, an India Today report said that users found visiting torrent sites blocked in India, downloading a file, or viewing inaccessible content might get users into serious trouble.

In a laymans term, even if users dont download a torrent file and view content on blocked sites, it's enough to put them behind bars apart from having to pay a fine of Rs three lakhs.

So what happens when you visit a blocked URL? We tried to visit one of the blocked websites http://uploadable.ch/ and here is the message we got: This URL has been blocked under the instructions of the Competent Government Authority or in compliance with the orders of a Court of competent jurisdiction. Viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating an illicit copy of the contents under this URL is punishable as an offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957 which prescribe imprisonment for 3 years and also fine of upto Rs. 3,00,000/-. Any person aggrieved by any such blocking of this URL may contact at urlblock@tatacommunications.com who will, within 48 hours, provide you the details of relevant proceedings under which you can approach the relevant High Court or Authority for redressal of your grievance.

Though some of the blocked sites showed a previous message indicating that the websites had been blocked by DOT and GOI, it seems the new scarier warning is fast replacing the older message.

Most websites in India were earlier blocked using (Domain Name System) DNS-filtering. But it was easy for users to bypass these blocks and access the website using third-party DNS services.

However, the government has now directed Internet ISPs in India to take further steps to bolster their blocking mechanism. The government has also taken the aid of big companies such as Tata Communications and Airtel to help them attain their blocking goals.

The message, as pointed out by the report, clearly indicated that the Indian government is taking stern steps to ensure blockage of all URLs via Internet gateways. Tata Communications seems to be the one of the bigwigs managing the gateways right now.

Lack of clear guidelines

The message, which seems to be an idea of the government, is threatening but does not provide any clarity on how it would be enforced. Also, monitoring the web for such website viewers can prove to be quite a hefty task. It looks more like a ambiguous warning rather than an official message from the government, as nothing has been made clear about how a perpetrator would be dealt with.

While the step to block illegal websites is required, having no clarity on such a ominous message might be really dangerous if enforced wrongly . The fact that a person would be jailed and made to pay a fine for just viewing a blocked website seems unfair.

Even though the message seems unofficial, it is scary to think what might happen if the cops or enforcing bodies decide to follow up on a 'suspicious' individual.

Considering this scenario, Internet users in India need to be extremely careful while browsing the web and should try to stay clear of blocked websites.

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The Bismarck Police Department made the right decision when it announced plans to convene an internal review board to ensure the fatal shooting of a suspect was within department policy.

The North Dakota Attorney Generals Office didnt recommend charges against the officer in the March shooting. James Tony Scott was shot twice in the back by officer Shaun Burkhartsmeier as he ran from police. It was a tense situation with officers responding to a report of a man threatening another man with a shotgun. There also were reports the suspect was carrying a pistol.

Scott, according to reports, didnt respond to officers orders and tried to flee the scene.

The attorney general released the report on the shooting at the same time that Bismarck was investigating another officer-involved shooting. A 49-year-old man was shot by police after they received reports of a hostage situation. There were no hostages, but the suspect, Glenn Lovgren, tried to escape police and was wounded. Lovgren had been shot in a similar incident with police in 2011.

There have been two other officer-involved shootings in Bismarck this year. On Jan. 31, Travis Clark, 26, of Bismarck, was shot by two officers after he allegedly reached for a gun in his car. Both officers were cleared in the case. On Jan. 23, Miguel Stubing, 18, of Mandan, was shot by an officer after he allegedly drove a stolen vehicle at him. The officer was cleared by the McLean County state's attorney.

In all these cases the officers were placed in potentially life-threatening situations. Their lives were in danger and in some cases, other officers were in peril. Does that justify shooting someone? In each case reviews by outside parties have found they were. Police Chief Dan Donlin, who was involved in a shooting earlier in his career, said the departments concerned by the number of shootings.

The reason Donlin convened the internal review board is to find out if all department procedures are being followed and if changes are needed. While theres no indications it wasnt justified, shooting someone in the back is disconcerting. The review board may decide more training is needed. Theres no video of the Scott shooting, so do officers need to carry cameras? It wouldnt hurt to look at the impact the recent string of police shootings in the nation has had on the local force.

"Officers in the Bismarck Police Department never want to get involved in this. Yet they are put in very quick-moving, dynamic decisions that call for split-second decisions based on the information they have at the time," Donlin said of the shooting, adding, "I'm satisfied that the right decision has been made. This is a very good officer," Donlin said.

Everyone should ask themselves what they would do at night in a chaotic situation where someone might have a gun and be a threat. Its hard to write a policy that covers all the what might happens.

The review should be good for the department and public. It might lead to improvements and peace of mind.
Apple is re-branding its retail and online outlets and reducing it to Apple from Apple Store. (Representational image)

It has been learnt that US giant Apple is making some slight branding changes to its retail and online chains by completely removing Store when addressing its Apple Store locations.

All the changes have been implemented online. MacRumours pointed out that all of its store pages are now referred by names like Apple Union Square or Apple Valley Square. There are numerous others retail outlets which only read Apple instead of Apple Store.

In a memo sent out to its retail employees, Apple confirmed that Store branding would gradually disappear from both retail and online outlets. The company also informed that the change will gradual, commencing with the new stores and moving on to the older and more popular ones.

The motive behind this decision is to make its stores more than just simple outlets; the new outlets will be positioned as gathering places for their communities as well. Apple has not yet officially confirmed the report.

As for India, CEO Tim Cooks visit to the country seemed to have been unfruitful and it would take a while before people would be able to see an Apple Store or just an Apple outlet here.

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We already know quite a bit about the apparent iPhone 7. However, surprisingly, there are more rumors kept for us in store. According to a new report published on the Japanese site, Mac Otakara, Apple is planning on scrapping out the iPhone 7 Pro from the range of models it manufactures.

MacRumors explains the reason behind this. The iPhone 7 Pro was originally a backup model for when Apple was uncertain whether or not, they will be able to produce its new dual lens camera in sufficient quantities for the iPhone 7 Plus. This would have seen the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus share the same single lens camera while the iPhone 7 Pro was available in limited quantities with the upgraded optics.

However, manufacturing constraints around the dual lens camera have been supposedly resolved. Hence, the feature can easily be fitted into every iPhone 7 Plus.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
In this Aug. 16, 2016 file photo, a sign on the side of a Baptist church, housed in a former synagogue, proclaims that "ALL ARE WELCOME", next to the house, right, where mosque imam shooting suspect Oscar Morel rented an apartment in the East New York neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo: AP)

New York: The gunman, police said, was Hispanic. His two victims were Bangladeshi Muslims, one an imam, shot without provocation on their way home from their mosque.

A week after the double killing, prosecutors havent been able to offer any theory explaining why the college janitor they charged with the crime, Oscar Morel, would have singled out the two victims.

Was it racial or religious hatred? Or maybe a bubbling up of old tensions between immigrant groups in one of New Yorks evolving neighborhoods?

The answer remains a mystery, but people living in the Ozone Park section of Queens, where the shooting took place, say it shouldnt be taken as evidence of a rift between the culturally diverse groups that share its streets.

Theres tension now because of what happened, said Sumona Kazi, 26, who was born in Bangladesh but came to New York as a baby. She said she was confident that if the motive was hatred, it was the hate of one person.

Our neighborhood  even if youre Spanish, youre Arabic, youre Muslim, youre Guyanese, whatever  were a whole united family, you know? If youre in trouble, were going to go out for you, she said. Theres no hatred here. Theres no religious gang here. Were all friendly.

Located on the border with Brooklyn, just west of Kennedy Airport, Ozone Park has had its bad and better times along with an ever-changing population.

An Italian-American neighborhood for much of the 20th century, its most famous longtime resident was the late Mafia boss John Gotti. Jimmy Burke, the real-life mobster portrayed by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas, lived a short walk from the shooting site. So did the not-yet-famous Cyndi Lauper and Jack Kerouac.

Dramatic change came in the 70s with the arrival of a wave of Hispanic newcomers, mostly from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Then, in the 1980s, came the next cultural jolt with the arrival of immigrants from Bangladesh.

Danny Perez, 46, a school custodian who has lived in Ozone Park since he was 8, said that in the old days, the Bangladeshi and Hispanic teenagers would get into fights, West Side Story-style.

But it was a testosterone thing, I would say. I dont really feel that it was hatred or racism, said Perez, whose family is ethnically Puerto Rican.

And anyway, he said, all that is a thing of the past.

The Bangladeshis are great neighbors, hardworking people. Their kids are respectful. Im glad theyre living here, Perez said. That was a freaking maniac, this guy who killed the imam.

Morel, 35, was arrested the day after the Aug. 13 attack and charged with shooting Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee, 55, and his assistant at the mosque, Thara Uddin, 64, with a revolver later found hidden inside a wall in the suspects apartment.

He has pleaded not guilty.

As far as hes concerned, he didnt commit anything, said his lawyer, Michael Schwed.

The killing awakened memories of similar deadly encounters in Ozone Park.

Two summers ago, an Ozone Park resident with ties to a political party in Bangladesh, Nazmul Islam, was beaten to death by two Hispanic men just a few blocks from the spot where Akonjee and Uddin were killed.

And in 2002, a bat-wielding group of teens killed Bangladeshi photojournalist Mizanur Rahman after a day of fistfights between Bangladeshi and Hispanic youths.

Both incidents prompted rallies and calls for a more robust police presence in the neighborhood now reeling again from the latest violence.

Thats a hate crime, concluded Nurul Hoque, a worshipper at Akonjees Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque. Its not a robbery; the imam had $1,000 in his pocket.

Some worshippers have been demanding stepped-up police protection  not out of fear of their own neighbors, but of anyone who might harbor ill will toward Muslims.

9/11 changed everything ... and now, its changing again in this election campaign, said Hoque, noting the political climate has brought back occasional prejudice on the street, despite a generally friendly mood in the neighborhood. Some people look at you like you came from another planet. And they say, Go back to your country!

Fear of being attacked by a random stranger is keeping Hoques wife from walking to the grocery store; her husband drives her.

Police officials say Ozone Park is as calm as any other section of the city, with no unusual reports of ethnic tension.

Its just basic neighborhood friction  parking conditions, things of that nature, said New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
Saucier admitted to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria in 2009 when it was in Groton and he was a 22-year-old machinist mate on the submarine. (Representational Image)

Hartford, Connecticut: A Navy sailor was sentenced on Friday to a year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear attack submarine while it was in port in Connecticut.

Kristian Saucier, of Arlington, Vermont, appeared in federal court in Bridgeport, where a judge also ordered him to serve six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring during a three-year period of supervised release after the prison time. He pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized detention of defense information and had faced five to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Saucier admitted to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria in 2009 when it was in Groton and he was a 22-year-old machinist mate on the submarine. The photos showed the nuclear reactor compartment, the auxiliary steam propulsion panel and the maneuvering compartment, prosecutors said.

Saucier took the photos knowing they were classified, but did so only to be able to show his family and future children what he did while he was in the Navy, his lawyers said. He denied sharing the photos with any unauthorized recipient.

"It was a foolish mistake by a very young man," his lawyer, Greg Rinckey, said after the sentencing. "It's a very sad case because Kristian Saucier is a fine young man. We don't believe this was really his true character."

Saucier is expected to receive an "other than honorable" discharge from the Navy next month, Rinckey said. He is to report to prison on Oct. 12.

Saucier did not speak during Friday's court proceeding.

Federal prosecutors said the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were never able to determine if the photos had been distributed to unauthorized people because Saucier destroyed key evidence including his laptop computer, a camera and a memory card after an interview with the FBI in 2012.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to send Saucier to prison for five years, saying his conduct put national security at risk.

The investigation began in 2012 when a waste station supervisor in Hampton, Connecticut, found Saucier's cellphone with the submarine photos on top of a pile of demolition trash and showed it to his friend, who was a retired Navy chief and brought the phone to the NCIS, according to court documents.

Saucier, who grew up in Cape Coral, Florida, had asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to sentence him to probation. In court filings, he compared his case to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The FBI declined to charge Clinton for her handling of classified information while using the server.

Saucier's lawyers also said two other Alexandria crew members were caught taking photos in the same locations as Saucier, but were not prosecuted - only disciplined by the Navy.
The instruction has gone viral after it was posted on the school's official Facebook page. (Representational Image)

Chicago: In a novel bid to keep over-protective parents at bay, a US school has banned them from delivering forgotten lunches or books as part of efforts to inculcate a "problem solving" attitude among the students.

The Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, Arkansas, has instructed parents to "turn around and exit the building" and let the child learn how to deal with forgotten lunch, homework et al in their "absence".

The instruction put on the front door of the school with the red 'stop' sign reads, "If you are dropping off your son's forgotten lunch, books, homework, equipment, etc., please turn around and exit the building. Your son will learn to problem-solve in your absence."

The instruction has gone viral after it was posted on the school's official Facebook page.

School's principal Steve Straessle defended the idea, saying that it was an attempt to teach the students the importance of "soft failures".

"We put a sign up on the front door to not only alert new parents to the policy, but to remind people why we do it," Straessle was quoted as saying by KARK.

"It's simply to help boys avoid the default switch of calling mom and dad when things don't go right to bail them out," he said.

The school's Facebook post received over 1,20,000 shares and over 3,700 comments, igniting a debate if the instruction was to be appreciated or it accounted for unnecessary pressure on the students.
New York: Ernie Andrus refused to just sit down and wait for the end. Instead, the World War II veteran chose to run over 4,000km from the US Pacific coast to the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr Andrus turned 93 last Friday and his epic run began in October from three years ago, in San Diego. He made it to St. Simons Island, Georgia, on Saturday.

Oh, its great, Mr Andrus was quoted as saying by Brunswick News after reaching his destination. Im glad to have finished and met the goal. But I wish it wasnt over.

And just like in the Hollywood film Forrest Gump, Mr Andrus had his own set of followers wearing Run, Ernie, Run T-shirts. All these people, its so wonderful. This is great, this is the biggest crowd I have had, ever, he added.

According to reports, he sold all his possessions, including his home in California, to help fund his run. He was also inspired by the death of his wife alongside other memories from World War 2. Mr Andrus wishes to raise money and awareness for the LST 325  a type of amphibious landing vessel which helped the Allies during the war.

As a medic he experienced first hand how important the ships had become to Allied force. He plans to restore one of the ships and take it to Normandy in France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings  in 2019.

Fellow veterans have praised Mr Andruss efforts. Ill tell you what, hes a tough old man. Even if he doesnt raise another dime, the attention hes brought to WWII, and the sacrifice those men made, has just been phenomenal, John Tallent, a Vietnam war veteran was quoted as saying.
Indonesian police officers escort murder suspect David Taylor, second from right, as he covers his face at police headquarters Indonesian police officers escort murder suspect David Taylor, second from right, as he covers his face at police headquarters in Bali, Indonesia, on Friday. (Photo: AP)in Bali, Indonesia, on Friday. (Photo:

Denpasar: A British man has been named a suspect, along with an Australian woman, in the murder of an Indonesian policeman on the resort island of Bali, police said on Sunday.

Forensic teams have identified the blood of the slain policeman in a hotel room occupied by the suspects, Sara Connor and David Taylor, police added.

Connor, a mother from New South Wales, was named a suspect on Saturday.

Traffic police officer Wayan Sudarsa's body was found with wounds to the head and neck early Wednesday on Kuta beach, a popular tourist hangout in the south of the island.

Denpasar police chief Hadi Purnomo said forensic tests had matched blood found in the pair's hotel room with the victim, as well as samples taken from the crime scene.

"There is evidence we have found that allows investigators to declare him a suspect," said Purnomo of Taylor.

Police had also gathered shards of glass from a bottle found at the crime scene they believe may have been used in Sudarsa's murder, Purnomo added.

Police formed a guard of honour on Sunday at the funeral for the murdered officer before he was cremated in a Hindu ceremony.

Naming the pair as suspects is a formal step in the Indonesian legal system, which means detectives have enough evidence to consider filing charges.

The murder charge they could face carries a maximum penalty of 15 years, though they could also face lesser charges.

A manhunt was launched for the pair after Connor's ATM card and driver's license were found at the crime scene.

They were arrested at the Australian consulate Friday afternoon and taken to a police station in the Balinese capital, Denpasar.

Connor's lawyer Erwin Siregar said the couple had drunk beer before going to the beach around 11pm on Tuesday, where there was "kissing". No drugs were involved, he added.

Purnomo said there were nine witnesses assisting with their investigation. Police previously said witnesses had claimed they saw a man with dreadlocks  like Taylor  arguing with a police officer.

A man and woman matching their description were later spotted asking a motorcycle taxi to take them to a hotel but the driver refused as the man was covered in blood.

Bali, a pocket of Hinduism in Muslim-majority Indonesia, is a popular tourist destination known for its tropical climate and palm-fringed beaches.

Petty crime is common but murders are rare.
Considering North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's character, it is very dangerous, the Unification Ministry official said on the possible assassination and kidnapping threats by Pyongyang. (Photo: AFP)

South Korea on Sunday warned of possible North Korean assassinations and kidnappings in revenge for recent high-profile defections to the South.

With tensions also high before a large-scale South Korea-US military exercise starting Monday, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said Pyongyang was bent on provocation.

A ministry official told reporters the defection to Seoul of North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had put the North in "a very difficult situation".

"Considering (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un's character, it is very dangerous," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"It's highly likely that North Korea will make various attempts to prevent further defections and unrest among its people."

The official cited assassination attempts and terror attacks against defectors in the South as well as the abduction of South Koreans abroad as possible provocations.

He noted attempts to assassinate Hwang Jang-Yop, the North's chief ideologue and former tutor to previous leader Kim Jong-Il, who defected to the South in 1997 and died of natural causes in 2010.

The official also said Kim Jong-Un had dispatched squads to the Chinese border "to harm South Koreans" following the defection of a group of North Korean overseas restaurant workers in April.

Deputy ambassador to London Thae Yong-Ho was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years before his defection announced last week.

The South said he was driven by disgust for the Pyongyang regime, admiration for South Korea's free and democratic system and concerns for his family's future.

North Korea, in a vitriolic response on Saturday, claimed that the "human scum" had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for the South and had fled "for fear of legal punishment for his crimes".

The 12 waitresses and their manager had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China. They made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years.

While Seoul said they fled voluntarily, Pyongyang claimed they were kidnapped by South Korea's National Intelligence Service and waged a vocal campaign through its state media  including interviews with family members  for their return.

Seoul said last week the 13-strong group was now free to settle in South Korean society after the intelligence service completed investigations into their case and allowed them to leave custody.

A spokesman for the North's emergency committee set up for "rescuing" abductees described that announcement as a "mean plot" aimed at "covering up the truth behind the group abduction".

"Keeping them hidden from the public... citing 'safety reasons' shows that the puppet government's announcement is a complete fabrication," he said.
More than 1,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office and immediately began his law-and-order crackdown. (Photo: AFP)

Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte threatened on Sunday to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations, as he launched another profanity-laced tirade against the organisation for criticising his bloody war on crime.

More than 1,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office and immediately began his law-and-order crackdown, according to police statistics, triggering fierce criticism from the UN and rights groups.

Duterte, a lawyer famous for an acid tongue who has repeatedly told the UN not to interfere, on Sunday stepped up his rhetoric against the organisation.

"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you," Duterte said in a press conference in his home city of Davao that started about 1:00 am.

Duterte said he may even try to set up a rival international organisation.

"I would invite everybody. I would invite maybe China, the African (nations)," he said.

The UN's special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, last week said Duterte's promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated international law.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June also strongly criticised Duterte, who during the election campaign promised to kill 100,000 people and dump so many bodies in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

"I unequivocally condemn his apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms," Ban said.

Duterte frequently peppers his public comments with swear words -- he has also called Pope Francis and the US ambassador to Manila sons of whores -- and days after his election win used typical language to criticise the UN.

"Fuck you, UN, you can't even solve the Middle East carnage... couldn't even lift a finger in Africa," he said then.

Tirade against UN

Duterte lashed out in a similar fashion on Sunday, accusing the "stupid" UN of not doing anything in Middle East hotspots Syria and Iraq.

Duterte referenced a haunting photo taken last week of a little Syrian boy, who was pictured sitting in an ambulance dazed and covered in blood after an air strike, as evidence of the UN's ineffectiveness.

"Is that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death. Look at the iconic boy taken out of the rubble. When he was made to sit in the ambulance, and we saw it. So what's the difference?"

And Duterte asked why police killings in the United States were not attracting the same kind of criticism as the Philippines.

"What do you think the Americans did to the black people there? Is that not rubbing off also? And (critics) say what?"

Duterte also accused the UN of doing nothing for the Philippines -- ignoring its poverty reduction programmes and enormous help following typhoons and other natural disasters.

On the day he was sworn into office, Duterte called for people in slums to kill neighbours whom they believed were drug addicts, repeating a campaign line.

His aides have since said such comments are merely hyperbole and not meant to be taken literally.

However nearly 900 people have been murdered by unknown people during Duterte's time in power, with police killing another 665 alleged drug suspects, according to the national police chief.

The killings represent a massive increase on crime deaths since Duterte took office.

Duterte has repeatedly insisted police have only killed in self defence, while maintaining the other deaths are due to drug syndicates killing each other.

Duterte and his aides have given conflicting positions on whether they would allow UN experts to come to the Philippines to investigate allegations government security forces are carrying out extrajudicial killings.

On Sunday, he contradicted his spokesman's comments from the previous day and challenged them to come.

"You law experts of the United Nations, come here and face me and make the accusations," he said.

On Wednesday last week he said if an investigator came to the Philippines, "I'd like to box him in the head".
"With Pakistan not changing its policy, for any armed incident in the country we put ISI and Pakistan in the suspects list along with the Jamaat (JeI), Mr Inu said.

New Delhi: Pakistans diplomats from its Dhaka High Commission are routinely involved in inciting terror elements in Bangladesh, visiting Bangladesh information minister Hasanul Haq Inu told this newspaper in a startling revelation that bolsters Indias contention that Islamabad exports terror.

We have thrown out many Pakistani diplomats in the past on charges of actively endangering Bangladeshs internal peace and security. The effort to foment terror is continuing. A couple of months back, we deported two more diplomats. They were about to be arrested for visiting wanted persons belonging to armed Islamic radical groups, Mr Inu said, and added, Actually there are too many incidents and evidences of the involvement of Pakistani diplomats in the covert operations of armed religious groups. It is happening on a regular basis so much so it is a big problem.

The Pakistanis want to wipe out the last leadership of the Liberation War, said the socialist leader who fought the 1971 war as a Mukti Bahini guerrilla. The war freed Bangladesh, known as East Pakistan till 1971, from the yoke of Pakistans Punjabi-dominated state apparatus. Bangladeshs Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) supported Pakistan against its own Bangla-speaking people.

"With Pakistan not changing its policy, for any armed incident in the country we put ISI and Pakistan in the suspects list along with the Jamaat (JeI), Mr Inu said.

There are 63 people on the death row in Bangladesh for armed attacks and bomb blasts. All these people were trained in camps in Afghanistan in the early 80s under the patronage of the ISI, Mr Inu said. In India, the minister successfully concluded talks with the government to erect a four-tiered system to facilitate joint counter-terror operations.
DEVILS LAKE -- A Devils Lake woman who prosecutors said tried to escape custody three times -- once while attempting to stab a deputy and another after a judge let her leave jail to take care of finances -- will spend up to 10 years in prison.

Jennifer Lynn Robinson, 30, was sentenced Friday in Ramsey County District Court on five Class C felony charges: attempted aggravated assault, preventing arrest, possession of methamphetamine, attempted escape and escape, according to a news release from Ramsey County States Attorney Lonnie Olson.

The list of charges date back to April 22, when two Ramsey County Sheriffs deputies were dispatched to a Devils Lake home to remove an unwanted person. Officers said they saw Robinson throw a package containing meth and proceeded to handcuff her, according to the release. While searching the home, Robinson was able to remove her cuffs and grabbed a knife before trying to stab one of the deputies, court papers state.

The news release said as the deputy dodged the knife, the weapon glanced his body armor and he avoided injury. Robinson was eventually subdued after struggling.

Four days later, Robinson attempted to escape again when she was taken to a hospital for medical care. Officers said she was in the restroom when she removed the handcuffs and ran outside the hospital. As officers pursued her, she grabbed a shovel, which she used to block a Taser dart before officers apprehended her.

No one was injured in the escape attempts.

The escape charge comes from when she was allowed to leave the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center in early July. Judge Lee Christopherson authorized her to visit the Citizens Community Credit Union in Devils Lake for 1 hours. When she did not return, a warrant was issued and Robinson was arrested July 12.
A man cries over a covered body after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey. (Photo: AP)

Ankara: At least 50 people were killed and dozens more wounded late Saturday in an attack possibly carried out by a suicide bomber on a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, officials said.

The explosion is the latest attack to have rocked the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen a string of strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Read: ISIS likely perpetrator of Gaziantep attack: Turkey's Erdogan

A previous toll had put the number of dead at 30.

"We condemn the traitors who organised and carried out this attack," he said, vowing that those responsible would be "brought to account".

Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said it was not clear who was responsible for the explosion but there was a "high possibility" it was a suicide attack.

The lawmaker added that it was the type of attack that could have been launched by the Islamic State (IS) group or the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

'IS the culprit'

The explosion took place in the Sahinbey district of the city which is said to have a large number of Kurdish residents, fuelling speculation of Islamic State (IS) jihadist involvement. Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence.

"Initial information suggests it is Daesh (IS) who did this," Gaziantep MP for the AKP, Samil Tayyar, was reported as saying by Dogan news agency.

He added: "It is an area where many of our Kurdish brothers live."

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

"The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament, adding that a suicide bombing was the likely cause.

A major city lying just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Images from the scene showed bodies covered in white sheets while distraught relatives of the victims were comforted in the street.

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara in deadly attacks, while IS suicide bombers have twice killed tourists in the centre of Istanbul.

Meanwhile the country is still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his supporters from all state institutions.

Twelve people were killed on Thursday in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup.

As has been the case in previous attacks, Turkey's broadcasting regulator RTUK banned broadcast of footage from the scene of the attack in Gaziantep.

Information and Communication Agency (BTK) head Omer Fatih Sayan told state-run Anadolu news agency that those sharing images of the bombing would face prosecution.

'More active Turkey'

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the over five-year Syrian civil war.

In a sign that Turkey's position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russia and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.

Iran and Russia are the main allies of Assad whereas Turkey has always insisted his exit was a precondition for the end of the conflict.

Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of IS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies.

However Western states say Ankara has begun to move strongly against the group and seal its borders to jihadist traffic after the attacks blamed on IS on its soil this year.
Mexican state police stand guard near the entrance of Rancho del Sol, where a shootout with the authorities and suspected criminals happened near Vista Hermosa, Mexico. (Photo: AP)

Mexico City: Discrepancies plague the official account of a deadly assault last year in which Mexican police allegedly executed 22 suspected gang members, burned bodies, manipulated the crime scene and tortured survivors, newly-revealed details show.

In May 2015, a woman walked into a police station in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara and told investigators a group of about 50 men had broken into a local ranch she administered and said they wanted to buy the property.

It was not the first time the men, suspected members of the fearsome Jalisco New Generation (JNG) cartel, had visited the "Rancho Del Sol," just outside the town of Tanhuato: According to one of the ranch's tenants, they first appeared in 2014, demanding access to tap oil pipes that ran through the property.

The woman, whose husband owned the ranch until he disappeared after being kidnapped in 2012, asked security forces to go to the property and flush out the intruders.

Around 6.30 am the following morning, dozens of federal police officers backed up by a Black Hawk helicopter raided the farmhouse, killing a total of 42 suspected gangsters, of which 22 were executed, according to a scathing report published by Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on Thursday.

The incident described by the CNDH represents one of the most egregious rights violations by security forces in Mexico's dark decade of drug violence, a menacing mix of murder, cover-ups and ineptitude.

Only one policeman died in the fight, in which police apparently attacked the cartel as they slept. The one-sided death toll was one of the highest since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in 2012 and pledged to end years of violence.

Police Malfeasance

Renato Sales, Mexico's national security commissioner, rejected the charge of executions, saying police responded with legitimate force.

But the 696-page report presents a grim laundry list of apparent malfeasance by the police, who were smarting from a series of painful JNG cartel attacks in the weeks leading up to the May 22 incident.

Images in the report show charred cadavers. In others, bodies lie soaked in pools of blood and mud, with spotless assault rifles laid suspiciously beside them.

Various witnesses, including the wives of victims, told investigators they heard police officers bragging about how they had caught the men unawares.

"It was the easiest job we've ever done. We hit them like little birds, asleep in their nests," one police officer was said to have boasted.

The pregnant wife of one of the victims said that when she went to identify the body of her husband, whose toes had been cut off and his testicles burned, the police made fun of her.

"That is the product of a delinquent," she said they told her, pointing to her belly.

Tortured Detainees

The CNDH interviewed the three men who were arrested in jail, where they recounted how police beat them and threatened to shoot them. One of them said police made him fire a gun, while another said he was told to sign papers he was not allowed to read.

"One officer ordered (the police) not to kill any more detainees, because he had already reported there were survivors," one of the men recalled.

Nonetheless, the federal police was not the only institution singled out for blame. For example, in three separate cases, the Michoacan state prosecutor's forensic (PGJEM) team was found to have written up two different autopsies for the same person.

"The experts and medical forensic officers of the PGJEM implicated were involved in acts and omissions that affected the legality, honor, transparency, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency (of the investigation)," the report said.
Corbyn can still count on the support of the party's far-left members and most trade unions and remains favourite to be re-elected. (Photo: AP)

London: London's Labour mayor Sadiq Khan on Sunday urged party members to unseat boss Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming leadership election, saying he had "failed to win the respect of the British people."

"Jeremy's personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record and the Labour party is suffering badly as a result," Khan wrote in the Observer, the Sunday version of the centre-left Guardian newspaper.

"He has lost the confidence of more than 80 percent of Labour's MPs in parliament -- and I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this," he added.

Khan is backing Owen Smith in the upcoming party election, voting for which will begin on Monday when ballot papers will be sent out to Labour members.

Voting ends on September 21 with the result to be announced three days later during a special congress in Liverpool, northwest England.

Veteran leftist Corbyn, 67, stormed to the head of the party last September, securing 59.5 percent of the votes of party activists.

However, over 80 percent of the party's MPs recently backed a no-confidence vote in Corbyn, and an election was triggered when little-known MP Smith, 46, launched a leadership challenge.

Corbyn can still count on the support of the party's far-left members and most trade unions and remains favourite to be re-elected.

As he came out in support of Smith, Khan highlighted Corbyn's lacklustre attempt to keep Britain in the European Union in the June 23 referendum, saying he had "totally failed" to get his message across.

"Why would things be different in a general election?" he asked.

"Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organise an effective team and has failed to win the trust and respect of the British people."

Smith said he was "hugely honoured" to have the mayor's backing.

"Sadiq ran a fantastic campaign to win power for Labour in London this year, securing a huge mandate from party members and the electorate," he said.
Ankara: An Islamic State group suicide bomber as young as 12 years old attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens of others, the Turkish president said on Sunday.

The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep, near Turkey's border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbul's city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

"It was clear that Daesh had such an organisation in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times," Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. "Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity."

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldn't believe the party was targeted.

"This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party," Hamdullah Ceyhan told Anadolu. "This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?"

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party - known by its acronym PKK - or were blamed on ISIS. In June, suspected ISIS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.

Earlier, Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.

"These bloodthirsty organizations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation," he added.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, two yearlong peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In Gaziantep, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the country's health minister visited the wounded and inspected the site of the attack.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters. "We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing, which he said turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and he vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

Opposition parties have also denounced the attack. The main opposition Republican People's Party will be holding an emergency meeting in the late afternoon and a delegation was being sent to Gaziantep by the Nationalist Movement Party. Supporters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party will be holding a protest against the attack in Istanbul.

Foreign governments, including the US, Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, have condemned the attack.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in.

Hundreds of residents had gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Turkish authorities issued a media blackout on coverage of the attack until the investigation is completed.
Muslims display slogans against alleged killing of civilians by government forces during a protest in Srinagar. (Photo: AP)

London: Highlighting the atrocities carried out by Pakistan in Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the UK-based Kashmiris yesterday staged a protest against the establishment in Islamabad demanding peace and freedom in Kashmir.

During the protest at the Bradfort City Centre in West Yorkshire in Northern England, they raised slogans stating that Gilgit and PoK are an integral part of the princely state of Kashmir.

We want freedom, we want freedom. Stop killings in Kashmir, they said.

One of the protestors, Mahmud Kashmiri, president of the Jammu and Kashmiri Awaami Party, said: We are here to protest against foreign forces, who are involved in killings in Jammu and Kashmir.

Another protestor said that the demonstration was about the atrocities that are being carried out in both parts of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir are treated in a very bad manner in both parts. I am 100 percent sure that this is being instigated by Pakistan, he said.

Shamina Raja, another protestor, expressing grave concern over the latest incidents in Kashmir demanded that peace should be established in the region at the earliest.

We have come here for Jammu and Kashmir. Whatever is happening there is unfortunate. I only pray that it should not happen. What we want is that peace should be established there, she said.

Carrying posters which read, Arif Shahid was murdered because he demanded reunification of Jammu, Kashmir & Gilgit-Baltistan, they also demanded justice for the pro-independence Kashmiri leader, who was brutally murdered in Rawalpindi in 2013.

Shahid, who led the All Parties National Alliance (APNA) advocating independence from India and Pakistan, was shot dead by unidentified men near his home in Rawalpindi on May 14, 2013.

He was a vocal critic of Pakistans alleged role in sending militants to fight a proxy war against India in Indian-administered Kashmir. He also criticised Pakistans policy of treating Kashmir as its colony.

The Pakistani Government banned him from travelling abroad in 2009 and later confiscated his passport and other identification documents.

The protest comes close on the heels of the July 21 rigged elections in PoK where the protestors blamed Islamabad of indulging in widespread propaganda and killing.

The protestors also stated that genuine voters were not allowed to cast their votes and Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, and others rigged the polls in favour of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs PML (N).

The (PML-N) won 32 out of 41 seats or more than seventy five percent of the seats in the rigged elections.
Kunduz: Afghan forces have recaptured a district that had fallen briefly to the Taliban, officials and residents said on Sunday, after thousands of people fled their homes in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province.

Khan Abad district, which is around 30 kilometres east of Kunduz city  the provincial capital where militants last year scored their biggest ever victory  had fallen to the Taliban after they launched a pre-dawn attack on the district centre on Saturday, according to local officials.

Several hours later Afghan special forces were deployed to the area  a key route to Kunduz city  to retake the district.

The district was recaptured by government forces on Saturday evening, according to Sayed Mahmood Danish, a Kunduz governor spokesman.

"Taliban are now being chased away. The threat to the city is gone. We are expanding our operations beyond the district," Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

A shopkeeper in Khan Abad district, Khalid, said that people were still worried about the Taliban making a return to the city.

"The roads are empty, few shops are open in the city. People do not have access to food and drinking water. We still cannot come out of our houses," he said.

Another resident, Mohammad Sahim, said the militants had looted and set fire to government buildings.

"People are in fear, you don't see many people in the streets, schools are closed," he said, adding that there is a danger of food shortages.

The Taliban briefly captured Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war.

The militants were driven out almost two weeks later by Afghan forces backed by United States' aircraft and NATO soldiers, but it marked the first time since 2001 that the Taliban were able to take control of a major city in the country.

After the brief Kunduz city takeover, US and Afghan officials insisted that they would not allow another urban centre to be captured.

Earlier this month, the Taliban launched a major offensive in volatile southern Helmand province, surrounding the capital Lashkar Gah, a town of 200,000 inhabitants, but were stopped by Afghan forces supported by American air strikes.

The fighting in Helmand and Kunduz comes as Afghan troops are stretched on multiple fronts across Afghanistan  including eastern Nangarhar province where the Islamic State group is making inroads.
Damascus: As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said as the two countries agreed to upgrade their security consultations.

Assad made the assertion during a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar when the latter called on him yesterday during his Syria visit.

"There was an agreement between both sides for further upgrading security consultations," the sources said. However, the sources did not mention the level to which they have been upgraded to.

During the meeting, Assad also welcomed India's objective position on the conflict in Syria and both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem, sources said.

"As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism," sources quoted Assad as saying.

On his part, Akbar, during their meeting, said the age of destruction should give way to the age of reconstruction in Syria.

Assad also invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy.

Both leaders agreed that as secular nations, India and Syria believe in faith equality. Akbar is currently on a nearly week-long visit to West Asia from August 17.
Iran's army said in May that it was now equipped with the S-300 system, though further parts are due over the coming months. (Representational Image/ AP)

Tehran: Iran released images of its first domestically built long-range missile defence system on Sunday, a project started when the country was under international sanctions.

Images released on multiple state news agencies showed President Hassan Rouhani and Minister of Defence Hossein Dehghan standing in front of the new Bavar 373 missile defence system.

The system was designed to intercept cruise missiles, drones, combat aircraft and ballistic missiles, according to earlier statements by Dehghan.

It was intended to match the Russian S-300 system, the delivery of which was suspended in 2010 due to sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear programme.

"We did not intend to make an Iranian version of the S-300 -- we wanted to build an Iranian system, and we built it," Dehghan told the IRNA news agency on Saturday.

Rouhani said in a televised speech that Iran's military budget had more than doubled compared with last year.

"If we are able to discuss with world powers around the negotiating table, it is because of our national strength, because of our national unity," he said.

In 2015, shortly before the conclusion of an international agreement on the nuclear programme, Moscow re-authorised the delivery of the S-300 system in a move criticised by the United States and Israel.

Iran's army said in May that it was now equipped with the S-300 system, though further parts are due over the coming months.

Rouhani also unveiled the first Iranian-made fighter jet engine on Sunday, saying it was capable of flight at 50,000 feet.

"The Islamic republic is one of eight countries in the world who have mastered the technology to build these engines," the president said.
The 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were hanged on Sunday morning in Nasiriyah prison in the presence of Dhiqar governor Yahya al-Nasseri and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili. (Photo: AFP)

Nasiriyah: Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted in the case of the massacre of hundreds of military recruits in 2014 by Sunni jihadists and allied militants, officials said.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where up to 1,700 recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

"The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out on Sunday morning in Nasiriyah prison," a spokesman for the governor's office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital.

"The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions," Abdelhassan Dawood said.

"They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions," he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

The Dhiqar governor confirmed to AFP that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq's south.
A Syrian man holds a girl as he stands on the rubble of houses that were destroyed by Syrian government forces air strikes in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo: AFP)

Aleppo, Syria: More than 300 civilians have been killed in a three-week surge of fighting and bombardment in Syria's devastated Aleppo city, a monitoring group said today.

The battle for Syria's second city has killed 333 civilians since July 31, when rebels launched a major push to break a government siege of districts under their control.

The toll includes 165 civilians - among them 49 children - killed in opposition fire on the city's government-held western districts.

Another 168 civilians died in Russian and regime air strikes and shelling on its rebel-controlled eastern neighbourhoods, the Observatory said.

Russia has been carrying out air raids in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria since September 2015.

Another 109 people were killed in bombardment across the rest of Aleppo province during the same period, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Once Syria's economic hub, Aleppo city has been ripped apart by violence since mid-2012, with warplanes bombarding the east and rockets raining down on the west.

Air strikes pounded Aleppo's southern edges on Saturday, and the intense battles there could be heard throughout the city, AFP's correspondent in an eastern neighbourhood said.

The violence rendered the rebel route out of the city - via the southern district of Ramussa - temporarily unusable, and trucks of food and other produce could not be brought into the city, the correspondent said.

Approximately 250,000 people live in the city's eastern districts, while another 1.2 million live in its western neighbourhoods.

While rebel groups are accessing the city via Ramussa, the regime is using the Castello Road to the north of the city to reach areas it controls.

According to the Observatory, regime forces seized territory on the city's southern edges today.

"There are a lot of clashes and air strikes, and the regime made modest advances. They are trying to reinforce their positions," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Observatory - which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information - says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict started in March 2011 and international efforts at putting an end to the war have faltered.
DEVILS LAKE -- A North Dakota agencys report on a Devils Lake jails move to fire its top official two years ago details evidence of gender discrimination against her.

Its unclear how Denny Deegan, who was fired in August 2014 as the Lake Region Law Enforcement operations director, plans to proceed after the North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights found evidence her employment was terminated because she was a woman.

The evidence shows (Deegan) was discharged from employment, in whole or in part, because of her sex, as demonstrated by Commissioner (Ed) Browns comment, an Aug. 1 report regarding the Labor Departments ruling stated. The evidence also shows (The LECs) allegation concerning (Deegans) performance is pretext to discrimination as alleged.

Brown, who represents the Ramsey County Commission on the LEC board, has told the Herald he cannot comment on the matter because of pending litigation.

Deegan also claimed a hostile work environment, that she was retaliated against for firing Capt. Daniel Kraft and that her firing was based on a disability pertaining to a doctor-ordered medical leave, though the Labor Department found no evidence to substantiate those claims. The LEC also has denied these claims.

The Labor Departments report states she has made a settlement offer to the LEC, a multi-jurisdictional jail that serves five counties, but that part of the document was redacted.

The LEC Board went into executive session Wednesday to review administrative proceedings and possible litigation regarding the reports findings, and it has until Monday to accept, counter or reject Deegans offer.

The boards attorney, Howard Swanson, has advised board members not to comment on the case and previously told the Herald it wasnt likely they would respond to questions from the media.

Swanson was unavailable Friday, and he did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment. Messages left for state Commissioner of Labor Troy Seibel were not returned Friday, and representatives with the Labor Department did not know if the LEC or Deegan had taken action in the matter as of Friday.

Deegan has retained an attorney and said she could not speak on how she would proceed.

When asked how she felt about the Labor Department making a decision on her claims, Deegan said she was pleased that people are finally going to know what the LEC and the board members who voted to fire her are all about.

We need a man

The Labor Departments ruling is a response to a discrimination complaint filed by Deegan in September 2014 after the LEC Board voted 5-3 during an Aug. 21, 2014, special meeting to terminate her employment. Board members who voted to dismiss her, including Ramsey County Commissioner Mark Olson, said she was not performing her job properly and the LEC under Deegans leadership had money and overtime problems as well as a huge help turnover, according to the Labor Department report. LEC Board member Lowell Haagenson, a Benson County commissioner who also voted to dismiss Deegan, told Labor Department officials the jail was losing good employees and the place was falling apart.

Olson and Haagenson did not immediately respond to a messages left by the Herald seeking comment.

Deegan has claimed Brown made several sexist remarks, including one during the special meeting during which she was fired. Brown allegedly said we need a man to run this place, according to Tanya Wieler, who was a human resources consultant for the LEC when Deegan was fired.

Brown told investigators he doesnt believe he said those words, and several board members interviewed by the Labor Department said they did not recall the comment being made.

Investigators listened to audio from the meeting but were unable to hear Commissioner Brown make the alleged comment.

Wieler said she discussed the inappropriateness of the comment with Brown and other board members. She also said he has made other inappropriate comments.

When contacted by the attorney (Swanson) that represented the LEC  I went on the record again stating that I felt (Browns) comments were very inappropriate, Wieler wrote in an email to the Labor Department. The attorney had no further interest in visiting with me.

Reasons behind firing

Not everyone on the board agreed with the decision or reasoning. Board member Jeffrey Pfau, an Eddy County commissioner who voted against the dismissal, told Labor Department investigators he did not agree with the reasoning behind Deegans firing.

Its a witch hunt, Pfau said during an Aug. 3, 2014, meeting in which board members voted down a motion to fire Deegan.

Rick Morse and Dale Robbins, Devils Lake city commissioners who sat on the LEC Board, also voted against Deegans firing Aug. 21, 2014.

Pfau said he could not comment on the matter, citing Swansons advice not to speak due to pending litigation.

Wieler also disagreed with the boards reasoning behind terminating the LEC directors employment. A memo published in the labor report indicated turnover from July 2013 to July 2014 -- the LEC lost 20 employees during that time -- was slightly higher than the jails yearly average of 18. She also said staffing has been a longtime concern.

Wieler also cited lost revenue from the termination of the federal juvenile program due to low numbers and state orders to not allow any juveniles to be detained at the facility.

Wieler said in the memo the events Deegan had to deal with would be stressful for a seasoned director and more so for two new administrators.

Im going to be very frank -- the impression I have received from a handful of individuals was that I would discover grave concerns regarding the current administrators, she wrote in the memo. I have not found this to be true.

The Labor Department also found Deegan was qualified for and performing her work in a satisfactory way, according to the report. It also noted a man, Ramsey County Sheriff Steve Nelson, had been appointed to fill Deegans position in the interim as basis to investigate gender discrimination. Tom Rime was ultimately hired as Deegans long-term replacement.

A request submitted to the LEC regarding Deegans yearly reviews was being processed as of press time, LEC Director Rob Johnson said.
The bus was heading to Shahdad Kot from Karachi when it collided with the truck in Thatta district. (Representational image)

Karachi: At least nine persons, including five children and three women, were killed and 35 others injured when a bus collided with a truck in Pakistan's

southeastern Sindh province while trying to overtake it, police said on Sunday.

The bus was heading to Shahdad Kot from Karachi when it collided with the truck in Thatta district, police officials said.

The bus was trying to overtake a truck carrying a load of stones when it collided with the vehicle, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Thatta Fida Hussain Mastoi. Five children and three women died when a collision took place between a truck and a bus. The identities of those killed have not been confirmed as yet.

The injured were admitted to hospitals, a local newspaper reported. No case has been registered so far.

In a separate accident in Sindh, a speeding pick-up truck hit a motorcycle from behind crushing two riders to death on Saturday on the Tando Bago-Juddo road in Tando Bago town, 40 kms from Badin.
Law enforcement agencies told the court that Tahmid should be kept under judicial custody for the sake of investigation, the Daily star reported. (Representational Image)

Dhaka: A Canadian citizen, arrested for his alleged involvement in the Dhaka cafe attack last month that claimed 22 lives, has been sent to judicial custody with investigators claiming that he has given crucial information about the assault.

Tahmid Hasib Khan, a 22-year-old student at the University of Toronto, was yesterday produced in court where Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Delwar Hossain ordered him sent to jail.

Police neither implicated him in the terror attack nor submitted a fresh remand prayer for him as they produced him in the court. However, the law enforcement agencies told the court that Tahmid should be kept under judicial custody for the sake of investigation, the Daily star reported.

"Tahmid gave crucial information about the Gulshan attack. We are scrutinising the information. So, he should be kept in jail until the investigation is completed," said

Inspector Humayun Kabir of the counter-terrorism unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police in the forwarding report submitted to the court.

Seeking Tahmid's release on bail, a defence lawyer, however, told the court that police took him on remand in two phases "but could not unearth anything as he was not involved in the incident."

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Delwar Hossain passed an order sending Tahmid to jail.

On August 3, Tahmid and Hasnat Karim, a former private university teacher in Bangladesh, were detained on suspicion of their link with the July 1 terror attack.

Both were placed in court and taken for eight days of interrogation starting August 4.

After the eight-day remand Hasnat Karim was shown arrested in the Gulshan attack case, becoming the first person to be accused in the terrorist attack. He was sent for more interrogation.

However, Tahmid, a permanent resident of Canada, was also placed on six-day remand, but he has not yet been shown arrested for the cafe attack in the heart of Dhaka's diplomatic enclave that killed 22 people, including foreigners and policemen.

The 11-hour standoff ended after commandos stormed into the cafe and killed the hostage-takers.

Tahmid and Hasnat were among the 32 hostages rescued by the commandos from the cafe.
As freshers in undergraduate colleges enter a whole new world, most of them are newcomers to the library experience also. In school, they relied mostly on their textbooks.



In school, your knowledge is restricted to books and syllabus but college is a whole new world. You need to read a lot of new publications, journals, etc, says Dr D B Singh, University Librarian and Head, Delhi University Library System (DULS).



And that is why various colleges have programmes on library orientation as well for the first-year students.



After joining college, I realised there is so much to grasp and read. In school, the library was just a period where we spent 40 minutes in one week. Now I spent a fair share of my time in the library, says Yash, a second-year student.



The DULS consists of more than 34 libraries which have a vast variety of books and electronic journals. Besides, each college under the university has its own library.

However, imbibing the library culture does not come naturally to many students. According to Singh, 'serious library users only comprise about 10 per cent in the

first year.



They come from an environment where all the focus is on marks. So at least in the first year the culture of studying through photocopied notes is prevalent and the library facilities are under utilised, he says.



Manan, who is studying for BA (Hons) in Geography at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, agrees with Singh.



There are very few who visit the library. Some of us only go for the AC," he says.

Another library official, who did not wish to be identified, says that the low interest in libraries is due to the overall atmosphere of learning in most colleges. He says even teachers don't go to the libraries and tell students to study from notes of previous years.

Mostly, they dont turn to libraries till they are into post-graduation or higher studies and have to research.



In India, the concept of the library is very different. The teaching is mostly textbooks-oriented. And the students think they have no incentive to visit the library, and only study from one or two books, says Singh.



He says this is in contrast to European countries which focus a lot on the library in education.



Singh, who has published 19 research papers on various subjects, has visited several countries and studied 19 libraries in the United Kingdom.



Another problem area is infrastructure. While in the main university campus and some elite colleges, the library is a place where students love to spend their time, in others, it is a neglected space.



At any function it is said that the library is the brain of the institution. But the administration forgets that the brain receives the best blood. In the case of libraries it receives the worst blood which means that is the last priority in terms of infrastructure, Singh adds.



Students who are keen to access the facility list problems like unavailability of contemporary books, inadequate lighting and stinking toilets. Some also face a tough time getting their books issued.



Vidushi Jhamb, a student of MA, Italian Studies, says, During my graduation I had to find books related to grammar and other things but couldn't find many. Also, we were not issued books very easily. Some of the books came from Italy and were expensive so that the librarian used to ask us to study in the library only. But we were not interested in studying at the library and wanted to take the books home..



She adds that there even during her MA, she cannot find much of contemporary literature at the Pablo Neruda Library.



Many Masters and PhD students also point out the absence of a 24/7 library at Delhi University, unlike at other universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU. The Central Library in the Faculty of Arts is the only library which remains open till midnight.



But that facility is only for PhD students. Others are allowed till 8 pm, says Divi, a student of MA in Political Science. For girls, there is another problem: hostel timings which stop them from staying till late at the library.



Besides books, the Central Library is also home to approximately 66,000 e-journals, and electronic databases for students and research scholars.



We are given an ID and password to log in and access these journals. But the trend of online reading is picking up slowly. Many students are still not aware and updated,

says Rahul, a student of MA History.








Curfew in the entire Srinagar district as well as in two south Kashmir towns and restrictions in the rest of the Valley continued today even as normal life remained paralysed for the 44th day due to unrest.





Curfew is in force in the entire Srinagar district as well as in Anantnag and Pampore towns as a precautionary measure, a police official said.



He said restrictions on the movement of the people were also in force in rest of the Valley.



The separatist camp has called upon people to assemble and occupy local chowks and centers from 3 PM to 5 PM today.



The separatists have also asked the people to paste letters, asking all ministers, MLAs and MLCs from all parties to resign from government and party positions, on walls around their residence and in the locality.



The separatist camp is spearheading the protests in the Valley over the civilian killings during the protests against the killing of Hizhul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

As many as 64 persons, including two cops, have been killed and several thousand others injured in the clashes that began on July 9.



Meanwhile, normal life remained paralysed for the 44th consecutive day due to curfew, restrictions and separatist sponsored strike.



Shops, private offices and petrol pumps remained closed while public transport continued to be off roads.



Mobile Internet also continued to remain suspended in the entire Valley, while postpaid mobile services and incoming facility on prepaid mobiles were resumed yesterday.

However, outgoing facility on prepaid services remained barred.



The separatist camp, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, has extended the agitation till August 25.




Seeking "sexual favour" can be considered as bribe and people can be penalised for it under a new law proposed by a Parliamentary Committee.





In its report on new anti-corruption bill, the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha has endorsed Law Commission's report and recommended inclusion of "undue advantage" in a relevant provision of the proposed legislation to cover "any gratification other than legal remuneration", including sexual favours, to explain offence relating to public servant being bribed.



In a first, the Parliamentary Committee has recommended criminalising private sector bribery by bringing in corporates and their executives in the ambit of proposed anti-corruption law and recommended jail term of upto seven years along with fine.

Besides, it has suggested punishment for bribe givers too.



The instances of graft are covered under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. To enlarge the definition of taking bribe and cover private sector bribery, the government has decided to introduce Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which is pending. The term used in the bill to define bribery related offences was "financial or other advantage".



In November last year, some official amendments were moved to replace the term "financial or other advantage" with "undue advantage" to make "any gratification other than legal remuneration" punishable.



The Select Committee of the Upper House examined the bill and submitted its report recently.



"Members of the Committee also felt that the purport of the words 'undue advantage' used in the proposed amendments includes all forms of pecuniary and non-pecuniary gratifications and appears to be wide enough to be misused by the enforcement agencies," the report said.



The Committee, apprehends that the enforcement or probe agencies may misuse the expression to harass public servant as well as members of civil society in corruption cases and advises that adequate precautions be taken in this regard, it said.



"The Committee, however, notes that the Law Commission of India in it Two Hundred Fifty-fourth Report (February, 2015) has suggested to use the expressions 'undue advantage' in the PC Act. The Committee endorses the aforesaid amendments proposed to Section 2 of the PC Act, 1988 under the clause," it reads.



The Law Commission had in its report said "financial or other advantage" as mentioned formulation was narrower than the proposed changes to cover "any gratification whatever, other than legal remuneration".



"For example, it clearly covers sexual favours as 'gratification' in return for the public servant to do/refrain from doing a certain act. However, "other advantage" in "financial or other advantage" being interpreted using ejusdem generis (of or as the same kind) does not seem to cover sexual favours in return for the public servant's acts or omissions.



"Thus, the proposed amendment is actually narrowing the scope of corruption, instead of the stated intent of expanding it," it said, recommending use of "undue advantage" in the proposed bill.



The report said some stakeholders were of the view that there is need to provide an explanation to the terms 'non-pecuniary benefit' (being considered as an offence under corruption) as there is every possibility of filing of malicious and false complaints against public servants.



"Further, it was also suggested that casual exchange of hospitality like presenting traditional gift, souvenir or memento subject to a certain monetary limit and courtesy lunch, dinner during meeting or official visit may not be brought under the purview of 'undue advantage'," the Select Committee report said.



The panel apprehended that the probe agencies may misuse the proposed clause to harass public servant as well as members of civil society in corruption 'and advised that adequate precautions be taken in this regard.


Jaitley said that after facing defeats in two wars, Pakistan realized that it was not possible to snatch Jammu and Kashmir from India by means of wars, so it started training and pushing in terrorists.



"But after those terrorists were getting eliminated, it adopted anew strategy. When Amaranth agitation started in Jammu in 2008, they found a new way and stone pelting started.



"Children going to school were given stones in their bags instead of books to target police and security forces and the people with limited vision could only see the arrested stone pelters but could not see thousands of injured police and CRPF personnel in the hospitals," said the union minister and BJP leader.



He said ever since the partition, Pakistan never recognised Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India.



"If you see the history, you will find that Pakistan never accepted Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India. The day country got divided, India had a positive agenda as it wanted to come out of poverty to improve livelihood of the people, education, fight with poverty.



"Many problems came and we fought them and came out of them and its impact is that India, born in poverty, is known in the whole world as the fastest growing economy, he said.



On the other hand, "the agenda of Pakistan was not to improve the livelihood of its people but to divert their attention from the real issue by raining slogans in Kashmir and India," the union minister said.



Referring to the Pakistani aggression in 1947, he said, "India was not ready and it launched attack on Jammu and Kashmir and took some part of the state."



The subsequent two wars of 1965 and 1971 made India emerge as a strong military power in conventional warfare.



"After defeats in war, Pakistan tried to internationalize Kashmir but world was not ready to listen to them.



"In 1990, they realized they would not win J&K through war. So they started sending in terrorists and started this phase. They set up camps and used to send terrorists, but India learned to deal with such situation and in thousands these terrorists were eliminated," he said.



He said that post 9/11 attacks on America, the world came to know about the menace of terrorism and Pakistan stood exposed as an incubator of terrorism.



As unrest continues in Kashmir, the central government today outlined its priorities, asserting that there will be no compromise with those indulging in violence even efforts will be made for development of the state which was "denied" for the last 60 years.Acknowledging that situation in Kashmir was "serious", senior union minister Arun Jaitley said those indulging in stone-pelting in Kashmir are "not satyagrahis but aggressors" who target police and security forces but some people with limited vision cannot see this.Addressing a rally on the outskirts of Jammu city, he also slammed Pakistan for the current unrest, saying it was "attacking the integrity of India" in a "new way" after failing to snatch the state by waging wars and fuelling trouble ever since partition in 1947.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has three priorities for Jammu and Kashmir, said Jaitley, Minister of Finance.Outlining these priorities, he said, "There will be no compromise on the security and integrity of the country and no compromise with the people who indulge in violence."Secondly, as Jammu and Kashmir has faced violence and wars, it needs development which was denied for past 60 years by National Conference and Congress governments. Thirdly, Jammu, being the support base of BJP, needs added attention."His outlining of the priorities assumes signficance as the opposition has been accusing the Modi government of having no policy with regard to dealing with the unrest. The opposition parties have been pressing for a political solution and dialogue to address the unrest.Talking in the context of ongoing 44-day unrest in Kashmir, Jaitley said, "Now this time, a serious situation has emerged in which Pakistan, separatists and religious forces have joined hands and now with a new way, they are attacking the integrity of India."Describing it as a "major challenge", he said, "today in such a challenge, the need of the country is that we dont compromise with the integrity and security of the nation."He asked people of Jammu and Kashmir to stand with the country in the "struggle against the separatists" so that "this new phase of Pakistani strategy of war is defeated this time as well".He described stone-pelters as aggressors."They (stone pelters) are not satyagrahis but aggressors. If a police post manned by 10 police personal is attacked by 2000 stone pelters, it is an attack, but some people do not realise it," he said.
FARGO  As excavators are moving earth to make way for the new City Hall, theyre likely to find the foundation of what was once one of Fargos toniest brothels: the Chrystal Palace.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the so-called palace sat among a cluster of other houses of ill-repute on the east side of downtown near the Red River. It was the citys red-light district, which everybody back then called the Hollow.

Familiar with this infamous slice of Fargo history, North Dakota State University professors Angela Smith and Kristen Fellows are hoping to take possession of a load of dirt from around the Chrystal Palaces foundation. Fingers crossed: it will include the remains of the brothels privy shaft.

Yes, thats right  the privy shaft, also known as the hole under the outhouse.

I know this sounds weird, but these holes were not just used for just human waste, Fellows said. Theyre really just sort of a trash pit, and we find things like broken ceramics and bottles and glasses, pipes  pretty much anything that might get broken and be thrown away.

Fellows made it clear that by the time archaeologists like herself delve into the contents of a privy shaft, all of the organic matter is gone.

Terry Stroh, architect of the new City Hall, said a contractor is willing to scoop the dirt from around the Chrystal Palaces foundation and send it to NDSU in a dump truck. That way the professors, with help from students, can sift through the soil looking for artifacts that could offer a window into what daily life was like at the brothel, Fellows said.

Our hope is just to essentially do a salvage operation archaeologically, you know, and just collect what we can, she said.

Fellows said she and Smith reached out to city officials over a year ago to ask about conducting a dig at the site of the brothel, but it wasnt until recently that their request got any traction.

Dan Mahli, Fargos community development administrator, said the city supports the professors archaeological effort as long as it doesnt delay the construction project. Though, he said the city left the final decision up to Stroh.

Fellows and Smith initially asked for about two weeks to dig at the site, but Stroh nixed that idea.

For one thing, he said, there are safety concerns at a busy construction site. Plus the project is already about two weeks behind schedule, and with winter looming, the builders are racing against time.

Every day we dont do something is a day that we could lose when weather starts, Stroh said.

Fellows acknowledged that doing a controlled dig at the site would be ideal and that artifacts may be damaged during the salvage operation. But she pointed out that much of whats found is often already broken, especially if its in a privy shaft where garbage was tossed.

Smith, a history professor, said that before the Chrystal Palace was torn down in the 1950s in a wave of urban renewal, its address was 201 3rd St. N. It was where the parking lot of the current City Hall is now, she said.

Stroh said that when the new City Hall is finished, its lobby will be in almost the same spot as where the Chrystal Palace stood. We did get a bit of a kick out of that, Fellows said of the brothels prominent placement.

Stroh said excavation started last week at the new City Hall site. And it may be this week that a load of dirt is collected from around the Chrystal Palaces foundation, Fellows said.

Whats discovered in the sifting may lead to academic articles, lectures or a public exhibit, Fellows said. The spotlight wouldnt be new for the Chrystal Palace, which was featured in a display, curated by Smiths students, at Moorheads Hjemkomst Center in 2013.

Taboo Fargo/Moorhead: An Unmentioned History detailed the tawdrier side of life here from 1871, when both cities were founded, to 1935, when Prohibition ended.

Part of the show told the story of the Chrystal Palaces madam, Malvina Massey. A Virginia native, Massey possibly arrived in Fargo in the early 1880s and became one of the citys few black residents.

She really stood out in a visible way, Fellows said. If you look at the newspaper articles of the time, her race is definitely mentioned a lot.

Indeed, when she died in 1911, The Forum headline announced, Aging negress is dead.

While prostitution was technically illegal in Masseys era, an informal system of regulation allowed brothels to operate as long as they paid monthly fines. It was a system that Massey navigated for the two decades she ran the Chrystal Palace.

She was a businesswoman first and foremost, Fellows said. We think of prostitution as being a vice, but she was running this brothel looking to make a profit.
Bengaluru is host to the largest share of technology-driven startups, followed by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, while Hyderabad and Chennai are also quite popular among those techies who are budding entrepreneurs, according to a study by Assocham.





The study done in association with the Thought Arbitrage found that in the technology-driven startups, India has moved up to the third position, with the US occupying the top position, with more than 47,000, and the UK with over 4,500 startups. Indias tech startups number around 4,200 up to 2015.



In terms of total number of startups, comprising tech and non-tech areas, India again figured among the five largest hosts in the world along with China. The number of startups in both India and China was 10,000 each. The US is at the number one position among the overall list of 83,000 budding entrepreneurs.



Of the Indian startups, riding on technology, IT hub Bengaluru was host of 26%, followed by NCR with 23%, and Mumbai with 17%. In the catching up category fell Hyderabad with 8%, and Chennai and Pune with 6% each.




BEIJING  Hillary Clinton considers her a friend. President Barack Obama has invited her to the White House next month. But on her first visit to a major capital since becoming leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi chose a different destination: Beijing.



With her arrival here late on Wednesday, Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner credited with pushing Myanmar from a military dictatorship toward democracy, offered a potent signal that her foreign policy would be more friendly toward China, which is eager to strengthen its foothold in the country.



Her move risks unsettling Washington, however, since the Obama administration considers the democratic changes in Myanmar that brought Suu Kyi to power one of its major foreign policy victories in Asia. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has long expressed her desire for friendly relations with China, and its not insignificant that she has chosen to travel to Beijing before any other major capital, said Thant Myint-U, author of Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia. He added: The Chinese, whatever wariness they may have had, definitely sense the possibility of improved relations and will go all-out to make this visit a success. This will be a historic visit that could well shape Sino-Myanmar relations for many years to come. Chinas red-carpet welcome contrasts with how Suu Kyi was treated when she was Myanmars opposition leader.



Last year, she was 20 minutes late for a meeting with President Xi Jinping, who reportedly told her that she was the first person ever to have kept him waiting so long. Now, China is making amends for that reprimand as it pushes to install itself as the foremost power in Myanmar. It is tailoring investment projects to suit the impoverished country and assuming an influential position as mediator in peace talks between rival ethnic groups and the government this month.



It is also hoping to restart the $3.6 billion Myitsone Dam project, which was suspended in 2011 and is a major source of friction between the two countries. China views Myanmar as a strategic asset, so much so that some policymakers see Myanmars long shoreline as Chinas west coast. Its position close to the Indian Ocean offers a shortcut for oil and gas imports from the Middle East, and its rich mineral deposits and proximity make it a logical part of Chinas sphere of influence on the mainland of Southeast Asia.



Even though China recently built oil and gas pipelines from Myanmars coast into southern China and has access to the Kyaukpyu port on the Bay of Bengal, trade between the two nations dropped in 2015, and relations cooled during the five-year transition from a military junta, which China backed, to elections last year.



The two sides are seeking to repair the friendship, though Suu Kyi, who has praised the old tradition of a neutral foreign policy, is likely to be vigilant that China is not too overbearing. In the days before her visit, Suu Kyi sought to ease tensions over the suspension of the Chinese-financed Myitsone Dam. After appointing a 20-member commission to review the suspension decision and look at other hydro projects, she can tell China that Myanmar no longer has a closed mind on the project, analysts said. She needs good relations with China, but were she to approve the dam, she would lose massive internal support among many groups, said David I Steinberg, distinguished professor emeritus at Georgetown University.



The new panel was a smart way to deflect pressure on her from China as well as her domestic constituency, he said. The commission could decide that the dam  which Suu Kyi resisted as opposition leader because of the environmental impact it would have on the nations main artery, the Irrawaddy River  should not be built. But it would most likely consider other projects that would be to Chinas liking, Steinberg said.



For its part, Beijing has become more flexible on the dam, opening the way for the easing of tensions, analysts said. Negotiations are underway for Myanmar to pay China if the dam is not built, or to use the money for other projects, officials close to Suu Kyi said. Numbers have already been put on the table, they said, including $800 million in compensation to China if the dam is not built, they said.



In exchange, Suu Kyi has told the Chinese that she wants a series of smaller hydro projects that are less of a threat to the environment and enjoy popular support, her spokesman, U Zaw Htay, said.In the end, the dam construction could be halted, resumed, adjusted, replaced by another project, or maybe there are other ideas, said Fan Hongwei, a specialist on Myanmar at Xiamen University.



New trading route



As part of its ambition to secure more access to the Indian Ocean, China has proposed a new trading route  a waterway from the town of Bhamo in northern Myanmar to the Irrawaddy Delta  and this is likely to come up in the talks in Beijing, Myanmar officials said. Derek J Mitchell, the former U S ambassador to Myanmar, said that Washington recognised the countrys urgent need for hard infrastructure and that it had never opposed Chinas delivering major infrastructure projects to Myanmar as long as they are transparent, acceptable to the people and environmentally sound, as the new government has indicated.



It would also be preferable if infrastructure that crossed borders connected Myanmar to the wider region and not just to China, Mitchell said. One of Suu Kyis major objectives is to seek Chinas help as she starts peace talks on conflicts in northern Myanmar between the ethnic groups and the military.



The roiling small wars there have long been a barrier to economic development in the region, and Suu Kyi has scheduled a peacemaking gathering, called the Panglong Conference, for August 31. She has offered China a role as mediator, Myanmar officials involved in the talks said. Two groups in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border  the Kachin and the Wa, who are ethnic Chinese  receive arms from across the border. The Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic army in Myanmar, refused to sign a cease-fire agreement last year. At the time, a Burmese government negotiator said China had pressured the two groups along its border not to sign the deal in order to wield more influence over them.



By offering China a key role at the talks, to be held in the capital, Naypyidaw, Suu Kyi is asking China to halt its arms supplies, a Myanmar official involved in the process said. Recent talks with a flurry of top Chinese officials who have visited Myanmar  including the minister of state security, Geng Huichang; the head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Song Tao; and the foreign minister, Wang Yi  have concentrated on Chinas role in the peacemaking, the official said. China holds many of the keys to ending decades of armed conflict, Thant Myint-U said. The question is what the price of increasing dependence on China will be.




BJP National President Amit Shah has called upon the youth to condemn people who speak against the nation.





He was speaking after inaugurating the Tiranga Yatra programme organised by the BJP, on the premises of Mangalore University here on Sunday.



These days, some people have been raising questions on nationalism and propagating anti-national thoughts in the guise of freedom of speech. But, those people must remember that the nation cannot stay united without the nationalist ideology.



Those who have been opposing nationalism, referring to freedom of speech given by the Constitution of India, must remember that if there was no concept of nationalism, there would not have been a struggle for freedom. But for the freedom struggle, we wouldnt have ever got independence and no constitution would have been formed either. But for the nationalist thoughts, there would not have been a Constitution for India. One must go through the history of the nation, he said.



Shah paid tributes to queen Abbakka of Ullal and described her as role model for the youth. He said the Union government had been fulfilling the dream of a welfare state.
Four people were killed in separate accidents in Whitefield, Talaghattapura and Yelahanka since Saturday.





A man and his son were killed on the spot when a goods vehicle knocked them off their bike near Kadugodi on Saturday. The deceased were identified as Shivanna, 48, a resident of Challakere, and his son Tippesh, 20. The accident occurred around 1.15 pm when they were returning home from Vydehi Hospital, said the police.



Shivanna was suffering from cancer. He would regularly visit the hospital for treatment. He was staying at his son-in-laws house in Kadugodi for the last one month as the hospital was close by. Tippesh was riding the bike while Shivanna was riding pillion. The two fell down and sustained injuries when the vehicle hit the bike. They were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival, said the police.



The police seized the vehicle and detained its driver.

In another accident, a 23-year-old techie was killed on the spot, while three of his friends sustained injuries when a car in which they were travelling turned upside down near Puravankara apartment on NICE Road on Saturday night.



The deceased is Suprith Gowda, a native of Srinivaspur in Kolar district. He was staying at Arakere near Hulimavu. Gowdas friends Darshan, 24, Munesh, 23, and Deepak, 24, are being treated at a private hospital. They are out of danger, said the police.



According to the police, the four had joined private firms after completing their graduation a year ago. They gathered at Arakere before heading for a restaurant at Maddur. Darshan was driving his relatives car, while Suprith Gowda was sitting next to him. Darshan, who was speeding, tried to overtake a car. Darshan applied brakes as the car driver took a right turn.



The car turned upside down. Suprith sustained severe head injuries and was killed on the spot, said the police.



In the third accident, an engineering student was killed, while his class-mate sustained serious injuries near Jakkur on Sunday morning. The deceased was identified as Dharmesh Patel, 21, a native of Allahabad. He was staying at a relatives house in JP Nagar, said the police. Patels class-mate Abhishekh is being treated at Columbia Asia Hospital. Abhishekhs condition was stated to be serious, said the police.



Patel and Abhishekh were returning from Nandi Hills at 8.30 am when the accident occurred. Patel, who was driving recklessly, lost control and hit a road divider as he approached Jakkur. The two fell on the car coming from the opposite direction, added the police.



They were rushed to a hospital where Patel succumbed to injuries saround 3 pm on Sunday, said the police.




A section of retired army men on Sunday sought stern action against Amnesty International India (AII) representatives for organising Broken Families, an event on August 13 at the United Theological College (UTC) on Millers Road.





The AII is organising programmes against the Indian Army. The army men sternly oppose such events. Youths will not join the army if India and the army are projected in bad taste.



Events like Broken Families affect unity and integrity of the country, retired colonel Palani Raj said while addressing protesters at Anand Rao Circle.



AII is receiving donations from abroad. AII representatives are luring local leaders to organise Broken Families events and diving the country. The government should investigate the source of AIIs fundings.



Those who raised slogans against the Indian Army should be arrested immediately, he urged.More than 50 retired army men visited Anand Rao Circle and expressed support to the protest.



Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar, retired DGP Shankar Bidari and actor Jaggesh also addressed protesters.



CBI enquiry



They sought a CBI enquiry into the case as Home Minister G Parameshwara said that there was no evidence against AII to establish the sedition charge.



ABVP national general secretary Vinay Bidare criticised Parameshwara for his statement that sedition charges might not be proved when the investigation was under progress.



The ABVP has lodged a complaint with the police. The police should collect evidence. The police will surely get evidence if they arrest those who raised slogans against the Indian Army, he said.


Around 50 patients, a majority of them in the labour wards, were shifted from SR Block of the historical Vani Vilas Hospital to its main block as a precaution following the discovery of a deep crack on the wall.





The incident, the second of its kind, took place close to the work site of Metros KR Market underground station. In March 2013, a portion of the paediatric block of the same hospital was damaged due to tunnelling work by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) for the underground Metro station which will connect the Majestic interchange Metro station.



The patients were shifted to safety as a precaution. The building developed cracks four days ago and it was scary with the crack getting wider. We then informed Metro officials, who are now on the job. Other than causing a little inconvenience, it has not affected patients, an official from the government-owned hospital told DH.



A senior BMRCL official said: The corporation has deployed several personnel, including civil engineers, to ensure there is no further damage. We have put up structures to support the building and grouting is also taking place.



If the soil does not settle, our engineers will see what can be done. As a matter of caution, we have asked the hospital to shift patients. There is no cause for panic, he said.




A day after the overflowing Ganga water entered parts of Patna and inundated low-lying areas of some apartments situated near the river, the flood threat to the state capital subsided on Sunday afternoon when the river started showing a receding trend.





The immediate relief came when lesser quantity of water was discharged on Sunday from Indrapuri barrage over Sone river, some 200 km from here in Rohtas district.

The heavy discharge from Sone, coupled with heavy rainfall in the upper catchment of Ganga in Uttarakhand, had made the mighty river flow 1.5 metre above the red mark (danger level) at Gandhi ghat in Patna on Saturday. However, on Sunday, the water level of the Ganga started receding at a speed of 1.5 cm/hour. In the last 12 hours, water level has receded by 17 cm, said an official of the water resources department. The situation had turned alarming on Saturday after the Ganga rose by around 50 cm in the last 36 hours.



The immediate reason behind this surge was heavy discharge of 11.67 lakh cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from Indrapuri barrage on Sone. One cusec is around 28.3 litres of water flowing per second.



The barrage had to be opened after heavy release of water from Bansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh and Rihand dam in Uttar Pradesh, following heavy rain in the two neighbouring states.



In the meantime, the Bihar government swung into action and pressed army personnel into the rescue operation. Additional personnel from the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force were deployed to shift marooned people from the diara (riverine belt) to safer places.



District Magistrate of Patna Sanjay Agarwal on Sunday ordered closure of all the government schools here.



The flood victims were shifted to the campus of these schools. The Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Patliputra Colony has been converted into a relief camp where people are being provided food and shelter.



Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who made an aerial survey of the marooned areas, said though the situation was alarming, his officials were alert. Leave of all the engineers of Water Resources Department and Road Construction Department has been cancelled. If required, more administrative officers will be pressed into service, he said after taking stock of the flood situation.



Farakka Treaty

Nitish said that he would also ask the Centre to revisit the Farakka agreement.

The Farakka Treaty between India and Bangladesh on sharing of Ganga water does not allow heavy flow of downstream to Bangladesh even during monsoon, leading to water levels rising in the Ganga.




Several parts of Rajasthan were pushed to the brink of floods as heavy rain continued to lash the state on Sunday.





Air Force helicopters evacuated 33 people from flood-hit villages in Pratapnagar District. On Saturday, eight people of a family died as a part of their house collapsed in Baran district.



Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha said: Air force helicopter airlifted a total of 33 people from two locations in Pratapgarh district while 24 others were airlifted from Baran on Saturday. Rescue operations are on.



Baran district Collector S P Singh told the media that three people who had gone to an island in Parvati river for fishing were rescued since a sudden surge in water levels trapped them on Saturday evening.



The Airforce and Army along with RAC & SDRF have been deployed in Baran district, while companies of NDRF & SDRF were deployed in Jhalawar district. Situation in Chittorgarh and Pratapgarh worsened with most villages inundated by the flood water.



The meteorological department said Banswara, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara and Pratapgarh, affected by floods, recorded 23 mm of fresh rainfall.
A Geological Survey of India (GSI) ship has located debris in deep-sea which is suspected to be of the IAF flight AN-32 that went missing a month ago.





GSI vessel Samudra Ratnakar, deployed for deep water exploration, has traced some debris at a depth of about 3,000 meters, 160 nautical miles off Chennai coast, defence authorities said here on Sunday.



We suspect that the objects might be the parts of AN-32 aircraft, which might have crashed in the sea, a senior Coast Guard official said seeking anonymity.



He also said search around the location of the debris has been intensified with more Navy ships scouring the area for further clues to the missing aircraft. The official said the objects will be recovered and sent for lab testing in a couple of days to ascertain if they belong to the missing AN-32.



If confirmed, the debris location would mark a major breakthrough in the search for the flight that went missing on July 22. The Coast Guard official said several squads of searchers have been sifting through 4,500 square miles so far without a clue.



Coast Guard and Navy teams located nearly 30 floating objects, none of which were successfully traced to the missing AN-32.



The IAF AN-32 flight took off from Tambaram airbase to the Andaman islands with 29 personnel on board. It did not reach its destination and was last seen on the radar at 9 am on the same day.


Suspended DMK MLAs faced further trouble as the police filed a case against party leader MK Stalin and others for holding mock Assembly outside the Secretariat hall without getting permission.





Fort St George police filed two cases against the MLAs one for holding a protest outside the Secretariat complex on August 18 and second for the mock Assembly on August 19.



The FIR against the DMK legislators came a day ahead of the protest by the party against the week-long suspension of its MLAs. DMK leaders were also planning to hold another mock Assembly session on Monday.



Forty MLAs, including Stalin, were booked in the first case, while 60 others faced cases for holding the mock Assembly in which the leader of the Opposition also featured.



Following suspension by Speaker P Danapal, the DMK MLAs on Friday went on to hold their mock Assembly inside the Secretariat complex at Fort St George after being denied permission into the House.



Stalin factor

The DMK legislators, led by Stalin, managed to get stools, table, mike and speaker to conduct a mock House proceedings in front of the chief minister special cell.

Accordingly, deputy leader of the party in the Assembly Durai Murugan acted as speaker and Stalin posed as Opposition leader with the DMK members raising their hands to give them a chance to speak. On the first day, DMK MLAs also protested over the decision to suspend them.




WILLISTON -- A murder trial scheduled to start next week for a man accused of killing a co-worker in Williston has been canceled after the alleged gunman opted to plead guilty.

Tovias Carrillo will face a judge Monday afternoon for a change of plea hearing. A conviction by a jury could have meant a life sentence for Carrillo, 51, who was arrested in January 2014 for the shooting death of Juan Palacios.

The two men worked together at a Williston landscaping business, where a feud between the pair began, investigators say.

Carrillo is charged with murder for allegedly shooting Palacios inside a trailer on University Avenue, and disposing of his body in a field east of Williston.

It was a disagreement over respect issues at work, said Lt. Detective David Peterson of the Williston Police Department.

Williams County States Attorney Marlyce Wilder did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Both men lived in Williston for a short time before the killing, authorities say.

Carrillo also faces double terrorizing charges for allegedly threatening to kill two other men, both of whom he worked with, around the time of Palacios death.

Following his arrest about a week after Palacios was reported missing, Carrillo confessed to the shooting, court records say.

The former landscaper racked up more allegations while behind bars at the Williams County Correctional Center. A search of his cell in December 2014 turned up two homemade knives made from sharpened objects, resulting in two felony charges of possession of a weapon in a correctional facility.

In March of the same year, he was charged with aggravated assault and tampering with physical evidence for an alleged attack on a fellow inmate. Carrillo, who tried to hide his bloody clothes afterward, used a broken coffee mug to inflict a serious head injury to the man, authorities say.

He is set to plead guilty to those charges on Monday as well.
The women parliamentarians participating in the two-day BRICS conference in Jaipur highlighted the changes met through the active involvement of women in development process.





Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, in her concluding address at the BRICS Women Parliamentarians Forum, said, Active involvement of our women Parliamentarians in the process will result in a greater responsiveness towards citizens needs and will lead to greater harmony, meaningful development and inclusive growth.



As development partners, we can involve citizens in the process of development and can also strengthen innovative partnerships with civil society organisations to scrutinise and assess the effectiveness of various government programmes, she added.



She asked the delegates to learn and benefit from the best practices in the BRICS member countries.



She highlighted some of the best practices by women in other countries, such as in Brazil, where five-minute programmes are run on radio and television to promote women-oriented programmes targeting specific social groups.



Similarly in Russia, there is special focus on preventive medical check-up and serious efforts to lower the incidences of non-communicable diseases.
Sounding the poll bugle at an impressive public rally in Agra, BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday termed the BJP as anti-dalit and said the saffron party was stoking nationalism for electoral gains.





Mayawati also said that the BJPs Kashmir policy was a diversionary tactic and an attempt to deflect attention of the people from its governments failure to deliver. The BJP may go to war on Kashmir issue, she said, addressing the huge turnout at Kothi Meena Bazar grounds.

The BSP supremo referred to attacks on Dalits in different parts of the country and accused the BJP of conspiring to do away with reservation for the Scheduled Castes and other weaker sections.



Mayawati also took a potshot at the recent BJP sponsored Dhamma Yatra in the state and said that the RSS cadre had turned fake Dalits and joined the Yatra as Buddhists. Referring to the use of derogatory words against her by expelled BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh, she said: They will be sent to jail once the BSP comes in power.



The BSP supremo rejected charges that her party sold tickets. If the BSP, as claimed by the opponents, is certain to lose, then why will any one want its tickets?, she asked.



Mayawati attacked the Congress for misleading Dalits during its regimes and doing nothing for their welfare.



The Congress has projected an old lady, a Brahmin to get upper caste votes....she is the same person who had said that the people from UP, Bihar were spoiling Delhi, she said, referring to Sheila Dixit, the Congress face for UP polls. It is the BSP, which accorded due respect to the upper caste and even demanded reservation for the poor among them, she added.



Maya, Bhagwat lock horns



RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BSP supremo Mayawati are involved in a verbal duel on the issue of Hindu population in the country, DHNS reports from Lucknow.



Bhagwat had said that there was no law in the country that stopped the Hindu community from increasing its population.



The remark by the RSS chief came when some teachers told him that the population of Hindus was not increasing, while the other communities were increasing their numbers.



Which law prevents the Hindus from increasing their population? Bhagwat retorted.

On Sunday, Mayawati asked Bhagwat to state from where Hindus would bring food for their children if they chose to increase their population.




At least three militants were killed in an ongoing encounter with the security forces in Tangdhar area of north Kashmirs Kupwara district on Sunday.





Sources said the gunfight broke out after security forces launched a search operation in Dadwani, Tangdhar, 185 km from here, early Sunday morning, after receiving information about the presence of heavily armed group of militants there.



The trapped militants fired on the search party, who retaliated. In the ongoing gunfight, three unidentified militants have been killed so far, they said, adding that the encounter was still ongoing.



An army official said a large cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from the encounter site. The slain militants were part of the Lakshar-e-Toiba outfit, who were involved in the attack on a BSF post in Tangdhar sector on August 19 in which three paramilitary troopers were injured, he said, adding that the entire area has been cordoned off and reinforcement has been sent to prevent the militants from escaping.



In June, the Army had foiled an infiltration bid by killing two militants in the same area near the Line of Control.



It was the second operation by the security forces along the LoC in Kashmir in last three days.



Meanwhile, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged gunfire at Machil sector along LoC in Kupwara on Saturday.



Sources said that Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire by firing at Indian posts.




Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, who has been spearheading the current unrest in Kashmir, is facing heat from the people on social media who started questioning where his children and grandchildren were.





A black and white picture showing Geelani with facial injuries due to pellet guns, and one of the eyes bandaged, has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.



The picture also carries a message, which says: Geelani wants others children to die whereas his own family members live in safe heavens when Kashmir is burning.



Dear Geelani, if you want the pellet guns banned then stop using others children before them and start putting your sons who live abroad, while you live in Z Plus security, reads the message alongside the picture.



While Geelani is unwilling to break the protest calendar being announced by him and other leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, some people including Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti have accused the separatist leadership of victimising the common people, whereas their own families are settled abroad so they make scapegoat of others.



Pertinently most of the Geelanis family members are well-settled outside Kashmir.

One of his sons-in-law is formally settled in New Delhi along with his family.



Observers believe that the morphed image of Geelani with his eye bandaged has been created by patriots who want to counter a similar social media war started by neighbouring Pakistan.



Last month, a Pakistan-based group had released black and white pictures of global celebrities, including Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with their faces hit by pellets.



Lone faces heat on social media



Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Opposition National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday dared separatist-turned-cabinet minister Sajad Lone to hold a rally in his Handwara Assembly constituency, DHNS reports from Srinagar.



The latest exchange fuelled the war of words between the two camps further.

Sajad launched a veiled attack on Junaid Mattu, the NC spokesman.



I too miss powerful pieces written by a young brother. So critical he was of NC as they ruled and ruined. Wonder who he was. 2010 it was, Sajad tweeted hinting at Junaid.But within moments, Lone faced the public fury as many netizens accused him of being a turncoat.






Soon, college students across the state will have to plant a sapling each as part of the Green Graduation initiative of the Higher Education Department.





Higher Education Minister Basvaraj Rayareddi made the announcement at a press conference here on Sunday. Students in undergraduate or postgraduate courses will be required to plant a sapling during the period of their courses and once they graduate, they may even get a graduation certificate with a picture of their plant on it. Thus the concept of Green Graduation.



The initiative has already been tried by the medical students of the Sri Siddhartha University, Tumakuru. The students even offered to adopt the plants after they completed their courses, said an agenda copy of the Green Graduation provided by the Karnataka State Higher Education Council.



The drive will be inaugurated on October 22. Government colleges and universities have been asked to give a specific date when they can engage in the activity, said Rayareddi. Considering the number of students in 25 state universities and 412 government colleges and other government institutions, the minister gave an estimate of 20 lakh saplings to be planted. They can plant the saplings either within the campuses or an adjacent highways.



The one-student-one-tree concept was developed as part of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) by the World Health Organisation. It was also discussed at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Boston, 2015.
A Delhi Police head constable riding a two-wheeler was crushed by a speeding car allegedly driven by a teenager in northeast Delhis Welcome area, the police said.





In another incident, three policemen were injured in exchange of fire with robbers in Rohini Sector 24 on Sunday. Two criminals were arrested, the police said.



In the northeast Delhi accident, Naresh Pal Malik, 54, who was working in the Special Branch, was hit by the rashly driven car near Metro Station in Welcome area around 8 am on Sunday, the police said.



The accident took place near a T-point on the GT Road. The driver of the car was overpowered by onlookers and handed over to police, said a police official.



The car driver, whose claim of being a juvenile is being verified by the police, tried to flee from the spot but was chased by onlookers who were alerted by the loud sound created by the collision.



The police said the driver was asked to present his driving licence but he failed to do so. The driver is a resident of Chandni Chowk and his family was informed soon after the incident.

The head constable died on way to hospital as he bled due to the head injuries.



Pal lived in Surya Vihar in Ghaziabad and joined the Delhi Police in 1982. At present, he was posted in the Police Bhawan at Turkman Gate and involved in activities related to checking antecedents and movements of visiting Pakistanis.



In the Rohini incident, gangster Sudhir and his associate Abhey were arrested after they hit a police vehicle and opened fire in an attempt to escape, the police said. A car and pistol were recovered from the culprits, the police said.



An official said they laid a trap to arrest the gangsters after they received a tip off that they would try to rob property dealer Mahender in Rohini Sector 24.



When they were flagged to slow down, the accused hit a police vehicle and started firing, police said.



Earlier, a another constable was killed by robbers in west Delhis Shahabad Dairy area on Friday night, the police said.



At the time of the incident, Constable Anand Singh was chasing three robbers who had robbed a woman street vendor in Sector 5 Bawana industrial area on Friday night.



The police are yet to arrest the bike-borne assailants, who allegedly used their helmets, to bludgeon the constable who was hit by a bullet in the chest.



The AAP government announced Rs 1 crore compensation for Singh's family as per its policy, which states personnel of police, armed forces, paramilitary and other uniformed forces, who are citizen of the national capital, killed on duty will be given this compensation by the city administration.
The AAP government is likely to face the heat in the four-day Assembly session starting from Monday over alleged delay of over an year in imposing a ban on deadly Chinese kite string, which claimed three lives last week.





The Opposition is ready with its ammunition to go all out against the Kejriwal government in the House, amid fresh documentary proof indicating that the government failed to act promptly despite a draft notification to ban the Chinese string being ready as far back as May 27, 2015.



The draft notification prepared by the then Additional Environment Secretary Kulanand Joshi had got the approval of Chief Secretary K K Sharma and the Environment Secretarys approval in 2015 but it never reached its logical conclusion, show documents accessed by DH.



Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta of the BJP, said his party would raise the issue in the House. Can there be any bigger lapse in governance than the delay over the notification, he said.



Fresh documents with DH reveal that the draft notification issued by the Delhi government on August 16, seeking public objections, was advised as far back as May 27, 2015 but the process did not move forward.



The Environment Department in 2015 presented before the AAP government a similar notification of 1992 and suggested that the Gazette Notification on ban should be preceded by invitation of public objections and the process under the Environment Protection Act had to be conducted under the name of the Lieutenant-Governor, who was the competent authority for such matters.



Sources said the Law Departments suggestion to route the file of draft notification on banning Chinese kite string was not followed in 2015, delaying the entire process till the recent Delhi High Courts reminder to the government two months ago.



At present, public objections have been invited till October 15 over a draft notification seeking to ban Chinese string. Till that process is completed over the next two months, the AAP government has got a special order issued by the Divisional Commissioner banning for a month manufacture, storage, and usage of sharp manja/nylon manja.



Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has blamed the Raj Niwas and the Environment Secretary for delay in the ban formalities over the past fortnight.



The Leader of Opposition said: The AAP government has to answer why it failed to act in public interest in 2015.



He said the unconstitutional activity of the AAP government knows no bound and will be questioned in the House.



Kejriwals political carrier was born out of demonstration, yet, he unauthorisedly imposes Section 144 outside his residence, said Gupta.



The Opposition also plans to corner the AAP government over alleged nepotism in recruitment.



He also vowed to raise the issue of AAP government engaging a private company to appoint contract workers throughout Delhi government without calling tenders.




An Islamic State group suicide bomber, as young as 12 years, attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people, the Turkish president said on Sunday.





The bombing, late on Saturday night in Gaziantep near Turkeys border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.



President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbuls city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.



It was clear that Daesh had such an organisation in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times, Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for IS.



A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldnt believe the party was targeted.



This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party, Hamdullah Ceyhan said. This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing? he added.



Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), or were blamed on IS.



In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkeys capital, Ankara, in October killed 103.



The attack comes as the country is still reeling from the last months failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.



Earlier, Erdogan said there was absolutely no difference between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulens movement, calling them terrorist groups.



These bloodthirsty organisations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation, he added.



Group blamed for coup infiltrated India



Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed for last months failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has infiltrated India, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Asserting that FETO is secretive transnational criminal network with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools.




BLACK REPUBLICAN BLOG - The Republican Party is the party of civil rights and the four Fs: faith, family, freedom and fairness. The Democratic Party is the party of the four Ss: slavery, secession, segregation and socialism (Quote By Author Michael Scheuer).
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Ashly Helen Mason of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Johnathan Thomas Cochran, of Ashford, Alabama who both now reside in Dothan, Alabama, together with their parents announce their engagement and forthcoming marriage.

Ashly was born at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma where she was a graduate of the 2003 Class of Broken Arrow High School. She later went on to graduate from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design in 2011. Miss Mason also holds an Associate of Fine Arts from Tulsa Community College. She is the daughter of Jolene and Michael Fontenot and Pamela and James E. Mason II.

Johnathan was born and raised in Ashford, Alabama where he graduated, with honors, from Ashford High School in 2001. He attended Wallace Community College and later graduated from Troy University in 2007 with a Bachelor's degree in Marketing. Johnathan is also an Engineer First Lieutenant in the Alabama Army National Guard. He attended OCS and graduated from The Alabama Military Academy, Class 57A. He currently serves as the 166th Engineer Company Detachment 1 Commander. Johnathan is the son of Nina Sue Cochran of Ashford and Melinda and Johnny William Cochran of Kinsey, Alabama.

The wedding will be held at the Stoke's Barn at Landmark Park on October 2nd, 2016 with reception to follow.
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There is scope for many students to still reconsider other study options as many University of Delhi ( DU ) colleges have vacancies . A significant number of students have withdrawn their candidature from undergraduate courses at some colleges. So, the university has decided to announce three more cut-off lists  starting on August 20.



JM Khurana, dean of students welfare, said students in different courses and for different categories withdrew their candidature, primarily to join another college . In view of this, the university has decided to extend the date of admission. Candidates are advised to visit the university and college websites to look for the details of the extended schedule and the procedure to be followed, he added.



The document verification and approval of admissions will continue till August 22. Notification of the seventh cut-off list is expected on August 24. Students need to go to the respective college for document verification and confirm their admission by August 26. The eighth and final cut-off list is scheduled to be declared on August 29 with the process of document verification and approval of admissions to be completed by August 30. Only students already registered with the university will be considered for admission.



According to a member of the DU admission committee, students have been withdrawing because, with the cut-off lists, they assured themselves of a place in the particular college. However, they kept their options open. Once they qualified for entry into a medical college, they cancelled their candidature from the DU college, he said.



This year, the university had released just five cut-off lists after which every college released course and category-wise list of vacant seats. Applicants already registered with the university had to make fresh applications and a merit list was brought out for admission.








Neurosurgery > What it entails? A career in neurosurgery entails the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases that affect the nervous system, primarily the brain, spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. > Skills required: Aspirants must be focused, understanding and patient. This is because issues related to the nervous system often take time to diagnose and heal. For neurosurgeons, it is important to observe and notice the fine details of the symptoms a patient shows to help diagnose issues and treat them effectively. Good communication skills are a must to understand a patients concerns. > Work opportunities: In India, the number of neurosurgeons is limited to about 3,000. With an increasing number of head injuries, road accidents, brain haemorrhages and nervous disorders, the demand for doctors in this field is far more than its supply. Neurosurgeons can only work with hospitals or set up private clinics. This is because practising neurosurgery requires a large set-up comprising high-end machinery and technology, which is often found in hospitals, says Dr Nirav Mehta , neurosurgeon , Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre . Doctors in the field are often associated with multiple hospitals, alongside which they set up their consultancies. > Pay package: Fresh graduates can earn up to Rs 1,50,000 per month depending on their workplace and job profile. Ophthalmology > What it entails? An ophthalmologist diagnoses and treats issues related to the eye. He/she works to treat vision issues caused naturally or by accident. Ophthalmology focuses on the study of the anatomy of the eye to diagnose medical conditions. Ophthalmologists not only diagnose the issue but also perform surgeries and suggest preventive measures as and when required. In India, they perform over 6.4 million cataract surgeries a year, increasing the demand for doctors in the field, says Dr D Ramamurthy , president , All India Ophthalmological Society . > Skills required: Aspirants who wish to make a career in this field must have fine motor skills and must be patient and willing to work long hours. Since the eye is one of the most sensitive parts of the human anatomy, students must be focused and attentive at all times. Since, ophthalmologists double up as surgeons as well, they are required to perform well under pressure. > Work opportunities: Ophthalmologists usually begin by assisting senior professionals in the field, at hospitals or in a private set-up. Upon gaining a few years of work experience, they can set up their own practice, join government or private hospitals, or work with NGOs and other welfare groups. They can alternately pursue research in the field or make a career in teaching. Gaining experience and regularly updating their knowledge in keeping with the new trends in the field is important. > Pay package: Fresh graduates can earn Rs 75,000-1,00,000 per month depending upon their workplace and job profile. Gynaecology > What it entails? A counterpart to andrology, gynaecology entails the study of diseases related to the reproductive system of a woman. It covers the prevention, planning, diagnosis and cure of issues related to hormones, the ovary and the uterus. Gynaecologists not only diagnose and cure, but also help couples plan families. Apart from this, they work on curing various cancers and tumours that affect womens reproductive system. > Skills required: Dr Anita Gupta , unit head and senior gynaecologist and obstetrician, Max Smart Super Specialty Hospital , New Delhi says, Gynaecologists need to be sensitive and have good communication, listening and decision making skills. They must also take a focused approach and be understanding and willing to work long hours. Knowledge of more than three local languages will help them reach out to a bigger set of patients. > Work opportunities: Most gynaecologists, upon gaining experience, work with private hospitals on a consultancy basis. They simultaneously establish their private practice. A number of gynaecologists are also associated with welfare groups for women. > Pay package: Fresh candidates in the field can earn up to Rs 90,000 per month depending upon their workplace and job profile.
Genres : Western

Starring : Willie Nelson, Gary Busey, Isela Vega, and Gilbert Roland

Director : Fred Schepisi

Plot Synopsis

Karl Westover, an inexperienced farm boy, runs away after unintentionally killing a neighbor, whose family pursues him for vengeance. He meets Barbarosa, a gunman of near-mythical proportions, who is himself in danger from his father-in-law Don Braulio, a wealthy Mexican rancher. Don Braulio wants Barbarosa dead for marrying his daughter against the father's will. Barbarosa reluctantly takes the clumsy Karl on as a partner, as both of them look to survive the forces lining up against them.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.




Gov. Terry McAuliffe planned on restoring voting rights for 200,000 felons in Virginia. The Virginia Republican Party filed a lawsuit, claiming that the governor had overstepped his authority with the blanket pardon. In the end, the State Supreme Court ruled that McAuliffe could not restore voting rights to convicted felons en masse. The governor remained adamant that he will restore these rights, and vowed to circumvent the court by granting individual pardons. Well, the first 13,000 are ready to gothanks to the power of the autopenaccording to Laura Vozzella of The Washington Post:




Washington, Aug 21 (EFE).- Traditional Amish, who far removed from the media frenzy of the U.S. campaign season, are the target of a new support group for Donald Trump that is focusing on achieving the unthinkable: convincing the members of this humble and religious community to vote for a billionaire who is on his third marriage.

"They know very little about Trump. Imagine that you'd never read one of Trump's tweets, seen one of his (campaign) rallies on YouTube or followed the primary debates," Ben Walters, cofounder of the Amish PAC, said to EFE.

The PAC says it is the first political action group created to mobilize "the plain people," the Christian communities who keep to a simple lifestyle and live mainly in Pennsylvania and Ohio, states that could be decisive in the November election.

Among those several communities, the Amish are those who have been the most resistant to modernity. They are Protestant Anabaptists who adhere to the simple life of the 16th century, prohibiting television and computers, and some of them do not use electricity of telephones, ride only in horse-driven carriages and reside in rural areas with the pillars of their lives being family and religion.

Reconciling these values with Trump - the presidential candidate of opulence, exaggeration, harsh remarks, two divorces and a personal life that has been transformed into an ongoing reality show of sorts - does not appear to be an easy task.

"The Amish acknowledge that we all have faults and they would probably say they pray for Trump and let God be the one to do the judging," said Walters when asked if their faith would allow them to vote for a person who has been married three times.

"They believe that he would nominate conservative (Supreme Court) judges who are against abortion ... and that he would comprise his government of solid conservatives. Also, I think that the decision to select (proven conservative) Mike Pence as his (running mate) reassures the Amish," he added.

There are about 70,000 Amish in both Pennsylvania and Ohio and more than 300,000 nationwide - the great majority of them Republicans - and in three Canadian provinces since they emigrated from Europe in the 18th century and "it's fair to say that about half of them are of voting age," said Walters.
Genres : Horror, Science Fiction, TV

Starring : Corey Stoll, David Bradley, Kevin Durand, Richard Sammel, Jack Kesy, Miguel Gomez

Plot Synopsis

The mysterious epidemic transforming the citizens of New York into horrifying creatures continues to rage during the second terrifying season of this acclaimed horror series. While doctors Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) race to create a biological weapon to destroy the creatures, Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) relentlessly searches for an ancient book that may hold the key to defeating the sinister Master. Aware that he is now hunted by his handful of unlikely allies, the Master creates even more unstoppable bloodthirsty monsters in this darkly thrilling show that delivers nonstop chills from the first episode through the climactic season finale!




Genres : Adventure, Classic

Starring : Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Lil Dagover, Georg John, Rudolf Lettinger

Director : Fritz Lang

Plot Synopsis

With this exotic adventure film, director Fritz Lang established himself as a master of epic storytelling, a talent that would reach its pinnacle in such monumental films as Metropolis and Die Nibelungen. Influenced by the French serials of Louis Feuillade (Fantomas) and infused with Lang s own fascination with Asian culture, THE SPIDERS follows international adventurer Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt) in his quest for Incan gold and the precious Buddha s head diamond. Along the way, he must contend with an organization of criminal spies known as The Spiders, who will employ any form of treachery, including murder, to snatch the artifacts from his possession.



Bonus Features: Original German Intertitles with Optional English Subtitles
They are British, Finnish, French, Chinese and Italian. They are young and talented and have overcome fears and apprehensions to give their education an unforgettable boost. They have chosen the ESRF as a springboard to the future. They are just a few of the hundreds of students from the world over for whom the ESRF plays a significant role. Meet some of the young talents we welcomed this year.

'I didnt know anything about the ESRF before last year. I was amazed by the Experimental Hall. Its huge and so full of high-tech instrumentation and equipment. How on earth did they build it? Im amazed by how much people know and by all this technology. Its an accumulation of the work of hundreds and hundreds of scientists, each contributing their part', says Pierre-Olivier Autran, student in materials engineering at the French engineering school Polytech Montpellier and currently on placement at the ESRF.

Awesome? Indeed! Very often, a traineeship at the ESRF is the first experience of working abroad, and the decision to leave home, family and comfort zone doesnt come without some initial anxiety.

The idea of integrating the ESRF can be dompting, as Yi Yao, a Chinese student on the Erasmus programme and affiliated to the University of Rennes, France, reveals: 'I never thought Id be able to work here, because I believed that everyone was young, successful, knew all about physics and was obviously a genius. Now, Ive seen that everyone is a genius, yes! But that if you have the right attitude and you really want to, theres a place for you here.'

Marco Moretti and Yi Yao in front of the RIXS spectrometer on ESRF's ID20 beamline. ESRF/C. Argoud.

Aim high and let fly!

Yi has felt her confidence boosted by her placement at the ESRF. 'Before I thought all of this was out of reach for me. The notoriety and success of the ESRF made me feel it may be too big for me to fit in.' Now she feels more at home here, mainly due to the culture of openness and trust at the ESRF. 'Compared to China, here I have been given more trust over the equipment and participation in the experiment.'

Serena Pantalone, from the University di Parma in northern Italy, admits to having felt intimidated about joining a team where people 'knew a lot'. 'I felt like a small student at the beginning, but now I feel like a member of the team. My supervisor is fantastic and has been really helpful, everyone has.'

Student Serena Pantalone (left) with supervisors Gabriele Giachin and Montserrat Soler-Lopez inside one of the biology laboratories at the ESRF. ESRF/C. Argoud.

Serena says her English was scholastic before the start of the assignment. She had no school basics of French and remembers that, at first, it was very difficult to communicate outside the campus. 'I found that people didnt want to speak English, but if I tried to speak French first then most people turned out to speak good English and were really helpful!'

Miika Rasola, a Finnish student in theoretical physics at the University of Helsinki, admits shyly that he was worried he wouldnt be up to standard for the work given him. His fears turned out to be unfounded and now he feels more confident about his skills. 'My tutors knew exactly what to expect from me and didnt put me in any difficulty. The people are very nice here, its not difficult to fit in.'

'I was quite scared at the idea of finding myself without anywhere to stay', says Pierre-Olivier, who studies in southern city of Montpellier. 'I got a lot of refusals by phone but, once I came to Grenoble, it was really very easy to find lodgings.'

A rich diversity of cultures and professions

Mirroring the image of the ESRFs population and spectre of professions, trainees also originate from many different horizons and their topics of study are just as diverse.

Serena is in the last year of a Masters course in molecular biology. She is studying three proteins that are possibly implicated in Alzheimers disease. Her mission is to make crystals of these proteins, then study them using the ESRFs X-rays. In this way she aims to gain a better understanding of their structure and behaviour.

For Serena, the six month placement in the macromolecular biology laboratory at the ESRF has given her a practical experience to complement a mainly theoretical approach at the University. 'Before, I was mainly studying with books as company. Now Im interacting with a large group of biologists and have gained enough experience in the lab to be autonomous.' She feels more open-minded than before and more confident in collaborating with non-biologists. 'I have worked with mathematicians and physicists here, something I would never have imagined doing before.'

Pierre-Olivier has the mission to upgrade the reconstruction process for tomographic applications in collaboration with a PhD student and researcher at neighbouring institute CEA (French Atomic Agency). 'This placement has given me the chance to acquire a solid base in computing. For me, the computing experience is an absolute necessity to complement the materials engineering.' Using iterative algorithms, Pierre-Olivier is developing a software program which would allow to reduce by 75% the number of projections, or photos, needed to reconstruct, with very high resolution, 3D tomographic images of samples under study. If feasible, the program would cut the data-taking time by 75%, enabling a current 5-hour manoeuvre to be completed in a little over 1 hour. 'Curiosity took over and it motivated me to go even further into the programming. I surprised myself by taking problem-solving to a much deeper level that I thought I could!'

Ennio Capria (right) with student, Pierre-Olivier Autran from Polytech Montpellier. ESRF/C. Argoud.

The multi-cultural environment can also be surprising as Pierre-Olivier found out: 'I imagined it would be very French here, but thats not at all the case. Its amazing how people just switch from one language to another without batting an eyelid. Its great to hear English, then Spanish then Italian spoken almost all within the same phrase!'

Collaboration is also key in the world of research, whether among individuals of different nationalities and professions or between different research institutes. As Ennio Capria, engineer in charge of the Nanoelec Platform for Advanced Characterisation in the ESRFs Business Development Office, and Pierre-Oliviers supervisor at the ESRF, explains: 'The work carried out by Pierre-Olivier will support the research programme established for an Innovation Lead Long Term Proposal (iLTP) resulting from a collaboration between the ESRF, STMicroelectronics and the CEA-LETI. The iLTP is focused on advanced characterisation of nanoelectronics devices, including statistical analyses, and involves several of the ESRFs nanocharacterisation beamlines, in particular nanotomography operated on ID16A.'

Miika Rasola, one of the rare Finnish students, has designed electrochemical cells to investigate the chemical reactions on the interface between liquid and solid states on the high-energy beamline, ID31. The first cell has been designed and the parts ordered. Miika hopes they will arrive for him to assemble them before the summer shutdown in August.

Jakob Drnec, scientist on ESRF's ID31 beamline, with Miika Rasola, Finnish student from the University of Helsinki, look at an unusual set-up inside the beamline experimental hutch. ESRF/C. Argoud.

Every day is a good day

The ESRF is also host to technical apprentices. Ryan Evans and Ashley Churchman are just winding up a three-week placement as part of their apprenticeship at the UKs Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Ive not had a bad day here yet, says Ryan in a cheery accent from northern England. My supervisor, John, is the first person to make me smile in the morning and hes been really helpful.

Ryan was given two main projects during the placement. First he had to manufacture a circuit to monitor the robot sample placer, then he built a test station for beam shutters to control their position and check the functioning of the electronics and pneumatics. The projects involved working directly on the beamlines and experimental set-ups, a novelty for Ryan. Everything is very well organised and projects seem to go to plan. The hardest thing was understanding the French names of the components!

Its Ryans first experience of working and living abroad. With a rudimentary grasp of the language, he has particularly appreciated the very practical approach of the French lessons. We had to buy a bus pass, order a meal in a restaurant or go shopping, he explains. It was good to get some guidance on the cultural differences too, to be sure not to offend anyone.

Ive really enjoyed it. Engineers and technicians work well together and theres a lot of respect between colleagues for each others skills, says Ashley.

A taste of France and Europe for these UK apprentices. From left to right: supervisor Keith Baldock, apprentices Ashley Churchman and Ryan Evans, supervisor John Surr. ESRF/C. Argoud.

Its Ashleys third placement abroad through the STFC apprenticeship and he has already worked at CERN and ILL. His mission here is to design and assemble a security circuit (emergency stop framework) to house an X-ray camera on ESRFs ID06 beamline. My supervisor and colleagues here have put a lot of trust in me. They appreciate that Ive done an apprenticeship and have not made me start from the basics for this placement.

For Keith Baldock, ESRF senior technician and Ashleys tutor, the benefits are not all one-sided and the ESRF reaps the rewards of its investment in training these young talents. He says, 'I found Ashley was of great benefit to the group during his short stay here. He was always polite and showed a lot of motivation and enthusiasm for the projects we worked on. He learns very quickly, and had some passion for learning the French language.'

Do you want a springboard to the future? Find out more about training opportunities at the ESRF.

Text by Kirstin Colvin
The ESRF had an extraordinary and ancient visitor this week: the most complete fossil skeleton ever found of the small plant-eating dinosaur, heterondontosaurus tucki, which roamed the earth 200 million years ago.To study the dinosaurs anatomy, a team of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, has teamed up with palaeontologists at the ESRF to use the high-energy, high brilliance, wide X-rays produced to non-invasively reconstruct the skeleton in incredible detail.

The ESRF had an extraordinary and ancient visitor this week: the most complete fossil skeleton ever found of the small plant-eating dinosaur, heterondontosaurus tucki, which roamed the earth 200 million years ago. This exceptional specimen was discovered in South Africas Eastern Cape province and excavated by palaeontologist Billy de Klerk. Because the small skeleton is embedded in hard rock, attempts to extract the bones would cause irreparable damage. To study the dinosaurs anatomy, a team of scientists from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, led by Professor Jonah Choiniere, has teamed up with palaeontologists at the ESRF to use the high-energy, high brilliance, wide X-rays produced to non-invasively reconstruct the skeleton in incredible detail.

Over the last two decades, the ESRF has developed unique worldwide expertise in palaeontology. If fossil teeth, bones and skulls are examined on a daily basis by the ESRFs team of palaeontologists, the scanning of a complete skeleton remains exceptional.

From 21 -26 July, scientists from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, came to the ESRF to scan the complete skeleton of Heterodontosaurus tucki.

Heterodontosaurus was a small, plant eating animal with grinding teeth in the back of the jaw and big canines in the front. The scientists, led by Wits Professor Jonah Choiniere with ESRFs Dr Vincent Fernandez, scanned the specimen over five days using the extremely brilliant X-rays produced at the ESRF to help them understand how Heterodontosaurus ate, moved, and breathed.

Theres still a lot we dont know about early plant-eating dinosaurs, said Choiniere, Professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, Wits University, and we need new specimens like this one and new technology like the synchrotron to fill in those gaps.

After five days of data taking, Jonah Choiniere and the team took a first look at the images. The reaction is unanimous, with a sonorous and collective "Amazing!". Choniere adds "Right away when we open these images we can tell quite a few things about the skull. One of the things is that it's likely a juvenile: the skull bones aren't strongly sutured together. We can also tell that we're really able to reconstruct the skull very, very well. On the first scans we can see the openings in the skull which are for the balance organs. We can digitally reconstruct the balance organs of the animal and tell how it held it's head and how it interacted with its environment. That's the sort of data you just can't get by looking at a skull in 2d. So it's very exciting."

Jonah Choiniere presenting the fossil. Complete skeleton of the fossil. Set-up of the skull in the experimental hutch on ESRF's ID17 beamline, with Jonah Choiniere (left) and Vincent Fernandez. Skull of the Heterodontosaurus tucki dinosaur. All photos: ESRF/P. Jayet

This work is part of a long standing collaboration between palaeoscientists based at the ESRF and in South Africa, an associate country of the ESRF. Just last year, the ESRFs Dr. Vincent Fernandez arranged for some of the worlds oldest dinosaur embryos, originating from South Africa, to be scanned at the ESRF. The rocks of the Karoo from South Africa have yielded an extraordinary amount of amazing fossils said Fernandez, Since South Africa joined the ESRF as an associate country, we've been able to scan a lot of these fossils and work on projects that were not accessible before.

Billy de Klerk at the site of the discovery and excavation. Credit: Billy de Klerk

Billy de Klerk found the dinosaur skeleton in a stream bed near a small town in the Eastern Cape province, on Hannie van Heerdens farm. With the help of a crew from the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, de Klerk and John Hepple, a technician at Rhodes University Geology Department, excavated the fossil and painstakingly removed enough rock from the bones to identify the specimen.

The scientists looking at the first scan of the fossil's skull. From Left to right: Kathleen N. Dollman, Jonah Choiniere, Vincent Fernandez and Kimberley E.J. Chapelle. Credit: ESRF/P. Jayet

A few more years on the streambed and the specimen might have been washed away, stated de Klerk, we just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Further preparation work, however, was nearly impossible  the skeleton is too small and delicate, and the rocks around it too hard, to enable scientists to fully study the anatomy. Thats where the synchrotron comes in: the high-energy X-rays generated by the ESRF facility will allow scientists to reconstruct the skeleton in incredible detail.

Since 2000, the ESRF has developed unique worldwide expertise in palaeontology, designing non-invasive techniques specifically for palaeontological studies. The ESRF also benefits from a team of experts in palaeontology and houses several beamlines dedicated to X-ray imaging. Together with local expertise on scanning fossils including some very famous pieces like Sediba or Toumai, these ESRF beamlines offer the unique combination of high-energy, high brilliance and wide X-ray beams necessary to scan large fossils. The high coherence of the beam provides the key factor for this type of research: fossilised bones and the surrounding rock have very similar density and this feature enhances the contrast between the two in the resulting images, a critical advantage for virtually digging out the fossil. For this experiment, explains Vincent Fernandez, the ESRF allows to do long distance propagation phase contrast micro-tomography on a large sample at high energy with a dedicated sample stage.

Masters student and part of the scientific team, Kathleen Dollman, from Wits University, is hoping to apply this technique to the fossil crocodiles she is studying for her degree. X-ray computed tomography (CT) methods have revolutionised palaeontology, stated Dollman, and we can use these methods to understand so much about the biology of these extinct animals.

The results of this research should provide valuable insight into the life-style of early plant-eating dinosaurs. But, as the popular saying goes, patience reaps the greatest awards and the processing of the data collected, an amazing 1TB (that's 60 piles of stacked paper as tall as the Eiffel tower), will take almost a year to complete. At the ESRF we have absolutely no doubts: the rewards will be great!

The South African scientists acknowledge the support of the DST/NRF.

Related articles:

A tough egg to crack  oldest lizard embryos discovered in fossil eggs (2015)

To fly or not to fly? Rare archaeopteryx at ESRF (2014)

Sediba  Human brain evolution, new insight through X-rays (2011)

Toumai, our earliest relative, at the ESRF (2003)
Tonight in Kansas City, MO, at Midamericon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, the Hugo Awards

were presented to a rapt audience in person and online, with voters weighing on a ballot

that had been partially sabotaged by a small clique of people who objected to

stories about wowen and people who weren't white.





The awards featured several callouts to the people who vowed to burn the Hugos down  Neil Gaiman's written acceptance in a category

where his The Sandman: Overture was the only serious contenter dismissed the antics as attention-seeking

stupidity.

The readers overwhelmingly voted in titles by diverse authors  for the second year in a row, a translated work

by a Chinese author won a prize, and the night also saw the first-ever Hugo awarded to a Filipina person.

Two women of color won for fiction: N.K. Jemisin won best novel for The Fifth Season (and joined other

writers in applause-getting excoriation of the "Rabid Puppies" and "Sad Puppies"), while Nnedi Okorafor

won for her novella Binti.

Another highlight: two astronauts accepted prizes on behalf of Andy Weir and film

adaptation of his novel, The Martian. Weir, who began his career as a self-published author,

took the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

It was an outstanding slate of winners  a rebirth of the Hugos. Congratulations to everyone who took home a rocketship tonight (and to the magnificent Chuck Tingle, too!).

Full voting statistics

here.

Best Novel: The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin, Orbit

Best Novella: Binti

Best Novelette: Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang (translator Ken Liu)

Best Short Story: Cat Pictures Please, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, 1/15).

Best Professional Editor  Long Form: Sheila Gilbert (DAW)

Best Professional Editor  Short Form: Ellen Datlow

Best Dramatic Presentation  Long Form: The Martian

Best Dramatic Presentation  Short Form: Jessica Jones, "AKA Smile"

Best Graphic Story: The Sandman: Overture, Neil Gaiman; art by J.H. Williams III (Vertigo)

Best Professional Artist: Abigail Larson





Best Related Work: NO AWARD

Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Andy Weir

Best Fanzine: File 770

Best Fancast: NO AWARD

Best Fan Writer: Mike Glyer

Best Fan Artist: Steve Stiles
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 21, 2016 -- At the grocery store, most foods -- meats, breads, cheeses, snacks -- come wrapped in plastic packaging. Not only does this create a lot of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable waste, but thin plastic films are not great at preventing spoilage. And some plastics are suspected of leaching potentially harmful compounds into food. To address these issues, scientists are now developing a packaging film made of milk proteins -- and it is even edible.

The researchers are presenting their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. A brand-new video on the research is available at http://bit.ly/ACSediblepackaging.

"The protein-based films are powerful oxygen blockers that help prevent food spoilage. When used in packaging, they could prevent food waste during distribution along the food chain," says research leader Peggy Tomasula, D.Sc.

And spoiled food is just one issue. Current food packaging is mainly petroleum-based, which is not sustainable. It also does not degrade, creating tons of plastic waste that sits in landfills for years.

To create an all-around better packaging solution, Tomasula and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are developing an environmentally friendly film made of the milk protein casein. These casein-based films are up to 500 times better than plastics at keeping oxygen away from food and, because they are derived from milk, are biodegradable, sustainable and edible. Some commercially available edible packaging varieties are already on the market, but these are made of starch, which is more porous and allows oxygen to seep through its microholes. The milk-based packaging, however, has smaller pores and can thus create a tighter network that keeps oxygen out.

Although the researchers' first attempt using pure casein resulted in a strong and effective oxygen blocker, it was relatively hard to handle and would dissolve in water too quickly. They made some improvements by incorporating citrus pectin into the blend to make the packaging even stronger, as well as more resistant to humidity and high temperatures.

After a few additional improvements, this casein-based packaging looks similar to store-bought plastic wrap, but it is less stretchy and is better at blocking oxygen. The material is edible and made almost entirely of proteins. Nutritious additives such as vitamins, probiotics and nutraceuticals could be included in the future. It does not have much taste, the researchers say, but flavorings could be added.

"The coatings applications for this product are endless," says Laetitia Bonnaillie, Ph.D., co-leader of the study. "We are currently testing applications such as single-serve, edible food wrappers. For instance, individually wrapped cheese sticks use a large proportion of plastic -- we would like to fix that."

Because single-serve pouches would need to stay sanitary, they would have to be encased in a larger plastic or cardboard container for sale on store shelves to prevent them from getting wet or dirty.

In addition to being used as plastic pouches and wraps, this casein coating could be sprayed onto food, such as cereal flakes or bars. Right now, cereals keep their crunch in milk due to a sugar coating. Instead of all that sugar, manufacturers could spray on casein-protein coatings to prevent soggy cereal. The spray also could line pizza or other food boxes to keep the grease from staining the packaging, or to serve as a lamination step for paper or cardboard food boxes or plastic pouches. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration recently banned the perfluorinated substances that used to coat these containers, so casein coatings could be a safe, biodegradable alternative.

Bonnaillie says her group is currently creating prototype film samples for a small company in Texas, and the development has garnered interest among other companies, too. The group plans to keep making improvements, and she predicts this casein packaging will be on store shelves within 3 years.

A press conference on this topic will be held Monday, Aug. 22, at 11:15 a.m. Eastern time in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Reporters may check in at Room 307 in person, or watch live on YouTube http://bit.ly/ACSlivephiladelphia. To ask questions online, sign in with a Google account.

###

The researchers acknowledge funding from the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note to journalists: Please report that this research is being presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

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Title

Advances in food packaging films from milk proteins

Abstract

Most commercial petroleum-based food packaging films are poor oxygen barriers, do not biodegrade, and some are suspected to even leach compounds into the food product. For instance, three-perfluorinated coatings were banned from convenience food packaging earlier this year. These shortcomings are a problem particularly with high-fat foods, which may solvate leached compounds faster and tend to oxidize. Packaging films made from milk proteins are excellent oxygen barriers, up to 500 times better than LDPE, and completely food-safe. In addition, they are hydrophilic and repel grease, can be eaten with the food product, and dissolve easily in hot or cold water. For these reasons, milk-based films are ideal candidates to coat convenience food packaging; layer between synthetic films to block oxygen; coat foods to preserve them and carry additional nutrients; or, form increasingly-popular single-serve pouches, which can be either eaten or dissolved, generating zero waste. This presentation reports ARS' recent advances in strengthening casein-based, edible packaging films, to physically protect food products, as well as mediate their hydrophilicity to customize their resistance to environmental conditions and/or rate of dissolution and enable a broad range of applications, from cheese-stick wrappers to healthy cereal glaze. The rheological, mechanical, thermal, structural, barrier and functional properties of solvent-cast casein-based films and coatings are characterized using state-of-the art, environmentally-controlled instrumentation such as DMA-RH, vapor-sorption analysis (VSA), oxygen permeability analysis, water vapor transmission, microscopy, and more. Due to the complex, charged, 3-D structure of protein monomers, casein films are sensitive to many formulation and processing parameters, including the caseinate type (calcium or sodium) and concentration, polysaccharide cross-linkers, alkalinity of the suspension, film-casting parameters, and the environmental conditions during drying, storage and testing conditions are critical to the mechanical properties and shelf-life of these hygroscopic, versatile edible polymers.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 21, 2016 --The developing world is awash in substandard, degraded or falsified medications, which can either directly harm users or deprive them of needed treatment. And with internet sales of medications on the rise, people everywhere are increasingly at risk. So, a team of researchers has developed a simple, inexpensive paper-based device to screen suspicious medications.

The researchers will present their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. A brand-new video on the research is available at http://bit.ly/ACSfakedrugdetection.

"People who don't have access to the best-quality medicines also don't have as many resources to buy the analytical instrumentation to detect the quality problems," says Marya Lieberman, Ph.D. "Instead of a $30,000 instrument, we've developed a $1 paper card. We designed the card so it would be as easy and inexpensive to use as possible."

Medications can be compromised in many different ways. For example, they may be bulked up with fillers, or they can degrade because they are stored improperly. Identifying poor-quality medications is challenging, as inspectors may not know in advance what chemical adulterants or degradation products they need to look for. Plus, bad-quality medications may contain at least some of the active ingredient, so simply detecting the presence of the real medication isn't enough to rule out issues.

In this study, Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame, along with Hamline University undergraduate Sarah Bliese, developed a card to detect falsified or degraded antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin or ceftriaxone, both of which the World Health Organization lists as "essential." To screen for a variety of potential quality issues, the researchers included 12 lanes separated by wax barriers on the paper device. Each lane contained a different set of reagents to detect materials or functional groups found in active pharmaceutical ingredients, degradation products or common fillers.

To run a sample, the researchers crush a pill and rub the resulting powder across all 12 lanes, and then dip the bottom of the paper card in water for three minutes. The water wicks up the lanes, bringing reagents into contact with the powder. Colors are formed when the reagents interact with the pharmaceutical, filler or degradation product. The researchers then compare the color pattern from the sample with the color patterns obtained from high-quality pharmaceutical products. The comparison can be done by eye or with an image-analysis program on a smartphone.

Ceftriaxone is sensitive to heat and breaks down if storage temperatures climb too high. As an experiment, the researchers subjected ceftriaxone to high temperatures and ran the card test, simultaneously analyzing the degradation products via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. They verified that the colorimetric pattern for the degraded antibiotic was different from that of the correctly stored product. In addition to these tests on the pure active ingredient, Lieberman and Bliese analyzed dozens of real-world samples of ceftriaxone from Kenya and Uganda.

Unscrupulous makers of falsified medication sometimes add colorants containing toxic heavy metals to their products to make the illicit pills more closely resemble their legitimate counterparts, Bliese says. So, in a related project at Hamline University, Bliese and Deanna O'Donnell, Ph.D., are exploring whether a portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy device can scan pills for these substances.

In June, Lieberman and Bliese traveled to Kenya to test a new paper card which can detect substandard antibiotics. While Lieberman is currently focusing her work on the developing world, she says her cards could be applicable worldwide to perform, for example, the analysis of herbal medicines and nutritional supplements. "Sometimes those 'herbal products' are actually spiked with pharmaceuticals," she explains. "The paper test cards could be a defense against this." Bliese says her next project will be to develop a paper test card to help first responders identify drugs of abuse and differentiate them from household products or legitimate medicines.

A press conference on this topic will be held Monday, Aug. 22, at 9 a.m. Eastern time in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Reporters may check in at Room 307 in person, or watch live on YouTube http://bit.ly/ACSlivephiladelphia. To ask questions online, sign in with a Google account.

###

Lieberman acknowledges funding from the US-AID Development Innovation Ventures program, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. Bliese acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation REU program.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note to journalists: Please report that this research is being presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

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Title

Determining quality of antibiotics using paper analytical devices, high performance liquid chromatography, and portable X-ray fluorescence

Abstract

The quality of antibiotics in the developing world is a growing concern, because poor-quality medicine can cause treatment failure, adverse drug effects, increased drug resistance, and reduce the confidence of consumers in the health care system of the society. Good quality medicines must meet pharmacopeia standards that describe the content and bioavailability of their active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Medicines can fail to meet these standards for reasons including deliberate falsification, careless manufacturing, and degradation during storage. Lack of regulatory and technical capacity allows sub-standard pharmaceuticals to penetrate supply chains and reach patients. In unregulated markets inactive products have been repeatedly identified, and in some instances falsified products have caused clinical problems including renal failure, hepatitis, aconite poisoning, or intoxication with arsenic and mercury.

Ceftriaxone is an injectable antibiotic used to treat life-threatening infections and ciprofloxacin is a wide spectrum fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Both are listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as essential medicines. We developed a way to detect falsified or degraded ceftriaxone using a paper analytical device (PAD). These paper devices contain 12 lanes, separated by hydrophobic wax barriers, with different reagents deposited on the lanes to detect APIs, degradation products, and fillers that might be used to adulterate falsified products.

Validation of the USP method for the analysis of ceftriaxone sodium, ceftriaxone injectable samples, ciprofloxacin hydrochloride, and ciprofloxacin extended-release samples was completed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Samples of ceftriaxone were heated to simulate poor storage conditions and the rates of formation of different degradation products were tracked; the products were identified by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). Four degradation products were identified throughout the study; the retention times of these products were similar to those of acid hydrolysis products reported in the literature. In parallel with this high-tech instrumentation study, PADs were used to track the colorimetric responses during degradation. A set of ciprofloxacin samples collected by covert shoppers in Kenya were analyzed using HPLC for API concentration and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) for the detection of heavy metals as a qualitative study.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 21, 2016 -- What do squid and jellyfish skin have in common with human skin? All three have inspired a team of chemists to create materials that change color or texture in response to variations in their surroundings. These materials could be used for encrypting secret messages, creating anti-glare surfaces, or detecting moisture or damage, they say.

The researchers will present their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

"Our experimental materials use cracks, folds or wrinkles to mimic the surface engineering of skin," says Luyi Sun, Ph.D., who heads the research. "These new materials are unique because they change color or transparency when they're stretched or exposed to moisture."

Human fingers wrinkle when they've been submerged in water for a while. But jellyfish skin can also wrinkle, Sun's graduate student Songshan Zeng says. "When they're scared, some types of jellyfish form a wrinkled surface that is opaque and warns off predators," says Zeng, who has a leading role in the project. "That same surface is transparent when it's flat." Even more impressive is the reaction of a squid when it is startled: Muscles in its skin contract, exposing colored pigments that serve as camouflage.

Sun's team and their collaborator, Dianyun Zhang, Ph.D., who are all at the University of Connecticut, studied these three types of skin to determine how surface engineering alters their properties in response to changes in the environment. The researchers replicated the wrinkled surfaces by placing a rigid thin film of polyvinyl alcohol on a rubbery base of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). "Like finger skin, whenever part of the film is exposed to moisture, it swells slightly, generating wrinkles," Sun says. Because the wrinkled part of the film is opaque, it can be used to form patterns -- such as letters -- that appear when the film is moistened. Sun notes that his is one of very few teams studying the dynamics of moisture-induced wrinkles, including how long they last and how to reverse them.

The presence and degree of crosslinking between polymer chains in the thin film dictates whether the wrinkling is reversible. On the one hand, if the film is formulated without crosslinking, wrinkles can be generated by moisture and subsequently smoothed out, but they cannot form again. This would be useful for displaying a message and then permanently erasing it once it's read -- a feature that James Bond would appreciate, Zeng notes. On the other hand, if the film has a certain type of crosslinking, wrinkles generated by moisture can never be erased. Thus, a small label incorporating the technology could go inside a cell phone (or on any circuit board). If the phone fell into a toilet, permanent wrinkles would form on the label in any desired shape (such as the chemical formula for water, "H 2 O"). This would be a dead give-away to a vendor that a customer had voided the warranty.

The researchers are also working on another cell phone application for wrinkled materials. Because wrinkles scatter light rays in multiple directions, rather than reflecting them directly back at a viewer, a different formulation of the material could make a cheap and effective anti-glare screen for phones, the researchers note.

In a separate project, Sun's group mimicked squid skin by creating a PDMS base layer containing a small amount of fluorescent dye and coating it with a rigid thin film of polyvinyl alcohol/clay composite. The clay makes the surface layer prone to developing a multitude of tiny cracks and folds. Stretching the material opens the folds and cracks on the originally smooth surface, altering its topography and appearance. Depending on the formulation, the film can reversibly change color, luminesce or go from clear to opaque. One potential application is a smart window containing a clear material that could be stretched slightly so it turns opaque to provide privacy. The team is the first to make these types of materials, Sun says.

A press conference on this topic will be held Monday, Aug. 22, at 1 p.m. Eastern time in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Reporters may check in at Room 307 in person, or watch live on YouTube http://bit.ly/ACSlivephiladelphia. To ask questions online, sign in with a Google account.

###

Sun acknowledges funding from the University of Connecticut and General Electric.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note to journalists: Please report that this research is being presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Follow us: Twitter | Facebook

Title

Bio-inspired design of highly sensitive and reversible mechanochromisms via surface engineering

Abstract

In nature, some marine organisms, such as Vogtia and Cephalopods, have evolved to possess camouflage traits by dynamically and reversibly altering their transparency, fluorescence, and coloration via muscle controlled surface structures and morphologies. To mimic this display tactics, we designed similar deformation controlled surface engineering via strain-dependent cracks and folds to realize four types of novel mechanochromic devices: (1) transparency change mechanochromism (TCM), (2) luminescent mechanochromism (LM), (3) color alteration mechanochromism (CAM), and (4) encryption mechanochromism (EM), based on a simple bilayer system containing a rigid thin film and a soft substrate. These devices exhibit a wide scope of mechanochromic response with excellent sensitivity and reversibility. The TCM device can reversibly and instantly switch between transparent and opaque state upon stretching and releasing. The LM can emit intensive fluorescence as stretched with an ultrahigh strain sensitivity in comparison to strain sensors based on electrical resistance change. The CAM can turn fluorescent color from green to yellow to orange as stretched within 20% strain. The EM device can reversibly reveal and conceal any desirable patterns. These novel devices are promising for applications in smart windows, dynamic optical switches, strain sensors, encryption, etc.

Title

Tuning dynamics of moisture responsive wrinkling surfaces

Abstract

Surface instability such as wrinkles commonly occurs in various materials with a wide scope of dimensions. Herein, we introduce three types of moisture responsive wrinkling surfaces with different dynamics as exposed to high humid environment based on a bilayer structure. All the three surfaces are initially flat and forming wrinkles as moisturized but with different responsive behaviors upon being further moisturized, dried and re-moisturized. In the first responsive dynamics, the highly opaque wrinkling surface can be rapidly generated as being moisturized and sustains for ca. 30 s followed by rewinding to transparent flattening surface upon further moisture exposure. No wrinkling surface is created again upon being re-exposed to moisture. This allows the design of an intriguing moisture responsive encryption device with the capability of "erase after read". In the second dynamics, the wrinkling surface can be rapidly generated as being moisturized and keeps stable regardless of moisture exposure time. Upon drying, the winkles can release back to the original flattening surface. The wrinkling and flattening surface can be repeatedly and reversibly created upon multiple dry/moisture cycles. A corresponding novel application of breathing activated anti-counterfeit tab is demonstrated. In the third dynamics system, the wrinkling surface can be generated as being moisturized and keeps stable in moisturized and dried state. This surface can be applied as a water indicator for electronic circuit, anti-glare surface, and optical diffusor.
SEATTLE -- Squatters who illegally occupy vacant homes or buildings are not always contributing to apathy or social disorder, says a new University of Michigan study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

It can actually be a good situation for a neighborhood to have these individuals move into abandoned homes, lessening the chance of them becoming sites for drug users or burned by arsonists, the study indicates.

In urban communities nationwide, such as Detroit, which are experiencing population decline, homes have been abandoned by owners or left unattended by private investors who often purchase them in bundles of tens, hundreds, or even thousands.

"While attempts to revitalize a city rely on private ownership to induce responsible care for property, that isn't always an option," said study author Claire Herbert, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a PhD in sociology.

That's where squatters come in.

Herbert, who will be an assistant professor at Drexel University in the fall, interviewed more than 60 people, including squatters, city authorities, and residents between 2013-2015, while also gathering ethnographic data on illegal property use from various sources, such as community meetings and squatted areas across Detroit.

Surprisingly, many of the residents in the study welcome squatters to keep abandoned homes occupied. Squatting, however, was not considered acceptable to residents if the home was still occupied or if the legal owner was maintaining and overseeing the property.

But, when there is minimal police or city oversight to enforce legal owners to maintain their vacant properties, neighboring residents seek solutions, Herbert said. Many forego involving the police or other city authorities to enforce legal ownership, but instead encourage responsible squatters in order to bring about the kind of positive impact that legal ownership is supposed to bring -- improved neighborhood conditions, such as safety, community, and care for physical structures.

###

About the American Sociological Association

The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.

The paper, "Like a Good Neighbor, Squatters Are There: Neighborhood Stability After All the Windows Have Been Broken," will be presented on Sunday, Aug. 21, at 2:30 p.m. PDT in Seattle at the American Sociological Association's 111th Annual Meeting.

To obtain a copy of the paper; for assistance reaching the study's author(s); or for more information on other ASA presentations, members of the media can contact Daniel Fowler, ASA Media Relations Manager, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org. During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 20-23), ASA Public Information Office staff can be reached in the on-site press office, located in Room 601 of the Washington State Convention Center, at (206) 219-4513 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).

Jared Wadley, Senior Public Relations Representative, University of Michigan News, wrote this press release. For more information about the study, members of the media can also contact Wadley at (734) 936-7819 or jwadley@umich.edu.

Papers presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Contact: Daniel Fowler, (202) 527-7885, (914) 450-4557 (cell), pubinfo@asanet.org

On-site Press Office (Aug. 20-23): Washington State Convention Center, Room 601, (206) 219-4513
Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web
A couple points regarding your questions:





Simply having property in your name does not make you tax resident in France. To be tax resident it needs to be your primary residence, where you keep most of your stuff, spend most of your time, and the address from which you maintain things like your medical care, main bank affiliations, etc. If you're still working and being paid in the UK, you will have trouble claiming residence in France.





For a mobile contract, she'd normally need to have a RIB for a bank account with her name on it. But check the websites of the mobile providers she is interested in. Once she has the phone, the service provider is mainly concerned with the number, not necessarily the name.





This starts to get into tricky territory. For a Navigo card, I believe you need to prove residence in Ile de France (which is the Paris area), so she'd need to have a utility bill or something similar in her own name. You can get a Navigo card in person at certain stations, and for that, I believe they will take a Carte Bleue (which is a "credit card" on the account - only CB actually work as debit cards). As long as she had a CB in her own name on the account, she could purchase whatever she likes anyplace that "takes plastic."



I suppose the next step for you is to see if the French bank account your UK bank will set up for you will issue a CB in the joint holder's name.

Cheers,

Bev
Hi all,



My name is Ted Lange. I soon... well as soon as my house sells will be living in Chiang Mai. I'm 36 years old with 3 kids living with me. We are a weird nerdy bunch.



I have lived with depression all of my life and pushed it all aside to make sure everyone I loved was cared for. I'd often starve myself so that my kids always had food. That was of course in the early days.



Now I am doing ok, I have a good job, but I am just sad. Every morning I wake up to my son saying "Daddy do you have to go to work" his eyes almost tearing up. I have no choice but to answer yes Han I do, but I love you and I will see you tonight.



This isn't living... I only have this one life and I only have so many moments to spend with my children.



So!... I am selling my house, quoting my job and selling everything, but my computer, clothes and musical instruments and moving to Chiang Mai to live a simpler life. I am going to follow my dreams and show my kids that they too shouldn't give up on their dreams in order to have food and shelter.



I plan to live a life I can be proud of and one that my kids will be proud of.



So thats me. I have a lot more to tell and a ton more to give to this world.



-Ted
Sunday, August 21, 2016

The mad quest for clicks appears to be leading websites that should know better to sink to misleading or outright dishonest headlines on the web. For someone like me, who has to scan these looking for possible ethics issues, it is an increasingly annoying phenomenon. Readers need to speak up. The practice is unethical, and moreover, suggests that the source itself isnt trustworthy.

Here are three current examples;

1. The Daily Beast: Idiocracy Director Mike Judge: Fox Killed Our Anti-Trump Camacho Ads

Boy, isnt it just like that conservative, Trump-promoting Faux News to help The Donald by using its power, influence, lawyers, something to stop the makers of Idiocracy, that comic classic, from being used to save the country from American Hitler?

Thats sure how the Daily Beast wanted its largely Democratic readership to react to its headline over the story about a fizzled effort to use the the films character of ex-porn star future U.S. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Drew Herbert Camacho, played by Terry Crews, in a series of comic spots ridiculing Trumps candidacy. The story, however, never quotes Judge as saying Foxthat would be the movie side of Twentieth Century Fox, not Fox News, which had no say in the matter: the company produced the film and owns the right to it and all of its characterskilled the project. All Judge says is that the idea of doing a series of such ads didnt come to fruition, for a whole list of reasons which might have included Foxs distaste for the project.. Of Fox, he says this..

I think also Fox yeah, they even though theyve probably forgotten they still own it

The writer then suggests that company owner Rupert Murdoch might not like the idea, and thus prompted, Judge replies,

Yeah. Thats the other thing. I think there was a roadblock there, tooI just heard that [the proposed ads] were put on the shelf, so it looks like theyre not going to happen.

Based on this, the author, typical Daily Beast hack Marlow Stern, writes, It looks like Fox refusedand the ads are now dead. Stern never says that Fox refused; it is the reporter who says it. Meanwhile, when the Daily Beast writes about Fox, it is referring to Fox News 99.9% of the time, and knows thats what its readers will think when they read Fox.

The headline is intentionally misleading, and a lie.

(Incidentally, the movie is a great concept that under-delivers on its premise and potential, and should be a lot funnier than it is)

2. PJ Media: Father Accused of Raping Daughter Acquitted After Fifty Shades of Grey Defense

Oh, no! Another scumbag goes free because a slime-ball defense lawyer comes up with some excuse like too many Twinkies or Affluenza and gets a judge or jury to buy it? Lets Kill all the lawyers!

When something is called the X defense, X is a novel theory, like the so called Twinkie defense used by Dan Whites lawyer in the Harvey Milk murder trial, that a defense lawyer tries in an often desperate effort to defend a guilty client. There was no Fifty Shades of Grey Defense in the British trial of a man accused by his daughter of repeatedly raping her, just the old-fashioned the alleged rape victim is lying and I can prove it defense.the same defense Hillary Clinton used when she was defending a rapist.

In the British trial, the fathers alert solicitor noticed something familiar in the daughters testimony to the police, and checked the popular novel to see if he was correct that the detailed accounts of her supposed rapes were really close adaptations of scenes from the book. They were. He passed the research on to the defense barrister , who began using some of the 17 examples where the daughter had used the novels scenes to attack the daughters credibility during cross examination. After only seven minutes, the victim broke down and confessed in open court that she had falsely accused her father to punish him for being too strict. He was was granted an immediate acquittal.

The PJ Media posts headline just piled up click bait imagesfather, rape, daughter, popular sex novelto suggest that one more crazy defense by a soulless lawyer had let a monster go free.

3. Breitbart, Townhall,Gateway Pundit, The College Fix and many, many more: Princeton HR department: Dont use word man  ; Insanity: The Word Man Is Banned At Princeton University, and various variations.

Oh, no! More Orwellian thought and speech control on college campuses! First theyll ban the word man, and next theyll ban men! And this is Princeton! The feminazis have taken over!

Ugh. Nobody at Princeton told anyone never to use the word man. Nobody banned the word man. Man is still approved at Princeton when it means man. Princeton is telling its employees to avoid using man in words where it also refers or could refer to women, or men who identify as women, or women who identify as appliances, or whatever, like chairman, common man, man-hours, reasonable man, etc. This memo was circulated in the 1970s! It is old, old news.

Now, please understand that criticism of the memo is justified, since it is excessive and pretty stupid. Dictating an official style that avoids generic uses of man is reasonable, I suppose, in an attempt to eliminate subliminal subordination of women in the language. Calling for the elimination of all gendered pronouns (though its just a tip) is insane, and Princeton deserves all the mockery it gets for employing people who issue crap like this.

The table of occupation names that Princeton wants gender-neutralized is especially derision-worthy. The idea of language is to be descriptive, and the more descriptive, the better. There is nothing the matter with the term actress to describe a woman who acts, and nothing is gained by calling one an actor, except confusion. In one of my late, lamented theater companys productions, a male played Lady Macbeth. Saying an actor played Lady MacBeth in non-PrincetonSpeak would describe the non-traditional casting, and prompt the next question, Really? How did that work out?

Moreover, this tip contradicts the objective of the rest of the memo. Most of it urges speakers to avoid using masculine wordsyou know, like actoras a generic to describe something women do as well. Here, employees are told to use them. Why not call all actors actresses, then?

As usually happens with radical ideological attempts to restrict n language, the effort drowns in its own obsession. The memo says to call a cleaning lady an office cleaner. What if shes cleaning a house? Oh, then its a house cleaner! Is it a man or a woman? Then..all right, all right, its a %#&@! cleaning lady! Shut up! Sexist!

Im fascinated how someone reaches adulthood able to solemnly write such silliness without wanting to hurl themselves under a steam-roller. Still, Princeton has not banned the word man, and all of those headlines saying it has are false.

The insanity part is correct, though.

Headline writing is tricky, especially on the web. I have to do it every day. You want to make the article sound interesting, give some information about what the piece is about, and do it concisely and accurately as possible. Ive had a couple of headlines that upon later reflection could be criticized for not being accurate, but never one that was intentionally states to make a reader thing something was true that wasnt.

Doing that is dishonest, unfair to readers, and worst of all, spreads misinformation throughout society, as people read false headlines, believe them, and tell others without reading the articles. In the comments to the three articles linked above, a few readers flagged the deceptions in the headlines and complained. Unless a lot more readers object, this unethical practice will become more common.
From: Tracy P. Jong -- Tracy Jong Law Firm For Immediate Release: Dateline: Rochester , NY Sunday, August 21, 2016

I love reading Will Clevelands articles about the local craft beer scene and Holly Howells articles about wine in the Democrat & Chronicle. I feel connected to the foodie scene when my busy schedule prevents me from the real-life experience. The St. Patricks Day inspired article by Will Cleveland about Guinness and local stouts featured a picture of 3 widemouthed 20 ounce glasses bearing the Guinness logo. It struck me how powerful that was and what a great opportunity for our local craft brewers to showcase and advertise their craft beers. The cost of custom glassware is affordable at as little as $2 to $5 per glass. Every time the glass is used, it is advertising to the target market right at the point of purchase. Compared to the cost of a single ad in print media, it is competitive, if not less, of an investment in marketing and brand awareness. I have the foresight of a branding attorney who strategizes brand protection for craft breweries, craft cideries and craft distilleries. After a trade name and trademark has been cleared for use, a brand name or logo should be leveraged as much as possible. The good will behind your brand is your largest equity in the business. Growing it is as important as increasing sales revenues. Being on tap is great, but restaurant patrons usually order at their table without seeing the tap. Thus, table tents and branded glassware can be an investment with real ROI. Statistics and studies are clear that suggestive selling works. Heres your to-do list: Have your beer (wine,cider,spirit) name, brewery (cidery,distillery,winery) name and logo cleared for use. Plan for an investment of $500-$10,000 depending on the size of the law firm and location of the law firm. Large city firms cost more than mid-sized cities even with similar experience and expertise. (It is worth reminding you that you get what you pay for.) For a city like Rochester, Buffalo or Syracuse, New York, a realistic budget would be $3,000-$5,000 per mark for clearance and registration. Practitioners in these mid-sized cities offer the same expertise and experience but at a significantly reduced cost compared to metropolitan New York City prices. Hiring from mid-sized cities can be a real cost savings. Who wants to spend money on this nonsense? Experienced business owners. Any craft beverage producer that has experienced a cease and desist letter or trademark opposition, the cost of legal defense, public attention to allegations of infringement, or rebranding will tell you this is money well-spent. (A pound of prevention) There is little doubt that had they known, they would have A brand is forever. You will make tens or hundreds of thousands on the name you have given it. Ensuring you can use the name before you invest in it is a small investment with real ROI. Use the trade name (beer name or logo) in every way possible to create brand recognition, brand loyalty and brand equity. Enter contests, publish articles, use social media and use branded glassware and table tents in on-premise retailers. Devise stunning shelf display designs for off-premise retailers. Create brand guidelines for your distributors and retailers so your mark is used correctly. Monitor the craft beverage landscape with a watch service for other trade names and beverage names that may be confusingly similar to yours. Enforce your mark when there is a threat: file oppositions to trademark applications, send cease and desist letters and commence infringement proceedings when necessary. Your brand and trademark assets are some of your most valuable intellectual property and directly part of your good will. This is the line item on your balance sheet that accounts for your revenue potential in excess of the value of your real estate and equipment. The reputation you develop for your brand has direct revenue potential because it can be licensed for other purposes- food products, T-shirts, and other promotional products. Brand extension is the term given to these revenue opportunities. Brand extensions and licensing are in a growth mode in recent year financial reports for the alcoholic beverage for industry. About Tracy Jong Tracy Jong has been an attorney for more than 20 years, representing restaurants, bars, and craft beverage manufacturers in a wide array of legal matters. She is also a licensed patent attorney. Her book Everything You Need To Know About Obtaining and Maintaining a New York Retail Liquor License: The Definitive Guide to Navigating the State Liquor Authority will be available next month on Amazon.com as a softcover and Kindle e-book. Her legal column is available in The Equipped Brewer, a publication giving business advice, trends, and vendor reviews to help craft breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries build brands and succeed financially. She also maintains a website and blog with practical information on legal and business issues affecting the industry. Follow her, sign up for her free firm app or monthly newsletter. www.TracyJongLawFirm.com TJong@TracyJongLawFirm.com Facebook: Tracy Jong Law Firm Twitter: @TJLawFirm LinkedIn: Tracy Jong Tracy Jong Law Firm


News / National

by Staff Reporter

With stones and bricks pelting them every now and then and water mysteriously springing from underneath their beds, Ms Patricia Matari and her mother do not even know what to expect next in their house which is located in Kuwadzana Phase 3.Then strange fires come from nowhere to consume pieces of upholstery.Even their clothes disappear.Whether their house is haunted or not remains a point of conjecture.But what is certain is the trauma of the owner of the house and her daughter."These things have been happening since June 2016. We thought they would end but they haven't. We are now afraid of living in our house," Ms Matari told The Sunday Mail.The Mataris, well known in their neighbourhood, bought the property through a co-operative in 1995.Mr Matari died years ago, leaving his widow to fend for the family, and all seemed perfectly normal until last month.Ms Matari recounted that one afternoon, she and her mother were startled to hear the sound of stones hitting one of the house's inner walls.They investigated but could not establish what was going on. Only the stones were recovered.No one else was around at the time, save for the pair.So who could have thrown the stones?It was a mystery that got the mother and daughter on their knees in prayer.Days passed before the next mystery.This time around, Ms Matari's daughter who is of school-going age was injured when stones were thrown at her inside the house.Two neighbours, Ms Madeline Towo and one Mai Blessing, were fortunate to escape unharmed as pebbles were also thrust their way.But as before, only the stones were recovered, with no concrete leads to the strange episodes."Some time last week I had nightmares. In the morning, stones were thrown in a manner that I had never seen before. It was so intense that I had to hide behind some items in the house until I managed to get out," says Ms Matari, tears flooding her eyes."I went back inside after things had cooled down. I then started praying as I'd been instructed by a prophet we had consulted the previous day. As I was praying, I felt heat all over my legs. l then realised that my bed was on fire," she said."I stay here with my mother and a tenant. This is a family house. Last Thursday, the tenant's undergarments disappeared as she was bathing."Just the other day, we also discovered human waste in one of the bedrooms. We don't really know what is going on. This is a really traumatic experience, we are not sleeping peacefully," she narrated.Mai Blessing chipped in."Stones are being thrown there and some of them have landed in our yard at times. This has been happening for some time, but it appears to have worsened over the course of the week," she said.The Sunday Mail visited the home last week to get a first hand experience.When our team got there, scores of residents were at the house to offer their support to the Mataris.Roman catholic members were present to pray with Ms Matari, one of their own.The arrival of our crew seemed to take the crowd aback, suddenly there was silence.Would The Sunday Mail proceed into treacherous territory without any qualms about the dreary tales?That was the question on their minds, it appeared.Ms Matari invited us to proceed into the house, explaining that her mother was not available to take us on this unusual tour.While any other six-roomed structure which is still under construction is not intimidating, entering this particular one was spine-chilling.As we were about to make the first step into the house, the crowd behind us made a rapturous shout.It was a call for us to back off.There was genuine fear that danger lurked behind those unpainted walls.Cowardice and gallantry stood face to face.Apprehension lingered but gallantry eventually won and we negotiated our way through the kitchen and ended up in the bedroom where the mysterious fire had started.By this time, more people had made their way into the house, now emboldened.No fire started, no water appeared, no stones were thrown at us and our clothes were not stolen.The tour ended with the crowd concluding that the mysteries are spiritual.Ms Matari vowed to stay put; besides, she and her mother have nowhere else to go.Contacted for comment, Zimbabwe National Practitioners' Association president Sekuru Friday Chisanyu said, "In most cases, there might be someone in that family who could have murdered a person with stones and threw his or her body away."Mhosva hairovi, the spirit of that dead person might be trying to avenge. They must look for the information and pay back  kuripira  otherwise more dreadful things will befall them," said Sekuru Chisanyu.God's Power House Ministries leader Apostle Michael Shumba said, "The family needs to pray without ceasing. With God, everything is possible. This is just Satan who is up to his usual tricks."
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About 100 soggy history buffs and re-enactors gathered Saturday on Atascosa County farmland off Applewhite Road to honor those killed 203 years ago in the Battle of Medina, the bloodiest conflict ever on Texas soil.

Their blood has brought us freedom, the Rev. James Taylor, chaplain general of the Sons of the American Revolution, said of fighters for the Republican Army of the North, whose ranks included Tejanos and American Indians and who were defeated by the Spanish Royal Army.

Roughly 1,000 rebel lives were lost in the running battle that lasted four hours and covered up to 8 miles. Hundreds more were later executed as prisoners in San Antonio, which was occupied for weeks afterward by royalists intent on stifling Mexicos bid for independence.

Among those hoisting umbrellas at the rededication ceremony were representatives of the Daughters of the War of 1812, the Texas Society Sons of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of the American Revolution, the Mayflower Society, the Medina County Historical Commission, the Atascosa County Historical Commission, the Battle of Medina Historical Society and Native Americans.

It was the 16th annual observation at the battle site 20 miles south of San Antonio organized by Tom Green of Pearland, who came decked out as an American officer in honor of Revolutionary War veterans whod joined the battle.

If we dont do a better job of recruiting new members, were going to die out as a historical group, said Green, 77, encouraging attendees to help friends research whether any of their families saw action in the fight, and to join efforts to publicize it.

After brief remarks by representatives of the groups, and several prayers, a color guard of about 20 re-enactors dressed in period garb fired salutes on their muskets to cap the event.

Wed have had twice as many people here except for the weather, said Dan Arellano, president of the Battle of Medina Historical Society, who came dressed as a Spanish soldier in honor of his grandfather, who fought for that side in the conflict.

Attendees then dispersed, many headed for a four-hour symposium on the battle in the nearby community of Leming.

Among the few kids in the largely graying crowd was Josiah Garcia, 9, of Leming, who said, I liked it.

His mom, Esther Griego, added, He said, Its cool. I said, Not when youre fighting the battle.

zeke@express-news.net
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea said Saturday that a diplomat in its London embassy who recently defected to South Korea had fled rather than face punishment for various crimes, calling him human scum.

The statement, from the official Korean Central News Agency, was North Koreas first reaction to the defection of Thae Yong Ho, its most senior official to defect in almost two decades. The defection of Thae, who was the No. 2 diplomat in the Norths embassy in London, was announced by South Korea on Wednesday.

The North Korean statement said that Thae, whom it did not identify by name, had been ordered in June to return from Britain to Pyongyang, the Norths capital, because he had embezzled state funds, sold official secrets and sexually assaulted a minor. The statement offered no evidence for those accusations.

Rather than return home, the statement said, Thae proved himself to be human scum who betrayed the fatherland by fleeing. It said that North Korea had informed the British government of the accusations against Thae and asked that he be handed over to North Korean officials, but that London had instead created an indelible stain in relations between the countries by letting him go to South Korea, to be used in a smear campaign against the North.

South Korea has not explained how or when Thae made his way to the country with his wife and children. The North Korean statement suggested that he had been in British custody beforehand. There was no immediate response from the British or South Korean governments.

North Korea has typically referred to its defectors as scum or traitors, often accusing South Koreas intelligence agency of kidnapping them. On Friday, Jeong Joon-hee, a South Korean government spokesman, said he expected the North to react similarly to Thaes defection. Doing otherwise would be tantamount to admitting to the inferiority of its own regime, he said.

The South has said that Thae defected out of disillusionment with the North Korean government, and that his decision to flee was a sign that such sentiments were spreading among the North Korean elite.
More than 2,500 Catholic women are expected to attend the Pilgrim Center of Hopes 15th annual Come to Me Catholic Womens Conference Sept. 9 and 10 in the Hemisfair Ballroom at the Convention Center.

Described as a spa for the soul, the conference is put on by the San Antonio-based center.

Conference founder Mary Jane Fox, whos also co-founder of the Pilgrim Center, says the event has become a national model for Catholic womens conferences.

Last years event drew 2,800 women, largely from the Archdiocese of San Antonio but also from other Texas cities and 10 other states. Fox expects to reach the 3,000 mark this year.

The name of the conference is drawn from the Gospel of Mathew: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

So often, in todays world, were bombarded with so much stress, with deadlines and so many expectations, Fox said. This is an experience for women to just be safe and hear the truth of the vocation of woman.

The world gives us messages of who we should be, might be, she said. We are instruments of the Catholic Church giving women a place to truly bloom where they are planted, whether they are single, married, divorced, have a career life or retired and still experience hope, joy and peace.

For more information, go to pilgrimcenterofhope.org or call (210) 521-3377.
Aztlan. Its that place in history and in legend where the Mexica  better known as the Aztecs  originated.

It has a place in history because some scholars say it actually existed. The Mexica came from somewhere. Perhaps from in and around Nayarit or some other place in northern Mexico.

It has its place in legend because some have appropriated it for purposes of cultural identity. It was, for instance, popularized during the Chicano movement of the 60s and 70s, its boundaries extended to the entire U.S. Southwest and beyond.

This was a way to say we have been here for a while  first as Indians, Spaniards, mestizos, annexed and conquered Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans. Or as one scholar, Lee Bebout, told me, it was a way of saying we belong  no matter what others might say.

Funny how its 2016, and were still having to say that. Thank you, Donald Trump.

He doesnt call it Aztlan, but Reynaldo Cuellar, 82, a San Antonio disabled veteran of the Korean War, has a theory that traveling Mexicans  the pre-Columbian Indians  traveled widely into the United States and Canada. And when the Spaniards took over Mexico and intermarried with the native people who then spoke Spanish, they still traveled widely.

We talked about it a few months back. Cuellar, who ran his own motor repair shop here and is a self-taught student of Texas and Mexican history, says place names and other names have their origins from these wanderers.

Hes worked at making the connections. So, Kentucky, he says, could have come from quien ta aqui, meaning (in somewhat slangish form) who is here? Iowa from hay agua, theres water. Kansas, cansas, or you tire me. There are, of course, plenty of Spanish place names in the United States, but Cuellar has a longer list of names that he says derive from the native Mexican travels.

Bebout is an English professor at Arizona State University who has written extensively on Aztlan and on the Chicano movement. He is author of Mythohistorical Interventions: The Chicano Movement and Its Legacies.

Aztlan, he said, is part myth and part history.

But, he told me, while Aztlans precise location is a matter of some dispute, the notion that native Mexicans traveled and traded with Indians in what is now the United States (and vice versa) is not at all controversial. And it is also historical fact that the Spaniards then followed those routes to lay claim to new lands, which they named.

Drew Lopenzina, a professor of early American and Native American literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, wrote me: There were definitely ancient ties to Aztec and Mayan culture that spread through what is today central and southeastern U.S., and, in addition, archaeologists have shown how pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations of North America had trade routes that stretched across the continent and into what is today Mexico.

So, no, Cuellars theory might not be far-fetched at all, though Lopenzina cautions that its risky to draw conclusions about name origins from words that coincidentally sound similar.

For instance, Mohican and Mexican have some similarities (and is on Cuellars list), but Mohican actually means wolf people in the Algonquian language. The Mohican or the Pequot people were a Native American tribe that occupied much of what is now Connecticut.

Cuellar has theories on other names in other parts of North America that one usually doesnt associate with the Aztecs.

I dont know about you, but this fires up the imagination and has since I came across a movie in my youth, 1963s Kings of the Sun. OK, not Aztecs, but the premise is that pre-Columbian Mayans, fleeing a tyrant and his army, travel from Yucatan to the American Gulf Coast, where they interact with a native tribe there. Cultures clash.

Cuellar invites more scholarly research on the matter of native Mexicans and their travels to what is now the United States and Canada. Aztlan might then be more factual history than myth.

But, yes, we Mexican-Americans (in our many forms) have been here a very long time. And  psst, Mr. Trump  were not going anywhere.

o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net

Twitter: @oricardopimente
 Venez etudier avec nous autres ! 

***ONE ASSISTANTSHIP AVAILABLE FOR STARTING SPRING 2017***

***UNE BOURSE DISPONIBLE POUR DEBUTER EN JANVIER 2017***

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette offers one of few graduate programs in the United States specifically in Francophone Studies by providing students the opportunity to study all the regions of la Francophonie individually and as a whole.

The university itself is located in the heart of Cajun Louisiana, a cultural crossroads joining many areas of the contemporary Francophone world that share historical and linguistic roots. The natural beauty of the landscape provides a fitting setting for the cultures unique heritage and multicultural diversity.

The breadth and reach of the courses and approaches offered in the Masters and doctoral programs reflect this diversity and richness and make the experience at UL Lafayette unique. Our dynamic, innovative, and interdisciplinary program regularly provides courses on the literatures, cinema, and cultures of France, Belgium, Quebec, Acadia, Louisiana, the Antilles and Haiti, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Maghreb. The graduate program in Francophone Studies was the first in the United States to design courses on Louisiana Cajun and Creole languages, as well as courses on Belgian Francophone literature.

Students from all over the Francophone World come together at UL Lafayette to explore the rich variety, hybridity, and creolisation of the global Francophonie using a variety of approaches: literary, linguistic, critical, ethnographic, cinematographic, historical, culture, and folklore studies.

Financial support is available for graduate students primarily through the university graduate assistantships and fellowships, which are available to foreign nationals as well as to U.S. citizens. To request application materials for these positions, please contact the Graduate Coordinator, Dr. Amadou Ouedraogo. axo0149@louisiana.edu

To Apply: http://gradschool.louisiana.edu/prospective-students

French and Francophone Studies Program Information: http://languages.louisiana.edu/French/index.html

We encourage applicants to contact any French and Francophone Studies faculty member to discuss any research interests: http://languages.louisiana.edu/French/fr_faculty.html
News / National

by Livingstone Marufu

Ninety-nine-year farm leases could become acceptable as legal title for bank loan applications next month, with infrastructure like farmhouses usable as collateral.The development will boost local farmers whose operations have been hampered by lack of credit facilities as financial institutions are reluctant to accept the leases that were launched in 2006Last week, bankers embraced the refined 99-year leases as bankable documents.Banks encouraged farmers to build homes on farms to strengthen their security of tenure and use the farms to establish "domicilium citandi et executandi" - a place of reasonable permanent residence.Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora told The Sunday Mail that, "It's now a matter of announcing to the Cabinet (this week) what we have agreed with the ministries of Finance and Economic Development, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and the Bankers' Association of Zimbabwe."We are happy to tell Zimbabweans that all the said parties have the final copy of the lease document and we are ready to roll out the new leases in the next two weeks to ensure that farmers access their loans in time."For all those who have the old leases, we encourage them to get the latest copy of leases so that we can have a uniform bankable document to avoid confusion in the future," Dr Mombeshora said.Bankers agreed that for farmers to get loans, they must have stable and assured stay on the land for as long as the farmer was productive and had access to assured and stable markets for produce.The lease allows banks, or any lender, to hold both moveable and immoveable property as collateral for loans.An incentive is also given to farmers who invest in immoveable infrastructure like houses, irrigation canals, dams, barns, sheds and other structures that promote productivity and reduce the risk of failure.In a statement, BAZ advocacy officer Mr Clive Mphambela said: "Banks support agriculture and are keen to ensure that farmers who hold 99-year leases have access to financial assistance to expand their farming operations."Immoveable properties (houses, sheds and mounted irrigation equipment) are very crucial in the application of loans and it is for this reason that banks request for a customer's 'proof of residence' at account opening or at the establishment of any trading relationship with a banking institution."Ninety-nine-year leases will therefore give farmers a reasonable assurance of security of tenure, which will encourage the farmers to invest on the land."He said banks usually relied on forced sale value of collateral like moveable assets such as vehicles and immoveable assets.As such, BAZ said banks would only offer loans that did not exceed the forced sale value of collateral to protect both borrowers and lenders.
Shropshire

A Full-Time position is available for an assistant herdsperson on a family dairy farm in mid Shropshire. We have a 250 dairy herd rearing own replacements together with a b...
Farmers and rural businesses with an anaerobic digestion plant could secure a 10-20% premium on the gas they produce by tapping into growing demand for green energy across Europe.

Currently, most AD plants burn the gas they produce to generate electricity and heat.

But there is an emerging market for bio-methane, which can be injected directly into the gas main, says Richard Palmer, Energy Consultant at Butler Sherborn Energy.

"Although consumers in the UK are reluctant to pay a premium for this green energy, corporate energy customers across Europe are increasingly keen to demonstrate their energy credentials," he says.

"We have secured an agreement with a major energy company, which can pipe green gas through the interconnected gas mains to European customers, so can now offer British producers a share of this premium market."

The development comes at a critical time for the British renewable energy industry, which is looking increasingly unstable as a result of Government spending reviews and Brexit.

"Historically, biogas has been used primarily to generate electricity, supported by the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs (FiT)," says Mr Palmer.

"However, in 2011 the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) helped to kick-start the market for bio-methane injection in to the mains gas grid.

"So far this has yielded two income streams: the RHI and the wholesale gas price. Now there is a third source of revenue, offering a 10-20% premium over current wholesale gas returns."

Tariff reductions

Lucy Hopwood, Director at bio-economy consultant NNFCC, says that gaining added value for green gas is very timely in light of recent tariff reductions.

"Its no longer possible to add additional capacity under the FiT scheme and the same is soon likely to be true of the RHI.

"So for many plants expansion isnt an option  they must make better use of what they have," she explains.

"Developers are also starting to look at how they can increase productivity, without the expense of capital outlay."

Existing plants can be converted to purify the gas by removing carbon dioxide and trace gases, after which the bio-methane is injected into the gas main and sold as renewable fuel, tracked via international trading schemes.

"Until now, Green Gas Certificates have represented little added value to the producer, as British consumers are reluctant to pay more for renewable fuel.

Tapping into European market

"Only now that we can tap into the European market can the opportunity be realised in the short-term," says Mr Palmer.

"That said, this is still an immature market in the UK and it may be that in the longer term British companies will be put under pressure to cut their carbon output, leading to premiums being available here."

Gas producers will have to register and meet the sustainability criteria of the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification body.

"Most farmers AD feedstock will meet these criteria and the costs of any audit required will be covered by the energy company," says Mr Palmer.

"The gas premium will depend on the carbon level of the feedstock, and as power purchase agreements can be made in advance it does not matter if the renewal on any existing gas contract, or commissioning of a new bio-methane plant, is over 12 months from now."
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As hurricanes worsen, can Lumbee Tribe learn to live with water?

The Native American tribe was saved by the swamp. Now, like so many people in the South, flooding threatens to drive them away.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The cameras will not stop rolling at Harare City Council, at least for now. The council is known for creating drama - at one point allowing its elected members to shower at Town House only to later brand some of them illiterate and thus lacking sophistication.In 2014, we were told the capital would transform into a "world class city", but all manner of vendors invaded the central business district, and commuter omnibus crews and their pirate cousins, "mushika-shika" taxi operators turned the city topsy-turvy.And then the mayor, Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni, appointed former NMBZ Holdings group CEO Mr James Mushore town clerk on March 24, 2016 only for Government to reject the contract on a point of procedure, making the ex-banker the shortest-serving holder of that office.Now, the City of Harare is shooting new episodes of its drama series, going for years without substantive heads for several key departments.Among these are water, finance and housing and community services, and a suitable candidate is also yet to be found for the town clerk's post.Stakeholders believe this is impeding service delivery as officials who hold office in acting capacities rarely make substantive decisions.Chamber secretary Mrs Josephine Ncube is the fifth acting town clerk in nine months  the period since Dr Tendai Mahachi left the job.And with a strategic plan to implement, Town House administration has been moving in fits and starts.Cllr Manyenyeni wants Mr Mushore back, which is pretty much a difficult proposition given the Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Ministry's opposition to his appointment.Finance director Mr Justin Mandizha was dismissed in May 2016, barely eight months into his contract for failing to steer the local authority out of debt and reducing salary arrears.Water department director Engineer Christopher Zvobgo and his housing and community services counterpart, Major (Retired) Matthew Marara, saw their contracts expire in June.Some say Cllr Manyenyeni is keeping the offices open "to appoint his cronies", a charge he vehemently denies; while others are concerned about the acting allowances "actors" get on top of their monthly salaries and benefits.Combined Harare Residents' Association board chairperson Mr Simbarashe Moyo said, "We are worried that some top posts at Town House are being held by people in acting capacity, and we, as residents, wonder why it is taking long to make substantive appointments."Besides compromising service delivery, it is expensive to have these acting directors, especially for the ratepayers who have to largely pay them."The Local Government Ministry's urban authorities principal director, Ms Erica Jones, said Government would finalise the matter soon, while council's human resources and general purposes committee chairperson, Cllr Wellington Chikombo, said the era of "actors" would end."The situation is worrying because service delivery is being affected," said Cllr Chikombo. "When a person is in acting capacity, there are certain limitations to their jobs, and in this case, it is affecting service delivery in the local authority."We have since applied to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for permission to fill the vacancies."
Blac Chyna has shared a video of Rob Kardashian gently scolding her son King Cairo.

Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian

In the video, King, three - Chyna's son with her former fiance Tyga - can be heard saying the word "s**t", before his future stepfather Rob, 29 explains that Chyna will not be pleased.

Rob says: "You can't say that. Don't say that. That's a bad word. Mommy's going to get really mad at you."

And Chyna - who is expecting a baby with Rob - revealed that she feels "blessed" that Rob is helping her to raise King.

She captioned the clip, which was posted on her Instagram page: "I've had this video for a min & it cracks me up! I've been hesitant to post it... But Idc it's too funny my favorite part is when Rob jumps out. look at his face. But overall I'm so happy & blessed to have Robert here willing to help teach King right from wrong (sic)."

While Chyna is happy for Rob to help her "teach" King, she recently insisted she has no problem with his younger sister Kylie Jenner - who is dating Tyga - babysitting both King and their new baby.

When asked in a Facebook Live discussion about who they would rely on to mind their tot out of Rob's sisters Kendall or Kylie, the 28-year-old make-up artist said: "Yeah, she [Kylie] could babysit the baby and King at the same time.

"[But] I would say both."

Rob quipped: "I would choose neither of them.

"No, I'm kidding ... Probably Kylie. I'll probably let Kylie babysit."

Despite Chyna and her soon-to-be sister-in-law having a two-year-long feud after Kylie began dating the 'Rack City' rapper, the pair appear to have now moved on.
Creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman has opened up in a new interview with Screenrant all about what fans of the series can expect when it returns for its seventh season.

Credit: AMC

"There's a lot of really great stuff coming" he said. "I love that people have been focusing so much on this cliffhanger because it has distracted them from analysing what happened in the books around that time, and what is possibly coming in the seventh season. It's pretty great."

Speaking about the show's new Big Bad, Negan, he added: "He's going to be this ever-present threat in the show from now on. This amazing 12 minutes that we got in season 6 is going to be nearly every episode now for a while moving forward. We're going to be expanding the world at the same time. So we're going to have this huge catalyst, these saviors, this Negan guy walking around doing all kinds of horrible stuff."

The addition of some big characters is looming, with Ezekiel and his pet tiger Shiva making an appearance in the trailer for the new episodes.

"This is really just kinda kicking things off in a huge way. This is almost like a second season 1. It's like a new chapter in The Walking Dead. So I think we're turning the page, so to speak, and setting the stage for what's going to become for many, many seasons."

The Walking Dead season 7 premieres in the US on AMC on October 23 and follows in the UK on FOX soon after.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Moments ago at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor got his revenge, defeating Nate Diaz via majority decision after an action-packed fight. It was another fast start by McGregor, who slowed Diaz down with leg kicks and dropped him several times in the first two rounds. Diaz, however, weathered the early onslaught and once again turned up the heat as McGregor started to fade. As both fighters continued to exchange, the fight was indeed close coming down the stretch. In the end, however, two out of the three judges gave the nod to McGregor. Relive all the action in FightHype's round-by-round results!



ROUND 1

McGregor fires off a couple of leg kicks. They trade leg kicks. Another left to the leg from McGregor; Diaz catches him with a left. Diaz fires some leg kicks back. McGregor lands a nice 1-2 upstairs. HARD left lands for McGregor and Diaz goes down. McGregor tells him to stand back up. Leg kick from McGregor. Diaz rakes him with a right. Right to the body lands for McGregor. They trade some head shots. Leg kick lands for McGregor. Left hand upstairs lands for McGregor. Another left to the leg for McGregor. Diaz tags him with a right. Right to the body lands for McGregor. Diaz lands a jab. Another left leg kick for McGregor followed by a left upstairs. Left gets in for McGregor. Diaz walking him down. Quick left and a right lands for McGregor. Right for Diaz, but McGregor lands a 1-2. Round to McGregor.



McGregor 10 Diaz 9



ROUND 2

McGregor gets in a left leg kick. Another BIG left lands for McGregor and Diaz goes down. McGregor lets him stand back up. Leg kick lands for McGregor. Another left lands for McGregor. Another left lands for McGregor and Diaz goes down again. McGregor lets him stand up. Stiff jab lands for McGregor. The face of Diaz is bloodied and battered. Jab lands for Diaz. McGregor lands a 1-2. Overhand left lands for McGregor. Nice counter left lands for McGregor. Diaz catches him with a right. Leg kick from McGregor. Again. They trade shots. Diaz walking him down. Right lands for Diaz. McGregor on the retreat. Elbow lands for McGregro. They trade shots. Nice right lands for Diaz and McGregor staggers. They trade on the ropes; Diaz landing a lot. McGregor slips some shots right at the end. Close round, but I give it to McGregor despite the strong finish by Diaz.



McGregor 20 Diaz 18



ROUND 3

McGregor attacks the leg again. Diaz turning up the heat. They trade shots. Diaz points at him and lands a hard shot. McGregor tries to tie him up. They trade in the clinch along the cage. Diaz spins him. McGregor breathing heavy. Counter left lands for McGregor. Leg kick lands for McGregor followed by a left upstairs. Right to the body lands for McGregor. Diaz hits him with the Stockton slap and talks some smack to him. Diaz works him against the cage. McGregor lands a short elbow and spins Diaz. They grapple against the cage. Good body shot lands for Diaz. McGregor runs away. Diaz pionts at him. Leg kicks land for McGregor, he walks away and takes a deep breath. Right lands for Diaz. HARD slap lands for Diaz and he points at McGregor again. Diaz lands a 1-2. Diaz works him against the cage. HARD body shots land for diaz. Diaz unloads on him. Diaz punishing the body. McGregor just trying to survive the round. Another great finish for Diaz. Round to Diaz.



McGregor 29 Diaz 28



ROUND 4

Jab to the stomach lands for Diaz. Left cross lands for McGregor. Left leg kick lands for McGregor. Diaz firing the jab. Jab lands for McGregor. They trade jabs. Diaz slaps him with some shots in the clinch. Hard leg kick lands for McGregor. Diaz backs up. Body shots land for McGregor. Diaz lands a front kick. McGregor gets in some elbows. Diaz backs him up to the cage; looking for the takedown. McGregor defends. They trade some knees against the cage. Diaz works the body. They grapple for position. Nice elbow lands for McGregor. Diaz fires back. 1-2 lands for McGregor. BIG left lands for Diaz. They trade shots. McGregor fires to the body. Again. 1-2 lands for McGregor. Nice left over the top lands for McGregor. Diaz slaps him, but eats another counter left. Round to McGregor.



McGregor 39 Diaz 37



ROUND 5

Right lands for McGregor and he slips away. Jab lands for Diaz. Quick combo lands for McGregor. Flying knee attempt from McGregor is blocked by Diaz. They grapple against the cage. McGregor spins away. McGregor looks content to potshot and move away. Diaz backs him up to the cage. Diaz looking for the takedown. McGregor blocks it. Diaz slaps him. McGregor walks away. Diaz points at him and flips him off. Leg kick from McGregor. Combo from McGregor; not much on it. Another. Diaz works the body against the cage. They trade some shots. HARD elbow lands for Diaz. McGregor looks up at the clock looking exhausted. Diaz attempts the takedown again, but it's blocked. They trade on the inside. Diaz controlling him on the cage. They grapple and McGregor spins him around. Elbow from McGregor. Diaz spins him around. Diaz gets the takedown in the final seconds. Round to Diaz.



McGregor 48 Diaz 47



Official judges scorecards: 48-47, 47-47, 48-47



THE WINNER BY MAJORITY DECISION...CONOR MCGREGOR



Also on the card, it only took one perfectly placed uppercut for top light heavyweight contender Anthony "Rumble" Johnson to knock Glover Teixeira out cold at 13 seconds of the first round. With the win, Johnson is now in line to face champion Daniel Cormier in an intriguing rematch.

[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabweans risk spending a year in prison for "abusing" the national flag that has become popular with #ThisFlag protesters.Use of the flag that symbolises citizens' attachment to their home country during protests was popularised Evan Mawarire, a pastor who has since skipped the border for fear of his life due to his activism.According to Veritas, a local parliamentary and legislation watchdog, the constitution, an existing statute and a statutory instrument had provisions that made it an offence to abuse the flag."In addition to section 4 of the Constitution, there are two such laws: the Flag of Zimbabwe Act and the Flag of Zimbabwe (General) Regulations [SI 194/1987] made by the President under the Act," Veritas said."The Act makes it a criminal offence for anyone to burn, mutilate or otherwise insult the flag (or a reproduction or likeness of it) in circumstances which are calculated or likely to show disrespect for the Flag or bring it into disrepute. The maximum penalty on conviction is a fine not exceeding level 6 ($300) or imprisonment for one year or both," said Veritas.The regulations make it a criminal offence to import or manufacture the flag, or apply the flag, reproduction or likeness of it, use the flag on any matter or thing, for the purposes of sale, without the prior permission of the secretary for justice, legal and parliamentary affairs."For permission to be granted, the secretary (of justice) must be satisfied that the activity in question will not bring the flag into disrepute, will not result in its excessive exploitation for commercial purposes and will not generally be contrary to the public interest".A legal expert and law lecturer, Alex Magaisa who is based in the UK, however, recently said the laws undermined freedom of expression since citizens used it as a symbol of identity.
ANKARA (dpa-AFX) - At least 30 people were killed and 94 others wounded in a bomb attack at a wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, authorities said. The attack, which appeared to be a suicide bombing, took place in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack,saying, 'Those, who cannot overcome Turkey and try to provoke people by abusing ethnic and sectarian sensitiveness, will not prevail.' 'There is no difference between the PKK which martyred 70 security personnel last month, the FETO as an actor of July 15 coup bid claiming 240 people and the possible motive of Gaziantep terror attack Daesh,' he added. Authorities said the blast could have been carried out by either Kurdish militants or ISIS extremists in an area where there are prominence for Kurdish residents. Nobody has claimed the responsibility of the attack. 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.
Whoever thought that the jingoism going on in the name of cow vigilantism is a tale from the yonder, something too rustic to unsettle the urbane, is up for a surprise. And not a pleasant one at that!

If this story narrated by a man hailing from Assam is to be believed, the self-assumed cow vigilantes (whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently termed "anti-social) have spread their tentacles in Mumbai as well and are not ashamed to impose their gau-friendly "rules" openly.

The incident happened in Amboli area of Andheri West, when a creative director with a production house in Mumbai, Barun Kashyap was going about his day like any other. On the morning of 19 August, Barun took an auto on his way to work. The auto-driver, in Barun's words, "was curious" about his long hair and pierced nose." By way of casual conversation, or so I thought while reading Barun's post, the driver asked him about his native place. But the auto-driver soon lost interest and instead focused on the leather back that Barun was carrying with him.

"He turned around and saw my leather bag. Then he leaned to touched my bag and concluded it was made of cow leather," Barun said in his Facebook post.

While he tried to refute the claim and said the bag was made of camel hide, the driver remained unconvinced. Soon, much to Barun's horror, the auto-driver stopped at a small temple despite his repeated protests. Three men, sporting tilaks on their forehead approached the auto and were quickly apprised of the situation by the driver. They poked in their heads to check the material of the bag for themselves. "When I was busy protesting, one of the guys came to the other side of the auto and started checking my bag," reads Barun's narrration of his ordeal which received hundreds of reactions from outraged people.

The men then asked Barun his name, which he told them. But apparently that was not satisfactory enough.

"What's your full name was the next question.... Barun Kashyap Bhuyan.. The guy looked at the other two and said something in Marathi, out of which I could only understand the word 'Brahmin'," says Barun in his post.

The men apparently concluded that Barun was a Brahmin and therefore spared him.

The incident in itself is not half as scary as the smugness with which the auto-driver walked away. "Aaj to bach gaye (You were spared today)," was the driver's response when Barun asked for his phone number. The auto-driver did not hesitate in giving his phone number either.

Incidentally, Kashyap deleted the post but here's a screenshot of the post.

According to a report published in News 18, Barun has lodged a complaint in the Amboli police station but the police said there was no cognisable offence committed for them to file a report. "There was no offence to lodge an FIR. We have just registered a non cognizable offence report. Investigation is on," police sources told News 18.

Atrocities against Dalit by the self-styled gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) has been a major concern for the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. An united Opposition has constantly been raking up the issue and the government has come under fire for its non-reactive approach towards these vigilante group.

The incident also comes days after the Home Ministry cracked the whip on cow vigilantism, asking states not to tolerate anyone taking law into their hands in the name of protecting cows and to take prompt action against such offenders.

The Ministry advisory comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked these so-called gau rakshaks and asked people to beware of these 'fake' protectors trying to divide the society and the country. After maintaining a questionable silence on the issue, Modi again made a statement in Telangana against the self-proclaimed vigilante groups. "These people are hell-bent on destroying the society and are disturbed by the unity of India. These people, in the name of gau rakhsha, are trying to create conflict in the society," he said.

He made these comments after his government and BJP came under attack over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by gau rakshaks in various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Vadodara: Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi expressed concern over the poor financial status of minorities in the country, saying the Centre's initiative 'Mission Empowerment' is working towards the development of minorities, focusing on employment and education.

Naqvi, the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, told reporters at Harni Airport in Vadodara on Saturday evening that it is sad that over 50 percent of minorities are living below the poverty line, but the Centre is committed to the development of every section of society.

"Our 'Mission Empowerment' (initiative) is focused on development of minority communities in all states. I have been discussing with the state governments on issues and implementation of minority welfare programmes...be it employment, education infrastructure, and scholarships," he said.

"We are against any negative agenda. We are for good governance only. We will not allow anyone to dent our agenda," he said.

Naqvi had made a halt at Harni airport before visiting Nadiad in Kheda district on Saturday evening where he addressed a gathering.
New Delhi: A delegation of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir, led by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, on Sunday met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to discuss the situation in the Valley which has been witnessing violence for the over past 40 days.

Congress is part of the opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir.

"Discussed the current political crisis in J and K with a delegation of opp(osition) leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar (Omar Abdullah)," the Congress leader tweeted after the meeting.

On Saturday, the delegation had met President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to urge upon the central government to find a solution to the present Kashmir crisis politically rather than administratively.

The delegation will tomorrow meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

CPM MLA Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, who was part of the delegation, said the situation in the Valley should not be seen through the prism of law and order.

Gandhi also met senior Congress leaders from Gujarat on the issue of "rising atrocities against Dalits and minorities in Gujarat."

Earlier in the day, a delegation comprising PCC Chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President, Congress Legislative Party leader Shankar Sinh Vaghela and AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry, had met President Mukherjee, requsting his intervention in the matter through the Governor.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) on Sunday expressed concern over alleged harassment of journalists and employees by security forces.

"Congress expresses concern over the way the employees, journalists and common people are being treated on roads by the security forces. What is the use of curfew passes when these are not being considered as a valid document by the forces," JKPCC said in a statement.

It was commenting alleged incidents of beating of journalists, government employees and ambulance drivers by security forces in curfew-bounds areas of the unrest-hit valley.

"This is unfortunate that despite having curfew passes issued by the Administration, the employees, journalists and other people are being harassed and thrashed by the forces.

"When the curfew passes issued by DM is not valid, how can the administration pressurize the employees to attend duties? Even the ambulances are not being allowed to move freely, which is highly unfortunate and unacceptable," he said.

The spokesman said there seems to be a huge communication gap within the Administration and asked the government to come clean on this issue, "as people have every right to know who is ruling the state".
New Delhi: A mob in south Delhi's Jai Hind Camp pelted stones on a police team today injuring a woman constable when they went there to arrest a maid accused of stealing her employer's money, police said on Saturday.

Constable Manisha sustained injuries on her foot in the attack by the Camp residents, while the vehicle in which the police personnel and complainant went to the place was damaged, they said.

One person, identified as Mintoo, who according to police is the 'pradhan' (chief) of the camp residents, was arrested, a police officer said.

Satish Sehrawat, a resident of Vasant Kunj (North), had filed the complaint against his domestic help accusing her of stealing money from his home. The alleged theft was recorded by the CCTV camera installed in his house, a senior police official said.

Based on the complaint, the team from Vasant Kunj (North) Police Station went to the Camp to arrest the maid and recover the money.

"The police officers were surrounded by residents of the camp and a man named Mintoo, who happens to be the 'pradhan' of the residents pelted stones on the vehicle," the official said.

A case was registered against Mintoo at Vasant Kunj (South) police station, the official added.
Anu Moulee, a scientist and IIT-Bombay alum, loved researching vintage clothing as a hobby. She started a blog that documented the sartorial choices of Indian women, with films, illustrations and photos serving as her sources.

Vintage Indian Clothing  Moulee's blog has amassed quite the fan following since the time she set it up in 2014. The blog doesn't just chronicle women's fashion from different eras; it also analyses their socio-economic status and the way they see themselves.

In a chat with Firstpost this week, Moulee talked about vintage clothing, and what it signified. Excerpts:

What prompted you to start the blog?

Well I was wasting time on Tumblr and I used to see a few vintage blogs around. As I often write on my blog, I have a mad love for vintage sari blouses  in fact the initial name of my blog was Vintage Sari Blouse. So I thought I'd use the blog to document blouse styles for my future reference... so I could get them tailored. The first posts are in fact pretty simple and focused on sari blouses. And it stayed that way for a bit.

How the blog expanded from there on might be of interest: At some point, I started posting stuff that interested me when I was searching for blouses  (the styles favoured by) women like Gauhar Jaan, Sarla Thakral etc. So it was kind of this down-the-rabbit hole moment for me at this point; like wow, so many kickass women and their clothes aren't bad too!

But it was all pretty much for myself until I did a post on the suffragists which got a lot of notes. I still don't blog for notes but the blog got a lot of followers (it's about 8,000+ now on Tumblr) and I also realised that there was no extensive documentation of the history of Indian fashion online  unlike say for Western and Japanese fashion history. From then on, I took the blog quite seriously  to serve as a reference document for myself as well as for readers.



Is this blog an extension of your fascination with clothes?

Yes, and yes. I have a full blown love affair with clothes! It's not just from a buying and wearing point of view  though I do have way too many clothes and can never resist a new piece! But all of it fascinates me, from their history to their beauty to how people wear them. My greatest love is for saris but I enjoy all aspects of fashion from minimalism to romantic to mori girl fashion to the thrift shop aesthetic.

I trained as a scientist and worked with both textiles and dyes. This doesn't make its way into my blog but the technical aspects of fashion  new fabrics, for instance  also interests me.

Your recent blog post on Premchand gives a fascinating insight into what might be going on in his mind. How do you infer your deductions?

I am not terribly methodical, every post is kind of organic. But I have a research background so I do try and impose order and logic on a post. And of course my own interests  Indian literature, women's history, regional fashion styles, Indian and Asian textiles  do predominate.

The two things I feel very strongly about are: one, the idea that Indian fashion is timeless and traditional. In a way it is but it is also wonderfully inventive and constantly changing and I try and document that in my blog. Two, the idea that fashion is a frivolous and girly topic. My blog is a tiny piece of work in the scheme of things but through it, I try to show that fashion is a feast for the heart and the intellect. The table is spread and we can partake in it and enjoy it.

In the research you have done for your blog, does it help trace the history of how women see themselves and others see them? Does sartorial sense help trace the historical portrayal of women?

Yes, very much so. Since the blog is about clothing I don't often put in a lot of stuff that I find interesting. While the colonial and post-colonial portraits are also through the eyes of women and there is a bit of identity construction in the period, miniature paintings for example are very much a male portrayal of women at times: kind of languorous and passive women, a mood of romance etc. So it is very much a male gaze. But even there as I mentioned with Chand Bibi you see much else. Another example is the yoginis who appear in miniature paintings  it kind of makes you wonder what kind of women they were, given they always have their own abode, are in a forest, are visited by royalty etc.

Do you think documenting the history of fabric/clothes helps trace the socio-economic history of our times? The blog is almost anthropological in that way, right?

Most definitely. I did History up until my finished my BSc but I think my proper understanding of it only came about after I did the blog. For instance, I might be looking at Chandi Bibi's clothes and Deccani styles but then you find her whole story, her ableness as a ruler and the way her portraits (are) seem to suggest her relative freedom since she is always hawking and her clothing style is so relaxed.

You can also take into account the older styles of Chimnabai and Jnadanandini as the beginning of the modernisation of the sari but they adhere to regional specifics and are indicative of the way educated women of status dressed.

Then by the end of the '30s you have the city sophisticate and glamorous style disseminated by both royals like Gayatri Devi as well as actresses like Devika Rani and Renuka Devi.

In the '50s you have the beginnings of the working girl style like the journalist in Kala Pani and by the '70s and 80s you have a definite urban, working woman style for saris often exemplified by actresses like Shabana, Smita or Deepti Naval. I won't go into the evolution of the churidar kameez here as it might be a bit much.

So in summary, the dress reform movement that started as a way to make existing clothing 'respectable' for the 'bahar' (as opposed to the domestic interior) in the late 19th century moved on to the high glamour style rooted in 'Indian-ness' as well as a style the fused a number of elements to form a practical and aesthetic garment for middle class women.

Each decade kind of tells you the predominant mode of the sari from the sleek glamour of the '30s to structured Indian elegance in the '60s (exemplified by air hostess saris) to the ethnic chic that drew on the country's handloom traditions for the '80s working woman's wardrobe.

In our times for example, it is no longer a day garment  suggesting that urban Indian women's working wardrobe has moved on.

But for drama and opulence it remains the garment of choice even for young women, a change that I think dates from the '90s.
Jammu: In a clear reference to the Amnesty International row, union minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday asserted that 'azadi' slogans cannot be treated as freedom of speech and slammed Congress and its Karnataka government, accusing them of indulging in vote bank politics over the issue.

"Four days ago, in the capital of Karnataka, during a programme in Bangalore, 'azadi' (freedom) slogans were raised by a few people. An organisation, which gets funding from abroad, organised the event and yesterday I read the statement of Karnataka Home Minister in which he said that whatever happened is nothing wrong," Jaitley said.

"After so many sacrifices this country has made, some political parties do it for vote bank politics, he added at a rally on the outskirts of Jammu city.

While talking about this matter, the finance minister recalled a similar incident in JNU in January and said raising slogans to advocate the disintegration of the country cannot be seen as freedom of speech as advocated by some.

"When in Delhi, inside JNU, slogans for disintegration of India were raised, we were the only party within and outside Parliament to say that it was wrong. It is not freedom of speech.., he said.

He said Congress and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi had extended support to the youth who had raised anti-India slogans then.

"Many political parties and Congress vice president went to the support of those youth (who raised the slogans) at JNU. This ideology for the vote bank politics is unfortunate, he said.
Chennai: Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, MK Stalin, and 59 other DMK MLAs were on Sunday booked for staging a protest against their suspension from the House, police said.

"IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly) and 188(disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) have been invoked against Stalin and others," a police official said, adding that they had staged the protest without police permission.

Reacting to the development, Stalin said he had doubts if he could be arrested on Sunday.

"I had doubts if I could be arrested while coming here," he said at a marriage function in Nagercoil. "However, the case has been filed under bailable sections," he added.

On 17 August, uproarious scenes were witnessed in the state assembly when DMK MLAs were evicted and suspended en masse by Speaker P Dhanapal for a week for allegedly disrupting the proceedings of the House.

Initially, 80 MLAs were suspended but later the suspension of one legislator was revoked as he was not present in the House during the ruckus, triggered by remarks by a ruling AIADMK MLA ridiculing Stalin.

The next day, Stalin and others had tried to enter their office in the Secretariat premises but were stopped by the Marshals. They subsequently staged a dharna.

Continuing with their protest on Friday, the DMK members staged a 'model Assembly' with DMK Deputy Leader Durai Murugan acting as 'Speaker', even as assembly proceedings were held.

The party has approached the Madras High Court seeking quashing of the suspension of their MLAs.
Opinion / Columnist

One of the reasons why we are in this economic and political mess is that we are a confused nation. And very often the confusion comes from none other than the intellectuals, the very people the nation would be looking up to to come up with the gems of wisdom!"A transitional authority should not include any members of the present political parties. They are too naive and can be manipulated with gifts of gold and diamonds to return the same outcome," wrote Professor Ken Mufuka in Nehanda Radio.The Professor was adding his voice to the many who have called for the formation of a transition authority which will be tasked to implement all the democratic reforms necessary to ensure free, fair and credible elections.MDC should have implemented the reforms during the GNU but failed to get even one reform implemented because Tsvangirai et al are incompetent and corrupt. Of course they sold-out! As for President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF cronies, it is naive to expect them to implement the reforms; they are the ones who have systematically corrupted the political system and have an invested interest in maintaining the status quo.So Professor Mufuka's call for the exclusion of all the GNU political leaders in the proposed transition authority made sense, at least until he shot himself in the leg."In my opinion, Sister Joice Mujuru is in a very unique place to save our nation," he argued.He is talking about the same Joice Mujuru who has been at the very heart of the Zanu-PF government for 34 years and has done nothing to stop the corruption and murderous political oppression by Zanu-PF. She has benefited from the de facto one party state, how else would she have retained her political power given she is a simpleton with nothing to offer.She and her late husband have been very busy looting. According to Minister Kasukuwere the Mujurus are responsible for a "chunk" of the $15 billion of looted diamonds President Mugabe said was stolen between 2010 to 2015.How anyone can entrust the destiny of a nation in the hands of a corrupt and incompetent simpleton like Joice Mujuru beggars belief!"ZANU-PF has been accused of not having won any election since 2000 and will therefore have to be dragged into such an arrangement."No government ever gives up power until there is a real possibility of popular retribution that includes public hanging. That is why the popular #ThisFlag power must be entertained. The possibility that those who trampled on human rights may face the noose must not be hidden away from them," continued Mufuka. #Tajamuka /Sesijikile and many other social media based campaign groups that have emerged all had one thing in common a simple message. Typically they called for "Mugabe must fire corrupt ministers!" "Give us our $15 billion back!" "Give us the 2.2 million jobs", etc.Indeed it was the simplicity of their message that has made #ThisFlag , etc. so popular.If the truth be told, and it must be told, we are in this political and economic mess because, as a nation we have been very naive and gullible. Going for a simplistic solution to a complex problem is one sign of being naive. Corruption in Zimbabwe was grown in leaps and bounds for the last 36 years to the point where even a simpleton like Joice Mujuru is able to loot $15 billion!Surely it is too simplistic for anyone to be calling for Mugabe to fire corrupt minister; that is call one made in the 1980s. In the 1990s the call was to fire the corrupt ministers and President himself  the whole regime. Sure the call since 2000 was for meaningful democratic reforms to stop Zanu-PF rigging elections!Many followers of #ThisFlag have supported and voted for Tsvangirai and his MDC party since 2000. They have joined in the call for change but without ever understanding what changes they wanted. When MDC failed to implement any changes during the GNU none of them held Tsvangirai to account; how can they hold MDC to account over something they never understood.Many of these #ThisFlag followers have latched on to the simplistic message of "Mugabe fire corrupt ministers!" because they still have no clue what the democratic reforms the transition authority is supposed to implement are about.The very suggestion that #ThisFlag supporters are now so sophisticated they hold "the noose" to those guilty of past serious human rights violations is absurd.President Mugabe never doubted for one minute that he would deliver mass prosperity with his simplistic "Scientific Socialism" which in everyday language meant reckless spending to prosperity. Sadly life is not that simple, Zimbabwe is subject to the same laws of physics and economics as the rest of the world. The nation was naive and gullible to allow him to take us down this ruinous path.People like Professor Mufuka are not helping us get out of the mess by encouraging us to look to simpleton like Mujuru and the dangerously simplistic #ThisFlag for answers! Dangerous over simplification of a problem, especially by our intellectuals, is compounding our problems instead of offering a way forward.---------------Nomusa Garikai
New Delhi: War-torn Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has sought India's help in the reconstruction of his country's economy.

Assad said this on Saturday during a meeting with visiting Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar in capital city Damascus.

"Both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem," an official source said on Sunday.

"Assad said as a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism," the source said.

On his part, Akbar said the age of destruction should give way to reconstruction in Syria.

"Assad invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy," the source said.

The Syrian president also welcomed India's objective position on the conflict in Syria.

There was an agreement between the two sides on further upgrading security consultations.

Akbar is on the second leg of his three-nation West Asia tour from 17 August to 23 August. He earlier visited Lebanon and met Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

Akbar's visit comes seven months after the visit of Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem to India, during which he sought India's economic and political support.

After Syria, Akbar will also visit the war-ridden country of Iraq.
Beijing: Chinese planes and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week, the military said, during which Beijing displayed its latest-generation frigate at a time of bitter territorial disputes with Asian neighbors.

The defence ministry said in a statement on its website late Saturday that the long-range exercises staged Friday pitted a red army against a blue one in a simulated bomber attack on a naval task force.

It quoted the commander of an unidentified flight wing under the East Sea Fleet, Zhang Wenzhong, as saying the planes found, identified and struck their targets in a "radically short time."

The statement made no mention of what sort of conflict the exercise was intended as a response to, prospective foes or why the Sea of Japan was chosen as the location of the drills. However, China has grown increasingly assertive over its claim to a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan, recently dispatching more than a dozen coast guard vessels as Chinese fishing vessels swarmed the surrounding waters.

The ministry said the main ships involved in the exercise were the Jingzhou, a latest-generation type 054A class stealth frigate of which China is planning to deploy more than two dozen, and the type 052C destroyer Xi'an.

The ministry said aircraft were guided to their targets with the aid of early warning planes.

Other types of aircraft involved weren't identified, although China has been touting the capabilities of its latest-generation long-range H-6K strategic bomber equipped with the DH-20 land-attack cruise missile, giving it the ability to hit targets as far away as Australia. Only Russia and the US are currently able to launch cruise missiles from the air.

Along with its island dispute with Japan, China is involved in an intense rivalry with the US over military dominance in the region. Tensions in the South China Sea have also risen after China refused to accept an international arbitration panel's ruling invalidating its claim to virtually the entire strategic water body.

China plans joint naval exercises with Russia in the South China Sea next month, a move criticised by the head of the US Pacific fleet as increasing instability in the region.
Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte threatened on Sunday to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations, as he launched another profanity-laced tirade against the organisation for criticising his war on crime.

More than 1,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office and immediately began his law-and-order crackdown, according to police statistics, triggering fierce criticism from the UN and rights groups.

Duterte, a lawyer famous for an acid tongue who has repeatedly told the UN not to interfere, on Sunday stepped up his rhetoric.

"Maybe well just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful then I will just leave you," Duterte said in a press conference in his home city of Davao that started about 1.00 am.

Duterte said he may even look to set up another international organisation.

"I would invite everybody. I would invite maybe China, the African (nations)," he said.

The UN's special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, last week said Duterte's promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated international law.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June also strongly criticised Duterte, who during the election campaign promised to kill 100,000 people and dump so many bodies in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

"I unequivocally condemn his apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms," Ban said.

Duterte frequently peppers his public comments with swear words  he has also called Pope Francis and the US ambassador to Manila sons of whores  and days after his election win used typical language to criticise the UN.

"F*** you, UN, you can't even solve the Middle East carnage... couldn't even lift a finger in Africa," he said then.

Last month Duterte said he may not ratify the Philippines' commitments to a historic UN climate change pact agreed by his predecessor last year.

On Sunday morning, Duterte said the UN had done nothing for the Philippines  ignoring its poverty reduction programmes and enormous help following typhoons and other natural disasters  as he continued to curse it.

"I don't give a shit to them. They are the ones interfering," he said.

On the day he was sworn into office, Duterte called for people in slums to kill neighbours whom they believed were drug addicts, repeating a campaign line.

His aides have since said such comments are merely hyperbole and not meant to be taken literally.

However nearly 900 people have been murdered by unknown people during Duterte's time in power, with police killing another 665 alleged drug suspects, according to the national police chief.

The killings represent a massive increase on crime deaths before Duterte took office.

Duterte has repeatedly insisted police have only killed in self defence, while maintaining the other deaths are due to drug syndicates killing each other.
The older brother of a Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an air strike, shocked people around the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained in the same incident, a war monitor, a local council official and a witness said.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesday's air strike, according to UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys' father.

"He was martyred while in hospital as a result of the same bombardment that their house was subjected to," said Besher Hawi, the spokesman for the local council of Aleppo. He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told the witness.

His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust- and blood-caked face.

The video and pictures were widely circulated online and in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syria's five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo.

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege.

Fighting and air strikes in and around Aleppo have killed 448 civilians so far this month, the Observatory said.

Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran. Russia began air strikes last September.

On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as "nightmarish" amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria.

Russia on Thursday said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.
New Delhi: Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (Feto), blamed for last month's failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has "infiltrated" India, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Asserting that FETO is "secretive transnational criminal network" with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, "Unfortunately, Feto has also infiltrated India through associations and chools."

In an interview to PTI after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish Foreign Minister also said, "I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart."

The visiting minister said, "In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories."

Asked for a response to the Minister's comments, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side is "sensitive" to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were "looking into" Ankara's demand for closure of associations connected with Feto which were carrying out illegal activities.

Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said, "Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial."

"This is what both Turkey and India are focused on," he said.

Talking about last month's coup attempt, the visiting dignitary said that a clandestine faction led by Feto within the Turkish Army attempted to stage a coup on 15 July to overthrow the democratically elected government.

"We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Swaraj," Cavusoglu added.

More than 240 people died and over 1,500 others were injured as a fallout of the failed coup.

Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. Gulen currently lives in self-imposed exile in the US.

The Turkish minister also expressed concern over the situation in Syria, maintaining that his country was directly impacted by every dynamic of the conflict there.

He also asked the international community to work together to bring about the much-needed political transition in Syria."This is not only a prerequisite to end the conflict, it is also essential to effectively fight terrorism," the minister asserted.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee will be on a three-day visit, beginning on Monday, to West Bengal, it was announced in New Delhi on Sunday.

The President will inaugurate a CII-IIEST conference on 'Enabling Make in India through Industry Academia Innovation Platform' in Kolkata on the first day of his visit to his home state.

He will also attend a function, 'The Legacy to Humanity: Celebrating 150 years of Homeopathy', on the same day, an official statement issued said.

On 23 August, President Mukherjee will launch in Kolkata Akashvani Kendra 'Moitree' service in Bangla for listeners in Bangladesh and attend 125th anniversary celebrations of 'Bangiya Sahitya Parisad', it said.

He is scheduled to inaugurate a new building of Bharat Chamber of Commerce and address the first foundation day of Bandhan Bank in Kolkata on the same day.

On the last of his visit to the state, the President will inaugurate a Food Park at Jangipur in Murshidabad district, and will attend a convocation of Management Development Institute-Murshidabad before returning to New Delhi.
Chicago: In a shocking incident in the US, a father allegedly murdered his four-month-old daughter by punching her 22 times as she was making baby noises while he was watching television.

Cory Morris, 21, from Minneapolis, has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly punching the baby girl named Emersyn in her face and chest to quiet her "baby talk".

According to the charges, Morris called the police on 13 August and admitted he had just killed his daughter. When police arrived, they found the 4-month-old unconscious on a changing table.

Morris, who was alone watching the child at the time of the incident, told police that he punched the child approximately 15 times in the face and 7 times in the chest with a closed fist, then squeezed her chest with his hands in an attempt to quiet her.

The Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed the baby died from blunt force trauma.

After he did this, he called both his mother and his wife and said, "'I did something bad', but didn't tell them what he actually did," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman was quoted as saying by KMSP-TV.

Morris told police he was watching TV when his daughter began making 'baby talk' noises. He took the baby out of her swing and carried her into a bedroom, placing her on a changing table. Morris said he started punching the baby because she continued to make noises.

According to the criminal complaint, Morris was left to care for the baby girl three to four times per week while his girlfriend worked. His girlfriend reported that Morris went from happy to mad easily, and has grabbed her or thrown things in the past.

"Family members have suggested there may be mental health issues here. These will need to be evaluated during the course of this case," Freeman said.

Morris remains in the Hennepin County Jail, with bail set at USD 2 million.
Istanbul: Turkey's president on Sunday blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing of an outdoor wedding party in the southeast that killed 50 people and wounded dozens of others.

Officials say Saturday's attack in Gaziantep, near Syria's border, appeared to be a suicide bombing.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement early Sunday saying that IS was "the most likely perpetrator of the Gaziantep attack".

The initial death toll was 30 killed and 94 wounded. Later, the Gaziantep governor's office raised the toll to 50, without giving a number of wounded, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party  known by its acronym PKK  or were blamed on IS. In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.

Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, two-and-a-half year-long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In Gaziantep, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the country's health minister visited the wounded and inspected the site of the attack.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters. "We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing, which he said turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and he vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.
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General Dynamics' (GD 1.10%) Lima, Ohio-based tank-building factory is back from the dead (the rest of General D was already doing just fine). But it's still a complicated situation -- so let me explain.

Last quarter, General Dynamics reported a 3% decline in sales across its four major divisions. Combat systems, the division that builds Abrams main battle tanks, LAV light tanks, and Stryker armored personnel carriers took it on the chin, with sales down 7% year over year. This obviously was not great news for the company's Lima plant, which builds both the Abrams and the Stryker, and where the payroll has been slashed from a high of 1,200 employees 10 years ago, to about 400 today.

But there's better news rumbling down the pike.

A big new order from Saudi Arabia

Last week, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency -- the arm of the Pentagon responsible for coordinating foreign arms sales -- announced that it has notified Congress of a big new order for Abrams main battle tanks for Saudi Arabia. According to DSCA, Saudi wants to buy 153 M1Al/A2 "tank structures" from General Dynamics.

Of those tanks, 133 will then be converted into the M1A2S "Saudi Abrams" configuration, being equipped in the process with a battery of smoke grenade launchers and 0.50-caliber and 7.62-mm machine guns to supplement their main guns -- and stocked with 6,650 rounds of tank ammo. The remaining 20 tank bodies will be used as "battle damage replacements" for Saudi tanks lost in the fighting in Yemen.

Additionally, with casualties mounting in Yemen, the Saudis have placed an order for 20 of General Dynamics' M88A l/A2 Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) Armored Recovery Vehicles -- used to recover damaged tanks from the battlefield, and return them to base for repair.

Total cost for Saudi Arabia's shopping list: $1.15 billion.

A boost from the Obama Administration?

Nor is Saudi Arabia the only good news General Dynamics (might) get in 2016. Earlier this year, the Obama Administration requested funding for $480 million worth of tank upgrades from General Dynamics, and a further $591 million in upgraded Stryker APCs -- all built at General Dynamics' Lima plant -- in this year's fiscal 2017 defense budget.

Now, this budget is still pending before Congress. But if it passes, and is signed into law, it will add a further $1.1 billion in new armored vehicle orders for General Dynamics. So all together, we're looking at probably something on the order of $2.2 billion worth of new work for the Lima plant -- serious job security for the 400 workers who still have jobs there.

What it means to investors

That's great news for the workers, but what does it mean for investors? Actually, it's pretty good news for us, too. You see, currently, combat systems is General Dynamics' smallest business unit, with just $5.6 billion in revenue booked in 2015. At the same time, combat systems is the company's second-most-profitable unit, with an operating profit margin of 15.6% -- just behind the uber-profitable aerospace business that builds lucrative Gulfstream business jets.

Apply that 15.6% margin to the $2.2 billion in revenue coming Lima's way, and General Dynamics stands to make an extra $346 million or so in profit from these tank and APC orders. That's about $1.13 per share, or 12% of trailing profits.

Not bad work for just a couple of contracts, coming out of the company's smallest business unit. Not bad at all.
After taking it on the chin to begin the year, Big Pharma stocks have staged a comeback. The iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF had given up almost 20% near the beginning of 2016 but is now just down just a few percentage points for the year. This has driven down yields of most dividend-paying pharma stocks, but Pfizer (PFE 3.69%) and AbbVie (ABBV -3.84%) still offer more than 3% at recent prices.

Those higher yields come with higher risk of stalling growth, an issue that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 1.49%) investors might have less to worry about. Let's look closer at these three companies to see which is the best dividend stock in Big Pharma.

Ghosts of dividends past

Past performance isn't a forward-looking guarantee, but it's one of the best indicators at our disposal. At 54 years, Johnson & Johnson has the longest streak of annual dividend increases, but in a sense AbbVie isn't far behind. AbbVie's parent company, Abbott, has 44 consecutive years of increased payments under its belt. Since its spinoff in 2013, AbbVie has increased its quarterly payout four times from $0.40 to $0.57 per share.

Pfizer is the clear loser here. In 2009, the company cut its dividend in half to clear a path for its enormous Wyeth acquisition. Over the past decade, its investors have seen payouts rise just 25%, accompanied by a dissapointing 57.5% decline in earnings per share. Over the same period, J&J's earnings per share rose 42.6% along with a 113% increase in dividend payments.

Turning toward sustainability, based on the familiar payout ratio metric (the percentage of earnings required to make dividend payments), Pfizer appears to be in trouble, with payments at 92.58% of trailing earnings.

Reported earnings are subject to numerous non-cash charges, however, and savvy dividend investors also take into account the cash dividend payout ratio, measured as the percentage of free cash flow (minus dividend payments to preferred shares) required to make payments to common shares. Based on this sustainability measurement, all three distributions appear adequately funded based on trailing cash flows.

What could drive growth

Of course, to keep raising payments, these Big Pharmas need to grow their bottom lines. Worldwide spending on cancer medicines reached $107 billion last year and is expected to pass the $150 billion mark by 2020. AbbVie bought its way into this field with a $21 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics and its rights to half of blood cancer drug Imbruvica's sales. Johnson & Johnson owns the other half but risked only $150 million up front in its 2011 deal with Imbruvica's discoverer.



In the second quarter, J&J recorded $295 million in Imbruvica sales, representing a 91.6% increase over the previous-year period, and a 13% increase over the previous quarter. The acceleration is partly due to a recent label expansion that made Imbruvica capsules the first chemotherapy-free option for newly diagnosed patients with the most common form of leukemia. The drug is expected to add more than $5 billion annually to each company's top line at its peak.

Pfizer's oncology program is also making strides, but in a much larger indication. A woman born in the U.S. today has about a 1-in-8 chance of eventually receiving a breast cancer diagnosis, and many will receive Pfizer's Ibrance. The capsules first earned FDA approval last February as a part of a first-line combination therapy for postmenopausal women newly diagnosed with a difficult-to-treat form of the disease. This February, the regulator expanded its label to include all women with the same form of the disease that progressed following a hormonal therapy.

The first approval alone made Ibrance a smash hit, and the more recent expansion is fueling the fire. Second-quarter sales of Ibrance suggest an annual run rate above $2 billion, as it races toward peak annual sales estimates of $5 billion.

What might hinder growth

When it comes to intellectual-property rights, drug patents are incredibly short lived. Pharmas must discover or acquire new products constantly as old ones lose their source of pricing power.

This will become a huge problem for AbbVie, but exactly when is unclear. Sales of AbbVie's Humira in the first half of this year suggest an annual run rate of $15.45 billion, an increase of 16% over the previous year period. Its continued success is remarkable, but the anti-inflammatory accounted for 62.3% of the company's total revenue in the first half. About 64% of Humira sales, and practically all its recent growth, comes from the U.S., where its composition-of-matter patent (the bulletproof one) is set to expire in December. That might allow competitor Amgen to market its biosimilar version of Humira as soon as next year. However, AbbVie has more than 70 additional patents for Humira that could keep competitors out until 2022.

Turning to Pfizer, one of its largest revenue streams, the Prevnar vaccine, isn't in danger of losing patent protection until 2026, but second-quarter sales of $1.26 billion were 16.3% lower than the previous-year period. The company blames the decline on the fact that a high percentage of over-65 adults are already vaccinated.

Pfizer's first largest revenue stream is pain reliever Lyrica, but this probably won't be the case for much longer. Since losing EU exclusivity in 2014, its sales in the region have plummeted, and its main U.S. patent should expire in 2018. Second-quarter Lyrica sales of $1.26 billion increased 3% over the previous-year period, but $1.05 billion came from regions where it maintains exclusivity. At about 9.6% of total revenue, Lyrica won't be as significant in terms of impending losses to Pfizer as Humira will be to AbbVie, but this and other patent expirations will create serious headwinds in the coming years.

Johnson & Johnson also faces loss of exclusivity for a key product, Remicade. Biosimilar competition from partners Celltrion and Pfizer is already eating into Remicade sales outside the U.S. and could begin at home as early as October.

The $1.78 billion J&J recorded in second-quarter Remicade sales comprised about 20.6% of the pharmaceutical segment's sales but just 9.6% of the healthcare conglomerate's total revenue for the period. Its consumer-goods and medical-device segments provide a great deal of insulation from drug patent expirations. Johnson & Johnson can boast 32 consecutive years of adjusted earnings growth, and diversification is largely responsible for its consistency.

With a yield of about 2.6%, J&J isn't that far behind AbbVie and Pfizer, which are both offering 3.4% at recent prices. Given the stronger headwinds its smaller peers face, J&J's payments will probably outpace both drugmakers in the long run, making it the best dividend stock in Big Pharma.
It's game time for Lockheed Martin's (LMT 2.74%) F-35 stealth fighter jet.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Air Force declared the 15 F-35A "Lightning II" aircraft of the 34th Fighter Squadron based at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to have reached initial operational capability (IOC). The designation trails a similar Marine Corps assessment regarding its F-35B short-take-off-vertical landing variant aircraft one year ago and leads an expected Navy IOC for its F-35C carrier-variant fighters, expected in 2018.

The Air Force's IOC, however, is the one most important to Lockheed Martin -- for the simple reason that the Air Force plans to buy 1,763 F-35A variant aircraft -- more than twice as many as the 420 F-35B and -C variants that the Marine Corps plans to buy, and the Navy's 340 -Cs, combined. With IOC now established, the Air Force says its F-35As can now be dispatched to perform "basic" close-air support, air interdiction, and ground attack missions anywhere in the world.

In theory.

A work in progress

The practical picture looks a bit different. You see, the F-35 was designed to enter into operations as a sort of work in progress, and to receive upgrades in its capability over time. Thus, even the fighters of the 34th lack "3F" software upgrades that they will need in order "to launch certain types of weapons such as the Small Diameter Bomb," reports DefenseNews.com.

That upgrade is not expected to roll out until next year, and the Air Force does not plan to send the F-35 into combat until it does. Later, a subsequent upgrade dubbed 4F will not be complete until 2022 -- three years after Lockheed Martin expects to receive the go-ahead to begin full-rate production of the aircraft.

Despite these caveats, pilots who have flown the F-35 out of Hill AFB have reported that over the course of 88 recent sorties flown, the planes suffered zero "glitches" in their software. That may sound like faint praise for a combat that's supposed to outclass everything else in the air, but it appears to be good enough for the Air Force. Commenting on the IOC announcement, Gen. Hawk Carlisle, head of Air Force Air Combat Command, waved off worries over the plane's quality, saying instead:

My problem is buy rate. We need more faster [...] to replace legacy airplanes that are going to require money for service life extensions if I don't replace them with F-35s [...] I would like at least 60 a year; 80 would be optimum.

What it means for Lockheed Martin

That must be music to Lockheed Martin's ears. Its key customer, the Air Force, isn't worried about the quality of its product at all -- but only about how many planes it can buy, and how quickly Lockheed will let it buy them! And in that regard, too, Lockheed is making good progress toward satisfying its customer.

Last month, in its post-earnings conference call, Lockheed confirmed that it's on track to build and deliver 53 F-35s this year -- not all to the Air Force, granted. Some will probably go to the Marines, the Navy, and foreign customers. But Lockheed is closing in on Gen. Carlisle's hoped-for "60 a year" target -- and making good progress toward 80.

What it means for investors

How big of a deal is this for Lockheed Martin? Think about it this way: According to Lockheed Martin management, the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines intend to purchase a total of 2,443 F-35s over the course of a 60-year production run. International customers who partnered with the U.S. in developing the aircraft are expected to purchase a further 600 or so F-35s, while countries that were not part of the original development team (Israel, Japan, and Korea, for example) may end up buying as many as 1,000 more.

In total, therefore, there's at least the potential for 4,000 or so F-35s not yet in existence to roll off Lockheed Martin assembly lines over the next several decades. At Lockheed's targeted average price of $85 million, that's a $340 billion revenue opportunity -- that swells into the range of $1.5 trillion once you factor in revenues from maintenance and servicing and upgrades to aircraft as they age.

$1.5 trillion. At Lockheed Martin's current revenue rate of $49 billion per year, that means the F-35 program alone could account for about 30 full years' worth of revenue for Lockheed Martin. Spread out over a 60-year service life, it could account for about half of Lockheed's business. Simply put, Lockheed Martin and its shareholders have placed a very big bet on the success of the F-35.

And at long last, it's starting to pay off.
Any time a company has a dividend yield north of 10%, your "investing baloney" meter should be on high alert. There is little to no chance that it can maintain that kind of payout for long -- whether it's because the fundamentals of its business are flawed, it's in a market in major decline, or its financial house is a mess. In the cases of Costamare (NYSE: CMRE), Seadrill Partners (SDLP), and CVR Energy (CVI -0.50%), several factors have pushed these companies' dividend yields to levels that can't last. Here's a quick rundown of why these three are candidates for dividend cuts in the near future.

A dividend cut could help make the sailing smoother

Costamare, like so many other companies that had spent years gearing up for the Chinese growth engine, is now facing a situation where slower Chinese growth is leading to oversupply in a multitude of industries. For Costamare, the slowing rate of global shipping means less demand for containerships, which leads to lower charter rates and lower revenue. According to the company's most recent investor presentation, idle ships have increased from less than 2% of the global fleet, back in 2014, to close to 8% today. That may not sound like a huge change, but it's been enough to lower charter rates by more than 10%. These factors are weighing heavily on the company's stock, to the point that shares are now trading at a yield of 12.7%.

To be fair to Costamare, it's in better financial health than some of its peers, but that doesn't take into account the 12 new vessels the company currently has under construction that will need to be financed. If it were to pay for those exclusively with debt, it would probably have too onerous a debt load. Costamare would be more prudent to cut its dividend and use a share issuance to pay off the remaining obligations for the fleet, and perhaps improve on its balance sheet even further so it can capitalize when the market does pick back up again.

Can't work when sitting in dry dock

If you look at Seadrill Partners' financial results today, you might not worry about the company being forced to cut its 32% dividend yield just yet. The company is still generating decent profits that provide enough cash to cover its capital spending and its payout to shareholders, and build a $400 million cash cushion. The problem for Seadrill Partners is that the future looks bleak, and it will be difficult to weather the storm with a high payout like today's.

Seadrill Partners and Costamare face similar problems: There is simply too much supply in their respective markets. For Seadrill Partners, it's really only a matter of time before we start to see significant revenue declines. In fact, two of its clients have already canceled contracts with Seadrill Partners early. With a rather small fleet already, losing one or two rigs will result in pretty rapid declines in profits and cash generation. Once this happens, the company will draw down those cash reserves to service debt and maintain its fleet, which could leave little room to give cash to investors.

In the event that Seadrill Partners needs to raise cash to make ends meet or wants to receive another rig from its parent company Seadrill (SDRL) via asset dropdown, the best way to do so would be to issue shares. Today's yield, unfortunately, is prohibitively expensive for that. Eventually, the company will need to slash its dividend, and investors won't want to be around when it happens.

Not enough support from subsidiaries

The only way that CVR Energy makes money is from the cash payments it receives from its two subsidiary partnerships CVR Refining (CVRR) and CVR Partners (UAN 0.23%). The problem for CVR Energy is that the two subsidiaries' results have been less than robust of late, and it would be difficult for the parent company to maintain its current payout if these issues continue.

For CVR Refining, the issues are a tough refining market environment today and higher than usual costs to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's renewable-fuels standards. Because of the higher costs and contracting margins, CVR Refining has suspended its dividend for at least a quarter to preserve cash. This is slightly more important to CVR Energy, because the refining partnership has historically made up to 75% of the company's segment EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

To make matters worse, CVR Partners hasn't been doing much better. Lower natural-gas prices coupled with fewer exports of nitrogen-based fertilizers has resulted in lower prices for its products. It's also trying to incorporate its recent acquisition of Rentech Nitrogen Partners.

Granted, both of these businesses are very cyclical, and perhaps after a couple quarters these issues could blow over. However, the cash contributions from these two companies are nowhere close to what CVR Energy needs for its own dividend, which is 13% today. A rumor that it is looking to acquire one of its competitors is enough reason to think that it cuts its dividend, so it can shore up its balance sheet to set up for better days ahead.
For years, lawmakers have acknowledged the future financial challenges that Social Security faces in meeting its obligations to retirees. Yet more than three decades after the most recent major reform of the program, Social Security continues to elude any long-term solutions from those charged with ensuring its financial stability. Now, however, representatives in Congress have presented a bill for consideration by the House. The bill, dubbed the Save Our Social Security Act, features bipartisan support and could finally mark a step forward in policymaking on retirement benefits, and its balancing act between raising revenue and reducing costs could mark a turning point in the logjam that has prevented meaningful reform to Social Security in the past.

What the Save Our Social Security Act would do

The legislation, introduced by Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and cosponsored by representatives of both parties, calls for the implementation of several changes to Social Security. Policymakers have suggested many of these changes as potential solutions to Social Security's anticipated future shortfall, but the intent of the Save Our Social Security Act is to balance revenue increases, benefit adjustments, and increases to the full retirement age. By doing so, lawmakers acknowledge that the polarizing rhetoric that both parties have used in the past only serves to prevent any reasonable compromise.

In particular, the legislation would make several major changes:

The wage base on which Social Security payroll taxes are charged would rise from its current level of $118,500 to more than $300,000 over the next five years. The intent of the provision would be to tax 90% of all earnings throughout the U.S. economy.

The formula for calculating benefits would reduce the benefit addition for earnings above the top bend point from 15% to 5% over a five-year period. The impact would therefore be to give high-income earners less credit for their earnings for purposes of determining their monthly benefit amount.

Starting in 2022, the full retirement age would begin rising from 67 to 69 in two-month increments, with future increases of one month every two years.

Benefits would be based on average earnings over a 38-year career rather than the current 35-year assumption.

Cost of living adjustments would be based on the chained CPI figure, which most economists argue will lead to slower benefit increases over time.

New benefits for those at or below 125% of the poverty level would provide a safety net. In addition, benefit increases for those retirees who've received benefits for 20 years or longer would also offset some of the cost savings from other provisions of the law.

None of these changes would be sufficient by itself to solve Social Security's problems, but in combination, they would be able to address the program's long-term financial situation. According to the legislation, raising payroll taxes would provide about 34% of the measures funding, with benefit-formula modifications providing 10%, retirement age increases helping with 35%, and cost of living adjustments amounting to 19%. The reduced cost in considering 38 years of career earnings would offset the added expense of minimum benefits and higher payouts for older beneficiaries of the program.

A breakthrough?

Early reaction from those with influence in the Social Security debate has been more positive than prior proposals have received. By combining elements of both Republican and Democratic platforms, the legislation has a balanced feel that can appeal to all lawmakers if they so choose.

Of course, it's also possible that partisan politics will cause legislators on both sides of the aisle to focus their criticism on the portions of the bill with which they disagree. Some Democrats see raising the retirement age as a nonstarter, while Republicans oppose the hefty payroll tax increases that will hit high-income earners.

Unfortunately, in a Presidential election year, few expect the legislation to make any progress even within Congress, let alone becoming law. What proponents of the measure hope is that the framework of the Save Our Social Security Act will serve as a useful starting point for future legislation, acknowledging the need for rational give and take in what has become one of most contentious issues among policymakers.

For a debate that has been gridlocked for decades, the Save Our Social Security Act could become an important step forward in the path toward meaningful reform. Even if the political process doesn't gain momentum this year, lawmakers should still remember this legislation when it comes time to take the Social Security crisis more seriously than they have in the past.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Many big pharma companies pay attractive dividends. But which is the best big pharma dividend stock of all? There's a strong case to be made that the distinction belongs to AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV). Here's why.

Image source: Getty Images

Criteria

What's the best way to determine the best big pharma dividend stock? First, we have to define exactly what "big pharma" means. The problem is that definitions of the term vary. For the purposes of this analysis, I limited the stocks to the top 25 drugmakers (including biotechs) traded on U.S. stock exchanges with the largest market caps.

Next, I eliminated any of these top 25 companies that don't currently pay dividends. That narrowed the list down to 18 big pharma stocks.

The tough call to make was what dividend yield threshold should be used to weed out more stocks. I decided on using 3% as the cut-off level. Doing this eliminated some good dividend stocks from consideration.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), for example, didn't make the cut. Some might argue that J&J should be a finalist because of the company's stellar track record of 54 consecutive years of dividend increases. I totally understand and sympathize with that view.

However, despite its long history of dividend hikes, Johnson & Johnson pays a lower dividend yield than several other big pharma stocks. Fortunately, whether or not J&J was included didn't make a difference in the final determination of which is the best big pharma dividend stock.

I also eliminated any stock with a dividend payout ratio of 90% or higher. It's possible that some stocks with high payout ratios should still be able to cover their dividends without missing a beat. However, this seemed like a good threshold to use in ruling out some big pharma stocks whose dividends could be in jeopardy in the near future.

Runners-up

After applying these criteria, only five big pharma stocks made the cut. Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) made the top five with a dividend yield of 3.17% and a dividend payout ratio of 76%. The company should be in position to grow its earnings considerably over the next several years with rising sales of cancer drug Opdivo. This earnings growth should allow Bristol-Myers Squibb to raise its dividend in the future, making the stock a good pick for dividend-seeking investors.

Roche Holding AG (NASDAQOTH: RHHBY) made the list as well. The Swiss healthcare giant claims a dividend yield of 3.49% and a dividend payout ratio of 77%. Roche's dividend looks to be a pretty safe bet. The company is a leader in the development of personalized medicines plus it has a large business segment that develops diagnostics for identifying which patients are best suited for specific drugs.

Generic and specialty drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TEVA) also joined the group of top big pharma dividend stocks. Teva's dividend yield currently stands at 4.09% with a dividend payout ratio of 78.61%. The stock is also a lot cheaper than it's been in a while after losing nearly half of its value over the last 12 months. I don't think this slide should make anyone nervous about Teva's dividend, though. The company should be able to continue paying dividends at least at current levels.

My pick as the top runner-up is Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO). The Denmark-based drugmaker has a dividend yield of 3.97% and a payout ratio of 63.3%. Although Novo Nordisk's yield is slightly lower than Teva's, the company's lower payout ratio and better growth potential make it more likely to be able to increase dividends down the road.

Why AbbVie wins

AbbVie, though, clearly stands out as the best big pharma dividend stock of all. Its dividend yield of 4.19% was the highest of the five finalists and the second highest of any big pharma stock. AbbVie only uses 60% of its earnings to cover its dividend, giving the company the lowest payout ratio of the five top dividend stocks and one of the lowest of all big pharma stocks.

Since its spin-off from parent Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) in 2013, AbbVie has increased its dividend by 60%. That includes the latest dividend hike in October of more than 12%.

The best news about AbbVie is that the company seems poised to keep raising its dividends in the future. Wall Street expects AbbVie to grow earnings by an average of 15% annually over the next few years. The company's top product, Humira, continues to perform very well. AbbVie also has a rising star with cancer drug Imbruvica plus a strong pipeline.

Last, but certainly not least, AbbVie's valuation looks attractive. The stock trades at less than 11 times forward earnings.

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Teva, and Novo Nordisk all have great dividend yields with reasonable payout ratios. Johnson & Johnson has an impressive track record of dividend hikes. But AbbVie checks off every box, making it the best big pharma dividend stock of all.

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Lockheed Martin's future looks brighter with the F-35. Image source: Lockheed Martin.

It's game time for Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) F-35 stealth fighter jet.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Air Force declared the 15 F-35A "Lightning II" aircraft of the 34th Fighter Squadronbased at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to have reached initial operational capability (IOC). The designation trails a similar Marine Corps assessment regarding its F-35B short-take-off-vertical landing variant aircraft one year ago and leads an expected Navy IOC for its F-35C carrier-variant fighters, expected in 2018.

The Air Force's IOC, however, is the one most important to Lockheed Martin -- for the simple reason that the Air Force plans to buy 1,763 F-35A variant aircraft -- more than twice as many as the 420 F-35B and -C variants that the Marine Corps plans to buy, and the Navy's 340 -Cs, combined. With IOC now established, the Air Force says its F-35As can now be dispatched to perform "basic" close-air support, air interdiction, and ground attack missionsanywhere in the world.

In theory.

A work in progress

The practical picture looks a bit different. You see, the F-35 was designed to enter into operations as a sort of work in progress, and to receive upgrades in its capability over time. Thus, even the fighters of the 34thlack "3F" software upgrades that they will need in order "to launch certain types of weapons such as the Small Diameter Bomb," reports DefenseNews.com.

That upgrade is not expected to roll out until next year, and the Air Force does not plan to send the F-35 into combat until it does. Later, a subsequent upgrade dubbed 4F will not be complete until 2022 -- three years after Lockheed Martin expects to receive the go-ahead to begin full-rate productionof the aircraft.

Despite these caveats, pilots who have flown the F-35 out of Hill AFB have reported that over the course of 88 recent sorties flown, the planes suffered zero "glitches" in their software. That may sound like faint praise for a combat that's supposed to outclass everything else in the air, but it appears to be good enough for the Air Force. Commenting on the IOC announcement, Gen. Hawk Carlisle, head of Air Force Air Combat Command, waved off worries over the plane's quality, saying instead:

What it means for Lockheed Martin

That must be music to Lockheed Martin's ears. Its key customer, the Air Force, isn't worried about the quality of its product at all -- but only about how many planes it can buy, and how quickly Lockheed will let it buy them! And in that regard, too, Lockheed is making good progress toward satisfying its customer.

Last month, in its post-earnings conference call, Lockheed confirmed that it's on track to build and deliver 53 F-35s this year -- not all to the Air Force, granted. Some will probably go to the Marines, the Navy, and foreign customers. But Lockheed is closing in on Gen. Carlisle's hoped-for "60 a year" target -- and making good progress toward 80.

What it means for investors

How big of a deal is this for Lockheed Martin? Think about it this way: According to Lockheed Martin management, the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines intend to purchase a total of 2,443 F-35s over the course of a 60-year production run. International customers who partneredwith the U.S. in developing the aircraft are expected to purchase a further 600 or so F-35s, while countries that were not part of the original development team (Israel, Japan, and Korea, for example) may end up buying as many as 1,000 more.

In total, therefore, there's at least the potential for 4,000 or so F-35s not yet in existence to roll off Lockheed Martin assembly lines over the next several decades. At Lockheed's targeted average price of $85 million, that's a $340 billion revenue opportunity -- that swellsinto the range of $1.5 trillion once you factor in revenues from maintenance and servicing and upgrades to aircraft as they age.

$1.5 trillion. At Lockheed Martin's current revenue rate of $49 billion per year, that means the F-35 program alone could account for about 30 full years' worth of revenue for Lockheed Martin. Spread out over a 60-year service life, it could account for about half of Lockheed's business. Simply put, Lockheed Martin and its shareholders have placed a very big bet on the success of the F-35.

And at long last, it's starting to pay off.

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New designer drugs, made to bypass standing legislation that outlaw their original forms, are hitting the market, raising concern among U.S. physicians. Among them are shatter, a highly concentrated form of marijuana legal in Colorado; fentanyl, a stimulant up to 50 times stronger than heroin; and, at the forefront of many public health officials minds, Flakka, a tweaked version of bath salts that, in some cases, can cause heart palpitations and aggressive, violent behavior.

Following 2012 federal legislation that banned some varieties of bath salts, manufacturers have altered the chemical makeup of the amphetamine-like drug to concoct this stronger, more highly addictive and still-legal form of the drug, sold in Florida as Flakka but in other parts of the United States as Gravel. Flakka is derived from the Spanish word flaca, meaning skinny, and in Hispanic cultures is generally thought to refer to a beautiful, elegantly thin woman.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in the United States, synthetic cathinones, which encompasses Flakka and bath salts, rose from 14,239 to 16,500 annual cases from 2012 to 2013, the most recent data available.

Some reports say Flakka can be traced to China, but its origin hasnt been confirmed. In addition to Florida, law enforcement agencies have reported Flakka cases in Ohio and Texas.

'Excited delirium'

While there may be various chemical versions of the drug circulating in the United States, in the South, Flakka is being sold mostly as the synthetic cathinone alpha-PVP, said Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Alpha-PVP is a substance that provides an instant sense of euphoria and a boost in physical strength similar to other stimulants like cocaine and ecstasy.

Abdul El-Sayed, assistant epidemiology professor at Columbia University, said its unclear how powerful the drug is, but some reports suggest it is even stronger than crystal meth and bath salts.

Like those stimulants, Flakka affects the reward center of the brain by releasing dopamine and flooding the user with a feeling of pleasure. When the body overdoses on euphoria, a phenomenon physicians refer to as excited delirium occurs. During this process, the body becomes overheated, inducing hypothermia, and then the muscles over-activate, and the mind begins hallucinating.

When people overdose on flakka, crystal meth or bath salts, their muscles can also disintegrate, releasing a protein into the blood that affects the kidneys. When the kidneys cant filter that protein, this complication can lead to kidney failure or even death.

In South Florida where hospitals are admitting 20 new patients per day for Flakka abuse, Hall said the new synthetic drug has made headlines in recent months after two men exhibited symptoms of having used it. In March, it took five police officers to restrain a man in Miami who ripped off his clothes, screamed loudly, and began hallucinating after smoking a crystal-like drug believed to be alpha-PVP.

In early April, video taken from a bystander shows another Florida man who admitted to taking Flakka streaking the streets of Fort Lauderdale while he imagined unknown people stealing his clothes then chasing him.

One of the reasons we think alpha-PVP is such a problem is because it is extremely dose-specific, and even just a little dose will give a person the desired effect of they want, Hall told FoxNews.com. Just a little more can create a number of serious adverse effects to the point the user doesnt even know.

A stronger addiction

Flakka comes in crystalline rock form, and it can be swallowed, snorted, injected or vaped in an e-cigarette. Its generally snorted, Hall said, but it can also be cut and smoked in a cigarette, or used in a marijuana pipe coupled with marijuana. Effects are felt for three or four hours and can continue for days after.

When new drugs hit the streets, doses arent well characterized, so determining what potency can cause said erratic behavior is challenging. The drug is reportedly being sold in Florida for $5 for one-tenth of a gram.

Its cheap like crack cocaine, Hall said. This is as close as weve come to a crack cocaine problem since 1995 in terms of the severe reactions, low prices, and that its available to young kids, and even homeless populations are now impacted.

Not knowing what strength of dose is being offered can also make it easy for users to take too much, El-Sayed said.

Its being marketed to folks with amphetamine addiction, and they market it as the latest and greatest, El-Sayed told FoxNews.com, but the reality of addiction is that the main hallmark is tolerance. A lot of these folks are really tolerant already. Its not pure, so theres no standard for how much people can take. People are basically playing with their lives by taking this.

What makes synthetic cathinones like Flakka so addictive is their ability to block the reuptake transporters of dopamine.

More of it remains active flooding the brain with excess dopamine, resulting in intense pleasure and its related anticipation that users come to crave resulting in compulsive use and a stronger addiction, Hall said. Designing the molecule of a drug that blocks the exit door for dopamine in the brain makes it a more addictive substance.

A growing public health issue

Today, 15 to 20 percent of the patients enrolled in treatment programs in South Florida were admitted for Flakka, Hall said.

Standard treatment for someone who overdoses on a stimulant involves not stimulating them anymore and actively sedating them, said Mark DeBard, an emergency physician and an emergency medicine professor at Ohio State University.

In general, the best guidelines are to make them safe and yourself safe, and to minimize restraint as they undergo getting medical help, DeBard told FoxNews.com.

He said in Ohio, treating stimulant overdoses isnt an everyday problem, but that he sees at least one patient who has overdosed on some stimulant, most commonly cocaine in the last decade, every week.

As the variety of synthetic drugs methylone, or Molly, and MDMA, or ecstacy, among them grows due to an increasing demand on the streets, Hall and El-Sayed expressed concern over what their increasing strength could mean for public health.

The immediate question that comes to mind is, This is a really crazy drug, and how can we make sure were safe from people who use this drug? El-Sayed said. But the question we should be asking as a society is, Why are people turning to drugs like this, and why is there this increasing need for stronger drugs? So we should be looking at this not as a law enforcement problem but as a public health problem.
Some generous Home Depot employees have made life a little easier for a 2-year-old North Texas boy with special needs.

Silus Johnson has a genetic disorder called Norrie Disease that has left him blind and with low muscle tone, Fox4 Dallas reports.

Regular walkers are just too small for him, so employees at the Home Depot in North Richland Hills offered to help free-of-charge.

They built Silus a special walker using PVC pipe and other materials off the outlets shelves.

I used the foam around the edges to make it soft, rope to secure the seat, Chris Wright told the station. Reflective tape on it to kind of help it stand out if they're out in public or something so that way you can see him.

They delivered the walker to Silus last week.

"As soon as we put him in there, it was just really cool, supervisor Eric Bindel told the station. He started feeling around on it. You could tell he was happy. He was excited, basically. He started laughing and then started using his little feet to push himself backwards. I had a big smile. Everybody had a big smile, maybe a couple little tears here and there.

Silus mother Jessica Johnson said the walker helps her son be a little more independent.

We need to recognize these gentlemen who put their heart and hard work into making this for my son, she told the station.

Click here for more from Fox4 Dallas.
For three years, Saralda Ortiz-Howard and her husband tried to get pregnant until they decided to turn to fertility treatments. They spent more than $30,000 on multiple cycles of both intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) but neither was successful, not to mention that the physical side effects of the treatments were harsh.

The amount of medicines that I was taking, my body felt out of whack, Ortiz-Howard, now 43, said. I felt that was one of the reasons I wasnt successful in achieving pregnancy.

Then the Hicksville, New York woman learned about mini-IVF, an alternative to traditional IVF that has been in use for years but isnt as widely known or administered. Her physician, Dr. Zaher Merhi, director of research and development in IVF technologies at New Hope Fertility Center in New York City, explained that since mini-IVF uses a smaller amount of medication it would be less taxing on her body.

In June, Ortiz-Howard started mini-IVF treatments and said immediately she noticed her body wasnt as swollen and she didnt have the severe night sweats that she had experienced with IVF.

With the low dose, I felt regular, I felt normal, she said. Everything felt so much better.

What is mini-IVF?

Mini-IVF or minimal stimulation IVF, is also referred to as mild stimulation IVF or gentle stimulation IVF.

Its very similar to IVF but youre not stimulating the ovaries too much with high doses of medication, Merhi said.

There isnt data available on the number of U.S. clinics that offer mini-IVF, in 2014, there were 143 Society for Assistive Reproductive Technology (SART)-member clinics that submitted data about their use of the treatment.

Proponents of mini-IVF say its an option for some women who may respond better to lower doses of medication and the quality of the eggs and the embryos might even be better.

There is this feeling that high doses of shots can be detrimental to the quality of eggs, Merhi said.

Unlike traditional IVF which requires daily injections, mini-IVF needs fewer injections and uses tablets as well as a nasal spray in place of the trigger shot used for traditional IVF. However, the specific protocol varies between patients.

Since less medication is used, mini-IVF can be more affordable than IVF. A traditional IVF cycle can cost anywhere between $12,000 and $15,000 while a mini-IVF cycle might be as low as $4,500, on average.

Mini-IVF has drawbacks

Critics say that mini-IVF is not the magic bullet proponents claim it is. For starters, IVF is the most successful fertility treatment because the medications are meant to yield a large amount of eggs, said Dr. Peter Ahlering, medical director of the Missouri Center for Reproductive Medicine in St. Louis.

Studies show that after female age, the greatest predictor of pregnancy and live birth from IVF is the number of embryos produced.

In general in IVF, quality and quantity run in parallel, said Dr. Norbert Gleicher, founder and medical director of the Center for Human Reproduction in New York City.

Mini-IVF, on the other hand, can take more cycles on average to result in a pregnancy and a baby.

The problem with the process is that if you get fewer eggs, then the probability of success is lower, Ahlering said.

For women under age 35, 23.1 percent of mini-IVF cycles resulted in a single live birth, compared to 6.2 percent for women between ages 38 and 40, according to SART statistics. With traditional IVF, women under 35 had a 31.9 percent success rate, compared to 18.3 percent for women in the older demographic.

A study conducted by New Hope Fertility Center and published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found the live birth rate for mini-IVF was 49 percent versus 63 percent for conventional IVF.

Experts say the idea that mini-IVF results in better-quality eggs and embryos while high-dose stimulation can result in poorer quality eggs and embryos is a myth.

If that were true, everybody would be doing [mini-IVF] all the time for all patients, Ahlering said.

Another thing women should know is that similar to traditional IVF, there is always the chance that they will not respond to the medication, or get quality eggs or embryos, Merhi said.

Although mini-IVF is often cited as a means to prevent ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a condition that can cause bloating, pain, weight gain or more serious symptoms, Ahlering said that there are traditional IVF medication protocols that can prevent this from happening.

You can still achieve the high clinical pregnancy rates and get a good number of follicles but dont expose the patient to extra risk of hyperstimulation, she said.

Mini-IVF may be an option for some women, such as those who have diminished ovarian reserve, because regardless of the amount of medication they take, the same number of eggs will likely be retrieved, Ahlering said.

Im always going to recommend [the method] which gives the patient the optimal probability of pregnancy, he said.

Although mini-IVF cycles are cheaper, if multiple cycles are required, it may not be cost saving in the long run.

The whole thing is completely bogus [and] its a disservice to patients. Its amazing that people are still using it, Gleicher said.

For Ortiz-Howard, however, mini-IVF may turn out to be her best option for having a healthy baby. Unlike previous IVF cycles that yielded five or six viable, quality embryos, this time around doctors implanted four and froze seven. Now four weeks pregnant, she and her doctors are hopeful about the future.

So far everything is great, she said.
Hillary Clinton heads into the fall out front in enough states to give her at least a tie in the Electoral College, meaning a victory in any of the several states now a toss-up would be enough to push her over the top and into the White House, according to an Associated Press analysis of the electoral map, with 78 days until Election Day.

For Republican presidential rival Donald Trump, the electoral map is as daunting as it is friendly to Clinton. To win, he must sweep all of the toss-up battlegrounds and go on to pick off at least one state where the Democratic nominee now has a solid lead, the wire service reports.

The analysis considers preference polling, recent electoral history, demographic trends and campaign priorities such as advertising, travel and on-the-ground staff.

It finds that to capture the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, Clinton must merely defend traditionally Democratic states and those where recent polls show she has large advantages, and then add just one of the states that The Associated Press now rates as a toss-up.

Those states include Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

And that map may be a conservative estimate of Clinton's head start over the Republican nominee.

In several states the AP rates as toss-ups, including New Hampshire, North Carolina and Florida, recent polls suggest current conditions may be favorable to Clinton, though there are few polls in those states or they have given her a relatively narrow upper hand.

In other states, Clinton's advantage appears more formidable. In Pennsylvania, won by the Democratic nominee in every election since 1992, multiple polls conducted in July and August give the former secretary of state double-digit leads.

That state illustrates the depth of Trump's problem: It's considered a linchpin of his strategy to win over working-class white voters in the Rust Belt.

In Virginia, which handed its electoral votes to Barack Obama twice but was once a solidly Republican state, several August surveys show high single-digit to double-digit leads for Clinton.

Colorado, too, shows no signs of reversing itself after twice supporting Obama. Trump has consistently trailed by large margins in surveys released there since mid-July. Polls released this month in Wisconsin and Michigan also found Trump facing significant deficits.

Trump is left running from behind while also defending traditional Republican strongholds such as Georgia, where a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll suggests even that may be in play for Clinton.

------

Where the race stands today:

SOLID DEMOCRATIC: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maine 2nd District, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.

LEANS DEMOCRATIC: Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin.

TOSS-UP: Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio.

LEANS REPUBLICAN: Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska 2nd District, Utah.

SOLID REPUBLICAN: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming.
The Hillary Clinton campaign suggested Sunday that the resignation of Donald Trumps campaign chairman doesnt end Trump's possible connections to Russian money and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom it implies is using Trump as a puppet in the White House race.

We need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his campaign," Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook said on ABCs This Week.

Mooks appearances on ABC and CBS Face the Nation, and the attacks on Trump come amid renewed questions about the potential influence of foreign money on the Clinton Foundation.

Newly released documents show the State Department considered buying a property for a U.S. embassy in Lagos from a foreign company with ties to a wealthy foundation donor shortly after Clinton resigned as secretary of state in 2013.

Last week, Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort resigned amid more reports about his financial ties to Russian-backed Ukraine politicians, included ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, whom Putin supported.

However, Mook pointed to Trumps apparent political admiration for Putin as well as the Trump campaigns apparently successful attempt to soften Washington Republicans desire to arm Ukraines pro-Western government against Russian intrusion.

There are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race, Mook said. We need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin."

Mook pressed similar points on CBS, saying Trump has ties to China money, while again trying to deflect questions about the foundations alleged pay-to-play operation.

He said the questions and speculation about the foundation -- which includes allegations of an ongoing federal investigation -- are right-wing attacks designed to undermine its charitable work and to defeat Clinton, whom most polls show leading GOP rival Trump by double digits.

Mook said a call by Clintons husband, Bill Clinton, made to the State Department on behalf of foundation donor was in fact made through the former presidents personal office, not the foundation.

He also tried to direct the conversation back to Trumps ties to foreign money, including the Bank of China being an co-lender on a New York City office building purportedly co-owned by Trump and carrying a $950 million debt.

Mook argued such a deal would impact Trumps promises, if elected, to end China ripping off the U.S. in trade pacts.

He also acknowledged that the Clinton Foundation will indeed stop accepting foreign donations if his candidate is elected president.
The year 1994 was a pivotal, landslide year for Republicans.

The GOP seized control of the Senate from Democrats for the first time in eight years. But the big story was the historic win by Republicans in the House. Republicans netted a staggering 54 seats, flipping the House to their control for the first time since 1952.

Several things worked in the GOPs favor.

Republicans successfully portrayed President Bill Clinton as a tax and spend liberal and propounded the so-called Contract with America as their electoral promise.

They excoriated the Clinton over the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas and his effort (alongside that of spouse Hillary Clinton) to move health care reform legislation through Congress. Health care reform died miserably, never even hitting the floor.

In retrospect, some Republicans now may take the Clinton proposal over ObamaCare, which didnt develop until 16 years down the road. But thats another story.

Combine GOP efforts to tarnish Clintons record with the impacts of redistricting from the 1990 census and congressional Democrats were cooked.

One would think that sophisticated political analysts would be prescient enough to see such a landslide months in advance. However, the most compelling narrative of the 1994 midterm elections was that virtually nobody was able to detect the possibility of one of the most lopsided shellackings in American history until just a few weeks ahead of time.

This brings us to this years House and Senate contests and what could happen down ballot. There are questions about what November could mean for congressional Republicans if GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump continues to perform as poorly as he is now and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, ignites the Electoral College scoreboard.

We have known since before this election cycle started that retention of the Senate for Republicans was a jump-ball proposition at best.

However, the House is another story. It has always been a challenge for Democrats to cobble together an electoral strategy that bounces the GOP from the majority and pockets them 30 seats.

Democrats salivated at the possibility of Republicans nominating a candidate like Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, thinking either would be so toxic that it could help them in congressional races.

Well, Democrats got their wish. Even so, Trumps nomination doesnt predict much of anything for House contests this fall.

Yet.

Yes, its August. Early voting begins in many states in about four weeks. So far, theres little reason to think the House is in jeopardy for Republicans. And if there is going to be a hint that the House could flip -- like 1994 -- such indiciators are most likely going to emerge rather late.

It wont take 54 seats. But a 30 seat bar is a lot for Democrats. And handing over control of the House to the Democrats constitutes a landslide.

Major factors still inhibit Democrats from having a snowballs chance of picking up the lower chamber. Theyve struggled to recruit strong candidates in some key districts.

Some may even criticize Democratic leaders for failing to convert the Trump nomination into a cakewalk for House Democrats. In other words, if the GOP could galvanize opposition around Bill Clinton in 1994, shouldnt Democratic demonization of Trump be childs play in 2016?

To be fair, those arent apples to apples comparisons.

One of the biggest problems House Democrats face is the political map. In the 22 years since the Republican sea change, both parties have worked to narrow the playing field. They segregated Democratic and Republican votes into districts that are more and more Democratic or Republican.

The result is that electoral politic experts denote only about 56 districts out of 435 as competitive. That means Democrats have to hold the approximately dozen seats they now control -- which are in the swing category -- and simultaneously lock up three-quarters of every GOP seat that could fall into play.

But that doesnt tell the full story.

In reality, only about 25 seats are truly competitive. The issue for Democrats is that there might not be enough seats available to flip to capture the House.

Heres another problem for Democrats. The electorate isnt excited for Hillary Clinton. However, Democratic voters are energized against Trump.

Still, that cuts two ways. Many Republicans may not be ready to vote for Trump. But theories now abound that GOP voters could show up to vote Republican in House and Senate contests to represent a check against Clinton, should it be obvious she may win.

All of this centers on turnout.

Trumps nomination could spark a sit out by Republicans. Couple that with an Electoral College landslide by Clinton and various House contests that arent on the board now could become competitive in late September and October.

Trumps hiring of Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon could result in the unleashing of an even more bellicose nominee.

If thats the case, congressional Republicans are in trouble and will have to scramble to further distance themselves from the top of the ticket. Of course, the good news on that front is that many Republicans are running races that form a firewall between them and Trump. That strategy has been in place for months.

One of the best things going for Republicans is that they sit on an historic majority that could serve as a failsafe.

In 2014, House Republicans won 247 seats, their biggest majority since 1928. The 2010 Census and subsequent redistricting process dramatically favored Republicans. The body politic still feels reverberations from those electoral exercises.

The Census and redistricting stopgaps could mean theres almost no way for Democrats to claim the House until the midterm election of 2022. That would follow the 2020 Census and another round of reallocating congressional seats.

An Electoral College landslide in favor of Clinton -- coupled with a prodigious number of Republican voters simply staying home -- is probably the best scenario Democrats can hope for in House races this year. Electoral College landslides arent enough.

Republicans only earned 12 seats in 1984 after President Ronald Reagan won 49 states over Walter Mondale. In 1972, President Richard Nixon walloped George McGovern with 49 states. That provided a minimal 12 seat GOP pickup in the House.

It comes down to voter turnout. Its still too early to understand who might show up in November or participate in early voting.

Thus, it remains an outside shot for Democrats to win the House. But if the House does move into play, its likely the scenario will mirror 1994 in at least one fashion: we wont spot that possibility in the viewfinder until very late.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani suggested Sunday that the Clinton Foundation should be indicted on racketeering charges.

If I was attorney general, I would indict the Clinton Foundation as a racketeering enterprise, Giuliani, who served as U.S. attorney in New York and as associate attorney general in the Ronald Reagan administration, told Fox News Sunday.

Giuliani, who is emerging as the most ardent, high-profile backer of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, argued that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton did favors to people who gave to the Clinton Foundation during and after she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Clinton stepped down from the nonprofit foundations board when she launched her presidential campaign in 2015, when she also stopped fundraising for the foundation and giving paid speeches.

The foundation has faced allegations of engaging in a pay-to-play operation since Clinton began her candidacy.

And last week, the State Department had to answer fresh questions amid newly-released documents, about plans after Clinton left the agency to potentially buy land for a U.S. Embassy in Lagos from a Lebanese-Nigerian company with ties to Gilbert Chagoury, who donated more than $1 million to the foundation. (The story was first reported by Fox News.)

"She did favors for those very people who gave money to the Clinton Foundation," said Giuliani. In my definition that was bribery.

Clinton has also felt the heat -- from critics and fellow Democrats -- to distance herself and her campaign from the foundation.

If she is elected president, the foundation will no longer accept foreign donations, husband and former President Bill Clinton said last week.

With Hillary Clinton being elected president, which we hope it will be, they clearly need to change the way they do business," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said on Fox News Sunday. "Theyve indicated they will."

Giuliani, who was criticized for failing last week at a Trump rally to make note of the 9/11 terror strikes when saying radical Islamic terrorists had no successful attacks on the United States in the eight years before President Obama took office, also on Sunday dismissed comments from people related to the foundation about not it being under federal investigation.

That's the biggest bunch of garbage I've ever heard," he said. "They are under, I believe, investigation. And if they're not, the Justice Department should be ashamed of themselves."

Giuliani, who continues to strongly back Trump while fellow Republicans have sought to distance themselves from the billionaire businessman, said Trump had an excellent week, highlighting Trumps promise of extreme vetting for people asking to come into the country from Syria and other terror hotspots.

Its going to be pretty tough to get in, and it should be, he said.

Giuliani also dismissed assertions that Trump appears too far behind Clinton to win the presidential race.

Really, hes not that far behind, Giuliani said. Hes within striking range in key states. Hes not a typical  candidate. This is an insider-outsider campaign. [Clinton] is the consummate, corrupt Washington insider."
The tanning salon industry is feeling burned by "Obamacare."

Business owners around the country say the little-noticed 10 percent tax on tanning in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has crippled the industry, forcing the closing of nearly 10,000 of the more than 18,000 tanning salons in the U.S.

Experts say the industry is overstating the effects of the "tan tax" and that it has been hurt by other factors, too, including public health warnings about the dangers of tanning and the passage of laws in dozens of states restricting the use of tanning salons by minors.

Nevertheless, some salon owners say the health care overhaul will be on their minds on Election Day. Republicans have vowed to repeal "Obamacare" if they win the presidency and retain control of Congress.

"When I go to vote, I'm supporting candidates who are pro-business and who want less government involvement, less government regulation," said Chris Sternberg, senior vice president of Sun Tan City, a Louisville, Kentucky-based chain with nearly 300 salons in 22 states.

The tax, similar to that imposed on tobacco, is meant to discourage a practice known to increase the risk of cancer. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network says those who use tanning beds before age 35 increase their lifetime risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, by 59 percent.

Congressional experts also projected the tax would raise about $2.7 billion to help expand health coverage for uninsured Americans, but the industry says it actually has raised just a fraction of that.

The industry has spent millions lobbying to repeal the tax, which it says destroyed 81,000 tanning jobs.

Kim Arnold, a business owner in upstate New York, said she and her husband had to close their third Tropical Tann location last August because of the tax.

"Customers would say, 'I'm not paying that,'" she said. "I'd have people walk right out the door."
The campaign for Donald Trump and Trumps fellow Republican supporters argued Sunday that the unpredictable presidential nominee had an outstanding, comeback week amid new leadership but still faced a barrage of questions about whats next -- particularly about Trumps plan for the massive deportation of illegal immigrants.

To be determined, new Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on CNNs State of the Union.

Trump has, since the start of his campaign, vowed to deport the countrys roughly 11 million illegal immigrants through a deportation force.

However, Trumps pressing need to expand his base, which he has in part tried to do by recently attempting to win over at least some minority voters, has raised speculation that the first-time candidate might be willing to allow some illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.

Such speculation increased Saturday after Trump met in New York with his newly formed Hispanic advisory council.

The meeting was followed by a report on BuzzFeed.com in which multiple sources told the website that Trump had expressed interest in a humane and efficient way to deal with illegal immigrants, while steadfast about his vows to tighten U.S. border security.

The Trump campaign quickly tried to tamp down the report.

It's clickbait journalism, said campaign rapid response Director Steven Cheung. Mr. Trump said nothing today that he hasn't said many times before.

Conway made similar remarks Sunday, arguing that what Trump said in the meeting varied little from what he has said publicly.

"What he supports is to make sure we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for jobs, and that we are fair and humane to those who live among us," she said.

The Trump campaign announced Thursday that Conway had been promoted from the job of campaign adviser and that Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen Bannon was the campaigns new chief executive. On Friday, campaign Chairman Paul Manafort resigned.

Conway on Sunday also faced questions about Trumps yet-to-be-released tax returns and what exactly he meant in saying last week that he regrets that some of his comments have caused people personal pain.

Conway suggested Trumps remarks were an open letter to anybody whom hes offended, including Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, who Trump has implied was not his idea of a true military hero, considering he was captured in the Vietnam War.

That can include me. That can include you, Conway said on ABCs This Week.

Conway also said she understands after having joined the campaign that Trump cannot release his tax returns while under audit -- after having called for their release while working for a super PAC that backed Trump GOP primary rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

However, Conway made clear that she still will not stand for Trump insults.

This is the best week, I think, so far in the Trump campaign, Conway also said, mostly because (Trump) has able to be himself.  But also the pivot that he's made is on substance. He's out there talking about law enforcement. He's talking about defeating radical Islamic terrorism, middle class tax relief.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus later on the show said that Trump had a great week.

I think he's been on message, Priebus said. He's shown maturity as a candidate. I think that he is getting into a groove. I think he likes the new style that he has been out on the campaign trail producing and speaking of.

Recent polls show Clinton ahead of Trump in the national race and in several battleground states.

However, Priebus expressed optimism about Trumps recent efforts and his new campaign leadership.

I think what you're going to see is these polls will begin to tighten in the next couple of weeks and by Labor Day or thereafter, he said. I think you're going to be back to an even race if we continue down this path.
Donald Trump met Saturday with his newly formed Hispanic advisory board, part of a new effort by the Republican presidential nominee and his new-look campaign team to win at least some support from minority voters as the White House race enters its final stages.

Trump met in New York with the National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump -- a coalition of elected officials, business leaders and faith leaders -- with hopes of improving relations with Latino voters.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, called the meeting a "game-changing" opportunity.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the meeting would be an exchange in which the leaders would share their insights and experience, then return to their communities to relay Mr. Trump's message of ending the failed status quo to their congregations and media audience.

Priebus also said the meeting was just one component of our expansive effort to engage the Hispanic community.

Still, winning over Hispanic voters will not be easy. Trump infamously accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the southern U.S. border at his campaign kickoff event last year. The real estate mogul also vowed to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally.

Washington Republicans have been trying to improve their standing among Hispanic voters since the 2012 election, when exit polls showed President Obama won re-election with roughly 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, compared to about 27 percent for Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

And most polls show Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with a double-digit lead over Trump among Hispanic voters, with early voting in some states set to begin in less than two weeks.

Earlier this week, the Trump campaign announced that Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, was its new chief executive and that GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway had been promoted to campaign manager. On Friday, campaign Chairman Paul Manafort resigned.

Trump has also made efforts to try to appeal more to black voters, whom he argues should support his campaign after years of reliably supporting Democrats.

At a rally in suburban Michigan on Friday night, Trump said to the crowd that no group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African Americans.

"Look at how much African-American communities are suffering from Democratic control, Trump continued in a speech similar to one he gave the day before in North Carolina. What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?  You live in your poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs -- 58 percent of your youth is unemployed."

His efforts are similar to those of other Republicans who have publically argued that Democrats have for decades run major U.S. cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia but have failed their residents, many of them minorities, with poorly-run or under-performing services and facilities.

Democrats were quick to denounce Trumps comments in Michigan, with Democratic National Committee official Brandon Davis on Saturday saying Trump has shown little interest engaging the black community and his comments underscore just how out of touch he is with the African American community.

On Saturday, Trump told supporters in Fredericksburg, Va. that Republicans "must do better, and will do better" at appealing to African-American voters.

Noting that the "GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln," Trump said, "I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again."



However, Democratic politicians have had the black vote for decades, and this years election appears to be no different.

Clinton overwhelmingly won the black vote in South Carolina early in the Democratic primary season and continued to win it in other Southern states to secure the nomination, despite challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders strong populist promise to cut the social and economic inequality gap in the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The body of a 5-year-old Minnesota girl was discovered Saturday just hours after authorities had issued an Amber Alert saying she had been abducted by a family friend.

The body of Alayna Jeanne Ertl was found in Cass County, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis. The suspect in her disappearance, family friend Zachary Anderson, 26, has been arrested and his vehicle confiscated, police say.

This is not a stranger-type situation, said Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze told WCCO-TV.

The suspect is a co-worker, family friend of the childs father, Cruze said.

Authorities say Anderson was staying overnight at the girls home. The girls mother discovered them gone at 8 a.m. The girl was from Watkins, about 75 miles west of Minneapolis.

We have no known predatory sexual offender information on him or anything like that, Cruze said. We have no known motive. We are at a loss as to why this happened at this time.

No other details were immediately available.
An Army deserter from North Carolina is facing federal charges for allegedly receiving tens of thousands of dollars in veteran benefits by faking war wounds and military honors.

Roy Lee Ross, Jr., 64, of Morganton, N.C., is accused of defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs by using the name of another Army veteran, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The newspaper reported that Ross faces up to 35 years in prison on charges of executing a scheme to defraud the Veterans Administration, making false statements in connection with the delivery of VA health care benefits, stealing from the VA and making a false claim for travel benefits from the VA.

According to the indictment, Ross claimed that he had served in the Special Forces and had been wounded in combat. He allegedly told the VA he had been honorably discharged from the Army.

After falsely representing himself to the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville, Ross was diagnosed with PTSD in 2007 and began receiving health benefits from the VA.

"The actions of the defendant are contrary to the code of military conduct, said U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose.

"As alleged in the indictment, Ross received thousands of dollars in VA benefits based on lies and a fabricated military career," she said. "Ross allegedly conjured up stories about fighting in multiple wars and receiving the Purple Heart, a distinguished medal presented to our countrys bravest wounded in combat. Now, the scheme has been exposed and Ross, a disgraced deserter, must answer for his actions in a federal court.

WLOS-TV reported that in 2012, Ross was granted disability-based compensation in a retroactive lump sum of $18,349 and began receiving a monthly tax-free compensation of $1,026.

In addition to his disability benefits, Ross received approximately $57,000 in health care benefits from the VA on false grounds, according to the station.

The Charlotte Observer, citing the indictment, said that Ross never served in Vietnam or Korea, as he had claimed. He was also not in the Special Forces.

Click for more from the Charlotte Observer
The Ohio attorney general says whoever killed eight members from the same family in Ohio were familiar with the victims, their homes and the surrounding area.

Attorney General Mike DeWine has also told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Department of Homeland Security have worked with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other agencies on what's become a monthslong investigation.

Eight members of the Rhoden family were found shot to death in four Pike County homes in April. No one has been arrested for the slayings.

DeWine told the newspaper that people living in the area know more than what they've told investigators.

The Pike County sheriff has said more than one person was involved in killing the family.
Billy Smolinski was 31 and in love when he disappeared nearly 12 years ago from his Connecticut home -- a one-story house in Waterbury not far from the farm where his parents had raised him.

Since that day -- Aug. 24, 2004 -- no one has seen or heard from Billy, the only son of William and Janice Smolinski -- a hard-working tow-truck driver who, by all accounts, loved sports, his German Shepherd "Harley," and his close-knit family.

Detectives have long suspected foul play, according to sources close to the investigation, but without a body or other forensic evidence, the case is a mystery that continues to haunt Connecticut residents. Yet with each passing year, the family's determination to solve the case never wavers and, as the 12th anniversary of his disappearance nears, they are appealing to the public for information.

"Someone, somewhere knows something," said Janice Smolinski.

"He just loved life," said Smolinski, who believes her son was murdered. "He had such a future ahead of him."

According to police reports and numerous media accounts, Billy Smolinski was dating Madeleine Gleason, a school bus driver from Woodbridge, Conn., at the time he vanished. The two had just returned from a trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., when Smolinski reportedly learned Gleason was also dating a married politician.

Smolinski confronted Gleason about the alleged cheating, and his last phone call on record was to the other man, identified in press reports and court documents as Chris Sorensen.

Both Gleason and Sorensen have denied any involvement in Smolinski's disappearance. Gleason told Waterbury police that she last saw Smolinski leaving her home on the morning of Aug. 24 --"a little depressed," she said, because the two broke off their relationship.

Sorensen told detectives he received a phone message on Aug. 24, 2004, in which a male caller said, "Chris, you better watch your back at all times," according to police reports. Authorities later determined the caller was Smolinski.

Shortly before that phone call, Smolinski -- described by his family as "heart-broken" -- contacted a friend and former girlfriend and invited her on a date to Six Flags. At around 3 p.m. on Aug. 24, he drove his white truck to a local Burger King, where he purshased two hamburgers and fries, according to receipts found in a trash bin inside his home.

What happened to Smolinski next is a mystery.

When his parents drove to his home from their farm in Naugatuck on Aug. 25, Janice Smolinski said she immediately feared for her son but was told by police she had to wait three days before reporting him missing.

Smolinski's white truck was parked in a usual spot -- with his keys and wallet still inside, his mother said, and a rubber glove was found under the driver's seat.

A next door neighbor would later tell the Smolinskis that Billy asked him to walk his dog because he was leaving town for a couple of days -- a claim Janice Smolinski does not believe.

"Billy would never ask anyone aside from Mary Ellen to watch the dog," she said, referring to Smolinski's friend and former girlfriend. The neighbor said that when he went to the home on Aug. 25 to walk the dog, the spare key Smolinski hid in the foyer was nowhere to be found.

"As soon as we heard that, we knew there was something very wrong," she said.

Authorities received tips claiming Gleason's son, Shaun Karpiuk, killed Smolinski, according to police and local media reports. Karpiuk died at age 27 in 2005 from a drug overdose.

Over the years, several searches have been conducted -- some using cadaver dogs. One such search involved digging up the yard of a home after Chad Hanson -- one of Karpiuk's friends -- claimed Smolinski was buried there. The search turned up no clues. Hanson, who has been identified in court documents as a person of interest in the disappearance, was jailed for two years for making false statements to police about Smolinski's whereabouts.

The family still maintains a website, Justice4Billy, which tracks the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds since Billy was last seen alive. The site includes a tipline for information in the case.

The Smolinskis have also plastered Waterbury and surrounding towns with flyers about their son -- much like the families of other missing loved ones. The posters, however, have caused legal trouble for the Smolinskis, who were sued in 2006 by Gleason for alleged harrassment and defamation of character.

Gleason -- who admitted to ripping down the flyers along her route as a school bus driver -- claims the Smolinskis taunted her and falsely blamed her for their son's disappearance. In 2012, a judge awarded her $52,666 in damages, including intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. In 2015, the state Supreme Court overturned the trial court's decision on First Amendment grounds. The case was remanded to the trial court and later withdrawn by the plaintiff.

The FBI referred all inquiries into the Smolinski case to the Waterbury Police Department, which did not return calls seeking comment. Gleason declined to speak about the matter through her attorney, John Williams, of New Haven. Sorensen could not be reached.

For William and Janice Smolinski, the pain of not knowing what happened to their son is unbearable at times.

"All we are is a family looking for Billy," Janice Smolinski said as she reminisced about a son who loved to play practical jokes, "lived for the holidays," and was known to pick up wounded or stray animals and care for them.

"We will never give up looking for Billy," she said.
More than 2,000 motorcycles arrived Sunday in New York City in what organizers called their last ride honoring victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and raising money for first responders.

Honored to ride in the last 9-11 Foundation Ride through Leesburg . Never Forget.https://t.co/5LMiYtnoXC pic.twitter.com/iYstTNbeGT  Randy Minchew (@RandyMinchew) August 20, 2016

The America's 9/11 Ride began Friday morning at the Flight 93 crash site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and continued through Cumberland and Hagerstown, Maryland, before heading south through Leesburg, Virginia, to a hotel near the Pentagon.

The ride continued Saturday from the Pentagon to the Sept. 11 memorial in New York City.

Organizer Ted Sjurseth told "Fox & Friends" the 16th annual ride would be the last, partly because he's tired of battling Maryland and Virginia state police and highway agencies over their reluctance to block traffic for the motorcycle procession. "If I'm trying to honor first responders, I can't turn around and tell them that I'm going to do something against what you're asking me to do."

The group has given away more than $300,000 in college scholarships and more than $500,000 in equipment to first responders across the U.S. and Canada, Sjurseth said.

State agency officials say they must maintain safe traffic flow in the congested region.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A man was arrested in the vicious murders of at least five people in Alabama on Saturday, authorities said.

Derrick Dearman was arrested in Mississippi and charged with six counts of capital murder of the five bodies that were found at a Citronelle, Alabama home, including the unborn baby of a pregnant woman.

Capt. Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriffs Office said that Dearman turned himself in to authorities in Mississippi and confessed to the murders. Burch said that Dearman had an extensive criminal history and had an outstanding warrant for burglary, according to WALA-TV.

According to AL.com, Burch said that authorities are still working to identify the bodies and that a four-month old baby was rescued from the home unharmed in the attack. Its believed that Dearman knew the victims.

"Given the way the scene looks, we're going to be here a couple of days," Burch told reporters. "It's obviously a horrific scene."

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said it was the worst crime shes seen in her 20 years as a prosecutor. She said that five people were brutally and viciously murdered.

Authorities have yet to reveal much details about the murder, but Burch said that guns and another type of weapon was used in the killings. He described the scene as horrible.

Police were first notified of the murders when a woman walked into the Citronelle Police Department earlier Saturday and said she had been kidnapped late Friday night or Saturday morning and was able to get away from her kidnapper. The details from her account led police to the Citronelle home.

Investigators believe that the woman had some sort of relationship with Dearman, Burch said. However, it wasnt clear what kind of relationship it was.

Burch said that Alabama authorities are on the way to Leakesville, located about 30 miles away from Citronelle, to question Dearman. He will be extradited back to Mobile County.

Rich said the FBI is assisting in the investigation.

Click for more from AL.com.
Prosecutors have charged three men in the looting of a liquor store during the unrest that followed the police shooting of a black man in Milwaukee.

The men were arrested early last Sunday as police arrived and ordered everyone inside to come out. The criminal complaint filed Friday says the defendants told police the windows were already shattered and other people were looting the store when they went inside.

Sylville K. Smith, 23, was shot Aug. 13 after what police said was a brief foot chase when he fled a traffic stop. Police say body-camera video from the black officer who shot him shows that Smith was holding a handgun and had turned toward the officer. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner said Friday that Smith was shot once in the chest and once in the arm.

A few hours after Smith's death, a protest on the city's largely black north side erupted into violence. The unrest left several businesses burned and assorted other with damage that federal officials said could amount to several million dollars.

Durrell Jones, 45, of West Allis, was charged Friday with burglary, while Joseph Lindsey, 22, and Devon Love, 20, both of Milwaukee, were charged with unlawful entry into a locked building. Online court records don't list attorneys for any of the three men.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Jones told police he had gone inside the liquor store to get beer, Love admitted being inside but said he had no intent to steal anything, and that Lindsey said he went inside but didn't take anything.

WISN-TV reported that an arson charge was filed Friday against Dale Folley, 19, of Milwaukee, who allegedly set fire to a van in a convenience store parking lot during the unrest. Court records don't list an attorney for him.

Among the businesses destroyed was a BP gas station owned by Pakhar Singh, who has lived and worked in Milwaukee for 37 years. He told the newspaper that bond is why he has no plans to leave Milwaukee, even after vandals looted and burned down his station, which was a couple blocks away from the shooting.

"No way," Singh said Friday, when asked if he's inclined to move. "We love Milwaukee. There's nice people here. We never had problems."

While he said he has insurance on the building, he also said it's too early to say whether he will rebuild.
Officers are searching for a Jacksonville, Florida pizza delivery driver's car after she was forced into the trunk at gunpoint then jumped out of the moving car on I-10.

Police said a man abducted the driver, who is a mother, after he ordered pizza to an abandoned home around 7:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Officers are searching for her 2007 Silver Mazda MX3.

The man told the woman he needed her car to drive to Lake City to kill someone, police said.

He was headed to Columbia County when two people saw the woman throwing items out of the trunk in Baker County.

She pulled the escape lever in the trunk and jumped out while the car was going around 50 miles per hour, according to police.

She was taken to a hospital in Macclenny. She suffered road rash and a head wound, police said.

Click for more from Fox 30.
Two retired California detectives are returning to duty to solve a case that has haunted them for two decades: the savage rape and murder of a 22-year-old college student days before her graduation.

Debbie Dorian, an econonics students at Fresno State University, was found gagged, raped and murdered inside her north Fresno apartment in 1996. DNA collected at the scene was later linked to similar crimes in the Visalia area -- which occurred between July 1999 and August 2002 -- but no arrests have ever been made in Dorian's killing.

Now, 20 years later, Bob Schiotis and Vince Zavala, the two detectives who worked the case from the beginning, will review old leads and consider new ones, with the assistance of advances in DNA technology, the Fresno Bee reported.

The announcement was made at a news conference Friday by Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer, who was joined by the two detectives and Dorians mother, Sara Loven.

Dorian's life "was cut short by evil people who caused her much pain," Loven said.

"The person or persons who killed my daughter are still free and continue to harm young women," she told reporters, according to the newspaper.

"These men, Loven said of the two detectives, "have taken her case to heart."

Dorian died of asphyxiation because of duct tape wrapped around her face, investigators said.

The suspect is believed to be a white male now in his 40s or 50s. He wore either a hooded sweatshirt or a handkerchief over his lower face and carried a handgun. Authorities, however, said they believe others were present when Dorian was killed.

Zavala and Schiotis expressed confidence the crime can be solved.

"There were many leads that, due to change of directions within different departments, we weren't able to finish, plus we have some people of interest in mind and we're gonna pursue them," Zavala said. "As time passes, loyalties dissolve, consciences develop and perhaps somebody who knows something will give us the information we need to put this puzzle together."

A $57,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with a tip about the murder of Dorian is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 559-498-7867.

Click for more from the Fresno Bee
A suspect in a 2007 drive-by killing of a victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time has been brought back to Tacoma from Mexico after nine years on the run, authorities said Friday.

Gabriel Nevarez, 28, was arrested in the central Mexican state of Michoacan in February and transferred to FBI custody in Mexico City on Thursday, the agency and Tacoma police said in a statement.

The FBI flew him late Thursday to Washington state, where he was booked into the Pierce County Jail. Nevarez was scheduled to make an initial court appearance Friday afternoon.

Nevarez, a U.S. citizen, was wanted in the death of 21-year-old Kyle Grinnell Jr. on Feb. 21, 2007, in Tacoma. Grinnell was pressure-washing a sidewalk when he was shot and killed.

Investigators said Grinnell was in the line of fire when the gunman aimed at another man.

The victims father, Kyle Grinnell Sr., said in a telephone interview Friday that he hopes Nevarez is convicted and locked up in prison.

Nothings going to bring my son back, but this guy is a bad guy, he said.

Nevarez has been charged in Pierce County Superior Court with first-degree murder, assault and unlawful possession of a firearm.

The county prosecutors office did not know whether Nevarez had a lawyer who could comment, said spokesman James Lynch.

A spokesman for the county prosecutors office said the office did not know whether Nevarez had a lawyer who could comment.

Court documents have identified Nevarez as a methamphetamine dealer who had a rivalry with a man named Juan Carlos Ruiz.

One of Nevarezs customers  a woman who was also friends with Grinnell  told investigators she knew he had been looking for Ruiz, the charging papers said. When she saw Ruiz at a home where she had just visited Grinnell, she told Nevarez about it and then led him there, the documents said.

Ruiz was outside, at the top of some stairs, with victim Grinnell below him, less than 20 feet away, according to court documents filed by then-deputy prosecutor Gerald Costello, who is now a Pierce County Superior Court judge. Grinnell was in the line of fire from Nevarezs car to Ruiz.

Ruiz told police that Nevarez had shot at him before, Costello wrote.

The woman, Windy Michelle Ware, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a drive-by shooting.

The FBI said it obtained information about Nevarezs whereabouts from a separate investigation.
The suicide bomber in a Turkish wedding party attack that killed dozens of people was between 12 and 14 years old, Turkey's president announced Sunday, blaming the Islamic State terror group for the massacre.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke in a live nationally-televised address in front of Istanbul city Hall. At least 51 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Erdogan added that there was absolutely no difference between ISIS, Kurdish rebels and the movement behind the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorists. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

The remains of a suicide vest have been recovered at the site, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, citing a statement by the chief public prosecutor's office.

"We stand with the people of Turkey as they defend their democracy in the face of all forms of terrorism. We are in close touch with Turkish authorities," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price responded, calling the attack "barbaric."

Turkey has been the target of attacks in the past year that have been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or were blamed on ISIS. In June, suspected Islamic State militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on ISIS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  year-long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

"This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told NTV television.

Daesh is an Arabic name for ISIS.

Simsek later traveled to Gaziantep along with the country's health minister to visit the wounded and inspect the site of the attack. He characterized the attack as barbaric.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters in Gaziantep. "We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing that turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

"No matter what this treacherous terror organization is called, we as the people, the state, and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it," he said.

A brief statement from the Gaziantep governor's office said the bomb attack on the wedding in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10:50 p.m.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television, that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Fox News' Lesa Jansen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chinese planes and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week, the military said, during which Beijing displayed its latest-generation frigate at a time of bitter territorial disputes with Asian neighbors.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website late Saturday that the long-range exercises staged Friday pitted a red army against a blue one in a simulated bomber attack on a naval task force.

It quoted the commander of an unidentified flight wing under the East Sea Fleet, Zhang Wenzhong, as saying the planes found, identified and struck their targets in a "radically short time."

The statement made no mention of what sort of conflict the exercise was intended as a response to, prospective foes or why the Sea of Japan was chosen as the location of the drills. However, China has grown increasingly assertive over its claim to a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan, recently dispatching more than a dozen coast guard vessels as Chinese fishing vessels swarmed the surrounding waters.

The ministry said the main ships involved in the exercise were the Jingzhou, a latest-generation type 054A class stealth frigate of which China is planning to deploy more than two dozen, and the type 052C destroyer Xi'an.

The ministry said aircraft were guided to their targets with the aid of early warning planes.

Other types of aircraft involved weren't identified, although China has been touting the capabilities of its latest-generation long-range H-6K strategic bomber equipped with the DH-20 land-attack cruise missile, giving it the ability to hit targets as far away as Australia. Only Russia and the U.S. are currently able to launch cruise missiles from the air.

Along with its island dispute with Japan, China is involved in an intense rivalry with the U.S. over military dominance in the region. Tensions in the South China Sea have also risen after China refused to accept an international arbitration panel's ruling invalidating its claim to virtually the entire strategic water body.

China plans joint naval exercises with Russia in the South China Sea next month, a move criticized by the head of the U.S. Pacific fleet as increasing instability in the region.
China's military says its planes and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website that the long-range exercises staged Friday pitted a red army against a blue one in a simulated bomber attack on a naval task force.

It said the primary ships in the exercise were the Jingzhou, a latest-generation type 054A class stealth frigate of which China is planning to deploy more than two dozen, and the type 052C destroyer Xi'an.

The statement made no mention of what sort of conflict the exercise was intended as a response to, prospective foes or why the Sea of Japan was chosen as the location of the drills. China claims a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan.
The Philippines' brash-talking president threatened Sunday to withdraw his country from the United Nations and lashed out at U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.

President Rodrigo Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the U.S. and the U.N. to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.

The U.S. State Department and two U.N. human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations. Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gunbattles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.

Agnes Callamard, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that "claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings."

Criticisms against Duterte's crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference after midnight Saturday that dragged on for more than two hours.

"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you're that rude, son of a bitch, we'll just leave you," Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city's longtime mayor.

Duterte also belittled U.N. work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions, for example, about the performance of the world body's agency that fights hunger.

If the Philippines breaks off from the U.N.  which Duterte called "inutile" and "stupid"  he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body. The U.N., he said, should return Manila's financial contributions.

"Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it," Duterte said, referring to the photo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that has gone viral online.

"Why is it that United States is not doing anything? I do not read you," Duterte said. "Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?"

When asked about the possible repercussions of his remarks, Duterte replied: "I don't give a sh-- about them. They are the ones interfering."

Duterte wondered whether U.N. officials were threatening to put him in prison and repeated that he was ready to sacrifice his life and presidency for his country.

Reacting to U.S. criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the U.S.

"Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?" he asked. "Answer that question, because even if it's just one or two or three, it is still human rights violations."

Duterte's drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30. Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed. The arrests have further overwhelmed the Philippines' overcrowded jails.
Mayor Kelly invited the community to come out and hear about the plan to rezone the Airport Inn from C-2 to UGC so they can turn it into a....well, no one seems to know what. Is it a homeless shelter, a mental health facility, an assisted living home, another "fleabag motel", an apartment complex, all we know for sure is "that is not this" and "this is not that" according to Mayor ... (click for more)
St. John United Methodist Church, located at 3921 Murray Hills Dr., will host a Sustainable Marriage Relationships Conference on Saturday, Sept. 10 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The cost is $20 per person. Lunch from Jasons Deli is included. Childcare is available for additional cost.

According to church representatives, "The Sustainable Relationships Conference will teach you what it means to communicate successfully and to love unconditionally. Come and break the power of codependency and of fear and gain the ability to manage yourself well in all of your relationships. Come as a couple or come alone, it only takes one to break a pattern. Remember that whatever you overcome becomes your children's inheritance. Now is the time to start building a new legacy."

To register or for more information, contact St. John United Methodist Church at 423-892-2257 or contact@stjohnumc.org.
Nancy Elliott-Gunter, 56, passed away Friday, Aug. 12, 2016, after a courageous battle against cancer. Nancy was a kind-hearted and sweet spirit who lived her life with love.

Nancy was born in Washington, D.C., and spent the majority of her life in the Alexandria area. She was a 1977 graduate of Fort Hunt High School and a 1981 graduate of Virginia Tech. She made many friends working as a technical writer at a variety of companies over the years, including Northrop Grumman, the Library of Congress, Avectra, Aether Systems, Computer Based Systems Inc., and TimeLife Books.

Those she leaves behind remember her for her wonderful baking, the way she spent time genuinely caring for others needs, and for her devotion to her family.

Nancy was a beloved daughter, aunt, niece, sister and, most recently, wife. After 23 wonderful years together, she married the love of her life, Larry Gunter, on May 21, 2016. Larry was her constant support and remained by her side until the very end.

Nancy is survived by her husband, Larry Gunter; her mother, Jean Elliott, her sister, Susan Elliott; her brother, John Elliott (Ginger); nieces Ashley, Anna and Mary Liz; and nephew John Robert.

A memorial service and reception will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, at Mount Vernon Unitarian-Universalist Church in Alexandria.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts in Nancys memory may be made to DC Cares, where Nancy valued opportunities to serve others.
The Virginia State Police is the latest agency to warn people about an ongoing phone scam in which the caller claims to be from the IRS.

The state police issued a news release Friday saying it had received numerous reports in the past few days about calls from someone with a thick foreign accent claiming to be an IRS agent. If the individual refused to pay, the caller became agitated and impatient, and began threatening the individual with imprisonment or other severe punishment.

The caller ID number for the calls was a legitimate Virginia State Police Area Office phone number with an 804 area code, state police said.

Use of the state police phone number is known as spoofing and enables the caller to disguise his true identity. U.S. law and FCC rules prohibit most types of spoofing.

The IRS phone scam is common and often preys on senior citizens. One individual reported to state police Wednesday that she had just sent the caller $2,000 in gift cards.

Also last week, the Fredericksburg Police Department reported that a 72-year-old resident was targeted and scammed out of more than $12,000 in gift cards by callers claiming to be IRS agents. There was a rash of IRS scams in Stafford and Orange counties in February.

According to state police, common characteristics of the scam include:

Scammers use common names and surnames and give IRS badge numbers.

Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victims Social Security Number.

Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.

After threatening victims with jail time or drivers license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.

Authorities emphasize that the IRS uses the mailnot the phoneto communicate with taxpayers.

State police said people who receive such calls to report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484. If you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 800-829-1040.

Police also advise people who receive any suspicious calls to never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, mothers maiden names, passwords or other identifying information.
Martin Treptow and Travis Hakes were on a mission to find all the family members buried at Tilden Lutheran Cemetery but two graves were missing. After some investigating, and landscaping, they finally found the two missing family members under an overgrown bush. The cemetery has about 40 people in it. 75% of its residents are relatives of Treptow and Hakes who are 4th cousins.
Xbox One Scorpio Release Date &Lates News: 'High-End' Tag Given To Most Powerful Console Ever Made; Microsoft Says It Could Be The Last

The Xbox One Scorpio will not come cheap, according to Microsoft. During a recent interview, Aaron Greenberg, marketing head of Xbox, described the upcoming Xbox One Scorpio as a premium product without giving the specifics.

The Xbox One Scorpio was also described as the most powerful console ever made and a very high-end product, which means that it will also be quite expensive. Greenberg explained that PC gamers usually spend thousands of dollars for a 4K-compatible gaming system. The Xbox One Scorpio will introduce 4K gaming to console systems, which will most likely result to the platform costing just under $1,000, at least. He said that the other details of the new console will be unveiled at a later time.

GameSpot revealed that the current-generation Xbox One released at a price tag of $500 with Kinect, and $400 without the latter. Greenberg wanted people to know that the Xbox One Scorpio is a wholly new console with several capabilities, including virtual reality (VR) support.

The Xbox One Scorpio also works with current games and controllers, so players do not have to worry about purchasing more when the new system releases. The Xbox marketing head described the approach as gaming beyond console generations.

Engadget cited how Greenberg in explaining that they wanted gamers to continue playing titles regardless of the device that they are using, which is why they are introducing their games to Xbox Play Anywhere and across PC. The Xbox One Scorpio may be the last console in the traditional console generation. During E3 2016, Xbox boss Phil Spencer mentioned that all games and accessories will work on all versions of the Xbox One, although Xbox One Scorpio is the only one that can run VR.

Most likely, the Xbox One Scorpio is the last of its generation. Greenberg thinks that the future is without console generations. He continued that they are focused on growing the user base of their games and wish to deliver their titles to as many gamers as possible. They aim to continue innovating and let players connect anytime and anywhere. More updates and details on Xbox One Scorpio are expected soon.
The free event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29, and feature more than 30 different types of aircraft.
MONMOUTH  In a thankfully air-conditioned conference room at Western Oregon University, roughly two dozen Oregonians, a randomly selected group of men and women from throughout the state, have gathered around a U-shaped collection of tables.

It is Friday, the second day of the Citizens' Initiative Review into Measure 97, the corporate gross-receipts measure on the November ballot. The citizens who have gathered around the table, guided by a team of professional mediators, are about to break into small groups to craft the questions they think are most important about the measure. The panelists later will ask the questions to Measure 97 proponents and opponents.

Behind the panel of citizens, kept safely behind a yellow line taped onto the floor, are observers  those proponents and opponents, not to mention researchers and folks who are curious about the review process, which was pioneered in Oregon and now is showing promising signs of spreading throughout the country.

First, though, there is a minor crisis among the citizen panelists: A typo in some of the background material the panelists received Thursday has been fixed, and now a corrected page is being distributed. But the holes have been punched in the wrong side of the page. A hole puncher is rapidly called into action, and the jurors break into four small groups to begin crafting their questions.

Robin Teater, the executive director of Healthy Democracy, the nonprofit and nonpartisan organization contracted by the state to run the Citizens' Initiative Review process, leans over to me.

"Democracy," she says, half-jokingly, "is slow and tedious."

That's true enough; there's nothing like watching small groups at work to make you wish that you were out reporting a story about whether hot weather makes paint dry faster.

But then you stop and look at the dynamics of each of these small groups. Only snippets of the conversations can be heard, but it's clear that the panelists are not only engaged in their conversations, they're actually listening to each other. In a political culture that doesn't put much premium any more on listening, this borders on the magical.

The panelists will wrap up their four days of work on Sunday by crafting a statement highlighting their most important findings about the measure. The statement will be published in the statewide Voters' Pamphlet. It will be a place for voters just like the ones gathered in Monmouth to find nonpartisan and unbiased information about this complex measure.

Because of funding issues, Measure 97 will be the only initiative this election year to receive a citizens' review. It's a shame, especially considering that each review only costs about $100,000. (Panelists are paid, and their room and board is covered.) Oregon's process is privately funded, and the reasons for that are sound. But as the state's ballot measures become increasingly complex, and the kind of information these reviews generate becomes more important, the state's leaders should consider adding at least some public money into the mix.

John Gastil, a Penn State University professor who has been studying the Citizens' Initiative Review process, is among the observers in Monmouth. Gastil says evidence is mounting that voters find the information created in the citizens' reviews useful: "It's absolutely making people more knowledgeable," he says. Evidence also is clear that the panelists take their duties seriously, and that they do deliberate over these matters.

In fact, the questions generated by the small groups underline Gastil's point: Many of them get right to the heart of Measure 97. They are the work of people who are paying attention.

And so it comes as somewhat of a disappointment to witness the proponents and opponents often answering these thoughtful questions in what are essentially slogans and sound bites (although, to be fair, each side only has 90 seconds to respond to each question, and the time limit is rigorously enforced).

After all, the entire idea of the review process is to give voters information that transcends slogans. Voters will get plenty of those this fall as the Measure 97 fight heats up. But if voters want to see what their peers thought about the measure after studying it in depth, the Citizens' Initiative Review is the only source. (mm)
The parking lot at Michaels Landing in Corvallis was packed with dozens of cars Saturday afternoon, with even more continuously streaming through to pick up floaters pulling out of the river.

With temperatures at nearly 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, the spot was a popular destination for people looking for relief from the record-breaking temperatures recorded this week across the Willamette Valley.

Kim Dodds, a Corvallis native who was out with her family, floated for two hours with her family Saturday as part of a going-away party, since on Monday she departs for South Korea for a job.

Its hot so we wanted to be on the water, she said. If youre in the water you can enjoy the heat.

Her mother, Lori Dodds, said she has lived in Corvallis since 1979 but has never gone floating before their trip Saturday.

I want to do it again tomorrow, she said.

Sam Pearce, of Albany, took his three-year-old son Henry out to Michaels Landing for a chance to play in the water and cool down.

I dont remember it being this hot, and Ive lived here my whole life, he said.

He said with the heat they may also come back to the river Sunday.

Its all right if you can get to some water, he said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a return to less extreme heat today, with an expected high of 85 degrees. Monday and Tuesday are forecast to reach 81 and 86, respectively. Things start to heat up again after that, with Wednesday expected to reach nearly 90 degrees, and highs in the low-90s predicted later in the week.

According to the service, Friday was a record-breaking day around Northwest Oregon. It reported temperatures of 104 degrees in Eugene and Salem, whose previous record highs were 101 and 99 degrees, respectively.

The Hyslop Weather Station between Corvallis and Albany recorded a high temperature of 99 degrees Friday.
At 11 a.m. Friday it is already 85 degrees, hot and stifling, on a day in which the temperatures will surpass 100 in Corvallis. The sky is hazy. A mixture of clouds and contrails streaks the across the field of view as we look down the ridge to the east.

We are gathered for a tour at a trailhead at the end of Northwest Lester Avenue where hikers normally enter the Chip Ross Natural Area.

Not today. A gate prevents access as a Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department project unfolds that is transforming 100 acres of forestland in an effort to preserve the Willamette Valleys declining stock of oak savanna.

To the right of the kiosk with its maps, rules of the road and poison oak advisories sits a caterpillar. When you look up the trail you see piles of Douglas fir logs at a staging area awaiting the logging trucks that will begin extracting them in the next week or so.

But this is not just a logging project. You also notice space  much more space between the trees that used to battle with each other in dense clumps and clusters.

Space  more space between the oak trees so they can thrive. More space so that views of the Cascades, Marys Peak and the McDonald Forest peaks  views that previously did not exist  will be part of the recreational experience when the area reopens in September.

Were removing the Douglas firs to preserve the oaks, said Matt Fehrenbacher of Trout Mountain Forestry. Were also thinning big-leaf maples. We want to keep the best trees and give them space to make them better. The maples are competing with the oaks. Some maples and Douglas firs will remain, but were transitioning this from a hardwood/conifer forest to an oak woodland.

Which is what it was a hundred years ago, chimed in Jonathan Pywell, urban forester for the Parks & Recreation Department. Were turning back the clock.

Fehrenbacher and Pywell are classic tree guys, eager to talk about their work. They even finish each others sentences (see above).

The city and Trout Mountain Forestry, which also manages the Rock Creek watershed near Marys Peak that produces one-third of the citys drinking water, are teaming up on the unique $300,000 project.

The work is being paid for by a $120,000 Oregon Water Enhancement Board grant and by the revenues from the logging that is being done to restore the oak woodland.

The Douglas firs that are crowding the oaks have value  so they are being logged to create space  and pay for the project.

We want to leave some Douglas firs on site because they do have habitat value, said Fehrenbacher, an Oregon State University forest management graduate, but we want it to primarily be an oak forest.

We have opened up the canopy and were getting more sun on the forest floor. Were giving the oaks more resources so they can thrive and generate more acorns, which is good for wildlife. Were perpetuating the system.

Pywell: Its going to give us a bigger diversity of wildlife, plants, views  and everything.

Halfway home

The logging and thinning work began July 26, although Trout Mountain and Parks & Recs crews were on site earlier, inventorying the trees, marking ones for cutting and using herbicides  a process called "hack and squirt"  to beat back the invasive species.

The project is 50 percent completed and throughout the site you can see piles of Douglas fir, oak and maple logs ready to be shipped out. The Douglas fir will be milled into lumber, but the gnarly, twisted trunks and branches of oak and maple will go to a chip mill.

We dont have the quality of logs to harvest to make furniture or flooring," Fehrenbacher said. "The Douglas firs will be used as dimensional lumber.

The meadow where we are standing is awash in piles of logs and slash, with caterpillar treads laying a pattern into the mulch. A log loader sits silently because no logging work can be done when the humidity falls below 30 percent, which occurred before 11:30 a.m. on this day.

Well come back for the slash, Fehrenbacher said, and native seeds and forbs will be spread. There will be clean up and maintenance over time as we work to establish grass and forbs.

Habitat snags

Once the area, which includes parts of the Chip Ross and Timberhill natural areas as well as a slice of the OSU forest property, is reopened to public use folks will notice a couple of dozen topped Douglas fir trees. These are habitat snags.

We created 20 snags (last week), Fehrenbacher said. They will be providing perches for raptors and habitat and nests for birds. Some of these trees have rot and have no value for logging. But they do have value for habitat. This will give park users the opportunity to see wildlife. They will be able to see raptors perched up there and see woodpeckers working.

Pywell: Youll see more wildlife and youll see more forest.

Fehrenbacher: Acorns are a huge food source.

Pywell: Youll see lots of squirrels and deer. And not just more deer, healthier deer. They wont have to eat everybodys roses.

Whereupon Fehrenbacher and Pywell embark on a back and forth on whether deer prefer denser forests. Upshot? Apparently not because new growth after tree cutting is a better food source.

Focus on oaks

We enter a stretch of the forest that includes a massive oak with a wide crown surrounding by much smaller oaks. The smaller trees have been swabbed with blue paint, a sign that they will be removed.

Well cut smaller oaks around it so larger trees can stay dominant, Fehrenbacher said. We hope the young ones can look like this in the future. Were saving the biggest and best but also saving some smaller ones so they can grow over time. These trees are in recovery right now. They have been suppressed for decades.

Any surprises along the way?

Discovering these big legacy of oaks, Fehrenbacher said. They are hundreds of years old. People didnt even know they were here. To walk through this forest and find these trees that have so much value  If we hadnt done this project they just would have gone away.

How old are the oaks?

From 1 to 250, said Pywell, before rattling of the genus and species (Oregon white oak/quercus garryana). Were down to less than 1 percent remaining of oak habitat in the world.

Fehrenbacher: Oak savanna is rarer than old growth.

Pywell: Because it is such a great place to build a house.

Fehrenbacher: Or clear it to start a farm.

At the next meadow we come across a feller buncher, the key tool in the tree cut (you cut trees, not chop them down, asserts Fehrenbacher).

Fehrenbacher and the city officials gather around the rig, oohing and aahing at the cutting implements of the unit they call the Ferrari.

The tableau is reminiscent of a farmer extolling the virtues of a sophisticated harvester or an airman admiring his B-17.

Improved views

It looks so open now, said Jude Geist, Parks & Recreation parks supervisor, who also is on the tour.

That was a mantra that was repeated often. The thinning has led to dramatically enhanced views of the neighboring countryside, surroundings peaks  and even the forest itself.

Geist points down a ridge line. You could only see about 20 feet in before, he said.

Fehrenbacher spots a meadow up ahead. That was previously closed off. It is now open. There is a lot of variability in size and density (of the trees) and that adds value.

Pywell: Youll not see the hand of man here. Youll think its just supposed to look like that.

Fehrebacher points between the oaks to Vineyard Mountain. At another spot a habitat snag that has lost its top 30 to 40 feet helps reveal Dimple Hill behind it.

Thats a new view, Fehrenbacher said. It didnt exist last week. Ditto for Marys Peak. People up here will be able to see farther.

Pywell: Thats awesome.

On a meadow that has benches and interpretive markers Pywell points out a 60-degree stretch of the view to the east that used to be blocked by Douglas firs.

Now, you are going to be able to see snow-capped peaks here in the fall, he said. Before, you couldnt even see Brownsville.

Fehrenbacher adds that he can see the new  spaces  in the thinned forest while driving up Northwest 29th Street.

Trail experience

Geist said that the trails are tentatively scheduled to reopen Sept. 9 but added that weather conditions  and the resultant fire risk  could push that date back.

No forest roads were built or improved during the restoration work and vehicles used the main trail to navigate the hillside. Geist said that the city might look into closing two unofficial paths near the Lester trailhead, but the main loop trail will be the same.

And all involved think that once the area is reopened hikers will flock to check out the new forest.

All through the layout and marking work we were seeing a constant stream of people, said Fehrenbacher of the period just before the closure. Its weird being up here with no people.

Pywell: People have been respectful (regarding the closure) and we thank them in advance for continuing to do so.

Whats next

The pace will increase as we go forward, Fehrenbacher said of the next phase of the work. Well be bringing in more crews next week. Well start removing logs and loading them into trucks and well continue cutting and logging.

Fehrenbacher estimated that 60 truck loads of logs will leave the staging areas via Lester Avenue, with another 40 or so using McDonald Forest roads and Jackson Creek Drive.

Some touch-up work will be necessary, Fehrenbacher said. Well do some hand lopping as part of the next phase once the logging is done and the heavy equipment is gone. Well use a hand crew to fine-tune things.

A small portion of the site was among the 86 acres burned in the Labor Day weekend fire of 2014.

That piece wont be done until later, Pywell said. We might do that in-house to save a bit of money so we can follow up with the herbicide.

So when will the benefits of the project become clear to users?

Next year youll see additional growth and it will look a lot better by spring, Pywell said. In two or three seasons it will fill back in and look like its supposed to. There will be far more leaves and more water will be available to the oaks because the Douglas firs will be gone. People are going to flock here even more than they did before.

Fehrenbacher: "It's going to look and feel different. It's a different forest type. To have a woodland dominated by oak is pretty rare."
Kathy Strecker went to Thursdays Chippewa Falls School Board meeting at Korger Chestnut armed with a piece of paper that ultimately settled the boards search for a way to address the districts building needs.

Before leaving for the meeting, she wrote the note to herself and referred to it as the board struggled for the second time in three days to come up with a resolution to send to voters in November.

The paper contained only five short words that may long be remembered, considering they could result in replacing an elementary school that was built 86 years ago.

On the paper, Strecker had simply written: Weve got to do it.

If not for that note from Strecker, and a resolution made by David Czech, its entirely possible the board would have been unable to come to an agreement on how to solve facilities issues that had been identified in comprehensive studies commissioned in 2015 and 2010.

Thursdays actions played up the importance of the April elections, when both Czech and Strecker were elected for the first time to a board that had already defeated a $167 million recommendation in January. It was a also board led by Amy Mason, who was named president also in April.

Czech floats plan

Czech reintroduced a modified proposal he had circulated near the end of Tuesdays meeting that cut approximately $48 million in other repairs and renovations from a $115 million plan. But it again ran into objections.

One of those objectors was Strecker, the boards vice president who had been appointed to the board to fill Jim Dimocks vacancy in 2015 before winning election this year.

That seems a little anemic, she said of Czechs plan that called for spending $61.2 million. She was also opposed to the $630,000 Czech included to purchase land for a future high school.

We dont need to become land barons. That leaves a big question mark, she said. I dont think it needs to be done right now. We have much more pressing needs.

Strecker wanted to add more money to the proposal, to be used to repair and renovate buildings throughout the district, and suggested $75 million was warranted.

Mason was playing her cards close to the vest, and with Jennifer Heinz and Staish Buchner already casting their votes for a $115 million proposal, not enough support appeared to be materializing for Czechs plan, either.

Time to do something

Yet when the vote was finally called, Strecker withdrew her opposition and turned out to be the deciding vote, joining with Czech, Pat Allen and Pete Lehmann in the 4-3 tally.

Streckers note to herself was the impetus for the change of heart. She feared if Czechs proposal was defeated, the board might not be able to agree on any other.

Its time to do something. We all heard that something needs to be done, she said. Its still a substantial amount of money.

Strecker called the decision to build a new elementary school to replace the aging Stillson a no-brainer.

Just as important, though, was being able to put a referendum before voters in November, when a presidential election will produce the highest voter turnout and see the most district residents vote on the school plan.

Strecker said the board may have to go back to voters with another referendum later, as Czech wants. But for now, she felt good.

I think the people will be happy to see we are doing something, she said.

Mason votes no

Like Strecker, Mason was not in favor of buying land for a new high school. She had other objections, too, that made her feel the board wasnt quite ready to submit a plan to the taxpayers.

She also didnt agree with Czechs idea to spread his resolution over 10 years, with the idea that residents will have paid off the amount when the board seeks a new high school.

It all added up to her voting against the resolution that passed. But once it did, she stressed the importance of the board coming together.

The board made its decision, and we will support that decision, she said following the vote. We all want to do the right thing. But how we get there is different for everyone.

A winning formula

For Czech, it wasnt so much about what he thought needed to be done as what he suspected could actually get done.

In a perfect world, you spend that money, he said about the $115 proposal that he trimmed by many millions.

In conversations with people and in reading all of the comments people submitted to the district, he thought $61 million was about the sweet spot where voters would climb on board.

I think theres a lot of money to work with, Czech said.

He remarked that everyone on the board saw the school districts needs and wanted to address them.

The worst thing I thought would happen is if we passed something (voters) shot down, he said. I dont think that puts us back to square one. That puts us at square zero.

Not that a pared-down referendum is any sort of a lock, either. Board members agreed they still have a lot of work leading up to election day to convince voters in the same manner they became convinced.

But Thursday night was a start, and it was because of two board members who were first elected less than five months ago.
USS Louisiana Collision at Sea

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160819-23

Release Date: 8/19/2016 8:12:00 PM

By Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs

BANGOR, Washington (NNS) -- The ballistic-missile submarine USS Louisiana (SSBN 743) and a U.S. Navy Offshore Support Vessel collided while conducting routine operations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the coast of Washington state on August 18, 2016.

The collision occurred at 6:00 p.m. There were no injuries to personnel. Assessments of the damage to both the submarine and the U.S. Navy Offshore Support Vessel are being conducted. The incident is currently under investigation.

Both ships returned safely to port under their own power. The U.S. Navy Offshore Support Vessel returned safely to port at Port Angeles, Washington, and the USS Louisiana returned safely to homeport at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor, Washington.

For questions related to this release, contact Lt. Tia Nichole McMillen at (808) 473-0625 or (808) 473-0911.

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Counter-ISIL Strikes Hit Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 20, 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

Bomber, ground-attack, attack and fighter aircraft conducted 19 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed an ISIL oil workover rig and five ISIL oil tankers.

-- Near Raqqah, a strike destroyed an ISIL oil crane and an ISIL oil tanker.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed two ISIL pump jacks.

-- Near Manbij, six strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Mara, nine strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL vehicle bomb, seven ISIL bombs and two ISIL mortar systems.

Strikes in Iraq

Bomber and fighter aircraft conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and suppressed two ISIL mortar firing positions.

-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck an ISIL bed down location and destroyed 39 ISIL oil tanker trucks and two ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed two ISIL mortar systems, five ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL bulldozer, two ISIL rocket rails, an ISIL rocket system and suppressed an ISIL mortar firing position and an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL mortar system.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat it poses to Iraq, Syria, the region and the wider international community. The destruction of targets in Syria and Iraq further limits ISIL'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.

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Boxer Departs Singapore

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160820-01

Release Date: 8/20/2016 6:21:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Eric C. Burgett, USS Boxer (LHD 4) Public Affairs

SINGAPORE (NNS) -- Continuing their ongoing mission in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations, amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit departed Singapore, Aug. 4, after a six day port visit.

The port visit represented the first stop for Boxer after its departure from the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations last month.

While in port, Boxer's crew participated in sporting events and Morale, Welfare and Recreation tours, and conducted ship familiarization tours aboard Boxer for hundreds of people from local civic organizations. The Religious Ministries Department also arranged several cultural exchange projects throughout the Singapore community.

"This was a great opportunity to visit a culturally-rich country and enhance the relationship between our two navies," said Capt. Mike Ruth, Boxer's commanding officer. "Boxer Sailors and Marines really enjoyed the visit and represented the United States admirably. They stayed busy participating in military-to-military exchanges, cultural exchange projects and outstanding MWR tours. As we head back to sea, the crew is prepared to conduct operations in the Indo-Asia Pacific region and participate in theater security cooperation engagements to strengthen ties and improve interoperability with allies and partners in the U.S. 7th Fleet."

Boxer Sailors and Marines were able to volunteer while in-port by participating in community exchange projects that included interacting with children at the Genesis School for Special Education, and serving meals to senior citizens at Willing Hearts Soup Kitchen.

"I enjoy doing any type of volunteer work because it allows us to get out into the community" said Marine Capt. Kimberley Julka. "It's a great way to see the community, to see the world, differences in culture, and differences in language."

"I am into volunteering," said Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Max Delpivo. "I have never worked with special needs children so it was new for me. It was interesting to see how the staff interacts with children and gets them engaged. I would have never figured that out on my own."

At another community service event, Sailors and Marines provided meal preparation and service at a soup kitchen. Many of those who participated in the event said that they had taken part in something both important and special; an event not only valuable to them but to the mission of the Boxer as well.

"It was important to me personally because I am the type of person who grew up not really having a whole lot, and I think being able to give back puts my heart at peace," said Personnel Specialist 3rd Class Markel Carter. "I think it's important for the mission of the Navy because people have their own perceptions of what the military is about, so hopefully our efforts show that we are just out here trying to do right by the people we are trying to protect. It gives a better perspective of the military and Boxer."

Others spoke of how the cultural exchange offered fellowship for the crewmembers and allowed them to make Singaporean friends.

"We didn't think of it as just work, because we were there with friends and got to meet new friends and got to experience things we may not have otherwise," said Religious Programs Specialist Seaman Tyriq Turner.

Boxer, the flagship of Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, with the embarked 13th MEU, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

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Lois A. Prokupek, 81, passed away Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire.

Lois Ann was born July 22, 1935, at home, to Henry and Selma (Kohls) Prokupek, in Arthur. She graduated in 1954 from Cadott High School. Lois was employed by Tom Tobola Ford for several years, and then moved to Minneapolis for a short time before returning to Eau Claire.

She was a bookkeeper for Morrison John Deere Implement and Chippewa Farmers Union Coop. Later she was employed at Eagleton Nursing Home for many years, retiring in 1999. She moved from the family farm in 2009 after failing health to Cornell Senior apartments. In May 2016, she became a resident of Aggies Country Living, where she received excellent care from a most loving and caring staff.

She was loved by family, friends and neighbors. She maintained many long time friendships with neighbors and friends from the farming community where she grew up.

She was a member of Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Cornell. She was also a member of Ladies Aide. Her interests were embroidery, crossword puzzles and picture puzzles. She was an avid Green Bay Packers fan, enjoyed watching the Brewers, Twins, and Wisconsin Badgers. She also went on many one-day bus tours in Wisconsin, and also loved dogs, cats and all animals.

Lois is survived by her sister Elvera (Ronald) Finses of Rhinelander; niece, Suzanne Mooney of Peoria, Ill.; and nephews, Greg Finses of Jenison, Mich., and Scott Finses of Canton, Mich.; great-nieces, Sarah and Michelle; and great-nephews, Tyler, Evan, and Andrew.

She was preceded in death by her parents; and brother, Marvin.

A memorial service will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Cornell, with the Rev. Andy Schottelkorb officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the services Saturday at the church. Inurnment will be at a later date in Bohemian National Cemetery.

Any remembrances of Lois may be made to Our Saviors Lutheran Church 201 South 6th Street, Cornell, WI. 54732.

Thank you to Dr. Schauer and the entire staff at Marshfield Clinic, Cornell, for the excellent caring services provided to Lois. She was a very positive person and was so appreciative of everyones kindness and help.

Borton-Leiser Funeral Home, Cornell, is assisting with arrangements.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.leiserfuneralhome.com.
DR Congo accuses 6 rebels of killing civilians

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:3PM

A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has accused six suspected members of a Ugandan rebel group of taking part in the killing last weekend of dozens of civilians east of the country.

Colonel Jean-Paulin Esosa, the Congolese official who presides over the operational military court of North Kivu province, said Saturday that the men were charged with "participation in an insurrectional movement, crimes against humanity for murder and terrorism."

Esosa said the six included "two Ugandans, one Tanzanian and three Congolese."

Reporters covering the court session said the men, who appeared at the public hearing in blue and yellow prison shirts, admitted that they had been "at the service of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)," an armed group believed to be of Ugandan origin which has been present in DR Congo for more than two decades.

The group has been blamed for a litany of crimes and human rights abuses in DR Congo with officials saying it funds its criminal networks through kidnappings, smuggling and logging.

The trial on Saturday, where hundreds of residents called for justice to be served, was to address the recent mass killing in the city of Beni, where according to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), at least 50 people were hacked to death.

The gruesome violence sparked mass street protests against the government for failing to protect the population against the rebels. Three people, including a policeman, were killed in escalated clashes that erupted on Wednesday.

More than 700 people have been killed in attacks blamed on the ADF in the restive eastern part of DR Congo over the past two years. Observers say, however, that troops from the regular DRC army have also been involved in the killings.

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Taliban militants seize district in Afghanistan's Kuduz Province

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 8:22AM

Taliban militants in Afghanistan have captured the Khanabad district of the restive Kunduz Province in the northeast of the country following fierce clashes with Afghan security forces, local officials say.

A local lawmaker and some other authorities confirmed the fall of Khanabad to Taliban on Saturday while Mohammadullah Bahej, the spokesman for the provincial police chief, was cited as saying that the seizure came after the militants launched attacks on the district headquarters from multiple directions.

Bahej further stated that local and national security forces were planning an operation to recapture the district as the fighting led to the closure of the main highway connecting Kunduz to the northeastern Takhar Province.

This is while the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also confirmed the seizure of the entire district by the militants, adding that weapons and military vehicles were also captured during the armed assault.

The fall of Khanabad came as the foreign-backed Taliban elements intensified their attacks on Kunduz and launched numerous offensives on key districts of the province during the past several months.

The militants have also attempted on several occasions to take control of the strategic Kunduz city, which was briefly seized by the group last year before being driven out in a counteroffensive by Afghan military forces.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb blast in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Saturday struck an army vehicle in Qala-e-Zaman Khan area of the city, killing at least one person and injuries few others, according to officials cited in local press reports.

Police authorities in Kabul confirmed the incident but did not elaborate on the number of casualties in the attack.

Taliban spokesman, meanwhile, has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Afghanistan is still suffering from insecurity and violence years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington's so-called war on terror.

The military invasion removed Taliban, but militants still seek to wrest control over the war-ravaged country.

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China builds military installation near disputed islands: Japan media

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:1AM

Japanese media reports say China has built a new pier for warships at a site under development as a military base near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The pier built on the Nanji island off the port of Wenzhou is aimed at improving preparedness to counter Japan and the United States, the Kyodo news agency report.

The facility is close to the disputed Senkaku islands controlled by Japan, but are also claimed by China which calls them Diaoyu.

Several warships have already been seen using the facility, which can also accommodate landing craft, Kyodo said, citing "sources familiar with the matter."

The report said China has already a advanced radar system and a heliport for use by aircraft carrier-based helicopters on the islands.

The country now plans to build a runway for military use on the island, it said. China, Kyodo said, also appears keen to strengthen monitoring of the air defense identification zone it declared over the sea in 2013.

The development comes as a dispute over the East China Sea islets remains high. Encounters between naval vessels and aircraft from the two countries have raised the possibility of a confrontation.

Earlier this week, the Japanese Coast Guard released a video earlier this week, allegedly showing hundreds of Chinese ships "breaching" the disputed waters.

Japan is seeking to develop and deploy a land-to-sea missile system designed to enhance its military might and naval defense in the East China Sea.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing to cast off the country's "pacifist" mantle by sending troops on foreign missions.

On Friday, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Tokyo was seeking a record defense budget of 5.16 trillion yen ($51 billion) for next year in light of the tensions in the region.

Part of the money will be spent on upgrading Japan's PAC-3 missile defense system and the joint Japanese-US production of the Block IIA version of the Standard Missile-3 system to shoot down missiles at higher altitudes.

The budget will also provide for boosting Japanese coast guard near the disputed waters with China, as well as purchasing an upgraded version of the US-built F-35 stealth fighter.

Moreover, Japan plans to develop a prototype drone jet fighter within the next two decades with private sector help in a technology strategy that focuses on weapons communications and lasers.

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US warplanes tried to intercept Syrian jets: Pentagon

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 4:13AM

US fighter jets tried to engage Syrian Arab Air Force aircraft in Syria but the showdown was avoided as government planes left before the Americans arrived, according to the Pentagon.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis claimed on Friday the US fighters attempted to intercept the Syrian planes to protect American advisers  the term US military often uses for its Special Operations Forces  working with Kurdish forces after the Syrian government jets bombed the area.

"This was done as a measure to protect coalition forces," Davis said, referring to a US-led alliance of some countries Washington says is fighting Daesh terrorists in Syria, but most of the time the US alone carries outs airstrikes in Syria.

Two Syrian SU-24 attack planes attacked Kurdish forces undergoing training with US Special Operations troops around the northeastern city of Hasakeh, but they had left by the time the American jets arrived, Davis said.

He told reporters the US had warned Syria via its communication channel with Russia that it would defend coalition troops, adding the Syrian airstrikes "did not directly impact our forces" but they were "close enough that it gives us great pause."

"We will ensure their safety and the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them at risk... We view instances that place the coalition at risk with utmost seriousness and we do have the inherent right of self-defense," Davis said.

The general command of the Syrian Arab Army said in a statement on Friday evening that Kurdish forces were "attacking state institutions, stealing oil and cotton, obstructing exams, kidnapping unarmed civilians and spreading chaos and instability."

These actions required an appropriate response from the army, the statement added.

A US military official said in a statement later on that Damascus apparently dismissed the American warning as its warplanes again attempted to fly to the area on Friday.

"The presence of the coalition aircraft encouraged the Syrian aircraft to depart the airspace without further incident," he said. "No weapons were fired by the coalition fighters."

Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of Iraq and Syria. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

US warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since August of 2014. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.

Since September 2014, the US and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against Daesh inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

The US-led coalition has done little to stop Daesh's advances in parts of Syria and in Iraq.

Some analysts have criticized the US-led military campaign, saying the strikes are only meant to benefit US weapons manufacturers.

In September 2015, Russia launched its own air offensive against the terrorists who were still wreaking havoc in Syria. The Russian campaign, analysts say, has broken the backbone of ISIL and other militants, and has provided the Assad government an opportunity to defeat the foreign-sponsored terrorist onslaught.

In recent months, the Syrian army, backed by the Russian air power, has been making major gains against Takfiri groups, recapturing several strategic areas from their grip.

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Afghan Forces Retake Northern District Hours After It Fell to Taliban

By Ayaz Gul August 20, 2016

Afghan forces have retaken a key northern district hours after it fell to the Taliban, officials announced late on Saturday.

Spokespeople for the defense and interior ministries told a joint news conference in Kabul that fierce fighting for the control of Khan Abad left at least 75 insurgents dead, including four Taliban commanders.

They also confirmed that six Afghan security personnel were killed while another 16 were wounded.

National security forces are currently engaged in cleanup operations in Khan Abad to eliminate Taliban insurgents from remaining pockets there.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri ruled out the possibility of the fall of the provincial capital of Kunduz, saying "enough" forces are deployed in the city to defend it. He added his ministry has also readied reinforcements in Kabul for deployment in Kunduz if needed.

The Taliban seized control of Khan Abad in an overnight offensive that it claimed killed and wounded dozens of Afghan forces. The insurgent group also released a video showing more than a dozen soldiers in Taliban captivity after it captured the district.

Authorities have also confirmed heavy clashes were taking place between government forces and the insurgents in the Aliabad district in Kunduz.

The brief collapse of the strategically important Khan Abad district had raised fears the Taliban were on the verge of assaulting and capturing the provincial capital that was briefly overrun by the Islamist insurgency during last year's fighting.

Kunduz's fall to the Taliban in September of 2015 had dealt a blow to authorities and Afghanistan's international backers because this was the first major urban center the insurgents captured after NATO withdrew its combat forces from the country.

"Kunduz is currently the most vulnerable province in the Afghan North. Since the provincial capital fell last year, Kunduz has seen more Taliban attacks on district centers than any other province in the country," according to the Kabul-based independent Afghanistan Analysts Network.

Taliban attacks elsewhere

Meanwhile, a local police commander, Munir Himat, told VOA that hundreds of Taliban insurgents staged a pre-dawn assault on Hesarak in eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan.

But he asserted that security forces with the support of airstrikes pushed them back, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and fighting was still taking place in parts of the district.

The insurgents last week captured a key district in the neighboring Baghlan province to expand their influence in the area in a bid to threaten Afghanistan's crucial ring road, which circles the country. Observers say the Taliban appears to be trying to cut off the road to restrict Kabul's access to the northern provinces.

But Waziri Saturday rejected those concerns, saying fresh troops have been deployed to several northern and northeastern districts over the past week and the government faced no difficulties in sending reinforcements to troubled spots.

Meanwhile, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Golden revealed this past week that B-52 strategic bombers have carried out airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan for the first time in a decade, underscoring the intensity in the fighting.

According to a statement, U.S. warplanes have flown more than 800 sorties and conducted more than 140 strikes in the country since U.S. President Barack Obama ordered in June that air power be used more proactively in Afghanistan.

Critics say that recent security gains by Afghan forces across the country have been overshadowed by the Taliban's recent battlefield victories.

The insurgent group has overrun several districts in Afghanistan's largest province of Helmand and fighting there has most recently been taking place near the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

The Taliban's steady advances in the poppy-growing province, which borders Pakistan, have come despite increased in American airstrikes in the area.

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Massive Numbers in Yemen March in Support of Rebels

By VOA News August 20, 2016

Many thousands of Yemeni demonstrators backing Shi'ite Houthi rebels marched Saturday in the rebel-held capital, Sana'a, in a show of support for a controversial new governing council already opposed by the United Nations and many Western governments.

Organizers also billed the march as a rally of support for former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Shi'ite leader driven from power in 2012 after ruling for more than three decades.

With the march under way, witnesses said warplanes from a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition supporting the government of internationally recognized President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi bombed the nearby presidential palace and other targets. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Saturday's airstrikes came just days after coalition warplanes hit a Yemen hospital near the Saudi border, killing at least 14 people, including volunteer physicians from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. Separate Saudi strikes last week in the same area killed at least 19 people, most of them identified by authorities as children at a school in Haydan.

Voicing concern about the rising civilian casualties, the U.S. military said Saturday that it had slashed the number of U.S. advisers supporting the Saudi coalition.

A U.S. military spokesman in Bahrain told reporters the U.S. contingent was cut from 45 military planners to fewer than five. A Pentagon spokesman said U.S. cooperation with Saudi Arabia "is not a blank check."

Yemen's war pits Hadi and his Saudi coalition partners against the Iran-backed Houthis, who seized control of Sana'a in 2014, after years of claims of government discrimination.

The United Nations says more than 6,500 people, at least half of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

U.N.-sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the conflict ended this month when rebels moved forward with a unilateral plan to establish the governing council in areas under Houthi control.

At the time, U.N. peace envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed refused to call the negotiations in Kuwait a failure, despite the fact that they'd made no tangible headway toward peace. But he also said the unilateral formation of the Houthi council was not in the interests of Yemen or the peace process.

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North Korea Demands Return of 'Human Scum' Diplomat

By VOA News August 20, 2016

North Korea has ordered the return of their diplomat who defected to South Korea this week, calling him a criminal and "human scum" on state media Saturday.

Thae Yong Ho, North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain, had embezzled huge sums of money, raped a minor, and spied for South Korea, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in the first public response to the defection.

Pyongyang also criticized Britain for allowing Thae to defect, claiming it had informed Britain of his record and had asked for his extradition.

Thae told South Korean officials he defected out of disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a desire for South Korean democracy and because of concern over his children's future.

It is believed Thae was stationed for 10 years at North Korea's embassy in London, where he was responsible for managing the image of North Korea, which has been criticized for its nuclear weapons program and its human rights record. Thae is believed to be the second most senior North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea.

The most senior North Korean government official to defect to the South was Hwang Jang-yop, a top ruling Worker's Party official who sought asylum in 1997.

Defections from North Korea have been in the headlines lately, primarily due to the April defection of a group of waitresses and their manager who were employed at a North Korean restaurant in China.

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Defense minister: Iran may consider any request by Russia to use extra air bases

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 20, IRNA -- Minister of Defense and Logistics of the Armed Forces Brigadier-General Hossein Dehqan said on Saturday that Iran may consider any request by Russia to use extra air bases, if it deemed necessary, but, there is no such a plan yet.

Dehqan said that the use of an Iranian air base by Russian jetfighters has been approved by the Supreme National Security Council and that it has nothing to do with the parliament.

No Iranian air base has been handed over to Russia, the minister said, adding that the Russian jetfighters use Nojeh air base western Iran for fueling or arming in case of necessity.

9341**1416

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Iran receives full package of S-300 missile systems: Minister

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 20, IRNA -- Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan said Iran has received the full package of S-300 defensive missile systems from Russia.

The minister made the remarks here on Saturday while talking to reporters on the eve of Defense Industry Day.

He said parts of the package have already been delivered to Iran with the rest being in the stage of loading and transporting to the country.

He went on to elaborate on the history of the deal with Russia over the S-300 missiles and said the one Iran had signed with Russia was unilaterally frozen by Moscow in 2010 under the excuse of the United Nations resolutions.

Iran compiled a lawsuit on the issue with international legal bodies, he added.

After President Hassan Rouhani took office, the minister added, the issue was discussed in the highest political level between the two countries.

It was also considered during talks between the presidents of the two countries, the minister stated.

Dehqan also said that during his first trip to Moscow as the Iranian defense minister he raised the issue with his Russian counterpart and finally got the approval of the Russia's President Vladimir Putin on implementation of the agreement.

In April last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted a previous ban on the delivery of S-300 to Iran.

In November 2015, Russia signed a new contract to supply Iran with the systems by the end of that year for the first time since the 2010 freeze on supplies under the UN Security Council resolutions.

The development came after Iran and the P5+1 states  Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany  reached a landmark agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on Tehran's nuclear program in July last year.

In February, the Russian Foreign Ministry official Zamir Kabulov told local media that Russia will deliver the S-300 surface-to-air defensive missile systems to Iran in "the nearest time" as part of a long-running contract between Tehran and Moscow.

1424**1771

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S-300 Iran delivery to be completed in a month: Defense chief

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 9:41AM

Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan says Iran will fully receive the remaining consignment of the Russian S-300 missile defense system in a month.

"We have completely taken delivery of the S-300 missile system. The main part of the system has been transferred to Iran, and the remaining part is being loaded for transfer which will be completed in a month," he told reporters on Saturday.

Dehqan said the country will decide on where to station the system in accordance with threats posed against the country's "sensitive points."

Russia undertook to deliver the systems  which are used to intercept tactical and ballistic aircraft and projectiles  to Iran under a $800-million deal in 2007 but refused to deliver on the commitment, citing UN sanctions against Iran.

Following Moscow's refusal to deliver the systems, Iran filed a complaint against the relevant Russian arms manufacturer with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva. In April 2015, President Vladimir Putin lifted the Russian self-imposed ban on the delivery of the S-300 and Moscow subsequently signed a new contract to supply Iran with the systems by the end of that year. Tehran recently dropped the case at the arbitration court.

The Iranian defense chief further said the country had refused a Russian proposal for the procurement of the Russian S-400 air defense system.

Russo-Iranian defense coop.

Over the past three years, the Iranian defense minister has held five meetings with his Russian opposite number, Sergei Shoigu.

Addressing bilateral defense cooperation, Dehqan said the collaboration was aimed at "fighting instability and insecurity, the establishment of peace and security, and the eradication of terrorism in the region."

"We will keep up the cooperation until the attainment of the intended goals," Dehqan said in his Saturday remarks.

The Iranian defense minister also referred to Russian aircraft's current use of the Nojeh airbase near the western Iranian city of Hamedan, which Moscow started recently for logistical purposes aimed at enhancing its operations over Syria.

The aircraft use the base for stopover, meaning that they are not "deployed" at the outpost, Dehqan said, adding that the airbase is being used to help Russian warplanes target terrorist gatherings and equipment at Syria's request.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that Iran's and Russia's definition of the terrorists operating in Syria differs from that of the West. "The West is of the opinion that only Daesh should be confronted in Syria as a terror group, but we believe that all those groups that operate to cause instability in the [Arab] country are terrorist and should be confronted."

Dehqan also said that Iran planned to sign cooperation agreements with Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and China, whose defense minister would be visiting Tehran in the coming month.

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Where did all that money go? Dennis asked me during a recent visit to the Jackson County Fair.

Dennis is one of many constituents who ask where the money for schools and roads is as our state recovers from the recession. Economic recovery means more money, and more money should equal more resources for the public. Instead, state funds are very tight. For example, state aid to local public schools is less now than in 2006.

One reason is that the state is not collecting tax money from some large, and in several cases, very profitable companies. Recently I received a memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau detailing the awards given out for one large tax credit known as the Enterprise Zone Tax Credit. This credit  originally conceived to help rural communities  has morphed into large credits for single companies.

The memo contained a list of the total awards made and the companies that received them:

Bucyrus International, Inc. $20.0 million

Direct Supply $22.5 million

Dollar General Corporation $5.5 million

Exact Sciences Corporation $9.0 million

Fincantieri Marine Group, LLC $28.0 million

InSinkErator $15.5 million

Kestrel Aircraft Company, Inc. $18.0 million

Kohls Corporation $62.5 million

Mercury Marine $65.0 million

MKE Electric Tool Corporation $18.0 million

Northstar Med. Radioisotopes, LLC $14.0 million

Oshkosh Corporation $47.0 million

Plexus Corporation $15.0 million

Quad/Graphics, Inc. $61.7 million

Trane US Incorporated $ 5.5 million

Uline, Incorporated $18.6 million

W Solar Group, Incorporated $28.0 million

Weather Shield Mfg, Incorporated $ 8.0 million

All of those award amounts are refundable tax credits. This means a company can claim the credit directly against taxes owed. If the company owes little or nothing in taxes and claims the credit, they can receive a payment from the state in the form of a refund.

Owing little or nothing in state taxes is made possible, in part, by changes in tax law for corporations that date back to 2011. Majority legislators passed the Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit that resulted in very low tax liability for some. A recent study released by the Wisconsin Budget Project found most of this credit goes to reducing taxes for millionaires, including some tax filers with incomes of over $1 million receiving tax cuts of more than $100,000.

That list of Enterprise Zone Tax Credit awards includes the total credits that can be claimed over a 16-year period (2009-2024). Different companies are on different schedules. One companys contract began in 2009. Seven of the listed companies have contracts that go back to 2010. The remaining contracts were written since 2011. The credits are awarded for various business activities. Some credits are given for jobs created or retained, for training or buying from Wisconsin companies. In every case, the Enterprise Zone created is the footprint of the company itself.

Credit compliance is overseen by the troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), which does not have a good track record for independently verifying that jobs were created. Three separate audits by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau showed that not one single job created was independently verified.

Earlier this year, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that WEDCs claims of jobs created were based on faulty calculations. They went on to report, The agency gave out almost $90 million more in awards, but the total number of related jobs fell by nearly 6,000.

The cost of the Enterprise Zone Tax Credit and the Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit would go far in covering the cost of reforming our states flawed school funding formula or funding repairs for local roads.

Funding for road repair is something on the minds of many in Wisconsin. We were reminded once again that in a short time the power of Mother Nature and water can demolish our roads. I offer my heartfelt thanks to the road crews, law enforcement, emergency management, the Red Cross and county officials all of whom worked tirelessly to keep the people safe in the aftermath of the torrential rains and flooding that hit western Wisconsin. We will not be back to normal for a while but we are all safe. If you need help, please call 211.
2.4 million people in Libya need humanitarian aid: UN

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 2:3AM

The United Nations has voiced concern about the alarming conditions of well over two million Libyans, who need humanitarian aid due to the militancy in the north African country.

"More than 2.4 million people in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance," said Martin Kobler, the UN secretary general's special representative for Libya, in a statement marking the World Humanitarian Day on Friday.

"They lack medicines, vaccinations and suffer from poor hospitalization services. Almost 300,000 children are out of schools and almost 350,000 Libyans are displaced within the country," he further said.

The UN official also noted the predicament of over 270,000 refugees, who are stranded in Libya after fleeing their home countries.

"The humanitarian needs created by the crisis in Libya are enormous and this should serve as an incentive for us to do our utmost to give hope to the people, particularly those in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," he added.

Libya has been struggling to contain the militants who have been expanding their presence in the country following the overthrow and death of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Taking advantage of the chaos in Libya, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group also took control of the northern port city of Sirte in June 2015, nearly four months after it declared presence in the city.

Libyan pro-government forces have liberated most of the city since they mounted an operation against Daesh in May.

The oil-rich North African country has had two rival governments since 2014, when politician Khalifa Ghweil and his self-proclaimed government seized control of the capital Tripoli with the support of militia groups, forcing the internationally-recognized government to move to the country's remote eastern city of Tobruk.

However, they achieved a consensus on forming Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) last December after months of UN-brokered talks in Tunisia and Morocco, in a bid to restore order in the oil-rich nation.

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Syrians resolute in defending homeland: Assad

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 3:7PM

President Bashar al-Assad says the Syrian people are determined to continue defending their homeland and maintaining unity despite all the pressures and suffering imposed on them.

The Syrian president made the remark in a meeting with visiting Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Mubashir Javed Akbar on Saturday, Syrian official news agency, SANA, reported.

During the meeting, both sides discussed the situation in Syria, the threat of terrorism as well as Damascus-New Delhi bilateral ties.

Assad praised friendly countries, including India, for their support for the Syrian nation and government in the fight against militants in the country.

The support has strengthened the nation's steadfastness in the face of the war waged against Syria by certain foreign and regional states, Assad said.

The Indian minister, for his part, underlined the need for cooperation with Syria in the fight against terrorism, praising Damascus achievements in this regard.

He further said that India would spare no effort to help the development and reconstruction of Syria.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

Damascus has long been complaining that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are the main supporters of the militants fighting the Syrian government forces.

The United Nations estimates that over 400,000 people have so far been killed in the conflict.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the Arab country's infrastructure.

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Syrian Warplanes Fly Over Northern City Despite U.S. Warning

August 20, 2016

Syrian government warplanes on August 20 flew over a flashpoint northeastern city despite a warning from U.S. officials against making air strikes where it has military advisers.

It was the third successive day that Syrian planes had either flown over or attacked positions in the city of of Al-Hasakah held by Kurdish forces fighting against Islamist fighters and forces loyal to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. military scrambled its fighter planes on August 19 and flew over Al-Hasakah within about 1.5 kilometers of two Syrian SU-24 fighter jets in an effort to "encourage" them to leave the area, a U.S. defense official told CNN.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on August 19 that U.S. forces have increased combat air patrols near Al-Hasakah and warned Damascus that Washington will defend coalition troops from attacks.

Davis said there are a small group of U.S. commandos in the area training and advising Syrian Democratic Forces fighting to oust President Assad.

Syrian warplanes had bombarded positions held by the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces on August 18.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on August 20 that the bombing raids by the Syrians showed that Damascus was starting to see Kurdish attempts to gain territory in northern Syria as "a threat."

Yildirim said Turkey would play a "more active" role in the next months in Syria, without giving details.

Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish militia in Syria as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

More than 250,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Syria since the civil war began in March 2011.

Based on reporting by AFP and CNN

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey-syria- warplanes-al-hasakah-u-s-warning/27935624.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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The Ultimate Dilemma In Syria's Status Quo

August 20, 2016

by David Patrikarakos

Good news should be easy to discern in wartime. War, we assume, makes it easy to separate the good guys from the bad; to separate the oppressor from the oppressed; to separate right from wrong.

Sometimes, though, these questions become muddled, and no more so than in the surreally unstable and violent world of the Middle East. Recently, the rebel forces opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made great gains in breaking the regime's siege of the strategically vital city of Aleppo.

The problem remains, however, that the unquestionable success that the rebels have made in Aleppo is, to a large extent, partly down to the efforts of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front -- essentially Al-Qaeda in Syria). The ostensible good guys, the Syrian rebels, who are battling an enemy that has barrel-bombed and butchered them ever since they started out as a peaceful movement merely asking for greater civil rights during the Arab Spring five years ago, are now in debt to jihadists.

The debt is a significant one -- and one that is not lost on Syria's population. As Thomas Pierret, senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and an expert on Syria observes over e-mail: "If they [the rebels] manage to keep open the southern access to Aleppo, which was made possible (among other factors) by Fatah al-Sham's [vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices] VBIEDs. If the regime retakes the southern access to Aleppo, things might be different, but Fatah al-Sham would still remain one of the regime's most efficient opponents, which will inevitably reflect positively on its popularity."

Ruthless Bombing

Despite this risk, the breaking of the siege of Aleppo was supposed to bring relief to the citizens who were trapped in the city. That has yet to happen. International aid groups say that it is too dangerous to enter the city without a real cease-fire. While Russia and Assad have nominally accepted those conditions, the Syrian and Russian air forces are ruthlessly bombing the civilian populace in the city, and across much of Syria. The death toll continues to skyrocket.

On August 18, the image of a 5-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, became front-page news. Omran had just been saved by a group called the White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense Forces, a collection of local Syrians who have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to help save civilians from the growing pile of rubble and corpses that their country is increasingly becoming. Pictures and video of his tiny face, matted with dried blood and dust, as he and his siblings were loaded into an ambulance and rushed to the hospital, went global. The world was horrified.

But Omran was lucky: he and his family survived, and he has since been released from the hospital. Meanwhile, more than 80 people were killed across the country that night, nearly two dozen of whom were children.

There have even been reports that the United States may join with Russia -- which unequivocally backs Assad -- in a joint military effort to stop the rebels' progress in Aleppo. Such a scenario remains unlikely, but it is a testament to how precarious the situation is in Syria -- and how utterly confused it is.

So why has a major responsibility in the war against butchery been handed to butchers?

The answer is depressingly simple: No one country is willing to risk getting involved in a major war in the Middle East to stand up to the Syrian and Russian governments. For five years, Assad has been allowed to kill with impunity -- literally in the vicinity of U.S. jets that looked on helpless to act. Washington is in an admittedly tricky situation. A war-weary American public elected Barack Obama in 2008 partly on his promise to end the U.S. military's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The people were sick of dead Americans, Afghans, and Iraqis. The last thing Obama wanted to do was to get sucked into another Middle East nightmare. And there is a valid logic to that line of thought.

Root Cause Of Insurgency

Obama's decision not to intervene in Syria -- to avoid having to once more expend American life and resources at a time when the country is still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis -- is considered by many to be the right move. But not all agree with that assessment. As Pierret once again observes, "critics of Obama generally reproach him for backtracking on his 'red line' with regard to the use of chemical weapons in 2013, but perhaps an even bigger mistake was the decision to intervene alongside the Syrian Air Force in September 2014 while not moving a finger to curtail daily attacks against civilians." Syrians saw more bombs drop from the air, this time from the United States as well as Assad; and yet more civilians, not merely members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, were killed in this process.

"At the time there was no Russian air force around, and it would have been very easy for the overwhelmingly superior USAF [United States Air Force] to make it clear to the decaying Syrian Air Force that it wasn't allowed to bomb the USAF's zone of operations, i.e. the northern half of Syria. This has of course contributed to the perception by many Syrians that the United States is in fact complicit with Assadhence to anti-Western radicalization," he says.

But this fact does not in any way detract from the root cause of the rebel insurgency, which is Assad's barbarity, which began during the first days of the uprising when the regime arrested, killed, and tortured the then-peaceful protesters. And the more it increased its barbarity, the more radicalized the insurgents became. The more the world ignored their plight, the more they were forced to turn to anyone who would help them.

This month, while Russia bombed Aleppo's hospitals -- and then boasted about it on state media -- the victorious rebel groups, let by jihadists, brought fruit to its starving population. Brutal they may be; jihadist they most certainly are; but they know how to do public relations -- especially in a field where due to the timorousness of the onlooking world they have little competition.

Nonetheless, the jihadists don't have it all their own way. Again Pierret is on point: "The level of distrust towards jihadists among the rest of the opposition (including non-jihadi Islamist insurgents) is frequently understated (if known about at all) in the West," he writes. And he is right. Assad and his acolytes deny that such a thing as a "moderate" opposition exists but the rebels continue to form a kaleidoscopic mix of elements -- from the secular to the extreme. This past week, as U.S.-backed rebels liberated Manbij from IS, videos showed residents celebrating: men cut their beards, while women burned their niqabs and smoked cigarettes, as they celebrated their freedom from their oppressive theological overlords.

"It has long been assumed by many Western observers and decision-makers," Pierret concludes, "that there are no good guys in Syria, or at least that the good guys are irrelevant. Yet, this assumption is proven wrong by the fact that we still see them dying every day after five years of conflict. The problem is, good guys are dying fast, and in such apocalyptic circumstances, [and] are increasingly replaced by radicalized people."

And herein lies the ultimate dilemma of the status quo in Syria. The more the rebels succeed, the more the democrats among them face ultimate defeat. Those fighting Assad are fighting to defeat visceral barbarism; to defeat a tyrant with absolutely no regard for the democratic process; to defeat a man who is responsible for slaughter on a massive scale. And in that endeavor our natural reactions should be to wish them every success.

The inescapable problem is who and what exactly are the Western countries supporting? If Assad goes -- and we must hope that he does -- what comes next? The answer to that question will define the Middle East for generations to come.

David Patrikarakos is a contributing editor at the Daily Beast and the author of Nuclear Iran: The Birth Of An Atomic State. He is working on a book on social media and war. The views expressed in this piece are the author's own

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ultimate- dilemma-in-syria-staus-quo/27933991.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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US strategic partner, not enemy: Turkey's PM

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 1:33PM

Turkey's prime minister has described the United States as a "strategic partner" and not the enemy of his country despite Ankara's anger at Washington for not extraditing US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for last month's failed military coup.

"There can be ups and downs in the two countries' relations (but) we need to remove elements that harm our relations," Binali Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul, referring to Gulen.

Washington has so far refused to extradite Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the mid-July botched military coup in the country, saying it needs evidence of his involvement in the failed putsch.

At least 246 people were killed and more than 2,100 others sustained injuries when an army faction, using hijacked helicopters and tanks, clashed with government troops and people on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul on July 15 in an attempt to overthrow Erdogan.

Ankara blames Gulen for orchestrating the coup, an allegation the cleric has repeatedly dismissed and warned that the blame game could be a ploy by the ruling Justice and Development Party to cement its grip on power.

Turkey has launched a sweeping crackdown on alleged coup plotters.

Turkey-Egypt ties

In his Saturday remarks, the Turkish prime minister said that Ankara seeks to normalize its ties with Egypt.

Relations between Ankara and Cairo have soured since Egypt's first democratically-elected president and a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in a military coup led by the former defense minister and incumbent president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in 2013.

"We think we need to develop economic and cultural ties with Egypt as countries that use the two sides of the Mediterranean," Yildirim said.

However, he said that high-level relations would not be repaired overnight.

"We think we need to start from somewhere," he said.

Turkey to be 'more active' on Syria

Touching on the Syrian crisis, Yildirim pledged that Turkey would play a "more active role" in addressing the conflict in the war-ravaged Arab country in the next six months to prevent Syria from being divided.

"We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die. That's why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months, compared with before," Yildirim said.

The Turkish premier also said that his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a transitional period in Syria, but insisted he has no place in the Arab country's future.

Yildirim further expressed optimism that Iran, Persian Gulf Arab states, Russia and the US could work jointly to find a solution to more than five years of conflict in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The United Nations estimates that over 400,000 people have so far been killed in the conflict.

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Turkish parliament approves normalization deal with Israel

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 20, 2016 7:17AM

Turkish lawmakers have approved an agreement to enable reconciliation between Turkey and Israel after a six-year rupture over the killing by Israel of 10 Turks.

The deal, which had been submitted to the Turkish parliament for approval on Wednesday, was passed on Saturday. Reports did not specify how many votes were cast in favor or potentially against the deal.

Ankara and Tel Aviv's then close relations soured after Israeli commandos attacked the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish citizens and injuring about 50 other people. A tenth Turkish national later succumbed to his injuries. The vessel was attempting to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Ankara demanded an apology, which was not forthcoming only until recently, as well as compensation for the families of the victims of the Israeli raid.

The two sides gradually engaged in almost secret talks to mend relations, and came out announcing the reconciliation deal on June 27.

Turkish and Israeli officials have both defended the deal, under which a main Turkish condition for the normalization of ties remains unmet, namely Israel's lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

But the Israeli regime is obliged to pay USD 20 million in compensation to the families of the Turkish activists killed in the Gaza aid vessel incident.

The agreement further allows Turkey to send aid for Palestinians via the port of Ashdod in the occupied territories rather than directly to Gaza.

Lawmaker Burhan Kuzu, with the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party, said the rapprochement has been partly driven by the prospect of Ankara joining Tel Aviv in exploring gas in the Mediterranean Sea and helping the regime sell it to Europe.

"I don't think there will be a problem during its (the deal's) implementation," he said.

"There are natural gas resources in the Mediterranean that they are pursuing and we want to be a part of it. The shortest and safest route to transport natural gas to Europe, is through Turkey," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some Israeli officials have likewise defended the accord, saying it will have a positive impact on the Israeli economy and invite lucrative Mediterranean gas deals for the regime.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

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PM: Turkey To Take More Active Role In Syria Conflict

August 20, 2016

Turkish Prime Binali Yildirim says Ankara will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the country from splintering along ethnic lines.

"Turkey we will be more active in the Syria issue in the coming six months as a regional player. This means to not allow Syria to be divided on any ethnic base, for Turkey this is crucial," Yildirim said at a news conference in Istanbul.

Yildirim also said that President Bashar al-Assad may have a role in the transitional period but not in Syria's future.

Kurdish groups have begun carving out their own regions in Syria as they are fighting groups from Syria's Arab majority seeking to overthrow Assad.

Turkey is afraid that strong Kurdish militant groups in Syria will encourage its own Kurdish insurgency.

Yildirim also ruled out any new peace initiative with Turkey's outlawed Kurdish rebels saying Ankara would not "enter into a dialogue with a terror organization."

The Kurdistan Workers' Party has intensified its bomb attacks against the police and military, killing more than a dozen people in attacks this week.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey-yildirim- syria-conflict-active-role/27935288.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Turkey Announces More Active Role in Syria Conflict

By VOA News August 20, 2016

Turkey will take a more active role in Syria in the next six months to prevent further divisions along ethnic lines, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Saturday.

"We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die," he told reporters in Istanbul. "That's why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months."

Yildirim went on to say that Syria's president Bashar al-Assad had no role in Syria's future, but that talks with him would be necessary during a transitional period as "he is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not".

"We may sit and talk (with Assad) for the transition. A transition may be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no PKK, Daesh, or Assad in Syria's future," he said, referring to Kurdish rebel groups and using the Arabic term for Islamic State.

Yildirim expressed concern about the ethnic divides created by the five-year war in Syria, where Kurdish groups have carved out their own regions and occasionally engage in fighting with Syria's Arab majority. On Thursday, Syria's Air Force for the first time began bombing Kurdish fighters in Hasaka, a city in the northeast where Kurds and Syrian government forces had been loosely working together to drive out Islamic State militants. The airstrikes marked the most violent confrontation between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces since the civil war began in 2011.

Turkey is battling militants of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) and is concerned about the growing power of Kurds across the border, opposing any moves toward autonomy or independence.

Still, Yildirim said that Turkey is not pessimistic about Syria, and that he remains confident that Iran, Gulf Arab states, Russia, and the U.S. can work together to find a solution.

Yildirim denied rumors that Turkey would allow Russia to use their military base Incirlik, which is currently being used by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Yildirim also reiterated that Ankara wants Washington to speed up proceedings against Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen, currently living in the U.S., whom it accuses of being behind the coup which left over 200 dead.

Vice President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Turkey on Wednesday, marking the first visit by a Western leader to Ankara since the failed coup July 15th.

A delegation of U.S. Justice and State Department officials will be traveling to Ankara to discuss the extradition request, a Justice Department official told Reuters, but refused to give a date.

But Yildirim said that the vice president's visit would not open up discussion of compromise on the issue.

"Improving our relations with the United States depends on the extradition of Gulen, and on that issue there is no room for negotiation," Yildirim told CNN Turk after the visit was announced last week.

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Turkey Cites Terrorism in Blast Killing at Least 30 at Wedding

By VOA News August 20, 2016

Turkish authorities say at least 30 people were killed Saturday and nearly 100 others wounded in an explosion at a private wedding in the country's troubled southeast.

The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted the governor of Gaziantep province as saying the blast was the result of a "terror attack."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said appeared to be a suicide bombing. Other officials speculated about involvement of Kurdish rebels or Islamic State militants.

The blast occurred at a wedding hall in Gaziantep, a major Turkish city with a large Kurdish population about 60 kilometers north of the Syrian border. Local reports cited a heavy Kurdish presence at the wedding, fueling speculation of IS jihadist involvement.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party was quoted as saying its members had been present at the wedding, which also was attended by many women and children.

The area also was the site of three smaller explosions in recent days that the Ankara government linked to rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK.

The PKK launched an armed rebellion in 1984, seeking an autonomous homeland in a vast area of the southeast bordered by Syria, Iraq and Iran. Nearly 50,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

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Turkish parliament approves normalization deal with Israel

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:06, August 21, 2016

ANKARA, Aug. 20 -- The Turkish parliament on Saturday approved the normalization deal reached with Israel last month, ending a six-year rift and paving the way for the restoration of full diplomatic ties, Daily Sabah reported.

The parliament voted to approve the pact early on Saturday before it closed for a summer recess.

Relations between Turkey and Israel declined in 2010 following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship en route to deliver humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, which left 10 Turkish activists killed.

According to the new agreement, Israel will pay 20 million U.S. dollars in 25 days as a compensation for lost lives during Mavi Marmara flottila raid and Turkey will drop all cases against the incident.

Israeli soldiers will be exempt from legal and criminal responsibility and individual Israeli nationals also would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident.

The deal was already approved in the Israeli cabinet earlier this year.

Also on Saturday, Israel lauded the Turkish parliament has approved the bilateral reconciliation agreement.

"Israel welcomes the Turkish parliament's decision, and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

It added Israel expects the future exchange of ambassadors.

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Trump easily the dishonest presidential candidate

Crooked Hillary? The Republicans have been trying for 20 years to have Hillary Clinton indicted for or convicted of something  anything  without success. A reasonable person might conclude that either shes not guilty, or they are incompetent. Or both.

Crooked Hillary? When a party offers so few positive proposals for tackling real problems but instead offers repetitive smears and lies about her, as well as hateful attacks on some races and religions, beware.

Another party once employed the strategy of repeating lies often enough that they were believed by many, and fanned the fires of fear and hatred for certain races and religions to advance their agenda. Lets hope that our country does not fall for the same perverse tactics.

Crooked Hillary? All objective, nonpartisan fact-checkers find Donald Trump lies or distorts far more often than Hillary Clinton. He remains the only major presidential candidate in decades who has not released his tax returns for public scrutiny. Hillary released her returns. What is Trump hiding?

Crooked Hillary? Hillary has a long record of standing up for children, families and health care for all. Trump has a long record of self promotion only. He is a businessman who has a documented record of multiple bankruptcies, involvement in hundreds of lawsuits, has being named in actions for fraud, and who uses only foreign-made goods in his clothing line. I know of no other alleged billionaire that engages in shady scams like Trump University.

It seems pretty clear which candidate is really the more trustworthy, honest, qualified and competent to be president  and it isnt Dishonest Donald. Its Hillary.

Jerry Gehl,

Chippewa Falls
Erdogan Tells Poroshenko Turkey Won't Recognize Crimea As Russian

August 20, 2016

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reassured his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko that Ankara will continue to recognize the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia, as Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian presidential press service said on August 20 that Erdogan told Poroshenko via telephone that Turkey has not changed its "unwavering position regarding its support of Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity in the country's internationally recognized borders."

Erdogan added that Ankara would not recognize "Crimea's occupation" and would continue to support "the Crimean Tatars in every possible way."

The Poroshenko-Erdogan conversation comes less than two weeks after an Erdogan visit to Russia restored Ankara's relations with the Kremlin that had reached a low point following last year's shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkish fighter jets.

The two leaders also discussed bilateral energy-sector cooperation and the recent terrorist bomb attacks in eastern Turkey.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia- turkey-poroshenko-erdogan-crimea- russia-recognize/27935596.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Biden, Ukraine's Poroshenko Urge End to Conflict With Pro-Russian Forces

By VOA News August 20, 2016

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Friday for a resolution in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

A White House statement said Biden and Poroshenko spoke by telephone and "expressed deep concern over the recent surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, where cease-fire violations by combined Russian-separatist forces are at their highest levels since 2015, often using heavy weapons."

The White House said Biden "relayed that the United States had sent a message to Russia that the world is watching and underscored the need to de-escalate the situation." It said the vice president also urged Ukraine to "show restraint."

Biden and Poroshenko also "reiterated the need for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict through full implementation of the Minsk agreement by all parties."

Ukrainian officials said Thursday pro-Russian separatists "launched more than 500 mortar and over 300 artillery shells" at Ukrainian positions in eastern Ukraine, killing at least three Ukrainian soldiers and wounding six more.

Poroshenko warned Thursday his country has not ruled out martial law or a new wave of military mobilization if the fighting continues.

Russia recently accused Ukrainian military and intelligence forces of plotting attacks in the annexed region of Crimea.

Ukraine officials have denied the accusations, saying the Kremlin was likely to use it as a pretext for a major escalation of the more than two-year-old conflict in eastern Ukraine.

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City officials are examining the possibility of bringing a bike share program to Danville.

Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler proposed the idea that was discussed during a council work session Tuesday night. He said he has wanted to look into the potential for the program since seeing it in action during a visit to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2012.

The bike share system would be similar to a Red Box, where users can pick up a bicycle at one location and drop it off at another, Vogler said. Users would download an app showing where bikes can be checked out and  once theyve checked out a bike  indicating available spots for drop-off at docking stations.

Also, whoever is in charge of the program would know who has which bikes, Vogler said.

Parks and Recreation Director Bill Sgrinia said he likes the concept and supports residents having access to bicycles and active lifestyles. Sgrinia said he is researching the challenges the program could pose, including costs, available infrastructure (besides just the Riverwalk Trail) and whether it would be sustainable in Danville.

We need to do a little research to determine the actual need here and the sustainability of such a program, Sgrinia said.

Vogler has contacted a company to see how much the purchase of 40 bicycles for the program would cost. Up-front expense for the purchase would be about $49,000.

Vogler said the city would seek private funding for the project, with the city possibly covering the annual costs to maintain the program  which he estimated would be about $5,000.

Its not that expensive, especially if its privately funded out of the gate, Vogler said. This is not going to be any kind of major expense in our budget at all.

Rental fees could cover the yearly expense if there are no private donations, he said.

The goal is to provide a public good and amenity, Vogler said, adding that its about enhancing the quality of life.

Possible locations for bike docking stations include the River District Main Street Plaza, Averett University, Danville Regional Medical Center, Carrington Pavilion and the Riverwalk Trail, Vogler said.

Vogler said he would like to have the program ready in spring 2017. He said he is talking with a company about overseeing the program.

Vogler credited City Councilman James Buckner for helping him out with the proposal.

As for other locations in Virginia, Richmond recently started a bike share program, and Alexandria and Arlington have one as well, Sgrinia said. But they have larger populations, he pointed out.

Sgrinia said he is gathering information about bike share programs for Vogler to take to council.
Make your colleagues jealous by packing healthy ingredients that are bursting with colour and flavour into a jar. Photo: William Meppem

A lab rat gets a more exciting snack in the middle of the day than the average office worker. What happened? When we were kids, a lunch box was a treat. The idea of a cute little box of food that was all our own and nobody else's was so exciting, we'd usually bust into it long before we got to the school yard.

So let's analyse why the boredom as a working adult. It's hard to get excited about another ham-and-cheese sandwich after eating about, oh, 2637 of them, so if you're taking the same food to your workplace every single day, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Yes, taking your own saves you money. Yes, it's a great opportunity to eat something good for you, instead of bad. And yes, not being at the mercy of carb-heavy Nutella doughnut burgers and freak shakes should help your belt stay in its desired notch. But is it too much to ask for something exciting and joyful to eat in the middle of the day that will also power us up with enough energy to make it through the afternoon?

The rainbow superbowl will add a bit of cheer into anyone's working day. Photo: William Meppem

The real problem is that most work spaces are like being 30,000 feet in the air in a pressurised aircraft. I'm a bit hazy on the science, but they somehow suck the life force and the flavour out of the food that enters them, rendering everything dull and drab. So you need to build in MASSIVE HITS OF FLAVOUR to make up for the flavour loss, and you need to shake it up with something different every day.

Here are three recipes that pick a fight with lunchtime boredom and wrestle it to the ground.

The rainbow superbowl

Who wouldn't look forward to a bright, healthy and beautiful collection of the most colourful vegies, greens and grains? Toss with a tangy dressing and devour on the spot, roll into a wrap, or tuck into pocket bread.

Let's face it, work is drab and horrible  but your bento box doesn't have to be. Photo: William Meppem

The rule is to add anything as long as it's good for you, as long as it's bright. Choose for texture, fibre and goodness as well as flavour, and avoid anything that might sog. Consider also: crumbled feta, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, half an avocado, zucchini noodles.

100g mixed quinoa

200g broccoli

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half red capsicum, cut into slivers

half yellow capsicum, cut into slivers

150g purple cabbage or wong bok, shredded

1 carrot, peeled and grated or cut into slivers

handful of parsley, mint or basil

handful of nuts or mixed seeds

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp lemon juice

sea salt and pepper

1. Soak the quinoa for 15 minutes, then drain and rinse. Cook in simmering, salted water for 15 minutes or until tender, and drain well.

2. Cook the broccoli florets (and sliced stalks) in simmering salted water for five minutes, then drain, refresh in icy cold water to stop the cooking, and drain again.

3. Combine the olive oil, honey, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper in a small airtight jar, seal and shake well.

4. Arrange the quinoa, broccoli, capsicums, cabbage, carrot, herbs and nuts in two lunch boxes, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil, and seal. To serve, shake the jar of dressing, pour it over the top, and toss well with a fork.

Makes 2

The salad in a jar

Another genius idea that is catching on fast among the office crowd. Layer all your favourite salad ingredients in an airtight, no-mess, no-fuss glass jar, along with last night's leftovers and a tangy dressing. When you're ready to eat, just tip it out into a bowl, or mix it up and eat straight from the jar.

No-cook jar salad

Canned salmon or tuna and a creamy pesto yoghurt dressing make this a super-easy lunch on the run.

2 tbsp pesto

200g plain yoghurt

200g baby spinach leaves

200g canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp ground cumin

sea salt and pepper

1 cucumber, peeled and finely sliced

200g can red salmon, drained

2 tomatoes, diced and drained

handful of basil or mint leaves

1 tbsp dukkah or mixed nuts and seeds

1. Whisk the pesto and yoghurt together until smooth, and pour onto the base of two 400-millilitre airtight jars.

2. Use tongs to place a stack of spinach leaves on top of the pesto yoghurt.

3. Toss the chickpeas with half the olive oil, cumin, sea salt and pepper and arrange on top of the spinach. Squeeze any excess moisture from the cucumber and place on top.

4. Drain the salmon, toss with remaining olive oil, sea salt and pepper and arrange on top. Spoon the tomato on top of the salmon. Add a few basil or mint leaves and the dukkah, seal, and refrigerate until lunchtime. To serve, turn out onto a plate or simply eat from the jar.

Serves 2

The bento box

You don't have to love Japanese food to see the brilliance of a bento box. The contrast of flavours and textures make every bite interesting, and the seemingly endless possibilities (Japanese pickles, kimchi, avocado, rare roast beef or cooked chicken, cauliflower rice, roasted sweet potato, baby spinach, wasabi, etc) mean you'll never have the same lunch twice.

Sesame soba noodles with soy eggs

Cook the sweet, earthy, soy-marinated eggs, noodles and snow peas earlier, so there's nothing to do in the morning except throw it all together. If it's cool, tuck in a sachet of instant miso soup (e.g. Spiral Foods) as well.

2 eggs

100 ml soy sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp brown sugar

200g soba noodles

100g snow peas, sliced lengthwise

1 tbsp tahini

2 tbsp chopped spring onions

handful of soft lettuce leaves

half cucumber, peeled and chopped

60g silken Japanese tofu, drained and diced

2 tbsp Japanese pickled ginger

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

togarashi* for sprinkling

1. To make the soy eggs, place the eggs in a pan of hot water and bring to the boil. Simmer for five minutes, then drain and plunge the eggs into icy cold water to cool. Peel when cool enough to handle.

2. Heat the soy, vinegar, mirin and brown sugar in a pan until the sugar has dissolved, and cool. Place the eggs in a snug airtight jar, top with soy marinade, seal and refrigerate overnight, turning once or twice to colour the eggs evenly.

3. Cook the soba noodles in simmering water for four minutes. Add the snow peas for 15 seconds, then drain and cool. Drain the eggs, reserving the marinade, and cut in half.

4. To make the dressing, whisk tahini into half the soy marinade, and toss the noodles and spring onions in the dressing, adding more marinade if needed.

5. Arrange the noodles, lettuce leaves, egg, snow peas, cucumber, tofu and pickled ginger in a bento or lunch box, and sprinkle with sesame seeds and togarashi.

*Togarashi is a Japanese spice blend of dried chilli, sesame and seaweed.

Makes 2

Out-sourced: Five cooks, five lunch boxes

There are some great recipes out there lurking in cookbooks and blogs, just waiting to be turned into lunch box magic every day of the working week. Here are five.

Monday: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's spicy chicken and peanut butter salad

To make, shred roast or poached chicken and combine with shredded spring onions, red capsicum, mint and coriander. Toss in a dressing of peanut butter whisked with tamari, mirin, grated garlic and ginger, honey and chicken or vegetable stock. From Hugh's new River Cottage book, Love Your Leftovers.

Tuesday: Nigella Lawson's spiced cauliflower and chickpea salad with pomegranate seeds

To make, toss cauliflower florets in oil spiced with cinnamon and cumin, then roast. After 15 minutes, add cooked chickpeas tossed in harissa, and some quartered tomatoes and roast for another 15 minutes until tender. Season, cool, and toss with pomegranate seeds and flat parsley leaves. From Nigella's new book, Simply Nigella.

Wednesday: Jess Pryles' roast beef po'boy

Barbecue queen Jess of TV's Aussie Barbecue Heroes likes shaking up the idea of the traditional southern shrimp-filled baguette of New Orleans. "I love using leftover roast beef in a baguette with some tart tomatoes and seed mustard, and a little bit of jus to soak into the bread," she says. jesspryles.com

Thursday: Tori Haschka's gado gado Indonesian vegetable salad with spicy peanut sauce

To make, lightly steam snow peas and broccolini, then combine with batons of red capsicum, finely shredded white cabbage and beansprouts. Make a spicy peanut sauce by whizzing peanut butter, cashews, lime juice, ginger, garlic, fresh chilli, soy and a touch of sugar to a paste with a little water, and serve with the salad and five-minute boiled eggs. From Tori's book, Cut The Carbs.

Friday: Michael Rantissi's Israeli chopped vegetable salad.

"Add a protein such as tuna or chicken and it's a meal in itself," advises the Israeli-born chef-owner of Sydney's Kepos Street Kitchen. To make, dice tomatoes, Lebanese cucumbers, red onion, radishes, and mix with chopped mint leaves, flat-leaf parsley, spring onions, and a dressing of yoghurt, chopped mint, crushed garlic and olive oil. From Felafel for Breakfast, written with Kristy Frawley.

And three tips ...

1. Pack a small tub of yoghurt.

Rich and creamy, natural yoghurt is both satisfying and filling. Make it savoury with a pile of snipped chives, sea salt and pepper and a swirl of extra virgin olive oil; or sweet, with a spoonful of brown sugar and a handful of berries.

2. Go for the grain.

Cook up a pot-load of lentils, cous cous or beans on the weekend, then reinvent them every day of the week. Cous cous, for example, could give weight to a Greek salad with feta on day one, be turned into lemony tabbouleh on day two, and be stuffed inside roast peppers on day three.

3. Go nude.

Keep your clothes on, but strip your food of packaging and processing. Take whole carrots and crisp apples to snack on. Instead of dicing avocado and watching it turn brown, take a whole avocado and make it the star of your lunch. Zero packaging, zero waste.
It's time to break out the tin opener. Cans can be a lifesaver when you haven't made it to the shops and still need to whip up something fast. Here's how to turn 10 canned pantry staples into 100 delicious dishes.

1. Tuna

There's hardly a household in Australia that doesn't have a tin of tuna in the cupboard somewhere. Tuna mornay pasta bake has fed Aussies for generations and needn't go out of style. Use pasta sheets and call it a "white lasagne" if it makes you feel fancy. Tuna chunks can be great braised in master stock or teriyaki sauce, or try cooking flaked tuna in a lot of butter, then mix through shallots, capers, cornichons and herbs and pack it all into ramekins as tuna rillettes. Combine it with boiled eggs, green beans and potatoes for a nicoise salad.

Bring some can-do attitude to your cooking with these ideas. Photo: Tim Grey

With rice, tinned tuna comes into its own. Wrap some seaweed around a bit of tuna and vinegared rice and you have tuna hand-rolls, or just scatter it on top of brown rice, avocado and pickled ginger for healthy tuna sushi bowls. Mix with mayo and stuff it into tuna onigiri rice balls, or stir-fry it with leftover rice, lots of garlic, spring onion and egg, then scatter it with crisp-fried shallots for a Filipino ginisang tuna. For a European angle try tuna and pea spaghetti or stir it through aborio rice for risotto, or even deep-fry crumbed risotto balls for tuna arancini the next day.

2. Condensed milk

My go-to emergency dessert involves a can of condensed milk and a can of evaporated milk for a quick two-can creme caramel (see recipe). Simmer an unopened can in plenty of water for 2 hours for the easiest dulce de leche you'll ever make, or use it in Vietnamese iced coffee, or as a dip for steamed Chinese mantou buns. A can of condensed milk beaten with two tubs of sour cream (600 grams) can be frozen into a delicious no-churn ice-cream.

Try it as the base for a delicious chocolate and caramel slice, or filling for an icebox pie, cheesecake or key lime pie. My mum used to put it on soft bread and grill it until it was bubbling and burnt for a brulee toast alternative to jam.

Turn condensed milk into dulce de leche caramel. Photo: Edwina Pickles

3. Anchovies

Even if you don't like anchovies, a can is worth keeping on hand. Emulsify them with olive oil and garlic cooked in milk for the classic Italian raw vegetable dip, bagna cauda. With mozzarella they're a simple topping for pizza, or try its French cousin, pissaladiere. Fry them with breadcrumbs, olive oil and a few herbs for pangrattato, the poor man's parmesan that's perfect sprinkled over pasta. Layer them into your favourite scalloped potatoes and you have the Swedish classic Jansson's Temptation. They're great for basting porterhouse steaks with anchovies and capers (see recipe).

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I like to start a simple vinaigrette by frying some chopped anchovies in a little of the olive oil for an umami hit to any salad. Blend them into cultured butter for an anchovy butter for fish or steamed vegetables, or even chuck them on top of a schnitzel with a fried egg and Worcestershire sauce for the very much underrated schnitzel a la Holstein.

But I think the best way to enjoy a good anchovy is just straight from the can, with grilled bread and just a little squeeze of lemon.

4. Corn

Combine canned corn and beans with chopped fresh tomatoes and capsicum for a New England succotash, or blitz it with some stock and cream into corn soup. A bit of canned corn and a drizzle of Kewpie mayonnaise can give home-made pizza a Japanese twist, or cooked in together with rice it can be either Japanese takikomi corn rice or Indian corn pulao, depending on the spices you have to hand. The Japanese also fry it in tempura batter for incredible corn kakiage. Dress it with lashings of warm butter for a delicious snack as-is, or puree that into a great accompaniment for scallops or grilled fish. Even bake it into cornbread that's a perfect match with a one-pot chilli corn carne.

It doesn't have to just be savoury either. Some sugar and flour and lots of butter will turn it into a sweetcorn pudding, or combine it with sago and coconut into Vietnamese che bap.

Photo: Tim Grey

5. Peaches

Summer stone fruit is incredible in Australia but in the cooler months a tin of peaches can be a lifesaver. Modernise the Hawaiian pizza with prosciutto and peaches, or chop them with walnuts and bake into a gooey treat on top of a wheel of brie. Crumble and clafoutis are an easy dessert fix, or brulee with cinnamon sugar and serve with a dollop of cream. Some raspberries and ice-cream from the freezer can turn them into a peach Melba, or layer them into bread-and-butter pudding for a twist on a classic. Fold chopped peaches through some Greek yoghurt and add some sponge fingers for a peach Charlotte, or blend them into a vinaigrette that goes great with tomato, basil and bitter leaves. If it's still barbecue weather, puree peaches with onion and fish sauce for a sweet-savoury glaze for grilled chicken.

6. Chickpeas

Purists sometimes turn their noses up at tinned chickpeas, but when you've got a couple of screaming kids tearing up your kitchen the purists can go jump. Blend them into a smooth hummus that you can serve with raw vegetables, turn it into home-made falafel or mould them into delicious patties for vegie burgers or chickpea fritters. Pat them dry and deep-fry to add texture to salads, or blend them until smooth to add body to vegan soups. A vegetarian chickpea dhal makes for a great meat-free Monday, but if you really want to push the boundaries, turn your chickpea puree into cookie dough for chewy vegan chocolate chip cookies.

The tinned variety also has the added benefit of aquafaba ("bean water" to you and me). The protein-rich water from a tin of chickpeas can be whipped with sugar into a vegan chocolate mousse or even baked into vegan meringues (yes, really).

Chipotle chicken in adobo makes for a smoky taco filling. Photo: William Meppem

7. Chipotle in adobo

This cult ingredient is fast becoming a must-have in the pantry. Slather it on a slow-roasted chipotle chicken (see recipe) and it'll change your Tuesday dinners, or braise with beef cheeks for a perfect smoky winter stew. Brush it on grilled corn with mayonnaise, cheese and herbs for a Mexican twist, or blend it into mayonnaise with some coriander for a dressing for smoky south-western sandwiches.

Chop them into a salad or quiche, like a 21st-century sun-dried tomato, or make your own barbecue sauce for everything from chops to hamburgers. Brush the liquid on lamb ribs for something different, or even just add a few spoons into the meat sauce to give the family spaghetti bolognese a facelift.

African chicken curry, kuku paka. Photo: William Meppem

8. Coconut milk

Store cans of coconut cream upright and open them without shaking, skimming off the creamy plug to use for making Malaysia's incredible coconut jam, kaya and using the watery milk left over for Thai green curry (which is best when not too creamy).

A can of coconut milk can be simmered with a tub of thickened cream and  a cup of sugar and churned into a simple coconut ice-cream that's great served with tinned lychees and torn mint.

Cook beef and spices long and slow in coconut milk for a great Indonesian rendang, or infuse lemongrass into it for a delicious sauce for mussels with coconut and fresh herbs. One can of coconut milk and one can of tomatoes is the base for the African chicken curry, kuku paka. Or just cook coconut rice for nasi lemak.

It can be set with gelatine into yum cha-style Cantonese coconut jelly, or used straight from the can with some palm sugar syrup on top of sago gula melaka. Simply blended with a little icing sugar it makes a great coconut glaze for cakes, too.

9. Tomato

Is there anything a tin of tomatoes can't do? Pasta sauce is a given, but make a big batch and bake eggs in it for breakfast. Forget thick, cloying tomato paste, home-made pizza sauce is better when it's just bit of light pureed tomato spread on the dough. There's always the chilli con carne for the cornbread I was talking about before, too.

I use a tin of tomatoes to add depth to ratatouille, or roast beef bones in tinned tomato puree until it's caramelised as the basis for a rich demi-glace. Make moqueca, a simple Brazilian seafood stew, or use them to cook tomato rice for a Malaysian meal. How about throwing some prawns and smoked sausage in and turning the rice into a Creole jambalaya? Or spicing up your standard tomato-y stew with cinnamon and paprika for a lamb tagine.

10. Tinned pineapple

A tin of crushed pineapple, syrup and all, is a great base for a Christmas ham glaze, or as the filling for Malaysia's incredibly moreish pineapple tarts. Pineapple chunks can add the necessary sweetness and tang to balance a creamy red duck curry, or blend it with mango and freeze it to be scraped into a tropical granita.

Use crushed pineapple rather than rings in a good old upside-down cake and add shaved coconut to avoid it looking like it's straight from the 1970s, or go for a Chinese restaurant-style sweet and sour pork.

Throw it in a burger with some beetroot while you're at it (I don't care what David Chang says, this is Australia), or make a salsa for pulled pork tacos like all those bearded fellows seem to be doing. It does make a fantastic chutney for roast pork, or you could try your hand at mam nem, a tangy Vietnamese pineapple sauce for grilled beef or fish.

Slow-roasted chipotle chicken

INGREDIENTS

1 small onion, peeled

3 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tbsp olive oil, plus 2 more tbsp olive oil for the vegetables

 tsp salt

3 chipotles in adobo, plus 2 tbsp of the sauce from the can

1 whole chicken, about 1.6kg

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 5cm pieces

1 red onion, peeled and cut into wedges

METHOD

1. Place the onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and chipotles and their sauce in a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Cut a few thick cuts into the thighs and drumsticks of the chicken and pour over the paste. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

2. Heat your oven to 150C. Place the vegetables in the base of a heavy roasting pan and toss in the oil. Season with a little salt. Place the chicken on top and roast in the oven for 3 hours. Remove the chicken and rest for 10 minutes. Turn the oven to grill and return the chicken to the oven for just five minutes to brown the skin, then serve immediately.

Serves 4

Porterhouse steaks with anchovies and capers

This is my favourite way of cooking mid-week steaks. The anchovies add a strong savoury hit, with the cut-through of acidity from the capers.

INGREDIENTS

4 anchovy fillets

2 tsp capers

2 x 300g thick-cut porterhouse (sirloin) steaks

a little olive oil

 tsp salt

25g butter

METHOD

1. Heat a heavy frying pan (preferably carbon steel or cast iron) until very hot. Roughly chop the anchovies and capers together. Brush the steaks with a little oil and season well with salt.

2. Fry the steaks to your liking, making sure to render the fat from the cap running along the top of the steaks. My preferred method is to flip them three3 or 4 four times in the pan so that they are well-browned and cooked evenly. Test the steaks by pressing them with your fingers. It takes some practice but it's the best way to cook steaks.

3. About 2 two minutes before the steaks are cooked, add the butter and chopped anchovies and capers to the pan. Angle the pan and repeatedly spoon the butter over the steaks while the anchovies and capers cook and infuse into it.

4. Remove the steaks from the pan and pour over the butter. Rest for about five 5 minutes in a warm, draught-free place and then serve with the butter. Rather than one1 steak per person, I prefer to slice them thinly and share.

Serves 2-4

Two-can creme caramel

Ingredients

 cup castor sugar

3 eggs plus 4 egg yolks

1 can evaporated milk

1 can condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Heat your oven to 175C. Heat the castor sugar in a small saucepan until it forms a dark caramel. Pour the caramel into the base of six small ramekins.

2. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla together and divide between the ramekins. Place on top of a tea towel in a deep baking dish and place in the oven. Pour boiling water into the dish until it comes halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake for about 25 minutes until the custard is just set (tap the side of the ramekin and watch it wiggle  the less it wiggles the more set it is). Remove the creme caramels from the oven, cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least one hour.

3. Run a knife around the edge of the ramekin and turn the creme caramels out on to a plate to serve.

Serves 6
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By Carolina A. Miranda Los Angeles Times (TNS)

WASHINGTON, D.C.  The biggest of the bonanza of major museum openings over the last 18 months has to be next months debut of the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C.

Designed by David Adjaye, the British Ghanian architect who also designed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and is designing a new structure for the Studio Museum in Harlem, the 400,000-square-foot museum, covering the breadth of African American history and culture, occupies a prominent corner on the National Mall.

The building, Adjaye executed in collaboration with the North Carolina-based Freelon Group, as well as Davis Brody Bond, of New York and D.C, is a stark departure from the neoclassicism for which Washingtons architecture is known. And while it is not yet complete (scaffolding still covers the buildings broad entrance), the museum nonetheless cuts a daring profile on the National Mall, where its stacked trapezoidal forms appear to erupt from a grassy plain between the obelisk of the Washington Monument and the columnar facades of the Herbert Hoover Commerce Department Building. (The museum literally emerges from underground: Roughly 60 percent of its 400,000 square feet is below grade.)

If the insides are as good the outside, there is reason to be excited about this unusual building.

The museum is veiled in a bronze-colored cast-aluminum lattice (evocative of iron work once done by enslaved craftsmen) that looks moody in cloudy weather and shimmers in sunlight. Its a building whose demeanor is constantly shifting.

The structure is solemn, respectful of the difficult history it must commemorate. (The Mall itself once contained so-called slave pens, where individuals were held before auction.) But its triumphant silhouette also nods to African American achievement in politics, society and culture. Among the 34,000 objects in the permanent collection will be personal items belonging to abolitionist Harriet Tubman, a Jim Crow-era railroad car and the Parliament Funkadelic mothership. Groovy.

As Adjaye told Smithsonian Magazine in 2012, Its not a story of a people that were taken down but actually a people that overcame and transformed an entire superpower into what it is today.
Gilad Kahana, Natalie Portman and Amir Tessler star in "A Tale of Love and Darkness," a Focus World release. (Ran Mendelson/courtesy of Focus World)

SHARE Natalie Portman and Amir Tessler star in "A Tale of Love and Darkness," a Focus World release. (Ran Mendelson/courtesy of Focus World)

By Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES  Actors gravitate toward passion projects, films they care deeply, even obsessively about, but the result is seldom as convincing as A Tale of Love and Darkness, a film of beautiful melancholy written, directed by and starring Natalie Portman.

A Hebrew-language film based on the celebrated memoir by Israeli novelist Amos Oz, Love and Darkness persuasively intertwines the personal tale of a young boys bond with his emotionally fragile mother, strongly played by Portman, with the wider narrative of the early days of the future state of Israel.

It is a story Portman has been eager to tell for eight years but one she never planned to star in.

Initially, I wanted to use an Israeli actress, but no one would give me the money as a first-time director for such a completely noncommercial project, she said when the film debuted at Cannes. And I was also starting to get old enough to play the part myself.

Portman, an Oscar winner for Black Swan, was also old enough to know whom to surround herself with, and this film is effective because, starting with her Israeli co-stars, the people shes elected to work with are all impressive.

Veteran cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, responsible for the films appropriate desaturated look, has shot everything from Black Hawk Down to The Double Life of Veronique, while editor and frequent Sidney Lumet collaborator Andrew Mondshein, production designer Arad Sawat (Footnote) and composer Nicholas Britell (12 Years a Slave) all have credits that are just as notable.

But finally, as writer, director and star, it is Portmans own deep connection to the material, her integrity and respect that are key. Though Love and Darkness has moments of self-conscious artiness, as many first films do, Portman, sure as to what she wanted, has made certain not to overstate the storys potent emotions, and that has made the difference.

This is especially true in her performance as Ozs troubled mother, Fania, a woman, we are told in the opening minutes, who took her life at age 38, when the author was but 12.

Acting in Hebrew in a performance that might be her best work, Portman makes Fania a genuinely haunted woman, someone who saw an abyss where others saw hope, with the pain of fighting against the pull of the vortex constantly on her face.

As a screenwriter, Portman has condensed Ozs 500-plus-page book into a tight 98 minutes, concentrating on key sequences and episodes, starting with a scene of the 10-year-old Amos doing what he loved best, making up stories with his mother, who employed fables about her past in Europe to obliquely explain the world to her son.

Fania came to Jerusalem from Rovno, in Ukraine, where she dreamed of a Palestine where handsome pioneers made the desert bloom. Instead, after her family left, 23,000 Jews, including everyone she knew, were killed by the Germans in two days.

Amos is always trying to understand a mother whose essence is fated to be forever out of reach. Beautifully played by Amir Tessler, Amos is a born observer, a serious young person always listening in as his mother trades stories of romance and tragedy with her sisters.

Amos love of words also came from his earnest, careful father, a scholar and sometime author as well as something of a philologist who delights in, for instance, pointing out the connections between the Hebrew words for earth, man, blood and silence.

Love and Darkness begins in 1945, in British Mandate Palestine, where even making a phone call to nearby Tel Aviv is shown to be a major production. Its a time when Jerusalems Arabs represented a more cultured world and the Jewish settlers worked hard to help everyone get along.

A turning point both politically and personally is the Nov. 29, 1947, vote by the U.N. General Assembly that approved the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, a roll call that throngs of Jews, including Amos and his family, listened to in front of a public loudspeaker.

For most of the crowd, that vote was a hopeful moment, but for Fania the armed conflict it presaged would emphasize the way her girlhood fantasy clashed with cold reality. A fulfilled dream is a disappointed dream, the adult Oz says in voice-over, words that have as much relevance today as they did then.



Kenneth Turan: kenneth.turan@latimes.com



A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS

Rating: PG-13 for thematic content and some disturbing violent images

In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles

Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

Playing: In limited release
Dear Dave: I'm trying to help my elderly mom with her finances. She has no debt and more than $1 million in assets. There was also another $500,000 trust left for her by my dad.

With access to all this, does she still need long-term health insurance?

 Anonymous

Dear Anonymous: Absolutely! She also needs an estate planner immediately. Your parents were far too wise with their money to have your mom end up in a bad situation toward the end of her life. You need to do everything you can to prevent this from happening.

In the event she's unable to take care of herself, long-term care health coverage to take care of nursing home or in-home care is an absolute necessity. The cost of nursing home care can run from $75,000 to $100,000 a year. Your mom is in great shape financially. But just imagine what a prolonged nursing home stay could do to her nest egg. It's not a pretty thought.

When you hit 60, you need long-term care insurance, period. Whether you have $1 million-plus in the bank or not, I strongly recommend it as a wise part of any asset management plan.

Dear Dave: What exactly is a money-market account?

 Julie

Dear Julie: Money markets are short-term financial instruments. Money-market accounts pay about the same, maybe a little bit more, than traditional savings accounts. If you get a money-market account with a bank, you've basically got a savings account that mirrors  or pays about the same  as the actual money markets.

Now, if you get a money-market account with a mutual fund company, you're actually buying into the money markets. The big difference is that the mutual fund companies are a lot more flexible, and they don't have FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) insurance.

I have my emergency fund parked in a mutual fund company money-market account, and the great thing is that it's fully liquid  meaning there are no penalties to take cash out at any time. It's a perfect place to keep an emergency fund!

Dave Ramsey is a money management expert, radio host and best-selling author.
Some people are more sensitive to perfume and cologne than others. (Dmytro Titov/Fotolia/TNS)

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By Andreea Ciulac Chicago Tribune (TNS)

Q: You sit next to a co-worker whose heavy perfume or cologne makes you feel ill. How should you address this issue without creating conflict?

If its a close colleague with a great sense of humor, then in a private setting laugh and say, Went a little heavy with your cologne this morning.

That should get your point across. Your colleague might even come back with a story of how he or she dropped the open bottle of scent on his or her shirt when walking out the door and was already late, so didnt stop to change.

It gets trickier if you dont know the person well.

People have different levels of sensitivity to scent. While it seems to you that he or she has overdone it, your co-worker may think its just fine. I wouldnt mention it the first time it happens, but if it is a pattern and it bothers you, then speak up.

Try this with a smile, I like the cologne you wear, but maybe you could go a little lighter tomorrow.

If this approach doesnt work, you may need to take the issue to your manager or to human resources.

 Barbara Mitchell, co-author of The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook: A Quick and Handy Resource for Any Manager, Team Leader, HR Professional, Or Anyone Who Wants to Resolve Disputes and Increase Productivity

Hold your discussion in private, and be direct.

Dont sugarcoat the issue or use subtle hints, or your co-worker might miss the point. If you had lettuce in your teeth, youd want to know. But, you might not get it if someone asked you if you had a salad for lunch instead of just telling you there was lettuce stuck in your teeth.

The reason some people use a heavy cologne is because theyve been using it for 20 years and are wary of experimenting with new scents. Suggest that your co-worker try fragrances more appropriate for an office environment. One tip: Fragrances that have the name Aqua or Blue tend to be on the lighter side.

 Rachel ten Brink, fragrance expert and co-founder of Scentbird, a perfume subscription service
Examples of Vicki Corwin's calligraphy range from Chrismas cards and wedding invitations to love letters, baby announcements, eulogies, and book marks. (Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press/TNS)

SHARE Vicki Corwin, 61, an independent calligrapher, works out of the living room she converted into an art studio at her home on Aug. 8, 2016 in Royal Oak, Mich. Corwin uses a pointed pen split nib to write her calligraphy and is a member of the Michigan Association of Calligraphers. (Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press/TNS) Vicki Corwin's business that she formally started in 2002 is called the Artistic Quill. Corwin says she took her first calligraphy class in 1985. (Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press/TNS) Examples of Vicki Corwin's calligraphy range from Chrismas cards and wedding invitations to love letters, baby announcements, eulogies, and book marks. (Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press/TNS) Vicki Corwin, 61, an independent calligrapher, works out of the living room she converted into an art studio at her home on Aug. 8, 2016 in Royal Oak, Mich. Corwin uses a pointed pen split nib to write her calligraphy and is a member of the Michigan Association of Calligraphers. (Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press/TNS)

By Ellen Creager Detroit Free Press (TNS)

ROYAL OAK, Mich.  Royal Oak calligrapher Vicki Corwin has a hand in many of lifes most important moments. Her calligraphy has graced everything from diplomas at Sacred Heart Seminary and Cranbrook to thousands of wedding invitations, place-cards at million-dollar parties and once even a love letter.

But with computer fonts mimicking the finest scripts, is there really a place for those who still use the old, slow skill of pen and ink?

Actually, yes.

Calligraphy, the skill of beautiful handwriting, is back in style. It is part of societys fascination with handmade things in a high-tech world.

The number of people who are eager for this type of learning is just phenomenal. It is really catching fire. The pendulum is swinging, says Corwin, who learned calligraphy 31 years ago and has worked full time as a calligrapher since 2002.

The reason, she says, is that a computer script, which can perfectly replicate itself a thousand times on a thousand wedding envelopes, just does not have the same look as something handwritten, with its slight differences made by the artists scratching nib across the paper.

Theres a warmth to calligraphy that is missing from machine-generated work.

ARTISTS HAND

Working at a broad, slightly slanted art table that takes up most of her living room, she chooses her pen and ink, working with the indirect light streaming in the front windows and a white desk lamp.

In her drawer just to the right of her chair are her inks in little pots, each with a white lid: Ziller Midnight Blue, Cardinal Red, Wild Viola Violet, Sweetgrass Green, Buffalo Brown, Northwind White. She also uses walnut inks, Chinese soot inks and gouache, a watercolor type of paint she can custom mix for odd colors a bride may request, like peach.

Perched high on the shelves above her desk are old fashioned ink pots with quill pens. They are just decorative. Her work is done with something called a pointed pen split nib. The nib of the pen is off to the left of the handle. That makes her hand less tired over time.

As she works, her small gray cat Sweet Pea usually curls up in a small bed next to her on the desk.

She is my assistant; she greets the clients, says Corwin.

And there is a lot of work to do.

SIGN HERE

Sometimes, desperate people will show up at her door, asking her to address one single envelope.

One woman said, Ill pay you anything you want if you address an envelope for me, Corwin says. I said, what is it? She was sending her resume to Kate Spade (fashion house) in New York. So I found a pink business envelope and addressed it for her. She paid me $20, and I handed it back to her and said good luck.

Once, she was the alter-ego of a young man in love.

A young man was really trying to impress this gal, so he asked me to write a love letter, she says. He typed it and e-mailed it to me, and I transcribed it onto the stationery, and it worked! He got the girl.

Another time, she transcribed into script an entire 535-word wedding vow. A husband hired her to create it for his wife as a gift for their one-year anniversary. It was a little bit private, but it was cool, she says.

Corwins sophisticated work finds its way onto poems, proclamations, birth certificates, diplomas, Christmas cards and art mats. She does 60 to 80 diplomas a year for Sacred Heart Seminary graduates in Detroit.

Shes even been hired by New York party planners to attend parties as an emergency place-card writer.

They bring me on-site so I can make last minute changes, say, if someones wife isnt coming I can make a new place-card, she says. They put me in a little closet, and they give me cards, and I bring my ink to match, and I sit there and just make changes.

Mostly, though, she does the calligraphy addresses on wedding invitations. She does most of them in whats called brides hand, traditional copperplate script, but sometimes brides choose something less formal and more contemporary. She has done it for weddings as large as 400 people.

She charges $2.35 per envelope.

It doesnt take me that long, she says. I can write about 40 envelopes a day and maintain quality and spelling. You figure 40 a day, so I can do a 400-piece order in 10 days.

How can she keep doing it without her hand tiring? She wears a soft wrist cast every night to protect against carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. She takes breaks. She takes her time. I try to do 8 at a time, then I stop. Then I do 8 more. I try not to do more than 24 at a time.

Her writing is so graceful that it seems effortless.

That is not true. It is due to years of practice.

IN THE SCRIPT

Corwin comes from a family of artists. Both her mother and great-grandfather were painters. Although Corwin did not inherit the painting talent, she loved to doodle and write words on a page as a young child growing up in Cleveland. But she never thought to make a career of it.

At 20, she moved to Michigan. She married Doug Emig 33 years ago and moved to Royal Oak. Over the years, her world has expanded to include 9 nieces, 1 nephew and 2 cats.

Her first career was executive secretary, and she did that for 14 years. Then she opened a business that supplied and maintained plants for office buildings, and that lasted 13 years.

But her life changed in 1985 when a teacher friend needed students for a calligraphy class at Southfield Community Ed and asked Corwin to please sign up.

She was teaching italic, and we used a chisel nib, and I just fell in love with it, she says. So I took the next class, and the next class, and learned the historic alphabets: gothic, uncial, italic and the modern historics like Carolingian.

I found that the key to the whole thing was practice. You build up your muscles and your muscle memory.

In 2001, she was asked by Tiffanys at Troys Somerset Mall to be a resident calligrapher working with brides. She learned to do the formal script called copperplate most used on wedding invitations.

The handwriting was on the wall. Calligraphy was her new career.

LOOPY WRITING

Corwin, whose company is called the Artistic Quill, says that new trends in calligraphy  more free-form, loopy, eccentric styles  are wildly popular with brides, although mothers of brides still go for extremely traditional looks.

The style is changing quite quickly, in fact.

Weve gone from a very formal calligraphy to a flourished, more ornate calligraphy. Pinterest and Etsy post a lot of pictures of wacky, funky, fun calligraphy, and more people are jumping in to do that, she says. She teaches calligraphy in Birmingham, but would like to see more young calligraphers teaching classes in the new styles.

Corwin is the former president of the Michigan Association of Calligraphers, based in metro Detroit, and also is a member of Pen Dragons, a calligraphers group in Kalamazoo, Mich. Shes also a member of the international calligraphy group called IAMPETH, which stands for the flowery International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting.

Two years ago IAMPETH had only 250 members. Now they have 1,300, she says.

Ironically, as calligraphy is getting more popular, the teaching of cursive writing is disappearing in public schools. Corwin worries that future generations wont be able to write their own signatures or read cursive, which means nobody will be able to read documents like the Declaration of Independence or even an old letter from their grandmother.

Cursive evolved over the centuries, but is most familiar to people in the U.S. for the Palmer method, taught to every school child in America in the 20th century.

Today, cursive handwriting, Corwin says, may seem like a quaint luxury reserved for wedding invitations and plaques. It should be more.

Your handwriting is an expression of yourself, she says. It is unique to you.

If you never write anything by hand, part of your identity vanishes.

We have 26 letters, and they come together to form words. If you are not writing them out and enjoying the picture of the words, you miss the way into the story that the words can tell you, Corwin says.

Does she actually write letters to friends by hand? Yes.

Now we message and text and Facebook and tweet, but when I write somebody a letter, its special.

I have a friend in Denver who says she saves the letter until she can sit down, have a cup of tea and find out what Im up to. Writing by hand endears the words to the reader, much more so.

Corwin has a big, elaborate, fancy diploma on the wall of her living room studio. It says that in 2008 she graduated from a master program in the most complex calligraphy techniques. The final exam? Creating the diploma.

Look around her studio, and you realize that it is just one more part of Vicki Corwins script.



5 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR HORRIBLE HANDWRITING

Do you have awful handwriting? Join the club. Here are Royal Oak calligrapher Vicki Corwins tips for addressing important envelopes or writing Christmas cards or notes, for when you really need your penmanship to look decent:

1. Dont try to address too many envelopes at once. Your handwriting falls off. Slow down, relax and enjoy it. Your handwriting is kind of a gift to the person. Try not to do more than 20 at a sitting.

2. Draw lines with pencil on the envelope to keep your writing even  and never use a pencil eraser to erase them afterward. Buy a soft art eraser that gently and invisibly erases the lines when you are done.

3. Its OK if the envelopes you are addressing dont all look identical. Many people vary their handwriting day to day or even moment to moment, so be creative. Only one person is getting one envelope, so theyre not going to show up and compare their envelope with others. Even Corwin says her so-called identical wedding invitations contain slight differences, like extra loops or flourishes, depending upon how she is feeling at the moment.

4. If you want to learn calligraphy or just improve your handwriting, take a class, watch a video or get a book  but the most important thing is practice. You even can start by using a regular pencil, because it can make thin or thick lines as you are making the strokes.

5. Regularly write letters and address envelopes by hand. Its good practice for your handwriting, and it shows the recipient that he or she is special. Amid a flood of shortcut texts and boring mail with machine labels, a handwritten envelope always gets a smile.
In 1984 the Standard-Times celebrated the centennial of our newspaper.

The 100-year celebration included snippets of stories from the 1884 newspaper.

They looked something like this:

Feb. 14  There is always a very favorable prospect for San Angelo getting the Santa Fe road. It has always been the policy of the Santa Fe to build up a town already established.

March 7  Gold is found in four counties in this state, silver in fifteen, coal in eleven, marble in six and whiskey and the devil in 226.

April 1  The stonecutters on the Courthouse have been out on a strike this week. We understand they struck for an increase of 50 cents per day. They were receiving $4 per day before the strike.

May 3  The measles are spreading rapidly on Kickapoo Road. Many families are down with the disease. The measles have "took" the town.

May 3  Thirty cars of tools, suitable for railroad building, belonging to the Santa Fe road have arrived at Lampasas. It is said that the workmen will begin work with their faces toward Tom Green County.

May 3  Oscar Ruffini, of Austin, the architect, employed by the county to supervise the erection of the new Courthouse and Mail, arrived Tuesday night. There can be no doubt about San Angelo's boom; even the trees on the river are beginning to rustle.

May 3 1884  We wonder if half the people in western Texas realize the beauty and advantages of the climate in which we live. Our northers only serve as reminders as what we would endure if we lived in higher elevations.

May 3  When you go to the post office for your mail, step right down to the Standard office and leave your subscription. Just one door south of the post office.

May 3  Cock fighting on Sunday appears to be the favorite pastime in San Angelo among the sporting class.

May 3  Our facilities in San Angelo now consist of the telegraph line, a daily stage to Abilene, water works, ice factory, first class banks, hotels, a large publish hall and numerous churches.

May 10  A great deal of promiscuous shooting goes on in and around town which ought to be stopped. It is not only annoying, but dangerous.

May 10  A shotgun that Jim Bridge was examining yesterday morning in Sarge's saloon went off. The strange part of the affair is that nobody was killed.

May 24  The wind was so strong Tuesday night that it blew Jim Spear's new house off its foundation.

July 26  It is so hot in San Angelo that even the natives are prostrated with sunstroke.

July 26  W.A. Wright while unhitching his horses last Sunday afternoon, was knocked down and run over by the team and narrowly escaped serious injury.

Aug. 30  Rev. Johnson's saddle was cabbaged from his yard Monday night. Who would so utterly disregard the laws of nature as to steal from a preacher?

Sept. 20  Dr. B.L. Branch whose office is at the Rock Drug store on Chadbourne has purchased a horse and new buggy. He is now able to attend to his country practice on short notice.

Oct. 4  The first electric light in San Angelo can be seen at Charley Wilson's. Our two brick yards are now turning out 24,000 bricks per day, which is insufficient to supply the increasing demand.

Oct. 4  Fish abound in all the Concho Rivers. Catfish of 50 pounds are very often brought to San Angelo. Perch, bass and trout of large size are very common.

Oct. 10  Frank Sanderson while on the North Concho stepped on a rattlesnake which thrust its fangs into his foot. The leather and stocking took a way a great deal of the poison and Frank, pulling off his boot, punctured the wound with his knife. This caused it to bleed and he is now all right.

Oct. 11  If you want a saddle that will freeze to the meanest bronco this side of the Rio Grande, go to Adam Meckel's on Concho Ave., next to Veck's Saloon.

Oct. 26  This cold wet snap caught a good many young husbands without stove wood. It was exhilarating to see them chopping wood with an overcoat and a dull axe.

Nov. 15  Some camper who intended to keep warm, no matter what, chopped down three telegraph poles near Kickapoo and used them for firewood. Needless to say, no dispatches could be received for two days.

Nov. 15  The similarity between San Angelo and San Antonio increases daily. Now there are lunch stands on our street offering coffee, beans, and other edibles at all hours.

Dec. 20  Mrs. Zimmerman was thrown from the back of a vicious horse yesterday morning. Though badly shaken and bruised, she was not seriously hurt.

Dec. 20  San Angelo is very much in need of a calaboose into which petty offenders can be placed. The new jail is only large enough to hold only the most desperate desperadoes.

Rick Smith is a local news and community affairs columnist. Contact him at 325-659-8248 or rick.smith@gosanangelo.com.
In this photo taken Aug. 18, 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to media as she meets with law enforcement leaders at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. While Donald Trump dominates the national political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, Clinton is successfully stealing positive local headlines as she visits battleground states. The Republicans constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about her emails and allowing Clinton to spend plenty of days quietly raising money behind closed doors. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

SHARE Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton campaign buttons are made available at a political rally during Democrats Day at the Illinois State Fair Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman) A sign placed by resident Doug Ford welcomes Republican Presidential candadate Donald Trump on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 in St. Amant, La. Casting his campaign chairman aside with just 11 weeks until Election Day, Trump moved ahead with the reboot of his White House bid on Friday with a tour of flood-ravaged Louisiana. Ford 's trailer was completely flooded. (AP Photo/Rebecca Santana)

By CATHERINE LUCEY and LISA LERER, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  It's no day at the beach, but Hillary Clinton is having the political equivalent of a quiet August.

Donald Trump may be dominating the political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, but it's Clinton who's winning positive headlines during visits to some of the most competitive states in the presidential race.

The Republican nominee's constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about Clinton's emails and allowing her to spend plenty of time raising money behind closed doors.

"I think she's actually smart to stay quiet at this time. She's not a popular candidate with the Democrats. She has a lot of negatives herself. There's a lot of news that could be made about her," said Rick Tyler, a former aide to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and onetime Trump rival.

But, Tyler said, it's all "getting subsumed by the black hole candidate that is Donald Trump."

A disastrous stretch for Trump has helped solidify Clinton's lead in national preference polls and most surveys in closely contested states. Clinton campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania this past week, and the Democratic nominee's voter registration efforts and policy pitches went largely unnoticed as Trump shook up his campaign staff.

Trump's reshuffling also overshadowed fresh stories about Clinton's use of a private email account and server as secretary of state.

"Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity," said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign.

Clinton seems more than content to let Trump dominate coverage on cable news and in national newspapers. In the meantime, her campaign has carefully courted journalists in the communities she visits, pushing tailored policy messages. For example, stressing her plans to respond to the Zika virus in Florida and how she'd support manufacturing jobs in Detroit.

Local supporters have hit Trump on issues such as his refusal to release his tax returns. Clinton had an opinion piece on water quality in this past week in Florida's Treasure Coast Newspapers.

After an appearance in Ohio on Wednesday, the top headline the next day in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland read, "Clinton Tears Trump Plan to Cut Estate Tax," while The New York Times' main campaign story focused on the tumult in the Trump campaign.

"If the Republicans are spending their time attacking and fighting each other, it gives you a little bit more liberty to go out there and articulate your message. They're not necessarily offering a counter-argument," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clinton's White House. "It gives you more real estate in a more uncluttered way to break through."

Republican pollster Greg Strimple said that's not just spin, arguing the "overarching national message of the campaign is not one that can unify the country, so I would focus on doing small events that have local flavor."

"It also keeps her profile lower," he said, "which allows the circular firing squad of the Trump campaign to continue."

Since the bus tour that followed the end of the Democratic convention, Clinton also has focused heavily on fundraising. She has been to more than 10 fundraisers in the first half of the month, hitting mansions in Miami and enjoying a private performance by Aretha Franklin in Detroit.

She's keeping up the pace, heading this weekend to Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast and to California next week. Clinton is on track to top the $90 million she raised for her campaign and Democratic allies in July.

Her campaign has been hard at work in the battleground states, eyeing the start of early voting in some places next month.

At his rallies, Trump often urges his backers to vote. But Clinton gets into the details at her events, plugging registration and urging people to cast absentee ballots.

"If you aren't registered and you're eligible, see the persons with the clipboards here," Clinton said during a recent event in Kissimmee, Florida. "We want you to be registered, and then we want you to be part of this campaign."

Trump has started to advertise on television and appears at ease with his new campaign team. His trip to flood-ravaged Louisiana on Friday won praise from residents who feel overlooked by President Barack Obama. He kept to his vacation schedule on Martha's Vineyard, though the White House announced he would visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

While Trump was in Louisiana, Clinton called the state's governor during a day spent fundraising on the East Coast.

"St. Amant loves Trump because he is here in the middle of everything," said Doug Ford, a Trump supporter who put out a sign in his front yard welcoming the Republican to the flooded town, where his trailer was filled with water. "We need him here because the president is not here."

But even with three presidential debates to come and the prospect of more negative stories about Clinton's emails, Republicans say she is well positioned to avoid the pitfalls that could arrive before the November vote.

"She's just got to execute a campaign professionally," said Tyler, the former Cruz aide. "If she does that, she's overwhelmingly likely to win."

___

Lerer reported from Washington.

___

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in St. Amant, Louisiana, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Catherine Lucey on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey

___

What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz
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Ex-soldiers case tests whether flirting is in eye of beholder

By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON  Djoulou K. Caldwells conduct at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state certainly seemed crude.

He licked his lips while leering at a female soldier in the 14th Engineering Battalion, the lower-ranking woman testified. He looked at her body up and down, she said. He assured her he could make her fall in love with him. He commented, coarsely, on her looks.

I just wanted to see your ass when you walked out of the office, Caldwell told the woman, she testified.

For those actions, and more, Caldwell was given a bad conduct discharge after his conviction on charges of abusive sexual contact and maltreatment of a subordinate. His last shot is a long one, as his lawyers urge the Supreme Court to hear a rare military court challenge.

The (case) has the potential to impact the over-1,300,000 men and women actively serving in the United States armed forces, Caldwells attorneys wrote in a petition filed this month, adding that this is an issue that is central to hundreds of convictions for maltreatment in recent years.

Caldwells petition joins a handful of other military cases seeking Supreme Court attention. Perhaps most prominently, several military justice groups are urging the court to consider a death penalty challenge by University of California, Davis graduate Hasan K. Akbar, convicted of killing two fellow soldiers in Kuwait in 2003.

While each case may seem compelling in its own way, the Supreme Court infrequently second-guesses military justice.

Its very difficult to convince the Supreme Court to take these cases, Eugene R. Fidell, a military law specialist who teaches at Yale Law School, said in an interview. The justices are gun-shy about getting involved.

Beyond the unique military issues, few challenges of any kind make it into the Supreme Courts chambers. The court receives upward of 9,000 petitions annually, and typically grants oral argument and full consideration to only about 75.

The courts eight current members are scheduled to review Akbars petition on Sept. 26, along with a separate challenge from a now-retired Coast Guard captain convicted of cocaine use.

Fidell is representing that veteran of more than 27 years service, whose trial judge had personal and professional relationships with a significant number of the court-martial participants, an appeals court stated.

Caldwells challenge to his May 2014 conviction centers on a 2015 Supreme Court decision reversing the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who posted threatening-sounding statements on Facebook. The man, Anthony Douglas Elonis, contended his posts were no more than fictitious lyrics, akin to rap music.

In a 7-2 decision, the high court said that the defendants mental state must be taken into account and that wrongdoing must be conscious to be criminal. That effectively raised the bar for prosecutors, and Caldwells attorneys now say the panel of officers and enlisted personnel who convicted him didnt apply this standard.

Put another way, Caldwell could be suggesting that he considered his behavior as flirtatious banter rather than conscious maltreatment of a subordinate.

What Sgt. Caldwell thinks does matter, Army Capt. Scott A. Martin told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in oral arguments last February.

The five-member military appeals court didnt buy it, unanimously upholding Caldwells conviction and noting the unique nature of the offense of maltreatment in the military.

Government attorneys added, in their own brief, that Caldwells actions extended over a period of many months both in Washington state and after the engineering battalion was deployed on its fourth combat tour from 2011 through 2012 to Afghanistan.

I was shocked and I guess a little intimidated just because he was a senior NCO, recounted the woman, identified only as CH.

Army Capt. Scott L. Goble, a Texas Tech and Texas A&M graduate representing the government, likewise cited during the earlier oral argument the character of the military environment.

The very nature of the superior-subordinate relationship makes this case different, Goble said, citing the need to maintain good order and discipline.
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The following editorial appeared in Monday's Los Angeles Times:

In an attempt to cement support from conservative Christians, Donald ("I love the evangelicals!") Trump has been promising to seek the repeal of a law that prohibits members of the clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit. "You've been silenced," Trump told 700 pastors and their spouses last week. But he promised that "we're going to get your voice back."

Trump is wrong. The restrictions imposed on churches by the law  which also apply to secular tax-exempt organizations  don't prevent them from speaking out about political issues; it simply prohibits them from endorsing or opposing candidates. And even that restriction has been lightly enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, to the benefit of both political parties.

The target of Trump's criticism is the Johnson Amendment, which was added to the tax code in 1954 at the behest of then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson. The amendment prohibits so-called 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organizations, secular and religious alike, from participating in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.

The amendment doesn't prevent priests, rabbis or other members of the clergy from sermonizing about political issues from poverty to climate change to terrorism, nor does it prohibit them from endorsing candidates in their personal capacities. Rather, it says to churches and other nonprofits that if they seek the benefits of tax-exempt status  which can be worth millions of dollars  they must refrain from a subset of political speech. The underlying principle is that when taxpayers provide a financial benefit to charitable organizations (including religious ones), they shouldn't be asked to subsidize political views with which they might disagree.

Nevertheless, many religious leaders  particularly politically conservative evangelicals  have railed against the restrictions as a violation of their First Amendment rights. The Republican convention that nominated Trump also approved a platform that calls for the repeal of the Johnson Amendment.

Some argue that repealing the amendment wouldn't make much difference because the IRS isn't aggressively enforcing it. Others note that most members of the clergy abide by the restrictions. A survey published earlier this month by the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life found that 14 percent of frequent churchgoers reported hearing clergy speak in favor or against a presidential candidate in recent months.

But even if the rule is mostly being observed, repealing it could embolden more priests and preachers to turn religious services into campaign rallies.

Moreover, at a time when the Supreme Court has equated political speech with spending on elections, churches and other religious organizations might be tempted to involve themselves even more in the political process, and the collection plate could become a conduit for political contributions. The Johnson Amendment should remain on the books, and it should be enforced.
home World Muslim leader says polygamy should be legalized after Italy approves gay marriage

An Islamic leader in Italy argued that polygamy should also be legally recognized as a civil right after the country approved the union among same-sex couples.

Hamza Piccardo, the founder of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, stirred a heated debate when he posted on Aug. 6 a photo on Facebook of Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala at the Royal Palace celebrating the civil union of a gay couple and wrote, "If it's only a matter of civil rights, then polygamy is a civil right."

The leader of the country's largest Islamic association cited that the government's approval in May of the civil unions for homosexuals should stretch to the Muslims' rights to polygamy.

"Myself and millions of people don't agree with homosexual unions, and yet it's licit and we respect them. Those interested in them are a minority, as polygamists would be. Society as a whole can accept everyone," Piccardo commented on his own Facebook post.

According to Crux, Argentine newspaper Infobae also reportedly quoted the Islamic leader as telling the Italian state TV system RAI that he translated pope's silence on his statement as a silent acceptance of polygamy as civil rights.

However, Piccardo drew the ire of several politicians who responded negatively to his statements.

Debora Serracchiani, deputy chairman of the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD), denounced polygamy as "nothing to do with civil rights."

"Centuries of fighting for women's rights can not simply be brushed aside," wrote Serracchiani.

Jihad Watch, an organization that exposes jihad theology and ideology to apprise the world of the real situation, shares the same views with Serracchiani that polygamy serves as a tool for Islamic supremacists to encroach on the rights of women and push for the Sharia law.

Piccardo also raised that polygamy could help address the country's problems on low birthrate and need for foreign labor.

"Do not underestimate the demographic action of polygamy. It would rebalance population decline and the consequent need for foreign labour," Breitbart quoted Piccardo as saying.

Piccardo confined polygamy as the right of only Muslim men to have more than one wife and identifies polyandry as the right of Muslim women to have more than one husband.
Your Security Team is Outgunned: Where's the Help?
home US Wyoming judge may lose bench for refusing to perform gay marriages

Municipal judge Ruth Neely may be relieved of her position when she told a local newspaper that she would not perform same-sex marriage ceremonies because of her religious stance.

Wyoming's judicial ethics commission recommended that Neely be relieved as magistrate of Pinedale, Wyoming. According to NBC News, she wrote the commission a letter that stated: "Homosexuality is a named sin in the Bible, as are drunkenness, thievery, lying, and the like. I can no more officiate at a same-sex wedding than I can buy beer for the alcoholic."

Douglas W. Bailey, Luke Goodrich and Daniel Blomberg, lawyers of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, submitted a brief that stated Neely is being punished for her beliefs and that her removal would violate her constitutional rights. It also pointed out that the commission is saying Neely cannot function as a judge because of her beliefs, even if her position is not authorized to perform marriage ceremonies.

Neely's lawyer, James Campbell of the Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a CNS News report that the case has significant First Amendment issues. He added that Neely only expressed her opinion about marriage and had not shown any bias or prejudice.

According to Campbell, Neely was not the only one who expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. He said many are even prominent judges and members of major religious organizations.

This was countered by the commission's lawyer, Patrick Dixon, who said that although Neely has a right to stand on her belief, the judge must be removed from office because she violated the code of conduct. The code prohibits all state judges, including Neely's seat as magistrate, from expressing bias against people because of their sexual preference, be it in words or in action.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reportedly rejected the filing of the "friend of the court" briefs that support Neely. These were submitted by a group of Wyoming legislators and big religious organizations.
Releases from NASA, NASA's Galex, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, HubbleSite, Spitzer, Cassini, ESO, ESA, NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, Royal Astronomical Society, NRAO, Astronomy Picture of the Day, Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Gemini Observatory, Subaru Telescope, W. M. Keck Observatory, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, JPL-Caltech, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, ICRAR, etc
The 2016 North Carolina legislative session was another tremendous session for business and economic development. The Greensboro Partnership and Business High Point want to thank our legislators for all they accomplished for our jobs agenda for the state, the Triad and Guilford County. We worked with our local legislative delegation to accomplish a great deal in the priority areas of our joint legislative agenda.

Significant enhancements to key state programs that improve our competitiveness in jobs recruitment include:

Economic development

Increased the Jobs Development Investment Grant (JDIG) fund by 20 percent ($5 million).

Created a new, $15 million JDIG fund for high-impact projects.

Revised the One NC incentive program to raise the amount of state funds available to less-fortunate communities.

Increased N.C. Commerce Department funding by $7.5 million for marketing and job recruitment, including dedicated international ($2.5 million) and agricultural ($500,000) funds.

Joined more than 30 other states to allow crowdfunding to stimulate growth in small businesses and start-up companies, a robust boost for entrepreneurship and innovation in North Carolina. Crowdfunding also opens new, affordable, wisely regulated investment opportunities for the middle class.

Other successes for North Carolina business and their customers include:

Made wise revisions to the new sales tax on repair, maintenance and installation services.

Substantially increased the standard individual income tax deduction, a big win for small businesses and other pass-through entities that make up 62 percent of the states employers.

Made a technical correction, saving employers $200 million in future Unemployment Insurance taxes.

Aviation

Maintained funding for Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) infrastructure and expansion projects that boost North Carolinas rising aviation sector, already supporting 15,000-20,000 jobs in the Triad alone.

Increased funding for regional and smaller airports statewide.

Transportation

Preserved funding to complete the Greensboro Urban Loop in 2020.

Promoted High Points Lexington Avenue Gateway connecting downtown to the Greensboro Urban Loop, PTIA and the greater Triad area. The project is in the planning phase now; awareness and support will be crucial for securing future construction-phase funding.

High Point Market

Legislators funded a 25 percent funding increase for High Point Market, a crown jewel with a $5.38 billion, 37,000-job economic impact. Marketing funds rose from $1.2 to $1.8 million, and transportation held steady at $1.2 million.

Stormwater Quality Rules

Because most of the methods North Carolina and the U.S. have been using for cleaning lake water have had questionable impact, legislators:

Stayed any new rules.

Funded two studies to look for new methods that will work.

Ordered a statewide overhaul of all rules by the end of 2020, including the Jordan Lake and Randleman Lake Rules that affect most of Guilford and Alamance counties and significantly impact our local economy.

Education

We also support funding for every level of North Carolinas strong educational system, which is critical to job growth and recruitment. Education leaders report several bright spots from the 2016 session, including:

Increased pay for entry- and mid-level teachers that raised the average North Carolina teacher salary to $50,186.

Increased salaries 1.5 percent and provided a .5 percent bonus for faculty and staff.

Allocated more than $40 million for UNC System repair and renovation.

Placed a 3 percent annual cap on student fees and a new fixed-tuition payment option.

We are proud of Sens. Phil Berger, Stan Bingham, Rick Gunn, Trudy Wade, Gladys Robinson and Jerry Tillman; and Reps. John Blust, Cecil Brockman, Rayne Brown, John Faircloth, Jon Hardister, Pricey Harrison, Pat Hurley, Allen McNeill, Chris Sgro and Sam Watford for all they did to support jobs this year. Thank you.
In Florida an innocent, unarmed, 73-year-old woman was shot and killed by a police officer. Mary Knowlton was participating in a shoot/dont shoot demonstration when officer Lee Coel shot her three times.

So has the police officer been fired? Of course not. He is on administrative leave, which is the same as a paid vacation.

The officer is currently being sued for excessive use of force because of an incident involving a police dog.

One of the reasons that citizens are so upset with the police is because officers who do things that are illegal, unethical or just plain stupid dont get fired. Any police officer who kills an innocent, unarmed woman should be fired.

Chuck Mann

Greensboro
GREENWICH - A draft of the Glenville and Pemberwick Neighborhood Plan has been completed after months of public forums and an online survey.

Among its recommendations: make an inventory of Glenvilles business district and create some design standards; identify illegal apartments; add bike lanes and expand bicycle parking; redesign the Byram Circle along Route 1 and consider a concession stand for the American Legion building.

Overall, Im very pleased with the plan and I think the community will be happy with it too, said chairman of the Glenville Pemberwick Association Andrea Blume.

The plan, presented a month earlier than expected, is one of several neighborhood plans commissioned by the town to better coordinate future growth while keeping the distinct character of sections of Greenwich. Among the groups working on the plan were Greenwichs Planning and Zoning Department and Department of Public Works and consultants from BFJ Planning, who helped with plans in other parts of town.

Glenville and Pemberwick representatives who have seen the draft said there was a lot to like  and a lot they wish had been more emphasized.

During public meetings held to get feedback earlier in the year, residents asked for more sidewalks, better handicapped accessibility, easier traffic flow, flood control on the Byram River and investment in green space.

Blume said most people should feel those priorities are fairly well addressed in the draft. The town is beginning to realize that the population of Pemberwick is increasing, and she said she hopes the plan will help local facilities keep up with that growth.

She did say she had hoped there would be a little more focus on traffic control in some specific spots, since a lot of people voiced concerns over traffic congestion on the bridge between Connecticut and Port Chester, N.Y., and how to take care of unsightly debris that is trapped under it.

She also said she had hoped to see specific ways to make the playground at Pemberwick Park more handicapped accessible.

Vincent Dimarco, a board member on the Glenville Pemberwick Association, said the plan didnt was shy on details about how coordination between municipal, state and federal agencies would work to fix things.

Ive lived there since I was 11, 40-some odd years in the same place, DiMarco said. I see things every day and I know what happens in the neighborhood.

In general, he said, the draft is pretty good but could use tweaking. Residents wanted more focus on walking paths and sidewalks but the draft has few specifics regarding those issues.

The plan needs to be approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The next meeting of the commission is Sept. 8.

pfrissell@hearstmediact.com; @PeregrineFriss
GREENWICH  With voter rights making headlines this political season, the League of Women Voters of Greenwich is teaming up with the Republican and Democratic town committees for a forum looking at polling restrictions and fraud.

The forum, Election Matters: The State of Voting 2016, will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Cole Auditorium at Greenwich Library, 101 W. Putnam Ave. It is free and open to the public.

Given the mission of the league includes voter engagement and voter turnout, this is an issue that really demands our attention, Deirdre Kamlani, a member of the leagues program committee. Given the presidential election, its very important to focus on the integrity of the system and the issues of voter suppression and voter fraud are ones that should be discussed.

Republican nominee Donald Trump repeatedly has invoked the idea of voter fraud in the upcoming election; recent court decisions have struck down restrictions in Wisconsin and North Carolina.

The Greenwich panel will include Secretary of the State Denise Merrill; Michael Brandt, the executive director of the states Elections Enforcement Commission; Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice and author of The Fight to Vote, and noted columnist John Fund, a longtime writer for the National Review and author of Whos Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk.

The event will also feature a screening of the documentary Electoral Dysfunction and include time for questions from the audience. Voter registration forms and absentee ballots will be available.

DTC member Jonathan Perloe said he came up with the idea for the forum after a March showing of the documentary The Armor of Light, which he screened for his work with CT Against Gun Violence.

He said when he saw mailings from the Southern Poverty Law Center about voting rights issues and then witnessed the successful League of Women Voters panel discussion on campaign finance in Greenwich that same month, everything came together.

What had started as an idea for something we could do on the DTC really expanded, Perloe said. We felt it would be really useful for the community if we made this into a non-partisan event and invited all sides of the issue to take part. We wanted to make sure everyone was represented.

The right to vote is at the core of a representative democracy, Perloe said. If we dont protect it, everything else becomes secondary. Unlike any other right, like freedom of speech or freedom of religion, you have to proactively take action to use this right by registering to vote. There has been so many attempts in our history to restrict this right and were seeing it now.

Kimberly Fiorello, a member of the RTC and chairman of its Voter Registration Committee, said the discussion was well-timed.

It is an issue that needs a bipartisan effort because it is a non-partisan issue, Fiorello said. Any instance of voter fraud, whether its phony voter registrations or vote buying or illegally cast ballots, is one too many.

We all want to make sure each election is really done properly, she said. We need to feel comfortable in our results.

The film being shown at the event has a run time of 45 minutes. Kamlani said that leaves plenty of time in the two-hour program for questions from the audience for all of the panelists.

This is a panel that people would ordinarily have to go to New York City to see, Kamlani said. We feel very lucky to be able to bring this to Greenwich.

kborsuk@scni.com
What do you think of when you think of natural disasters? Sorry, Muffy, Whole Foods running out of fresh kale for a cleanse shake doesnt qualify. I mean the real natural disasters that even if you see them coming theres nothing to can do to avoid it. Well, according to the Department of Homeland Security and their Ready.gov website, there are 14 different types of natural disasters you should be concerned about right now. Or else!

Here in Greenwich Id like to believe we can park some of these potential hazards way down on our list of things keeping us up at night. Wildfires, landslides, tsunamis, tornadoes or volcanoes are all possible here in town, but incredibly unlikely. Youre far more likely to be trampled on Greenwich Avenue by cell phone addicts who cant be bothered to look where theyre walking. Space Weather is really a thing. You can look it up. Its the one youll never see coming either. Then come the ones were more familiar with. Floods, hurricanes, thunderstorms, extreme heat or cold, even drought. These are all things we should be well versed in being ready for. But then there are earthquakes.
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The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is holding on to the first spot for third week in a row and the market release will certainly help it maintain a leading position for a while longer.

The second most popular smartphone this week, the Galaxy J7 (2016), while the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 holds onto third.

The Galaxy J2 (2016) makes it three Samsung smartphones in the top 4, while the Redmi 3s maintains its fifth position.

Next comes the OnePlus 3, which returns to our top 10, and slots right above the two Galaxy J5 versions - from this and last year. The Moto G4 Plus has climbed a spot to ninth, while the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge snatches the last available spot.

All in all a very strong week for Samsung, which grabbed six spots, while Xiaomi, Oppo and Lenovo are all losing positions.
While we cant say that Estonia occupied a spot on our bucket list, we sure are glad that we checked it off anyway.

Starting with a drive through the modern business district of its newly-crowned European capital of Tallinn, we were immediately impressed.

The city has embraced this role and risen to the occasion as the center of one of the continents fastest growing economies.

The young country became independent a mere twenty-five years ago, yet it has jumped to the forefront with one of the worlds highest literacy rates and best access to the Internet.

Peter and Catherines Crib

Passing through downtown, we made way to our first stop and stepped back into Estonias past as a Russian territory.

Peter the Great liked this spot on the Baltic Sea enough to build a smallby czar standardspalace for his wife, Catherine I, in 1718.

The Kadriorg Palace was used as a summer residence for the royalty, but now it serves as a museum and focal point of the beautiful Kadriorg Park.

How to Sing Yourself to Freedom

From the palace, a short trip through the woods led to the Song Festival Grounds where every five years a huge singing extravaganza is held with choral groups from across the country.

The tradition of the Estonian Song Festival goes back to 1869, but has played an even more important role in history.

Believe it or not, songs helped to set Estonia free from Soviet control in what became known as the Singing Revolution.

Beginning in the nineteen-eighties, peaceful demonstrationswhere thousands of citizens would defiantly sing banned songssprang up across the Baltic States.

After several years of these protests, the USSR gave in and Estonia declared independence on August 20, 1991.

One of the biggest musical gatherings of the movement took place on the Festival Grounds where hundreds of thousands of voices defiantly sang for freedom in an inspiring story of nonviolent rebellion.

The venues fame has also has attracted some of the worlds biggest stars like The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, and Paul McCartney to perform concerts.

The Domiest Church in Tallinn

Leaving the middle aged rockers behind us, we moved on to the Middle Ages and stormed our way through the old city walls.

Beginning at the top, on Toompea, or Dome Hill, we stopped at the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky which put the dome in the name.

While St Alexs may be the domiest, it is not the oldest church in Tallinn.

That honor goes to nearby St. Marys Cathedral.

Originally built as a Catholic church in 1229, it became Lutheran in 1561 and has been renovated and expanded many times through the centuries.

The old church is often referred to as the tomb church, because so many of the early parishioners are buried beneath the floor inside.

Lutheran churches are normally stark when it comes to decor. The odd St. Marys is coated with the entombed families coats of arms.

The View from the Top

Viewed from the hill, there are three prominent pinnacles that form the medieval skyline in the town below.

One of those spires doesnt belong to a church, but rather to the Raekoda, or Town Hall dating all the way back to 1371.

Though it no longer serves as the seat of city, the structure still dominates the main square.

We headed down to the plaza, which is lined with restaurants, cafes, and bars, and looked for a spot to grab a bite of lunch.

Leave it to Your GypsyNesters to Ferret out the Weird Regional Food!

Estonian restaurants are known for offering interesting, perhaps even exotic, game on the menu and were not disappointed.

Among the many choices of oddities involving animals we have never dreamt of eating, we opted for bear dumplings and smoked beaver.

Neither is a new favorite, but also nowhere near the worst thing we have ever eaten and, on the bright side, we could count them as unexpected checks off the old bucket list.

The bear came wrapped in little ravioli-type dumplings swimming in broth. This helped to cover the strong flavor and kept it from being over bear-ing (ba-dum-CHING).

There were some unknownalbeit deliciousred berries and a dish of sour cream served alongside, which the waiter instructed us to use as you wish, so we did, in every possible combination.

Going all in with the condiments seemed to be the best way to take a bit of the growl out of the bear.

The beaver arrived on a wooden board (sans teeth marks as far as we could tell) served with a stout garlic sauce and a hearty black rye bread.

It took several bites of the dam builder to come up with a description, a sort of dense meat yet tender, and very smoky.

Luckily the garlic, which Tallinn is also known for, won the flavor battle hands down.

Heres to Your (Relative) Health

Tucked away in one corner of the square we found an old pharmacy, the Raeapteek.

No one knows the exact date, but it is thought to have opened in 1415, which makes it one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe.

It even stayed in business through the communist years, when it was nationalized.

In addition to the modern pharmacy, there is a small museum on the first floor.

Just past the modern medicines we found medieval treatments like scorched hedgehog, mummy fragments, stallion hooves, and unicorn horn powder.

As time went on, dried deer penis, earthworms in oil, and wood louse infusion came onto the scene and became the medications of choice.

We decided not to ask about remedies for our bear breath or beaver fever.

Headed up again

Just off the square we duck into the medieval Katarina Kaik, St. Catherines passage, leading to the ruins of St. Catherines Church that give the passage its name.

Along the wall there are several large, ancient tombstones that were moved from inside of the sanctuary.

Just as when we visited the amazing old wall around Rothenburg in Germany, of course we had to climb.

For a small fee, we were allowed to ascend the dark, steep, and head-banging steps up to the top for a walk along the ancient rampart.

There were also two defensive towers open for even higher climbing and stunning views across both the old and new sections of the city.

It was here that the skull really got to know the stone personally, but it was worth it for the view of St. Olafs Church.

Back between 1549 and 1625 it was thought to have been the tallest building in the world, but records were somewhat less than exact back then.

No matter, even after the steeple had to be rebuilt after at least ten lightning strikes it still tops out at over four-hundred feet high.

Blackheads? Heh.

From the wall, we went in search of the distinctive door of The Brotherhood of Blackheads.

After walking right by it a couple of times because it was open, we figured things out and a guy with a film crew that was using the building let us in for a look around.

Founded as a military organization, the Brotherhood became an association for unmarried merchants and ship owners.

It was a sort of minor league for the Great Guild, where if you did well in business, and got married, you could move up to the big team.

A Stout Lady Guards the City

The time had come to make our way back to the good ship Viking Star.

On the way we passed through the walls at the Great Coastal Gate and found it guarded by the whimsically named Fat Margaret fortification.

The five-hundred year old tower was meant to keep invaders at bay, but also to impress any visitors arriving by sea.

Going up the gangplank, we were struck by how our day had been filled with new experiences that we never expected.

Who knew a bucket list could contain all sorts of items we didnt even know existed?

Tallinn was definitely one of those.

David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com

A big thanks to Viking Ocean Cruises for inviting us along and providing this adventure through the Viking Homelands! Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. As always, all opinions are our own.

YOUR TURN: Were you in the dark about Estonia like us? Is it now on your bucket list? How about those bear dumplings?




Haiti - Education : New meeting around the new school year





Thursday at the National Palace, the de facto President, Jocelerme Privert, held another meeting on the new school year, with members of the government and stakeholders concerned in the upcoming Back to School, including the Prime Minister, Enex Jean-Charles, the Ministers Romain Yves Bastien (Economy), Jean Beauvois Dorsonne (Education), Francois Joseph A. (Interior) and Pierrot Delienne (Foreign Affairs).



During the working session, Privert stressed the need to create conditions for the full success of the back scheduled for 5 September. He also demanded that measures be taken so that the neediest parents can receive a subsidy for the occasion. Different stakeholders have agreed about the mobilization of funds and implementation scenarios for these aid operations include: the distribution of school kits through the Ministry of Education, the delegations and the Regional Directorates; the introduction of work-intensive labor, at the Town Halls and the issue of vouchers of the BNC, for direct subsidies to the poorest families...



Jocelerme Privert, in order to ease the burden of parents at back to school [after having removed subsidies for school uniforms and school kits https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18233-haiti-flash-reduction-of-school-subsidies-for-families.html ] continues to multiply meetings with all public sectors and with partners, for the full success of this crucial event for Haitian families...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18273-haiti-politic-summit-meeting-around-the-back-to-school.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18233-haiti-flash-reduction-of-school-subsidies-for-families.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















This year has been a busy time for Israel Houghton. Earlier this year, worship leader Houghton shocked fans by announcing his divorce. A few weeks later, he has been spot vacationing with new beau actress Adrienne Bailon. Last week, he announced his engagement to Bailon. Now, he's back at his home church, Lakewood Church, pastored by author and speaker Joel Osteen.

Though Houghton had stepped down from his role as worship leader of the mega-church weeks after his divorce announcement, there was no fall out between him and the Texas church. He was back at the church last Sunday, sitting beside Joel Osteen's mother Dodie Osteen.

"SO refreshing to be home @lakewoodchurch this morning sitting next to this Queen @dodieosteen hearing my friend @realjohngray bring a powerful message. @dadra @imstevecrawford @petewilsons & the team led an amazing worship experience. My heart is happy today. #ILoveMyChurch," he wrote.

Houghton took an indefinite leave from Lakewood Church earlier this year, according to a statement from the church.

"We can confirm that Israel is on indefinite leave, but it is important to clarify that we still consider Israel to be a part of the Lakewood family and that his employment has not been terminated," the church said in a statement, according to KHOU-TV.

Houghton stepped down from his position after he announced that he was getting a divorce after two decades of marriage.

"It is with a collective heavy heart that we announce that after over 20 years of marriage and a long separation, Meleasa and I are officially divorced. Several years ago I failed and sinned in my marriage," he said in a Facebook post last February. "Though this is new to many, it is not new to us, as we have been working through this for over five years. Although we tried, the challenges in our relationship have proven too much to overcome."

Houghton continued to express his sorrow for his actions, and apologized to his ministry for his personal failure.

"Although I am sincerely sorry, and forgiven, I soberly realize that I will live with the consequences of my failings for the rest of my life. As this has become a public matter I want to apologize to the many who have supported my ministry through the years," he wrote. "I'm sorry for the many who will be hurt to learn of my personal failure. I regret any pain or disappointment that this news may cause you."

Tags : Israel Houghton adrienne bailon Joel Osteen lakewood church israel wedding engagement
From Hawaii DoH

Outbreak of hepatitis A in Hawaii linked to raw scallops

News Release from US Center for Disease Control August 19, 2016

Outbreak

The Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) is investigating an outbreak of hepatitis A in its state. For the latest case count and investigation findings, visit the HDOH outbreak investigation website. On August 15, 2016, HDOH identified raw scallops served at Genki Sushi restaurants on the islands of Oahu and Kauai as a likely source of the ongoing outbreak.

CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are assisting HDOH with its investigation. At this time, CDC is not aware of any hepatitis A virus infections in other states linked to the Hawaii outbreak. CDC continues to monitor for illnesses in other states.

Recall

On August 18, 2016, Sea Port Products Corp. recalled three lots of frozen bay scallops produced on November 23-24, 2015 in the Philippines. The lot numbers are 5885, 5886, and 5887. The products were distributed to California, Hawaii, and Nevada. The recalled products were not sold directly to consumers by Sea Port.

Advice to Consumers, Restaurants, and Retailers

Residents of Hawaii and Recent Travelers to Hawaii

If you live in Hawaii, or have recently traveled to Hawaii and ate scallops at a Genki Sushi restaurant, HDOH has specific advice on its website for you.

Advice to Restaurants and Retailers

Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell recalled scallops . The recalled scallops were produced on November 23-24, 2015 in the Philippines. Recalled lot numbers are 5885, 5886, and 5887

The products were distributed to California, Hawaii, and Nevada. Restaurants and retailers should check their freezers and inventory for recalled scallops and return them to their distributor.

Advice to Consumers

Before you eat raw or cooked scallops in a restaurant, ask the restaurant who supplied the scallops and if they were recalled. If they were recalled or the restaurant doesnt know the origin of the scallops, dont eat them.

If you think youve gotten sick from eating contaminated scallops, contact your health care provider. Some symptoms of hepatitis A virus infection include: Yellow eyes or skin Abdominal pain Pale stools Dark urine



General Hepatitis A Prevention

CDC recommends the following groups be vaccinated for hepatitis A: All children at age 1 year Travelers to countries that have high rates of hepatitis A Family members and caregivers of recent adoptees from countries where hepatitis A is common Men who have sexual contact with other men Users of injection and non-injection illegal drugs People with chronic (lifelong) liver diseases, such as hepatitis B or hepatitis C People who are treated with clotting-factor concentrates People who work with Hepatitis A infected animals or in a Hepatitis A research laboratory


After they argued, the Lincoln man allegedly ran up behind the 19-year-old and punched him in the head, breaking his jaw and dislodging several teeth, police said.
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/
About

Hinduism Today Magazine is a nonprofit educational activity of Himalayan Academy with the following purposes: 1. To foster Hindu solidarity as a unity in diversity among all sects and lineages; 2. To inform and inspire Hindus worldwide and people interested in Hinduism; 3. To dispel myths, illusions and misinformation about Hinduism; 4. To protect, preserve and promote the sacred Vedas and the Hindu religion; 5. To nurture and monitor the ongoing spiritual Hindu renaissance; 6. To publish a resource for Hindu leaders and educators who promote Sanatana Dharma.
The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), a flagship programme for urban India, has been presented as a participatory and inclusive development programme aimed at enhancing the lives and livelihoods of citizens. This emphasis on participation and economic growth in the structure of the Mission has been extraordinary and could lead to fundamental changes in urban governance. In reality, however, participation has been uneven and the structures upholding the Mission, ambiguous. These issues have led to several kinds of resistance to the Mission  ranging from requests for amendments to the city proposals to a rejection of the Nission itself  from both citizens and the polity.

While the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) has been functioning for over a year and 33 cities have been accepted into the competition, the Mission has been critiqued on numerous occasions, most recently by the Brookings India Institute and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), with repeated assertions that the idea of smart cities has originated in countries whose socio-economic track records are significantly better than Indias.

Read | Water, toilets, phones: Smart-city picks trail global peers on all fronts

These reports have argued that the notion of urban regeneration through the creation of smart cities needs to be better theorised within the Indian context to allow for more appropriate forms of urban improvement with a higher potential of effective implementation.

We find that one of the primary concerns has been the creation of a company, called a Special Planning Vehicle (SPV), in each city to operationalise the Mission at the local level. The constitution and powers of the SPV are fraught with ambiguity and several municipal bodies have been wary about engaging with an entity whose functions seem to overlap with their own.

Read | How will a SPV in a smart city work?

In Pune, for instance, the local municipal corporators and politicians fear a loss of autonomy of the municipality and have demanded greater representation in the board of the SPV. The negotiations are ongoing and Pune is witnessing a struggle to define the power of the SPV.

While these discussions could slow the pace of the Mission, they may also lead to the construction of a more regulated and accountable body as an outcome of resistance from the local polity. The Brookings India report also flagged that clarity regarding the functions and role of the SPV in the long-term would be critical for the Mission.

Second, the quality of citizen engagement in the Mission has also come under criticism. The cities relied heavily on social media and telecom to reach out to citizens, which was problematic because this strategy presupposed a certain level of literacy and access to technology. The citizen resentment to the Mission in Bhopal and Dehradun resulted in a rejection of the city proposals. Citizens in Bhopal stated that they had not been consulted regarding the changes in Shivaji Nagar and Tulsi Nagar and protested against the eviction notices sent to them. Subsequently, chief minister along with the city mayor announced the shift in site to North TT Nagar.

In Dehradun, NGOs and unaffiliated citizens were up in arms against the state over the inclusion of the tea estate area. The area, considered the citys green lungs and essential for the citys ecology, was subsequently dropped from the proposal. While Dehradun had the luxury of incorporating changes before their proposal was accepted, Bhopals changes to the plan, post approval by the Union government has created confusion and brought out the need for institutionalising formal redressal mechanisms.

Read | Doonites have their say in smart city plan

One of the significant resistances to the mission has come from West Bengal, where the state government has decided to opt out of competition and not submit proposals for any other city. The state government, pending a formal communication to the Union government has put forth serious disagreements over the financing pattern and the area-based focus of the Mission.

It is imperative that these objections should not be viewed as isolated incidents, but as symptoms of wider issues of insufficient conceptualisation; and recognise that they merit the creation of a formal redressal system to acknowledge and incorporate valid objections to the Smart City Mission.

Read | Imagine Indian cities without any waterlogging, flooding problems

The implications of the resistance are varied and need to be viewed in a constructive manner. The absence of a grievance architecture could result in further resistance or worse, the creation of spatially and economically polarised cities which conflict with the very ideology of the Mission.

Persis Taraporevala and Bhanu Joshi are research associates with the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

The views expressed are personal
In 2009, while she was writing a play at the International Residency of the Royal Court Theatre in London UK), Spanish playwright Mar Gomez Glez pondered over how she could best represent the plight of refugees stranded at sea.

Her inspiration for the drama was a real incident that took place in 2006. A fishing boat called Francisco y Catalina had rescued 51 African immigrants, who had lost their way in the Mediterranean Sea.

Read: How Akbar Padamsee made a film, lost it and saw it recreated again

They were headed to Europe to begin a new life. But when the rescue boats crew and the refugees tried to disembark in Malta, they were barred from doing so for a week. They were forced to stay on the boat with limited food, water and fuel.

To Glez, this incident signified a divided global society. Over an email interview, the writer  who studied sociology and has worked with an NGO that focuses on migration and racism in Spain  says, I was moved by this story, and was particularly attracted to the dilemma the boats captain was facing. On one hand, he wants to help the migrants, and on the other, he could compromise the well-being of his crew and family. I think our politicians and mainstream media tend to generate a feeling that if we help too much, our comfort will be compromised. I wanted to investigate this ideological premise.

Spanish playwright Mar Gomez Glez.

Titled Numbers, the Spanish play went on to win the Calderon de la Barca Theater Award in Spain. Last year, it was staged in Newark, USA, and was also part of a dramatic reading session in Los Angeles, USA, besides other shows. On August 20, the English translation of the play had its Indian premiere in Mumbai, at The Jeff Goldberg Studio, Bandra (W). Directed by another Spaniard, Rebeca Cobos, the play will also be staged this weekend.

The essentials

Glez did a lot of research before she wrote the play. Things became difficult when she had to create a story out of the information. The hardest part of the process was leaving the facts behind. I did so much research to write this play that it became hard to separate myself from the data and get the necessary freedom to find the characters and the dramatic tension, she says. The play showcases the power of taking decisions, and the responsibilities that come with the choices politicians and regular citizens make.

The play showcases the power of taking decisions, and the responsibilities that come with the choices politicians and regular citizens make.

The playwright further states that no definitive decisions have been taken when it comes to the Syrian refugee crisis. The only clear steps that have been taken towards closing borders are the Brexit or the EUs agreement with Turkey. That is not a long-term solution. In the play, different characters with different points of view are forced to talk about this issue. It will force people to front one of the biggest challenges of our time, says Glez.

A humanistic take

Cobos fell in love with Glezs play when she first heard it being read out in LA over two years ago. Now, she has come to India, especially to direct Numbers. Believe it or not, Jeff Goldberg (the producer) and I started developing the characters on Skype, says the director, who, instead of having a cast of 16 people, like in the original drama, has a cast of eight.

Read: 250 years of Waris Shahs Heer, a Punjabi saga of timeless, tragic love

She had only three weeks to prepare. But Cobos describes her time in India as an enriching experience because the play was a creatively satisfying one to direct. When the cast read the script, a lot of them said they felt touched by the script. Thats because the play does not talk about one or two countries; it talks about all of us. What would you do if someone needed your help? Do you change your mind when helping them starts getting difficult? There are a lot of open questions, adds Cobos.

The plays director, Rebeca Cobos, fell in love with Glezs play when she first heard it being read out in LA over two years ago. Now, she has come to India, especially to direct Numbers.

Read: These performance venues are changing Mumbais cultural landscape

The director has also made an effort to make the audience feel that they, too, are on the boat with the refugees. Vishal Handa (26), a British-Indian actor who plays the captain, says the actors perform all over the studio, walking in between the audience.

Respecting the refugee

A key aspect of the play is that it does not actually show the migrants on the stage. No actors are playing the roles of refugees. This element has continually been controversial for Glez. But despite being criticised for the move, she stands by it. Not showing the migrants was an important decision for me. It was a question of respect. I didnt feel entitled to take their voice. I felt I wouldnt be able to do justice to their journey, she says.

Watch: Numbers at Rutgers, Newark (USA)

In 2015, though, during the Newark show, Glezs audience comprised first-generation immigrants, who applauded her for not having written refugee characters for Numbers. They thanked me for this. I felt really validated after hearing their reaction to my decision. The migrants have a story, and they want to tell it themselves, she says.

More information:

Numbers will be staged at The Jeff Goldberg Studio, Bandra (W), on August 27 and 28, at 7:30pm.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.
Ahead of next years Centennial of the Abolition of Indian Indentureship, descendants of the countrys Girmitiya labourers expressed keenness on Saturday in contributing to the development process of their ancestral Madhya Pradesh in a big way.

As the Indian Diaspora Council (IDC) is gearing up to commemorate the global event in March 2017, an influential member of the community, whose forefathers left India in the middle and late 19th century to serve as labourers in British colonies where they settled, met administrators of Madhya Pradesh and evinced interest in investing in the state.

Dr Vishnu Bisram, who is one of the organizers of the three-day convention at Trinidad and Tobagos Port of Spain, held talks with policymakers to allow them to start business in Madhya Pradesh. State industries, commerce and overseas Indian minister Rajendra Shukla responded warmly to the proposal.

It was between 1838 and 1917 that close to 3.5 million labourers from India were forced to migrate to work in the sugar plantations in Fiji, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and the Caribbean.

Currently, the fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of the Girmitiya labourers are doing very well across the globe, said Dr Bisram, who is an IDC representative. We will be elated to pay back something to our ancestral homeland.

As per his records, 6 per cent of the Girmitiyas are from areas that are now in Madhya Pradesh.

Dr Bisram, a retired professor of the City University of New York, said the collective value of the descendents of the Girmitiya labourers will be more than $1 trillion. If Madhya Pradesh can get a slice of the wealth, the state is definitely going to prosper, he said, after meeting some bureaucrats and industrialists.

The proposal comes two months ahead of a Global Investment Summit to be held in Indore, where a team of Girmitiya investors from across the globe is likely to participate.

Dr Bisram delivered two lectures at Jabalpur, and interacted with the students and teachers of Rani Durgavati University on the possibilities of the role of the descendents of Girmitiyas in Madhya Pradesh.

He could not meet the chief minister to place the proposal of investment, as Shivraj Singh Chouhan had to rush to flooded Satna to oversee rescue operations. His cabinet colleague Shukla, who was busy with relief works in the northeastern Rewa district, hailed the Girmitiya proposal.

We welcome all investments into the state, he told HT over phone. After all, overseas investments are always essential to implement mega projects in India, he said.

Dr Bisram lauded Madhya Pradesh, saying it had the potential to further rise as a tourist destination. It is such a beautiful state, he said. Unfortunately, we never got to know much about the place.

The IDC representative wanted the Madhya Pradesh government to send delegates to the worldwide Centennial of the Abolition of Indian Indentureship. The commemoration will begin in New York on September 17 with a kick-off press conference and seminar.
Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhoopendra Singh and BJP legislator Shailendra Jain rode into controversy when they were caught on camera riding a two-wheeler without wearing helmets in violation of traffic rules.

The incident comes only two weeks after the transport department issued instructions to the regional transport offices to ensure that the two-wheeler riders and their pillion mandatorily wore helmet.

The Section 129 of the Indian Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, too makes it mandatory for drivers and pillion riders to wear helmets. A violation of the rule attracts a penalty of Rs 250, the city traffic police said.

Singh, who also holds the transport portfolio, was riding pillion on the Enfield bullet driven by the Sagar MLA at the Bharatiya Janata Partys Tiranga Yatra in Sagar on Tuesday.

The BJP is holding the Tiranga Yatra to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Independence Day to inject a fresh bout of nationalism among the countrymen.

On August 16, Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore kicked up a row by riding a motorcycle sans helmets during a Tiranga Yatra in Jaipur. In 2014, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had also landed in a controversy when he was caught on camera entering RSS headquarters in Nagpur on his scooter without wearing a helmet in violation of traffic rules.

Criticising the home minister, state Congress chief spokesperson KK Mishra said: It is a serious offence if the transport minister of the state himself is violating traffic rules, who is also home minister(He) should be dealt with accordingly.

However, deputy superintendent of police (traffic) Sagar, HN Botham, expressed his helplessness over the issue. What can we do? (The) Tiranga Yatra has made a mockery of traffic rules in the whole country not only in Sagar.

This is when the Madhya Pradesh police had slapped Rs 500 fine on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for violating the Motor Vehicles Act during a road show in Gwalior. He had wooed people by sitting atop a Tata Safari.

Jain tried to brush the issue aside. Since a very long time, I am wearing turban and if Punjabis are given exemption (from wearing helmet) why not me? I cannot wear a helmet over a turban.
Even though he is just two films old in Bollywood, Tiger Shroff knows exactly what he wants from his career. The young actor says he wants to be the best.

As he prepares for the release of his upcoming film, A Flying Jatt, he talks about being competitive, and tells us why his father, actor Jackie Shroff, is his hero.

Read: Tiger Shroff will be seen in A Flying Jatt with Jacqueline Fernandez.

The last time we spoke, you said you were in a secure place. Where are you now?

After delivering two hits, I felt I was in a secure place, but that didnt stop me from going back to being in an insecure place soon after. It is my insecurity that pushes me. Had this not been the case, I wouldnt have been able to deliver every day.

Also, I will never go looking for work. I want work to look for me. I will never approach a director. If he or she feels Im worthy, he or she will approach me. Being a sportsman, Im very competitive. I want to be different, and I want to be the best. I have big shoes to fill and I have great expectations from myself.

Does competition bother you?

I love competition. If there was no competition, then we wouldnt be doing so much good work. This inspires me to take them (other actors) head on.

Watch: Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez in the trailer of A Flying Jatt

You shot for some intense action scenes with Hollywood actor Nathan Jones in your upcoming film. How was the experience?

It was scary, but it was also a learning experience. I learnt a lot about how to take a hit and react to it in order to make the villain look powerful. It was the scariest kind of education ever. You stand in the frame and you see a wall (Nathan) charging at you. Even you have to charge at him, and you have to look brave too. It is a tough job. I should get an Oscar just for standing next to him.

#goodvibes #madeawish #grateful #peace #afj #goldentemple @jacquelinef143 @remodsouza #nathanjones A photo posted by Tiger Shroff (@tigerjackieshroff) on Aug 20, 2016 at 3:54am PDT

A few months ago, film-maker Subhash Ghai tweeted that hes happy that you have turned out to be as humble as your father

He is family to us. I will do anything for him. It is because of him that Im here. Had he not launched my father in Hero (1983), who knows where I would have been? When I was born, he had put a gold coin in my hand, and told my dad, Yeh tere bete ka signing amount hai (this is your sons signing amount). My mum still has that coin. I would love to work with him some day.

Read: No drugs or sex in A Flying Jatt. Thats too violent for kids: Tiger Shroff

How did you feel playing a superhero?

I always wanted to play a superhero. It is a dream come true for me. I hope this film becomes a franchise. There are plans, but lets see how people react to this one. My character in the film is that of a different kind of a superhero. He is childlike. He is also scared of his powers and of society.

Watch: Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandezs song Beat Pe Booty from A Flying Jatt

Did you always have big plans for yourself?

I want to better myself with each passing day. My dreams come from the people I idolise. They have been extremists - be it Michael Jackson or Bruce lee. They brought about change. I want to be like them. I want to bring about change. I want every kid in the world to know my name.

You seem to be different from your father, who is a very relaxed person. What do you two bond over?

He is my first hero. Im always in awe of him. He never gives me a lecture on my career. We both made it [big] on our own. We discuss about food a lot.

Happy Father's Day to the most amazing Dad in the world, @jaikishenshroff - my HERO! :) A photo posted by Tiger Shroff (@tigerjackieshroff) on Jun 15, 2014 at 2:39am PDT

It was reported that your father plans to take you to Teen Batti (an area he used to live in during his growing up years) as part of the preparation for your role in your next.

He has shown me his chawl [in Teen Batti] earlier. When I saw it, I realised how proud I am of him. I visualised him spending his growing up years there, living in a cramped room with five other people. It is amazing what he has done for himself.

The tag of serial kisser has been attached to you now owing to your kissing scene with Shraddha Kapoor in Baaghi and also with Disha Patani in your single, Befikra

I didnt know that. I guess I got lucky.

Follow @htshowbiz for more.
Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra, who has now tasted success in the US as well, said recently in an interview that she was never a kind of a person who had to be put in a box and shared her journey from carefree teenager to her present ambitious, goal-oriented woman.

In an interview with the Star World India, the 30-year-old actor said, I love to challenge the status quo, to pursue an idea, a dream that I had for myself, I always wanted to give those thoughts a shot, reports the Dawn.

Read: Priyanka Chopra has the smoothest response to the armpit controversy

Adding, Ive been in the public since I was 17-years-old and its really all Ive known. Being crowned Miss India and then Miss World, suddenly I went on from becoming an aeronautical engineer, carefree teenager to standing on a world stage, where I have to have a point of view on probably the most important world events.

Read: Heres how Priyanka Chopra celebrated her birthday... working

Being one of very few Bollywood superstars to have made it big without anybodys support, she owed the success to herself.

The innate ability to recognise opportunities that are presented to me gave me courage. I tried my hand in the Hindi film industry. I literally had no training, no godfather, no experience. I guess I just had a belief in myself, and its been an incredible journey with highs, lows, successes, failures, joy, sadness, and everything else in the middle, but its been all my own, she said.

Priyankas upcoming film Baywatch is set for a 2017 release. She will also be seen judging the American reality TV series Project Runway alongside Heidi Klum.
The government is looking to advance the budget presentation by a month to January from next year, a move that will allow individuals and companies more time to firm up savings and tax payout plans.

The budget is usually presented on the last working day of February, a month before the new financial year begins on April 1.

No final decision has been taken so far, but the ministry is examining the idea to advance the date of presenting the budget, said a finance ministry official who did not wish to be named.

The move will need bipartisan political support as it will involve advancing the Parliaments budget session at least by a month.

The Congress was not in support of the plan.

What is the logic behind changing a time-tested method? If the budget is presented in January, the finances of the country will not be clear by then, said Veerappa Moily, the Congresss Lok Sabha MP and a former law and corporate affairs minister.

A January budget would leave little time between Parliaments winter session, which usually ends in the last week of December, and the budget session that begins in the third week of February.

If the budget is presented in January, there will be overlap of the winter and budget sessions of Parliament. Parliamentary work will be hampered, Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said.

Tax experts said the new proposal will aid better tax and accounts planning.

Presenting the budget in January will give two months time to individuals and corporate to realign their plans, said Girish Vanvari, national head of tax at KPMG.

Though the budget is presented in February, several tax proposals kick-in only from June after Parliament passes the annual finance bill in May.

For instance, service tax was increased to 15% from 14% from June 1 this year, though the finance minister announced the change in the budget presented on February 28.

Income tax changes come into force only after the finance bill is passed, but these are retroactively implemented from April 1.

Parliament passes the budget through a two-stage process. A vote on account is passed in March to meet necessary expenses on employees salaries and other costs for two to three months.

The finance bill, which contains tax changes, and the demands and appropriation bill, which spells out full year expenditure details, are passed in May.

Political pressures often force tax changes proposed in February during the finance bills passage in May.

The government is keen to conclude the process by March so that the budget spending and tax proposals can start to happen from the beginning of the financial year.

Top sources said the finance minister has begun discussions on the proposal with top bureaucrats in his ministry.

Economists are divided on the proposal, though.

What is the point of a budget in January? Are we transitioning to the calendar year as the fiscal year? asked a former chief economic adviser to the finance minister.

DK Joshi, chief economist at CRISIL, a credit rating firm, backed the move. It a very positive thing and will bring in certainty once the budget is presented at the beginning of the year.

The finance ministry official who confirmed the proposal said the governments pre-budget consultations on taxes and policy changes will likely begin from September, instead of October in the past.

There are several other changes that next years budget will likely contain.

If the April 1, 2017, deadline for implementing a nationwide goods and services tax (GST) is met, Part B of the budget speech, which contains tax proposals, will mostly contain direct taxes and customs duties as other indirect taxes will be subsumed in the new uniform tax regime.

The government is examining the option of merging the rail and general budgets beginning next year, ending a 92-year-old practice. A common budget will allow a seamless national transportation policy, insulating the railways from political pressures.

The government will, as finance minister Arun Jaitley announced in his budget speech this year, do away with the plan and non-plan expenditure distinction, which is the practice, beginning 2017.

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Vistara announced on Sunday the appointment of Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador.

Vistara, whose 51% stake in owned by Tata Sons and the rest 49% by Singapore Airlines, did not disclose other details such as the contract period and fee that it would pay to the actress.

This is the second time Deepika will be performing the brand ambassadors role for an airline as earlier in 2007, she was roped in for the same by the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.

Deepika will kick-start a new campaign from tomorrow, Vistara said in a release on Sunday.

The campaign intends to elaborate on the core interpretation of the brand promise of feeling of looking forward to flying again, it said adding the integrated campaign will be deployed across multiple platforms including TV, digital, print, outdoor, cinema and airports.

Vistara had commenced operations in January last year.

We believe the journey should be as enjoyable as the destination. Our new brand campaign with Deepika Padukone highlights the unique feeling of flying Vistara, Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said.

The New Delhi-based Vistara currently operates 475 flights per week with a fleet of 11 Airbus A320 planes.

It is a matter of great pride for me to be associated with Vistara, a brand that carries the lineage of Tata and Singapore Airlines, Deepika said on her appointment.
In March this year, a 32-year-old British man travelled 320 km north from his town of Bradford to Glasgow and stabbed a man he had never met before. The case shocked Britain because it was the first such religiously motivated attack in its history: Tanveer Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim, had murdered shopkeeper Asad Shah for being an Ahmadiyya Muslim.

The case was widely covered in the British media and justice was served last week when Ahmed was sentenced to life in jail. But the case also highlighted a problem that had so far been ignored: Asad Shah was murdered because Pakistans poisonous religious politics had started to infect Britain too.

Tanveer Ahmed had been inspired by Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard who had assassinated Pakistani Punjab governor Salman Taseer in 2011. Taseer was a target of hardliners because he opposed Pakistans anti-blasphemy laws, which were meant to protect Islamic beliefs from being insulted. But rather than promoting tolerance and peace, these laws are primarily used to terrorise Ahmadiyyas, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities.

Its tempting to dismiss Pakistan as an extremist state, but anti-blasphemy laws are also poisoning Indias climate. A fortnight ago, Outlook Magazine ran a front-page expose on how the Sangh Parivar was allegedly trafficking young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat to indoctrinate them. But rather than investigate the claims, the police have gone after journalists instead and accused them of inciting hatred between different groups. It was a politically motivated charge of course, but it shows how the same laws are also abused here.

I understand why many think a law against insulting or stirring up hatred between communities is a good idea. My mother goes to the Gurdwara nearly every day and would feel deeply hurt if she heard someone speak ill of Guru Nanak. People have a right to feel distressed when others insult or ridicule their gods or their way of life.

But anti-blasphemy laws do far more damage than good to a society. They are used not to promote tolerance but as an excuse to commit violence. They do this in two ways: by encouraging extremist groups, and by restricting freedom of thought and religion itself.

Read | Pakistani Christian charged with blasphemy over WhatsApp poem

Without those rights a society inches towards becoming a religious dictatorship, as Pakistan is doing. Iran and Saudi Arabia are already there.

The first point is important. By letting religious groups to get their way, we encourage them like spoilt kids. We end up giving them licence to whip up outrage for their own political agendas or against others. It has happened in Pakistan for decades and its increasingly happening in India.

In June the police arrested a member of the radical Hindu group called Sanatan Sanstha, who are prime suspects behind the murders of three Indian rationalists. These activists were targeted simply for campaigning against religious superstition and fake sadhus. And thats just one example. Remember the controversy around Aamir Khans movie PK? Or when All India Bakchod had supposedly offended Christians? Or when writer Wendy Doniger had her book banned because a Hindu outfit called it vulgar? Or when the movie Nanak Shah Fakir was pulled because hardline Sikh groups were angry? The list goes on and on.

Read | Little hope of succour for Pakistans religious minorities

India is now full of religious groups who threaten violence if they feel wounded on behalf of their gods.

The second reason to oppose anti-blasphemy laws  to protect freedom of thought  is equally important. Ask yourself: Could Guru Nanak Dev, founder of the Sikhs, be allowed to say today that god is neither Hindu nor Muslim without causing offence? Could he call on people to reject caste and idol worship without facing an angry mob? Would Gautama Buddha be allowed to preach in India today without people accusing him of blasphemy? Or what about the great Hindu reformers such as Swaminarayan or Vivekananda - would they have been allowed to criticise Hindu traditions without controversy?

We cannot have freedom of religion and thought without the freedom to criticise other beliefs. There isnt a democracy in the world where freedom of religion co-exists peacefully with anti-blasphemy laws. They are incompatible. They will clash until one fades away. In such a climate we can lose the right to live our lives how we want to, and instead become subjected to a self-appointed religious police. Like in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

It took Britain over a hundred years to realise its mistake with anti-blasphemy laws. But the murder of Asad Shah shows how Pakistani politics is pushing progress back again. The same should not be allowed to happen in India.

Read | British Pakistani Christians demand abolition of blasphemy law

The history of this country is of a land where religious belief flourished because they were constantly debated, refreshed and revitalised by reformers. Allowing a climate where people are silenced in the name of religion goes against the very idea of India.

(Sunny Hundal is a writer and lecturer on digital journalism based in London. The views expressed are personal)

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NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party alleged political conspiracy after the Lok Sabha Speaker decided to extend the term of the committee probing lawmaker Bhagwant Manns move to shoot and upload a video that allegedly compromised security at Parliament House.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan agreed to a request from the committees chairman Kirit Somaiya and extended the term of the committee for a second time, now till the first week of the Winter session of Parliament.

Mann will have to stay away from the Lok Sabha till the committee submits its report. Have I dug a tunnel under Parliament that they need to unearth? Why do they need so much time? They are just trying to keep me away from Parliament, Mann told HT.

Blaming the ruling BJP, the AAP on Sunday said keeping Mann away from Parliament was a ploy to keep issues of poll-bound Punjab from being raised in the Lok Sabha. The BJP has been in power in the state for nearly a decade in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal.

The nine-member committee has three BJP MPs, including Somaiya. Mann is being pressured into changing his statement to the committee in which he has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed a bigger security breach by inviting (Pakistan) ISI to the Pathankot airbase, AAP leader Ashish Khetan said.

Dismissing AAPs allegation, Somaiya said the committee had unanimously asked for an extension in its last meeting, held before the budget session of Parliament ended on August 12.

As the session ended, some committee members had said the probe should now be concluded and a report submitted to the Speaker. Somaiya said he forwarded the committees request to the Speaker on August 17 and those members who have objections can raise the issue in the next meeting on August 23.

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GHAZIABAD/BULANDSHAHR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took three of the six accused arrested in the Bulandshahr gang rape into custody for questioning on Saturday.

On Friday, the CBI took over the probe into the twin gang rapes on the Delhi-Kanpur highway from the Uttar Pradesh Police on the Allahabad High Courts orders.

The investigating agency applied for the remand at a Bulandshahr court the same day.

The three accused will be in CBI custody till August 22 and will be produced before the designated fast track court the next day, a CBI spokesperson said.

The agency is expected to get details about the incident from the three. The UP Police arrested six men  Raees, Jabar Singh, Shavez, Saleem Bawariya, Zubair and Sajid. The seventh, Fati, has not been traced.

The CBI registered a case under Sections 395 (punishment for dacoity), 397 (robbery), 376D (unlawful sexual contact) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, and 4 of the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.

Earlier, the UP police took into custody two suspects, Jabar Singh and Shavez, who were arrested on July 31 with Raees.

Later, three more men, including prime accused Bawariya, were arrested on August 8 night from Meerut. But police did not seek their custody.

We find no justifiable cause or plausible explanation for the police not taking the arrested accused into police custody or even praying for extension of police custody. This clearly indicates that the investigation has not been fair and proper (sic), the high court bench said in its August 12 order, before handing over investigation to CBI.

A family of six, including two women and a girl, were travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur on July 29 night on NH-91, when armed robbers waylaid them near Dostpur village in Bulandshahr.

The robbers allegedly tied up the men and gang raped one woman and her 13-year-old daughter.

The victims also alleged that initially the police did not pay attention to their complaints.
Another home rule puzzle piece has fallen into placethis time, in Carlisles finance department.

The Carlisle Borough Council on Aug. 11 adopted an ordinance appointing the boroughs finance director, Norman Butts, as the collector of taxes.

Charles Holtry, the current, elected borough tax collector, will continue in office with the same duties, responsibilities and compensation until the expiration of his current term of office in 2017. But the home rule charter removes the position, so once Holtrys term ends next year, those responsibilities are essentially given to Butts and the finance department.

Afterward, the elected position of tax collector will cease to exist in Carlisle.

Instead of having an elected tax collector collect real estate taxes for the county, school district and borough, the finance department will do it, Butts explained. Essentially, the director of finance is the ex officio tax collector.

For Butts, he said Its not much of a change.

He was appointed finance director last December after a three-month search for a successor to Owen Snyder, the previous finance director since 2008, who left to join the Carlisle Area School District as its business operations manager.

Butts current responsibilities include ensuring funds are appropriately spent, audits are completed appropriately and on time, and helping the borough manager put together the boroughs budget.

Holtry will continue to collect taxes until his term expires and his position is abolished, and Butts will take over at that time.

Sean Shultz, a Carlisle Borough councilman, said Holtry has done a fantastic job, in his role.

Currently, the tax collectors office is in the Stuart Community Center, 415 Franklin St. Residents can drop off tax payments or do their business with him, but Shultz said mainly residents are going to Borough Hall anyway, so the transition to Butts from Holtry will be easy.

Shultz said the position of finance director made the most sense to take over tax collection because the person in that position often collected taxes when no one ran or was elected to the tax collector office in the borough.

This isnt new to the borough, he said.

Carlisle joined more than 70 other municipalities in Pennsylvania operating under home rule after the referendum passed in last years primary election.

The borough council had eyed home rule possibilities after an elected tax collector, George Hicks Jr., was arrested for drug activity and was later charged with theft and misappropriation of funds. Officials, however, could not kick Hicks out of office until he went back to Philadelphia, which meant he did not have the appropriate residency in Carlisle to hold the position.

Hicks is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on the theft and misappropriation of funds charges on Sept. 7. He has been granted continuances on the pre-trial conference since July 2015.
NEW DELHI: Life was rapidly draining out of Anand Singh but that didnt bother the Delhi Police constable.

He chased three bike-borne robbers in outer Delhis Shahbad Dairy on foot and managed to hold onto two of them before being dragged for 50 metres  all this with blood gushing out of his mouth and two bullets wounds in his chest. The 48-year-old had to ultimately let go as life ebbed out of him.

His colleagues say he always wanted to win a bravery award, and on Friday night Singh died a hero.

Posted at the Shahbad Dairy police station, he was on patrol duty when he heard a woman scream. Three men on a motorcycle, their faces covered with helmets, were trying to rob the woman, who runs a shop in the area.

Singh ran to the spot and caught hold of two of the men. One of them removed his helmet and attacked Singh with it. As the constable was trying to fight him off  all the while holding onto the other robber  he was shot twice in the chest.

Two bullets hit Singh. He did not fall and held onto the robbers. The rider sped away and the constable was dragged for over 50 meters till he collapsed. He was bleeding profusely, a witness said.

As locals started attending to Singh and informed the police control room, the robbers fled on their bike. The constable was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared brought dead.

Singh, a resident of Jati Kalan village in Haryanas Sonipat, is survived by his mother, wife and two children  a daughter and a son.

The Delhi government has announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore for his family, while the Delhi Police said a family member will get a job in the force. It is a very unfortunate incident. The police department today lost an honest official. We have asked the woman who Singh tried to help to give a detailed description of the bikers, which will help us identify them at the earliest, DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh said. He said the force would soon announce compensation for the family.
NEW DELHI: A group of police personnel was attacked in South Delhis Jai Hind Camp slum cluster, when the team went there to arrest a woman.

The woman was allegedly involved in a case of theft.

Police said that a woman constable was injured in the incident.

According to the police, one Satish Sehrawat registered a complaint alleging theft against his maid. He claimed to have a CCTV footage to support his allegation.

Police said that as they entered the JJ cluster to arrest the woman, local residents opposed the arrest and started pelting stones at the police. Woman constable Manisha was injured in the stone pelting.

The police however controlled the situation and arrested the woman along with two other women who were detained on charges of obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions and voluntarily causing hurt, police said.
NEW DELHI: A head constable attached to the Sarai Rohilla police station in the north district was suspended on Saturday after a woman accused him of trying to rape her.

In her complaint filed on Friday, the woman accused head constable Raj Kumar of constantly harassing her and trying to rape her the day before yesterday, police said.

According to the complainant, Kumar forcefully entered her house in an inebriated condition and tried to rape her. Panicked, she called her husband who was not at home.

On reaching home, her husband made a PCR call. He also locked the house but Kumar managed to escape, a senior police official said.

The complainant also alleged that Kumar used to call her at odd hours and was stalking her.

The accused was suspended and further investigation is underway, the official said.
GURGAON: The government medical college of Mewat is tense after local police allegedly clashed with security guards and students of the college.

The staff of theShaheed Hasan Khan Government Medical College, Nalhar, has gone on a protest abstaining work demanding action against inspector Sanjay Yadav, the local station house officer (SHO), who allegedly thrashed security guards and the MBBS students of the college.

The incident, police said, took place on Friday night around 11 pm when three policemen from Nuh police station reached the medical college. The students alleged that the cops  Baldev Singh, Praveen Kumar and Niranjan Singh  were drunk and misbehaved with the guards leading to a brawl in which students also took part.

The three cops were injured and taken to the emergency ward of the hospital for treatment.

At 2 am, the cops led by SHO Sanjay Yadav allegedly returned to beat up students and security guards injuring at least 30 people.

Yadav, however, alleged that the cops went there as the college called a PCR van. He said the students beat him too when he went there to control the situation.
NEW DELHI: Customs officials at Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have seized large quantities of body supplements, generally used to enhance performance during physical tests.

Officials said the samples were sent for testing to confirm the ingredients. Initial investigation suggested the substance is injected into the body.

The passenger who was bringing it from Almaty, Kazakhstan, said it gives instant energy. It is used in recruitment drives of police or armed forces, said a customs official.

The consignment was being carried by two passengers who arrived by flight KC 907 on Thursday. The air customs officers on suspicion intercepted the passengers and found around 12,000 vials of supplements.

The chemical composition of these vials could not be ascertained since it was printed in Latvian. The baggage was detained and samples were drawn for testing, the official added.

The passenger had kept the consignment in the check-in baggage, hoping to go undetected.

In another case on Wednesday, customs seized 87.95 kg of organ pipes corals from a passenger travelling from Dubai by a Jet Airways flight. The customs official intercepted the passenger after they crossed the green channel.

While keeping surveillance on passengers, officers found the passenger to be suspicious and diverted him for screening of his baggage. On preliminary examination, it was suspected the passenger was carrying some endangered species with him, said an official.

Experts confirmed it was organ pipes coral. Trading and possession of the coral is prohibited under the CITES Convention and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The passenger was arrested.

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NEW DELHI: Forty-eight hours after a 10-year-old boy was hit by a stray bullet in an east Delhi colony, the police are struggling to find clues about the source of the bullet or the identity of the attacker.

Aman was hit by a stray bullet near his New Sanjay Amar Colony residence in east Delhi on Thursday evening.

His parents took him to a hospital on Thursday for treatment for what they thought was a simple wound. The doctors later told them that the boy was hit by a bullet, which has been removed from Amans abdomen.

Police are questioning locals to find if they had seen anyone with a gun in the area but have not got any leads.

The bullet wound is not very deep. We suspect it was fired from a distance and not with the intention to kill, said an investigating officer.

On Saturday, when HT visited the spot, they found forensic officers gathering evidence from outside the boys house.

We suspect someone may have fired a shot in the air and the bullet hit the child. We are trying to figure out the direction from which the bullet was fired, said a police officer.

Around 10pm on Thursday, Aman, a class 4 student, was returning home from a shop when he felt something had hit him in his lower left abdomen. Aman, who was bleeding, informed his uncle.

We thought it was a minor injury, probably caused by a stone or something. We took him to a nearby clinic where they advised us to take the boy to Dr Hedgewar Aarogya Sansthan. The doctors found a bullet and transferred him to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, said Amans father, Ranveer Singh.

A doctor at the hospital said that the bullet, which went a centimetre inside his abdomen, was removed. Amans mother Prema said her son is recovering at the hospital.
NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh government is considering a proposal to reduce circle rates in 12 districts, including Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad.

The principal secretary of Uttar Pradesh (stamp and registration) has asked district magistrates to submit details of circle rate hikes in the last 5 years.

Demands from home-buyers, industrialists and realtors among others had prompted this rethink.

The government has sought suggestions from all stakeholders on this proposal.

I had a meeting with the realtors body- confederation of real estate developers association of India (CREDAI) in sector 27 office and sought their suggestions, said NP Singh, district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar.

The government has asked realtors and others to submit factual data on why circle rates should be reduced. We will send all details demanded by government soon, he said.

The administration hiked circle rates up to 14% for residential properties, effective from August 1, despite objections from buyers and other groups. But it did not hike circle rates for flats.

Realtors and buyers said if Gurgaon can reduce circle rates, so can Noida and Greater Noida.

Gurgaon cut circle rates by 15% across all segments on June 28 to revive the realty market. Ghaziabad officials said the hike in nearly 90% of industrial and rural areas was negligible this year.

Realtors and buyers said circle rates in many sectors were unrealistic and disproportionate to the prevailing market rates. This affected the realty sector facing a slowdown, they said.

Circle rates are unrealistic in Noida and Greater Noida. Property buyers had to pay more stamp duty. Circle rates should be on a par with market rates, said Amit Gupta, a home-buyer.

Officials said a final decision on rate reduction will be taken once all district administration heads send a detailed report to the UP government .

UP has asked the year that saw maximum hike in circle rates and average hike in 5 years. In 2012-13 the administration hiked circle rates up to 43 percent in commercial category. The government has asked why the hike was so high in a particular year, said district magistrate NP Singh.

The UP government wants to take populist decisions just because the UP assembly elections are scheduled in 2017 beginning, officials said.

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The Delhi government has formed an eight-member society to aid and advise it on the setting up of a universal healthcare insurance cover for the states residents.

Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain is the chairperson of the Society for Universal Healthcare in Delhi.

Six experts from health insurance, economics, finance or management, entrepreneur and the NGO sector will be nominated to the society to help set up a transparent and competitive public-private-partnership model for reducing costs and improving efficiencies.

The memorandum of association specifies that the governing body will have not less than seven and more than 15 members, who will plan, formulate, implement and monitor schemes and programmes for provision of affordable healthcare insurance for Delhi residents.

The society will digitise the health data of all citizens and empanel public and private hospitals, labs and healthcare providers.

We are looking at almost 80-90% of the private hospitals across Delhi being empanelled under this scheme. All hospitals, especially the four or five big ones with high tariff that still run at full capacity, will not like to join, he said.

Earlier this year, the health minister had said that the government was planning a family insurance scheme which will provide a cover of `1 lakh for almost all illnesses that require hospitalisation and Rs 2 lakh  Rs 4 lakh cover for critical illnesses. The list of critical illnesses will include 1,700  1,800 conditions.

We have studied many such state-sponsored insurance schemes and we are trying to come up with the best model. We can learn from the mistakes of the other governments, Jain had said. Depending on the socio-economic condition, the premium of the insurance will vary between Rs 0 and Rs 2,000- Rs 3,000 per annum, he had said.

Apart from this, the government is also looking into providing accident cover to all Delhi residents.

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The Bar Council of India (BCI) has decided not to cut down on the intake of students for this academic session.

The council has also decided that for this year the varsity can conduct evening classes for the second and third year students who have already enrolled with the faculty. In a meeting held on Saturday, the BCI decided that for this year the university can admit 2,310 students as advertised.

Earlier in a report sent to the university, the BCI had said that the university could not take more than 1,440 students, 480 in each of its three centres. Following this, the aspirants and students body had protested and even launched a hunger strike. Six aspirants had even moved the Delhi high court against the BCI order, thereby putting the admission process on hold.

Read more: Admission delayed, DU law faculty aspirants go on hunger strike

The standing committee of the BCI has considered the request made by the registrar that as a one-time concession, 2,310 students may be permitted to be admitted for only this academic session, said Manan Kumar Mishra, BCI chairman.

So this session university will admit 767 students in each of the three centresLaw Centre-I, Campus Law Centre (CLC) and Law CentreII.

Students said that this was a victory for them which would have otherwise risked the future of more than 1,000 aspirants.

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A gang of robbers fired pistols and wounded a constable when two police cars blocked their vehicle from behind and front on an isolated byroad in northwest Delhis Rohini area on Sunday.

The operation began around 9am when the station house officer (SHO) of Sultanpuri police station was informed that a gang of five robbers was moving in the Rithala and Begampur Road localities in a white Maruti Swift to target a property dealer.

The SHO formed a team of 11 men and dashed off in three private hatchbacks to avoid alerting the gang. A scout car spotted the Swift on Begampur police station road, about 2km from Rithala Metro station, and quickly blocked the robbers from the front. Another car closed in from behind.

The gangster driving the Swift, identified as Sudhir alias Kala, tried to get away by accelerating and hitting the car blocking the way, and then reversed suddenly to make space to wiggle his vehicle out of the tight spot.

In pics: Police constable, two criminals injured in shootout in Delhis Rohini

When a constable saw the Swift trying to push its way out of the trap, he fired and deflated a tyre. The policemen then asked the robbers to surrender, but they pulled out their pistols instead and fired. A bullet hit constable Pradeeps left thigh; and the police team engaged the robbers in a close gunfight.

The shooting ended as quickly as it started after a bullet grazed Sudhirs neck and pierced through the cheeks of fellow robber Vijay alias Rajesh seated next to him.

Constable Arvind sneaked from behind and broke the rear windscreen of the Swift, sticking his gun to the head of robber Sanjay Geroge, who was on the back seat with partner Farman.

The other three in the car tried to escape, but were overpowered in a matter of seconds. Fifth suspect Rahul alias Sunny, who was a scout, was on a motorcycle. He was caught a while later.

Sanjay, Vijay and Farman are known criminals. Police said Sanjay was arrested in 2008 for looting a bank car carrying cash in the Delhi Cantonment area. He is out on parole. In February, the trio was declared proclaimed offenders for attempting to murder a person.

Sundays attack was the second on Delhi Police personnel in less than 36 hours after constable Anand Singh was shot dead by three robbers in outer Delhis Bawana. Singh challenged them when the killers were robbing a woman in front of a crowd of people.

They escaped after shooting at the policeman. Nobody from the crowd came to his rescue.

Police suspect the robbers caught on Sunday murdered constable Singh. They were being interrogated, DCP (outer Delhi) Vikramjeet Singh said.
Myanmar to support Chinas OBOR, BCIM initiatives

Published: August 20, 2016

Myanmar has officially announced to support for Chinas ambitious One Belt and One Road (OBOR) connectivity initiative along the ancient Silk Road.

It was announced in the joint statement released by both countries during official state visit of Myanmars State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to China.

Key highlights of Aung San Suu Kyis visit to China

Myanmar also Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor meant to industrialise a stretch spanning more than 2,000-km.

BCIM corridor links Kunming in China with Mandalay in Myanmar and passes through Bangladesh and ends at Kolkata in India.

Myanmar also asked for Chinas support to realise peace and national reconciliation through political dialogue in case of militancy.

Myanmar has been a victim of militancy which for decades is fuelled by clandestine sale of drugs, jade and timber, mostly channelled through China.

Myanmar also discussed on issues for Chinas support for it infrastructure projects including on Myitsone dam project.

Myitsone dam project is controversial China-backed project in Northeastern Myanmmer stalled since 2011 on the grounds of causing extensive ecological damage.

Talks were also held for establishing an Asian super-grid with Myanmar as one of its nodes with Chinas state-owned State Grid Corporation.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2016

Topics: BCIM  China-Myanmar  International  OBOR

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Delhi University for the first time this year has decided to give students the NOTA (none of the above) option to select from during the upcoming students union election.

The electronic voting machines (EVM) will have the NOTA option for the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) election that is scheduled for September 9. The decision was taken by the DUSU election advisory committee chaired by the pro-vice chancellor on Saturday.

This year the election committee will also organise an open house meeting with the students to sensitise them about rules pertaining to the elections.

The city, especially areas adjoining north and south campuses, have already been smeared with posters in the run up to the election, with colleges being littered with pamphlets and papers often.

Read more: Admissions and cancellations on after DUs sixth cutoff list

The littering of college campuses has happened despite the National Green Tribunal sternly ordering the university to ask candidates to devise ways to conduct campaigning in an eco-friendly manner without wasting paper.

Delhi Police has been requested to impound cars that move around in groups with banners and posters of candidates. The green courts order will be strictly followed, said DS Rawat, DUs chief election officer.

The university has also sent a special request to the political parties to adhere to the rules. Though Delhi University officially does not recognise any political party, students who contest the polls are backed by different political parties.

Students from the Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are likely to file their nominations for the polls this year. The Aam Aadmi Party-backed Chhatra Yuva Sangarsh Sansthan (CYSS), which had contested the polls last year, has decided not to enter the fray this time around.

Read more: AAPs student wing wont contest DUSU polls this year

In a letter written to all political parties, Rawat said: Kindly cooperate in directing the candidates not to use printed posters, deface public property and take out processions without explicit permission of the election officers.

There are 51 colleges which participate in the DUSU polls each year with each college having a separate election monitoring committee that report violations of the code of conduct.

In case of any complaint, candidates are required to respond to notices sent to them on email within 24 hours failing which ex-parte decision are taken.

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At least five people, who were wanted in several criminal cases, were arrested on Sunday morning following a shootout with the police, an official said.

A damaged window of the car in which the criminals involved in a shootout with the Delhi Police were travelling. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

A Delhi Police constable and two of those arrested received bullet injuries in the gun fight that took place around 10.15am in west Delhis Rohini Sector-24 area.

Read: Police constable and 2 criminals injured in shootout in Rohini

Delhi police officers investigate the car used by the criminals involved in a shootout in Rohini. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

Two of those arrested -- Sudhir and Vijay -- and one policeman Pradip received bullet injuries, deputy commissioner of police Vikramjit Singh said. Pradip sustained injury in his thigh, the official said.

(Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

Another police official close to the investigating team said the other three accused were identified as Sanjay, Farman and Sunny.

The damaged interior of a car used by wanted criminals involved in a shootout in New Delhi on Sunday. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

The officer said the police laid a trap and intercepted the criminals when they were moving in their car near Begumpur check post -- a few metres away from the shootout spot.

Samples collected by investigators from the spot where a shootout between wanted criminals and the Delhi Police took place in Delhis Rohini on Sunday morning. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

When the raiding team asked them to surrender, they opened fire, the officer said.

A Delhi Police collects samples from a spot where a shootout between the Delhi police and wanted criminals took place in Rohini on Sunday. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)
A PhD student of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi has been booked for allegedly raping a fellow scholar after drugging her at his hostel room on campus, police said, adding that the accused was absconding.

An FIR filed by the 28-year-old student, who is also pursuing her PhD, said accused Anmol Ratan offered her a spiked drink when she went to his room on Saturday to copy a movie on her pen drive. Hostels at the university do not follow gender segregation.

The woman said Ratan messaged her that he had the copy of a film she had wanted to see and offered to transfer it onto a pen drive. He came to her hostel and asked her to accompany him to his room at Brahmaputra hostel, said a senior police officer.

The message was in response to a Facebook post the victim had made in June asking if anyone had the copy of the movie, police said.

In her complaint, the victim said she accepted the drink offered by Ratan and lost consciousness. She said Ratan raped her when she was unconscious. She tried to raise an alarm after regaining consciousness but Ratan did not allow her to leave, the officer said.

Police said the accused, associated with the All India Students Association (AISA), threatened her with his political clout if she reported the matter.

On Sunday, the woman lodged a complaint with the Vasant Kunj North police, who booked Ratan under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Reports of the victims medical examination were awaited.

Within hours of the FIR, the Left-affiliated AISA expelled Ratan from its primary membership.

AISA takes serious note of the fact that Anmol Ratan, a leading activist of AISA, is facing a criminal complaint of sexual assault. He is henceforth expelled from the primary membership of AISA. AISA will reflect on and deal with this issue with all the firmness it deserves... We stand by the complainant in her fight for justice, Ashutosh Kumar, secretary of the student bodys Delhi unit, said in a statement.

JNU registrar Pramod Kumar said he had not received any complaint on the matter. There is no complaint that has been submitted to the university. I have made an enquiry with the security of the university and they have not got back.

The university had witnessed vociferous protests in February when student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and charged with sedition for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans at an event to mark Parliament attack convict Afzal Gurus death anniversary.
Thousands of students who crack the prestigious Joint Entrance Examination after burning the midnight oil for months may soon get a chance to unwind before plunging back into academics.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are likely to introduce a three-week induction programme that will allow students to adapt to their new environment, take courses pertaining to languages and creative arts (for those who require them), and bond with classmates as well as faculty members. Normal classes will commence only after the induction course has ended.

The IIT council, the top decision-making body for the premier technological institutes, will take up the matter at a meeting chaired by human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday.

Read: The great Indian IIT dream: Why parents want children to be engineers

The IIT-BHU at Varanasi has reportedly prepared a three-week induction module for all students set to join its first-year B Tech course with the objective of enhancing their basic language skills and conceptual understanding. Sources said all the IITs will be asked to design and execute similar modules for freshers, starting from the academic year 2017-18.

These modules will also provide crash courses to undergraduate students who require assistance in meeting IIT standards, said a senior HRD official.

Under the proposed course, students will involve themselves in physical and literary activities, take up short courses related to the creative arts, and undergo training in the English language.

An IIT director said it was imperative that students coming from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds get an opportunity to adjust to the new environment. They need some time to familiarise themselves with the institute, its faculty members and other students. It will help them de-stress too, he added.

There are 23 IITs in the country, with over 70,000 students enrolled in B Tech, M Tech and PhD courses. According to a statement made by the HRD ministry in the Rajya Sabha, as many as 656 students dropped out of the premier institutes in 2015-16  IIT-Delhi accounting for the highest number of such cases.

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Ace badminton player PV Sindhu made the nation proud by winning silver at the Rio Olympics on Friday night, but back home in the Telugu land, people have put her to shame by fighting over her region and caste.

Soon after she won the silver medal, an ugly tug-of-war started in the political, media and social media circles on whether the shuttler is from Andhra Pradesh or Telangana.

First off the block were the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, K Chandrasekhar Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu, who announced cash incentives for Sindhu, besides allotting land and offering her government jobs, ignoring the fact that she is already a central government employee working for Bharat Petroleum. Then the vernacular media sought to trace her roots in a blatant show of regionalism.

Popular Telugu daily Eenadu, in its Hyderabad edition, published photographs of Sindhu participating in the recently held Bonaalu, a typical Telangana festival, to prove her Telangana identity. On the other hand, another popular daily Andhra Jyothy carried a photograph of Sindhus father PV Ramana performing special prayers for his daughter at the temple of their family deity at Ratnalamma Kunta village in West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, indicating that it was his native place.

Namaste Telangana, the KCR-promoted mouthpiece of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), published an interview with Ramana in which he said he belonged to Nirmal in Adilabad district, while his wife Vijaya said she was from Chennai and Sindhu was born and brought up in Hyderabad. It also carried the file photo of Sindhu participating in Bathukamma, another popular Telangana festival.

Joining this media frenzy over Sindhus regional affiliations are the social media warriors. Some describe Sindhu as Telangana bidda (daughter), others say her father is an Andhra settler in Telangana and mother is originally from Vijayawada. As such, Sindhu is an Andhra ammayi (girl).

Google trends showed that some even searched for Sindhus caste-affiliation. On Friday, within minutes of her silver-medal win, a 2013 file photos was shared on social media, showing Sindhu being awarded the title of Kapu Ratna (jewel of Kapu community) by the AP Kapu Sangham in Hyderabad. There was another post saying her mother was a Kamma, another powerful upper-caste community.

Even the Dalit Christian Federation joined the fray. She could achieve the glory only because she studied in Christian institutions, said Federation convenor Jerusalem Mathaiah.

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In a clear reference to the Amnesty International row, union minister Arun Jaitley today asserted that Azadi slogans cannot be treated as freedom of speech and slammed Congress and its Karnataka government, accusing them of indulging in vote bank politics over the issue.

Four days ago, in the capital of Karnataka, during a programme in Bangalore, Azadi (freedom) slogans were raised by a few people. An organization, which gets funding from abroad, organized the event and yesterday I read the statement of Karnataka Home Minister in which he said that whatever happened is nothing wrong, Jaitley said.

After so many sacrifices this country has made, some political parties do it for vote bank politics, he added at a rally on the outskirts of Jammu city.

While talking about this matter, the Finance Minister recalled a similar incident in JNU in January and said raising slogans to advocate the disintegration of the country cannot be seen as freedom of speech as advocated by some.

When in Delhi, inside JNU, slogans for disintegration of India were raised, we were the only party within and outside Parliament to say that it was wrong. It is not freedom of speech.., he said.

He said Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi had extended support to the youth who had raised anti-India slogans then.

Many political parties and Congress vice president went to the support of those youth (who raised the slogans) at JNU. This ideology for the vote bank politics is unfortunate, he said.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has cautioned the people of Kashmir against letting other nations interfere in their affairs and asked them to take a lesson from the people of Afghanistan.

I will tell brothers and sisters in Kashmir to be cautious and not suffer for ulterior motive of others... We should not allow a foreign hand to enter our country, Karzai said in an interview to Times Now telecast on Sunday.

We want people of Kashmir to live in peace and harmony with rest of the country from the point of view of an Afghan, who suffered because we felt we were being helped (by a foreign nation) for our cause... that became a means of interfering (in our affairs), he said.

I give my opinion to the people of Kashmir  learn from the suffering of Afghan people. Dont be misled by promise of help; it will be at immense cost, Karzai said.

The Kashmir Valley has been witnessing curfew and separatist shutdown since July 9, a day after Hizbul commander Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with the security forces.

Read | Karzai slams Pak, defends Indias role in Afghanistan
Dr Najma A Heptulla, who resigned as Union minister of minority affairs last month, was sworn in as the 18th governor of Manipur at Darbar Hall in Imphal Raj Bhavan on Sunday.

Acting chief justice Rakesh Ranjan Prasad of the Manipur high court administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new governor during the simple function held at 11:30am.

Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, deputy chief minister Gaikhangam Gangmei, the council of ministers, MLAs and other state Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, besides high-level state officials attended the function.

Three MPs of Manipur, including Rajya Sabha MP MC Mary Kom, also attended the function.

Najma Heptulla is Manipurs fifth governor since May 2014, when the NDA government came to power. (Sobhapati Samom/ HT Photo)

Heptulla, Manipurs fifth governor since May 2014, when the NDA government came to power, said, Manipur is far away from Delhi but it is not far away from our hearts. Prime Minister also feels that you are very close to us, (and) thats why I came here to the people of Manipur.

My priorities will be based on peoples priorities.

Former home secretary VK Duggal had also resigned from the Imphal Raj Bhavan within months of the change of guard in Delhi.

KK Paul was initially given additional charge of the state, before Syed Ahmed, the Jharkhand governor appointed by the United Progressive Alliance government, was sent to Manipur in May 2015. He died months later.

V Shanmuganathan held charge of Manipur for a short period, before Heptullas appointment.


A team of doctors at the state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) successfully carried out a life-saving liver transplantation surgery on a 20-year-old woman suffering from a rare genetic liver and neurological disorder.

She received the liver from a brain-dead donor.

The woman, a BTech student, was suffering from Wilsons disease, an autosomal recessive genetic disorder in which copper accumulates in brain, liver and eyes due to defect in copper excretion mechanism and manifests as neurological or psychiatric symptoms and liver disease, an official release said.

The excessive copper deposits causes damage and death of tissues, and scarring, which causes the affected organs to stop working properly, it said.

The girl was admitted at OGH with end stage liver failure and neurological symptoms (gait abnormalities and shaking of hands and unable to do fine movements). She was receiving pencillamine and zinc therapy for the last 13 years but without any improvement, the release said.

Her father, working at a chit fund firm in Hyderabad, admitted her to OGH after many private hospitals said around Rs 30 lakh is required for liver transplantation, an amount he could not afford.

We did successful cadaveric liver transplantation on her in OGH with the help of Telangana government for free of cost on August 5. The patient recovered very well and discharged on August 18, said Ch Madhusudhan, HoD, Gastroenterology at OGH.

The brain-dead donor, a 40-year-old man from Mahbubnagar, had met with accident on August 2 at Shamshabad. He was admitted at OGH and after confirming that he was brain dead, his family members were counselled for organ donation, the release added.


Union minister of state for social justice Ramdas Athawale said on Sunday India should take control of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) if the neighbouring country did not stop its mischief.

We do not need a war with Pakistan. But if Pakistan interferes in our internal matters, I think we should take control of PoK, Athawale said, speaking to reporters during the Tiranga Yatra in Indore.

Forces like Pakistan are conspiring against India by spreading terrorism. Pakistan should stop anti-India activities as the Indian army is far stronger than Pakistani army, the RPI (A) chief said.

We appeal to Pakistan to give up its control of PoK. The part of Kashmir which is occupied by Pakistan is Indias integral part, the minister stressed.

China too should not encroach upon Indian territory, Athawale added.
OIC expresses concern over Kashmir violence

Published: August 20, 2016

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has voiced its concern over alleged excesses of the Indian military and the paramilitary forces in Kashmir.

This issued had surfaced after former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai had appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement on human rights situation in Pakistans Balochistan province.

Key Facts

OCI Secretary General of OIC Iyad Amin Madani had quoted that the organisation will continue to expose human rights excesses in the Kashmir Valley.

It will support to Pakistan till the issue is resolved in accordance with the United Nations resolutions and wishes of the people of Kashmir.

OICs these comments and support to Pakistan is bound to rile India as it is not for the first that the OIC has spoken about the Kashmir issue against India.

What is Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)?

The OIC is an international organization founded in 1969.

Members: It consists of 57 member states including Iran and Pakistan.

It consists of 57 member states including Iran and Pakistan. Administrative centre (headquarters): Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Objective: (i) Raise the collective voice of the Muslim world. (ii) Collectively work to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.

(i) Raise the collective voice of the Muslim world. (ii) Collectively work to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony. OIC has permanent delegations to United Nations and the European Union.

Issues with India: In this organisation, India is a blocked country, though it has about 12% of the worlds Muslim population.

In this organisation, India is a blocked country, though it has about 12% of the worlds Muslim population. India has been blocked by Pakistan from joining the OIC over Kashmir issue. OIC regard parts of Kashmir as occupied by India.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2016

Topics: India- Pakistan  India-OIC  Kashmir Issue  National  OIC

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A day after finance minister Arun Jaitley criticised Nehruvian model of development, saying it had held the country back, Union minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday termed Jammu and Kashmir a glaring example of the failure of Nehrus political model.

Yesterday, Union finance minister spoke about the failed Nehruvian model of economy and today I say that if you want to see the failed political model of Nehru, then Jammu and Kashmir is the best example, Singh said while addressing a Yaad Karo Kurbani rally in the outskirts of Jammu.

Speaking at a function in Mumbai, Jaitley had said, But when he (Narasimha Rao) became the prime minister, he found that there was no foreign reserves left in its kitty, and that the country was heading towards bankruptcy.

So, the reforms were brought in due to that compulsion, due to failure of that system.

Singh said Jammu and Kashmir is a glaring example of the failed politics of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

He said the area of Jammu and Kashmir under the control of Maharaja Hari Singh was 2.25 lakh square kilometers, but due to the failed political approach of first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, India got only one lakh square kilometers of the area, rest was occupied by Pakistan like area of Gilgit and Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

The Maharaja was so annoyed with Nehru that he decided never to return to Jammu and Kashmir and breathed his last in Mumbai, Singh said.

He said the Tiranga Yatra started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be complete only after the Indian flag is unfurled in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kotli.

Singh said that raising issue of Human Rights abuses in Balochistan was necessary for the self defense of the country, as the situation in the neighborhood directly affects us.

People say that by raising the issue of Balochistan we are interfering in the internal matters of other country, whether it is interference or not, but when someone across the wall of your house is indulge in slaughter, it is your right to act for your own safety and your defense, he said.

He said that if there was problem in the neighborhood, then we are affected, whether it is Baluchistan or Pakistan occupied Kashmir, he said.

BJP minister Chandar Prakash Ganga while addressing the gathering alleged the stone pelters in Kashmir were being paid to target security personnel and the rate has increased.

Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and other senior BJP leaders also addressed the rally.

Read| No compromise over violence in Kashmir; Pak challenging Indias unity: Jaitley


A delegation of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir, led by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday to discuss the situation in the Valley which has been witnessing violence for the over past 40 days.

Discussed the current political crisis in J and K with a delegation of opp(osition) leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar (Omar Abdullah), the Congress leader tweeted after the meeting.

On Saturday, the delegation had met President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to urge upon the central government to find a solution to the present Kashmir crisis politically rather than administratively.

The delegation will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

CPI(M) MLA Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, who was part of the delegation, said the situation in the Valley should not be seen through the prism of law and order.

Gandhi also met senior Congress leaders from Gujarat on the issue of rising atrocities against Dalits and minorities in Gujarat.

Earlier in the day, a delegation comprising PCC Chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president, Congress Legislative Party leader Shankar Sinh Vaghela and AICC general secretary Madhusudan Mistry, had met President Mukherjee, requesting his intervention in the matter through the governor.
BSP supremo Mayawati warned people against the communal designs of the BJP and RSS on Sunday, accusing them of attacking minorities in the name of cow slaughter and love jihad.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also questioned Narendra Modi-led Centre on its failure to keep his promises made before Lok Sabha polls.

Launching BSPs campaign for the 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati also targeted Congress and ruling SP during her hour-long address to thousands of supporters at Kothi Meena Bazaar in Agra, considered home to Dalits and Muslims.

Asserting that no one can stop BSP from forming the government in the state, she said it was not only a political party but a movement and promised achche din for those seeking law and order and peace.

Accusing Congress of fooling the poor in name of reservation, Mayawati reminded the people that its chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit had blamed those from UP and Bihar for law and order issues in Delhi when chief minister there.

BJP, she said, was working on the agenda of RSSto spread communalismand was doing the same now from the Centre.

Citing cases of Rohit Vemula suicide, Daya Shankar, Dalit flogging in Una, Mayawati said BJP and Congres leaders visited Dalit houses just to have food and create confusion.

Dalits need action and not emotions when they are attacked, she said, asking how BJP promised to bring law and order in a big state like UP when they could not do so in Delhi.

She criticised BJP for targeting Muslims in the name of Gau Raksha (cow protection), Love Jihad, conversions, and painting them as suspicious in the name of terrorism.

She accused the saffron party of being anti-reservation for Dalits and promoting privatisation in important ministries.

She also took a jibe at the recent Dhamma Yatra of Buddhist monks promoted by RSS, saying it had backfired because of Una and Dayashankar episodes and reminded people that those from upper caste are being given due representation in BSP.

On RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat asking Hindus to have more children, she asked, Who would feed them?

Mayawati also accused Prime Minister Modi of politicising the Independence Day with his long speech on achievements, which she claimed was not working.

On Modis pre-poll promises, she asked, What about cheaper ration, free water and electricity, welfare of farmers, increase in earning of labourers and relief to small traders? and alleged that the BJP at the Centre has banks waiving off huge loans of the rich while a farmer availing a small loan is being pressurised leading to suicides.

Before Lok Sabha polls, Modi had promised to bring back black money and credit Rs 15-20 lakh in every poor persons account. But, BJP has instead brought an anti-farmer land acquisition law, which was passed although we opposed it, she said, and observed that the benefit of the law is being harvested by the rich while poor are left to suffer.

Citing the Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Vyapam scams, she said BJP was no different from Congress in corruption.

Attacking the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state, the former chief minister recalled incidents such as Muzaffarnagar riots, Dadri lynching, Jawahar Bagh killing and Bulandsahar rape to describe the lawlessness in the state.

She accused the Akhilesh Yadav government of taking credit for the development projects such as Express Way and Metro, saying they were initiated by her government.

Hitting out at former BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya who joined BJP recently, she said, Those who leave BSP leave alone because in BSP it is the supporters who create their leader.

She also slammed the media for reports against her party.

Media has been saying that tickets are sold for crores in BSP, and on other hand says that BSP is in shambles as leaders are leaving the party. If BSP is becoming weak, why would anybody pay crores to get tickets? she asked.

The BSP leader said there would be conspiracies and surveys against the party and warned supporters not to lose their cool and asked them to focus on winning.

Mayawati also told Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav that he had no right to call her bua (aunt) as his father Mulayam Singh Yadav had made an attempt on her life on June 2, 1995, at the UP Assembly guest house.

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On September 2, 2013, at Delhis Indira Gandhi International airport, a mid-air disaster was just seconds away. In the span of 50 seconds between 08:53:22 am and 08:54:12 am, a SpiceJet and an Indigo flight, with a total of nearly 300 people on board, narrowly missed a collision, not once or twice, but thrice.

The confusion started when Air Traffic Control (ATC) allowed the SpiceJet flight SEJ234 to land on Runway No. 28 from where the Indigo aircraft IGO286 was about to take off.

From there, the situation rapidly hurtled towards a catastrophe, aided by wrong instructions from the ATC.

The first collision was averted when the two planes were just 50 feet apart the Spicejet plane was descending for a landing and the Indigo aircraft was about to take off. No instruction from ATC, Spicejet aborted landing and started climbing.

But more danger was in store. The Indigo flight took off and both planes ascended parallel to each other, converging at a point when they were at the same height and just 300 feet apart laterally. The pilots realised the risk and the Spicejet plane flew underneath the other.

But with the ATC offering little help, a third near miss was in store. The new course set both planes on a collision course that was prevented by an in-built anti-collision system on both aircraft.

This was the narrowest escape since the worlds worst mid-air collision in November 1996, when a Saudi and a Kazakh plane crashed into each other above Charkhi Dadri near Delhi, killing all 349 people on board.

A Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) probe concluded that confusion over the handover and takeover between two ATC instructors was the main reason for the September 2, 2013 incident, an HT investigation has found.

This wasnt the only case of ATC error. On May 8, 2014 a Jet Airways and an Indigo flight had a similar near miss situation in Mumbai due to poor ATC planning.

Indias civil aviation regulator found that 71 of the 129 potential collisions between 2011 and May this year were because of ATC glitches.

These included misjudgment by the controller, inadvertent clearance issued by the controller, loss of situational awareness by the controller and poor planning by the controller  all of which contributed to the risking of thousands of passengers lives.

A glaring example of poor air safety is right here in Delhi, where a new air traffic control tower at the Indira Gandhi International airport is yet to operationalise. It has missed many deadlines and there is no update on when it will be ready and operational. ATC is not well-equipped to handle the air traffic situation, says a senior official from the Air Navigation Services under the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The Airports Authority of India, which controls the ATC and the airlines mentioned in the story, did not respond to HT queries.

All it takes is 40 seconds

The DGCA defines a near miss or an airprox (aircraft proximity) as a situation where the distance between aircraft as well as their relative positions and speeds may have comprised the safety of the planes.

The AAI official said near miss occurs when aircraft are separated by less than 1,000 feet of vertical distance or 5-25 nautical miles (30,000- 150,000 feet) of horizontal distance.

An HT investigation of a near miss on May 7 this year, based on data from Flightaware.com, the worlds largest flight-tracking data company, shows how technology played a part in averting the collision.

Indias skies have been kept safe for the past few decades by a technology called the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) that was made mandatory after the Charkhi-Dadri incident.

The TCAS radio signal creates an electronic shield around a flight. If two shields overlap, TCAS alerts both pilots.

If an airprox situation arises, TCAS first gives them a traffic advisory (TA). In other words, if one aircraft is 40 seconds away from another aircraft, vertically or horizontally, TCAS indicates a possible threat.

But if the violations continue and time gap reduces to 25 seconds, the TCAS instructs one flight to climb while other one to descend till the violation is removed.

If the ATC and TCAS instructions contradict each other, pilots are instructed to follow the TCAS  a practice made mandatory after the Uberlingen mid-air collision in Germany in 2002 where 70 people died.

ATCs face staff crunch

A former DGCA official says a rise in near misses over the past few years is due to increasing air traffic, but data doesnt support his claim. Traffic increased just 17% this year but potential collisions rose by 78%.

A more plausible reason is the severe shortage of traffic controllers in ATC operations in India, say civil aviation ministry sources. The ATC  which organises the flow of air traffic to prevent collision  is functioning without a quarter of its sanctioned strength.

Theres a shortage of 1,000 air traffic controllers, as revealed by a 2014 audit by International Civil Aviation Organisation (a UN agency that guides aviation norms), according to a senior manager in Air Traffic Control Operations. One area controller shouldnt handle more than 15 aircraft at a time, but he is doing twice that. An area controller monitors aircraft at cruising speed.

Sources in the ATC reveal that no controller was recruited between 2012 and 2015. At the same time, the number of aircraft departures rose from 647,863 to 789,260.

A shortage of controllers was one of the reasons why the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Indias aviation safety ratings in January 2014.

The shortage of ATCs compromises with the safety of thousands of flyers every day. We are waiting for a disaster to act, says SS Panesar, who headed the flight safety and training divisions at Indian Airlines.

Few takers

The stress inside an ATC was best captured in the 1999 John Cusack movie Pushing Tin. An ATC source involved with recruitment says this year, 3,000 people applied for an air controllers job and 400 were selected. 90 out of them refused to join. The high stress and poor pay discouraged talented candidates, he adds.

A senior AAI official privy to pan-India ATC operations worries that the 310 fresh recruits will take seven years to become full-fledged area controllers.

We have only 400 area controllers who work in shifts to monitor more than 2,000 flights daily. The more we delay in hiring them, the more time they will take to elevate to important positions, he says.

Former executive director of AAI air operations, Gurucharan Bhatura, who was a part of an investigation into the 2010 Mangalore air crash, told HT that the government should recruit retired technical staff from the air force to tide over the crunch.

ATC lacks modernisation

But a lack of manpower isnt the only reason for the appalling air safety record. Sources say few modern equipment and poor maintenance of existing infrastructure at ATC towers in major hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata contribute to the rising potential collisions.

The second AAI official said an integrated radar system  supplying continuous and seamless images of aircraft from its take-off to landing anywhere in India  failed twice in the past six months, first in Kolkata and then Nagpur.

This failure means flights can go off the ATC radar in areas beyond the limit of a particular radar located in an airport.

For communicating with aircraft, the ATC uses high-frequency signals  which arent often audible to pilots  and officials say extended very-high frequency signals is the need of the hour for error-free communication of directions and instructions.

Read| Mid-air near misses rise to a new, dangerous high
On the night of May 7, passengers had a miraculous escape when an Indigo and an AirAsia flight were seconds away from a collision 33,800 feet above Maharashtras Sindhudurg district but luckily averted a mid-air catastrophe.

The air-traffic controller (ATC) asked the Delhi-Bengaluru Indigo aircraft to descend but the signal was wrongly picked by the AirAsia flight, which started to lower its altitude.

At 10.25pm, the two aircraft were just 25-40 seconds from crashing into each other. The accident was averted when the Indigo A320  twice the size of a whale  dived 800 feet in less than 30 seconds.

The hair-raising account is only one of scores of such near-misses, whose numbers have spiked over the last four years, data from Right to Information queries filed by HT show.

An HT investigation based on RTI data between 2011 and 2016 has found a 78% rise in the incidents of such potential mid-air collisions between January and May this year, when compared to the same period last year.

The data also suggests that 2016 might see the highest number of such near-misses known as airprox (air proximity)  if trends from the first five months hold.

Between 2011 and May this year, 129 such potential collisions have been reported. More than half of these are because of ATC error and nearly a fifth because of mistakes committed by the flight crew.

We have taken a very serious view of this increase in number of near-misses, said Lalit Gupta, joint director of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The Airports Authority of India that controls the ATC and the airlines mentioned in the story did not respond to HT queries.

Experts say the alarming rise is because of a crippling staff crunch in the ATC that is working without a quarter of its sanctioned strength, as India approaches the 20th anniversary of the worlds deadliest mid-air collision that occurred near Delhi.

In November 1996, a Kazakh and a Saudi aircraft crashed into each other in the skies above Chakhri-Dadri near the Capital, killing all 349 people on board. A probe cleared the ATC but held that a miscommunication between the controller and the Kazakhstan pilot led to the collision.

An analysis of DGCA records on near-misses from January 2011 to May 31 this year indicates 2016 could see the highest number of potential collisions since 2011, which witnessed the most such incidents, 29.

There have been 16 incidents this year till May 31. Compare this with first five months of previous years: in 2012, there were 8 cases while 9 cases each were recorded in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Even in 2011, the first five months witnessed only 13 incidents. Earlier this month, HT had also reported that safety violations by pilots are also up 30% from the corresponding period last year.

The numbers of near misses are alarming. The ATC needs to urgently increase staff strength and airline operators need to keep doing refresher courses for staff, said Mohan Ranganathan, a civil aviation safety expert.

Gupta said the DGCA asked all air operators and ATC to provide detailed classroom sessions on Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and crew resource management training.

Officials say the rise in potential collisions is the result of a steady climb in air-traffic.

But DGCA data on flight operations show only a 17% increase on air operations in 2016 compared to same period last year.

In 2016, till May 31, there were 366,781 departures, whereas it was 312,542 for the corresponding period in 2015.

Read| Mid-air collision risks in a steep climb

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Gujarat Congress leaders on Sunday submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee highlighting atrocities against Dalits in the state, and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having the time to think about people of Balochistan but turning a blind eye towards the suffering of Dalits in his home state.

Demanding a time-bound action against the perpetrators, Gujarat Congress leaders also sought Presidents intervention in the matter.

The delegation included Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Congress presidents political secretary Ahmed Patel, Congress legislature party leader Shankar Sinh Vaghela, and AICC general secretary Madhusudan Mistry.

The Prime Minister has time to acknowledge the suffering of people in Balochistan but it is unfortunate that he and his party have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the marginalized and underprivileged in his home state, Gujarat PCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki said.

We have apprised him (the President) of the rise in social terror in Gujarat, a phenomenon that has manifested over the past 18 years of BJP rule. The atrocities in Una is not an exception but the norm. And the fact that even after the Una incident shook the nations conscience, atrocities against Dalits still continue with impunity shows the extreme insensitivity embedded in the Gujarat administration, he added.

Solanki said: He (Prime Minister) spoke eloquently over rogue cow vigilantes but did not tell us how as Chief Minister he encouraged the very business of such vigilantes. For a party whose ideology is based on dividing society, we have no hope that they will take any serious action to erase the deep fault lines in Gujarat.

Congress leaders also requested Mukherjee to intervene in the matter through the Governor of the state.

We have come to seek the protection of the President and have urged him to use his good offices and issue relevant directions to the administration, said Solanki.
As unrest continues in Kashmir, the central government outlined its priorities on Sunday, asserting that there will be no compromise with those indulging in violence.

Acknowledging that the situation in Kashmir was serious, Union minister Arun Jaitley said those indulging in stone-pelting in Kashmir are not satyagrahis but aggressors who target police and security forces but some people with limited vision cannot see this.

Jaitley also said the countrys unity was being challenged and Pakistan was again at war with India using new methods to incite violence in the Kashmir Valley.

A new serious situation has arisen. Pakistan and various other forces are involved in it, and the countrys unity has been challenged once again, Jaitley said, adding people of Jammu and Kashmir should jointly fight the aggression.

Read | Bilateral talks should focus on finding Kashmir solution: Pakistan tells India

For more than a month, the Kashmir Valley has been rocked by protests that broke out after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with security forces on July 8.

Sixty-seven people have died and more than a thousand injured in clashes between civilians and security forces while many parts of the Valley continue to be under a curfew.

Addressing the BJPs Tiranga Yatra in Jammu, Jaitley said Pakistan was once again at war with India using new methods of spreading unrest and inciting violence among masses in the Valley. Its a challenge for us. We will not compromise with it, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has three priorities for Jammu and Kashmir, said Jaitley.

There will be no compromise on the security and integrity of the country and no compromise with the people who indulge in violence.

Read | India-Pakistan talks must not be held hostage by the Kashmir issue

Secondly, as Jammu and Kashmir has faced violence and wars, it needs development which was denied for past 60 years by National Conference and Congress governments. Thirdly, Jammu, being the support base of BJP, needs added attention.

His outlining of the priorities assumes signficance as the opposition has been accusing the Modi government of having no policy with regard to dealing with the unrest. The opposition parties have been pressing for a political solution and dialogue to address the unrest.

The government accuses Pakistan of fuelling unrest and has decided to aggressively counter the neighbouring country. It recently turned down an invite for talks on Kashmir, saying New Delhi wanted to discuss cross-border terrorism, which was central to the turmoil in the Valley.

The invite for talks came after Modi, indicating a shift in Indias foreign policy, talked about rights violations in Pakistans restive Balochistan province and Pakistan occupied Kashmir in his Independence Day speech.

In the Valley, normal life continued to be paralysed for the 44th day on Sunday. A curfew was on in Srinagar district and two south Kashmir towns of Anantnag and Pampore while movement was restricted in other parts of the Valley.

A separatist-sponsored strike, too, has kept shops, private offices and petrol pumps shut. Mobile internet remained suspended though mobile services were partially restored on Saturday.

Read more | Why the Kashmir protests in 2010 and 2016 are different
Security forces killed three militants in a gunfight in the forests of Tangdhar close to Line of Control in north Kashmirs Kupwara district on Sunday.

The Army said that the three were part of a group which had recently infiltrated the LoC and were involved in an attack on a Border Security Force post on August 19. Three BSF troopers were injured in the attack.

Three terrorists were killed and a combing operations are going on, an army official said.

He said that three weapons, three walkie-talkies and other war like stores were seized from the slain militants.

Police said that the encounter started around 7:30 am after a joint party of police and army cordoned Dudawayan forest area.

The area is close to a BSF camp. Three security personnel from this camp were wounded in an attack by militants on Friday.

The three militants were the same who attacked the BSF camp day before yesterday in the area, the army official claimed.

Police said a search operation was on in the area since Fridays attack. Security forces launched an operation and on Sunday morning after information about the presence of militants in the forests.
Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Saturday started a helpline for people reeling under curfew after complaints that security forces were not allowing essential commodities to enter Srinagar. But the state government has refuted charges of any blockade of essential commodities.

The Mirwaiz expressed concern and anguish over blocking of intra district movement of vehicles carrying essentials such as medicines, vegetables and milk to Srinagar, especially to old city areas.

He termed imposition of round the clock curfew, after violence erupted across Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in on July 8, as revenge against the people by the government which he said was an anti-human regime.

In this crisis situation created by the vengeful state, each one of us has to redouble our efforts and help and support each other in every possible way. Adversity is a great teacher in a nations moral and character building. In connection with the current embargo, a help line by Dar-Ul-Khair Mirwaiz Manzil has been set up, the Mirwaiz said.

He said that those in urgent need should call at 9419017890 for help after getting in touch with the local masjid committee.

However, Jammu and Kashmir consumer affairs and civil supplies minister, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said that there was also no dearth of essential commodities in the Valley. He said that 2258 truck load of essential commodities such as rice, wheat, sugar, flour, vegetables, LPG and petroleum products reached Kashmir in the last two weeks and the daily supply is continuously on.

He said that he has already directed divisional commissioner Kashmir and inspector general of police (traffic) to ensure smooth movement of trucks carrying essential commodities.

Meanwhile there is no end to the cycle of protests and crackdowns.

Read: A Kashmir policy with Baltistan, owls and chickens

A group of patients and ambulance drivers protested outside the old secretariat in Srinagar on Saturday after police allegedly stopped ambulances ferrying patients. The protest comes a day after a CRPF officer was suspended for firing at an ambulance driver in Srinagars old city area.

In north Kashmirs Baramulla district, many people were injured after security forces used teargas and pellet guns to disperse a group of protesting youth. The protesters were trying to prevent the security forces from launching a search operation in Fatehgarh area of the district.

Earlier on Saturday, authorities partially restored mobile phone services across the Valley.

Common people, reeling under an intense communication blockade, were able to make calls to their near and dear ones after authorities lifted the restrictions on the operation of post-paid mobile services.

The services were suspended on August 13, ahead of the Pakistans Independence Day celebrations.

The incoming call services of pre-paid mobiles, which form the bulk of customers in the Valley, were also restored. However, it was not clear when pre-paid customers also be able to make calls.

Read: Elderly couple, 7-year-old boy injured in security forces firing in Kashmir

Internet access for mobile phones is still suspended in the Valley. The authorities have only allowed BSNL post-paid mobile and landline services to function unhindered while blocking the rest, on and off.

Officials say that mobile and internet services trigger the spread of rumors and escalate protests. But activists insist that lack of communication services actually triggers the rumour mongering.

The separatists have been continuously issuing protest calendars and they extended the latest protest programme to August 25.

They have also asked people to write to all MLAs, MLCs and ministers of pro-Indian political parties and demand their resignation from the government and party positions. A poster letter has already started making rounds in social media asking the pro-India politicians to quit.

Read: Worlds largest Muslim bloc expresses concern over violence in Kashmir
Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed for last months failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has infiltrated India, according to Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Asserting that FETO is secretive transnational criminal network with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools.

In an interview to PTI after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish foreign minister also said, I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart.

The visiting minister said, In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories.

Asked for a response to the Ministers comments, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side is sensitive to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were looking into Ankaras demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities.

Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said, Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial.

This is what both Turkey and India are focused on, he said.

Talking about last months coup attempt, the visiting dignitary said that a clandestine faction led by FETO within the Turkish Army attempted to stage a coup on July 15 to overthrow the democratically elected government.

We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Swaraj, Cavusoglu added.

More than 240 people died and over 1,500 others were injured as a fallout of the failed coup.

Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. Gulen currently lives in self-imposed exile in the US.

The Turkish minister also expressed concern over the situation in Syria, maintaining that his country was directly impacted by every dynamic of the conflict there.

He also asked the international community to work together to bring about the much-needed political transition in Syria. This is not only a prerequisite to end the conflict, it is also essential to effectively fight terrorism, the minister asserted.
Since the April 30 groundbreaking for construction of a passenger platform at the old Arcadia train depot, the president of a community organization that has spearheaded the project since its inception four years ago has had her hands full dealing with a number of unexpected issues that delayed construction at the worksite for weeks.

"Work on the depot platform was supposed to start around June 24, but actually started July 1," Our Town Tomorrow President Carol Kelsheimer said. "Unfortunately, during the time they worked, the workers came up with an unforeseen problem. They found a concrete slab which apparently was the old platform that had been covered. With our new platform there had to be drain pipes put in and different things, but with that slab being there they couldn't do all of that."

According to Kelsheimer, work was halted on the platform for three weeks while Union Pacific Railroad, MoDOT, the project's original design engineer and the current engineer, Joe Gabel with Taylor Engineering, put their heads together with Our Town Tomorrow members to come up with a workable solution.

"We had to sit down and get Union Pacific's approval on whatever we decided to do," she said. "That concrete had been there for over 50 years because I think the train stopped coming in 1965 or sometime in the mid-60s. Once a train no longer stops someplace, the platform has to be gotten rid of. Union Pacific and everyone else is in agreement that we will be safe in going ahead and pouring the forms and concrete for the new platform on top of it. They've got the front and back sides of the forms poured and they're putting in the drain lines now, so they're working at a pretty good speed right now."

Bringing an Amtrak stop to the Arcadia Valley has been a work in progress for years and has brought with it headaches, problems, delays and setbacks from the very start.

Amtrak, MoDOT, Union Pacific, the city of Arcadia and members of Our Town Tomorrow began meeting in 2012 to discuss the documents and funding needed to make the Arcadia Amtrak stop possible.

Eventually, the city of Arcadia was one of 11 southeast Missouri committees selected to receive a share of $2.9 million in federal enhancement funds through an 80/20 grant amounting to $330,000 which, along with the $50,000 match provided by the William Edgar Foundation, a $30,000 grant from the Taum Sauk Fund and more than $7,000 in community donations, are being used for the platforms construction.

At the time the city was awarded the matching grant, the projected cost of the platforms construction was $314,212.25. Adding a 15 percent contingency, the grand total of the proposed project was expected to come in at $361,344.09. Not included in that amount was the 25-year lease from Union Pacific on the platform grounds and all electrical items, such as lights.

Facing a shortfall at the beginning of the year, State Rep. Paul Fitzwater, R-Potosi, and Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington, announced that MoDOT had secured $100,000 in federal transportation funds to complete the Amtrak stop.

Now it's all come down to getting the project completed in the allotted time allowed by MoDOT.

"We're hoping that all the work will be done sometime in October," Kelsheimer said. "MoDOT gives us 90 days from July 1 to have the project complete or we'll have to file for an extension. Right now we're running about 19 days behind, but as we move forward, things that they had built into that timeline have changed some. Like today we were dealing with where the lighting was going to go because of this concrete slab was going to cause a problem.

"I said that I had wanted the lights on the platform to begin with, not along the edge. Now we're working with everybody to get approval to go ahead and move them inside the fence on the platform. I've been told that this will make the job of putting up the light posts faster by doing it that way. So, we're doing things where we can that it will hopefully help us to make up some time  kind of like a train.

"You know, when you're on a train and it's running late because of unforeseen things happening along the way, when they have a long stretch where they're not going to be stopped by a freight train or whatever, they make up a lot of time. So hopefully we'll come close to that 90-day mark without having to get an extension."

After several months of delays and frustration, Kelsheimer said the depot project is finally back on track.

"[Amtrak Project Manager] John Bender from Washington, D.C., along with [Amtrak's Midwest senior manager for government affairs] Derrick James, came down last night with a young lady out of St. Louis who oversees the district of Amtrak stations we're in," Kelsheimer said. "They looked at the project and were very excited about the way everything was coming along. They told me that a lot of the Amtrak people can't wait."

Kelsheimer believes the reality of having an Amtrak stop in the Arcadia Valley is bringing with it some positive changes to the community that has seen hard times since the mining industry left the area decades ago.

"I don't think a lot of people have an inkling of what's going on here," she said. "Empty buildings are being bought. There's about four or five different restaurants that's opening up in the area. The restaurant at Grant's Inn is opening back up, and at the former Aztecas restaurant [former Iron County Presiding Commissioner] Don Barzowski and the Layton boys are putting in a pizza/sports bar type place. Where Ironton Cleaners was, across from the Lutheran Church on Main Street, there's a sandwich shop that's already open; and Tim Sappington has bought two 14-passenger vans to shuttle people between the depot and his motels."

When asked if all the commercial activity can be directly attributed to the new Amtrak stop, Kelsheimer said, "Absolutely. There's just a lot going on  people are getting ready."
The Amboli Police in Mumbai are investigating a complaint against an auto rickshaw driver for intimidating a passenger, accusing him of carrying a bag made of cow hide.

Barun Kashyap, a Mumbai resident who posted the incident to his Facebook account, said trouble began when he hailed an auto to work at 11:30 am on August 19.

Police said the driver began a conversation, asking Kashyap about a bag he was carrying. He alleged the bag was made of cow hide, though Kashyap explained it was made from camel.

The belligerent driver probed further, asking him where he hailed from. When Kashyap told him he was from Assam, the driver retorted, Is it next to Bangladesh?

He further claimed that despite the ban on cow slaughter in Maharashtra, it was encouraged in Mumbai.

The driver then insisted the bag smelled of cow skin. Kashyap said that since it had got wet, the bag was giving off the peculiar odour.

Things turned scary, Kashyap claimed in his Facebook post, when the driver took a detour to a temple and stopped there.

Here he called out to two men and a discussion ensued in Marathi, a language Kashyap cannot understand. One of the men also fiddled with Kashyaps bag without permission.

Kahyap was then asked his full name. After some tense moments, the auto driver took Kashyap back towards his destination  a production house where he works as a creative head, but Kashyap got off at a signal.

The rickshaw driver allegedly said to Kashyap: Ab bach gaye ho agli baar nahi bachoge (you have escaped this time, next time you wont).

A Mumbai resident on Friday said he was waylaid by an auto driver who accused him of using a bag made of cow hide. Police have registered a non-cognisable complaint against the driver. (Barun Kashyap/Facebook)

A day after the incident, Kashyap approached the DN Nagar police on the advice of his colleagues. A non-cognisable offence was registered and the complaint was transferred to the Amboli police as the incident occurred in their jurisdiction.

Senior police inspector Bharat Gaikwad of Amboli police station confirmed that the complaint had been registered for intentional insult and criminal intimidation under section 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.

The two had a quarrel. We are probing to see if cognisance can to be taken, Gaikwad said.

Kashyap, who had noted the last four digits of the auto registration number, provided the details to police.
SRINAGAR: An elderly couple was injured when security forces opened fire during a midnight raid on their residence in south Kashmirs Tral region, and a seven-year-old boy was critically injured in a separate incident of pellet firing in downtown Srinagar.

Eyewitnesses say a joint party of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF fired on the couple when they tried to resist their sons arrest in Trals Kamla Bachoo village.

The son  Shabir Ahmad Fallahi  is the district chief of the hardline Jamat-e-Islami organisation. The couple  Abdul Qayoom, 80, and his wife Nazira Begam, 75,  is admitted at the SMHS hospital in Srinagar. Qayoom has undergone a surgery for a pellet injury and his wife has a bullet wound on her shoulder. In spite of repeated attempts, no police officer responded to calls by HT.

Qayoom has internal injury as he has perforation in small intestine. Blood has also accumulated in his lungs and abdominal cavity. The damage is severe as he was hit from a close range, said a doctor treating him.

The seven-year-old boy, identified as Junaid from Qalamdanpora Nawabazar, is said to be critical and is under treatment at the SMHS Hospital in Srinagar.

SMHS medical superintendent Nasir Chaudhary told HT that the boy was hit in the chest. His condition is not good, he added.

Police werent available for comment regarding the circumstances that led to the injury, but Junaids family has alleged foul play. It was a targeted fire. He was hit on the chest, one of them said.

The aged couple and Junaid are three out of thousands of civilians injured in the Valley because of violent clashes with security forces following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani. Kashmir has been under curfew for more than 40 days now with 66 people killed in the violence.

Jamat spokesperson Umar Sultan said the forces tried to arrest Shabirs brother because the district chief wasnt at home. The elderly couple tried to stop the forces when they were fired upon.

The spokesperson said Shabir was wanted by the police for organising anti establishment rallies and not any heinous crime. Nothing can justify firing at his elderly parents.

The incident may further roil simmering anger in the Valley and comes at a time when forces have intensified nocturnal raids and curfew after Independence Day. The past few days have seen reports of excesses and violence pouring in from different parts of Kashmir.

The army ordered a probe on Thursday into the death of a 30-year-old college lecturer who was allegedly beaten to death in the forces custody after being picked up from his home in south Kashmirs Pampore.

Residents of Shar village alleged the army barged into their homes on Wednesday night around and arrested 28 people.

A day later, an ambulance driver Ghulam Mohammad Sofi was also fired with pellets from a close range while he was trying to ferry people to hospital. Sofi was hit with around 200 pellets in his arm.

The use of pellet guns, considered a less-lethal option by forces, has fuelled anger, with many protesters left dead or blinded.

The CRPF that has used more than 1.6 million pellets informed the Jammu and Kashmir high court on Wednesday that if pellet guns were banned, personnel will be forced to fire bullets in extreme situations, causing more fatalities.

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 65-year-old woman was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs and parts of her body eaten in Thiruvananthapuram, police said on Saturday, underlining a growing menace described by the Kerala government as a law and order problem.

An hour after Sheeluamma was attacked in the coastal village of Pulluvilla, a 30-minute drive from the state capital, another woman was mauled by feral dogs in the same area but survived, police said.

Hundreds people are bitten by stray dogs across the country every year but Kerala is said to be the worst affected with an estimated 2.5-lakh feral canine dog population. At least one lakh people were bitten by stray dogs in the state in 2015-16.

The latest incidents renewed calls for urgent culling of stray dogs in the state but a similar move last year had angered animal rights groups which described the proposal as uncivilised.

Union minister Maneka Gandhi, a vocal animal rights campaigner, too had warned the government against the move.

But angry residents of Pulluvilla lashed out at Maneka Gandhi for being more concerned about dogs than humans.

We have lost all our patience as the authorities are hanging on to some obscure law which says dogs cannot be eliminated. Are we inferior to these dogs, asked one resident.

People said the stray dogs, which used to attack mostly children earlier, are now afraid of none.

Selvan, the son of victim Siluvamma, said he was also attacked by the dogs when he tried to rescue his severely bleeding mother and escaped only by jumping into the sea. He was rescued by villagers who responded to his shouts of help. Sheeluamma died at the medical college hospital in Keralas capital.

Kochuouseph Chittilapally, a businessman leading the campaign against stray dogs, was quoted by reports as saying that he wished Maneka Gandhi would be bitten once to realise the danger that people in the area are facing.

The law enables the government to kill dangerous dogs. At least now we should act, he told reporters.

Kerala health minister KK Shailaja told journalists in Thiruvananthapuram that she personally supports extermination of dangerous stray dogs, but the government was facing legal issues over this measure.

When we carried out killings of dangerous stray dogs, we received many warning notices from the Centre. So now we have opted sterilisation as an alternative.

Last year, chief minister Oommen Chandy convened an all-party meeting after the issue was raised in the assembly by government chief whip Thomas Unniyadan. The meeting had allowed local authorities to cull stray dogs but it was later abandoned following protests by animal rights groups.
Remember the swollen, almost shut right eye, and the out-of-the-blue ankle lace (phittle) roll that earned Yogeshwar Dutt six quick points and the bronze medal at the London Olympics.

The roll, which was the last throw of the dice by Yogeshwar in his 60kg wrestling freestyle bronze-medal match against Ri Jong Myong of North Korea has now entered Indian Olympic folklorepeople comparing it to, among various things, an enchanting dance form.

Lets revisit the bout which, in essence, defines Dutt the wrestler as well.

In the bout, he lost the opening period, then fought like his life depended on it in the second to take the bout to the decider. At the break, he was itching to get back to the middle. It almost seemed like he knew the outcome of the bout, he knew his destiny.

The desire was there in his eyes and the technique  well, the phittle, or any technique for that matter, always comes out perfectly in crunch bouts when Dutt pulls it out of his quiver.

The rest is history. Enjoy the video and lets wait for him to compete later on Sunday, and try and do a repeat of London in Rio - in a category which has three world champions and the defending Olympic champion in the fray.

Or rather, lets hope the wrestler becomes an alchemist: turning the bronze to silver or gold.

(Yogeshwar Dutt will take on Mongolias Ganzorigiin Mandakhnaran in the mens freestyle wrestling 65kg qualification round at 5PM IST)

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Chennai: Police on Sunday filed cases against Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin and fellow Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislators for holding protests inside and outside the state assembly last week.

The FIR was registered against 60 MLAs even as the DMK announced plans for a similar protest outside the assembly house on Monday.

It was against congregating inside the assembly premises without permission that the police registered a case against the 63-year-old Stalin and his party MLAs. The DMK legislators were protesting against the August 17 decision of assembly speaker S Dhanapal for suspending them from the House for a week.

The legislators have challenged the suspension in the Madras High Court. The 234-member Assembly has DMK as the main Opposition with 89 MLAs, while the ruling AIADMK has 133 legislators.

Last Wednesday, the speaker suspended 89 legislators of the main opposition for unruly behavior inside the assembly. The suspension was ordered after Leader of the House O Panneerselvam moved a resolution, which the speaker accepted.

The Opposition legislators were protesting certain derisive comments AIADMK member M Gunasekaran made against Stalin and his mass-contact programme Nammakku Naame the DMK leader undertook ahead the elections.

Assembly marshals had, on Wednesday, carried Stalin out of the assembly and deposited him in front of a battery of media personnel.

The DMK leader described the speakers action as arbitrary and the marshals action as symptomatic of the dictatorial style of chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

The next day, Stalin led his party members in a protest at the state Assembly, alleging denial of entry into the premise.

On Friday, the DMK legislators conducted a mock assembly session to highlight the autocratic aspect of the current regime and expose how it treated the assembly. The sessions Speaker Durai Murugan imitated Dhanapal putting down other MLAs in a high-handed manner.

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The flood situation in areas in Bihar along the Ganga River is at a risk of worsening, as water from the Bansagar and Rihand dams in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh will be released in the next 48 hours.

More than 400,000 people already have been affected by the swollen river after the discharge of 11.67 lakh cusec water from the Bansagar dam and 50,000 cusec from Rihand. Further discharge of water will only add to the woes of already overwhelmed areas, including Vaishali, Bhojpur, Patna, Aurangabad, Buxar, Samastipur, Begusarai, Munger, Khagaria, Bhagalpur,Chapra and Rohtas.

Cattle slumber at a flooded ghat in Patna. (AP Dube/HT Photo)

In view of the situation, chief minister Nitish Kumar has cancelled leaves of civil administration, police and engineering personnel on Sunday, and ordered immediate deployment of more engineers in affected districts.

He also appealed to residents of in low-lying areas to evacuate, for which country boats have deployed to operate for free.

The army and the Indian Air Force have been put on high alert for the next two days, and 10 National Disaster Response Force battalions have arrived in Patna district in addition to two more in Vaishali to carry out rescue and rehabilitation efforts.

Safe for now

Kumar did an aerial survey of affected areas and reviewed the situation along with district magistrates of the 12 affected riparian districts on Sunday afternoon.

Patna is safe for now, but it must be prepared for tomorrow, he said, after the survey.

Its not as if the Gangetic stretch has received more water than before, but excessive siltation means the river is flowing on a much higher bed and so is the water, Kumar added. If the Farakka treaty with Bangladesh is not reviewed by the Centre  which allows a fixed discharge at all times  Bihars future is bleak.

Central Water Commission (CWC) officials said it was keeping its fingers crossed on the Bihar situation.

Unpredictable situation

Executive engineer of CWC in Patna Narendra Nath Shankar told HT, We cannot predict (what will happen) tomorrow. There has been so much rain in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that the Ganga and its tributaries, like Sone, would continue to swell. Also the Bansagar water is yet to enter the Ganga, which it may do early morning Monday. That could raise the level to record highs, if the Farakka does not discharge over its fixed capacity.

Officials said the state had on Saturday sent an SOS to the Centre to allow for higher Farakka discharge and some gates were opened to alleviate the ponding effect upstream between Farakka in Bengal and Patna.

The Ganga, however, is unable to contain the water entering from its tributaries such as the Mahananda, Sone, Punpun, Kosi, Adhwara group of rivers, and Kosi and Gandak.

Locals unload their cattle from a country made boats as floods water inundates large swathes of Patna. (AP Dube/ HT Photo)

Water resources department officials said while the Gandhi Ghat in Patna registered a high of 50.52 metres, above the 1994 mark of 50.27 metres at 6 am of Sunday, by noon it had fallen at 3 cm per hour to 50.40 metres.

However, a high of over 60 metres was registered in Buxar, which flattens off over the lower riparian areas as water spreads to nearby districts of Bhojpur and Saran  offering some relief to Patna.

With all drain outlets into the Ganga sealed, Patna could relax for now, district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said.

He said relief and evacuation teams moved thousands of people to safety from the state capital and nearby Danapur over the last 24 hours.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteers led by AAP leader and member of state social media team Gopi Sharma, organised a protest outside the office of executive officer (EO), municipal council (MC) Jagraon on Saturday. The members were perturbed over cancellation of permission earlier granted for the party conference to be addressed by MP (member of parliament) Bhagwant Mann on August 24.

Earlier, on the recommendation of MC EO Davinder Singh Toor, Jagraon sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) had granted permission for the rally at Rani Jhansi Chowk on August 19. However, AAP alleged that on the directions of local Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA, the SDM issued another letter to cancel the permission citing that the rally will cause inconvenience to the public.

The protestors claimed that all political parties and other organisations held rallies at the venue with the SDMs permission. They said that even AAP had organised a function at the venue a few days ago with the permission of authorities. Later succumbing to the protest, the authorities accepted the mistake and re-granted permission for the rally.
A resident of Ganga Apartment in Jalandhar, whose 40-year-old jeweller uncle Vikrant Shoor committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance on Thursday night alleging police inaction, has alleged that additional commissioner of police (ACP) threatened him when he phoned him to enquire about the status of case.

In an audio clip released to media, ACP central DD Sharma can be heard threatening Shoors nephew Jatin. Phone band kar. Menu phone na kari tere chittar marne mai (Disconnect the call. Dont call me again or Ill slap you), ACP said.

The city police had registered abetment of suicide case against 10 persons on the statement of victims daughter but no one has been arrested so far.

Ramesh Babbar, his wife Kamlesh Babbar, their daughter-in-law Deepika Babbar of Pathankot, Meena Kumari, her father Ashwani Sehdev, Meenu Sehdev, Mukesh Sehdev, Rahul Sehdev, Rano Sehdev of Batala and Sonia of Jalandhar were booked under section 306 (abetment to suicide) of IPC.

Meanwhile, the family refused to cremate the body till the police arrest accused.

On Thursday late night, angry family members and local residents blocked the old GT road and held a demonstration outside police station-4 for half-an-hour. The situation turned tense when protesters exchanged heated arguments with police officials.

Shoor had left a six-page suicide note in blaming four people Ramesh Babbar, his wife Kamlesh Babbar, their daughter-in-law Deepika Babbar and her father Ashwani Sehdev of mentally torturing him.
Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh has said that chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was shedding crocodile tears over the assassination of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal.

Shedding crocodile tears now is not going to wash your (Badal) sins and the blood off your hands, Amarinder said in a press statement on Saturday.

Read: Punjab has the sole right over Chandigarh: CM at Longowal memorial event

Badals hands are stained with Sant Jis blood as he betrayed him and backed out of the Rajiv-Longowal accord that eventually led to his assassination, Capt Amarinder said, rejecting Badals allegation that Congress was to be blamed for Sant Longowals assassination.

Either you have lost your conscience or you have lost your memory; or you wouldnt be blaming others?
The West Bengal Congress on Saturday faced embarrassment when it tweeted a controversial remark made by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

On Rajiv Gandhis 72nd birth anniversary, the West Bengal Congress tweeted: When a big tree falls, the ground shakes, referring to his remark during the riots that followed the assassination of his mother and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

The party subsequently deleted the tweet, claiming the Twitter handle was hacked. But not before many expressed their reservations.

We all remember Rajiv Gandhi as beloved former PM of India. But the West Bengal Congress shouldnt have posted this one, tweeted minister of state for home affairs and BJP MP Kiren Rijiju, posting a screen shot of the now-deleted tweet.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed the Twitter handle was hacked as part of a conspiracy. I enquired about the tweet and was told that the account was hacked. In todays world, hacking has become a usual thing. But I think, this has been done in pursuance of a conspiracy to malign the Congress on Rajiv Gandhis birth anniversary, said Chowdhury, adding that the party was seeking police action.

WITHDRAW BHARAT RATNA OF RAJIV: PHOOLKA

Advocate HS Phoolka, who is AAP candidate from Dakha in Ludhiana, tweeted: A PM who justifies killing thousands of innocent citizens does not deserve Bharat Ratna. Withdraw Bharat Ratna of Rajiv Gandhi. Government should act.

Another AAP leader Kumar Vishwas tweeted:

So Congress is glorifying Rajiv Gandhi's shameless statement on inhuman Sikh genocide! So proud of own absurdity? pic.twitter.com/bJZ5gwE4Fs  Dr Kumar Vishvas (@DrKumarVishwas) August 20, 2016

SAD SEEKS SONIAS APOLOGY

Punjab revenue and public relations minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia also condemned the tweet and sought an apology from Congress national chief Sonia Gandhi and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Addressing a rally near Mattewal village in Amritsar, he said: The act has exposed the Congress mindset against the Sikhs. 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims are still waiting for justice. The Congress has rubbed salt into the wounds of Sikhs.

Union minister and Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal said: The tweet has literally condoned the genocide against the Sikh community. Apparently, the West Bengal Congress is convinced that Rajiv Gandhis biggest achievement as the PM was the sad killings of innocent Sikhs. The Congress high command should have apologised immediately if it was considered inadvertent lapse, but it quietly withdrew the tweet cowardly, she added, asking Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh to clarify his stand on this issue.

With agency inputs
As it was being suspected, the murder of a seven-year-old boy at Malko village near here on August 9 was done as part of a witchcraft ritual. This fact has come to fore with the arrest of a man who had killed the child, police said.

Read more: 7-yr-olds body found in neighbours almirah in Jalandhar

On Sunday, police arrested Inderjeet Singh (30) of Rihana Jatta, Kapurthala, for killing Gurpreet Chumbar, whose body with hands and legs tied was found in the almirah of a neighbour.

The accused was nabbed from Basti Jodhewal in Ludhiana. He was working as a mason with the main accused Mangat Ram of Shahkot. The accused has confessed to the crime and told police that victims neighbour Mangat Ram had no child even after marrying for the fourth time. Mangat planned human sacrifice as part of a witchcraft ritual to have an offspring and promised him Rs 2 lakh for killing the boy.

Victim, Gurpreet Chumbar

Under the conspiracy, Mangat and his wife left on a pilgrimage to Chintpurni on August 8 morning, leaving behind Inderjeet.

On August 9, Inderjeet lured Gurpreet to the house by offering him goodies. When he fell asleep, Inderjeet hit Gurpreets head with the sharp weapon, strangled him to death and hid the body in an almirah, police said.

The police are still to arrest the main accused Mangat Ram of Shahkot, who is absconding.

Also read: Missing for 2 days, 8-year-old girls half-burnt body found in Jalandhar

The victims hands and legs were found tied and mouth stuffed with cloth when his family spotted the body in the almirah during search.

Gurpreet was son of Ashok Kumar, a labourer, and studied in Class 3 at a government school.

The scene at the crime spot suggested some witchcraft rituals 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.

Further investigations are on.

Read more: Packed in bag, human torso found near Adampur in Punjabs Jalandhar district
The academic integrity of Punjabi University has come under the cloud as a Delhi publisher has filed a Rs 20-lakh lawsuit against it for plagiarism.

Hindi publisher Rajkamal Prakashan Ltd has accused the varsity of reproducing its Hindi book in Punjabi. The original was authored by noted writer Sabyasachi Bhattacharya.

Also read | Thesis cheats beware! Academic plagiarism being made legal offence

A civil judge of Delhis Tis Hazari court, Gurvinder Pal Singh, has restrained the university from reprinting and selling its infringed publication till the settlement of the issue through an interim order on August 20. The next hearing is listed for September 19.

The publisher stated that it published a Hindi book, Aadhunik Bharat Ka Aarthik Itihaas, after buying its exclusive rights in 1988 from the author and currently books seventh edition was in the market.

In June we came to know that universitys publication bureau had printed a Punjabi book under the same title in 2012, which was nothing but a translation of our Hindi book, stated the publisher in the petition.

It further stated that except for first two chapters, the varsitys book was translated from our book, a fact confirmed by acclaimed Hindi-Punjabi translator Subhash Neerav, when both the books were sent to him to get his opinion on the similarity of the content.

Managing director of the publishing house Ashok Maheshwari told HT that the name of the author of Punjabi Universitys book is SD Gajrani, who had retired as a professor of history and died in January this year.

Before filing the lawsuit, we checked from Bhattacharya whether he gave any permission to Punjabi University to translate and publish the book, but he was unaware of the issue, said Maheshwari.

He said the varsity had been selling the book for four years in violation of the Copyright Act.

Even if the commissioned writer was at fault, the varsity was equally responsible not vetting the book before sending it for publication, he said.

Besides financial damage, the publisher has also sought profit in the sale of the varsitys publication and give up its right to the book.

The court observed that the publisher was able to make out a strong prima-facie case and the temporary injunction was granted to save the publisher from the irreparable loss to its goodwill and reputation.

Besides ban on sale and reprint, the varsity has also been ordered not to sign any agreement with regard to copyright of the book with any other person by the court.

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Even as northern states, including Punjab, have witnessed better rainfall this season as compared to previous years, farmers are worried about the yield of their kharif crops. The agriculture department officials say in comparison to previous years, the amount of rainfall was better this monsoon. Also, there was enough sunshine as required by the crop, another positive sign promising a good yield.

Around 20% more rainfall has been recorded this season as compared to the previous year. The heavy showers also neutralised insects. As a result, those growing the most common 1121 variety of paddy had to use minimal insecticides, said agriculture development officer (ADO) Gurdeep Singh.

As far as the yield is concerned, it is too early to predict, but the present conditions are favourable for the paddy crop, he said. Also, infestation is at its least. In view of this, the yield may be better than the previous year. Therefore, the farmers need not worry, he said.

However, most paddy fields in Majha region can be seen dried up, causing worry to the growers. They say in absence of much rain, they have to irrigate the fields using tubewells.

Tajinderpal Singh, a farmer from Rasoolpur village in Tarn Tarn, said, If no rainfall is witnessed in the next 10 days, the crop may be attacked by the worm that eats up the leaves. In such a situation, we will have to spray chemicals.

Due to inadequate rainfall, other crops such as bajra and chilli will also be infested. Too much of the sunshine is also a cause of worry, said Kartar Singh, a farmer from Chabba village in Amritsar.

Agricultural experts said farmers should not be afraid of the weather, as showers are expected in the end of August and beginning of September. These showers have the ability to neutralise the worms that attack the crop, they said.

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A 35-year-old labourer was killed after being hit by an unidentified vehicle on the Jawaddi Canal Bridge.

The victim has been identified as Sonu, 35, a migrant labourer. He was reportedly crossing the road when a speeding car hit him. The car driver fled from the spot.

KIN BLOCK SOUTHERN BYPASS

The kin of the deceased blocked the traffic at Southern bypass for three hours by lying dead body on road and staged a protest.

Due to rain and traffic blockade of Jawaddi, Dugri, Model Town and adjoining areas remained affected causing inconvenience to the commuters. A minor scuffle was reported between commuters and protesters, when some people tried to cross.

The police intervened and handled the matter.

The protesters alleged that the road has turned accident prone, as four accidents have taken place in last few months. The protest was lifted at 4.30pm after senior police officials reached the spot and assured the victims family of strict action against the culprits. Later, the body was shifted to the civil hospital for post mortem.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Rattan Singh Brar said they have initiated investigation in the case and the accused driver will be identified.

A case of reckless driving and death due to negligence has been registered against the driver of an unidentified vehicle at SBS Nagar police station.
Dear AAP, Congress and SAD-BJP, Hope the saviours, custodians and wardens of Punjab are doing well?

Oh! Just in case you are stressing about the order of my addressing each of you as my predicted score of Punjab elections, please treat it as an alphabetical order, because there hardly appears any difference between the three.

Come on. Only a naive would say that the fight is for the sake of Punjab, however, much you want to blah blah about it on microphones. That it is for power and nothing else is getting established day after day as politics hits a new low each day in this desperation. In other words, there is hardly any difference between Tom, Dick, and Harry. Who is who? I leave it to you to decide: Ladh na paiyo!

For a moment, just take a glance at the political discourse all of you are flushing Punjab with? It is nothing but anger, vendetta, vindictiveness, jealousy and inflated egos; indeed a roadrage of sorts. Friends, how can anything else exist in an environment where even a decent dialogue is next to impossible? Believe me, it cannot.

Words progress and development that all the three of you espouse only happen to people and states where there is no negativity. Can development come to a state where everyone is angry and hungry for power? Lectures, radio jingles and large print advertisements are mere means to achieve power, not steps towards the betterment of the state.

Lets get to the basics and ask, who out of the three is pushing for a positive narrative in Punjab? Me, me, me! Sorry to say, none of you. If going to deras of babas , invoking religion, or visiting holy shrines is going to change the course of Punjab, then God bless Punjab.

As a query, has any significant political leader taken a trip to centres of excellence in Punjab? Even if none exist, marking your presence at the Pushpa Gujral Science City at Kapurthala will bring no peril to your cause.

Rather, going live once in a while to show off a scientific temper, is a good break from megalomania ridden live FB shows. Isnt it? How many of you have visited Punjab schools without the purport of genuinely improving education? Unfortunately, all that we get to read is that they usually shut when you guys rally.

By the way, let me give you a parchi: that the tab is the new slate, and some of you might want to talk about it. Another parchi would be to turn the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal water scarcity agenda into a movement for microirrigation. But no, this doesnt bring votes if you say every farmer will get pressurised water from canals for drip irrigation.

Dear political sirs, give me one instance where the political narrative talks about helping the youth chase global opportunities, or turning Punjab into a global destination. Do you realise that by the time the Punjab election will be over, a new world order or business might have emerged? Thats how dynamic the world is. Opportunities are galore for an awakened mind, not for states that have a petty polity. It cant get beyond Sector 2, Chandigarh.

Sirs, if you dont evoke the minds, how will the youth dream? Isnt the hatred and petty political narrative that you are selling being bought by them? Similarly, try sharing a positive narrative and believe me every Punjabi will go for it. Try, removing words like topiwala, Haryanavi, gappi, chitta chor, andar-bahr, chak deyo, amli and direct your troll centres to create a positive plot.

A plot that will help the state, for the state is foremost. Without a healthy state, all of us will perish in one way or the other. Yours sincerely Khushwant Singh

Post-script

I must share a comment posted on my FB after I updated my status with a congratulatory message for the two Indian women who won Olympic medals.

Cant agree more... while there are men debating on the length of womens skirts... there are women out there wearing medals much above the skirts: Sanna Kaushal Gupta, Hoshiarpur.

singhkhushwant@hotmail.com
High drama took place in the district courts, Sector 43, on Saturday when an accused, Sarabjit Singh alias Rocky (25), who was involved in a firing incident at Amar Hotel in Sector 22 in October last year, fled from the courtroom when the judge was about to pronounce order in the case.

Deepak Saini, a Dera Bassi resident, was critically injured in the firing incident. A naib (a policeman deployed in the court), who saw Rocky fleeing, raised an alarm and chased him and nabbed him at the lawyers chamber within minutes.

Additional district and sessions RK Jain took a serious note of this and handed out five-year imprisonment sentence to him besides imposing Rs 10,000 penalty. The incident took place when Rocky along with his accomplice, Manpreet Singh alias Monu, who were on bail in the case, appeared in the court for hearing.

The police had arrested the two for opening fire at Dera Bassi resident on October 2015. A case of attempt to murder and under sections of the Arms Act was registered against at the Sector 17 police station. After the court acquitted Manpreet in the case on Saturday, Rocky learnt that he was going to be convicted. Dodging the court staff, he fled from the courtroom only to be nabbed after a while. When brought back, he was convicted under the Arms Act and on charges of attempt to murder after witnesses turned hostile.

The police did not lodge a case in the escape attempt.
At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the local governors office said.

President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria.

The local governors office said in a statement 50 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing, said 25-year-old Veli Can. There was blood and body parts everywhere.

Blood stains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the wedding party was attacked while women in white and checkered scarves cried sitting crosslegged and waiting outside the morgue for word on missing relatives.

At least 12 people were buried on Sunday, but other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Mahmut Togrul, an HDP lawmaker from Gaziantep, around 40 km (25 miles) north of the border with Syria, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.

It was carried out like an atrocity, witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children.

Turkey is still tense after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbuls main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankaras main train station.

Violence flared up again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants.
A little known market town in Lincolnshire is putting together a project to showcase its unique links with colonial Manipur to highlight the role of one of its most famous residents in the northeastern Indian state.

Alford, a town of less than 3,500 residents located 225 km northeast of London, was the home of John Comyn Higgins, who qualified for the Indian Civil Service in 1905 and worked in Manipur during 1910-1933 as the political agent and president of the State Darbar.

Higgins is known in Manipur for his role in suppressing the two-year Kuki Uprising from 1917, which saw tribes fiercely battling British forces that burnt several villages during clashes. He and his family also developed close links with Manipurs royal family.

Like many British personnel in India, Higgins kept diaries and recorded his experiences that, in many ways, were a world away from the Edwardian surroundings in Alford. His records include his views on the potent local brew, Zu.

For more than 150 years, Higgins and his family lived in the most famous house in the town, Alford Manor House, built in 1611. The home was turned into a museum in 1967, and the trust running it is putting together the two-phase project that includes an exhibition and recreating the Manipur royal familys attire.

Alford Manor House (Courtesy alfordmanorhouse.co.uk)

Sarah Teesdale, trustee of Alford Manor House Museum, told Hindustan Times that both sides of Higgins role in Manipur will be set out in the exhibition that will run through most of 2017, and will include archives and his personal diaries.

It has been an important element for me from the beginning to depict both sides of the conflict. JC Higgins involvement in the suppression of the Kuki Uprising and recruitment for the Labour Corps provides a completely different focus for our exhibition, she said.

The Kuki Uprising and Higgins role

The Kuki Uprising had its roots in British efforts to gather men, materials and munitions from colonies at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Manipurs Maharaja Churachand Singh was prepared to extend such support.

Manipurs contribution included a double company of infantry, a company of 120 sappers and miners, 500 Naga labourers, four ambulances to the St Johns Red Cross Fund, and a sum of Rs 281,860.

The Maharaja sought to raise two additional labour corps for France. As the war progressed and men were desperately needed, Higgins was directly involved in recruiting tribal men from the hills in the Manipur Labour Corps.

The pressure for more men led to the Kuki Uprising and Higgins became involved in suppressing what the British described as a rebellion from 1917 to 1919.

Our View From the Other Side will include the perspective of the Kuki tribesmen, who refused to be recruited and stood up to British rule, along with the story of those villages (which were) caught between the two sides and suffered great losses, Teesdale said.

We will also look at the experiences of the men who did answer the call of the British and served in France as members of the Labour Corps.

Maharaja Churachand Singh and Maharani Dhanamanjuri Devi of Manipur in 1905. The photograph was taken on the occasion of their wedding. The royal couples attire seen in the photo is being recreated for the project launched by the Alford Manor House Museum. (Courtesy Imasi: The Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi Foundation)

Higgins relationship with the Maharaja of Manipur

Higgins and Churachand Singh worked closely together for more than 20 years, travelling and attending official engagements. Higgins letters home in the late 1920s mention polo matches played together and visits to the Residency by Maharani Dhanamanjuri Devi. Their children played at the British residence in Imphal as friends.

The second aspect of the project involves Indian textiles experts and local artisans recreating the clothes of Churachand Singh and Dhanamanjuri Devi. Teesdale said the organisers were delighted to receive cooperation and support from Manipur and elsewhere in India for the project.

Members of the erstwhile royal family have been consulted to recreate the phanek dress as closely as possible to the one worn by Dhanamanjuri Devi.

The museum is currently in the third year of our Alford Remembers WWI Exhibition. As the exhibition has evolved, we have worked hard to include alternative views and a wide variety of experiences related to the war, all of which have Alford connections, Teesdale said.

Extract from JC Higgins diary on Zu (local rice beer), April 1914:

There are many kinds of Zu, but they may be roughly subdivided into two kinds. The first is a kind of beer or fermented liquor, prepared with some fermenting medium from rice, millet, maize, Jobs tears etc. I have even tasted it in times of scarcity made out of bamboo seeds. It varies of course in sweetness, flavour and consistency, but the best Kuki Zu, made from rice, is an excellent drink, tasting slightly like sour cider.

The other kind is a spirit, distilled from the former kind, and is the most disgusting stuff it is possible to imagine. It is greatly appreciated by the hillmen, owing to it having more power to its elbow and one often experiences the bitter disappointment, having climbed a seemingly interminable hill with a hospitable bottle waved at the top and having a good pull at the contents, of finding the bottle is full of this poisonous stuff.

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Recalling cynicism across the world over Indias future when it gained independence in 1947, Indian high commissioner Navtej Sarna said on Sunday the country had proved everyone wrong during the last 70 years.

Speaking at Independence Day celebrations at the Indian Gymkhana here, he recalled the sacrifices of known and unknown martyrs during the freedom struggle, and said no one was today in doubt about the success of Indias democracy.

India at 70 is the greatest experiment in the history of the world. People around the world were sceptical if India could survive. There was open cynicism. But everyone has been proved wrong, Sarna said to much applause from a large gathering of the Indian community. Today, nothing on earth can stop Indias growth, he added, flanked by food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Labour MPs Virendra Sharma and Seema Malhotra.

Sushil Rapatwar, president of Maharashtra Mandal London (centre), at the Independence Day celebrations at the Indian Gymkhana in London on Sunday (HT Photo)

India, he said, had the most unique governing institutions enshrined in the constitution, which was developed by stalwarts of the freedom struggle such as Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar.

Paying tributes to the Indian diaspora in Britain, Sarna noted the community constituted 2% of Britains population but contributed 6% to its GDP.

Today the by-word in this country is that a good doctor is an Indian doctor, he said.

Promising to resolve consular issues, he asked community members to use Open Days to meet high commission officials if required.

Speaking at the event, Paswan recalled the contribution by leaders from various religious communities towards Indias freedom struggle. He also visited the house in north London where Ambedkar lived as a student in the 1920s.

The day-long event included cultural programmes representing dance forms and music from various states, and stalls offering free food from various regional cuisines.

The stalls included those set up by the Indian Muslim Federation (UK) and Maharashtra Mandal London.

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In a high-profile intervention in the ongoing election for the next Labour leader, London mayor Sadiq Khan on Sunday appealed to party members to vote in favour of Owen Smith, who is challenging the current leader and favourite, Jeremy Corbyn.

The result of the leadership election will be announced on September 24 at the partys annual conference in Liverpool. The election was triggered in the aftermath of the June 23 Brexit vote, amid charges that Corbyn did not campaign strongly enough for Britain to remain in the European Union.

In a candid article for The Observer, Khan wrote: By every available measure, if Jeremy remains as leader, Labour is extremely unlikely to win the next general election. The hopes of the members who have joined our party would be dashed again.

Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organise an effective team, and has failed to win the trust and respect of the British peopleJeremys personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record  and the Labour party is suffering badly as a result.

He has lost the confidence of more than 80% of Labours MPs in parliament  and I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this, wrote Khan, who had proposed Corbyn as the leader during the September 2015 leadership election.

Corbyn and Smith have appeared in television debates in recent days. Corbyn is widely expected to win the election due to the overwhelming support he enjoys among members of the party, even though most party MPs have passed a non-confidence motion against him.

Pitching for Smith, Khan wrote: "On the big issues Owen and I have been on the same side of the argument, including opposing the Iraq War. Owen led and - more importantly - won our fight against the Tories' unfair cuts to tax credits and disability allowances, which would have hurt the most disadvantaged people in our society.

Smith responded to the article by saying he was hugely honoured to have Khan's support:

Sadiq ran a fantastic campaign to win power for Labour in London this year, securing a huge mandate from party members and the electorate. Since that election we have already seen what a difference Labour can make when we hold power.

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At least 51 people were killed when a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 attacked guests dancing on the street at a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border late on Saturday, the Turkish President said.

The attack was the deadliest in a series of bombings in Turkey this year, and President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday Islamic State was likely behind it. Turkey faces multiple security threats from militants at home and from Syria.

Initial evidence suggests it was a Daesh attack, Erdogan said, using an Arabic name for the hardline Sunni group, during a visit to Gaziantep after the attack. He said 69 people were in hospital and 17 were heavily injured.

Islamic State has been blamed for other attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions. The deadliest one was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists in Ankara.

Saturdays attack comes with Turkey still in shock just a month after Erdogan and the government survived an attempted coup by rogue military officers, which Ankara blames on US-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen has denied the charge.

Saturdays wedding party was for a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, it said, and the groom was among those injured. The bride was not hurt, one local official said.

Celebrations were ending at the traditional henna night party, when guests have decorative paint applied to their hands and feet. Some families had already left when the bomb went off but women and children were among the dead, witnesses said.

Blood and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit. Women in white and checkered scarves cried, sitting crosslegged outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives.

The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing, said 25-year-old Veli Can. There was blood and body parts everywhere. We want to end these massacres, witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. We are in pain, especially the women and children.

FUNERALS, FORENSIC TESTS

NATO member Turkey is a partner in the Western coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, allowing US jets to fly attacks against the group from its air bases. It has also backed some rebel groups in Syria.

Syrian rebels were preparing to launch an operation to capture a town held by Islamic State at the border with Turkey, a senior Syrian rebel said on Sunday.

Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, some weeping at coffins draped in the green colour of Islam, local television images showed. But other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

In Gaziantep, the chief prosecutors office said they had found a destroyed suicide vest at the blast site.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbuls main airport in June.

Violence has also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed the PKK.

Turkey began air strikes against Islamic State last July, in the weeks after a peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targeting PKK targets in northern Iraq.

Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shelling from Islamic State territory, killing civilians on some days.

On Sunday, ruling AK Party lawmakers as well as Erdogan himself emphasised that they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organisations.
One of the top US public health officials on Sunday warned that the mosquito-borne Zika virus could extend its reach across the US Gulf Coast after officials last week confirmed it as active in the popular tourist destination of Miami Beach.

The possibility of transmission in Gulf States such as Louisiana and Texas will likely fuel concerns that the virus, which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly, could spread across the continental United States, even though officials have played down such an outcome.

Concern has mounted since confirmation that Zika has expanded into a second region of the tourist hub of Miami-Dade County in Florida. Miamis Wynwood arts neighborhood last month became the site of the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States.

It would not be surprising we would see additional cases perhaps in other Gulf Coast states, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the allergy and infectious diseases unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in an interview on Sunday morning with ABC News.

Fauci noted that record flooding this month in Louisiana - which has killed at least 13 people and damaged some 60,000 homes damaged - has boosted the likelihood Zika will spread into that state.

Theres going to be a lot of problems getting rid of standing water that could stymie the mosquito control efforts that are the best way to control Zikas spread, he said.

US health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed 1,835 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

On Friday, Florida Governor Rick Scott confirmed that state health officials had identified five cases of Zika believed to be contracted in Miami Beach.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told pregnant women they should avoid the trendy area and suggested those especially worried about exposure might consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County.

NIHs Fauci on Sunday said the conditions of most of the country make it unlikely there would be a diffuse, broad outbreak, even though officials need to prepare for that possibility.

He compared it with diseases such as Dengue, which is endemic in certain tropical and subtropical regions of the world but rarely occurs in the continental United States. In Miamis Wynwood area, experts have seen substantial knockdowns of mosquito populations.

Still, its containment is more complicated because Zika can be sexually transmitted, Fauci said.

This is something that could hang around for a year or two, he said.

The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
The gunman, police said, was Hispanic. His two victims were Bangladeshi Muslims, one an imam, shot without provocation on their way home from their mosque.

A week after the double killing, prosecutors havent been able to offer any theory explaining why the college janitor they charged with the crime, Oscar Morel, would have singled out the two victims.

Was it racial or religious hatred? Or maybe a bubbling up of old tensions between immigrant groups in one of New Yorks evolving neighborhoods?

The answer remains a mystery, but people living in the Ozone Park section of Queens, where the shooting took place, say it shouldnt be taken as evidence of a rift between the culturally diverse groups that share its streets.

Theres tension now because of what happened, said Sumona Kazi, 26, who was born in Bangladesh but came to New York as a baby. She said she was confident that if the motive was hatred, it was the hate of one person.

Our neighborhood  even if youre Spanish, youre Arabic, youre Muslim, youre Guyanese, whatever  were a whole united family, you know? If youre in trouble, were going to go out for you, she said. Theres no hatred here. Theres no religious gang here. Were all friendly.

Located on the border with Brooklyn, just west of Kennedy Airport, Ozone Park has had its bad and better times along with an ever-changing population.

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Danny Perez gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo)

An Italian-American neighborhood for much of the 20th century, its most famous longtime resident was the late Mafia boss John Gotti. Jimmy Burke, the real-life mobster portrayed by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas, lived a short walk from the shooting site. So did the not-yet-famous Cyndi Lauper and Jack Kerouac.

Dramatic change came in the 70s with the arrival of a wave of Hispanic newcomers, mostly from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Then, in the 1980s, came the next cultural jolt with the arrival of immigrants from Bangladesh.

Danny Perez, 46, a school custodian who has lived in Ozone Park since he was 8, said that in the old days, the Bangladeshi and Hispanic teenagers would get into fights, West Side Story-style.

But it was a testosterone thing, I would say. I dont really feel that it was hatred or racism, said Perez, whose family is ethnically Puerto Rican.

And anyway, he said, all that is a thing of the past.

The Bangladeshis are great neighbors, hardworking people. Their kids are respectful. Im glad theyre living here, Perez said. That was a freaking maniac, this guy who killed the imam.

Morel, 35, was arrested the day after the Aug. 13 attack and charged with shooting Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee, 55, and his assistant at the mosque, Thara Uddin, 64, with a revolver later found hidden inside a wall in the suspects apartment.

He has pleaded not guilty.

As far as hes concerned, he didnt commit anything, said his lawyer, Michael Schwed.

The killing awakened memories of similar deadly encounters in Ozone Park.

Two summers ago, an Ozone Park resident with ties to a political party in Bangladesh, Nazmul Islam, was beaten to death by two Hispanic men just a few blocks from the spot where Akonjee and Uddin were killed.

And in 2002, a bat-wielding group of teens killed Bangladeshi photojournalist Mizanur Rahman after a day of fistfights between Bangladeshi and Hispanic youths.

Both incidents prompted rallies and calls for a more robust police presence in the neighborhood now reeling again from the latest violence.

Thats a hate crime, concluded Nurul Hoque, a worshipper at Akonjees Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque. Its not a robbery; the imam had $1,000 in his pocket.

Some worshippers have been demanding stepped-up police protection  not out of fear of their own neighbors, but of anyone who might harbor ill will toward Muslims.

9/11 changed everything ... and now, its changing again in this election campaign, said Hoque, noting the political climate has brought back occasional prejudice on the street, despite a generally friendly mood in the neighborhood. Some people look at you like you came from another planet. And they say, Go back to your country!

Fear of being attacked by a random stranger is keeping Hoques wife from walking to the grocery store; her husband drives her.

Police officials say Ozone Park is as calm as any other section of the city, with no unusual reports of ethnic tension.

Its just basic neighborhood friction  parking conditions, things of that nature, said New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
New York Police have charged a step-mother with murder after a nine-year-old Indian girl was found dead at home under mysterious circumstances.

Ashdeep Kaur was found in a bathtub with bruises on her body after she was seen going into the bathroom with her step-mother, Arjun Samdhi Pardas.

The 55-year-old is suspected of strangling Ashdeep on Friday, the New York Post quoted sources as saying.

Ashdeep moved to Queens from India three months ago. She lived in an apartment with her father Sukhjinder Singh and Pardas that was shared with another couple. Her mother, who is divorced from her father, still lives in India.

A housemate had apparently seen Pardas take Ashdeep into the bathroom, and later come out alone. She then left the building.

Pardas allegedly told the housemate that Ashdeep was taking a bath. But when Ashdeep did not come out for a while, the housemate checked on her only to discover her body. The bathtub had not been filled with water either.

Pardas, who was missing immediately after the body was discovered, was found by police several hours later at another location in Queens.

Ashdeeps relatives have alleged that the girl had earlier complained of abuse by Pardas while her father worked at a local restaurant.

She always told me she does not like to be with her stepmother. Sometimes she got beatings from her, Ashdeeps uncle Manjinder Singh said in a report. Sometimes she grabbed her, threw her on the bed.

Another uncle, Mandinna Singh told the New York Daily News of a similar account of abuse.
Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits, officials said.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the Speicher massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where up to 1,700 recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group.

The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison, a spokesman for the governors office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, told AFP.

The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and justice minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions, Abdelhassan Dawood said.

They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions, he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

The Dhiqar governor confirmed to AFP that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraqs south.
Israel targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip by air and with tank fire Sunday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave crashed into the Israeli city of Sderot.

Police said the rocket hit between two buildings on a road in Sderot, which is less than four kilometres (2.5 miles) from Gaza, causing no casualties.

Army spokesperson Peter Lerner said Israeli forces retaliated by hitting targets of the Palestinian Islamist movement in northern Gaza.

In response to the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the IAF (Israeli air force) and tanks targeted two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip, Lerner said in a statement.

Palestinian health and security sources said two people were lightly wounded by the Israeli fire.

One of them is a 20-year-old (young man) who was hit by shrapnel in the face, said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Security sources in the territory said several targets in northen Gaza were struck by Israeli fire, and that a reservoir in Beit Hanun was destroyed.

Witnesses said a base of Hamass military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in nearby Beit Lahya, was also hit.

Israeli media said it was the first time downtown Sderot had been hit by a rocket from Gaza since the last war with Palestinian militants in the territory in 2014.

On July 2, Israeli air raids hit four sites in Gaza after a rocket struck a building in Sderot. There were no casualties in either incident.
Tokyo protested to Beijing Sunday after Chinese coast guard ships sailed into territorial waters surrounding disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japan said.

Four Chinese vessels entered the waters surrounding islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, around 10.00 am local time (0100 GMT), according to Japan Coast Guard.

They left the territorial waters within an hour, the coast guard said.

The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets.

Tokyo has lodged at least 32 protests through diplomatic channels since August 5 over what it says have been about 30 intrusions by Chinese vessels in the territorial waters.

The director general of the Japanese foreign ministrys Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, Kenji Kanasugi, issued a protest Sunday to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, saying that the ships incursion violated Japans sovereignty, the ministry said in a statement.

Despite Japans repeated strong protests, the Chinese side has continued to take unilateral actions that raise tensions on the ground, and that is absolutely unacceptable, the statement added.

China is also involved in maritime disputes in the South China Sea with countries including the Philippines, but a UN-backed tribunal has ruled that Beijings claims were invalid.
North Korea on Sunday demanded the repatriation of a dozen restaurant workers who jointly fled to South Korea, a day after blasting Seoul over a separate high-profile defection.

Sundays statement was Pyongyangs first reaction to Seouls announcement last week that the 12 restaurant staff and their manager had been released from government custody.

The group had been released into society, the Souths unification ministry said, after the intelligence service had completed investigations into their case.

North Korea claims the group was kidnapped.

A spokesman for its emergency committee set up for rescuing abductees described the ministrys announcement as a mean plot aimed at covering up the truth behind the group abduction.

Keeping them hidden from the public... citing safety reasons shows that the puppet governments announcement is a complete fabrication, he said.

We will continue fighting until we can rescue and bring back our female citizens, the spokesman added in a statement carried by the Norths official KCNA news agency.

The waitresses had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China. They made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years.

While Seoul said they fled voluntarily, Pyongyang claimed they were kidnapped by South Koreas National Intelligence Service and waged a vocal campaign through its state media for their return.

The campaign has included emotional video interviews with the womens relatives in the North, angrily denouncing South Korean authorities and demanding a meeting with the women.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression at home to settle in the capitalist South.

But group defections are rare, especially by staff who work in the North Korea-themed restaurants overseas and who are handpicked from families considered loyal to the regime.

In another high-profile case, the South said last week that North Koreas deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had defected to Seoul.

It said Thae Yong-Ho was driven by his disgust for the Pyongyang regime, admiration for South Koreas free and democratic system and concerns for his familys future.

North Korea yesterday lashed out at Thaes defection, claiming that the human scum had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for the South and had fled for fear of legal punishment for his crimes.

It said the South had brought the fugitive to Seoul to use him in its anti-Pyongyang smear campaign.

Thae was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years.
The United Nations is to get a new boss in 2017 and secretary general Ban Ki-moon says personally he would like to see a woman lead the world body that was set up 70 years ago.

Ban, whose term ends December 31, recently said its high time now for a female secretary-general after eight men have led the UN.

We have many distinguished and eminent women leaders in national governments or other organisations or even business communities, political communities, and cultural and every aspect of our life, reports quoted Ban as saying. Theres no reason why not in the United Nations.

According to reports, there are 11 candidates in the running and five are women.

The decision will be that of the 15-member security council which will recommend a candidate to the 193-member general assembly for its approval.

The security council has held two informal polls in which 12 candidates participated, and in each the highest-ranked woman was in third place.

In the first straw poll, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, who heads Unesco, came in third but in the second she dropped to fifth. In the second poll Argentinas foreign minister Susana Malcorra moved up to third. The former Croatian foreign minister Vesna Pusic, placed last in the first poll, dropped out.

Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who has also headed the UN refugee agency, topped both polls.

Another straw poll is scheduled on August 29. Here is a look at the women candidates:

Irina Bokova, Bulgaria

Director General of Unesco, Irina Bokova, presents a brochure to President Pranab Mukherjee during a function to celebrate World Education Day 2012 in New Delhi. (PTI File Photo )

Among the bookies favourite, the 64-year-old director general of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is the first woman to head Unesco.

Fluent in four of the six official languages of the UN, she has been elected twice to lead Unesco. Bokova champions gender equality, improved education and last year she succeeded in convincing the world body to include trafficked antiquities in a resolution that aimed to cut off the jihadists oil and kidnapping revenues. Bokova wants to see a more efficient UN.

Susana Malcorra, Argentina

Foreign minister of Argentina, Malcorra is Bans former chief of staff. The 61-year-old was also the chief operating officer and deputy executive director of the World Food Programme, where she oversaw operations in more than 80 countries.

Malcorra, who speaks four languages, worked with IBM for 14 years before becoming president of Telecom Argentina. She was named the foreign minister in December 2015.

Helen Clark, New Zealand

Like Bokova, Clark is the first woman to lead UN Development Programme. Before joining UNDP, the 66-year-old Clark served as New Zealand prime minister from 1999-2008.

A former college lecturer, Clark is credited with spurring economic growth and employment generation in New Zealand. Clark is a strong votary of sustainable growth.

Christiana Figueres, Costa Rica

Christina Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (UN website)

One of the chief architects of the Paris global accord on climate change, Figueres was the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for six years. Her term ended in July.

The 60-year-old helped resurrect global climate action after the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen meeting. A career diplomat, Figueres was nominated for the UNs top job by the President of Costa Rica.

Natalia Gherman, Moldova

The youngest of the women candidates, the 47-year-old career diplomat was Moldovas minister of foreign affairs and European Integration from 2013 to January 2016.

Her countrys feud with Russia over the breakaway region of Transnistria, say observers, could see Moscow blocking her candidature. Gherman says member countries need to upgrade cooperation and build strong trust.

(With inputs from agencies, The Guardian)

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Tourists who suffer from vertigo need not apply. The worlds highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened in Chinas spectacular Zhangjiajie mountains on Saturday  the inspiration for the American blockbuster Avatar.

Some 1,400 feet long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans the canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in Chinas central Hunan province.

Visitors flocked to the glass-floor suspension bridge in Zhangjiajie in southern China's Hunan Province on August 20, 2016. The bridge, which opened to the public on a trial basis, spans 1,410 feet and rises about 984 feet above a valley in a scenic zone, making it the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge according to Chinese state media. (AP)

Six metres wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass, the bridge can carry up to 800 people at the same time, an official in Zhangjiajie  a popular tourist destination  told the Xinhua news agency.

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line.

In pics | How China tests safety of worlds longest glass bridge

I wanted to feel awe-inspired by this bridge. But Im not afraid  it seems safe! Wang Min, who was visiting the new structure with her husband and children, said.

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure.

They organised a string of media events, including one where people were encouraged to try and smash the bridges glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it.

A woman does a split on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge in Zhangjiajie. Visitors were required to wear protective footwear on the opening day of the bridge on August 20. (AFP)

Its crowded today and a bit of a mess. But to be suspended 300 metres in the air, its a unique experience, said Lin Chenglu, who had come to see the bridge with his colleagues.

Only 8,000 people each day will be allowed to cross the bridge, Xinhua said, and tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan ($20).

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, and people wearing stilettos will not be allowed to walk on the bridge, Xinhua said.

Selfies on the bridge connecting a valley in China's Zhangjiajie will be banned, presumably to avoid accidents. (AFP)

Tourists lie down on the glass-bottom bridge as a part of the experience of being on the worlds highest bridge. (AFP)

The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is suspended between two mountains in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province. (AFP )

Local authorities have said that one of the summits in Zhangjiajie Park inspired the floating mountain which appears in the American blockbuster Avatar.

A Hollywood photographer visited the area in 2008, taking images which were used for the film, according to media reports.
In the backdrop of the ban on the so-called burkini  a full-body swimming suit  the proposed head of a new French government-backed Muslim organisation drew flak for suggesting that Muslims should be discreet.

Jean-Pierre Chevenement, a non-Muslim who describes himself as a secular republican, is set to take over as head of the Foundation of French Islam later this year. The foundation is being created to better integrate Frances Muslim population, but Chevenements initial foray in this regard has backfired.

According to the Middle East Eye, Chevenement said Muslims need to do their best to fit in, referring to towns that have banned the burkini. So far, the riviera resort of Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet and Sisco on the island of Corsica have expressed their desire to ban the burkini, a decision many have called discriminatory.

Chevenement reportedly told a French newspaper that Muslims, like all French citizens, should be able to worship freely but they must also understand that in the public space where there is public interest, all citizens should make the effort to use natural reason.

Twitter, of course, responded with its trademark levity, with hashtags such as #MusalmanDiscret and #DiscreetMuslim trending worldwide. The Twitterati found new and innovative meanings of discreet Muslim.

Here are some of the best tweets:

'Muslims need to be discreet in their lives'

This isn't a prayer mat; I'm just a big fan of Aladdin #DiscreetMuslim pic.twitter.com/FT8F3yTjRZ  Kirran Khan (@thekirran) August 19, 2016

"Why do you disappear five times a day?"



...To eat my fruits and vegetables quietly.#DiscreetMuslim pic.twitter.com/ddi4mESD0o  Salim Kassam (@msalimkassam) August 18, 2016

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Donald Trumps campaign expenses more than doubled last month, even as the Republican presidential nominee held his payroll to about 70 employees, aired no television advertisements and undertook no significant operational build-out across the country.

Instead, about half of the campaigns $18.5 million in spending was vacuumed up by Giles-Parscale, a web design and marketing firm new to national politics, Federal Election Commission filings show. Its a crossover vendor from Trumps real estate organization.

The campaign paid Giles-Parscale $8.4 million in July, about twice what the San Antonio firm had collected from it over the course of the preceding year. Brad Parscale, the president, is the campaigns director of digital marketing.

The big expense came as Trump put a new emphasis on online fundraising, after paying for his primary run mostly out of his own pocket.

Millions more went to air travel. The campaign paid about $2 million for private jets other than Trumps own TAG Air, which also collected $500,000.

Some Trumps consultants are also well-paid.

Chess Bedsole, the campaigns Alabama state director, was paid $64,000 last month for field consulting. His last campaign payment was for $15,000 in December.

Yet the campaigns payroll remained thin, and there did not appear to be much new in the way of office leases across the country, including in Ohio and other crucial states.

Trumps ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said this month that the campaign had hired dozens more people, including expanding its team to directors in all 50 states. He said they were all on payroll as of Aug. 1, meaning they wont show up in campaign finance reports until Sept. 20.

Trump has relied heavily on the Republican National Committee for conventional campaign infrastructure. Hes boasted of holding the line on his campaign spending. But hes running critically low on time to build an operation that can compete with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

In addition to being ahead of Trump in polls in pivotal states, Clinton has maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads. This week, shell spend at least $10 million more on ads.

Trump made his first ad buy a few days ago, for nearly $5 million in commercials to air across Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Clintons campaign spent $38 million in July, about double the Trump campaigns outlay.

She can afford her higher level of spending, the July campaign finance reports show. Her campaign raised $52 million while his brought in $37 million for the month, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself.

The candidates also raise money for their parties, enabling them to ask for contributions far higher than the $2,700-per-donor limit to the campaigns. Overall in July, Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic partners, while Trump raised $80 million for the campaign and Republican groups.

Trump did bring aboard some new campaign consultants in July.

He paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with GOP opponent Ted Cruz. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.

The Trump filings also show some old ties.

Two weeks after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trumps campaign cut his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 check. Thats about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.

At the time of the latest payment, Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.

The campaign paid Trump Organization employee Meredith McIver, who has worked as a Trump ghostwriter over the years. She took credit  and then blame for writing Melania Trumps speech at the Republican National Convention that included similar lines from Michelle Obamas speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The campaign valued McIvers time, accounted for as payroll from the Trump Organization, at $356.01.
A father in the US allegedly murdered his four-month-old daughter by punching her 22 times to silence her baby talk while he was watching television.

Cory Morris, 21, from Minneapolis, has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly punching the baby girl named Emersyn in her face and chest.

According to the charges, Morris called police on August 13 and admitted he had killed his daughter. When police arrived, they found the 4-month-old unconscious on a changing table.

Morris, who was alone watching the child at the time of the incident, told the police he punched the child approximately 15 times in the face and 7 times in the chest with a closed fist, then squeezed her chest with his hands in an attempt to quiet her.

The Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed the baby died from blunt force trauma.

He later called his mother and his wife and said I did something bad, but didnt tell them what he actually did, Hennepin county attorney Mike Freeman was quoted as saying by KMSP-TV.

Morris told the police he was watching TV when his daughter began making baby talk noises. He took the baby out of her swing and carried her into a bedroom, placing her on a changing table. Morris said he started punching the baby because she continued to make noises.

According to the criminal complaint, Morris was left to care for the baby girl three to four times a week while his girlfriend worked. His girlfriend reported that Morris went from happy to mad easily, and has grabbed her or thrown things in the past.

Family members have suggested there may be mental health issues. These will need to be evaluated during the course of this case, Freeman said.

Morris remains in the Hennepin County jail, with bail set at $2 million.
Authorities in Pakistans most populous province of Punjab have set up a task force to address an alarming rise in child abductions, with official figures recording nearly 2,000 cases since 2015.

Figures released by the Punjab government showed more than 1,200 kidnappings were reported last year. The figures for 2016 are just as alarming  767 children have been kidnapped so far, mostly from Lahore, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar.

A separate police report said 1,808 children were kidnapped since last year. Police claims that most of these children were recovered have been rejected by civil society activists, who allege that officials are giving false recovery figures.

Several videos that have surfaced on social media feature footage of children being kidnapped from outside their homes or from busy shopping centres.

The number of unreported cases is believed to be much higher, as families of victims tend to avoid taking help from law enforcement agencies.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent body, alleges that a number of children end up in camps where they are trained to become beggars. This is a roaring business and children seem to earn more money than adults, says HRCP chairperson Zohra Yusuf.

Punjabs law minister Rana Sanaullah, a senior leader of the PML-N that is in power in the province and the centre, says some gangs are involved in the kidnappings.

The government claims as many as 721 of the 767 children kidnapped this year were recovered and had rejoined their families. However, there was no mention that many of these children ended up as beggars or were left at mazars (mausoleums) across the country where they usually ended up becoming sex workers.

Punjab Police chief Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera says the kidnapping of children was not a serious issue and the matter had been wrongly portrayed by the media because most of the children ran away from their homes due to the harsh attitudes of their parents.

He claims police have recovered many runaway children from railway stations, bus stands and shrines in big cities.
KATHMANDU: India pledged financial assistance worth Nepali Rs 39.97 million for the construction of a new building and a hostel facility at a Sanskrit school in Nepal. The project will be implemented through the Indian governments grant assistance.

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TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made history last November by appointing four Indo-Canadians to his cabinet. Now, hes made some more by giving the added responsibility of being Leader of the Government in the House of Commons to Bardish Chagger, making her the first woman to hold the post in Parliament.

This is a fairly significant promotion for the 36-year-old, first-term MP from Waterloo in the province of Ontario. Chagger was the first Indo-Canadian woman to become a minister when she was appointed as the minister of small business and tourism.

In a brief statement on Friday, Trudeau expressed his confidence that Chagger will be a worthy successor to Dominic LeBlanc, who also holds the portfolio for fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

With her added responsibility, Chagger will be a key player in the lower house of the Parliament for shepherding legislation through the House of Commons. She will face the challenging task of working with opposition parties to further Trudeaus agenda.

Chagger indicated she may opt for a cooperative stance. She told the media in Ottawa, the Canadian capital and seat of its Parliament, I really do believe that we can all work together.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has closed one of its main border points with Afghanistan after a group of Afghans staged a protest and tried to attack the crossing in Balochistan province. The protest was held during a gathering to celebrate Afghanistans national day on Friday.

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KABUL: The Taliban seized the key Khan Abad district in northeastern Kunduz province on Saturday, before it was reportedly recaptured hours later by Afghan government forces, reports said. The province briefly fell to Taliban insurgents last year before it was taken back in a counteroffensive.

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WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday urged African Americans, who have largely stayed away from him, to try him once because they have nothing to lose.

Trump told them they have been let down by the Democratic party, which they have supported and voted for for decades, and they may as well try something new  like him.

Look at how much African Americans are suffering from Democratic control, the nominee told supporters, mostly whites, at a rally in Michigan.

To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose? he asked, straying from the speech scrolling on the teleprompter.

Then he ad-libbed some more: You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?

That was awkward. The headline of a Washington Post analytical piece caught it well: Its hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote.

Though he went off-script in this instance, this was a theme Trump had essayed the day before in North Carolina where he asked for a chance, making the same you-have-nothing-to-lose argument.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons campaign hit back saying African Americans had everything to lose by supporting a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President and calling Trump someone who courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of colour.

Trump is struggling with non-white votes, having antagonised Hispanics with his comment early in the race about Mexicans being criminals and rapists.

He has done no better with African Americans. At a campaign rally in California in June, he called out to a black supporter saying, Look at my African American over there.

Trump has gone on to claim in his bombastic manner that if the community gives him a chance, he will do so much for them he will be polling at 95% support from the community after four years. For now, however, he is getting only 1% nationally to Clintons 85%, according to a Fox News poll earlier this month. In key swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania, he is scoring zero.

Among Hispanics, Trump is trailing Clinton by 60 points.

He is running 5.7 points behind his Democratic rival in the RealClearPolitics average of polls nationally, and is fighting a growing perception that his campaign is in trouble.

He parted ways with his campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Friday, two days after naming Stephen Bannon, a hard-charging media executive, his campaign chief executive officer.
ISTANBUL: Turkey wants to repair its ties with Egypt, after relations soured over the ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi in 2013, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday. Relations between Ankara and Cairo took a nosedive after the Egyptian military deposed Morsi in 2013. Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, had been a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling Justice and Development Party-led government. Erdogan repeatedly condemned the ouster as a coup detat against Morsi, and in a show of solidarity he has often flashed the four-finger Rabaa hand salute seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will release a spacecraft soon to examine Bennu, the asteroid. The OSIRIS-REx mission announced Wednesday that it would depart on Sept 8 and come back in 2023.

The launch is expected to happen from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, travel 1.2 billion miles to 101955 Bennu and facilitate the collection of rocks and pebbles, according to the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security, Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-Rex.

Bennu, discovered in 1999, crosses the earth's orbit once in six years. Arizona University scientists explained that Bennu would travel between the earth and the moon, close enough to get affected by the earth's gravity. Being 1,600 feet in diameter, it would travel almost within 186,000 miles of Earth by 2135. It is said to be closer to the earth than the moon.

Although the chance of getting hit by Bennu is slight, the possibility would be strong enough at 1 in 2,500. Such a collision would be 200 times that of Hiroshima atomic bomb or equivalent of 3 billion tonnes of high explosives.

The asteroid is composed of carbonaceous rock that holds some revealing secrets of life in the solar system. Bashar Rizk, senior staff scientist on the OSIRIS-REx team, explains, "This kind of object is what we think at least seeded the Earth with the proto-materials for life, if not life itself."

Rizk estimated that the impact of such an asteroid would be quite devastating:

"Y]ou'd probably die; either the air-blast, the fireball or the collapsing building that you're inside, stand a good chance of killing you. ... 90 percent of trees would be blown down, the remainder stripped of branches and leaves and everything ignites: your clothing, grass, trees, newspaper, plywood. Your body would suffer third-degree burns just from standing there, watching Bennu fragments come down and vaporize."

However, the collision is not likely to happen. The OSIRIS-Rex team will throw more light on the incident.

YouTube/NASAGoddard

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It is possible for consciousness to persist even after the body dies, confirm British scientists, who examined 2,060 patients from the UK, America and Austria. About 40 per cent of the patients said that they could remember some kind of awareness, though they had been declared "dead" for a while.

It is not true that the brain ceases its activity 30 seconds after the heart stops beating. Awareness does not cease at the same time, say the scientists.

According to Dr Sam Parnia, Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Director of Resuscitation Research at The State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA, as well as the study's lead author, people may be undergoing mental activity at first after returning to life, but after a while they lose their recall of the time they had been "dead", most probably due to the effects of sedative drugs or brain injury on the memory.

"Contrary to perception, death is not a specific moment but a potentially reversible process that occurs after any severe illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to cease functioning. If attempts are made to reverse this process, it is referred to as 'cardiac arrest'; however, if these attempts do not succeed it is called 'death,'" Parnia had said in a 2014 statement.

About two percent of the patients seemed to recollect an outer body experience, in which they seemed to be completely aware of their environments. However, half of them underwent fear, not awareness.

One 57-year-old could remember what happened around him after he suffered a cardiac arrest and seemed to be dying. Whatever he experienced was explained with "such eerie accuracy" that he is believed to be the first confirmed patient who experienced an out-of-body experience.

"This is significant, since it has often been assumed that experiences in relation to death are likely hallucinations or illusions occurring either before the heart stops or after the heart has been successfully restarted, but not an experience corresponding with 'real' events when the heart isn't beating," Parnia explained.

"In this case, consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat. This is paradoxical, since the brain typically ceases functioning within 20-30 seconds of the heart stopping and doesn't resume again until the heart has been restarted. Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events."

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pSbtCX-uDEs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

YouTube/Beyond Science

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Along with his bro Michael Christmas, Cousin Stizz is leading a new generation of Boston rappers to the promised land. Between his 2015 debut mixtape Suffolk County and its follow up MONDA, Stizz has put together a rock-solid catalog of music that is helping him take his talents from Dorchesters Fields Corner to the rest of the country and beyond.

Shea Serrano is a big fan. You should be too. Swipe through the gallery to listen to 10 essential Cousin Stizz tracks: five from Suffolk County, one loose release, and four from MONDA.





Fresh Prince

Cousin Stizzs music has an intangible appeal thats hard to pin down. It just feels right. Maybe its the way that he delivers each syllable with absolute authority. Im the fucking. Fresh. Prince!

Shoutout

The Shoutout music video nicely encapsulates Stizzs affable yet fiery disposition, as he smokes blunts and counts cash and rides shotgun as his friend drives a convertible Jeep through Boston. Paired with an easy, glittering beat, it amounts to pure summer nostalgia. We just wanted to do something cool. We just wanted to show yall what Boston really was, Stizz told Noisey of the video. Im just showing yall whats going on out here. Like thats just it. Same thing with barseverything thats going on is just what it is.

Dirty Bands

On Dirty Bands, a whistling melody somewhere between a G-funk lead and an Arabian flute floats above a gelatinous bell foundation. Stizz is an able hooksmith and Dirty Bands is one of his best. Not only is this hook insanely catchy but it also subtly establishes his credibility. I dont speak on shit that I dont know/ if I seen gotta let em know, Stizz proclaims.

No Bells

Boston has always been one of the United States most provincial cities. This much is apparent in Stizzs xenophobic No Bells. Who you know from out here? Your name aint ringing no bells boy. Dorchester or bust! Ironically, the song has the sort of sleepy, crystalline sound most closely associated with Houston.

Bonds

Bonds is an unapologetic account of Stizzs days selling weed set to a beat as dreary as the Boston sky in February. He elaborates on the mindset that comes with the territory: a quiet paranoia that must be neutralized by an unwavering confidence. Stizzs love of the money motivates him to keep pushing.

Super Bowl

Released at the mid-way point between Suffolk County and MONDA, Super Bowl is an ode to Cousin Stizzs work hard, play hard mentality that has gotten him to where he is today. By dropping the song a few days before the AFC Championship Game and he may have jinxed his hometown Patriots, who fell to the Denver Broncos 20-18.

500 Horses

Arguably the best Cousin Stizz song to date, 500 Horses is utterly loaded with pathos. It begins with a trip to the cemetery to visit a fallen homie. By the time the song ends, Stizz has shown himself to be a truly multi-dimensional character: pensive, dark, money-chasing, and utterly confident.

Gain Green

In case you havent noticed yet, Cousin Stizz really loves money. Gain Green was originally premiered in May on OVO Sound Radio just moments after Oliver El-Khatib premiered YGs Why You Always Hatin?

Reup & Bake

The 12/8 beat always poses a tricky problem for rappers. The most successful takedown of a 12/8 beat was probably Jay Z on My First Song. On Reup & Bake, Stizz takes a soulful triplet Lakim beat and makes it his bitch.

Where I Came From

The rags-to-riches narrative has been well-worn in hip hop, and Cousin Stizz gives it an original spin. Maybe because its he hails from Dorchester, whose streets are less familiar to hip hop fans than those of New York or Compton. Maybe because its he is unflinching and personal in painting a portrait of himself and of his city.
Frank Ocean coincided the surprise release of his new album, Blonde, by setting up a few pop-up shops around the US as well as one in his current residence of London in order to give away a limited number of copies of a magazine called Boys Dont Cry, which was the presumed title of Blonde. Like the album, the magazine looks to be a rare piece of art. People are now reselling it $1,000, reports Complex. The magazine includes some eye-catching photography and a number of fascinating written passages from Ocean, including one called Boyfriend. Another highlight: A poem written by Kanye West, entitled The McDonalds Man. Entirely written about McDonalds, Kanye lashes out at the evil french fries and how they make the rest of the menu jealous, save for one special guy. Do yourself a favor and read the below transcription.

McDonalds Man

McDonalds Man

The french fries had a plan

The french fries had a plan

The salad bar and the ketchup made a band

Cus the french fries had a plan

The french fries had a plan

McDonalds Man

McDonalds

I know them french fries have a plan

I know them french fries have a plan

The cheeseburger and the shakes formed a band

To overthrow the french fries plan

I always knew them french fries was evil man

Smelling all good and shit

I dont trust no food that smells that good man

I dont trust it

I just cant

McDonalds Man

McDonalds Man

McDonalds, damn

Them french fries look good tho

I knew the Diet Coke was jealous of the fries

I knew the McNuggets was jealous of the fries

Even the McRib was jealous of the fries

I could see it through his artificial meat eyes

And he only be there some of the time

Everybody was jealous of them french fries

Except for that one special guy

That smooth apple pie

Kanye wrote the poem in Calabasas. Nabil seems to be responsible for its layout and design in Boys Dont Cry.

Im unsure what I just read. But I know life will never be the same.

Kanye West
Lil Durk emerged from Cook County court victorious on Friday after a judge cleared him of violating probation when he was arrested on felony gun charges, the Chicago Tribune reports. The judges decision led prosecutors to drop those charges.

I was kind of nervous, but I aint ever nervous about the truth because I know God is on my side and I got a good lawyer, Durk said after the hearing.

Judge Timothy Joyce ruled that while prosecutors Durk knew guns were present at a home he was renting, they failed to prove he more than likely had possession and control of the weapons. In 2014, police traveled to the home with the intention of arresting a man on charges of first-degree murder. They noticed a pair of .45-caliber handguns sitting on the kitchen counter when Durk walked downstairs to greet them.

Thank god for my lawyer who been there since day one Sam Adams Jr., Durk captioned an Instagram photo of him alongside his lawyer after the hearing. I beat my case today now I can get to the money and growth of my career and being a father to my kids thank you God 2x.

Lil Durk
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It was a rare event that united a country in celebration of beloved musical icons  and elicited universal praise for our national broadcaster.

The CBC served as the exclusive broadcaster for The Tragically Hip's live performance Saturday night in Kingston, Ont. The media corporation gave fans many ways to watch the show: on TV, online, through YouTube and Facebook, and on mobile via the CBC Music app.

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And Canadians made the most of it:

Big screen covering a house, torches & lawn chairs in the park & the hood comes out for love & history. #TheHippic.twitter.com/qDXuB2CE3f  Tabatha Southey (@TabathaSouthey) August 21, 2016

Sort of appropriate to watch the live stream of Gord Downie's final concert here at this place. #TheHippic.twitter.com/mQVuNBAYIo  Olivia Chow (@oliviachow) August 21, 2016

Even from around the world:

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Our own editors were watching the live stream from special places.

At a Chinese banquet with 800 ppl celebrating Cdn immigration... Discreetly watching #thehip under the table pic.twitter.com/kiGfPLlNs8  Zi-Ann Lum (@ziannlum) August 21, 2016

According to the CBC, the show will not be rebroadcast or available on demand. But even that hasn't dampened the sentiment behind this special Canadian moment.

Not only were we moved as a country by the music many know by heart, but viewers dug the fact the show was just pure, uninterrupted Hip.

Almost three hours long.

As a Canadian living in the US thanks for the CBC's impressive 3 hour teleportation device that reached out and pulled me home.#thehip  alexander beeser (@sandysanBee) August 21, 2016

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No commercial breaks.

He has terminal cancer and has been singing since for almost 3 hours. And the @CBC is going without commercials. Wow.#TheHip  Kathleen Pye (@KathleenCanada) August 21, 2016

Kudos to #CBC for giving us #TheHip show. No sponsors, no promos, no awkward hosts - just wonderful Canadian magic pic.twitter.com/fz7zKPbosr  Greg (@GregMcIsaac) August 21, 2016

Thank you, @CBC well done... No ads and no sponsors.. True public broadcasting. The way it should be. #thehip  neil (@nweitzman) August 21, 2016

No censorship.

Watching Gord sing Tired As Fuck uncensored on CBC makes me happy to be Canadian. #TheHip#OnlyInCanada  Jay Sharp (@jayberino) August 21, 2016

Can't imagine a more Canadian culmination to a career than dropping an F-bomb on the CBC.#TheHippic.twitter.com/y6EK9SplxY  Dan Dillabough (@dandillabough) August 21, 2016

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Pretty thankful for the CBC tonight. Its got to be a short list of people they let drop F bombs with impunity #TheHip#thehipinkingston  Nino D'Aversa (@ndaversa) August 21, 2016

Just Gord and the band.

Big props to @CBC for a great broadcast. Brought the nation together, which is what Public Broadcasting should do. #TheHip  jamie michaels (@jamiemichaels) August 21, 2016

And us, across the country and around the world.

Unlikely to see anything like that again, any of us. And kudos, truly, to @CBC for letting us see it. Courage, and grace, too.#TheHip  Guy Gavriel Kay (@guygavrielkay) August 21, 2016

Also on HuffPost
Kevin Light / Reuters Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie performs with band members Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair, Johnny Fay and Rob Baker at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to kick off the band's latest

Yesterday on my Facebook page I made a comment about how so many Canadians would be in front of their televisions watching The Tragically Hip. A non-Canadian friend asked me to clarify and maybe write a blog post about it, specifically for the Canadianly-challenged. I instantly thought that I don't have enough to say about the topic, but upon further reflection, it turns out I do.

I woke up this morning in the South of France to the sound of The Hip coming from the living room. As I rolled out of bed, rubbing my eyes, I found my husband with coffee in hand, accompanied by two pink princesses in superhero capes, catching up on what all of Canada was engrossed in while we were asleep.

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Gord Downie, the musical poet of our time, singing his heart out while Canada sang along from the concert venue, living rooms, backyards, and garages across the nation.

If there was ever a good-looking boy sitting around a campfire with a guitar in his hands, you could guarantee there would be Hip lyrics to follow.

I probably can't be called a "die-hard" Hip fan, but you can be sure that I've got their music sprinkled through my playlists to this day. I also have a husband who has lost track of how many times he's seen them in concert.

So when my friend asked me to explain what The Tragically Hip concert last night meant for Canadians it got me thinking. What did it mean to me?

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It meant high-school. If there was ever a good-looking boy sitting around a campfire with a guitar in his hands, you could guarantee there would be Hip lyrics to follow.

It meant memories of being underage and using a fake ID to sneak into one of the most popular, yet dingy, bars in Thunder Bay, where the ceiling would drip down on you while you danced. I was rocking out to "Blow At High Dough" on the dance floor, only to bump into my oldest brother who was doing the same. It was where we moved from siblings to friends and we still rock out whenever we happen to be out and hear that song.

It meant road trips. It meant adolescence. It meant friendship. It meant growing up in Canada.

Today what does it mean in our house?

It means that no matter what continent we live on, and we've lived on a few, The Hip is one of the few bands that can be played in our home that neither party feels like they're making an acoustic sacrifice.

This may have been the last Tragically Hip concert for Canadians, but Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip will live on in our hearts and homes for years to come. They were the soundtrack of our youth and the lyrics of our generation.

This was first published on Canadian Expat Mom. Find more from Lisa on Facebook.

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After last week's debacle (the Kate Nash comeback single was my big draw, which is not the best position to be in, if we're being honest), I'm pleased to say that this week some artists you've actually heard of have released some new music. Would you like to hear this aforementioned music? Brilliant. Would you like to hear my musings on it? Well, you're getting them anyway. It's 'The Big Three'...

1. Mollie King - 'Back To You'

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When you're best known as a member of a pop group (even if the group in question in The Saturdays) it can be difficult to go it alone, and create an individual sound for yourself. Release something that sounds too similar to your group's back catalogue, you can be accused of being lazy or unimaginative. Branch out too far, and you're accused of being a try-hard, or forgetting where you've come from.

Thus we arrive at Mollie King's debut single, 'Back To You'. There's no polite way of saying this, but Mollie's material isn't exactly up there with Zayn Malik's or Cheryl's in terms of eagerly-anticipated solo music, so it feels like she's had to prove herself doubly as hard as her fellow pop group members turned soloists.

The good news for Saturdays fans (they do still exist, I promise) is that 'Back To You' could easily have been released by the girl band, and if it had been, it would be one of their stronger and classier efforts. It's probably closest in sound to 'Missing You' if you had to compare it to a Saturdays song, which I promise I mean as a compliment.

Unlike The Saturdays' hits, though, 'Back To You' doesn't go where you think it's going to. It starts off a fairly standard, twinkly mid-tempo ode to loving a badboy, but by the time we arrive at the chorus, we're somewhere completely new. True, she's not exactly throat-singing in a tent with Bjork, but as pop debuts go, 'Back To You' isn't a predictable one, which is nice. Perhaps the throat-singing will come in for single two, anyway.

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Have a listen to 'Back To You' below:

Now, each week I change things up when it comes to the scoring system, depending on the goings on in the world of celebrity of the past week. This week, I'm doing Matt Damon man-buns. Here's how many Mollie gets:

2. Craig David - 'Ain't Giving Up', feat. Sigala\

The Craig David resurgence feels like it's been going on for 100 years, doesn't it? And yet, it's only now that he's announced that his new album 'Following My Intuition' is coming, which will be his first in six years.

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The album has been trailed with his new Sigala collaboration 'Ain't Giving Up'. It sort of manages to mix everything that's going on in 2016 in musical (it's basically 90s piano-led dance meets tropical house with a bit of Clean Bandit-esque choppy vocal samples), while also reminding us what made 'Born To Do It' such a hit 16 (!) years ago.

It's good. If I were to hear it in a trendy nightspot I might even tap my foot to it. Decide if you too think it's worthy of tapping your foot here:

But the all-important question is... where does it fall on the Matt Damon man-bun scale?

3. Ellie Goulding - 'Still Falling For You'

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The soundtracks to the first two Bridget Jones films were properly, properly good. Geri Halliwell's 'It's Raining Men'. Robbie Williams' 'Misunderstood'. Jamelia's 'Stop'. Gabrielle's 'Out Of Reach'. So when the upcoming third film, 'Bridget Jones's Baby' was announced, I got all excited wondering which modern-day popstars would be recruited this time around.

I should have seen this coming.

Ellie Goulding is not for everyone, of course. And if you fall into the camp of people who can't stand her, then 'Still Falling For You' isn't going to be for you. The first couple of verses have that oh-so-divisive style of singing (and, indeed, pronouncing words) that rubs some people right up the wrong way, but has also made Ellie one of the most recognisable stars in British music today.

The verses are very stripped back and quiet and, yes, a bit twee but then IN COMES THE CHORUS, and suddenly my annoyance (sorry I'm not being very impartial am I) subsides. "Just like that", she sings, and she's right - we're suddenly transported to a very different song, with crashing drums and "oh oh oh"s and ACTUAL ENUNCIATION.

This song is quite probably going to be massive and people you don't really like are going to have it as the first song at their wedding. So basically, get into it. Here it is:

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And if you liked that, you'll love the sight of Matt Damon's man-bun repeated three times one after the other, with enough space for two more next to it:
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Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there's a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity.

Some days are good days, others are bad days and the worst are dysphoria days. Dysphoria is indiscriminate, the days when you think you'll be absolutely fine it suddenly hits you. You get up, dress, see the person you want to see in the mirror. You leave the house, grab a coffee and get called "darling"...and then dysphoria hits. The guy you saw in the mirror doesn't exist, because no-one else sees him. The woman who smiled back at you earlier has disappeared as your height is read as "man". And your good day is turned upside down, inside out...it's over.

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Yesterday was one of those days. By the end of it I was lying in bed at 1am desperate to escape my own skin because it just. doesn't. fit. This isn't the uncomfortable feeling that comes with carrying a few extra pounds, or having a bad hair day. This is a deep down knowledge that the way you see me isn't the way I see me. This is an incongruence between how I feel and how I look. Every pair of trousers I pulled on emphasised what I see as feminine hips, not the sleek masculine hips in my mind's eye.

However the worst part of dysphoria tends to be other people. I can avoid mirrors, imagine myself how I want, but when a customer says "give that to the lady" and indicates me, when I'm feeling totally all over the dude-look, my heart falls to my feet. Actually I often think this relates to the inherent binarism in society or the fact that people insist on gendering everything (including me).

It is something that crosses my mind most days, especially due to the fact that I will probably never "pass". Firstly, because it is difficult to pass as a gender that is almost entirely unrecognised, and secondly because I will not be able to medically transition towards a more masculine presentation either (male is my back up gender, after non binary). So the thing I identify with least, the one thing I know I definitely am NOT, is the thing I am named daily.

I will not be the only trans* person who doesn't transition in a traditional way. Other trans* people will decide surgery is too dangerous, hormones are too risky, or transition is simply too expensive. What is important though, is that despite the outward appearance, their gender identity isn't questioned. In a collection of essays from queer writers I came across the story of a Russian lesbian called Vitya, who happened to be a man (and uses he/him pronouns despite being female and a lesbian). He had grown up in a country where queerness was quashed and trans* identities were invisible. It wasn't until he met and fell in love with a lesbian (aged 40ish) that he realised he was a lesbian too, just one that was living as a man. Vitya lives as a man, he has no choice (he says) to transition but also no desire any longer. He is in a loving polyamorous relationship with two lesbians and living in community with queer people who accept his identity as a lesbian, despite his outward male appearance. For Vitya, the recognition of his identity is enough, feeling female and being in a relationship and friendships as a female, he has no need to change his body. (I realise this is an exception and many trans* people feel the need to transition despite love and support).

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"my friends relied on the internal promptings and rhythms of their bodies and hearts, not an ideology imposed from outside. They made it all up as they lived their lives."

David Tuller, Adventures of a Dacha Sex Spy

The unrealistic expectations of masculinity and femininity do not only impact cis people. They make the burden of trans*ness even heavier. No person will have the perfect body, few cis men are ripped and strong with all the right muscles and shape. Few cis women have "perfect" proportions or delicate faces. Yet these are the things expected of trans* people. A trans woman is expected to be super girly and a trans guy expected to shun pink flowery things or they're not female/male enough. It's time, in 2016, in the Age Of The Queer to throw away these binary categories of gender.

Unfortunately these things are easier said than done, I know my gender and love of pretty stationary or wearing makeup doesn't make me less manly. However the fact that I need a neon sign about my head to pass as a non woman isn't something that will change easily, and it is something that will trigger dysphoria until I find a way to overcome it. The perfect body doesn't exist, just as the perfect trans* person doesn't exist. We will overstep boundaries and make you feel uncomfortable until you come to realise that your recognition of your man/womanhood is not the be all and end all.
AFP via Getty Images

'It is August, the silly season,' I said. 'It's when the sensible are on holiday and the foolish are left in charge.'

These were my words to my sister when she told me about the man in Cannes who banned women from wearing the burkini at the beach. To my disgust, it turns out that the man from Cannes isn't some jumped up nobody, but actually the elected Mayor.

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But what is the burkini, you ask?

The burkini is the all over swimwear that looks very much like a scuba diving suit. It is the preference of Muslim mothers who must follow their small children into the sea to make sure that they don't drown whilst they frolic in the waves.

It is the preference of pale skinned women, most probably redheads, who must also follow their children into the sea, and must try to:

1. Safeguard against skin cancer

2. Avoid looking like a beetroot after an hour

It is also the preference of that Domestic Queen, Nigella Lawson, who wears it to avoid turning her cream coloured skin into one that resembles her morning latte.

Now, however, thanks to a middle aged, white man called David Lisnard, aka, the Mayor of Cannes, none of these women can wear a burkini because the man has banned it on the grounds that he deems it inappropriate clothing for the beach.

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Interestingly, this French Mayor who publicly comments on women's clothing is no different to some Muslim men (minority, I emphasize) who have lectured me/advised me/wagged their finger at me to wear the hijab? These are not members of my family but complete strangers or acquaintances who tried to raise their own self importance by telling me what to wear.

It was my Nannyma, my rock and guide to whom I dedicated my novel Secrets of the Henna Girl to who once told me some real truth. 'When a man feels powerless and inadequate within his own peer group,' she said in all her wisdom, 'he will try to bully women to make himself feel important. He might not be able to gain the respect of his peers, but hey ho, at least he can push the women around by telling them what to wear, what to do, when to speak, and where to walk.'

All these men suffer from the Entitlement disease which comes with the male belief that the Y chromosome gives them the right to dictate their preferences on us women. I have always dismissed such Muslim men as insignificant nobodies who cannot affect me or my choices.

Sadly, the power that the mayoralty affords David Lisnard does affect my choice.

I choose to be a Muslim woman who does not wear the hijab. That is my choice, a choice that the western world with all its ideals has granted me. The choice that comes from the fundamental belief that I, and only I can choose what to wear and what not to wear. No religious or political body in the western world can force me to wear the hijab.

Why then has my choice to wear a burkini in Cannes been taken away from me?

Why must I accept an extremely right wing man's interpretation of what is an appropriate amount of clothing for my body?

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Has he ever thought about the fact that I may not wish to resemble a withered kebab after spending four hours on the beach? I spend a fortune on anti aging creams. Why would I want to reverse the magic of L'Oreal and Garnier just so I can fit in with French women whose skin is either lobster pink, or bordering on the leather look (which will never be in fashion no matter how long Donatella Versace wears the look).

Again, how is this French man different to the Muslim man who thought he was flattering me when he said the hijab would increase my beauty?

As the human rights activist and author Arundhati Roy has said: 'When, as happened recently in France, an attempt to coerce women out of the burqa rather than creating a situation in which she can choose what she wishes to do, it's not about liberating her, but about unclothing her. It becomes an act of humiliation and cultural imperialism. It's not about the burqa. It's about the coercion. Coercing a woman out of a burqa is as bad as coercing her into one.'
Each August 20, Moroccans commemorate the return of the late Sultan Mohammad V from his exile to Madagascar by French colonial authorities. The scion of a centuries-old throne, he went on to lead his people to independence in 1956 and establish the modern state which his grandson, Mohammed VI, now leads.

This year, as is customary, the present King gave a speech. In describing Morocco's place on a continent in flux amid a world in turmoil, he spoke to the scourge of terrorism and the challenges of development; the meaning of patriotism and the duties of Moroccan emigres; and the importance of reconciliation and renewed partnership, whether between nations or among religious faiths.

Many Moroccans were moved by the speech in ways that are not easily explained to outsiders. It could have been the gentle ruler's assonant evocation of a galvanizing narrative of Moroccan oneness that still resonates, even among the youngest generations. It may have been the plain old-fashioned sight of a head of state reading a speech, flanked by family and a flag -- no teleprompter, no fancy production values. But in addition to striking a chord among his own population, he also made some points with broader political significance in Africa and beyond.

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It was noteworthy, for starters, that the King made a point of stressing the longstanding ties of amity between Morocco and its neighbor, Algeria, engraved during some of the moments in history that mattered most to both countries. He noted that the period of postcolonial resistance in Africa "was characterized by coordination and solidarity between the leaders of the Moroccan resistance movement and the Algerian Liberation Front. The Moroccan resistance movement provided moral and material support to the Algerian revolution which, at the time, was facing a fierce campaign by colonial forces seeking to quash it before it celebrated its first anniversary. That uprising and that solidarity breathed new life into the Algerian revolution, and the two countries also played a major role in the liberation and independence of Africa."

These remarks are meaningful in the context of longstanding tensions between Algeria and Morocco. They date back to Soviet days and still fester now in the Saharan desert -- where an Algerian-backed militia, the Polisario, remains armed to the teeth and steadfast in laying claim to half the map of Morocco. But there are indications that Algiers in recent months views the conflict's role in destabilizing North Africa and the Sahel, coupled with economic malaise across the region, as reasons to join Morocco in settling the matter under UN auspices. It would seem that in his Saturday speech, King Mohammed VI wanted to send a signal to the Algerian government that he welcomes the opportunity to mend strained relations.

The remarks also tied into a lengthier discussion of Morocco's growing role in the broader continent of Africa. As I have previously noted, over the past three years the King has paid numerous and repeated visits to countries small and large across the African continent. Accompanying him were teams of Moroccan industrialists, social entrepreneurs, security sector personnel, and religious leaders. From Mali to Senegal to Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, these whirlwind deployments have been translating into new infrastructure and human development projects, business investments, security partnerships, and support for moderate Islamic leadership strands as a counterweight to extremist groups. Earlier this summer, Morocco made a landmark decision to send its own delegation to the African Union, after having departed the organization 30 years ago in protest over its support for the Polisario.

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In his speech, the King segued thematically from the statement of outreach to Algeria to his broader aspirations for pan-African integration. "For Morocco, Africa means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent," he said. "Africa also means sincere affection, appreciation, close human and spiritual relations as well as tangible solidarity. ... Morocco does not view Africa as a market for the sale and promotion of Moroccan products, or as a continent for making quick profit. We see Africa as a forum for joint action, for promoting development in the region, and for serving African citizens." He also reiterated Morocco's commitment to tending to the needs of refugees in his country from south of the Sahara.

The subject of terrorism came up as the King transitioned from the issue of migrants to his own country to the relationship between migration and terrorism in Europe. In a first for an Arab leader in recent memory, the monarch called upon Moroccan diaspora communities in Europe and elsewhere to "remain firmly committed to their religious values and to their time-honored traditions" in confronting terrorism personally. He urged them, as well, to serve as "staunch advocates of peace, concord and co-existence in their country of residence." Though perhaps unique for an Arab leader, the statement was also of a piece with numerous efforts waged by the Moroccan monarchy to appeal to its own diaspora to reject violence and terrorism. Another example was this program, aired on Morocco's Essadisa Islamic satellite television network, based on the proceedings of an anti-extremism conference at a Moroccan mosque in Frankfurt, Germany:

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One of the vilest murders ever committed in New York City was revisited this week on CBS 48 hours. The case of the death of Jennifer Levin was examined on its 30th anniversary questioning once again her death and how could her killer Robert Chambers get more time (nineteen years) for his drug conviction when he returned to society than the 5 to 15 sentence he originally received when he brutally murdered her. I wrote about this in my new memoir "This Side of Freedom: Life after Clemency":

In 2007 Governor Eliot Spitzer created the NYS Commission of Sentencing Reform to make a comprehensive review of New York's sentencing structure, practices, and the use of alternatives to incarceration. The 11 member Commission was chaired by Denise E.O'Donnell, Assistant Secretary to the Governor for Criminal Justice and the Commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services. A series of meetings were to be conducted where the sentencing experts were to provide an in-dept review of New York's sentencing structure and practices.

One of the issues they were to study was the Rockefeller Drug Laws. The panel was to hear from testimony from a wide range of speakers including politicians, activists and treatment providers. Meetings were to be held at three locations which were in NYC, Albany and Buffalo. Gabriel Sayegh our State director for the Drug Policy Alliance who was running the New York project for reform asked me if I would testify at the hearing. I thought about it but had mixed feelings going in front of a panel of legislatures and other officials and telling my story. I remember doing this when I first came out of prison going up to Albany to meet politicians face to face and begging them to help change the laws.

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I remember as clear as a bell going to a meeting with assembly members who listened to a group of us. One by one we gave passionate reasons why the laws should be changed. The when I was telling my story Joe Lentol a Democratic Assemblyman out of Brooklyn stopped and interrupted me. "I hear you" he said But if I try to change the laws I would look soft on crime and my constituents would not vote for me and I would lose my job. I realized at that point I was wasting my time and decided to try and do something different that would make a difference. It was then I realized that I would need to change public opinion in order for any politician to go out on the limb. I then co-founded the NY Mothers of the Disappeared and we went on to generate a tremendous amount of publicity through human interest stories.

I knew I needed to generate some press our way for those hearings in order to influence those sitting on the Commission. So I began to search for a hook to use in my messaging and to my surprise I looked no further than the front page of the NY Post when I saw the strangest pick for me to use. A photo of the infamous Robert Chambers adorned its cover. Chambers had served 15 years in prison for the notorious murder of Jennifer Levin in 1986. He had met the 18 year old girl at a local pub and later that night in nearby central park Levin was found dead. Robert claimed that he accidentally strangled Levin during rough sex. While out on bail a video of Chambers appeared on the internet that showed him strangling a toy doll. This angered New Yorkers and Chambers became hated by the general public. Despite his horrific crime, Chambers was allowed to plead guilty to first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 5 to 15 years.

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Now, 21 years later, Chambers had been arrested for selling cocaine to undercover officers and was facing life in prison under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. I could not fathom such a though, more time for drugs than the brutal murder he committed. When I started traveling around the office and telling people of my thoughts the feedback I got was not great. I often raised eyebrows when I wrote a story because I usually took a path no one else dared to, or wanted to for that matter. As the case unfolded, was apparent that Chambers, along with his girlfriend Shawn Kovell, who was also arrested, were both heavily addicted to drugs. They were described as "crack heads" by detectives who searched their disheveled upper-eastside apartment. Despite significant evidence against him, Chambers has pleaded not guilty to drug charges that could have landed him sentences of 15 to 30 years on each count.

I had no sympathy for him as I recalled the gruesome details of his 1986 case. It ended the life of an 18-year-old girl and caused tremendous grief for her family. But Chambers also has a history of drug addiction. While in prison, he served additional time for smuggling and selling drugs. A year after his release in 2003, he was again arrested while driving with a suspended license and officers found drug residue in his car. He pled guilty and served 100 days on a misdemeanor charge.

I wanted to make it clear that I was not advocating for Chambers despite the fact that he had a severe drug addiction. But I wanted to point out the that the most outrageous fact of this case was that Chambers faced more time now for a drug offense under the Rockefeller Drug Laws than he did for taking Levin's life. There was something very wrong with this equation. I thought about the thousands of nonviolent Rockefeller offenders serving longer sentences than people who commit rape or murder. Many of them first-time, nonviolent offenders who had made mistakes in their lives that were sitting in prison despite two minor reforms made by the legislature in 2004 and 2005...
By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Amid falling international oil prices and economic slowdown, Russia is eyeing to attract Chinese cash. In particular, Russia is reportedly making various efforts to vitalize its economy by luring Chinese tourists, commonly known as youker. According to the August 21st report of Cankao Xiaoxi, a Chinese daily newspaper published by the Xinhua News Agency, Russia's such move seems not irrelevant with China's troubled relationship with its neighbor countries. As Chinese authorities seem to be deliberately regulating Chinese citizens' trips to these countries, Russia is naturally benefiting from this and trying to cash in on this positive trend.

[Chinese tourists in front of the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia./ Source: Search engine Baidu]

What Russia is currently doing to attract Chinese tourists is quite simple. Moscow started to expand transportation infrastructure and the number of hotel rooms near Vladivostok, one of the most popular destinations among Chinese travelers. Russia has also introduced a visa-free regime for Chinese tour groups.

Russia will obviously make microscopic efforts in the future. Russia is expected to promote Chinese interpreter training program and seek to develop tailor-made packages for Chinese tourists. Ultimately, Russia plans to establish Chinatown and special tour program for China tour groups. If this is the case, China and Russia could rapidly increase various kinds of economic interchange as well as joint projects between companies from the two countries.

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Of course, there are pessimistic observations as well. Such observation is not an exaggeration considering the fact that Russia possess weak soft power and it's not a country that manufactures world hit goods preferred by Chinese. Besides, many Chinese tend to worry about the safety of traveling in Russia.
Trump has again shaken up his staff. He now has had as many campaign managers as he has had wives. He previously parted ways with Corey Lewandowski, then with Paul Manafort. Now Kellyanne Conway has taken command of this "huuge" ship of state-- perhaps a vessel more like the Titanic or "Ship of Fools," rather than the "Good Ship Lollypop" image that the Trump camp is attempting to project.

Smart Republicans are jumping ship, some for political reasons and others for moral motives. My advice to Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Reince Priebus is to get in a life boat while seats are still available-- save yourself from this shipwreck.

Or is Trump really changing? Kellyanne Conway has launched a new Trump-Lite to make him look more "presidential." Gone is the orange spray tan, make-up, or whatever Halloween substance he had on his face. Now he uses the Teleprompters that he previously ridiculed, and is out seeking big donors, something he formerly bragged he didn't need or want.

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And a couple days ago, Trump apologized (sort of), telling a crowd at a rally in North Carolina, "Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues."

However, Trump followed that ambiguous mea culpa with "But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth." Of course, that statement was itself a lie. You just can't keep up with this guy.

In fact, in December of 2015, Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact named him the worst lying presidential candidate, stating they have "been documenting Trump's statements on our Truth-O-Meter, where we've rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial." The same month Factcheck.org named him the "King of Whoppers"

The coup de grace of Trump playing president was Friday when he and his current Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence went to flood ravished Louisiana, unabashedly using the flood victims to promote Trump as looking presidential. He did this even though Louisiana Governor Jon Bel Edwards didn't want politicians showboating there. A spokesman for the Governor reportedly stated, "We welcome him to LA but not for a photo-op. Instead we hope he'll consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the LA Flood Relief Fund to help the victims of the storm."

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And Friday Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told ABC News, "It's also presidential today to have him and Governor Pence going to Louisiana in a decidedly nonpolitical event, no press allowed, going to help people on the ground who are in need."

What? "Nonpolitical?" Ha! If not political, why did Trump chastise President Obama for not yet going. "No press allowed?" How did we all see it if no press was allowed? And what did they do to help people on the ground? Trump was seen in Louisiana signing his autograph on his hats, t-shirts, and other paraphernalia-- but did anyone a catch glimpse of him signing a donation check?
You won't see another article like this one anywhere else in the mainstream news media; certainly not in The Huffington Post.

That's because it's blatantly obvious that the media doesn't want Donald Trump to be elected President.

Think about it: with the possible exception of Fox News, Breitbart and Drudge, there isn't one news outlet that isn't supporting Hillary Clinton.

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And if you think Americans don't like our current President or Congress, there's new reason to believe that Americans trust journalists and media people even less than our roundly despised elected leaders.

A 2012 Gallup poll--don't trust polls, as I drive home later ... but this one is to be trusted--shouted "U.S. Distrust in Media Hits New High," as if it was unbelievable. It wasn't, LOL, and can only have gotten worse in the four years since.

Turns out that while 60% of those asked had "little or no trust in the mass media," only 10% had "a great deal of trust and confidence" in the media. I read this as 90% of America was not enamored of the press in 2012.

Lastly, 44% said the news media are "too liberal" while only 19% said it was "too conservative." (What, I like to imagine are those clueless 19% like?)

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All of this stale data gives us some idea of precisely why you won't see an article taking this thrust or political orientation anywhere else. Why is this important? Figure it out.

Just as I watch Maddow, Matthews, Todd and other Leftist "journos," so too should Liberals read this if only to find out what the enemy is thinking.

It also speaks to why I am one of the only--if not the only Conservative writer on HuffPo. (Great thanks for this go out to Arianna Huffington for her foresight.)

Here now, the Five Reasons:

1. Donald Trump's Campaign Rallies--nothing can top a Trump Rally. I've been to both a Trump and Clinton Rally and they are night-and-day different.

Hillary's event was in a gymnasium, poorly attended, had an audience that needed constant prodding. At the last minute, a bunch of unrelated crowd-fillers were scooted in awkwardly and trained up to cheer when cued. There were no protesters, as if nobody has anything to protest Hillary about. And Hillary's speech was wooden, shrill and without passion.

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Compare this to the organized, excited buzz of a Trump Rally. Over 4500 people filling a 4000-capacity nightclub. with thousands of disappointed yet still excited Trumpers outside who couldn't get in but waiting anyway.

Inside Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Women, Gays (many holding 'Blanks' for Trump signs, that's how I knew), pregnant women and lots of children, running around and allowed to have fun and play. It was a safe environment with people who exhibited manners and seemed to make room for each other.

The press at the event I attended reported "thousands of anti-Trump protesters." I went to investigate. What I saw were a very motley crew of approximately 75 miscreants, uncoordinated and unable to intelligently describe what was wrong with Trump or what their gripes were. A reasonable conversation was impossible. Turns out, these poor souls were bused in, given $20 and a sandwich for their trouble. Or to start trouble. Pathetic.

It's the first event I've been to in my life that started with The National Anthem, a benediction prayer AND The Pledge of Allegiance. (A commentary on the current state of our country is the fact that I hadn't spoken the Pledge since I was a grade-schooler--a horrible situation.) There were American flags festooned all over the place, unlike the first night of the DNC.

And when Donald Trump spoke, people listened. When people protested, he asked them to leave until the audience took that upon themselves, chanting "Trump, Trump. Trump" until the interrupters left on their own, gladly.

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All in all, Trump has created something really special with his rallies. Something no other political candidate has replicated ever, because Trump's one of a kind. The difference in his rallies is one of the things that will get him elected.

2. Trump is FUNNY; People Like Funny. And, Hillary is Anything But--Who would you rather listen to? Follow? Someone funny or someone shrill? I know my answer. I can't stand Hillary's nasty, high-pitched tones and absurd paranoia. She's got a congenital deficiency in the Truth Hormone and is currently on public trial on a number of atrocities. So that's really not funny.

On the other hand, we have Trump who makes me laugh about every other paragraph of his speeches. This is most obvious at his rallies when he tells a protester to "go home to Mommy" or "You're so politically correct, you're a real beauty." Trump crowds wait for his humor and react with glee.

This Trump Humor will serve him well when the debates begin. Hillary will have only accusations, meanness and unsupported claims to hurl at Trump. In the meantime, Trump will castigate Hillary with humor, cheerfulness and fun-poking which she cannot counter.

Trump may be behind in the polls now, but just Like Ronald Reagan versus Walter Mondale with his elegant yet campaign-piercing "I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience" lightning-bolt, Trump is filled with these kinds of retorts that will eviscerate Hillary in the debate. There's no way for her to prepare. Nobody can fill-in for Trump during her mock preparatory debates. She's done once the debates start. Trump wins every one of the three without even breaking a sweat.

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Another good yardstick is likability. People I know who have met Trump (including myself) seem to like him, some immensely. Hillary not so much. People don't respond to Hillary's known backstage personality because she's cold, calculating and absolutely ruthless. I reference the book, "Unlikable."



3. The Polls Are Not To Be Trusted--Who conducts these polls anyway? The aforementioned news media, generally in partnership with an academic institution of some kind. Oh, there's another Liberal audience that can never vote anything but Democratic: Academics. It's no wonder that skewed results are plastered all over our TVs, newspapers and Internet publications when polls are conducted. This is the news media's main, centralized, not-too-secret secret sauce that let's them cheer-lead their candidates onto undeserved victory. The Media has long thought they have Americans' minds in the bag--that they can make anything happen by controlling what and how Americans think including get their candidate elected.

It's about time this media manipulation, 'medipulation' I'll call it, stops.

The one possible landmine of this spinning of the polls by a Liberal media, academics and politicians is that they forget that by putting their candidate ahead when they're really not, they run the risk of their voters staying home and consequently, giving the election to the Conservative candidate they tried to bamboozle. Trump voters are also staying hidden; they don't want to deal with the Liberals' nastiness so they keep to themselves until Election Day. Wait and see how many people come out for Trump; it may be shocking.

I am waiting for this and hope it happens in November.

4. Trump's Spent Virtually Nothing; Hillary Over $100 Million--Here we are in mid to late August and Trump is staying close to Clinton having spent little to defeat 16 other hopeful Republican nominees, get through his national convention with the nomination and finally, begin the general election campaign. Most honest political insiders and campaign people are astonished at this. It's never been done before. So let's not forget it.

Simultaneously, Clinton has spent a hundred million or more (her campaign won't release specifics so you can be sure it's a boatload) just getting past a Socialist curmudgeon, her convention and the start of the Damning of Trump.

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As the news media has ignored how much Hillary is spending, they have a morbid fascination with how much Trump has to spend. Look, Donald Trump is the only candidate in American history who can write himself a $250 million check just to get things started; out of petty cash. This ability is not only sui generis but also bespeaks another underlying Trump advantage: He doesn't depend on outside patrons, lobbyists, corporations and Wall Street, as Hillary clearly does.

5. Hillary's Future is VERY Uncertain; an 'October Surprise?'--Definitely. Hillary's lies simply must catch up to her eventually. There's a simple truth that we all learn as children: that liars always get their just desserts. Even Hillary's base doesn't trust her. Her party doesn't trust her. President Obama doesn't trust her. She, along with her disgraced husband, are unconvincing truth-tellers. They just cannot be believed about anything.

So this leaves Hillary only one competitive option: Call Donald Trump a liar at every turn. Say he's dangerous. Say he can't be trusted with the nuclear codes. Say he doesn't have the right "temperament." And hope all that sticks.

If we are to believe Julian Assange, there will be an 'October Surprise.' The drip, drip, drip of the dual investigations on her email server and the Clinton Global Initiative have taken their toll on her and her campaign and will yield more damaging info in the run-up to the election.

The dreadful Iran Deal and her involvement in the early days of its strategic evolution with also continue to hurt her.

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The Democratic Party, Liberal media and Hillary's own supporters are scared. They try to hide it but they can't. There's good reason for their worries.

If I'm Donald Trump and his campaign, I'd much rather have my opponents all worried about me than the reverse. Psychologically, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy to be afraid before going into battle. Ask a Spartan.

So in conclusion, I don't believe that Hillary Clinton, with all her baggage packed in steamer trunks, can beat Donald Trump.

No matter how much the Liberal news media presses and supports her against one of their central reason for existing--to keep elected officials honest through oversight--people won;t believe them. There's no media oversight of Hillary Clinton. While Donald Trump is constantly scrutinized with a magnifying glass by a rabidly Leftist media.

I could be wrong.

I've been wrong so many times before.

But I don't think I'm wrong here and now.

Let's hope for the future of America that Hillary Clinton loses in November.
(FILE PHOTO) In this composite image a comparison has been made between former US Presidential Candidates Hillary Clinton (L) and Donald Trump. ***LEFT IMAGE*** PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 28: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivers remarks during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 28, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Philadelphia, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Democratic National Convention kicked off July 25. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) ***RIGHT IMAGE*** LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 15: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during the CNN Republican presidential debate on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the last GOP debate of the year, with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) gaining in the polls in Iowa and other early voting states and Donald Trump rising in national polls. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Now that the guilt-clearing is out of the way, it's clear that phase two of the American presidential campaign didn't start after the party's conventions.

It started this week.

And it's going to look a lot like most other campaigns.

With a Sinatra-like "My Way" admission of "regrets, I've had a few," Donald Trump allowed midweek that some of his words have been ill-chosen -- without offering any direct apology to the parents of an American Muslim soldier killed in Iraq whom he criticized, or to any number of political rivals or people in general denounced in hyphenated assaults on Twitter and live.

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And with a sign that even an old yellow dog can learn new tricks, the brash billionaire who has played the campaign rally like a jazz musician, riffing off the vibes of the audience, careering into unprompted insults of opponents and great classes of people alike, has suddenly heeled to the TelePrompTer he long ridiculed others for using like that dog on a short, sharp chain.

Facing slumping polls in battleground states and nationwide, the candidate who prided himself on dominance in the polls throughout the primaries has thrown out the people who were running his primary and then post-convention campaigns and embraced a disciplined set of professional operatives and street-fighters: Kellyanne Conway, a pollster with a record of appealing to the female voters whom Trump has virtually lost, and Steve Bannon, the Breitbart publisher who privately has called the party's leaders "cunts" and has suggested in one interview that he deploys the label of "raging cunt" as a good attention-getter when necessary.

Gone are the regrets.

Trump got over that Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.

Now comes Trump 2.0:

-- A focused assault on Hillary Clinton.

-- An almost technocratic explanation of how he can "Make America Great Again," tackling a regulatory morass governing everything from energy to education and immigration, and fighting the war against international terrorism as well as the war for "law and order" at home.

Yet Trump 2.0 still confronts the challenge of Trump 1.0:

"If we win in the state of Virginia, we are going to the White House,'' Trump said at a rally in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Saturday evening.

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Trump is trailing Clinton by 11.2 percentage points in the average of public opinion polls in Virginia, which President Barack Obama won twice -- the first Democrat since the 1960s to carry a state whose population has changed dramatically since then.

In a state where the average home-improvement task is handled by a hard-working, highly skilled crew of immigrants, Trump complained that Tim Kaine, the senator and former governor serving as Clinton's running mate, allowed illegal immigration to flow unchecked here.

"The Illegal immigrant population has nearly tripled in Virginia since 2000," said Trump, reiterating a familiar promise: "We're gonna build a wall, don't worry."

In Virginia, Trump said, Clinton is "banking on her friend, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, to get thousands of felons" to the polls and vote for her.

Part One of Trump's carefully scripted, post-improvisational speech in Fredericksburg this evening focused clearly on Clinton -- "sometimes referred to as Crooked Hillary" (in his own speeches and tweets) -- "Hillary Clinton will make America poor -- you're gonna lose your jobs, lose your wages, lose your medical... Hillary Clinton will finish off the mining industry for good... Hillary Clinton's energy agenda is a massive tax on the poor."

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And then this, for which those words of "regret" are now archived: "She doesn't have the strength or the stamina."

She sleeps a lot, he keeps insisting.

"Hillary Clinton is a throwback from yesterday," said Trump, which oddly prompted thoughts of the 1992 Democratic National Convention at which the Clintons and Gores took the stage to the song, "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." Trump says: "My opponent is the corporate defender of a totally rigged system and a failed status quo."

So going forward, as the traditional starting bell of Labor Day approaches, Trump, confronting overwhelming odds in the states where the Electoral Vote will be won, and shedding the free-style invective that has characterized his campaign to date, appears determined to press ahead with a far more disciplined assault on Clinton and a litany of promises to make the country better.

Trump, whose improvisational skills still find some outlet at Twitter, asked one night during this week of regrets: "Where's Hillary? -- still sleeping." An associate replied that, actually, she was dining with Bill Clinton on Martha's Vineyard, celebrating the former president's 70th birthday.

Clinton, who enters the general election campaign with the same folks who brought her to the primary dance, remains on message and focus-group disciplined: She will "make sure the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share of taxes," her campaign tweeted this week. Trump, they warned, "will give huge tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires like himself."

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Before I got married, I had an on-again/off-again affair with being single. When we were on and things were good, I loved it; but when we were off, I hated it.

There's a lot to love about being single: you've got freedom and independence, you can come and go as you please, and you can do what you want when you want. You can go out, get laid, and not have to answer to anybody.

It's the life!

If you're not actively dating, you don't have to shave your legs or get bikini waxes on a regular basis. And if you're a guy, you can scratch your balls and fart all you want.

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Now that's what I call freedom!

Being single can be the greatest time of your life, or a hell you can't escape. If you've ever been a singleton at a couples dinner party, or at a wedding without a +1, or dateless at a family function, you know the hell I'm talking about.

For years, a girlfriend of mine has been throwing dinner parties attended mostly by her married friends or fellow school parents. Even though I was single, she would invite me, and I accepted because I adore her. The evenings were glorious events, filled with incredible food and wine, beautiful settings, and fabulous people.

And it was brutally tough to get through.

My singleness made me feel like an outsider, like an alien from another planet. I was neither a member of the married club nor the mommy club, and it was made painfully clear to me especially if one of the wives gave me the stink-eye.

Want to know what hell is? Being the only single woman in a room full of married people.

When you're single, people judge, stare, ask questions, whisper and gossip -- especially if you've been single an eternity like I was. They make assumptions and jump to conclusions. They ask why you're not married or have kids, and wonder what's wrong with you.

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There's a stigma attached to being single, and a word for it too: "Singlism," the technical term for holding negative beliefs about single people or treating them unfairly because of their single status.

Just how bad is the shame of being single? Well, in China, if you're an unmarried female over 30, you're dubbed a "Leftover Woman."

Okay, now THAT'S brutal.

The good news is if you stay single long enough, eventually the questions will cease. When my mother stopped asking when I was getting married and started asking if I had received my AARP card yet, I knew she had given up.

But some people aren't so lucky -- the questions keep coming.

Just ask Jennifer Aniston, the subject of relentless rumors about her marital and maternal status -- stuff of no one's business. She finally told everybody to fuck off and stop speculating about her happiness in a recent Huffington Post piece, For The Record, and I will tell you the same:

You don't need to be married and have kids to be happy, so STFU already!

If you still don't believe me, I've got science to back it up. In her Huffington Post article, Research Says Single People--Wait For It--Live Rich, Meaningful Lives, writer Catherine Pearson cites studies that say single people are doing just fine, thank you very much.

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Clinical psychologist Dr. Karin Anderson Abrell also agrees. In her new book, Single Is The New Black, Abrell, a fellow dating expert and late blooming bride like me, emphatically contends that nothing is wrong with you if you're still single. You just haven't met "The One" yet, and that's OK.

Being single is not a curse or a crime or something that needs to be fixed or ashamed of. It's just where you are in life, and the sooner you stop defining yourself by it, or beating yourself over it, the better.

This got me thinking: while you're looking for love, can you find the

love in being single?

It's possible and here's how:

BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF

Don't conform or change for anyone. Stop apologizing and making excuses for who you are. If someone doesn't appreciate you (or your choices, personality, sense of humor, smarts, values, circumstances, etc.) then they're not for you. Period. Don't waste one minute of your precious time trying to be something you're not. Love who you are, whatever you are.

LOSE THE EXPECTATIONS

If you want to be a happy single person, do yourself a favor and stop pressuring yourself about dating, getting married, etc. Stop checking the time, and tapping your watch-- love happens when it happens and not one minute before. As I've said before, you can have aspirations, just not expectations--they'll set you up for disappointment and defeat.

MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR SINGLE STATUS ASAP

You're single, deal with it. Own it, accept it, and stop bitching about it before you become bitter. The strongest statement you can make as a single person is to live life on your own terms, and show the world you don't give a shit.

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FIND YOUR HAPPINESS ELSEWHERE

You know when love finds you? When you're busy with other pursuits and pleasures. Get involved, volunteer, hang with your friends, find a hobby, do the things that bring you joy. It'll take the edge off being alone and it'll keep your life full.

DO THE WORK

Along with finding your happiness elsewhere, it's important to find your healing too. If you're single, that means you've got time to work on yourself. So go inside, tie up loose ends, resolve old issues, and bring closure to things that might be impeding your progress. Being single is a job, so take care of business.

BE OK WITH BEING SINGLE FOREVER

Single friends, this is a tough one to swallow, but I'm here to tell you that your "Happily Ever After" could be right now. You might be single for longer than you want, or even forever, so you better make peace with it.

When I turned 50 and still wasn't married, I did something bold: I blew off marriage altogether.

On my 50th birthday, I made a life-changing decision. If I was going to be single, then I was going to be the happiest single I could be. I would live my life unashamed and proud; I would refuse to feel self-conscious or stigmatized; and I would never allow myself to feel incomplete just because I didn't have a husband or kids.

I decided to find the love in being single, and it freed me.

Then something weird happened. After my come to Jesus moment about being single forever, I found "The One" and suddenly gained membership to the married club.

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Those days of being single, not shaving my legs, and letting my pubes grow out are now over. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

NOTE TO THE GUYS READING THIS: As I've learned, you can still scratch your balls and fart all you want -- it's called marriage.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
Boo at the Zoo is back

Boo at the Zoo will take place from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, throughout the grounds of the zoo, and is free to the public.
Blog Hinangai

While there is much discussion in Guam about the economic benefits of increasing the islands military presence, the damages/dangers that they represent are rarely mentioned. This blog, a supplement to the Peace and Justice for Guam Petition, is meant to counter that by providing information about the US military in Guam, with the hopes of steering policy away from a dangerous unilateralist course to more sustainable notions of regional development and a strengthening international solidarity.
After the speeches, a life-size wooden carving of a St. Francis Indian warrior was unveiled on the ledge. Wendy Champney gave musket balls found near the ledge were also presented to the North Adams Museum of History and Science. Mary Smead, locally known as Fran Flaherty, who provided an eyewitness account of the siege. Benjamin Franklin, or local historian James Durkee, also spoke at the ceremony. PreviousNext

North Adams Historical Society Remembers The Siege Of Fort Massachusetts

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Historical Society commemorated the 270th anniversary of the siege of Fort Massachusetts with presentations and historical reenactments on Saturday.

Local history buffs gathered at St. the Francis Indian Ledge on Massachusetts Avenue in observation of the 1746 siege of Fort Massachusetts by 900 French and Indians of the St. Francois tribe during the French and Indian wars.

First to speak was Ranger Robert Campanile, who thanked attendees for observing the day and remembering an important day in local history.

"The siege of that fort would be the first historical event for the city of North Adams, the town of Williamstown and the town of Adams. Always remember your first historical event determines a lot of what goes on after that," Campanile said. "In the spirit and in the courage of what occurred that day, on behalf of the militia and the women and children certainly, I hope still exemplifies the spirit and courage of these three towns."

Next to speak was Mary Smead, locally known as Fran Flaherty, who provided an "eyewitness account" of the siege and the events after. Smead, along with her infant daughter Captivity, were among the 45 colonists who surrendered and who were marched to Canada after the fort was burned down the day after the siege.

"We were surrounded by the Native Americans, and when we looked up on the ledge we could see nothing but French soldiers and Native Americas," she said. "All day they kept surrounding us and attacking."

Next to speak was Annie McMillin, locally known as Justina Carlson, who read a poem she had written in 1895 called "Captivity" to commemorate Fort Massachusetts. She said 1895 was a big year for North Adams because the population hit 60,000 and it became a city.

She said there was a restored interest in local history and a campaign was started to build a replica Fort Massachusetts, which eventually came to fruition in 1933.

Benjamin Franklin, or local historian James Durkee, also spoke at the ceremony and noted that Pennsylvanians fought the same enemy under similar circumstances. He noted the bravery of the early Hoosac Valley settlers and noted they even had a hand in the American Revolution.

"Proud and free people are not easily defeated. God-fearing and brave pioneers, men, women and children are always ready to do their duty," he said. "The names of the defenders of this fort and all of our forts will echo off of these hillsides forever."

Craig Chicoine, president of the Friends of Fort Massachusetts, also spoke and noted the efforts through the years to preserve what is left of the fort replica that had fallen into ruin in the former Price Chopper parking lot. He noted now that Price Chopper is gone it is important to remain focused on maintaining the public park and improving it.

"Every historical site has an important story to tell. The story of Fort Massachusetts is compelling, suspenseful, and it speaks of hope and courage and maintaining ones integrity in the face of adversity," Chicoine said. "Its a story of life death and the human spirit. It is a story worth hearing."

He said historical sites are "our most tangible authentic links to our past" and need to be preserved.

Also speaking was Wendy Champney, a local teacher and historian who has written "The Forgotten Ledge of Fort Massachusetts," which highlights the importance of the St. Francis Indian Ledge during the siege.

She said she believes because the enemy was able to witness the forts inhabitants bravery from the vantage point they spared their lives.

"I believe because of the ledge the lives of 22 men, three women and five children were spared because the enemy was able to witness the bravery and the courage of the defenders of the fort who against all odds fought courageously," she said.

After the speeches, a life-size wooden carving of a St. Francis Indian warrior was unveiled on the ledge.

Musket balls found near the ledge were also presented to the North Adams Museum of History and Science.

The Richard A. Ruether American Legion Post 152 of Williamstown provided a gun salute and "Chester," the unofficial anthem of the Colonies, was played by the Drury High School band.

More photos from the event can be found here.
Jennifer Breen watches Tammy Lyn Annichiarico work on some intricate sewing or their new endeavor to make burial gowns for premature infants. These burial gowns are the largest size that will be made. PreviousNext

Women Team Up to Create Burial Gowns for Premature Babies



The gowns are lovingly and delicately hand-stitched.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Jennifer Breen knows shes one of the lucky ones.

The North Adams attorney was able to take her son home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baystate Medical Center, where he spent the first 10 weeks of his life after being born at 29 weeks gestation. She is now able to hug and hold her happy and healthy 15-month-old son Joey every day and put the terrifying ordeal behind them.

But not everyone is so fortunate, and as Breen stayed connected with the preemie community online, she realized there was one thing that made the trauma of losing a premature baby so much worse for grieving parents: not being able to give their child a proper burial in proper clothing because nothing was small enough. She did some research and came across a website referencing angel gowns, where seamstresses were able to repurpose wedding gowns into beautiful burial clothing for these tiny infants.

The wheels in her head turned, and using her own wedding gown to get started, she has teamed up with North Adams seamstress Tammy Lyn Annichiarico to begin Peace by Piece Creations Angel Gowns of North Adams to create free burial gowns for deceased premature infants.

While I was researching, my heart broke, said Breen, who said the statistics about premature babies are staggering.



According to the March of Dimes, a premature baby is one who is born too early, before 37 weeks. Premature babies may have more health problems and may need to stay in the hospital longer than babies born later. They also may have long-term health problems that can affect their whole lives. About 1 in 10 babies is born prematurely each year in the United States.

Been said the need was clear in the greater Berkshire County area, as she could only find angel gown providers in western New York and eastern Massachusetts. So she is doing the legal legwork to turn Peace by Piece Creations Angel Gowns of North Adams into a nonprofit. Annichiarico is doing the sewing, which she has done professionally through her Etsy shop Peace by Piece Creations for years, making childrens clothing and other unique apparel. Together they are trying to get the word out to local funeral homes, churches and hospitals that they are providing this service, free of charge, and also that they are accepting donations of wedding gowns and even prom dresses that can be repurposed into beautiful baptismal and burial gowns and suits for premature babies or even older infants who might need a smaller size. They plan to donate several pre-made outfits to hospitals but also be available to create a custom one should the need arise.

There are children in our community who are very, very sick, Annichiarico said. We will drop everything to be there for them.



A boys burial gown. Anyone who would like to make a wedding dress donation, or who needs a gown donation or knows someone who does, can contact Peace by Piece Creation's Angel Gowns by email at peacebypiececreations@yahoo.com , via Facebook or by telephone at 413-672-1848. Annichiarico said she can repurpose every part of a wedding gown and can even use tuxedos and cummerbunds to make suits for little boys. The women also will accept cash donations, donations of notions like buttons, lace or bows, and donations of nice gift boxes to ship the outfits in.

Been, looking back to the time she spent with Joey in the NICU, said she wished she would have known there were clothing options right after he was born.

I had him baptized when he was three days old because I didnt know what was going to happen to him, said Breen, who was too sick to leave the maternity unit to be at the christening. I saw photos and he was in a diaper and there were numerous tubes coming out of his tiny body. I would have dressed him properly if that were available at the time.

Been doesnt want any other new parents thrust into the terrifying world of the premature birth of their child to have to go through that.

Our goal is to be big enough that if anyone has a need anywhere, we can ship something out as needed, she said. Its a sad place, but I can be strong enough to do this.

Annichiarico said she knew right away she had found her calling when she started making the first gown in her sewing room on the second floor of her North Adams home.

Im watching this outfit fall together. Its finished. I realized what I had in my hand, and my heart feel out of my chest and onto the sewing room floor, she said. I found my purpose.




iciHaiti - Humanitarian : 56% of llegal NGOs in Haiti would be Haitian





Thursday, Aviol Fleurant, the Minister of Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE) that responded to an invitation from the Senate Commission "Planning and External Cooperation" around the NGO operation in Haiti revealed that according to information provided by the Coordination Directorate of Activities of Non-Governmental Organizations (DCAONG), it would exist in Haiti currently 621 NGOs legally recognized and duly registered, of which 56% are Haitian and 44% foreign. According to the report, these NGOs mostly operate in the health sector.



However, what the Minister was careful to address, is that outside of those big legal NGOs, several sources agree that the number of small informal NGO in Haiti amounts to thousands, operating illegally, without control or coordination. Some estimate that 10,000 of these small informal NGO are working on Haitian territory.



Moreover, the Minister explained to the senators that his Ministry was in the process of establishing an electronic directory of NGOs in Haiti and the sectors in which they operate, including their geolocation.



IH/ iciHaiti


















We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
All the signs are there folks if you care to look. We have watched throughout this Orange Summer as Trump has been intentionally pouring gasoline all over himself. Yesterday, in the midst of a campaign crisis, Trump decided to attack Republican leaders that have swallowed their pride and have been criticized for endorsing Trump. That was a lighting of the proverbial match folks. Now we wait to see if this American street vendor puts match to gas and self immolates.



Trump cannot accept a loss on the world's largest stage. That would be anathema to Trump's "I'm a winner" narcissistic identity. It is no coincidence that Trump is already balking at debates. He knows he can't debate policy with Hillary head to head. It's no coincidence that Trump is already calling the election "rigged" just one week after the conventions concluded. He's looking for an out to avoid an embarrassing defeat so he's constructing a "I didn't lose, they stole it" scenario. Trump loves the attention of campaigning but has no interest in the responsibilities and burdens that many former presidents have referred to as living in a prison.
excalibur said: You will note that the Progs were quite silent until they got their talking points. Only they are the only ones buying the BS which they are shoveling. Click to expand...

No talking points needed !!!! I wasn't on the ground during the crisis, but I was in contact (when the phones worked) with friends and family that were. Most of them first responders. I was there in the immediate aftermath. The initial federal response was a ******* JOKE !!!!!! A bunch of pencil necked bureaucrats that had NO ******* IDEA what they were doing.What most people forget is that EVERYONE THAT COULD, left the city and the surrounding areas. New Orleans metro is 1.2 million people. MORE THAN 1.1 MILLION of them FLED THE STORM !!!! This was THE SINGLE LARGEST migration in U.S history. What was left were the poorest of the poor. People who literally didn't have cars, or money to put gas in them (much less pay for hotels and food while traveling).Hindsight is 20/20, but the truth is, it could have been far worse than it was. The entire interstate system was converted to ONE WAY out of the area. Alabama, north Mississippi and Texas had already set up shelters for people fleeing the storm. That means the officials in Louisiana DID THEIR JOBS prior to the storm. They had plans in place and they acted on them.Governor Blanco's biggest mistake was in not SPECIFICALLY requesting troops. She sent a letter to the president requesting ALL AVAILABLE AID AND RESOURCES. Now to any rational, logical, thinking mind, that SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED activating federal troops and requesting guard units from neighboring states. But NOT to the Bush administration. Not only did they NOT activated troops, they never bothered to TELL THE GOVERNOR she had to specifically request them !!!! Seriously ?????? ONE ******* PHONE CALL could have saved an enormous amount of time and suffering. Some aid in the Bush camp should have picked up the phone and said "governor, you have to SPECIFICALLY request troops". But they didn't.And let's not forget, as the levees were failing, "you're doing a great job Brownie" was sitting in a Baton Rouge restaurant emailing his ******* secretary about how good he looked on camera that day !!!! HE WAS THERE, on the ground only an hour away by car (at legal speeds) when the levee collapsed. So **** you .... **** you very much, for suggesting the state and city officials failed in their jobs, when THE HMFIC of FEMA was already on the ground.Were mistakes made ?? YES. Nagin is an idiot and that's all I'll say about that. Blanco admitted her failures and didn't run for reelection. But the ULTIMATE failure was FEMA. They had for decades been a stand alone agency and had in previous situations performed fairly well. But having been folded into HLS thanks to the patriot act, the people now in charge were ******* clueless and at that time they had not faced a serious calamity. And to put it simply, they FAILED !!!!Don't even get me started about the fact Halliburton was awarded the primary clean up and repair projects !!!!!! What a total clusterfuck that was !!!!!
California restaurant owner pleads guilty in tax evasion scheme involving unauthorized workers

San Francisco, California - A Ukiah restaurant owner pleaded guilty Tuesday to tax evasion and harboring illegal aliens for profit, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations and the Internal Revenue Services Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

Yaowapha Ritdet, 56, of Ukiah, admitted she knowingly hired Thai nationals who were illegally present in the United States to work at her restaurants, Ruen Tong Thai Cuisine and the Walter Cafe, both located in Ukiah.

Ritdet further admitted she underpaid employees and instructed them not to speak to anyone about their immigration status. Ritdet also admitted she willfully filed false individual income tax returns for 2007 through 2011, failing to disclose income received from her two restaurants, as well as rental income and a foreign bank account. She also admitted failing to accurately report employment taxes for her restaurant workers, who were paid in cash.

Ritdet is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 22, 2017.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch commended the HSI and the IRS-CI special agents who investigated the case; the U.S. Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division, which identified the underpayment of wages and overtime; and the case prosecutors, trial attorney Charles A. OReilly, with the Department of Justices Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose A. Olivera.
Former Vice President of Wholesale Tool Company Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison for Role in $9 Million Bank Fraud Scheme

Los Angeles, California - The former vice president of a California wholesale tool company was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday for his role in a scheme to defraud East West Bank that resulted in losses of over $9 million.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge Deidre Fike of the FBIs Los Angeles Division, Acting Special Agent in Charge Anthony J. Orlando of Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) Los Angeles Field Office and Special Inspector General Christy Goldsmith Romero of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) made the announcement.

Chung Yu Yeung, aka Louis Yeung, 39, of San Dimas, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder of the Central District of California. Judge Snyder also ordered Yeung to pay $9,618,908.34 in restitution and to forfeit a San Dimas property that was purchased with proceeds of the scheme. On March 30, 2016, Yeung pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and four counts of bank fraud.

As part of his guilty plea, Yeung, a former vice president of Eastern Tools & Equipment Inc. (Eastern Tools) of Ontario, California, admitted that he and his co-conspirators defrauded East West Bank by making material misrepresentations about Eastern Tools accounts receivable and its financial statements to obtain and maintain a loan with the bank. The conspirators created numerous shell corporations to act as purported suppliers and retailers doing business with Eastern Tools, when, in reality, these shell corporations were entirely under the control of Yeung and existed for the sole purpose of creating the illusion of such business, he admitted. Yeung also admitted that the fictitious companies allowed Yeung and other conspirators to falsely inflate Eastern Tools accounts receivable and financial statements in representations to East West Bank.

Yeung admitted that in order to further the scheme, he and others opened post office boxes, phone accounts and email accounts purportedly associated with the shell retail companies, and provided information about them to East West Bank auditors, to promote the illusion that these shell customers were independent entities.

Eastern Tools defaulted on the loan after East West Bank discovered the fraud, causing more than $9 million in losses to the bank, Yeung admitted.

The FBI, IRS-CI and SIGTARP investigated the case. Senior Litigation Counsel David A. Bybee of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
American Red Cross Work in Louisiana Just Beginning

Washington, DC - A week after devastating flooding hit Louisiana, the American Red Cross continues to provide shelter, food and comfort to thousands of people impacted by the massive disaster and will be there in the weeks and months to come as residents recover.

HOW TO HELP The flooding in Louisiana is the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy. Early estimates predict the massive Red Cross relief effort in Louisiana could cost at least $30 million  and this number may grow as more is learned about the scope and magnitude of the devastation.

The Red Cross urgently needs the public to support relief efforts in Louisiana by making a financial donation today. People can donate by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word LAFLOODS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recovery from these disasters.

Our volunteers are tirelessly working around the clock to help thousands of people in Louisiana, said Brad Kieserman, vice president, Disaster Services Operations and Logistics for the Red Cross. Right now we are concentrating on providing food, shelter and relief supplies. But with thousands of homes affected, our work is just getting started. Well be there for the long run to help people recover from this historic disaster.

ONE FAMILYS STORY

Tenisha Longmire and her three young children are safe in a Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge. But her journey to safety was frightening. After running to the store to stock up on supplies, Longmire couldnt get home to her children because of the flooding. Her mother took the kids in, but Longmire couldnt get to them. She slept in her car for several days until she reunited with her family. Then the family looked for a place to stay, but some places said they had no room. I felt ashamed, Longmire said. But you folksthe Red Crossyou welcomed us.memy kids. You folks have been so wonderful. I dont know what we are going to do or where we are going to go, but Ill never forget how kind your volunteers have been to us. Youve treated us like family. Thank you, Red Cross.

RED CROSS RESPONSE

More than 1,500 Red Crossers from all 50 states as well as hundreds of local volunteers are part of the relief effort. The Red Cross is working with the entire disaster response community  national, state and local agencies and organizations to make sure people get the help they need. On Thursday night, as many as 3,900 people were still seeking refuge in 28 Red Cross and community shelters in Louisiana. At the peak of the floods, more than 50 shelters provided safety for more than 10,000 people.

As of Friday morning, the Red Cross has provided more than 32,000 overnight shelter stays since the flooding began as well as serving more than 158,000 meals and snacks with the help of several organizations. Volunteers are visiting shelters to offer emotional support and help replace things like lost eyeglasses and medications. Dozens of disaster response vehicles are deployed to Louisiana as well as numerous trailer-loads of relief supplies to bolster relief efforts. Some of the thousands of supplies arriving include water, personal hygiene items, insect repellant, cleaning kits, bleach and other supplies.
Anand Mahindra and Vijay Shekhar Sharma React to Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover, Here's What They Said
Jimmyb said: The perfect example is the aftermath of Katrina and how the Asian community pitched in and rebuilt their community without government help and started on day one. The communities dependent on the government did nothing because that is how the liberal government has conditioned them in a quid pro quo trade-off of free stuff for votes. Click to expand...

So in essence, it is better to be cruel than it is to be kind. Well, the cruel didn't work after the first hundred years of emancipation, and the kind? Well what we see now, pretty much speaks for itself.Interestingly, the small town i live in, while far from perfect in racial harmony, is by far.... more color blind than the big city in which i moved from. Granted, small towns are no utopia. But there does seem to be more of a community spirit, intermarriage and interconnections between Blacks, Whites, Latinos, pacific islanders, Indians (From India, obviously) Asians and a few middle easterners. So far, everybody seems to do their part helping themselves and helping others when in need, and with as little of divisions as is on obvious display in our bigger cities.Admittedly, only gay people, who live openly here, are still seen as odd by most, but AFAIK, unmolested by any form of hate.What can be had in the US if the politics of divisions and the divisions from politics, were removed.
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Netflix has become such a symbol of success thanks to its championing of choice, providing a vast catalogue of film and television to suit any taste or need.

Presumably, that won't be the lead statement of North Korea's upcoming equivalent, a state-sponsored version that will supposedly see citizens able to stream programs from a set-top box called "Manbang" (via NK News). The move was announced on Korea Central Television (KCTV) with claims the service will allow viewers to watch state-sponsored documentaries, as well as learn Russian and English languages.

The device will also enable viewers to watch five channels in real-time, receive updates on Kim Jong Un's actitivities, and read local state newspapers. Though it will allow users to search for specific programmes with a Netflix-like functionality, the service is in no way related to any worldwide streaming services, and is entirely state-run.

Yet, considering the near-total lack of functioning internet in the entire country, it's a wonder whether this will ever take concrete form or merely serve as another propagandic stab at absorbing internet culture following a visit by British YouTuber Louis Cole. Viewers are meant to be able to use the service not only in Pyongyang but also in Sinuiju, North Phyongan Province and Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province.

One South Korea observer did state the technology appeared to look legitimate. "When judging from the content of the video, the North (appears to have) technology related to IPTV, the anoynmous source stated. "However, it is hard to assess the quality of services and internet network."

Inside the daily life in North Korea Show all 19 1 /19 Inside the daily life in North Korea Inside the daily life in North Korea People reading a newspaper at the metro station Inside the daily life in North Korea Thoughts of the leaders on the tram. They have about a dozen of these on every tram, all with different thoughts Inside the daily life in North Korea Young people training for a big upcoming festival Inside the daily life in North Korea People at the Pyongyang's annual marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea Many stars on one of the trolleys in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea An intimidating poster in a primary school in North Korea. Inside the daily life in North Korea Solar panels installed on a street lamp. Inside the daily life in North Korea A poster on the window next to one of the venues we visited in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Kids playing football next to the Arch of Triumph. After a while tourists were allowed to join, so some of us did Inside the daily life in North Korea Class in an educational center in Pyongyang (where people over 17 years old can attend any classes they choose after school, for free) Inside the daily life in North Korea People waving at me during the Pyongyang marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea People having a great time dancing at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea A metro driver in a metro station in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Fireworks to mark the birthday of the Eternal President Kim Il Sung on our last night in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea My wonderful tour guide at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea One of the parks in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea A person rowing some boats for the day at a river in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea The National War Museum Inside the daily life in North Korea Public park in Pyongyang

However, Amnesty believes that the vast majority of North Koreans have no access to the internet, with the domestic intranet, the "kwangmyong", only allowing access to a handful of domestic websites and email. Only foreigners may purchase SIM cards at Pyongyang airport and make international phone calls and access the global internet.

The country's State Security Department has a branch, entitled "Bureau 27", dedicated to covert intelligence and detecting illegal mobile phone frequencies. Any citizens caught using the smuggled mobile phones to make international calls risk being sent to political prison camps or other detention facilities.
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Tony Blair's former school will provide "porn awareness" classes following fears over the negative effects porn addiction can have on pupils.

Fettes College in Edinburgh has invited an internet porn expert Mary Sharpe to address students there later this year, The Sunday Times reports.

Ms Sharpe is a lawyer and founder of The Reward Foundation, which promotes healthy relationships and has spoken to thousands of young men about the impacts of porn addiction.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

She has already given classes at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh and Dollar Academy in Stirling.

These schools realise the damaging effect hardcore pornography can have on their pupils, in terms of their mental health and their studies, Ms Sharpe told The Sunday Times.

Previous studies have found people who are addicted to pornography show similar brain activity to alcoholics or drug addicts.

The Government has also unveiled plans for age verification on porn websites, set to come into force in 2017.

Owners of adult sites could be fined up to 250,000 if they don't check people's ages.
Free trade between Vietnam and Eurasian economies to open on October 5

Vietnamese products will have better opportunities to penetrate the market of 175 million people.

The free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union will go into effect on October 5, 2016, Vietnam's Government Portal reported August 19.

Vietnam is the first partner to sign an FTA with the Eurasian Economic Union, opening the door for Vietnamese goods to enter a market of 175 million people with an estimated GDP of $2.5 trillion and stable growth.

Under the agreement, tariffs applied to many Vietnamese goods will be reduced, liberalizing multilateral trade. The agreement concerns trade in goods, trade remedies, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property and other joint commitments.

Vietnam will have more opportunities to enhance trade with Eurasian markets when the FTA takes effect. Photo from dntm.vn

The agreement will help Vietnam attract foreign investment in the mining and processing, energy production, machinery and chemistry sectors, which are key strengths in the Eurasion union. In return, the Southeast Asian nation can benefit from this FTA by investing in light industry, petroleum mining and processing.

The FTA will also facilitate exchange of knowledge, experience, experts and labor among member countries. It is expected help improve Vietnams investment environment, making it more transparent and efficient.

Negotiations for the FTA between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, kicked off in March 2013. After two years of talks, the deal was finally signed on May 29, 2015, in Burabay, Kazakhstan.

The English version of the FTA can be downloaded here.

Related news

> Vietnam tries to find its feet in world of free trade

> Vietnam's leather and footwear firms told to join forces ahead of free-trade deals

> 15 Free Trade Agreements in action in Vietnam
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Gloria Hunniford, presenter of Rip Off Britain, was defrauded of 120,000 by a woman who posed as her.

The 76-year-old BBC broadcasters bank account was emptied of the amount days after the impostor went to a Santander branch with two people whom she claimed were her daughter and grandson in June of last year, the Old Bailey heard.

Aysha Davis, a personal banker, said the woman came into the Croydon North End branch in south London and informed her she had a few bob in the bank and had come to add her teenage grandson as a signatory to her account because she had been unwell. Davis was accused of being part of the scam but was found innocent.

Police are still searching for the lookalike and her supposed daughter but Alan Dowie, 18, from Oxted in Surrey, who posed as Hunnifords grandson, has been given a suspended sentence.

Reyon Dillon, also 18, who laundered some of the cash from the fraud, is due to be sentenced next month.

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.

Giving evidence in court, Davis explained she had to google Hunniford to find out who she was and had never met Dowie before he came into the bank.

The name on the ID card was Mary Winifred Gloria Hunniford, and sorry to be stereotypical but this lady looked like a Mary, she told jurors according to a report in The Telegraph.

I had to google Gloria Hunniford and even if I passed her on the street I wouldn't recognise her because she's not from my time.

Prosecutor Sheilagh Davies replied: But shes pretty famous. Jurors then giggled after the defendant replied: In your opinion.

Hunniford was reimbursed by the bank for the full sum after it emerged the scam took place.

A Santander spokesperson said: Santander takes fraud extremely seriously. As soon as we identified this fraudulent activity we alerted the authorities as well as Ms Hunniford herself.

We are very sympathetic to the distress caused to Ms Hunniford for being the victim of a scam and as is our normal practice in a case like this, we have reimbursed her fully for her financial loss.

We have also made significant improvements to our processes to ensure this type of fraudulent activity is prevented in future.
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Extremists convicted of committing terrorist acts in the name of Islam are to be isolated in secure units away from other prisoners  despite the risk that the UK will be accused of creating its own Guantanamo Bay.

The idea of establishing secure units to isolate Islamist terrorists was proposed in a review commissioned by Michael Gove, when he was Justice Secretary, and has been taken up by his successor, Elizabeth Truss. It is the main recommendation to come out of a review of prisons, due to be published on Monday, by Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and director of the charity, Prisoners Abroad.

The Government sees the measure as a way of easing the problems of prison staff and preventing religious fanatics from spreading their ideology among other prisoners. At present, dangerous prisoners are dispersed in eight jails, enabling the staff to move them around to stop gangs from forming.

Recommended Read more The West can no longer ignore the threat of Islamist terrorism

Of the 12,300 Muslims in British prisons, only 131 are convicted terrorists, but Mr Acheson has warned that they make up a hardcore who could be influencing impressionable and potentially violent convicts. Currently, Muslims make up about 12 per cent of the prison population, although are only about 5 per cent of the overall UK population.

Appearing before the House of Commons Justice select committee last month, Mr Acheson warned: There are a small number of people whose behaviour is so egregious in relation to proselytising this pernicious ideology, this lethal nihilistic death cult ideology, which gets magnified inside prison particularly when you have a supply of young, impulsive and often highly violent men, that they need to be completely incapacitated from being able to proselytise to the rest of the prison population,

But when former Prime Minister David Cameron hinted in February that he was open to the idea of confining Islamist terrorists in special units, there were warnings that those units could create a focal point for protests.

Professor Peter Neumann, a counter-terrorism expert at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, Kings College London, said that holding them in one place could inadvertently enable to form a command structure in a way that they could not when dispersed. You dont want to create a focal point for public protests  a British Guantanamo, however much of a misrepresentation that might be  or provide an opportunity for terrorist prisoners to create operational command structures inside prison that might not have existed outside, he said.

But the Justice Secretary, Elizabeth Truss said: The rise of Islamist extremism poses an existential threat to our society. I am committed to confronting and countering the spread of this poisonous ideology behind bars. Preventing the most dangerous extremists from radicalising other prisoners is essential to the safe running of our prisons and fundamental to public protection.
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A son has been accused of killing his mother by putting her in a headlock and drowning her in the family pool following an argument about his medication.

Prosecutors say Denis Cullen Jnr held his mother, Elizabeth Cullen, underwater as she struggled with him at their Long Island home.

Details have emerged of the alleged murder after the defendant appeared in court on Friday.

After killing her, the 23-year-old took her body out the pool and laid it down by a shed before placing a rubber dingy on top, prosecutors say.

Officials added he then stole money from the 63-year-old's purse, before travelling to Manhattan and confessing to his sister.

Robert Biancavilla, from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, said: "He put her in a headlock, walked from the shallow end of the pool with her in the headlock to the deep end of the pool - all the time while she was struggling.

During a court hearing prosecutors claimed Mr Cullen told police he and his mother were in the pool when they began arguing about him not taking his psychiatric medication.

He is believed to have been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia several years ago, and was recently released from hospital.

Mr Biancavilla continued: "He went into the house and took a shower. Went into his mom's wallet, took money out, credit card.

"Took her car to the Cold Spring Harbor train station. Took a train into Manhattan, he met up with his sister. He explained to his sister what happened.

She notified her father. Then the three of them returned to the Lloyd Harbor residence where he was placed under arrest.

"He said she struggled violently and he was very surprised that a woman of her stature could struggle as much as she did." WABC reported.

Mr Cullen faces a charge of second-degree murder after the incident at their $1.9 million (1.45 million) Cold Spring Harbor house on Wednesday.

His mother's body was found after police received a call to check on her welfare.

Mr Cullen's lawyer, Steve Fondulis, said: "He hasn't been convicted of anything so he's not sorry at this point. He hasn't said 'I'm sorry.

His bail is currently set at $8 million (6.1 million).
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A group of Anglican clergy will reveal they have married their same-sex partners despite a ban issued by church leaders.

A dozen Church of England ministers are to sign an open letter urging the General Synod to allow clergy to bless their gay and lesbian parishioners marriages when it meets again in February next year.

Half of the signatories will say they are in a same-sex marriage themselves, despite being forbidden by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and John Sentamu.

Archbishop Welby and Archbishop Sentamu made the decision following the legalisation of same-sex marriage in England and Wales in March 2014.

They ruled clergy could not enter into same-sex marriages and people already in these marriages could not be ordained.

Despite this, north London vicar Andrew Foreshew-Cain married his partner Stephen in June 2014 and was not removed from his post.

But Nottingham Canon Jeremy Pemberton sued for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal after the Church of England withdrew his right to officiate as a priest after he got married in April 2014 - costing him his job at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS trust.

Reverend Foreshew-Cain told the Guardian: Our marriages are legal, celebrated and widely accepted in society.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA

Yet the Church of England behaves as if they are somehow dirty and imposes penalties on clergy and refuses to acknowledge the marriages of those who wish to make lifelong faithful commitments.

This has to stop and the element of fear and hypocrisy around our marriages has to end.

He called on the church to acknowledge the new reality of how Christians think and said parishes who want to celebrate LGBT relationships should be free to do so.

He insisted they were not calling for the removal of the quadruple lock - a mechanism in the Same-Sex Marriage Act which means churches are not forced to officiate weddings - as he acknowledged the church was not ready yet.

A Church of England spokesman declined to comment but told the Guardian they had been conducting shared conversations with over 1,000 members of the church which will inform the way the church conducts whatever further formal discussions take place in the future.

But Andrea Williams, the chief executive of pressure group Christian Concern, told The Sunday Times she believed the letter was an attempt to undermine the authority of the teaching of the church.
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Suspected race hate crimes on Britain's railways jumped sharply following the EU referendum, new figures show.

In the fortnight after the poll, British Transport Police recorded 119 incidents including allegations of racist abuse and attacks at stations, equivalent to eight every day.

The number of alleged race hate offences logged by the force between 24 June and 7 July amounted to a 57 per cent increase, compared with the previous two weeks and an even sharper rise of 78 per cent on the equivalent period last year.

The findings, described by one campaign group as "very worrying", chime with a spike revealed in data from forces around the country. A spate of reported incidents sparked fears of a wave of xenophobic abuse following the vote to leave the EU.

BTP statistics for the two weeks after the referendum, obtained by the Press Association following a Freedom of Information request, show that:

There were 11 alleged race hate offences on 25 June, the day after the outcome of the vote was announced;

Public order crimes were the most commonly recorded incidents, with dozens of suspects said to have made racist comments towards passengers or staff;

In one episode at Hastings station in East Sussex on 26 June, a suspect allegedly shouted at a victim who was speaking in Polish;

There were three alleged instances of racially or religiously aggravated actual bodily harm, including one in which the victim was "perceived to be attacked due to their nationality";

At the time the FOI response was issued earlier this month, 22 people had been arrested in relation to the cases recorded in the fortnight after the referendum was held;

The 119 alleged race hate crimes in the period compared with 76 recorded between 10 June and the day of the referendum on 23 June, and 67 between 24 June and 7 July in 2015.

Bruce Williamson, of campaign group Railfuture, said: "Every passenger should be able to enter a station and board a train without fear of abuse or worse.

"These latest figures are very worrying, and they highlight the continuing need for staff presence at stations and on board trains."

Rose Simkins, chief executive of charity Stop Hate UK, said: "While we are encouraged that people have found confidence to report incidents due to the national publicity on the issue, it is a sad fact that the numbers of all hate incidents are extremely under-reported. We consistently hear from victims that one of the reasons they do not report incidents is a lack of confidence in authorities to deal with the issue.

"We would encourage BTP to look closely at the type of incidents being reported and take the opportunity to assess how effective their hate crime strategies are."

BTP polices Britain's railways as well as a number of urban networks such as London Underground.

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

Superintendent Chris Horton, of BTP, said: "Hate crime is totally unacceptable and has no place in society or on the rail network. We are aware that hate crime is under-reported and so in order to tackle it effectively, we need the public to stand up to those committing these sickening acts and report it to us. We will take every report seriously.

"We will always work tirelessly to ensure those who threaten or intimidate passengers are brought to justice."

Last month it was revealed that more than 6,000 alleged hate crimes and incidents were reported to police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the four weeks from the middle of June. There was a slight fall after an initial spike, but the volume of reports was still around a third higher than the equivalent period last year.

Ministers have launched a new hate crime action plan, including steps to tackle offences perpetrated on public transport.

Press Association
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Six people have died after getting into difficulties off the coast of Britain amid stormy conditions.

A woman drowned while swimming off the coast of Jersey.

The victim, in her 30s, was in the water with a man amid a storm near Green Island around 8.30pm on Saturday.

The man was helped to safety by members of the public, while a lifeboat managed to locate the woman who had been swept along the coast by the current, said RNLI St Helier.

She was taken to hospital but later died, Jersey Police said.

Five others have died along British coastlines this weekend in separate incidents.

Rudy Bruynius, who has been named online, was with his wife Lisinda and their daughter McKayla when they were caught up by a large wave at Fistral Beach on the north-west coast of Cornwall on Saturday.

Mr Bruynius, who was originally from South Africa but who had been living in London, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead, while McKayla was reported to be in a critical condition.

Two other children in the family managed to scramble back on to the rocks, the RNLI said.

A fundraising page, set up to support the family, has raised more than 14,000.

Family friend Madelein Jansen Van Noordwyk posted a message from Lisinda which said: "Thank you all so much for your prayers!!!".

Another friend Terri-Anne Young Remant paid tribute to the local community in Cornwall for their support.

She wrote on Facebook: "The messages and support has been so overwhelming and appreciated, at this stage we can't respond to everyone individually but we thank you all for your kind words and offer of support at this time in need. The community of Cornwall has been out of this world and we thank you."

A windsurfer died in Essex and a mother and son were killed in Aberdeen on the same day.

They were named by police as Julie Walker, 37, and Lucas Walker, six.

They died in hospital after a rescue operation at Aberdeen beach when a total of five people were pulled from the water and taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Lucas's brother, Samuel, who entered the water in an attempt to save his mother and brother, is making a "steady recovery" in hospital, police said.

The windsurfer, in his 60s, died in hospital in Colchester after being rescued by RNLI lifeboats off the coast of West Mersea, Essex, at around midday.

An Essex Police spokesman said they were trying to establish the events leading up to his death.

Another swimmer died after being caught in "dangerous waters" off a crowded beach in Poole, Dorset, also on Saturday afternoon.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said "It was reported that a male was seen having difficulties in the rip current outside the safe-swim area.

"Lifeguards recovered him from the water and performed CPR.

"Air ambulance and paramedics attended.

"However he was sadly pronounced dead at the scene."
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George Galloways Respect Party has been formally deregistered, prompting speculation the politician may be about to rejoin Labour.

The Respect Party was founded in 2004 and grew out of the Stop the War Coalition established in the wake of the Iraq War and Afghanistan War as a pro-environment and anti-war socialist alternative to the Labour party.

The Electoral Commission now lists the party as voluntarily deregistered, stating it ceased to be a political party on 18 August.

Following his expulsion from the Labour Party in 2003 for his vocal opposition to the Iraq War and Tony Blair, Mr Galloway became a figurehead for the new party. He became MP for Bradford West in 2012 in a landslide vote that he dubbed the Bradford Spring.

However, he lost the seat in 2015 to Labours Naz Shah following a bitter battle dominated by personal attacks, including allegations he made that Ms Shah had lied about being coerced into a forced marriage. Ms Shah later described the election as a sexist smear campaign and a horrible nightmare.

The politician also became known for a number of controversies including when he appeared to state that having sex with an unconscious woman would be bad sexual etiquette but not rape. In 2015, his former parliamentary assistant Aisha Ali Khan reported him to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, accusing him of misusing parliamentary funds. Mr Galloway strongly denied the allegations, asserting that Ms Khan had a vendetta against him.

Mr Galloway stood in the recent London Mayoral election, coming seventh place with just 1.4 per cent of the vote.

The politician has been vocal in support of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, posting supportive messages on social media channels backing the leader. Last summer during the 2015 Labour leadership election he said he would rejoin the party pretty damn quick if Mr Corbyn were elected to the position.

Following news of the Respect Partys deregistration, speculation has been sparked that the move may indicate he could be about to rejoin Labour.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA

MP for Birmingham Yardley Jess Phillips tweeted: The Labour Party does not belong to one man. Also I think most likely because Respect massively failed.

Quoting comments attributed to Mr Galloway on sexual consent, she added: Galloway or [Simon] Danczuk returning to Labour would tell me that womens safety has no value in our Party any more.

I for one would like to be asked for my consent before Galloway is inserted anywhere near anything I am part of.

The Independent has approached Mr Galloway for comment.
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Labour could be on the verge of a potentially humiliating U-turn forcing it to ask G4S to run its annual conferences security, despite having pledged to boycott the firm over links to Israeli prisons.

Party sources said today that with an industrial dispute currently blocking the employment of rival firm Showsec, it is likely officials will find themselves picking up the phone to G4S.

One MP today claimed the row over conference security had become a proxy war for factions fighting it out over Labours future  with a Corbyn supporting union on one side and another union backing leadership rival Owen Smith on the other.

With some speculating that conference may have to be cancelled altogether, a party source said: It is absolutely going to go ahead.

Recommended Read more Labour Party conference could be cancelled over trade union dispute

They think theyll end up picking up the phone to G4S on the basis they are the only ones who can do it.

The row over conference security is rooted in the decision of Labours National Executive Committee last year to boycott G4S after it was claimed the firm was linked to prisons holding Palestinian political inmates.

Unite the Union, one of Mr Corbyns strongest backers which sits on the NEC, was a key force in the NECs decision and in the broader Stop G4S campaign.

But when other firms declined the contract to run security at Labour conference officials found themselves dealing with Showsec, which has an on-going industrial dispute with the Smith-supporting GMB union.

The GMB had even threatened to picket the Labour partys conference if Showsec are given the contract.

Then earlier this week GMB, which also has representation on the NEC, won the Labour committees support for its push to force Showsec to recognise the union, creating a barrier to the firm being employed.

An email has since been leaked to the Politics Home website in which GMB General Secretary Tim Roache accused Unite boss Len McCluskey of trying to interfere in the Showsec dispute, claiming it was incredibly unhelpful.

Instead he suggested Mr McCluskey intervene to allow urgent discussions with G4S.

In March this year G4S said it would sell its Israeli business in the next 12 to 24 months.

A spokesman at Mr McCluskeys union said: Unite is working with the Labour party, including with our colleagues in the GMB, to find a satisfactory security contractor for conference this year.

Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Show all 8 1 /8 Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith clash at a leadership hustings in Gateshead, where Mr Smith was scarcely able to answer a question without being booed by Mr Corbyns supporters PA Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy himself admitted he was seven out of 10 in terms of his faith in the European Union. He said it, said Mr Smith during his second live debate with Jeremy Corbyn Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Ballot papers are currently due to be sent out on 22 August and returned a month later, with the result being announced at a special Labour conference on 24 September Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy Corbyn supporters cheer and wave placards as the Labour Leader addresses thousands of supporters in in Liverpool, England Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour Party leadership candidate Owen Smith poses for a picture with supporters during a picnic for young members in London Fields, Hackney in London Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith The Labour leader has a spring in his step at a leadership rally in Sunderland Screenshot Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour leadership contender Owen Smith delivers a speech at the Open University in Milton Keynes, where he promised to reverse Conservative cuts set to leave millions of low paid workers thousands of pounds a year worse off PA Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has urged Owen Smith to distance himself from those saying they want to split the Labour party Getty

A Labour MP today said: The whole thing is a complete farce.

Its like its become a proxy war for Labours broader disputes and is indicative of where we are as a party at the moment, we have degenerated into naval-gazing.

It coincides with another row over the attendance of Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell at a rival conference of Momentum activists set up to run at the same time as Labours official event.

Mr Corbyn was due to speak to Labour members at a rally in Kilburn tonight, the final one before ballots in the Labour leadership contest are sent out.
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The Conservative partys efforts to draw a line under the "Tatler Tory" scandal have suffered a blow after a film emerged showing Theresa May praising the activist at its centre.

The film from two years ago shows the future Prime Minister giving a speech in which she says Mark Clarkes campaign group has done absolutely tremendous work.

Clarke was later thrust into the limelight when 21-year-old activist Elliott Johnson killed himself in 2015 having complained of being bullied by him.

In the film passed to the Mail on Sunday, Ms May can be seen at a rally of enthusiastic campaigners, with Clarke standing by her.

She says: What you are doing is absolutely tremendous. Road Trip 2015 is great. Thank you Mark for all you are doing.

There is no suggestion that Ms May knew anything about the allegations that were eventually made about Clarke.

But the footage will once again draw attention to the prominent role he held in the Tory election campaign.

Theresa May in quotes Show all 10 1 /10 Theresa May in quotes Theresa May in quotes On being described by the former chancellor Ken Clarke as a bloody difficult woman: Politics could do with some Bloody Difficult Women actually Rex Features Theresa May in quotes On keeping secrets even from her husband: There are some things I am told that I am not able to confide in anybody Rex Features Theresa May in quotes On the relentless focus on her appearance during a speech at the Women in the World summit: "I like clothes and I like shoes. One of the challenges for women in the workplace is to be ourselves and I say you can be clever and like clothes. You can have a career and like clothes Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On comparisons to Margaret Thatcher: I think there can only ever be one Margaret Thatcher. Im not someone who naturally looks to role models. Ive always, whatever job it is Im doing at the time, given it my best shot. I put my all into it, and try to do the best job I can AFP/Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On her rebelliousness, or lack of, as a teenager: I probably was Goody Two Shoes at school Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On being replaced as chairman by Lord Saatchi and Liam Fox in 2003: Yes, it takes two men to step into the shoes of one woman AFP/Getty Images Theresa May in quotes What Theresa May said when she was asked about her political ambitions during an interview with Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, a lawyer married to Nick Clegg, in December: MD: "My very last question is: that little girl who is somewhere there, is she dreaming of becoming the next British Prime Minister?" TM: "Shes dreaming of carrying on doing a good job in the Home Office" Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On not being able to have children: I like to keep my personal life personal. We couldnt have children, we dealt with it and moved on. I hope nobody would think that mattered; I can still empathise, understand people and care about fairness and opportunity Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On whether she can deliver the mandate of the EU referendum: I think for party members and indeed for others, I would say look at my record. I think they can see that Im somebody who gets on with the job, but Im also somebody who says it as I see it and actually delivers on what I say Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On the equally relentless obsession with her shoes: As a woman I know you can be very serious about something and very soberly dressed add a little bit of interest with footwear. I always tell women you have to be yourself, dont assume you have to fit into a stereotype and if your personality is shown through your clothes or shoes, so be it Getty Images

It comes after a Tory-commissioned report into circumstances around Mr Johnsons death found Clarke, once tipped for greatness by Tatler magazine, had become subject to a string of allegations of bullying and sexually inappropriate behaviour, all of which he denies.

The report went on to effectively clear senior Tories like then chairmen Grant Shapps and Lord Feldman of having known anything about the allegations before August 2015.

Mr Johnsons father branded the report a whitewash when it was published this week.

There was no comment from Ms Mays spokespeople today.
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A man was forced to tweet for help when he got locked in a department store after falling asleep on a massage chair.

The man awoke to a deserted shop floor after dozing off in an electronics store in Japan.

Identified only by his twitter handle, @_Asphodelus, the sleepy customer was forced to tweet his plight when he discovered he was locked inside the shop.

Posting various photos of a dark and empty interior, he captioned the photo: Oh man, Im locked in!

In the photos the shutters at the front on the shop, named Ks, are clearly shut.

It is thought the man triggered an alarm which notified the police, who managed to get in touch with the shop's manager.

After 10 police officers searched him to confirm he was not a shoplifter, he tweeted that he had finally managed to get out.

10 best massagers Show all 10 1 /10 10 best massagers 10 best massagers Scholl Energy Percussion Massager This all-round handheld massager is a powerful tool which uses a hammering motion to reach deep into the tissue. It has variable speeds and three interchangeable massage nodes, including an attachment that creates heat. 30, amazon 10 best massagers HoMedics Deluxe Shiatsu Foot Massager Feet do a lot of hard work for us and dont often receive enough TLC in return. This foot massager works by rolling 18 small massage balls along the soles of your feet in a circular motion. With the option to add warmth, this machine really can bring life back to your feet after a long day. 50, amazon 10 best massagers Scholl X-Pop Massage Cushion When you just want to lie back without having to hold a massager in your hand, this cushion is perfect. The waves of vibrations coax your neck and shoulders into softening, and the option to add heat means this massager can also bring relief if you suffer from period pain. 30, amazon 10 best massagers The Grid For the physically active, this strong and textured log roller provides an effective way to release muscles, especially those in the thighs. Using your own body weight, roll over the GRID until you find a tender area of soft tissue, then hold until the muscles release (yes, it is supposed to hurt!). 32, amazon 10 best massagers HoMedics Novelty Massager Ribbit This friendly little frog is more powerful than you would expect, especially if you apply some pressure while massaging yourself with it. The small size of the massage nodes mean you can dig it into any knotted areas. 16, amazon 10 best massagers Back Nodger We all have those stressed areas that are annoyingly difficult to soothe. Luckily, this clever long, curved tool is on hand, helping you get to those hard-to-reach knots in the shoulders, neck and back. The nodger on the end ensures you can apply a deep and precise pressure to sort out those niggles  with no need to rope in a helper. 25, amazon 10 best massagers Dr Archy Many leg and hip problems start in the feet. This all-in-one tool loosens up the ligaments in your tootsies to allow them to function as they are meant to, and the design gives you full control of the massage. 19, jdharris.co.uk 10 best massagers Beurer Mini Massager Relaxing Trio Set If you prefer a lighter touch, this set of gently vibrating massagers could be for you. They are splash-proof, so you can massage your head and neck while soaking in a warm bath. 23, qvcuk.com 10 best massagers Wahl Spot Therapeutic Massager The best feature of this effective massager is the facial sponge. Feel your worries melt away as you release tense eyebrows, jaw and mouth. Also great for opening up blocked sinuses. There are four tension-relieving attachments. 7.50, amazon 10 best massagers Genie Head Massager This simple, lightweight and flexible tool is great for relieving headaches and calming the mind. If you enjoy having your scalp massaged at the hairdressers, then youre likely to love this. 5, johnlewis.com

The manager apologised to the man for staff's failure to notice he was still in the chair when locking up.

The man also said sorry, although it was unclear how long he nodded off for.

His original post has since been retweeted more than 39,000 times.

In response one user, @sasuga_23, simply said: How did this happen?

Yonedore replied: It is a valuable experience.

Others commented it was their childhood dream to be locked inside a department store, while others likened the mans predicament to popular escape the room style games.
China refuses to share information about operations at its dams during the dry season.

Chinas hydropower dams on the Upper Mekong River (Lancang in Chinese) are preventing flood waters from reaching Vietnam's Lower Mekong Delta, Dao Trong Tu, former vice general secretary of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, told VnExpress.

Flood water has failed to arrive in the Mekong Delta in recent years, which is a very dangerous issue, Tu said.

Flood water from upstream helps balance water levels in the delta and brings sediment that enriches the soil and provides food for fish, while pushing back saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, the expert said.

Flood water usually arrives in the region from August to November, but according to Vietnams Southern Hydro-Meteorological Station, water levels in upper parts of the countrys Mekong River are very low, around 50cm down from last year.

Khuong Le Binh, director of the Hydro-Meteorological Station in the southern province of Dong Thap, said there have been no signs that flood water from upstream will reach lower areas this year.

It is estimated that half of the sediment in Vietnams Mekong Delta comes from further up the river, but hydropower dams in the Upper Mekong River are blocking it from reaching the lower delta.

Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment estimated that around 45 percent of the country's Mekong Delta will be negatively affected by saltwater intrusion by 2030 if hydropower dams and reservoirs along the Mekong River prevent water from flowing downstream.

China has six hydropower dams operating in the upper areas of the Lancang River, Chinese officials told a group of Vietnamese reporters in mid-June this year.

An official from the Department of International Relations, Science and Technology under Chinas Ministry of Water Resources said China holds water in the upper areas but later releases it to lower areas so no water is lost in the end. When countries in the lower areas are in the rainy season, they do not need much water so China stores it to generate electricity. When the dry season comes, China discharges the water. This process helps prevent floods and droughts in lower areas, the official said.

Vietnams Tu, however, disagreed with the Chinese official. He said China uses water as it pleases to generate electricity, not to balance water levels further down the Mekong. Thats why water levels in its reservoirs are purely dependent on demand for power in China.

China discharged water from the Jinghong Hydropower Station in Yunnan Province in March and April this year following requests from countries situated downstream that were suffering from droughts, but many experts said this was only temporary measure to meet the demand in lower areas, especially Vietnam.

Information sharing mechanism needed

One of the main issues facing nations in the Mekong River Commission (MRC), including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, is that China has refused to share information about the operations of its hydropower dams. As a result, the MRC countries are cautious about using their limited water resources, particularly during the dry season, according to Tu.

The Chinese official confirmed that China does share information with the MRC during the rainy season, but does not during the dry season. He said it was unnecessary to share information during the dry season, and that China was simply following international practices.

The Vietnamese expert, once again, dismissed Chinas explanation, saying the Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses in 1997 defines that information sharing will help ensure cooperation among countries for the whole year.

He said he hopes China will join the MRC so that they can discuss plans to use the Mekong River fairly among the countries involved.

China initiated the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) framework in March this year, which includes China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, but there have been no concrete cooperation agreements signed between them, according to Tu.

For cross-border rivers, cooperation mechanisms are very important. One cannot say you go your way I go mine. They [the countries] should cooperate for mutual benefit in a friendly way and based on international law, Tu said, adding that he hopes the LMC will address the lack of cooperation between China and countries on the Lower Mekong River.

The Mekong River is the world's 12th longest and the 7th longest in Asia. The 4,350km river runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

About 22 million people, or 24 percent of Vietnam's population, live in the Mekong Delta. The delta supplies a large amount of rice, fruit and fish to the country, but negative effects from the El Nino phenomenon and upstream dams have brought about its worst drought and saltwater intrusion in nearly 100 years.

Related news:

> Saltwater threatens to drown nearly half of Vietnam's paddy fields

> Vietnamese farmers indignant as Mekong Delta prays for flood waters to arrive

> Mekong Delta loses $210 million to drought and salinity
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South African police are investigating allegations that a wildlife sanctuary worker left a child alone in a lion enclosure where he was mauled to death.

Nkalemelo Latha was killed at the Otavi wildlife sanctuary in Parys after the worker, identified only as Rasta, allegedly stole keys to the enclosure and led him inside.

Rasta, who is in his thirties and had worked at the park for six months, told police he had run to get help after the lioness pounced on the boy.

He claimed he had also been mauled by a male lion while trying to mount a rescue.

Staff working at a neighbouring enclosure reported hearing screams and rushing over to see Nkalemelo being mauled by two lions.

One staff member drove a truck into the enclosure to scare the animals away and found Nkalemelo on the ground, unconscious, with bite marks on his head and neck. He died shortly afterwards.

The Times reported that the 12-year-old had been adopted by his uncle, who is a supervisor on the estate, earlier this year after his parents died.

Ina Human, the parks manager, said: I cant understand why this man decided to steal the keys to get into the enclosure.

The most controversial animal killings Show all 6 1 /6 The most controversial animal killings The most controversial animal killings Cincinnati Zoo worker shots and kills Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla was shot and killed by a Cincinnati Zoo worker after a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure and was grabbed and dragged by Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to kill Harambe. A number of primatologists and conservationists wrote later that the zoo had no other choice under the circumstances, and that it highlighted the danger of zoo animals in close proximity to humans and the need for better standards of care Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden The most controversial animal killings Walt Palmer (left), from Minnesota, who killed Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion (pictured here with another lion shot in Africa) Walter James Palmer has been named by Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force as the shooter of Cecil, a 13-year-old prized lion. He is now wanted by Zimbabwe officials on poaching charges. The lion was protected and the subject of a decade long study by the Wildlife Unit of Oxford University in the UK. He was outfitted with a GPS collar and was killed in Hwange National Park. The Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority and the Safari Operators Association said that two men were charged with poaching in connection to Mr Palmer The most controversial animal killings Kendall Jones hunting images Kendall Jones, a 19-year-old Texas Tech university student, has provoked worldwide fury after posting pictures of herself smiling next to animals she hunted, including a lion, rhinoceros, antelope, leopard, elephant, zebra and hippopotamus The most controversial animal killings Rebecca Francis hunting images Rebecca Francis, a huntress who has killed dozens of wild animals has been sent death wishes by furious social media users after a picture showing her lying down next to a dead giraffe was circulated. Rebecca Francis has a website and Facebook page dedicated to the animals she has killed in hunts across Africa and America. Francis, a prolific hunter who has also co-hosted the television show Eye of the Hunter, regularly posts pictures of herself posing next to dead bears, giraffes, buffaloes and zebras, among other animals. She uses a bow and arrow to kill her prey The most controversial animal killings The slaughter of Marius, an 18-month-old healthy giraffe in Copenhagen Zoo Copenhagen Zoo made the controversial decision to euthanise a healthy giraffe named Marius, which was later dissected and fed to lions as visitors watched. The slaughter sparked a furious backlash from social media users and zoo staff have received death threats by phone and email. Soon after the incident, Copenhagen Zoo faced an international outcry once again after four healthy lions were put down The most controversial animal killings Swiss Dahlholzli zoo kills healthy brown bear cub A Switzerland zoo faced heavy criticism from animal rights groups, after keepers put down a healthy brown bear cub to spare it from being bullied by its dominant male father. The 360 kg male bear Misha had already killed one of his 11-week old cubs in public and was bullying the second, staff at the zoo said, because he was jealous of the attention the cubs were receiving from their mother, Masha. Both adult brown bears had been donated to Berns Dahlholzli zoo in 2009. Campaigners condemned staff there for not separating the cubs, who are being referred to as Baby Bear Two and Baby Bear Three, and their mother from Misha after their birth in January Facebook

The parks owner, Louis Pulzone, wrote on Facebook: Otavi takes the utmost precautions to prevent any tragedies from happening; yesterday was a truly a tragic day for us and we will mourn the death of this boy for years to come.

We have to live with the consequences that we could not prevent this employee from stealing keys out of the office and thus gained access to the enclosure.

Local police said they are investigating the incident as culpable homicide, the South African equivalent of manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
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A father of two teenage girls has lost a lengthy legal battle to get custody of his children after his ex-wife married a registered sex offender.

The divorcee took legal action saying he feared his girls may fall prey to the convicted criminal, who served four years in prison in 2003.

He was jailed for the attempted sexual abuse of his then 15-year-old stepdaughter from a previous marriage.

Recommended Read more Couple wins custody after surrogate refuses to give baby to gay men

The case has been dragged through the court system in Nebraska, US, until the state Supreme Court upheld the lower courts rulings, finally ending the fathers legal challenge.

Previously, a Phelps County District judge ruled there was no significant risk to the pair.

Refusing to accept the decision, the father, who has not been named, took his fight to the Nebraska Court of Appeals, which sided with the earlier judge, concluding the teenagers were not in danger.

But he fought on for custody of his children, taking his battle to the Supreme Court judges.

There, a divided court upheld the ruling with a four-justice majority, with two justices finding in favour of the father.

One of the two, Justice William Connolly, wrote a letter criticising his peers' decision.

Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions Show all 5 1 /5 Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 1985: Steven Avery is falsely convicted of raping a Penny Beernsten She was jogging along the shore of Lake Michigan when she was threatened with a knife and attacked. Ms Beernsten identified Avery as her rapist from a line-up that did not include the actual attacker. AFP/Getty Images Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 2003: Conviction overturned Avery's 32-year prison sentence was overturned after DNA testing by the Wisconsin Innocence Project proved his innocence and found a hair from Gregory Allen. He was convicted of the rape and Avery was released. Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 2004: Avery files federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County police A Wisconsin Department of Justice investigation found police had committed no criminal offences or ethics violations, sparking a lawsuit from Avery seeking $36 million compensation. Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 2005: Avery is arrested for Teresa Halbach's murder His Avery Auto Salvage business was the freelance photographer's last appointment of 31 October. She was reported missing four days later and police later found her car, bones, teeth and belongings at the site. Avery pleaded not guilty but was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 201: Netflix releases Making a Murderer The 10-episode documentary came after Avery's conviction was upheld in a 2011 appeal.

Retiring earlier this month, he wrote: It leaves the noncustodial father, who is willing and able to care for his children, feeling helpless to protect his children.

As reported in the Journal Star, he said the stepfather should undergo an independent evaluation to assess if the girls were at risk.

And Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman also came down in favour of giving the father custody.

She found that the current circumstances were worrying similar to the original situation that led to the stepfather's conviction.

Nebraska law states there is a presumption that since the stepfather is a sex offender and has access to the girls, they are at risk.

But this can be overridden by the custodial parent, their mother, presenting evidence to the contrary.

The justices wrote: If she presented such evidence, then the presumption disappeared and the district court, as trier of fact, was not required to find that [the stepfather] was a significant risk.

In this case she submitted reports of her new husbands rehabilitation, and pointed to the absence of any allegations of sexual offences since 2002.
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Donald Trumps hard-line stance on immigration has long been a central plank of his presidential campaign, but this weekend it may have wobbled, with the Republican nominee apparently modifying his stance on the mass deportation of undocumented people.

After previously urging the creation of a dedicated agency to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the US, Mr Trump reportedly met with Hispanic leaders at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday to solicit suggestions for what one participant said would be a humane and efficient immigration policy.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Mr Trumps new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said the property moguls plans for the special deportation force were now to be determined.

Ms Conway and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon also attended the meeting at Trump Tower. In discussion with Latino participants, campaign officials reportedly agreed on forming a task force to foster ideas for dealing with undocumented workers and families, which do not involve deportation but stop short of so-called amnesty, or a pathway to citizenship.

Jacob Monty, a Latino immigration lawyer and Trump supporter who attended the meeting, told Buzzfeed: [Mr Trump] said people who are here is the toughest part of the immigration debate, that it must be something that respects border security but deals with this in a humane and efficient manner.

The Trump campaign has denied that the meeting and its conclusions mark any change in the candidates stance on immigration. Mr Trump launched his campaign last July with a speech in which he described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug traffickers, and has stuck to his controversial proposal to build a costly wall along the US-Mexican border.

Last year, Mr Trump insisted all undocumented immigrants would have to go, but on Sunday Ms Conway suggested his plans were not set in stone, but would emerge as the weeks unfold. Mr Trump is due to deliver a major policy speech on immigration in Colorado on Thursday.

A recent Fox News poll found that Democrat Hillary Clinton has a 46 per cent national lead over Mr Trump among Latino voters. In recent days, the businessman has attempted to reach out to minority voters, inviting black Americans to vote for him because they have nothing to lose.

At a rally in Michigan on Friday, Mr Trump urged voters to reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees communities of colour only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.

The Republican is polling at approximately zero per cent among African-Americans in several states, although he has claimed that were he to win the White House, his performance as President would be so impressive that by the time of the 2020 election, he would secure more than 95 per cent of the black vote.
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North Korea has branded its senior diplomat who defected to South Korea as "human scum", claiming he is responsible for a series of crimes.

Thae Yong Ho became the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to the South, Seoul confirmed on Wednesday.

North Korean State media said Mr Thae had been ordered to return home in June to be investigated for a series of crimes, including embezzling government funds, leaking confidential secrets and sexually assaulting a child.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also denounced the British government for rejecting its demands to extradite Mr Thae back to the North.

 Top North Korean diplomat in UK defects to South Korea

KCNA said Mr Thae "should have received legal punishment for the crimes he committed, but he discarded the fatherland that raised him and even his own parents and brothers by fleeing, thinking nothing but just saving himself, showing himself to be human scum who lacks even an elementary level of loyalty and even tiny bits of conscience and morality that are required for human beings."

It also accused Seoul of using his defection for propaganda aimed at insulting the North Korean leadership.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said Mr Thae decided to defect because of his disgust with Kim Jong-un's government, his yearning for South Korean democracy and worries about the future of his children.

Inside the daily life in North Korea Show all 19 1 /19 Inside the daily life in North Korea Inside the daily life in North Korea People reading a newspaper at the metro station Inside the daily life in North Korea Thoughts of the leaders on the tram. They have about a dozen of these on every tram, all with different thoughts Inside the daily life in North Korea Young people training for a big upcoming festival Inside the daily life in North Korea People at the Pyongyang's annual marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea Many stars on one of the trolleys in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea An intimidating poster in a primary school in North Korea. Inside the daily life in North Korea Solar panels installed on a street lamp. Inside the daily life in North Korea A poster on the window next to one of the venues we visited in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Kids playing football next to the Arch of Triumph. After a while tourists were allowed to join, so some of us did Inside the daily life in North Korea Class in an educational center in Pyongyang (where people over 17 years old can attend any classes they choose after school, for free) Inside the daily life in North Korea People waving at me during the Pyongyang marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea People having a great time dancing at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea A metro driver in a metro station in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Fireworks to mark the birthday of the Eternal President Kim Il Sung on our last night in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea My wonderful tour guide at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea One of the parks in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea A person rowing some boats for the day at a river in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea The National War Museum Inside the daily life in North Korea Public park in Pyongyang

More than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government. Many defectors have said they wanted to leave the North's harsh political system and poverty. Pyongyang often accuses the South of deceiving or paying its citizens to defect, or claims that they have simply been kidnapped.

In April, 13 North Koreans working at a North Korean-operated restaurant in China defected to South Korea. It was the largest group defection since Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011. Later in April, South Korea also revealed that a colonel in North Korea's military spy agency had defected to the South last year.

Most South Korean analysts say it's premature to take the defections of Mr Thae and other senior officials as indicators that the unity of North Korea's ruling elite is starting to crack because there are no significant signs that Kim Jong-un's grip on power is weakening.

South Korea doesn't always make high-level defection cases public, however. Its announcement of Mr Thae's defection came with ties between the rivals at one of their lowest points in decades following the North's nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

North Korea recently has expressed anger at a US plan to place an advanced missile defence system in South Korea. The North has warned of unspecified retaliation and fired several missiles into the sea earlier this month.

Additional reporting by AP
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An MEP has proposed putting pigs' heads on Hungarys border fences to deter refugees trying to enter the country.

The countrys right-wing government has been criticised internationally following its perceived harsh attitude towards refugees. As part of measures to block refugees seeking to enter the country, Hungary erected a vast border fence in the hopes of stopping movement into their borders.

It recently emerged security forces have begun making scarecrows in crude attempts to deter refugees trying to enter. In response to criticism over the tactic, Hungarian MEP for the Christian Democratic European Peoples Party Gyorgy Schopflin tweeted: Human images are haram pigs head would deter more effectively. The Twitter account is listed on the official website of the European parliament as Mr Schopflins account.

The MEPs suggestion prompted anger online.

Andrew Stroehlein from Human Rights Watch said: Your words are disgusting. I would expect that from anonymous neo-Nazi trolls but youre an MEP. Act like one.

In return, Mr Schopflin said criticisms of him were beginning to resemble hate speech and refused to apologise.

Hugary has been criticised for appearing to hold unduly harsh attitudes towards refugees and for failing to take its fair shair of asylum seekers along with European neighbours. Local politicians have cited concerns that to do so would cost too much financially and compromise Hungary's Christian culture.

 Hungary jails 10 migrants

Of 177,135 asylum applicants to Hungary in 2015, just 146 were approved, according to government statistics.

In March of last year, the Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in the country due to Europes refugee crisis and deployed an additional 1,500 security personnel to the countrys Serbian frontier in a bid to deny refugees entry.

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

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has defended the countrys stance on refugees, citing his desire to keep Europe Christian and announcing: We are experiencing the end of a spiritual-intellectual era. The era of liberalism. [This] provides the opportunity for the national-Christian thinking to regain its dominance not only in Hungary, but in the whole of Europe.
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Turkey's president has said the suicide bomber who blew themselves up at a wedding party, killing at least 51, was a child aged as young as 12 years old.

Speaking live on national television in front of Istanbul's city hall, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14 and had wounded 69 people, 17 of which were in a critical condition.

"It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times," President Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for Isis.

"Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity."

 suicide attack at wedding in Gaziantep

The bride and groom were not in a life-threatening condition and were undergoing treatment, the Anadolu news agency reported. The groom's sister and uncle were among the dead.

People were dancing when the explosion ripped through the celebrations on Satuday in the city of Gaziantep, in the volatile south east near the border with Syria.

Earlier, President Erdogan said Isis were likely behind the attack.

The prosecutor's office said a destroyed suicide vest had been discovered at the scene.

Celebrations were ending at the traditional henna night party, when guests have decorative paint applied to their hands and feet. Some families had already left when the bomb went off but women and children were among the dead, witnesses said.

The late-night attack happened in Gaziantep in the south east (Getty)

Blood stains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit while women in white and checkered scarves cried while waiting outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old witness Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

At least 12 people were buried on Sunday, but other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were unidentifiable.

DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

People were dancing when the bomb exploded (Getty)

A pro-Kurdish political party condemned the attack on the Kurdish wedding party, blaming Isis for the attack.

The People's Democratic Party, or HDP, said "we condemn and curse the ones who launched this attack, both the forces and ideology behind their actions".

Turkish authorities issued a media blackout on coverage of the attack until the investigation is completed.

Turkey is still in a state of emergency following an attempted coup on 15 July, which Ankara blames on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Three suspected Isis suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, which was then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people attending a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Violence flared up again this week in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, with separate bombings killing at least 10 people, mostly police and soldiers, in an esclation officials blamed on the the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Additional reporting by Reuters
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At least 50 people have been killed in an explosion at a wedding in Turkey, following what is thought to have been a suicide attack carried out by Isis.

People were dancing when an explosion ripped through the celebrations on Saturday in the city of Gaziantep, in the volatile south east near the border with Syria.

President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely Isis were behind the late-night attack.

The prosecutor's office said a destroyed suicide vest had been discovered at the scene.

And the local governor's office said at least 50 people had been killed and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old witness Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

Blood stains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the wedding party was attacked while women in white and checkered scarves cried while waiting outside the morgue for word on missing relatives.

At least 12 people were buried on Sunday, but other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were unidentifiable.

Ambulances arrive at the site of the explosion (Getty)

DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

Mahmut Togrul, a lawmaker for HDP (The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Union) from Gaziantep, around 40 km north of the border with Syria, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding.

Isis has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past, as militants attempt to stir ethnic tensions.

People were dancing when the bomb exploded (Getty)

"It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Turkey is still tense after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Recommended Read more Erdogan crackdown after coup causes diplomats to flee Turkey

Three suspected Isis suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Violence flared up again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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It says a lot about post-failed-coup Turkey that you can spot the priority list of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans foreign antagonists from the Governments reactions to a massacre. The slaughter of at least 50 Kurdish wedding guests by a suicide bomber in the border city of Gaziantep on Saturday was swiftly blamed on Isis. Erdogan said it was the likely culprit. Certainly the target fits Isis gruesome track record.

But then Erdogans Deputy Prime Minister, Mehmet Simsek, broadened the scope of Turkeys enemies. Describing the mass killing as barbaric  which it surely was  he then listed the terror groups who were targeting Turkey: the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party), Isis and the followers of Fethullah Gulen, the exiled and rather eccentric cleric whom Erdogan still claims organised the attempted military coup in July.

Quite a hit list to be provoked by an atrocity at a wedding. And all those terrorists, we must suppose, will also have to be crushed by an army and police force that have themselves been cut to pieces in the purge which followed the coup-that-wasnt.

 Dozens dead as blast hits wedding in Turkeys Gaziantep

The list contains its own oddities. If the PKK had to be mentioned in the same breath as Isis, especially in reaction to the murder of Kurds, then we must also remember that the Turks regard the brave little militia of the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) of northern Syria as part of the same terrorist PKK. And that is the same YPG which has been receiving help from the US air force in its battle against Isis.

More intriguingly, however, is the absence from the list of the one institution which Erdogan has been trying to destroy for the past four years: the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

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

Few Turks would believe that the Syrian regime had anything directly to do with the wedding bombing at Gaziantep. But after his jaunt to see Tsar Vladimir at St Petersburg, Sultan Erdogan seems to realise that Turkey has really got to cut down on the number of its enemies.

Syrian opposition figures in Turkey have been alarmed at reports of secret talks between Damascus and Ankara  through what the French used to call interlocuteurs valables, or people trusted by both sides  and an apparently stray remark by the Turkish Prime Minister just before the attempted coup (and before the St Petersburg meeting) to the effect that relations will one day have to be restored with Syria.

Clearly Erdogans new love for Mother Russia comes at a price. The Tsar will surely have discussed his own affection for Bashar  and Turkeys role in trying to crush the Government which Moscow supports with its armed forces  at their mutual summit. Could it be, therefore, that the Sultan is thinking of renewing his old friendship with the Lion of Damascus? Be sure he is.

Recommended Read more Every Syrian fighter is waging an existential battle to death

Whoever he wants to blame for the Gaziantep bombing, Erdogan must realise that these now regular atrocities are a direct result of his personal decision to involve himself in the Syrian war. Having played footsy with Isis (letting their supporters cross the Turkish frontier to join the cult and then allowing Turkeys business sharks to buy up Isis-exported oil) and recommenced his war with the Kurds, and having (just) survived a coup planned by his ally-turned-nemesis Gulen, Erdogan is now ruling a Turkey which looks, every day, more like Pakistan after it took on the role of chief supplier to the Afghan mujahedin in the early 1980s.

Theres a rather wearying adage in Damascus that Syria will never be the same again when the war there is over. But the truth is that Turkey also will never be the same again when the conflict finishes either. It will be interesting to see who Turkeys President is when that day comes.
Gardai said the man's condition was serious

A man is seriously ill in hospital after being shot a number of times at a house in Dublin, gardai said.

The incident happened on Stannaway Road in Crumlin, south Dublin, in the early hours of Sunday.

The victim, in his early 30s, was taken to St James's Hospital.

Gardai said his condition was described as serious.

A Garda spokesman added: "The scene has been preserved for a technical examination and the matter is under investigation."

Investigators have appealed for witnesses.
Anticipation. That was the name of the Guinness ad that burst onto our TV screens in the summer of 1994. Its music captured the public's imagination. On the streets, in the pubs, at stadiums, bus stops and festivals, everyone was humming.

For one whole summer, Ireland had a new national anthem and it was a swirling little ditty that had no lyrics and made us all mad for dancing.

A couple of years later, when I was living in the States, friends would ask me what it was like to grow up in a small country like Ireland - and I'd tell them about the Guinness ad and how it became a cultural phenomenon.

It was funny and creative but it also exposed, in a wonderful way, what a small and connected country we are.

When I moved back home to take on the role of Dublin's first commissioner for start-ups, I wondered about our size and how a capital city of just over one million people could become a global hub for start-ups - like London or Berlin had done.

Dublin's funding levels are strong, but in absolute terms these much larger cities will likely always look, well . . . much larger.

Then again, Dublin's tech story is much more than just a numbers game. Everywhere I go, people love Dublin. It's a capital city that feels like a village, with a unique spirit and drive that attracts people from all over the world to come and do big things here.

Thanks to Enterprise Ireland and the IDA, Ireland already has a decades-old reputation as a global business centre. Our goal now is to become known as a hub of innovation and leading tech talent, and my office is happy to become another loudspeaker for the cause.

Almost two years in and we're still just at the beginning of a huge amount of work, and an enormous opportunity. Opportunity that's gathering more voices across the board.

At a recent meeting of 'shared services' multinationals in Cork, I listened to country manager after country manager describe the technology roles now dominating their Irish operations and heard them express frustration about how poorly the 'shared services' label represented their strategic value back to their global headquarters.

As I continue to listen, and to understand the landscape here in Ireland, I've realised that Ireland will never be known for innovation if our multinationals aren't known for it. They're just too much a part of the story told about us in the world.

Our weekly online publication DublinGlobe.com, and important new initiatives like TechLifeIreland and TechIreland.org, strongly position Ireland as a centre of innovation, but we're nowhere near finished the job. People's common and deeply held beliefs are that multinationals use Ireland as an administration and sales hub, and it's going to be our toughest job yet to turn this ship around.

According to current profiles on TechIreland, 36pc of tech multinationals in Ireland are building products from here. That's a solid and increasing percentage which is good news for the country - not so good, perhaps, for the start-ups who have to compete for that limited pool of talent. When we succeed in changing the current narrative, and make Ireland synonymous with innovation, everyone will benefit.

A few weeks back I heard the filmmaker Michael Moore speak at the Irish Film Centre on Eustace Street. A jam-packed and diverse group of people filled the theatre but Michael, clearly chuffed to be back on the auld sod, couldn't help but address us as one homogeneous group - ye warm, witty, Catholic Irish. It was engaging, but a little too cute for comfort.

It also prompted me to wonder whether we are succeeding in giving the modern Irish story enough airtime in the outside world. If not, our companies and our talent are still breaking down stereotypes every time they travel to fund-raise, market themselves and sell abroad.

Start-ups are the headline act in Ireland's innovation story and we've developed some truly world-class sectors in medtech, travel tech, fintech and software as a service - where we're competing, and often winning, against much more established global players.

TechIreland.org is telling that story on a company by company basis, and by the time it fully launches in October every start-up and tech multinational in the country will be profiled on it, as well as every investor around the world who has funded an Irish company.

Anecdotes are nice, but it's a huge step forward to be able to present a complete and factual picture of Ireland's tech credentials. The launch will also be an opportunity to tip our hats to the many groups and individuals across the country who have helped to bring it to fruition.

Dublin's credentials as a tech hub are strong, but then again every city worth its salt can point to clusters of innovative companies, leading investors and serial entrepreneurs. My friend and mentor in New York, Jerry Colonna, once asked me what Ireland's equivalent of MIT was.

Competing with MIT is a tall order for any university in the world, but we have some early contenders - and with the right focus and investment by the Government and others we could get there. Our great tech multinationals could also play a role as key sponsors. It makes so much sense for them to invest deeply in Ireland's future as an innovation powerhouse.

Music? Check. Literature? Check. Theatre and film - including an incredible nine nominations at this year's Oscars? Check and check.

Now, what will it take for innovation to secure a permanent spot on Ireland's already glowing international resume? Persistence, investment and, perhaps, another wonderfully contagious anthem to dance to - and we can make it happen.

Niamh Bushnell is Dublin's Commissioner for Start-ups
The white powder inside their model planes turned out to be plastic.

Vietnamese authorities on August 19 released two foreign pilots suspected of drug trafficking following a day-long investigation, Vietnamplus reported on August 19, quoting a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

Tests showed that the white substance found in a 505-gram model plane they were carrying was plastic, not narcotics, Vietnams Forensic Science Institute told the state-run daily.

At 11:05 p.m. on August 18, customs officials at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi detected a suspicious package in the luggage of Elmer Ederadan Sorrera, a 45-year-old Filipino, and Francis Dennis Abellera Yutangco, a 53-year-old U.S. citizen.

They said they were pilots for Vietnams budget carrier Vietjet Air and were about to board a Cebu Pacific Air flight from Hanoi to Manila in the Philippines.



While checking their luggage, Vietnamese authorities found a model aircraft with white powder inside.

Samples of the powder were sent to Vietnams Forensic Science Institute for further analysis after a quick drug test showed that the substance turned the same color as opiates, which meant it could have been opium, heroin or morphine.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of Vietnam's Anti-Narcotics Department, confirmed with Channel News Asia (CNA) on Saturday that the substance was not narcotics.

He said no official arrest had been made. "There was suspicion and we invited [the pilots] to stay and work with us to clarify things," Tuan added.

Sorrera told CNA he received the model from his employer as a standard gift for all new pilots, which he was bringing back to Manila for his son.

Vietnam has some of the worlds toughest drug laws. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is punishable by death.

Related news:

> Australian old woman arrested with drugs hidden in salted fish jars in Saigon airport

> 73-year-old woman faces death penalty for drug smuggling

> VietJet secures $35.5 million loan from Vietnamese bank to expand fleet
Brown Thomas is to throw a 'pop-up' retail party for customers as it surrenders the lease of its popular offshoot BT2 on Dublin's Grafton Street to Victoria's Secret, the premium American lingerie retailer.

The Brown Thomas Group, which has just completed a three-year, 25m investment cycle, is closing its Grafton St BT2 store on August 29 next, ahead of the launch of its 2m 'replatformed' website in September.

BT2 Dundrum and Blanchardstown will continue to trade as normal. However, brands stocked in BT2 on Grafton Street, including Self Portrait, Maje, COS and Adidas, will migrate to the group's flagship store, which is undergoing a second floor refit that will add 7,500 square feet of retail space for fashion.

Stephen Sealey, managing director of the Brown Thomas Group, said that an interim or pop-up outlet, 'The Brand Store', will be opened on its BT2 site, pending the expiry of the lease on the building in January next year.

"The Brand Store will contain a collection of labels on sale at outlet prices," said Sealey, who added Ireland's retail market remains "fragile".

Sealey said the temporary outlet store will serve as a "going away party experience" for BT2 customers.

"We're bringing it all back home on Grafton Street, but the BT2s in Dundrum and Blanchardstown go from strength to strength."

Paul Kelly, managing director (Ireland) of the Selfridges Group, which last year finalised the acquisition of the Arnotts department store, was instrumental in securing the transfer of the BT2 lease to Victoria's Secret.

It is not yet known what synergies or efficiencies the Weston family-owned Selfridges Group may seek to achieve with its ownership of both Brown Thomas and Arnotts.

Sealey said that the Brown Thomas Group has had a successful year to date despite economic uncertainty surrounding the formation of the Government and the June decision by Britain to leave the European Union.

"The majority of our brands are European brands that are bought in euros," said Sealey, adding that sudden price movements linked to Brexit could cause distress to retailers.

Sealey said that the Government must deal with businesses "trapped in boomtime leases" and added that Ireland's VAT rate, combined with marginal tax rates, is proving too onerous for many retailers. "To my mind it [the VAT rate] should be below 20pc," he said.

Sealey also said that BT supports the pedestrianisation of Grafton Street and the "short-term pain" of ongoing Luas works, but cautioned easy, direct access to car parks must be maintained. "Retail and, by extension, jobs, are still dependent on the car-borne shopper," he said, adding that Dublin needs an underground transport system to support population growth.
A special purpose vehicle established to hold and manage Nama's 5.6bn par value Project Eagle loan book following its sale to US private equity giant Cerberus paid taxes of just stg1,947 (2,500) in 2014 - by availing of controversial Section 110 tax status.

The startling number is contained in the latest available accounts for Promontoria Eagle, the company set up on behalf of Cerberus by Dublin-based Structured Finance Management Ireland to recover the debt it acquired from Nama for the knockdown price of 1.6bn.

A further examination of Promontoria Eagle's accounts shows that the company collected repayments of just over stg73.18m from the date of its incorporation on April 17, 2014 to December 2014.

The financial statements show net interest income of stg49.98m and other operating income of stg1.15m. Once impairment charges of stg5.47m, losses on derivatives of stg2.58m, and operating expenses of stg43m were deducted, profit for the period came to stg7,788 before taxation. The company recorded a profit on its ordinary activities after taxation of stg5,841.

While news of Promontoria Eagle's use of Section 110 will invariably serve to fuel the growing public and political disquiet over the success of international investment funds in minimising tax paid on the distressed loan portfolios acquired in Ireland during the financial crisis, the practice is entirely legitimate and was actively promoted by government and the country's professional service sector.

Section 110 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is regarded as the cornerstone of Ireland's onshore debt-securitisation regime.

The vehicle allows investors to acquire, manage and trade in a vast range of assets (including securities, aircraft, financial assets and non-performing loans such as mortgages) in a tax-neutral manner. The law was extended five years ago to include a broader range of 'qualifying assets', such as commodities and carbon offsets.

Qualifying Irish tax-resident SPVs can lawfully engage in an extensive range of financial and leasing transactions in a tax-neutral manner.

As long as payments out match payments in, S110 securitisation vehicles pay virtually no tax, if any.
It seems we're a nation utterly obsessed with brands.

Irish people place far more importance on brands when it comes to buying smartphones than most other markets, according to Gary Twohig, head of Samsung Ireland. Seven out of 10 of us own a smartphone.

This makes Ireland a hard nut to crack for the new phone manufacturers springing up around the globe - but it's great news for Apple and Samsung, who vie for the top spot as the world's most popular phone manufacturer.

Samsung's shares have surged to a new high in recent weeks as the Korean company maintained a winning streak.

The success of its latest flagship Galaxy phones have fuelled a 30pc rally this year, outpacing Apple's roughly 4pc gain. That ascent has held firm even as Apple prepares to introduce a new iPhone, one of the highlights of the industry calendar.

Both companies have yet to offer an Irish launch date for their much-hyped payment services, which will allow smartphone users to pay for products with a swipe of their phone rather than a credit or debit card. It is seen as a crucial battleground for smartphone manufacturers.

Twohig said the service will make it to Ireland, but it could be next year.
Ladislav Muller is Enterprise Ireland director for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria and is based in Prague

The designer of the Rubik's Cube said "we turn the cube, and it in turn twists us". In other words, to solve the puzzle you must look for other perspectives.

Hungarian professor Erno Rubik's aphorism is apt for his home country today. Unorthodox politics and the controversial treatment of migrants has hurt its reputation, while the international business community has criticised Hungary for bringing its finances into check with the help of taxes on mostly foreign-owned banks and large companies.

However, much like the Rubik's Cube, looking at Hungary from a variety of angles may lead to a different perspective.

For instance, it ranks in the top quartile of the Human Development Index and is the ninth most complex economy in the world - six places above Ireland. It exited the EU's Excessive Deficit Procedure in 2013 and has defied predictions with growth projected at an average 2.5pc out to 2020. Imminent income tax cuts and a relaxation of a bank levy are expected to boost what has been described as a 'creditless' recovery.

It is a country of great artistic, cultural and sporting tradition. Hungarians won gold medals at every summer Olympics except Antwerp 1920 and Los Angeles 1984, when they did not compete. It was also the first country to host a Formula One Grand Prix from behind the Iron Curtain in 1986.

It counts composers such as Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly and Franz Liszt among its native sons and is also a pioneer of cinema, providing Hollywood with Adolph Zukor, who founded Paramount, and Wilhelm Fuchs, who founded Fox Studios.

Hungary also boasts a strong scientific tradition, with scientists of Hungarian birth or origin receiving the Nobel Prize on more than 20 occasions. The OECD ranks Hungary 16th in the world in science education.

Indeed technical skills, allied to moderate wages and a location on the edge of European supply chains, led to investment in the early 1990s. Today, inward FDI amounts to 78pc of GDP, the highest in the region.

Hungary has been particularly successful in attracting FDI in the automotive and electronics sectors (often intertwined). As a result, participation in global value chains is among the highest in the OECD.

Large investors include Audi, Suzuki, GM and Mercedes plus more than 700 suppliers. Bosch, Alpin, Samsung, Honeywell and Rosenberger are among the big electronics players - and many are scaling up. This should interest Irish suppliers with sectoral references or offering added value for production or services.

There is also opportunity in Hungary's national development plan (2014-2020), with 6bn allocated for health, infrastructure, environmental protection and tourism - which is predicted to increase 4.2pc this year, to a total of just over 12m visitors. Similar growth is expected until 2020, boosting tourism-related expenditure and hotel industry value.

BMI Research expects growth in the medical devices market of more than 6.3pc in 2016 and with the country reliant on imports to meet demand, producers and developers of time- and cost-saving healthcare solutions should take note.

Irish firms are already active here. Architectural practice O'Donnell+Tuomey designed the redevelopment of Budapest's Central European University in time for this year's 25th anniversary and CRH opened its new business services centre in the capital, providing administration for operations in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.

Outside Budapest, McHale Hungaria produces hay bailers in Szolnok; Kingspan manufactures construction industry components in Ujhartyan; and in Torokbalint, Kerry Group produces food ingredients.

So despite its reputational issues, Irish businesses should look again and take note of possibilities in Hungary, perhaps with the aid of an invention of a former Budapest newspaper editor called Laszlo Biro.

Ladislav Muller is Enterprise Ireland director for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria and is based in Prague
Frank Daly, Brendan McDonagh and Michael Noonan at the presentation of Nama annual results in 2013. Photo: Frank McGrath

A special purpose vehicle, established to hold and manage Nama's 5.6bn par value Project Eagle loan book following its sale to US private equity giant Cerberus, paid taxes of just stg1,947 (2,500) in 2014 by availing of controversial Section 110 tax status.

The startling number is contained in the latest available accounts for Promontoria Eagle, the company set up on behalf of Cerberus by Dublin-based Structured Finance Management (Ireland) to recover the debt it acquired from Nama for the knock-down price of 1.6bn.

A further examination of Promontoria Eagle's accounts shows that the company collected repayments of just over stg73.18m from the date of its incorporation on April 17, 2014 to December 2014.

The financial statements show net interest income of stg49.98m and other operating income of stg1.15m. Once impairment charges (of stg5.47m), losses on derivatives (of stg2.58m )and operating expenses (of stg43m) were deducted, profit for the period came to stg7,788 before taxation. The company recorded a profit on its ordinary activities after taxation of stg5,841.

While news of Promontoria Eagle's use of the Section 110 clause will invariably serve to fuel growing public and political disquiet over the success of international investment funds in minimising tax paid on the distressed loan portfolios they acquired in Ireland during the financial crisis, the practice is entirely legitimate - and was actively promoted by government and the country's professional services sector.

Section 110 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is regarded as the cornerstone of Ireland's onshore debt-securitisation regime.

Expand Close Michael OFlynn outside Corks Elysian Tower, which is now owned by the US fund Blackstone. Photo: Daragh Mac Sweeney/Provision / Facebook

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Whatsapp Michael OFlynn outside Corks Elysian Tower, which is now owned by the US fund Blackstone. Photo: Daragh Mac Sweeney/Provision

The vehicle allows investors to acquire, manage and trade in a vast range of assets, including securities, aircraft, financial assets and non-performing loans, such as mortgages, in a 'tax-neutral' manner.

The law was extended five years ago to include a broader range of 'qualifying assets', such as commodities and carbon offsets.

Qualifying Irish tax-resident SPVs can lawfully engage in an extensive range of financial and leasing transactions in a tax-neutral manner. As long as payments out match payments in, Section 110 securitisation vehicles pay virtually no tax - if any.

An accompanying note to Promontoria Eagle's 2014 financial statements refers to the decision to avail of Section 110 status, saying: "the company is a qualifying company under Section 110 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. As such, the profits are chargeable to corporation tax under Case III of Schedule D at a rate of 25pc but are computed in accordance with the provisions applicable to Case 1 of Schedule D."

The company's accounts show that Cerberus' stg1.136bn acquisition of Nama's Project Eagle loan book was funded through the provision of a senior loan facility by Nomura International plc and two subordinated loans from Promontoria Holding 83 BV.

Asked by the Sunday Independent for comment on Promontoria Eagle's move to avail of Section 110 tax status, a spokesman for Cerberus declined to comment.

Efforts to elicit a response on the matter from Jonathan Hanly, a director of both Promontoria Eagle and Structured Finance Management (Ireland) proved to be similarly unsuccessful.

Structured Finance Management (Ireland) operates as the Irish arm of the UK-headquartered Structured Finance Management Europe, which provides these services in various financial centres around the world. The company was recently taken over by its rival, Elian, which also has a Dublin office.

Cerberus is not the only international investor to have minimised its tax bill through the use of a Section 110 special purpose vehicle.

A further investigation by the Sunday Independent of the companies established by SFM Ireland shows that another SPV - Beltany Property Finance Ltd - recorded a tax bill of just 250 in its latest available accounts, which cover the period from its formation on March 27, 2014 to December 31, 2014. Beltany recorded profit before taxation of just 1,000 in the same period.

Beltany was established to hold and manage the recovery of loans on behalf of its ultimate owner, the US bank Goldman Sachs. It paid a total of 500m for two portfolios of loans in 2014.

The first of these purchases saw the company pay just over 312.9m for a portfolio of commercial real estate loans from the IBRC, while the second transaction involved the payment to Ulster Bank of over 187.1m for loans secured on properties in Ireland and the UK.

Beltany's 2014 accounts show that it funded the purchase of its loan portfolios through the issue of just over 489.1m in profit participating notes to ELQ Holding (DEL) LLC.

ELQ is recorded by the US Securities and Exchange Commission as being a "significant subsidiary" of the Goldman Sachs Group.

Beltany's profit and loss account shows that collections on loans for the nine-month period up to December 31, 2014, came to just over 118.86m, while repayments on its profit participating notes meanwhile came to just over 3.55m in the same period.

The company received unwelcome public attention earlier this year after tenants in the Cruise Park estate were informed that they would have to leave or buy their homes - as their landlord, the European Property Fund was selling it to pay off a debt due to Beltany Property Finance.

Neither Beltany nor Goldman Sachs had any dealings with the Tyrellstown tenants.

Incorporated on March 28, 2014, Kenmare Property Finance had total assets of just over 201.6m at the end of 2014 which it acquired from the IBRC. Its accounts for the period show that it registered a loss of over 5.1m. Given those losses, the company recorded no tax charge up to the end of 2014.

Separate to the cases of the special purpose vehicles set up by SFM Ireland, is the example of US private equity giant Blackstone's subsidiary, Carbon Finance.

Established in April 2014 for the purposes of managing the loans it acquired from Nama as part of its 1.1bn purchase of Project Tower (a 1.8bn par value portfolio of loans secured by the assets of developer Michael O'Flynn's O'Flynn Group), Carbon Finance's latest accounts show that it paid tax in 2015 of just 1,000 - leaving it with a profit after taxation of 3,000.

A closer inspection of the accounts shows that Carbon's 1,000 tax liability consisted of an amount of 500 assessed at the corporation tax rate of 12.5pc and a further sum of 500 which fell under Section 110.

Carbon Finance's total assets amounted to just over 962.2m at the end of 2015, its accounts show.
The housing crisis is due to get even worse this week as college offers are released tomorrow, pushing thousands of new first-year students into an already flooded rental market. Stock photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Students and their parents are being hit by an enormous accommodation shortage as rental prices continue to rise.

The housing crisis is due to get even worse this week as college offers are released tomorrow by the Central Applications Office (CAO), pushing thousands of new first-year students into an already flooded rental market.

As of the end of July, 80,887 students had applied for college courses through the CAO, a record number of applicants.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) has estimated that student numbers would continue to grow year-on-year until 2024, leaving thousands of students in the lurch as adequate housing is not available.

The cost of student accommodation is making finding a suitable place to live even more challenging for students and parents.

Ziggurat Properties, who run a specialised student accommodation site near UCD, are charging a minimum of 245 per week for a room.

That price will get a student a 'classic room', which provides an en-suite bathroom, as well as a bed, desk, chair, noticeboard and bedside locker. However, at these prices, students and their parents will be spending almost 1,000 per month on rent.

Read more: USI asks 100,000 homeowners to rent out spare rooms as housing crisis hits students

UCD's on-site accommodation ranges from 5,721 to 7,929 per year, including utilities. The cheapest option works out at 635 per month.

In comparison, NUI Galway's lowest rate is 3,105 for a twin room, working out at 345 per month; however, this excludes utilities. The price is 4,335 for a single room, and all students pay an extra charge of 675 for utilities.

There are also fears that desperate students will rush into paying a deposit on a house, leaving them open to housing scams.

UCD student Rebecca Hart told the Sunday Independent that she and four of her friends were scammed out of almost 4,500 by a con-artist posing as an elderly couple living in the UK.

"They go to estate agents' websites and take the properties off their websites. So every property that this couple are supposedly 'renting' is for rent [by somebody else], they just don't own it," she said.

Meanwhile, student groups are encouraging homeowners to rent out rooms in their houses to students as a stopgap solution to the shortage.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) distributed 100,000 flyers last week to homeowners in a bid to secure housing places for students.

Annie Hoey, USI president, said that they are aware of the challenges students are facing and advised them to stay calm.

"We are more than aware of how difficult this is," she told the Sunday Independent.

"Accommodation and the cost of fees are putting a very heavy strain on the student and very often their family or a close relative. I think the Government is becoming acutely aware of this as well.

It comes after the University of Limerick issued an appeal for 'digs' landlords to come forward to help with the growing demand there.

Institutions outside of Dublin are seeing a huge rise in the number of prospective students as incoming first-years look to avoid the housing crisis in the capital.
The Student Housing Company has sold out its apartment block for the coming year - at almost double the average paid in rent by Dublin students - one month after launching the Dublin City-based premises.

Binary Hub, which will house 471 students, is set to open in September with rooms starting at 206 per week, or 824 per month. The room rates are just under double what students are paying on average, according to the DIT Cost of Living guide.

DIT uses the Daft.ie rental guide as a starting point for rent averages and then triangulates the results with surveys of its own students. As a result it estimates the average rent paid by a Dublin student to be around 462 a month, or 115.50 per week.

Despite the major increase on the average rent paid, The Student Housing Company's Liberties accommodation has been completely booked up for the coming college year.

DIT has reserved some of the space in the block for its students as it, like all colleges, continues to tackle a lack of bed space in the capital.

DIT's Dr Brian Gormley said that while the prices charged by the Student Housing Company are higher than the average, the college welcomes the additional rooms for students.

"The last time there was a significant growth in purpose-build student accommodation was between 2000 to 2007. During that time period the number of students living in purpose-build student accommodation went from about 4pc up to about 17pc, which was a massive increase. It took a lot of the poor-quality accommodation out of circulation.

"Eventually the rent found its level. I know these companies are charging a premium, but generally what you'll find is there won't be enough students who can afford to pay at that level. I think eventually the prices will level off," Dr Gormley said.

The Student Housing Company is looking to follow up Binary Hub with another location on Dorset Street in northside Dublin. This campus will house 447 students with bookings starting in November with the aim of opening in September 2017.

The rent charged at the company's locations is all inclusive of bills and on-site amenities including a gym and a laundry room.
The anti-fraud provisions of an Irish 2004 Act are looked at with envy in neighbouring jurisdictions, as it has proved to be a powerful tool in the fight against insurance fraud in personal injury cases

When a couple of well-known insurers in Ireland released their financial results recently, I was struck by the fact that both companies emphasised that they would continue to be vigilant in the fight against insurance fraud - as all other insurance companies are doing.

And well they might.

Insurance Ireland, the body that represents most insurance companies trading in Ireland today, states that insurance fraud costs an estimated 200m annually, and that this ends up being paid by honest policy holders.

Insurance fraud can take on many different aspects. My experience has been in acting for insurance companies and on occasion defending and resisting fraudulent claims made by one party against another in court. While this has become a hot topic recently, it is not new.

In 1991, I was instructed by an insurance company to defend an unusual High Court case. The injured party told the court that he was standing at a table outside his van, peeling potatoes. He alleged that as a car approached him, the driver lost control on a slippery surface, and knocked both the table and the unfortunate man over, and he fell on his knife sustaining a perforating injury to his abdomen. The driver also supported his account.

We thought that this was a suspicious case, and fought it. We got access to the injured man's hospital notes and records. We then discovered that at the time of the alleged accident, he had been admitted to hospital and that he told the A&E doctors, who recorded it on his records, that he was stabbed in a fight.

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Despite this contradictory account, he persisted in his story and we fought the case in the High Court in Sligo - where it was dismissed by the late Mr Justice Ronan Keane.

The case preceded the 2004 Civil Liability and Courts Act, which contains Section 26, an anti-fraud provision - broadly put, anyone giving false or misleading evidence in a personal injury case faces a fine of up to 100,000, and/or 10 years in prison.

The legislation also, under Section 26, obliges the court to dismiss the claim if the plaintiff gives evidence that is false or misleading.

More recently, we defended a case where a cyclist was knocked from his bike by a motorist. He was injured and sued for compensation, as he is entitled to do.

However he admitted at his hearing that he had told lies in his court papers in order to get more money in his claim. In court, he corrected his account and admitted his earlier lies. The defendants had produced evidence from a private investigator to show that the claimant was able to cycle much longer distances than he had alleged, something that he had denied as he said his injury prevented him from doing this.

The court refused to strike out his claim. The Judge said that the cyclist had told a number of lies to his solicitor and to his doctors.

The Defendants sought a dismissal of the action under Section 26, but the Judge invoked a saving provision, which says that "the action shall be dismissed unless the court shall be of the opinion that the dismissal of the action would result in an injustice being done." The Judge said that "the lies, were not of great significance to the plaintiff's overall claim".

Our clients were disappointed in the decision. It sends out all the wrong signals to the insurance market. It seems to me that the Oireachtas was quite clear in the message that the 2004 Act was to introduce - people should not tell lies in presenting personal injury actions and, if they do, their claim should be dismissed, and they could face criminal sanction.

While the Judge had a choice to allow the claim or not, should he have ruled to such an extent in the claimant's favour? Putting this another way around, if the court had dismissed the cyclist's claim on the basis of the lies he told, I cannot think that many people would have had much sympathy for him.

We had better success recently. My colleague, Brian Connolly, defended four claims in the High Court on Appeal in the Cork Circuit. Mr Justice MacEochaidh was outraged at the claimants' cases and he said there were significant inconsistencies in their accounts, including the time the accident occurred and the reasons for their journey. The Judge said he found the plaintiffs' accounts implausible. He went further and he said that as he found the court had been lied to, he dismissed the four claims and he ordered a transcript of the proceedings be sent to the DPP. Further, he ordered that the costs of the proceedings in the court below and in the High Court be paid by the plaintiffs to the defendant.

The anti-fraud provisions of the 2004 Act have been looked at with envy by neighbouring jurisdictions. In England, Zurich Insurance took the case of Fairclough Homes v Summers to the Supreme Court in London. I assisted them in tabling their submissions on the law on fraud in Ireland.

A Mr Summers was injured in an accident at work where he sustained a fracture to his right hand and a serious fracture to his left heel bone. He pursued a claim for damages of almost 840,000. Evidence was obtained by the defendant, which showed Mr Summers to be far more mobile and capable than he alleged and, importantly, working.

Mr Summers maintained his exaggerated claim up to the trial and the judge held that Mr Summers had committed fraud to satisfy the criminal standard and, amongst other things, underwent an unnecessary surgical procedure in a futile attempt to prove the extent of his injury. Nevertheless, Mr Summers was awarded almost 89,000 in damages.

The insurers went to the UK Supreme Court and sought a strike-out of the award, and tabled the Irish Section 26 as a leading example. The Court conceded that appropriate cases could be struck out if there was evidence of fraud.

As a result of this case, in England there is now Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which broadly mirrors our own Section 26, introduced 11 years earlier.

So the 2004 Act has been a useful weapon in the armoury of defendants and insurers in resisting fraudulent claims. It is a powerful tool in the fight against insurance fraud.

All insurance companies in Ireland are vigilant in rooting out false and exaggerated claims. It is a fight that the insurers must win - in the interests of the Irish consumer.

Gavin Campbell is Partner and Head of Office at BLM, Dublin
The man known as the "one true genius" of Irish jazz music, Louis Stewart, passed away yesterday at the age of 72.

Renowned for his laid-back style and skill as a guitarist, the Waterford man was described as a world-class musician by fans paying tribute to him yesterday.

In the early stages of his career he made a name for himself performing in Slattery's pub in Dublin where he wooed many visiting American musicians. He first began recording in the 1960s and was awarded the special jury prize at The Montreaux International Jazz Festival after embarking on an international career.

Throughout his life in music, Stewart also regularly played at jazz festivals around Europe, playing on occasion with Keith Jarrett and Gerry Mulligan. He also worked alongside Benny Goodman, George Shearing and Tubby Hayes, and performed as part of Ronnie Scott's quartet and quintet for many years.

In 1998 he was the recipient of an honorary doctorate degree in music from Trinity College Dublin.

Later in his career he regularly played to an intimate and attentive crowd in JJ Smyth's - the Dublin city centre bar known as a home from home by many musicians and jazz fans.

Last night, RTE broadcaster John Kelly joined the many fans paying tribute to Mr Stewart.

"When I first went to New York, when the jazz musicians realised where I was from, they always asked if I knew Louis Stewart. He was so admired. A truly world-class musician."

He was described as the "one true genius" of jazz by frequent collaborator Jim Doherty.

The New York Times once described the guitarist as having "the kind of fast company that might overwhelm a lesser talent.

President Michael D Higgins paid tribute to Mr Stewart last night.

"It is with great sadness that I have learnt of the death of Louis Stewart, outstanding musician and iconic figure in the world of jazz in Ireland," said Mr Higgins.

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"His many admirers, of all ages, will miss him deeply - and in particular he will be missed by all those he encouraged and who, in a life devoted to music, he invited to join him in making music."
A roadside bike repairman fixes an inner tube for a customer on a street in Hanoi. Corruption has eroded public confidence, created social backlash, widened the rich-poor gap and hampered Vietnam's development, a deputy prime minister has said. Photo by AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam

The anti-corruption bill looks to scrutinize the assets of their spouses, minor children.

Of the one million public officials required to disclose their assets in 2015, only five were found to have made false declarations. Over the past decade, Vietnam has disciplined a mere 17 officials for making false financial disclosures.

At first glance, these rosy findings appear to give the country an almost squeaky-clean corruption record. But in fact, Vietnam's poor international corruption ranking has chipped away at investors and public confidence.

In 2014, Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index, an international standard gauge of government malfeasance, ranked Vietnam 119 out of 175 countries and territories; the country was ranked 116 in 2013 and 123 a year earlier. Its position has barely budged, moving to just 112 in 2015.

Vietnams officials often bristle at negative international assessments of its domestic affairs, saying they fail to reflect the real picture here. But corruption is indeed serious enough for the countrys leadership to use strong words when they speak of the problem.

The fight against corruption has failed to achieve its target, Truong Hoa Binh, the deputy prime minister in charge of the anti-corruption drive, said at a meeting in July to review Vietnams Anti-Corruption Law. Corruption remains complicated in a number of sectors, eroding public confidence, creating social backlash, widening the rich-poor gap and holding back our countrys development.

Authorities have repeatedly acknowledged that Vietnams financial disclosure laws, billed as one of the most powerful tools for tackling corruption, have remained all but toothless. In an explicit gesture to restore shattered public trust, Vietnam is amending its Anti-Corruption Law after a decade of implementation. Notably, the bill looks to require the spouses and minor children of a wide range of public officials to disclose their incomes and assets.

It is not rare for Vietnams top echelons to admit that some senior Communist Party members and their wives and children have failed to behave in an exemplary manner. Over the past years, several legislators have been even more forthright, publicly accusing many bureaucrats of funneling their ill-gotten gains, obtained in the form of houses, land and cars, to family members and close relatives.

In a high-profile case, in 2014 Tran Van Truyen, the chief of the Government Inspectorate (the top government agency tasked with fighting corruption) between 2007 and 2011, was rebuked by the Communist Party for trying to conceal his outsized real estate holdings.

Financial reports showed that Truyen, who made less than $9,000 a year as the Government Inspectorate chief, had hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in addition to significant holdings of property and stock. According to inspectors, several of Truyens houses and apartments were registered under the names of his wife and daughter, who did not reside there but rented them out to others.

Vietnams most recent Governance and Public Administration Performance Index has confirmed that personal relationships and informal payments still play an important role for those who wish to pursue public sector careers.

According to the index, over the past five years, nepotism and corruption in public sector employment have become a systemic problem. The index, considered the largest national governance and public administration performance monitoring tool in Vietnam, has surveyed nearly 75,000 citizens annually since 2009.

It is in this context that analysts welcome the proposed requirement targeting family members of public officials, saying it is the first step in the right direction.

The move shows that the Party wants to step up its fight against corruption, said Le Hong Hiep, a Vietnam analyst at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, which studies social, political and economic trends in the region. It may serve as a warning to corrupt officials and provide the legal basis for handling the transfer of their ill-gotten wealth to family members, he said.

But still, questions arise over its feasibility in a country with a poor record of implementing its own laws.

The big question is how the Party is going to enforce it, Hiep said. The problem for Vietnam's fight against corruption is not the lack of regulations, but the lack of enforcement mechanisms, he said.

So far the requirement for officials to declare their own assets has proven ineffective, and it's unlikely that the new regulation will make a difference.

The elephant in the room

Vietnam made it mandatory for public officials to submit financial disclosure forms in 2007. In 2013, an amended government decree widened the categories of officials falling under the purview, requiring around one million officials to declare their incomes and assets worth more than the equivalent of $2,400, including cash, gifts, savings, stocks and vehicles  held both inside and outside the country.

But the annual outcomes of these financial disclosures have always stood in stark contrast to Vietnams poor international corruption ranking. Just last week, Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys economic hub, reported that over the past decade, only one low-level official was found to have made a false declaration.

One of the most glaring pitfalls in the process is that financial disclosures are not made available for public review, analysts say. Instead, each officials finances are submitted for the approval of the heads of the respective agencies during an annual review process. The verification process is carried out only when there is a promotion or an appointment, or a complaint that involves a public official.

That poses another problem. Every year these agencies must process roughly a million financial disclosure reports. Given the number of people filing disclosures and the nature of the exercise, verifying the declarations is a tall order, according to analysts.

The amended bill seeks to plug several of these loopholes. Public officials would not be required to disclose their assets on an annual basis, but only when they are nominated for election, appointment or re-appointment and promotion at public agencies, or when there is an increase of VND200 million (US$8,900) or more in their assets and incomes.

It also plans to make electronic transactions mandatory for state officials making transactions worth over VND20 million (US$896) in a bid to monitor clandestine asset movement.

But still, the bill does not seek to make financial disclosures available for public review. This means that corruption could continue with impunity, analysts say.

Meanwhile, public confidence in the anti-graft campaign has been on the wane.

The 2015 Governance and Public Administration Performance Index found that a much lower percentage of respondents (34 percent in 2015 compared to 40 percent in 2014) agreed that provincial leaders are serious about combating corruption.

According to the index, very few victims of bribery requests (less than 3 percent) denounced corrupt acts by local government officials. At the same time, the tolerance of bribes surged, with victims of corruption saying they would not denounce a case unless the bribe asked for reached VND24 million ($1,100). Vietnams annual average income was around $2,100 last year, according to the World Bank.

Such findings reflect that people tend to tolerate more of corruption, said Do Thi Thanh Huyen, the policy analyst of the UNDP in Vietnam and the task manager of the Governance and Public Administration Performance Index research.

To make matter worse, a number of independent studies have confirmed that the practice of giving and receiving bribes is so common in Vietnam that it is understood to be a routine part of doing business.

Hoang Nhu Lam, who runs a ceramics business in the southern province of Binh Duong, said such findings no longer come as a surprise to him.

To many businesses, bribery has remained a way of life, Lam said. You just cannot do away with a practice that has become entrenched in society."

Related news:

> TPP will help Vietnam combat corruption: Vietnamese official

> Vietnam to investigate corruption investigators

> Vietnams Anti-Corruption Bureau speaks about Panama Papers
A93-year-old woman who was missing on Sunday afternoon was located safely by gardai.

Margaret Fogarty was last seen at approximately 3pm on Sunday near Druids Valley Park, off the N11, Loughlinstown in Co Dublin.

Gardai had appealed for information on the elderly woman's whereabouts.

Gardai confirmed shortly before 10pm on Sunday evening that Margaret Fogarty had been located safe and well.
Homeless campaigner Erica Fleming, who lives in a hotel with her daughter, turned down two offers of accommodation, according to an internal Dublin City Council report seen by the Sunday Independent.

The briefing document states Ms Fleming was offered a two-bedroom apartment in the upmarket Dublin suburb of Mount Prospect Avenue in Clontarf around the same time she was being filmed for an RTE documentary on the homeless crisis.

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The council said it "sourced and offered" the accommodation through its Place Finder service, which helps homeless people living in Dublin to find private rental tenancies.

The report says the local authority offered to pay the deposit and rent on the property which was to be paid directly to the landlord through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme.

"This offer was declined by Ms Fleming," the document states.

Shortly after this offer was made, the Dublin woman was invited to view another property through the Place Finder service, but again turned down the offer.

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The report states that it is the council's understanding, from correspondences with Ms Fleming, that she is only interested in being offered accommodation in certain areas which are provided directly by the local authority or an approved housing body.

The document says she is not interested in properties paid through the HAP scheme.

"DCC has pointed out to Ms Fleming that a number of solutions regarding securing a tenancy arrangement have been offered but declined and that there is a need for shared responsibility so that every effort is made to progress out of homelessness," it states.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent two weeks ago, Ms Fleming said she has never been offered any accommodation by Dublin City Council.

Read more: 'The government needs to take this seriously'  Charity calls for reforms after homeless mum refused education allowance

She said the HAP scheme is "better than a hotel room, but it still doesn't give you the security".

"You could be okay for 12 months but a landlord could turn around in 12 months and say 'actually we can get more rent off somebody else or we are selling the property'. Because there is no back up plan with Dublin City Council, you're living in a hotel again."

Tenants in rental accommodation under the HAP scheme have the same legal entitlements as a private renter.

This includes a freeze on rent hikes for two years and an obligation on a landlord to justify any increases. It also means tenant leases cannot be terminated unless the property is being sold or given to a family member of the landlord.

When details of Dublin City Council's offers of accommodation were put to Ms Fleming last week, she acknowledged the details related to her but said it "appears" to be "inaccurate information". However, when asked what parts of the information were inaccurate she declined to respond.

Ms Fleming came to national attention when she appeared in the RTE documentary My Homeless Family, which detailed the struggle of families living in hotel rooms.

In the programme, she spoke about the HAP scheme but did not mention that the council had sourced potential rental properties.

She said she wanted the next property she and daughter lived in "to be for life".

Since the programme aired, Ms Fleming has regularly spoken publicly about her plight, including delivering a speech at the most recent Sinn Fein Ard Fheis.

She was also part of a Sinn Fein-led delegation which travelled to Brussels to address the EU commission on the homeless crisis.

Last week, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar took the extraordinary step of issuing a statement on foot of complaints by Ms Fleming about not being able to access back-to-education state aid.

Mr Varadkar said "a lot of inaccurate information" on the state supports available to lone parents was put into the public domain relating to a "high profile individual case".

Ms Fleming, who works part-time, has written to the minister asking him to intervene when she was refused the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) after she was accepted into Trinity College Dublin.

Mr Varadkar said the BTEA was for people whose sole source of income was social welfare, but highlighted a number of other state supports that are available to lone parents returning to education.

He added that he was "delighted" she was accepted into TCD.
New image: Michaella McCollum during her interview with RTE.

Convicted drugs smuggler Michaella McCollum has revealed how she became top dog at a notorious South American prison during her time there.

In an interview with The Irish Mail on Sunday, McCollum explained how she ran her own beauty salon at the prison, earning the equivalent of 250 per week.

McCollum revealed she also paid other prisoners to clean her prison cell, saying: Because its so dirty, I mean, even the bathroom, you wouldnt even touch it. Youre literally cleaning your own c**p.

Before her release from the Peruvian prison Ancon 2, she spent the equivalent of a further 100 bribing a prison guard to get her a mobile phone.

Photos of the 23-year-old Northern Ireland native were also published by The Irish Mail on Sunday, which show her posing, celebrating a birthday and various other events in the prison.

McCollum said the images were taken to send to her family back in Ireland and that they did not convey the reality of her life in prison.

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We would prepare ourselves for a long time because I was taking them pictures to send to my family so obviously I want to look as good as possible, she explained.

Those days the pictures were taken there was always an event or something happening. I weirdly look kind of happy.

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For six months McCollum was given significant control in prison, being voted general coordinator and being put in charge of the phone, television and shopping budget.

Despite the seemingly relative glamorous lifestyle she was living at the time, diary extracts from the young Tyrone woman reveal a darker side to her time behind bars.

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In one entry she revealed how unbearable the heat was in prison and detailed the insect problem which prevented her sleeping through the night.

I have lots of [visitors] at night, mosquitoes, flies and some other form of insect but they come in forces, 10+ at a time attacking you, crawling all over your skin.

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I wake up around 1-5am every morning disturbed by the itching and buzzing in my ear, she explained.

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Lighting incense to keep the insects away also led to McCollum setting her bed on fire repeatedly and on one occasion burning her eyebrow.

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During her prison stint she also received almost 500 love letters.

McCollum also claimed her psychologist in the prison, Marco, attempted to sabotage her chances of being released after she rebutted his romantic advances.
Michaella McCollum after her arrest in 2013. Photo: AP Photo/Martin Mejia

Much has been written and much has been joked about the incarceration and release of Irish drug smuggler Michaella McCollum.

But it was a joke Facebook posting the Peruvian police thought to respond to.

The satirical 'Dundonald Liberation Army' Facebook page posted about the police's "frantic" search for Michaella's bun, in reference to her change of hairstyle for her RTE interview.

"The authorities in Lima are frantically trying to ascertain the whereabouts of Michaella McCollums bun it has emerged.

"Viewers were so stunned by the disappearance of the bun that they didnt even realise that Michaella dodged every single question she was asked," the page joked.

"No, we don't," the Facebook verified Policia Nacional del Peru profile page responded. It also 'liked' the post.

McCollum was released from jail in Peru on parole after serving two years for smuggling drugs into the South American country.
Health Minister Simon Harris has led tributes to a renowned cancer specialist who drowned in a tragic accident on a lake beside his home town.

Professor Aongus Curran, a 51-year-old father of five, went missing on Lough Corrib in Co Galway on Friday after he had gone fishing.

His body was recovered from the water close to Camillaun island on Saturday afternoon, more than 5km from his empty boat.

Prof Curran was a native of nearby Oughterard and often returned home to go angling.

He was a much-respected UCD professor and doctor at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, where he specialised in the treatment of neck and head cancers.

Mr Harris said: "Professor Curran was an enormously respected surgeon and a valued teacher to medical students at UCD."

The chair of the local angling club in Oughterard, Brian Ferguson, said the community had been left devastated.

"It appears to have been a tragic accident," he said.

"Aongus's father Bobby is a former chairman of the club here, so when the alarm was raised, the whole community pulled together to help in the search.

"We had more than 50 people out on the lake on 20 different boats, with loads of support on the shoreline."

Former patients and students of Prof Curran were also devastated.

Prof John Crown described Mr Curran as an "outstanding cancer surgeon". Student Nathaniel McHugh said: "He was an inspiring colleague."
NORTHERN Ireland's police chief has been accused of a stunning misjudgment over a late-night tweet suggesting officers overwhelmed by the job should "dry your eyes" or "move on".

Chief Constable George Hamilton was responding to an anonymous person on Twitter shortly after midnight on Sunday as he posted a light-hearted appeal for new recruits.

One Twitter user, apparently a police officer who says he lives with depression and pain, responded that police were expected to be social workers, paramedics and child minders as well.

"I know - more complex & challenging but we are here to serve so let's get on with it rather than wallowing in self pity!" said a response posted on Mr Hamilton's verified Twitter account.

When the man denied he was wallowing in self pity, Mr Hamilton's account replied: "well you're allowed to leave & seek another job - nobody is asking you to stay.

"Dry your eyes, do the job or move on!"

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents more than 10,000 rank and file PSNI officers, demanded an apology for what they described as "offensive comments" from Mr Hamilton.

"The pressures our officers endure are nothing short of monstrous," said Mark Lindsay, chairman of the Federation.

"The Chief Constable knows the extent of the problem - we have highlighted it often enough - which makes his remarks all the more bewildering.

"It shows how out of touch he is with his own officers and that is deeply disappointing."

Mr Lindsay said officers are grappling with psychological conditions because of the appalling things they have to experience and witness in the line of duty.

"To cap it all, we have a chief constable who tells the men and women he commands that if they don't like it, they can leave and get another job," he added.

"Mr Hamilton has got this badly wrong.

"To say to officers to 'dry your eyes, do the job or move on' amounts to great insult and a stunning misjudgment.

"He should apologise immediately for this outburst, withdraw the offensive comments and remove the tweet from his account."

A PSNI spokesman said there was no immediate response from the chief constable to the Police Federation's calls for an apology.

Mr Hamilton's remarks also drew a fierce response from other users on Twitter.

The Chief Constable had posted an advertisement from 1839 calling for recruits to Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police.

He said: "Think about career in policing - we want citizens to serve from ALL backgrounds. Terms & Conditions have improved."
Leaked memos seen by the Sunday Independent reveal the crisis that is taking place inside the State's only 'campus' for serious young criminals.

Up to 50 under 18 year olds are held in the Oberstown centre north of Dublin, and staff are warning it is only a matter of time before an inmate or member of staff is murdered.

Staff say their lives are at risk due to rules governing the centre that prevent them from calling gardai in dangerous situations, forbid them from using handcuffs to restrain very violent inmates, provide them with no protective clothing or equipment, and forbid them from searching inmates for drugs or weapons.

The rules were laid down in 2014 in response to diktats from the European Council on 'child-friendly justice'. Under the guidelines, all under 18 year olds are de-facto 'children' and cannot be restrained.

On October 15 last year, according to a staff member, "a young person barricaded several staff into the office in unit 8 while he systematically destroyed the lounge area. These staff were prevented from exiting the room for a prolonged period and suffered considerable trauma as a result. There was talk at the time of setting fire to barricades."

Staff asked management to assess the risks to staff of "being held against their will in the office", "a fire being set with the intention of harming people trapped in that space" and "the danger of a hostage situation arising in a space in which there is only one way in and out".

The latest break-out from the centre last week followed escalating attacks on staff who have now asked for an 'escape hatch' to be built into the central staff office due to fear by staff of being trapped and unable to escape in the event of a fire or attack by inmates.

One of the abiding main concerns is over a directive from management informing staff that if they call gardai without management approval they will face disciplinary action.

The directive was reinforced in a memo to staff last month stating: "The gardai will only come on campus at the invitation of the director/designate or if they have a court order authorising them to come on campus for a specific issue. The responsibility to manage the behaviour of the young people on the campus falls to the management and staff on the campus.

"If a staff member wishes to make a complaint to the Garda Siochana about an incident or assault, this is the staff's right to do so in their personal capacity. As previously stated, the campus will support the individual staff member within this process. It is for the gardai to determine what actions are then necessary to investigate the incident and/or alleged assault, and through liaison with the Juvenile Liaison Office and the Director of Public Prosecutions, if charges are to be brought forward.

"I again wish to state clearly, individual staff members, unless designated to do so, do not have the authority on behalf of the director to contact the gardai and request their assistance to come on to the campus to address an operational or behavioural management issue.

"To do so is in breach of a directive from this office and may result in disciplinary action."

Staff say this has left them in a situation where they cannot protect themselves and other inmates in violent situations.

Oberstown currently operates under guidelines set down by the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which forbids the use of handcuffs on under 18s.

Read more: '65 staff were the victim of assaults last year - over 3,000 sick days taken because of injury and stress' - striking staff

Following a series of attacks and the barricading of staff in the central admin office, staff asked for an escape route due to fear of being trapped in a potentially life-threatening situation.

They were informed their concerns were being taken into account in a reply from management which stated: "With regard to the staff office, we propose that the square window leading from the office to the entrance lobby be replaced with an escape type hatch. This was considered by OPW (Office of Public Works) architects for suitability and was approved and included as part of the residential units and refurbishment works."

A "complete review" of fire risks is to be undertaken next month, staff were informed in a memo sent at the start of July.

Of increasing concern to staff is their inability to search young people for drugs or weapons on their arrival or after visits. Under guidelines, staff say they are forbidden from searching the "genital area" of inmates, and this is resulting in what one source described as "any amount of drugs" coming into the centre.

One memo describes how staff dealt with an inmate who was under the influence of drugs and acting in a violent manner last December. A member of staff came to the assistance of a manager and two other care staff who were restraining a youth.

"I took over and held young person on the floor. I immediately noticed that the boy was a very red colour and turned to my manager and asked here what the preceding events were.

"She informed me that it was suspected that the young person had taken a lot of tablets throughout the night before and his behaviour at this point was confirming those suspicions."

The youth "initially co-operated" and agreed to be led to his bedroom "but began to struggle when approaching his room. He had to be held and escorted to his room where I tried to place him on his bed and leave without any further struggle.

"He became very agitated, elbowing me twice in the face and the struggle ended up on the floor. He then spat in my face several times before I could disengage and leave the room. The young person eventually ended up in hospital for two days with what I was told was an irregular heartbeat."

The minister responsible for Oberstown, Catherine Zappone, has called for a report into the break-out by five inmates last weekend during which staff were effectively held captive for up to three hours and were forbidden from calling garda assistance. The five were detained by gardai outside the centre.
Irish 'supervet' Noel Fitzpatrick has hit back at critics who claim he dreams up complex new surgeries for the TV cameras, and insisted he would never perform a procedure that he wouldn't do on his own pet.

The 48 year old, whose pioneering surgical innovations and cutting-edge techniques have made him a household favourite with millions of TV viewers, is back on the small screen with a new series, called 'The Supervet: Bionic Stories'.

But the Co Laois native, whose neuro-orthopaedic specialist facility in Surrey in England has earned a global reputation for pushing the boundaries of veterinary medicine, has admitted that not everyone is a fan of his innovative techniques.

"I get some criticism for moving things too far in veterinary medicine, and yet I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I would never pick up a scalpel blade and operate on any animal if I wouldn't do it on my own dog - nor if I didn't feel I could provide that animal with a reasonable quality of life in a reasonable time frame," he said.

Fitzpatrick, who honed his skills as a young vet in Dunmanway, Co Cork, has also set up 'The Humanimal Trust' charity, through which he hopes to improve the medical care and treatment options given to animals by cooperating more closely with experts in human healthcare.

In an interview with The Catholic Universe, he explained: "I strongly believe that all animals should be given all of the options, all of the time.

"Right now in veterinary medicine, that often doesn't happen, which is a shame. One of the major reasons is lack of awareness of the available technology, and lack of willingness to employ these technologies for the greater good of our animal friends.

"Many of the techniques in this series are not available for human patients yet."
You'd be amazed who you will find shooting fashion in the natural beauty of Co Kerry. Annie Leibovitz came back twice she liked it so much and now it's the turn of Monsoon, the occasion-wear brand whose AW16 collection is a mixture of great coats and warming plaids. But with lots of debs talk and formal parties coming up, I immediately honed in on their evening wear, the photoshoot for which was done at Port Magee, along the Wild Atlantic Way.

What about that black outfit with its gorgeous contrasting fabrics (above)? That's a beaded georgette top worn with an uber cute skirt of clipped jacquard mesh over a soft satin lining - divine combo! Meanwhile, the 'Starr' pink embellished maxi is made from tulle and the gown is embellished with lustrous metal beads in vertical stripes which draws the eye down your silhouette. Lined for smoothness, this ethereal style has a flattering blouson bodice with a high neckline, and dramatic side splits on the skirt. The cut-out detail on the back reveals just a hint of skin.

Back in the world of Monday-to-Friday dressing, excitement is building about the arrival in Dublin of the Swedish store, & Other Stories. Pouring over an exclusive imagery of two AW16 collections from their ateliers in Paris and Stockholm, I was struck by how they reflected different aesthetics and ideas.

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The Paris Atelier reinterprets the idea of retro futurism and their collection (which includes the faux fur coat, pictured above) aims to show that a new perspective on bohemianism is ascendant in 2016. Designer Philomene Tellaroli explains, "For us, this is a futuristic yet nostalgic season that speaks to women of today. Reinvented '60s-inspired elements tell an elegant and eclectic story of the past, present and future."

Meanwhile, in Stockholm, Marten Andreasson explains how their collection explored the intricate construction of modern Japanese culture. Mixing delicate details of traditional Japanese clothing, they embraced tailoring and created sophisticated coats and suiting. I loved how they factored in belts tied in intricate ways and jewellery took shape from folded sheets or paper or calligraphy outlines. The red dress and ankle boots (pictured below) are in this collection.

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Reading the fascinating backstory to their designs only heightens the sense of anticipation to the Swedish store opening. In the meantime, I'm stalking their website, stories.com and this committed COS fan is happy out to see their little sister arrive in town.

Scent of a woman

Expand Close Scent of a dream by Charlotte Tilbury / Facebook

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I was in Cork earlier this week and there were celebrations as the new Charlotte Tilbury counter opened at Brown Thomas on Patrick Street. In addition to her make-up and skin creams (especially her high impact eye cream and night cream) there is a buzz about Charlotte's debut perfume, Scent of a Dream (86/50ml), above - a floral chypre perfume which changes as your day progresses into night. It opens with invigorating top notes of lemon and peach followed by fleurotic heart notes which resonate over five hours and then come the 'pheromone' base notes of fire tree, Iso E Super and patchouli. To mark its launch, customers can book a complimentary 30-minute 'quick tricks' appointment to demonstrate the 'dreamy look' using Charlotte's new Legendary Muse palette of eye colours and her Hot Lips lipstick in Secret Salma, a muted, medium rosy mauve.

New knits

Expand Close Collarless asymmetric zip coat (259) and cowl-neck cocoon knit (109). See mintvelvet.co.uk / Facebook

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Whatsapp Collarless asymmetric zip coat (259) and cowl-neck cocoon knit (109). See mintvelvet.co.uk

I was very taken by the trans-seasonal knits I spotted at the Mint Velvet shop in Dundrum Town Centre, including a collarless asymmetric zip coat (259) and this cowl-neck cocoon knit (109, above.

See mintvelvet.co.uk

@bairbrepower
U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Patricia Haslach participated in a signing ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, August 11, 2016, to award a Julia Taft Fund grant for refugees to International Rescue Committee-Ethiopia.

The U.S. government is proud to partner with government, international organizations, and NGOs like IRC to support Ethiopia as it hosts the largest population of refugees in Africa. The importance of Ethiopia as a key player in responding to refugee needs is highlighted by the fact that Ethiopia will serve as one of 7 co-hosts for President Obamas Leaders Summit on Refugees that will be held on September 20 in conjunction with the 71st session of the UN General Assembly.

The Summit co-hosts all recognize that the international community must do more to protect and assist refugees.

Massive numbers of refugees are embarking upon dangerous paths in search of safety; and millions more face long-term waits in first asylum countries, with limited, and in some cases, no access to lawful employment and education, while they wait for crises to end in their respective countries. In the lead up to the UNGA, Ethiopia, the United States, and other co-hosts, as well as other UN Member States that join this effort, will make concrete commitments to address these challenges.

In 2015, the U.S. State Departments Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) provided nearly $82 million in refugee assistance in Ethiopia, and to date this year has provided over $66 million.

Through its assistance in Ethiopia, United States funding for IRC has allowed it to implement projects that have renovated facilities for the reception of children and adolescent refugees arriving in Ethiopia, developed livelihoods for refugees, and constructed a multipurpose womens center for counseling, training, and community activities.

The Department of State is delighted that IRC is the recipient of this years Julia Taft Fund award in Ethiopia. This award of nearly $25,000 will boost the availability of safe drinking water and improved sanitation facilities for the 21,000-plus refugees, mostly from Sudan and South Sudan, who live in the Tsore and Sherkole refugee camps.

The U.S. government looks forward to continuing to fostering our partnership and commitment with IRC, as well as with our other NGO and international organization partners, to assist the refugee population in Ethiopia.
Careena and Lorraine Galligan are celebrating 40 years of the family's beauty college which their mum, Kay, started in 1976

This morning, as you read this, I hope to be scampering half way over the Tralee mountains, on a well deserved route march after dancing the night away at the Rose of Tralee Ball. The 2014 Rose, Maria Walsh marked my cards in advance that it would be a seriously fashionable affair so I took her at her word.

Earlier in the week, I met five of the Roses when Melissa O'Gorman, store manager of the Kilkenny Shop on Nassau Street, hosted a reception for the early arrivals in town including the Cork Rose, Denise Collins and the Tyrone Rose, Genevieve Scullion.

The full squad of Rose of Tralee minders were out in force and I met Robbie Scanlan of Tipperary Crystal which has taken over as title sponsor of the Rose festival, and he attended the reception with his wife, Karen. They were busy deciding who will wear what jewellery in front of the 1.7million TV audience. The catering on the night was most interesting, especially the choice of celeriac soup and I'm definitely chasing down Kilkenny's food guru, chef Gerry Devlin, for that recipe.

Expand Close Careena and Lorraine Galligan are celebrating 40 years of the family's beauty college which their mum, Kay, started in 1976 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Careena and Lorraine Galligan are celebrating 40 years of the family's beauty college which their mum, Kay, started in 1976

The glamorous Galligan sisters, Careena and Lorraine, above, are celebrating 40 years of the family's beauty college which their mum, Kay, started in 1976. The dynamic, statuesque Cavan woman was a true pioneer in the Irish beauty industry and opened her beauty business opposite the Provost's House in Trinity. Four decades later, probably half the beauty therapists in the country have passed through the college.

"My big memory growing up was of mum sitting at her dressing table, using her Dorothy Gray cleanser and moisturiser every day," said Lorraine. It's a beauty regime that Kay drummed into her daughters. I'm not at all surprised to hear that Kay is as sprightly as ever with interests in bridge, water aerobics and trips to the National Concert Hall.

Grapevine

Expand Close Bebhinn McGrath of Dunmore East won the Tramore 2016 Style Evening / Facebook

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Whatsapp Bebhinn McGrath of Dunmore East won the Tramore 2016 Style Evening

Bebhinn McGrath of Dunmore East, above, won the Tramore 2016 Style Evening wearing a two-piece dress and headpiece she created, matched with a vintage bag.

A costume designer, Bebhinn works mostly in film and TV and worked on Brooklyn and Vikings.

Spotted

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Timmy Ryan pictured above at the Prohibition party at Sam's Barbers on Dame Lane, with some authentic jazz sounds courtesy of the talented Conor McGrath. Timmy is director of Anchor Spirits Ireland, along with partner, Nichola Beresford. The couple founded the company in 2013 with another married couple who are based in the USA and the company currently produces two products, Muldoon Irish Whiskey Liqueur and Thin Gin. For the next two Saturdays, they are hosting a pop-up at Sam's Barbers so customers getting a short, back and sides or a buzz cut if that's your thing, will receive free Thin Gin tonic with their trim between 2pm-4pm.

Psst! Catriona Hanly has designs to be crowned the Irish Queen of modern tweed. The pocket-sized dynamo is showcasing her new fashion collection at her familys Kilronan Castle on October 16.
An archetypal little-old-lady was carefully making her way up the steep church steps to the main doorway. From her shoulder bag peeped the perky features of a small Scottie terrier, going a familiar route without objection to the bag's movements on the climb.

The woman reached into a stone water font at the door, dipped her fingers and blessed herself demonstrably. Then it was the Scottie's turn for a Saint Rocco moment of a shower of blessed droplets. Rocco, I learned, is the patron saint of the dog world.

Not a whimper could be heard to where I had been beckoned by my Edinburgh friend Fraser who lived opposite the church and who never had recourse to dip his fingers in holy water.

As she entered the church, the woman, with endearing fussiness, patted her pet's whiskery countenance and settled it more securely into her bag. She then kissed the animal on the forehead.

Fraser said this was a regular scene he had witnessed. He found it quite fascinating. I was amused - but a little uneasy. Let me explain. I have been accused at times of being cold-hearted about being too companionable about dogs. I shy away from petting, scratching or taking their paws. There are some who don't believe that I once bred Welsh springer spaniels.

In those days there was also a couple of Jack Russells, as well as several cats of varying and almost human dispositions. All the animals lived outside and I always scrubbed-up after handling, which also included guns, game bags, wet socks, wellies or leather stalking boots from Northampton.

But there was little extra-cosiness with the dogs. Triona, the springer, smelled strongly after rain, river and bog and, after a rub-down, was content to retire to its own nest. A 'Rev John Russell' was generally tolerated in the kitchen, though its great usefulness was outside - there were no rat problems. I loved my dogs, in a detached way. It had to do with their training and I suppose my mother's early influence. She had drilled into me that dogs and cats lived outside as certainly did also racing pigeons, mice in cages or any abandoned seabird chicks I might find on the nearby seashore.

Of dogs, there was a recent reminder in the British Medical Journal of something I have written about before, an infection called sepsis. I had warned dog lovers not to be carried away in kissing their pets and having them lick one's face!

The message is: don't be carried away. A simple lick from a dog can be dangerous, if you are unlucky. Dogs - and cats - carry the sepsis bacteria in their mouth cavities which can have nasty consequences if passed to very old and very young with weaker immune systems. You don't have to be bitten or scratched.

This won't stop you loving your pet. Last week, a colleague, Campbell Spray, motoring in Donegal, wrote of the kindness of butchers who brought out bones to the car for his almost blind pet. Coincidentally, and sadly, another Campbell sent me a picture of her father, an old friend, in his hospital bed in Florida being visited by his beloved pooch in his last days. Man's best friend was there with "whiskers crushed against the green of my old coat.looking to see what it is I can see"
An Irish woman who documented her journey to Manchester for an abortion on social media has become the recipient of supportive messages from around the world, including a tweet TV presenter James Corden.

The woman and her friend have been tweeting their journey to the UK for the procedure on Twitter account @TwoWomenTravel since Saturday morning, in a bid to highlight their experience to Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The women will make their way home to Ireland this afternoon and said they are humbled by the messages of support they have received.

Feeling so humbled, catching up on mails in the taxi. This is inspiring, a tweet from the account read.

Feeling so humbled, catching up on mails in taxi.This is inspiring women 2 share their experiences #twowomentravel pic.twitter.com/qRYxwzGivB  Two Women Travel (@TwoWomenTravel) August 20, 2016

The account has amassed more than 22,000 followers since its creation yesterday as the women documented each step of their journey, including a clinic waiting room where they said they met several other Irish women who travelled to the UK for the procedure.

Forced 2 leave Ireland, @EndaKennyTD joined by more Irish in waiting room, waiting for our loved ones, the account tweeted yesterday afternoon.

Forced 2 leave Ireland, @EndaKennyTD joined by more Irish in waiting room,waiting for our loved ones #twowomentravel pic.twitter.com/19FNUacPJD  Two Women Travel (@TwoWomenTravel) August 20, 2016

The women said that although they were treated with respect by warm staff, they feel failed by the Irish government.

Procedure was quick & staff very warm. Our love to you all. @EndaKennyTD failed us. You did not.

The womens journey has received international media attention and television presenter James Corden pledged his support in a tweet shared with his 7.4m followers.

Today, @TwoWomenTravel but you're not on your own in this. So many people are with you, he wrote.
We're on an expedition into deepest Foxrock - yes, intrepid I know - to visit a restaurant that has been going strong since 1992. Longevity on that scale is impressive in a fickle industry, and an indication that whatever Bistro One is doing, up the stairs in a modest space than spans a couple of shops in the village, it is making a decent fist of it.

Foxrock is one of Dublin's aspirational villages, and the only one in Ireland (reputedly) not to have a pub to call its own. To make up for that lack, it does have cafes and a wine bar and a couple of estate agents, as well as some good food shops, a petrol station and a post office.

We are eating on a Friday evening in high summer, enticed by Bistro One's social media boasting about freshly landed lobster. The place is full. It is unusual to find ourselves the youngest customers in any restaurant, but that's what my friend, Maeve, and I appear to be on this occasion; we feel positively girlish. Two of my aunts-in-law happen to be eating at the next table, and all around us, the talk is of cruises planned and hip replacements survived.

We are seated in the far section of the restaurant, which has little to recommend it by way of decorative interest. There's a window that's too high up to offer a view to the outside, a wood-clad wall, and not much else. The main room is the one to request if you want to be at the centre of the action. I've eaten here before a couple of times and my sense of Bistro One is that it is a restaurant that has always been serious about provenance, quality and seasonality, since long before local and seasonal became the menu cliche that it is today. Owner Mark Shannon even brings in olive oil from his own farm in Tuscany, and the menu discreetly name-checks some excellent Irish suppliers including Ronan Byrne, The Friendly Farmer, one of the best poultry producers in the country but whose birds I have only ever seen feature before on menus in the 'wesht'. Other producers listed include Wild Irish Game, Sally Barnes' Woodcock Smokery and Sheridan's cheesemongers.

Alas, there's no lobster on offer - the voracious locals have beaten us to it - but there is sweet and lovely Dalkey crab on toast, and Dublin Bay Prawn tempura with a vibrant yellow saffron aioli that is a compensation for the soggy and redundant batter. The prawns would have been better left alone.

A tranche of roast monkfish with wilted spinach, garlic butter and more of those gorgeous prawns is luxuriously good. It's not a complex dish, nor an innovative one, but it's probably one of the reasons that Bistro One is still going strong after 24 years. Similarly, a rib-eye steak from local butcher, John O'Reilly of Mount Merrion, is impeccably cooked medium-rare - flavoursome meat that hasn't been mucked about with. We're not as keen on the 'crispy onions', which are greasy, but a little baby heirloom tomato salad is summer lovely, and the chips are good. We finish with a blousey pavlova featuring lemon, pistachio and pomegranate, and a selection of Irish cheeses that includes Cooleeney, Durrus, Crozier Blue, and the new-to-me, 15 Fields raw milk cheddar-style cheese from Eamonn Lonergan of Knockanore, all served with biscuits that resemble retro-style cream crackers more than they do the house-made flax seed iterations that are everywhere these days.

Our bill, with a bottle of Bourgogne Blanc, Meursault (39) comes to 161.70, including a 10pc service charge that's automatically added to the bill. Service is efficient but cool, and we have the sense that many of our fellow customers are regulars, who are being looked after with more warmth.

I'm in two minds about Bistro One. On the one hand, there is much to admire in the conscientious sourcing, which in itself feels modern. I like the short menu and the assured cooking. And I suppose that there is nothing wrong in continuing to do the same thing that you have always done, so long as you continue to do it well, which is the case here. I understand the need to look after your regular customers, and to retain the dishes that they like, but I'd love to see a little more excitement on the menu - even in just a dish or two - and for strangers to receive as warm a welcome as that afforded to old friends.

As we are leaving, we eavesdrop on a conversation in the main dining room. "Put your money in car parks and laundrettes," one chap is telling his friends, "and you won't go wrong."

So there you have it.

The rating

8/10 food

6/10 ambience

7/10 value for money

21/30

ON A BUDGET

The dinner menu is priced at 29 for three courses. It might feature mackerel with celeriac remoulade and capers, followed by plaice with broad beans, pak choi and prawn veloute, and vanilla panna cotta with raspberries to finish.

ON A BLOW OUT

Dalkey crab on toast, followed by fillet steak with crisp onions, with cheese to finish, with a bottle of Villa Antinori Chianti Classico would cost 180 for two including 10pc service.

THE HIGH POINT

Bistro One is somewhere that takes provenance seriously.

THE LOW POINT

Tables in the second room feel as if they are in Siberia.

Whispers from the gastronomicon

Expand Close Ronan Ryan is getting back into the night-time restaurant business. Photo: Damien Eagers / Facebook

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For readers old enough to remember the good old days of Town Bar & Grill, the news that Ronan Ryan (above) is getting back into the night-time restaurant business is reason enough to look forward to the autumn. Capo Dublin will open from Thursday to Saturday, in the premises occupied by Ryans daytime-only, healthy-eating Counter Culture on Mercer Street. I could tell you the identity of the chef, but Id have to kill you  suffice to say, diners can expect a full-on Cal-Ital menu with big flavours and plenty of vino Italiano.
On the evening of August 21, 1879, 15 residents of the tiny village of Knock converged on the parish church, where they claimed that they saw a most extraordinary sight: an apparition of the Virgin Mary accompanied by St Joseph, St John the Evangelist, the Lamb of God and a host of angels, along with an altar and a cross.

The witnesses ranged in age from five to 74 years of age; they came from different families and from different parts of the village, and yet their accounts of the evening, as presented to a Commission of Enquiry in October 1879, tallied precisely. The commission, appointed by the Archbishop of Tuam, found that the witnesses' testimonies were "trustworthy" and "satisfactory".

The story of these "strange occurrences" spread far and wide and was covered in news publications throughout Ireland, the UK and the US. Pilgrims from all over the world came to pay homage at the site of the "new Irish miracles".

A correspondent of the Daily News who travelled to Knock found the chapel "surrounded by a crowd of diseased persons, picking stones and cement from the walls and applying them to the ailing spot on their bodies". According to the Pall Mall Gazette in March 1880, "hardly a day [passed] without some miraculous cure being reported in the Irish newspapers, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, the blind seeing".

The events that took place in Knock might seem like an unusual subject for a documentary in 2016, in an Ireland that voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Marriage Equality Bill and in which the role and influence of a church that has been rocked by numerous scandals is constantly under question. Yet the fact remains that today, 137 years later, the small Irish village continues to attract over one-and-a-half million visitors every year and the descendants of the 15 witnesses continue to tell their ancestors' story.

It was that story that first attracted me to Knock and to the idea of making a documentary there. Whether or not you believe in the apparition, the description of the events - the 15 witnesses; the dark night; a vision that lasted for over two hours then disappeared; the parish priest who, when told of that vision, reacted with incredulity and refused to venture out into the rain -reads like something from an Agatha Christie novel.

This mysterious event took place in a part of the country that was extraordinarily impoverished, which, even after the end of the Great Famine, continued to suffer mini famines. The Land League had been founded in Mayo earlier in 1879 and the county was the site of numerous rent strikes, evictions and, the following year, the first ever boycott. The people of the West of Ireland were in desperate need of hope and solace, which many of them found in the story of the apparition.

Strange Occurrences in a Small Irish Village is about Ireland, past and present, and Irishness which has for centuries been inextricably linked to Catholicism. My intention in the documentary was to tell the story of Knock Shrine, the events that led to its foundation and the hopes, fears and beliefs that continue to bring people there today. I also wanted to tell the stories of the people that work in Knock and those that live there, many of whom depend on the shrine for their livelihood.

The stories featured in the documentary vary from the quaint and quirky, such as that of Canon Joseph Cooney and Leona Connery, who run Knock Marriage Introductions, a Catholic alternative to Tinder; or Bernard Byrne, one of eight siblings, each of whom inherited his or her own religious goods shop on Knock Main Street. Others are genuine tales of the unexpected, such as that of Marian Carroll, who believes that she was miraculously cured of multiple sclerosis at Knock. Marian's story contrasts starkly with that of Carmel Donnellan, who, at only 43, has also been diagnosed with MS and has yet to experience the miracle she craves.

This extraordinary community is, in so many ways, an anachronism, a throwback to a very different Ireland, in which the teachings of the Church were accepted without question and a framed image of the Sacred Heart held pride of place in almost every home.

It's incredible to go to Knock today and see shop after shop selling Holy Water bottles and light-up crucifixes. When I was doing research for the film, I stayed in a bed and breakfast called 'Lamb of God'. During the annual Knock Novena, every August, crowds move in large processions around the grounds of the shrine, following a wheeled statue of Mary, as the rosary goes out over a tannoy. It's a town unlike any other in Ireland. But with Mass attendance now as low as 2pc in many areas, the faithful, on whom Knock depends, are dwindling in number. So what now for the shrine? Is it destined to languish, ever-more isolated, on the periphery of Irish culture and society?

The parish priest of Knock, Fr Richard Gibbons, is determined that this will not be the case. He is on a mission to modernise the shrine and to secure its future. Over the course of the two years our team spent filming in Knock, we watched as Fr Gibbons oversaw the complete renovation of the basilica. A structure that once appeared to be a time capsule from the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979 is now a contemporary, comfortable building, complete with one of the largest mosaics in Europe, at a total cost of over 14m, raised entirely through donations.

Father Gibbons was inspired to raise the funds for the renovation by his friend, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, who has to date raised over $100m for the refurbishment of St Patrick's Cathedral. The controversial and charismatic Cardinal Dolan is a frequent visitor to Ireland who, in 2013, invited Fr Gibbons to give a homily at St Patrick's Day Mass in New York. In return, Fr Gibbons convinced one of the most powerful church leaders in the United States to lead a pilgrimage to Knock in August 2015.

The arrival of the cardinal, in the company of 180 members of the New York archdiocese, was a landmark moment for the shrine for a number of reasons: as the first transatlantic pilgrimage to have flown into Knock, it represented the realisation of the vision of Monsignor James Horan when he established Knock Airport in 1986; but it also presented a new source of visitors and revenue for the shrine. Just last month, Knock welcomed a second transatlantic pilgrimage, this time from Boston, led by Cardinal Sean O'Malley.

The question remains, though, as to whether one very industrious parish priest can do all that is required to preserve the shrine for the next generation. Is it time that the story of Knock was left to the annals of history? Or is there something in this small Irish village that will stand the test of time?

Strange Occurrences in a Small Irish Village opens in cinemas around the country on Friday, August 26
French soldiers patrol at the Eiffel Tower on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015. AP Photo/Peter Dejong

Holidaymakers view flowers left on Marhaba beach where 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack in June 2015 in Sousse, Tunisia

80pc of Irish holidaymakers will avoid places at risk from terrorist attacks, according to a survey released this week.

France was cited as the country most at risk from terrorism by 94pc of respondents to the survey, carried out by insurer 123.ie.

Turkey and Tunisia ranked next at 91pc and 87pc respectively.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) currently advises Irish citizens to exercise "a high degree of caution" in France, Turkey and Thailand, though it stops short of recommending against "non-essential travel", which is the case in Tunisia and most parts of Egypt.

As holidaymakers pull back from destinations on foot of terror fears, one knock-on effect has been a dramatic fall in the price of flights, hotels and packages.

Here's a snapshot of the changing landscape.

Paris & France

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Recent Events: Terror attacks in Paris and Nice have rocked the nation. Hotel bookings halved in Paris this July, according to the country's tourism ministry.

Flights: Ryanair currently has one-way fares from Dublin to Paris Beauvais from 16.99 each way. Aer Lingus has one-way fares to Charles De Gaulle from 44.99.

Prices: HotelsCombined.ie has two nights at the 4-star Le Marcel Hotel in Paris from 300 (75pppn)  a saving of 438 on rack rates, based on two adults sharing a standard double. ClickAndGo.com has a two-night, weekend break in a 4-star hotel with Aer Lingus flights from 259pp on September 9th.

DFA Advice: "Irish citizens throughout France should exercise a high degree of caution, and follow the instructions of local authorities."

Bear in mind: Last year, France was the world's most visited tourist destination, despite several high profile terror attacks.

Read the full travel advice here.

Turkey

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Background: A state of emergency following an attempted coup on July 15, and numerous attacks including explosions that killed 41 at Ataturk Airport this July, are among several incidents to have spooked potential visitors this year.

Flights: Turkish Airlines (turkishairlines.com) has return flights from Dublin to Istanbul from 192pp in late September, including checked luggage.

Prices: Sunway (sunway.ie) has flights plus 14 nights at the 4-star Golden Wings Hotel in Kusadasi from 584pp based on a September 27 departure.

DFA Travel Advice: "Our advice to Irish citizens in Turkey or intending to travel to Turkey is to exercise a high degree of caution."

Bear in Mind: The holiday resorts of Kusadasi and Izmir are some 500km from Istanbul, where the above incidents occured.

Read the full travel advice here.

Thailand

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Recent Events: Terrorist attacks took place in Bangkok in 2012 and 2015, Koh Samui in 2015, amd Chiang Mai in 2010. The political situation remains unpredictable.

Prices: Travelmood (travelmood.ie) has flights plus eight nights at a 4-star resort on Koh Samui from 839pp in September. Tropical Sky (tropicalsky.ie) has a five-star, seven-night package from 1,369pp in October, saving 500.

DFA Travel Advice: Travellers should exercise a high degree of caution. "Any Irish citizens in Thailand should maintain a strong level of security awareness, monitor the local media closely and follow the instructions of the Thai authorities."

Bear in mind: The vast majority of trips pass without incident, but travellers should avoid the southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Sonkhla entirely.

Read the full travel advice here.

Brussels & Belgium

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Recent events: Multiple explosions occurred on March 22, at Brussels Airport at Zaventem and Maalbeek Metro Station. The airport took two-and-a-half months to fully resume operations.

Flights: Ryanair has one-way fares to Brussels from 14.99.

Deals: ITAA Member SuperBreak (superbreak.ie) has a three-night Christmas markets trip to Brussels departing December 9 for just 200pp. The price includes return flights and accommodation at the Hilton Brussels City. Cassidy Travel (cassidytravel.ie) has 3-star city breaks from 132 for two people.

DFA Travel Advice: "Irish citizens planning travel to Brussels are advised to remain vigilant, exercise extreme caution and stay away from crowded areas."

Bear in mind: 2.4 million passengers travelled through Brussels Airport in July, making it the second busiest July ever a record month in 2015.

Read the full travel advice here.

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Prices have also plummeted in Egypt and Tunisia, but the DFA recommends against non-essential travel to these areas, so we haven't included them here.

The 123.ie survey was carried out amongst 771 adults in Ireland, and though it found terror attacks to have influenced respondents' choice of destinations, it doesn't appear to show any dampening in demand for travel.

72pc of respondents were planning a foreign holiday this year, with Spain the most popular single holiday destination for 41pc of those surveyed.

By contrast, just 14pc were planning a trip to France.

Mexico (72pc), South Africa (68pc) and Russia (46pc) were perceived to be the most risky in relation to crime, while Russia and Greeces political regime / instability were said to pose a risk to travel by 44pc and 42pc of respondents respectively.

NB: Prices correct going to press, but subject to change.
Dear friends: Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy at Arthur Griffiths' funeral, just 10 days before Collins' own assassination

The Monday coming will be the 94th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins, whom some feel was the greatest Irishman of the 20th Century. It was Collins who created a form of guerrilla warfare which made it possible for a small country to confront a big one.

In June 1922, Collins was Commander in Chief of the new Irish Free State Army, side by side with General Richard Mulcahy as Chief of Staff. Between them during the Anglo-Irish War, they had devised many of the military devices used to induce the British to withdraw and to agree to the establishment of the Irish Free State.

The single most important event in the Anglo-Irish War had been Bloody Sunday on November 21, 1920, when almost the entire intelligence of the British Secret Service was assassinated in one amazing swoop. Once the Civil War had started between ourselves, however, Collins and Mulcahy found that the new Irish Free State Army was now a target for a section of their former comrades who had refused to accept the creation of the new Irish Free State. Collins was ambushed, shot and killed by his own countrymen in a lonely glen, Beal na Blath in Cork, on foot of this order, and Mulcahy was left to carry on with a Civil War, which lasted nine months and caused unbelievable damage to the New State.

Five days after Collins died, it was General Richard Mulcahy who was chosen to give the address over the grave of his dear friend at the funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The oration was remarkable with the effect and impetus of a powerful poem, which is why I have thought it suitable for this column and taken the liberty of arranging the extract from the text in prose poetry form.

Extract from speech delivered at the graveside of Michael Collins 1922

"Prophecy", said Peter, who was the great Rock,

"is a light shining in the darkness til the day dawns",

Surely our great Rock was our prophet and our prophecy

a light held aloft the road of hardship and bitter toil:

and if our light is gone out, it is only as the paling of a candle

in the dawn of its own prophecy.

Men and women of Ireland, we are still mariners in the deep,

bound for a port, still seen only through storm and spray,

sailing still on a sea full of dangers and hardships and bitter toil,

But the great Sleeper lies smiling in the boat

and we shall be filled with the spirit

which will walk bravely upon the waves.

General Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971)
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New hospital for a tenner may come at too high a price

The Taoiseach is under a lot of pressure  the kind of pressure that leads to costly mistakes. It perhaps explains why he has been saying things that are not quite true. Micheal Martin is in a tight political corner. From all sides hes being told he has to get the contract signed for the new National Maternity Hospital.
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Ian O'Doherty Opinion For once, the UN is right  were standing on the edge of a deadly nuclear precipice

For those of us of a certain age, the last few months have felt as if we have somehow time-warped back to the 1980s. Stranger Things, which is set in that decade, has been the biggest show on TV. Kate Bush  thanks, incidentally, to Stranger Things  is now regularly played on the radio and she has reached number one in 2022 with the re-release of her 1985 hit, Running Up That Hill.
Winning Streak star Sinead Kennedy has revealed that she gets frustrated by the pressure placed on her to have children since she married her husband Conor Kirwan.

The RTE presenter said the constant questions about when she is going to start a family drive her demented and said the same pressure is not placed on men.

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The baby question is something that Irish people just naturally ask you, Sinead told The Irish Daily Mails TV Week.

I have a job that I love- why is there all this pressure to suddenly be making babies? Because there are other things Id like to do.

The presenter said that the media does not place the same focus on her male colleagues to divulge details of their personal lives.

Nobody would ever dream of asking Marty about [babies]. Nobody asks the men anything like that. Ive done interviews with Marty where people are asking me about my love life and he is just there talking about Winning Streak. Look it is something I would hope for in the future but it is something Im not looking for right now, she said.

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Sinead married her husband Conor in a ceremony in Sneem in Kerry in 2014, but the pair have only recently moved in together in Dublin after years of having a long distance relationship.

Conor is a naval officer who was previously based in Cork.

"He moved in with me after years of being apart.

"Our relationship was something that we did at the weekend and we didn't get to spend too much time together. But now we see each other all the time," she said.

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"We feel even closer and we are more of a team. I know this sounds like a cliche, but we are stronger than ever."
WINNEMUCCA  Barrick Gold Corp. is helping out nonprofits in the Winnemucca area.

Barrick provided $329,8000 to the Winnemucca community said Maria Anderson, community relations specialist.

The majority of those funds  $300,000  was given to construct a new building for the Winnemucca Boys & Girls Club. The building was still under construction in July.

It was to be paid between 2015 and 2016, but we paid everything last year, said Anderson.

The Barrick mine that is located close to Winnemucca is Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture. TR is an underground mine near Golconda and is owned 75 percent by Barrick and 25 percent by Newmont. Barrick operates the mine.

Turquoise Ridge General Manager Nigel Bain said it is important for the company to donate to the club because it is part of building a better Winnemucca.

We live in this community, Bain said of Turquoise Ridge employees and the importance of helping nonprofits. When you look at this group here, theres 200 houses represented here. This is our community.

Part of the reason why Barrick donated to the group is because the building will have STEM classrooms and a robotics class.

Were hoping that, that could be something TR could be involved with its engineers coming in and donating some of their time, Anderson said.

Barrick also decided to donate to the organization because it saw a need.

Education is the single most significant focus area for community investment and charitable donation and other community development that we support in Nevada, Anderson said.

In addition, Barrick partners with Newmont and Silver Standard to sponsor the annual Gold Fever event to all Winnemucca fourth graders, which helps educated about 300 students. As you know

This event is an educational outreach where students watch the movie named Gold Fever that is about historic mining and prospectors through modern day and the many uses of gold, Anderson said. Following the movie, students examine mineral samples provided by local mines and are asked to identify each mineral with the help of Barrick, Newmont and Silver Standard employees who volunteer at the event.

Barrick also supports the Nevada Outdoor School which provides supplemental science, outdoor and environmental education to youth and families and encourages exploration of the natural world.

Barrick and the companys operating sites provide support for a wide variety of programs and services that contribute to the health, welfare and overall quality of life in the communities where we do business, Anderson said.

Barricks community investment and involvement efforts are focused on programs and services that provide:

 Educational opportunity

 Youth activities

 Arts and culture

 Historic and cultural preservation or conservation

 Environmental protection or enhancement

 Wildlife and habitat conservation

 Community health and medical service improvements

 Essential services to under-served communities

 Economic diversification and sustainability

 Critical improvements to civic facilities

 Support to elderly or disadvantaged groups

 Social Justice

Organizations wanting a donation from Barrick must fill out the companys application for Community Investment Funding.

The form along with any supplemental information can be emailed for consideration to community@barrick.com Folks may also call 775-748-1001 option 5 with any questions regarding the form.
Women mourn as they wait in front of a hospital morgue in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, after a suspected bomber targeted a wedding celebration in the city, Turkey, August 21, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

AT LEAST 51 people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday, security and hospital sources said.

President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night attack, one of the deadliest this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria.

The suicide bomber was a child between the ages of 12 and 14, President Tayyip Erdogan later revealed.

In comments shown live by broadcaster NTV, Erdogan also confirmed that 51 people had died in the blast, and 69 were wounded. Seventeen of the injured were "heavily" wounded, Erdogan said.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

On Sunday morning, smashed garage doors and windows could be seen at the site of the blast.

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The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Mahmut Togrul, an HDP lawmaker from Gaziantep, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.

"It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Turkey is still raw after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Violence flared up again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants
Germany could impose a ban on women wearing burqas or full-face Islamic veils at schools and universities and while driving, under proposals announced by Angela Merkel's party.

The burqa "does not belong in our cosmopolitan country", Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister and one of Mrs Merkel's closest allies, said as he announced the policy.

"We all reject the full veil - not only the burqa but also other types of full veil that only leave the eyes visible. They have no place in our society."

The proposals stop short of the complete ban called for by senior figures in Ms Merkel's Christian Democrat party (CDU). Instead what has been described as a "burqa ban lite" will also apply to women working as public officials, attending public demonstrations, and in court.

"Showing your face is essential for our communication, co-existence and social cohesion and that's why we're asking everyone to show their faces," Mr de Maiziere said. "We want to introduce a law to make people show their faces and that means that those who break that law will have to face the consequences."

Ms Merkel made her own feelings on the issue clear in an interview with a number of German newspapers in advance of the announcement. "In my view, a fully veiled woman has almost no chance of integrating successfully in German society," she said.

The new policy was agreed at late night talks between Mr de Maiziere and interior ministers from several of Germany's 16 federal states where the CDU is in power.

Before it can become law it will have to win the support of Ms Merkel's coalition partners in the federal government, the Social Democrats (SPD), where it has already run into opposition from senior ministers.

Andrea Nahles, the employment and social affairs minister, described the proposed ban as a sign of "increasingly xenophobic" debate in Germany and said it would set back attempts to integrate immigrants. Heiko Maas, the justice minister, called for the burqa to be kept separate from security issues.

Mr de Maiziere said the CDU ministers had agreed to drop demands for a complete ban because it would almost certainly have been struck down by Germany's courts as unconstitutional. The policy is likely to be largely symbolic as, unlike in other European countries which have imposed bans, burqas and full-face veils are already extremely rare in Germany.

There are around four million Muslims in Germany, about 5pc of the population. A study in 2009 found more than two-thirds of Muslim women in Germany wear no hair or face covering.

Calls for a burqa ban have been largely led by the CDU in regions where the party is under pressure from the right-wing anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party.

Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Pat Hickey is being held in a notorious Brazilian jail due to "suppositions that are not supported by any material evidence or proof" - his solicitor has claimed.

In a statement, released to Independent.ie, Rio-based lawyer Arthur Lavigne said Mr Hickey was arrested "under mere assumptions" and claimed the police probe has no legal support.

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Mr Hickey, who has temporarily stood down as president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, was arrested at his hotel early on Wednesday morning, by police from the Rio Police fraud unit.

He is facing three charges of facilitating ticket touting, formation of a cartel and ambush or illicit marketing.

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Brazilian police claim he and others were behind the large-scale touting of tickets for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The 71-year-old is currently in custody at Brazil's largest prison Bangu, on the outskirts of the city that is playing host to the 2016 'Games.

Police said he was 'evasive' in interviews and no formal response has been given to the media before today.

In a statement, given to Independent.ie, Mr Lavigne wrote: "Mr Hickey has been arrested due to suppositions that are not supported by any material evidence or proof of the alleged facts presented by the police. His arrest has no legal support.

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"The investigation did not bring one single slight indication that Mr Hickey could be involved with the facts therein investigated, and his detention was required by the police authority under mere assumptions."

Mr Hickey was previously represented by the OCI and a series of statements were released by the body in the immediate aftermath of his arrest.

But on Friday evening the OCI confirmed that Mr Hickey was receiving his own legal advice. They went on to say that he is entitled to natural justice and due process.

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This call was echoed by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Saturday.

Speaking at a media conference Mr Bach explained: What we know is that he has not been heard by a judge yet and, more so, the presumption of innocence prevails.

We respect the laws and legal procedures here in Brazil and cannot comment further on this, he said.

Mr Hickey temporarily stepped aside as an IOC executive board member, head of the European Olympic Committee and the OCI after his arrest.

Mr Bach said there would be no disciplinary commission to investigate Mr Hickey because the Irish man had temporarily stepped down from his IOC positions as well.

Authorities in Brazil say the OCI nominated THG Ticket agency last year to act as its authorised ticket reseller (ATR) for the Rio Olympics. THG previously acted as the official reseller for the OCI at the London 'Games in 2012 and the Winter Olympics in Russia in 2014.

The Rio organisers rejected THG and authorities claim the recently formed Pro10 effectively acted as a bridge to get tickets from the OCI to THG.

Two weeks ago police attached to Commissioner Ricardo Barboza de Souza's unit pounced on THG employee Kevin Mallon at a hotel in Rio.

Commissioner Barboza claims that Mr Mallon hosted a cocktail party for wealthy Brazilians at the Next Hotel in the city where OCI tickets with face value of R$1,400 (383) were being sold for up to $8,000 (7,070).
HORROR: Three-year-old Omran Daqneesh sits in an ambulance after being pulled out of a building hit by an airstirke in Aleppo, Syria, last Wednesday. (Aleppo Media Center via AP)

When the bombs came crashing down on the Daqneesh family home, one son emerged from the rubble almost unscathed and instantly became a global symbol.

The other son died quietly in hospital completely unknown to the world.

It emerged yesterday that Omran Daqneesh's older brother Ali had succumbed to injuries suffered in the same air strike that put his sibling on television screens across the planet.

Ali, 10, was out on the street when a Russian or Syrian regime bomb fell on his family's building in Aleppo's Qaterji neighbourhood on Wednesday.

While the rest of his family suffered minor injuries as their flat collapsed around them, Ali appears to have been more fully exposed to the bomb blast and died in hospital. Omran's father, who asked to be identified only by the nickname Abu Ali, meaning "father of Ali", received mourners at the family's temporary home on Saturday.

Omran, three, and his three surviving siblings stayed inside the house as Abu Ali accepted condolences on the street. News of Ali's death was also confirmed by the Syrian Coalition, an umbrella organisation made up of different opposition groups.

Ali can now be counted among "the other Omrans", the Syrian children who are being hurt or killed everyday in their country's brutal civil war but whose photographs do not go viral and whose names do not make the news.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that 142 children were killed in Aleppo in August alone. Around 50,000 children are believed to have died across the country during the last five years of fighting although exact figures are impossible to calculate. Countless others have been injured and no one can quantify the scale of psychological trauma suffered by a generation of children who have known nothing but war.

Read more: Brother of Omran Daqneesh 'dies of injuries in hospital' three days after Aleppo air strike

Dr Zaher Sahloul has seen many of the Syrian war's youngest victims and their unspeakable injuries. Yet one of the images most seared into his memory is a simple picture drawn by a seven-year-old boy from Aleppo.

It shows Assad regime helicopters dropping barrel bombs on children below. Those that are still alive are weeping and in pain but the ones who are already dead look serene and at peace.

"Somehow he thought that the children who died are in a better place than those who are alive," Dr Sahloul said. "This is what happens to children in Aleppo and in other places."

Russia has denied responsibility for Wednesday's air strikes in the Qaterji district, which killed at least eight people, including five children.

Aleppo, which is split between regime and rebel control, has been at the epicentre of continued battles and bombing despite successive attempts at ceasefires. More air strikes were reported yesterday, with pro-rebel activists saying one bombing killed seven members of the same family - including six children - early in the morning.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 civilians have been killed in three weeks of bombing in Aleppo. Around half were reportedly killed by Syrian and Russian air strikes and shelling on opposition-controlled districts, while rebel attacks killed more than 160 civilians on the regime side of the city.

Approximately 250,000 people live in the city's eastern districts, while another 1.2 million live in its western neighbourhoods.

Aid convoys have not been able to access the city for months, with fighting continuing as a coalition of Islamist militants including the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra fight to open up a corridor out of besieged areas.

Russia, which has been conducting air strikes in support of the Syrian regime since September, said it was willing to support weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow aid to reach besieged areas. But battles continued yesterday as forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad attempted to reinforce positions.

Elsewhere in Syria, fighting between the regime army and Kurdish forces intensified around the north-eastern city of Hasakah. The situation risks bringing the US and Syrian government into direct conflict for the first time after American jets were scrambled to prevent the bombing of US special forces and allies on the ground.

Kurdish groups, who took control of the area after the army withdrew in 2012, have not been a focus of Bashar al-Assad's forces so far in the conflict, with them focusing mainly on Sunni Arab rebels in the West.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) have now become a key ally for the US-led coalition in the battle against Isis, and were reportedly involved in preliminary peace talks with the Syrian regime on Saturday.

Telegraph

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
A woman who managed to survive the massacre of five people at a rural house in Alabama was in an abusive relationship with the suspect.

The woman was hiding there from her abusive partner - who has now been charged with the mass murder.

Laneta Lester (24) managed to escape the horrific scenes with the three-month-old child of one of the victims.

Derrick Dearman has now been accused of the murders of five people at the house, including a pregnant woman, and then driving away with Lester and the baby.

A four-year-old child also survived the grisly murder scene in the city of Citronelle, about 30 miles north-west of Mobile.

"Given the way the scene looks, we're going to be here a couple of days," said Captain Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.

"It's obviously a horrific scene."

Mobile county district attorney Ashley Rich said the crime scene where five people were "brutally and viciously murdered" was the worst she had seen in 20 years as a prosecutor.

Suspect Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, was taken into custody after he walked into the Greene County Sheriff's Office on Saturday afternoon and confessed to the crimes, said Captain Burch.

He said he expects Dearman to face five or six counts of capital murder.

Detectives are "attempting to establish the relationship between Dearman and the victims," said the sheriff's office on its official Twitter account.

It was clear that firearms and at least one other type of weapon had been used, said Captain Burch and Mr Rich.

However, Captain Burch added that it was not immediately clear whether the victims were attacked while sleeping or had put up a prolonged struggle.

Residents of the house called 911 to report a trespasser between midnight and 1am on Saturday, and Dearman appears to have been identified as the trespasser.

Captain Burch said he understood that Citronelle police responded to the call but did not find anyone.

The murders appear to have occurred later on Saturday morning.

A woman reported to Citronelle police on Saturday afternoon that she had been kidnapped and escaped.

Information from her account led Citronelle police to the house on Jim Platt Road.
The Philippines' brash-talking president has threatened to withdraw his country from the United Nations

The Philippines' brash-talking president has threatened to withdraw his country from the United Nations in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.

President Rodrigo Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the US and the UN to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.

The US State Department and two UN human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations.

Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gun battles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.

Agnes Callamard, the new UN special rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that "claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings".

Criticisms of Duterte's crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference that dragged on for more than two hours.

"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you're that rude, son of a bitch, we'll just leave you," Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city's longtime mayor.

Duterte also belittled UN work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions, for example, about the performance of the world body's agency that fights hunger.

If the Philippines breaks off from the UN - which Duterte called "inutile" (useless) and "stupid" - he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body.

The UN, he said, should return Manila's financial contributions.

"Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it," Duterte said, referring to the photo of a five-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that has gone viral online.

"Why is it that United States is not doing anything? I do not read you," Duterte said. "Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?"

When asked about the possible repercussions of his remarks, Duterte replied: "I don't give a shit about them. They are the ones interfering."

Duterte wondered whether UN officials were threatening to put him in prison and repeated that he was ready to sacrifice his life and presidency for his country.

Reacting to US criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the US

"Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?" he asked. "Answer that question, because even if it's just one or two or three, it is still human rights violations."

Duterte's drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30.

Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed. The arrests have further overwhelmed the Philippines' overcrowded jails.
Police described the 'horrific scene' after five people were found murdered at a home in southern Alabama

Five adults, including a pregnant female, have been found murdered at a "horrific scene" at a home in southern Alabama.

A four-year-old child was found alive at the grisly murder scene in the city of Citronelle, about 30 miles north-west of Mobile.

Authorities are working to identify the bodies and notify relatives following the discovery on Saturday afternoon.

"Given the way the scene looks, we're going to be here a couple of days," said Captain Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.

"It's obviously a horrific scene."

Mobile county district attorney Ashley Rich said the crime scene where five people were "brutally and viciously murdered" was the worst she had seen in 20 years as a prosecutor.

Suspect Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, was taken into custody after he walked into the Greene County Sheriff's Office on Saturday afternoon and confessed to the crimes, said Captain Burch.

He said he expects Dearman to face five or six counts of capital murder. One of the victims was a woman who was about five months pregnant.

Detectives are "attempting to establish the relationship between Dearman and the victims," said the sheriff's office on its official Twitter account.

It was clear that firearms and at least one other type of weapon had been used, said Captain Burch and Mr Rich.

However, Captain Burch added that it was not immediately clear whether the victims were attacked while sleeping or had put up a prolonged struggle.

Residents of the house called 911 to report a trespasser between midnight and 1am on Saturday, and Dearman appears to have been identified as the trespasser.

Captain Burch said he understood that Citronelle police responded to the call but did not find anyone.

The murders appear to have occurred later on Saturday morning.

A woman reported to Citronelle police on Saturday afternoon that she had been kidnapped and escaped.

Information from her account led Citronelle police to the house on Jim Platt Road.

Investigators believed the woman who contacted police had an undetermined relationship with Dearman.

AP
People gather after an explosion in Gaziantep during a wedding (AP)

An IS suicide bomber as young as 12 attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in south-eastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens of others, the Turkish president said.

The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep, near Turkey's border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbul's city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, 17 of them in a critical condition.

"It was clear that Daesh had such an organisation in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times," Mr Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for IS.

"Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity."

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he could not believe the party was targeted.

"This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party," Hamdullah Ceyhan told the state-run Anadolu Agency. "This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?"

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party - known by its acronym PKK - or were blamed on IS.

In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.

Earlier, Mr Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.

"These bloodthirsty organisations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation," he added.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, two-and-a-half-year peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In Gaziantep, deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek and the country's health minister visited the wounded and inspected the site of the attack.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters. "We are united against all terror organisations. They will not yield."

Prime minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing, which he said turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and he vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

Opposition parties have also denounced the attack. The main opposition Republican People's Party will be holding an emergency meeting and a delegation was being sent to Gaziantep by the Nationalist Movement Party.

Supporters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party will be holding a protest against the attack in Istanbul.

Foreign governments, including the US, Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, have condemned the attack.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in.

Hundreds of residents had gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Turkish authorities issued a media blackout on coverage of the attack until the investigation is completed.

AP

The bride and groom were not in a life-threatening condition and were undergoing treatment, Anadolu reported. The groom's sister and uncle were among the dead, the agency said.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has sent a telegram of condolence to Turkey, saying Germany stands on Turkey's side in the "fight against terrorism."

Mrs Merkel said it was with her "deepest sorrow" that she learned of the attack.

"Once again innocent men, women and children are the victims of cowardly and perfidious violence; I condemn this attack in the strongest terms," she said.

Mrs Merkel said Germany's thoughts are with the victims and their families, and she wished speedy recoveries to those wounded.

"I assure you that the German government will continue to stand closely at Turkey's side in the fight against terrorism," she added.

AP
Thousands of Irishmen and women have served under the flag. Some have been killed. They died because this small nation believed it must play a role in preventing world conflict.

Eamon de Valera was a champion of Irish participation in the League of Nations and its successor the United Nations. Although much maligned these days as the architect of a claustrophobic isolationist state, Dev was at heart an internationalist. His support for anti-colonial movements worldwide was heartfelt and much appreciated in places like Algeria and India. He was not afraid to challenge the big powers, earning the opprobrium of the Americans for Ireland's support of the entry of Communist China to the UN. Anglo-American suspicion of Dev and a Soviet veto helped to keep Ireland out of the UN until the mid-1950s.

But once admitted, we were enthusiastic and well-regarded members. From the Congo to Cyprus to Lebanon, and many more places, Irish forces have served with distinction. I am usually suspicious of that old trope that argues that our experience of colonialism gives the Irish a special understanding of the world's downtrodden. For sure we know the price of conquest and subjugation at the hands of foreigners. But our place in international affairs over centuries, and the role of many of our ancestors in the creation and maintenance of the British empire, demands a more complex reading of the past.

What I have seen the soldiers and diplomats of modern Ireland bring to the UN is tact, discretion and humility. In other words everything that is lacking in our political class. As an Irish person, I was brought up to regard the UN as a force for good. I believed the sacrifices made under the blue flag had a purpose that was higher than national self interest.

Then I went to the wars myself. I saw brave peacekeepers in action. I have an Irish army colonel to thank for extracting my team from a dangerous ambush in South Lebanon. I think of a man like Mike McDonagh from Co Clare who spent years of his life helping refugees and the victims of natural disaster, and who helped me navigate the dangerous terrain of Darfur in an age of ethnic massacre. Some of the best people I know work for the organisation. They work on the world's margins in conditions of danger.

My heart is still with the United Nations. But for a long time now my head has been troubled by its failures. It appears beset by bureaucratic inertia. Important decisions are endlessly deferred. Money is squandered.

There seems to be an institutional arrogance which serves to protect the incompetent and the dishonest. This is before we even get to the colossal failures in peacekeeping over the last 25 years: Somalia, Bosnia and, most appalling of all, the failure to stop genocide in Rwanda.

In recent years UN forces have been accused of widespread sexual abuse in the Central African Republic and, most recently, standing idly by while South Sudanese troops killed and raped aid workers and locals in Juba.

Presiding over all of this is a man chosen because he was the least offensive option to big powers on the Security Council. Mr Ban Ki-Moon is a patently decent person, but he has failed to articulate a vision for the UN in these perilous times, much less confront the institutional crisis outlined above. He has been neither a reformist nor visionary, rather a dull middle-manager who has managed well the difficult feat of not offending the members of the Permanent Five.

Could anybody have done better? No UN head can end the pernicious system of veto which allows the big powers to block action, or even criticism, that might curb the transgressions of themselves or their allies. Syria is but the latest and one of the most tragic examples of where the malign power of veto takes us. Nor could Ban Ki-Moon have forced the Security Council to take more effective action in Burundi or recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where sustained and costly UN engagement has failed to secure political stability. Countries bear their own responsibilities for which the Secretary General should not be made a scapegoat.

But a UN Secretary General can re-shape the organisation for these perilous times. He or she can start to root out the corrupt and useless in its bureaucracy. The evasions and hypocrisies of the Security Council can be forced more directly into the open. The problem is that Ban Ki-Moon is simply not taken seriously by either the Permanent Five or the General Assembly. His predecessor Kofi Annan was a flawed leader. But he had the gift of compelling articulacy. He did not stop genocide in Rwanda but he did push UN engagement to end "Africa's world war" in the DRC and helped make a compelling public case for the Millennium Development Goals. Not since the worst days of the Cold War have we more needed a strong United Nations led by a confident and articulate Secretary General. Yet when Ban Ki-Moon's term ends next year the likelihood is more of the same: decent and uninspiring, if we are lucky. That is the way the big powers like it.

***

The wind has been blowing all night. This tin cottage feels every gust. Bits creak in the dead of night. I look out at the big sycamore and worry that it may lose its moorings one night and tumble sideways. The rain goes rat-a-tat on the roof. I fall asleep to this comforting metronome. I am thankful for the bleak weather. I hate leaving Ardmore in the sunshine. It pulls so much at my heart.

Every happy moment I have had here - and they are too numerous to count - comes rushing back as I drive up the Dungarvan road, navigating the hairpin bends before looking back on the village over the bay. To see it with the sun sparkling on the water is too much to bear as I head back to London.

Leaving Ardmore marks the beginning of my working year, not the January New Year of the calendar. In a few days I travel from peace and tranquillity to God knows which benighted zone of human foolishness.

So goodbye Goat Island, Whiting Bay, the Curragh. Goodbye to John and Paula and Nicky and Dervla, to Tony with thanks for the two fine lobsters, to all my friends who make this place what it is, to the land where peace is possible.

Fergal Keane is a BBC Special Correspondent
SHARE Samuel Funk (left) helps Sarah Kipfmiller, resident director for Pratt and Denmark halls, on move-in day Saturday at Anderson University. Bailey Adams (right) carries pillows and trash can Saturday while Marana Poveda (left) and Jessica Stancil carry a box. The three Anderson University student volunteers helped freshmen move into dormitories. Anderson University President Evans Whitaker (left) talks Saturday with Kaylen Rice (middle), a freshman at the school, and her sister Kathryn Rice about how Kaylen Rice's room once was an apartment of Annie Dove Denmark. Denmark was president of what was then known as Anderson College from 1928 until 1953. Related Photos Anderson University students move in

By Abe Hardesty of the Independent Mail

When Rick Partin drove his overloaded sport utility vehicle into the parking lot in the center of a bustling Anderson University campus Saturday morning, the scene was reminiscent of a NASCAR pit crew working under a green flag.

The blue-clad moving crew he met made his daughter Kate's belongings disappear almost as fast as a refuel and tire change.

"I pulled up to the parking spot, and in a matter of two minutes my SUV was empty," Partin said. "I love these blue shirts. I didn't have to take a single box into the room."

In the center of a fast-growing campus and student body, the heavy dose of old-fashioned hospitality also left Michael Bagwell awestruck.

"They told us there would be some people to help, but I figured I'd at least help carry things to the room," said Bagwell, who made the drive from Dawsonville, Georgia, to help his daughter move into her college home. "When they told me to stay in the van, I was OK with that."

About 200 energetic volunteers, wearing powder blue "Move-In Crew" shirts, made timesaving magic Saturday as they helped more than 700 freshmen and about 100 transfer students move into Anderson University residence halls.

"It helps parents focus on the student and spend more time with them, instead of worrying about everything getting carried to a room," said sophomore Kasey Tackel of Charlotte. "This makes today like a family day."

Landon Rittering, a sophomore from Anderson, called the Move-In work "a good way to serve the community."

Assistant chemistry professor Carrie Koenigstein, an associate dean in the school's arts and sciences department, and Anderson University President Evans Whitaker were also among the well-placed volunteers.

"Hospitality is one of the things we do, and welcoming is part of that," Koenigstein said. "It's a big day for parents and students. We don't want them spending it unloading a vehicle."

Vice President of Student Development Jim Fereira said the volunteer work created a very different environment than he recalled experiencing on move-in day when he was a college student.

"My parents parked the vehicle as close as they could get, which wasn't always close, and getting moved into the room was a half-day job," he said.

"I don't think what we do is unique," Fereira said about the Move-In Crew, "but I think it's not common, either. It's one of the busiest and longest days of the year, and probably the most fun."

The fun will resume Sunday, when the rest of the student body moves into the 1,400 rooms on campus. Classes at the Southern Baptist-affiliated school will begin Wednesday.

The freshman class is expected to be the largest in school history, pushing the enrollment past 3,400. The opening-day enrollment has grown in each of the past 11 years at Anderson University, now the second-largest private university in the state.

Follow Abe Hardesty on Twitter@abe_hardesty
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

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One by one, on both sides of Broad Ripple High Schools auditorium, parents, students, alumni and teachers repeated story after story about their love for the school and an unrelenting passion for art.

Due to potential plans to reconfigure combined middle schools and high schools  such as John Marshall, Broad Ripple, George Washington and Northwest  the alternatives include a turn to traditional 912 schools, a conversion to middle schools, or a shut down altogether.

This decision is related to the fact that Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) has more room in its high schools than necessary, an estimated two seats per student according to data retrieved by media last month. But there are other factors influencing future settlements.

Reports show six of eight IPS high schools are filling only 50 percent (or less) of available classroom seats. If middle school students are removed from the high schools, enrollment will decrease even more.

To combat this, IPS may consider expanding the scope of each high schools geographic boundaries and career initiatives.

At the Aug. 11 Broad Ripple meeting, the Recorder obtained a pamphlet survey asking, Which of the following high school academy options do you find most interesting? The options were: kinesiology, health and human services, information technology, business technology, urban agriculture, sustainable energy, security and law enforcement, logistics, manufacturing, military and teaching.

Superintendent Lewis Ferebee said the list was based on feedback from the community. Weve been using focus groups and family surveys to affirm those options and identify new options for students.

However, multiple parents, students and teachers said they were not interested in seeing Broad Ripple, currently an arts school, shift focus to the options on the list.

One mother of a freshman said she drives 45 minutes each day to bring her son to Broad Ripple precisely because of the schools arts focus.

Because we dont have anything else like this in this area, I think it would be a disgrace and a disservice to students to cancel this program, she said. I know for a fact he would never want to go back to the district were at because he wants to have an education so he can go on to music school. It would just be very sad for this program to end.

A Broad Ripple alumnus echoed the sentiment: This sounds like a really great jobs placement program, but I dont hear anything about academic education.

He said his 2005 graduating class significantly decreased in a way that disproportionately affected minority students. The speaker was white and said he appreciates the school most when it operates at peak diversity.

I watched my graduating class go from 400 people my freshman year to 133, he said. And it wasnt people with my color face who left.

Aside from fears that adding a new academy can cut away from a schools existing budget, another concern is that the community is not being consulted prior to these discussions, which was a problem raised earlier this year when IPS approved of a 6 percent pay raise for Ferebee.

Ferebee has noted flaws in the execution of the program during his tenure. In 2015, 75 percent of students in grades 68 failed ISTEP, with the biggest losses coming from schools with combined middle and high schools. Statewide, 49 percent of students passed ISTEP in 2015, placing a spotlight on the IPS schools with the highest number of failures. But there are conflicting opinions suggesting what the root of the problems are and how they can be corrected.

When the middle schools and high schools were combined between 2001 and 2007, the goal was to decrease dropout rates. More than seven combined junior/senior high schools were created under then-Superintendent Eugene White, district officials say, because the hope was to streamline the transition through grades in what was labeled community high schools.

Graduation rates have increased over 10 percentage points in the last decadesince the merger, but the district is now reversing course because of the damages done to middle schools.

Reconfiguring schools can be costly if results arent improved in the short term. In addition, needs may vary by school, so changes could create unforeseen problems, as in the case of Broad Ripple High School, where constituents are concerned that arts programs would take a backseat to new programs.

On top of that, since district leaders, politicians and communities all argue for different structures  e.g. K-8 buildings, magnet high schools and specialized middle schools  providing a varied list of options while competing with other schools could be an issue.

IPS enrollment has become a long-term problem for officials. This year, the district has 29,583 students. In 2006, IPS had 38,141 students, according to Indiana Department of Education data.

The bright spot for IPS is Crispus Attucks, the only IPS school close to meeting a 85-percent utilization goal. But many are not on the positive end of the spectrum.

From 201415 Broad Ripple enrolled more than 900 students but left nearly 1,800 seats empty. Similarly, George Washington enrolled more than 600 students and left more than 1,200 seats empty.

Research suggests there are reasons to believe middle school students need special attention. In the 11- to 14-year-old age range, students go through substantial physical and emotional shifts which can affect performance and social life, according to research on human development by Thomas Armstrong.

With state-funded tuition vouchers and competing schools, IPS is affected at a greater proportion by the lack of consistent enrollment. Superintendent Ferebee told the Recorder that now, more than ever, a change of course is needed for IPS.

Weve received lots of information and feedback concerning safety and if those schools are appropriate, Ferebee said. I think moving middle schools out of high schools is supported by most constituents. Our first priority is separating middle schools from the high schools.

Ferebee also acknowledged that there has been miscommunication between the community and IPS officials.

When asked if IPS will change the arts focus of a school like Broad Ripple he said, I think there was some confusion initially and we could have clarified that this is not a replacement program. We absolutely think academies could be added to existing programswe are looking to offer additional options that can lead to industry certifications and careers after college.

Ferebee reiterated the message that more thoughts will come forward before an exact plan is announced, and more meetings will be scheduled as necessary.

I think weve done a good job with outreach, he said, citing morning meetings, afternoon meetings, weekend meetings, focus groups, surveys and social media as options for busy constituents.

You always want to get more input, which is why when people cant physically come to a meeting we ask them to fill out a survey and have other people fill out a survey and spread the word about what happened. I dont think well ever be satisfied, but I think weve done a good job.
After a brief and fumbling ban on porn, the Indian government seems to be trying ban torrents - the very idea of torrents.

The Pirate Bay

World's Biggest Torrent Search Site Torrentz Is Back, Days After Being Forced Off The Internet

If you visit a torrent website, a report suggests, you might be committing a crime, one that earns a 3 lakh fine and 3 years in jail. (And you know they don't have wifi in jail). The extent of this ban extends to looking at " a torrent file, or downloading a file from a host that may have been banned in India, or even for viewing an image on a file host like Imagebam."

The Pirate Bay

On a URL which showcases such banned content, a warning will pop up on your screen:

The Pirate Bay

"This URL has been blocked under the instructions of the Competent Government Authority or in compliance with the orders of a Court of competent jurisdiction. Viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating an illicit copy of the contents under this URL is punishable as an offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957 which prescribe imprisonment for 3 years and also fine of upto Rs. 3,00,000/-.

Any person aggrieved by any such blocking of this URL may contact at urlblock@tatacommunications.com who will, within 48 hours, provide you the details of relevant proceedings under which you can approach the relevant High Court or Authority for redressal of your grievance"
Twitter trolls are most of the most sophisticated users of satire you'll ever see. They are the kind of characters that makes the 140 character only site truly shine.

Indian National Congress spokesperson was the victim of one such glorious act of trollmanship over the weekend after his post on former Afghan President Hamid Karzai' opinion on the India Afghanistan military relationship.

A very terse, but accurate sounding parody account of Mani Shankar Aiyer, Congress minister showed up on his timeline with this message:

@ManiAyeSir: "Manish, we should not send troops anywhere."

Tiwari didn't have time to verify who he was talking to.

He responded: "if hard power make nations great power US in ME Russia in Ukraine,China in South China Sea then India would never be a great power."

The parody version of Aiyer made his checkmate move: "have to discuss this with you over some Single malt".

Tewari fell for it: "Done sir. Whenever convenient."

@ManishTewari discussing foreign policy with parody account of Mani Shankar Aiyer u r true congressi Mr Tiwari pic.twitter.com/QjCZaWzUfs  Rohit Raj Verma (@rohitrajdtp) August 20, 2016



We're guessing that the mention of single malt will be repeatedly invoked the next time Tewari gets all opinionated on Twitter.

The Congress leader took it in good spirits - and it looks like that's what he wants.
It was an ordinary day for media professional Barun Kashyap as he was making his way to work. Little did he know that his ordinary leather bag would get him into trouble.

He narrated the horrific incident in his Facebook post, which he later had to delete because of nasty comments. It all began when Kashyap stopped an auto at Infiniti Mall, Link Road, to get to his office on Veera Desai Road, Andheri. The rickshaw driver gave him strange looks and probed him where he was from. When Kashyap told him that he hailed from Assam, the driver then asked him whether his home was near Bangladesh.

Image Credit: Barun Kashyap/Facebook

At a traffic signal, the driver told Kashyap that his leather bag was stinking.

"I told him that was because it had got wet. He then asked me why I was using a bag made of cow hide. I corrected him, saying it was camel leather and that the bag had been bought from Pushkar, Rajasthan," said Kashyap in his facebook post.

The driver then stopped by a signal and called his two friends. "One of the men then poked his head into the auto and touched my bag. All this while, I was protesting." Kashyap said. Eventually, the auto driver started driving. "I had glanced at four digits on the vehicle number plate and made a mental note of it when the driver said, 'Aaj toh bach gaye (you were saved today)'," Kashyap wrote.

Barun lodged a complaint at the DN Nagar police station under the sections 504 (criminal intimidation) and 506 (intentional insult with the intent to breach of trust) of the IPC. However, the police are suspecting that the incident might be a publicity stunt to get attention!
A budding lawyer's desire to gift his younger sister a mobile handset on the occasion of 'Rakshabandhan' was foiled by the online tricksters who delivered a cement bar instead of the gadget. Following a complaint from advocate Ankur Kapley, Ambazari police have registered an offence of cheating and criminal breach of trust against top officials of online shopping portal snapdeal.com and courier company xpressbees.com.

businessinsider.in

Kapley, duped of Rs 9,245, may have faced some financial loss inflicted by the frauds but it was an emotional shock too as the lawyer rushed to purchase another handset for sister from a neighbourhood mobile phone outlet. The lawyer, whose complaint was promptly registered by the city police, now plans a public interest litigation for regulating online trade.

Kapley had ordered an sophisticated mobile phone handset through snapdeal.com on August 9. His order was also confirmed through an email. On the following day, Kapley received another email from Snapdeal.com stating his handset had been despatched and the gadget shall reach him by August 16. Kapley was supposed to pay cash-on-delivery.

Reuters

On August 14, Kapley received a message on his registered mobile phone number from Xpressbees courier that his handset would be soon delivered. Subsequently, he received a call from a person, who identified as courier agent, stating the handset would be soon delivered. The courier then landed at the doorstep of Kapley at Abhyankar Nagar to deliver the handset. Kapley wanted to check the parcel before handing over the amount on delivery but the agent said such a practice was not allowed as per the courier company's policy.

Kapley was in the process of unwrapping the parcel when the delivery agent sneaked away with the cash. The parcel had a cardbox in it with the label of snapdeal.com on it. Kapley was stunned upon discovering that the parcel had piece of concrete in it. The lawyer tried to call the agent but he refused to see him again and snapped the call.

Reuters

Kapley then approached Ambazari police where offences were registered against Kunal Bahl, chief executive officer (CEO) of snapdeal.com, manager of the online portal, V Yash Distributors from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Amitava Saha, CEO of Xpressbees.com and its manager based at Mohan Nagar in city.

Senior PI KL Supare, Ambazari police station, said the offence was registered immediately as the information received from the lawyer was of cognizable nature. "We are probing the case," he said.
Delhi Police constable Anand Singh lost his life while chasing three notorious robbers who robbed a woman in outer Delhis Shahbad Dairy. The robbers were on a bike and were armed a pistol, through which they killed the constable.

Image Credit: Ravi Choudhary/Hindustan Times

Singh kept shouting at around 150 people who were gathered at the scene to nab the robbers, but to no avail! The robbers shot two bullets, but despite taking them, Singh caught hold of one of the thieves, however, they dragged him and then fled away.

Singh was rushed to the hospital, only after the police arrived at the scene. He was declared dead, the moment he was brought to the hospital. Nobody even bothered to rush him to the hospital.

Its ironic that nobody tried to help the 48-year-old constable despite being present at the scene. His constant pleading fell on deaf ears. Singh was awarded with a bravery award and a wreath laying ceremony was organised to bid him adieu. The Delhi police announced a compensation of Rs. 1 crore for his family.

The robbers are still absconding.
You clearly need guts to walk on this one! Located in the Zhangjiajie National Forest, this Chinese bridge is made up of 99 panes of three-layered transparent glass and is reportedly 25 times stronger than regular window glass. And only, 800 people are allowed to take a walk on it at one single time. Built above 984 ft of height, people with vertigo issues should avoid walking on it at any cost.

Image Credit: AP

The bridge has been inspired from the blockbuster film Avatar. It spans approximately 430 metres (1,400 feet) across two peaks and crosses a canyon that divides two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie Park, in China's central Hunan province.

The glass bridge is the work of Israeli architect Haim Dotam who at first had rejected to work on the bridge as the view would be infiltrated.

Image Credit: AFP

Many visitors have expressed their concerns about safety. To which, the Chinese authorities reassured visitors by organising highly-publicized safety tests for the media. People were asked to smash the glass with a sledge-hammer. The action did not cause any harm and therefore people were reassured of its safety.

Image Credit: AFP

For safety purposes, cameras, selfie sticks and stilettos are not permitted on the bridge, as AFP reported.
The image of Omran Daqneesh, a 5 year old drenched in blood and rubble has left the world heartbroken after he was pulled out of rubble. Daqneesh, whose bloodied and dust-covered face went viral in a video, was reunited with his parents. But joy was fleeting - he has lost his brother.

Getty

Activists told the Washington Post that Omran's 10-year-old brother, Ali has succumbed to wounds sustained in an airstrike launched by forces working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian + Syrian regime bombs have been falling on #Aleppo all day. This 2yr old is among victims #TheOtherOmrans pic.twitter.com/tH7A7CjtrV  Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) August 19, 2016

"Ali, aged 10, succumbed to his injuries. He was badly wounded in the same bombardment as Omran on August 17 in Aleppo," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

This photo of Omran. sitting dazed in an ambulance chair awakened the world yet again to the Syrian crisis. Since the image's release, the photo has reverberated around the globe, much like that of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach last year.

In east Aleppo, a father tries to dig his children from rubble of a 3am barrel bomb attack. He survives his 4 kids. pic.twitter.com/zgs8v1VRdO  Louisa Loveluck (@leloveluck) August 20, 2016

Omran caught the attention of media after video footage from the incident showed Omran quietly staring into space before raising his arms to touch his bloodied forehead, then looking at his hand and wiping it on the orange seat.

The haunting images of Omran have reverberated around the world, becoming a symbol for the suffering of children in Syria's brutal five-year conflict.

The images of Omran have sparked a global outcry, much like the photo last September of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach as his family tried to reach Europe.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict broke out, including nearly 15,000 children.

Omran's home city Aleppo has been divided by government control in the west and opposition fighters in the east since 2012. Regime warplanes, backed by Russia's air force since September 2015, bombard the eastern districts while rebel groups fire rockets into the west. Of the estimated 250,000 people still living in the eastern parts of the city, 100,000 are children, according to the UN's children agency UNICEF.
One of the biggest challenges faced by marine conservationists is the issue of over-fishing that has led to the complete destruction of former fish colonies in several parts of the world.

In an earlier report, we told you about how we have already passed the Earth Overshoot Day, which marks the day when the human population of the world has consumed all the natural resources that should have been used over a year.

ALSO READ: Thousands Of Olive Ridley Turtle Carcasses Washed Ashore In Andhra Pradesh

BCCL

At present, India is facing international competition to fish in her own waters. Foreign fishing trawlers, mainly from Bangladesh and Taiwan, are illegally entering Indias territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal. Some trawlers are from Thailand, too, Pranab Kumar Kar, Vice President of the Federation of Indian Fisheries Industries (FIFI), told BenarNews. These vessels are equipped with modern bottom trawls, which can touch the bottom of the sea and capture huge volumes of fish, Kar said.

In Tamil Nadu, the illegal fishermen are known to have even crossed over and settled in our country, without legal permits. The maritime monitoring system will also help curb the illegal entry of smugglers, land grabbers and terrorists using the water.

ALSO READ: Fishermen Offer To Stop Fishing At Night To Help Coast Guard Contain Infiltration

AFP

Oceana, an international conservation organisation, together with Google and SkyTruth, a nonprofit group that uses aerial and satellite images to track changes in the landscape, are due to launch the Global Fishing Tracker within weeks.

The public, non-governmental organisations and local authorities will be able to use it to monitor coastlines and marine conservation areas, follow individual boats in near real-time and track what boats of a particular flag are doing.

This will be an added aid for countries to track illegal movement along its coasts.

AP

Lasse Gustavsson, Executive Director of Oceana in Europe, told Reuters, "If we do all the right things now, in 10 years we will have twice as much fish in the ocean globally. We could increase the number of meals from 450 million a day today to maybe 1 billion."
Corbyn Dropped a Truth Bomb on the Warmongering Elite By Carlyn Harvey August 20, 2013 " Information Clearing House " - " The Canary " - On 18 August, the real reason why the establishment believes Jeremy Corbyn is so dangerous was made perfectly clear. Responding to a question about defence at a Labour leadership debate, the incumbent refused to justify military action by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), instead vowing to make efforts to create a world where we dont need to go to war. For millions of citizens around the world, this is great news. But for those intent on maintaining the politics of power and the lucrative industries that support that, Corbyns vision is nothing short of a disaster. Do you want to be in our gang? At the debate, Corbyn and fellow candidate Owen Smith were asked a question about Russia: How would you as Prime Minister react to a violation by Vladimir Putin of the sovereignty of a fellow Nato state? Corbyn responded: Youd obviously try to avoid that happening in the first place. You would build up a good dialogue with Russia to ask them, support them in respecting borders. We would try to introduce a demilitarisation between Russia and Ukraine, and all the other countries down on the border between Russia and Eastern Europe. What we cannot allow is a series of continuous buildups of troops on both sides which can only lead to great danger in the future. Its beginning to look awfully like Cold War politics at the present time. Weve got to engage with Russia, engage with demilitarisation in that area, in order to try and avoid that danger happening. NATO was formed in 1949 in the wake of WWII. Initially, its primary focus was Russia, and the creation of an alliance capable of taking on the red bear where necessary. But once the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was dissolved, tensions with Russia faded and NATO, determined to justify its continued existence, moved on to other targets. Now, that Cold War tension has returned and, as Corbyn notes, there is a continuous buildup of troops along the Russian border. On 10 February, for example, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that: Nato Defence Ministers agreed on an enhanced forward presence in the eastern part of our Alliance. This is NATO-speak for a decision to amass a military presence in six countries bordering Russia. The UK is contributing five warships and a considerable number of troops to the military contingent. The pledge followed an announcement by US President Barack Obama to quadruple the superpowers military spending in Europe, to the tune of $3.4bn. Around the same time, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter explained that the current security environment is dramatically different to that of the last couple of decades. For the last 25 years, Carter noted, US defence has largely focused on insurgent forces, like the Taliban and other extremist groups. But now, the US is gearing up for a return to great-power competition with high-end enemies like Russia and China. NATO is the frontline of this great-power competition. Play by the rules, or get out of the game As most of the big players on both sides of the competition have stockpiles of nuclear weapons, any escalation of the tensions could indeed lead to great danger in the future. This is a sentiment that Putin himself shared when he recently spoke to foreign journalists: Your people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger  this is what worries me. How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction? Corbyn suggests that dialogue, demilitarisation, and engagement are the appropriate actions to take to ensure no violations of sovereignty occur in the first place. He advocates prevention of hostilities rather than a cure once theyve begun. But such tactics do not seem to factor much in NATOs playbook. In fact, leaked emails from recently retired NATO Supreme Commander Philip Breedlove showed he was consciously plotting ways to overcome President Obamas reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over Ukraine. And Stoltenberg, in his announcement regarding the buildup of troops on the Russian border, made pains to stress the NATO principle that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all Allies, and that the Alliance as a whole will respond. It is this principle, that all members should be willing to act militarily if one member is under threat, that was the subject of the Labour leadership debate question. And Smith dutifully responded in line with NATO policy: We would have to come to the aid of a fellow member of Nato, thats the nature of the Nato accord. That would be the job of Britain in the event of a fellow Nato member being invaded obviously. But it would be calamitous, and we must never see that happen. We must work diplomatically to make sure that Russian aggression, and I think that it has been nothing less than that, expansionism and militaristic aggression, by Putin in recent years is contained. Quite how diplomacy will be successful if only the aggression of Russia is under discussion is difficult to imagine. And if Smith truly believes we must never see invasions and a NATO military response, prevention must surely be the only way to achieve that. An explosive business Pushed further on whether he would take military action if he had to, Corbyn concluded: I dont wish to go to war, what I want to do is achieve a world where we dont need to go to war, where there is no need for it. That can be done. After decades of endless military interventions that have left much of the Middle East in ruins, thrust Wahhabi terrorism onto a global stage, and eroded trust in communities throughout the western hemisphere, its unsurprising that the audience erupted with applause at his suggestion. But the establishment doesnt like the idea one bit. Lord West, a former Labour security minister and Royal Navy head, said the comments were absolutely dreadful. Labour MP Wes Streeting, meanwhile, claimed they were a gross betrayal of Labours internationalist values. It could of course be considered thoroughly internationalist to advocate for diplomatic solutions to avoid all conflict  not only for ones allies, but for the global citizens who would suffer in the event of a war. But obviously not in the circles Streeting moves in. Some may also consider it absolutely dreadful not to attempt to influence NATO, the only military alliance the UK has direct involvement with, to exhaust peaceful solutions before considering military action. And the mainstream media can vent all they wish about how this is a step too far for Corbyn, and resurrect Clement Attlees founding of the alliance in its condemnation of Corbyn. But todays world is a very different place from the one in which Attlee negotiated. Following the ceaseless interventions of recent years, our military impulses have to be curtailed along with those of others if there is to be any prospect of world peace. The real geopolitical question now is not whos going to be in control of the world, but whos going to save it. Get Involved!  Take action with the Stop the War Coalition.  Support Veterans for Peace, who are fighting for peaceful solutions to the worlds problems.
We Need To Distance Ourselves From NATO If We Want To Avoid War By Leif Elinder, Anders Romelsjo and Martin Gelin First posted in Goteborgsposten in Swedish, translated by Siv O'Neall. - Title in Swedish: "Vi maste fjarma oss fran Nato om vi vill slippa krig" August 20, 2013 " Information Clearing House " - The risk of nuclear war has never been greater and it is partly because of NATO rearmament of European countries bordering on Russia. However, these countries will also be targeted if Putin decides to strike back. Thus write three Swedish doctors in an article in Goteborgsposten on Friday August 12. During the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy discussed with his advisors the various options available. One involved a limited attack on Soviet missile bases. Moscow was supposed to accept such a response rather than fight back in a way that would result in the devastation of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. During the years from 1950 into the 1980s there was a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy known as MAD (mutual assured destruction). MAD means that if a great power attacks first, it will always be possible for the attacked nation to retaliate. The ability to strike back served as a sufficient deterrent. The relative security that the MAD doctrine created no longer exists. The U.S. and Russia now mutually accuse each other openly of constituting an "existential threat". The military-strategic balance is becoming increasingly uneven.

The U.S. nuclear rearmament and NATO's encirclement of Russia have created a highly insecure and dangerous world situation. The advantages of having the "first strike" becomes harder to resist. With the support of NATO, Romania and Poland are now installing a new American "defense" robot system called "Aegis Ashore". President Putin has warned the two countries that in case of a military conflict, they will now become the primary objectives. Russia's concern for a disarming first attack appears to be genuine. Whether the concern is well-founded, we can not know. What is crucial to our security are the actual thoughts and plans of each superpower. The risk has never been greater Former US Defense Secretary William Perry has warned that the risk of a nuclear war is now greater than ever. The reasons are, among other things, the following: The breaking of the agreement after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1990) not to expand NATO. The number of NATO nations has since increased from 13 to 28.

NATO's illegal intervention in Yugoslavia (1999) with the separation of Kosovo.

The termination of the ABM Treaty (Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) in 2001.

The establishment of anti-missile bases in Romania and Poland (see above)  bases that can easily be reprogrammed to serve for attack robots.

The upgrading of the US nuclear weapons system at a cost of a trillion (12 zeros) dollars.

The illegal US-backed coup (2014) in Ukraine.

NATO strategic military superiority in terms of ability to strike first.

The demonization of Putin, including comparisons to Hitler. (A "Hitler" is not someone you can negotiate with  but someone who has to be eliminated). Independent American security analysts such as VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) consider NATO war games in Russia's neighborhood as extremely provocative and dangerous. More and more European politicians are publicly distancing themselves from NATO's aggressive policies  such as the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras, the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French President Francois Hollande. Opposite effects NATO is strong globally. Compared to Russia, NATO spends ten times more money on weapons. Many countries assume that becoming a member of NATO provides protection. But when there is an asymmetric military balance, the logical consequence will be the opposite. Should US/NATO strike from bases bordering on Russia, the Russian military leaders will not have time to react.

Russia has made it clear that such a situation will not be tolerated. Therefore, Russia currently applies a nuclear doctrine that allows for a nuclear strike with restrictions ("The Concept of De-escalation"). The intention of this doctrine is that with a limited first attack, the strike will make continued warfare less likely. By not fighting back, the U.S. will avoid the risk of an extension of the conflict to its own territory. Would an American president be willing to devastate his own country in order to retaliate against a Russian strike on bases in Europe?

The military-strategic situation is thus extremely unstable. Countries bordering on Russia that have allowed the installation of NATO bases are at an increasingly greater risk of becoming prime objectives. The outcome of the US presidential election brings no relief  whatever will be the outcome.

Cause and effect When Western politicians do not distinguish between "cause and effect", provocation and reaction, the consequences can be devastating. Russia now faces three choices, in terms of dealing with NATO: Giving up, and accepting the role of an American vassal Waiting for NATO to strike first and thus be neutralized Strike first with tactical nuclear weapons against European missile bases which constitute a direct threat and expect the U.S. not to retaliate, risking a counter-attack on its own territory. (Donald Trump has already implied that the United States will not unconditionally retaliate militarily to protect its NATO allies.) President Putin has indicated that it is the third military scenario that Russia is now considering. The only question is when. The loser, in whichever case, will be Europe. Sweden's rapprochement to NATO has increased the risk of our country being drawn into a war. Therefore, it is particularly important to Sweden and other European countries to support all initiatives aimed at detente and disarmament  and thus create a public opinion that will distance us from NATO. Doctors active in the peace movement - Leif Elinder, Anders Romelsjo, Martin Gelin
Why Jeremy Corbyn is Right About NATO



It's disturbing that Jeremy Corbyn's comments on foreign policy were in any way controversial says Chris Nineham



By Chris Nineham August 20, 2013 " Information Clearing House " - " Stop The War " - If you step back for a moment, it is disturbing that last nights comments by Jeremy Corbyn on foreign policy were in any way controversial. Corbyn made two points, one general, the other more immediate. In the round, he wants a foreign policy that aims to achieve a world where we dont need to go to war. In what kind of circles is that contentious? Secondly, and obviously connected, he wants to avoid war with Russia.



Asked about possible Russian interventions he refused to say Britain would go to the aid of a NATO member facing aggression, but instead focussed on diplomatic and political measures designed to avoid that scenario, explaining, we cant allow a military build-up which is going to lead to some calamitous, incredibly dangerous situation.



Presumably most sane people would support active steps to avoid war with Russia. Such a war would be more calamitous even than those generated by Britains string of foreign policy disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.



Corbyns implicit critique of NATO policy in Eastern Europe, too, is entirely appropriate. This years NATO summit in Warsaw in July decided on a policy of brinkmanship with Russia, including the deployment of four multinational battalions stationed on a rotating basis in Poland and three Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Altogether, some 4,000 troops will be deployed with around 650 coming from Britain and 1,000 from the US.



This follows, earlier in the year, the largest Western war game in Eastern Europe since the Cold War, involving 31,000 troops and thousands of vehicles from twenty four countries. Even NATO supporters were queasy about these moves. A defence attache at a European embassy in Warsaw is quoted as fearing a nightmare scenarioa mishap, a miscalculation which the Russians construe, or choose to construe, as an offensive action.



After the summit, former Soviet premier Gorbachev gave an idea of the view from Russia, All the rhetoric in Warsaw just yells of a desire almost to declare war on Russia. They only talk about defence, but actually they are preparing for offensive operations.



Of course NATO leaders present this historically significant escalation as reactive, but this view is simply unsustainable. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO powers have been pushing eastward, into areas everyone knows Russia regards as vital to its security. Since 1991 twelve countries have joined NATO in the area. Georgia and Ukraine were promised membership of NATO in 2008, despite repeated warnings from the Russian government that taking NATO to the Russian border would cause a security crisis.



Russias elites, including Putin, have in fact been looking for a security accommodation with the West since the end of 1990s. It is NATO expansionism in the East and unilateral western decision-making in other areas  in particular the move to regime change in Libya - that has ratcheted up the tension.



Corbyns argument about NATO are sensible and supported by the facts. What is really controversial in establishment circles, is that Jeremy Corbyn is committed to a break with the aggressive British foreign policy that has dominated since Blair. Like the majority of British people, he opposes the kind of unqualified commitment to Washington priorities roundly condemned in the Chilcot report.



Rather than just expressing regret over Iraq, he has apologized on behalf of the Labour Party for what most people believe to have been a disastrous decision. More than that - and this is what really riles - he is actually prepared to draw some conclusions from the chaos of the last fifteen years and try and act on them.



How irrational. Better surely to continue to ignore the past, make the same mistakes over and over again, and plunge the world into further disorder.
Western Propaganda  So Simple But So Effective! By Andre Vltchek August 20, 2013 " Information Clearing House " - " NEO " - When some time ago Noam Chomsky and I met at MIT, in order to write a book On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare and to produce a film with the same title together, the topic we mainly aimed at discussing was that of the countless genocides the West has committed all over the world since the end of the WWII. The second topic was impunity. But no matter what atrocities we re-visited, our conversation kept slipping towards one crucial theme: the propaganda that has been manufactured in media centers like New York, Paris, London and other North American and European cities; the propaganda created in order to twist both the past and the present. Without such brainwashing and the almost total indoctrination of the Western general public and the elites in all of the client states, no imperialist and neo-colonialist policies would have become truly successful. We spoke about US commercial advertising and its influence on German Nazi propaganda, and about Nazi propaganda influencing by return both the US and European propaganda-makers. Noam kept asking me about my childhood in socialist Czechoslovakia, and I explained to him, honestly, how indoctrinated I was as a teenager: not by the Communist dogmas, but by the BBC, the Voice of America and the Radio Free Europe  all of them relentlessly spreading the Western political and market gospel to all corners of the socialist world. Both Noam and I have created dozens of essays on the topic, as well as several books. My latest one, basically written about all the corners of the world where the Empire is spreading destruction and followed by indoctrination, has more than 800 pages, and is called Exposing Lies of the Empire. And I always feel that even this massive book just touches the tip of the iceberg, that it is only a beginning! * Western propaganda is actually a perfect apparatus! It is effective and it is almost fully bulletproof. It works! European empires have been refining it for many long centuries, and the European offspring  the United States  has elevated it to almost total perfection. One precondition for its success is, of course, that the Western political and economic regime owns almost all the major media channels and distribution outlets of the world. Diversity can never be tolerated. It could smash the idiocy! Once this prerequisite is completed, things get relatively relaxed and cozy for the demagogues in Washington, London and Paris. Here is just an example of how easy it is to smear a world leader who resists the imperialist designs of the Empire: Imagine that one sunny morning, some 10 major newspapers and television stations declare that various anonymous but highly reliable sources in Moscow have informed them that the Russian President Vladimir Putin is a vampire! This news would fly all over the world. Many readers and viewers would at first roll around on the floor laughing, but some would not. And even several of those who found the information thoroughly bizarre and unbelievable would at some point realize that seeds of doubt were beginning to grow inside their brains: OK, it is absurd, of course, but what if? What if? How awful that would be! But how can one really prove that he or she is not a vampire? Or how can one prove that he or she has not been visited by some evil extra-terrestrial flying saucers on several occasions? At some point, the Russian President would feel that he had enough of the charade. Hed go to the best university clinic in Moscow, and ask for a certificate that clearly stated that he is not a vampire. Several leading academics and doctors would get involved and produce a complex and thorough scientific conclusion, resolutely stating that President Putin is not a vampire. Shocked by and reacting to the vulgarity demonstrated by the Western propaganda tsars, most of the Russian media outlets would offer some commonsense and logic: Cant we all see clearly that he cannot be a vampire? All his teeth are of approximately equal length, he socialized during the day, he does not sleep in a coffin, he eats garlic and he is not scared of crosses; be they Orthodox, Protestant or Catholic ones! Others would argue that there are actually no real vampires inhabiting our Planet. This is when the Western mass media would go into overdrive. Sarcastically it would declare that the Russian academia, Russian doctors and Russian media cannot be trusted  they are all under the heel of the state, and on top of it they have been infiltrated by nations secret services and former KGB agents. And doesnt Vlad sound somehow similar to Bran, which is the castle in Romania, which in turn used to be the home base of the commander-in-chief of all militant vampires  Count Dracula? There would still be some rational resistance: No, Vlad does not really sound like Bran, and anyway, nobody in Russia calls Mr. Putin Vlad  only the Western media does. But such voices of reason would never reach the general public all over the world! And on it goes. In the end, a few billions of human brains would register and subconsciously store the vampire theory, and they would never again look at the President of Russia, or at his country, with the same eyes! * Of course the Russian leadership is not the only one that the West is targeting. There is a relentless flow of shocking rumors and derogatory remarks made by the mainstream media against the President of China, of Byelorussia, against the leadership of Iran, South Africa, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Syria, and North Korea as well as against all the left-wing governments of Latin America. After being repeated hundreds of times, the rumors, at least for many people, get confused with facts, and get accepted as facts. When still leading Cuba, Fidel Castro was constantly dying or disappearing. The North Korean government has been relentlessly portrayed as a desperate gang of bloodthirsty sexual maniacs, executing and raping all that moves. The ANC and especially President Zuma have done nothing to close that staggering social divide in South Africa. In South America, the pro-Western media outlets invented and then perfected a new lucrative industry: manufacturing corruption scandals and implicating in them virtually all of the popular socialist leaders. Nihilism, darkest news, and scenarios have been force-fed to the public, in order to eradicate all zeal and optimism that comes when one is building a great independent and egalitarian nation. I never forget that day, an Eritrean cameraman exclaimed, during my visit to his country. I had just finished an assignment inside the Presidential Palace. Then I met my friends and we were having coffee in front of the main gate. Suddenly the Western networks began broadcasting that there is a coup in Asmara. Social media went bananas. It was the Breaking News story everywhere. And here we were, right there, on a lazy sunny afternoon, in front of the Palace I had just seen the President. All was quiet! They just invented it, in order to get people out onto the streets! They were trying to manufacture a coup via their media outlets. * It is mainly fear, implanted into the brains of its subjects and slaves; fear that allows the Empire to control almost the entire Planet. Often it is subconscious fear, but it is fear nevertheless. Fear can be that of the Empire as a whole, or of its might and brutality, or even of the alternatives, portrayed in the most unsavory and frightening colors by the propaganda. In order to rule unopposed, one has to be feared! And one has to smear the alternatives. The task to spread fear, slander diversity and dissent, was given to the official media, academia and artists. Of course the biggest threat to the Empire has been the two sisters who were born under the same star, from the same mother called Humanism. Their names are Communism and Socialism. And I am not only talking about the Western Marxist concept. There are many great concepts that put life and the well-being of the people first, all over the world! In fact, a few decades ago, it was becoming crystal clear that Western colonialism, imperialism and capitalism were finished. Their time was up! Socialism was the natural and logical way forward for most of humanity. But then the West and its Empire fought back. They employed extreme violence and brutality, as well as cunning divide and rule tactics. Tens of millions died, and progress was stopped, although hopefully, only for a limited period of time. And not everywhere! One of many reasons why Russia is perceived as a great threat is because it inherited the humanist and internationalist foreign policy of the Soviet Union. But, also because it itself is actually becoming socialist again (although it is moving in that direction by taking extremely short steps). Russia is recovering irreversibly from those dark days of the free marketer and Wests lackey, Boris Yeltsin. Russia is also hated because it is setting the wrong example; proving to the world that one can develop and prosper without taking orders from the West, without serving its governments and corporations. Or more precisely: it can do it exactly because it broke itself free! The demonization of Russia is relentless. Every little negative detail is multiplied and magnified by the mainstream media and film industry. The worlds public is being nourished by bizarre stereotypes and fabrications. And so one of the most compassionate, deep, artistic and passionate nations on Earth, Russia, is depicted as being cold, robotic, heartless and inherently evil. Massive NATO military forces are now dispatched along Russias western border, and they include German troops. Periodically there are maneuvers and exercises, not far from the borderline. It is clearly a provocation, and it all brings back the horrific memories of the years right before World War II, the war in which the Russian nation lost between 25 and 30 million lives. A few hundred kilometers south, an old ally, in fact a Slavic sister, Ukraine, is being forced to confront Russia by its Western handlers, something that is being done against the will of the great majority of the Ukrainian people. The US is heavily involved in the destabilizing of Central Asia, including a group of nations that used to form part of the Soviet Union. But thanks to Machiavellian Western propaganda, it is actually Russia that is being portrayed as the aggressor and a danger to world peace! And it is China, which is being depicted as some kind of a ruthless and unpredictable monster that is now ready to swallow the world! In fact China is an extremely predictable country, and any unbiased student of world history would clearly see how peacefully it has been behaving, for centuries! But to prove that China is not a Communist country, anymore, and at the same time that it is one of the greatest threats to world peace and stability (read: to Western control of the World), is one of the most important tasks given to the Western media, academia and propaganda tsars by the Empire. And they are succeeding! Indoctrination tactics are working flawlessly. The Western pubic is by now thoroughly brainwashed (at worst) or confused (at best) when it comes to China. In recent years I engaged hundreds of French, Italian, Spanish, German, British and Czech people in discussions about China, just to receive (with extremely few exceptions) a barrage of standardized, patronizing, mass-produced opinions. It often felt like talking to the people who were forced to live for decades under the Taliban or under the spiritual guidance of some fundamentalist evangelical Protestant sect. In fact, China is both Communist (Communism or Socialism, but with Chinese characteristics) as it is breathtakingly successful! Analyzing this marvelous country, together with my China-based colleagues and comrades, I am coming to the conclusion that Beijing often uses capitalist means in order to achieve socialist goals (to borrow a quote from Jeff J Brown, which is actually the sub-title of his latest book). And an enormous, independent, successful Communist or Socialist country  that is absolutely the worst nightmare for the Empire! It is something that has to be stopped, derailed, destroyed, isolated and demonized by all means! Chinas Communist success You would never hear about that on CNN, BBC or Fox TV! Just as you would never hear that Indonesia, India, Rwanda and any of the other Empires allies and client nations, are in fact the most brutal fascist failed states, and that the genocides in Papua, Kashmir and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are the bloodiest extermination campaigns anywhere in the world. I have worked in all these countries, intensively, I can testify. As this is being written, the people of Kashmir are being murdered and tortured. Right at this moment! I am wondering how many of my readers are aware of it? * Perhaps Im obsessed with exposing lies of the Empire. A second volume will soon follow my 820-page long book. I cannot stop travelling, investigating and amassing the evidence. Because I am shocked; because I am outraged and because there are so few, so desperately few people that are actually working in the most desperate parts of the world! Virtually all stereotypes about the world that have been domesticated in the West are wrong, terribly wrong. The story of the Russian Revolution is told in the most twisted way, and so is the story of the Ukrainian famine and of the gulags. Not everything is wrong, of course, but the facts and numbers are twisted. I will soon resume my work in the Russian Far East, to write on this subject. The story of China is grotesquely wrong, from the Great March to the present day! The story of Cambodias Commie slaughter under the Khmer Rouge is a thoroughly idiotic manipulation! The slaughter was there, but more people died from the US carpet-bombing, and then from being displaced from their farms by US mines and cluster bombies, than from Pol Pots atrocities. The great majority of Khmer Rouge men and women had nothing to do with Communism. They were just settling scores with the capital, which they saw as responsible for selling the country to the US, and for the bombing of the countryside. In the jungle, I recently met Pol Pots personal guard. He told me frankly that he was simply pissed off (the bombing killed his relatives), and had no clue what Communism was: Pol Pot came and said Communism! Lets fight the traitors! And we did. How could someone call us a Communist country if we did not even know what Communism was? What we hardly ever hear is the most important story of mankind: the story of Western colonial plunders, of imposed slavery, genocides that lasted for centuries, of British-triggered famines that killed tens of millions in the Sub-Continent, of virtually the entire Europe and Christianity systematically committing global holocaust. We are not told that it actually happened, and that it is still going on and on and on! In order to shelter the Western public from the horrendous truth about the past and the present of their countries and culture, new and newer stories about those evil others are being invented and circulated. * Perhaps, soon, we will be really told that Mr. Putin is a vampire, or that Kim Jong Un is eating Korean virgins for breakfast. We may not be far from such a new wave of propaganda zeal. It all makes sense: the more evil the Empire becomes; the more it has to smear its adversaries. The mass media and Hollywood are asked to perform. And they do! Reality and fiction are now being systematically mixed, and everything gets blurred and finally the great confusion and intellectual chaos are managing to overwhelm both reason and logic. The Empire is killing millions and destroying countries and continents. But California is falling off a cliff, and clouds of huge insects are invading the entire North America. While millions of alien terrorists are now engulfing the tolerant and democratic Europe! So what is more terrible? Plus there are those sinister monsters like Count Vlad and Comrade Kim, waiting with their daggers behind a corner! Therefore, The Empire and its people have to protect themselves. They have to be tough, even tougher than before! And to put their interests first! America (North America) first! Germany first! France first! Primitive? Does it all sound primitive? Yes, certainly. But it works! At least for the Europeans and North Americans it does. And the rulers dont give a damn what works or doesnt for the rest of the Planet. Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are:  Exposing Lies Of The Empire  and  Fighting Against Western Imperialism .Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism . Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania  a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia:  Indonesia  The Archipelago of Fear . Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter .
How We Know ISIS Was Made In The USA By Roger Stone August 20, 2013 " Information Clearing House " - " Lew Rockwell " - Judicial Watch proved it. Under a Freedom of Information Act request, Judicial Watch was able to obtain a (heavily redacted) copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) directive that initiated the creation of ISIS in 2012. the DIA report states, THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHO] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION . . . [SUPPORT] ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA . . . IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME . . .. Not even Judicial Watch seems to have appreciated the significance of this document, where its press release focused on the Benghazi attack. Recent releases of Hillarys emails, moreover, confirm that taking out Assad has nothing to do with his alleged abuse of the Syrian people but because it will help Israel. Just in case it has slipped anyones mind, Hillary was Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. Barack was inaugurated in 2008 and steps down in 2016. It happened on their watch. It could not have happened without their approval. They really did create ISIS! The chemical attacks on Syrian citizens on 21 August 2013 was meant to justify lobbing cruise missiles into Syria. Obama was ready, but Americans were not. And when the ploy was debunked by a 50-page dossier the Russians provided to the UN, they resorted to Plan B, which was the creation of ISIS by the DIA. The chemical weapons are widely believed to have been provided to the rebels by Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, to whom the Bush family refers as Bandar Bush. But recent releases of Hillarys emails suggest that she was directing the transfer of weapons from Libya to Syria and chemical weapons may have been among them. The Benghazi attack appears to have been initiated because Ambassador Christ Stevens was concerned that some of the weapons being sent to Syria could be used against the civilian population. The Obama administration has stonewalled inquiries as to whether Benghazi had anything to do with transferring weapons to the rebels. That means Yes! The signs have been there right along the way, but the media has not been reporting them. Here are some of the facts reported in a recent study about ISIS: * On 23 February 2015, *FARS* reported that the (much maligned) Iraqi Army had downed 2 UK cargo planes carrying weapons for ISIS, which was among the first signs that things were not as the world was being told by Westernand especially USnews sources. * On 1 March 2015, *FARS* reported that Iraqi popular forces are known as Al-Hashad Al-Shabi shot down a US helicopter carrying weapons for ISIL in Al-Anbar province of which they had photographs. * On 10 April 2015, *Press TV* reported that, in response to a request by Syrian that ISIL be named a terrorist organization, the US, Britain, France, and Jordan refused, which was rather baffling on its face. * Photographs were appearing contemporaneously showing ISIS members sporting US Army tattoos, which the American media has yet to acknowledge. Confirm this for yourself by searching for ISIS members sporting US Army tattoos online. * On 19 May 2015, Brad Hoof of levantreport.com, 2012 Defense intelligence Agency document: West will facilitate rise of Islamic State in order to isolate the Syrian regime, based upon the release of a selection of formerly classified documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the US Department of Defense and Department of State. * On 22 June 2015, ex-CIA contractor, Steven Kelley, explained the US created ISIL for sake of Israel and to have a never-ending war in the Middle East, which would make the countries there unable to stand up to Israel and to provide the constant flow of orders for weapons from the military-industrial complex at home, which is feeding a lot of money to the senators pushing for these wars. Theres morea lot more, including photographs of Sen. John McCain with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. You can find dozens of them on the internet. In Washington, ISIS is widely known as John McCains army. So whats wrong with a candidate for president making the point that his opponent and her most prominent support actually created ISIS? Trump is right. Reference: http://www.iranreview.org/cont ent/Documents/How-We-Know-ISIS -Was-MADE-IN-THE-USA-.htm
By Brad Hoff

WARNING: This article may disturb some readers. The purpose of sharing it is to convey the complexities of the Syrian conflict.

August 20, 2013 " Information Clearing House " - " The Canary " - The photojournalist behind the viral images of the boy in the ambulance, which continue to make headlines around the world, has been identified by the Associated Press (AP) as Mahmoud Raslan (also spelled Rslan). His photo of a shell-shocked boy who barely survived an airstrike in Aleppo has captured the hearts and emotions of millions and conveyed a powerful momentary glimpse into the senseless and horrific devastation endured by Syrias innocent children. But while some praise Raslan, he appears to have some horrific skeletons in his own closet.

Skeleton #1

Raslans social media history reveals a bizarre twist, which demonstrates the ironies and complexities of the Syrian conflict. The photographer has posted photos of himself posing with known child-killers from another recent viral moment: the infamous filmed beheading of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy captured in Aleppo by the Zenki militant group.

The Palestinian boy, filmed surrounded by his Zenki executioners in the back of a pick-up truck just prior to his beheading, had been reportedly removed from a hospital and had intravenous lines (IV) attached to him.

On 5 August, about two weeks after the public beheading committed by unmasked men whose identities were made clear by the camera, Mahmoud Raslan uploaded a selfie with two men who had apparently been among those carrying out the shocking execution on his Facebook page:

Raslan is grinning in the bottom left corner and behind him stand two men who appear to have been featured prominently in the prior child-beheading video [screenshot]:

At least one of the two child-beheading men has an identify thats been clearly established. The man directly behind Raslan in the selfie on the left is Umar Salkho. He is often described in Arabic media as a leader of the Zenki Movement, the group responsible for carrying out the atrocity  the video footage of which was uploaded to the internet on 19 July 2016. Ironically, the US-backed Zenki group claimed it had quickly arrested the individual perpetrators and said they would face swift justice. But Salkho can be seen again in a video uploaded on 28 July 2016 here.

Raslan wrote the following caption for his 5 August Facebook selfie in Arabic as follows [translated by The Canary]:

When you see the leaders on the front, know that victory is coming, with Gods permission. From besieged Aleppo, wherein they all have their faces blackened

It is deeply disturbing that the photographer now being lauded globally for the the boy in the ambulance photo only a short time ago posed with and praised men who were well-known for having publicly beheaded a wounded child. Incidentally, Raslan is also wearing the same shirt on both occasions (see him go in and out of the footage which captured the moments the little boy was placed in the ambulance).

Skeleton #2

Raslan, who identifies himself on Twitter as a Syrian media activist [translation], has also made multiple statements publicly praising suicide bombers.

The below screenshot from Raslans Facebook page reads as follows [translated by The Canary]:

With the suicide fighters, from the land of battles and butchery, from Aleppo of the martyrs, we bring you tidings of impending joy, with Gods permission

Another post reads:

Thousands of suicide fighters and tens of booby-traps are being prepared for the great battle in Aleppo, the first battle where I see men weeping because they cant participate on account of the number of attackers.

Many more videos and images exist on Raslans social media accounts which praise inghimasiyin (an Arabic transliteration which in the Syrian war is a reference to suicide-fighters).

A complex propaganda war

It is a sad testament to the complexities and ironies of the seemingly endless war in Syria that even some of its most celebrated photographers would associate with child-killers while at the same time attempting to illuminate the tragic plight of children in the country.

Syria has produced the ugliest of all propaganda wars, in which all sides now compete to place before the world the most iconic and moving images of suffering. This fact should make us wary and cautiously critical, not of the innocent children featured in such images, but of the motives of those who glorify brutality one day while snapping pictures of its victims the next.

Get Involved!

 In the UK, join your local Stop the War Coalition to protest escalation in Syria.

 In the US, support your local Veterans for Peace chapter.

 See other international articles from The Canary and more on Syria here.
Clare Picciuto, a 100-year-old woman from Massachusetts, USA, was finally given the high school diploma she was unable to receive 80 years earlier.

According to reports, she was about to enter high school during the Great Depression when her parents asked her to leave school to get a job while some of her brothers were allowed to continue their education.

I didnt like it, because women should have education, too, Picciuto said.

Instead of working toward her education Picciuto sewed curtains in a factory for $6 an hour and taught herself using encyclopedias and the dictionary.

Wed pick up another big word and wed find the meaning of it. And I tried to speak well if I could, she said.

As Picciutos 100th birthday approached her daughter Deborah Picciuto, 59, told ABC News she wanted to give her mother the graduation she always wanted.

Shes been to so many graduations  my high school, college and grad school ones, and a bunch more for all of my daughters, but shes never had her own, she said. So I wanted to give her that.

Picciutos daughter surprised her with a cap and gown, a gold honours tassel and an honorary high school diploma presented by North Reading Public Schools Superintendent Jon Bernard.

I told her that in my opinion, her life experiences alone had earned her the honor tassel and diploma, Bernard said. Clare was so articulate, sharp and positive. She is truly representative of all the things we should aspire to be.
The Nigerian Army and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC have uncovered another illegal oil well in Lagos State.

This came barely two weeks after the police and other security agencies discovered about 10 houses on Ibadan and Abeokuta streets in Ilasamaja axis of the state, where wells where linked to oil pipelines through which diesel was siphoned.

It was gathered that the supposed dug well was discovered last Thursday within the premises of Winners Satellite Church, Iyana-Odo, Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area, LCDA, it was filled Petroleum Motor Spirit, PMS.

The resident pastor, Oladela Paul who narrated to NSCDC Lagos Commandant, Tajudeen Balogun, who led the operation, said that the church had sent a formal complaint to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC when they noticed the well was filled with PMS.

He lamented that months after writing the NNPC for solution, the Church was yet to get any response from the Corporation, adding well has become a source of harassment to the church and our members.

Aside the harassment, we are afraid of the impending hazard which we cannot determine.

Confirming the discovery, Balogun in a statement made available to vanguard by NSCDC Public Relation Officer, PRO, Kehinde Bada, said the visit is to evaluate the extent of the spillage and take necessary actions.

Source: Vanguard
At least 30 people have been reportedly killed and 94 others were wounded at an outdoor wedding in Turkey following a bomb attack blamed on Isis.

A suspected suicide bomber targeted the outdoor party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep yesterday, President Tayyip Erdogan confirmed in a statement condemning the attack.

Mr Erdogan said it was likely Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night bombing, which hit when a large group of people from a wedding party took to the streets in celebration.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the attack had turned the wedding into a place of mourning.

He said: No matter what this treacherous terror organisation is called, we as the people, the state, and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it.

This latest bomb blast occurs just days after one occured in which six people were killed.

SEE: Bomb Blasts In Turkey Leave Six Dead
The Federal Government has announced its plan to train 500 ex-militants in agriculture and aquaculture under its amnesty programme.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta, Paul Boro, made this disclosure this to the shortly after his visit to Bio-resources Development Centre (BIODEC), Odi in Bayelsa State.

He said the militants were selected from Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

The special adviser said the training would create jobs and wealth for the youth, especially now that the country sought to diversify the economy.

According to him, 18 other ex-militants had acquired skills in aquaculture under the programme.

Mr. Boro, who is also the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, said he took a tour of the centre to monitor the progress of staff and livestock in the centre.

The amnesty office is committed to training youths to become productive in the area of agriculture and aquaculture.

We will encourage them to plan their future, study and appreciate the value of knowledge in the modern society, the retired Brigadier General said.

He promised that loans would be made available to the beneficiaries to enable them to establish businesses after the training.
Guardian

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned in strong terms the Imo Governments three-day work, two-day farming for workers recently introduced by the Gov. Rochas Okorocha.

Punch

The Niger Delta Avengers has announced a conditional ceasefire and agreed to hold talks with the federal government following months of attacks on key oil and gas facilities that have hammered the economy.

The Sun

The Controller-General of Prisons, Jaafaru Ahmed, has dismissed speculations that inmates escaped from the Abakaliki prison during the attempted jailbreak last week, lamenting that while six inmates were killed, 10 were severely wounded.

Daily Trust

Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud (SAN) is the new president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). With 36 years of law practice under his belt, the onetime Kano state commissioner of justice outlines in this interview, his proposed programmes for young lawyers, judicial reforms and the anti-graft war.

The Nation

THE Police are on course to interact with Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the House of Representatives on the alleged padding of the 2016 budget after resumption of the National Assembly from its current recess, The Nation can now reveal.

Daily Independent

A former Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Clarence Olafemi, has sued the National Human Rights Commission for the inclusion of his name as an electoral offender.

Nigerian Pilot

All Progressives Congress, APC, has assured aspirants seeking to contest the Ondo State gubernatorial election on the party platform of no preferential treatment.

Premium Times

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, says all state councils where salary liabilities of up to three months exist will apply no pay, no work rule.
Ovarian cancer patient, Ahmed Mayowa, has been reported dead.

Mayowa died on Sunday at an undisclosed hospital in South Africa where she was receiving treatment.

One of her relations, Asiwaju Foye, broke the news of her death.



On his Twitter handle, @Asiwaju_Foye, the deceaseds relative wrote: By Allah, in whos hands our lives is, Mayowa Ahmed has left us in this world. We pray that Jannat becomes her home #RipMayowa.

She tried, we tried but Gods will prevailed #RipMayowa.

DAILY POST contacted the cousin of the deceased, Habeeb Odufuye, who confirmed the death of Mayowa.

It would be recalled that Nollywood actress, Toyin Aimakhu had drawn attention of the public to Mayowa (while she was alive) after she solicited funds from Nigerians for her surgery. An online campaign was launched to raise money for Mayowa and about N32million was raised.

Source: Dailypost
By Chuck G

Whether or not to use an online auction service isnt the question self-storage operators should be asking themselves when it comes to lien sales. The real question is, what should you look for in an online auction provider?

Not all storage facilities are created equal, and neither are online marketplaces. An auction service isnt a cookie-cutter operation. Diversified offerings separate one from the other. Following are some considerations to make the right choice for your next lien sale.

Credit Card Requirement

First, does the auction website require a credit card registration to view or bid on units? If it does, this could restrict the number of buyers available to you. A public lien sale should ensure the disposal of a delinquent storage unit in a commercially reasonable way. In compliance with the lien laws of 49 states (Alaska doesnt have a self-storage lien law) and the District of Columbia, it should allow open viewing of the unit contents.

But what if a bidder doesnt have a credit card? Princeton Survey Research Associates International reports that 63 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 (also known as millennials), dont have a credit card. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates millennials represent more than one quarter of the nations population, or 75.4 million Americans. Thats a loss of 47.5 million potential auction buyers, and thats just the millennials. What about the rest of the nations population? About 35 percent of adults age 30 and older dont have credit cards either.

Even prepaid credit cards arent a solution, as must credit card registration requires a person to enter the three- or four-digit security code from the back of the card, which most prepaid cards lack. Will an auction buyer go to the trouble of applying for a credit card just to bid for storage units online? Not likely.

Fees

Does the online auction provider charge a buyers premium or deposit fee in addition to a refundable cleaning deposit? These additional fees, paid by the auction winner, are collected by the online marketplace, not the storage facility. Usually, they go toward administrative expenses. A buyers premium is usually 10 percent to 15 percent of the final sale price. A deposit fee is just another miscellaneous charge. The auction provider may increase these fees at any time, without notice, per its Terms of Sale.

Consider all the charges to the winning bidder: the buyers premium, the deposit fee, the cleaning deposit (refundable but required upfront), plus the cost of the unit. How many auction hunters can afford all these costs? Does it affect your ability as the seller to generate enough revenue to recover losses?

Cancellation Policy

Storage operators often delight when a unit sells, which allows them to not only recoup their losses but to re-rent the unit. Whats better than a successful auction? When the delinquent renter pays off his account balance. In this case, you can cancel the sale. But did you know some auction companies will charge a cancellation fee? Then its up to you as the operator to pay it or pass it on to the tenant.

Units placed for auction on the Web get high visibility, both from potential buyers and delinquent tenants. Often, once a tenant sees his valuables up for sale, hell contact the storage company and settle the bill. Do you really want to hassle a few more dollars out of the customer to satisfy an auction-cancellation fee?

The End Goal

Self-storage is one of the fastest-growing segments of the commercial real estate industry. With a rise in storage facilities, you can also expect to see an increase in online auction providers. The websites will differ, as will their terms of sale and features. Before you choose a marketplace, ask these three questions:

Does the site require a credit card registration to view or bid on units?

Does the site charge a buyers premium or deposit fee?

Does the site charge a cancellation fee?

Once you have this information, youll find the right fit for your debt-recovery needs, coupled with a greater understanding that not all storage-auction services are created equal. At the end of the day, the use of an auction website should cut the stress of live auctions and ease the efficiency of recouping debt from your delinquent renters.

Chuck G is the content developer and social media manager for iBid4Storage, an online auction-services company serving North America. For more information, call 855.424.3669; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.ibid4storage.com.
It was a reflection of the spirit of adventure she showed throughout her life that Mary Kilroy was delighted to take part in a documentary film called Older Than Ireland at 101 years of age.

Like all the other centenarians who took part in the film, my grandmother was happy to share her thoughts on a long life lived to the full on the big screen.

All 30 of them were born under the British Empire, and lived through the 1916 Easter Rising, the birth of a new Ireland, and two world wars.

Yet, as film-maker Alex Fegan discovered, most of them were happier to talk about their own personal tragedies, triumphs, loves and losses than the great political and social changes they had witnessed throughout their lives.

When Alex arrived at my grandmothers farm-house in Caltra, Co Galway, to film an interview last year he found a lady dressed to the nines for an auspicious occasion, happy to tell an abundance of stories from her long and wonderful life.

A few people who saw the film, but never met Granny Kilroy, said that she struck them as a real character with an amazing sense of humour and a heart of gold.

Like many of the interviewees in Older Than Ireland, my granny didnt have an easy life. Which is probably why she had such a rebellious streak, and such a sense of fun, by the time her grandchildren came into this world.

She married into a house which had been shot up by the notorious Black n Tans, the British reserves who became infamous for their attacks on Irish civilians at the height of the War of Independence.

The Ireland of my grannys youth was a turbulent place and my grandfathers brother, who later became a senior Garda (or policeman), had been a wanted man. He was the leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in north-east Galway.

He spent time on the run, and in prison, as the Irish fought for independence during my grandmothers childhood. One of his neighbours spent five years on the run, hiding in hay-sheds and getting fed by country people, as I was to discover during the 1916 commemorations in Caltra earlier this year.

When she married Micheal Kilroy, Mary Mannion moved from Menlough to Rabane, Caltra, where she raised nine children in a two-bedroomed house on a small farm.

She caused quite a stir in the documentary when she talked of having loads of admirers in her youth and of her relationship with a Protestant which didnt go down well in a deeply divided country.

Well, I had loads of them! Theyre always codding me about that here. Oh, there was no scarcity of boyfriends, she told Alex on film.

I was doing a line with a fella who was a Protestant and he was a nice fella and everything, but my grandmother and mother and all said do you want to disgrace us? And, oh, he was such a nice lad. But Im telling you, I got rid of him quick enough. I had to let him off, she laughed.

In later years, Granny would always cod her own 34 grandchildren about our relationships (or lack of them!). She took a keen interest in our love-lives, only because she wanted us all to be happy, as she had been with our grandfather.

Her Rabane house was always a sociable place; people would pop in for a chat at all hours of the day and play music around the hearth fire. But Granny was the boss, and you wouldnt want to overstay your welcome.

Although a practicing Catholic, she showed a rebellious streak through the 1950s and 1960s.

If a book by John McGahern or Edna OBrien was banned, Granny Kilroy was sure to manage to get her hands on a copy to see what all the fuss was about. Shed be sure to arrange to have the banned books brought back to Caltra from England.

She loved any Irish writer who had a good sense of humor or appreciation for rural life, particularly Kerry playwright John B. Keane, and kept a scrapbook containing his most amusing newspaper columns.

She loved the theatre, and Irish literature in general.

Life was never to be taken too seriously, so wed enjoy tall tales around her kitchen table or a flutter on the horses during the Galway Races. Shed even sneak a cigarette or taste of brandy to a willing grandchild, as long as the responsible adults werent around to witness her delinquent behavior!

She outlived her husband by over 50 years and buried two sons. The passing of her eldest son, Paddy, at 28 years of age, was a particularly tough blow. But, as my mother Mary said at her huge 100th birthday party in Athlone almost three years ago, Granny Kilroy never let tragedy define her long life.

She taught all of her extended family the value of getting on with life, of putting a positive spin on things, and of having the craic or some fun along the way, even if there was not always an abundance of food on the table.

Even at 101, she still extended a warm welcome to visitors. When the Older Than Ireland crew visited her home, Granny marvelled that she had received 20 bottles of brandy for her 100th birthday  and was quick to offer a drop to her visitors.

She was a great support to my own immediate family when we lost my sister, Cliona, to cancer at 16 years of age. Granny Kilroy epitomized the importance of getting up, getting out, and putting a brave face on a new day, even (or especially) in the aftermath of tragedy.

As a teenager, when I secured a summer job in Galway, my parents (perhaps rightly!) would not trust me to stay at home on my own.

Fearful that the family home would be ruined by house parties, they would invite my granny in to the city to supervise me for two weeks.

The result was a fortnight of merriment, laughter, and irreverence in the family home, and more than a few nights out at Wards pub in Lower Salthill, where shed be delighted to get chatting to the locals.

Even in her late nineties, she would sneak off to Athlone or Ballinasloe with her beloved grand-daughters to buy a new outfit for Christmas or a wedding, because Granny Kilroy always maintained a big interest in style and fashion.

In her beautiful Eulogy at Caltra Church last week, my cousin Fiona ODriscoll recalled her love of style and fashion. Fiona grew up on the farmhouse with my gran.

You live but once; you might as well be amusing, she quoted Coco Chanel, a fitting motto for my grannys fun-filled life.

Only our granny would make a big deal of recalling the exact number of birthday cards she got (452!) when she turned 100.

Her younger sister, Margaret, also reached a century and it used to bug our granny enormously when Margaret refused to disclose how many cards she received for reaching that wonderful milestone.

For ten weeks in a row, she used to visit Margaret every Thursday, but she could never elicit the exact number from her sibling. At 101 and 100, they maintained a very close friendship, but also a keen sibling rivalry.

There are a lot of things that annoy me about life in the West of Ireland . . . the climate, the way in which gombeens rise to the top of so many organizations . . . and yet my grandmothers death last week brought home to me all that is good about life in this part of the world.

It was so wonderful that Granny was able to pass away peacefully, in her own home, surrounded by people who love her. If only all human beings could have such a peaceful ending after living such full and rewarding lives.

The gentle nature we have with each other, the sense of compassion, the strong family bonds and community spirit in rural areas were all reflected in an estimated attendance of 4,500 at her Removal in Mountbellew.

Granny would have been well impressed that we were two hours late getting to the church!

Having experienced too many tragic deaths, I expected my grans death to be a celebration of a long and wonderful life  and yet when I looked around the Church last Thursday I was amazed to see so many people in tears at the passing of a true local legend.

People should not really be in tears when someone reaches 102 years of age, but our gran was clearly held in high esteem by her local rural community, where her sense of humour was legendary, as much as by her wide extended family.

Granny Kilroy brought so much joy to the lives of her 34 grandchildren that the outpouring of love in Caltra last week was simply unforgettable.

All week, weve been swapping anecdotes of childhood adventures (and misdaventures!).

While some feigned shock at some of the things she said on camera, we are all now so thrilled that she allowed her warm personality to come across on the big screen when she agreed to be filmed for Older Than Ireland.

With a laugh, she told Alex that shed ask St Peter how ya doin? and Hows she cuttin? if she was to meet him at the gates of Heaven.

Truly, she lived a remarkable life.

This article was submitted to the IrishCentral contributors network by a member of the global Irish community. To become an IrishCentral contributor click here.
The story of Sam Millar, an IRA man believed to have carried out a $7.4 million heist on a Brinks armored car in upstate New York in 1993, is set to hit the silver screen as the rights to his memoir On the Brinks were recently acquired by a US distribution company.

Focus Features, the distribution company involved in the likes of Brokeback Mountain and Fifty Shades of Grey wish to retell the incredible life story of Millar, who was in Derry on Bloody Sunday, took part in blanket protests in the Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland, moved illegally to New York and worked in casinos, and was linked with the fifth-largest armored car robbery ever in the United States, of which $5.2 million is still to be recovered.

The screenplay is to be written by Michael Lerner, a former Newsweek foreign correspondent, who has called Millar a fascinating character, referring to the story as a slice of New York at a certain time.

Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, On the Brinks tells of how Millar became involved in the IRA in his youth, spending time time in Long Kesh in the 70s and 80s for IRA-related activity including setting fire to three buses in Belfast.

While in the infamous prison once referred to as the British concentration camp by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, he became one of the Blanket Men, the IRA prisoners who refused to wear prison uniforms when the British government deemed them to no longer be political prisoners. As political prisoners they would have been allowed to remain in their own clothing and in protest against being treated as general criminals, they refused to dress.

Read more: Controversy surrounding new Bobby Sands documentary Bobby Sands: 66 Days

Giving detailed accounts of his time in prison and their treatment at the hands of the prison guards during this extremely turbulent time in Northern Ireland, of his move to New York where he worked in the Upper East Side in clandestine casinos and collect money for Irish casino bosses, and even of his love for comic books, Millar is less forthcoming with details of the crime which would make his name famous: the 1993 $7.4 million Brinks robbery in New York.

Driving upstate in January 1993 in the family minivan, Millar suddenly became a rich man, spending cash in $20 increments on new cars, family vacations, and even opening up a comic book store near his home in Queens.

It was November 1993 before he was arrested alongside Irish priest and IRA supporter Patrick Moloney, known as a defender of the poor in the East Village neighborhood in which he still works at 85 years old, and Thomas F. OConnor, a fellow IRA supporter and retired Rochester police officer, who was the Brinks guard on duty the night of the robbery. Having helped Miller enter the States illegally, authorities thought OConnor may also have played a part in securing his sudden fortune.

Federal authorities immediately deemed the crime to have been carried out on behalf of the IRA to fund their campaign in Northern Ireland, but they still lacked hard evidence and the three accused were less than forthcoming with information.

Authorities could link neither Millar nor Fr. Moloney to the crime and so they were both simply found guilty of possessing cash that was taken in the robbery and not for the robbery itself. Fr. Moloney spent five years in a federal prison in Pennsylvania while Millar was just to spend four years in prison in the US before being transferred to a detention center in Ireland. Authorities were unable to link OConnor to the crime in any way and so he was acquitted and served no time in prison.

Highly critical of Millar after the arrest and after the memoir, in particular, Fr. Moloney claimed in a conversation with the New York Times that it was his kindness to Millar that implicated him with the crime, offering Millar the keys to a safe house for his brother only for him to use it to stash $2 million cash.

Long maintaining his innocence, the priest claims he believed the money to be connected with Millars casino work and he should have been exonerated from the start. Fr. Moloney has also claimed the Millar defamed the IRA movement with his actions and carried out the scheme for nobody's benefit but his own.

Surveillance tapes have shown the priest leaving the safe house with duffel bags believed to be filled with cash, however, and $168,000 was also found in one of his safes, money he contested belonged to illegal immigrants in his parish who needed a safe place to keep their savings.

Millar makes no links between his IRA leanings and the crime in the memoir but does admit that he was inspired to carry it out following a work visit to his friend OConnor in which he noticed the lax state of security surrounding the money.

Accompanied by a man he just names as Marco, he writes that they walked right into the depot holding guns and wearing masks, while they tied up three guards including OConnor. Authorities did not believe OConnor claims that he didnt recognize his friend or not know about the robbery in advance. As investigations began, it was the flaky testimony from the guard that made them suspect an inside job and eventually brought Millar to their attention.

Millar remained in Belfast following his release and continues to live in his native Northern Ireland where he now writes crime novels.

H/T: New York Times
Update 10.36am: A bomb attack on an outdoor wedding party in south-eastern Turkey that killed 50 people and wounded dozens of others was the work of the so-called Islamic State group, the country's president said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement on Sunday saying that 'IS' was "the most likely perpetrator of the Gaziantep attack".

The initial death toll was 30 killed and 94 wounded. Later, the Gaziantep governor's office raised the toll to 50, without giving a number of wounded, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Earlier:

A bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in south-eastern Turkey killed at least 30 people and wounded 94 others.

Deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing.

Other officials said it could have been the carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State group extremists.

Photos taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets as a crowd gathered nearby.

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party - known by its acronym PKK - or were blamed on IS.

In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, two-year peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

Mr Simsek, interviewed on NTV television, said: "This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome." Daesh is an Arabic name for the IS group.

He later traveled to Gaziantep along with the country's health minister to visit the wounded and inspect the site of the attack.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters in Gaziantep. "We ... are united against all terror organisations. They will not yield."

He told reporters it was too soon to say which organisation was behind the attack.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing that turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

"No matter what this treacherous terror organisation is called, we as the people, the state, and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it," he said.

A brief statement from the Gaziantep governor's office said the bomb attack on the wedding in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10:50pm local time.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television, that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have placed a bounty of up to 2,000 on the head of the person who carried out this act.

However, the dogs family has received the veterinary bill and it has amounted to more than they are able to afford. They have set up a fundraising page to help with the bill. You can find it HERE.
Keeping up with technology should be systematic and efficient. Avoidance behavior will only reduce your anxiety for so long. At some point, the limitations companies have learned to live with and consider good enough will prevent them from keeping up with the herd. Here are three organizations that realized it was time to take on database modernization, after discovering their existing databases lacked documentation, defined relationships and normalized procedures. The three examples are projects that involve Resolution Software, a company that specializes in database modernization services and developed software that automates much of the labor intensive work in the modernization process and manages the end result. Resolution CEO Elie Muyal will be our guide. Project #1 took place in Switzerland. Its a very complete database modernization project conducted by a major insurance company, with 50 software developers on staff. Rigorous procedures were already in place to move from test environments to production, which were applied to the database modernization effort. The company was a considering a migration from DB2 to a different database, but after risk, cost, and time comparisons, a decision was made to remain on IBM i and undertake a database modernization. The accumulated knowledge of 30 years was in the DB2 database and it was determined that evolution in a familiar environment that has new technology to offer was a better choice than drastic change and higher risk, Muyal told IT Jungle. They realized that DB2 performance would be better than the performance either Oracle or SQL Server, but only if only if modern techniques such as SQL defined tables, identities, and time stamps were incorporated along with naming conventions that make sense and putting relationships in placein other words, implementing best practices for a modern database. The project was done gradually in four separate steps that made the project more manageable and in four different environments-development, test, staging and production. It also involved the creation of two instances of the same database. One served as a safety net. Resolutions Xcase software brought process automation to an otherwise labor intensive process. Xcase also was instrumental in the discovery and validating relationships phases, which were a big part of this project, as well as projects two and three. The modernization was completed in one year, a predetermined time frame dictated by convenient release dates. Next on the agenda is addressing data integrity issues. Project #2 was accomplished in France for a major logistics company. The starting point was a DDS-based DB2 for i database that lacked documentation and declared relationships, so the main focus of the project was establishing relationships within the database. The DDS to SQL conversion was done manually. Three months into this project the discovery and validation of relationships is in progress. We find most databases with no relationships and no normalization, Muyal says while also noting the conversion from DDS to DDL, whether its manual or automated, can be done without recompiling applications. Although the logistics company recognized the strategic importance of moving its legacy database to SQL, the inability to define relationships caused the project to stumble. The information was spread out over 250 people. There was no database administrator, so the database was not documented nor optimized. It was basically auto-managed, and was suffering from a lack of data integrity. The company started the project with its own people, but it called on Resolutions to help get it finished. Project #3 involved a large insurance company in Columbia with a complex and growing DDS database consisting of thousands of tables. The technology and methodology was antiquated. There was no documentation, no normalization, and no relationships. The company was taking a closer look because of government mandates to obfuscate sensitive credit card data from a test environment that was a replication of the production environment. In addition to the regulatory compliance issue, a secondary concern was cleaning up redundant data. It may be stretching the definition of modernization in this instance because the files remain in DDS. There is no SQL conversion. However, previously unknown relationships were identified and data redundancies were determined and eliminated. So, technically, there was a modernization. After two months into this project, the test database is completely obfuscated and work in on-going with obfuscation on an SQL Server database that is also under the scrutiny of government security audits. As you can see from these examples, sometimes it takes a mandate to make people change their database ways. Sometimes it is a matter of escaping self-imposed limitations that hinder company growth. When the time for change comes, however, the surprises may not be happy ones. One thing for certain is that IBM will continue to make the DB2 for i database the heart of the platform and that database is not the database that the majority of IBM i shops recognize. But the paradox in that is when IBM i shops do stop to take a look at their good enough databases, they find limitations. Yes, they are capable of doing what theyve always done, but you can say the same thing about the Model T Ford. The Model T was a fine automobile and undeniably adequate for its time. Most of us would not choose one to depend on for our transportation today. RELATED STORIES No Seats At Cruikshanks SQL Database Sessions Analytical Expectations And Misconceptions Of IBM i The Data-Centric Depiction Of IBM i IBM Data Studio Deserves a Closer Look A New IBM i Team Is Needed
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.
A school has been removed from the special supervision imposed two years ago after being criticised for the standard of teaching.

Ofsted inspectors said Wykeham Primary School in Aboyne Road, Neasden, have praised the hard work of staff, pupils, parents and Brent Council for helping turn the school around.

The school was removed from nspecial measuresi following a gruelling inspection in May 10 which confirmed the improved quality of teaching, a sharp raise in grades and an increased use of IT.

BrentIs chief inspector of schools, Rose Johnson, said: nIt is not easy for a school to come off special measures. It can only be achieved by hard work of people who are committed to making a better school for pupils.i

Wykeham Primary headteacher Hans Formella said: nThis is wonderful news for all the staff who have worked so hard to improve the standards at Wykeham. The Governors., Lea and parents have supported us throughout and this has proved to be essential.

nThe children also deserve a lot of praise for the way they have responded to the challenges we have set them and for the progress they have made.

BY DAVID BROWN

dbrown@london.newsquest.co.uk

A school has been removed from the special supervision imposed two years ago after being criticised for the standard of teaching.

Ofsted inspectors said Wykeham Primary School in Aboyne Road, Neasden, have praised the hard work of staff, pupils, parents and Brent Council for helping turn the school around.

The school was removed from nspecial measuresi following a gruelling inspection on May 10 which confirmed the improved quality of teaching, a sharp raise in grades and an increased use of IT.

BrentIs chief inspector of schools, Rose Johnson, said: nIt is not easy for a school to come off special measures. It can only be achieved by hard work by people committed to making a better school for pupils.i

Wykeham Primary headteacher Hans Formella said: nThis is wonderful news for all the staff who have worked so hard to improve the standards at Wykeham. The governors and parents have supported us throughout and this has proved to be essential.

nThe children also deserve a lot of praise for the way they have responded to the challenges we have set them and for the progress they have made.
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Links to our top local news stories of the day, Monday through Saturday.
The Latest on California wildfires (all times local)

4:40 p.m.

A growing wildfire in central California has forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle.

Fire officials say the blaze was about 3  miles from the hilltop estate on Saturday.

Cal Fire spokesman Mike Yuli says a wind shift caused the fire to cross a containment line Saturday afternoon, leading authorities to issue an evacuation warning to two communities north of Lake Nacimiento, about 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The fire has burned more than 26 square miles and is 33 percent contained.

A California State Parks spokeswoman says Hearst Castle stopped giving tours because of heavy smoke. She said the state agency has a fire management plan and emergency plan in place to protect the landmark.

A popular tourist attraction along the Central Coast, the castle houses a large art collection belonging to media magnate William Randolph Hearst.

___

12:45 p.m.

More residents are returning as crews make significant gains against a Southern California wildfire that officials now say has destroyed more than 100 homes.

Fire spokesman Brad Pitassi says evacuation orders for Wrightwood went from mandatory to advisory Saturday afternoon. Sheriff's deputies will make sure that only residents are returning to the mountain town of about 4,500 residents.

Pitassi says damage assessment teams have found 9 more burned homes, bringing the preliminary total to 105. At least 213 outbuildings have burned.

The blaze in mountain areas is 68 percent contained. It has burned 58 square miles.

___

9:00 a.m.

Fire crews overnight made progress containing an arson fire that has destroyed almost 200 homes.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Saturday that the blaze in the working-class community of Lower Lake was 80 percent contained after destroying at least 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses.

More than 1,200 firefighters are battling the 6-square-mile blaze that started Aug. 13 and spread to the community's downtown area and many residential neighborhoods.

Damin Pashilk, of nearby Clearlake, is charged with 14 counts of arson in connection to the Lower Lake blaze and 11 other fires dating back to July 2015.

___

8:15 a.m.

It was another successful night in the battle against a massive wildfire in Southern California that has destroyed at least 96 homes.

Fire spokesman Brad Pitassi said early Saturday that the blaze in mountain areas of San Bernardino County is 68 percent contained.

Pitassi says officials hope to let thousands of evacuated residents return home this weekend. Some evacuation orders were lifted Friday.

A preliminary damage report finds 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were destroyed in the blaze that broke out Tuesday.

More damage might be discovered as firefighters pore through the aftermath of the fire that has burned 58 square miles about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The Houthi Ansarullah Movement that controls most of north and west Yemen staged what was by all accounts an enormous demonstration in the capital of Sanaa on Saturday. It may have been the single largest demonstration in the countrys history. While it was unlikely actually to have involved a million people, it did probably tens of thousands, and it showed how strong grassroots support for the Houthis is in the north.

The massive demonstration in Sab`in Park in downtown Sanaa was intended to send a signal to Saudi Arabia and its coalition that the Houthis are enormously popular in the north and that the General Peoples Congress, the parliament of Yemen in its present form, shares in that popularity.

If so, Saudi Arabia did not get that message. Its fighter-bombers targeted downtown Sanaa in the midst of the demonstration, which arguably was a war crime (you arent allowed to endanger large numbers of civilians in war if you dont have to). The Saudis are at war with rebel supporters of the Houthis, whom Saudi Arabian inaccurately depicts as a cats paw of Iran.

The Houthis are a fundamentalist movement growing out of the moderate Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam in north Yemen. They were one of the groups that supported the Yemeni revolution of 2011-2012, which deposed president for life Ali Abdullah Saleh. But during the transition to elected governments, the Houthis derailed the countrys move to democracy by making a coup and gradually dismissing civilian high governing officials.

About a third of Yemenis are Zaidis, but the proportion is much more enormous if we look only at their power base in the northwest of the country. Sunni Aden and some other regions were liberated from Houthi control by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (plus Morocco and Jordan).

The Saudi-led group has bombarded Yemen intensely for the past year, knocking out key infrastructure and killing or endangering the civilian population.

One Houthi spokesman said that the crowds in the square had sent a message to Saudi Arabia and its allies, that the Houthis are here to stay and retain a great deal of popularity.

The indiscriminate Saudi bombing of Yemen and the destruction of civilian infrastructure such as bridges and ports has caused the Obama administration to begin distancing itself from this war. But too late most Yemenis see the US as behind the GCC effort.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Massive pro-Houthi rally in Yemen | DW News
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie [official website] signed the Sweeney Bill (SB 2061) [text, PDF] into law on Thursday, increasing the accidental death benefits for surviving children of fallen state troopers to 70% of final compensation. The Sweeney Bill amendments change the benefit distribution criteria as they relate to New Jerseys State Police Retirement System (SPRS) and Police and Fireman Retirement System (PFRS) [official websites]. According to the New Jersey Senate Democrats, the prior law granted [press release] only 20 percent death benefits for the first child, 35 percent for two or 50 percent for three or more children. With the Sweeney Bill amendments, all minor children of State Troopers who die in the line of duty would be entitled to the same amount of death benefits, including the children of unmarried couples matching the 70% benefits that only surviving spouses are currently entitled to receive. Furthermore, the bill also extends the maximum age until which a child could receive benefits to 18 years of age or older if they are enrolled in a secondary school, or 24 years of age if they are enrolled in an institution of higher education for at least 12 credits per semester. However, a surviving parent that was not married to a fallen trooper, while still obligated to manage and distribute the benefits being paid for their minor children, is currently still ineligible [NJ.Com report] to enjoy the benefits for themselves, unlike legally married spouses.

This new development comes in the wake of New Jersey State Trooper Sean Cullens death, which occurred when Cullen was struck and killed [NJ.Com report] by a motor vehicle on Interstate 295 in West Deptford. At the time, Cullen was responding to a car accident where an injured motorist was trapped inside a burning car. No charges have been filed against the driver of the vehicle that struck Cullen, and he has fully cooperated with the police. Cullen leaves behind a newborn and a 15-month-old child. This law comes into effect nearly five months after Cullens death. Senate President Steve Sweeney [official website], after whom the bill is named, stated: We ask our law enforcement officers and emergency response workers to put themselves in harms way, as Trooper Cullen and so many other troopers do every day . This law provides the reassurance that all of our law enforcement officers and firefighters need when they go to work. Last month, the governor of Texas announced [JURIST report] that he plans to propose a law providing for additional punishment for crimes against law enforcement officers. In May, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed a Blue Lives Matter bill that raises the penalties [JURIST report] for crimes against police officers.
The United Nations (UN) [official website] on Friday said that it is becoming increasingly alarmed by catastrophic levels of suffering in Nigeria, as more rights violations are being exposed while the anti-Boko Haram military campaign advances [UN News Centre report]. Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website] stated [press briefing],

While many areas are still beyond reach, in Borno and Yobe States the picture of suffering is shocking. There are numerous reports of human rights violations, including deaths, sexual violence, disappearances, forced recruitment, forced religious conversions and attacks on civilian sites. Some 800,000 additional internally displaced people have been identified as needing help.

The military activity has caused the displacement issues to spread across the Lake Chad basin borders to areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Women, children and elderly make up large portions of the displaced people, and many of those in need of help are malnourished and exhausted as well. The UNHCR is ramping up efforts to deliver humanitarian aid, focusing first on highly vulnerable areas. However, many areas needing assistance can only be accessed with military escorts.

The militant Islamic group Boko Haram [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], whose name means Western education is a sin, has been fighting to overthrow the Nigerian government in the interest of creating an Islamist state. Earlier this month UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon [official profile] applauded [JURIST report] the European Union for donating 50 million euro (approximately $55,435,000 USD) to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF). The MNJTF was created by Lake Chad basin countries in an effort to combat Boko Haram. Last month, the Secretary-General condemned [JURIST report] yet another attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria that left 30 dead and approximately 80 injured. In April the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, reported [JURIST report] that Boko Haram militants in Nigeria have been murdering women and girls previously taken captive by the group. The group has been increasing the intensity and frequency of its attacks [JURIST report] ever since it lost most of the territory it overtook earlier this year to the Nigerian army. Most of these attacks have centered around markets, bus stations, places of worship and hit-and-run attacks on villages.
A United Nations (UN) [official website] official on Saturday expressed deep concern for the health of Bilal Kayed, a Palestinian detainee that has been on hunger strike for more than two months [UN News Centre report]. Robert Piper [official profile], the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance and Development Aid in the occupied Palestinian territory, released his statement [text, PDF] and called the situation an egregious case. Kayed was set to be released after serving a 14.5-year prison sentence, but he was placed on administrative detention and has not been released, charged or given any form of trial. Kayed began his hunger strike in protest of his detention, and six other detainees are following suit to protest their detentions and prolonged solitary confinement. Another 100 prisoners across Israel have begun hunger strikes in solidarity. The number of administrative detainees is at an eight-year high. I reiterate the United Nations long-standing position that all administrative detainees  Palestinian or Israeli  should be charged or released without delay.

The increase in violence in the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict [HRW backgrounder] has created a contentious human rights situation. In July Israeli lawmakers passed a controversial law [JURIST report] increasing regulation on Israeli human rights organizations. Also in July Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called upon Palestinian and Israeli officials to properly address human rights violations committed by their forces [JURIST report]. In February Piper expressed a similar concern to the present case [JURIST report] regarding the continued practice of administrative detention in Israeli jails and detention centers. Piper specifically mentioned the case of Mohammed Al-Qiq, a detainee whose health was rapidly declining and reaching potentially irreversible damage. Makarim Wibisono [official profile], UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, resigned [JURIST report] from his position in January, saying that Israel has not granted him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory after repeated requests.
GIBBON  The two-month Platte Basin journey from mountain ranges in Wyoming and Colorado to Plattsmouth by Michael Forsberg and Pete Stegen is more than an amazing adventure or opportunity to take great photos.

It is part of a greater effort to collect information for research, to educate Nebraskans and others about the complexity of the 90,000-square-mile Platte watershed, and to promote understanding about where our water comes from.

It is the latest venture for the Platte Basin Timelapse (PBT) project co-founded in 2011 by Forsberg, an award-winning Lincoln-based photographer whose work is focused on the Great Plains, and Michael Farrell, special projects manager for NET, Nebraskas public television station.

They are assistant professors at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who teach a Digital Photography and Storytelling class.

A lot of kids who take this class end up being involved in this project, formally or informally, Forsberg said.

That includes Stegen, who graduated from UNL in 2013 with a fisheries and wildlife degree and now is a PBT project videographer. Among other things, he added.

The PBT team has placed about 50 cameras throughout the watershed, from the headwaters to the Missouri River, and uses the images and information gathered to create multimedia content.

Forsberg said they have told a lot of stories the past five years to promote understanding of where water comes from and what that means for the Platte watershed today.

The PBT project makes those stories accessible to the public through web-based journalism, education curriculum developed for middle school and high school science students, public presentations and documentaries, including one for NET that will be produced using Forsbergs and Stegens watershed journey photos, videos and journals.

Forsberg said watersheds  natures boundaries  are the biggest 21st-century issue around the world.

Its a life-or-death story ... We need to understand it and protect it. To understand it, we need to value it, Forsberg said. Water is our lifeblood.

The PBT project is supported by NET, UNL, the Nebraska Environmental Trust, Daugherty Water for Food Institute, Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, Clare M. Hubbard Foundation, Platte Valley Companies, Cooper Foundation and Nikon Corporation.
FILE - In this May 19, 2013 file photo, Prince performs at the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Several pills taken from Prince's estate in Paisley Park after his death were counterfeit drugs that actually contained fentanyl,a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin, an official close to the investigation said Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
Cancer patient Mayowa Ahmed has died. She died this afternoon August 21st in a hospital in South Africa after battling Ovarian cancer for a while.





She was flown to South Africa on August 11th for treatment after kind-hearted Nigerians raised over N100million for her treatment. Unfortunately, she didnt make it.

Here is the message one of her loved ones tweeted an hour ago:

.

By Allah, in whos hands our lives is, Mayowa Ahmed has left us in this world. We pray that Jannat becomes her home#RipMayowa

.

May her soul rest in peace! Amen!
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As first year came to an end, we were asked to reflect on our experiences thus far. The multitude of tests and memorized facts, anatomy dissections, and patient interactions flooded my mind. Shockingly, it was not the difficulty of the first year of medical school that I will remember the most, rather the jaded comments from physicians and students that attempted to cloud my perspective of medicine.

Medicine is different now. Its high risk, no reward. Youll never be your own boss.

I plead with all physicians, who interact with students in any capacity, to stop painting a skewed picture of medicine that serves to only increase anxiety, self-doubt, and ultimately push students away from the field. Despite the common sentiment expressed above, I have also had the pleasure of meeting physicians who love their job even though they recognize the issues in our system. As mentors and role models, provide us with solutions, guide us with your experience, but do not suffocate us with your anger.

Enjoy who you are now, after third year youll be a completely different person.

We are taught to observe the hidden curriculum and learn from the mistakes of our clinical preceptors. Somewhere along the way we become them. Far too often, the metamorphosis that occurs in medical school from the doe-eyed first year to the sleep deprived third year is joked about. Humor is a coping mechanism used commonly in medicine, but I wonder how often people notice the hint of truth behind every jest. It is important that we as medical students maintain an open dialogue regarding our experiences; embrace personal growth, while being aware of the external factors that shape us and how we view ourselves.

Dont do surgery. You wont be able to have a family.

As a female medical student, I have heard this advice more times than I can count. Annoyingly, this wisdom comes dripping in paternalism from male surgeons and not the women surgeons I aspire to join the ranks of one day. I recognize the importance of understanding the effect of specialty choice on lifestyle, but do not assume every student has the same life goals or discount the number of women that are both mothers and work to support their families.

Although we are beginning to draw more attention to the detrimental effects associated with pursuing a career medicine, medical education has been slow to change. Medical school is focused on the memorization of facts, hopes for high Step scores, and competition. We as doctors strive to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, infections, and other maladies that are inflicted upon our patients, but when will we begin to prevent the cycle of depression, anxiety, and emotional distress that medical students experience at the hands of the system that is meant to educate us. We are taught that this is a part of the journey; that if we can not handle the pressure, we are not worthy of our careers. I do not doubt the importance of the knowledge, skills, and maturity we gain as medical students, but there must be a better way to achieve the same results.

Ironically, as we learn to heal our future patients, we are slowly broken. Medical education must truly incorporate the care of students into the curriculum in order to improve the health of students and their future patients. Physicians should encourage medical students and help them navigate the struggles associated with pursuing a career in medicine. Be mindful of your words, the students that are listening, and seek not to continue the cycle of abuse, but rather consciously destroy it.

I shouldnt complain, I guess. At least Im going to be a doctor.

Misha Armstrong is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The 606 Apartments on Burwell Street were the first in Bremerton to take advantage of a 12-year exemption on property taxes intended to encourage new development and create affordable housing. (LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN)

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By Tad Sooter of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON  Four apartment projects recently approved in Bremerton all received the same welcoming present: A healthy break in property taxes.

The 606 Apartments, completed last year; Spyglass Hill, now under construction; and the planned Inhabit Burwell and Evergreen Pointe projects all qualified for a multifamily tax exemption offered by the city.

The exemption is authorized by state law to encourage construction of apartments to house the growing population, and incentivize affordable rents at a time of steep cost increases. Under the program, the value of newly-constructed or rehabilitated apartment units is exempted from property taxes for eight or 12 years.

Bremerton enacted its exemption program in 2007, but 606 Apartments was the first project to take advantage of the incentive. Port Orchard approved a multifamily tax exemption in July. Cities like Seattle and Tacoma also offer the exemption.

As the housing market heats up in Kitsap, and more developers see opportunity in the county, the tax exemption programs merit deeper examination. And with one project that qualified for the program already completed in Bremerton, some hard numbers are available to study.

The mayors of Bremerton and Port Orchard are among those who already believe the benefits of the tax exemptions far outweigh any unrealized tax revenue.

"When you're trying to grow your city, you're going to pull out all the stops as far as incentives," Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent said.

In Port Orchard, Mayor Rob Putaansuu views the tax exemption as a tool to stoke housing construction in areas of the city where development has stagnated.

"We have a housing crisis out here," Putaansuu said. "We have a need to create activity, and some redevelopment."

How the exemption works

The multifamily tax exemption comes in two flavors. Developers can qualify for an eight-year property tax exemption by constructing or rehabilitating a building with more than 10 units. Or they can earn a 12-year exemption by committing to rent or sell at least 20 percent of the units to low- or moderate-income households (more on what that means later.)

The exemption is only available in certain areas of the cities. Planners in Bremerton and Port Orchard designated neighborhoods where the city's comprehensive plans encourage density, and where development is more challenging or costly. (In downtown Bremerton, for example, apartment developers are demolishing existing structures, or building on top of them.)

Bremerton's exemption program covers downtown, Bay Vista, Charleston, Manette and portions of the Wheaton Way corridor. Port Orchard offers the exemption on Bay Street, south along a stretch of Bethel Avenue, and on portions of Mile Hill Drive. Port Orchard Planning Developer Nick Bond said those areas are ripe for redevelopment, but land there isn't as attractive to developers as vacant tracts on the outskirts of town.

"There's a desire to see improvements in some older, more established areas of the city that are maybe a little tired," Bond said. "And we're not seeing the interest in developing those areas."

For projects that qualify, the exemption applies only to the value of the housing units that are constructed or rehabilitated. Owners still pay tax on the land beneath the buildings and any nonresidential improvements. Cities can revoke the exemption, and the county can retroactively collect taxes, if a property owner doesn't follow the rules. Once the exemption expires, the buildings are valued as new construction and subject to all taxes.

Broad exemption

Despite being enacted by city councils, the exemption applies to property taxes assessed by all districts, including the county and school districts, according to the county assessor's office. That point has caused confusion among city officials and observers, some of whom thought the exemption only applied to the city's property tax.

Putaansuu conceded some Port Orchard officials weren't clear on the scope of the tax break, even as the ordinance enacting the program came up for a vote in July.

"I think some understood it better than others," he said. " ... possibly we should have debated this further in depth."

Mike Eliason, executive director of the Kitsap County Association of Realtors, which submitted a letter advocating for Port Orchard's exemption program before the vote, said he would have been hesitant to support the measure had he known it included school district assessments.

"It would be a disappointment if it was all property taxes," Eliason said.

The multifamily tax exemption results in an attractive discount for developers. According to the county assessor's office, owners of the 606 Apartments would have paid more than $25,000 in property taxes on their Burwell Street building, valued at $1.83 million, had the development not been exempted in 2016. The largest portion of that bill, roughly $14,500, would have gone to support schools, according to a Kitsap Sun analysis. Bremerton taxes, including an EMS levy, would have accounted for about $7,000.

PJ Santos with Lorax Partners, which developed and owns the 606 Apartments, was on vacation last week and unavailable to comment on the exemption program. Fellow developer Trish Williams, who is spearheading the 104-unit Evergreen Pointe apartments planned near Evergreen Rotary Park, said the exemption was a helpful bonus. Williams said her project would have penciled out without the tax break.

"It just makes it more attractive," she said, especially as she discusses her plans with potential investors.

'Affordable' at $1,500 per month

Developers of the 606 Apartments, Evergreen Pointe and Inhabit Burwell qualified for the 12-year tax exemption, which requires at least 20 percent of units be offered at affordable rates. Rules require a mix of different unit types (one-bedroom, two-bedroom, etc.) to be affordable to both low- and moderate-income households. Property owners must file a report to the city at the end of each year verifying the income of tenants in those units.

Drawing from federal standards, a low-income household is defined as earning 80 percent or less of the median income for the county. A moderate-income household earns between 80 to 115 percent of median income.

According to a breakdown provided by Bremerton city staff, the annual median income for a four-person family in Kitsap was $74,600 in 2015, with low-income households earning up to $59,600 or less, and moderate-income households earning up to $85,790. To qualify as affordable, apartment rent including utilities must cost 30 percent or less of the household's income.

Based on those numbers, a landlord would have had to rent an apartment at $1,490 or less in 2015 qualify as affordable for a low-income family of four and $2,145 to qualify as affordable to a moderate-income family. For a studio apartment rented to a single person, rent would have to be $1,044 or less to be affordable to a low-income tenant, and $1,502 or less for a moderate-income tenant.

Affordable rent standards set by the program are roughly in line with average rents in Bremerton, though newly constructed apartments typically command higher prices. Average rent-per-unit at large apartment buildings hovered just below $1,000 at the end of 2015 and climbed to $1,023 by the second quarter of 2016, according to Tom Cain of Apartment Insights Washington.

Williams said she applied for the 12-year tax exemption after realizing she wouldn't have to lower her projected rents to qualify.

"As we were doing our rent comparables we realized a good portion of our smaller units were considered affordable," she said.

The exemption programs don't require rents that would accommodate very low-income families. Mayor Lent said it is still important to encourage rents aimed at low- to moderate-income families.

"You need all different rates of affordability," she said.

Myriad benefits

Affordable units aren't the only benefit of apartment projects aided by tax incentives.

Bremerton Housing Authority Executive Director Kurt Wiest said any new units will ease the county's housing market, which is strained by low vacancy rates and steadily rising rents.

"Anything we can do that might bring some relief is helpful," Wiest said.

And city officials were quick to point out that construction generates permitting activity and revenue from sales and utility taxes, and impact fees, all while creating jobs. Once built, apartments will attract new households to the core of the cities, generating more sales for businesses and breathing new life into neighborhoods.

The multifamily tax exemption programs don't have to be permanent. Cities could choose to no longer offer the exemptions if the market becomes strong enough to spur growth in underdeveloped areas. For now, Putaansuu believes the tax exemption could play a critical role in delivering much-needed homes to the heart of his city.

"It isn't a silver bullet that's going to solve all of our problems," he said. "But it could create a project or two."
Stuff reports:

American Christian preacher Reggie Dabbs has angered parents again, with a motivational speech at Kapiti College being slammed by some as evangelism by stealth. Dabbs spoke to about 280 year 9 and 10 pupils on Thursday as part of a tour of Wellington secondary schools including Wellington College and Rongotai College. At the end of his speech, flyers advertising Arise Churchs Impact convention at Wellingtons Opera House on Friday night were made available, which sparked an uproar on a Raumati community Facebook page. One parent voiced her concerns on the heated thread saying the flyers were inappropriate and that Dabbs speech was delivered with a side of church..

So what? Im all for not teaching religion in schools, but banning an interesting motivational speaker because he is a preacher is getting too purist.

In a statement on the Facebook thread Kane said the issue was a difficult ethical question for schools, but young people might be more sophisticated in matters of theology than they were given credit for. So I guess to answer the question: should we allow a religious group to preach their views to a captive audience in schools? Absolutely not, Kane said. Should we allow someone who happens to be Christian to give a worthwhile presentation in schools? There are a variety of views in the thread, but I am struggling to see the harm.

I agree both on young people being more sophisticated than youd think and that what was the harm?

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SHARE Bhavin Patel Ryan Skinner Jason Eskew Matt Garland

The Health Law Department at Baker Donelson recently earned two honors: No. 7-ranked spot in the Modern Healthcare's "Largest Healthcare Law Firms" and No. 5 on the American Health Lawyers Association's "Top Honors 2016" rankings of health law firms in the United States.

BES Technologies, LLC and City-State, LLC won prestigious Department of Energy Small Business awards for fiscal year 2015 performance. BES Technologies, located in Oak Ridge, was awarded the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year Award. BEST performs radioactive laundry, respirator, solid and liquid waste services for DOE and its contractors. Erik Connard, CEO of BEST, received the award. City-State, LLC, located in Knoxville, was awarded the HUBZone Small Business of the Year Award. City-State provides Environmental Compliance, Waste Management and Transportation support for DOE and its contractors. Jeremy Shoop, president, and Gabe Beck, CFO, of City-State received the award.

Board-certified cardiologist Dr. Bhavin Patel has joined Blount Memorial's active medical staff, and will see patients at Blount Heart Consultants, located in the Blount Memorial Physician Office Building. Patel received bachelor's degrees in medicine and surgery from Medical College Baroda in Vadodara, India. Dermatologist Dr. Ryan Skinner has joined Blount Memorial's active medical staff and will see patients in his office at The Center for Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at Springbrook in Alcoa. Skinner spent the last four years with LewisGale Hospital at Montgomery and New River Dermatology in Blacksburg, Va.

Dr. Jason Eskew has joined Summit Medical Group of Oak Ridge as a family medicine physician. He is accepting new patients.

The Marymount University (Arlington, Va.) website designed and programmed by FMB Advertising of Knoxville was honored with the Communicator Award of Distinction for the second year in a row for its creativity, functionality, visual design and ease of use. Entrants were judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.

The executive committee of the Greene County Partnership has named Matt Garland as president and chief executive officer of the organization. Garland most recently served as business development consultant with the state of Tennessee in Johnson City. The Johnson City native has held the position of Economic Development Specialist with the state of Tennessee and has worked to promote economic growth in the Northeast Tennessee Region for the past nine years.

Dr. Theo Hensley has joined Summit Medical Group as a family physician with Greeneville Internal Medicine and Family Practice. He is accepting new patients. Prior to joining Summit Medical Group, he practiced with HMG Urgent Care in Kingsport and Bristol.

Bill Hicks has joined the UT Center for Industrial Services as a solutions consultant. Hicks, who previously worked for CIS, will represent the East Tennessee region with his expertise in lean manufacturing and environmental, health and safety compliance, and management systems. Solutions consultants interface with the center's customers and drive the initiation of projects and partnerships across the state. CIS is an agency of the UT Institute for Public Service.

Pugh CPAs announced the following promotions: In the audit department, Michelle Huffman has been promoted to senior manager, Gary Mitchell has been promoted to manager and Jonathan Huddleston and Lauren Thompson have been promoted to senior. In the tax department, Carol Faircloth has been promoted to senior manager and Jennifer Gaylor has been promoted to senior.
SHARE Dancers perform bharatanatyam, a classic Indian dance, at IndiaFest 2016 in Lenoir City. Dancers perform bharatanatyam, a classic Indian dance, at IndiaFest 2016 in Lenoir City.

By Jay Miller, Special to the News Sentinel

LENOIR CITY Thousands of people gathered Saturday at the Knoxville Hindu Community Center for India Fest 2016.

Food, dancing, music and art were on display at the annual celebration of Indian culture. Festival organizers estimated more than 6,000 people attended the event this year, twice the amount that attended in 2014.

Hemal Tailor, a co-chair of the event, said each year the festival increases in size.

"It's grown from about 30 people to over 6,000 people," Tailor said. "We have people from all over East Tennessee attend this event."

The event, which began at 11 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m., allowed guests to taste Indian street food from various regions of the country while enjoying traditional and modern music and dance. The goal, according to Tailor, is to expose East Tennesseans to Indian culture.

"It's a day for us to open up the temple and invite everyone to come in," she said. "People get to sample our food, our dance, our culture. That's the main thing. We're very proud of it."

Dozens of volunteers prepared and sold food, ranging from spicy to sweet, while others offered face painting and henna tattoos. Cooking seminars were also given to a small crowd of curious onlookers.

Yatish Shah, a volunteer, said the event allowed young Indian-Americans a chance to experience the culture of their native country.

"(India Fest) is a way to show East Tennesseans how we live in India, but it is also a chance for us to show our children, who may have never visited India, to see it," Shah said. "This is the culture we come from, and this is a way for us to preserve it."

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero each praised the Indian community in East Tennessee for helping make the community a better place to live.

"I often talk about the diversity of community, and I truly think that is our strength," Rogero said. "I think there is so much value in India Fest and I enjoy learning that.  Everywhere you go in India there are different customs, different music, different dress, and that is what you celebrate here."

According to Tailor, one of the unique characteristics of the Indian community in East Tennessee is its members' closeness.

"Everyone knows everyone, and it's so wonderful to have that comfort level," she said. "All of this is 100 percent achieved by volunteers. They have made the food, they're preparing it, they're selling it  they've done everything."
A view of the Knoxville College campus from Reynolds St. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE Madeline Rogero

By News Sentinel Staff

Knoxville College leaders said Saturday they're working to bring online classes to the college for the spring and hope to have buildings renovated in a few years  but still aren't offering specifics on how they hope to save the troubled historically black school.

Jane Redmond, management team leader and an alumna of the college, said it's "not definitive," but plans are for online classes by the spring, and it might take three to five years to renovate the college's buildings and bring them up to code.

On Saturday, Redmond, along with other alumni and community members, had coffee with Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Kingston Pike. The event was also a fundraiser for operations costs for the college.

Saturday's event was about inspiring others to have hope for the college and to support it, Redmond said. College leaders invited Rogero to attend.

"We try to identify what the community's needs are, including those of our community colleges and universities. I am happy to be here to show support for Knoxville College to get it back up and running," Rogero said.

She did not give specifics about the level of the city's support.

Facing debt, crumbling buildings, low enrollment and environmental cleanup costs from storage of toxic chemicals, the 140-year-old college closed in May 2015 with initial plans to reopen this fall. It had not been accredited for years.

Reopening enrollment has since been delayed, but Redmond said college leaders are continuing with previously stated plans of bringing buildings up to code one-by-one, starting with the library and chapel.

She said the college plans to sell some of the property in the back, using the funds to restore front buildings and those they plan for use.

The management is taking "baby steps" toward its vision, she said.

Also in attendance was Mark Rigsby, assistant community development administrator for the city and a former professor at the college.

"The city is very involved with Knoxville College, in working with them to do our part to help it stay open for the people," he said.

Redmond said shoppers throughout the day stopped to learn more about the college and possibilities for its future.

She said the aim is to eventually have a blend of students taking online and in-person courses, and to provide one-on-one teaching for students, especially for those who feel smaller colleges are better-suited for their educational needs.

"Every student cannot attend the University of Tennessee and be successful," Redmond said. "Some students need slower-paced, individualized learning, as they come from rural areas, ghettos or decided to attend college later than expected."
Diana Guzman went missing Aug. 11. (THE GREENEVILLE SUN)

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By The Greeneville Sun

The body of a missing Chuckey woman has been located near her wrecked vehicle in Loudon County, according to a news release from the Greene County Sheriff's Department.

Diana Guzman, 20, was reported missing Aug. 11 when she did not show up for work at her family's restaurant, Vega's Fiesta.

Friday, a Tennessee Department of Transportation worker reported finding Guzman's wallet alongside the interstate where he was clearing debris. The location was near the interchange of Interstates 40 and 75, according to the release.

Continue reading at the Greeneville Sun.
Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Jeff Bivins has been chosen to serve as the court's chief justice starting Sept. 1. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  Jeff Bivins, one of Gov. Bill Haslam's three appointees to state Supreme Court to win a retention election on Aug. 4, has been chosen by his colleagues to serve as chief justice of the panel starting Sept. 1 as successor to Sharon Lee of Knoxville.

"Chief Justice Sharon Lee has accomplished a great deal over her term as chief justice, from efforts to modernize the court system, to addressing the needs of business litigants, and taking steps to improve our indigent defense system," said Bivins in a statement Friday. "It's a privilege to guide the court on the heels of her excellent leadership."

Bivins, a Franklin resident, along with Justices Holly Kirby of Memphis and Roger Page of Jackson, all won full terms in the August retention elections this year by similar margins of about 71 percent

To be precise, among the three, Bivens had both the highest number of yes votes for a new term and the highest number of no votes against him, 303,671 versus 125,343 (70.78 percent to 29.22 percent), according to the unofficial results posted on the state Division of Elections website.

Other appeals court judges on the ballot also had easy wins. Leading in the total number of positive votes statewide was Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Robert L. Holloway of Columbia, who actually did a bit better than Bivens  303,918 positive votes, or 72.35 percent of the total cast.

There was no organized campaign in opposition to retention of the Haslam-appointed justices. In 2014, three justices appointed by former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen  including Lee  faced the most expensive opposition campaign in state history, largely funded by Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey's political action committee, and still won.

Lee was retained with 56 percent of the vote with dramatically higher turnout in the August 2014 balloting, winning 495,855 yes votes versus 376,696 no votes. She thus got substantially more no votes in 2014 than Bivens got yes votes in 2016.

Stated another way: About 443,000 more Tennessee voters cast ballots in the 2014 retention election than in the 2016 election. Lee's combined yes-no total vote in 2014 was 871,914, while the comparable yes-no total vote in Bivins' 2016 retention was 429,014.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., on Saturday. EPA/SHAWN THEW

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By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  Leticia Flores didn't believe for a second that Donald Trump was standing up for equality when he pledged to keep Muslims from entering the country if they support the death penalty for gays.

What the GOP presidential nominee was doing, she said, was pitting Muslims against the LGBT community.

"These are two groups that already get plenty of hatred directed at them," said Flores, incoming Knox County chairwoman of the Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide gay-rights group. "In our eyes, we need to unite people and not constantly divide people."

On the opposite end of the state, Ginger Leonard had the same reaction to Trump's vow to keep out anti-gay Muslims.

"We don't need him using our community to foment hate for another group," said Leonard, who lives in Memphis and is the outgoing chairwoman of the Tennessee Equality Project. "He needs to leave us alone."

Trump's promise to protect gays from Muslims who want to kill them came last week when he announced his strategy to keep America safe from radical terrorists.

In a speech, Trump said that, if elected, he would put in place a tough new screening process for anyone applying to enter the country. The process would include an ideology test in which applicants would have to guarantee their beliefs are in line with U.S. values on religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights.

Many Muslim countries do, in fact, have harsh laws condemning homosexuality. In at least 11  including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq  gay sex can be punishable by death. Others, including Algeria, Malaysia, Syria and Somalia, make homosexual activity illegal.

But gay activists in Tennessee see Trump's ideological test as a cynical ploy, not serious policy.

"There's a long effort on the right to pit the LGBT community against the Muslim community, and that's what this kind of line is about," said Chris Sanders, the Nashville-based executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project. "Really, if we're concerned about people who want the death penalty for LGBT people, there are several in the United States already. And they are operating under a variety of religious banners."

Pointing the finger at anti-gay Muslims is a strategy the religious right often falls back on when challenged about its own attitudes about gays, Sanders said.

"If we complain about the religious right that has been active in America, one of the responses we sometimes get is, 'Well, you never say anything about radical Islam,' " he said. "Well, if radical Islam starts moving elections and electing state legislatures in this country, then we'll talk about whoever is having an influence on our public policy and culture. But right now, that's really not the case in the United States. The hate that's directed at us in the United States is a form that has been homegrown here in America."

Sanders finds it especially ironic that Trump would suggest he wants to protect gays from religious extremists, given that his running mate is Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Last year, Pence faced a huge backlash in his home state and across the nation after signing a "religious freedom" law that critics said would allow businesses to legally refuse service to gays and lesbians. Pence relented and signed a revised version that explicitly bars a business from denying service to someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Gov. Pence is someone who went along with and encouraged hate-based discrimination against LGBT people," Sanders said. "That didn't have a thing to do with radical Islam."

If presidential candidates want to know what gays and lesbians need, Sanders said, they should ask the LGBT community. Banning anti-gay Muslims would not be at the top of the list.

"What we want," Sanders said, "are things like the federal equality law passed, which offers protections in employment, housing and public accommodations  in other words, a comprehensive civil rights law."
FILE - This Oct. 20, 2015 photo shows signage outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Whether you're Team Hillary or Team Trump, both sides can agree that the voting process in the United States is not always an easy one.

Elections are held locally, and every district has its own system in place, so the rules can vary depending on where you live.

Lucky for us, Google has stepped in to help.

All you need to do is type "how to vote" in Google, and all your questions will be answered. You will be directed to a box that is personalized by your location, giving you all the information you need: when to vote, early voting days, locations, etc. The state-by-state voting guide lets you know what IDs are accepted, find out about voting by mail and more.

Not registered to vote? No problem. You will be guided through that also.

Not sure if you're registered to vote? That's totally fine, you can check if you are.

Confused about the voting requirements for your county? You can find a list of information right there.

Since Google does not have your exact address, your exact local polling place will not be listed, but a separate Google search can help with that.

It's so simple it's almost embarrassing, but it's no secret that many people still are confused about the voting process.

Even Donald Trump's own children couldn't vote in the primary in New York because they did not register six months prior, in accordance with New York's incredibly restrictive voting law.

Maybe Trump's children didn't do a Google search on how to vote so they could support their father, but it turns out that millions of other people did, which is what prompted Google to set up the new guide.

In a blog post Google wrote that compared to four years ago, searches for voter registration are up 190 percent nationwide. Since so many people were searching for information on how to register to vote, last month Google decided to make that easy for people, too.

Just type, "register to vote" in Google and a similar state-by-state guide to voter registration comes up.

Most important for procrastinators is the deadline included in the voter registration deadline, which is Oct. 11 in Tennessee.

"Whether you're a first-time voter, a resident of a new state or your state laws have changed since the last time you voted, you can now come to Google for information on how to vote in the upcoming election," Emily Moxley, Google search product manager, wrote on the company's blog.

Google is also making these search results public for organizations that focus on voter education and outreach, including a map that shows the surge in voter registration interest since 2012.

If you're still not sure how to vote, Google has made life a little easier for you.

Looks like you're out of excuses.
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The Tennessee Valley Authority may have made its call to keep polluting our water with its toxic coal ash, but it hasn't made its case to the state and citizens charged with enforcing laws that protect our clean water.

In endorsing plans to leave coal ash in leaking, unlined pits that pollute the groundwater that flows into rivers that serve as our state's primary drinking water supplies, TVA dismisses the legitimate questions asked by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the hundreds of citizens who objected to the plan. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, acting pursuant to federal law, has charged states and citizens with the primary enforcement role in the federal Coal Ash Rule. Thus, when citizens and the state of Tennessee express concerns about clean water and drinking water supplies, TVA should listen.

Instead, TVA has systematically worked to bury those concerns, going so far as to claim in a recent press release that it received no comments from state agencies objecting to its plan. In fact, in March 2016, TDEC wrote to TVA to assert authority to require TVA to remove ash where necessary to protect the public health and environment, even if TVA forges ahead with its plan to cap ash in place.

TVA's slight to TDEC is no surprise. In its draft environmental analysis, TVA neglected even to mention that it was subject to an order issued by the TDEC commissioner. That order requires TVA to develop detailed analyses of all existing coal ash contamination at its coal plants in Tennessee, with the goal of developing remediation plans that will adequately protect public health and the environment as required by state law. TDEC also asserted an oversight role over TVA's implementation of the federal Coal Ash Rule.

The commissioner issued that order one year ago. TVA quickly asked for, and received, an extension. Then TVA announced it would publish an environmental analysis to guide its decision whether to cap leaking, unlined coal ash ponds next to rivers or excavate them and move its coal ash to safer dry, lined storage.

From the outset, it was clear that TVA's environmental analysis was an attempt to wrest control away from TDEC, which had rightfully asserted regulatory authority to protect the 2.3 million Tennesseans who live downstream from TVA's toxic coal ash pollution and rely on drinking water supplies drawn from the rivers TVA manages. TVA could have coordinated its environmental analysis with TDEC's investigation. But it didn't. TVA could have identified all of its existing pollution at each site. But it didn't. TVA could have figured out how much of its coal ash would continue to be buried in groundwater and leach from each site into our rivers and streams. But it didn't. And TVA could have quantified the resulting risk to the millions of Tennesseans who use those rivers. But it didn't.

Instead, TVA produced a document that quantifies all of the impacts that will cost TVA money, such as digging up ash and storing it safely, and none of the impacts that will cost the state and citizens, such as living with the health and environmental effects of decades more of water pollution. TVA's own consultant admits that groundwater would be better protected by removing its coal ash, and that it can't quantify the site-specific groundwater quality impacts because TVA hasn't provided the relevant information  the same information that TVA is obligated to provide to TDEC pursuant to the pending order.

Where utilities have done the appropriate analysis and excavated ash, such as in South Carolina, they have documented dramatic drops in groundwater contamination. In contrast, neither we nor TVA have identified a single example where capping coal ash has worked to protect groundwater and the surface water into which it flows.

TVA makes much of a letter it received from Region 4 of the EPA that it claims endorses its decision. But the EPA itself has said that it has no direct role in enforcement of the federal Coal Ash Rule. The opinion of a sister federal agency is of little value compared to the unanswered concerns raised by the state and citizens charged with protecting our local waterways and ensuring TVA's compliance with the law.

If our citizen environmental groups expressed outrage, it was well-founded. We deserve better from TVA, a federal agency charged with stewardship of the rivers in the Tennessee Valley.

Amanda Garcia is a staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center's Nashville Office.
Some of the interviewees, writers and other key figures of The Korea Times' Korean Medical Pioneers series smile after a roundtable discussion to wrap up the year-long project at Boryung Pharmaceutical office in downtown Seoul. They are, from left, Boryung Pharmaceutical General Manager Lee Jun-hee, Korea Times reporter Jung Min-ho, Korea University Physiology Professor Na Heung-sik, Yonsei University Professor Emeritus of Medicine Park Chang-il, Korea Foundation for Human Tissue Donation Chairman Yoo Myung-chul, Yonsei Cancer Center Director Noh Sung-hoon and Korea Times adviser Kim Eil-chul.

/ Courtesy of Darak Studio



Much has been achieved, far more remains to be done

By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul

How has Korea's healthcare industry grown into what it is today and who planted the seeds of success?

To answer these questions, The Korea Times has interviewed 50 leading industry figures over the past year. As clinical doctors, researchers and businessmen, they have given their insights into the past, present and future of the industry from different perspectives.

Last week, some of the interviewees were invited to a roundtable discussion at the Boryung Pharmaceutical office in downtown Seoul to wrap up the project. They were Korea Foundation for Human Tissue Donation Chairman Yoo Myung-chul; Yonsei University Professor Emeritus of Medicine Park Chang-il; Yonsei Cancer Center Director Noh Sung-hoon; Korea University Physiology Professor Na Heung-sik; Boryung Pharmaceutical General Manager Lee Jun-hee; and Korea Times Adviser Kim Eil-chul.





Yoo, center, stresses the importance of better communication and collaboration among doctors and businesspeople in different medical fields.



"I hope it's only the beginning," Yoo, a renowned orthopedist, said during the discussion. "Now it's all about where we go from here."

Kim: Korea's healthcare industry has an image problem to outsiders. Advertisements showing "before and after" pictures of patients are everywhere; media coverage is largely about sensational issues and fragmentary achievements of doctors and businessmen; so it is little wonder why many people, especially foreigners, have developed misconceptions about it.

We wanted to show a bigger and more objective picture of the industry. Only readers can tell whether we achieved the goal. But personally, it was a meaningful time to learn and to show the real values and potential of the nation's healthcare industry.





Park, left, and Na smile during the discussion. Park talks about achievements in the medical field done in a single generation, and Na calls for improvement in educating young doctors.



Yoo: At the beginning of the project, I was concerned about whether we can find 50 people who deserve the title as pioneers in the biomedical field. But it turned out that there are far more than 50.

I was glad to see so many people with great achievements in the field. I also felt bad after I realized that I failed to acknowledge some of meaningful accomplishments outside my own area. To move forward, we all need to better communicate and collaborate.

Park: The interviews were conducted at a time when Korea is standing at a crossroad. Now we have discovered 50 beads, which can turn into an invaluable jewel.

I'm pondering how to string the beads for a better future of Korea's healthcare industry. Done right, I'm sure they will create an enormous synergy effect. They have experienced the dramatic improvement of the nation's medical system within a single generation, having led some of the changes. For Korea and the world, it's a rare asset to be utilized.

Noh: The healthcare industry is now going through massive changes. Ideas such as personalized treatment are becoming real.

Precision medicine and biomedicine are two of the nine areas the government believes will lead the nation's future economy. Over the past few decades, we (doctors) have developed expertise the government can use for its plan. There must be many roles doctors can play.

Kim: This is why education for the next generation is important, and it was fortunate to meet Na, a great educator and physiologist at Korea University.

Na: The nation's smartest students come to medical schools, which is great for the industry's future. However, their education systems may still be stuck in the past. To help them grow as progressive innovators, the teaching methods should be redesigned accordingly.

To maximize their potential, I believe schools should give students more space to experiment, and encourage them to cooperate rather than compete. In addition, schools need to invest more resources into education for research, for which I think artificial intelligence will take more time to catch up with humans than diseases diagnosis and treatment.

To be competitive in the future, all doctors should know about research in their fields. It is no longer a choice, and Korea's education system needs to embrace the reality.

Lee: Over the past few years, Korea's pharmaceutical companies have been trying hard to make inroads into overseas markets. In the process, we realized that sales take more than quality drugs; it takes trust and the image of the seller's country.

I think the Korean Medical Pioneers laid the groundwork to promote the nation's biomedical field, which deserves and needs more promotion to the outside world. Pharmaceutical firms will also benefit from it.

Kim: New technologies, such as IBM's Watson for Oncology, are revolutionizing how patients receive medical diagnosis and treatment. How will this change affect future doctors in terms of their role?

Yoo: I do not have an answer for that question. But I'm sure that new technologies will bring new challenges, and when it occurs, robots may be able to solve the issues on a superficial level, but not fundamentally without the help of humans (doctors).

Also, medicine is much more than just treating patients. Medical practice, in my view, has religious and philosophical meanings. Why should we treat people who will die eventually? Robots can't answer such questions, and hopefully we can.

Two weeks ago, I visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where I saw the possibilities of science. What I also saw was its obvious limits. I think the same thing goes for medicine.

Park: Love for people was the very foundation of Korea's medical development. If you look at the nation's modern history, the seed was planted by medical missionaries who risked their lives to come here. Korea should carry on the spirit of love.

By the way, I want to mention that medicine is very difficult. It is true that technologies are developing fast, but we are still far from "the world without diseases." The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak showed how powerless we were in fighting diseases, despite all the best technologies and resources we had.

Kim: Will Korea be able to grow into a biomedical innovator?

Noh: Korea's growing biomedical network and advances in research and development will create more opportunities for Korea's healthcare industry. So yes, I'm optimistic about that.

Over the past few years, I have focused more on educating doctors in other Asian countries, sharing information about gastric cancer treatment via online seminars and strengthening the network among participants.

Meanwhile, in collaboration with other experts, I have been conducting genome analysis of gastric cancer patients. I don't want to be too specific here, but if everything goes well, we will be able to tell if certain drugs are effective for certain patients by understanding how their genetic makeup responds to the treatment.

For many reasons, global pharmaceutical firms are keeping their eye on the Korean market. Whether Korea will be successful in the biomedical field depends on how it, especially young people, responds to opportunities out there.
By Jung Min-ho





Lee Chul-sung

Pressure is mounting on National Police Agency (NPA) chief nominee Lee Chul-sung to quit over a past drunk driving accident and his successful attempt to escape punishment.

Opposition parties say Lee is unfit to lead the organization that is supposed to protect the very rule of law he violated. They called him "a good liar" who does not even deserve the title of police officer.

According to data lawmakers obtained from a car insurance company, Lee crossed over the center line to damage two cars coming from the opposite direction while intoxicated on Nov. 22, 1993.

Moreover, Lee concealed his job as a police officer and avoided disciplinary action from the NPA. His car was scrapped the next month, and he was fined 1 million won.

The details of the accident, including seriousness of any injuries, are unknown. The NPA has not complied with lawmakers' requests to reveal all accident-related records.

During a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly on Friday, Lee admitted to the drunk driving, but denied lying to avoid personnel action from the NPA. "I was just embarrassed and failed to tell investigators that I was a police officer," he said.

He was granted amnesty in 1995 by then President Kim Young-sam, along with thousands of others who had committed drunk driving and 34 other minor offenses.

Opposition parties strongly criticized him, demanding he voluntarily step down from the nominee position.

"While other police officers had to resign over such mistakes, Lee has managed to become an NPA chief nominee because he lied. He is a good liar," the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said in a statement on Saturday. "Is he the right man to recover the moral fiber of the police at a time when it is badly needed? We are very skeptical about that."

The party urged him to quit immediately, saying that his promotion will worsen trust issues between the police and the public.

The minor opposition People's Party also criticized the nominee, saying Lee is simply not qualified to police other drunk drivers, due to his own criminal record.

The parties also attacked his alleged cronyism involving Woo Byung-woo, senior civil affairs secretary to President Park Geun-hye. They asked Lee whether he played any role in regard to Woo's son who allegedly received special treatment, including additional holidays, during his service as a conscript police officer.

Lee worked at Cheong Wa Dae as public security secretary to President Park from September 2014 to December 2015, working with Woo, who has been at the presidential office since May 2014.

He denied the allegations, saying he and Woo rarely saw each other at Cheong Wa Dae. Lee said, if necessary, he will cooperate with any investigation to prove his innocence.

Lee began his law enforcement career in 1982 as a constable. He has since served as the head of Wonju Police Station in Gangwon Province and Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul. From December 2013 to August 2014, he served as the chief of South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency.
By Kim Hyo-jin





Rep. Kim Chong-in

Rep. Kim Chong-in, the outgoing interim leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), called on political parties, Sunday, to start negotiations on revising the Constitution.



"I propose that the National Assembly set up a special committee to discuss a constitutional revision," Kim said during a press conference.



The outgoing MPK leader will hand over the reins of the party to a new leader to be elected during the party's national convention on Aug. 27.



Taking issue with the current single term, five-year presidency, Kim urged Assemblymen to change their thoughts on the constitutional revision.



"While the President, with excessive power, has made decisions on everything, opposition parties were degraded into a rubber stamp and the Assembly does not function at all," he said.



"The keys to a victory in the next presidential election are showing commitment to economic democratization and strong security. And pledges for a constitutional revision will also affect voter sentiment."



Kim is a long-standing advocate of a constitutional revision. He has noted that the current Constitution does not reflect social changes made since its last amendment in 1987, grants excessive power to the President, and deters the government from devising mid- and long-term economic policies.



The renewed call was interpreted as his move to make the issue into a debate point among presidential contenders ahead of the presidential race next year.



"The Minjoo Party should clarify its position on the revision of the Constitution before the lead-up to the race," he said. "A responsible contender, he or she will have to make it clear how to play a role in the process after the scheduled national convention."



Kim also reiterated that he opposes the party making opposing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery its official position.



Criticizing some hard-line lawmakers' push for such a move, Kim said "The party should make a wise decision if it wants to be a responsible competent party and win the presidential election."
By Kim Hyo-jin



The ruling Saenuri Party is divided over how to deal with the scandal-ridden presidential secretary Woo Byung-woo as Cheong Wa Dae seems intent to defend him from corruption allegations.



Lawmakers who are not affiliated with President Park Geun-hye urged Woo to step down, Sunday, blaming him for escalating political turmoil. But loyalists to the President remain silent, apparently in support of the embattled aide.



"It's time for Woo to make a decision and step down to lessen the burden on the President," Rep. Kim Moo-sung, the party's ex-chairman and de-facto leader of the faction critical of the President, told reporters, Saturday.



"The presidential civil affairs secretary, who exerts influence on the nation's inspection agencies, can't maintain his position as he himself has been asked to be investigated by the prosecution."



Rep. Joo Ho-young, who challenged the chairmanship as a lawmaker representing the dissenting faction, also called for Woo's resignation in tune with Kim.



"The civil affairs secretary should clarify his intention whether to keep the post or not considering public sentiment," he said.



However, Park's followers dismissed the calls as a political offensive against the President and her loyalists.



"It's just a view based on factional interests," said a lawmaker affiliated with Park on condition of anonymity. "They stand against the President so they demand Woo's resignation."



A factional feud was reignited after President Park made it clear Friday that she will not sack the bewildered senior secretary despite mounting demands.



Cheong Wa Dae criticized Lee Seok-soo, the independent presidential investigator for leaking details of the investigation to a media outlet, calling it a "grave breach of the law." Lee has been tasked with reviewing corruption allegations surrounding Woo.



The criticism followed a report by local broadcaster MBC that unveiled that Lee informed an unidentified reporter that his ongoing investigation was pointing to Woo's son and Jeonggang, a company run by Woo's family, saying he will advise the prosecution to launch an investigation.



Cheong Wa Dae raised suspicions over his motives for leaking the progress of the ongoing investigation and asked the prosecution to investigate the background.



Lee and Woo are now facing the prosecution's investigation. Lee asked the prosecution to investigate Woo's suspected embezzlement and abuse of authority, Thursday, wrapping up his investigation on him.



He is suspected of having exerted influence in helping his son get special treatment in his mandatory military service, while his family members are alleged to have used the company's public funds for living expenses.



While Cheong Wa Dae was seeking to protect Woo, Chung Jin-suk, the floor leader of the Saenuri Party who does not follow Park, denounced him, calling for his resignation.



"It's impossible to be investigated by the prosecution while holding the position of civil affairs secretary," Chung wrote on Facebook. "It's not just my personal opinion. Most party members are on the same page."



Rep. Lee Jung-hyun, the party's chairman and a close confidant to the President, however, refused to clarify his position on the matter and only repeatedly said, "the truth should be unveiled swiftly and thoroughly."




Tunisian Ambassador to Korea Mohamed Ali Nafti, left, donates books to the National Library

of Korea on Aug. 17. / Courtesy of the Embassy of Tunisia



By Rachel Lee

Tunisian Ambassador to Korea Mohamed Ali Nafti donated a collection of books to the National Library of Korea on Aug. 17.

According to the Embassy of Tunisia, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage Preservation gave 205 history and culture-related publications written in Arabic, French and English. The collection has been on display in a separate section titled "Window on Tunisia."

At an opening ceremony at the library, the ambassador said: "As ambassador of Tunisia, where culture is 3,000 years old, I consider that any longstanding relationship between countries and peoples should mainly rely on culture and education. That was the idea behind initiating this kind of cooperation with the Korean National Library.

"By donating more 220 outstanding writings to the library, we offer to the academics and students and scholars the possibility to discover Tunisia's history, its culture, its arts and its perspectives.

"For Korean readers, they will have particularly the opportunity to know more about its permanent figure of Hannibal.
Chile





Chilean Navy ship sets sail for Busan



The Chilean Navy training ship "Esmeralda" will visit Korea's Busan on Sept. 6-10  for the first time in eight years  as part of its 61st cruise, the Embassy of Chile said.

This will be the sailing ship's seventh visit to Korea. The Esmeralda has been to the United States and Japan and is set to sail to China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and France as part of the cruise.

The visits show "clear signs of friendship, cooperation and mutual support," Captain Claudio Maldonado, the Chilean Defense Attache to the embassy, said.

"The training cruise will take seven months, returning to Chile next January," he said. "The ship has a crew of 314 men and women. We also have on board 15 international guests from other countries and one of them is from the Korean Navy."

During its Korean stay, Esmeralda's crew will visit Jinhae Naval Base and several Korean defense companies, and hold a commemorative ceremony at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery, the embassy said.

The Chilean and Korean Navy bands will hold a concert at Gwangan beach on Sept. 9.

The ship will be available for tours by registered groups during the visit.

Korea and Chile signed an agreement on defense and logistics cooperation during President Park Geun-hye's visit to Chile in April 2015 and when the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy came to Seoul last September.

"Through the permanent exchange of officers of the Army and Navy, the two countries have been strengthening military relations," Maldonado said. "More than 50 percent of Chilean trade has been developed in the Asian region."
Singaporean Ambassador to Korea Yip Wei Kiat, second from left, hosts a concert to celebrate Singapore's National Day and Korea's Liberation Day at the Star Plaza in Seoul on Aug. 15. The "Korea-Singapore Friendship Concert," co-organized with the Seodaemun-gu Office, brought together performances by the Singapore Wind Symphony (SWS) and the Sejong Symphonic Wind Orchestra (SSWO). It featured 11 pieces, with five performed by the SSWO, four by the SWS and two combined pieces.



/ Courtesy of the Embassy of Singapore
South Korea will kick off its annual Ulchi exercise this week to better prepare for national emergency situations, the Ministry of Public Safety and Security said Sunday.

The drill that runs from Monday through Thursday is the 49th of its kind and comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's fourth nuclear test and long-range missile launch earlier this year.

The ministry said this year, emphasis will be placed on dealing with North Korea's frequent global positioning system jamming attacks along with cyberterrorism.

"Compared to the past, greater focus will be placed on actual drills to cope with threats and emergencies," it said.

It moreover said authorities will check the mobilization of key technical personnel and construction related assets and protection of critical facilities like nuclear power plants, airports and harbors.

It said some 4,000 state-agencies and 480,000 people will take part in the drill this year.

Earlier the education ministry said 212 education offices and agencies will take part in this year's Ulchi exercise.

The ministry said for this year's exercise, particular emphasis will be placed on the ability of educational institutions to respond to and minimize damage caused by cyberthreats like hacking attacks.

"The goal of the training is for all participants to prepare for emergency situations and respond quickly to national crisis situations if they arise," said Education Minister Lee Joon-sik. (Yonhap)
In the wake of the recent defection of a high-ranking North Korean diplomat to South Korea, concerns have grown that Pyongyang may be considering terrorist attacks on South Korean nationals in China and East Asian countries.



Last week, Seoul said Thae Yong-ho, a minister at the North Korean embassy in London, defected to the South with his family in the latest development that shows even elite officials are becoming disillusioned with the world's most closed and repressive country. Thae is believed to come from the top echelons of North Korean society and was trusted by the regime.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered the dispatch of agents and even sought alliances with organized gangs in those regions to launch a terror attack against or kidnap South Korean citizens in retaliation for a series of high-profile defections of North Koreans.



According to a source on Sunday, the Thae Yong-ho case seems to have added fuel to the fire. Various signs point to moves to harm South Korean nationals having increased since Seoul confirmed last week that the diplomat has arrived in the country.



Accordingly, safety alerts have issued by Seoul, particularly among South Koreans living in China and those traveling to North Korea-China border areas.



"I can't give out the full details but the North Korean leadership has been infuriated over the series of recent incidents," the source said.



"For North Korea, provocative acts that won't leave any trace will be the easiest, like hiring local gangsters to commit a terrorist attack," the source claimed, adding that border areas with lax security are prone to such covert operations.



In April, a South Korean missionary was killed in Changbai in Jilin Province, China, which was believed to be committed by three North Korean secret agents.



Amid heightened security risks, the number of South Korean tourists to Mount Paekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula situated on North Korea's border with China, has fallen to half in 2016 of what it was a year ago.



According to travel agencies in China on Sunday, the number of South Korean tourists to the mountain region used to be around 2,000-3,000 a day, but this year the number dropped to less than half.



Normally, more than 15,000 Chinese and foreign tourists used to visit the mountain daily, and South Koreans made up nearly 80 percent of the foreign travelers.



"In the runup to the peak season of July and August we used to receive inquiries from April. But this year, the number trickled to less than half," said one staff member at a travel agency. "The dramatic drop was largely due to the rumors that North Korea was preparing a terror attack on South Koreans."



A worker at another travel company said, "When our South Korean partner companies ask if it is safe to travel here, we feel helpless because we can't guarantee absolute safety for the travelers."



Since a spate of high-profile defections by North Koreans and the subsequent deterioration of inter-Korean relations, Seoul repeatedly issued travel warnings to travel agencies and individuals against visiting the mountain.



Seoul's consulate in Shenyang has issued such warnings five times to South Koreans living in China.



In the wake of the recent defection of a high-ranking North Korean diplomat to South Korea, concerns have grown that Pyongyang may be considering terrorist attacks on South Korean nationals in China and East Asian countries.



Last week, Seoul said Thae Yong-ho, a minister at the North Korean embassy in London, defected to the South with his family in the latest development that shows even elite officials are becoming disillusioned with the world's most closed and repressive country. Thae is believed to come from the top echelons of North Korean society and was trusted by the regime.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered the dispatch of agents and even sought alliances with organized gangs in those regions to launch a terror attack against or kidnap South Korean citizens in retaliation for a series of high-profile defections of North Koreans.



According to a source on Sunday, the Thae Yong-ho case seems to have added fuel to the fire. Various signs point to moves to harm South Korean nationals having increased since Seoul confirmed last week that the diplomat has arrived in the country.



Accordingly, safety alerts have issued by Seoul, particularly among South Koreans living in China and those traveling to North Korea-China border areas.



"I can't give out the full details but the North Korean leadership has been infuriated over the series of recent incidents," the source said.



"For North Korea, provocative acts that won't leave any trace will be the easiest, like hiring local gangsters to commit a terrorist attack," the source claimed, adding that border areas with lax security are prone to such covert operations.



In April, a South Korean missionary was killed in Changbai in Jilin Province, China, which was believed to be committed by three North Korean secret agents.



Amid heightened security risks, the number of South Korean tourists to Mount Paekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula situated on North Korea's border with China, has fallen to half in 2016 of what it was a year ago.



According to travel agencies in China on Sunday, the number of South Korean tourists to the mountain region used to be around 2,000-3,000 a day, but this year the number dropped to less than half.



Normally, more than 15,000 Chinese and foreign tourists used to visit the mountain daily, and South Koreans made up nearly 80 percent of the foreign travelers.



"In the runup to the peak season of July and August we used to receive inquiries from April. But this year, the number trickled to less than half," said one staff member at a travel agency. "The dramatic drop was largely due to the rumors that North Korea was preparing a terror attack on South Koreans."



A worker at another travel company said, "When our South Korean partner companies ask if it is safe to travel here, we feel helpless because we can't guarantee absolute safety for the travelers."



Since a spate of high-profile defections by North Koreans and the subsequent deterioration of inter-Korean relations, Seoul repeatedly issued travel warnings to travel agencies and individuals against visiting the mountain.



Seoul's consulate in Shenyang has issued such warnings five times to South Koreans living in China. (Yonhap)




By Yi Whan-woo



North Korean diplomats who had managed leader Kim Jong-un's secret overseas funds have escaped the country with his money, sources here said Sunday.



Rumors are circulating that Thae Yong-ho, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, brought $58 million cash belonging to Kim when he recently defected to South Korea with his family members. The South Korean government denied the rumors, but some analysts here say Thae was one of the diplomats who managed Kim's secret money.



The sources said many of the diplomats worked in Europe, where "a large chunk" of foreign currency has been generated for the cash-strapped Kim regime to pursue its nuclear program.



In June, a senior official at Office 39, a shadow organization which directly reports to Kim concerning the use of his money, disappeared with his children after working in Europe for the past 20 years.



The official, whom some South Korean media outlets identified as Kim Myong-chol, was in charge of overseeing the young despot's European slush funds.



He allegedly took up to $400 million from a hidden bank account. It remains uncertain whether he withdrew the amount in cash or transferred it to a bank account under his name.



In addition, a senior official at Daesung Bank, an auspice of Office 39, fled from his office in China last year after stealing a large sum of Kim's money.



In Singapore, an official responsible for handling 10 billion won of Kim's funds has been missing since 2015.



In August 2014, Yoon Tae-hyung, then-chief of Daesung Bank's Russia branch, carried $5 million with him before seeking asylum in a third country.



"I'd say Kim's secret funds are worth hundreds of billions of won, and in that regards, the combined amount that the North Korean officials stole is considerable," said An Chan-il, a defector and researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies. "In particular, $400 million taken by Kim Myong-chol is expected to deal a blow to Pyongyang because the money was believed to be from Swiss bank accounts."



He speculated that North Korea used to keep the money collected from European and African countries in the accounts and transfer it back home until the Swiss government froze all North Korea-related bank accounts there in June.



The measure was taken in line with the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) harshest sanctions imposed against Pyongyang in March, aimed at cutting the flow of hard currency into North Korea.



The experts said more overseas North Korean elites are likely to flee, claiming that it will become harder for them to raise the slush funds under the UNSC sanctions.



"The overseas officials are afraid of being punished for failing to fulfill their jobs, and the only option they're left with to avoid punishment will be to seek asylum," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.



Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University, speculated that cases of stealing money from Kim's slush funds are likely to increase in the future.



"International surveillance over banking transactions with North Korea is becoming tighter, and it means Kim's money men' will carry his funds in cash," said Kim. "And it will be easier for them to take money when they decide to flee their country."



Yang said the Kim regime may enhance control over its officials posted abroad.



"The North Korean authorities may bolster surveillance over those in Pyongyang's diplomatic missions by prohibiting them from taking their family members with them," he said.




Thae Yong-ho



By Yi Whan-woo

Thae Yong-ho, who recently defected to South Korea after working as North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, may help Seoul develop anti-Pyongyang strategies, analysts said Sunday.

Some sources said the government may offer Thae a job at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), a think tank under the spy agency, to capitalize on his experience in enhancing intelligence gathering in the secretive state.

"I'd say Thae has a high chance to work for the INSS given from his career and family background," said An Chan-il, the head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies. "Our government has much to capitalize on from Thae's diplomatic network in Western Europe and his expertise."

Thae, a career diplomat, is one of the highest-level North Koreans to desert the country. He worked for 10 years in the U.K., which experts viewed as one of the most important countries for the internationally isolated Kim Jong-un regime's diplomacy in the West.

Both Thae and his wife are also children of guerrilla fighters who fought alongside North Korea's founding leader Kim Il-sung Japan's occupation of Korea (1910-45).

"It will be optimal for Thae to work as an advisor at the INSS," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

The analysts speculated Thae's job at the INSS may provoke North Korea, citing that it denounced him as a "criminal," Saturday. The Ministry of Unification announced on Aug. 17 that Thae and his family defected to Seoul in late July.

"Pyongyang's denouncement shows that it is concerned about Thae revealing sensitive information on the reclusive state," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University.

The experts, however, said it remains to be seen whether Thae has knowledge of the flow of hard currency into the Kim regime from foreign countries.

Thae, who mainly dealt with Western reports on North Korea, is rumored to have brought $58 billion in cash belonging to the young despot.

"It's possible Thae has limited knowledge concerning Kim's secret funds, and it would be too early to say whether we should rely on him regarding such funds," Yang said.
Some of the interviewees, writers and other key figures of The Korea Times' Korean Medical Pioneers series smile after a roundtable discussion to wrap up the year-long project at Boryung Pharmaceutical office in downtown Seoul. They are, from left, Boryung Pharmaceutical General Manager Lee Jun-hee, Korea Times Staff Writer Jung Min-ho, Korea University Physiology Professor Na Heung-sik, Yonsei University Professor Emeritus of Medicine Park Chang-il, Korea Foundation for Human Tissue Donation Chairman Yoo Myung-chul, Yonsei Cancer Center Director Noh Sung-hoon and Korea Times Adviser Kim Eil-chul. /Courtesy of Darak Studio



Much has been achieved, far more remains to be done

By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul

How has Korea's healthcare industry grown into what it is today and who planted the seeds of success?

To answer these questions, The Korea Times has interviewed 50 leading industry figures over the past year. As clinical doctors, researchers and businessmen, they have given their insights into the past, present and future of the industry from different perspectives.

Last week, some of the interviewees were invited to a roundtable discussion at the Boryung Pharmaceutical office in downtown Seoul to wrap up the project.

"I hope it's only the beginning," Yoo Myung-chul, a renowned orthopedist and chairman of the Korea Foundation for Human Tissue Donation, said during the discussion. "Now it's all about where we go from here."

Kim Eil-chul: Korea's healthcare industry has an image problem to outsiders. Advertisements showing "before and after" pictures of patients are everywhere; media coverage is largely about sensational issues and fragmentary achievements of doctors and businessmen; so it is little wonder why many people, especially foreigners, have developed misconceptions about it.

We wanted to show a bigger and more objective picture of the industry. Only readers can tell whether we achieved the goal. But personally, it was a meaningful time to learn and to show the real values and potential of the nation's healthcare industry.







Yoo: At the beginning of the project, I was concerned about whether we can find 50 people who deserve the title as pioneers in the biomedical field. But it turned out that there are far more than 50.

I was glad to see so many people with great achievements in the field. I also felt bad after I realized that I failed to acknowledge some of meaningful accomplishments outside my own area. To move forward, we all need to better communicate and collaborate.

Park Chang-il: The interviews were conducted at a time when Korea is standing at a crossroad. Now we have discovered 50 beads, which can turn into an invaluable jewel.

I'm pondering how to string the beads for a better future of Korea's healthcare industry. Done right, I'm sure they will create an enormous synergy effect. They have experienced the dramatic improvement of the nation's medical system within a single generation, having led some of the changes. For Korea and the world, it's a rare asset to be utilized.

Noh Sung-hoon: The healthcare industry is now going through massive changes. Ideas such as personalized treatment are becoming real.

Precision medicine and biomedicine are two of the nine areas the government believes will lead the nation's future economy. Over the past few decades, we (doctors) have developed expertise the government can use for its plan. There must be many roles doctors can play.

Kim: This is why education for the next generation is important, and it was fortunate to meet Na Heung-sik, a great educator and physiologist at Korea University.







Na: The nation's smartest students come to medical schools, which is great for the industry's future. However, their education systems may still be stuck in the past. To help them grow as progressive innovators, the teaching methods should be redesigned accordingly.

To maximize their potential, I believe schools should give students more space to experiment, and encourage them to cooperate rather than compete. In addition, schools need to invest more resources into education for research, for which I think artificial intelligence will take more time to catch up with humans than diseases diagnosis and treatment.

To be competitive in the future, all doctors should know about research in their fields. It is no longer a choice, and Korea's education system needs to embrace the reality.

Lee Jun-hee: Over the past few years, Korea's pharmaceutical companies have been trying hard to make inroads into overseas markets. In the process, we realized that sales take more than quality drugs; it takes trust and the image of the seller's country.

I think the Korean Medical Pioneers laid the groundwork to promote the nation's biomedical field, which deserves and needs more promotion to the outside world. Pharmaceutical firms will also benefit from it.

Kim: New technologies, such as IBM's Watson for Oncology, are revolutionizing how patients receive medical diagnosis and treatment. How will this change affect future doctors in terms of their role?

Yoo: I do not have an answer for that question. But I'm sure that new technologies will bring new challenges, and when it occurs, robots may be able to solve the issues on a superficial level, but not fundamentally without the help of humans (doctors).

Also, medicine is much more than just treating patients. Medical practice, in my view, has religious and philosophical meanings. Why should we treat people who will die eventually? Robots can't answer such questions, and hopefully we can.

Two weeks ago, I visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where I saw the possibilities of science. What I also saw was its obvious limits. I think the same thing goes for medicine.

Park: Love for people was the very foundation of Korea's medical development. If you look at the nation's modern history, the seed was planted by medical missionaries who risked their lives to come here. Korea should carry on the spirit of love.

By the way, I want to mention that medicine is very difficult. It is true that technologies are developing fast, but we are still far from "the world without diseases." The MERS outbreak showed how powerless we were in fighting diseases, despite all the best technologies and resources we had.

Kim: Will Korea be able to grow into a biomedical innovator?

Noh: Korea's growing biomedical network and advances in research and development will create more opportunities for Korea's healthcare industry. So yes, I'm optimistic about that.

Over the past few years, I have focused more on educating doctors in other Asian countries, sharing information about gastric cancer treatment via online seminars and strengthening the network among participants.

Meanwhile, in collaboration with other experts, I have been conducting genome analysis of gastric cancer patients. I don't want to be too specific here, but if everything goes well, we will be able to tell if certain drugs are effective for certain patients by understanding how their genetic makeup responds to the treatment.

For many reasons, global pharmaceutical firms are keeping their eye on the Korean market. Whether Korea will be successful in the biomedical field depends on how it, especially young people, responds to opportunities out there.
Bronze medal wrestler Kim Hyun-woo will carry South Korea's flag at the closing ceremony, Sunday. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young



South Korean wrestler Kim Hyun-woo, who clinched a bronze medal after a judging error, will represent the country at the Olympics closing ceremony at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night.



Kim, gold medalist at the London Games, won a bronze medal after a disputed score in the round of 16.



In the contest against Russian Roman Vlasov, Kim scored only two points even though a successful throw should have given him four points.



South Korean netizens said Kim's bronze was "more valuable than any gold," praising his determination to compete despite an arm injury.



Viewers were also moved when Kim wept over the national flag at the medal ceremony.



The closing ceremony is expected to focus on Brazil's carnival and samba, as well as paying tribute to the country's landscaping genius Roberto Burle Marx.
South Korean gymnast Lee Eun-ju, right, poses with North Korea's Hong Un-jong during the artistic gymnastics women's qualification at the Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 7.

/ Courtesy of Ian Bremmer's Twitter



By Park Jae-hyuk

The two gymnasts from South and North Korea taking a selfie together was named one of the "10 biggest political moments at the Rio Olympics" by the Washington Post, Saturday.

On Aug. 7, South Korean gymnast Lee Eun-ju, 17, asked her North Korean rival Hong Un-jong, 27, to take a selfie together after their competition during the women's qualification for artistic gymnastics. Hong accepted Lee's offer and they staged the historic moment.

The Washington Post said, "The Korean Peninsula may technically still be in a state of war, but two gymnasts made a little peace."

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach described the Koreans' selfie as a "great gesture." He said on Aug. 10, "Fortunately, we see quite a few of these gestures here during the Olympic Games."

The moment of U.S. female fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad winning an Olympic medal with a hijab was placed second and the first-ever refugee Olympic team was also mentioned on the list.

"The Chilly War" between the U.S. and Russia and "Pool Wars" between Australia and China, both caused by doping scandals, were placed fourth and sixth, respectively.

Kuwaiti gold medalist shooter Fehaid Aldeehani's refusal to carry the Olympic flag as part of the Independent Olympic Athletes team also made the list.

The host Brazil was named twice, because the Organizing Committee expelled Brazilian spectators from stadiums for protesting their interim president Michel Temer and it canceled an opening ceremony skit of supermodel Gisele Bundchen getting robbed by a black kid.
Korea and China celebrate the 24th anniversary of diplomatic relations on Aug. 24, but bilateral ties have suffered considerably in recent months due to Seoul's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system here.



Amid rising tensions between the two countries, President Park Geun-hye will visit China to attend the 11th G20 summit in Hangzhou on Sept. 4 to 5. Her last visit to China in September 2015 came under different circumstances. Korea-China ties were enjoying renewed solidarity upon the President's decision to visit Beijing for war commemorations despite concerns over unsettling Washington. Her China visit next month comes as the two countries are at odds over the U.S. Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system being deployed here.



The two countries' differences over THAAD should not hurt the fruitful economic and cultural relations the two countries have cultivated for more than two decades. Despite China's THAAD protest, many Koreans still see China as "hao pengyou" or good friend.



Under the leaderships of President Park and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the bilateral ties had become very close. Park said that the two countries are "friends who have endured adversity together." But it is also true that many Koreans do not understand the fierce opposition Beijing has lodged over THAAD. Many Koreans believe that Beijing's protest is an encroachment on internal affairs and an excessive interference in our security decision-making process.



The G20 summit, to be held under the theme "Toward an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy," will be centered on economic cooperation among G20 countries. But Seoul should take advantage of Park's G20 visit for THAAD diplomacy. For this, a Korea-China summit should be arranged on the sidelines. A bilateral summit in China will be a good opportunity for President Park to make a strong case for her decision to deploy THAAD and convince her Chinese counterpart that the decision will not hamper China's security interests in anyway.



The need for a Korea-China summit is highlighted considering that efforts at the working-level so far have failed to promote China's cooperation on the THAAD issue. Based on the good personal relations between Park and Xi, Park should seek to improve relations with our main trading partner by extracting Beijing's understanding on THAAD.






Photo for illustration (Source: VNA)

News website ndh.vn reported, citing a Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) estimate, that this triples total bilateral trade revenue of roughly USD4 billion in 2014. Vietnams exports to the union alone are expected to grow by 18-20 percent per year.



The MoIT said in a statement this week that the Vietnam-EAEU FTA will become effective on October 5th, following confirmation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



The union consists of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The related countries have ratified the agreement after signing it in Kazakhstan on May 29th, 2015.



After the agreement takes effect, Vietnam and the union will establish a joint committee, along with a committee on trade of goods, and a sub-committee on goods origin regulations.



MoITs Europe Market Department Director Dang Hoang Hai told a conference in Hanoi last month that Vietnam, as the first FTA partner of the union, would improve the competitiveness of its export goods.

The agreement covers a market of almost 183 million people and accounts for 3.2 percent of global gross domestic product.



Vietnam and the union will cut about 90 percent of their lines of tariff.



They will slash the rate for nearly 60 percent of tariff lines to zero percent immediately after the agreement becomes effective.



Vietnam will immediately lift import duties for EAEU products such as salmon, which is taxed by 10 percent; and tilapia and tuna, now seeing tariff rates of 15-20 percent.



The EAEU will apply a zero percent tariff for Vietnamese products such as uncondensed milk and ice cream with no sugar and sweet substance, which has an import tax of 15 percent; and fresh chestnut and turkey meat, which are subject to import duties of 5 percent and 20 percent respectively.



Hai said Vietnams major exports such as garment and textile, footwear, farm produce and seafood will have opportunities due to the tax cuts.



The content of the agreement can be seen on the website of MoIT, http://www.moit.gov.vn.



The EAEU-Vietnam FTA, initiated in March, 2013, was signed after eight official rounds of negotiations./.
The Nasarawa State Command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) has paraded a 45-year-old Islamic cleric (Mallam) for allegedly sexually assaulting a 10- year-old boy in Lafia.

Lawan Bashir-Kano, the Commandant of NSCDC in the state, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Lafia.

On Tuesday, August 16, the Command, through intelligent reports, arrested one Shahidu Suleh, a mallam, for sexually assaulting his supposed student (Almajiri), Okasha Ishaka, he said.

We were able to trace and pick him with the boy who he claimed he was teaching the Quran.

The boy narrated that the man had been having sex with him and threatened to kill him if he exposed him. The Commandant said the result of the test carried out showed that the boy was sexually assaulted.

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A baby born with a harrowing skin condition that doctors thought would kill her has defied the odds to make it to her first birthday.

Harper Foy is one of only 13 people and the youngest in the world with Harlequin Ichthyosis  a genetic illness that causes the skin to grow seven to 10 times faster than normal.

Shocked doctors had never seen her condition before and warned her devastated parents, Angie, 40, and Kevin, 38, it was unlikely their daughter would survive.



While in the womb, Harpers skin tissue built up so that when the tot was born, she was covered in hard plaques that had stopped the circulation in her feet and hands.

Harper was rushed to intensive care and although surgeons were able to remove the plaques she lost the tips on four of her fingers. After a roller coaster month in hospital fighting an infection, Harper beat the odds and Angie was able to bring her new daughter home.

However, Harpers skin needs constant hydrating as she sheds layers of skin every four to eight hours. Without a cure for Harlequin Ichthyosis, the main focus is keeping Harper comfortable with regular baths and moisturising lotions for her skin.

Mum Angie, from Edmonds, Washington, USA, said: We had no idea she had the condition until she was born, we were so shocked.

When she was born she didnt look like a human, she looked like an alien. It was very traumatic.

She was put straight in ICU. It was a gut wrenching few weeks.

Her whole body was covered but thankfully not internally.

She had to have surgery to cut open the hard plague to release pressure after being in the womb.

Every day we just didnt know if she would make it. She was on feeding tube and she had infection, and thats the thing that kills a lot of these kids.

Its a miracle shes alive.

Angie added: Right now we are giving her four baths a day. She loves it. With the Microsilk baths the temperature stays the same so she can sit it in for an hour and it regulates.

Its expensive but she will have it forever.







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The Lamplighters The New Mikado Review - Mikado Kidnapped from Japan to Italy

The Lamplighters 2016 joyous performance of Gilbert and Sullivans Mikado is its 22nd version of this late 19th century musical satire of Englands elitist social structure. Its persisting popularity in the companys 63-year history and in the repertoire of the British teams series of light operas suggests that there is something universal and enduring in this masterpiece.

However, this Mikado is different from all previous editions; not in verve; performance skill and enthusiasm but in location. All previous Lamplighter versions took place in Japan, as did the 1885 original. Gilbert and Sullivans reason for the Japanese setting for the obviously British social structure and manners satirized in the Mikado, such as the conflict of interest arising from holding multiple simultaneous public positions in a close-knit elite, were modestly distanced from contemporary viewers. Re-location to a mythical Japanese Kingdom allowed contemporaries to acknowledge the patent absurdity of their social organization.

The Lamplighters New Mikado reduces the distance between performance and audience, bringing the Mikado closer to us by changing the venue from a mythical early Japan. Costume designer Miriam Lewis is the heroine of the New Mikado, as vibrant brightly striped colors supersede the subtle Japanese palette. Japan has become Renaissance Italy: Yum Yum; Amiam, the Emperor of Japan; the Emperor of Milan and so on. Escalating protests to the performance of the Mikado in Seattle and New York were followed by failure to come to terms with protesters in San Francisco. Rather than withdraw the work from its repertoire in response to threat of loss of its San Francisco Yerba Buena performance site, Lamplighters abandoned their idea to update the Japanese setting to Meiji Japan in favor of Renaissance Italy.

Perhaps ironically, in an earlier era, the British government banned London performances of the Mikado in 1907, fearing it would offend the sensibilities of high level Japanese visitors. Prince Sadanaru, however, expressed interest in seeing the show and was disappointed that it was not available. A Japanese journalist, covering the visit, who viewed a clandestine performance found it in good fun, entirely inoffensive to national sensibilities. Indeed, Prince Akihito who saw a performance in 1886 was not offended. Perhaps, they were being overly polite or really didnt care? In any event, contemporary concern appears to be US based, deriving from a legitimate reaction against demeaning stereotyping of minorities, such as blackface vaudeville performances that persisted well into the television era.

Woody Allens recent film, Magic in the Moonlight, set in 1920s Europe, opens with an orchestral flourish, showing an extravagantly costumed magician in Chinese garb. Taking off makeup, hairpiece and robes after the show, the performer is revealed as a European. The performers over the top Chinoiserie costume, referencing China, but hardly authentic, signals that what is taking place on stage as a magic show, outside of the audiences usual frame of reference, warrants a suspension of disbelief, allowing the acceptance of the unlikely and improbable as normal and believable. The otherness of the exotic costumed ethnicity in contrast to the effect of a western-garbed tuxedoed performer enhances the effect. The greater the difference, up to a point of diminishing returns: the greater the suspension of disbelief.

Gilbert and Sullivans late 19th century satire of British class distinctions was set in Japan to separate while maintaining verisimilitude. Targets were made fun of at a discrete distance from their foibles allowing them to recognize themselves without derogation. Japan is a society with a hereditary monarch and strong class distinctions, not entirely dissimilar from England. At the time of the shows creation, Japan was a mirror of Victorian England; both were rapidly modernizing and industrializing societies, competitively seeking global geopolitical influence.

Fast forward to the early 21st century Bay area and the prospect of performing a light opera that may be taken as caricaturing Japanese, and by implication, other Asians. What to do? Japan/Milan. Mikado/Ducato: but what is the tension between Renaissance Italy and 21st century Bay area? Both regions are the epitome of creativity in their respective eras. While it may be politically and economically necessary, does it make aesthetic sense to transpose the Mikado to Renaissance Italy? There is a long tradition of shifting the scene of theatrical works from their original location to a new venue, either as a deliberate choice to freshen a work or spurred by chance literary allusions, Thus Carmen, the Andalusian temptress became Car Man in Matthew Bourne's reimagined version of Bizets opera, a mash up between Carmen and Cains The Postman always Rings Twice, reset in an LA auto repair shop and diner.

Since there is no longer a need to distance the British from their society in order to see its foibles, why not reset the Mikado in the contemporary UK? (Or contemporary Silicon Valley, for that matter where escalating inequality threatens to harden and replicate in hereditary divisions.) The recent Brexit vote revealed that class distinctions that were expected to have lessened are as strong as ever. A supposedly middle class country was revealed to be as class divided in the early twenty-first century as in the late 19th. In the intervening era; class differences were expected to have been elided by changes in industrial structure, universal social welfare institutions like the National Health Service and increasingly widespread university education. Nevertheless, Brexit revealed the persistence of a divide between the old industrial regions of the North and a more prosperous South, led by Londons financial industry. Referenced in updated Mikados never will be missed dialogue, Brexit may reduce some of that inequality by reducing the Souths prosperity as an unintended consequence of departing the European Union.

Shinagawa Yajiro held a high military post in the war of the Imperial Court against the feudal Shoguns. Yajiro later studied military strategy and tactics in France and served as a diplomat in Germany. Earlier in his career he had participated in an attack on the British legation in Japan. Sullivan used a version of the song "Ton-yare Bushi" by Omura Masujiro in The Mikado aka Miyasan, Miyasan, Hey my Prince with lyrics written by Yajiro to rally the troops. The Mikado has been kidnapped to Italy but Japan is still in the Mikado. A paradox, a most ingenious paradox! By all means, see the New Mikado. Decide for yourself! To pursue further, see also Mike Leighs 1999 film Topsy-Turvy, depicting the gestation of the Mikado that captures the essence of saving a fraught collaboration.

Lamplighters website
Hello! Im Mark Olsen, and welcome to your weekly field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

Last week we mentioned the movie Hell or High Water, and since then I published a piece looking at the film as a modern-day Western and how it fits within the context of the career of actor Jeff Bridges.

As Scottish-born director David Mackenzie said, This felt like on the surface its a bank robbery movie, its a buddy movie, its a road movie, but beneath that surface its an examination of the passing of the Old West. Its not really right for me to say so, because Im a foreigner, but it also really felt to me like a snapshot of a nation.

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We had a terrific Q&A this past week with Clea DuVall for her new film The Intervention. Turned out she used to work in a coffee shop just downstairs from the theater we were in.

This week well be showing The Hollars followed by a Q&A with its star and director, John Krasinski. Check events.latimes.com for more info.

Morris From America

A fish-out-of-water, coming-of-age tale, Morris From America is the story of an African American teenager (Markees Christmas) who moves with his father (Craig Robinson) to a small town in Germany. There they have to navigate each other and everybody else. Written and directed by Chad Hartigan, the film is a sweet comedy with surprising emotional depth. Robinson won an acting prize at the Sundance Film Festival when the film premiered there earlier this year.

In The Times, Sheri Linden said the film puts a fresh slant on adolescent growing pains without quite breaking new ground and that both Robinson and Christmas bring an engaging honesty to characters navigating new emotional territory, separately and together.

Markees Christmas, left, and Craig Robinson of Morris From America. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )

At Slate, Dana Stevens said of the film, I wish there were more films every year like Morris From America, the kind that surprise you by revealing a hidden side of something  an actor, a genre, a situation  you thought you had figured out.

At Time Out, Joshua Rothkopf said, A quiet, sneaky sense of dislocation vibrates through Chad Hartigans indie comedy, which contains so many ideas about race, child-rearing, fatherhood and accidental exoticism that to call it a mere coming-of-age movie would be a shame.

And young Mr. Christmas spoke to M. Susie Schmank of The Times about how he got his start in acting and other matters.

Disorder

The new film from French filmmaker Alice Winocour, Disorder is part crime thriller, part character study, with raw performances from Diane Kruger and Matthias Schoenaerts. In the film, Schoenaerts is a soldier just back from Afghanistan who takes what is supposed to be a relatively easy job as part of the security detail for a businessman and his family. As the soldier spends more time with the businessmans wife (Kruger), they both begin to realize that things around the house may not be as they first seemed.

For The Times, Justin Chang said that on a subtler level, Disorder might also be an apt description of the structural confusion at the heart of this intriguing thriller from French writer-director Alice Winocour, who works in a jagged, restless filmmaking style that favors sensory immersion over dramatic clarity.

At the New York Times, A.O. Scott called it a tightly wound spring of a movie, a tour de force of sound design and sly editing that implies much more than it shows.

In an interview in Film Comment, Winocour told Yonca Talu of the inspirations behind the film: My essential concern was to capture this climate of fear and disarray in a world that is becoming more and more incomprehensible. I put all my fears in the film, my fear of the dark, of storms, etc., but also all the fears of contemporary life: the continuous flow of information, the fact that we have the impression of witnessing everything but at the same time of being completely powerless. Also a sort of sensation of collapse, of chaotic elements in chaotic times.

The complete works of Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman is easily among the greatest documentary filmmakers of all time. That he has never been nominated for an Academy Award is at this point almost a badge of honor, as over the course of a career that now spans 50 years, he has never compromised his aesthetic ideas or clarity of vision. He is a national treasure.

Wiseman will soon be in Los Angeles for the launch of a 43-film retrospective at the Cinefamily, including a master class. Among this first group of shows will be the Los Angeles premieres of new 3-mm restorations of three of his early, seminal films, Titicut Follies, High School and Hospital.

Frederick Wiseman (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

As Richard Brody wrote in the New Yorker earlier this year, Wiseman, who studied law and was a law-school professor, doesnt so much film institutions as discover them. He goes to a place of concentrated and focused activity  a hospital, a school, a public-assistance office, a business, a university, even an entire neighborhood  and manages to reveal the abstractions, the rules and the exercise and negotiation of power, behind the surfaces of daily life.

Jerry Lewis to the max

Can the world be split among those who get the genius of Jerry Lewis and those who dont? Now 90 years old, the true Hollywood legend will soon see the release of Max Rose, his first starring role in many years. The Aero Theatre will have Lewis in person for a screening of the film and is showing a few of his classics.

A double feature of The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man will showcase his skills as a filmmaker, while The King of Comedy and Funny Bones show the depths he was capable of as an actor.

But the real gem of the series may be a double feature of two of Lewis collaborations with Dean Martin and the director Frank Tashlin, 1955s Artists and Models and 1956s Hollywood or Bust. They are billed as playing in IB Technicolor 35-mm prints, which should make for a dazzling delight.

Email me if you have questions, comments or suggestions, and follow me on Twitter @IndieFocus.
Lou Pearlman, the disgraced music impresario who launched the Backstreet Boys, NSync and other boy bands in the 1990s before being convicted in a Ponzi scheme, has died at 62, according to the prison where Pearlman was serving a 25-year sentence.

The former producer and manager died Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where he was held after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges that included conspiracy and money laundering.

No cause of death was given.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

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Pearlman ushered in the boom of pop boy bands after he was enamored with the success of New Kids on the Block.

He started a company, Trans Continental Records, that launched to stardom the Backstreet Boys  its five members selected by Pearlman in a talent search. Pearlman later repeated the formula with NSync.

The impresario went on to manage LFO, Take 5, Natural, Innosense (which briefly featured Britney Spears as a member) and O-Town, which Pearlman created on the first season of the hit reality series Making the Band, which he produced for ABC.

Despite success as a music mogul, Pearlman was accused of defrauding investors out of more than $300 million in what authorities called a massive Ponzi scheme.

[He] got greedy and messed up. Its unfortunate. I wish it could have been another way, Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell told The Times in 2014 when asked about Pearlman. But greed gets the best of you.

For more music news follow me on Twitter:@GerrickKennedy

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Robert Gardner rarely heard anything about Israel growing up in South Los Angeles. But at UCLA, he started learning about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict  and seeing parallels with conflicts close to home.

The African American senior likened Israeli crackdowns on Palestinian protesters to police violence against black Americans. So he joined Students for Justice in Palestine and an international movement known as BDS, which advocates boycotts, divestment and sanctions against companies deemed players in Israeli human rights violations.

Earlier this year, though, he was shocked to see  on a poster outside a Westwood market  his name listed as one of 16 UCLA Jew haters and terrorist allies.

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Since then, he says, Ive received death threats online, and people have followed me.

The poster was part of a multimillion-dollar effort to combat the BDS movement, led by Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. While this kind of attack campaign is one tactic, a key aim is to win back hearts and minds for Israel via social media pushes, cultural fairs and subsidized trips to the Jewish state.

Our goal is to change the younger generation from neutral, if not opposed to, Israel to support of Israel.  David Brog, executive director of the Maccabee Task Force

The effort kicked off this last semester at six California campuses, including UCLA, UC Irvine and San Jose State University, and will expand to 20 more college campuses this fall.

The Adelsons and other supporters of Israel are alarmed by the precipitous growth in young Americans support for Palestinians. A Pew Research Center poll in May found that 27% of millennials now sympathize more with Palestinians, up from 9% in 2006  while their generations support for Israel has declined in the same period from 51% to 43%.

A main cause, Israel supporters say, is the mushrooming BDS campus movement. In the last four years, student governments at eight of nine UC undergraduate campuses have voted to support the campaign.

Its the No. 1 nonmilitary threat to Israel and the Jewish people, David Brog, executive director of the new Adelson-funded task force, said of BDS. Our goal is to change the younger generation from neutral, if not opposed to, Israel to support of Israel.

The Maccabee Task Force  named after a small Jewish rebel group who prevailed over the Greeks two millennia ago  mainly aims to beef up positive education about Israel with such methods as hosting peace tents for dialogue during anti-Israel campus events and Israel cultural fairs  complete with free falafel and iced coffee.

But Brog said the campaign also will target what he called lies about Israel perpetuated by Students for Justice in Palestine and BDS.

Sheldon Adelson speaks to students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2014. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images )

Pro-Palestinian protests on campus regularly compare Israels treatment of Palestinians with South Africa under apartheid and oppression against people of color  and activists are using such comparisons to broaden their base, forging links with other campus movements.

The posters were one element of Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus, a task force-funded campaign launched in February by the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles. Horowitz declined to disclose the size of the grant he received but said it helped him wage what he called a guerrilla campaign this spring, with posters of Jew haters on five California campuses.

The posters were condemned by some Jewish student groups, including J Street U and Jewish Voice for Peace. Jerry Kang, UCLAs vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion, criticized them as thuggish intimidation and accused the effort of promoting guilt by association, of using blacklists, of ethnic slander and sensationalized images engineered to trigger racially tinged fear.

Gardner called the posters accusations false, saying he does not support terrorists or hate Jews. His group, he said, explicitly condemns unlawful violence by anyone.

But the 25-year-old says that hes worried about people coming to campus to attack me.

Horowitz, however, defends what hes done and said he is planning more posters, speaking engagements and actions at 17 campuses, including six in California, this fall. What the Maccabees are doing is an important service not just to Jews but to all Americans, he said. Its the one hope we have. I wish there were more.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj 

The Maccabee Task Force has not disclosed how much cash it plans to disburse. But Brog said initial reports of a $50-million investment were inaccurate. This year, he said, the task force has spent less than $10 million on pilot projects mostly aimed at making a proactive case for Israel.

One organization that accepted such money was Hillel at UCLA, though Rabbi Aaron Lerner said the Maccabee grant was a tiny fraction of Hillels $2-million annual budget.

The grant, Lerner said, helped Hillel send 40 students  most of them non-Jews  to Israel. They were able to meet activists from both sides trying to work together, learn about Israels past peace overtures and experience the countrys vibrant diversity, Lerner said.

The facts on the ground are very different from apartheid and genocide, said the rabbi, but you can get away with lying if people are not educated.

Hillel also used some of the money to stage a more elaborate annual Israel Fest  complete with a DJ and free food  and expand its programs during Israel Independence Week in May. The organization, which aims to enrich the lives of Jewish students, hosted a campus dinner to promote U.S.-Israel ties.

Such activities will change campus conversations about Israel from black and white  to one about complexity, nuance and dialogue, which is better suited to a university, Lerner said.

They also are in keeping with the new Principles Against Intolerance, which were passed by the University of California Board of Regents in March. The policy urges university leaders to combat anti-Semitism and other bias primarily with more speech to preserve 1st Amendment freedoms.

And more speech  or perhaps a war of words  is exactly what both sides plan.

Gardner said new support for the Palestinian cause by 50 African American organizations known as the Movement for Black Lives has galvanized students of color and their allies. The network recently unveiled a platform that mostly addresses domestic criminal justice, economic and political issues but also supports the BDS movement, calling Israel an apartheid state committing genocide against Palestinians.

That language provoked scathing criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and others.

But supporters of Israel acknowledge the significant challenge posed by growing alliances between communities of color and pro-Palestinian groups.

Its very worrisome, and Jewish students then get shut out of dialogues about social justice, said Lisa Armony, who directs Hillel programming at UC Irvine. We are looking at that situation very carefully to create greater understanding.

Brog says the Maccabees are just warming up in their fight to turn the campus tide toward Israel. In the spring, they took South African students to Israel, then to San Jose State University to speak to Black Student Union members about what they had seen on their trip. The message: Israel is not an apartheid state as South Africa once was.

We will invest, we will maintain our presence and we will have the persistence to defeat it, he said of the BDS movement.

Miguel Olvera, a UC Irvine student of Mexican descent, said his evangelical Christian upbringing instilled reverence for Israel as Gods country, and his conversion from unquestioned loyalty to Israel to support for Palestinians came slowly. Friends in an Arabic class, a course on Third World cinema and his own research eventually swayed him to regard Zionism as an oppressive ideology rather than a liberation movement.

Olvera also began making connections with his own heritage. Israels West Bank separation barrier seemed to him akin to Donald Trumps vision of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Palestinians, he said, seemed to be stereotyped as terrorists just as Mexican immigrants often are cast as criminals who take jobs from Americans.

I was almost scared about talking bad about Israel because I thought Id be struck by lightning, said Olvera, 21, who is studying comparative literature and Spanish. But the [West Bank] wall was a very strong visual representation of the occupation, one I could connect to as a child of immigrants.

His Chicano student group works with Students for Justice in Palestine. In May, they co-sponsored a controversial protest against a documentary about Israeli soldiers.

Gardner, a political science and urban planning major, said his interest in the Middle East was first piqued by the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. He began researching and concluded that both Palestinians and African Americans suffered from racialized state violence and mass incarceration. Segregated housing in Israel, he said, reminded him of Jim Crow laws.

Despite his initial fears about the poster, Gardner plans to keep protesting.

At the end of the day, he said, I feel passionate that Im on the right side of history, and Im fighting for justice and equality.

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All the hostility and hard feelings between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz were released marvelously Saturday in a classic, five-round battle won by McGregors drive for revenge.

In a technical, rugged and smart performance that answered his disappointment from a March loss to the bigger, heavier Diaz, McGregor won a majority decision by scores of 48-47 (Jeff Mullen), 47-47 (Glenn Trowbridge), 48-47 (Derek Cleary).

McGregor (20-3) scored three knockdowns of Diaz in the first two rounds, survived a vicious Diaz rally in the third and did enough precise punching and clock management in the final two rounds to gain the UFC 202 victory at T-Mobile Arena.

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Surprise, surprise  the king is back, McGregor said after the decision was read, spinning Diazs statement, Im not surprised, after his second-round submission triumph five months earlier.

This time, McGregor didnt allow Stocktons Diaz (20-11) to take him down until late in the fifth round.

And after showing he was capable of withstanding Diazs best punches during a captivating slugfest that begs for a trilogy, McGregor was able to endure that pressure on the ground, too.

The pair, who cursed heavily at each other all week and engaged in an object-throwing incident to shorten their Wednesday news conference, hugged at the end.

1 / 19 Conor McGregor, left, punches Nate Diaz during their welterweight bout Saturday at UFC 202, which McGregor won by majority decision. (Isaac Brekken / Associated Press) 2 / 19 Conor McGregor, left, and Nate Diaz trade punches in the middle of the octagon during UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 3 / 19 Conor McGregor, left, and Nate Diaz grapple during their welterweight rematch at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 4 / 19 Conor McGregor lands a left to the face of Nate Diaz during their welterweight rematch at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 5 / 19 Nate Diaz strikes Conor McGregor with a left during their welterweight fight at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 6 / 19 Nate Diaz kicks attempts a kick during his welterweight bout against Conor McGregor on Aug. 20, 2016. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 7 / 19 Conor McGregor strikes Nate Diaz with a right during their welterweight rematch at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 8 / 19 Conor McGregor kicks Nate Diaz during their welterweight rematch at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 9 / 19 Conor McGregor celebrates after defeating Nate Diaz in their rematch at UFC 202 on Aug. 20. (Isaac Brekken / Associated Press) 10 / 19 Nate Diaz leaves the octagon after his majority-decision loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 202 on Saturday. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 11 / 19 Anthony Johnson has the upper hand on Glover Teixeira during their light-heavyweight fight at UFC 202. (Isaac Brekken / Associated Press) 12 / 19 Anthony Johnson celebrates his first-round knockout win over Glover Teixeira in their light-heavyweight bout at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 13 / 19 Donald Cerrone kicks Rick Story during their welterweight bout at the UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 14 / 19 Rick Story lands on Donald Cerrone as they grapple during their welterweight bout at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 15 / 19 Donald Cerrone, left, connects against Rick Story during their welterweight fight at UFC 202 in Las Vegas. (Isaac Brekken / Associated Press) 16 / 19 Mike Perry throws a right at Hyun Gyu Lim during their welterweight bout at the MGM Grand. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 17 / 19 Mike Perry sends Hyun Gyu Lim to the canvas during their welterweight bout at the UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 18 / 19 Tim Means trades punches with a bloody Sabah Homasi during their welterweight bout at the UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images) 19 / 19 Cody Garbrandt, left, and Takeya Mizugaki square off during their bantamweight fight at UFC 202. (Steve Marcus / Getty Images)

Diaz lifted up the Irishman who possesses the UFCs featherweight belt, but was bold enough to accept a replacement fight against Diaz at 170 pounds (25 pounds above featherweight) in March.

While he paid the price for that decision  unable to take Diazs best punches and tired by the extra weight  a fully fit, stronger McGregor proved his durability.

His own power punch dropped Diaz in the first round, and Diaz was cut near the right eye after the first five minutes.

In the second, McGregor floored Diaz twice more early on with hard punches from a left-handed stance.

McGregor masterfully backed from Diazs punches when he wanted and then surprisingly rushed forward to catch the unsuspecting Californian with other strikes.

But Diaz reverted to his first-fight success in the third, landing hard punches and laughing at McGregor as if he was ready to duplicate the earlier shocker. But McGregor didnt fall to Diazs hard combinations, and even a late knee.

Diaz was bleeding under the left eye in the fourth, which McGregor uncannily predicted before the bout, and he turned the momentum by landing a slew of punches to Diazs head in the second half of the round, punctuated by Diaz missing a kick and slipping at the end.

I whittled away, and then I caught my second wind, McGregor said.

McGregor made it a habit to look at the clock in the second half of the fight, intent to try to stay out of trouble as long as possible while seeking openings for his punches.

Diaz grew so antsy at one point that he gave McGregor the middle finger. But McGregor didnt cave to the boiling blood that preceded the bout and found his way to the finish, where the judges awarded him sweet redemption.

McGregor said hed be fine to stage a trilogy, but wants it at the 155-pound lightweight limit, where Diaz is the divisions No. 4 contender.

Earlier, light-heavyweight Anthony Johnson (22-5) stamped himself as the top contender to champion Daniel Cormier by ripping No. 2 Glover Teixeira under the chin with a punch, finishing him with a tomahawk slam on the mat and bringing a stop 13 seconds into the fight.

I can fight going backwards. I can fight going forward. I can fight, Johnson said. Ive been busting my [rear] to get to the title.

Cormier watched the bout from next to the octagon and stood up to raise his arms, as if approving the bout.

Daniel, youre the man, Johnson said.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com
For a fleeting moment, it looked as if the long-stalled, partly built Target shopping center in Hollywood might finally be in the clear.

L.A. city lawmakers voted in May to resurrect the project, changing the zoning for the site in response to a judges decision invalidating the buildings permits. At the time, the local councilman said he expected construction work to restart within weeks.

Three months later, the building remains an empty husk. The citys lawyers now say that, in the wake of a new ruling, Target will need to obtain permission from a Superior Court judge to resume construction. Meanwhile, foes of the three-story shopping center, at Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue, have promised to keep that from happening.

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We will oppose any request from Target to restart construction on the current building, said lawyer Robert P. Silverstein, who represents the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Assn. of Hollywood, which has been fighting the project for eight years.

The Target shopping center has been stalled since August 2014, when a judge ruled the city improperly allowed the retail giant to build a 74-foot-tall shopping center in a spot where such structures were supposed to stay within 35 feet. As part of that decision, Target was ordered to stop work on the building.

Target appealed the ruling. At the same time, the company worked to persuade the City Council to amend the citys zoning so that its taller building would be allowed at the site automatically.

La Mirada filed a new lawsuit in June challenging the new zoning, saying the city engaged in a sham environmental review process. Opponents also said, among other things, that the city improperly gave Target permission to sell alcohol.

The new approvals are still so riddled with violations of the law that it just shocks the conscience, Silverstein said.

Appearing in court earlier this month, Target attorney Richard Schulman said he was very confident the new zoning would be upheld by a judge.

Schulman acknowledged the new case could consume another three years in court. Target is looking to finish the building in the meantime, according to a legal filing submitted by the company last month.

Target already knows that resuming construction will be at its own risk, Schulman wrote. Given the meritless nature of the next round of lawsuits, though, Target is willing to take that risk.

Target had suggested the 2nd District Court of Appeal order the lower court to dismiss the earlier case, allowing construction to proceed. Instead, the three-judge panel dismissed Targets appeal but left it to the Superior Court to decide how, and whether, to amend its original ruling in the wake of the new zoning.

A Target spokeswoman would not directly address the courts decision, saying in a statement that the company remains committed to opening its new store. Councilman Mitch OFarrell, who represents the area, said city officials are reviewing the latest ruling to determine the best approach to allow Target the ability to move forward.

At the bus stop across from the hollowed-out Target structure, some residents were baffled by the ongoing legal saga. Alonzo Patterson, 88, said the neighborhood already has plenty of buildings that are taller than the planned Target.

Patterson, holding an umbrella for shade, said he shops at Target in West Hollywood and would prefer to have a store closer to home.

Its really a shame they cant finish it, he said. It would really help the area.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @DavidZahniser

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Electric Dave Banham slugged back the last of his beer, wiped his lips and resumed his barstool rant about the new rich guy in town.

Whats he up to? What are those towers? Who is he driving around with? Banham asked the bartender at the Double P Roadhouse and a couple of whiskery locals nursing cocktails. What the hell is Warren Buffetts kid doing down here?

Ever since Howard Graham Buffett arrived in this hippie enclave in 2013, speculating about his motives has become a local pastime. That hes rarely seen in public has deepened the mystery.

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Each report of a new contribution to the Cochise County Sheriffs Office  the $1.2-million helicopter, the $4-million encrypted radio network, the new cruisers and drug-sniffing dogs  has unleashed a new round of intrigue.

Compared to the rumors, the truth isnt very exciting: Buffett is just being Buffett.

Howard Buffett, in file photograph, has used his charitable foundation to support various causes, including development projects and bolstering police agencies. (Craig Fry / Associated Press )

Someday he will become the next non-executive chairman of his famous fathers empire, Berkshire Hathaway. At least thats the family plan. In the meantime, he has focused on running the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which focuses on improving food security in Africa.

Seeking a North American research farm that mimicked a sub-Saharan climate and landscape, he settled on southern Arizona and bought a 1,400-acre farm to test various growing techniques. He lives for about four months a year on another ranch he bought in the Mule Mountains along the Mexican border.

The foundation, which is based in Decatur, Ill., and spends about $150 million a year on projects, mostly in the developing world, also conducts research on land that Buffett owns in Illinois in Decatur and Macon counties.

In all three places, 61-year-old Buffett has used the foundation to indulge another of his interests: policing.

In Cochise County, where he has donated the most, he gave the sheriffs office $6 million in 2014  the most recent year for which records were available  a sizable addition to the $15 million it receives from the county.

That spending has made Buffett a hero to local law enforcement  and a focus of conjecture among conspiracy-minded folk.

Bisbees unofficial motto is: The Worlds Largest Open-Air Insane Asylum.

For most of its history, the town produced astounding quantities of copper from massive pit mining operations. But the mines died out in the 1970s and the miners moved out.

With the town on the brink of extinction, artists and hippies started moving in. Seeking clean mountain air and cheap living, they found both in Bisbee and transformed the town into one of the few liberal strongholds in Arizona.

It was the first city in the state to approve of civil unions and among the first to have a medical marijuana dispensary.

The people who live here are suspicious of law enforcement, the county government and  owing to the piles of mining waste that surround the town  even their own soil and water.

Nothing related to Buffett has generated as much speculation as what have become known simply as the towers.

Shortly after he arrived, 30-foot-tall radio towers sprang up on the hillsides outside Bisbee, including several near the border, surrounded by fencing and warning signs. The towers were part of the radio system he donated.

But nobody explained that to Alison McLeod, who lives in Bisbee and reports on the presence of law enforcement in the area on her own YouTube channel.

When the towers went up, McLeod started driving around to make videos of them. At one point, she used the driveway of Buffetts ranch in Willcox to turn around.

The next day, McLeod said, the sheriff, Mark Dannels, and his chief deputy, Mark Gentz, came to her house warning her not to trespass on Buffetts property.

Here is the No. 1 law enforcement official in the whole county and hes at my door? McLeod said. What kind of a show of force is that? Who has [Buffett] got in his pocket, and what is he going to do with them?

Ann Kelly Bolten, the president of Buffetts foundation, said most of what McLeod has filmed is government infrastructure.

This individual  like the vast majority of people who could be described as our neighbors  is unaware of the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend on humanitarian efforts, Bolten said in an email. Im sure if you talk to her she will have very strong opinions about Howard but they wont have anything to do with what we are actually doing in Arizona.

The grants are the story, period, she wrote.

The story of how Buffett got interested in feeding the developing world started with an interest in agriculture as a boy growing up in Omaha and continued with his extensive international travels.

His interest in agriculture brought him to rural counties, where he bought farms and got to know the local cops. So began a fascination with law enforcement.

[Life] experience made me realize how easy it is to take rule of law for granted when you have it, Buffett wrote in response to written questions from The Times, and how devastating it can be to a society when rule of law is corrupted or missing altogether.

His involvement in policing goes beyond funding it to actually doing it.

Through training available to any citizen, he has earned his certification to operate as a volunteer deputy in counties in Illinois and Arizona, putting in more than 500 patrol hours since 2013. Additional training included dealing with hostage-takers and leading drug-sniffing dogs.

On patrol, he has participated in stops and arrests alongside a senior officer, but he has never used his gun, he said.

In Arizona, Buffett was granted the title of deputy commander and made a uniformed liaison to the ranching community.

Howard isnt just looking in, hes fully here, the sheriff said in an interview. Hes committed, and we need more people to do what he does.

See the most-read stories this hour 

While Buffetts involvement has endeared him to law enforcement officials, it has also caused him to worry that he could become a target for drug smugglers who haul their product from Mexico into Arizona. Suspected traffickers followed him home one day and noted his license plate number, he wrote to Dannels.

We just need to keep the connection low right now, he wrote.

Back at the Double P Roadhouse, Electric Dave Banham wasnt letting up.

A grey-haired, portly man several stools down was getting annoyed. He turned his head from the bars lone television, scowled at Banham, then stood up and left.

Whats his problem? Banham asked the bartender, who shrugged.

His problem, Banham said he later learned, was that he was Howard Buffett.

nigel.duara@latimes.com

Twitter: @nigelduara

Times researcher Scott J. Wilson contributed to this story.

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A day after Donald Trump met with a group of Latino supporters, top aides suggested Sunday that the GOP nominee may be reconsidering his signature campaign promise to round up and deport 11 million people who are in the country illegally.

His new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was asked on CNNs State of the Union if Trump still wants a deportation force to remove everyone in the country illegally, as he has vowed repeatedly on the campaign trail.

To be determined, she said.

Trump is wrestling with how to remove those in the country illegally, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a close advisor to Trump on immigration matters, said on CBS Face the Nation.

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Apprehending and removing the estimated 11 million people who either entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas would cost about $400 billion and could reduce U.S. gross domestic product by $1 trillion, according to a study released this year by the free-market think tank American Action Forum.

The aides comments appeared to be the latest sign that Trumps newly installed management team may be trying to broaden his appeal to stem his steady fall in the polls with less than three months until election day.

Trump has never explained how he intended to find, detain and deport millions of people, many of whom have built businesses and started families in the U.S., or how he would pay for it even if it passed judicial scrutiny.

To be determined.  Kellyanne Conway, Trumps new campaign manager, on the candidates plan to deport 11 million people

He has compared his proposal to Operation Wetback, a controversial removals program carried out in 1954 under President Eisenhower. More than 1 million people were apprehended, mostly from border areas in Texas and California, and sent back to Mexico.

Any easing of Trumps hard-line stance on immigration  which also includes building a wall along the border with Mexico and temporarily banning Muslim immigrants  could alienate some of his most ardent supporters.

After a year of using harsh rhetoric against Latinos  from calling Mexican migrants rapists to repeatedly attacking a federal judge as unfair because his family was from Mexico  polls show he faces intense opposition among Latinos.

His campaign thus has moved in recent days to soften his edges and to try to shift attention past the turmoil caused by the dramatic shake-up of his top management team last week.

In Charlotte, N.C., Trump announced regret that some of his heated comments  he didnt say which  may have caused personal pain. In Fredericksburg, Va., he said the GOP must do better to reach out to African American voters.

And in New York City on Saturday, Trump told his campaigns newly named Latino advisory council that he wants to find a humane and efficient solution to deal with illegal immigration.

He did not make a firm commitment to the group on how deportations would work, Sessions said.

Trump is expected to speak about immigration policy Thursday at a campaign event in Colorado. Conway said he will be more specific on his immigration plan as the weeks unfold.

What he supports is to make sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country, Conway said.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has called for providing a pathway to legal status for some of the people in the country illegally.

A bipartisan immigration reform bill that would have boosted border security while providing a pathway for citizenship passed the Senate in 2013 but died in the Republican-led House.

Trumps campaign also announced plans Sunday intended to repair months of discord with the Republican National Committee.

Conway said the campaign would bring Sean Spicer, a senior GOP strategist, into Trumps New York City headquarters several days a week, and that the RNC would increase sharing of political data and fundraising strategies.

Despite Trumps dire position in national polls, Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, insisted that Trump would catch up to Clinton as we move through September.

Donald Trump has been disciplined and mature, he said on ABCs This Week. And I think hes going to get this thing back on track.

Conway, the new campaign manager, insisted that the campaign already was on track.

Trail Guide: Live updates on the presidential campaign 

We had a great week, the best week so far, she said, citing the airing of Trumps first TV ads, his appearance in flood-ravaged Louisiana, and his attempts to reach out to black and Latino voters.

Hes able to be himself, the authentic Donald Trump, she said, and the pivot that hes made is on substance.

Clintons campaign manager, Robby Mook, who appeared on the same show, disputed that Trump had made a pivot, saying that even Trump had denied that.

Mook also argued that Trump should publicly account for his financial ties to Russia and his repeated praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race, Mook said.

brian.bennett@latimes.com

Follow me @ByBrianBennett on Twitter

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He has said that Democrats take black voters for granted and have ignored their needs while governing cities with large African American populations.

America must reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees communities of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future, Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said of his Democratic opponent at a rally in Michigan on Friday.

After waging a yearlong campaign marked by divisive and racially coded rhetoric, the Republican nominee reached out to African Americans several times last week.

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He insisted at rallies in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Michigan that he would do a better job than Clinton at creating jobs and improving schools for black families.

In 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney won 6% of the black vote, according to exit poll data. Trump is seeing single-digit support among African Americans in most polls. In some states the billionaire businessman is polling at 0%.

Clintons campaign responded to Trumps outreach by pointing out that he had been sued for housing discrimination and was a prime figure in questioning whether President Obama, the nations first black president, was born in the country.

Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him, Marlon Marshall, Clintons director of state campaigns and political engagement, said in a statement. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American president, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color.

Sill, Trump has insisted that African Americans would be so impressed with his work that, if hes able to run for reelection in 2020, he would receive more than 95% of the black vote.

Trump made that prediction Friday night. On Saturday, he focused on Latino voters.

In a round-table discussion with his campaigns Hispanic advisory council at Trump Tower in New York, the real estate mogul talked about creating jobs and his plans to limit immigration, according to attendees.

Colorado state Rep. Clarice Navarro, a member of the council who attended the meeting, said Trump heard the groups concerns.

Its about jobs, jobs, jobs, and he really listened, said Navarro, a Republican. Ive always felt he does care about the Latino community and now its on us to get him elected.

During the meeting Trump also suggested he was interested in figuring out a humane and efficient manner to deal with immigrants in the country illegally, according to BuzzFeed.

Trumps invective this election cycle  he denounced Mexican immigrants as including rapists and drug runners in his first campaign speech  hasnt helped his standing with Latinos.

A national Fox News poll of Latino voters this month showed Clinton holding a 46-point advantage over Trump.

Clinton wallops Trump 91% to 1% among African American voters, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll.

Trump also campaigned Saturday in Virginia, a swing state where polls show Clinton leading Trump by a sizable margin, partly because of the states large African American population.

President Obama won Virginia in 2008 and 2012, making him the first Democrat to win the state twice since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

In what amounted to measured remarks on Saturday, Trump, reading from a teleprompter for the fourth straight day, jabbed Clinton for, among other things, her use of a private email server while at the State Department.

Moreover, he continued his pitch to black voters, who in Virginia are helping Clinton maintain a sizable lead over Trump.

The GOP is the party of Lincoln, and I want our party to be the home of the African American vote once again, he said.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee, @LATseema

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UPDATES:

9:40 a.m.: This article has been updated with additional quotes, details.

This article was originally posted at 3:30 a.m.
Most restrictions on flights between the U.S. and Mexico will lift on Sunday, a change expected to bring more options and possibly lower prices for travelers.

American, Delta and Southwest airlines have already announced that they will offer new flights across the border later this year. United is watching the demand for flights and will respond accordingly, a spokesman said.

The United States and Mexico agreed in December to open their aviation markets to each others carriers. Rules that had generally limited two or three airlines from each country to a particular route will go away.

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Airlines on both sides of the border will be able to fly whatever routes they want as often as they want and set their own prices, said Thomas Engle, the State Departments deputy assistant secretary for transportation.

This will help reduce airfares for sure, said George Hobica, founder of the travel site airfarewatchdog.com.

Hobica said base fares between the U.S. and many destinations in Mexico are already low, but both countries impose taxes that inflate the price of a ticket. The fares are low; its the rest that makes it seem expensive, he said.

For example, on a round trip between Dallas-Fort Worth and Cancun, Mexico  already a popular route  taxes and fees can account for between 20% and 30% of the price of a bargain, economy-class ticket of $383 to $585.

Southwest promoted fares as low as $258 for a round trip, although seats were limited and the offer was scheduled to end Sunday.

The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico does not relax limits on takeoffs and landings at Mexico Citys busy main international airport. So the first new flights from U.S. carriers will focus on resort towns in Mexico.

Delta announced Friday that on Dec. 17 it will start daily nonstop flights between New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport and Cancun and between Los Angeles and Los Cabos. It will run Saturday flights between Kansas City and Cancun.

Southwest announced that on Dec. 4 it will start flying daily from Los Angeles to Cancun, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta. It plans to fly from Oakland to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta starting in February if it gets approval from the Mexican government.
Investigators say samples taken from a fire at a Tampa, Fla., mosque this month tested positive for gasoline, leading them to believe it was the result of arson.

Tampa Fire Rescue said in a statement Saturday that the Aug. 5 fire at the Masjid Omar mosque appears now to have been intentionally set.

Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay is offering a reward of up to $3,000.

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Investigators initially believed the cause of the fire was a faulty electrical cord on a small refrigerator.

Mosque officials believed someone had poured gasoline on an outside air-conditioning unit, but investigators say the evidence was inconclusive at the time.

Investigators took samples from the fire for evaluation.

Damage to the building and its contents were estimated to be $25,000. There were no injuries.
Donald Trumpagainassails Virginia effort to get violent felons to the voting booths

(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

When Donald Trump speaks in Virginia he often mentions a push by Democrats to restore the voting rights of tens of thousands of felons in the state.

Trump continued that trend Saturday, castigating efforts by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an ally of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, to allow felons back in the polling booth.

Clinton is banking on her friend Terry McAuliffe getting thousands of violent felons to the voting booths, in an effort to cancel out the votes of both the law enforcement community and crime victims, Trump, who has sought to cast himself as the law and order candidate of the race, said Saturday at a rally in Fredericksburg.

McAuliffe, a Democrat, issued a sweeping executive order in April that would have restored voting rights to more than 200,000 felons, but Virginia Republicans filed suit, and the effort was eventually blocked by the state Supreme Court as unconstitutional. The court said McAuliffe did not have the authority to restore rights en masse and had to consider each case individually.

Now, according to the Washington Post, McAuliffe plans to restore the voting rights of nearly 13,000 felons on a case-by-case basis.

Virginia has some of the strictest laws when it comes to voting rights for felons. The nonpartisan Sentencing Project estimates that 1 in 5 African Americans in Virginia is disenfranchised by the laws -- something McAuliffe and Democrats have said they want to halt. A recent Washington Post poll found that 61% of adults in Virginia support McAuliffes effort.

In what amounted to measured remarks on Saturday, Trump, reading from a teleprompter for the fourth straight day, jabbed Clinton for, among other things, her use of a private email server while at the State Department.

Moreover, he continued his pitch to black voters, who in Virginia are helping Clinton maintain a sizable lead over Trump.

The GOP is the party of Lincoln, and I want our party to be the home of the African American vote once again, he said.
Trump gains ground against Clinton, tracking poll finds

Donald Trump has gained ground against Hillary Clinton, according to the latest findings from the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times national tracking poll of the presidential race.

The uptick for Trump follows a broad-based decline in early August and suggests a possible narrowing of the race.

Trump has regained some of ground he lost after the Democratic National Convention in late July, when he repeatedly criticized the Muslim American parents of a dead U.S. Army captain, and appeared to urge Russia to hack Clintons email.

As of Sunday, the tracking poll showed Trump at 45% and Clinton at 43%, within the surveys margin of error. Those results are far closer than most other polls, which use different methodology and almost uniformly show Clinton ahead by several points.

The shift follows a shakeup last week at the top of the Trump campaign after weeks of turmoil. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ousted after his past work for pro-Kremlin figures in the Ukraine became a political liability.

Turnout is a key factor in any election, and the poll also asks if Clinton and Trump supporters plan to vote.

For the first time in three weeks, more Trump supporters said they planned to vote than Clinton supporters by a slight margin, 83%-82%.

One week ago, on August 14, 78% of Trump supporters planned to vote compared with 83% of Clinton supporters.

Separately, the poll also asks voters which candidate they think will win. That question has often shown greater ability to predict election outcomes than asking people who they will vote for, particularly when the election remains months away.

Clinton continues to lead voter expectations by a large margin, 54%-40%.

After the Republican National Convention last month, Trump had briefly narrowed the gap on that question, but Clinton rebounded sharply in mid-August and has held that lead.

Some analysts have suggested that the way the USC/L.A. Times Daybreak poll is weighted has shifted the results a few points in Trumps favor.

Every poll weights results to make sure the survey sample matches known demographic facts. They thus are weighted to reflect accurate percentages of men and women or older and younger voters.

Each poll does that process differently, and until the votes are counted, theres no way to know for sure which method was right.

The Daybreak tracking poll uses a different methodology than most election surveys.

Why the USC/L.A. Times tracking poll differs from other surveys >>

Instead of randomly contacting a different set of people for each survey, it uses a panel of roughly 3,200 eligible voters, selected to be representative of the U.S. electorate. Those people are resurveyed continuously, roughly 300-400 per day.

As a result, shifts in the candidates standings reflect actual people changing their minds as opposed to variations in who responds from one survey to the next.

Using a 0-100 scale, the poll asks voters to estimate the chance that they will vote for Clinton, Trump or another candidate.

Each week, the poll has found that about three-quarters of the voters dont significantly shift their preferences.

At the other end of the scale, very few do a complete turnaround  going from wholehearted support of Trump, for example, to strong support for Clinton.
It has taken years of advocacy, frustration, soul-searching and compromise, but the end of abusive solitary confinement of juveniles in California is finally at hand. SB 1143, by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), passed the Assembly Thursday and now returns to the Senate, which is expected to send it on to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

The bill caps an extraordinary evolution in the way troubled youths are treated while held at juvenile halls, probation camps and prisons. Solitary confinement for hours, days or even weeks was until recently a standard way to punish wards for misbehavior, and attempts to stop it were blocked by lawmakers in 2011 and every year since.

At the same time, evidence has been piling up that isolation takes an enormous toll and undermines its own purpose. Being locked away from contact with others can have a devastating effect on anyone, but when imposed on a young person dealing with trauma, mental illness or other disability it tends to exacerbate rather than curb behavioral problems.

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That would be bad enough if the purpose of the juvenile justice system were simply to punish, but the system exists explicitly to rehabilitate young offenders and improve their reintegration into society on their return.

The large gap between the proper treatment of wards and the actual practices of probation officers in halls and camps was spotlighted by a 2013 lawsuit over solitary confinement of juveniles in Contra Costa County. A settlement reached last year incorporated some of the best thinking of youth advocates as well as the probation officers who are charged with ensuring safety, health and rehabilitation. That settlement in turn became the basis for continuing attempts to change practices at juvenile facilities in all 58 counties.

Attention to the problem also crystallized last year with the suicide of Kalief Browder, who spent three years imprisoned at Rikers Island in New York without trial. A majority of his time was in solitary.

Shortly after Browders death, President Obama asked U.S. Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch to review the overuse of solitary confinement in federal facilities. Obama referred to Browder early this year in a Washington Post op-ed in which he announced an end to extended isolation for federally held juveniles as well as restrictions on solitary confinement for adults in federal prisons.

How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people? Obama asked. It doesnt make us safer. Its an affront to our common humanity.

Separately, a settlement restricted the use of isolation of adults at California prisons.

In May, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to end or severely restrict isolation at the countys juvenile halls and probation camps.

Earlier versions of Lenos bill to impose uniform standards and restrictions on solitary statewide got tangled up in objections by probation officials from Californias 58 counties. They pointed out that a simple ban on isolation would leave them unable to safely separate wards when a fight breaks out, or to provide a cool-down period for a juvenile in crisis, or otherwise de-escalate a potentially dangerous situation. There were months of wrangling over when to refer a youth in isolation to a mental health expert, and how rigorously to document when an emergency or an exception required confinement for more than a four-hour period.

There was even some tension over the use of the term solitary confinement, as evoking images of the box or the hole as depicted in movies and on television. Juvenile isolation is nothing like that kind of torture, probation officials noted. The effect on isolated juveniles is destructive nonetheless, reformers countered.

Advocates from the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center and their primary opponents, the Chief Probation Officers of California, spent months working on the details and now are co-sponsors of Lenos bill, about which both sides now express enthusiasm. It bans room confinement of juveniles for punishment, convenience, coercion or retaliation, while allowing it for strictly limited periods and purposes for the protection of the wards.

It took a while, but the process is in a sense a model for future legislation. Although early iterations failed, they led to better thinking on both sides and played a part in a national conversation on the issue and the promise of more humane, and more effective, treatment of troubled juveniles.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Almost 200 years ago, as the United States approached its 50th birthday, a new baby name swept the nation. It wasnt biblical or even Anglophone. It was Bolivar. Hundreds of mothers and fathers, living in Kentucky log cabins or Illinois farmhouses, named their crying, crinkly newborns after Spanish Americas most celebrated revolutionary: Simon Bolivar of Venezuela.

The baby Bolivar boom wasnt an isolated oddity, either. Other Americans named their new towns, their boats and even their livestock Bolivar, adopting the Spanish-speaking revolutionary as one of their own.

Given how much of our current election cycle has been marked by talk of border walls and racial slurs, it may seem surprising that ordinary Americans held such early affection for Latin America. A generation before the United States swallowed half of Mexico (including what turned out to be a gold-encrusted California), visions of a harmonious republican hemisphere prevailed.

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In the 1810s and early 1820s  just a generation or two after our Revolution of 1776  most of Latin America fought (and won) independence wars against Spain and Portugal, from Mexico and Colombia to Chile and Brazil. Those developments owed more to the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars than to the shot heard round the world, but nonetheless, U.S. patriots happily gave themselves credit for having inspired a hemisphere full of revolutionary disciples. They concluded that their founding republican ideals really were universal  that U.S. light was spreading to places thought mired in Iberian colonial darkness. Victories across Latin America thus inflamed U.S. patriotism; as a Boston newspaper trumpeted, these newfound sister republics were flattering to our national pride.

The excitement was pervasive. From Chillicothe, Ohio, to Savannah, Ga., mothers dressed their daughters in feathery, broad-brimmed Bolivar hats. Poets wrote odes to Brazil and Peru. West Point cadets looked exuberantly south and fired ceremonial cannons. Newspapers printed long lists of toasts sent in after each Independence Day, including hundreds feting Latin American freedom. As editors nationwide approvingly observed, toasts to the Patriots of South America were the favourites of the day, along with toasts to the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and the United States itself.

The U.S. government remained officially neutral in these revolutions, declining to do for Latin Americans what France had done for it. But people found smaller ways to chip in. In 1812, Congress voted to send $50,000 worth of provisions to help erstwhile revolutionaries in Caracas dig out after a devastating earthquake; it was a pioneering instance of U.S. foreign aid. In another groundbreaking congressional vote 10 years later, the United States became the first country to formally recognize Spanish Americas new nations as independent powers.

Our early 19th century predecessors saw themselves as political kin of people with clear cultural, linguistic and sometimes racial differences.

Hoping to do well by doing good, merchants loaded their ships with weapons as ballast (as Portugals ambassador griped) and sold the goods to South American rebels. With similarly mixed motives, some 3,000 privateers attacked Spanish ships on the high seas until Congress outlawed the practice beginning in 1817.

The inter-American idealism was so strong that it often transcended racial and religious differences. Everyone knew that Latin Americans were Catholics, and newspapers widely reported that Spanish Americans in particular were passing gradual antislavery laws. Black U.S. audiences were thrilled, while white observers were so excited about the anticolonial battles that they accepted the antislavery ones. As the flummoxed Portuguese ambassador wrote at the time, it was as if every person ... was denounced as an anti-patriot, if he be not an advocate for supporting every rebellion or insurrection ... whether these self-styled patriots are white, black, or yellow.

Americans universalist optimism about human potential was endlessly contested, and their abstract talk of brotherhood wilted as slavery spread into the South and West. Inter-American ardor eventually yielded to manifest destiny, racialized chauvinism and war with Mexico. But the sanguine inclusiveness of the 1810s and early 1820s mattered nonetheless. In celebrating the decline of colonial rule to their south, Americans were defining the United States as an advocate for worldwide republican liberty  even when that liberty included Spanish-speaking antislavery Catholics.

This short-lived and self-congratulatory excitement for Latin American independence offers few easy answers for our own times. Hemispheric enthusiasts themselves disagreed about the particulars of inter-American trade and diplomacy. Immigration wasnt a central issue, and when it did begin to surge later in the 1820s and 1830s, people usually were moving to Mexico, not away from it. Still, the hemispheric enthusiasm stands in striking contrast to our current political discourse about Latin America. Our early 19th century predecessors saw themselves as political kin of people with clear cultural, linguistic and sometimes racial differences. Turning south of the border, early U.S. patriots adopted internationalism as a credo.

Two centuries later, Donald Trump offers a new credo: Make America great again. The power and the peril of this slogan stem from its imprecision. To which past? What elements of our history does he propose to resuscitate? To paraphrase Walt Whitman, our history is large; it contains multitudes. It teems with triumph and treachery, freedom and slavery, equality and oppression.

But heres one thing we might resuscitate. We could improve upon our early 19th century predecessors global awareness and interest, their conviction that our welfare was intertwined with that of foreigners. We could reject Trumps belligerent isolationism in favor of international goodwill. And we might consider that such hemispheric hopefulness and inclusive cosmopolitanism are an American tradition too.

Caitlin Fitz is an assistant professor of history at Northwestern University and author of Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
My partner, Graham, became an American citizen last month  six years after the government tried to deport him. Hes originally from Scotland, came here legally and obtained a green card in 1999, but was ordered out of the country because of a misdemeanor conviction for drug possession.

Graham spent five months in immigration detention before a judge ruled that he could remain in the U.S., a harrowing experience that still haunts him today. Because detainees without documents are usually deported quickly, many of the people he was locked up with had some legal status  though few rights as they fought to stay with their families.

One man he befriended was an electrician from Philadelphia who was eventually deported to Northern Ireland because of a bar fight, which happened 11 years before immigration agents showed up at his home.

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He was brought to America as a baby, had a green card and three young sons (all U.S. citizens). But because he pleaded guilty to that assault charge long ago  with no notion of the consequences  he was exiled far away from his loved ones.

Yet stories such as these dont get much media attention, in part because the government doesnt release statistics about how many people facing deportation have green cards. In fact, when media outlets report that the Obama administration has deported more than 2.5 million illegal or undocumented immigrants, thats actually incorrect, because those statistics include legal residents and people with valid visas  not just immigrants who crossed the border without permission.

That misperception has fed the anti-immigrant furor that was also rampant in 1996, when Congress passed two bills that dramatically expanded the list of crimes (including shoplifting) that could lead to deportation.

In the lead-up to the presidential election, politicians wanted to show that they were tough on terrorism and crime, blaming immigrants for those threats. But even many lawyers were unaware of the new rules  until the Department of Homeland Security began enforcing them after Sept. 11. Because the laws were applied retroactively, immigrants faced deportation for crimes theyd committed decades earlier, and judges lost much of their ability to decide cases based on individual factors.

Although some people believe that immigrants who commit any crime deserve deportation  regardless of their status or how long theyve lived here  anyone who values American ideals of due process and justice should be disturbed by the way people are treated once they get sucked into our detention system. It is far from fair or humane.

Data the government has released (after lengthy legal battles) suggest that were spending a lot of money on cases that shouldnt be priorities.

Graham spent four months at Rikers Island in New York City before he got picked up by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who quickly transferred him to New Jersey and then a prison in Pennsylvania. Those first few weeks in ICE custody were traumatizing, especially because he had little contact with the outside world.

He had limited access to the phone, and when he was allowed to make calls, they cost $1 a minute (collect). Important legal documents addressed to him were never delivered, and he had to purchase stamps and envelopes to send mail. But he wasnt granted access to the money deposited on his commissary account until hed been in detention for more than three weeks.

At one point, he was awakened in the middle of the night, shackled with other men and told he was being moved again  probably to Texas, where the judges are less likely to rule in immigrants favor. For reasons that remain unclear, a guard pulled him out of line and locked him up in solitary confinement for several days.

ICE officers kept telling him that the best way to end this nightmare was to sign papers agreeing to leave the U.S. forever, after living here legally for almost 20 years.

Graham was lucky that I hired a lawyer to represent him before he gave up or was transferred again, but many immigrants are deported without ever speaking to an attorney. For immigration proceedings, non-citizens do not have a right to a lawyer, but if they can afford to hire one they are far more likely to win their cases. Even legal permanent residents are often subject to mandatory, indefinite detention while they wait for a final hearing or appeal a decision  a process that sometimes takes years.

The Supreme Court will soon review ICEs resistance to granting immigrants bond hearings. For now, though, detaining people without proof that theyre a flight risk largely benefits for-profit prison companies, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $2 billion a year.

ICE is notoriously secretive about sharing statistics, but data the government has released (after lengthy legal battles) suggest that were spending a lot of money on cases that shouldnt be priorities.

From last October through July, immigration judges granted just 43% of the deportation orders the government sought, according to records obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University  down from 70% in 2011. Another TRAC report found that ICE has failed to focus on serious criminals, despite promising to do so in 2014. Only half of the immigrants that ICE asked local law enforcement to detain late last year had any criminal conviction; the most common offenses were DUIs, assault and selling marijuana.

Though theres no way to know how many of these people had legal status, its a troubling sign that we dont have such basic information about the individuals were deporting, sometimes for minor mistakes. Sentencing someone to a life in exile is an extremely harsh punishment to impose, which also affects many U.S. citizen children, spouses and parents, so it shouldnt happen through a secretive process that grants few rights to those caught in its grip.

My partner got a second chance and proved he earned it by overcoming his addiction, but far too many immigrants dont get the fair hearing a judge gave him.

Susan Stellin is a reporter and coauthor of the memoir Chancers, written with Graham MacIndoe. They received a 2014 fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation for their project American Exile.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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Down in the polls and trailing in fundraising, U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez has just more than two months to close the gap with front-runner Kamala Harris before Election Day.

Sanchezs absence from the campaign trail in recent weeks, a noticeable lull even for the sedate summer months of the political season, only adds pressure on the Orange County congresswoman to show voters and donors  soon  that she has a legitimate shot to win in November.

Both of the candidates have been keeping unusually low public profiles. But Harris has been running pretty much ahead in the polls and theres not much incentive for her to do anything that might change that, said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. Its much more unusual that the second-place candidate hasnt been more visible and publicly aggressive.

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Sanchezs representatives say the congresswoman has been working behind-the-scenes to raise money, hosting fundraisers and burning up the phone lines with prospective contributors. She also attended night out crime prevention events earlier this month in Downey and Wilmington, though officially in her capacity as a congresswoman.

Still, Sanchez had not held a single public campaign event in August until last week, even though Congress has been on summer recess. On Thursday, Sanchez addressed the National Association of Letter Carriers at its convention in Los Angeles and then headed up to Northern California on Friday to discuss federal water policy at the Shasta Dam and meet with supporters around Chico.

 U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat, speaks to members of the National Assn. of Letter Carriers at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Summer is very difficult, said veteran political consultant Bill Carrick, who is working on the Sanchez campaign. Culturally, the political campaigns are out of sync with what most people are doing during the summer. People are taking vacations and long weekends  and were asking them to come to a fundraiser.

Carrick said the campaign has to invest time and effort into raising money now to afford an effective media campaign in the home stretch that will emphasize Sanchezs expertise on national defense, the economy and other issues that separate her from Harris.

We have to make it more of a choice, Carrick said.

The biggest development in Californias historic Democrat-versus-Democrat Senate race this summer was President Obamas endorsement of Harris  and Sanchezs pointed response. Sanchez accused the president of being part of a political establishment that has failed to help Californians and she caused a stir when, during an interview on a Spanish-language TV station in Sacramento, she implied that Obama may have endorsed her rival because they are both black.

Not counting appearances and television interviews at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July, both Harris and Sanchez have had relatively light schedules for public campaign events since the June primary. Harris appeared often on national news shows in July in the aftermath of a series of fatal confrontations between police and black men, and held a few press conferences in her official capacity as state attorney general.

But Harris, Californias two-term attorney general, has had only one campaign event in August so far  delivering a speech to the California Teachers Assn. in Los Angeles. Her campaign also has been busy raising money, and just last week former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted a fundraiser for her there.

In Californias hotly contested Senate campaign in 2010, Republican Carly Fiorina and Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer spent the summer months crisscrossing the state  sopping up the media news coverage to criticize one another. During the first three weeks of August alone, Fiorina campaigned in Riverside, San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno and Sunnyvale. Boxer did the same in Long Beach, L.A., Palo Alto and Santa Barbara.

We were all over the place doing events, said Marty Wilson, Fiorinas campaign manager. Gee whiz. Youre two weeks out from Labor Day, which is the historical start of the campaign. We were fully staffed, getting ready to get on the air with ads.

Boxer and Fiorina had already spent close to $20 million combined by this point in the campaign, which included Fiorinas GOP primary fight, federal campaign reports show. Harris and Sanchez have dished out a combined $12 million  with Harris accounting for $9 million of that.

Wilson said the 2010 campaign received a lot more attention, and media coverage, because it was a traditional, hard-fought Democrat-vs.-Republican campaign and Boxer was considered a vulnerable incumbent. With millions of Californians out of work and the state flattened by recession, Fiorina tried to frame the campaign as a referendum on the failed policies of the Obama administration and Washington Democrats.

The Democrat-vs.-Democrat general election sets the stage for the highest-profile contest between two members of the same party since California adopted a top-two primary election system. But it also robs the contest of drama because Harris and Sanchez are closely aligned on so many issues, Wilson said.

Wilson, who works for the California Chamber of Commerce, said hes fielded a few informal queries from conservative leaning organizations on the East Coast about whether they should weigh in on the California Senate race, in case Sanchez might be more friendly toward their interests. But if an outside organization wants to have an impact in a Senate race in a state as vast and expensive as California, itll cost them about $15 million, he said. They could spend the same amount on toss-up Republican-vs.-Democrat Senate races in Nevada, Indiana and New Hampshire and have a much larger impact, Wilson said.

A Democratic senator is a Democratic senator, Wilson said.

Rose Kapolczynski, who managed Boxers successful reelection bid against Fiorina, said that unlike the 2010 contest the current Senate race is being lost in the shadow of a hyperventilating presidential election that seems to swoon with a new political controversy every week.

With the presidential race being the car wreck that you cant turn away from, that probably contributes to it as well, Kapolczynski said. Donald Trump dominates the headlines day after day, and that probably consumes the entire bandwidth that the average voter has for politics.

Compared with years past, the current Senate race also is receiving less news coverage because of the states depleted press corps, Kapolczynski said. Just a handful of newspapers and radio outlets are covering the Harris-Sanchez race on a sustained basis.

There are fewer reporters covering campaigns and many of those are covering many races all at once, she said. Theres a relationship between media coverage and fundraising. When youre in the news ... donors pay more attention and think you have chance of winning.

A Public Policy Institute of California poll in late July found that 38% of likely voters supported Harris, compared with 20% for Sanchez. Half of Californias likely Republican voters and a third of independents said they wouldnt vote for either candidate.

With Harris polling way ahead, maybe the media is just not finding this an interesting race, said Democratic pollster Ruth Bernstein of EMC Research in Oakland. But it isnt Labor Day yet, so a lot of voters are not paying attention.

Election 2016 | California politics news feed | Sign up for the newsletter

phil.willon@latimes.com

Twitter: @philwillon

ALSO:

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Updates on California politics
On the floor of the California Assembly in June, lawmakers voiced passionate but opposing stances on whether to expand overtime pay for farmworkers.

They quoted scripture. They called upon their own experiences on family farms. They turned to the historic exploitation of black, Latino and Asian laborers in the fields.

The moment was historic for advocates and lobbyists who remember the movement to establish farm workers rights in the 1960s and 70s: Cesar Chavez walking alongside civil leaders and workers on a pilgrimage to Sacramento, Bobby Kennedy standing with farmworkers in Delano.

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In those days, the emotional appeals occurred outside the state Capitol. In June, the fervor had moved to the Assembly chamber, where AB 2757, which would have phased in new overtime rules for agricultural employees, died four votes short of the majority needed to pass.

I was devastated, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) said. This is really about whether people who are doing the hardest, most backbreaking work are finally  after decades and centuries of being treated differently in California  going to be seen as equal under the law.

Gonzalez revived the legislation two weeks later by amending an unrelated bill, AB 1066, thats now pending in the Senate. The upper house, controlled by liberal Democrats who are generally supportive of farm worker rights, may consider the bill as soon as Monday.

But lawmakers say the most intense debate will once again unfold among Gonzalezs Democratic colleagues in the Assembly, where the demographics have changed, but where powerful agricultural interests remain.

I am hopeful that it will get out of the Senate without too much problem, Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) said. But it will be a tough vote, a close vote in the Assembly.

The proposal would roll out new rules for farmworker overtime in 2019, lowering the current 10-hour-day threshold for overtime by half an hour each year until it reaches the standard eight-hour day by 2022. It also would phase in a 40-hour standard workweek for the first time. The governor would be able to suspend any part of the process for a year depending on economic conditions.

The United Farm Workers association, which sponsored the bill, says it addresses an injustice first inflicted on farmworkers nearly eight decades ago. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 excluded all agricultural workers, the majority of whom at the time were African American, from minimum wage and overtime standards.

In California, the Legislature exempted farmworkers from earning overtime pay in 1941. That prohibition remained unchanged until 1976, when the state Industrial Welfare Commission ordered overtime pay for farmworkers after 10 hours on the job on any single day and 60 hours in a week. Hourly workers in other jobs across the state receive overtime after eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.

There have been fights over the issue twice before in recent years. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar overtime bill in 2010. Another bill in 2012 passed through both houses of the Legislature but was killed when it came back to the Assembly for a final vote.

Labor rights advocates say that although the momentum of the Cesar Chavez days is past, the chances of success in expanding overtime for farmworkers are greater than in previous years. At the national level, there is a growing recognition that workers at the lowest levels of society need higher wages to survive, they argue, and the bill has drawn support from a diverse coalition of political leaders and organizations, including Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The makeup of the Assembly has also shifted, as more Latinos represent major agricultural districts and thus might bring a perspective once missing in the legislative debate  namely, that of family members or friends who have toiled in the fields.

Through the years, the idea of excluding agricultural workers from labor protections has become less and less palatable, especially because we know how difficult the work is and how difficult those conditions are, said Maria Ontiveros, a law professor at the University of San Francisco.

Even so, opposition to an expansion of farmworker overtime remains strong. Prominent business groups, led by the California Farm Bureau Federation and a coalition of agricultural producers, have thrown their political weight against it, saying the legislation saddles farmers and growers with higher costs.

Opponents said farmers in the states $54-billion industry are price takers  as opposed to price setters  who must accept the prevailing prices of products subject to the whims of the weather and international markets.

Greater burdens on them, they said, could lead to higher food prices and spur some growers to leave California.

Weighing the economic impact of the bill is difficult, as researchers say there is limited data on the hours worked by the roughly 829,000 farmworkers in California, more than 90% of whom are Latino and half of whom are brought to farms by crop support services, typically labor contractors.

But farmer associations said the bill could backfire on tens of thousands of agricultural workers who could see their paychecks cut as farmers seek to avoid paying overtime by limiting work hours and hiring more workers.

Eight Democrats voted against the overtime pay legislation in June and seven abstained, even after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) rose on the floor to urge legislators to support it. Some have not changed their stance.

Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) said he is opposed to adding another layer of cost on the agricultural community without addressing both burdensome regulations and the states ongoing water crisis.

If we are going to move on the overtime issue, we should be moving a comprehensive package of bills that support the agricultural community, he said. No relief on water, no relief on regulation  it is not good enough.

Gonzalez, whose role as chair of the Appropriations Committee often puts her in disagreements with colleagues over which bills live or die, faces a steep political climb to win the necessary votes.

To spark support for AB 1066, she and more than 100 religious leaders, families and elected officials embarked on a 24-hour fast this week. Another 2,000 members from the Courage Campaign, a statewide liberal activist group, joined the effort, which concluded Wednesday with prayers and songs in a Sacramento church.

Remembering Cesar Chavez 

For Gonzalez, the bill is personal, she said. Her grandfather was a bracero, a seasonal agricultural laborer, and her father worked in strawberry fields near Oceanside when he first came to the United States.

AB 1066 eases in the additional overtime pay rules, she said.

Its a very slow process by which we get to an eight-hour day, Gonzalez said. I think as we see temperatures rise in those fields, as we see larger and larger farms operating, the time has come to do this.

On the Assembly floor in June, dozens of farmworkers watched from the balcony as lawmakers clashed on whether that was true.

Some Assembly members pointed to Californias existing laws, saying it is one of a handful of states that already provide some form of overtime.

Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Nicolaus), whose family farms is in rural Sutter County, said the bill was not needed and would harm small farms like his, where workers were part of the family.

My family has worked the land for six generations, he said. You treat your workers fairly. You pay them a fair wage.

But Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D-Kingsburg), who quoted from the Bible, said that as a doctor, he had treated farmers who were in poor health after working too long under the sun.

After much thought, I decided to support this, he said. I realized this was a measure of equity.

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa

ALSO:

California lawmakers, faith leaders begin fast in support of overtime pay for farm workers

Assembly kills bill to give California farmworkers overtime pay

Updates on California politics
The horn outside the military barracks blew at 6 a.m. sharp, but Tao Qixi, 19, and many of her classmates from Peoples University had been up and in their green fatigues for an hour.

Tao, a finance major, had a simple breakfast of bread and porridge to fortify her for a long day of standing at attention in the sweltering August heat, singing Unity Is Strength and other military anthems, and marching and turning in formation.

In China, millions of young people like Tao must undergo short stints of military training  once in the first year of high school and again as college freshmen.

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The goal isnt to make the students battle-ready, but to instill in them a sense of patriotism, collectivism and national defense. In the case of Tao, who drilled for 12 days, it seems to have worked.

Before, I thought the military was a scary place, she said after returning to campus able to fold a bedsheet as neat and compact as a block of tofu. Now I can understand how some people will protect our territory, and why they have strong emotions toward the motherland.

But not all the camps have gone smoothly this year. A massive brawl between high school students and military instructors left 40 students and two adults injured in Hunan province. Elsewhere, a boy collapsed and died during drills and a girl committed suicide after being upbraided by a military instructor. The incidents have prompted some students, parents and teachers to question whether the training is conducted properly, or is even necessary.

The best thing they do is get the kids to run around and march, said Zhang Ming, a professor of political science at Peoples University in Beijing. Though he doesnt favor abolishing the training, he thinks its mostly irrelevant. They dont even do shooting practices anymore, he said.

A 2007 Education Ministry description of the program said one goal of the program was to temper [students] willpower. Zhang noted that there had been previous instances of fighting at the camps, especially in the sessions for college freshmen. The older the students are, the harder it is to manage them, he said.

Military training for students was introduced in 1955, but it was given greater emphasis after the army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Students at universities that authorities regarded as hotbeds of counterrevolutionary protest, including Beijings elite Peking University and Fudan University in Shanghai, were compelled to do a full year of the training before heading to campus.

The training initiative coincided with a larger patriotic education campaign launched by Deng Xiaoping, then the Communist Party chairman.

Training became compulsory for all high school and university students in 2001. But Chinese society and social values have radically changed since then, as reflected in the pushback from students and parents.

Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science at USC who specializes in China, believes theres a major disconnect between martial standards and the materialism of todays students.

Its kind of perfunctory. Its something students have to do because they dont want to get bad marks in their field, he said.

Supporters counter that military training is exactly whats needed to toughen up todays teenagers. Because of Chinas one-child policy, many high-schoolers and college students grew up without siblings, and with attitudes that have led many Chinese to deride them as spoiled little emperors.

The disconnect between military instructors and more urbane students raised on the latest fashions and Western television shows can end in tragedy when undisciplined instructors confront youngsters who cant or wont keep up. Recruits to the Chinese army are volunteers, typically 18 to 20 years old, many of them from rural areas and unemployed.

In August, Wang Jingwei, a high school freshman in northeastern Liaoning province, was unable to stand at attention to the satisfaction of her instructor. The teacher used his finger to poke her chest, and proceeded to insult her, calling her selfish, ungrateful, and threatened to expel her, the girls uncle told Chinese media.

After she was sent home, she committed suicide by jumping from her sixth-floor window. The local board of education said high school faculty members and the military instructors were not to blame.

The physical rigors can also challenge the growing number of Chinese teens who arent physically fit. The state-run New China News Agency reported that in the two weeks of 2011 military training at Peking University, the class of nearly 3,500 students reported nearly 6,000 doctors visits.

You cant really play around. If you do it leisurely, its not permitted, said Cang Yiru, 18, an Internet technology major at the Beijing Institute of Technology. Cang noted that many of her instructors were only a year older than she and had only a middle school education.

On Aug. 25, a high school freshman in Xian collapsed during training and was pronounced dead en route to the hospital. The next day in Wuhan, five high school freshmen fainted during the first 20 minutes of training in the sweltering heat.

Most prominently, a brawl between a group of ninth-graders in Hunan province and their military trainers resulted in injuries to 40 students, a high school teacher and a military instructor. The Beijing News reported that drill instructors who were drunk beat the students in revenge for being tackled in what was described as a playful altercation.

Students have contested the official report, which they say did not mention any drinking by the instructors.

Despite the controversies, the program has little chance of being disbanded. Yang Yujun, a Defense Ministry spokesman, reaffirmed its importance in a statement after the Hunan fight.

We have noticed some recent accidents associated with military training, and the military authorities have taken appropriate measures to improve the level of management, he said.

They can increase the military training, said USC professor Rosen. But I dont think its a wise thing for them to do.

Students dont see themselves being a part of it in day-to-day life.

Silbert is a special correspondent.
The Taliban and Afghan government forces were wrestling for control of districts in northern Afghanistan on Sunday as officials vowed not to let the strategic city of Kunduz fall back into militant hands.

Kunduz, the countrys fifth-largest city, was briefly captured by the Taliban nearly one year ago. At the time, the loss marked a devastating blow to the struggling Kabul government and its beleaguered security forces, and prompted the U.S.-led military coalition to deploy dozens of troops and airstrikes to help the Afghans regain control of the city.

Early Saturday, the Taliban launched another major effort to take Kunduz, attacking two districts on its eastern flank. The militants were then able to capture Khanabad.

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While Afghan ground forces backed by airstrikes late Saturday recaptured the district of Khanabad, east of Kunduz, militants seized the district of Qala-e-Zal, west of the city, officials said.

Unfortunately, the center of Qala-e-Zal district fell to the militants last night, but we will soon retake the district, Gen. Murad Ali Murad, deputy chief of army staff, told reporters.

The militants also blew up a bridge to the north that connects the province to Tajikistan and is an economic lifeline for the area.

Officials said the Taliban began its operation against Kunduz on Wednesday, cutting power to the city the day before commemorations were being held nationwide to mark Afghanistans independence.

The Taliban took the opportunity of the national independence day celebrations and increased their movements, said Asadullah Omarkhel, governor of Kunduz.

With the Taliban threatening the city, several provincial officials and hundreds of residents fled. Omarkhel warned his staff members that they would be suspended from their posts if they did not show up for work.

Afghan forces in Kunduz also fled the advancing Taliban. The governor of neighboring Takhar province led about 50 police into Khanabad to drive out the militants by late Saturday, officials said. Afterward, the governor, Yasin Zia, lamented the performance of the Afghan army.

The army didnt provide us with a single tank to expel the Taliban from Khanabad, Zia said.

Murad, the deputy army chief, traveled to Kunduz from the southern province of Helmand, where Afghan forces backed by U.S. airstrikes have been battling for weeks to keep the Taliban from capturing the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. He said 43 Taliban fighters had been killed in the battle in Kunduz.

Faizy is a special correspondent.

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A bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killed at least 30 people Saturday and wounded 94 others, authorities said.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the barbaric attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, appeared to be a suicide bombing. Other officials said it could have been carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State extremists.

Photos taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets as a crowd gathered nearby.

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The Gaziantep governors office early Sunday raised the death toll from 22 to 30. It said the number of wounded remained at 94.

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party  known by the acronym PKK  or been blamed on Islamic State. In June, suspected Islamic State militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last months failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings that targeted police and soldiers and were blamed on the PKK killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2-year-long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decades-long conflict.

Simsek, interviewed on NTV television, said, This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the [Gulen movement] are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

A brief statement from the Gaziantep governors office said the bomb attack on the wedding in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10:50 p.m. The statement condemned the attack as treacherous but did not provide further details.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

In Gaziantep, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting God is great as well as slogans denouncing terrorist attacks.

ALSO

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UPDATES:

5:40 p.m.: This article was updated with an increased death toll and information about other recent attacks in Turkey.

This article was originally published at 4:55 p.m.
Turkey expects to become a more active partner in regional efforts involving war-torn Syria and is willing to accept Syrian President Bashar Assad only in a transitional role, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday.

Yildirim, speaking to media representatives in Istanbul, insisted that Assad cannot play a part in Syrias future.

Could Syria carry Assad in the long term? Yildirim said. Certainly not.

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Turkey has backed Syrian rebel groups against Assad, and insisted that removing his government is the best way to fight Islamic State extremists. But Yildirims remarks Saturday signaled a shift for Ankara, with a possible alliance with Assad and Russia as a way to defeat Kurdish rebel groups, which seek to create an independent country in northern Syria.

In the six months ahead of us, we shall be playing a more active role, Yildirim said. It means not allowing Syria to be divided along ethnic lines ... ensuring that its government is not based on ethnic [divisions].

Yildirim said the United States and Russia know that Assad does not appear capable of uniting the country.

There may be talks [with Assad] for the transition. A transition may be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no [Kurdish rebels], Daesh or Assad in Syrias future, he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Turkey is fighting the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, within its own borders, and officials have said a growing autonomous Kurdish region across the border in Syria is a major concern for them. Ankara believes groups in Syria  including the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Peoples Protection Units, the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party  work closely with the PKK, and this cooperation is responsible for the groups ability to wage an insurgency in Turkey.

Ankara and the PKK had brokered a two-year cease-fire, but it fell apart in July 2015 partly over Turkeys reluctance to intervene in the Syrian border town of Kobane as Kurdish forces defended it against Islamic State.

Yildirim told reporters that Turkey was ruling out another cease-fire with the group, which he said had used the previous truce to prepare for continuing its 3-decade-old insurgency.

We would not enter into a dialogue with a terror organization, he said.

This week the government accused the PKK of carrying out four bombings in two days in the southeast, killing 10 people, mostly police and soldiers, and injuring more than 300. Hundreds of security forces and suspected PKK militants have been killed since the collapse of the cease-fire, and at least 350,000 residents have been displaced from several districts in the majority Kurdish southeast.

Yildirim denied that Russia was seeking to use Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey for its operations in Syria. The base is already used by a U.S.-led coalition to launch airstrikes against Islamic State.

But Turkey and Russia have announced plans to step up military and intelligence cooperation, after a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg this month. It was Erdogans first state visit abroad since a coup attempt last month. Relations with Russia had been strained since November 2015, when Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24 that briefly crossed into Turkey near the Syrian border.

Russian aircraft have backed Syrian government forces in the war, and until recently, the alliance steered clear of attacking Kurdish forces. But late last week, Syrian planes carried out airstrikes on Washington-backed Kurdish rebels near the northern city of Hasakah for the first time in the five-year war.

A small number of American military advisors are in the area, supporting fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces and Peoples Protection Units in their conflict with Islamic State militants. The Pentagon said it ordered fighter jets to the airspace above Hasakah as a precaution meant to protect the advisors.

Yildirim welcomed the Syrian governments airstrikes on Hasakah.

For some time, [the] Syrian regime made no move against the Democratic Union Party, Yildirim said. Last week, they bombed al-Hasakah. We read the situation as [Assad] regime realizing that Kurdish [forces] were making efforts to build a new structure in the north, which is becoming a threat to Syria.

Farooq is a special correspondent.

ALSO

At least 30 killed and 94 hurt in wedding blast in Turkey

2 car bombs in eastern Turkey kill 6, wound more than 200

Did a U.S. think tank sponsor a military coup? Turkey thinks so.
A federal court judge has recommended that Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio face criminal charges stemming from his department's reportedly systematic discrimination against Latinos.

U.S. District Judge Grant Murray Snow levied his assessment earlier this month, adding that he will ask prosecutors to formally file criminal contempt of court charges against the long controversial, 84-year-old lawmen.

During his longtime tenure in Maricopa County, Arpaio has previously been found to have displayed a "persistent disregard" for orders of the court instructing him and his department to cease with the practice of racial profiling.

Orders Ignored

Among the orders Snow has previously laid out and Arpaio has ignored is that officers undergo additional training and commence using body cameras.

Snow has also recommended that Maricopa County second-in-command Gerard Sheridan also face similar charges. The charges could result in fines or jail time. If he is ultimately found to be guilty of a felony, Arpaio could be forced from office.

Arpaio Huge Trump Supporter

A vocal supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Arpaio has previously admitted to violating orders, including the one instructing him to cease with his illegal immigration crackdowns.

Trump has run his campaign on a platform that includes taking a hardline against immigration, vowing to deport millions of immigrants if he is elected.

Arpaio is also accused of ordering an investigation of Snow in an effort to bring negative attention to the judge. He also once launched an investigation of President Obama, ultimately charging that his birth certificate is a forged document.

Arpaio has also faced heated criticism over such practices as operating an outdoor tent jail in 110 degree heat and for defending Arizona's controversial 2010 immigration law SB 1070, which critics charge supported racial profiling. Many parts of the law were eventually shot down by a Supreme Court ruling.

Meanwhile, Arpaio's years-long legal troubles are estimated to have caused area taxpayers well over $50 million.
The Blue Cut fire that sweeps across the San Bernardino County area this week (Aug 15-21, 2016) has already destroyed nearly 100 homes and in access of more than 200 other structures. Nasa has recently released satellite photos of the fire from space that shows the extension of the fire's fumes. Below are also the maps relative to the greater Los Angeles area that show the neighborhoods that are in immediate danger. The containment information and news updates are provided below as well.

Coupled with this week's Lake County wildfires, the raging blazes have already destroyed more than 300 structures, including several in the Lower Lake downtown area.

Current Situation: Containment, Total Dispatched Personnel, Evacuations and Planned Actions

Thus far, the blaze is reported to have stretched some 37,000 acres and remains just over 68 percent contained. At its peak, it forced the evacuations of more than 80,000 area residents. In total 82,649 people were evacuated as a result and currently 7,000 people remain evacuated.

There are currently 2,684 personnel dispatched who are working on this fire and based on Inciweb.gov the planned actions are to provide structure defense; complete containment lines, reinforce existing containment lines; continue to assess for damaged/destroyed structures; assist with repopulation where possible; prepare for the approval and integration of the suppression repair plan.

Dry, Humid Conditions Hampering Relief Efforts

In both instances, firefighters lamented there was little they could do as the blazes took full advantage of the area's vastly open regions and a five year drought that has left bone-dry conditions.

"They are just moving as fast as the wind can push them and that's leading to what we're seeing in terms of devastation," said Char Miller, a Pomona College professor who's an expert in wildfires. "Let's call it an imperfect storm of conditions: the drought, the heat, the low humidity. And let's be honest, this is not really big winds."

In the case of the Blue Cut blaze that erupted in the San Bernardino Mountains near I-15 early in the week, authorities expressed fear that it could be just a hint of what's to come as the fall season approaches, a time when Santa Ana winds traditionally cause many Southern California wildfires to pick up.

Through mid-April, 3,874 wildfires have raged across California this year, charring 112,950 acres and leaving seven dead.

Authorities Seeking Help Determining Cause of Blaze

The cause of the Blue Cut blaze remains under investigation and authorities are now asking the public for assistance in determining its origin. If you seen anything, heard anything have photos or videos, please call We Tip 1-800-47-ARSON or submit your tip online at: http://wetip.com/

Anyone with information about suspicious activity in the areas of Cleghorn and Kenwood Roads or on Old Cajon Boulevard or otherwise are encouraged to contact authorities.

"This has been a tough couple of weeks for the people of San Bernardino County," said San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said, also noting last week's Pilot fire, which combined with Blue Cut, required the services of more than 1,500 firemen.
The Cedar wildfire that started west of Kernville in Kern County on August 16, 2016 has expanded from 9,500 acres on August 19 to 14,543 acres on August 20. The fire located 42 miles northeast of Bakersfield is currently 5 percent contained and has prompted 1,058 personnel to be dispatched to fight the perimeter.

This is one among several active fires in Southern California Including the Chimney Fire, the Blue Cut Fire, the Rey Fire and the Pine Fire.

Mandatory Evacuations for Kern and Tulare Counties and Forest Closures

Several Kern and Tulare County communities including Alta Sierra, Slick Rock and Shirley Meadows as well as Rosey, Pine Flat, Pine Morgan, Sugar Loaf, California Hot Springs, Panorama Heights, McClenny Tract, Sugar Creek Mountain Homes, White River Summer Homes, Portuguese Meadows, Balance Rock, Idlewild and Poso Peak have been ordered to follow mandatory evacuations as of Friday morning in August 19. In addition, the fire has forced the Sequoia National Forest to issue closures for lands, roads and trails near the fire as of Saturday August. 20.

Cedar Fire Perimeter and Maps

Estimated Containment Date

Based on the report found in InciWeb (Incident Information System), the estimated containment date for the fire is Thursday, September 15, 2016 - exactly one month after it initiated. This shows the magnitude and intensity of the fire which is described in the following manner by the governmental website:

Fire is well established in drought-stressed and bug-killed timber, resulting in an active, deep-seated fire. Poor relative-humidity recovery supported active night-time fire behavior, including torching and short-range spotting.

Road Closures

Highway 155 at the eastern junction of Pascoe Road on the west side to the Sequoia National Forest boundary on the east will remain closed as well as Forest Highway 90 from Highway 155 to Portuguese Pass and Old State Road in Wofford Heights at its junction with Mountain Shadow Road will remain closed.

Community Meeting Tonight in Wofford Heights

A meeting for the public will be held the night of Saturday, Aug. 20 at 6:30 p.m. local time. It will be held at Faith Community Church in 20 Panorama Drive, Wofford Heights and organized by the California Interagency Incident Management Team 5 and Kern County Fire Department personnel, with representatives from the Sequoia National Forest and the Kern County Sheriff's Office.
Innovative Arts Academy Charter School

This fledgling Catasauqua charter school denies authorizing, paying for or sending out this mailer.

(Contributed photo)

A promotional mailer claiming to be from a new Catasauqua charter school paints Liberty High School students as drug users, sparking outrage among many Bethlehem residents.

Innovative Arts Academy Charter School denies it had anything to do with sending out the promotional mailer, which lists the school's return address.

The postcard references the September 2015 drug arrest of a 17-year-old Liberty student and asks "Why worry about this type of student at school? Come visit Arts Academy Charter School. Now enrolling grades 6-12."

It shows a stock image of a teenager holding their head in their hands and reprints a Morning Call headline: "Teen busted by Liberty HS officials with more than $3,000 of heroin, cocaine."

Photos of the mailer spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter and led some to share their disgust.

@BASDSUPT @basdjacksilva something must be done. This is straight up libel. As if charter schools weren't bad enough pic.twitter.com/DUp1rvG1Ko  Logan Priestas (@aLogGuy) August 20, 2016

Shame on you Innovative Arts Academy! Your school must not be that great if the only marketing strategy you could come up with is this. Posted by Suzanne Drake on Saturday, August 20, 2016

Late Saturday night, the charter school posted on its Facebook page that it did not authorize the mailer that many received over the weekend.

Many online jumped to the defense of Liberty High School and the Bethlehem Area School District released a statement late Sunday.

"Liberty High School has been a respected pillar of the Bethlehem community since its dedication in 1923," Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said. "Liberty's long history of accomplishments and deep traditions make it immune to scurrilous attacks."

In response to Facebook comments, the charter school noted that it had met its 300-student enrollment target and does not need to enroll more students.

Board president Kelly Bauer said on Facebook that the school's attorney is investigating the unauthorized mailing.

The school then shared a post from its attorney Dan Fennick, saying the board is appalled by the mailer.

Roy said the real issue is that Pennsylvania's failed charter school "uses the mantra of 'school choice' to undermine the integrity of public schools."

"The mission of public education is corrupted when the profit motive replaces the public good as the primary driver of our community's schools," Roy said. "Hopefully, this outrageous mailer incident will fuel a desire on the part of our state legislators to lead the charge in Harrisburg for legislation that fixes the state's failed charter policy."

The new mailer comes shortly after Bethlehem school board member Dean Donaher criticized the school for spending taxpayer dollars on a full-page ad in The Morning Call calling it a free school. Donaher emphasized that charter schools are funded by public tax dollars that are funneled from a student's home school district.

Charter school Chief Executive Officer Loraine Petrillo did not return a message from lehighvalleylive.com seeking comment for the Aug. 9 article.

But she did tell The Morning Call the school did not authorize the ad and the money for it did not come from the charter school. It was placed and paid for by an unknown benefactor, Petrillo told the newspaper.

On June 3, the Allentown newspaper reported the charter school was launching a marketing campaign that included open houses, full-page print ads in the paper and robocall blitzes to prospective students.

Fennick, the school's attorney, sent a letter to The Express-Times on Saturday saying that The Morning Call has twice run ads, most recently in Saturday's newspaper, to purportedly recruit students for the school.

"The school did not write, authorize, approve, nor pay for either of those ads. The school did not have knowledge that these ads would be published," Fennick wrote in the letter.

"We do not know if there are ads in the pipeline with your publication. The purpose of this letter is to advise you that we do not consent to any advertising being run without the express written authorization of the Board of Directors (Kelly Bauer, President) or the chief executive officer (Loraine Petrillo)."

The new charter school is expected to open this fall and specialize in preparing students for careers in graphic design, journalism, culinary arts and fashion design.

The arts charter school was supposed to be sharing space with the Medical Academy Charter School in Catasauqua, which was co-founded by former Bethlehem school board president Craig Haytmanek. But that charter school closed in June after enrollment fell well below sustainable levels.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The fire? Lots of people knew about the fire.

Its massive flames didn't dance, as the cliche might suggest, well before sunrise that late fall morning. They ripped. They roared. They ravaged the old stone house at 178 Charles St. on South Side Easton.

They tore through the new roof, turning the heavy white smoke orange as it rose 20 feet up into the darkness -- the violent rush of an angry blaze not easily contained.

Dozens of pictures and a video would soon tell the story of the devastation. Neighbors watched in amazement from their front porches.

The mayor, who lives a few doors down, spoke of the home's history. Of its recent renovations. Of the successful combining of old and new. Of a thing of beauty. Destroyed.

The call? That was different. Personal. Between a man and his wife. And Jeff Dutt wasn't quite specific enough quickly enough after he reached Ina as she completed her overnight shift at Moravian Hall Square in Nazareth.

"I got a phone call from Jeff," Ina began last week as she labored to contain her emotions as she sat with her husband in the dining room of their now remarkably restored home. "He sounded devastated and he said that no matter what, don't go to the house.

"And I asked what happened and he said that something bad just happened.

"And the first thing I was thinking about is that something happened to somebody and is everybody OK ... is everybody alive?"

Ina has a daughter, Dziana, now 15. Jeff has sons Jason, 17, and Jesse, 14.

Dziana just after 6 a.m. had been in her room on the second floor, with the family dog Pudgie. Jeff, who owns a roofing company, was in his basement office. He smelled something "weird" -- an odor likely blown down by the kitchen vent. Something electrical.

He felt the walls as he made his way upstairs. Cool. Nothing. But when he got to the master bedroom at the top of the three-story home, the eastern wall "had smoke oozing off it."

He ran down, gathered up Dziana and the dog and got out into the backyard. The smoke alarms were just beginning to shriek. He was so shaken up, it took him a few times to dial 911, he said.

But the call to Ina came later. After the city fire department had done everything it could to limit the fire damage to just the third floor of the house that noted builder William Streepy constructed in 1906. He was famous for his stone homes, mostly on College Hill.

But this grand effort was on the South Side, where his family would live until 2010. Soon after, the Dutts bought it. Two families in 110 years. It was a forever home. But now the top was ruined and the rest was a victim of smoke and water.

Ina was panicking. She wanted details. She needed to know.

"'Yes, everybody's fine. Everybody's safe'" Ina said, recounting Jeff's soothing words. "And then he said, 'We just lost the house.' I said, 'What do you mean we just lost the house?' And he said, 'The house is on fire.'

"The news that the house was on fire wasn't as devastating for me because I heard that everybody was OK, everybody was safe. ... You can rebuild a house. You can't bring someone's life back."

Jeff stood outside his home just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 11. The fire was later ruled an accident caused by heat from a wood furnace meeting failing mortar in the chimney. Dutt doesn't recall any of the conversation he had that day. But he said he was going to rebuild. He was certain of that.

Back from the brink

It would take eight months. And more than $1 million in insurance money. But the job would get done. The Dutts would get their home back. They're moving back in this weekend.

They took time last week, along with contractor Jay Miller and his interior designer wife Karen, to talk about what was and what they have now -- a completely rebuilt house where fire is just a sad memory but the future is a safer, sounder and spectacular home.

First things first, this is a story about a home that was properly insured, Jeff said.

"Insurance paid for everything," he noted.

He wasn't happy with the high premiums, but he said his agent at John Bisco Associates explained to him when he bought the policy that there was no way he could replace the house unless he insured it for twice the replacement value.

The "elite" policy covered the home and its contents for up to $1.5 million, said Linda Williams, an insurance agent at Sidney Sacts Agency Inc., of which Bisco Associates is a part. The figure is reached by putting data about the home, its finishings and furnishings into a computer program call a cost-igator. It doesn't have much to do with the $170,000 the Dutts paid in 2011 for the home, before their first restoration, she said.

The home was assigned to an adjuster and was a total loss, she said.

"The most professional and on-time adjuster I've ever worked with," Jay Miller said of Tom Sabrick, a catastrophic adjuster at Encompass.

So the money was there.

All they had to do was gut the home and rebuild it from scratch.

'I've been here every day'

And it wasn't pretty at first. The roof had collapsed into the third floor and put so much stress on the house, a girder in the basement broke, Jeff said. The only thing that survived on the third floor was the stone fireplace.

"I'm not the type of person to dwell on downfalls," Jeff said. "Being upset doesn't solve the problem. I got up at 4:30 the next morning, went over to the house to put the final tarp on the roof. Ever since that day I've been here every day. I had a roofing business to run. But I had some really good customers who understood."

Ina, meanwhile, was two months from her nursing degree.

"I was doing so well in school," she said. "There was no way for me to give up my studies and just stop. Toward the end of the day (on Dec. 11) I was thinking tomorrow I have to be at the hospital, I have to have my clinical experience. What should I do? OK, I need to be there. I need to do what I have to do to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse.

"I didn't sleep well at nighttime. It was probably one, two hours of sleep. The next morning I was already up and on the way to the hospital. Everybody was asking me, 'Why do you look so upset?' and then I said, 'Yesterday I lost my house in a fire.' And everybody was shocked, asking what are you doing here? I said 'What other choice did I have?' I need to go to school, finish school. I can't just stop."

She would receive her degree and pass her state boards. Now she's a nurse.

About a week into his efforts at the house, Jeff realized he couldn't do it on his own. And while his entire family is in the construction business, when dealing with insurance, he figured it was best to find a contractor who didn't share his last name.

Jeff turned to his old friends, the Millers.

"I knew the people he surrounded himself with," Jeff said. "I knew right away" it was the right decision.

An army of craftsmen

As many as 50 craftsmen worked on the job, according to Jay Miller.

"I can't say enough about the crew," many of them subcontractors who are experts in their fields, Jay added. "They have 30, 40, 50 years experience. They are all masters of their trades. It was kind of like a perfect storm setup."

The oak floors on the first floor were destroyed by water. They were replaced with white oak inlaid with maple and black walnut, a design the installer worked up, Jay explained.

Three tile bathrooms -- one on each floor -- all styled to a bygone era, are up to date in terms of usability. All new.

In the kitchen, custom-designed white cabinets with glass inlays give an historic feel. The greyish granite countertops and stainless steel appliances are modern touches that don't feel out of place.

A fair amount of German leaded glass was shattered and had to be replaced, but many of the window frames survived.

The fir floors on the second floor were under carpet and had a better shot at surviving the water, Jay Miller said.

"Oak doesn't take as well to water," he said. "They still use fir on porch floors."

So the fir was refinished in the hallway and four bedrooms on that level and the carpet is a distant memory. One of the bedroom closets has a washer-dryer.

The plaster lathe throughout the house was ruined by water and had to be replaced with drywall. Closed-cell insulation went in where needed.

The third floor was 95 percent gone, which was an opportunity to put in a built-in dresser halfway up the two-level stairway and built-in, glass-fronted bookshelves across from each other near the front of the bedroom.

"It still feels like an old house to me," Jeff said. "Up here (on the third floor), it feels like new. Down below is original."

The electric, plumbing and HVAC systems had to be replaced and rerun throughout the house. Ungrounded nob and tube wiring was found in places and torn out.

"I feel pretty comfortable knowing all the codes are up to date," Jeff said. "It's a better comfort feeling. ... When you buy an old house, you never know what's behind the walls. Now we know."

The four-sided hip roof with four dormers was replaced, with a stained glass skylight now brightening the center of the room. Where a vent once fed the fire "like a chimney" to the center of the roof, this time there will be no vent, replaced by solid insulation.

The new smoke alarms are hardwired to an alert system. No more scrambling to dial in an emergency.

Every piece of clear chestnut trim on the first two floors was removed, labeled, returned and then refinished in place. It saved the insurance company between $250,000 and $300,000, Miller said, because the adjuster suggested replacing it. But chestnut, which used to be plentiful in the Lehigh Valley, is now pretty much gone.

The oak pocket doors between the living room and dining room were swollen, but once rehabbed now work like new.

Lights and doorknobs are new but look period.

The centerpiece oak stairway in the main hall was refinished in an intricate, weeks-long process called stain glazing. The result is stunning.

Job finished early

The family stayed with Jeff's parents, Jan and Candace in Williams Township, and eventually moved into an extended-stay place Downtown. Ina credits Jeff's parents with providing the extra emotional support she needed to get through the experience.

"The Eastonian was nice, but ..." Jeff said.

Jeff headed up the framing crew, stopping at his roofing jobs each day to get those crews up to speed before he returned home.

At one point, Jay Miller told his friend," Get the hell out of here and do what you need for your family."

But it didn't last.

"Jeff's presence was what made the job go smoothly," Miller said.

So eight months after a devastating fire, the Dutts are moving back into their forever house.

"I think we always planned on staying awhile," he said, explaining that before the fire they had put in a new kitchen, put on a new roof and completed a three-year project painting the exterior trim, which includes dental molding just below the roof. "It's why we put the work in."

Jay figured the rebuild would be a one-year job. But it finished earlier.

"We didn't have any hiccups," he said. "The way the insurance company stepped up. Karen and Ina worked (well) together (on the designs). The level of trust was high right from the get-go."

The work is done and the kids were starting to move stuff in on Thursday. New furnishings were on the way.

The only question left to ask is what would the original owner, Mr. Streepy, think?

"I think he would be happy," Jeff Dutt said.

Added Jay Miller: "It's fair to say he would approve."

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Miriam Rodriguez knows her plan to help recently-released female convicts is right for Easton.

Neighbors may have bristled at her first choice for the transitional housing program site, but she hasn't given up.

The ordained minister and recovering drug addict runs Nehemiah Wall, a place where recently-released female prisoners can establish a foundation for a law-abiding life before moving out on their own.

She runs a facility in Bethlehem and hoped to put one in at 815 Lehigh St. in Easton. But residents came out against it and the zoning hearing board shot down the plan Aug. 15.

She apologized to the neighbors and said she wouldn't have pursued it had she realized she needed a zoning variance.

"I never meant to hurt anyone," she said Thursday. "I really thought that this was what God wanted for the ministry and that's why I pursued it. I will adjust my plan to accommodate the community."

Tim Hoadley, who lives two doors away from the proposed site, said he's relieved the zoners didn't allow it.

"We fully support what she's trying to do, but it's not a good fit for our neighborhood," Hoadley said.

Rodriguez believes there are sites near the Northampton County courthouse and prison that are zoned to permit her plan. She believes God will lead her to the appropriate location as he did with her choice for a Bethlehem site eight years ago.

She founded the organization after struggling with addiction 28 years ago. The New York native came to Allentown to clean up but found herself more mired in drug abuse than ever.

That's when she found her calling and her faith.

"I have a heart for women," she said. "I know what it's like to be addicted and have children."

Rodriguez is a Bethlehem resident who is active with the Greater Shiloh Church of Easton.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Im just back from the first two week holiday Ive had since 2008. I was fairly determined before I went that I was going to have a proper break. My aim was greatly helped with the discovery that Id managed to book a holiday cottage that had no wifi. I almost succeeded in keeping away from work for the whole time and I feel much better for it. After fighting two national elections and two referendum campaigns in 2.5 years, I was pretty close to completely knackered. I knew I had to switch off properly for my own wellbeing. I am very grateful to the team for covering while Ive been away. Theyve done a great job even though some of them have been dealing with major life events.

I had planned to do what I always do on holiday  read lots of books. That didnt work out either. I only got through the new Harry Potter book and the latest edition of Liberator. Instead, I found myself gazing at the views (and who could blame me?), watching the Olympics and walking for miles on Rosemarkie beach with the dog. The weather was so wonderful the second week that it would have been criminal not to have been out and about enjoying it while we had the chance.

This was taken from the sea front in Cromarty last Tuesday night. We noticed that there were far more oil rigs in there than there used to be due to the severe contraction in the oil industry. Each one represents hundreds of lost jobs, hundreds of families thrown into uncertainty.

From our cottage, we had a birds eye view of the Moray Firth in general and Chanonry Point in particular. The Firth is home to a colony of around 130 bottlenose dolphins. Every day keen photographers gather at Chanonry Point at the turn of the tide in the hope of seeing them. These dolphins bring around 150,000 people and 10.4 million to the local economy, according to Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council. Now their habitat and that of other marine wildlife is threatened because of an application to carry out ship to ship oil transfers. Unsurprisingly the local community and wildlife organisations object to the proposal. Theres a strong community campaign against this and as a frequent visitor to the area, Ill be doing what I can to help.

No time to go wobbly on the EU

Rosemarkie Beach is my favourite place on the planet. I have walked on it with everyone I have ever loved. It has incredible beauty, with rich colours, stones, trees, a dramatic rockscape and a restorative tranquility that is good for the soul. Walking up and down it in a variety of weathers, being sandblasted by gales, soaked by horizontal rain or baking in the heat of an almost mediterranean sun, I was able to deal with the intense emotions and fears of the last few months. That little bit of space helped me to raise my head and look to the future.

I have come back more determined than ever that this party needs to be leading the campaign for Britain to stay in the EU. No ifs, buts or maybes. At the moment were not even close to experiencing the economic trauma that leaving the EU will bring, but when we do, well take a huge hit. Brexit is horrendous for this country and we need to persuade people that our future remains within the EU and that we need to find some way of reversing the decision made on 23rd June. We dont overturn the will of the people expressed on that date, but we show that the majority for that decision no longer exists.

David Howarth told the Social Liberal Forum Conference last month that by March 2020, even if nobody changes their mind, the slim majority in favour of Brexit will have gone purely on demographic factors as young people, who tend to be vastly in favour of remaining, come on to the electoral register. We have to make sure that they have their say on any final settlement with an option on the ballot paper to stay in. Anything else would be irresponsible. We cannot afford to let these young people down.

I recognise that some within the party feel very strongly that we cant be seen to be going against the wishes of a majority of the people. However, this party cant just give up fighting for what it has always believed in. The Remain minority is probably the biggest minority weve ever been a part of. We believe that Britain being at the heart of the EU is good for everyone and so we need to fight for that. No other party will do so with such passion. We saw that during the referendum. We would be daft to give up a unique position within British politics when its one that is where our heart is.

As a party we need to step up our campaigning activity on this. We need to be much clearer about what we want and why. Our comments need to be much more specific. Sometimes our press statements can be too much like cheap shots at Boris. Tempting though that is, we need to stick to outlining the very real impact of Brexit on people, particularly those who depend most on public services. We need to be out and about in every community having conversations and changing minds. As we do that, we need to be able to articulate what a liberal society looks like. We need to show that we stand up against abuse of power wherever we find it, whether by government or corporate. We need to show that we stand with the most vulnerable. We challenge the establishment. We do what is right to protect the planet for the future. We use the power of the state to create opportunities for people, to break down barriers and prevent exploitation. We want people to live their lives in freedom. You cant be free if something as basic as your own home, owned or rented, is beyond your reach or if you dont have enough money for even the basics in life.

The future prosperity of our country depends on us winning these hearts and minds and we need to get on with it. We need to provide the glue that helps this very divided country to come back together and solve the problems it faces.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim delivers a speech during a press conference after a Turkish-Israeli meeting, at the Cankaya Palace in Ankara, on June 27, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Aug. 20 -- The Turkish parliament on Saturday approved the normalization deal reached with Israel last month, ending a six-year rift and paving the way for the restoration of full diplomatic ties, Daily Sabah reported.

The parliament voted to approve the pact early on Saturday before it closed for a summer recess.

Relations between Turkey and Israel declined in 2010 following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship en route to deliver humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, which left 10 Turkish activists killed.

According to the new agreement, Israel will pay 20 million U.S. dollars in 25 days as a compensation for lost lives during Mavi Marmara flottila raid and Turkey will drop all cases against the incident.

Israeli soldiers will be exempt from legal and criminal responsibility and individual Israeli nationals also would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident.

The deal was already approved in the Israeli cabinet earlier this year.

Also on Saturday, Israel lauded the Turkish parliament has approved the bilateral reconciliation agreement.

"Israel welcomes the Turkish parliament's decision, and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

It added Israel expects the future exchange of ambassadors.
LIMERICK City and County Council pumped 410,000 of Regeneration funds into Limericks stint as National City of Culture in 2014, a new report has revealed.

The funds brought to 1,420,839  or 13% of the total income for the year  committed by the local authority. Of this, 179,777 was direct funding, 831,062 was staffing costs given to the project and 410,000 was Regeneration funding.

The figures are contained in an Ex-Post Evaluation of City of Culture, carried out by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Responding to a query about this use of funds for the project, a council spokesperson said: The council is also very pleased with the impact the use of Regeneration funds had in terms of social engagement, social inclusion and specific projects within the regeneration areas.

The report adapted the evaluation framework used to analyse European Capitals of Culture to review Limericks stint as national City of Culture, a fact that the Leader understands has irked some in the local authority, believing them not to be a like for like comparison. Budgets for Capitals of Culture are in the main many times that of Limericks total expenditure of 10.9m in 2014.

However, the report is reasonably favourable, concluding that the city performed well against international comparators in the proportion of funding assigned to the cultural programme. Yet, it concluded that the level of expenditure on marketing and communications  at only 3.7% of total expenditure  was not in line with an EU Capitals of Culture average of 14.46%. There was criticism during the year of culture of a perceived lack of marketing.

The council spokesperson said that the local authority was satisfied that we delivered an exceptional year of events with the level of funding received in such a short lead-in timeframe.

The year has also lead to a greater understanding of the huge value and impact culture can have on society as a whole within the council, it said.

Analysing the level of sponsorship the year of culture received  1,230,791  the report reveals that City of Culture engaged a marketing company to enhance its ability to secure sponsorship at a cost to the organisation of 55,664  made up of contract payments of 30,664 and a legal settlement of 25,000 in respect of a disputed performance bonus under the contract. This was E Merge Marketing Communications, owned by Liam Gaskin, it is understood.

The council spokesperson said a company was awarded a tender to raise sponsorship for the year-long event. Following the end of the year, they contested an amount of sponsorship-in-kind as income generated and anticipated a percentage of this. This figure was queried by Limerick City of Culture and following legal exchanges a settlement of 25,000 was agreed.
THE SIXTH Abbot of Glenstal and successor to Mark Patrick Hederman was elected at the weekend.

With great joy, the monastic community of Glenstal Abbey announces the election of Abbot Brendan Coffey OSB, reads a statement from the monastery.

The Benedictine monks of Glenstal chose Fr Brendan Coffey to serve as abbot for a period of eight years following the conclusion of Fr Mark Patrick Hedermans term.

The election was presided over by the Abbot-President of the Congregation of the Annunciation, the family of monasteries to which Glenstal belongs.

Joseph Coffey was born in Ennis in 1970. After studies in Maynooth and Rome he was ordained a priest of the diocese of Killaloe in 1995.

After ordination, he pursued postgraduate studies in Canon Law at the Gregorian University in Rome, after which he was appointed curate in the parish of Kilrush. He entered Glenstal in 1998, taking the name Brendan. He professed simple vows in 1999 and made his solemn profession in 2002.

After some years working in Glenstal Abbey School as a housemaster and teacher of Classics, Fr Brendan spent two years in Padua, Italy, doing postgraduate studies in Liturgy. On his return to Glenstal he served as Prior of the monastery from 2007 until 2015. He spent the academic year 2015-16 at the Catholic University of America, doing doctoral studies in Liturgy.

Abbot Brendan takes office immediately. The formal Abbatial Blessing will take place on a date yet to be decided, after the current renovation works in the abbey church have been completed, concluded the statement.

Founded in 1929, Glenstal Abbey is home to a monastic community of just under 40, a boarding school, farm and guesthouse, as well as two God Pods  a modern take on centuries-old beehive huts where monks found spirituality in solitude. They strive to live according to the Rule of St Benedict and the precepts of the Gospel.
CLLR EDDIE Ryan says motorists take their lives in their hands every day at Bearys and ORourkes crosses.

During a deputation to the Transport Infrastructure of Ireland (TII) councillors from the Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district will impress upon staff the need for roundabouts and improvement works at the two locations.

Cllr Eddie Ryan, chairman, said: They are two of the most dangerous junctions in the county.

ORourkes Cross is on the N20  main Limerick to Cork road  and links Newcastle West with Kilmallock on the Bruff line. There is also a busy petrol station.

Bearys Cross connects the N24 Limerick to Waterford road and the R513 through Caherconlish and onto Mitchelstown.

Coming from the Caherconlish side I had reason to turn right at Bearys cross recently, heading towards Boher. I use that road four times a week.

Literally, it was a dart for my life to get across the road because you have to have the two sides clear to go across and turn right. It is deadly. We are fighting for the health and safety of the people of our area, said Cllr Ryan.

The Galbally man says the same can be said for ORourkes Cross.

It is a miracle, thankfully, that there arent more serious accidents at both locations, said Cllr Ryan.

Former Bruff superintendent, Alan Cunningham; Cllr Mike Donegan and fellow councillors led a campaign for a speed limit at ORourkes Cross, which was introduced in 2013.

But now that the economy has improved councillors are hoping to get funding for roundabouts at the two locations in south and east Limerick.

At the last municipal area meeting a presentation was given to councillors by staff from the Mid-West National Road Design Office. It was the unanimous decision of the members that we would focus only on these two projects. They would cost approximately, with land acquisition and so, 2 million each. We are not going to get seven or eight wishes anyway so we decided to focus on these two, said Cllr Ryan, who expects the deputation to meet TII, formerly the NRA, officials in the coming weeks.

Cllr Ryan says over 100,000 has been spent on researching and preparing the detailed plans by the Mid-West National Roads Design Office. Maps are are being posted to local landowners.

He lists the example of the roundabout at Morrisons on the Ballysimon Road.

That works very well. It doesnt interfere with the Tipperary road traffic  you are rarely held there, said Cllr Ryan, who was part of a group of councillors that secured 563,000 for traffic calming measures as part of the N24 Dromkeen scheme.

They gave us a good hearing and they were favourable to us. We succeeded there and that was in much worse times. They only had peanuts then - I think they only had 1.9 million and we got over half a million for Dromkeen, said Cllr Ryan.

The bottom line, he says, is that ORourkes and Bearys are busy and dangerous crosses and improvements will reduce the possibility of road deaths.

There are more trucks and cars on our roads and this should be matched with extra investment, he concluded.
LIMERICK hopes are high that this years Limerick Rose Marie Hennessy will make the cut and get through to the final selection of the competition which will go out live on RTE next Monday and Tuesday night.

This Wednesday night, dozens of Maries family and friends from her native West Limerick made the journey to the Dome in Tralee to support Marie as she and this years 64 other Roses were interviewed on stage as part of the final selection process.

But whatever the outcome -and the contestants will not know until Sunday the names of the 32 Roses who will make it through to the televised final - the whole experience has been a win-win for Marie.

We are having a dream time, said the young woman from Rooskagh, Carrigkerry who teaches Irish at Desmond College, Newcastle West.

Before last Friday, when all 65 Roses met for the first time, Marie admitted to being nervous. But in getting to know the other Roses, and in the busy schedule of events since, those nerves have disappeared.

We are all in the same boat. We are all supporting each other, she said.

Support from her native Carrigkerry and from her school colleagues in Newcastle West has also been welcome and she has been overwhelmed by the generosity of business people in Newcastle West and Limerick in helping her dress for the dream. They were unbelievable and really helped me along the way, she enthused.

She was looking forward to, rather than being anxious about, her interview with Daithi OSe this Wednesday night, she revealed. But, just as in the Limerick selection, she was not planning to do a party piece.

But in Athea, the banners are flying for the New York Rose. hoping that it will be a double for the parish. In 2008, New York Rose, Lisa Murtagh, whose mother Breda Geoghegan is from Athea, won the Rose of Tralee title.

And hopes are high that this years New York Rose, Kirstin Stack, whose dad Mike is from Athea, can repeat that victory. Mike Stack left Athea for New Jersey over 30 years ago but Kirstin, a Ph D student, is a regular visitor to Athea where her nan, Norrie Stack and her aunt Mary Murray still live, as do many other relatives.

Scores of Stack relatives have planned to team up with Kirstins Tralee relatives in the Dome to cheer her on this week.

Meanwhile, Limerick also has connections with another Rose, Molly Fogarty who represents Western Canada. Molly, who is a radio presenter, has visited her grandmother, Mary Mullanes home place in Kantoher and has met many of her Danaher and Mullane cousins in the area.

I know them very well, she told the Limerick Leader. Every time I come I always visit Kantoher. Her grandmother and her husband, James Fogarty emigrated to Saskatchewan, in Western Canada in 1957 where Mollys dad Tim was born. Mollys mother Mary Lou is Canadian.

It is such a different experience, it is an amazing experience, Molly said about being a Rose. I didnt really know what to expect. But now we are on our way, I am really excited.

The bookies favourite is Cork Rose, Denise Collins.
THERE is disappointment today as the Limerick Rose Marie Hennessy missed out on a spot in the televised stages of the Rose of Tralee.

Marie, a teacher of Irish at Desmond College, Newcastle West, was interviewed in the Dome in Tralee on Wednesday by Rose host Daithi O Se.

She was supported by dozens of her friends who made the short journey across the border from her home place of Rooskagh, Carrigkerry.

But this Sunday afternoon, it was revealed that sadly Marie was not one of the 32 Roses taking part in the televised stages on Monday and Tuesday night.

There was also bad news for two other Roses with Limerick connections: the New York Rose, Kirstin Stack, whose grandparents and father are from Athea, and Western Canadas Rose Molly Fogarty, who has family roots in Kantoher also missed out on the final 32.

The executive chair of the Rose of Tralee international festival Anthony OGara said: RTE can only accommodate 32 Roses on live TV which is why we needed to stage a qualifying phase during the first few days of the festival. Every Rose has enjoyed the full festival experience by travelling on the pre-festival tour of Ireland before taking part in the parades, attending the Rose Ball and the various festival functions in Tralee.

The Limerick Leader is awaiting a comment from Marie.

But Limerick solicitor and RTE Radio presenter Will Leahy tweeted: Hard luck to Marie, Limerick Rose.

All this means Limerick will again not have a representative in the Rose of Tralee final, a run which stretches back to 2007 when UL student Melanie Carroll flew the Treaty flag in the Dome.

The televised selections will be broadcast live on RTE One on Monday and Tuesday, with the 2016 Rose expected to be crowned around 11pm on the latter night.
Rebel fighters ride a tank in an artillery academy of Aleppo, Syria, August 6, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

ANKARA, Aug. 21 -- The death toll from a bomb blast near a wedding hall in the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night has risen to 30, in addition to 94 injuries, according to Turkish authorities.

"We condemn the traitors who organized and carried out this attack," said the Gaziantep Governor's Office, which raised the death toll from an earlier report of 22.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Samil Tayyar, a deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on twitter that the attack was carried out by the Islamic State terrorist group.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, however, said the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

Local media reported that the blast occurred in the Sahinbey District of Gaziantep at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT) in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighborhood of the city. Local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey.

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack. The site of the explosion was sealed off by police. Hundred of residents gathered near the site, praying for the dead and denouncing the attacker.

The blast in Gaziantep occurred on a day when Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in helping address the Syrian crisis within the next six months.

Yildirim has also pledged a fierce response to the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

The security situation in Turkey has deteriorated recently following a spate of deadly attacks in the wake of a failed coup attempt last month.

On Thursday, five soldiers were killed and six others injured by a roadside bomb believed to be planted by PKK militants in Turkey's eastern Bitlis province.

Also on Thursday, suspected PKK militants killed a villager and wounded a soldier near Nazar village of Hizan district in Bitlis province.

Early Thursday, another bombing near police headquarters in the eastern province of Elazig killed at least three police officers and injured 217, including 85 police officers.

A car bombing on Wednesday night occurred in the eastern province of Van, injuring at least 73 people, including 20 policemen.

In late June, three attackers, alleged to be IS militants, fired at crowds in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport and then detonated their explosive vests, killing 44 people and wounding more than 200 others.

Since July 2015, over 500 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group first started anti-government attacks.
Unknown number of people trapped as fire breaks out at Bangladesh's largest shopping complex

(Xinhua) 15:24, August 21, 2016

DHAKA, Aug. 21 -- A devastating fire broke out at Bangladesh's largest Bashundhara shopping mall complex, in capital Dhaka on Sunday afternoon, probably leaving an unknown number of people trapped inside the building.

Sources said an unknown number of people are likely trapped inside the burning building though hundreds of people were evacuated from the shopping mall.

A fire department official, who declined to be named said, as many as 14 fire-fighting units have been striving to put out the blaze that broke out on Sunday at about 11:30 a.m. local time on the market's 5th floor, which is jam packed with scores of local and foreign mobile shops.

Bashundhara is 19 stories tall, of which eight are used for the mall and the remainder as the corporate headquarters of the Bashundhara Group, one of the largest industrial conglomerates of Bangladesh.

Shocking TV footage showed huge thick black smoke billowed from the large complex into the air.

The fire drew thousands of onlookers.

There was no loss of life immediately so far.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Earlier in March 2009 a big fire broke out at the shopping complex which claimed at least seven people's lives and caused huge financial losses.
SYDNEY, Aug. 20 -- China's technology hub Silicon Dragon is slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with as some of its tech companies are delivering revenue growth that could give Google and Facebook a run for its money, a columnist said.

Fairfax Media columnist Michael Smith said on Saturday the hub based in Shenzhen near Hong Kong was its version of Silicon Valley, adding that Australia was "dinosaurs in comparison" to the Chinese progress in technology.

This is evident as five of the world's 14 privately-owned tech companies valued at more than 10 billion U.S. dollars were now based in China, Smith said quoting figures released by PwC.

"There is a real hunger here (in China) that Australia does not have. The Chinese look at Australians and think you are fat and lazy by comparison," an anonymous Australian working in the Chinese tech sector was quoted as saying.

A Huawei executive James Peng said the Chinese government's willingness to give incentives such as tax breaks coupled with its western-style market economy were the other reasons behind Shenzhen's success.

"You will see government efforts to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. What a lot of business people here like is that Shenzhen is a city where there is a recognition that businesses will do well but that some will fail. Failure is okay here, whereas Chinese provincial governments can't have companies failing," an unnamed Australian government official said.

Simon Lance, managing director of the China operations for global recruitment agency Hays, said Chinese tech firms like their counterparts in Silicon Valley, also find it challenging to recruit the right talent and have to offer pay rises of up to 25 percent and a career progression plan to get new employees on board.

"The thing that really strikes me about China is that it makes long-term plans ... 10-year plans ... you can set up an industrial park working on virtual reality or artificial intelligence almost overnight. Australians touring here are surprised at how high-tech the facilities are becoming," said Lance, an Australian who moved to China 15 years ago.

Drone maker DJI executive said the ability of Chinese companies being able to move fast and adapt was another reason for its success.

"Chinese tech companies used to copy what western firms were producing but then they started improving on it and now they are breaking new ground on their own," the unnamed executive was quoted as saying.

Even local banks in China were cashing in on the innovation fun.

Recently HSBC, one of the few foreign banks in China, launched a WeChat banking app which will let its customers transfer money to each other in two seconds.

In conclusion, Smith in his column titled "China's tech sector leaves Australia in its wake" believed that it was almost impossible for Australia to compete with China progress in the tech space.

"While there will be opportunities to utilise Australian talent and skills in China, the decision by Uber to pull out of China last month shows how difficult it is for foreign multi-nationals to get a slice of the action," Smith concluded.

Smith recently travel to China as a guest of the Australia-China Relations Institute.
(File photo)

The Chinese military has revealed a bomber squadron with the East China Sea Fleet have recently conducted a long-range combat drill in the Sea of Japan.

The bombers traveled thousands of kilometers and conducted saturation attacks on vessels of a simulated enemy to improve their capability of continuous strikes at maximum range.

Navy officials say the drill was routine and in accordance with international law, and not aimed at any specific country, region or target.

Last week, Chinese naval warships also held a confrontation drill in the same waters.
Ansar Dine, a Tuareg jihadist front group for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has claimed several recent attacks that have occurred in multiple regions throughout Mali. Three attacks were targeting French forces in the northern part of the country. However, the French Ministry of Defense (MoD) has yet to confirm or deny these claims.

The majority of these attacks took place on Aug. 16 in the Kidal Region of northern Mali. The first attack was an IED blast on a French armored vehicle near the town of Abeibara, which is a stronghold of the jihadist group. Additionally, Ansar Dine claimed to fire rockets or mortars at the joint United Nations-French base at Amachach near the town of Tessalit. According to local sources, the base was previously targeted on March 21 and April 1 and 17.

Immediately after the rocket fire, French forces reportedly sent troops to scan the area. During this, Ansar Dine claimed to have hit a French vehicle with an IED. The blast, according to the jihadists, killed two soldiers. The French MoD has not yet commented on this or the other reported incidents.

Further south, Ansar Dine also claimed its forces assaulted a Malian military checkpoint in the central town of Mopti. In the statement, its forces purportedly fired shots at the checkpoint, which caused Malian forces to retreat. The group then claimed to have captured four motorcycles, two Kalashnikovs, and a lot of ammunition.

In addition to the Ansar Dine claims, local sources reported that French forces clashed with AQIM in the northern town of Tabankort on Aug. 17. These reports came two days after other reports said that AQIM clashed with the ostensibly pro-Bamako militia, GATIA, also near Tabankort. However, neither AQIM nor GATIA have commented on the reports of clashes.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 148 al Qaeda-linked attacks have occurred in Mali and neighboring countries according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. There have been more than 280 al Qaeda-linked attacks in the region in the last two years, with most occurring in northern Mali. The rate in which these assaults have occurred is unlikely to slow down, which may make 2016 one of the deadliest years for Mali since 2012. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda has launched more than 100 attacks in West Africa in 2016.]

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.
As Sahab, al Qaedas propaganda arm, has released the second episode in Ayman al Zawahiris Brief Messages to a Victorious Ummah [worldwide community of Muslims] series. In the first episode, which was posted online on Aug. 13, Zawahiri criticized the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and compared its members to chickens.

Zawahiri focuses on Afghanistan in the second episode, which is subtitled, Be Not Divided Among Yourselves. He calls on Muslims to support the Taliban and to reject the Islamic State, which seeks to split the ranks of the mujahideen in the country.

Zawahiri says that all Muslims and jihadists around the globe should rally around the emirate, meaning the Taliban, which refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden swore his allegiance to Mullah Omars Taliban in order to unite Muslims to wage jihad against America, according to Zawahiri. He then lists a number of legendary jihadists who supported the Taliban and says others should do the same.

The Islamic State frequently accuses al Qaedas leaders of being deviants and argues that al Qaeda has fallen into a state of nonbelief. Zawahiri challenges Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and his men to provide proof of al Qaedas supposed ideological lapses. Zawahiri mentions a martyr known as Abu Sad al Hadrami, saying the Islamic State falsely accused him of being a nonbeliever because he accepted pledges of allegiance from members of the Free Syrian Army. Hadrami was an Al Nusrah Front commander in Raqqa, Syria who was killed by the Islamic State early on in its rivalry with Zawahiris loyalists.

The al Qaeda master warns all of the Islamic States followers that they risk being found complicit in the crimes ordered by the groups leadership. Zawahiri demands that Baghdadi provide the names and biographies of all the men (a minority) who swore allegiance to Baghdadi and declared him Caliph Ibrahim. In particular, Zawahiri says that all those who were members of Saddams Army and even more so those who were in Saddams intelligence service should be identified. By highlighting the role of former members of Saddam Husseins regime in Baghdadis Islamic State, Zawahiri attempts to undermine its legitimacy. He implicitly argues that former Baathists and other members of Saddams military and intelligence service are not fit to name a caliph who supposedly rules over all Muslims.

Zawahiris vocal support for the Taliban is not surprising. Fifteen years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Taliban and al Qaeda remain closely allied.

In mid-August 2015, As Sahab released an audio message from Zawahiri in which he swore bayah (allegiance) to Mullah Mansour.

Mansour was named as the Talibans emir after the group conceded that Mullah Omar, the Talibans first leader, died sometime in 2013. Zawahiri explained that his oath to Mansour was just like bin Ladens pledge to Mullah Omar prior to 9/11. Al Qaeda has emphasized this theme multiple times since then.

Within hours of Zawahiris pledge to Mansour, the Taliban emir publicly accepted Zawahiris oath in a statement released on the Talibans official website. (It appears the Taliban took Mansours statement down after The Long War Journal first reported on it, but the message can be read in full here.)

On May 21, 2016, Mullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan as he was returning from a stay in Iran.

Mansour was eulogized by jihadists around the globe, including al Qaedas regional branches. On May 29, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and Al Nusrah Front released a statement of condolences for Mansour, praising his jihad against the Crusaders.

Then, in June, Zawahiri swore his fealty to Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who was named as Mansours successor. [See LWJ report, Ayman al Zawahiri swears allegiance to the Talibans new leader.]

Al Qaedas branches technically owe their loyalty to Mullah Haibatullah as well.

In al Qaedas hierarchy, the regional branches  AQAP, AQIM, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Shabaab in Somalia and Al Nusrah Front  swear allegiance to Zawahiri. These groups are then responsible for waging jihad in their designated regions on behalf of al Qaeda. (Al Nusrah Front recently rebranded itself as Jabhat Fateh al Sham, or the Conquest of the Levant Front. The move was directed by al Qaedas senior leadership.)

Therefore, al Qaedas regional branches are loyal to the Talibans emir by virtue of their bayah (allegiance) to Zawahiri.

Although al Qaedas jihadists are, strictly speaking, Mullah Haibatullahs subordinates, history shows that the Taliban leader has little say over al Qaedas operations outside of Afghanistan.

At less than six minutes long, Zawahiris latest statement is mercifully short. Zawahiri is known for his long-winded lectures mixing Islamic history with contemporary jihadist issues. But in the Brief Messages to a Victorious Ummah series and other recent messages, As Sahab has kept Zawahiris statements comparatively brief. Zawahiris message was advertised on As Sahabs new Telegram channel on Aug. 19. The same Telegram channel released the video earlier today.

Note: This piece was updated on Aug. 22 at 6:00 am.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Cao Wenxuan (C) attends the awarding ceremony of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in Auckland, New Zealand, Aug. 20, 2016. Cao Wenxuan, one of China's most popular authors of children's fictions, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday, becoming the first Chinese writer for the most distinguished international honor for children's literature. (Xinhua/Tian Ye)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Aug. 20 --Cao Wenxuan, one of China's most popular authors of children's fictions, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday, becoming the first Chinese writer for the most distinguished international honor for children's literature.

Cao shared the prize, handed out every other year, with German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner who was absent from the grand prize-giving ceremony was attended by some 300 readers, publishers and members of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

"Cao Wenxuan's books don't lie about the human condition," Patricia Aldana, president of the Hans Christian Andersen Award jury told the audience, "They acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer."

Except for Cao, other shortlisted competing writers are from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. He has won all the hearts of 10 jurors and was voted unanimously the winner of this year's prize.

"Cao writes beautifully about the complex life of children facing challenges. He's a deeply committed writer whose own child life has been deeply influential on his writing," she said.

The host of the event, New Zealand TV presenter Miriama Kamo pointed out a coincidence that Margaret Mahy, a New Zealander writer received here Anderson Award a decade ago in China while a Chinese writer receives one for the first time in New Zealand.

Chinese writers have been involved with Anderson Award decades ago when another writer Jin Bo was nominated for the prize in 1992. A few others have been nominated afterwards, but none has won the prize.

Zhang Xiaonan, chief editor of China's leading publication group of children's literature recalled that insufficient application materials were to blame at the time.

IBBY president Wally De Doncker lauded efforts by Zhang and her China Children's Press and Publication Group, which launched special program to promote better translation and overseas publishing of Chinese authors' works.

Cao, one of the best of his peers in China, sailed with wind and anchored his merit in history with a strong belief that the best authors and their works in China can speak for the best literature in today's world.

"As a matter of fact, we have been there for some 15 years," he told the press after receiving the award. "The world had just not realized it then."
Lifestyle / Gastronomy

Moving beyond the initial success of bubble tea, new wave of entrepreneurs hopes a high-end modern take on traditional brews will also be sipped worldwide.

Aug 21, 2016 | By AFPRelaxnews

Cheap instant bubble tea has become one of Taiwans best-known culinary exports  now a new wave of entrepreneurs hopes a high-end modern take on traditional brews will also be sipped worldwide.

Taiwan has been producing tea for more than 200 years and a cup of the islands famous oolong is obligatory for many visitors, but exports have been knocked by rising labor costs and bubble tea has eclipsed a carefully crafted cuppa.

Often artificially flavored and loaded with milk, sugar and tapioca pearls, bubble tea has in recent years gained a global following, from Southeast Asia to the United States and Europe.

Ultra-modern tea shop Xie Xie is one business trying to turn the tide back to sophistication. Founder Xie Yu-tung, 30, (pictured top) comes from a family of tea producers and uses leaves grown on their plantations in Taiwans mountainous Dayuling and Lishan areas.

Her sleek all-white tea boutique at Taipeis Mandarin Oriental hotel is stacked with teabags in book-like boxes and clear cylindrical bottles of ready-to-drink cold brews.

I think Taiwan has the best oolong and its a pity that its not seen all over the world, says Xie. She sells pure and flavored oolong  a fragrant, semi-fermented tea.

Infused with spearmint, chamomile, rose and ginger, she hopes the pretty packaging and ready-made bottles will attract uninitiated foreign customers. At Tw$680 ($21) for 10 teabags, she says it is a reasonable price for top tea.

Every step (in producing oolong) has to be exact. I think the craftsmanship involved matches that of international luxury products, she says. Xie has served up her tea at the Venice film festival, Paris fashion shows and Milan design week since launching two years ago.

Tea and Cake

Other entrepreneurs are hoping to create a cafe culture that will entice younger generations. At David Huangs salons in Taipei, customers order pots of organic Taiwan-grown tea served up alongside tea-flavored French pastries.

I dont want to see tea-drinking fade into history because young people think its old-fashioned, says Huang, who opened the salons after studying marketing in France.

It is one of the things that most represents Taiwan.

Huangs Zenique brand of pure and flavored oolong, green and black teas do not come cheap  a small tin starts at Tw$409 and can cost up to Tw$1,890.

Huang says it is a price worth paying for a high-quality product and he counts seasoned tea drinkers among his regular customers.

First-time salon visitor Anne Yu, 30, says she likes the chic and tasteful feel to the place. I started to drink more tea recently after I got palpitations from drinking coffee, she said, between mouthfuls of green tea and almond cake topped with a macaron, washed down with osmanthus oolong tea. I like tea better now.

Fashion Statement

While industry experts say the average age of tea drinkers in Taiwan is rising, entrepreneurs like Xie and Huang are giving the business a fresh edge.

To some young people now, running a tea company is attractive and trendy, its like being the owner of a French vineyard, said Lin Chih-Cheng, president of the Association of Taiwan Tea. They feel like they are part of a creative, cultural industry.

Both Huang and Xie have regular international clients and are hoping to expand the list. However, there are still those who argue that no-frills is best.

At tea store Lin Hua Tai, leaves are still processed in a factory at the back of the shop, using traditional methods unchanged for the decades it has been in business.

Standing in Taipeis once-bustling tea street it is one of only a few tea stores to remain.

The shop buys raw tea from plantations across Taiwan and sells 100 types, from basic brews to the pricey Oriental Beauty oolong, which can go for more than Tw$4,000 per 600 grams.

Tea leaves are stored in stainless steel barrels and packaged in plastic bags printed simply with the stores name and contact details. The shop says its loyal clientele has been won purely by word of mouth.

While it is dedicated to maintaining traditions, Lin Hua Tai is also trying to inspire younger generations by giving store tours and tea tastings to students.

Children drink bubble tea, but they dont know what oolong looks like, or that there are many more types of tea. When they get interested, they will grow up drinking more tea, says shop manager Joanne Kang.

Kang said it would be easy to transform into a pretty store, and recognizes the shop now faces trendier competition. But then everything would change and we would not be who we are, she says.
Cui Yuying, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office, speaks at the forum in the Chinggis City, Mongolia, Aug. 20, 2016. Chinese and Mongolian media representatives gathered on Saturday in the Chinggis City, capital of Mongolia's Khentii province, for the forum with the theme of "deepening media cooperation and creating a bright future." (Xinhua/Zheng Chuang)

ULAN BATOR, Aug 20 (Xinhua) -- An annual China-Mongolia press forum that is now in its seventh year has helped the people of the two countries better know each other, giving a boost to the bilateral relations.

Chinese and Mongolian media representatives gathered on Saturday in the Chinggis City, capital of Mongolia's Khentii province, for the forum with the theme of "deepening media cooperation and creating a bright future."

Addressing the forum, Cui Yuying, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office, called on the media organizations from both countries to boost their exchanges and cooperation.

"We have had frequent exchanges of visits at the high level between our two countries. We have had close cooperation in economy and trade, and we have had robust people-to-people exchanges," she said.

"The friendly cooperation between our two countries is now at its best," she added.

The forum gathered more than 90 representatives from some 30 Chinese and Mongolian media organizations, including those from the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International, as well as Mongolia's national news agency Montsame and its national broadcaster.

Cui called on the media organizations of the two neighboring countries to work together to lead the bilateral relations in the right direction, tell great stories of the bilateral cooperation and deepen the practical cooperation between them.

Held annually since 2010, the China-Mongolia media forum has now grown into an important channel to help the peoples of the two countries better know each other. It has led to a number of practical cooperation projects with win-win outcome, and the cooperation mechanism has been upgraded as the cooperation was expanded and enriched over the years.

Munkhtuul Banzragch, editor of Montsame, said that Mongolian and Chinese journalists have been sharing their experience and views at the forum and that the media organizations have strengthened their cooperation as the cooperation between their countries expanded enormously over the past decade.

She said some media organizations have agreed to cooperate with each other and conduct public survey.

"This is very important step for uplifting the cooperation between the media organizations of Mongolia and China," she said.

The forum this year is also part of the "Feel China" project, which is held under the framework of a China-Mongolia cultural cooperation agreement signed between the governments of the two countries.

Bilateral cooperation between China and Mongolia have expanded in recent years with win-win outcome. Observers said that there is still great space for the two neighbors to further expand their cooperation and that more robust people-to-people exchanges can be a boost.

The "Feel China" project is co-sponsored by China's State Council Information Office, the government of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia and Mongolia's Ministry of Culture to help Mongolians better understand its southern neighbor.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the face of Incredible India campaign of the Union Culture and Tourism Ministry. Union Minister Mahesh Sharma had earlier hinted that Modi is the best face for the campaign. Incredible India campaign aimed to make a distinct identity for the country to establish India as a high-end tourism destination.

Earlier Bollywood actor Aamir Khan was Incredible India's brand ambassador. After his 'intolerance comments', his contract was not renewed, which triggered a major controversy. The Ministry also asked the producers to submit the concepts of ad films in a week's time.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) announced today that it will donate $500,000 to the American Red Cross and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to support local flooding disaster relief assistance in Louisiana.



Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends and neighbors in Louisiana who have been impacted by storms and severe flooding in the region," said Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation. We hope that this donation will help provide some relief to Louisianans as recovery efforts begin."



ExxonMobil employs more than 5,500 employees and contractors in the Baton Rouge area where it has operated for more than 100 years. Baton Rouge employees spend more than 40,000 hours volunteering in the community each year supporting 168 local organizations. Annually, the company donates about $5 million to agencies and schools in the Baton Rouge area.



The Red Cross provides food, shelter, counseling and other assistance to the victims of disasters. The agency has supported more than 10,000 people at over 50 shelters during this response effort. The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank services an 11-parish service area, provides food to 130 agencies and distributed more than 8.7 million meals in 2015. The agencys food warehouse was severely impacted from the flooding.


Philippine president appreciates China's help in his country's fight against drugs

(Xinhua) 12:57, August 21, 2016

MANILA, Aug. 21 -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte thanked China on Sunday for offering help in his administration's campaign against drugs.

At a news conference in Davao City early Sunday, Duterte said that "there are countries offering to help," but China was "the first country to offer actually."

He said, "I appreciate it ... I told the Chinese we will remember you for the things that you are doing for us."

Duterte did not elaborate on the assistance that China has offered.

The Philippine president has vowed to crack the whip on corruption and criminality involving drugs, saying lots of Filipinos are now into drugs.

He has stressed that he will go after the protectors of drug syndicates, including police generals, politicians and even judges.
The Quotable Contradictory Donald Trump

The man formerly known as The Donald is entwined in a ball of contradiction.

He was a registered Republican until 2001 when he became a Democrat, and then eight years later switched back to the Republican party.

He says he believes in democracy, but also says if he loses Pennsylvania in the November general election it will be because the election is rigged.

He campaigns on a platform that boldly proclaims him to be an outsider to politics and a great business executive who will Make America Great Again! But Trump is not an outsiderhe has the presence to command legislators, lobbyists, and business executives from the highest levels. Although he claims to be worth about $10 billion, companies under his control have filed for bankruptcy four timesTrump says its just good business practice; if he becomes president, he wont have that option to reduce the nations debt. He believes the U.S. is the best place to live, but uses an empty campaign slogan to rally his hard-core ultra-right base of voters.

He says hes a nice guy, but this nice guy committed adultery with several women, constantly uses profane language, opposes unions and minimum wage, has refused to pay the full bill to dozens of contactors, and mocked a New York Times reporter who has a disability.

He demanded seeing 10 years of tax returns of all finalists to be his vice-president, but has refused to release his own income tax filings.

He once supported the ban on assault weapons and believed there should be a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. But, in his run to the presidency he now says, Government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own, and basks in the glow of an NRA endorsement and NRA-sponsored TV ads. He erroneously claims Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton want to take your guns away. Early this year, while campaigning in New Hampshire during the primaries, had said, The Second Amendment is so important, theyre not going to take your guns away. In a campaign speech, he said he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldnt lose voters.

He was pro-choice until he began his run for the presidency when he became pro-life. He says he would block funding for Planned Parenthood because it supports abortion, although federal law currently bans public funds being used for abortion; only 3 percent of Planned Parenthoods budget goes to abortion expenses and only 10 percent of client services are abortion related.

He said in 2011 he opposed same-sex marriage, but less than four years later said gay marriage is a reality, but each state should determine if it condones or condemns same-sex marriage.

Trump never objected to the support he received from Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, but faced by a reality that a Washington Post poll determined fewer than 6 percent of Blacks say they would feel comfortable with him as president, now says, No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clintons policies than African-Americans. Using a racial stereotype, he asks Blacks, What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?

He pompously claims his IQ is one of the highestand you all know it! Please dont feel so stupid or insecure, its not your fault. But, he disregards the voice of scientists and environmentalists, and planted himself in the corner with the ultra-conservative wing of the party when he tweeted in 2012 that global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

China is also where most of his clothing line, and all of former wife Ivankas clothing line are manufactured. Clothes not produced in China are produced in a dozen other countries. But, he invokes patriotism when he tells thousands of cheering supporters at his campaign rallies, We need to bring manufacturing jobs back home where they belong.

He says he opposed the invasion of Iraq, but after George W. Bush ordered troops into Iraq, he supported the invasion. He says for several years he opposed invading Iraq, but now says it is sensible for the U.S. to send ground troops into Iraq to destroy ISIS, although Russia will find itself in a quagmire for its campaign in Syria to destroy ISIS. He says he is a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military. Somewhere in his logic, Trump, who believes in reducing the national debt, says the U.S. should take $1.5 trillion from Iraqi Oil and give $1 million to every family who lost someone in that war. He doesnt say how the U.S. will be able to get $1.5 trillion in oil sales.

In 2008, Trump had praised Bill and Hillary Clinton, declaring, Hillary is smart, tough and a very nice person, and so is her husband. Bill Clinton was a great President. They are fine people. Hillary was roughed up by the media, and it was a tough campaign for her, but shes a great trooper. Her history is far from being over.

But in 2016, Trump calls the Democrats nominee for president Crooked Hillary and Lyin Hillary, and claims that without the woman card, Hillary would not even be a viable person to even run for a city council position. He says she is unfit to be president. Apparently, he overlooked her six years as a U.S. senator and four years as secretary of state, and the fact he and the Clintons were bosom buddies just two years earlier. Trump has never been elected to any office nor has he ever served in government.

Trump once declared, The world is excited about Barack Obama and the new United States. Lets keep it that way! A year after Obamas inauguration, Trump was equally enthusiastic: What he [Obama] has done is amazing. The fact that he accomplished what he has in one year is truly phenomenal. But, he has also been an attack dog, tenaciously holding onto a bone called birther, calling on President Obama to release his birth certificate to prove he wasnt born in Kenya and constitutionally ineligible to be president. When the President released his birth certificate, proving he was born in Hawaii to a mother who was a U.S. citizen, Trump and the ultra right-wing challenged its legitimacy.

Trump supported Sen. John McCain in his 2008 campaign for the presidency, but never challenged his citizenship; McCain was born in Panama.

Trump struts, puffs out his chest, and says he supports the military, but took four deferments from service and managed to party, enjoy the life of being a millionaires son, and rise up in his fathers company during the Vietnam War. He said of Sen. McCain, who was confined to a North Vietnamese prison camp and tortured for five years and walks with a limp, He is a war hero because he was captured [but] I like people who were werent captured.

Danish foreign minister Kristian Jensen says Trump changes opinions like the rest of us change underwear. Trumps underwear may be clean, but his opinions are definitely soiled.

[Dr. Braschs current book is Fracking Pennsylvania, which looks at the impact of fracking upon public health, worker safety, the environment, and agriculture. The book--available at local bookstores and amazon. com--also looks at the financial collusion between politicians and Big Energy.]

By Walter M Brasch PhD

http://www.walterbrasch.com

Copyright 2016 Walter M Brasch

Walter Brasch is a university journalism professor, syndicated columnist, and author of 17 books. His current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts , The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina , and Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture . All are available through amazon.com, bn.com, or other bookstores. You may contact Dr. Brasch at walterbrasch@gmail.com

Walter Brasch Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




HENRY COUNTY  Three master naturalists played detective recently, trekking through the wilderness and along roadsides to keep track of endangered species.

Lizz Stanley, Kathy Fell and Dr. Noah Boaz are trained volunteers with RareQuest, a part of the Virginia Natural Heritage Program. The program supports rare species of plants, reptiles, mammals, fish, insects and birds in the state.

RareQuest is a pilot program, a partnership between the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreations National Heritage Program, Virginia Master Naturalists and Virginia Native Plant Society, who provided some seed funding to get this project started, said Michelle Prysby, Virginia Master Naturalist program director.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation has a database of more than 9,000 documentations of rare species across Virginia, according to virginiamasternaturalist.org/rarequest. The observation of a rare species is called EO, for element occurrence. The EOs are monitored on a regular basis to see if they are still there, and how they are doing.

In 2015, the VDCR recruited more than 100 Virginia Master Naturalists to help monitor the EOs with RareQuest. After all the data from 2016 searches is collected, RareQuest will be evaluated, and a decision will be made whether or not to continue it and add additional volunteers.

One hundred and thirty volunteers were trained over the course of four sessions last fall. The volunteers were divided into 37 teams assigned to find 134 EOs in 60 counties and cities.

Volunteers take on different roles in the project, Prysby said. Some are sharing their expertise with identifying the different plants, birds and butterflies for which the project is looking. Others are using the mobile app on their SmartPhone or iPad devices to read data. Others are in charge of contacting landowners to get permission to go on their properties to look for these species.

Hunting down all 9,000 EOs would not be feasible, so the project head, Chris Ludwig, the chief biologist for the Division of Natural Heritage, chose a smaller number of these that would be good ones to use with volunteers in this pilot year, Prysby said. He chose species that would be relatively easy to identify or hard to confuse with other things. He chose some things he thought there would be a good chance that the volunteers would find because we wanted them to have some successes.

The list of species being documented includes 60 plants, 10 birds and two butterflies.

The volunteers received topographical maps of locations to search when the plants should be in bloom, at which time they would be easiest to spot.

Fell, Stanley and Boaz were assigned to hunt for three species of wild flowers in areas where they were seen last. In May, Fell and Stanley went to Ridgeway and hiked up and down a section of the highway 87 looking for Phlox pilosa, Fell said. The pair spent four hours walking up and down the shoulders, looking in all the shrubbery and weeds trying to find this Phlox pilosa, to no avail.

The groups next assignment was in June, to find Stewartia ovate which last had been seen in the Philpott Dam area. We spent another four hours hiking in the woods looking for it, which looks very much like a camellia, Fell said. At that time the rhododendrons were in bloom  oh, it was so pretty.

Again, they didnt find their subject, but Fell came down with a case of poison ivy. She was dressed in long pants, a long-sleeved shirt and boots, and as the pair walked in an area with a lot of it, she thought she had kept well out of the way. She realized later that she had gotten poison ivy from the poison ivy oils on her shoelaces after she had arrived home.

Fell and Boaz completed the final assignment last week, looking for Mimosa quadrivalvis in Axton, from the school going north. We walked up and down the hillside looking for little puffs of pink and the leaves, Fell said. We found the leaves in a couple of places and it was close  but not exactly the same. The look-alikes were partridge pea, little baby trees and crown vetch.

They didnt find their target plant, but Boaz got a rash from poison ivy, she said.

Prysby said that some teams did not find the EO for which they were searching, and some were not given permission to look on the land where the EO last had been documented. In some cases teams even found new locations for those species not previously documented, she added.

The final teams will go out in September.
MARTINSVILLE A Martinsville man will spend at least 30 years behind bars after being found guilty of distributing cocaine for the third time.

On Thursday in Martinsville Circuit Court, Judge G. Carter Greer sentenced Chad Vershawn Copening of Martinsville to the same sentence on each count: 20 years in prison, of which he must serve 10 years (the mandatory minimum sentence) and 10 years suspended on condition of indefinite supervised probation and good behavior for life. Greer also fined Copening a total of $15,000, but suspended half of that.

At a trial in June, Greer found Copening guilty of selling cocaine to a confidential informant on April 2, 2015; April 16, 2015; and April 23, 2015.

During the trial, Copening denied selling cocaine to the informant on April 2, 2015, but said the $100 he received from the informant on that occasion was for money the informant owed him. There were several children in the vehicle during that transaction, according to a videotape.

As for the incident on April 16, 2015, Copening said the informant came to his house and gave him $100 to buy drugs, but that Copening didnt give the informant drugs in Copenings house. Copening said he later took that money and bought drugs from someone else, then went to the home of the confidential informant and they smoked cocaine together. Copening said he didnt consider that selling drugs but two friends using drugs together.

Copening also said at trial that he doesnt recall April 23, 2015.

Copening made similar statements about the three incidents at the court hearing Thursday.

Copening also said Thursday he has had an addiction to cocaine for several years. I need help, he said.

His lawyer, Perry Harrold, asked him why he wasnt getting help.

I wasnt trying at that time, Copening responded. However, Copening later wrote a rescue mission seeking help, and if he is sent to prison, he will take every class he can, he said.

Harrold called a number or character witnesses for Copening. One described him as a good father whose children listen to him. Another character witness  Curtis Price, minster at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Fieldale and an uncle of Copening by marriage  said he was active in church when he was younger and has come to church on occasion as an adult. Price said he was aware of Copenings drug problem and previous drug convictions.

Hes not really bad, but all of us make mistakes, Price said. He added that as far as he knows, Copening has a good reputation for being truthful, and also is loyal, and has a good sense of right and wrong.

Harrold argued at a previous court hearing that Copening should not have been charged with distribution of cocaine - third offense, because his two previous convictions involved offenses that occurred on the same day. Greer has denied that motion. Harrold said Thursday he accepts the judges ruling, but he asked that court records be preserved because he may appeal.

Harrold also argued that a judge can impose less than the minimum mandatory sentence under certain conditions and that some of those conditions apply in this case.

Harrold also argued, among other things, that the amount of cocaine involved was small and that Copening has been cooperative.

Martinsville Commonwealths Attorney Clay Gravely argued that distributing cocaine, the third time Copening has been charged with that crime, was appropriate.

He argued that only in extraordinary cases should judges not impose mandatory minimum sentences and he felt this was not one of those cases.

The people of Virginia through their elected representatives have declared they will not tolerate drug dealing, Gravely said.

He said drugs have devastated countless peoples lives in this community.

Gravely also said he felt Copening continues to hedge about what happened during the three incidents in April 2015, adding he felt Copening has not learned his lesson after being convicted of two previous cocaine charges.

Judge Greer ruled that Copening was lying to conceal his guilt.

Also in Martinsville Circuit Court on Thursday, Carl Bernard Mullins, 65, of Collinsville, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of felony obtaining money by false pretense and two counts of misdemeanor obtaining money by false pretense. In accordance with a plea agreement, Judge Greer took the cases under advisement for 12 months, during which time Mullins will be on supervised probation, must undergo substance abuse assessment and treatment recommended, and must pay $3,930 in restitution to his elderly mother, Louise Mullins.

Martinsville Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Paula Bowen said that in December 2015 and January 2016 Carl Mullins mother gave him blank checks for food and expenses, but that he cashed them and purchased drugs without the mothers permission.

Judge Greer reviewed Mullins criminal record, noted that he has a number of previous felony convictions and asked Mullins, Youve got a drug problem, dont you, Mr. Mullins?

Yes, sir, I do, Mullins responded. Mullins said he has researched and found a residential drug rehabilitation program that he thinks would help him.

Greer said the court was not deciding the case at this point, but putting it off for a year. If Mullins complies with the conditions during that year, a year from now the 10 felony charges will be reduced to misdemeanor charges of obtaining money by false pretense, with no active time to serve. However, if Mullins does not comply with the conditions, he will be sentenced on the original charges.

Also in Martinsville Circuit Court on Thursday, Billy Frank Lyons, 66, of 34 Lyons Trail, Martinsville, was given a suspended sentence of five years in prison, with one year of supervised probation. He had been convicted on charges of possession of a gun by a nonviolent felon within 10 years of incarceration. The commonwealth dropped two charges of possession of ammunition by a felon. The offenses allegedly happened on Dec. 29, 2014.
MARTINSVILLE  The Virginia Museum of Natural History wants to help visitors learn about life outside by going outdoors.

The museum's trustee board voted unanimously on Saturday to have an architect create a rendering for an educational pavilion that would be developed on the museums back side near Oakdale Avenue.

After it is created, the rendering must be approved by the trustee board as well as the board of the museums foundation, which is to raise money to pay for the pavilions construction.

A construction timeline also will have to be developed.

Just a concrete pad now is at the spot where the pavilion would be developed, said Joe Keiper, the museum's executive director.

According to Keiper, the pavilion would have flexible uses. For instance, it could host an exhibit with durable specimens of natural history that weather would not harm, but it also would be a place where visitors could take a break from touring the museum, get some fresh air and think about what they have seen and learned during their tours.

Possible amenities mentioned by museum officials include a bar where lunches could be served to childrens groups or alcoholic beverages could be served during adult-oriented events, a cylindrical wind turbine and banners and/or flags.

Keiper estimated the pavilions cost at $100,000 to $200,000. Basically, the fancier it is, the more it would cost.

However, the unofficial fundraising target that officials mentioned is $150,000. Board Treasurer Christine Baggerly of Danville asked if that is a feasible amount for the foundation  the state-operated museums private fundraising arm  to generate.

The foundation boards president, Manly Boyd of Martinsville, said it would be a lot easier to raise funds for a specific project than it is to raise funds for the museum in general.

He said he couldnt predict how much could be raised for the pavilion.

But it would be pretty challenging, Boyd said, to raise all of the funds needed within a year. We would need to have a realistic time frame.

And, with people making contributions toward the pavilion, money raised by the foundation to support the upkeep of current exhibits might not be as much, he said.

Keiper said he wants an architect to do a nice rendition that fundraisers could take with them into the community to show people from whom they seek financial support.

Eventually, the museum would like to develop a canopy walk  an elevated walkway near the tops of trees  from the pavilion, across Oakdale and into the city-operated J. Frank Wilson Park.

That would be expensive, museum officials said. Therefore, its still in the discussion stage.

The walkway would be intended to encourage museum patrons to also visit the park in their quests to learn about nature.

Other institutions that have developed such walkways have seen their visitation increase, having attracted people from both near and far, Keiper said.

Because it would be a unique attraction, it should be an economic driver for this area, he said.
MARTINSVILLE-There's good news for the Virginia Museum of Natural History, as the operation's number of visitors continues to rise.

Statistics provided to the museum's trustee board Saturday showed there were 33,109 visits to the Starling Avenue operation for the fiscal year that ran from July 2015 through June 2016. That was up from 32,443 visits during the previous year.

Visits at museum exhibits and activities elsewhere in the state totaled 181,659, which was up from 175,602 in the previous year, figures showed.

Museum officials indicated they think record attendance of about 2,400 people at this years Dino Day festival on Jan. 30 contributed to the increase in visits to the local facility.

Plans are for next years Dino Day to be expanded to a two day event and be held July 21-22. Having the festival during the summer will enable more activities to be held outside and could attract more visitors, especially ones from out of town, officials believe. The festival will also see the unveiling of the museum's latest resident, a Stegosaurus donated by the Smithsonian.

The museum also received more money from admissions, cafe and gift store sales and rentals of its facilities. The revenue increased from $94,751 in fiscal 2015 to $110,124 in the past fiscal year.

Executive Director Joe Keiper said the museum made its rental policies more customer friendly and people are pleased with its facilities.

Also Saturday, the board approved a 5 percent performance bonus for Keiper following a short closed session called to discuss his annual evaluation. He did not participate in the session.

Keiper currently earns about $110,000 a year. Five percent of that equates to about $5,500.

The board did not discuss Keipers performance after returning to open session.

However, board Chairman Jim Severt, a Martinsville native who now lives in the Washington area, praised the museums staff.

Amid funding cuts in recent years, Severt said, their response has been to do more with less. He mentioned childrens education programs as an example.

He specifically praised Gloria Niblett, the museums director of administration and services, for her financial skills.

Niblett doesnt just crunch numbers, Severt said. She squeezes them so hard that they weep tears of joy  the museum gets the most for its limited money.

The board learned that about 300 copies of The Geology of Virginia, a book recently prepared by the museum, already have been sold. One thousand copies were published.

Geology is the scientific study of the Earth, its surface and interior and the processes involved in changes to the planet over the years.

The 538-page book is the first comprehensive review of Virginias geology published in more than 100 years. It contains details the states geological history, in-depth descriptions of the states unique geological features and detailed information about all of the states regions, according to information on the museums website.

Copies of the book are available for $35 each on the website or at the gift store inside the museum.

During a tour of the museum, board members saw some new features of ongoing exhibits.

Keiper noted a display in which a female lion attacks an African buffalo. The lion is biting into the buffalos throat as it grasps the buffalos back and side with its paws. A male lion stands above.

Board Secretary Janet Scheid of Vinton quipped that is a typical situation  the woman does the work while the man watches.
MARTINSVILLE  A woman charged with three drug offenses while she was a prisoner in the Martinsville City Jail waived her preliminary hearing Friday in Martinsville General District Court.

Michelle Hodge Patterson of Martinsville has been charged with possession of a chemical unlawfully received by a prisoner, possession of Alprazolam and possession of methadone with intent to manufacture, sell, give or distribute. The charges now will go to Circuit Court.

A criminal complaint alleged that on March 6, the Martinsville Sheriffs Office received information that some of the female jail prisoners had been given narcotic pills by another female. Patterson later allegedly admitted she had narcotics and hid them inside her body. She went to a bathroom and removed a plastic wrap containing pills from her body. The wrap contained eight Alprazolam pills and 54 methadone pills.

Also in Martinsville General District Court on Friday, Judge Marcus Brinks found probable cause to believe James Leon Bradley, 60, of 303 E. Church Street, Martinsville, committed the crime of fail to re-register as a sex offender. Brinks sent the charge to Circuit Court.

A criminal complaint alleged the following:

Bradley is a registered sexually violent predator in Virginia due to four convictions in Martinsville Circuit Court on Jan. 7, 1988: rape, abduction for immoral purposes (clause 2) and two counts of forcible sodomy. Bradley is required to re-register as a sex offender every 90 days.

On May 31, a re-registration form was sent certified mail to Bradley to register with thumbprints and return by June 15. As of July 7, the sex offender registry had not received Bradleys re-registration. Bradley is on supervised (GPS monitor) probation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21

Trend:

Armenian armed forces have 7 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Aug. 21.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the village of Barekamavan of Armenias Noyemberyan district, opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located on the nameless heights and in the village of Farakhli of Gazakh district.

Azerbaijani positions also underwent fire from the positions located near the Qarakhanbeyli village of the Fizuli district.

Moreover, Azerbaijani positions took fire from the positions located on the nameless heights of the Goranboy and Fizuli districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Nobody likes a bad situation. If things arent working out the way they should, its frustrating. We want someone to come in and immediately change it around. The problem is that often, these situations didnt happen overnight and we cant fix them overnight. It takes weeks, maybe months of work. The hard part is being patient enough to let that happen.

The state test scores were pretty ugly, lets just be honest. Martinsville schools failed to hit the state average in Standards of Learning tests for another year and once again, arent fully accredited as a result. It wasnt a missed it by that much situation either. In several cases, were talking pass rates of 60 percent. That means almost half of the students didnt grasp the concepts well enough to pass. We also cant argue that its just a problem the whole area deals with, as more than 60 percent of Henry County schools met or exceeded the state average. Yes, its absolutely a problem for the city, but its one we need to give the school board time to address.

I understand Im the new guy here. I realize these problems with the district have been going on much longer than anyone should tolerate. And I do understand how hard that is to see, especially for a district that so long prided itself on a strong education system. Its frustrating to see your district known as the one without any accredited schools. Its not something I enjoy covering either, but we have to, as that is the situation were faced with. We can yell about that, we can get pissed off and demand change, but now that change has happened, we need to give the new people time to take control of the situation. Theres a new interim superintendent in just his second month on the job. Already, weve seen him bring assistant principals back to the schools and hes working on a program to improve reading skills. Those seem like steps in the right direction. There are also new members on the school board, with one more new face soon to be added by city council. These new people come in with different ideas and we need to give them time to try some of those out.

Now yes, on the other hand, every idea they have wont be great ones. There will be mistakes, as all of us slip up at times. Asking teachers to provide data every month on their students doesnt seem like a great idea. Its hard to ask a teacher to help their students improve when youre putting more work outside of the classroom on each of them. But while we need to be vocal, we need to come out and say what we want for our school system, we also need to understand that all of the sins of the past cant and shouldnt be placed on the school board we have now. Ive had emails from people already demanding that superintendant Zeb Talley resign and that the new school board members should step down, because of the SOL scores. The problem with that is the fact these are scores from May, before Talley was even in that superintendants chair. If were going to hold these people accountable, it needs to be for their own decisions over the next few months. We wanted change and we have it. Now we need to step back and let the new people get to work.
SUNDAYS WORD is cupidity (kyu-pi-de-tee). Example: The mans cupidity got the best of him after hearing the offer on his house.

FRIDAY's WORD was previse (pre-vi-s). It means to foresee. Example: Despite his experience and education, the man wasnt able to previse the problems his company went through.

Change in plan

For anybody whos been by Morning Side Drive, youve seen that work on the pipe replacement hasnt gone as quick as the Virginia Department of Transportation hoped. With that in mind, VDOT announced that a portion of Morning Side would be closed longer than expected. The portion from Cassell Drive to Starcrest Avenue in Henry County will remain closed until next Thursday, Aug. 25.

Tatum reunion

Coming up later today, the descendants of John and Priscilla Burge Tatum of Patrick County will get together for a reunion. The family will be at Nettle Ridge United Methodist Church, over at 70 Bettle Ridge Loop in Stuart. Lunch will be at 1 p.m. in the social hall, with drinks and paper products provided. Everyone is asked to bring a covered dish.

Pet safety

The Stroller has a hound dog that he loves to death, a rescued pup that was left locked up in an abandoned building by his first owner. While Nugget will eat about anything known to man, there are a few things that arent safe for him to chow down on. To help the Stroller and other pet owners, the Martinsville library and the local SPCA will have a Pet Safety drop-in session Aug. 27. Itll run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., dealing with food safety, how to be a responsible pet owner, major pet needs and how to approach animals.

TRIVIA ANSWER: There are some political offices that anyone can run for, like mayor, city council and even the Virginia General Assembly. But there is an age qualification people have to meet before running for president. What is that requirement and how did it come about? A person has to be 35 before he or she can run for president. As for why? For that you have to go all the way back to the beginning, as the age requirement can be found in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. Back then, the average person lived to be in his 40s, so 35 was seen as older. The idea was that age brought with it wisdom and maturity.
BakerUmass.jpg

Gov. Charlie Baker speaks Wednesday at the UMass Springfield center on the state's 45 million investment in cyber security and big data analysis at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and Springfield.

(JIM KINNEY/ THE REPUBLICAN)

SPRINGFIELD -- Big Data holds both promise for science and industry and potential targets for hackers and thieves.

That was the topic this week as state officials, including Gov. Charlie Baker, announced that $5 million worth of computer equipment is headed to Holyoke to support data science and cybersecurity programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the UMass Center at Springfield.

It was one of the six business stories you might have missed this week.

1) UMass gets $5M from state for cybersecurity

In June, MassMutual announced that it will donate $15 million to UMass computer science programs over the next 10 years. This is the largest grant MassMutual has ever made in support of an initiative in the region.

Of that money, $12 million will support the UMass Amherst Center for Data Science with additional faculty, double of the number of available courses and an expanded master's degree program.

In Springfield, the company will donate $3 million to expand a cybersecurity certificate program taught at the university's center in MassMutual-owned Tower Square. The cybersecurity certificate program is an eight-week, 15-credit-hour program preparing cybersecurity professionals for the workplace.

2) F.L. Roberts sells 9 local Jiffy Lube locations

The deal might take 90 days to close.

3) Hallmark Institute of Photography in Turners Falls to close

The school mixed instruction on the art of photography with lessons on running a business as a freelance photographer.

4) Springfield Police warn of counterfeit bills in internet transactions

Folks were trying to sell items on the website OfferUp.com. Police say always meet in a safe place, preferably a police station, check bills and take photos both of the item and of the buyer.

5) Tesla builds electric car Superchargers at Lee Big Y

The charging stations are part of what Tesla calls the most convenient and extensive network of electric auto charging stations. In an email, Tesla spokeswoman Sonja Koch said the chargers are capable of providing up to 120 kilowatts of power and replenishing 150 miles of range in 30 minutes.

6) State finances assisted living complex for Belchertown State School site

The 83-unit complex, which will have more than 40 affordable units, will support 65 construction jobs and create 40 permanent positions.
LOWELL

 Two small children were pulled from a Lowell swimming pool Saturday night, authorities said. Both were initially unresponsive when they were rescued, witnesses said.

The Lowell Sun reported that the children were at a large birthday party at 45 Freda Lane in Lowell. Dozens of people were attending the party when the youngsters were discovered in the pool at about 8:20 p.m.

Witnesses said a small boy was taken from the house unconscious while a little girl was conscious and crying as she was transported in an ambulance. Witnesses said emergency medical personnel appeared to be performing CPR on the boy as they took him from the scene.

A spokesman for the Lowell Police Department said the children were first taken to Lowell General Hospital but were later airlifted to Boston trauma centers by Medflight helicopters.

Police said the Middlesex District Attorney's Office has been notified of the incident.
SPRINGFIELD  Ten years ago Mike Santos was looking for a way to raise money for Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield. Hoping to combine his love of motorcycles and his support of the hospital Santos founded the Melha Riders Hospital Run.

"We have about 400 riders and about 500-600 people participating," said Santos, chairman of the ride and past president of the Melha Riders.

On Sunday the motorcycles lined up at the Melha Shrine Center, 133 Longhill St. to begin their annual journey through Western Massachusetts raising funds and awareness for the hospital.

All of the proceeds this year are going to help fund the EOS program - a low dose radiation system that drastically reduces x-ray exposure to the children and provides vastly improved, high quality test results.

"This one group over ten years has raised a significant amount of money and with 100 percent of the funds going to Shriners Hospital in Springfield all of the money will stay local," said Brian Connor, the current potentate of the Melha Shriners. "We treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay and these events are what make that possible."

Santos said the hospital run has raised $186,000 in the past nine years.

"This year will put us over $200,000," he said. "The reason we do this is for the children. This is who we are. The Melha Riders is a group within the Shriners that love to ride. We get a huge turnout because it's a brotherhood and we like to support each others causes."

Major sponsors of the event include CJ's Towing Hayman Law, Millennium Power and the Governors America Corporation.

Local police departments including the Chicopee Police and University of Massachusetts Police donate their time to ensure the safety of all the riders along the route, Santos said.

"We get a lot of corporate and local support," he said.

Juan Solo is the president of the Universal Riders in New Britain, Connecticut. He has been participating in the ride for six years.

" We do this because it has to do with children and it has to do with families and that's what we are all about. We are very family-oriented," Solo said.

The event included a raffle as well as lunch at the Shortstop Bar & Grill in Westfield at the end of the ride which made its way through the Pioneer Valley.
shutesbury police.jpg

Shutesbury Police

(Shutesbury Police photo)

SHUTESBURY - Police are alerting residents that a number of cars have been broken into in the past week.

Larcenies have happened from motor vehicles in the areas of Montague, West Pelham and Leverett roads. All the items have been taken from unlocked cars, police said.

Police are recommending people lock their car doors and avoid leaving items of any value in the motor vehicles.

Anyone with information or who wants to report a theft should call the Police Department at 413-259-1279.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Increasing gas and electricity supply from Iran to Turkey will be one of the topics during the upcoming visit of Turkeys Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak to Tehran, the Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry told Trend.

The date of the Turkish ministers visit is being specified, said the ministry.

Earlier, during the meeting with his Turkish counterpart Aug. 12, Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke about Irans interest in increasing supplies of natural gas and electricity to Turkey.

Iran and Turkey signed a gas contract in 1996 and under the contract Iran must supply 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey per year or about 27 million cubic meters per day.

Following the negotiations with his Iranian counterpart, Turkeys Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey intends to import more gas from Iran, but price issues need to be addressed for this.

Turkey says Iranian gas is too expensive compared to other suppliers, such as Russia, Azerbaijan, and successfully defends its opinion in a court.

In 2012, Turkey sued Iran in the International Court of Arbitration for overpricing on gas purchases during the four-year period between 2011 and 2015. The court decided in favor of Turkey in February 2016 and ordered that both parties agree on a reduction between the rates of 10 to 15 percent in the price of Iranian gas exports to Turkey. The exact discount rate is expected to be announced in September 2016.

However, apart from price disagreements, there are some problems with the stability of supply. Iran periodically cuts gas supply to Turkey due to growth in domestic consumption.

Iranian gas is supplied to Turkey via the Tabriz-Ankara pipeline, which has a capacity of 14 billion cubic meters per year.

In 2015, Iran reduced gas supply to Turkey by 12.3 percent to 7.83 billion cubic meters.

In January-May 2016, Iran exported 3.35 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey, that is, 7 percent more than in the same period of 2015, according to Turkeys Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).

Irans share of Turkeys total gas import was 16.79 percent in January-May 2016.

The growth in exports was possible due to the increased natural gas production at the South Pars field.

Iran is able to export up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries and it can connect its energy network with Europes energy network through Turkey. Iran exports 350 megawatt hours of electricity to Turkey per year.

Trade turnover between Turkey and Iran amounted to $2.9 billion in Q2 2016. The two countries trade turnover was $9.76 billion in 2015.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
southwick police car door.JPG

SOUTHWICK - A former town resident faces his fourth drunken driving offense after police tracked him down following an Aug. 12 accident.

Leif Wakefield, 47, who now lives in Vermont, was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, fourth offense, Southwick Police said.

Initially police were called to Tractor Supply Co., 673 College Highway, to investigate the complaint of a property damage car accident. One of the drivers had fled by the time officers arrived, police said.

Shortly afterward officers tracked down the driver, who allegedly fled the scene, at a home on Tannery Road. They then arrested Wakefield, police said.
nh gun.jpg

(Massachusetts State Police photo)

WESTMINISTER - Two New Hampshire men face charges of carrying a gun without a permit after being stopped by State Police on Route 2.

Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Coflesky initially pulled over a driver after witnessing motor vehicle violations committed on Route 2 eastbound Thursday night, police said.

After a search of the car, a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt, police discovered a 9 mm Hi-Point firearm loaded with seven rounds of ammunition and an additional box of 20 rounds of ammunition for the gun, police said.

Neither the driver nor passenger had a license to carry a firearm in Massachusetts. Both were arrested Thursday night and arraigned in Gardner District Court on Friday, police said.

Curtis Bartlett, 28, of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without license, improper storage of a firearm, defective equipment and speeding, police said.



Benjamin Streicher, 27, also of Jaffrey, was charged with carry a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a license, improper storage of a firearm and failure to wear a safety belt.
savedman.jpg

State Police say a suicidal male was saved from death by a Trooper and his K-9 on Saturday afternoon.

(Massachusetts State Police)

SOUTH CARVER  A Massachusetts State Trooper and his K-9 helped to save a man who had been attempting to commit suicide on Saturday afternoon.

State Police say the man  whose identity has not been released  had called 911 in a state of distress and told the operator he was going to kill himself.

Police subsequently ascertained that the man was in Myles Standish State Forest, and Troopers from the Bourne State Police barracks, as well as the Air Wing, Plymouth Police, and a number of other agencies were deployed to look for him.

A State Trooper and his K-9 proceeded to track into the forest from the man's last known location, and within a short period of time they had found him hanging from a tree, police said.

The man was quickly cut down and EMS personnel transported him to a nearby hospital.

Police say the man is expected to survive, and called it a reminder that "a quick response can mean the difference between life and death."

No further information has been released at this time.
'All aboard' train to Grand Canyon 2-hour trip offers history, scenery, entertainment

One thing that clearly divides us. (AP Photo/Xanterra South Rim, L.L.C.)

By Justin Fox

Bloomberg View

The political history of the U.S. from the late 1830s through the 1850s is one long tragedy. President after president struggled to hold together an increasingly polarized nation. None served more than one term, two died in office -- and by 1860 the country was falling apart.

We hear a lot these days that we're in a new age of polarization, with measures of partisanship showing a divide greater than at any time since the Civil War. But there's a striking difference: It's pretty clear what the polarization of the 1830s through 1850s was about. Nowadays that's much harder to figure out.

All this is on my mind because I've just spent several days driving up and down Interstate 95 listening to Lillian Cunningham's "Presidential" podcast. Cunningham is a reporter and editor at the Washington Post, and since the beginning of the year she has been offering up weekly 30- to 45-minute examinations of the presidents, in chronological order (she's currently on Harry Truman). I highly recommend them.

For reasons not worth going into here, I decided to start with Martin Van Buren, who was elected in 1836. Van Buren had just finished serving a term as Andrew Jackson's vice president; before that he had built the political machine that got Jackson elected. He's considered the inventor of modern party politics. But his presidency started with the worst economic downturn the young nation had yet experienced and never really got much better -- with a standoff over whether to admit Texas to the Union as a slave-holding state one of the signature issues.

After that I really had to hear what came next. I skipped Van Buren's successor, William Henry Harrison, because he died just 32 days after taking office, and went straight to John Tyler. Then it was James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. Failure after failure after failure.

Well, not Polk. During his one term, from 1845 to 1849, the U.S. annexed Texas, wrested the territories of Nuevo Mexico and Alta California from Mexico, and cut a deal with Britain for the parts of the Oregon Territory below the 49th parallel. Polk created the modern, continent-spanning U.S. -- and probably would have been re-elected in 1848 if he hadn't held to his pledge to serve just one term. But even he didn't do anything to resolve the great conflict tearing the country apart. In fact, his acquisitions provided lots of new territory to fight over.

The conflict was over slavery, and whether it would be allowed to spread. Since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 the basic idea had been to balance political power between the North and South by keeping the number of free and slave states equal. By the late 1830s, westward expansion was testing this balancing act, and by the mid-1850s it had completely broken down -- with Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," published in 1852, sharply reducing the Northern appetite for compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 turning the slave-versus-free-state deliberations into a bloody free-for-all.

Or something like that. I make no claim to expertise on this period. Apart from a couple of books read years ago and a bunch of Googling over the past few hours, my knowledge really is based entirely on "Presidential" podcasts. In those podcasts, one of Cunningham's interviewees (a mix of historians and Post colleagues) will occasionally remark that some long-ago conflict or sign of political dysfunction is reminiscent of today. I kept being struck, though, by the differences.

Back then it really was all about slavery. And because of slavery, the South became utterly different from the North, with the differences only growing as the North industrialized and urbanized while the South stayed agricultural and rural. They were two countries, quite foreign to each other.

Now, by contrast, I'm hard-pressed to describe the single great ideological divide across which Americans have become so polarized. Sometimes it's religious versus secular. Sometimes it's educated versus less-educated. Sometimes it's pro-immigration versus anti. Sometimes it's big government versus small government. Sometimes it's gun-toters versus gun-controllers. Sometimes it's fossil-fuel fans versus windmill-lovers. Sometimes it's old versus young. Sometimes (not much, actually) it's rich versus poor. I'm sure you can come up with lots more.

As for geographic differences, too, coasts versus center and North versus South come up a lot, but it's easy to find exceptions. Urban versus rural -- or, more accurately, cities and inner suburbs versus outer suburbs and exurbs, because rural areas now account for a small and shrinking share of the population -- may be the most consistent divide. It's an economic divide, too, with growth increasingly concentrated in a few big metropolitan areas, and cities gaining (by some metrics, at least) on suburbs.

It's really hard to envision the nation's exurbs going to war with its cities. That seems reassuring -- we're probably not on the verge of another civil war! But it's also puzzling. What exactly is it that we're all so angry at each other about then?
With controversies surrounding both Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaigns, the two candidates this week continued efforts to improve their favorability among voters.

Trump, who continued to face criticism following a string of controversial remarks, shifted course this week as his campaign rolled out new faces, as well as a new tone.

Clinton, in turn, sought to defend herself against ethical questions, as controversy surrounding her use of a private email server as secretary of state and her foundation's ties to the state department continued to dog her campaign.

As the major party candidates sought to improve their popularity, however, third party candidates Jill Stein, of the Green Party, and Gary Johnson, of the Libertarian Party, looked to build support among voters finding it hard to back either Trump or Clinton.

Here's what happened in presidential politics this week:

Trump laid out his foreign policy agenda, plans to defeat so-called "Radical Islamic Terrorism."

The Republican presidential nominee detailed his foreign policy plans Monday, saying he would temporarily block immigration from "the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world" and judge allies based on their efforts to help the United States root out terrorism.

Trump also said he would form a new partnership with Israel, Egypt and Jordan in an effort to stamp out terrorism, as well as suggested that the U.S. could benefit by joining with Russia against the Islamic State, according to the New York Times.

Trump pledged to "restore law and order," improve future of America's inner cities.

The billionaire businessman traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin Tuesday to discuss his plans to offer better futures to U.S. inner city residents by restoring peace and bringing back jobs to those communities.

Courting the African-American vote, Trump further accused Clinton and Democrats of seeing minority communities only as votes.

"The African-American community has been taken for granted for decades by the Democratic Party. It's time to break with the failures of the past - I want to offer Americans a new future," he said.

Stein made her case against both Trump and Clinton at a Green Party town hall.

The Green Party presidential nominee took aim at both major party candidates during a Wednesday CNN town hall, saying she would "have trouble sleeping at night" if either Clinton or Trump is sent to the White House this fall.

"As despicable as Donald Trump's words are, I find Hillary Clinton's actions and track record is very troubling," she said. "So Donald Trump bashes immigrants and is a xenophobic and racist loud mouth, but Hillary Clinton has been promoting these wars that have killed a million black and brown people."

Stein further took issue with the idea that by supporting her, voters could help Trump win the presidency.

"This politics of fear that tells you: you've got to vote against the person you most dislike or the person you are most afraid of, that politics of fear has a track record. That's been the prevailing mythology: you've got to vote your fears and not your values," she said. "And what has that delivered?"

Johnson said he's optimistic he will be in the presidential debates and about his chances in the election.

Although the Libertarian nominee is polling below the 15 percent needed to make the 2016 presidential debates, Johnson said Thursday that he's hopeful about his chances.

The former New Mexico governor told CNN that he's "really optimistic that we will be in the debates."

"As crazy as this campaign season is, I might be the next president of the United States," Johnson further joked.

Like Stein, Johnson dismissed arguments against voting for third party candidates, contending that "a wasted vote is voting for somebody that you don't believe in."

"If you don't vote your conscience, shame on you. I think maybe six weeks from now you'll be talking about, is voting for Trump a wasted vote? Is voting for Clinton a wasted vote, given that Gary Johnson has risen so far, so fast," he said.

The Clinton Foundation announced it would no longer accept foreign or corporate contributions if Clinton wins the 2016 election.

Following questions and criticism raised over the Clinton Foundation's donations and ties to the U.S. State Department, the non-profit said Thursday it would no longer take foreign or corporate donations if the Democratic presidential nominee is sent to the White House this fall.

According to the Associated Press, former President Bill Clinton furthers told foundation staff members that it would also end its annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting regardless of the election's outcome.

The former president, who also said he will resign from the board, will further refrain from delivering paid speeches. The move, the AP reported, came as part of an effort to avoid potential issues for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence made the case for Trump during a New Hampshire stop.

Pence touted his Republican running mate and took shots at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as he fielded voter questions and discussed the campaign's platform during a Thursday town hall-style event in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Contending that the billionaire businessman "gets it" and is "a genuine article," Pence told supporters that he believes Trump "has made a connection to the American people, he's given voice to the frustrations and the aspirations of the American people more effectively than any American leader since (his) hero, Ronald Reagan."

"I truly believe that...He's a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers and when Donald Trump does his talking, he doesn't go tiptoeing around those thousands of rules of political correctness that the media and the elites impose," he said.

Pence, meanwhile, argued that while Trump offers a new vision and new ideas, the Democrats have rolled out a "stale agenda" and a candidate with "the most predictable of names."

Trump expressed regret over having made controversial comments.

The billionaire businessman, whose campaign has been dogged by contentious campaign-trail remarks, apologized Thursday for comments that "may have caused personal pain" during an evening rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that and, believe it or not, I regret it," he said. "And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain."

Reports surfaced suggesting Clinton told the FBI that former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised her to use private email.

The New York Times reported Friday that Clinton told FBI investigators Powell advised her to use a person email account as secretary of state.

According to the newspaper, although Clinton's campaign has repeatedly pointed to Powell's use of personal email to explain the controversy, she had not publicly stated that he personally recommended the practice.

Powell's office, in a statement to the Times, said Powell had no recollection of making the recommendation during a dinner conversation, but did write her an email memo describing his use of a personal email account for unclassified messages.

The newspaper, however, noted that while Powell and other senior officials had used personal email accounts, by the time Clinton took office rules clearly stated that such practices were not allowed our encouraged due to security risks.

Trump released his first campaign ad of the general election cycle.

The 30-second ad, entitled "Two Americas: Immigration," contrasted how the candidates would tackle the hot-button issue, contending that while "in Hillary Clinton's America, the system stays rigged against Americans," in Trump's America, the country will be secure and keep out dangerous people.

Under Clinton's immigration policy, it suggested, "Syrian refugees flood in, illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay: collecting social security benefits, skipping the line. Our border open."

"It's more of the same, but worse," the ad, which was released Friday, stated.

Under a President Trump, however, "America is secure: terrorists and dangerous criminals kept out; the border's secure: our families safe -- change that makes America safe again," the ad contended

Paul Manafort resigned as Trump's presidential campaign chair.

Trump, who announced his chief strategist's departure in a Friday statement released by his campaign, thanked Manafort for his work, particularly in regards to his guidance in the delegate and convention process.

"This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign," he said in the statement. "I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success."

Manafort's resignation came just days after the campaign named Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon as its chief executive and The Polling Company, Inc./WomanTrend President Kellyanne Conway as its campaign manager.
As the first refugee family in decades was arriving in Montana, GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte mailed out fliers using a photo suggestive of a terrorist and urged a halt to refugee resettlement here.

JAYME FRASER Independent Record

Full Story: http://helenair.com/news/politics/state/gianforte-condemns-refugee-resettlement-as-congolese-family-arrives-in-missoula/article_383cc120-7f29-5fe6-bb9f-aa87cc9edf71.html
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Iranian army unveiled the countrys first homemade turbojet engine Aug. 21, during a ceremony attended by President Hassan Rouhani.

The engine dubbed Ouj is fully designed and manufactured by Iranian experts, the countyrs Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said in the ceremony, Irans state-run IRINN TV reported.

The engines operating altitude reaches 50,000 ft and can be installed in various aircrafts with maximum takeoff weight of 10 tons, Dehghan said.

He added that Iran is now among the eight countries that own the technology for designing and manufacturing these engines.

The Islamic Republic says that has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems in recent years.

Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter planes since 1992. Iran also unveiled its first domestically-manufactured long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2010.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Iran unveiled the long-range Bavar-373 homegrown missile defense system during a ceremony attended by President Hassan Rouhani.

Rouhani, who was visiting Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) at the Ministry of Defense On the occasion of the National Defense Industry Day Aug. 21, viewed various sections of the long-range missile system, Irans state-run IRINN TV reported.

Bavar-373, which Iran says is the home-made version of the Russian S-300 air defense system has been designed and constructed by Iranian experts at AIO in collaboration with Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base as well as scientific and research centers of the country.

Iranian security officials claim that, Bavar 373 is better than the Russian S-300, as it is able to track over 100 targets, just like the Russian system but with a higher targeting capability.

However military experts believe that statements regarding the capabilities of Bavar 373 are exaggerated and are not reflecting the reality.

Iran raised the issue of Bavar 373 during its disputes with Russia over S-300 system.

The $800-million Moscow-Tehran contract to deliver Russian S-300 system to Iran was signed in 2007. It was suspended after the adoption of the UN Security Councils sanctions on Iran in mid-2010.

In 2011, Iran sued Russia in the Geneva Arbitration Court after Moscow suspended the contract.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the S-300 delivery ban in April 2015, shortly after the six world powers and Iran reached a framework agreement over Tehrans disputed nuclear program.

Irans defense minister said Aug. 20 that Russia has delivered main part of the system to Iran.

Tehran will completely receive the S-300 air defense system within next month, he added.
Tehran, Iran, August 21



By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:



The military budget for the current Iranian fiscal year (which started March 20) is twice that of the previous year, President Hassan Rouhani told a conference of high-ranking military commanders of the country on the occasion of the national Defense Industry Day.



This year Iran also has a greater chance regarding aerospace technology to use its talents as well as the opportunities that exist at the international level thanks to the nuclear deal, the president said, Fars news agency reported August 21.



The nuclear deal, put into practice on January 16, has given the chance to defend its positions on regional development more forcefully. Iran is being threatened by the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) which currently reins over swathes of Iraq and Syria to its west.



Last week the country accommodated Russian bombers in one of its military bases from which to launch air raids on the IS in Syria.



During the same conference, Iran unveiled its first home-made turbojet engine. The engine dubbed Ouj is fully designed and manufactured by Iranian experts, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said.

The engines operating altitude reaches 50,000 ft and can be installed in various aircrafts with maximum takeoff weight of 10 tons, Dehghan said.



The minister also revealed that in the near future Iran will build an underwater cruise missile.

The Islamic Republic says that has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems in recent years.

Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter planes since 1992. Iran also unveiled its first domestically-manufactured long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2010.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Irans intelligence ministry announced that several terrorists were arrested in western country in a joint operation with the IRGC Aug. 18.

Other members of a recently dismantled Takfiri terrorist team in western Iran were identified and arrested, the ministry said in a statement, the Iranian governments official website reported.

A significant amount of weapons including Kalashnikov and the US-made M6 rifle, as well as bomb making equipment, grenades and suicide vests and belts were discovered and seized from the terrorists' hide-out, according to the statement.

Iranian officials refer to the extremist Sunni armed groups, in particular in Syria and Iraq, as Takfiri.

Earlier four terrorists linked with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group which had entered Iran through the border to carry out terrorist operations in central Iranian cities were killed in armed clashes in Irans western Kermanshah province in two days (August 15 -16).

The provinces Governor-General Asadollah Razani said that on Aug 15 night security, intelligence, and police forces engaged a first batch of the groups members, killing the key IS agent and arresting some others.

On Aug. 16 morning, forces swooped on a safe house used by the terror cell in Kermanshah city, killing three more terrorists and seizing suicide vests and belts, grenades, and various automatic weapons.
The purple cupping marks visible on American swimmer Michael Phelps and other athletes participating in the 2016 Olympic Games sparked great interest in the Arab world. Some claimed that the practice of cupping is Islamic in origin and that the athletes' use of it proves the truth of the Prophet Muhammad's sayings about it. Thus, for example, Muslims-res.com, which bills itself as "a scientific initiative" by researches and scientists to convey scientific knowledge to Muslim readers, stated in an article titled "The Benefits of Cupping Take the Rio Olympics and the Global Media by Storm": "Congratulations to those interested only in questioning the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, even if science proves them accurate every day," and included quotes from Muhammad's praise of cupping.[1] Another website explained that cupping was "a practice known in Islamic societies for centuries... The roots of this practice in Arab societies are the so-called 'Prophet's medicine,' which is based on recommendations of the Prophet Muhammad..."[2]

Khaled Montasser, a columnist for the Egyptian daily Al-Watan, mocked these claims and accused those who make them of hypocrisy. He said that such claims are a mark of shame for Islam, and that, had the Prophet Muhammad lived today, he would have adopted modern medicine.

The following are excerpts from Montasser's article: [3]



Cupping-marks visible on his body of American swimmer Michael Phelps (Image: Al-mlab.com, August 11, 2016)

"The fact that many Muslims, particularly Salafis, were happy to see the purple marks on the body of American swimmer Michael Phelps at the Rio Olympics attests only to the scope of the disaster afflicting the minds, thought, and souls of [Muslim] believers... The great joy that overcame them was caused by the fact that these marks were the result of cupping, making them think that Phelps had become convinced of the principles of Islam and had converted to Islam, and that this was proof that Islam is right, and that the Prophet's medicine [is also right]...

"Such rejoicing at information like this, and perceiving it as a victory for the religion [Islam], lends it [Islam] fragility and perceives it as lacking any immunity and as vulnerable to potential collapse with every foreign virus. Otherwise, why aren't the Chinese jumping for joy because all media outlets reporting on [Phelps' cupping] noted that it originated in China? Why don't the Chinese declare Buddhism the winner, crow about Buddha being right, and so on? Because [the Chinese] are self-confident and trust their knowledge and their ability to enhance this knowledge, and because they do not mix religion, an absolute, with [scientific] knowledge, which is relative, and therefore paid no heed to this report...

"This is not 'the Prophet's medicine,' but rather medicine that was practiced during the time of the Prophet. Had he lived today, he would have adopted modern medicine, getting ultrasounds, MRIs, etc. Anyone asking nowadays for treatment by cauterization or bloodletting is like asking for anesthesia by being hit on the head with a hammer. As for those who preach and trade in 'the Prophet's medicine,' which has nothing to do with the Prophet - why don't they implement the Prophet's transportation and ride a she-camel instead of driving a Mercedes? ...

"Medical knowledge does not come from a swimmer or a boxer... All scientists agree that bloodletting and cupping have no place in and no connection to [modern] medicine. Some even define [bloodletting] as ridiculous, and those who perform it 'criminals'...

"The Salafis should [clarify] to us whether we are imitating the American infidels or are in conflict with them. When the Americans say homosexuality is not a disease, the Salafis scream: Infidels, heathens, preaching promiscuity, kill the Americans, throw them to the ground!... But when this swimmer with purple cupping marks emerges, we see this as... a clear victory over the U.S....

"My Salafi brothers, [modern] culture is a package deal, and you are welcome to the whole thing at no charge. But this culture is not a vegetable stand where you can pick and choose... We must adopt [modern] means, which are brains and knowledge... So I am saddened when I see you [Salafis] begging a swimmer who underwent cupping for acknowledgement of your religion."

Endnotes:
Who can forget PMs famous Narendra Damodardas Modi monogrammed pinstriped suit? He wore it last year during his meeting with the U.S. President Barack Obama. If his fashion sense wasnt enough to raise eyebrows, Laljibhai Tulsibai Patel created a lot of stir by shelling out more than Rs. 4 crores to buy that suit at an auction.

 ANI

Guess what? The same suit has now been officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, as the most expensive suit sold at an auction. Back then, Modis style was highly criticized by many calling it a narcissistic move since it has Modis name on it. Some even called it a publicity stunt and gimmick. We wonder what their reaction is now?

 Reuters

In fact, there were rumours around the suit as well. Some said that it was a gift while some said that it cost Rs 10 lakhs. However, Laljibhai Patel who is a diamond baron, paid an extraordinary amount of Rs. 43,131,311 for that suit. The money that was collected from the auction later went to the Namami Gange Fund, an initiative to clean the river Ganga.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21

Trend:

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has recalled about 300 diplomats from foreign countries after the military coup, Anadolu Agency reported.

The agency does not name the country, where diplomats have been recalled.

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 had said 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.


Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.21

Trend:

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the suicide bomber in the wedding party attack that killed dozens was between 12 and 14 years old, Milliyet newspaper reported.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the information in a live nationally-televised address in front of Istanbul city Hall.

At least 50 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
US is ready to handover the internet's domain naming system to ICANN. (Photo : Facebook)

The United States has finally confirmed that it is ready to give up the power of internet's Domain Naming System (DNS) which is among one of the most important components of the internet. The decision will end a 20-year long process due to which the U.S. withheld handing over a crucial part of the internet's governance.



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DNS pairs the easy-to-remember web addresses with their respective relevant servers. Without DNS, it wouldn't be possible to access the websites by their domain name, instead one would have to type its IP address, like 194.66.82.10.



It was more due to the circumstance than the intention that the U.S. always had ultimate say in how the DNS should be controlled. It will now give up its power to a non-profit organisation called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), BBC reported.



The two parties agreed on the terms back in 2014, but it's only now that the U.S. decided that Icann was ready to take over.



According to the website of National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), ICANN is likely to get the "keys to the kingdom" on Oct. 1. From that date, the U.S. will lose its control, however, ICANN will remain based in Los Angeles.



The users of the web won't notice any difference post this change as ICANNhas being doing the same for years now. But some U.S. politicians are criticising the move as it will pave the way for the likes of China and Russia to meddle with a system that has always been under the US protection.



NTIA chief Lawrence Strickland said recently that the IANA stewardship transition is the final step of the U.S. government's long-standing commitment to privatise the Internet's domain name system, PC magazine reported.



ICANN was founded in 1998 specifically for assigning web addresses. Until that point, it was Jon Postel, popularly known as "God of the internet" who was handling the job. He was an authority in internet related issue and his commendable research work included the creation of the systems that underpinned networking. Postel, died shortly after ICANN was created  the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) was at his helm. Administration of the IANA was contracted to ICANN, but NTIA which a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce was controlling it indirectly.



In October, the U.S. government or the NTIA will not have a say on matters related to internet naming anymore. ICANN now is all set to cater and answer multiple stakeholders who wish to have a say in the internet related matter. These include multiple stakeholders such as nations, businesses and groups which offer technical expertise.






The iPhone is on the verge of fixing the battery drainage problem

The iPhone 7 is rumored to have a new component that will account for better power management and longer use. (Photo : Getty Images/Carl Court)

IPhone is on its way to solve battery drainage problem with a new double battery technology. MIT spin-off company has recently figured out how to double iPhone battery life without making any deviation to the product's thickness.



After satisfactory testing results, this new type battery is actually making its way to mass production, Bgr.com mentioned.



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This new battery technology developer, SolidEnergy Systems, has been successful in making an "anode-free" lithium metal battery which is twice as dense as lithium-ion battery with same degree of safety and longevity like lithium-ion battery, MIT NEWS reported.



CEO of SolidEnergy Systems along with inventor Qichao Hu added "With two-times the energy density, we can make a battery half the size, but that still lasts the same amount of time, as a lithium-ion battery, or we can make a battery the same size as a lithium-ion battery, but now it will last twice as long."



Being an iPhone admirer, anything that you have hated about the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s series has to be its fast draining battery performance along with an ugly protruding rear camera. The camera bump may not be cured very soon but the battery life of iPhone is surely to be improved in near future.



Check out this video on iPhone battery life:







Faded up with these two problems, some users are suggesting to fix both of them i.e. camera bump and battery life in a single shot even at the cost of heavier iPhones. Disappointing them Apple has confirmed not to launch any heavier version which means protruding camera will still bother the consumers in upcoming iPhone 7 models but this is good news.



The company demonstrated the first prototype of the new battery in October 2015 using battery of iPhone 6 as a comparison tool and got impressive result. The new battery being half the size of iPhone's battery managed to offer 2.0 amp hours which is tangibly higher than iPhone's 1.8 amp hour battery life.



In this new battery technology, an ultra-thin lithium metal foil is used as anode which has thickness of just 1/5th of traditional lithium metal anode. The company has decided to imply this new battery technology in drones this November, in smartphones and wearable in 2017 and finally in electric cars in 2018.


Robot Phone (Photo : Twitter)

Google, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Qualcomm are tech companies teaming up with telecom companies to fight automated telephone calls known as "robocalls". The pre-recorded sales calls often involve telemarketing or political phone campaigns. Tech companies teaming up with telecom giants including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Comcast will work with the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to end pre-recorded messages from fake phone numbers, and robotic text messages.



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This group has over 30 companies. They include smartphone makers, OS developers, wireless carriers, network designers, and federal government agencies.



The "Robocall Strike Force" met on August 19, Friday in Washington, D.C. for the first time, and will develop a solid plan before it sits down with the FCC by October 19.



One goal of the tech/telecom team is to boost verification standards for caller ID. It also wants to start creating a "Do Not Originate" list that would make it difficult for robocallers to pretend to be companies, banks, or government agencies, according to Android Authority.



FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler elucidated the situation by explaining that the "bad guys" are using technology to beat the "good guys". A big reason is that the telecom industry is not taking action.



Wheeler pointed out that over half of the 175,000 calls to the FCC's help center during the first half of 2016 were filed under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The US Congress passed the law in 1991.



AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is the group's chairman. He shared that the anti-robocall group now has a play book. He explained that some annoying phone calls are legal such as public opinion polls and telemarketing calls. However, millions of other robo-calls are clearly illegal.



Last year the FCC started dealing with the tech issues related to the problem. It gave the thumbs up for phone makers and telecoms to use robocall-blocking software.



In the past, the TCPA has often been used to sue companies about basic automated messages. However, companies such as Facebook and Yahoo have faced lawsuits over notification texts for welcome messages and account sign-ins.



In related news, the FCC has certified two mysterious Sony smartphones that are reportedly part of the handset maker's new Xperia line, according to GSMArena. It is codenamed Kugo.



Sony's invite for the IFA 2016 trade show teases a new smartphone and many other mobile devices. The yearly event will start September 2 in Berlin, Germany.



Here's how to prevent robocalls:






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.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The U.S. military's Tricare health care system now covers transgender military family members and retirees, despite the official policy not yet going live, a top official said.

"I'm not going to wait for the final policy," Navy Vice Adm. Raquel Bono, head of the Defense Health Agency, said in a wide-ranging interview with Military.com on Thursday atJoint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

"We're going to go ahead and do that because that's what our patients need," she said.

The policy, published for public comment in the Federal Register in February, will allow for hormone therapy and mental health counseling for "gender dysphoria," the clinical term for those who identify as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth. Tricare is prohibited by law from covering sex-change surgery.

A ban on openly serving transgender troops was lifted by Defense Department officials in June. By Oct. 1, officials will issue a handbook for commanders and all those affected by the new policy, as well as medical guidance for providing transition care to transgender troops. As part of the new policy, military medical facilities will provide hormone treatment, counseling and sex-change surgery when deemed "medically necessary."

Bono said Tricare's official policy should go live by Oct. 1.

"DHA and the Tricare plan have been working hand in glove with the services so that we're able to roll this out in the same time frame," Bono said. "We'll be lock-step with what the services are doing. There should not be any lag; the whole goal is that we're going to make this as seamless as we can."

In the meantime, Bono said, Tricare is working with its regional contractors to grant approval for transgender treatment that will be covered under the new policy. If the contractor will not approve it, the admiral said she will do so herself.

"What I'm trying to do right now is give that approval level to the contractors, and if that's still not in place, then it comes up to me and I wave it," she said. "I don't think we need to wait for the actual policy to be signed and wait for the ink to be dried. Its something we can do."

Advocates with the American Military Partner Association, which supports gay and transgender military families, said that families deserve care, regardless of their medical needs.

"All service members and their family members, including those who happen to be transgender, deserve access to quality medical care -- care they have earned serving our nation," said Ashley Broadway, AMPA's president. "We look forward to reviewing the new regulations and hope they provide the full range of appropriate and medically necessary care."

--Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at amybushatz.
Samsung's Milk Music Streaming Service (Photo : www.techtimes.com)

Samsung will officially be ending their Milk Music streaming service across all of their device platforms on September 22, 2016 as the company says they are investing in a similar partner model.



The whole reason for the Samsung Milk Music is unknown but the South Korean tech giant did say that they are investing in a partner model that will provide streaming services. Samsung's music streaming service was free for those who already owned a device from the company such as a Samsung S7 or the new Galaxy Note 7.



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Users were able to listen to free streaming music anytime they like provided that they had a good Internet connection. Samsung Milk Music competed with other streaming giants such as Spotify and Pandora, Android Headlines has learned.



The streaming service was already discontinued in Australia earlier this year and many have already speculated that it will also be ended across the globe. Samsung did not specify which partner they are referring to that will provide the streaming services for their users.



Samsung Milk Music allowed users to synchronize their music preferences across all of their Samsung devices which is useful because there was no need to go through the same setup every time, PC Magazine reported. However, it was not as useful for those who did not own many Samsung smartphones or tablets due to their expensive price tags.



Premium Milk Music users paid $4 per month and was allowed unlimited skips and offline listening to saved music similar to how Spotify Premium works. Since Spotify has no preference for devices, many users choose the service over Samsung's Milk Music.



The streaming service did not allow users to directly buy music that they wanted to download which is what iTunes do for iOS devices and more. Samsung Milk Music also does not have a feature to share playlists and preferences of the users to their friends which Spotify can do through their social media integration and friends list.



Users can still listen to Samsung Milk Music streaming service until September 22 before the company officially retires the service. They can switch over to Spotify, Pandora or Slacker Radio afterwards for their streaming needs.






Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri addresses protest demonstrations in 105 cities

Addressing the protest demonstrations and sit-ins held in 105 cities under the banner of PAT on August 20 from the central secretariat via video link, PAT Chairman Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that the Sharif family should beware that we can take the revenge of June 17 within 7 days but he taught peace all his life and the hands of the workers are tied. He said that Punjab is ideological capital of terrorists, asking that terrorism came to an end from Waziristan, when will it end from Punjab? He said that India brought Nawaz Sharif into power, adding that he is aware of the countries that played their role in installing him in power.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that the work had started internationally well ahead of General Elections 2013 to bring Nawaz Sharif into power. He said that if his revelations are contrary to the reality, then the Pakistan Army and the national security institutions should refute his facts, he would consider that his information was not correct. He asked the Prime Minister to stop sending the delegations to him for pardon, stating that the Qisas is the only demand of PAT and we would not be satisfied on more or less than this. He said that our FIR was registered on the intervention of the Army Chief and it is towards him that we look for justice. He said that the PM has enveloped those of his allies who are heaping criticism on army in the cloak of his government and democracy. He said that whenever the government of Nawaz Sharif is threatened, bomb blasts start to occur. He asked we want to know as to what is the relationship between the rulers of Punjab and federation and terrorism?

The PAT leader addressed the participants of the sit-ins and massive protests across 105 cities of the country through video link. Sheikh Rashid and Basharat Jaspal, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, Khawaja Amir Fareed Koreja, Makhdoom Nadeem Hashmi and Sardar Shakir Mazari, and Khalid Durrani led the demonstrations in Faisalabad, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Sindh and KP respectively.

Dr Qadri profusely appreciated the passion and commitment of the workers and thanked the PTI, PPP, PML-Q, JI, MWM, SIC, and Pakistan minorities alliance on their participation and show of solidarity. He said that the demonstrations will continue in various cities till August 28, adding that he would announce the next round of protest campaign on August 28. He also appreciated the women for showing up in the protests in large number.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that we have not taken to the roads but been forced to do so. He said that we were not given the right to register our FIR. We were denied the right of formation of fair and neutral JIT. We were neither given the right to fair trial as promised by law nor were we given access to the copy of the Model Town judicial commission report. He said that the doors of justice were shut down on us because those who are responsible for the Model Town tragedy are in government.

Dr Qadri said that the Sharif family has decided to bring about a change in the Code of Criminal Procedure to save themselves from the private complaint filed by PAT. He said that the PAT workers have set up a new example by simultaneously holding revolutionary protest rallies and sit-ins in 105 cities of the country. He said that these demonstrations were also attended by farmers, clerks, workers and those parents whose children were kidnapped. He said that his workers cannot be browbeaten into submission nor can they be scared, stating that no other party has such courageous workers. He said that if Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif reject all the facts he has stated, then he would come up with all the disclosures.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri asked as to why the Prime Minister continues to remain mum even when the RAW spy is caught and spills the beans; or the Indian PM confesses to open intervention in Balochistan; or the Indian spies are arrested from their factories; or there are bomb blasts in Quetta or human rights violations are committed in the Indian held Kashmir. He said that he wanted to tell the nation that if the elections of 2018 were held, then the country would be transformed into the Sharif dynasty and the Pakistan Army would become Punjab Police. He said that the nation will have to decide as to who they have to have between Pakistan and Sharif family.

Talking about the Panama leaks, the PAT Chairman said that if the steel mill was sold in 1980, where was the money parked for 19 years? He asked those who sold the steel mill of Jeddah to buy luxury flats in London that they should not tell lies with the nation. He said that these flats were bought 12 years ago. He asked the PM to reply as to why he concealed his assets in the General Elections 2013, those assets which he himself mentioned in his speeches on a number of occasions. He asked the political parties and their workers to be ready for decisive struggle, adding that the sun of the Sharifs power is going to set very soon and forever.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that Punjab is the hub of terrorism. He said that the province has surpassed other federating units in the women rights violations for last eight years. At the same time, Punjab tops the list in the kidnapping activities. The province has earned notoriety for the maximum number of incidents of kidnapping of children, stating that the same goes for the robberies etc. He said that Faisalabad is the first destination for the kidnappers. He said that Punjab has become the biggest market of spurious drugs. He said that it is the stubbornness of the Punjab Chief Minister that he started the Orange Line Train project without the approval of the concerned departments. UNESCO expressed its extreme adverse response to this and the Lahore High Court also stopped the government to carry on with the project in areas that are threatening towards the historical sites.

Dr Qadri said that whatever they speak, the Sharif brothers consider it a law. He said that from Rs. 30 billion project of Sasti Roti to the train project, the stories of corruption are galore and the Sharifs are mired in it. He asked as to why no one ever asked how come Punjab, which had a surplus budget in 2008, has become indebted to the tune of Rs. 1000 billion. He said that the countrys foreign debt is Rs. 25,000 billion and when it hits Rs. 30,000 billion ceiling, Pakistans debt will be equal to its GDP.

Talking about the National Action Plan, Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri asked the Prime Minister to tell as to how many meetings did he preside over? Why were the funds to NACTA not provided? Why were courts hearing terrorism cases not given funds and personnel? He said that the Prime Ministers allies in Balochistan are a hindrance in the way of verification of the national ID cards there. They do not want the ID cards handed over to terrorists to be verified. He also showed the copy of a letter written to DG Nadra on the occasion.
10:14am: Manager Jeff Banister revealed Sunday that Gomez will be the Rangers everyday left fielder when he joins the team, tweets Wilson. Profar and DeShields have been platooning there recently.

9:12am: Newly signed Rangers outfielder Carlos Gomez will report to Triple-A Round Rock on Sunday, but he could join the big league team as early as Thursday, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Unsurprisingly, Rangers president and general manager Jon Daniels would like Gomez to debut with the first-place club in short order.

We signed him with the hope that he can help us in the big leagues, Daniels told Wilson. Probably sooner than later given where we are on the calendar. We want to take a look at it before too much time passes.

The 73-51 Rangers, who have a six-game lead in the American League West and own the ALs best record, havent yet decided how often theyll play Gomez or which position hell fill. One place he wont line up is center field, Daniels said. While center is Gomezs natural position and where he has spent nearly his entire major league career since debuting with the Mets in 2007, Texas has a better option on its roster in Ian Desmond.

Desmond has solidified the Rangers outfield up the middle, but they arent as well off in the corners  especially given the loss of right fielder Shin-Soo Choo to a fractured forearm earlier this week. Without Choo around, Jurickson Profar, Nomar Mazara, Ryan Rua, Delino DeShields Jr. and Drew Stubbs are the Rangers current choices, as their depth chart shows.

Like Gomez, Rua, DeShields and Stubbs are all right-handed hitters. The only one who has fared nicely versus lefties this year is Rua, though the 31-year-old Stubbs does own a .274/.349/.445 line against them in 932 career plate appearances. Historically, Gomez has performed similarly against both left- and right-handers, and that has continued this season. Unfortunately, though, thats no longer a positive for the erstwhile star, whom lefties have held to a .221/.275/.326 line and righties have limited to a .205/.271/.320 output in 2016. As evidenced by those numbers, and the fact that the wild-card contending Astros released him amid a playoff race, Gomez no longer looks like any kind of a solution. However, Daniels felt Gomez was worth taking a flyer on for the prorated league minimum of $110K.

The way were looking at it is hes an extremely talented player who is having a down year, Daniels stated. Hes 30 years old; hes still in his physical prime. Sometimes trades dont work out the way the acquiring club intends. Were taking a chance on him thinking hes better than his most recent performance.

Gomez, of course, was among the majors premier all-around players from 2013-14, when the ex-Brewer combined for 13.1 fWAR in 1,234 PAs and slashed .284/.347/.491 with 47 home runs and 74 stolen bases. Gomezs career went into a tailspin when Houston acquired him last summer. Now, the Rangers are left to hope that a change of scenery serves him well.
FERNDALE, Mich. - When Steve Caesar first saw the 1978 Mustang II King Cobra he had just bought off eBay, the car's body was in general disarray and the rear of the vehicle was drooping toward the ground.

"The engine and the transmission were in the trunk," said Caesar, accounting for the car's sagging appearance.

Caesar had the classic-but-crusty Mustang towed from Arizona to Michigan, where he began a complete restoration that would ultimately last the better part of a decade.

Steve Caesar shows the down-to-the-frame restoration he did on his 1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra.

On Saturday, the fully restored Mustang II King Cobra was gleaming, complete with white paint and a stripes package based on the scheme it came off the factory floor with decades ago. It even has tangerine-colored, Scottish tweed and plaid interior that was considered a luxury item in the late 1970s.

Caesar has a 5-liter V-8 under the hood with some modifications, but otherwise the car is wholly based on the original, right down to that bright orange interior, which was special-ordered.

Caesar's King Cobra was among more than 900 Ford Mustangs that were registered for the 2016 Mustang Alley, located along Nine Mile Road at Woodward in Ferndale.

Dozens of Mustang enthusiasts and their cars are expected to also gather Sunday at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn for the annual Mustang Memories, which runs until 5 p.m. Sunday, rain or shine.

Steve Caesar's restored 1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra.

At Mustang Alley near Woodward, Ford Motor Co. also had some of its new performance wares proudly on display, such as the vaunted Ford GT and a Ford Focus RS turned on its side, exposing its underbelly to curious onlookers.

Further into Mustang Alley, Don and Brenda Frazier of Ypsilanti Township had their mint-condition, 1965 Mustang glistening. It continued a tradition that for them dates back to 1999.

What is it about Mustangs the Fraziers like?

"I think they're unique," Don Frazier said. "When you see a Mustang going down the road, you know it's a Mustang."
Ypsilanti Community Middle School.JPG

Ypsilanti Community Middle School is pictured. YCMS, Holmes Elementary School and New Tech High School could potentially be shut down by June 2017 by the Michigan School Reform Office.

(Lauren Slagter | The Ann Arbor News)

YPSILANTI, MI - Three Ypsilanti schools could be closed at the end of the 2016-17 school year as part of the state School Reform Office's recently announced plan to shut down low-performing schools.

Holmes Elementary School, Ypsilanti Community Middle School and New Tech High School are potentially on the chopping block, based on the schools' rankings among the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state in 2014 and subsequent years.

Ben Edmondson, superintendent of Ypsilanti Community Schools.

Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Ben Edmondson says closing schools would disrupt the community without providing any benefit for students.

"When you close a school in a small community or any neighborhood school, you throw the community in just havoc. They lose confidence in everyone that was supposed to protect the kids," Edmondson said. "It would be tragic to just come in and just close schools.

"Where are (the students) going?" he continued. "Are you going to route them to a charter school or route them to a more successful school? What's that? You have to address what are the problems, why are kids not achieving and why is it so predictable that the same kind of kid is not achieving?"

Details of the SRO's plan are not yet available. Natasha Baker, head of the SRO, previously told MLive there's currently no estimate for how many schools across the state could be closed by June 2017.

More than 100 schools were ranked in the bottom 5 percent in 2014, but Baker said every school on the list will not be closed. She also said a school will not be closed if there's not a high-quality alternative available.

Edmondson expects to meet with SRO staff within a month and develop a plan for moving forward at Holmes, YCMS and New Tech.

"I want to have the meeting and hear what (Baker) has to say and determine what are our next steps," he said. "I would hope at this point our community trusts the work that we're doing, trusts the work that I'm doing. ... No matter what happens, our community is resilient and we'll be able to handle whatever is decided."

Wraparound services for families whose children attend low-performing schools would be more beneficial for students and help to raise achievement, Edmondson said, rather than shutting down schools and uprooting students.

The SRO's stance is that it cannot allow chronically failing schools to continue operating.

Another point of contention with the SRO's proposal is the use of Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress results as a factor in determining which schools to close.

The Michigan Department of Education told schools the testing results would not be used in accountability measures until 2017, and the department was granted a two-year hiatus from issuing top-to-bottom rankings as a result. But the SRO - which is no longer under the Department of Education - is taking into account those M-STEP scores.

At Holmes, 6 percent of students tested as proficient in both math and English language arts on the M-STEP in the 2014-15 school year, compared to the statewide proficiency rate of 31.5 percent. YCMS had 4.7 percent of its students meet the M-STEP proficiency standards in 2014-15.

At New Tech High School, 7.8 percent of students met the ACT college readiness benchmarks that are tested as part of the Michigan Merit Exam. Across the state, 20.2 percent of high schoolers met the college readiness benchmarks.

Edmondson said a single test score is not a reliable measure of students' abilities. There are other ways to measure students' progress, and Holmes teachers have seen their students improve on local assessments.

Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, said he is concerned by the SRO's use of two different standardized tests to identify failing schools, and he called for more transparency in the office's process for deciding which schools to close.

"Educational accountability is a deeply serious endeavor and the stakes are simply too high for students, educators and families for decisions to be made in a closed-door, willy-nilly manner as it appears these are," Zemke wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday, Aug. 17. "These decisions are more than 'not right.' They are irresponsible."

Closing schools is unprecedented for the School Reform Office, although it has had the authority to do so since the office was created in 2010.

This is the second controversial exertion of authority to come from the office since Gov. Rick Snyder's 2015 decision to move the office from the Department of Education to the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget, where the SRO is under Snyder's authority.

In February, the SRO announced it would appoint a CEO for the first time to take over four East Detroit Public Schools. The school district has pushed back on the decision, obtaining a restraining order to prevent the new CEO from exerting authority in the district and filing a lawsuit against the SRO.

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District is currently fulfilling a contract for the SRO, training Robert Harvey on skills he will use to train future school CEOs.
UPDATE: Missing 5-year-old boy found safe in Oakland County, man taken into custody

PORT HURON, MI -- Police are searching for a 5-year-old boy that's been reported in missing in Port Huron.

An Amber Alert was issued Saturday, Aug. 20 for 5-year-old Douglas Ball, described as 4-foot-5 inches tall, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and weighing 100 pounds.

The 5-year-old boy may be with 39-year-old Douglas Ball, his biological father, standing 6-foot-4 inches tall and 240 pounds.

The father is a person of interest in a homicide that occurred in Port Huron, according to the Amber Alert.

Police believe the father and son may be traveling in a maroon or brown 2000 Chevrolet Malibu with Michigan license plate DFC9403.

Anyone that may have seen the pair or the vehicle has been asked to immediately call 911.

The Port Huron Police Department can be reached at 810-984-8415.
OAKLAND COUNTY, MI - Police are offering details on how a SWAT team was used to help rescue a missing 5-year-old boy in Oakland County's Orion Township.

Douglas Ball was found safe in Orion Township Sunday, Aug 21 following an investigation that began the day before with police at a homicide scene in Port Huron and expansive search for the boy's father.

Port Huron police officers responded around 4:20 p.m. Aug. 20 to the 1200 block of Rawlins Street after receiving a call from the parents of 30-year-old Lydia Ball that went to the home to check on her.

Ball was found dead inside the home. Police developed 39-year-old Douglas Ball as a suspect in the murder and received information that he'd fled with his biological son, according to a news release.

An Amber Alert was issued Saturday evening to find the father and son after the 5-year-old was reported missing.

Port Huron Police Department's Investigative Unit took care of the crime scene, with the Michigan State Police Crime Lab helping process the area.

The Port Huron Police NET Unit, with assistance from the Michigan State Police, the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children Code Adam Unit and the Macomb FBI office, were assigned to follow tips and leads on the pair's location.

Police were eventually led to a mobile home park in Orion Township Sunday morning and surrounded a home where it was learned the father and son were located.

The Oakland County Sheriff's SWAT team responded and entered the home around 8:30 a.m. Aug. 21.

An autopsy will be conducted this week and the case will be presented to the St. Clair County Prosecutors Office for possible charges.

Port Huron police thanked Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, Oakland County Sheriff's Department SWAT team, Michigan State Police, Macomb FBI office, and the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children Code Adam investigator for their help in the search.
WYOMING, MI -- Authorities say eight homes and a small seven-unit apartment complex have been posted for "no occupancy" because of damage from a suspected tornado that tore through the community.

Wyoming City Manager Curtis Holt gave the damage report late Saturday as city officials gathered to talk about the storm.

He said authorities plan to survey more neighborhoods Sunday to get a better idea of the damage to the community.

Authorities say the damage in Wyoming is part of a lengthy path of destruction that began in Van Buren County near Bangor and continued through the mid-section of Allegan County before striking Wyoming and Grand Rapids.

The storm brought down an estimated 500 power lines in Wyoming alone, along with hundreds of trees. Grand Rapids also was hard hit.

As of 11 p.m. Saturday, more than 25,000 Consumers Energy customers in Kent County were without power.

Wyoming police Chief James Carmody said a funnel cloud was spotted near M-6 and Ivanrest Avenue about 2:30 p.m., with damage reports soon coming in from 52nd Street and Ivanrest.

The storm then cut a path northeast into Grand Rapids.

"It appears if this was a funnel cloud, it was touching down in spots, just kind of hopping along," he said.

Authorities say the damage from Saturday's tornado was more widespread than a tornado that hit the community in 2014, but perhaps less intense. In the 2014 tornado, nearly all trees in Ideal Park near 60th Street and Division Avenue were leveled and 40-50 homes had significant damage.

Wyoming officials have established a help line at 530-7266 to help residents with questions about storm damage and downed power lines.

A resource center also will be open at Gladiola Elementary, 3500 Gladiola Ave. SW.

Carmody said city inspectors will be available to look at damaged structures.

Holt said city crews will start Monday cleaning up tree debris. He said residents should place the debris in yards behind the sidewalks, not on them.

"It's going to be a long process. We ask people to be patient," Holt said.

Authorities are asking for the public to stay out of neighborhoods with heavy damage so that crews can clean up debris and make sure streets are safe. They also advise drivers to use caution at non-working traffic lights.

In Van Buren County, the storm path began near 34th Ave. near 60 1/2 St. in Bangor Twp., then continued through the City of Bangor on a northeasterly track to Baseline Road and 51st Street in Columbia Twp.

State police say structural damage was reported at True Blue Blueberry Farms, the Columbia Township Hall, the Bangor Police Department as well as several private residences.

The First Congregational Church, 54128 County Road 388 ih Grand Junction, was opened as a shelter for those displaced by the storm.
WYOMING, MI - No injuries have been reported in the city, the area hardest hit in Kent County by a reported tornado, Wyoming police said Saturday, Aug. 20.

The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids reported that a spotter reported a funnel cloud in Wyoming.

Police Capt. Kim Koster said police, firefighters and other city workers responded Saturday afternoon after the far-ranging storm ripped through three areas of the city, uprooting trees, knocking down power lines and flooding some areas.

She said that city parks, Lemery, Pinery and Buck Creek would be closed until authorities are able to assess damage.

The damage was highest near Byron Center Avenue SW and 36th Street, Ivanrest Avenue and 52nd Street and on the city's northside, Koster said at a command post on Byron Center.

Police believe that all roads in the city have been made passable after trees and power lines blocked access immediately after the storm.

"I have no reports of injuries at this point, which is good," Koster said.

No injuries were reported elsewhere in Kent County, an official said.

Koster could not confirm that a tornado caused the damage. She said there is no damage estimate yet. City workers will be assessing damage, both to residences and businesses.

Residents can drop off debris at the Burlingame Avenue drop-off center.

Koster urged people to stay away from heavily damaged areas while city workers and residents clean up.

"I know they want to see the damage but it really crams up the streets," she said.

Koster said it appears the city's alarm system worked. She heard the sirens and got her family downstairs before the storm hit.

With power out in some areas, police will "take precautions to keep the residents safe," Koster said.

The American Red Cross of Kent County, Salvation Army were among agencies responding. Kent County Sheriff's Department set up its mobile-command center at Byron Center Avenue and 36th while Grandville and Kentwood police helped out.

Wyoming firefighters surveyed the city to make sure roads were passable.
Dragon Ball Super episode 55 recap and review: Zen Chan  Son Gokus new BFF? [SPOILERS] (Photo : YouTube/Harry Price)

Looks like Son Goku has a new BFF in the form of Zen-Chan. "Dragon Ball Super" episode 55 recap explores what went down in the episode.



Warning: This article contains detailed spoilers for "Dragon Ball Super" episode 55. Read to know more.



"Dragon Ball Super" episode 55 recap - report



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The episode starts with Goku arriving at Lord Beerus' planet to find out what he has been called for. Whis and Beerus tell him that the Omni-King wants to meet him. Goku asks if it is about the grand tournament the Omni-King was talking about. Apparently, Beerus and Whis have no idea why he wants to meet Son Goku.



However, Goku is not willing to go as the time machine is almost ready to take off, but Beerus is adamant that he must meet the Omni-King.



Meanwhile, the distance between Beerus' planet and the Omni-King's palace is quite far and Whis would take close to two days to reach. They decide to seek Kaioshin's help to teleport them to his palace.



Beerus reminds Goku that his behavior will decide the fate the universe as an angry Omni-King will not think twice before destroying the universe including Beerus himself.



Elsewhere, the work on the time machine is over and it has been repaired. Enthusiastically, Mai rushes to inform Future Trunks, but Bulma stops her as he is resting after his sparring session with Vegeta.



Beerus warns Goku that he should not mention a word about Black Goku or the time machine. He tells Whis to look for the Kaioshin and he should be safe.



Goku is shocked to see Beerus concerned about a Kaioshin. Whis explains that a God of Destruction and a Kaioshin are like a set. The death of any one of them would mean the death of another in the set.



Goku wonders that killing a Kaioshin would mean the death of Beerus, but he doesn't want it to end that way.



Beerus is fuming as Whis has revealed that secret to Goku.



In "Dragon Ball Super" episode 55, Zamasu and Gowasu are on planet Babari and they are looking at inhabitants murdering each other. Zamasu still feels that the mortals are not worth living. A Barbarian attack Zamasu and in return he kills him despite Gowasu's interference.



The Kaioshins return to Universe 10 and Gowasu asks for Zamasu's Potara earring. Gowasu is disappointed by Zamasu's actions and he explains that the killing of the Barbarian might affect the history.



Elsewhere, on the Kaioshin realm of Universe 7, they are amazed that the Omni-King has invited Goku. The Omni-King's palace has only been visited thrice by the Elder Kaioshin while Kibito has never visited the palace.



Goku is reminded again by everyone that he should behave himself in front of the Omni-King and he gets annoyed by the constant reminders.



The Kaioshin uses his teleportation technique to take Goku and Whis to the palace. A short man with white hair welcomes them and he looks like Whis. He is the Grand Priest. Whis and the Kaioshin greet the Grand Priest and Goku looks confused.



Whis tells the Grand Priest that they did not have enough time for him to make Goku change his attire. But, the Grand Priest is not concerned about his clothes.



The Grand Priest takes them inside the palace. Goku tells Whis that the man looks quite strong. Whis tells him that the Grand Priest is one of the five strongest people in all the universes. Goku expresses his desire to fight but Whis rejects his desire.



They meet the Omni-King who is sitting on his throne. The Omni-King announces that he wants to be Goku's buddy. Goku wonders if this is why he was summoned to his palace. The Kaioshin assures that Goku would be happy to be Omni-King's friend.



Omni-King calls Goku as Son Goku but he tells him that he can call him Goku. Omni-King wants to know what he wants to call him and he said, Omni Chan or Zen-Chan.



Omni-King wants to play with him, but Goku tells him that he has some urgent work to do and he would return to play with him. He promises that he would bring a friend with him to play.



Goku tells him that his palace is kind of boring and he should come to planet Earth. The Omni-King gives him a button that can be used to call him.



Goku, Kaioshin and Whis return to Beerus' planet and tell Beerus about the episode. Beerus gets the shock of his life after he learns that Goku calls the Omni-King - Zen-Chan.



Back in Universe 10, Gowasu could tell by looking at Zamasu's tea that his heart is clouded. According to Gowasu, there should be a balance between good and evil.



During the episode, Bulma unveils the time machine and Goku, Vegeta and Future Trunks embark on their journey.



Towards the end of "Dragon Ball Super" episode 55, Trunks looks at Mai's cap lying on the ground but her body is not there. Meanwhile, a group of attackers fires at Goku and the episode ends.



Read more: "Dragon Ball Super" episode 56 two preview trailers released: Super Saiyan Rose vs. Super Saiyan Blue.



Stay tuned for more "Dragon Ball Super" spoilers and updates.


WYOMING, MI -- The city of Wyoming is urging residents to stay home Sunday if they are not part of the storm recovery effort. There are still a lot of downed power lines in the area.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, the American Red Cross will be at Gladiola Elementary School, 3500 Gladiola Ave. SW, to hand out disaster kits, which include cleaning supplies, tarps and other materials.

The Salvation Army will also be at the school to provide food and water to residents in need.

The city of Wyoming's yard-waste center, 2660 Burlingame SW, will be open 24 hours a day over the next few days for residents to drop off debris. Residents who have debris requiring city crews to pick it up, call the public works department on Monday at 616-530-7260.

The city of Wyoming will waive building and inspection permits for residents whose repairs are directly attributable to the storm damage, the city said.

"We are grateful that there are no reported injuries from yesterday's storms," Wyoming Mayor Jack Poll said in a statement. "Our Public Safety teams have done an excellent job handling first response calls, and we appreciate the support from Kent County and neighboring jurisdictions."

"Public Works, Inspections and Parks and Recreation, along with our Administrative team, have all done a tremendous job addressing the immediate needs of our residents," Poll added. "Storm clean up has begun, with neighbors helping neighbors."

Below is the full statement issued by the city of Wyoming:

[?] Downed wire: To report a downed wire, call Consumers Energy at 1.800.477.5050 and press 1. Do not attempt to touch or move a wire. You can also call the City of Wyoming at 616.530.7300 and press 1.

[?] Shelter: The Red Cross has opened a shelter at Lee High School, 1335 Lee SW for residents displaced by the storm.

[?] Food and water: The Salvation Army is opening a canteen today at Gladiola Elementary School at 3500 Gladiola Ave. SW and will be providing food and water for residents.

[?] Resource Center: Wyoming has opened a Resource Center at Gladiola Elementary School at 3500 Gladiola Ave. SW to coordinate community resources for residents who need help with tree removal or have other needs. The Center is open until 5 p.m. today.

[?] Help line: Wyoming residents who need non-emergency assistance after the storm can call 616.530.7226 today (Sunday) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

[?] Storm waste: The yard waste center at 2660 Burlingame SW will be open 24 hours over the next few days for debris drop-off. Public Works crews will be out next week to pick up debris, as well. If you have debris that requires City crews to pick up, please call the Public Works Dept. on Monday at 616.530.7260 to help us manage need. All debris should be placed behind your sidewalk and not in the public right-of-way or on the street. We ask for everyone's patience as we work to get our City cleaned up.

[?] Electricity: Consumers Energy worked through the night to begin to identify and to secure more than 500 electrical wires that were downed by the storm. There are still many live wires down. Consumers has 50 repair and restoration crews working today, along with 30 tree-cutting crews. Their focus is first on public safety and then on restoration. For an update on restoration, call 1.800.477.5050 and press 2.

[?] Traffic: We are working to restore traffic lights, but will still have Public Safety officers directing traffic on portions of 28th Street. Treat all non-working traffic lights as a four- way stop.

[?] Public Safety: We have a full contingent of Public Safety officers on the streets now and throughout the night. We encourage neighbors to continue to watch out for one another, particularly if you have a neighbor who is elderly, ill or disabled.

A statement from Wyoming Mayor Jack Poll: We are grateful that there are no reported injuries from yesterday's storms. Our Public Safety teams have done an excellent job handling first response calls, and we so appreciate the support from Kent County and neighboring jurisdictions. Public Works, Inspections and Parks and Recreation, along with our Administrative team, have all done a tremendous job addressing the immediate needs of our residents. Storm clean up has begun, with neighbors helping neighbors.
UPDATE: Gary Vanoort was found safe and sound on Sunday afternoon.

GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP, MI -- The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office is seeking help to locate a missing 16-year-old boy.

Gary Vanoort was last seen at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20 in a wooded area in Grand Haven Township.

Gary Vanoort was last seen at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20 in a wooded area near 152nd Ave near Lincoln Street in Grand Haven Township. Police said he was last observed "distraught with possible minor injury."

Vanoort, also known as "Bear" by his friends and family, voluntarily left his home in Grand Haven Township on foot without a phone, his wallet or medication, police said.

He was last seen wearing a black "burlap-style" hoodie with red T-shirt and black camouflage pants."

Police are asking public assistance in finding the boy, who police described as "missing and possibly endangered."

If you have any information, call the Ottawa County Sheriff's Officeo 1 (888) 249-0911 or silent observer at 1 (877) 88-SILENT.
FULTON, MI -- Arthur Baker was found dead one week after he took his daily walk and disappeared.

Arthur James "Jim" Baker

Around noon on Saturday, Aug. 20, a civilian search party located Baker east of Fulton off of East W Avenue, about a tenth of a mile into a corn field. The 69-year-old man was last seen Sunday, Aug. 14 at a neighbor's home, his son Mike Holewa said Friday.

The retired postal worker and Vietnam veteran apparently drove home and left on foot for a walk from his home, as was his daily habit, Holewa said. When Baker had not returned by 2:30 p.m. the family began to search for him, and contacted the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office to report him missing.

Matyas said there is no indication that foul play caused Baker's death, however an autopsy will be conducted.

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said law enforcement scaled back its search on Wednesday. The family, including Holewa's two brothers and two sisters, and other volunteers continued to search his familiar hunting spots, the town cemetery and other places Baker was known to visit.

Baker lived in Fulton for 37 years.
Yaounde (AFP) - Three civilians were killed and around 20 others wounded on Sunday in a suicide attack in northern Cameroon, officials and a vigilante group said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a security official told AFP the attack took place in Mora, a town in Cameroon's far north near the Nigerian border -- an area which has suffered repeatedly from attacks by Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists.

"A man riding a motorbike blew himself up on a bridge near the market in Mora," he said.

He said the blast had killed three civilians and the bomber.

An official from a local vigilante group confirmed a toll of "four dead and many wounded", saying the attack took place at around 7:00am (0600 GMT).

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region, confirmed a "provisional toll" of three civilians plus the suicide bomber.

He identified the victims as a teacher, a high school student and a person from a neighbouring town, and said five of the wounded were in "serious condition". He said a helicopter was on hand to take them to hospital in Maroua, the regional capital.

Mora is home to the headquarters of a multi-national force fighting Boko Haram, which groups troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

There are currently more than 8,000 Cameroonian soldiers deployed in the far north to counter Boko Haram, and there is a large military base for the motorised infantry brigades in the Mora area.

A similar suicide attack in the same area killed at least 10 people in Djakana at the end of June.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has killed at least 20,000 people in Nigeria and border areas of neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

It has also left more than 2.8 million homeless, fleeing attacks by militants who have ransacked villages across the poverty-stricken region.

Last month, Amnesty International accused Cameroon of rights abuse during its battle to clear the far north of Boko Haram Islamists.
Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) - At least 10 people were killed in clashes between the army and suspected Ugandan rebels in east DR Congo, a local activist said Monday, in an area that has suffered a string of massacres since 2014.

The rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces, a partly Islamist armed group of Ugandan origin, are accused of a litany of human rights abuses and of being involved with kidnappings and smuggling.

"Suspected ADF attacked Beni from the north overnight... Eight civilians were shot dead, a soldier was killed and a suspected ADF militant was also killed," the local civil society leader, Gilbert Kambale, told AFP.

"The armed forces of the DRC intercepted the ADF and in the exchanges of fire civilians and soldiers were killed," said the army's spokesman in the region Mak Hazukay by telephone.

"Workers from Beni town hall are currently transferring the bodies of the suspected ADF (member) and eight other bodies to a large vehicle," Rossy Mupenda, a motorcycle taxi driver who was assisting with the operation, told AFP.

The attack led residents of the area to flee to the centre of the town. Some angry locals stoned vehicles of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, the largest of its kind in the world, spokesman Felix Prosper Basse said.

On Friday, US-based rights group Human Rights Watch criticised Kinshasa for failing to protect the people of the Beni region and called on authorities to develop "a new strategy to protect civilians" in the area.

In March, a report by the Congo Research Group at New York University claimed that soldiers from the regular army had also participated in some of the killings.

Human rights violations

Various rebel groups operate in the region around the town of Beni, an area plagued by violence fuelled by ethnic rivalry and disputes over the right to exploit local mining and forest resources.

The area has witnessed a series of mass killings that have claimed more than 700 lives since 2014.

The gruesome August slaying of 51 people in the town of Beni touched off mass street protests against the DR Congo government for failing to protect the population from the armed rebel groups that plague the region.

The United States has warned of the threat of more violence in the vast mineral-rich nation of 70 million people

The violence in the east adds to existing tension in DR Congo, where fears are mounting that President Joseph Kabila plans to hold on to power after his second mandate expires in December.

A wave of deadly clashes pitting police against demonstrators hit the country in late September, as the opposition demanded Kabila's resignation.

The US Treasury subsequently placed two of Kabila's top allies on its sanctions blacklist, tying both to rising political violence and human rights violations.

The United States has warned of the threat of more violence in the vast mineral-rich nation of 70 million people.
Paris (AFP) - Turkey's president has blamed an attack on a wedding party in Turkey that killed at least 51 people on a suicide bomber aged "between 12 and 14".

Militants have used children or young adults as suicide bombers in several countries, notably Nigeria, but this appeared to be the first such attack in Turkey.

Here is the situation in other countries where children have been forced to carry out suicide bombings.

- Nigeria -

In an April report, UNICEF said the number of children used by Nigeria's Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings had risen 11-fold in one of the most "horrific" aspects of the Islamist insurgency.

"The number of children involved in 'suicide' attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger has risen sharply over the past year, from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015," UNICEF said.

More than 75 percent of the children involved in such attacks are girls, added UNICEF, who described them as "victims" not "perpetrators."

At least 15 people were killed in November when two female suicide bombers, one said to be aged around 11, blew themselves up at a busy mobile phone market in northeast Nigeria.

In January 2015 a girl thought to be just 10 years old blew herself up in a crowded market, killing at least 19.

- Afghanistan -

In 2012, a suicide bomber struck outside NATO HQ in Kabul killing six people, including child beggars. Afghan authorities said the attacker was 16 although the Taliban, which claimed the bombing, denied this.

In March, a 12-year-old would-be suicide bomber surrendered to Afghan forces in eastern Nangarhar province.

The Taliban sent him to kill "infidel troops", he told local media, but he had last-minute misgivings after seeing soldiers praying inside a mosque.

The insurgents say "boys with no beards" are never used in military operations, but Afghan authorities routinely report intercepting Taliban child bombers - some as young as six.

Officials say children are used as "human missiles", their tiny bodies a nimble conduit of flesh-searing explosives, able to penetrate layers of security.

- Syria -

In July 2015, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State group was increasingly relying on children to carry out suicide bombings.

The observatory said IS had used 18 children as suicide bombers so far that year, most recently in its fight against Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria.
Xperia XR release, specs & update: Sony Xperia XR may be Sony's next flagship phone; Device to be unveiled at IFA 2016?

Whatever the brand Sony introduces as a flagship device, expect a major announcement by Sony this coming Sept. 1 at the IFA press conference. (Photo : YouTube)

As eletronics giant Apple is hinting impressive specification of its upcoming iPhone 7, reports are now circulating that Sony's new flasgship phone will edge other excellent phones in the market.



The company's new device is called Sony Xperia XR, which is suspected to replace the company's current offering, the Sony Xperia X. The latest device's line includes Xperia X, Xperia XA, Xperia XA Ultra and the flagship smartphone named Xperia X Performance. It was in recent reports when several leaked photos of a new member of the Xperia X family revealed the surfacing of Xperia XR, according to MobiPicker.



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By tracing the trend of Sony's recent product line release, it could be speculated that Sony seems to be ditching its "Z" line in favor for the Xperia X brand range. In the last Mobile World Congress, Sony announced three new phones, all of them from the X line; the Xperia, Xperia XA, and the Xperia X Performance, based on Tech Plz report. The Xperia XA Ultra then followed later on.



The purported Xperia XR smartphone has a model number of F8331 and is believed to be sporting a 146.4 x 71.9 x 81.9 mm size. More so, it will be larger, wider and thinner than the Xperia X Performance that measures 143.7 x 70.4 x 8.7 mm.



Rumors indicate that the Sony Xperia XR will packed with a 5.1-inch display, supporting full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The phone is also equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, 32GB of RAM and a 23MP main camera that will come with features like dual LED flash and 4K shooting support. The selfie shooter of the phone will also carry support for 4K video shooting.



Leaked specs of the upcoming Sony flagship show that it will have a USB Type-C port on its bottom side and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow that most probably be upgradable to Android 7.0 Nougat.



Whatever the brand Sony introduces as a flagship device, expect a major announcement by Sony this coming Sept. 1 at the IFA press conference. Reports confirm that a new Sony Flagship will surface in IFA and will be probably called Xperia X2 or XR. The Z6 is unlikely to arrive this year.


The Human Rights Advocacy Centre, (HRAC) in collaboration with Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health (GCNH) organised a capacity building and training workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media in Ghana. The purpose of this training was to strengthen participating bodies and institutions on appropriately handling issues and reports regarding Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) in Ghana. The trainings came as a sequel to series of activities implemented under the project Strengthening of Civil Society Capacity and Advocacy on Monitoring of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.

The first of three trainings was held in Accra on Tuesday 16th August, 2016 at the Crystal Palm Hotel, with over twenty five NGOS and Media houses from the Western Region, Volta Region, Central Region and the Greater Accra Region in attendance.

On Thursday 18th of August, 2016 at Yegoala Hotel in Kumasi over twenty NGOs and Media present from the Ashanti Region, Brong Ahafo Region and the Eastern Region were also trained.

Speaking during the trainings, Miss Wendy Abbey, the Technical Advisor to HRAC educated the participants on a Compendium of Laws and Policies on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Ghana. She touched on the various legal frameworks relating to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, which include: the Right to integrity and dignity; Right to be free from harmful practices and customs; Right to the best attainable state of health; and Right to family planning. Other relevant rights include: Right to choose a spouse and enter into marriage; Right to antenatal care, safe delivery and post-natal care; and the Right to education and information.

Mrs. Harriet Nottinson Asante, the Acting Executive Secretary of GCNH, educated (?) the participants on the Monitoring Methods and Tools for CSOs, including Family Planning Services and Comprehensive Abortion Care.

The interesting and practical aspect of the training was when the participants were divided into four different groups and assigned with some SRHR-related case laws to come out with their possible interventions and recommendations on handling such cases.

As part of follow up activities to the trainings, CSOs and the Media were encouraged to use the monitoring tool in their respective regions to collect data on government interventions on SRHR. This will assess the extent at which SRHR services are made available and accessible to members of their communities. She also disclosed that, the next step after the training is to have a meeting with the Parliamentary Select Committees on Health, Population, Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and policy makers from their sector ministries and agencies on gaps in the delivery of SRHR services.

As part of contributing to the Universal Periodic Review process in Ghana, the HRAC and members of the Coalition of NGOs in Health in Ghana will conduct an impact assessment on the use of the Monitoring Tool to inform the development of a CSOs shadow report on SRHR.

The Northern Belt consisting of Upper West, Upper East and Northern Region is scheduled to have its training in the coming weeks in Tamale.

The project is funded by a Swedish organisation: Riksforbundet for Sexuell UpplysningRSFU. (ie. National Association for Sexuality Education.)
The Korean government under its Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has provided an amount of $9 million to the Ghana government for the provision of Community-based Health Planning and Service program (CHPS) in all the 13 districts in the Upper East Region.

An agreement for the gesture was signed on Friday by Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director General of the Ghana Health Service and Mr. Woochan Chang, the Country Director of KOICA.

Earlier in June 2016, a Record of Discussion (RoD) was designed by the Ministry of Health and the KOICA to confirm Korea's bilateral support to Ghana health sector.

As Ghana's partner, the Government of Korea (through KOICA) has been willing to contribute to this wonderful initiative and reaffirms its commitment in the health sector by supporting Ghana's CHPS strategy, the Country Director of KOICA, Woochan Chang said.

For his part, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service expressed appreciation for the gesture.

We need to ensure that monies go into producing results and also accounted for. We also need to ensure that staff are well trained and they know what they are doing, he added.

The project titled, Project for Improving Community-based Primary Health Care through CHPS Strengthening (CHPS+) is aimed at enhancing community engagement, improving the quality of maternal, newborn and child health service at health facilities, and strengthening health system environment within the next five years.

The project also aims at enhancing and widening the coverage of the Sustainable Emergency Referral Care (SERC) which will enable community members to transport urgent cases such as emergency delivery from their community to the next point of referral using the emergency transport system.

KOICA

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), established by the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is a governmental organization for the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of implementing the Korean government's grant aid and technical cooperation programs for developing countries.



By: Kumi Obed Afari/citifmonline.com/Ghana
A total of 165 Police personnel from the ten regions of Ghana have successfully completed a three-week intensive high risk course at the Pwalugu police training school ahead of the upcoming general elections.

The programme was designed to toughen and strengthen the personnel in combating terrorism attacks, armed robbery, land guards activities and election related violence before, during and after the general polls on December 7.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony at Pwalugu in the Upper East Region, Director-General in-charge of Operations, COP Christian Yohonu asked the trainees to exhibit a high sense of professionalism during the period.

Your training is to help you deal you robbery incidents, you are also to handle the threats of terrorism and against land guards activities which is disturbing a lot of people acquire lands. But most importantly, it is your duty to protect the electoral process and handle any violence and situations that goes beyond the ordinary police officer at the polling stations. So you are to protect the ballot boxes, any armed vigilante that will want to cause violence you will deal with them ruthlessly. We are to remove the fear from Ghanaians and protect mother Ghana, Mr. Yohonu stated.

COP Yohonu added that, personnel of the service will fiercely clamp down on recalcitrant police officers who engage in robbery.

We are going to deal ruthlessly with all police personnel among us who have joined the robbery gangs, point your gun against your own personnel(s) who get involved in armed robbery, let's deal ruthlessly with them, let us not spare them, and let us whip them out.

Upper East Regional Police Commander, DCOP Simon Yao Afeku urged the trainees to refrain from brutalizing citizens on those mandate they are trained to protect.

He also appealed to residents in the region to eschew all forms of violence for peaceful general elections.



By: Frederick Awuni/Citifmonline.com/Ghana
22.08.2016 LISTEN

 WANTS SUSPECTS DECLARED WANTED

A civil society organisation, Coalition against Crime (CAC) has called on Nigerias Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awuna to address Nigerians on the extent of their investigations on the controversial disappearance of an Abuja-based woman, Charity Aiyedogbon.

National Coordinator of the group, Harrison Pepple, who made the call while addressing newsmen in Abuja, weekend, expressed concerns over the continued silence of the Police hierarchy on the matter, describing it as an unhelpful strategy.

Recall that one Charity Aiyedogbon was declared missing on social media. She is said to have been missing since the 10th of May, 2016 and family, friends and security agencies have been working round the clock to unravel the mystery behind her sudden disappearance. Impeccable sources have revealed that the Monitoring Unit of the office of Nigerias Inspector General of Police, handling the matter have made substantial progress. The missing womans vehicle has been recovered. Two of her handsets have also been recovered. No fewer than six persons are said to have been arrested so far, in connection with the matter. Plans are said to have been concluded to conduct a DNA on a dismembered body displayed online by Lagos lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, claiming to be that of the missing Charity, among other developments. Different persons have come up with unsubstantiated claims and counter claims on the matter, including accusing her ex-husband, David Aiyedogbon. At this stage, the Police have made substantial progress in the matter and should address Nigerians on the situation; if not for anything, to assure Nigerians that they are doing their best to unravel the mystery behind Charity Aiyedogbons disappearance. Now that there is a clue, different from earlier accusations, Nigerians deserve to know the truth.

Continuing, Pepple urged the Police to declare other suspects at large wanted, and if possible, put a price tag on them, so that Nigerians and the international community will notify them wherever they are seen.

A woman is missing and some persons suspected to have a hand in her disappearance, by evidence and intelligence at Police disposal refused to show up at the Police, but prefer to be on the run. For instance, a prime suspect in possession of the womans vehicle is on the run and the Police claims to be looking for him. Why has he not been declared wanted? Also, it is obvious that Charity Aiyedogbon is missing and this has been confirmed by several people, including through written petitions to the Police. Why have the Police not officially declared her missing so whoever sees her anywhere will notify the Police or her relatives? Police should show more seriousness in this case by doing the needful: address Nigerians on the extent of their investigations, declare the suspects on the run wanted and officially declare Charity Aiyedogbon missing, so Nigerians will be reassured that they are on top of the matter. Anyone that says that it is premature to address the Press on the matter is allowing space for speculations and rumours. If we think it will scare the suspects on the run to hide further; now that you refused to talk to the Press, have they surrendered voluntarily?

He however urged Nigerians to insist on diligent investigation and prosecution of whoever has questions to answer on the matter, even as he urged citizens to volunteer useful information to the Police in order to ensure that justice is done.
Kola nut, which Saudi Arabia authorities has warned Hajj pilgrims of carrying into the Kingdom this year, has been found in the luggage of some pilgrims during check-in procedure in Tamale.

Information available to Joy News from the Madina Airport in Saudi Arabia also indicates that the immigration at that Airport has seized volumes of creams, lotions and a variety of pomade from Ghanaian Pilgrims.

Photo: Some concealed kola nuts seized at the Tamale International Airport

More soon...

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim | Email: [email protected]
The Electoral Commission (EC) has rejected results from a survey report which revealed that Ghanaians believe it could announce wrong tallied results on Election Day.

Speaking on Citi FM news analysis programme, The Big Issue, on Saturday, Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu insisted that it is practically impossible for such situation to happen.

It's a system which is robust and it is so verifiable that it is practically impossible for any single individual or group to manipulate and change election results, he added.A survey conducted by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, revealed that though 63% of Ghanaians believe the EC will perform its duties neutrally, guided by law, almost half of the voter population believes that the commission will likely announce wrong vote tallies or switch election results.

63 percent deem the prospect of their votes not being counted unlikely, but nearly a third remain skeptical, while a large minority (46%), believe it is very/somewhat likely that the wrong vote tally would be announced, a release from the CDD added.

But Mr. Dzakpasu said persons who uphold such perception lack understanding of our system of voting and declaration of results.

The issue of some large minority of voters not sure we will tally the election results properly are something of concern anddoesn't auger well for a credible election. This is because the majority of the Ghanaian public are majority of stakeholders and it is very important to understand and appreciate the processes involved in declaration of results so that we can all be on the same page.

Mr. Dzakpasu explained that the perception emanates from the low education of voters about the commission and electoral processes.

He said, to this extent, the commission will liaise with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and other stakeholders to embark a massive voter education exercise in coming weeks.

The commission, NCCE, Information Service, and other major stakeholders has the responsibility to bridge that gap before the December elections, Mr. Dzakpasu added.

Election petition

The EC's position about not being able to declare wrong results comes on the back of the 2012 election petition case.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenged the results of the 2012 Presidential polls at the Supreme Court alleging the results were rigged to favour John Dramani Mahama.

However, the Supreme Court after months of hearing the case declared President Mahama as the winner of the election.

 citifmonline
Kola nut, which Saudi Arabia authorities has warned Hajj pilgrims of carrying into the Kingdom this year, has been found in the luggage of some pilgrims during check-in procedure in Tamale.

Information available to Joy News from the Madina Airport in Saudi Arabia also indicates that the immigration at that Airport has seized volumes of creams, lotions and a variety of pomade from Ghanaian Pilgrims.

At the Tamale International Airport on Saturday during weighing and departure formalities at the Hajj Village for the 3rd flight, some pilgrims had their Kola nuts seized by the Ghana immigration authorities.

The seizure follows the Hajj Board warning pilgrims embarking on this years Hajj pilgrimage not to carry kola nut or risk being arrested or even killed by Saudi Arabia authorities if caught.

The Board received a circular from the Government of Saudi Arabia prohibiting pilgrims of carrying kola nut, locally referred to as goro in Hausa, into the Kingdom last week.

-myjoyonline
The police in Tema have warned they will take action against Bishop Daniel Obinim if he does not honour their invitation within 24 hours.

This comes after the Founder of International Gods Way Church refused to honour an invitation by the police. The controversial pastor is facing arrest after he publicly lashed two young adults in his church.

He was widely condemned after a video showing him whipping the two for fornicating surfaced.

The Bishop removed his belt, whipped the young man and his girlfriend, both of whom are said to be his adopted children and later invited one of his right-hand men to join in the whipping, on Wednesday, August 17.

The congregation is heard in the video cheering the Bishop on while he whipped the two. The pastor in justifying the act said the action which he claimed is biblical was to instill discipline in the teenagers.

Related: I know the law  Obinim calls the bluff of lawyers

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur reported the matter to the Tema Regional Police and charged the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVSSU) to take over the matter.

According to Adom News reporter Kwame Yankah, the Tema Police visited the residence of the pastor in Tema on Thursday, August 18 but met his absence.

They were assured by elders of his church that Bishop Obinim would report at the regional Command but he did not show up, Yankah reported.

As at midday on Sunday, August 21, Bishop Obinim had still not reported to the police, prompting the issuance of the ultimatum.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Lawyer Francis Xavier Sosu and two others have filed suits against the pastor seeking to have the bishop arrested and prosecuted for his conduct.

Related:Francis Xavier, others, drag Obinim to court

Mothers of the two adolescents whipped by the pastor in the video which has gone viral have supported the action by the bishop.

Madam Akua Bempomaa

The mother of the young girl said to have been impregnated by her boyfriend and later aborted it, Akua Bempomaa has threatened to invoke curses on persons calling for the pastors arrest.

Related: I will curse anyone who calls for Obinims arrest - Mother of flogged girl .

Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com| AA
The New Patriotic Party in Walewale in the Northern Region is worried about the lack of logistics at the Electoral Commission's district office for the continuous registration exercise.

The Commission set August 19 and 26 for the exercise after concerns that the previous one recorded low patronage.

The NPP in Walewale is worried hundreds of new voters will not have the opportunity to register because of the lack of registration materials.

The EC seems not to be prepared for the continuous limited registration exercise that has just commenced today because there are I mean long queues there. The Electoral Commission has only 20 copies of the form one which is the primary document for the entire registration exercise. So we feel that the Electoral Commission lacks logistics to carry out the limited continuous registration exercise, Simon Ali, NPP Secretary for Walewale told Citi News.

Mr. Ali also appealed for the exercise to be extended.

Also we are appealing to the EC to extend the date for the continuous limited registration exercise because the EC has only 19th and 26th of August to carry out this exercise. For instance, the Walewale Constituency has a total of 118 Polling Stations; so assuming one person comes from each of the polling stations, we are going to even have 118 people against 20 forms which is generally inadequate, he added.

Voter registration records high turnout

The EC after last Friday's exercise in the various districts across the country experienced high turnout and has thus extended the exercise to August 27, 2016.

It also said challenges including network problems and power outages compelled them to extend the closing time to 8:00pm across the country.



By: Godwin .A Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, Aug. 20, GNA - Some of the would-be pilgrims, who will travel from Tamale to Mecca for this year's pilgrimage, have expressed joy at the new arrangement saying it has made the trip very comfortable for them.

Mohamadu Mumuni, Iman from Sagnarigu/Kukuo, a would-be pilgrim, told the Ghana News Agency at the Hajj Village in Tamale on Friday that he was happy to be travelling from his home region to Mecca to perform his religious rights.

The first batch of the would-be pilgrims numbering about 500 gathered at the Hajj Village in Tamale on Friday where officials from the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Airports Company took them through the departure formalities.

A total 1500 would-be pilgrims are expected to travel from Tamale to Mecca.

The first flight will take off on Friday afternoon from the Tamale Airport.

The Tamale Airport has been rehabilitated and the runway extended to enable big planes to land and take off with ease.

President John Mahama is expected to inaugurate the Tamale International Airport on Friday afternoon, shortly before the first flight of the would-be pilgrims takes off.

Imam Mumuni said it would be better for all pilgrims be flown from Tamale to Mecca since that route was shorter (five hours) than Accra to Mecca (six hours).

He said the would-be pilgrims were going as one family urging them to remain as one family in all their endeavours in Mecca and return home again as one family.

Mrs Fuseina Mohammed expressed joy with the new Tamale-Mecca arrangement saying it shortens the worry and hustle usually associated with the journey in Accra.

GNA has also gathered unconfirmed information that nationals from neighbouring countries including Togo and Burkina Faso have also joined Ghanaian would-be pilgrims to travel from Tamale to Mecca.

GNA
US MQ-9 Reaper Drones to fly More Intel Missions over South China Sea

Heavily armed Reaper on the prowl. (Photo : USAF)

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) will receive 30 new General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper aerial drones starting May 2019, some of which will see duty over the South China Sea.



Since 2015, the U.S. has increased the number of its drone flights over the South China Sea despite China's attempts to frustrate these intelligence flights by jamming their satellite uplinks. The Pentagon announced plans to increase the number of daily U.S. drone flights by 50 percent by mid-2019.



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The U.S. Department of Defense said the 30 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will cost $370.9 million. The U.S. Air Force operated a fleet consisting of 93 Reaper UAVs as of September 2015. The new Reapers will replace the venerable General Atomics MQ-1 Predator -- the Air Force's main weapon for UAV airstrikes -- by 2019.



The MQ-9 is a larger and more capable aircraft than the earlier General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.



General Atomics describes the hunter-killer MQ-9 Reaper as an armed, multi-mission, Medium Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) remotely piloted aircraft employed primarily against mobile targets and secondarily as a spy aircraft. The Reaper, however, has also demonstrated the ability to track enemy missiles.



It can be armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs; AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles; AIM-9 Sidewinders and the GBU-38 JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions). It has an endurance of 14 hours when fully loaded with either missiles or bombs.



The Air Force's fleet of Reapers is currently controlled out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.


By Jerry Azanduna, GNA

Bawku (UE) Aug. 21, GNA - Professor Paul Buah-Bassuah of the University of Cape Coast and Chairman for the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), has called on government to invest into other sectors as the revenues from oil alone cannot sustain the country's economy.

He said the country receives only five percent of the royalty interest from the oil revenues and out of that, 70 per cent goes to the Annual Budget Fund Amount (ABFA), while 30 percent goes to Ghana Petroleum Fund (GPF), and that 30 per cent is then divided into two parts and 70 percent is given to the Ghana Stabilization Fund (GSF) while 30 percent is sent to the Ghana Heritage Fund.

Professor Buah-Bassuah said this at a meeting in Bawku with heads of the decentralized departments, traditional rulers, assembly members, opinion leaders and the media.

The event was to educate the participants on the management and utilization of the oil revenue generated in the country.

He said the country seemed to have placed all its hopes and expectations on the oil sector forgetting that other resources such as cocoa, timber and Shea nut among others could also generate much revenue if adequate attention is given to them.

Professor Buah-Bassuah said until the country is able to discover more oil fields it cannot get any meaningful revenue from the petroleum sector as what was being generated was too small to stabilize the country's economy.

He said the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) required that not more than 70 per cent of government's share of petroleum revenue for each financial year should be earmarked as Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), when the ABFA quarterly allocation is fully met.

He said the GPF received funds only after the net petroleum receipts had exceeded the quarterly ABFA, however, the allocation of the petroleum revenue during the first half of 2015 was based on that formula, which meant that no transfers were made into the GPFs since the ABFA quarterly were not met.

Participants at the meeting expressed worry about the way the oil revenue was being utilized and called on government to spend the petroleum revenue specifically on projects that would produce real development.

GNA
21.08.2016 LISTEN

By Samuel Akapule, GNA

Bolgatanga, Aug. 21, GNA - Dr Gordon Donnir, the Head of the Department of Psychiatry Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), has expressed concern about the high rate of suicide and called for a National Policy directive on the Suicidal Preventive plan.

He said such a plan was very important for mental health delivery but it was beyond the means of the health facilities.

'We need a national policy that would bring uniformity across the country and to ensure that programmes and policies are implemented efficiently at both the national, regional and community levels to help in tracking and addressing the issue.

The Senior Specialist Psychiatrist was speaking at a workshop 'on the Edinburg Per-Natal Depression Screening Toolkits' for Midwives, Community Psychiatrist Nurses and Community Health Nurses organized by Basic Needs Ghana in Bolgatanga.

The event was aimed at empowering the health workers to use the Edinburg Pre-Natal Depression Screening Toolkits which had been recommended by the World Health Organization(WHO) in integrating mental health care into maternal healthcare delivery.

Dr Donnir said most suicidal tendencies were associated with depression which is a mental disorder that could also be a predisposing factor to developing many diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma.

'In depression the victim often loses the ability to control the mood which is equal to energy loss. Depression for more than two weeks could lead to major health complications and that confirms the urgency for the policy makers and the government to pay special attention to the mental health sector', he said.

Dr Donnir said apart from victims of depression becoming addicted to drugs and other alcoholic beverages, they could also become dependent and vulnerable.

To mitigate the problem there is the need for a radical national policy, he said, and called on policy makers and the government to initiate the process to help tackle the phenomenon.

Dr Donnir said apart from engaging the community health nurses, psychiatrists and midwives in handling mental illness, there is the need to include into the suicidal preventive plan, relatives and caregivers of mental ill patients.

He urged relatives and care givers of mental ill patients not to allow victims of depression to sleep alone in their rooms and also ensure that they are kept away from harmful tools from them since that could make it easy for some to commit suicide.

GNA
By Afedzi Abdullah, GNA

Cape Coast, Aug.21, GNA - Dr Eric Asamoah, Chairman of the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana, has called on medical students to adopt the spirit of dedication and integrity in their chosen profession.

He said the impact of the medical profession on human life was enormous and that the mistakes made by doctors, unlike other professions, were irreversible.

He urged them to be careful such that they would avoid committing any terrible mistake in the course of their duty when they eventually start practicing as trained doctors.

Dr Asamoah was speaking at the recent Seventh White Coat Ceremony held at the University School of Medical Sciences (UCCSMS) to signify the transition of 68 level 400 medical students from the study of pre-clinical to clinical health sciences.

The white coat ceremony, a ritual by medical schools that involves a formal robing of students in a doctor's traditional wear, 'the white coat' had been adopted by the UCCSMS, the first medical school in Ghana to have performed the ceremony.

He said medicine was not studied in the classroom alone but by the bedside saying being a good medical student did not necessarily make one a good doctor but the employment of respect, compassion, love and application of ethical values made one a good medical doctor.

Prof Francis Offei, Dean of UCCSMS, asked the student not to see the ceremony as a mere event but a symbol of ushering the students into the ethics of the profession.

He reminded them that whatever they did could affect the patient and therefore they must be careful with their attitudes and adopt ethics that were appropriate for the profession.

He said medicine was an art and that the second state in their studies at the hospitals would teach them the art aspect of medicine.

The outgoing Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof Kuupole entreated the student doctors to be guided by the truth, honesty, openness and transparency, motivation, show of compassion and uphold their oath in everything that they do.

He commended the SMS for training and producing quality medical doctors who were excelling in the various hospitals across the country.

Prof Amonoo-Koufie, Provost, College of Health and Allied Sciences, said the UCCSMS recognized the significance of a strong academic foundation for a successful medical career.

He said it has, therefore, structured innovative programmes to train a unique breed of doctors who will be compassionate whilst respecting the rights of patients.

GNA
21.08.2016 LISTEN

Gomoa Afransi (C/R), Aug. 21, GNA - Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), local chapter of Transparency International (TI), has inaugurated integrity clubs in two basic schools of the Gomoa East District in the Central Region.

They are Gomoa Afransi D/A and Gomoa Obuasi D/A Junior High Schools (JHS).

The members of the clubs will educate people on the effects of corruption, promote anti-corruption awareness and instill anti-corruption behaviour in the youth.

Madam Mariam Gorbanova, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor of GII, urged children to fully participate in the activities of the clubs so that such activities could replicated in others schools.

She urged the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and Commission for Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to champion to fight against corruption.

Mr Jonamoah Moses Jehu-Appiah, Gomoa East District Chief Executive(DCE), urged the students to be law aiding citizens and also allow integrity to be their watch word.

He said integrity cut across all spectrum and advised the students to leave up to expectation of helping in the fight against corruption.

Mrs Akua Amoaboateng, Gomoa East Director of NCEE, urged the students to discharge their duties with integrity, honest and dedication to help achieve aims and responsibilities of clubs.

She said any person of integrity would not throw refuse in public places and abstain from helping to clean the environment.

Mr Shardrack Sackey, Agona West Municipal Director of CHRAJ, said corruption is a social canker and should be eradicated from the society to improve the living conditions of the people.

He said corruption has become endemic in all sectors and exhorted students as beginners to help in the help the crusade against it.

GNA
21.08.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - Naa Dedei Omedru III, the Queen of the Ga State, has called on politicians to be decorous in their language as they intensified their campaign towards in the December elections.

She said the campaigns must be devoid of insults as we all seek a peaceful election.

Naa Omedru said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, when she arrived from the United States after short holidays.

She was welcomed at the Kotoka International Airport by representatives of the Ga Traditional Council (GTC), led by Nii Dodoo Nsaki III, the Acting President.

Naa Omedru urged the Electoral Commission to work hard to ensure that peaceful elections are held in December.

She said the country belongs to all Ghanaians so it is important for all to intensify their prayers for a successful election.

Naa Omedru, 82, and also known in private life as Naa Dedei Ablah, also expressed her pleasure at seeing the successful celebration of the Ga Mashie Homowo Festival and congratulated the chiefs and people for the various roles played.

Naa Omedru was installed Ga Manye (Ga Queen) in 1963 at the age of 29 years and had ruled for 53 years.

She said: 'Throughout my reign I have demonstrated an extraordinary sense of fairness by seeking the welfare of women in the Ga State.'

Nii Dodoo Nsaki III, the Acting President of the GTC, said the valuable role of Naa Omedru cannot be understated and called on women to emulate the leadership qualities of the Ga Manye.

GNA
Banking Consultant, Nana Otuo Acheampong is encouraging greater collaboration between banks and telecommunication companies offering mobile money services and reduce the unbanked population in Ghana.

According to him, this will help banks serve customers in remote areas without having to set up physical branches which increase their costs of operations.

Speaking to Citi Business News, the Banking consultant and Head of the Osei Tutu II Centre for Executive Education and Research said, the telcos are helping in deepening financial inclusion in Ghana, hence his call.

What the banks should be looking at is where are the mobile money operators of the Telcos reaching? They are reaching areas that the traditional banks brick and mortal branches cannot reach, so they should be welcomed with open arms by the banks as they are helping in deepening the financial inclusion process in Ghana.

Nana Otuo Acheampong argued that This is what has allowed people to send money to the remotest parts of Ghana in real time as long as there is an agent who will receive the funds and give the person cash.

The Bank of Ghana has since 2015, issued two new guidelines to govern the mobile money industry in a way that gives Telcos some level of autonomy to run their mobile money platforms.

The guidelines which are the E-Money Issuer (EMI) Guidelines and the Agent Guidelines according to the central bank, forms part of the roadmap towards a cashless society.

The new guidelines allows Telcos to get the license directly from the regulator and go to the banks for collaboration unlike the previous which was vice visa.

Though some banks are already partnering Telcos in mobile money, others are still apprehensive of the disruption the telcos threaten to bring into the industry.

Telcos mobile money platforms are now going to become separate financial institutions and offer more flexible financial packages to a larger number of Ghanaians, who would not have to necessarily go to the bank to access banking services.

But what we know is that in all these, the banks will still be the institutions where all moniess moving on the mobile money platforms would be deposited.



By: Norvan Acquah  Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The annual Chale Wote Arts Festival at James Town in Accra has provided opportunity for participants to take photos of some great artworks being exhibited at the event.

The taking of selfies, which has become the norm with photo taking opportunities was not missing at the 2016 edition of the festival.

Check out some of the moments we captured during the event.



By: Mawuli Tsikata/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Antananarivo (AFP) - Two young French volunteers found dead Sunday on an island off the northeast coast of Madagascar were likely murdered, French and Madagascan authorities said.

Local mayor Bessaou Ismak Ado Crophe on the resort island of Sainte Marie told AFP that the bodies of both victims, a man and a woman in their twenties, showed signs of head trauma, with officials suspecting murder.

"They spent the evening in a nightclub and were found on the beach nearby," he said.

"I saw the bodies. Both had injuries to the head."

The two had in recent months been volunteering at Cetamada, a local environmental non-profit organisation working to protect ocean mammals.

The French foreign ministry in a statement condemned the "odious crime that claimed the lives of two French nationals".

It offered its condolences to the families and said an investigation was under way in Madagascar.

Madagascan Tourism Minister Roland Ratsiraka said he had spoken to the French ambassador to the Indian Ocean island and that the consul would be visiting Sainte Marie on Monday.

"The government strongly condemns this act and will ensure that the investigation will be transparent," he said.

Cetamada vice-president Jean-Jacques Ravello, who is also France's honorary consul to Sainte Marie island, called the incident "barbaric".

"I do not want to minimise this barbaric act, but we've been bringing dozens of volunteers here for 15 years and we've never had a problem this big," he told AFP.

He said fellow volunteers had gathered together following the incident and were "shocked psychologically".

In 2012, a French couple was found dead on a beach in southern Madagascar.

A year later, two Europeans were attacked and killed by a mob on the northwest island of Nosy Be, suspected of involvement in the death of an eight-year-old local boy.
By Kodjo Adams, GNA

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - Three political parties have affirmed their commitment to prioritising water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) policies in their manifestoes to improve the lives and health of the citizenry.

The parties were of the view that prioritising WASH programmes in their respective manifestoes would improve the health and education sectors of the country's development agenda.

The parties include the National Democratic Congress, Convention People's Party and the Progressive People's Party.

The political parties made the commitment in Accra at a reflections workshop on WASH in national elections on the theme: 'From Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) to Sustainable Development Goals'.

Mr James Asante, Communications Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said the NDC party in its 2012 manifesto titled: 'Advancing the better Ghana agenda', adopted the Community Led Total Sanitation strategy, which has started in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Central Regions.

Mr Asante said in order to sustain water delivery, the party had adopted a proposal for the establishment of a 'Water Fund' to insulate the poor and marginalised who cannot afford to pay for water.

He said the Party had expanded the coverage level for rural and small town's water from 57 per cent in 2008 to 63.34 per cent in 2011 and also expanded the coverage level of urban water to 63.3 per cent at the end of 2011.

He said even though the party was yet to launch its manifesto, he expressed optimism that the policies on WASH would improve on previous manifestoes to suit the current problems facing the sector.

Mr Asante said the party had solicited views from civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations on pertinent issues that needed to be factored in their manifesto prior to the impending elections.

Mr John Ben Daniels, CPP Member of Central Committee, said the party was committed to WASH programmes since it believed that an improved sanitation was critical to the development of any country.

Mr Daniel Oppong Gwebi, Youth Affairs Officer of PPP, said their outfit had put in place a well-planned policy for the sanitation and hygiene, saying they believed that prevention is better than cure.

Mrs Antoinette Shor-Anyawoe, Acting Country Director of Wateraid Ghana, said the workshop was important because it would afford the political parties to outline plans for the country's WASH programme.

She said the country was one of the most densely populated countries in West Africa and lacked behind in the provision and access to quality water, sanitation and hygiene.

Mrs Shor-Anyawoe said more than three million people don't have access to safe drinking water and over 85 per cent of people don't have access to adequate sanitation, saying the three northern regions are particularly deprived, with one in ten children dying before their fifth birthday.

She said SWA is a global partnership of over 100 country governments, external support agencies, civil society organizations and other development partners working together towards a universal access to safe water and adequate sanitation.

Mrs Shor-Anyawoe said it has key pillars of enhancing political prioritisation and commitment to WASH programme, improving investments to meet priority challenges and providing transparent, accountable and results-oriented framework for action based on common values and principles.

GNA
By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, Aug. 21, GNA - Northern Women for Peace, a non-governmental organization (NGO), has called on the Paramount Chief of Tamale to use his royal office to promote peace in the Northern Region and the country in this election year.

A petition presented by the NGO to Gulkpe Naa, Alhaji Alhassan Abdulai, Paramount Chief of Tamale at his palace, said 'We strongly believe that your influence can help maintain peace among the good people of Tamale and beyond before, during and after the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the 7th December, 2016'.

The NGO led scores of women in the Tamale Metropolis to embark on a peace-building march through some principal streets of the metropolis before gathering at the palace to present the petition to the Paramount Chief.

Madam Sara Ajara Musah, President of Northern Women for Peace, who read the petition, said violent political conflicts robbed the nation of vast human resources, women of their husbands, bread-winners, children among other resources citing recent examples of Bawku and Agbogbloshie.

She urged political party leaders to conduct themselves like good mothers sharing a piece of pie among young children 'because, in the absence of the motherly or proper guidance, many selfish and greedy people will go out of their way to misconduct themselves and create undesirable tension in our peaceful region'.

She said 'the Northern Women for Peace has chosen this path of peace because we believe that political parties need peace to rule the country and improve the living standards of Ghanaians'.

She called on the law enforcement agencies to be impartial and mount surveillance to nib potentially violent situations in the bud saying 'our traditional authorities and political parties should control the youth and ensure that they play by the rules'.

Madam Ajara Musah 'urged all political parties to remain peaceful and carry out their campaigns in decorum and Ghana will emerge victorious after the elections in December with mutual understanding, reconciliation and leading to development'.

She appealed to the Paramount Chief of Tamale 'to add your voice to the clarion call for peace anytime politicians pay courtesy call on you'.

A representative of Gulkpe Naa (Paramount Chief of Tamale) received the petition on his (Gulkpe Naa) behalf pledging to work for peace.

GNA
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - Mr Samuel Nii Dodoo, the Education Chair, Internet Society (ISOC) - Ghana Chapter has called for the establishment of a Council for E-learning, to help improve teaching and learning in the country.

He said E-learning is often regarded as a 'new' form of learning that uses the affordances of the Internet to deliver customized, interactive, learning materials and programmes to diverse local and distant communities of practice.

He also called for a paradigm shift, from the brick and mortar/one-jacket fits all education to create room for open schooling.

Mr Dodoo made the call in Accra, during the 2016 Ghana Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting on the theme: 'Building a Strong Multi-Stakeholder Model for a Sustainable Development of the Internet in Ghana'.

The Forum sought to discuss key issues on Internet Governance in Ghana, such as cyber security, affordable access, critical internet infrastructure, data protection and openness, child safety and many other topical issues on global IGF scenes, which are also relevant to Ghana.

Mr Dodoo gave statistics on the Global E-Learning Revenues as 2011 - $35.6 billion, 2016 - $51.5 billion; whereas in Africa E-Learning Revenues were 2013 - $332.9 million and 2016 - $512.7 million.

He said there was evidence that the ever increasing African population was willing to engage with new technology-based tools to improve their education and knowledge.

He said in the situation where physical educational infrastructure could not be expanded at the rate at which the population is increasing, the globally known technology adopted is, E-learning.

On the prospects of E-learning, Mr Dodoo said, it was flexible, of good quality, accessible and cost effective for an individual to undertake.

He said E-learning could help institutions increased their enrolment; and that it was cost effectiveness, optimize of resources and is of international dimension to the educational experience.

Ms Dorothy Gordon, the Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, said it was high time the private sector takes the lead in promoting the use of E-learning.

Speaking on the importance of this year's forum, Mr Eric Akumiah, Coordinator IGF, Ghana said, 'this year we want to focus on the model that will help us create awareness on internet government issues and sustain the discussions into the future.'

He said Internet Governance forums seek to bring stakeholders together to meet and share experience on what they have been doing and collaborate where the need arises to develop the internet.

Ghana IGF is a forum that seeks to bring all stakeholders of the Internet including users, network operators, lawyers, and software developers to discuss governance issues around the Internet in Ghana.

The 2016 Ghana IGF is being held in the light of massive infrastructure developments over the last few year and issues of security online.

GNA
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - The Ghana Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has held its 2016 meeting in Accra, on the theme, 'Building a Strong Multi-Stakeholder Model for a Sustainable Development of the Internet in Ghana'.

The Ghana IGF is a forum that seeks to bring all stakeholders of the Internet including users, network operators, lawyers, and software developers to discuss governance issues around the Internet in Ghana.

The 2016 Ghana IGF was held in the light of massive infrastructure developments over the last few year and issues of security online.

The Forum discussed key issues on Internet governance in Ghana, such as cyber security, affordable access, critical internet infrastructure, data protection and openness, child safety and many other topical issues on global IGF scenes, which are also relevant to Ghana.

Mr Ato Sarpong, a Deputy Minister of Communications, said government would put the right policies in place to ensure that by the 2020 there is broad band service in every urban area in Ghana.

The Deputy Minister urged the ICT experts to come out with the model of achieving the target of providing every urban home with a broad service.

He said internet came to Ghana in 1992, however, countries which followed suit some years later were now far ahead Ghana in terms of internet access and usage.

Mr Sarpong said the genesis of the year 2000, the National Communications Authority (NCA) record shows that Ghana was having about 132 internet service providers, but today there are only eight active internet service providers.

He said despite the fact that there is internet in Ghana, not all areas of country had access to internet and phone services, and that government would continue to do its best to address the situation.

Mr Sarpong said Ghanaians talk too much, yet do nothing; he however suggested that recommendations from forums of this nature should be translated into productive work for the benefits on the citizenry.

Professor Nii Narku Quaynor, Chairman, Internet Society (ISOC) Ghana, said dialogue and engagement were there only way to address the complex issues of the internet.

He said IGF regular annual meeting was very essential to afford stakeholders to dialogue on internet governance issues.

Nene Nagai Kasa VIII, Chairman of the Ghana Child Online Protection Steering Committee, said there is the need for all to join in the Committee's programme in order to protect children online.

He also called for ideas and suggestions for enhancing the welfare of children

Ms Dorothy Gordon, the Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, expressed concern over report emanating from the media that Ghana had given away $200 million to the Kingdom of Netherlands for transfer of E-learning contents.

She said although the agreement was good, Ghanaians ICT experts were capable of providing such services, so that the hard earned currency would remain in the economy.

She called support for local companies in driving the internet for the nation's socio-economic development.

Mr William Matthew Tevie, NCA Director-General, said the goal of the Authority is to regulate the communications industry in a forward-looking and transparent manner that promotes fair and sustainable competition, stimulates innovation, encourages investment, protects stakeholders' interests and facilitates universal access to quality communications services for national development.

On digital migration, the Director-General applied to stakeholders to support the NCA in its regulatory efforts.

Speaking on the importance of this year's forum, Mr Eric Akumiah, the Coordinator IGF, Ghana, said 'this year we want to focus on the model that will help us create awareness on Internet government issues and sustain the discussions into the future.'

He said Internet Governance forums seek to bring stakeholders together to meet and share experience on what they have been doing and collaborate where the need arises to develop the Internet.

Chairperson of IGF Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group Chair, Lynn St. Amour speaking at forum via the internet, said very year there are global, national, and regional IGFs events happening around the world.

She said every IGF offers a unique space for an amazing range of people to share information and develop solutions on key Internet issues.

GNA
Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - Global technology powerhouse Siemens has announced further significant investment in gas and steam energy generation projects in Ghana over the next three to five years.

One of the world's largest energy, industrial and infrastructure companies, Siemens will roll out a series of projects, including new gas and steam turbines contributing hundreds of megawatts to the national power grid in Ghana.

At a VIP event held in Accra, Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa CEO, Sabine Dall'Omo, said the global company was committed to assisting Ghana in meeting the country's expanding energy needs.

'We have identified Ghana as one of our key countries and our further investment is aimed at helping the country reach its economic goals and secure it as a serious contender on the African continent,' Dall'Omo said.

The event was attended by Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Ghana's Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.

With a current power generation capacity of 2936 MW, Ghana requires significant further energy investment.

Hydropower is by far the largest contributor to the country's energy supply at 1580 MW, and the Ghanaian government aims to increase overall capacity to 5000 MW through harnessing renewable energy projects in the future.

Partnering with local companies to meet local power needs- one of such project is for ENI in Sanzule where Siemens has been contracted to deliver two gas compression packages for its onshore receiving facility.

In this instance, Siemens has entered into a joint venture with local company Draper Oil and Gas Limited to form Siemens Oil and Gas.

'Siemens is committed to collaborating with Ghanaian companies to ensure improved energy availability, building of local expertise as well as economic growth through job creation,' Dall'Omo said.

Other flagship projects being undertaken by Siemens includes the rolling out a steam turbine project with Group 5 in Kpone - the largest steam plant in the country contributing 350 MW to the grid.

Another project under way is the Tema Thermal Power Plant. The Tema plant is being rolled out in two phases and includes the installation of eight gas turbines overall.

It has the advantage of flexibility in times of unsecure gas supply, and will ultimately add 82 MW to the national grid.

'Siemens will in future be working with stakeholders to look into opportunities to harness wind energy to meet Ghana's energy needs,' Dall'Omo said.

It was announced that Edmund Acheampong, a Ghananian who has been working with Siemens in the United States, has been appointed as the new Ghana country manager of Siemens in Accra.

His team will be responsible for business development, sales and project execution.

Mr Acheampong said at the event Siemens is currently active in more than 200 countries, and has a 165-year track record in engineering excellence, innovation, quality and reliability.

'Siemens has a deep understanding of Ghana's current and future energy issues, and is well placed to assist the country in addressing these challenges.

'Our commitment to Africa as a continent, and Ghana in particular, has been characterised by more than just the provision of infrastructure that has helped grow the economy, however.

Our conduct has always been characterised by a desire to see and contribute towards genuine and sustainable social upliftment in close collaboration with our local partners,' Acheampong concluded.

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years.

The company is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization.

GNA
21.08.2016 LISTEN

By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tolon (N/R), Aug. 21, GNA - NORSAAC, with support from the United Nations Children Fund, has begun a project dubbed 'Let the Girls Smile: Say No to Child Marriages' (LEGS) with the objective to end child, early and forced marriages (CEFM) at Tolon and Mion Districts.

The LEGS Project adopts numerous strategies including the model households against child marriage concept, which focuses on households advocating against child marriages whilst serving as role models to other households to end CEFM in the two districts of the Northern Region.

Mr Alhassan Mohammed Awal, Executive Director of NORSAAC, who spoke at an engagement session with stakeholders on CEFM organised by NORSAAC at Tolon, described CEFM as a disgrace to society calling for advocacy to end the practice.

The engagement session was to enable participants, who comprised traditional and religious authorities, women, and children drawn from model households against CEFM concept, to share their perspectives on CEFM and mitigation factors towards developing a position paper on the practice.

According to the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, one in four girls are married off before their 18th birthday with the practice recording 39.2 per cent in UER, 36.7 per cent in Western Region, 36.3 per cent in UWR and 27.4 per cent in N/R, making the country to fall among countries with highest prevalence of CEFM in the world.

Also, the baseline survey of the LEGS Project undertaken by NORSAAC revealed that a total of 80 child marriages took place in a sampled 20 communities at Mion and Tolon Districts in 2013.

Mr Mohammed Awal was happy that President John Mahama spoke publicly against CEFM saying it demonstrated government's disapproval of the practice calling on all stakeholders to join hands to eliminate the practice.

Ms Nancy Yeri, Manager of LEGS Project of NORSAAC, said a similar engagement session was held for stakeholders from the model households at Mion District as part of the strategies to eliminate CEFM in the communities.

She said the increasing rate of CEFM in the two districts was worrying as it affected education outcomes as well as presenting health and economic implications for the victims.

Madam Abukari Azumi, Assembly Member for Dimabi Electoral Area, said she had been organizing girls in her area to educate them on the issue and how to avoid it.

GNA
Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - The construction of the $1.2 billion Accra Eco park is underway, following a sod cutting ceremony to signal the beginning of the project.

The ecotourism project, to be done in phases, is being undertaken by the Forestry Commission and its private partner, Aikan Capital Limited and is scheduled for completion between the next five and seven years.

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in 24 months.

President John Dramani Mahama, in a speech read on his behalf, said government had decided to convert the Achimota Forest into a world-class recreational facility and a major tourism destination in West Africa rather than allow further encroachment and dumping of waste into the forest.

'This development will preserve the only green belt in Accra, and allow the forest to continue to function as a carbon sink and clean the air and at the same time create jobs and business opportunities for the private sector,' he said.

The project involves the construction of amusement parks, orchards, arboretum, wildlife safaris, museums, eco-commercial enclaves and eco-lodges but with little disruption in the natural vegetation as possible.

It will also have a spiritual enclave to cater for spiritual/worship activities that bring more than 180,000 people annually to the Achimota Forest.

There are also plans for high seating capacity conference rooms to be sited outside the main forest area.

Nii Osah Mills, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, said the Achimota Forest Reserve had long been recognised as having outstanding potential for tourism development, considering its location in the city.

'The Accra Eco-Park development has, therefore, been conceived to provide a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the business community and the public that ecotourism is a viable, environmentally friendly, employment-creating, sustainable income-generating venture,' he stated.

It will add to the country's major national parksKakum in the Central Region and Mole in the Northern Region.

Mr Samuel Afari Dartey, the Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, said there was the need to undertake innovative ecotourism development as a means to safeguard the ecological integrity of the forest.

He said the Eco-Park Project will target about 2 per cent of all visitors to West Africa Sub-region, attracting more than 600,000 visitors to the Accra Eco-Park annually.

The project will create more than 4,000 jobs during the construction phase and about 2,500 direct jobs during the implementation phase, he said, adding that the Forestry Commission would receive about 20 per cent of revenue generated.

In addition, the Government of Ghana will receive revenue in the form of corporate taxes, PAYE and social security payments (SSNIT) and other indirect taxes.

For the private sector numerous business opportunities will be created thus enhancing the contribution of the forestry sector to national development.

The Chief Executive Officer of Aikan Capital Limited, Mr Oheneba Otchere, said the project makes room for the planting of more trees to enhance the forest cover.

The lease agreement allows Aikan Capital to design, build and operate the facility for 10 years.

GNA
22.08.2016 LISTEN

We wish to bring to the attention of the reading public that the Swiss Management Center (SMC), which is not accredited by any national accreditation authority anywhere in the world, has resorted to clandestine forms of communication to continue to malign us to its students for exposing their dishonest operations in Ghana. In a dispatch dated August 16, 2016, circulated among its Ghanaian students, the Vice-Chancellor of the SMC, Dr. Ted Sun, questioned the integrity of our PhDs, raised vague methodological and ethical issues concerning our report, and assured his students that all is well with the SMC.

In the same memo, Dr. Sun went on to challenge, intimidate or threaten us as follows and we quote: While you are reading the below lines, a coordinated legal effort within Ghana and the US has been initiated: fake, by dictionary definition relates to something as being not true or real: meant to look real or genuine but not real or genuine  thus mentioning SMC and their alumni, who spend years on thorough research to complete an accredited program, in such a context shall be treated and acted upon as attempted slander, duress and defamation. All we can say is, bring it on.

We hope to address each of the issues Dr. Sun raised in his memo. In the sixth paragraph of the said memo, Dr. Sun gave a historical narration of the Swiss accreditation regime. What is heartwarming about Suns revelation is that, by his own clarification, the Swiss government provided no options for private universities until 2015. What sun failed to do in this historical narrative is to not educate his students on the reasons the Swiss authorities would not provide accreditation options for private universities in Switzerland, particularly those engaged in the teaching and award of online degrees. Even though Sun assured his students that those private institutions operate legally and offer high quality education programs, our concern has not been whether those institutions operate legally or offer high quality education. The unambiguous position is that SMC is not accredited by the Swiss accreditation authorities. No institution of higher learning can be a judge of its own academic standards. This is the reason institutional accreditation is mandatory for all universities operating in Ghana. Sun also pointed out that in 2015, Swiss law was amended to enable accreditation of private universities, but only in theory. As we raced through the memo, the preceding quote referenced only heightened our expectation that what would follow would indicate that the SMC, in both theory and practice, has applied for and has been granted that seal of recognition as an accredited private university, putting to rest the contentions of the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, Sun again offered the excuse that the thresholds and criteria for eligibility have been adopted from state-controlled facilities, leaving little to no room for small or specialized providers. Sun explained that the very few private universities in Switzerland that are granted accreditation have to do that in partnership with the well-established public universities. Even though Sun failed to explain why, it must be obvious to the average reader that what Sun considered impracticable accreditation processes for private institutions in Switzerland are only stringent measures put in place to safeguard the quality of education in that country.

The Ghanaian reader will recollect that until recently, Ashesi University had to operate under the mentorship of University of Ghana, so do many private universities in Ghana. Thus, the kind of arrangement Sun is explaining is nothing peculiar to the Swiss. That is already happening in Ghana. Talking about programmatic accreditation, for the many years that then Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) operated as an academic institution, it operated in similar capacities, running programs that are recognized by professional bodies. The point is that Sun is not saying anything new in this memo to his students. We can only wish that these so-called doctoral students read through the lines, appreciate the facts, and begin to direct their questions at Sun and his colleagues. Buying space in the Daily Graphic to slam our good intentions of exposing the dishonesty that is being foisted on Ghanaians by institutions that do not have accreditation does not make SMC an accredited institution. So, if we should once again respond to the issue of SMCs status as university with accreditation to run doctoral programs in Ghana, we simply would revert to our earlier position: the SMC is not accredited by the Swiss accreditation authorities nor the NAB and therefore should not be deceptively portraying itself to Ghanaians as such.

It is interesting that the SMC Vice-Chancellor would resort to the good old rhetorical strategy of association in an attempt to underscore the credibility of his institution as an accredited one. Sun referenced the Ohio State University, Temple University, and Southern New Hampshire University as world class universities that also operate by ACBSP accreditation. By extension, there is no anomaly with his institution granting doctoral degrees and PhDs (dual PhDs with University of Central Nicaragua). What Sun failed to tell his students in this memo is that, all the institutions he mentioned in this memo as having ACBSP accreditation, as a prerequisite, have OPE accreditation in the United States in line with the ACBSP requirement. According to the ACBSP for institutions located within the US, regional accreditation of the institution is required for membership accreditation credibility. The reader can follow the link to the OPE site in order to check the regional/national accreditation status of the aforementioned institutions. The point then is that this form of identification, as Kenneth Burke would call it, falls flat. The fact that Ohio State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Temple University have ACBSP accreditation for their business programs does not mean that, by extension, SMC can run doctoral programs, especially PhDs, in Ghana based on such forms of association. If the SMC doctoral students cannot point out the missing links in these arguments to their Vice-Chancellor, I am sure the reading public can, and can tell who is displaying utter ignorance here (You can please follow the link to the national accreditation status of Southern New Hampshire University and the others http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/SearchResult.aspx?6d6f64653d5365617263684279496e737469747574696f6e267264743d382f31392f3230313620363a35343a323220504d).

Dr. Sun also raised issues with our methodological and ethical choices. He was not alone. While Sun was concerned about the report passing a graduate research assignment, Dr. Esi Dogbey-Bani, who is an Associate Professor of comparative literature at the University of Louisville is of the view that the report under discussion flouted the United State Family Education Rights and Privacy Acts (FERPA) of the individuals published in the said report (We will address Dr. Esi Dogbey in a full rejoinder in the days to follow).

While Sun failed to mention, specifically, the ethical and methodological standards that were flouted, his reference to phrases such as minimize harm and seek the truth, which were the basis for the report and preamble same, must have been the basis for Suns suggestion that ethical standards were flouted in generating data for the report and the subsequent publication of the results. In Suns view, this undermines our competency, the institutions we work for, and seeks to sensationalize improperly on Ghanaian scholars.

First, let it be clear that nowhere in the report under discussion did we attempt to sensationalize improperly on Ghanaian scholars. In case studies, each case is examined as a phenomenon with conclusions based on the facts that a particular case reveals. In this case, specific cases, including the case of SMC which is unaccredited by the Swiss authorities, was examined. Individuals who are parading doctoral degrees and PhDs from the SMC were identified and conclusions were drawn based on this specific case. The attempt to extrapolate the results of this investigation to encompass very hard working Ghanaian academics who are playing by the academic rules and standards are simply in the figment of Suns imagination. We expected the recipients of this memo to have pointed out this to him.

Closely related to the foregoing, in SMCs initial response to the report, the leadership of SMC, again, attempted to divert the attention of intelligent readers by insinuating methodological weaknesses to our investigation without pointing to any specific failures in the methodology. Sun should be informed that investigators operationalize their investigation and define their area of freedom. We did not set out to be accomplices with Sun and Co to deceive Ghanaians. Our operational parameters were clearly set and those parameters defined the very charge (the task) we assigned ourselves in that investigation. Sun should also be aware that research methods are not cast in stone and researchers and investigators are not supposed to dogmatically behold research methods as though social conditions are not dynamic across time and space, triggering the need for extending, revising, and adapting research methods to a peculiar phenomenon. Perhaps, Sun is under the impression that we had failed to consult him in the processes of our investigation. The fact is that it was a well-considered option which was overruled, as that would have imposed other institutional requirements. Sun also argued that cases must be examined from multiple angles. If he cannot examine the various angles from which the accreditation of SMC was evaluated, that is his palaver to manage.

According to the Minister of Education, Naana Opoku-Agyemang,

This worrisome and disruptive phenomenon has been discussed in the public domain for many years; some papers have been written on itthe Ministry took initiative three years ago to assess the Acts (where they existed, and craft enabling Acts where none did) of all of our 20 Agencies including NAB in order to enable them to function properly in accordance with changing inter/national realities and trends. (Personal Communication, August 18, 2016)

The point of highlighting the Education Ministers frustration with the phenomenon is that, there was the urgent need for public intellectuals to step into the public sphere to spearhead this conversation. The challenge of positioning oneself between the academic and reaching out to the generality of the public is a delicate rope to walk. We are not unaware of the scholarly process that leads to publication in journals. Our persona in this investigative report is simply that of public intellectuals. The said report was not intended for any academic journal and for that matter the academic community. What Sun should be asking himself is: why did the other papers the Education Minister referenced did not trigger the level of participation this report has elicited from the general public? It will do a lot of good to Dr. Sun to do some reading on public intellectual activities.

Second, the notion of minimizing harm is dialectical with multiple dimensions. At one level, we may consider the harm that is visited on the Ghanaian student who is under the impression that he/she is receiving the graduate training of an international standard from an institution that is accredited and properly registered. We may also consider the harm a sub-standard pedagogy may have on national development goals and aspirations, as the recipients venture into the academic world and begin to franchise their unwholesome qualifications on their students. At another level, we may consider harm from the perspective of the errant institutions and their professors. The point is that there is no research project or investigation that does not encounter these dialectical tensions. The investigator must, therefore, choose a side that yields the greater good with minimal harm. Put in a question form: do we expose the institutions and individuals who were involved in these malpractices in order to protect the integrity of Ghanaian institutions or do we back off simply because the report will do harm to the individuals and institutions that are involved in these practices? Our decision to expose the culprits was a product of utilitarian ethical considerationsthe good of an entire society has a place in ethical reasoning. Thus, exposing a crime for the betterment of society is ethical from this perspective. Just as any intellectual and political positions, there are multiplicity of perspectives. If Sun fails to point to the ethical standard that was breached by the report under discussion, we believe Suns doctoral students can put our choices through the ethical litmus test in order to expose the failings of this research on ethical grounds to demonstrate their own understanding of these issues.

Sun also wondered If the quality of education was at the core of people holding doctorates, why not have a scholarly panel assess the basic fundamentals of scientific research that PhD holders should have mastered? This question clearly demonstrates that Sun lacks in-depth understanding of what the intellectual process is all about. We believe that by failing to acquire accreditation for his program from the Swiss authorities, Sun does not appreciate the oversight role of accreditation institutions which is tantamount to the scholarly panel he is calling for to assess the fundamentals of a scientific research that PhD holders master. The granting of accreditation is the basis upon which universities establish and maintain authoritative academic journals for publication; accreditation is what confers authority on professors to form dissertation committees and grant PhDs; it is the accreditation that ensures that standards are being met and maintained by universities.

What is even more troubling about Suns submissions is that, Sun does not see the need to stay focus on the topic of accreditation, making us to begin to even question his own credentials as someone who holds a PhD. While the topic under discussion is about accreditation, Sun veers off completely to talk about the contributions of SMC and its staff to the development of Ghana. Here are a few examples, with our question placed by them pari passu:

[SMC] Consistently donates funds to charities like the Osu orphanage when holding residencies. Are the issues in contention about donations SMC makes to OSU orphanage?

[SMC] Offers scholarly writing and research workshops that are highly needed. When SMC learned of the challenges in scholarly writing and the fact that most students had no course or teaching in scholarly writing, we offered many writing/dissertation workshops to help Ghanaian students. Are the issues of our disagreement about the paucity of training and research opportunities in Ghana? (If even that were the case, we are certain that that is for the policy arm of the Education Ministry in Ghana to address, not an unaccredited SMC).

[SMC] Successfully graduated 47 doctorates who lead many organizations and have consistently published in international journals. Is the question about how many doctoral graduates SMC graduated in Ghana and where they are placed in the socio-political sphere in Ghana? (SMC can graduate thousand and one PhDs in Ghana, but the lack of SMC accreditation implies that those degrees are questionable. If we may ask, how many PhDs are graduated in Ghana by University of Ghana, Cape Coast University, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology combined?). We challenge Sun to publish the doctoral dissertations of all its graduates online for review, and provide a list of all journal articles published by its graduates (the 47 in Ghana) in non-predatory journals or journal by credible publishing houses like Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, Willey, Springer, Sage. It is a fact that Ghanaian intellectuals will be alarmed, if such information is provided.

Sun further insinuated that the erroneous apology issued by Graphic Online, with the screaming caption: WE ARE SORRY, underscores the fact that we were up to mischief which was duly recognized by the Daily Graphic, eliciting an apology from the national daily. Readers can follow the link to our rejoinder to the Daily Graphic on this and appreciate how the Daily Graphic has cheapened itself to a point where it became an accessory for the franchising of the very unwholesome qualifications and awards under discussion (https://www.academia.edu/27791069/Rejoinder_Apology_To_UPSA_Others). Lets once again remind readers that neither SMC nor UPSA can cling onto such an apology as an epistle of exoneration. The Daily Graphic has no accreditation mandates.

In his concluding remarks, Sun pointed out that these issues were raised by two individuals who dont live in Ghana and who have chosen to create chaos with highly biased information, through a media organization that is willing to create conflict to garner more attention for its own profit. While we agree that we do not live in Ghana, just like Sun, we are Ghanaians first and foremost. Thus, any issue that affects the country Ghana is of great concern to us. Considering the level of unemployment in Ghana, the bastardization of education, and their attendant complications, we are of the view that the corrective and preventive actions or measures must start from our educational institutions. After all, Ghana is a home to which we return to every now and then. But unlike Sun, we are not driven by profit motives to embark on this crusade. After all, when the gestation period for all the unwholesome qualifications that are being dished out here and there run their cycle, Sun and Co will return to the comfort of their countries. It is us the Ghanaians who will continue to live with the consequences. We wish to make it known to the reading public that there are a good number of university professors resident in Ghana who are equally troubled by this precarious situation.

To stay on the topic of interest, we have so far refrained from indulging in the employment of abusive language that seeks to intimidate and question the professional competencies of the individuals involved in the malpractices that we have exposed. But if that is necessary to give a complete picture to the canker called SMC that tends to dilute and water down the academic standards and procedures that must be followed in conferring doctoral degrees, most importantly a doctor of philosophy (PhD), then Dr. Sun should expect that we would engage him from that angle from now on.

Turning the Searchlight on SMC and Sun

The video titled residency class demonstrates a very disturbing phenomenon about some practices at the SMC. By what arrangements should doctoral candidates be doing contributing money to give to their Vice-Chancellor at the end of their study? (please follow the link to the said video here http://www.smcuniversity.com/about/our-network/smc-in-eritrea/). In this video, students contributed $500.00 and gave to Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Ted Sun. One only wonders if this is one of the standards that are being transmitted to our doctoral candidates and future professors. As an Assistant Professor of Communication, or as a general practice, there cannot be any financial transaction between me and my students at any point in the pedagogical process, be it a gift or based on the trading of any sort. But one can see so-called doctoral students in Suns SMC gleefully contributing money to offer their Vice-Chancellor as a gift. What is worrying about that is that the very things that higher education should be helping us curtail or frowned upon are the very things that Sun and his SMC is promoting.

In 2009, Dr. Ted Sun was expecting a PhD from Capella University (Please follow the link to Suns profile http://www.smcuniversity.com/about/our-faculty/department-of-management/). We do not know if Sun completed that PhD or not. Then by 2016 or even before then Sun becomes a Vice-Chancellor. When did he complete his PhD, when did he became an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Head of Department, Department Dean, and finally a Vice-Chancellor?

We believe Vice-Chancellors in Ghanaian universities are following this spirited debate. We also wish to remind the leaders of UPSA that if once upon a time, the UPSA operated on the basis of accreditation from professional bodies, running ACCA and other professional course, now that it has been granted a university status, it must play by the rules, procedures, and standards by which universities operatemeaning its professors must be graduated by Universities with proper accreditation. As promised in our earlier submissions, we would continue to tackle this issue in commensurate measures, only responding to the challenges of the antagonist and educating the public on the matters they raise. It must be noted that even though the leadership of SMC has resorted to private emails to its students in which they continue to denigrate and question our intellectual competencies, some of these students are beginning to realize the dilemma they are in. Therefore, they forward the email communications between them and the SMC leadership to us for advice.

Dr. Prosper Yao Tsikata

Assistant Professor of Communication

Valdosta State University

Dr. A. Kobla Dotse

Director, Chemical Research & Development
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We Awaken YA author Calista Lynne chats to magazine creatrix Anjulie about all the good things!

Calista Lynne is the author of We Awaken, a book that explores the asexuality spectrum, relationships and picking up the pieces after a loved one has died. Calista is also a theatre student, and a lover of rainbow bookshelves and flower crowns. I got the opportunity to chat with her about writing, We Awaken and Disney.

Can we take a moment to enjoy Calistas rainbow shelfie

Anjulie: When did you start writing?

Calista: I have always been a pretty decent writer and remember creating books as a child and giving them away. When I was in the fifth grade I was picked to represent my class at a Young Author convention. I suppose its only been uphill since there! Professionally, I began writing for publications (and, therefore, money) in early high school.

Anjulie: What authors influenced your work?

Calista: Definitely Neil Gaiman. I can not express my love for that man in words and I trust all his advice. Growing up, my two favorite authors were Roald Dahl and Bruce Coville. Theyre who I dedicated We Awaken to because I figure something of them must have seeped into me just from the sheer amount I re-read their books as a child.

Anjulie: As someone who lives in London and grew up in the US, how has living in these two places affected your writing?

Calista: I feel that We Awaken is an extremely American novel. I wrote it before moving to London and it is full of places and sayings that are very distinct to the east coast. Since moving to England my entire world has been shaken up and my writing is definitely different now! They say you write from experience and now I have the experience of a completely different culture to work with in future novels. And, yes, it may not seem that way, but England and America are complete opposites in many regards.

FLOWER CROWN WAS ONLY $1. But now my hair is the same color as the other Token Gay at my school so we gotta battle pic.twitter.com/3PiZR26qDl  Calista Lynne (@calistawrites) August 10, 2016

Anjulie: What drove you to write We Awaken?

Calista: A need for representation. I wrote the book I wish I had growing up. There was a distinct void in the market where asexual literature belonged and my goal was to fill it. (Mooky note: you can check out Calistas earlier piece on the lack of asexuality representation in books, its a great read).

Anjulie: What was the writing process for We Awaken like? Are you a plotter, pantser or a bit of both?

Calista: Oh Im definitely a plotter, especially for this one. I had every point in order, listed out beforehand. Of course a lot of them got altered and dropped but it was how I felt it needed to be written. With my next novel I have an outline but scenes seem to keep pushing out at the sides and letting in new details and plotlines with my hardly even noticing.

I wanted to show that there is a spectrum in [a]sexuality and not everyone experiences it the same way

Anjulie: We Awaken features two asexual characters that are realistic and arent just defined by their sexuality. How important for you was it to get these two characters right?

Calista: Extremely. This novel is an exploration of asexuality so I had to be realistic and inoffensive but also understandable. I wanted to show that there is a spectrum in this sexuality and not everyone experiences it the same way, which is why one of the main girls likes to kiss and the other not so much, among other details. People are so much more than their sexuality.

Anjulie: I saw on your Twitter that youre a lover of Disney. What are your favourite Disney movies?

Calista: The Princess and the Frog is my everything. I have watched that film an unholy amount of times and actually plan on getting a Princess Tiana tattoo in the near future. Yep. Im one of those sorts of fans. I think Ive seen all their animated pictures and the princess ones are my favourites but I could go on for days about any Disney movie.

Anjulie: If We Awaken was turned into a Disney movie, who would you want to play Victoria, Ashlinn, and Ellie?

Calista: Oh wow this is a difficult one! Can I just say three up-and-coming young actresses who are actually the correct age and skin colour? Because those are the two things movie studios tend to mess up and I would have none of that.

Anjulie: I heard that Lin-Manuel Miranda was teaming up with Disney to write some stuff for a live-action version of The Little Mermaid, would he write the songs for this movie?

Calista: Damn straight he would. I think all of those characters could drop a sick beat and I openly welcome anyone to write We Awaken: A Rap Musical at their leisure.

Anjulie: Do you think youll write a sequel to We Awaken?

Calista: At the moment, probably not, but if I woke up one morning thinking that is an incredible idea for a sequel then it would get written. I dont like to write unless I know I have a fantastic concept and am willing to put my all into it. If there was enough desire for one, Im sure something would come about, but at the moment Im extremely focussed on my next novel.

Anjulie: What are you working on now? Can you tell us anything about it?

Calista: After throwing away two drafts of a completed novel (something I keep bringing up in interviews because Im a bit salty), I have begun work on a great new YA novel! Im handwriting the first draft and then typing it up. I have 32,000 words typed so far which is great progress considering I only began halfway through this summer and handwriting takes millennia. I drew inspiration for this next one from A Midsummer Nights Dream and it is a whimsical story with fairies, time turners, and LGBTQ representation. Im very excited about it!

I look forward to seeing this book in the future! We Awaken is out now. Definitely buy it or borrow it from your local library and support a great book that explores asexuality and love between two women.

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If youve been through the intersections of Wadley Avenue and Big Spring Street or Andrews Highway and North Midland Drive, youve probably noticed there is new construction going on.

CVS is doubling its footprint here in the Tall City, and while some might quip well have to add drugstores to the chestnut that Midland has more banks and dry cleaners per capita than any other city, its worth observing where the new CVS stores are being built.

The aforementioned intersections are busy  really busy. The area of Andrews and Midland is the highest-volume signaled intersection in the city, and while Big Spring and Wadley might to be in the top 10, it sees very high traffic volumes, according to city traffic engineer Mike Pacelli.

Businesses want to be where people are because busy places are prime spots for retail. For CVS, however, theres another advantage at these intersections: They're near CVS largest competitor, Walgreens.

At Andrews and Midland, the drugstores will be a road and a gas station apart. At Wadley and Big Spring, theyll be across the street from each other. But why would CVS want to build near its biggest rival?

In theory, each store wants the best access to the most customers, so each store wants to locate centrally, economic game theorist Presh Talwalkar told the Reporter-Telegram via email. Its similar to a politician campaigning on centrist views or a NYC food truck wanting the busiest tourist spot. As a result, stores tend to cluster in particular areas.

Talwalkar, a Stanford graduate who studied economics and mathematics, is author of The Joy of Game Theory: An Introduction to Strategic Thinking, and he writes the economic game theory blog Mind Your Decisions. He said that competing firms appear to cluster, a concept explained by Hotellings Model of Spatial Competition, or, more commonly, Hotellings law or Hotelling's game.

In simple terms, Hotellings law determines that businesses selling similar products tend to locate as close as possible in order to maintain the maximum amount of market share possible. According to a TED Ed video on the topic, businesses find a Nash equilibrium, or the point where two firms cant improve their position in the market by deviating from their current strategy. If either decided to relocate, even just a bit, they might lose market share and not maximize profits.

In the case of Walgreens, it owns the drugstore market in these busy areas. CVS wants in.

In marketing and business, we talk about the cluster, UTPB Assistant Professor of Marketing Lili Gai said in a phone interview. When people gather together, that means it has to be a destination for consumers.

Gai said it makes sense for CVS to expand its business in Midland, which currently has two locations, one of which, at Andrews and Illinois Avenue near the hospital, is across from a Walgreens.

We know that the population is getting older, and that means health care spending is increasing, she said. Everybody wants part of that pie.

She said that what matters to businesses is being located in the small area where consumers have gathered and are spending their money.

If Im there, I can grab something. If Im not, I wont get anything.

Businesses dont like competition if they cant get a share of the market, but if they can compete at least equally with another business, they want to be in a location where competition can happen, Gai said. Being located next to each other is often where the best competition and Nash equilibrium occur. A business, however, doesnt just open a location and customers flow in en masse.

Walgreens and CVS offer similar products: pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medications, cosmetics and a variety of convenience items such as milk and snacks. CVS will have to strategize in order to make more than just its presence known. Gai said new competitors generally match or lower their prices for two to three weeks after opening. They do it to increase consumers awareness of the new location to make sure that the store is in the consideration set of a consumers memory.

CVS will do something similar, she said. Even if CVS doesnt lower its prices, they will at least match Walgreens prices, and said that Walgreens will now have to fight to maintain market share. People like to see something new, which threatens customer loyalty.

CVS, on the other hand, might bring more consumers to the area.

Think about CVS loyal customers, Gai said. They might go ahead and try (the new store), and that means CVS has brought consumers to that area.

This opens the opportunity for Walgreens to convert loyal CVS customers to their store.

Dont forget that no consumer is 100 percent satisfied with their retailer, Gai said.

Convenience will also be a factor.

When consumers are faced with competing gas stations, think about the factors involved in deciding which one to go to, Gai said.

Sometimes, convenience comes down to whether its easier to make a left turn or a right turn while driving, and this influences which store a consumer will patronize.

Ultimately, when retailers are near each other, the consumer wins because more options are available, Gai said. The fight between CVS and Walgreens will be fierce.

Loyalty is something competitors dont want to lose, she said.

Walgreens and CVS did not respond to requests for comments on this story.

Like Trevor on Facebook and follow him on Twitter at @HowdyHawes.

***

LEARN MORE

Presh Talwalkar, who has written in-depth about Hotelling's law (http://bit.ly/2bIfBTl), also suggests the following to learn more about the economics concept:

"Why do competitors open their stores next to one another?" by Ted Ed: https://youtu.be/jILgxeNBK_8

"Why do retail stores cluster together?" by Ken Steif: http://bit.ly/2bjsn9K
The energy sector remains in the tank with much of the focus on low oil prices, but one segment thats holding up better is the natural gas pipeline industry.

A new Moodys Investors Service report singles out the owners of gas pipelines as safer, if not sexy, bets. Even though gas prices remain very cheap, the demand for natural gas is strong and the pipeline operators rely on fixed, long-term contracts to funnel as much volume as possible. Theyre less impacted by day-to-day pricing.

Roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of the pipeline capacity is contracted through such firm agreements, shielding these companies from the direct impact of volatility in the commodity markets, the Moodys report stated.

Still, many pipeline operators have suffered on Wall Street because the interstate natural gas pipeline sub-segment appears to have gotten swept up in the downturn, the report added.

Natural gas pipeline owners are showing signs of growth though. TransCanada just bought the Houston-based Columbia Pipeline Group for more than $10 billion to beef up its U.S. shale gas presence, and the Williams Cos. is expanding its Transco pipe system that runs from Texas to New York.

Ramping up exports

Houston-based Cheniere Energy is working to export much more of the glut of natural gas in liquefied form.

Cheniere, which became the first company to export liquefied natural gas from the U.S. in February, said it started producing LNG on July 28 from its second unit at its Sabine Pass Terminal in Louisiana. The LNG unit, called a train, is expected to be fully up and running at the end of September.

The third and fourth units will come online in the summer of 2017, said new Cheniere CEO Jack Fusco.

We are firing on all cylinders and beginning to see the impact our company is having on the global energy marketplace, Fusco said.

Although Cheniere was the first U.S. exporter, other LNG export projects have come online in Australia and elsewhere, creating a temporary global oversupply.

Anatol Feygin, Cheineres senior vice president for strategy, described a current loose market that will improve in three years or so. Global LNG demand will double by 2030, he said.

One anticipated reason is the world switching away from dirtier coal-fired electricity generation and relying much more on natural gas for environmental purposes.

Gore attends conference

Many environmentalists argue natural gas still isnt clean enough, especially because of concerns over methane leaking into the atmosphere.

Those concerns and others brought environmental activist and former Vice President Al Gore to Houston this week.

Gore participated in the Climate Reality Projects three-day leadership corps training.

The training focused on climate issues specific to Texas, the political and social conversations around renewable energy deployment, and the role of fossil fuel companies in climate denial efforts.
Residents of the Middle East are ready to give up energy subsidies, overturning another long-held assumption about the politics of oil producing countries, according to new research from Rice University.

Persian Gulf countries have posted some of the fastest increases in energy demand in the last decade, largely due to low prices subsidized by ruling monarchies. Many analysts assumed that most residents considered cheap energy a birthright in countries with some of the largest oil and gas reserves.

Those attitudes are changing, though, according to a poll by Jim Krane, a fellow for energy studies at Rice's Baker Institute. Residents of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain are willing to give up their subsidized energy if it's in the national interest or if they get something else in return.

"A substantial portion of the public appears more amenable to increases in subsidized electricity prices, especially when changes are portrayed as being in the national interest," Krane wrote in his contribution to "The Economics and Political Economy of Energy Subsidies."

Krane's poll of Gulf residents directly contradicted the assumptions of 76 regional experts on energy policy in the Gulf that he surveyed asking the same question.

Iran recently began removing energy subsidies in return for sharing the profits from the energy industry with citizens. The International Monetary Fund praised the move, arguing that it encourages conservation of energy and spending on more economically productive activities.

Krane said Arab monarchies could make a similar deal, based on his survey. Such a move would be consistent with the king of Saudi Arabia's desire to diversify that nation's economy.

Higher prices would certainly discourage waste and might even encourage conservation in the Middle East, and that would have a major impact on global energy demand. The Middle East is widely perceived as one of the few regions of the world expected to register growing demand for oil.

Following the collapse of oil and gas prices in 2014, the dynamics of energy markets have become vastly more complex, and past assumptions must be questioned. The world's attitudes about energy are changing, complicating predictions for the industry's future.
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline faces lawsuit over environmental concerns

By Associated Press

Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit to stop a 516-miles natural gas pipeline project that would travel through three Southeastern states.

Groups including the Sierra Club filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers comes less than a week after the $3.2 billion Sabal Trail project received final federal approvals, including permits to discharge dredge materials into wetlands and other water bodies.

The project, a joint effort by Houston-based Spectra Energy, Duke Energy of North Carolina, and Florida Power & Light, will carry natural gas from Alabama, through Georgia, into Florida.

The suit says the project poses a threat to drinking water sources in the region.

The Corps did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Continental Resources sale of North Dakota, Montana assets

OKLAHOMA CITY  Continental Resources has signed a definitive purchase and sale agreement with an undisclosed buyer to sell non-strategic properties in North Dakota and Montana for $222 million.

The sale includes 68,000 net acres of leasehold primarily in western Williams County, North Dakota, and 12,000 net acres of leasehold in Roosevelt County, Montana. The sale also includes net production of approximately 2,800 barrels of oil equivalent (Boe) per day. The agreement provides for customary closing conditions and adjustments.

This is our third sale of non-strategic assets this year, with total expected proceeds of more than $600 million. We plan to apply proceeds to reduce debt and strengthen our balance sheet, said Harold Hamm, chairman and chief executive officer.

In May 2016, the company announced the sale of approximately 132,000 net acres of leasehold in the Washakie Basin in Wyoming for $110 million. On August 3, Continental announced it had signed a definitive purchase and sale agreement with an undisclosed buyer to sell approximately 29,500 net acres of non-strategic leasehold in the eastern SCOOP play in Oklahoma for $281 million.

Pipeline company reaches deal with Clarksville water utility

CLARKSVILLE, Ark. (AP)  A western Arkansas water utility and a company building a $900 million oil pipeline have reached a deal to protect drinking water sources from potential spills.

Diamond Pipeline LLC and the Clarksville Light and Water Co. finalized a $6.6 million deal Wednesday. The 440-mile pipeline will be capable of transporting 200,000 barrels per day of domestic crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Valeros refinery in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the plan calls for Diamond Pipeline to provide $6.6 million to extend a pipe that feeds a Clarksville water-intake facility so it will be north of the oil pipeline's path.

Diamond Pipeline said in a statement that its pleased the agreement was reached and that the company intends to responsibly operate and maintain the pipeline.

North Dakota regulators approve 3 pipeline projects

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  North Dakota regulators have approved siting permits for two crude oil pipelines and a natural gas liquids pipeline.

ONEOK Bakken Pipeline LLC plans a 14.4-mile natural gas liquids pipeline in McKenzie County. BOE Pipeline LLC plans a 41.8-mile crude oil pipeline in Dunn and McKenzie counties, and Plains Terminals North Dakota LLC is planning a 3.5-mile crude oil pipeline in McKenzie County.

The 3.5-mile pipeline will start at the Plains Johnsons Corner Terminal and end at the Dakota Access Pipeline Johnsons Corner Terminal Facility. From that terminal, the oil can be transported across the country.

North Dakota Public Service Commission Chairwoman Julie Fedorchak says the three projects have been carefully examined by experts, discussed thoroughly with the public and meet the requirements for permits under state law.
The technological shift to high-efficiency oil and gas drilling is the single biggest change in production since oil prices crashed, the chief executive of an industry analytics company said.

Allen Gilmer, chairman of DrillingInfo, says the best oil and gas operators are getting as much as 50 percent higher returns compared with the average producer, and two to three times the production of the least-efficient operators.

Before the crash, with oil at $100 a barrel, companies were made or broken by their access to cheap cash, Gilmer said in an interview at last weeks North American Prospect Expo, now called NAPE.

Now with oil priced at about $40, the difference between success and failure isnt inexpensive loan rates, he said: Its really how efficiently you can extract the hydrocarbons.

Gilmer and his company have compiled data on oil and gas formations, drilling and production over the past nine years. It shows the shale boom and corresponding price collapse changed the way companies operate, he said.

Companies had to cut tens of thousands of workers and reduce other costs. That forced many to find more efficient drilling and recovery processes.

The new technology is even prompting big oil companies like BP and Chevron, which werent as active in fracking, to devote new divisions to U.S. shale production. They hope to innovate as quickly as smaller independent producers.

The benefits could be great.

The average Texas well produces nearly 25 percent more than it did last year, Gilmer said, and there are billions of barrels still to capture.

The size of the prize here in the United States is mind-blowing, he said.
A new technology could dramatically reduce the costs and carbon emissions in the manufacturing of the worlds plastics supplies, researchers from Exxon Mobil and the Georgia Institute of Technology said Thursday.

The new system, which is still in development, is 50 times more energy efficient and could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 45 million tons globally per year  the equivalent emissions of 5 million U.S. homes, Exxon said. The industry also could save $2 billion annually.

The Exxon and Georgia Tech scientists worked together and published their findings Thursday in the prominent academic journal Science.

Theyve essentially developed a carbon-based membrane that can separate molecules as small as a nanometer  one-billionth the size of a meter (A sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick). The membrane acts as a filter to separate a chemical building block, called para-xylene, used to make plastics and polyester. The current industry methods use high-energy heating processes to separate those molecules. The new system can work at room temperature.

In effect, wed be using a filter with microscopic holes to do what an enormous amount of heat and energy currently do in a chemical process similar to that found in oil refining, said Mike Kerby, corporate strategic research manager at Exxon Mobil, in a prepared statement.

Exxon and Georgia Tech cautioned that additional testing is still needed under more challenging conditions. They also need to develop the membranes more consistently and ensure they can hold up during long-term industrial use. Still, the results are promising enough that Exxon is investing in pursuing the technology for wide-scale global implementation.

Exxon Mobil Chemical is investing several billion dollars to increase the production of ethylene and polyethylene  the worlds most common plastic  at its Baytown and Mont Belvieu plants just east of Houston. The project represents Exxon Mobils first major U.S. chemical expansion in more than 15 years, with completion slated for 2017. Exxon and the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp., known as SABIC, also are considering building another multi-billion-dollar petrochemical complex in Texas or Louisiana.

The petrochemical boom along the Gulf Coast is fueled by the cheap and ample amounts of natural gas and natural gas liquids extracted from U.S. shale through unconventional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The ethane from natural gas is converted into ethylene, which is the primary building block for most plastics, and then transformed into polyethylene. The ultimate goal is for U.S. plastics manufacturing to supply much of the developing world in Asia, Africa and beyond.

The IHS research firm estimates more than 24 million metric tons of new polyethylene capacity  equivalent to one-fourth of global consumption  is coming online by 2020. About 8 million metric tons of the new production will come from the United States.

The American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade group, counts more than 250 petrochemical projects that are getting built or planned across the country through 2023, creating about 70,000 jobs, including almost 16,000 in Texas. The combined cost is about $160 billion with about $50 billion of that total just in Texas.

Companies including Exxon, Chevron Phillips, Dow Chemical Co., BASF and LyondellBasell have multi-billion-dollar expansion projects underway in areas such as Baytown, Channelview, Mont Belvieu, La Porte and Freeport. Many will be done in a year or so.
In June, work was completed on an expansion of the Panama Canal, with hopes of increased trade between Asia and the U.S. Gulf and East Coasts. The canal was originally completed in 1914 at a cost of more than $350 million dollars. It took a decade to build the lock canal stretching roughly 50 miles to connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The canal eliminates the need to travel around the southern tip of South America and shortens a sea journey from Asia to the U.S. East Coast by some 8,000 miles.

In 2015, 340 million tons of goods passed through the Panama Canal, representing about 6 percent of global trade in terms of capacity. However, as international shipping rates have fallen because of uncertain international trade levels and an oversupply of ships, shipping companies are increasingly using larger, more efficient ships. These vessels are too large for the original canal locks, making it necessary for the Panama Canal to expand in order to be able to compete in the evolving economy.

The Panama Canal expansion took nine years and cost $5.4 billion. It doubles the canals capacity through adding a third lane with larger locks. While previously the canal could only accommodate ships that carried a maximum of 5,000 containers, the new locks can accommodate ships carrying up to 14,000 containers. The new locks use reinforced steel, which did not exist at the time of the original construction, and a staggering 4.4 million cubic meters of concrete (significantly more than is in Hoover Dam and the accompanying power plant facilities).

In Panama, the project has created an estimated 30,000 jobs and is expected to spur further investment from the private sector in support services located along the canal, including a new container terminal outside Panama City. Not only will the expansion increase the level of traffic and size of ships, but also generate higher toll revenues for the country. The toll is roughly $90 per shipping container, and the canals executives anticipate a 16 percent to 17 percent revenue increase within the first year. It is expected that the larger ships will move more perishable cargo like produce, fish, and meat to the East Coast ports while new liquefied natural gas producers will take advantage of the canal to export to new Asian markets.

In response to the anticipated increase in trade, U.S. ports are also expanding in order to accommodate larger ships. East and Gulf Coast ports have spent over $150 billion on infrastructure improvements including dredging for deeper harbors, expanding terminals, and improving rail and road connections to docks. Although a majority of containerized freight from Asia has historically arrived at West Coast ports to be then transferred to rail or freight trucks to reach the rest of the continental U.S., even before this year, problems with shipping congestion and labor disputes have shifted more imports bound for the eastern part of the U.S. to East and Gulf Coast ports. These ports now receive close to 34 percent of containerized imports from Asia, compared to a little over 29 percent two years ago.

Nine out of the 10 fastest growing import ports in the U.S. in 2015 were found along the Gulf and East Coasts and not a single West Coast port made the list (the 10th fastest growing port was San Juan, Puerto Rico). This trend will only continue with the completion of the Panama Canal expansion, as an estimated 10 percent of U.S. import container traffic from Asia is expected to shift from the West Coast to other terminals by 2020.

Texas is poised to benefit from the shifting trade routes. About 20 percent of all U.S. port tonnage moves through the states ports, and three Texas ports (Houston, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi) are among the 10 busiest in the country. According to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Texas ports invested over $300 million from 2010 to 2014 in improvements as Texas hopes to become even more competitive in global trade. The Port of Houston, for example, is expecting to see 5-6 percent annual growth in trade over the next few years. Houston is a logical gateway for any shipments bound for the central U.S., and trade with Asia accounts for approximately a third of the ports container volume.

While there is a lot of potential for import growth, the Panama Canal expansion may have an even greater impact on Texas exports such as liquefied natural gas. With continued updates to port and transport infrastructure, Texas can take advantage of the increased trade coming and going through the Panama Canal. By increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of shipping, the expansion can enhance economic activity around the world. As a major gateway and the leading state for exports, Texas can only benefit from this major enhancement to global transportation infrastructure.

Dr. M. Ray Perryman is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Perryman Group (www.perrymangroup.com). He also serves as Institute Distinguished Professor of Economic Theory and Method at the International Institute for Advanced Studies.
Educate Midland will be collaborating with Stonegate Fellowship to offer a Teacher Appreciation event on Aug. 28. If you attended one of the rollout sessions or the Chambers State of Education event in April, you know that Educate Midland is a process, an initiative and perhaps most importantly, a collective effort. That means that every Midlander has a role to play to ensure that our kids have the opportunity to experience the best education we can provide.

Starting with the first rollout sessions, people have been asking what they can do. There are some immediate needs that we hope you will consider for volunteer service.

1. Write a letter or thank you note to a Midland teacher. Express your thanks that they serve the children of Midland. Place the note or letter in an envelope and drop it off at 112 Corporate Drive, Midland, TX 79705. This is the office of the Abell-Hanger Foundation. A receptacle will be in the entry so that you can simply drop it off during normal business hours. Address the letter to Midland Teacher. If it is inconvenient to hand deliver, e-mail your thoughts to info@educatemidland.org and well make sure it gets to a Midland teacher. As you write the letter think of that teacher who most inspired you. All letters delivered by noon Friday will be placed in individual gift bags received by teachers at the Teacher Appreciation event at Stonegate Fellowship on Aug. 28.

2. Choose a month in the school year, mark it on your calendar and determine to do something special for a campus or just for your childs or grandchilds teacher; deliver a gift card, send a note of encouragement, take a meal, take snacks for the staff, be creative. Always be mindful of campus security. The district has policies in place to protect our kids.

3. If you are a member of a club, association or congregation, organize a group to adopt a school through the Partners in Education initiative. Lots of students are in need of tutorial assistance. First Presbyterian has a successful model in place for tutorial support for students at all levels if you want to see a great model in action.

4. This fall, show up for an open house at your childs or grandchilds school. Grandparents are always welcome. Sign up for PTA. Let the teachers know that you support them and that you expect your kids to follow the rules, do their best and to be respectful.

Midlanders, youve been asking what you can do. Here are some suggestions. It will take all of us supporting a positive and successful school environment to make a real difference for our kids.
We were not bribed to drop ...
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MERIDEN  Two city teachers recently heard about inadequate schools and the scarcity of books on the Cheyenne River Lakota/Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota and decided to help make a change.



Mary Jean Higgins and Irene Veillette, both members of the international teaching organization Alpha Delta Kappa, made the trek to South Dakota earlier this month to dedicate a new bookmobile to serve the reservation and its four schools. Veillette is retired from Casimir Pulaski Elementary School. Higgins used to teach at John Barry Elementary School, but now works at St. Joseph School.



The women learned about the situation on the reservation from Rochelle Ripley  also know as Wa Okiy Winyan (Woman who Helps the People)  when she spoke at the Alpha Delta Kappa Connecticut State Conference in 2011.



Ripley, who lives in Connecticut, is the founder of Hawkwing Inc., a group that has provided $8 million in goods and services to the reservation. Ripley was honored in 2015 as one of CNNs Top 10 Heroes.



She (Higgins) asked whats your dream for education?  Ripley said. I told her with only four schools, accessing books was very difficult. She said I love it, lets get it done. 



The Cheyenne River Lakota/Sioux Indian Reservation is about the size of Connecticut and is the poorest place in America, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. About 90 percent of the residents are unemployed, life expectancy is 48, the school dropout rate is 70 percent and the per capita annual income is $2,926, according to Higgins. The four schools are severely underfunded. One has no textbooks and school libraries are scant. The one small public library is located far from where most people live.



Higgins and Ripley submitted the bookmobile project for Alpha Delta Kappas World Understanding initiative. The project was chosen out of 15 other proposals internationally. The group exceeded its goal to raise $50,000 and presented Ripley with a check for $80,000.



It was so exciting, we were thrilled when the project was selected, said Higgins. The people are so needy, but at the same time they are so proud.



The tribe is excited about the bookmobile, Ripley said.



There was a lot of competition, Ripley said. Were pleased they saw the reservation as a great place to invest.



Higgins, Veillette and Ripley traveled with about 20 other members of ADK to visit the reservation. They saw the bookmobile, witnessed a spiritual ceremony, stopped by a horse farm, and visited schools and community centers.



Some schools operate on a four-day week and some of the children are done with eating for the week, Veillette said. They dont know what theyre going to go home to. Its worse than the inner city. Ive never seen anything like that before in my life.



Volunteers drove the bookmobile from Texas to its new home for the dedication. Because its a non-profit, Hawkwing can purchase discounted books that have cultural relevance to the adults and children who live on the reservation. The book-mobile has all-wood shelving and desks inside and will be filled with books and computers and an internet hot spot. This will provide internet to adults and children who have never had access to it. A contest was held to name the bookmobile and the children chose The Booktastic Express.



Both women said they want to return to the reservation. Higgins said she is returning to teach a kindergarten class for a week in April.



This was the first project to help our own people, Higgins said. We wanted to help the Native-Americans.



Donations to the reservations may be made at http://www.hawkwing.org/#!how-to-help/c1xt8.






MERIDEN  Mayor Kevin Scarpati expressed concern this week over what he called a lack of transparency between the citys police department and the community.



I met with (city manager) Larry Kendzior and expressed my displeasure over the lack of communication about a recent homicide, and to the public about how we are conveying the message of safety, Scarpati said. We will do more. We have to do a better job.



Scarpati was responding to the news about the discovery of a homicide victim Thursday at Community Towers on Willow Street that was not made public until the following Tuesday. Police released a statement to the media saying the investigation was ongoing and no further details would be released.



Kendzior and Police Chief Jeffry Cossette could not be reached for comment.



Scarpati said he believes police are doing everything possible to keep the community safe. But the city has seen more than 10 shootings in the past several months, he said, and the public deserves reassurances from police.



He expressed concern that if police withhold information, it will prompt rumors. The public should be kept up to date on what police are doing to protect the community without compromising police investigations, Scarpati said.



City Councilor Larue Graham, chairman of the councils Public Safety Committee, said the police department should work better with the news media to inform the community.



Scarpati said he wants to meet with the incoming City Manager Guy Scaife, whose first day on the job is Sept. 6.



City Councilor David Lowell, vice chairman of the Public Safety Committee, is also chief operating officer for Hunters Ambulance and is privy to more information than some other city officials.



I try to look at it from another perspective, Lowell said. I do know how hard they are all working on prevention and follow up and there are certain things they cant share. Keeping the public informed is important when you need to provide assurance that an incident is isolated. It is important to reassure the public.



Lowell believes the department does a very good job at communicating.



If there is a risk to the public, it comes out quickly, he said. I cant speak to the particular delays in (the Willow Street homicide). I dont know if its an error, or if releasing information would compromise an investigation. But reassurances are always helpful.



City Council Majority Leader Brian Daniels agreed with Lowell that in most instances police share as much information as possible.



I dont know what was behind the delay, Daniels said. I havent gotten an update. Normally we are kept informed on a timely basis.



We the People Councilor Walter Shamock does not believe police withhold information.



The police department always gets a bad rap, Shamock said.



I think the police department does a damn good job. I have confidence in (Chief) Jeff Cossette and the police. They have my full support.



mgodin@record-journal.com (203) 317-2255 Twitter: @Cconnbiz










The states largest business trade group is targeting lawmakers in 15 legislative races, including Sen. Dante Bartolomeo.



Connecticut Business and Industry Association President and CEO Joe Brennan said the organization is giving financial support to Republican Len Suzio because of votes Bartolomeo, D-Meriden, cast on six of seven bills it monitored over the last two years. Suzio is challenging Bartolomeo for the 13th District seat.



Brennan said CBIA is spending a total of $400,000 in the 15 races, targeting lawmakers it feels are unfriendly to business.



Were a nonpartisan organization  we support Republicans and Democrats, Brennan said, adding he expects candidates from both parties will be receiving CBIAs endorsement in the coming weeks.



The donations will boost four Republicans in senate races as well as 11 House candidates  two incumbent Democrats and nine Republicans.



Brennan said CBIAs members decided to take the unprecedented step of financially backing candidates after the legislature approved a series of bills in the last two years despite criticism from businesses. Those included the current budget, which included a tax increase, and mandates CBIA has opposed.



Bartolomeo questioned the groups support for Suzio, noting she voted in May for the CBIA-endorsed budget adjustment that cut $850 million from the current fiscal years budget,



Bartolomeo said she has been working to support commercial development since her time on the Meriden City Council, including addressing flooding problems in the downtown area. Since being elected to the legislature, Bartolomeo said, she has helped secure millions in state bonding for city development initiatives and local businesses.



Its not just about what votes we take, she said.



Brennan said Suzio, who founded and owns the banking consulting firm GeoDataVision, agrees more with CBIA. He won the 13th District seat during a special election in 2011. Brennan said he expects this years race to be competitive after Bartolomeo defeated Suzio by a 279 votes in 2012 and 234 in 2014.



Suzio said he expects jobs and taxes to be two of the three major issues for voters this year  crime being the third. He said Bartolomeo double-crossed voters when she voted for a budget that included the second largest tax hike in state history.



He also said the states swapping high-paying jobs for low-paying jobs. The state Department of Labor announced Thursday that the state added 1,700 jobs last month and 20,200 since July 2015.



Bartolomeo characterized Suzio as a failed businessman, and referenced his time as president of New England Log Homes Inc. in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The company, which closed in 1994, owed Great Barrington $300,000 in taxes, fees, and interest, and the city also had to spend $3 million to clean up contamination at the site.



msavino@record-journal.com 203-317-2266 Twitter: @reporter_savino






MIDDLETOWN  Mike Fisher jumped as far as his legs could take him out of the mucky mud and with his fist, spiked the mud-soaked volleyball over the net.



Fishers team, Mission Unblockable, was made up of employees from BL Companies, an architecture and civil engineering construction company on Research Parkway in Meriden.



On Saturday morning, Fisher, along with thousands of others were attending and competing in the 30th annual Mud Volleyball Tournament to benefit Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut.



I like the face-first diving, said Wayne Violette, Fishers teammate, as he stood covered in mud. We all work together, but now we get to play together.



Its good team building, said Jocelyn Taylor of Meriden, also a member of Mission Unblockable.



All proceeds go to the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut.



An estimated 3,000 people attended, said Linda Wallace, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut.



This is our biggest fundraiser, said Wallace, who got involved nearly 30 years ago after her daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy. Its heartwarming, she added acknowledging all the people who attend.



Last year $65,000 was raised and this year Wallace said they hope to raise $70,000.



There were 185 teams from all over the state signed up Saturday morning to compete and another one of those teams was called Mud Stars.



The event is really a family affair for the Meriden-based Mud Stars, which is made up of members of the Gawel family.



The Gawels have participated for the past five years.



Its definitely not easy, said Elaine Gawel laughing as she took pictures of her family playing against the team Set It and Get It.



Marcie Gawel, who was in the mud watching her team, coordinated it this year for her family. She watched as her father, Mike Gawel, went head first into the mud to try to save the ball from hitting the ground. Its a blast, said Marcie Gawel. We look forward to it every year.



fduffany@record-journal.com 203-317-2212 Twitter: @FollowingFarrah






When Nick Ferrauolo was 10 years old he visited Yellowstone National Park with his family. He didnt want to leave and didnt think he would ever return to the first national park in the United States.



Little did the Wallingford native know that seven years later he would live and work in the Wyoming park during a six-week internship through the Yellowstone Conservation Corporation.



While Ferrauolo was growing up he went fishing, backpacking and camping with his mother, father and two brothers. When his mothers coworker mentioned that her daughter was a park ranger and that internships were offered, Ferrauolo decided to apply along with approximately 700 other teens.



It seemed like a longshot, said Ferrauolo, in a phone interview from Yellowstone.



A month later, in the middle of spring, Ferrauolo learned he was one of 33 people from 18 different states selected. The internship started July 17.



I didnt scream, Ferrauolo said. I didnt know what I got myself into, I was still processing it.



The YCC takes teenagers between 15 and 18 years of age and gives them the chance to work alongside Yellowstone National Park staff.



According to the programs website the program is challenging, educational, and fun, and offers participants opportunities to expand their horizons while building skills that will benefit them for a lifetime.



Ferrauolo and his fellow interns restored trails, helped teach visitors about the park, installed bumper logs, trimmed vegetation along trails, and installed water bars to prevent erosion.



He also participated in three spikes  longer projects that they worked on throughout the internship with six or seven fellow interns, two crew leaders and youth leaders.



Ferrauolo installed bear boxes. He and his group put up 400-pound steel boxes, with an eight inch holes, anchored into the ground with cement. The bear boxes are placed around camping sites so that people can place food in them when they leave the site or go to bed.



The bear boxes protect the campers because the bears wont make their way to the camp sites and the boxes protect the bears because they wont go to any camps.



For another spike, Ferrauolo repainted and fixed up the Fishing Bridge Amphitheater.



On the larger projects, the interns would have to hike miles at a time to get to the site and would sleep in tents or a cabin.



Though Ferrauolo and his fellow interns were kept busy, they did get to swim in the rivers, hike the trails, and fish.



I was kind of blown away. If I had to use one word (to describe it), or two, its a game changer, he said. Being able to come out here with like-minded people... from different areas... coming together with one goal was great.



With his senior year ahead of him at Sheehan High School, Ferrauolo now is certain he wants to be a park ranger.



My number one goal is to get into the National Park Service, the work you do is amazing, he said.



ppaguaga@record-journal.com 203-317-2235 Twitter: @PetePaguaga






After more than a decade of federal monitoring, police in Oakland are still showing signs of racial disparities in enforcement, according to the latest report. Officers, it said, were much more likely to stop and search African Americans than whites, but found suspected contraband more often on whites.

The monitors report, released Thursday, said Oakland police stopped 15,407 vehicles between mid-November and mid-May. Blacks were at the wheel 57 percent of the time, whites 11 percentand Latinos 21 percent. During the same period, officers stopped 1,858 pedestrians: 69 percent of them black, 10 percent white and 15 percent Latino.

Oaklands population, according to the 2010 census, was 28 percent black, 34.5 percent white and 25.4 percent Latino.

More for you Racial disparities in SF traffic searches raise concerns of bias

The report also found that police searched African American motorists and their vehicles in 28 percent of their stops, compared with 5 percent for whites and 14 percent for Latinos. During pedestrian stops, African Americans were searched 48 percent of the time, whites 21 percent and Latinos 34 percent. The figures covered only searches officers chose to conduct, at their discretion, and did not include searches required by law when a suspect was being arrested or was visibly carrying a weapon.

By contrast, the report said, officers were somewhat more likely to find contraband when searching whites than blacks: 48 percent of the time in vehicle searches involving whites, compared with 46 percent for blacks, and 58 percent for searches of white pedestrians, compared with 42 percent for blacks. The figures for Latinos were 48 percent in vehicle searches and 53 percent in pedestrian searches.

Some of the disparity in search rates can be attributed to the fact that African Americans were more likely than whites to be on probation or parole, and thus subject to random police searches without suspicion. But a lawyer in the case that resulted in federal court oversight of the Oakland police said Friday that the numbers still suggested some racial bias in enforcement.

The fact that African Americans are more likely than whites to be searched is grounds for extreme concern, said attorney James Chanin. And he said it was unacceptable that blacks were searched more often while whites, particularly pedestrians, were more likely to be holding contraband.

On the other hand, Chanin said, the figures are probably not dramatically different from any other police department. The Oakland police force, he said, is a work in progress.

In fact, San Francisco police showed similar disparities in searches of both African and American and Latino drivers, as compared with whites, according to a recent report by The Chronicle that looked at three years of police records.

Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland police spokeswoman, said in a statement that the report was based on information that the Oakland Police Department is collecting so we may make improvements. We are committed to data-driven policing and transparency to help build community trust.

Oakland police have been under federal court oversight since the 2003 settlement of a suit over illegal searches and detentions by a group of officers known as the Riders. The current court-appointed monitor, Robert Warshaw, has found the department in compliance with a majority of the standards for police conduct and supervision contained in the settlement, but said Thursday that the department remains in only partial compliance with standards for vehicle stops, field investigations and detentions.

Warshaw also cited a Stanford University study in June that found racial disparities in traffic stops by Oakland police in a 13-month period in 2013-14. The research team, led by psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, has been holding training workshops for Oakland officers on recognizing and reducing racial bias.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
London

Brian Rix, a comic actor who used his fame to draw attention to the struggles of people with learning disabilities, died Saturday, a British charity said. He was 92 and had been ill for some time.

Rix, a senior figure in the Mencap mental health charity, became a household name in theater and television in the 1950s and 1960s with the Whitehall Farces, comedies named after the theater where they were performed.

When his oldest daughter, Shelley, was born with Down's Syndrome in 1951, he refused the advice of doctors to put her away and forget about her and instead used his celebrity to promote charitable work.

In 1980 he became secretary general of Mencap, and became the organization's chairman in 1988. He was awarded a knighthood in 1986 and was elevated to the House of Lords in 1992. He spoke regularly on mental health issues in the House of Lords, voicing his frustration that he was unable to do more for his daughter, who died in 2005.

"Through his tireless campaigning he brought about vastly improved life opportunities for those with learning disabilities compared with the situation when his daughter was born with Down's Syndrome," said Derek Lewis, Mencap's chairman.

Rix had opposed legislation to permit assisted dying, but changed his mind during his final illness.
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Churchill High graduate Abby Brammell may be surrounded by big Hollywood names -- Jon Voight, Melanie Griffith, James Caan -- in a new TV Western, but she holds her own, particularly in emotional scenes.

Brammell, who grew up in San Antonio, where her mom, dad and brother still live, portrays the daughter of a Texas rancher in a multi-generational tale of greed, revenge and unwavering loyalty that would make "Dallas" icon J.R. Ewing proud.

The movie is "J.L. Family Ranch" and it airs at 8 tonight on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.

RELATED: S.A. TV anchor prouder of this award than any Emmy

The plot: A veteran rancher deals with an old adversary who viciously tries to challenge his ownership of the land that's been in his family for years.

Brammell plays Regan, part of the large clan of children and grandchildren who live on the ranch owned by patriarch John Landsburg (Voight).

"I live in a little house on the Texas ranch that my daddy built and I don't want to let it go. My daddy is Jon Voight. James Caan is the bad guy," Brammell explained in her best Texas accent at a recent Hallmark party in Los Angeles. "He felt his granddaddy was wronged by Jon Voight's granddaddy, and he aims to snatch away the land he feels is rightfully his."

Caan's character Tap Peterson is the opposite of Voight's old-fashioned cowboy. He's a multi-millionaire with a deceptively charming smile who is determined to get what he wants even if it imperils someone's livelihood or even his life.

Brammell's character isn't the only Landsburg kin who lives on the ranch and is affected by the squabble. Teri Polo plays his eldest daughter, Rebecca, who not only supports her dad in his fight to keep his ranch, but deals with painful secrets surrounding the dad her daughter never knew.

Griffith plays Laura Lee, John's former girlfriend and town gossip who plays a critical part in Tap's vicious scheme to get J.L.'s land.

"Voight was lovely to work with, a real gentleman," said Brammell, who shares a poignant moment with the "Midnight Cowboy" and "Coming Home" star in the movie. It happens when, tearfully, she realizes a mistake on her part may have led to her dad getting the land seizure notice.

However, she makes up for it, along with the rest of J.L.'s children, in an armed standoff that's reminiscent of so many old-time Westerns of the Gary Cooper variety.

"It was so much fun," Brammell said of her first Hallmark project.

Best of all, the actress, who starred in CBS drama "The Unit," and has guested on too many series to count -- "Longmire," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "CSI," "The Shield" -- got to summon her Lone Star roots while playing Regan.

"I brought my San Antonio, Texas self to the role," she said.

Why not bring your San Antonio, Texas support to our local talent and make a date tonight with this engaging cowboy tale?

jjakle@express-news.net
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Houston's two public universities - which sit practically across the street from each other in the Third Ward - share the same roots, their histories a local reflection of racism that long plagued public education across the nation.

The precursors to the University of Houston and Texas Southern University were started in the 1920s, as a segregated college system when the Houston school district launched two junior colleges: One for whites, one for blacks. Over decades the two grew into full universities and morphed into public institutions. Some have suggested the two be rolled into one university. That never happened and probably never will. The reason, in large part, is rooted in issues of race.

"Locale and racial identity gave birth to these campuses, aided by the state, creating separate and unequal institutions, building parallel campuses with adjoining borders and service areas, and spending extraordinary legal and political resources to maintain these insular enterprises," Michael A. Olivas, director of UH's Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance, who is also serving as interim president of UH-Downtown, wrote in 2005 in an article in the Cornell Law Review.

Both schools began in 1927, when the Houston school board agreed to fund the creation of two junior colleges: Houston Junior College and Houston Colored Junior College.

"Things started very quickly," said Mary Manning, an archivist at UH.

By the fall of 1927, 232 students had enrolled in the white school. Seventy-five students enrolled in the black college. Just seven years later, by 1934, the student body had grown to more than 900 at the white college and 700 at the black college. The Houston school board decided to make them full four-year private universities. The Houston Colored Junior College became the Houston College for Negroes. Houston Junior College became the University of Houston.

More Information Timeline 1927 Houston school board creates two junior colleges, one for white students and one for black students. 1934 The junior colleges are turned into two private, four-year universities: the University of Houston and Houston College for Negroes. 1946 Heman Sweatt is denied admission to University of Texas at Austin law school because he is black. His case later reaches the Supreme Court. 1947 Texas buys the Houston College for Negroes for $2 million. It eventually becomes Texas Southern University, the first public university in the city. 1962 The University of Houston admits its first black student. 1999 The federal government finds Texas is underfunding TSU and Prairie View A&M. Texas agrees to give the schools extra funding. Collegiate religious education begins in Houston in 1947 As public higher education in Houston was being born through an effort to keep schools segregated in the mid-1900s, religious universities began to flourish in the city. In 1947, the Basilian Fathers, a group of Catholic priests devoted to teaching, established the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic college in the Montrose neighborhood. The first class of 40 students, according to the Texas State Historical Association, was taught by eight faculty members. St. Thomas originally offered liberal arts degrees to undergraduate students, but eventually began adding graduate programs, beginning with the School of Theology in 1968, through which students could earn a master of divinity degree. In the 1960s, the Baptist General Convention of Texas established a four-year liberal arts college in Houston, according to the Texas State Historical Association. A freshman class of 191 students attended the college in 1963. The college grew rapidly over the next decade and became Houston Baptist University in 1973. See More Collapse

The universities eventually moved to permanent homes, just blocks from each other. Millionaire oilman Hugh Roy Cullen donated 53 acres to the black university. He gave money to help UH begin building its campus, declaring that the school must always be a college "for working men and women and their sons and daughters." Left unsaid was that those men and women must be white.

By the 1940s, Texas was becoming a major battleground in the fight to end school segregation. The college that would become Texas Southern was at the heart of it.

In the 1940s, the University of Texas at Austin's law school denied admission to Heman Marion Sweatt of Houston because of "the fact that he is a negro." His case, argued by Thurgood Marshall, for whom TSU's law school is named, would eventually go all the way to the Supreme Court. Before it got there, Texas lawmakers got to work trying to build a case to show black students in Texas had equal - but separate - opportunities in the state. They bought the flourishing black college in Houston for $2 million in 1947 and set to work building a school that at least seemed equal to UT.

And thus, Houston's first public university was born - not as an effort to expand educational opportunities, but to keep the state from having to integrate its flagship in Austin. If state leaders could show black students had their own version of the University of Texas, then the courts, state leaders hoped, wouldn't require the white University of Texas to admit black students.

By the time Sweatt's case reached the Supreme Court in 1950, the newly renamed Texas State University for Negroes was nowhere near equal to the much older and more established UT-Austin. In a ruling that was influential to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down the "separate but equal" segregation of the time, the Supreme Court decided UT had to admit Sweatt.

Almost immediately the state lost interest in the black college they'd established in Houston. In 1951, the Legislature cut its budget by 40 percent, said James Douglas, a longtime law professor at TSU.

For more than a decade, TSU was the only public university in Houston. "Ironically, it shared a city street and border with the private white institution established originally by the Houston school district," Olivas wrote. Though the University of Houston is now one of the most diverse universities in the nation, it was long a school for whites. As a private school, it didn't have to integrate in the 1950s like UT-Austin did. In rejection letters from the time, UH President Clanton W. Williams pointed black students toward nearby TSU or the reluctantly integrating UT-Austin.

UH eventually changed its policies and admitted its first black student in 1962. Its status as a private school didn't last long. In 1964, the state moved to make it public in an effort "to eclipse the neighboring black institution," Olivas wrote. Texas Southern leaders, predicting as much, objected.

"The argument TSU made was rather than opening another public university, you ought to put more money into TSU," Douglas said. "This was in the '60s, and you know how far that argument went with the white leadership in Texas. ... In 1964, I don't think the people in Austin really thought integration was going to stick. ... I don't think they ever thought this whole idea of having two universities close to each other was ever going to be a problem."

The idea of integrating the two schools was floated, somewhat seriously, by the Legislature in the mid-1980s, Douglas said. Such talk stopped, however, Douglas said, when Wilhelmina R. Delco, an Austin Democrat who chaired the House Higher Education Committee at the time, pointed out that, by law, if the two were combined, they would have to take the name of the school that first belonged to the state: Texas Southern University.
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Cell phones started buzzing Saturday evening as authorities search for a missing 5-year-old boy who may be in the company of a wanted person.

An active AMBER alert was sent out for Douglas Ball, a 5-year-old from Port Huron who might be in the company of his father, 39-year-old Douglas Ball, a person of interest in a homicide case out of Port Huron.
Aging financial software has compelled Midland County to look for replacement software. But, with the purchase comes problems: first, the total cost of approximately $500,000; second, the county only gets one chance at making the right choice for the long-term purchase.

I think it is very important that we get the right software for this organization, County Financial Director Tori Meyer said. I cant test drive it and I cant return it if its wrong. Ive heard of organizations that have bought software, gone through integration and then they cant process payroll. We have one shot to do this and to do it right.

Because of those concerns, the county has decided to obtain independent, outside assistance. Commissioners have unanimously approved paying $24,960 to Plante Moran for enterprise resource planning software system consulting services.

They are the largest regional accounting firm in Michigan and are the ones most heavily involved in audits for governments, County Administrator/Controller Bridgette Gransden said. It will be money well spent if we are not unhappy with the product, six months after we get it, because we didnt know the right questions to ask.

Commissioner Scott Noesen, R-7th District, agreed.

You could spend $25,000 of agony and time in a day, he said. I like the third party component of this that they are independent.

Not only would Plante Moran assist in the selection of the system, but would also help negotiate the final cost.

They told me that they could probably negotiate a cost reduction that will more than offset the price of their services, Meyer said.

With a variety of users, the system will need to apply to a wide cross-section of specialties.

I know I cant make everyone 100 percent happy, Meyer said. But, what is the product that will give us the best bang for our money. If we are going to spend $500,000 or more, I wish to hire professionals. They have an excellent reputation as a leader in the state working with county governments for software selection services.

One lesson learned is to not tweak the software to fit the countys needs.

Once you start customizing it is a nightmare, Meyer said. They did that next door (at the city of Midland). I talked to them at the start of this and they said, Dont try to force the software to fit what you do now. You adapt to the software.
A chase that ensued between police and five suspects accused of shooting two people early Saturday at a Southwest Side home, ended with four arrested and two officers with minor injuries.

The group of suspects allegedly shot the two people at about 1:30 a.m. in their home in the 5900 block of Fairwood Street, San Antonio Police said. Officers arriving at the scene spotted the car driving away and began chasing them to the other side of the city.
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SAN ANTONIO  Local law enforcement are increasing patrols and asking drivers to be extra aware during their daily commutes as children head back to class for the new school year on Monday.

San Antonio Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jesse Salame said regular patrols will be increased, supported by motorcycle enforcement teams and traffic unit officers who will be stationed at school zones across the city.

"We are asking everybody to be aware that back to school is starting for most of the bigger districts on Monday," Salame said. "You also want to avoid school zone tickets which are very expensive."

One ticket for speeding in a school zone can total at least $213 including the fine and court cost, plus $5 per each additional mile within the first 10 miles, according to the city's website. Using a wireless communication device, such as a cell phone, in a school zone can cost $229.10.

Drivers are urged to be patient as they approach crosswalks and give themselves more time than they need to get to work by leaving earlier.

"(The steps) are so that kids can be safe and everybody can make it to class," Salame said.

Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rosanne Hughes said deputies will also be more visible during the school year.

"As kids are going back to school, we will have an increased presence in the school zones," she said.

Parents are encouraged to talk to their kids about dealing with strangers, especially for children who are waiting for a school bus to arrive before daylight.

"Tell them to put the phone away and take the earbuds out so they can be aware of their surroundings," Salame said.

jbeltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @JBfromSA
I applaud the Express-News for publishing an article on the need for mental health treatment (Mental health crisis in Bexar County a new normal? Aug. 14, Opinion). As the elected and statutory judge for mental health, I have a duty to encourage this necessary educational dialogue and to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Dr. Sally E. Taylor and her colleagues  Dr. Steven R. Pliszka, Dr. Bruce Adams and Dawn Velligan  are absolutely correct. There are no rooms at the inn for the mentally ill in Bexar County, nor for the 50-plus surrounding counties we serve.

We have always been hemorrhaging for placements, even before the advent of outpatient transitional care programs, which are Band-Aids on a broken system. Our mental health consortium is so severely overstressed that the safety of the mentally ill and the community is at risk, as the Express-News article proves. Sadly, the public is unaware of the volume of tragedies that those of us in mental health observe daily.

Using nonspecialized emergency rooms to evaluate and prioritize persons who are dangerous to themselves or others is wrong for any large urban county.

County commissioners must fund the infrastructure that is available at Center for Health Care Services/Crisis Care Center to double its capacity for emergent psychiatric crises. Law enforcement must know where to take a psychiatric emergency  no more diversions from one ER to another, no more putting lives at risk because that particular ER is not staffed with a psychiatrist, no more waiting for an inpatient bed for insured patients because the bed is taken up by a contract patient.

Might we combine our efforts to find federal, state and local resources to invest in our psychiatric crisis center? Roughly $2 million a year will fund the unused infrastructure at the Center for Health Care Services and help to clear hospital ERs for their intended use  medical emergencies.

Next, the county government should stop patting its back over the little we have done, and face the fact that we need a psychiatric 300-bed inpatient hospital. Proper stabilization for most patients requires at least 90 days of hospitalization. The contract beds, paid for by the state, are just another Band-Aid that is not sufficient. Private hospitals discharge patients from these contract beds quickly because they are not for long-term treatment.

Acutely and chronically mentally ill people hospitalized in contract beds cannot receive the inpatient treatment time needed to provide a path to a successful recovery. Contract beds are not the same as San Antonio State Hospital beds. The imperative to see contract beds the same as a SASH bed is a fundamental error.

The investment needed for a psychiatric hospital is always initially daunting to county government, but it will pay for itself in the short and long run. A free-standing inpatient hospital can attract and retain local talent at our medical school and teaching hospital. There will be opportunity to bill insurance, apply for benefits and coordinate safe discharge planning, which will surely pay for itself. The increase in employment that a new hospital brings is significant to our community. The state of Texas and Bexar County must work together to fund an adult psychiatric hospital.

Hard dollars are needed, not Band-Aid money. Otherwise, denial will continue to cost not only dollars but the lives of those who do not have a voice. I promise, if we build it, they will come. They are already banging on the door.

Judge Kelly M. Cross presides over Bexar Countys Probate Court No. 1.
San Antonio Independent School District officials are pushing for huge increases in debt and taxes to fund an array of new infrastructure projects, despite the fact that SAISD student population continues to shrink.

Based on a blue ribbon task forces recommendations unveiled earlier this month, SAISD board members and the superintendent are throwing their support behind two big initiatives: a $450 million bond, and a tax ratification election to allow the district to increase the maintenance and operations portion of its property tax rate to its absolute max, from $1.04 to $1.17.

The school board voted last week to send the proposal to voters in November. The two propositions could bring in a substantial amount for the San Antonio school district, but not everyone agrees these proposals would benefit the community.

A growing chorus of San Antonians is expressing concern that the district is already swamped with debt  a claim supported by the latest data.

According to the Texas Bond Review Board, the outstanding principal owed by SAISD in 2015 stood at more than $735 million, putting the amount owed per student at more than $13,675. When interest is accounted for, the sea of red ink swells to almost $1.1 billion in total debt, or $20,250 owed per student.

Of course, these figures would grow dramatically if the task forces $450 million proposal succeeds. That would mean not only more debt handed down to future generations but also higher taxes in the meantime.

District officials estimate that if both propositions pass, owners of an average-taxable value home in SAISD of $70,023 could expect to see their property tax bill go up by more than $175 annually beginning in 2020. Thats a hefty tax increase to ask homeowners to absorb, especially when property taxes in Texas are already among the highest in the nation.

Asking voters to approve $450 million in new debt and accept a $175 per-year tax increase in perpetuity is a hard sell but, perhaps, could be rationalized under the right set of circumstances, like providing for a soaring number of students. But no such circumstances exist in SAISD. In fact, quite the opposite.

SAISDs student population is shrinking. According to the Texas comptrollers Debt-at-a-Glance website, between the 2004-05 and 2013-14 school years, the number of students attending SAISD declined by 4.9 percent. Thats radically different from what most other schools experienced. Across the state, student enrollment grew by an average of 14.6 percent.

Considering all the evidence, the push for higher taxes and more debt is indefensible, especially since many San Antonio-area businesses and homeowners are already struggling under the weight of the current system. If, for whatever reason, SAISD is struggling to meet the needs of its shrinking student population base, then it ought to look inward to find ways to consolidate, eliminate and better use the resources it has to meet its needs. Theres simply no good reason why it should be asking voters for more.
Texas officials say they are going to appeal an appeals court ruling against the states voter ID law to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is tantamount to asking the high court to sanction discrimination.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguably the most conservative appeals court in the country, this month agreed with a U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi that the law was discriminatory. It instructed the lower court judge to make fixes before the November election.

Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos has approved an agreement between Texas and plaintiffs that allows voting without one of the seven forms of required identification. It also requires the state to spend $2.5 million to educate voters on the requirements for voting following the ruling.

The courts found that up to 600,000 Texans lacked the forms of identification the state required, with minorities disproportionately affected. They noted that the states efforts to educate voters on voter ID was lackluster at best.

And while the 5th Circuit returned for review to the lower court whether the state intended this discriminatory effect, it pretty much made clear that strong indications of this dotted the laws legislative history.

The state continues to insist that its voter ID law, approved by the Legislature in 2011 but not used until 2013, is about protecting the integrity of voting in Texas. This refers to preventing in-person voter fraud, the only kind of fraud that photo ID requirements guard against.

But that kind of fraud is so rare as to be virtually nonexistent, the courts agreed.

So, given this history, why would the state appeal? Go back to who is disproportionately affected by the law for the answer. They just happen to mostly vote Democratic. Thats why such voter restrictions are in states where the GOP rules the legislative and executive roosts.

Under Gonzales Ramos order, people without a photo ID will be able to vote by signing an affidavit that they are a U.S. citizen and presenting proof of residence, such as a paycheck, bank statement or utility bill.

Yes, you need a photo ID to get a library card. And library cards arent a constitutional right. Moreover, the frequency of the type of fraud voter ID is intended to prevent indicates this was a cure in search of a disease.

Texas should be intent on getting as many eligible people as possible to vote. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court sends an entirely different message  the same one the voter ID law has projected all along.
Re: Good news for Obamacare if Clinton elected president, Froma Harrop, Other Views, Tuesday:

I have only one concern regarding this commentary.

If Obamacare is such a fine plan, then why is there a penalty if you cannot afford the insurance and, thus, opt out, the so-called individual mandate? We can barely afford the penalty, but can certainly not afford the premiums, even with the lowest level of coverage.

I appreciate that the premiums are lower and also that President Obama cares to help those in need of cheaper health care. But why should there be a penalty if the policy is so desirable?

Mark Hierholzer, Fredericksburg

Ozone and traffic

Re: Ozone kills 52 people a year in metro S.A., report says; Councilman says hell seek funding for health study, Metro, August 13:

We should always be concerned about air pollution and its health effects. Ozone rises every time we stop and start our 3,000-pound vehicles at signal lights. Why dont our city traffic engineers pay more attention to stoplight sequences that will keep our traffic moving with minimum stops and starts while still controlling safety and speed? They can start with the stoplights on Alamo Plaza.

Bill Lyons

Global recognition

Several years ago, my husband and I were waiting for an elevator in the DAngli Zerre Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. A porter asked us where we were from. Answering, San Antonio, Texas, we expected a comment about the Alamo. Instead, he said, Oh, Tim Duncan!

Jean Klaerner

Its up to Dems

Now that Donald Trump is officially the Republican Partys choice for president, it is contingent upon Democrats to save the country from him, just as we tried to do by voting against George W. Bush  twice!

Johnny G. Horton

LGBT support

Re: Gay students more likely to be bullied, Nation & World, August 12:

I am outraged that the state of Texas would file suit against the Obama administration regarding its guidelines for the treatment of transgendered students.

All parents want to keep their children safe, and all parents want to send their children to safe schools. But transgendered students are at a much higher risk than their peers for bullying, depression, and suicide. For Texas leaders to single out trans kids for further humiliation is both bigoted and potentially dangerous. If you have ever lived with or been friends with a transgendered person, you would understand. The last thing they want to do is ogle people in the bathroom.

This senseless crusade against the LGBT community  and especially against vulnerable transgender youth  has to stop. Texas should withdraw his lawsuit immediately.

Larry Schodts

Campaign strategy

Hillary doesnt need to campaign.

Just sit back and let Trump talk.

James Michael Brown

Make amends

Donald Trump is seen as cold-hearted by the Gold Star community because of his treatment of Khizr and Ghazala Khan. He needs to stop the bleeding.

He should take a bouquet of flowers to grave 7986 in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and get down on a knee to place them by Captain Humayun Khans stone.

In silence.

Star Carey, Canyon Lake

Sneak attack

Khizr Kahn discarded his familys cloak of righteousness, so valiantly paid for with his brave sons life, by launching a political ambush.

Khizr Kahn also disgraced millions of Americanized Muslims.

Emmett Carter

Nosiness

Re: Clintons, Kaines release tax returns, Nation & World, August 13:

The article says, now that the Clintons and Kaines released their tax returns, they have put pressure on Donald Trump to release his returns. Who on earth started this nasty, and invasive presumed requirement of pressuring candidates into revealing their tax-returns, anyway? I see no logical reason why either presidential candidate, Loudmouth Donald, or Lying Hillary, should be intimidated in this regard. If a candidate has cheated on his taxes, the IRS will surely discover it and, I guarantee you, we will all know of it soon enough. Anything else, comes under the heading of pure nosiness.

Mac Burnett

Disrespect to slain

Re: Defining loss, Your Turn, August 11:

I would posit that the disrespect shown by this administration and the former secretary of state toward the surviving kin of those killed in Benghazi far outweighs any slight the writer feels was shown to the Khans; somehow this point always seems to get lost. This administration, and specifically the secretary of state, lied directly to the surviving kin of those killed in Benghazi, and I believe they are still lying and covering up. Where is the sympathy? The letter writer needs to understand that you cannot trod over my dead trumpeting that the virtues of your dead are superior.

Don Ripley, Floresville

Trumps ego

After watching the candidates for both parties at their conventions, one question sticks out in my mind: What good deeds has Donald Trump done for others? Has he done anything to help anyone but himself? We saw a side of Hillary Clinton that we had not heard before, helping others since her college days. All the testimonies reflected the appreciation of those she helped, both before and after she entered politics. She has lots of experience as secretary of state, meeting world leaders and understanding world problems. What has Donald Trump done to understand the world situation? All he does is brag about the things he can do by himself. He has even said, I understand the military problems more than the military. What an ego maniac. I cannot understand how anyone believes what he says.

As election time approaches, please ask yourself, What has Donald Trump done for others? Then decide what is best for this country and your childrens and grandchildrens future.

Rolando M. Pena
Last week I joined my colleague, the Member of Parliament for Calgary  Nose Hill, Michelle Rempel, at an event commemorating the second anniversary of the Yazidi genocide. Yazidis are one of the oldest religious and ethnic communities in the world. There are an estimated 700,000 Yazidis around the world, with the majority located in Iraq. Only around 400 Yazidis call Canada home, and of them, approximately half live in Winnipeg.

In August of 2014, ISIL militants attacked the Yazidi homeland in northwest Iraq. The militants committed unspeakable atrocities against this population, killing thousands because of their religious identity. Thousands more were taken hostage and many others fled to the mountains to escape the brutality. Still today, Yazidis are continuously targeted by ISIL. An estimated 3,200 Yazidi women and girls are held captive by militants in Syria and thousands of men and boys remain missing.

At this event, I heard the story of one family who survived the ISIL attacks. With no notice, they left everything behind and fled for their lives. Departing with only the clothes on their backs, the family lived in the nearby mountains for several days before they moved on to refugee camps in the region. Today the family is in Winnipeg thanks to the support of Operation Ezra, a multi-faith grassroots group that helps Yazidis come to Canada. They are so glad to be sharing in the freedoms and security that many of us have enjoyed our whole lives.

Canada has a role to play in helping those around the world who need it most. For this family, remaining in their homeland may have meant enslavement or even death. Even within refugee camps, their status as religious minorities ?meant persecution was relentless. Now the family is able to build their new lives free from the persecution that once met them at every turn. When Canadians work together to help those who need it most, we are all at our best.
'It just flipped': Busch details final season with Joe Gibbs Racing in 'Race for the Championship' In the latest episode of USA Network's "Race for the Championship," Busch describes the change at JGR and is introduced with a new team.
Three other security personnel and two civilians were injured in the attack on Sunday morning

Two Egyptian security personnel were shot dead early on Sunday in an armed attack on a checkpoint in the Nile Delta governorate of Al-Menoufiya, state news agency MENA said.

Unidentified gunmen driving in a car opened fire at dawn at a checkpoint in Sadat City, some 94 km (58 miles) north of Cairo, killing two members of the security forces, a statement by the ministry of interior said.

Three other policemen and two civilians were wounded in the attack, provincial ambulance official Amgad Abdel Hamid said.

The authorities say they were investigating the attack.

Militants, mainly based in the border North Sinai region, have stepped up attacks against police and army following the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The violence has mainly been centered in the peninsula but has occasionally occurred in the mainland.

The army has conducted an extensive operation to crush the insurgency in Sinai, killing hundreds of militants.

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An Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman urged the family of a 13-year-old boy who travelled to Italy by boat to seek medical treatment for his younger sibling to treat the sick son in Egypt, saying the country always welcomes its citizens and provides medical care for them.

According to Corriere Della Sera, Ahmed Mahmoud arrived on Lampedusa by boat last week after departing by boat from the coastal governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh, carrying nothing but medical documents describing the condition of his seven-year-old brother.

International organisations have reoprted that many Egyptians and migrants of other nationalities are travelling via smuggling boats from Egypt's north coast to Italy. The majority of the Egyptian migrants are minors.

The Italian paper reported last week that Ahmed, upon his arrival, asked authorities to provide him with a job so he can pay for the medical bills of his brother Farid, who is suffering from thrombocytopenia. The Italian government decided to bring in Ahmed's family and treat Farid at no cost to the family.

The first official reaction from the Egyptian side came on Friday from health minister Ahmed Emad, who stressed that Farid's family didn't request state-sponsored treatment for their son.

Emad called on his family to contact his office and said he would personally communicate with them to ensure that Farid would get treatment in Egypt.

Later in the day, foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid urged the family to follow Emad's instructions.

"There is room for whoever wants to receive any sort of care or treatment in the country," Abu Zeid told Dream TV.

"This is a message for anyone else who might have flirted with the idea of emigrating or leaving the homeland through an illegal avenue to look for an opportunity or escaping from a certain misery that he would find support and full sympathy in his homeland."

The International Organisation for Migration said in June that Egypt occupies the tenth place among countries that see irregular migrants travel to Italy, which is symptomatic of a rising trend in Egyptian emigration since the 2011 uprising.

In the first five months of 2016, a total of 1,815 Egyptian irregular migrants landed on Italian shores. Of those migrants, 1,147 were unaccompanied migrant children, making Egypt the top country to see unaccompanied minors arrive in Italy.

The year 2011 saw almost 2,000 migrants arrive in Italy with the number increasing each year to peak at 4,095 irregular migrants in 2014.

"Egypt's economic growth is insufficient to absorb labour market entrants, in turn resulting in high unemployment prompting youth to find work opportunities abroad," IOM Egypt head Amr Taha said.

Healthcare services in Egypt are in theory available to all, but the quality and availability of care is patchy, particularly in public hospitals.

Egypt allocated EGP 53.3 billion to healthcare spending in this fiscal year's budget, up from EGP 49.3 billion in the previous year, putting healthcare at 1.6 percent of GDP.

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Egypt expresses solidarity with the Turkish people after Saturday's bombing in Gaziantep

Egypt condemned Sunday a terrorist bombing that killed at least 50 people during a wedding ceremony in a south-eastern Turkish city near the Syrian border.

In an official statement, Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid reiterated Egypt's stance against the "terrorism phenomena" and criminal organisations that aim to terrorise citizens and spread chaos.

Abu Zeid stressed the Egyptian people's support for the Turkish people at "such critical times," expressing his condolences to the families of the victims and hoping for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Late Saturday, a suspected suicide bomber linked to the Islamic State (IS) group attacked a wedding thronged with guests in Turkey's Gaziantep.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack in Gaziantep that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The explosion at the wedding was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a year that has witnessed bombings blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants, as well as a bloody 15 July attempted coup.

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(NaturalNews) Many parents already know that it is common practice for health departments, schools, and insurance companies to offer prizes to children and their families for being vaccinated. These programs have been implemented across the country and are designed to boost vaccination rates, rather than protect children's health.(Article by Missy Fluegge, republished from Vactruth.com Prizes are also offered to health care providers who increase their immunization rates and fully immunize babies and toddlers within their practices.However, parents may be surprised to learn about, later in this article, the massive amounts of money some doctors receive as bonus payments for vaccinating young patients. This article is a must-read for all parents, whether or not you have a child who will be resuming traditional school in the fall.These Incentive Programs are Nothing NewSadly, the idea to offer prizes in exchange for vaccinations has been around for decades or longer. A New York Times article from 1988 outlined the many ways our own city and state governments had already misguidedly encouraged parents to vaccinate their children, including offering prize drawings for a new car, bicycles, and coupons for discounted meals at fast food restaurants. [1]Children were encouraged to create designs for billboards to promote vaccination, at a time when health departments were facing declining vaccination rates, increasing costs, and growing vaccine schedules. Despite these concerns confronting public health departments, in 1988, children only needed 13 doses of ten vaccines by age 12, compared with 69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18 today. [2, 3]On the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) own website, the organization admitted that "since 1988, the U.S. childhood immunization schedule has rapidly expanded." The number of recommended vaccinations has increased over 414 percent since 1950, when children were vaccinated with only seven vaccines by age six. [4, 5]As the number of recommended vaccines has increased, the incentive programs have become more numerous, too.Immunize to Win a Prize, Thanks to the GovernmentThe Community Guide, a website with ties to the CDC and Healthy People 2020, has a task force which "recommends client or family incentive rewards, used alone or in combination with additional interventions, based on sufficient evidence of effectiveness in increasing vaccination rates in children and adults." [6]Health departments across the country are heeding these ill-advised words.In southeastern Idaho, the public health department is offering Kindle Fire tablets in monthly drawings for children who receive vaccines at special clinics. They are offering a total of 24 tablet devices each month to entice children and parents into accepting vaccines.Their state health department claims that "legally, in order to enter kindergarten, children are required to have five DTaP, two MMR, four Polio, three Hepatitis B, two Varicella (Chickenpox), and two Hepatitis A" vaccinations.However, the press release fails to disclose that in Idaho, parents may file a medical, philosophical, or religious exemption from those vaccines on behalf of their children. [7, 8]In Kansas, health departments in 105 counties have recently offered an outreach incentive program called "Immunize and Win a Prize," targeting children under the age of two. Children must complete 19 vaccine doses before their second birthday in order for their parents to be eligible to win a prize, including a $200 or $300 utility bill payment at each of 380 participating providers and 300 smaller prizes. The program also provides petty incentives like sippy cups and diaper wipes. [9, 10]This program was instituted in 2003 and all children are now eligible to participate, not just children who participate in Medicaid programs. Since its 2003 inception, immunization rates in Kansas have risen from 49 percent to 87 percent in 2010. In some counties, immunization rates have even doubled.In Montana, a local news site informs readers that "all children who attend public and private schools in Montana are required to have specific, age-dependent immunizations," also failing to note that medical and religious exemptions are available for families to opt out of vaccination. School-age children who are vaccinated early in the summer, before the back-to-school rush, are eligible to win prizes, including "iPods, bikes, backpacks, school supplies and passes to the Alpine Slide at Big Mountain at Glacier National Park," courtesy of the state health department. [11]In Minnesota, families who participate in state health care programs are eligible to receive hundreds of dollars in gift cards for vaccinating their children and attending frequent well-child visits, which can be opportunities to pressure parents to obtain vaccinations for their children. [12]On its primitively designed website, one county in Wyoming boasts about its "enjoyable immunization incentive program," which offers small weekly prizes and claims that "timely immunizations are healthy and fun." [13]Prizes from Insurance CompaniesOne insurance company, Unity Insurance, promotes its own incentive program, "Fill it In and Win," which offers cash prizes ranging from $25 to $150 to children who have been fully immunized by their 24 month birthday. [14, 15]One vaccine advocacy organization, Partnership for Prevention, encourages insurance companies to increase vaccination rates by offering their policy holders monetary rewards, gift cards, or discounted insurance premiums when they accept vaccinations. [16]Humana health insurance company and John Hancock life insurance company offer policy holders "Vitality Points" to earn gift cards and fitness trackers when they complete certain "healthy" behaviors, including getting a flu shot. [17, 18]Medical health plans offer hundreds of dollars worth of Visa gift cards to families who complete a series of well-child visits from birth to age 20, which offers providers dozens of chances to vaccinate pediatric patients. [19]Prizes for ProvidersIn Michigan, nine counties participated in a health department program called "Adolescent Rate Challenge (ARC)," which offered trivial prizes to health care providers who increased their vaccination rates among adolescent patients. The program goals included administering 17 doses of vaccines to children ages 11 through 18. [20]Nearly laughable prizes awarded to participating providers included a family chicken dinner and a half-day pass to a local water park, as well as prizes for the office staff, including "Smoothies & Cookies, Desserts Delight, Parfait Splendor, Pizza & Pop Party, Espressos & Bagel Spread." The website even noted that a bonus prize, a smoothie machine, had been added to the program.Most disturbingly of all, Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance company offers health care providers a massive $400 bonus for every child patient who is vaccinated with at least 24 doses of ten vaccines before the age of two. For family practitioners and pediatricians who have dozens or hundreds of young patients, this bonus could add up to tens of thousands of dollars. [21]ConclusionWhere are the government-based incentives offering prizes to parents who read to their children? Or rewards for parents who provide their children with adequate levels of vitamin D to boost their immune systems, instead of rewarding them with meager incentives for injecting their children with toxins?This article outlines a mere fraction of the publicly and privately sponsored incentive programs in existence designed to pressure parents to vaccinate their children. If vaccines are so safe and effective, why do organizations need to provide toys, gift cards, money, and other prizes to boost vaccination rates in the United States? How can parents trust their health care providers to offer unbiased, fact-based information about vaccines, when those doctors receive enormous financial incentives for vaccinating their patients?Please share this article to help other parents avoid vaccinating their children with toxic ingredients in order to win a prize. The costs of vaccine injuries, including developmental delays, symptoms of autism, seizures, and more, are too great and long-lasting to justify vaccination, especially in pursuit of a trivial prize.Read more at: Vactruth.com References:
Hillary Clinton treated with medicine from another era

Poor medical care could be contributing to Clinton's deteriorating health, says Pinsky

Footage of Clinton struggling up a small set of stairs goes viral

(NaturalNews) Board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist and TV personality, Dr. Drew Pinsky, recently made headlines after commenting on the declining health of Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, and the inadequate medical care she appears to be receiving.After being asked to appear on a radio show in California to "debunk questions" about the candidate's health, Pinsky surprised listeners by saying he is "gravely concerned" about Clinton's physical well-being.The doctor, known for his role as an addiction therapist on VH1's, said that after reviewing Clinton's public health records, he grew concerned about the type of medical care she is receiving, describing it as antiquated, particularly for an elitist with strong political influence.Pinsky and his colleague agreed that Clinton should be receiving a higher standard of care after learning that the candidate is being prescribed medicine that was popular in the 1960s."Both of us concluded that if we were providing the care she was receiving, we would be ashamed to show up in a doctors' lounge. We would be laughed out. She's receiving sort of 1950s-level care by our evaluation," Pinsky stated on KABC'sshow."Pinsky said Clinton has received unconventional treatments over the years, calling the medical decisions 'bizarre' and speculating that it could be causing uncommon side effects," Fox News is reporting.Certain of Clinton's health records that have been made public reveal that she had two episodes of deep venus thrombosis, a blood clot usually occurring in the legs, as well as that she has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, a condition common in women over the age of 60.The records show that Clinton was treated for the blood clots with an anticoagulant that's rarely used anymore, said Pinsky, adding that a woman of her caliber should have been prescribed a newer drug.Clinton reportedly suffered "transverse sinus thrombosis," a condition that Pinsky calls "exceedingly rare," after falling and hitting her head in 2012. The TV personality says the poor treatment Clinton received previously may have contributed to issues with her "coagulation system.""So the very medicine doctors are using may be causing this problem and they're using an old fashioned medicine to treat it  what is going on with her health care? Maybe they have reasons, but at a distance, it looks bizarre," noted Pinsky.So far, the Clinton campaign has dismissed theories that the presidential candidate is in poor health, calling them nothing more than "right-wing conspiracies." However, recent footage of Clinton requiring the help of three men to assist her up a small set of stairs suggest otherwise.The photos, captured in February of this year, show the 68-year-old Clinton struggling to make it up the stairs, whichtheorizes is due to "her fragile body or perhaps because [of] her well-documented brain injuries."The conservative news publication reported in January that Clinton had suddenly disappeared from the debate stage, leaving some to speculate whether the presidential candidate had simply been on a bathroom break.However, "a law-enforcement source with inside connections is alleging that Clinton was missing from the stage due to health issues stemming from a previous brain injury."These long-lasting symptoms stemming from a concussion and blood clot, according to a neurologist, suggest Clinton is suffering from post-concussion syndrome, which can severely impact her cognitive abilities,"reported.Still, the Clinton campaign insists the candidate is in good health, and perfectly fit to serve as president of the United States.
A maverick Egyptian MP, Ilhami Agina, decided on Sunday to resign from parliament's human rights committee in protest at what he called "the repeated attempts of the committee head Anwar El-Sadat to manipulate its MPs to serve the agenda of foreign institutions."

Agina, an independent MP from the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya, told reporters that the decision of El-Sadat and a number of the committee's members to pay a "secret" visit to Geneva to attend a human rights conference has cast doubts about the national loyalty of the committee as a whole.

"The fact that the visit was conducted in a secret way and without getting parliament's approval in advance was by no means a correct move, not to mention that it lends credence to media accusations that Sadat is making use of his position as head of Egypt parliament's human rights committee to obtain money from ill-reputed foreign organisations," said Agina.

Agina also argued the MPs' visit to Geneva, led by El-Sadat, also lacked transparency.



"This was clear in the fact that the complete members of the committee was not informed of the Geneva visit in advance," said Agina, adding that "he knew about the visit only from the media and as a result of this 'secret visit', most of the committee's members now face accusations that they have clandestine relations with foreign organisations." 

For the above reasons, Agina said he decided to resign from the committee, preferring instead to join the foreign relations committee. "It is completely unfair for me to remain a member in a committee facing such accusations," said Agina.

"If El-Sadat thinks that the visit was important, why did he decline to inform all the members of the committee of it or get the approval of the speaker in advance?" he added.



Geneva conference

The visit of Sadat and nine members to Switzerland to attend a conference organised by the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue on 10 August has left the 38-member human rights committee divided into two camps.

The first is led by committee head Anwar Mohamed Esmat El-Sadat, a nephew of late president Anwar El-Sadat, and the second is led by its deputy Atef Makhaleef who filed a complaint against the Geneva visit with parliament's speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, asking that El-Sadat be referred to the ethics committee to be disciplined.

Makhaleef told reporters on Sunday that "El-Sadat should be disciplined because of his suspicious links with hostile foreign human rights organisations."

Makhaleef told the private TV channel Al-Ghad on Saturday that "the approval of MPs to travel abroad to attend foreign conferences as representatives of the Egyptian parliament should be strictly regulated."

"If we opened this door wide, it would be like a hell for parliament as a whole," said Makhaleef, adding that "we are MPs to serve national interests rather than foreign agendas."

Makhaleef has also charged that El-Sadat is manipulating the committee to serve the agenda of the US embassy in Egypt on human rights. He said the US embassy contacted him over one month ago in a bid to convince him to join El-Sadat in implementing the US embassy's agenda on human rights.

Sadat told Al-Ghad channel that his visit to Geneva came upon an official invitation and in coordination with Egypt's foreign ministry. "Not to mention that I had already informed parliament speaker Abdel-Aal of the Geneva visit in advance," said El-Sadat.

In a plenary session on 7 August the speaker told MPs that El-Sadat had informed me of the Geneva trip in advance, "but I rejected because I am against invitations from Western human rights forums which are hostile to Egypt," said Abdel-Aal.

El-Sadat told Al-Ghad that his participation in the Geneva conference gave him a chance to change the hostile attitude of some Western organisations towards Egypt in the area of human rights.

"These organisations were listening only to voices from the terrorist organisation of Muslim Brotherhood and our role are to reverse this tide," he said.



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After undergoing extensive renovations, an elementary school in Burlingame will be open for classes for the first time in almost 40 years.

Nearly 200 kids are gearing up for their first day at Hoover Elementary on Aug. 24, but before then, administrators are racing around the clock to put the finishing touches on classrooms, which were last used in 1979.

In order to reopen the school, the Burlingame Elementary School District was required to come up with plans that would ease traffic congestion on Summit Street, an already windy road. Residents in the surrounding area had initially opposed the schools reopening due to traffic concerns, but dropped them when the districts plans were deemed sufficient.

Its very exciting, Maggie MacIsaac, the superintendent of the district, said in an interview for the San Mateo Journal. To open Hoover is exciting bit it is also exciting to see work on our other schools.

Like many other districts in the Bay Area, Burlingame has prioritized getting tech into classrooms across its K-12 education centers.
A male driver was killed after his vehicle flipped onto its roof early Sunday in Oakland, according to police.

Fire and police crews arrived to the scene on the 5400 block of International Boulevard around 3:45 a.m. to find a black sedan rolled over and resting on the sidewalk, police said.

Authorities said that they are currently conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the fatal wreck.

No further information was available at the time.
The shakeup of the Chicago Police Departments top brass continued Friday, with Supt. Eddie Johnson announcing new commanders for nearly a third of the citys 25 police districts, just days after replacing several other top deputies.

Johnson announced the promotions in a news release emailed to reporters about 20 minutes after he left a press conference at police headquarters touting the arrest of 100 gang members in two-day sweep, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The moves also were announced the day after Johnson announced a new No. 2 and chief of detectives and stated he will move to fire seven police officers involved in the Laquan McDonald shooting, the scandal that prompted the firing of Johnsons predecessor, Garry McCarthy, last year.

The chief has announced the results of similar gang roundups almost monthly since taking over the department earlier this year, but took to the podium Friday without the complement of top officers that typically joins him during such press briefings. Johnson made no mention of the wave of promotions at the press conference.

Arrests began before dawn on Thursday and continued for 36 hours, nabbing 100 people on felony counts, Deputy Chief Anthony Riccio said. The arrests were made in 15 of the citys 22 police districts, Riccio said. The arrests resulted from a six-week investigation, and Riccio said another 105 suspects are targeted for arrest in the next seven to 10 days.

Regarding his management changes, Johnson, in the emailed statement, praised the new generation of CPD command staff, a cadre that will owe much to Johnson, who was promoted to the post in March. When Mayor Rahm Emanuel picked Johnson, he passed over three candidates recommended by the Police Board; Johnson had never even applied for the job.

Making Chicago safer and building strong partnerships with the community begins with effective leaders that understand the unique dynamics of our neighborhoods, Johnsons statement reads. The men and women that make up the next generation of CPD commanders have all exhibited strong commitment, leadership, and a love for this city that will benefit every Chicagoan.

Johnson also named new commanders in seven police districts: Crystal King-Smith, 2nd District; Varrick Douglas, 5th District; William Bradley, 6th District; Kenneth Johnson, 7th District; Ronald Pontecore, 8th District; James Sanchez, 10th District; Kevin Johnson, 11th District.

On Thursday, Johnson announced several other changes. He promoted Kevin Navarro to be his new No. 2, replacing retiring First Deputy John Escalante, who is leaving for a job at Northeastern Illinois University. He also announced Melissa Staples would replace Eugene Roy as Chief of Detectives, and he picked new bosses to supervise another nine bureaus in the department.

Also on Thursday, Johnson had announced that, based on the recommendation of Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, he would ask the Police Board to fire seven officers who were found to have lied about the shooting of McDonald, the black teen who was shot 16 times in October 2014. Videotape released under court order showed officers accounts did not match what actually had occurred that night, and Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with McDonalds murder.

Fergusons report  still sealed  recommended the firing of 10 officers. However, Johnson on Friday said two of them have since retired, and he disagreed with the recommendation to fire the 10th.
A Wisconsin woman has been convicted of hiding her boyfriend's corpse, but the jury could not agree on whether she was guilty of homicide for killing him.

Douglas Bailey was found in a box along a road in Hazard, Kentucky, in December. The 51-year-old was a trucker who was reported missing after he failed to show up for Thanksgiving in Peoria, Illinois.

A Pierce County jury found Rose Kuehni, of Prescott, guilty Thursday of hiding his corpse, but split on the second-degree homicide charge. T

he 45-year-old testified she acted in self-defense in the November shooting after a long history of abuse, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reports.

She gave the boxed-up body to an acquaintance who allegedly dumped it in Kentucky.

A hearing on a retrial is set for Wednesday.
Connecticuts tax-free holiday started Sunday and shoppers didnt waste any time taking advantage of the savings. The program eliminates the state's six percent sales tax on clothing and shoes under $100.

With two kids in tow, Jennifer Makula of Bristol went back to school shopping as soon as the stores opened.

I think it's a big savings. I mean if you're spending a couple hundred dollars each child it just ends up costing so much money and I think anything where you could save something, take advantage of it, she said.

Visiting Connecticut on business, Mary Stevens got a double dose of the savings having already taken advantage of a similar tax break in her home state of Florida.

"I think it's a good time of the year anyways, where a lot of people are going back to school shopping and just shopping in general, said Stevens.

Many stores also plan sales at the same time, to give shoppers even more bang for their buck.

"I see especially a lot of online shops as well do a lot of different sales just to bring people in, Stevens said.

Our neighbors to the north, Massachusetts, ended their tax-free holiday this year, and with a billion dollar budget shortfall looming, and argument has been made that Connecticut should do the same.

"The state gets all of their money from the consumer so the consumer should get a break wherever they can, said Makula.

Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services estimates the total tax savings, or money that won't be collected into state coffers this week, to be around $4.5 million.

"A lot of people are struggling and if they need the break, if they have more than one or two kids it's worthwhile for them to have that. It's one week that can benefit a lot of people that could use it, said David Engel of Avon.

The tax free holiday runs through next Saturday.

See what's exempt and see what's taxable.
About 100 vacant teacher positions were still to be filled in the Dallas Independent School District with classes set to start Monday.

Staffers planned to work during the weekend to help prepare for the start of the new school year.

The district has more than 200 schools and 10,000 teachers, so 100 vacancies is still a small fraction and officials said it is a smaller number than some past years. A teachers union leader said things are improving compared with past turmoil and the Dallas ISD is a good place for teachers.

A proposed tax increase was rejected by Trustees Thursday that could have provided more money for additional teacher incentive raises, among other things. Dallas ISD Board President Lew Blackburn said he voted against the measure because of last minute changes in the tax hike plan.

Blackburn said many of the programs to be funded with the the tax increase can still be provided and another tax hike could still be considered in the future. He said the district is on sound financial ground as the new school year begins and he was not worried about the teacher vacancies.

Find helpful back-to-school information online:

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Richardson police told NBCDFW that they are warning residents to be on alert after two home invasion robberies in three days.

On Wednesday, August 17 at 4:50 p.m., three males dressed in dark clothing forced open the victim's back door on Moroney Drive. The victims were held at gun point while searching the homes for valuables.

On Saturday, August 20 at 4:00 a.m., four males wearing hoodies and masks forced open the victim's back door on Lakeridge Drive. Again, the victims were held at gun point while the robbers helped themselves to valuables.

No suspect vehicles were seen during the robberies.

None of the victims report being physically harmed.

Residents in Richardson are reminded to lock all doors and windows, set security alarms and report anything they believe to be suspicious.

Call 972.744.4800 if you have information that can lead to the arrest of the robbers.
Three people were tied up and burglarized in their home where their children were sleeping, after one resident confronted four men in ski masks in his backyard.

Police received a call of a possible home invasion at 4:10 Sunday morning, said Sgt. Cueto of the Los Angeles Police Departments Foothill Division. The home, located on the 8700 block of Bradley Avenue, is surrounded by businesses in Sun Valley.

A man living at the home said he heard noises coming from outside his house, police said. When he went outside, he saw four men in his yard wearing ski masks and gloves. Two of the men were armed with handguns.

Police said it appeared that the men were going to jump a wall in the yard into one of the businesses.

According to police, when the man confronted the masked men in his yard, the men escorted him into his home where two women and three children were sleeping.

The men tied up the man and two women, police said. Two of the children kept sleeping, but one woke up and witnessed the incident.

The burglars hit the man in the back of his head with a handgun, and at least one of the women was kicked in the stomach, Cueto added.

Both people received minor injuries, according to police. The man was transported at the scene, and the woman was transported to the hospital upon request.

All four masked men left with some personal items from the home, Cueto said. The home was not their initial target.

Information on whether or not the men had been apprehended was not immediately available.
According to media reports, the man fatally shot at a pool party inside a very large home in a multimillion-dollar neighborhood in Granada Hills Saturday, was a rapper well-known in the Los Angeles Area. Two other people were also shot and injured.

Scattered cups and pool toys were among blood stains in the backyard of the house following the shooting in the 12400 block of Longacre Avenue.

Devonshire officers reported to a radio call of shots fired around 9 p.m. Saturday.

The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed three people were shot, including one 30-year-old man who police found suffering from a gun shot wound in the backyard of the home when they arrived. He was transported to a hospital where he died.

Music fans and artists have taken to social media mourning the man, who they have identified as rapper Justin Lishey, known as Kid Cali or cali OSo, from Inglewood. The coroner has yet to confirm the man's identity.

The two others were in stable condition after surgery, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. One man in his mid-20s was taken to the hospital by a private car from the house, and was at the hospital Sunday, an LAPD officer added. Another man taken to the hospital by a private car was also expected to survive.

But out of the 100-plus people who attended Saturday's party, not one person has come forward to give police a description of the shooter.

The news has devastated Lishey's mother who had a seizure on Monday. Now, his eight brothers and sisters, who asked not to be identified, are demanding that Lishey's killer turn himself in.

"He's [the shooter] a coward. My brother had no weapon on him," Lishey's sister told NBC4.

Lishey, a father to a baby girl, "could make anyone laugh," a friend said.

Police say they are trying to figure out who owns the house and who was hosting the party.

The mansion pool party was advertised on social media, and charged an admissions fee, according to the LAPD. Witnesses said over 100 people had attended.

An online search indicates there may have been other ticketed events at this house.

Police were searching for the gunman, who left the party on foot, police said. They did not know what prompted the shooting.

Officials said they don't believe that Lishey was in a gang, but detectives believe the shooting likely had some gang connection.

Police called LA Councilman Mitch Englander 1 a.m. Saturday to notify him of the shooting.

Englander lives in Granada Hills and told NBC4 he is meeting with city and district attorneys this week to discuss how to prosecute those responsible for Saturday night's party and others throughout LA.

"This was a commercialized enterprise that put people in danger and cost a life and caused other victims. It's beyond frustrating and so we need to be able to go after these people and hold them accountable," Englander said.

The LAPD is looking at surveillance video from the house. The footage captures the shooter firing five to six shots, at least 3 of which hit Lishey, police said.

One witness, Lishey's friend Dorthea Devilla, called 911 and held his hand until paramedics arrived.

"He kept trying to close his eyes and doze off," Devilla said. "I could tell everybody was yelling. I was like, 'you guys are making him nervous. Stop yelling.'"

City News Service contributed to this report.
After the iconic Summit Inn diner burned to the ground this week, the restaurant's longest-serving waitress said she is devastated.

Joanie Blackburn started working at the Summit Inn in 1972 right after high school, working graveyard and swing shifts, she said. She worked at the diner in the 70s and had worked at the diner off-and-on ever since.

The historic Route 66 diner, located in Oak Hills along the Cajon Pass, first opened in 1952. It was a popular roadside destination for people traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas since the 1950s, and was frequented by Elvis, John Wayne, and more of Hollywood's elite. Blackburn said she saw several celebrities while she worked there including David Carradine and George Strait.

"It's been a big part of my life," Blackburn said. "This is an icon, it's part of our history. The old route."

A fast-moving wildfire, dubbed the Blue Cut Fire, burned the diner to the ground Tuesday. A half-dozen employees and 10 tables of customers fled around 3:30 p.m., and the restaurant burned hours later.

Blackburn says the loss breaks her and her family's hearts. Their lives have been centered around the diner, and it was a part of their lives while they raised their children.

"It feels like a death," Blackburn said. "It feels like it's just gloom and doom right now and all the happiness that was inside the walls, all the people that came for so many years, now there's nothing it just seems like it's all gone."

She walked through piles of burnt rubble on Friday pointing out where everything from the ice cream machine to the old horseshoe bar once stood.

"It was old fashioned and a lot people like that," she said. "The feeling of ... antiquities and the history behind the route. "

Blackburn added that there are lots of things she will miss. "The people I'm going to miss the most," she said. "Serving the happiness, coming to work everyday like you're at home..."

She said she hopes the new owners will be able to rebuild the diner, and that she would love to work there again one day if she is able to.

"Hopefully they will rebuild and it will all become a family again," Blackburn said.

The Blue Cut Fire had burned 105 homes as of Saturday morning, officials said. The blaze was 68 percent contained.
The head of the Egyptian parliament's constitutional and legislative affairs committee, Baha El-Din Abu Shoqa, said on Sunday that the committee will meet Monday to vote on a report about an election appeal filed against MP Ahmed Mortada Mansour.

"The committee's report about this appeal will be discussed in a meeting tomorrow and members will be required to vote on it in line with the constitution," Abu Shoqa told MPs in a plenary session.

His statement came in response to criticism leveled by MP Alaa Abdel-Moneim, head of the pro-government parliamentary bloc "Support Egypt", who queried why the committee took so much time in discussing the appeal and giving a final say on it.

"Although the appeal was referred to the legislative and constitutional affairs committee on 25 July, it has so far refrained from finalising its report," said Abdel-Moneim.

Abdel-Moneim, a former policeman who resigned to become a lawyer, threatened to withdraw from the committee if the report was not discussed on Sunday or Monday. "I wonder would Israel occupy Sinai again if Mansour was eliminated from parliament," said Abdel-Moneim sarcastically.

Abdel-Moneim asserted that the appeal against Mansour's election, filed by rival Amr El-Shobaki, an Al-Ahram political analyst, was accepted by the Cassation Court which is solely authorised by the constitution to give a final say on election appeals.

"The court said El-Shobaki won more votes than Mansour in Giza's district of Dokki during the last parliamentary elections and that he should become this district's elected MP instead of Mansour," said Abdel-Moneim.

Abu Shoqa told reporters on 17 August that the committee has received two rulings about appeals against Ahmed Mortada Mansour.



"The first was filed against the results of the first round of the election in Dokki district and it was rejected by the court, while the second ordered that the parliamentary membership of Mansour should be invalidated and that El-Shobaki should be considered the one who won the Dokki seat," said Abu Shoqa.

Abu Shoqa indicated that MPs needed greater debates about the two rulings to make sure that there is no contradiction between the two of them.

"This led to some delay, but the committee's report on El-Shobaki's appeal will be discussed in line with the constitution," said Abu Shoqa, adding that "the committee is in complete observation of Article 107 of the constitution which gives the Court of Cassation the final say on appeals filed against the results of the election of MPs."

"This article has made parliament no longer 'the master of its own decisions' and we are keen to observe this principle," said Abu Shoqa.

Mansour was announced in January as the elected deputy for the Dokki district. He is the son of outspoken MP and lawyer Mortada Mansour, and was a candidate for the liberal Free Egyptians Party.

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Donald Trump met with his newly-minted Hispanic advisory board in New York Saturday, sitting down with elected officials, business leaders and faith leaders, along with his new campaign team.

The National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, as it is officially called, is looking to help Trump focus his message, as well as provide assistance with the campaign's Hispanic outreach.

But winning over Hispanic voters will not be easy for the Republican nominee. He launched his campaign with a speech that accused Mexico of illegally sending rapist and criminals across the border, and has since vowed to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally.

That message has not resonated well with many minority voters.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the RNC, called the meeting a "game-changing" opportunity.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that the group's participation "is just one component of our expansive effort to engage the Hispanic community, and their contributions will help us compete for every vote in every community all the way through Election Day."

Trump has also been working in recent days to boost his appeal among African American voters. The move followed a shake-up in his campaign management in the face of falling poll numbers that quickly prompted noticeable changes to his campaigning tactics.
Doral Police is seeking the South Florida community's help in finding a missing elderly woman.

Police say Aline Proctor was last seen Saturday around 8 p.m. at the Baymont Inn and Suites located at 38105 NW 107th Avenue in Doral.

According to family members, Proctor said she was tired and wanted to stay in her hotel room while her family went shopping. She has not been located.

If anybody comes into contact with Proctor they are urged to contact the City of Doral Police Department at 305-593-6699.
Back to school typically means paper, pencils and books, but students returning to the classroom Monday morning at Miami Beach Senior High are getting an early lesson in Zika protection.

Fienberg-Fisher Center, South Pointe Elementary and Miami Beach Senior High schools all fall within or near the Miami Beach Zika Zone.

"We are distributing two long sleeve uniform shirts and uniform pants. To ensure that the students in the three effected schools in the Zika Zone here in Miami Beach have protective clothing."

The new travel warnings for parts of tourism driven South Beach. A 1.5 square mile area. The new Zika Zone is just six miles from Wynwood, where the virus first showed up.

Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County public schools says, "the county, thankfully, has agreed not to spray during the school time, so I think we are ready for tomorrow."

Superintendent Carvalho added that this Sunday's event at Miami Beach Senior High is the third one this week and it's all for students and parents preparing for another school year. Health officials are also passing insect repellent and offering up this advice.

"If you're going to put it on your face, which we do recommend, just put it on your hands and then wipe your areas of our neck and your face with the repellent," said Lillian Rivera, Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County official

The Department of Health says the mosquito spray is not allowed at school. Students are instructed to spray prior to school. Repellent lasts about seven hours.

"We got a call from the school," said Roy Summersett, parent. "So we came over here; we got the spray, long sleeve shirts and they got a great set up in there."

Fred Robby, teacher at Miami Beach Senior High, says this a good way for the community to come together and show support for the kids.

Coming together to increase Zika awareness, with an emphasis on prevention and protection.

"I'm going to spray this," said student Gayle Summersett. "I'm going to make sure I have long pants on and that I'm wearing my long t-shirt."
Hundreds of motorcycles drove through New York City to ground zero on Sunday in a procession that organizers said will be their last.

Ted Sjurseth, founder of the nonprofit America's 911 Foundation, said he's tired of battling Maryland and Virginia state police and highway agencies' reluctance to block Washington-area traffic for 1,200 motorcycles.

The agencies say they support Sept. 11 memorial events but must maintain safe traffic flow in the congested region.

The problems stem from the first leg of the America's 911 Ride, from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to Arlington, Virginia, always on a Friday. State agency officials say it can cause 5-to-10-mile backups, and stall home-bound commuters near the Pentagon.

"Complaints are received every year," Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley wrote in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.

Sjurseth, 55, a computer consultant from rural Lucketts, Virginia, said that instead of complaining, stalled motorists should reflect on the 3,000 lives lost in the 2001 terrorist attack, and on the sacrifices made daily by first responders.

Shipley said he has tried in vain to find someone willing to take over the arduous task of organizing the ride. Now the foundation is looking for other fundraising options, he said.

The rides began in 2001, two months after hijackers crashed airliners into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center. Another jetliner crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as passengers and crew fought to regain control of the aircraft.
Police are asking for the public's help to identify a drive-by shooter who killed one teen and left another in critical condition earlier this week in the Bronx.

Investigators on Saturday released surveillance video of the shooting.

Shots rang out at about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday in front of 1375 College Avenue in the Claremont neighborhood.

Dontay Gordon, 17, was shot in his chest. He was rushed to Lincoln Hospital but did not survive his injuries.

A 21-year-old man was shot in his stomach. He is still recovering from his wound at Lincoln Hospital.

No arrests have been reported. Anyony with information about the shooting is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Five people, including a pregnant woman, are dead after a mass killing in Alabama on Saturday, NBC News reports.

The Mobile Sheriff's Office has identified the five victims as Robert Lee Brown, 26; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; and Chelsea Reed, 22, who was five months pregnant.

The victims were found Saturday afternoon inside a house in Citronelle  a city about 30 miles northwest of Mobile. Police said a four-month-old baby was found alive at the scene.

Police told NBC News multiple instruments were used, including a firearm and possibly an ax.

Derrick Ryan Dearman, 27, of Leakesville, Mississippi, surrendered himself to the Greene County Sheriffs Office Saturday and confessed, according to police.
Thirteen people were shot while they were attending a house party in Bridgeport, Connecticut, early Sunday morning.

Police responded to a report of shots fire at 19 Plymouth St. at 1:27 a.m. Sunday.

When they arrived, 13 people, 11 males and two females, were located with gunshot wounds.

Ten victims were treated at Bridgeport Hospital and three were treated at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Eleven of the victims sustained non-life threatening wounds to the lower extremities.

One male sustained a gunshot wound to the face. One female is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the face.

Eight of the victims have been released from the hospital, Bridgeport Police Chief AJ Perez confirmed at a press briefing Sunday. Four remain under observation and one remains critical. Most of the victims are between 18 and 24. None of them have been publicly identified at this time.

According to police, and party-throwers attempted to apply for a permit for the event but it was denied.

It was denied because they wanted to sell alcohol and charge for the party. So we frown upon that and did not allow this party to go on, Perez said.

Investigators believe the party appears to have been for profit and there may be charges against the people who threw it.

The party went on without a permit, and the 13 victims were injured when at least two shooters fired through the hedges from the backyard at 31/33 Plymouth St. and struck the victims at 19 Plymouth St. Police said it was a confusing scene and witnesses said at first they didnt realize what was happening.

We had what we believe in excess of 100 party goers, said Bridgeport police Capt. Brian Fitzgerald. So people initially thought was fireworks. By some accounts even the DJ said dont worry about it, its fireworks until people started realizing they were shot.

Police recovered 10 shell casings from a large-size caliber handgun, and its possible other weapons without casings were also used. Right now police are still looking for a motive.

Perez said the department has stepped up patrols in the area while detectives investigate.

I am very confident and I say this with full confidence because I believe in the Bridgeport police department, the men and women that work here, were going to have an arrest in this matter in the very near future, Perez said.

Anyone with information should contact the police at (203) 576-8477.

Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim and US Senator Richard Blumenthal, who both also attended the media briefing, praised police efforts. Blumenthal said he had a meeting with ATF earlier Sunday afternoon and promised federal assistance in the case if needed.
Donald Trump's campaign expenses more than doubled last month, even as the Republican presidential nominee held his payroll to about 70 employees, aired no television advertisements and undertook no significant operational buildout across the country.

Instead, about half of the campaign's $18.5 million in spending was vacuumed up by Giles-Parscale, a web design and marketing firm new to national politics, Federal Election Commission filings show. It's a crossover vendor from Trump's real estate organization.

The campaign paid Giles-Parscale $8.4 million in July, about twice what the San Antonio firm had collected from it over the course of the preceding year. Brad Parscale, the president, is the campaign's director of digital marketing.

The big expense came as Trump put a new emphasis on online fundraising, after paying for his primary run mostly out of his own pocket.

Millions more went to air travel. The campaign paid about $2 million for private jets other than Trump's own TAG Air, which also collected $500,000.

Some of Trump's consultants are also well-paid.

Chess Bedsole, the campaign's Alabama state director, was paid $64,000 last month for field consulting. His last campaign payment was for $15,000 in December.

Yet the campaign's payroll remained thin, and there did not appear to be much new in the way of office leases across the country, including in Ohio and other crucial states.

Trump's ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said this month that the campaign had hired dozens more people, including expanding its team to directors in all 50 states. He said they were all on payroll as of Aug. 1, meaning they won't show up in campaign finance reports until Sept. 20.

Trump has relied heavily on the Republican National Committee for conventional campaign infrastructure. He's boasted of holding the line on his campaign spending. But he's running critically low on time to build an operation that can compete with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

In addition to being ahead of Trump in polls in pivotal states, Clinton has maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads. This week, she'll spend at least $10 million more on ads.

Trump made his first ad buy a few days ago, for nearly $5 million in commercials to air across Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Clinton's campaign spent $38 million in July, about double the Trump campaign's outlay.

She can afford her higher level of spending, the July campaign finance reports show. Her campaign raised $52 million while his brought in $37 million for the month, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself.

The candidates also raise money for their parties, enabling them to ask for contributions far higher than the $2,700-per-donor limit to the campaigns. Overall in July, Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic partners, while Trump raised $80 million for the campaign and Republican groups.

Trump did bring aboard some new campaign consultants in July.

He paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with GOP opponent Ted Cruz. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.

The Trump filings also show some old ties.

Two weeks after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign cut his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 check. That's about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.

At the time of the latest payment, Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.

The campaign paid Trump Organization employee Meredith McIver, who has worked as a Trump ghostwriter over the years. She took credit  and then blame for writing Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention that included similar lines from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The campaign valued McIver's time, accounted for as payroll from the Trump Organization, at $356.01.
Suicide bombers from the militant al Shabaab group detonated two car bombs, killing more than 20 people on Sunday, NBC News reports.

The group, which has carried out deadly attacks in the Horn of Africa country as it tries to topple the Western-backed government, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Residents in the north central Somalian town of Galkayo said they heard two loud blasts followed by heavy gunfire. The bombs went off at a local government headquarters in the countrys semi-autonomous Puntland region, officials and witnesses said.

Al Shabaab has become more active in Puntland since moving more forces there after being pushed out of strongholds farther south by an African Union force and the Somali National Army, experts and officials say.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said his party must do a better job appealing to African-American voters and that he wants the GOP to become their political home as it was in the era of Abraham Lincoln.

"I fully recognize that outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better, and will do better,'' Trump said during a rally in Fredericksburg, located between Richmond and Washington in the critical battleground state of Virginia.

In spite of past fiery rhetoric that alienated many minority voters, Trump said that he wants "an inclusive party.'' He noted that the "GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln'' and said, "I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again.''

Trump has been working in recent days to boost his appeal among African-American voters -- declaring Friday that he could win 95 percent of the black vote at the end of his first term in office, if he is elected.

Trump's new minority outreach efforts followed a shake-up in his campaign management in the face of falling poll numbers that quickly prompted noticeable changes to his campaigning tactics. In Fredericksburg, he spoke with the aid of a teleprompter, as he has at rallies all this week, and the result was a more measured delivery that lacked the rants and tangents that marked many of previous speeches.

Earlier Saturday in New York, Trump met with his new National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, which will work to help him focus his message, as well as provide assistance with the campaign's Hispanic outreach.

Polling shows Trump lagging significantly behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton among minority voters, partially due to some of the more wayward comments he has made since entering the race. He launched his campaign last year with a speech that accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the border, and has since vowed to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, called the Hispanic outreach meeting a "game-changing'' opportunity.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that the group's participation "is just one component of our expansive effort to engage the Hispanic community, and their contributions will help us compete for every vote in every community all the way through Election Day.''

Trump also met Saturday with officers and detectives in the Stafford County Sheriff's Office in Stafford, located just north of Fredericksburg.
An Islamic State group suicide bomber as young as 12 years old attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens of others, the Turkish president said Sunday.

The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep, near Turkey's border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbul's city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

"It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times," Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for IS group. "Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity."

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldn't believe the party was targeted.

"This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party," Hamdullah Ceyhan told Anadolu. "This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?"

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party  known by its acronym PKK  or were blamed on IS. In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.

Earlier, Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.

"These bloodthirsty organizations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation," he added.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  yearlong peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In Gaziantep, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the country's health minister visited the wounded and inspected the site of the attack.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters. "We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing, which he said turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and he vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

Opposition parties have also denounced the attack. The main opposition Republican People's Party will be holding an emergency meeting in the late afternoon and a delegation was being sent to Gaziantep by the Nationalist Movement Party. Supporters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party will be holding a protest against the attack in Istanbul.

Foreign governments, including the U.S., Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, have condemned the attack.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in.

Hundreds of residents had gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Turkish authorities issued a media blackout on coverage of the attack until the investigation is completed.

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Several pills taken from Prince's estate in Paisley Park after his death were counterfeit drugs that actually contained fentanyl  a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin, an official close to the investigation said Sunday.

The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said many pills were falsely labeled as "Watson 385." According to Drugs.com, that stamp is used to identify pills containing a mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone.

About a dozen tablets were found in a dressing room at Paisley Park, but the vast majority was in bottles of Vitamin C and aspirin that had been tucked inside a suitcase and bags  including one Prince often carried with him.

Autopsy results released in June show Prince died April 21 of an accidental fentanyl overdose. The official who spoke to the AP said records show the 57-year-old Prince had no prescription for any controlled substances in the state of Minnesota in the 12 months before he died.

Authorities are still investigating how Prince obtained the drugs.

Fentanyl has been responsible for a surge in overdose deaths in some parts of the country. When made into counterfeit pills, users don't always know they're taking fentanyl, increasing the risk of fatal overdose.

The Star Tribune first reported about the mislabeled pills in a story published on its website late Saturday.

One pill with the "Watson 385" stamp that was analyzed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension tested positive for fentanyl, lidocaine and another drug. Officials found nearly two dozen pills similar to the one that was tested, the official said.

Another aspirin bottle had 64 counterfeit tablets in it. Some pills that were analyzed contained fentanyl, lidocaine and U-47700  a synthetic drug that is eight times more powerful than morphine.

Authorities also found a prescription bottle in someone else's name that contained 10 oxycodone pills, the official said, without revealing who was listed on the prescription.

The official said Prince had many of these pills with him on April 15 when the airplane he was on made an emergency stop in Moline, Illinois, after he fell ill from a suspected drug overdose as he was heading home from a performance in Atlanta. Prince was given two doses of Narcan, an antidote used to reverse suspected opioid overdoses, the official said.

The official said roughly 20 different bottles or pill containers have been analyzed.

U-47700 can be tested for in toxicology screens, but is not done routinely because it is a relatively new chemical. Presence of the drug was not tested in Prince's case, but the levels of fentanyl in his system were more than enough to be toxic, the official said.

Tests on Prince prior to his death did not show fentanyl in his system, which means he wasn't a long-time abuser of that drug, but likely took the fatal dose sometime in the 24 hours before he died, the official said.

The official did not elaborate on those tests. But at least one doctor, Michael Todd Schulenberg, saw Prince on April 7 and again on April 20, the day before he died. According to a search warrant, he told a detective he had ordered tests for Prince and prescribed medications. Schulenberg's attorney, Amy Conners, has said patient-privacy laws do not allow her to say what the prescriptions were.

The autopsy report also shows Prince had diazepam, lidocaine and hydrocodone acids in his body, the official said. Diazepam is an anti-anxiety pill sold as Valium. It's a sedative and can also be used to control seizures, which Prince suffered from as a child. Lidocaine is a local anesthetic.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story misidentified a synthetic drug found in some pills at Prince's estate after his death. It is U-47700.
The gunman who police say opened fire on a South Jersey block Saturday, killing a man and leaving a 5-year-old girl hurt, remained on the loose Sunday -- but police said they have a warrant and know who the shooter is.

Authorities say Samuel James, 26, of Burlington Township, opened fire on the 100 block of East Federal Street in Burlington City just before 7 p.m., killing 24-year-old Byron Turner with a gunshot wound to the head. A 5-year-old girl who was on the block at the time also suffered injuries while fleeing the gunfire, police said, although they said she was not shot as initially thought.

Police said James' last known address is on Route 130 North in Burlington Township. He is now charged with murder and weapons offenses, and there's a warrant out for his arrest.

Police are asking the public's help to track down James, who they said stands about 6 feet tall and weighs about 140 pounds. They did not say what they believe motivated the shooting.

A broad daylight shooting in Burlington City left a 24-year-old man dead and a 5-year-old girl wounded Saturday. Residents of the community are on edge as police continue to search for the shooter. NBC10s Monique Braxton is there with more.

James is known to stay in Burlington City and Camden, besides his last known address on Route 130. Police asked that anyone with information on his whereabouts contact Burlington City Police at 609-386-0262, message the Burlington Police on Facebook or call Burlington County Central Communications at 609-267-8300.
A man was killed while a young girl was injured following a shooting in Burlington, New Jersey Saturday night.

Police say an unidentified gunman fired between four to 10 shots on the 100 block of East Federal Street, striking a 24-year-old man and possibly injuring a 5-year-old girl who were both outside a home.

The man was taken to Cooper Hospital where he later died from his injuries. The girl was taken to the Lourdes Medical Center where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Police have not yet confirmed what caused the girl's injuries or whether or not she was shot.

The gunman is still at large, according to investigators.

"An extensive search of the New Yorkshire neighborhood was completed to no avail," said Burlington City Police Captain John Fine. "The suspect is still on the loose."

Officials told residents in Burlington's New Yorkshire neighborhood to lock their doors during the manhunt.

"At this time this area has been deemed safe by officers from several jurisdictions," Captain Fine said.

Detectives remain at the scene as the investigation continues.

"It makes me angry," said Maurice McNeil who lives in the area. "It makes me very angry because my kids shouldn't have to live in fear. My grandkids shouldn't have to live in fear."
A staggering amount of money is flooding into Pennsylvania's race for U.S. Senate, bringing TV ads on abortion, guns and Iran into living rooms with barely 11 weeks until the election.

In August alone, at least six different outside groups began airing new TV ads in the race between Republican incumbent Pat Toomey and Democratic challenger Katie McGinty.

In one ad by billionaire Michael Bloomberg's group, the daughter of the principal slain in the 2012 mass shooting in Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School says she is grateful for Toomey's willingness to defy GOP leaders on legislation to expand gun background checks.

Meanwhile, a Planned Parenthood ad shows Pat Toomey in a 2009 television interview saying he would support legislation to ban abortion in Pennsylvania and punish doctors who perform them, even sending some to jail. McGinty supports abortion rights.

The ads come at a time when polls show a neck-and-neck race, with McGinty flattening an early lead Toomey had held in surveys before the summer, despite a couple McGinty gaffes. Spending has topped $50 million on the contest, which could tip control of the U.S. Senate.

Other ads include ones by a major labor union attacking Toomey and a group backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch attacking McGinty.

A TV ad by a national Democratic group, Senate Majority PAC, takes aim at Toomey's gun control credentials. It portrays McGinty as stronger on gun control-- McGinty supports banning the sale of assault weapons and imposing a federal limit on magazine capacity, while Toomey does not-- and shows video of Toomey last month telling an audience, "I have had a perfect record with the NRA.''

Separately, a doomsday-themed ad attacks McGinty over her support for President Barack Obama's nuclear accord with Iran, paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It says, "the deal was denounced by members of McGinty's own party and puts our security in jeopardy. Katie McGinty: A risk we can't afford.''

Tens of millions of dollars more in TV ads are possible in a presidential battleground state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 4-3 ratio.

That gives the freshman Toomey a tough hill to climb.

It is Toomey's third campaign for U.S. Senate, but his first trying to win a general election contest in a presidential election year when Democrats tend to see the biggest benefit from their registration advantage.

Complicating the landscape for Toomey is the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. McGinty has sought to pin Toomey to every explosive Trump comment while attacking Toomey for refusing to say whether he is for or against Trump.

Toomey is keeping his distance from Trump: He is not endorsing or making joint appearances with Trump, but he is not repudiating Trump, either. McGinty has endorsed Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.

After running successfully as a fiscal hawk in 2010's huge Republican midterm wave election, Toomey's re-election campaign kicked off by touting his efforts to work across the aisle, including on gun control, a strategy aimed at winning over Pennsylvania's large swing bloc of independent voters, conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Still, Toomey ranks as among Pennsylvania's three most conservative members of Congress, according to American Conservative Union ratings, and in recent months he has increasingly followed a national Republican playbook on national security and law-and-order issues.

He challenges McGinty as being on the wrong side of a slew of those issues, and heavily touts endorsements from law-and-order groups, including the Fraternal Order of Police's nearly 40,000-strong Pennsylvania State Lodge. This past week he took a bus tour called "Keeping PA Safe'' through Pennsylvania's more conservative western and northern areas.

Asked whether he is seizing on public safety and national security as winning issues for him, Toomey suggested they are unavoidable.

"The fact is, the world has become a more dangerous place because President Obama decided to retreat from everywhere around the world, and we have seen these dangers erupt everywhere, including affecting civilians,'' Toomey said Thursday.

McGinty isn't running from Toomey on national security issues; rather, she returns the criticism, for instance for opposing Democrats' budget legislation that carried more aid for community policing programs.

She also stands by the Iran deal, saying it dealt a blow to Iran's nuclear capability. And while Republicans say they always expected the race would tighten as the Nov. 8 election approached, McGinty argued that Toomey's focus on security issues belies a poor voting record on middle-class priorities, and the disappearance of Toomey's polling lead shows that voters are recognizing that.

"They're seeing a real character and accountability issue with Pat Toomey,'' McGinty said.
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Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Who doesn't love a free show? Tonight, head to Loews Coronado Bay Resort for a special Redwoods Revue. The collective is gaining steam, and four of the current projects under the Redwoods umbrella will perform, including the Midnight Pine, Birdy Bardot, Dani Bell & the Tarantist and Cardinal Moon. If that doesn't suit your musical desires, the Mondegreens are at the Irenic, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus play Soda Bar, and the Gipsy Kings are at Humphreys.

Sunday, Aug. 21:

DoSD.com & Casbah Present Bayside Sessions with the Midnight Pine, Birdy Bardot, Dani Bell & the Tarantist, Cardinal Moon @ Loews Coronado Bay Resort (FREE with RSVP)

The Mondegreens @ The Irenic

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Wolfwalker, Cardio Kazan, Minor Rockstar @ Soda Bar

The Gipsy Kings feat. Nicolas Reyes and Tonino Baliardo, Galen Weston Band @ Humphreys Concerts by the Bay

Summergrass Bluegrass Festival @ Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, Inc., Vista

Backyard Beatles Brunch @ Quartyard (12 p.m.)

Rat Sabbath @ Bar Pink

Karla Bonoff @ AMSD Concerts, Sweetwater Union High School

Burt Bacharach @ Belly Up (sold out)

Platenito Sin Censura @ Music Box

The Big Fellas @ Winston's (5 p.m.)

Pala Vibes 2016 with Common Kings, Josh Heinrichs, Tribal Theory, Hirie, Animo @ Pala Casino

Appice Brothers: Drum Wars, Nightshadow, Battlefront @ Brick by Brick

An Evening with the Shane Hall Trio @ Sycamore Den

Amanda Adams, Masashi @ Lestat's

Sweet Myths, Vella Blue, Hyper Active Slackers @ The Merrow

Hello, I'm Sorry, Edison Moth, Soap Detergent, Oak Palace @ The Bancroft

Reggae Sunday @ U-31

Sun Bather, Nerve Control @ Whistle Stop

Jason Brown @ Humphreys Backstage Live (10 a.m.)

Cerissa McQueen @ Humphreys Backstage Live (8 p.m.)

Colour @ Tio Leo's

Live Bands @ Kava Lounge

Reggae Sunday @ Spin

Rosemary Bystrak is the publicist for the Casbah, the content manager for DoSD, and writes about the San Diego music scene, events and general musings about life in San Diego on San Diego: Dialed In. Follow her updates on Twitter or contact her directly.
Chula Vistas Park View Little League team, who made it to the World Series last weekend, beat a team from San Antonio, Texas in an elimination game 5-0 Saturday night.

The team, playing in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, lost 5-1 to a team from Iowa in the first round on Friday, but that didn't deter loyal fans from sticking by their team.

People at a watch party at Buffalo Wild Wings at Otay Ranch Mall cheered and high-fived as the team knocked out run after run Saturday.

"It's awesome," fan Sarah Camacho said. "It's a great experience, and it's basically for our kids to look up to, to dream about."

"I like seeing them because it's fun to watch them, and to see how they play so I can get better so one day I could be like them," Milan Gallardo said.

The team will play another elimination game on Monday.
A veteran and defense contractor at MCAS Miramar killed in a crash Friday was a father of two who served in "Operation Desert Storm".

Scott Chmura, 52, was driving his motorcycle east on Miramar Way when a 26-year-old woman driving a white Toyota Carolla crashed into his motorcycle. The crash happened at approximately 3:39 p.m. on the 9600 block of Miramar Way near Kearny Villa Road.

He had been on his way home from work, turning onto an on-ramp to the Interstate 15, when he was hit. The impact from the crash was so severe, the veteran died at the scene.

Chmura's wife declined an interview with NBC 7 San Diego, but said the army veteran spent the last seven years fueling planes at MCAS Miramar, working for the Department of Defense.

His wife said Chmura had a big Dodge Ram truck and would rotate between the truck and the motorcycle when he went to work.

"God how I wish he took his truck that day," she told NBC 7.

The couple inside the Toyota did not suffer injuries but are shaken up from the incident. Authorities say the driver may face charges.

Police say it doesn't appear that speed was an issue. Both parties seem to not have seen each other.
Three men, two in Maryland and one in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed early Sunday morning in separate incidents.

Prince Georges County police said officers were called to Parkway Terrace Drive near Silver Hill Road in Suitland, Maryland, about 1 a.m. When they arrived, they found one man suffering from gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police identified the victim as 18-year-old Douglas Myron Brooks, of Suitland. Brooks was a rapper known as "Swipey."

WPGC

"He performed and he shook every kid's hand and he took every picture and that's what the kids remember," said Tony Redz, DJ for WPGC radio station. "He took his stardom and he used it in a positive way to say 'hey kids, I'm from where you are.'"

Police are working to identify a motive in Brooks' killing and a reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment.

Prince George's County detectives are also investigating fatal shooting that occurred in the 3600 block of Endsley Place at 1:30 a.m. They said the victim died at hospital.

In D.C., police said a 24-year-old man was shot and killed in Northeast.

Police said in a news release that Dante Miller was found fatally shot shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Police found him after hearing gunshots in the 1200 block of 18th place, Northeast, in the Kingman Park neighborhood.

Miller's body was taken to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

Police have not released any information about suspects or a possible motive.
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip crashed into the centre of the Israeli city of Sderot on Sunday, without causing injuries or damage, police said.

They said it struck an area "between two buildings on a road" of the city, located less than four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the coastal enclave.

According to Israeli media, it was the first time that downtown Sderot was struck by a rocket fired from Gaza since Israel's last assault on Gaza Strip in 2014.

On July 2, Israeli air raids hit four sites in the Gaza Strip after a rocket struck a building in Sderot. There were no casualties in either incident.

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Fifteen people were injured at a concert in Norway on Sunday where an American DJ was scheduled to perform, NBC News reports.

Police in Oslo told NBC News that part of the venues roof collapsed just before 5:30 p.m. None of the injuries at the venue, Sentrum Scene, were serious, according to police.

Among the injured were 13 Norwegians, one French and one German national.

American DJ Steve Aoki tweeted that he was saddened and shocked that a piece of the roof collapsed in an accident at the venue in Oslo tonight."
Turkeys president said that 51 people are dead and 69 others were injured after a child detonated a suicide bomb at a wedding in southeastern Turkey Saturday night, NBC News reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bomber at the wedding in the city of Gaziantep, was between 12 and 14 years old. In a statement issued earlier on Sunday, Erdogan said ISIS extremists were the most likely perpetrator.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek called the attack "a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism." Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing.

The bombing comes as the country still reels from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.
It took firefighters more than a day to put out a massive brush fire in West Roxbury, Massachusetts over the weekend.

The fire broke out at 5:19 p.m Saturday near Roxbury Latin and West Roxbury Quarry. By 9 p.m., the fire had reached 4-alarms.

Fire officials said the blaze was burning several hundred feet from the street and was very labor intensive.

No homes were in danger but it took crews 25 hours to extinguish the flames.
One man is dead and one is seriously injured after a fatal fire struck their home in Mexico, Maine at noon on Saturday.

According to the Maine State Fire Marshal's Office, the fire was located at 20 Brown Street, in the downtown area. When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the two-story house filled with heavy smoke and fire.

The man that died was 45-year-old Dean Watson. Thomas Brown, in his 50s, was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland to be treated for smoke inhalation. Watson's father, John Watson, 83, escaped without injuries.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The shedded skin of a large snake was recently found in a wooded area of Westbrook, Maine. Could it belong to Wessie?

Police originally warned residents in the area about Wessie, which was described as the size of a car length, on June 29, 2016. It was last spotted in the middle of the night eating a large animal on the banks of Presumpscot River.

There have been no other reports of Wessie sightings since then. Could this be a gift left behind from the Presumpscot Python?
Maine State Police are looking for a man that failed to stop for a traffic stop in Hollis, Maine on Saturday.

Officials say that a trooper attempted to stop Jeremy Henderson, 32, from Buxton for a traffic violation when the suspect took off at a high rate of speed. He drove through a crowded parking lot and eventually traveled into a backyard and almost struck a children's swing set. He then fled into the woods.

The trooper reportedly found three small children and the suspect's girlfriend in the car.

Henderson is wanted for eluding an officer, operating a vehicle on a revoked license (habitual offender), endangering the welfare of a child, and driving to endager.

He is believed to be staying in the Limington-Hollis-Buxton area. State police ask that if anyone knows Henderson's location, call (207) 657-3030. Tips can remain anonymous.
A New Hampshire man was killed Sunday after the car he was working on fell on top of him, according to police in Claremont.

Police responded to reports of a man trapped under a car off the roadway near Moody Park. Crews worked to lift the car off the 37-year-old victim but he had passed away.

Authorities believe equipment became loose on the victim's car as he was working on it, causing it to fall.

Police have not yet identified the victim who they say is from the Claremont/Charlestown area.

The incident remains under investigation.
Eighteen people were arrested Saturday evening at the Latin Festival in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Police said officers working detail at the event had first started monitoring large groups of rival gangs that had been attempting to start fights with one another.

Authorities said at 6:30 p.m., several gunshots were heard coming from Main and Chatham Streets where a large group dispersed when police arrived.

One 18-year-old man was still on the scene suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Following the shooting, other officers responded to disperse another large group of rival youths who had started fighting.

Authorities said many would not listen to the officer's commands to leave the area while others confronted police.

Officials said there were numerous other fights at the festival including one where a 17-year-old boy punched a juvenile in the face then tried to flee the scene. When officers tried to chase the suspect, police noticed he was holding a 12-inch kitchen knife. Police said officers had to tackle him to the ground and eventually were able to place him under arrest.

Another fight involved a 20-year-old Worcester man who police said was struck in the head with a beer bottle. He was also taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Police were eventually able to gain control of the scene and arrested 18 people. Those arrested ranged from 15-21 years of age. Officials said several suspects were in possession of large knives. Charges for those arrested range from assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, possession of a dangerous weapon and resisting arrest.


Norfolk pilgrim carries sign of hope for refugees Norfolk pilgrim carries sign of hope for refugees

Inspired by the words of Pope Francis, Diss parishioner Judith Tooth has walked 175 miles of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage to raise awareness of the plight of migrants and refugees.

Pope Francis said: We ourselves need to see, and then enable others to see, that migrants and refugees  are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved, explained Judith.



The latest in a series of annual pilgrimage walks for CAFOD, this year Judith carried a simple cross made by Sicilian carpenter Francesco Tuccio. His first crosses were made from the wreckage of a boat carrying 500 Eritrean and Somalian refugees that sank off the island of Lampedusa, with a loss of 349 lives.



Fellow pilgrims were profoundly moved when I explained to them that the carpenter had offered the crosses hed made to survivors as a symbol of their rescue and a sign of hope, and that I was carrying one of those crosses to continue that message of hope, said Judith.



Thinking of the perilous journeys made by so many escaping war, poverty and persecution, only to be met by hostility and further hardship  let alone all those lying at the bottom of the Mediterranean  was, at times, almost overwhelming. But, by carrying the cross, I was sharing the hope that compassion and love could overcome, that we could see Jesus in the stranger and make him or her welcome.



During her pilgrimage over 11 days in late July, the cross was blessed by Pere Pierre at the Sanctuary of Notre Dame de Sarrance in the Pyrenees, and by Pobre Don Julian Ruiz Martorell and Padre Ivan Duque at the Church of Santiago in Jaca at a mass celebrating the Feast of St James.



Meanwhile parishioners in Diss were invited to write messages of hope or commitment to refugees as a further sign of solidarity. The messages will be dedicated at a special event at the end of the Year of Mercy and shared with refugees in the UK or around the world.



Were also having a one-day refugee solidarity pilgrimage in our parish on September 3 as part of a Live Simply week of events, said Judith. Well walk 10 miles from the Carmelite monastery at Quidenham to our church in Diss, using resources prepared by CAFOD, Caritas Social Action Network and the Jesuit Refugee Service to pray for refugees.



Pictured above, Judith Tooth (centre) with Pere Pierre and other pilgrims.
West Berkshire Council decision blasted by traders

A HUNGERFORD traders spokesman has condemned West Berkshire Councils decision to abandon its monitoring of footfall in the town.

The chairman of Hungerfords Chamber of Commerce, Nigel Perrin, said the move would make it harder to devise a strategy to halt the decline.

The last time such figures were published, in 2015, they revealed that footfall figures for the town had been steadily falling over the previous four years.

The declining number of visitors came despite the best efforts of civic leaders to promote the town as a tourist destination.

It led some to call for more investment by West Berkshire Council, while others said innovative ideas were necessary.

Mr Perrin said this week: The fact that theyre trying to save money by ceasing to monitor Hungerford footfall is not good news.

Individual traders keep a close eye on the amount of trade compared to the same time last year and, although footfall is a more general indicator of visits to the town, its good to have official, back up information.

Mr Perrin said that, in general, footfall in Hungerford appeared to continue its slow decline, but added: It does rather depend on the individual shop.

Some are suffering really badly.

It can be a combination of not offering the right product, to be brutally honest, and without doubt theres ever-increasing competition online.

Roxtons, for example, said 10 per cent of their trade is online and growing  but at least thats from their own online store.

Those that fared best, he added, were Hungerfords destination outlets such as Hungerford Arcade, Furr and Co, Roxtons, Styles Silver and antiques stores like Below Stairs.

Published economic figures from West Berkshire Council show that, in 2011/12, town centre footfall in Hungerford stood at 4,950 people per day.

By 2014/15, this had steadily fallen to 4,394 people per day.

A spokesman for West Berkshire Council, Martin Dunscombe, said last week that the figures were no longer being collated, and added: Its simply because things have moved on since we first began them. The relevance of such a survey once a year is questionable.

Footfall figures look at the number of pedestrians who pass through a certain area.

The more people who are in the area, the more passing trade there is for local retailers, which means a street or area with a high footfall figure is beneficial to most local retailers.

Trends in footfall may be an indicator of growth or decline within an area, particularly when used with other data, such as average spend in retail outlets.
"They turned our wedding into a bloodbath," said bride Besna Akdogan on Sunday as she left hospital after a suicide bombing killed 51 people at her wedding in southeastern Turkey.

The funerals of some of the victims took place, meanwhile, with feelings running high in the town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border where hundreds gathered following Saturday's bombing.

Shouts of "shame on you, Erdogan" rang out as others threw water bottles at police, amid anger at the president for not doing more to prevent the attack on a Kurdish wedding which the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the Islamic State group had threatened to carry out.

A lawmaker from President Recep Erdogan's Ruling Justice and Development Party for Gaziantep had hoped to attend the funerals but pulled out when the extent of the anger became clear.

"I lost my children, now I will never see them again," wailed one woman confronted with the sight of rows of freshly dug graves.

Erdogan said earlier that the attack -- the deadliest in 2016 -- had involved a child aged between 12 and 14, adding that IS was the likely perpetrator of the bombing on a wedding that had many Kurdish guests.

With 69 people still in hospital, 17 in a critical condition, the HDP said warnings about IS's growing foothold in Gaziantep had fallen on deaf ears. IS see Kurds as enemies due to the prominent role of Kurdish militias in fighting the jihadists.

"Over the years, step by step, Gaziantep became a host for IS. For a long time, people who lived in the province said IS was building up a presence," it said in a statement.

After twin suicide bombings targeting a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara in October 2015 killed 103 people, IS had warned it would attack a Kurdish wedding, it added.

"Unfortunately, the political powers did not take the necessary steps to prevent these plans despite warnings," it said.

The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene on Sunday, according to the chief prosecutor's office.

An AFP photographer who visited the scene found body parts still strewn across the ground along with victims' belongings.

In a room of a house near to where the bomber struck, debris could be seen everywhere with windows flung open and walls pockmarked with bomb damage.

At local hospitals, relatives of the injured gathered to await news of their loved ones.

Some fainted in the heat as they struggled to comprehend the scale of the loss of life.

The bombing is the seventh major attack in Turkey this year blamed on either IS or The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical offshoot of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

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Donald Trump's vow to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants if elected president appeared to be undergoing a shift Sunday as the struggling Republican candidate reaches out to minorities alienated by his harsh rhetoric.

The New York real estate magnate intends to lay out specifics of his immigration plan over the next few weeks, Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said.

Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether they will include a "deportation force" that Trump has previously called for, Conway said, "To be determined."

Trump met with Hispanic supporters at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York on Saturday, when several participants told Spanish-language network Univision that he said his plan will include finding a way to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.

Trump acknowledged "that there is a big problem with the 11 million people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane," Univision quoted Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting, as saying.

The billionaire candidate, who has slid precipitously in polls since last month's Republican convention, told the group of Hispanic conservatives that his plan would grant undocumented immigrants legal status "that wouldn't be citizenship but would allow them to be here without fear of deportation," Monty added.

If true, it would mark a sharp reversal for a candidate who launched his campaign for the presidency with a vow to build a giant wall on Mexico's border, while disparaging illegal immigrants from Mexico as criminals and rapists.

He has repeatedly called for mass deportations of people in the country illegally, a stance critics say is inhumane and unrealistic.

"What Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting differed very little from what he's said publicly, including in his convention speech last month in Cleveland," Conway told CNN.

"It's that we need a, quote, fair and humane way of dealing with what is estimated to be about 11 million illegal immigrants in this country," said Conway, who also took part in the meeting.

"Nothing was said yesterday that differs from what Mr Trump said previously," she added.

"He supports making sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country."

Senator Jeff Sessions, a Trump adviser, also said the candidate made no firm commitments during his session with Hispanic supporters, "but he did listen and was talking about it."

According to Sessions, Trump is "wrestling with" what to do about the country's undocumented immigrants.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a child suicide bomber carried out Saturday's attack on a wedding party in southeast Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding scores of others, many of them critically.

Erdogan, speaking Sunday, said initial evidence shows the bomber was between 12 and 14 years old. He said Islamic State extremists appear to have executed the attack in the city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.

In an earlier written statement, Erdogan said there is "no difference" between Islamic State, the militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, and followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for a coup attempt last month.

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!" he said.

The White House condemned the Gaziantep attack, saying the "perpetrators of this barbaric act cynically and cowardly targeted a wedding." The statement Sunday added that Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ankara Wednesday to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to work together with Turkey against "scourge of terrorism."
What if one blood test could screen for more than 50 types of cancer?
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New Delhi: A 28-year-old JNU student has filed a rape case against an AISA (All India Students Association) activist accusing him of raping her in a hostel room on the university campus, police said on Sunday evening.



The woman is a first-year Ph.D student and she has alleged that Anmol Ratan, a JNU student associated with AISA, a left-wing student's organisation raped her on Saturday, police said.



According to the complaint filed by her at Vasant Kunj (North) police station, she had posted on her Facebook profile that she wanted to watch 'Sairat' movie and asked if anyone had a CD of it.



It said the the Ratan apparently messaged her saying that he had a copy. Thereafter, he picked her up Saturday on the pretext of giving her a CD of the film and took her to Brahmaputra Hostel, where he stays.



She said in the complaint that he offered her a spiked drink and allegedly raped her. He also threatened her and asked her to not report the matter.



However, the woman approached the police on Sunday and a case of rape was registered and further investigation is underway.



When contacted AISA said it has taken strong note of the allegations and has expelled Ratan from the membership.



"AISA takes serious note of the fact that Anmol Ratan, a leading activist of AISA, is facing a criminal complaint of sexual assault. He is, henceforth, expelled from the primary membership of AISA.



"AISA will reflect on and deal with this issue with all the firmness it deserves. AISA will be unflinching for the principles of gender justice even if it involves a leading member of the organisation. We stand by the complainant in her fight for justice," Ashutosh Kumar, AISA Delhi State Secretary, said.
Srinagar: The unrest in Kashmir Valley entered its 44th day even as a 25-year-old youth died on Sunday due to a tear gas shell injury during clashes with security forces in the old city area of Srinagar, taking the death toll in the ongoing violence to 67.



Police said Abdul Majid, 25, died in the hospital where he had been shifted for treatment after being hit on the chest by a tear gas shell during clashes with security forces in Fateh Kadal of Srinagar city where the curfew was in force.



He was shifted to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead, an official added.







According to police, a group of protesters defied curfew restrictions in the area and carried out a protest march over the death of Hizbul militant Burhan Wani, pelting stones at security forces who used tear smoke to disperse them.



Police said clashes also erupted between the security forces in Behrampora and Rafiabad areas of Baramulla district during the day.



Wani was gunned down by security forces on July 8 following which the Valley erupted in protest.



Wani's killing led to a war of words between India and Pakistan who have been at loggerheads for decades over the Kashmir issue.





(With inputs from IANS)


Beijing: China's largest high speed train maker has announced that its first USD 63.4 million joint venture plant in India to repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines has started operations.



The state-run China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) is the first foreign company to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled his ambitious 'Make in India' campaign in 2014, the company said in statement.



The joint venture named CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Co. Ltd., is housed in Haryana. The plant was set up with an investment USD 63.4 million and the Chinese side holds 51 per cent of the share, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.



The India plant will repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.



It will also provide technology support to India's rail system and supply electric transmission systems to oil drilling, wind power generation and mining equipment making in India, the report said. This is China's first major investment in Indian Railways after the two worked out a multi-pronged collaboration for Chinese participation in the modernisation of Indian railway systems.



While Indian Railway engineers are getting trained in China in heavy hauling, China is also cooperating with India to set up a railway university similar to the one it developed.



Besides the high speed train, India and China have agreed to cooperate to identify the technical inputs required to increase speed on the existing railway line from Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.



China is also conducting feasibility study to build a high speed railway line between Chennai and New Delhi. Japan has bagged the first bullet train project to build a high speed rail line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.



CRRC Vice President Yu Weiping said the new plant will create jobs and tax revenue for local people and help improve infrastructure.



It will advance cooperation in industrial capacity and local equipment manufacturing, he said.



India has one of the world's largest railway network spanning about 64,000 kilometres.



Since its presence in the Indian market in 2007, CRRC has supplied it with subway trains, locomotive engines and other railway vehicles and parts, the report said.



"Given more than 60,000 kilometres of railways in India, it is far from enough to build a single locomotive engine plant in India," Yu said.



"CRRC will build more plants (that are) able to produce trains, locomotive traction systems and other key parts in India," he said.



CRRC, formed from the merger of former rivals CNR Corp. and China CSR, has been aggressively reaching out to overseas markets, exporting rail transportation equipment to

101 countries and regions.



Its first plant in North America started operations in September 2015 in Massachusetts.
Capital Patna and seven districts of Bihar face threat of flooding as heavy rains in the catchment areas of Ganga and Sone have caused the rivers to overflow embankments.In Patna, overflowing waters of the Ganga entered residential areas located close to the banks. "The Ganga has been flowing above the danger mark and the situation is alarming. The water level broke a 22 year-old-record on Sunday morning, a government source said.Five teams of NDRF have been deployed in Patna while two teams in Vaishali district to step up the relief and rescue operation in their flood-affected riverine areas.The teams, comprising 200 personnel, left for Patna from INS Rajali on Saturday. They are led by Assistant Commandant Rajan Balu, according to an NDRF spokesperson.With more heavy rains predicted, Bihar Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh held an emergency meeting with the officials.The roads in the city were water-logged and the flood waters entered some apartments near the LCT ghat."We are fully alert in view of the situation," Patna District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar said."To prevent the waters from flowing into Patna, the state authorities have sealed all the openings along the 8.5 km-long Patna town protection wall which was constructed after the floods in 1975, when the waters of the Ganga and the Sone rivers caused massive damage," Kumar added.All the drains which lead into the river have been sealed because of the rising water level.
Mumbai: A creative director of a production house identified as Barun Kashyap was allegedly harassed by a vigilante group in Mumbai over a leather bag, which they thought is made of cow skin.



While recounting the scary experience, Kashyap in his Facebook post mentioned, "I was travelling by an auto-rickshaw in Amboli when the driver after looking at my bag asked whether it was made of cow skin, to which I replied by saying that it's made of camel skin and I got it from pushkar fair."



"The auto driver peered at me curiously... He asked me in English where I was from and I replied Assam... after a while, he asked if the state was located near Bangladesh. After I said yes, the auto driver started to drive," he said.



"The answer didn't satisfy him. As the traffic light turned green, the auto moved forward and so did his remarks on how because of people like me cow slaughter is encouraged. I asked him to mind his own business and drive me to the destination. To my horror he stopped the auto near a small temple on the way to my office. Before I could say anything, I see the driver signaling at three men sitting in front of the temple smoking. Three men with red Tilak mark worn on the forehead approach the auto and start conversing in marathi which I could not decipher," his post reads.



"When I protested, the three men asked me to step out of the auto which I refused. When I was busy protesting, one of the guys came to the other side of auto and started checking my bag. One of the guys then asked me my name...''Barun'' I replied. What's your full name was the next question... ''Barun Kashyap Bhuyan''," he added.



"The guy looked at the other two and said something in marathi out of which I could only understand the word '' Brahmin''. Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin. They left the site after bidding farewell to the auto driver, the fellow cow protector. At the next signal I got off from the auto, noted the auto number and asked for his phone number which he proudly gave to me saying - aaj toh bach gaye," Kashyap said.







Kashyap went to Amboli the police station to lodge a complaint against the driver. "There was no offence to lodge an FIR. We have just registered a non cognizable offence report. Investigation is on," police sources said.
Bhopal: At least fifteen people have died since Friday across Madhya Pradesh after heavy rains wreaked havoc in many parts of the state.



The devastation caused by three days of continuous rain and resulting floods, including building collapses in Sagar and Satna districts, sources in the government said.



The government sought help of the Army and called for helicopters to rescue people marooned by floods.



In Maihar town in Satna district, a newly built, three-storey building with construction workers' families living in it collapsed amid heavy rain on Saturday, burying many people under the rubble, police said.



Situation is Bihar is also grim and so far more than 90 people were killed due to flood. The State Disaster Management department said 33 lakh people have been hit by the flood in 14 districts in Bihar.







Sources said, Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea in Bihar are expected to receive heavy rainfall over the next 24 hours.






New Delhi: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday sought India's help in the reconstruction of his country's economy during a meeting with visiting Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar in capital city Damascus.



"Both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem," an official source said here on Sunday.



"Assad said as a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism," the source said.



On his part, Akbar said the age of destruction should give way to reconstruction in Syria.



"Assad invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy," the source said.



The Syrian President also welcomed India's objective position on the conflict in Syria.



There was an agreement between the two sides on further upgrading security consultations.



Akbar is on the second leg of his August 17-23 three-nation West Asia tour. He earlier visited Lebanon and met Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.



Akbar's visit comes seven months after the visit of Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem to India, during which he sought India's economic and political support.



After Syria, Akbar will also visit the war-ridden country of Iraq.




Kashmir: Three suspected militants killed in a gun battle in Tangdhar area of frontier district of Kupwara on Sunday.



An army official said that the firefight began after they challenged a group of militants near the Line of Control (LoC).



He said, "The militants were trying to infiltrate. The area has been cordoned off to prevent them from escaping. We successfully managed to foil the infiltration bid. A massive search operation is underway."







More details awaited as the operation is still going on.
New Delhi: Two cops were reportedly injured in a gun battle between Delhi Police and criminals in Rohini area on Sunday morning. The criminals Sudhir Kala and Abhay allegedly rammed into a Police vehicle after they were asked to stop.



According to Police sources, they had received a tip off about Sudhir Kala and Abhay who were in Rohini Sectro-24 to execute a robbery. According to Police, they first hit the police vehicle and then opened fire. "The firing from our side was in self-defence," says Police.







At least five persons, who were wanted in several criminal cases, were arrested on Sunday morning after the shootout got over with the police, an official said.



One of the criminals, Sudhir Kala was also wanted in a MACOCA case and has a case registered against him under section 307 of IPC i.e. attempt to murder.




@iHrithik thank you so much for the supporting team refugees it means a lot for us that one of the most successful actors is supporting us  Yusra Mardini (@YusraMardini) August 19, 2016

Its incredibly cool 2 hv included displaced sportsmen in olympics dis time as refugee Olympic tm. Dey dont hv a nation.lets all cheer 4 them  Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) August 10, 2016

Tonight I cheer for Yusra Mardini, a real life hero who saved lives through her swimming and is part of refugee Olympic athletes team.  Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) August 10, 2016

Swimmer Yusra Mardini, part of a team made up of refugees at the Rio Olympics, has thanked Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan for extending support to her and the team."Hrithik, thank you so much for supporting Team Refugees. It means a lot for us that one of the most successful actors is supporting us," Mardini wrote on Friday in response to the actor's last week's post.Hrithik had posted a thought-provoking tweet to support a team which was representing no nation.The actor had specifically expressed his support to Mardini, who competed for the 100 meter butterfly and freestyle heats.He had tweeted: "It's incredibly cool to have included displaced sportsmen in Olympics... This time as refugee Olympic team. They don't have a nation. Let's all cheer for them.""I cheer for Yusra Mardini, a real life hero who saved lives through her swimming and is part of refugee Olympic athletes team," added the Mohenjo Daro actor.This was a thoughtful move by the actor.
Jammu: In a clear reference to the Amnesty International row, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday asserted that 'Azadi' slogans cannot be treated as freedom of speech and slammed Congress and its Karnataka government, accusing them of indulging in vote bank politics over the issue.



"Four days ago, in the capital of Karnataka, during a program in Bangalore, 'Azadi' (freedom) slogans were raised by a few people. An organization, which gets funding from abroad, organized the event and yesterday I read the statement of Karnataka Home Minister in which he said that whatever happened is nothing wrong," Jaitley said.



"After so many sacrifices this country has made, some political parties do it for vote bank politics," he added at a rally on the outskirts of Jammu city.



While talking about this matter, the Finance Minister recalled a similar incident in JNU in January and said raising slogans to advocate the disintegration of the country cannot be seen as freedom of speech as advocated by some.



"When in Delhi, inside JNU, slogans for disintegration of India were raised, we were the only party within and outside Parliament to say that it was wrong. It is not freedom of speech.., he said.



He said Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi had extended support to the youth who had raised anti-India slogans then.



"Many political parties and Congress vice president went to the support of those youth (who raised the slogans) at JNU," Jaitley said



This ideology for the vote bank politics is unfortunate, he added.
Bihar: Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy met with an accident in Patna on Sunday afternoon.



Sources said, he sustained minor injuries and rushed to a hospital in Patna. "His condition is stable," police sources said.



Rudy went to Chhapra in Saran district in Bihar for some official work and was returning to Patna when his car met with an accident.



Meanwhile, BJP MP, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa also injured after falling from his bike during 'Tiranga Yatra' in Assam.



He is admitted to a private hospital and more details awaited.



Recently, in May Union minister of state for Urban Development, Babul Supriyo was injured in a road accident when the motorbike he was riding rammed into a car near south Delhi's Moti Bagh area.
Washington: More than 30 major technology and communication companies said on Friday they are joining the US government to crack down on "robocalls," automated, prerecorded phone calls that regulators have labelled a "scourge."



AT&T Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Comcast Corp are among members of the "Robocall Strike Force" that held its first meeting with the US Federal Communications Commission.



The strike force will report to the FCC by Oct. 19 on "concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions," said AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson, chairman of the group.



The strike force hopes to implement Caller ID verification standards to help block calls from spoofed phone numbers and consider a "Do Not Originate" list that would block spoofers from impersonating legitimate phone numbers from governments, banks or others.



FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in July urged major companies to take new action to block robocalls, which often come from telemarketers or scam artists.



"This scourge must stop," Wheeler said on Friday, calling robocalls the No. 1 complaint from consumers.



"The bad guys are beating the good guys with technology," Wheeler said. In the past, he has said robocalls continue "due in large part to industry inaction."



Stephenson emphasized "the breadth and complexity" of the problem.



"This is going to require more than individual company initiatives and one-off blocking apps," Stephenson said. "Robocallers are a formidable adversary, notoriously hard to stop."



The FCC does not require robocall blocking and filtering but has strongly encouraged phone service providers to offer those services at no charge.



The strike force brings together carriers, device makers, operating system developers, network designers and the government.



"We have to come out of this with a comprehensive play book for all of us to go execute," Stephenson said. "We have calls that are perfectly legal, but unwanted, like telemarketers and public opinion surveyors. At the other end of the spectrum, we have millions of calls that are blatantly illegal."



Stephenson said technical experts representing the companies have had "preliminary conversations about short- and longer-term initiatives."



Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president of federal regulatory issues, called the problem complicated. "We have been wrangling with this problem long enough to know there is no silver bullet," she said. "Nothing by itself is going to do it."



Other companies taking part include Blackberry Ltd, British Telecommunications Plc, Charter Communications Inc, Frontier Communications, LG Electronics Inc, Microsoft Corp, Nokia Corp, Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Sirius XM Holdings Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and US Cellular Corp.



Consumers Union, a public advocacy group, said the task force is a sign "phone companies are taking more serious steps to protect their customers from unwanted calls."
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A three-mile stretch of road in Huddleston  filled with teeth-jarring pot holes, bumps and ruts  is at the center of debate in Bedford County over who should be responsible for maintenance.

Old Firetrail Road has long been a private road, which means it is not maintained by the state. For decades residents have pitched in to buy and spread gravel to make it serviceable for local traffic.

While some residents would like to keep things as they are  a bumpy road, they said, keeps traffic away and helps preserve the rural area they call home  others are looking to the county to take over upkeep of the road.

This year, some of the roads residents brought their concerns to an August Bedford County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The board asked County Attorney Patrick Skelley to look into the countys options, find out how much money is available and how residents can go about establishing a Homeowners Association.

This is sort of my baby here, Chairman Steve Wilkerson said. Its my district and Ive met with citizens and VDOT. And I want to know what options are available.

Old Firetrail Road resident Fadi Bahouth told supervisors there hasnt been much investment in that part of the area in a long time.

We are residents of this county, too, and we want to be looked at as such, he said. Weve got to move forward, if you dont, youre falling back. We dont want to be forgotten, we love this county, and we love being here.

Supervisor Curry Martin told residents they need to establish a homeowners association immediately.

We need to give them some idea of what can be done by the board and what cant be done by the board, he said at the meeting.

Resident Troy Vinson, who lives off of the road on Peaceful Ridge Road, told supervisors that following the winters rain and snow, mail delivery was cut off for a week. During the school year he couldnt get his kids to the bus stop a few times because of the condition of the road.

Buses wont traverse Old Firetrail Road but will stop at either end  on Carters Mill and Tolers Ferry roads.

That road could be paved with gold and we still wouldnt be able to have a school bus on it, Bedford County Public Schools Spokesman Ryan Edwards said. That is a private road and is not maintained by the state and our busses only travel roads that are state maintained.

Vinson said paying for road maintenance has become overwhelming.

I have done it for 10 years and put in over $1,000 this year in gravel, and done quite a bit in the past, he said.

Steve Owens also works on the road, including spreading gravel and scraping the road when needed.

He wants to keep it that way.

Its a private road; we bought it for that. If it became a public road, it would become a disaster, he said, adding drivers would travel faster if it was state maintained.

The speed limit on Old Firetrail Road today is just 10 mph.

Melissa Roach agreed, saying she likes living in a rural area with her animals.

More people would be traveling the road and would go faster if it were public, she said. I have small children and people go fast enough as it is. There are not many rural communities left and a lot of us on this side of the road want it left alone.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has been working with the county to review and asses the road, Jen Ward, communications coordinator for the VDOT Salem District said.

The first thing that would need to happen with this particular road before it can be considered for inclusion in the state-maintained system is for any private right-of-way on the road to be dedicated for public use, she said. Through our review of the road with the county, private right-of-way extends into the current roadway.

Someone would also have to secure the funds needed to bring the road up to VDOTs standards, which Ward estimates could cost at least $800,000.

Chipping and sealing just a nine-tenths of a mile portion of the road  known as Roach Road  earlier this year cost VDOT $168,725.

VDOT will continue to discuss the road with the county, she said. If right-of-way is dedicated for public use, the county has the option to secure funding as part of the revenue-sharing program, which allows the county to contribute half of the funds for the improvements with the state matching the countys dollars.

In a July 14 email, Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown told residents without reservations he supports improvement of the road.

The condition of this road, I think, impacts the overall condition of our fleet and consequently adds a cost to the maintenance of our patrol vehicles, he said. Anything you can do to alleviate this undue financial burden on my department is greatly appreciated.

The road has been deteriorating for decades.

According to Gregg Zody, Bedford Countys community development director, the road does not show up on any of the Bedford maps from 1932 to present, indicating it was never maintained by the state.

In the 1930s, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Byrd Road Act. That act created the Virginia Secondary Roads System relieving counties of the responsibility of maintaining some of their roads.

Roach Road, unlike Old Firetrail Road, was taken into the secondary road system in 1933 which allowed supervisors to add the paving project to VDOTs to-do list  once called the Secondary Six-Year Improvement Plan  in 2012.

County roads that were not taken into the secondary road system or the Virginia Highway Departments are not maintained by the state.

Its a strange situation with the road out here and the county isnt inclined to do anything, VDOT isnt inclined to do anything and a lot of people have to maintain a three-mile road and its rough, Debbie Morin, a resident of Old Firetrail Road since 2014 said. This road is a hot potato, nobody wants to touch it. It all boils down to money.

Speaking at the March meeting Supervisor Andy Dooley said the state has got to step up.

Im not sure how we do that  the Virginia General Assembly, somewhere weve got to find some revenue. My concern is the safety of these residents and weve got to figure a way that we can be part of the solution. I dont think the county is in the business of building roads; thats the way its always been but that doesnt mean thats the way its got to be. Hopefully we can come up with some kind of creative way to help these people out.
Hayden Kublalsingh: Designing healthy living

Home to the San Juan Cocoa Estate - one of the islands oldest cocoa plantation - Gran Couva is a haven for nature lovers. Little streams run by at intervals, setting the mood and creating a picture of natural living for us as we journey towards the San Salvador Estate.

At the wooden gate of the estate, there is a sign identifying the space.

My photographer and I are let in to over 200 acres of land. Interestingly enough, many of the islands communication towers are located on this property on the heights of the Central Range. Thankfully they do not interrupt the vibrations of the residents here. The towers presence here which is just a reminder that a wider world exists outside this compound is easy to forget in this silence and natural energy. As much as we are away, we are still inside the larger context of the society.

But this is the essence of transcendental living  to be a part of the world yet not attached to it.

As we park, a cottage peeps at us through the surrounding trees. A boyish face with a friendly demeanour greets us at our car. Except for the mop of grey hair on his head, he could easily pass for mid 30s  one of those faces that confuses you because you have no idea whether his age should be identified by his hair or his face. The estate around us disappears as we enter the cottage that he welcomes us into. Small but spacious  everything here has a function.

We settle onto an outdoor deck that looks out into a densely forested area. Our conversation revolves around the bugs and flora and fauna around us. Casual conversation leads us eventually into a grounding session.

We close our eyes to the sound of his voice leading us into a brief meditation, bringing all our senses and bodies into focus before we proceed with a formal interview.

For my part, the brief session sums up exactly what we are going to be speaking about  internal/external architecture

We had not come here expecting this but it is a pleasant surprise, even more so that it brought back memories of a time when transcendental meditation, also popularly called TM, was a growing practice in Trinidad.

The name Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is synonymous with TM.

In the 1980s, TM had begun to gather a fairly large following of people from diverse backgrounds in Trinidad.

Stories of self-healing - from smaller ailments like headaches to more serious ones like terminal cancer - proved the health benefits of TM. The Maharishi Institute in Iowa combines secular education with meditation practice to produce students equipped to face the world with more equanimity and awareness.

Among the many subjects of study offered at the institute is Vastu Design Architecture.

Hayden Kublalsingh, founder of Designs for Natural Architecture (DNA), brings his training in Vastu design at the institute, to the local landscape. It is a rare formal design practice in Trinidad and his clientele is composed of many persons seeking to find harmony in their own lives.

DNA is so named because my intention as a designer Kublalsingh explains, is to create spaces that resonate with the human being at the deepest level. The underpinning principle in Vastu is creating healthy energy spaces that can enhance spiritual development by harnessing the right energies in the building, through a number of techniques and practices like orientation, right selection of the land, right sizing of the house according to geometric principles, placing of water, fire, and so on. In the bedroom, for instance, having your bed face east for sleeping is among the things that help to harness a more harmonious living experience.

If you believe this, then the collective experience of living in an environment like that, enhances your deeper connection with yourself and your environment. So, in spirituality, regardless of the faith we follow, we speak about the being, the essence within, your divine inner self. Its that connection which is our connection with our nature. So when we go to the beach and say Ah! that expression of ah! is the deep connection with Gran Couva or with the ocean or the river. So it is possible, arguably, to create spaces which are healthier for living and can enhance the development of the individual, simply by being in that space more often. That therefore implies that there are spaces that are not so good for living and working.

So, its very common language in twenty-first century architecture to speak of unhealthy buildings as an example. What I am describing in Vastu architecture or vedic architecture or feng shui, is the higher level of healthy living. Kublalsingh engages in a range of building designs, from residential and commercial to more intimate cottages.

He works with the natural landscape in which he is commissioned to build.

He continues to explain to us: I dont dictate where anyone wishes to live or build an office. But when I do find an environment that is conducive to natural design I certainly recommend it as first choice. Proper design requires that you never design something without first visiting a site.

In beautiful healthy locations like where there is a seaview or forest, you dont want to put a building you would typically have in Valsayn or Goodwood Park. Everything has a place. There is nothing wrong with those buildings, except that I think that they become out of place in a natural environment.

So my emphasis in my design is to keep it natural as much as possible through design, through use of material, through interaction with the topography, be in cliffs, slopes, trees,etc. and if possible, as much spiritual energy principles as possible.

Not all clients will want to know about Vastu but that doesnt mean as a designer I dont include it subtly, quietly and have them experience it and see if it makes a difference later on.

Maybe they notice it maybe they dont, because not everybody appreciates silence. So, I would usually design a building for a site based on how I would live on the site, even if it is a typical Gulf View type residential area.

Most times I find that people do not change my design.

When I explain why we want that view, or rooms in a particular place or why the wind flow is important here or sunlight is important there, most times, nobody has said, well lets change this. So it seems to work. In our fast-paced, rapidly growing urbanised world it is only natural that people would search, whether consciously or subconsciously, for spaces that feel more natural and healthier.

We live in a time where home has a multiplicity of meanings and varies from individual to individual.

I have found that most of the people who come to me are of a certain type. They are usually seeking something within themselves. As part of that inner search they are looking for spaces which, through my advertisements of through word of mouth, theyve come to speak to me about what they are thinking of or where they would want to live. And then we would have that conversation, which is basically about purpose of life, how we should live, purpose of income and so on, and then I would make recommendations accordingly.

More often than not, they engage me and we work together to complete the project. A key part of Vastu design, Kublalsingh notes, is understanding the client.

I like to get a sense of the individual, their spouse, the family.

Getting a sense of what they wish to achieve in their home and how they wish to live is also important.

For instance one client may want very open space plans, with decks that open out to a view while another may want, because of location, like lets say a residential area in Chaguanas, less of the open space plan and more intimate spaces for privacy.

My own intuition will tell me that when people want those intimate spaces there should also be some open spaces for a sense of freedom.

So your bedrooms could be intimate for instance, but when you come down to living areas, kitchen, outdoor decks and so on, there should be more visibility, light, wind, a sense of openness.

You can build a house and live in it and not know that you are missing anything.

But you can build a house and realise that this porch is necessary for your living because of where it is positioned.

Natural living goes the extra yard to give people the experience of natural life  silence, natural light, views, natural materials, the sound of water - everything that you might call Zen. As part of the Zen/Vastu principle, Kublalsingh is cautious about becoming overworked.

He stresses the need for constant grounding in oneself for efficient designing particularly as he works in a business that thrives of inner awareness.

Even as he generates an income, he keeps focused on his core.

We can trivialise income but income is always a necessary element of life. The question is what path do we take to earn it and how complicated do we make our lives to do so.

This is a business with a philosophy, as any business has I suppose. In my case I guess its a business that involves more esoteric principles. My intention is to use what I know and what I have experienced to share with others, so that they can experience higher living principles, within the spaces that they operate from.

I think it will be difficult to really capture natural designs and natural living if one is not continuously grounding himself in nature itself and by nature we mean external nature and internal nature.

So Im not saying that its not possible for a typical designer who has gone through the normal ropes to do natural design. I think you get a little closer to the objective, however, if you practice what you teach. Kublalsingh has his background in corporate life. He has held management positions at Agostinis Ltd. and was general manager of EIL (Electrical Industries Limited).

Although he is still a director with the Electrical Industries Group, he has essentially stepped out of a corporate life and is now cautious about how his time is used.

I was careful not to have any of my current activities get me back to where I was in terms of my busyness. So even in my design practice I am careful not to take too much work. I am careful to project manage it in a way that I dont get overwhelmed, where I cant take a trip up the islands every few months or so. So outsourcing is very important to my model. I do the creative work and supervise. Design needs led to the birth of another company  Timberyard Homes.

When I began to build for clients, there was no single supplier in Trinidad supplying high quality, first-grade lumber at good prices, slate stones for roofing for example, wooden windows and doors, all of which I supply.

So the company is based in Chaguanas with a fairly large warehouse.

Timberyard Homes is a stockist for green heart, purple heart, locust wood and others.

We also supply timber cottages.

So I have married the DNA design part to the Timberyard supply chain end and I can design and supply an entire project to clients.

We do a complete service from getting the plans approved to building construction.

As part of the Vastu focus on environmental awareness, Timberyard Homes imports its lumber from a supplier in Guyana who, unlike some other suppliers, engages in proper sustainable forestry practice.

They have hundreds of hectares of concession land and they are allowed by law to cut only a few trees per hectare so it doesnt affect the forest canopy in any significant way. They can replenish but dont necessarily have to. So my supplier engages in proper environmental practices and the lumber is sustainably harvested. Among the upcoming projects in which DNA is engaged, The Toco Nature Resort  KASALA, a work in progress, is a source of pride for Kublalsingh. Another is The Great House in Gran Couva, a completed example of Vastu architecture that maximises on the surroundings. The Cottage in the prime residential area in Gulf View, San Fernando, is also a special design.

As the island becomes more heavily populated and once rural areas become more modernised, DNA is a symbol of the possibilities of healthy building designs.

With mental and physical illnesses on the rise, Hayden Kublalsinghs designs seem even more applicable, bringing nature to us to offer health and harmony in places that we can truly call home.

sharda.patasar@gmail.com
US: We See

No Signs

Putin Will

Use Dirty Bomb
(Newser)  In Afghanistanin spite of multiple wars, habitat destruction, and unregulated huntingone species feared to have gone extinct in the nation has been spotted and may even be staging a comeback: the rare and majestic Bactrian deer. When they were last surveyed in the 1970s, their local numbers were estimated to top out at 120, reports the Smithsonian. In the intervening years, multiple conflicts, deforestation, and what the Smithsonian calls "general lawlessness" culminated in a perfect storm that experts feared might have doomed the ornately-antlered deer. Not so, researchers report in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Deer Specialist Group newsletter.

Conservationists who surveyed the area in 2013 say they are happy to reveal that a "small population exists," though however many remain "urgently need conservation," University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers report. The global population, which reaches across Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, has increased from 400 in the 1960s to 1,900 in 2011 thanks to local conservation efforts. What's more, the deer, long thought to be a sub-species of red deer, may be a distinct species of its own in need of its own categorization and protection, especially as some wealthy locals are rumored to now cage the animals as luxury pets. (The whale's earliest-known ancestor may have been a cat-sized deer.)
(Newser)  Iraq has executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group's massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014, according to Iraqi officials. The men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq on Sunday, according to provincial Gov. Yahya al-Nasiri. A Justice Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the executions to the AP. ISIS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after the group overran Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former US base just outside the northern city. Shortly after taking Tikrit, ISIS posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch. Mass graves were uncovered the following year, notes the BBC, when Iraqi forces re-took the area.

The Speicher massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against ISIS. Those militias now rival the power of Iraq's conventional armed forces. Iraqi forces arrested dozens of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015 with the help of US-led airstrikes. The men executed on Sunday were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to fast-track the implementation of death sentences following a series of large-scale bombings in and around Baghdad in recent months. The United Nations criticized that policy earlier this month, saying that "given the weakness of the Iraqi justice system," the rushed sentences risk causing "greater injustice." Iraq ranks among the top five countries in the world in the use of capital punishment, according to Amnesty International. (Read more ISIS stories.)
(Newser)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a nationally televised address Sunday that the suicide bomber in the outdoor wedding party attack that killed dozens was between 12 and 14 years old. At least 50 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, reports the AP. Erdogan blamed the Islamic State for the attack. The US ambassador to Turkey, John Bass, condemned the "barbaric attack," saying that "we stand by our ally Turkey and pledge to continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism." Erdogan issued a statement early Sunday saying that ISIS was "the most likely perpetrator of the Gaziantep attack." Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between ISIS, Kurdish rebels, and the movement of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorist groups. (Read more ISIS stories.)
(Newser)  Matt Roberts, the lead guitarist for 3 Doors Down from the group's founding in 1996 until he left for health reasons in 2012, was found dead Saturday in a Wisconsin hotel, reports Rolling Stone. He was 38. "I was wakened at 8:50 this morning by some detectives beating on my door. It's always scary as a parent, they were in suits and that's when they told me. They asked me if Matt Roberts was your son, I said yes, and they said 'we have bad news to tell you, Matt deceased last night,'" dad Darrell Roberts tells CNN. The younger Roberts had been rehearsing for a veterans fundraiser; hours after the Robertses returned to the hotel police were called on a reports of a man asleep or passed out in the hallway. Matt Roberts was pronounced dead shortly after.

An autopsy is planned to confirm a cause of death. Darrell Roberts says his son "had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety. It's crazy as a performer; he never liked crowds or liked places he didn't know about as a baby, as a child, and this was his way of dealing with it and me and him talked about it often." The father says he thought his son was OK. "I thought he had beaten it all," he says. (Read more 3 Doors Down stories.)
(Newser)  It's not unusual for two college roommates to wind up not getting along. What makes this dispute at Penn State exceptional is that it's now in federal court. Also, it involves a colander that may or may not have had noodles in it. As the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, the feud is between sorority sisters Molly Brownstein and Rachel Lader. They spent the spring semester living together while studying abroad in Spain, and things did not go well. In a complaint to the school, Brownstein and her mother called Lader a "monster" and an "expert bully with a PhD in intimidation." Lader, however, says she's the victim, accusing Brownstein of getting her parentsprominent donors to Penn Stateto push through a disciplinary proceeding against her based on lies. She ended up on academic probation as a result.

Lader, an aspiring lawyer, has filed a defamation and breach-of-contract suit in federal court against Brownstein, her parents, and Penn State. She rebuts the allegations against her one by one, including the odd one that she dumped a colander of noodles on her roomie's bed because she was frustrated at Brownstein's messiness. The colander had no noodles in it, she says. The Guardian also reports on this "fractured sisterhood," quoting from a memo by Brownstein's mother that says, In [Alpha Sigma Alpha], it is generally understood that you do not cross Rachel Lader." Lader calls that a defamatory lie. One odd final note: Long before this drama, the women signed a lease to share an off-campus apartment their senior year. Classes start Monday, notes Onward State, and so far neither has broken the lease, meaning they could actually be roommates again. (This roommate want-ad caused a stir at a small California college.)
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Shimla:

Chief Justice of India Justice Tirath Singh Thakur on Saturday said that corresponding upgradation of judiciary was a must to face the challenges of emerging social and economic scenario and observed that unpolluted and speedy justice still remains a distant dream.

Thakur said that the three pillars of our democratic set up have many challenges, which assume greater dimensions as we make all round progress, widening the gulf between haves and have nots.

In his address at 23rd convocation of Himachal Pradesh University here, Thakur said that the judiciary as third pillar has its own challenges of making access to judiciary easy and unpolluted and speedy justice remains a distant dream for variety of reasons, especially when the country is making rapid strides on the developmental front.

The legislature and executive face the formidable challenge of banishing poverty by preventing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few as a sizable section of people continue to suffer from all kinds of deprivation and the number of poor people is increasing ever year and challenges of clean drinking water, basic minimum health care, education and jobs for every able bodied person remains a daunting task even after 70 years of independence, he lamented.

Forty years of planned development, liberalisation and reforms has made India relevant to the world and enabled 700 million smartphones and 332 million internet users, but Indias consumer story is led by 130 million urban consumers and is only one side of the story, he said.

He said that land reforms have remained an unfulfilled project since 1950s, growth carries burden of shrinking jobs, workforce falling into urban middle class constitutes only two per cent of the population, educated middle class facing reduction in jobs and technology was replacing the labour, as he stressed need for immediate re-skilling to be job relevant.

A resurgent India faces challenges of global competitiveness, social inclusiveness, and environmental sustainability and it is not possible for the institutions handling these challenges without a resurgent idea of justice that is actually enforced. Increasing farmer suicides and resurgence cannot go together, he added.

Thakur said that the Constitution and directive principles guarantee social, economic and political justice for all without regard to caste, creed or colour and also ensure religious freedom but in a society long oppressed by foreign rule and stark social and economic disparities, constitutional objectives are not easy to achieve.

Presiding over the convocation, Governor Acharya Devvrat called for inculcating human values and said that the education is not only for earning bread and butter.

Asking the degree holders and medal winners to serve the society with missionary zeal and raise their voice against social evils like drugs and female foeticide, the governor also stressed the need to change the mindset about girls.

Our daughters had always brought laurels to the nation, the recent example of which was Rio Olympics, he added.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh expressed happiness that girls had outnumbered boys in winning gold medals and PhD degrees at the convocation and exhorted students to preserve their traditions, customs and culture in march to prosperity.

Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court Mansoor Ahmed Mir said that education has a two-fold function - utility and culture - and it must enable the pass outs to become more efficient and achieve the legitimate goal in life.

The students must be trained in quick, resolute and effective thinking and think logically and scientifically, he added.

Earlier, Justice Thakur was conferred with honorary degree of Doctor in Laws by the governor while Justice Bhawani Singh, former chief justice of Gujarat High Court was conferred PhD in law Honoris Causa. As many as 189 students were conferred PhD degree while 143 toppers were awarded gold medals.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Ankara:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today said the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group was the likely perpetrator of a bomb attack on a wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep that left at least 30 dead.



Erdogan said in a written statement that there was no difference between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who he blames for a failed July 15 coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep.



Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack usyou will not succeed! he said.



Erdogan added that PKK attacks on security forces had claimed 70 lives in the last month alone.

[Also read: At least 22 dead, 94 injured in Turkey wedding blast]

Erdogan said that the aim of attacks like Gaziantep was to sow division between different groups in Turkey such as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.



Turkey would not give in to the provocation of the Gaziantep attack and would instead show unity, togetherness and brotherhood, he said.



Ankara has long insisted there is no difference between the various outlawed terror groups it is fighting and has urged the West to take a tougher stance against the PKK.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat, while addressing a large gathering of university and college teachers in Agra on Saturday, said that to improve the current education system we have to change our attitude towards it.



He said, We need to change ourselves in order to change the society at large. If we want to improve our education system, we have to change ourselves first. The event was organised by the RSS.



Moreover, while answering to a question on RSS's stand on the "disproportionate" rise in population of Muslims, Bhagwat said that there is no law in the country that prevents Hindus from having more children.



Which law asked Hindus to produce fewer children? If their (Muslim) population is increasing then why your numbers are not growing? the 65-year-old RSS leader asked.



This is not the question of system but of society. These decisions are personal and they need to be taken keeping all three, personal, family and national interest in mind, he added while addressing educationists drawn from 12 districts of Western UP.



Besides, speaking on Hindutva he said it is ingrained in the fabric of India and that is why Hindutva is nationalism. What is quite easy to understand is that Hindutva is the quality of Bharat and that is why Hindutva is rashtriytva [nationalism], said Mr. Bhagwat.



Also he, in his long lecture on being Hindu and Hindu culture, said Bharat and Hindu have the same meaning and the entire world describes India as Hindu.



He referred to the BJP government at the Centre and said that the RSS could not solve problems directly but produces swayamsevaks who can make a difference and change the system.



Furthemore, on suggestions and concerns raised by the teachers for salaries and change in education system, Bhagwat said that he will convey their messages to the education ministry or they, on their own, can send a detailed letter to the Union Education minister.



He also said, For a long and stable change in the system in the national interest, I appeal to newcomers to this conference to come to the RSS shakha (office) and see for yourself. This is the way.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

The AAP government is planning to set up mohalla clinics in the citys commercial hubs including Nehru Place, Bhikaji Cama Place, and Subhash Place in order to provide medical facility to working class there.



The Kejriwal government has an aim of setting up 1,000 mohalla clinics by the end of this year and out of them, 105 such health facilities have come up in different areas of the national capital so far.



Government has identified 300 schools where such clinics will be set up for giving medical service to students near their study places.



A senior official said that government wants to provide health services to professionals working in commercial areas as many of them are not able to spare time for their health check-up.



We are contemplating setting up mohalla clinics in commercial hubs including Subhash Place, Bhikaji Cama Place and Nehru Place to provide medical services to working class. Government is looking for land in these areas to open such clinics, the official also said.



In his Independence Day speech, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had lauded his governments works in health sector, saying that in the last one-and-a-half years, his government has prepared the people of Delhi by educating them besides making them healthy and giving skills.
New Delhi:

Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt lost 3-0 against Mongolia's Ganzorigiin Mandakhnaran in qualifying round of Mens 65 kg freestyle wrestling category at Rio Olympics 2016.



In the opening period, Mandakhnaran earned a point in 30 seconds due to the passivity of Yogeshwar to take a 1-0 lead.



Mandakhnaran then turned a defensive position into an attacking one to take down Yogeshwar and quickly bag two points to surge ahead.



With a minute to go, Yogeshwar failed to get around his opponent and went into the break 0-3 down.



Yogeshwar, who qualified only in March this year for the Rio Games after struggling with a knee injury, was expected to turn the tables in the second period but he just could not script a comeback.



In the last minute of the bout, he tried to pin down his rival but all his efforts went in vain.



With this India settles with two medals in this edition of Olympics games. Silver and bronze medal has been won by PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik respectively. (Watch epic photo moment shared by Sakshi Malik)



Yogeshwar Dutt had won the Bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013. In 2014, he won the Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.



(With PTI Inputs)
New Delhi:

A delegation of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir, led by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi to discuss the situation in the Valley which has been witnessing violence for the over past 40 days.



Congress is part of the opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir.



Discussed the current political crisis in J and K with a delegation of opposition leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar (Omar Abdullah), the Congress leader tweeted after the meeting.



Yesterday, the delegation had met President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to urge upon the central government to find a solution to the present Kashmir crisis politically rather than administratively.



The delegation will tomorrow meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.



CPI(M) MLA Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, who was part of the delegation, said the situation in the Valley should not be seen through the prism of law and order.



Gandhi also met senior Congress leaders from Gujarat on the issue of rising atrocities against Dalits and minorities in Gujarat.



Earlier in the day, a delegation comprising PCC Chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President, Congress Legislative Party leader Shankar Sinh Vaghela and AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry, had met President Mukherjee, requesting his intervention in the matter through the Governor.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Mumbai:

After Hiranandani Hospital illegal kidney transplant case in Maharashtra, state Health Minister Deepak Sawant is looking for a change to bring transparency in kidney donation across Maharashtra.

Details of kidney donors will be linked to their Aadhaar card in a bid to bring transparency in kidney donation across Maharashtra, state Health Minister Deepak Sawant said on Sunday .

"To bring transparency in kidney donations across Maharashtra, the details of the donors will be linked to the Aadhaar card. With this, no person can be cheated," the minister, who visited various government hospitals in the district, told reporters.

Sawant, who is from Shiv Sena, said a meeting has been convened in Mumbai on Monday where the issue of setting up a special committee for bringing in transparency in kidney transplantation will be discussed.

With regard to issues faced by hospitals and patients, he said a review meeting would be held soon in which shortage of medical staff and doctors would be discussed.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Singapore:

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong underwent a precautionary checkup tonight after he took ill while delivering his National Day Rally speech.



Television footage showed the 64-year-old leader, the son of late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, being assisted off the stage, shocking his live television audience.



PM Lee took ill while speaking at the National Day Rally. The medical team is attending to him right now. They assess that his condition is not serious, his office said in a statement.



Ive never had so many doctors look at me all at once. They think Im all right but Im going to have a full check-up after this, Lee said.



Media reports cited Member of Parliament Chia Shi-Lu posting on Facebook that Lee was having a precautionary check-up.



The Prime Minister's Office said Lee was feeling unsteady because of prolonged standing, heat and dehydration during the rally speech.



His heart is fine and he did not have a stroke, said the PMO.



Lee took a short rest and resumed the rally.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Oslo:

Fifteen people suffered minor injuries today when the ceiling of an Oslo concert venue collapsed during a show, police said.



15 injured. Theyre being attended to by medics, Oslo police wrote on Twitter, adding: No reports of serious injuries.



Around 1,800 students from the Norwegian Business School were attending a show by American house DJ Steve Aoki at the Sentrum Scene venue when the accident happened.



The ceiling fell in and it was total chaos. The fire alarm sounded right away, a student attending the concert, Charlotte Nilsen, told news agency NTB.



Police evacuated the building immediately and cordoned off the area while fire officials secured the site.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said as the two countries agreed to upgrade their security consultations.



Assad made the assertion during a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar when the latter called on him yesterday during his Syria visit.



There was an agreement between both sides for further upgrading security consultations, the sources said. However, the sources did not mention the level to which they have been upgraded to.



During the meeting, Assad also welcomed Indias objective position on the conflict in Syria and both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem, sources said.



As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism, sources quoted Assad as saying.



On his part, Akbar, during their meeting, said the age of destruction should give way to the age of reconstruction in Syria.



Assad also invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy. Both leaders agreed that as secular nations, India and Syria believe in faith equality.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Daniel Rowe was apparently enraged at the sight of a black man and a white woman kissing on the streets of Olympia, Wash., Tuesday night. But police say he hid his violent intent behind a stony face until he was close enough to strike.

The attack happened about 8:30 p.m. in the state's capital city on Fourth Avenue, a downtown street busy with people going to a local movie theater or visiting bars and restaurants.

Rowe had recently been released from Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, about 300 miles away. Police say he may have been among the ranks of the state's homeless, who flock to Olympia for help on their way to Portland or Seattle.

Rowe, 32, walked up to the couple and, without warning, yelled a racial slur and lunged with his knife, police say. The blade grazed the woman and went into the man's hip, according to a news release from Olympia police.

"The suspect is unknown to the victims and the attack appears to have been unprovoked," police said in the statement.

After the attack, Rowe ran off as stunned onlookers dialed 911. The 47-year-old male victim, not realizing how badly he was injured, chased Rowe and "tripped him up," said Lt. Paul Lower, a police department spokesman. Rowe hit his head on the ground and was knocked unconscious.

No one involved had life-threatening injuries, but police said Rowe's behavior grew stranger as officers tried to wrestle him into the back of a patrol car.

"He tells them, 'Yeah, I stabbed them. I'm a white supremacist,'" Lower said. "He begins talking about Donald Trump rallies and attacking people at the Black Lives Matter protest."

According to court documents obtained by the Olympian, Rowe, who was unconscious when police encountered him, had tattoos that read "skinhead," "white power" and "hooligan." One tattoo showed the Confederate flag.

Rowe was arrested and booked into the Thurston County Jail on two charges of first-degree assault and possible malicious harassment, which in Washington state is a designation used for hate crimes. The investigation continues.

"This has all the hallmarks of a hate crime," Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler said at Rowe's court hearing Wednesday, according to the Olympian. "This black-and-white couple was simply expressing their love for one another."

According to the newspaper, Rowe had been imprisoned for a 2008 conviction for second-degree robbery.

Rowe told police he had come to Olympia in response to anti-police graffiti that had been written over the weekend. Police were still investigating who wrote the graffiti, the spokesman said.

As the capital city and seat of the Washington state government, Olympia has seen its share of protests on controversial national and local topics, Lower said.

A year ago, protesters organized several demonstrations after a police officer shot and wounded two black men accused of stealing beer. The Seattle Times described the protest:

"It all began Saturday night when 150 protesters, some wearing masks, marched through downtown to counter-protest a planned gathering of white supremacists, an Olympia Police Department spokeswoman said Sunday.

"Some vehicle windows were broken and car tires were slashed. A man was stabbed in the arm about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, although that incident was thought to be unrelated to the protest, police spokeswoman Laura Wohl said."

In 2014, the FBI reported 5,479 hate crimes across the United States, a 14.6 percent decrease from 2013.

Lower stressed that Rowe is not connected to any of the city's protest groups.

In fact, investigators aren't sure whether he is connected to anyone in the area, Lower said. And officers were scratching their heads at Rowe's comments about fighting Black Lives Matter during a Donald Trump rally. Neither had events planned in Washington this week.
Several years ago I had a long telephone conversation with Allan Taylor, Chair of the Connecticut State Board of Education, about my issues with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). At the end of the conversation, Mr. Taylor said, The train is out of the station. I asked when the train would be evaluated; he replied, When the test scores are in.

The test scores are in, and the news is not good: the train is pulling some very inadequate policies and practices into our schools. Since implementation of the CCSS in 2010, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has gone down markedly for the first time since 1990, especially for students of color. Kentucky, the first state to implement the CCSS, is scoring lower than ever, and that states students of color have been particularly poorly served.

The CCSS were hastily written, not by educators, but by a small group of entrepreneurs. Bill Gates, who funded the CCSS, has recently conceded that he should have listened to teachers. The developmentally inappropriate CCSS-based tests, SBAC and PARCC, lack validity and reliability. The Connecticut Education Association (CEA) has called for the removal of SBAC, citing its harm to children. More than one hundred researchers have asked for a moratorium on the CCSS and SBAC; seven states have pulled out. Connecticut remains in the consortium. For the sake of our children, Connecticut should get out, too.

My concerns about the CCSS and SBAC have remained the same for six years:

The focus is on only math and literacy, to the exclusion of science, social studies, the arts, and physical education.

No early childhood educators helped to develop the CCSS, and the resulting tests show it. They make failures of young children who cant pass developmentally inappropriate tests. (Google Defending the Early Years, a group founded by Matt Damons mother, Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, to defend children from the CCSS and SBAC).

There are mandated percentages of content students must read  70 percent informational by high school, and 50 percent informational, 50 percent fiction in the elementary years. In mandating these percentages and taking the focus off literature, we are flying in the face of our own success. China is trying to emulate our broad range of fictional reading for children at the very moment we are reducing it. Neil Gaiman reports that China sent representatives to Silicon Valley to learn the key to our successthe Chinese can make things, but realize they dont have our creativity. Creators and inventors in Silicon Valley reported that they read much science fiction when they were children and young adults; now China is promoting science fiction at the very moment we, because of CCSS, are devaluing it. We must focus on helping students find their voices and passions through whatever genres they like.

 The underlying theory of literary interpretation, New Criticism (an old method, despite its name) d ominates all 13 years. The authors of the CCSS could have chosen instead critical literacy and reader response, among other approaches, which are more likely to encourage the love of reading in children. New Criticism discourages looking at the biographies of authors, or considering the context, culture, and history in which texts were written. Leaving out such approaches makes reading dull for many children.

Of 171 recommended texts on the elementary level, only 18 are by authors of color. This impacts childrens abilities to become proficient readers (the proficient reader research shows that children must be able to make text-to-self connections). Students of color should have the opportunity for identity development through exposure to diverse texts. Books about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., are not enough.

The next train that leaves the station should include the voices of educators and parents, and should be free from the influence of people who want to make money selling inappropriate materials and tests that hurt our children.

Jane M. Gangi lives in Bethel and is an associate professor of education at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. Mary Ellen Levin is a retired administrator and college professor.
Smart devices that wake up with voice commands have gained popularity in recent years, and now researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have taken it one step farther: an always-on camera.

Designed with a combination of low-power hardware and energy efficient image processing software, the always-on camera is capable of watching for specific types of movement without draining batteries or running up electricity bills.

Right now cameras are very hard to run on passive power just because they burn so much power themselves, said Justin Romberg, a professor in Georgia Techs School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This combination of efficient signal processing and a novel hardware design lowers the power requirement and means that some of these other options to power it might be open.

Low power camera. Researchers at Georgia Techs School of Electrical and Computer Engineering developed a low-power camera capable of recognizing gestures. (Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech)

The research, which was highlighted at the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design Aug. 8-10, was sponsored by Intel Corp. and the National Science Foundation.

While reducing the frame rate of a camera plays a role in lowering power demands, to achieve the power savings needed for this project, the researchers programmed the camera to track motion in a more generalized way that still preserved crucial details about what was being tracked. That requires much less power to process than tracking individual pixels throughout the entire field of view.

What this camera is actually looking at is not pixel values, but pixels added together in all different ways and a dramatically smaller number of measurements than if you had it in a standard mode, Romberg said.

The always-on camera was primarily designed as a way to wake up devices. But its ability to recognize specific gestures expands the possibilities  such as a camera that wakes up with a specific pattern or movement almost like a secret handshake.

We wanted to devise a camera that was capturing images all of the time, and then once you have a particular gesture  like you write a Z in the air  its going to wake up, said Arijit Raychowdhury, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. To make that work without affecting the battery life, we wanted it to be so low power that you can power it with harvested ambient energy, such as with a photovoltaic cell.

Programming a camera to recognize specific gestures and wake up only when needed is also a way of conserving total system energy, Raychowdhury said.

Simple motion detection is a well-studied area of research, and there are commercial products that support motion detection, he said. But the problem is that a camera that can just detect motion  and not specific patterns in motion or gestures  is going to wake up more often, even when it doesnt need to.

Such a low-power camera could be useful in a range of applications, especially for camera systems in remote locations where efficiency is crucial.

If you have a camera in the field, you want them to use as little energy as possible and only record events when necessary, Romberg said.

Other applications include specialized surveillance, robotics and consumer electronics with hands-free operation, and the researchers are already working on adding wireless functionality to transmit images and data with an antenna.

Cameras are being added to more and more devices these days, but they dont have much interactivity, Raychowdury said. What we are studying are smart cameras that can look at something specific in the environment at extreme energy-efficiencies and process the data for us.

SOURCES Georgia Tech
The Bauchi State Government has denied four women their wishes to participate in the 2016 Hajj Pilgrimage. The state Deputy Amirul Haj...

The Bauchi State Government has denied four women their wishes to participate in the 2016 Hajj Pilgrimage.The state Deputy Amirul Hajji, Kawuwa Damuna, who is also the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, said this on Saturday.The News Agency of Nigeria reports that three of the intending pilgrims were discovered to be pregnant, while the fourth was disqualified on health grounds.He said that officials of the state medical team discovered the pregnant women during their final screening, adding that the fourth woman was too ill to travel.The Speaker said the third batch of the pilgrims from the state consisted of those from Misau, Shira, Zaki and Bogoro Local Government Areas, while the fourth was made up of intending pilgrims from Itas Gadau, Ningi and Jamaare Local Government Areas.
Female cancer patient Mayowa Ahmed has passed on today. Mayowa, a graduate of University of Lagos and an HB SS patient was diagnosed wit...

Female cancer patient Mayowa Ahmed has passed on today.Mayowa, a graduate of University of Lagos and an HB SS patient was diagnosed with bilateral Ovarian Mass Carcinoma, as stated in a diagnosis result sheet from the Reddington Hospital.A fund raising initiative to save Mayowas life recently took the centre stage o n social media and about N32m ($100,000 dollars) was said to have been raised so far by gofundme.com online platform in order to ensure the treatment of the poor cancer patient.Among those who popularized the campaign on social media is popular Nollywood actress, Toyin Aimakhu who visited the once Mayowa to cheer her up. Miss Aimakhu on her Instagram page called on well meaning Nigerians to come to Mayowas aid.
Edo State All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Godwin Obaseki, has declared that he is his own man. He dismissed insi...

Edo State All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Godwin Obaseki, has declared that he is his own man.He dismissed insinuations he is a puppet of outgoing Governor Adams Oshiomole.He fingered those who have lived off the states resources as architects of the claims.Obaseki, who spoke in an interview in Benin City, the Edo State capital, explained that his vision is to build on what the APC government has done in the last eight years.The governorship hopeful explained he was part of the main architects for the design of the current administration.He ruled out doing anything radically different from what Oshiomole is doing as governor.According to him: When I hear people talk about remote control yes, if I am going to be remote controlled to build more roads is that not good remote control?If I am going to be remote controlled to build more schools, to create jobs (is that not good remote controlled?)But I cannot be remote controlled to take public funds and distribute to people who are not adding value.He went on: So the narratives you are hearing about Obaseki not being his own manI dont see myself doing anything radically different.Thats the challenge. Thats the politics. Thats the argument. I am my own man.On claims by the Peoples Democratic Party that the current administration ran the state into debts, Obaseki said Edo does not owe any bank.He explained the negligible outstanding loans of Edo are not different from what obtain in other states.He maintained loans taken by the state can be paid off within the shortest time especially with the increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).According to Obaseki: If you go to the website of the Debt Management Office and check the loans of states, Edos total loan outstanding is less than N50 billion.Our total tax every year is about N24 billion. In fact this year, our total revenue from IGR alone is about N25 billion.So even if we didnt do anything, two years of our IGR will pay off our total debts outstanding.So when people talk about debt I imagine where are they coming from? The interesting thing is that we do not owe a bank one dime.The type of debt we have is a type of debt states and governments should have. These are long dated debts.By next year well finish paying the first bond we took. The rest weve taken from multilateral agencies like the World Bank facilities, which is almost like a dash, a grant with 10 to 20 years moratorium and less than 2% interest.So we dont have that debt burden. Weve thought about it very carefully and we have demonstrated to lenders that we are responsible borrowers.And that is why weve gotten the short of term loan we now have, Obaseki stated.
Popular Nigerian Catholic priest, Ejike Mbaka, has said that plans are being hatched to murder President Muhammadu Buhari over his uncom...

In a video message obtained by NE, Mr. Mbaka urged the devotees at his popular Adoration Ground in Enugu to desist from speaking evil against the president.So I want to tell you that so far, God is happy with Buhari. And him whom God has blessed, may you not try to accurse, because God will curse you, said the priest.Many people are planning, as it is revealed, to kill him. There are many plans on how to eliminate his life so that corruption will continue, so that quantum embezzlement will continue.But the Lord says God who put you there will not forsake you. Be firm, be resolute, remain focused, and be unbiased. Refuse to be intimidated and refuse to be distracted. Go ahead and war against evil. President Buhari, go ahead and war against corruption. President Buhari, God and his people are behind you, you are the answer of the prayers of the people, amen.'The exact date of the message could not be ascertained, but it addressed recent occurrences, including the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.The priest attributed the hardship to past leaders who corruptly enriched themselves and their cronies, adding that all of them  from local government chairmen to presidents  ought to be in exile by now.It doesnt matter the man of God they worship with, I tell you before God and man, all of them are wicked. They hate this country, he said.They succeeded in removing the liver, kidneys, and cardiovascular systems of this country, and paralyzed the neurological organs and handed over to Buhari, the new president, shambles, skeleton almost, a nation that is comatic.Nigeria right now, economically, security wise, is in the intensive care unit. If the oxygen is removed, Nigeria will go.The entire money voted for hospitals were looted out.Corruption was in quantum. To the level that the Nigerian bishops had to compose a prayer  Prayer against Bribery and Corruption, and assured all the Catholics to be praying that prayer every day after the Communion.All the money voted for road constructions were swindled, eaten. Many of them became millionaires and billionaires in Naira, in Dollars, in Pounds, in Euro. Billionaires, when they have no workshop, no business centre. Somebody who has nothing hes doing, yet hes a billionaire, because hes a politician.In the run up to the 2015 presidential election, Mr. Mbaka threw his weight behind Mr. Buhari, urging his teeming followers to cast their votes for him as the solution to the pervading corruption and insecurity in the country.In December last year, after Mr. Buhari emerged president, he hosted the priest at the presidential villa where he praised his exemplary courage.Controversy erupted one month later when the Catholic Church transferred Mr. Mbaka out of his parish and away from his ministry, a decision the church staunchly defended as normal church procedure.But the priest continued to deliver his pro-Buhari messages culminating in the president felicitating with him last month as he marked 21 years of priesthood.In his recent message, Mr. Mbaka said Mr. Buhari was Gods answer to Nigerias corruption problems.People of God prayed from here and there, God answered our prayers and gave us Muhammadu Buhari, he said.And I want to tell you today, God has told us that Buhari is a prayer answered. President Buhari is an answered prayer. Whether you hate him or whether you like him, Buhari is a prayer answered.The bishops of Nigeria, the Catholics prayed against bribery and corruption and this president came with a magna charter that has to do with war against corruption.All the prayers we have been doing against corruption, God answered that prayer through a Muslim, who decided not to discriminate.Theres nothing like religious, racial discrimination in Buharis administration. Hes a man for all, he means good for this country, and we owe him support; unalloyed support, consistent support, perennial support, unstoppable support, spiritual and otherwise.Mr. Mbaka also said that contrary to the criticisms of marginalization usually levelled against President Buharis administration, no section of the country is being marginalised.Our pastnot our past leaders, our past looters, you may not understand, looters, embezzlers pissed on the political positions, have eaten the cake of this country and now everybody is suffering it, he said.The youths are suffering it. And they want to tell you that we are marginalized. The Yorubas are not marginalized, the Hausas are not marginalized, Efik people are not marginalized, and the Igbo people are not marginalized.In the present political scenario, Igbo people have the ministerial position for Minister for External Affairs, full portfolio, in the person of Onyeama. Igbo people have the portfolio for Science and Technology, in the person of Ogbonnaya Onu.You go to Abia, we have the Industry and Commerce. Come over to Anambra, we have the Labour and Employment. And the problem of this country today is employment. If our youths are well employed, kidnapping will go. Kidnapping was a child of the past administration. They delivered that ugly baby, and that baby resembled them.The priest urged the congregation to reject any claims that the Igbos were being marginalised by the current government, insisting that the present hardship is the product of intrinsically corrupt past political activities.Many of you were intimidated and you will say what they want you to say, he said.But that is not the case. It is my job to put your mind right. When anybody want you to say that Igbos are marginalized, dont believe it.The Igbos in the north are doing well, and the northern people are not chasing them away. The Igbos in the Yoruba land, go to Idumota, go to Alaba, Ladipo and so on, they are treated with utter hospitality, with innovative kindness. The Yoruba people are not fighting the Igbo people, so why are we evolving a war that does not exist.And as I said in the former message, those who are engineering this have their children abroad and they want to use our youths, unemployed and say come out of the road and begin to walk around, that Igbos are marginalized. Our roads were not done. By the end of this year, you will know who ate the money of these roads.
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, on Sunday, joined other Nigerians calling for the restructuring of the country, saying it was str...

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, on Sunday, joined other Nigerians calling for the restructuring of the country, saying it was strange that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was at the fore-front of the agitation for true federalism was now against restructuring as the ruling party.Fayose The governor, who hailed the position expressed last Thursday, by the Southwest APC, said the party, must now go beyond playing to the gallery and set machineries in motion to restructure the country. In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said under the present APC government of President Mohammadu Buhari, Nigeria is returning to full-blown unitary system of government.He said, It is on record that the APC said at a debate on Addressing the rising insecurity in Nigeria, what is the master plan? organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) on December 18, 2014, that it would ensure true federalism and ensure adequate community policing through the establishment of state-controlled police so as to curb the protracted security challenges in the country.Sad enough, now that it is the ruling party, the APC is no longer talking about true federalism, especially the state police that it canvassed while in the opposition. Governor Fayose, who said States must be strengthened for the country to develop, noted that; Nigeria developed faster in the fifties and sixties when it was practicing confederal system of government, with the regions running its own affairs almost autonomously.A situation where there are mineral resources in a State and the State cannot do anything about them without approval from the federal government will not foster the development that we all yearn for. A situation where the federal government has turned itself into lord and master over other federating units in the country, using federal agencies to oppress even State governors is not acceptable. It was in this spirit that the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government organized a National Conference in 2014 and far-reaching decisions were made by eminent Nigerians during the conference.Sad enough, we are now being told by our president that report of the conference has been thrown into the dustbin of history. This is not good enough, coming from a president, whose party promised restructuring, including establishment of State Police. It will therefore serve the collective interest of Nigeria and its people for the report of the 2014 National Conference to be considered by President Buhari with a view to, once and for all resolve the various national questions that are holding down the country.
Joint Military Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe (ODS) yesterday vowed any secessionist group within its Area of Responsibility (AoR...

Joint Military Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe (ODS) yesterday vowed any secessionist group within its Area of Responsibility (AoR) would be arrested and treated like criminals.ODS restated the commitment of the military to keep Nigeria united.It insisted that the military under the current administration is well-equipped to crush any threat against the country.A group of militants, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which claimed responsibility for all the bombings of oil installations, threatened to declare the Niger Delta Republic on October 1.NDA, in its statement, said: The October 1st, declaration of independence is still sacrosanct if the Nigerian government fails to retrace its step by restructuring this country.The threat came few weeks after another group, Adaka Boro Avengers (ABA) dropped the idea of declaring the republic on August 1 at Kaiama, the hometown of the late Ijaw hero, Isaac Adaka Boro in Kolokuma-Opokuma, Bayelsa State.ABA abandoned its threat after the JTF responded by deploying troops and military hardware to frustrate the declaration.Speaking yesterday, the Commander ODS, Rear Admiral, Joseph Okojie, said it was high time people embraced the peace and stopped threatening the country.He added the military would not allow any criminal gang to break the country.Okojie said though the military outfit would not join issues with faceless criminal gangs, it would not abdicate its operations to arrest and deal with criminals.According to him, We are properly equipped to handle all these situations. We wont be joining issues with people who hide behind faceless organisations to issue threats.We are doing our job and at the appropriate time people will begin to see the results. We are well-equipped but we are not at war. We are in asymmetrical environment and we are well-equipped to handle issues in this environment and that is why despite our operations you wont get reports of casualties or collateral damage. We are working. But people should be law-abiding.Emphasising that the Niger Delta must be kept safe in line with the mandate of the military outfit, the JTF commander said militants are criminal and must be treated as such.He said the efforts of the ODS in keeping Niger Delta and critical assets safe have been yielding positive results.He said the spate of bombings had been reduced apart from the isolated case of Friday in Delta State where some miscreants ruptured a pipeline.He said: Whoever threatens the unity of the country is a criminal. As far as we are concerned, any militant is a criminal and our operation is to flush criminals out of the region to keep it safe.No criminal can challenge the military because we are saddled with the responsibility of protecting the territorial integrity of the country.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Saturday said the Nigerian military had so far rescued over 20,000 persons kidnapped by...

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Saturday said the Nigerian military had so far rescued over 20,000 persons kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents.According to Buratai, who said this shortly after inaugurating the Nigerian Army Officers Wife Associations Day Care, Nursery and Primary School at Ribadu Cantonment, Kaduna, the military remained resolute in not only rescuing those abducted by the insurgents, but rooted the criminals out completely.The army chief frowned on calls by Nigerians to dialogue with the insurgents in the North-East.He appealed to Nigerians to provide useful information that could boost the rescue operations and noted that the move by the Federal Government to negotiate with the insurgents would not stop the militarys rescue operations.He said, We have so far rescued over 20,000 abducted persons and we are still rescuing more.We will continue to carry out our rescue operations; as far as the Army and indeed the military is concerned, we will continue to play our own part.The negotiation is left for the appropriate arm of government, but we are looking for (relevant) information to rescue anybody that is being held hostage.The Army boss had earlier visited the headquarters of One Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, where he had a closed-door meeting with officers and men of the division.
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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.
Today

Thunderstorms likely. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 76F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 62F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Partly cloudy skies. High near 75F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
When the Gary/Chicago International Airport announced the reopening of its "crosswind runway" earlier this month, Airport Authority Chairman Stephen Mays called it "the latest achievement in more than three years of progress at the airport."

Officials and supporters of the airport have held steady over the years in their belief in the airport's progress and its potential as an economic dynamo for Northwest Indiana.

Even as some have seen a stubborn gap between hope and reality, federal, state and local officials have doubled down on their faith with a $174 million runway extension and the engagement of private partners to manage the airport and lead its development.

Airport officials point to significant growth in takeoffs and landings  up 12 percent in the first half of 2016 as compared to a year ago  as evidence the trajectory is up.

"We are bullish about the airports opportunities today and in the future, because we are better off than we were five years ago," Executive Director Daniel Vicari said.

'A close partnership'

For the last 2 1/2 years, the airport has been engaged in a public-private partnership intended to kick-start business and promote development north to the Lake Michigan shore.

The Airport Authority and the Gary Redevelopment Commission paid about $2 million to legal, financial, aviation and communications consultants in the process of getting those privatization deals done. The so-called P3 agreements brought in the firm Aviation Facilities Co., or AFCO, to develop property, and its subsidiary AvPorts to manage the airport.

AFCO's remit is to attract $100 million in development to the airport and the surrounding area over 40 years. The deal provides AFCO commissions and profit-sharing in exchange for its work attracting development.

AFCO's contract spells out broadly what "qualified costs" can be counted toward that $100 million goal.

Of that $100 million in development investment, AFCO had to attract $10 million in the first 18 months of the agreement, and $25 million in the first three years.

To date, a $10 million pledge from lakeshore company Carmeuse Lime, to build a clean-fuel plant at 6480 Industrial Road near the airport, has been deemed a "qualified cost" credited to AFCO. It satisfies the initial 18-month benchmark.

"We work in close partnership," Vicari said of the arrangement. "We share the same goals to grow the airport, create jobs and strengthen Gary. We expect AFCO to fulfill its obligations under the agreement and meet the benchmarks and milestones in the agreement."

On the operations side, AvPorts is being paid $10,000 per month to manage the airport, and its contract calls for a share of the airport's positive revenue.

A 2015 action by the Airport Authority that raised fees for airport tenants and customers also promised AvPorts a 1.5 percent share of the gross revenue of businesses headquartered at the airport. That provision remains contested in federal court by airport tenant Gary Jet Center.

Earlier this year, AvPorts brought in a new general manager, Michael Zonsius, who has begun revamping the airport's finances.

Just more than a quarter of the airport's annual revenue comes from its own operations: $2.03 million out of $7.42 million in 2015. The rest comes from other sources including local taxes. One of the goals AFCO/AvPorts set is to fund its operational cash flow without subsidies by 2019.

At the board's July meeting, Zonsius said AvPorts is working on an incentive plan to attract airline service to the airport.

A "visioning document" created by AFCO/AvPorts in 2014 includes the goal that the airport's "commercial airline service role within Chicagos three airport system will primarily focus on niche charter and air carrier service to select leisure destinations. Private and public sport and casino charters (both domestic and international) represent yet another potential air service opportunity."

An incentive plan likely would include fee waivers and marketing assistance and possibly direct subsidies.

"That's very tricky," Zonsius said last month. "That is very preliminary at this time."

Vicari said airport officials are in the midst of talks with several airlines, and are confident commercial service  absent since Allegiant's departure in 2014  will return to Gary.

"We're on track for restoring commercial service at the airport," he said.

'A corporate airport'

Not everyone sees the airport the same way. Wil Davis, owner of fixed-base operator Gary Jet Center, calls it "a corporate airport. Customers come to the airport because of the services provided by the FBOs."

"I know people would like airline service," Davis said, "but as long as you compete with Midway, that's a tough proposition." With hundreds of flights daily, Southwest Airlines "is the 900-pound gorilla."

Gary Jet Center and the airport's other FBO, B. Coleman Aviation, have built new facilities in recent years. Fixed-base operators can provide a variety of services, including fueling, hangaring, rental and maintenance.

"Both FBOs are heavily invested in the operations, and continue to invest," Vicari said.

Gary Jet Center is set to begin a $2.5 million project to build a new arrival and departure terminal at the newest of its four hangars, completed in 2012.

"It'll be a state-of-the-art arrival and departure terminal for corporate travel," Davis said.

Construction will begin in the fall and the new facility will open in 2017. "We have the building permit. We're ready to go," Davis said.

The airport also recently extended its lease agreement with Boeing, "our single biggest lease holder" and "a high-profile client," Vicari said. Boeing's corporate fleet has called the Gary airport home since 2001.

Flight plan

A year and a half after bringing AFCO/AvPorts on board, the opening of the airport's newly extended main runway became the single-most touted sign the airport has the chance to become that long-promised dynamo. The project took the main runway to 8,900 feet and opened the airport to larger planes and longer routes.

With the extended main runway, international charter flights are now leaving the airport, and officials hope a new customs facility will attract more international arrivals. The airport's engineer is still designing that facility, which will be located in an empty space adjacent to the airport's fire and rescue headquarters.

A 2012 analysis by the Regional Development Authority estimated the runway extension would help create more than 2,000 jobs in the Region by 2025. Others are less sanguine about the runway's impact, but agree it will boost business.

"It had to be done," said Gary Jet Center's Davis. "Incrementally it's going to help us."

For Davis, another runway extension would be the biggest business-booster  this time an extension of the crossing runway, which would offer landing opportunities in prevailing or crossing wind conditions.

The shorter runway is 3,600 feet long.

Its extension "would open up a tremendous opportunity," Davis said. "Now we (would) have a good into-the-wind alternative. That is job one."

"The flying community has an interest in extending the crosswind," Vicari acknowledged.

Last month, the Airport Authority engaged the national airport planning and development firm Jacobsen/Daniels Associates to update the airports master plan. The $870,000 contract calls for a plan to be completed within 18 months and will include a new set of options for the airport's development.

In the airport's announcement of the reopening of the crosswind runway on Aug. 12, Mays, the airport's chairman, said the investment would continue.

We plan to continue to build on this momentum and invest in the infrastructure projects necessary to transform Gary/Chicago International Airport into an economic engine for the Region, Mays said.
BOISE, Idaho  A young Hunter S. Thompson went to Idaho to write about Ernest Hemingway and decided to take a piece of his hero home with him  a set of trophy elk antlers.

More than half a century later, the gonzo journalist's wife returned the antlers to Hemingway's house in the mountain town of Ketchum.

"He was embarrassed that he took them," Anita Thompson told The Associated Press on Thursday, noting the deep respect her husband had for Hemingway's work. "He wished he hadn't taken them. He was young, it was 1964, and he got caught up in the moment.

"He talked about it several times, about taking a road trip and returning them," she said.

She gave back the antlers Aug. 5 to Ketchum Community Library, which helps catalog and preserve items in the residence where the author took his own life. It's now owned by the Nature Conservancy.

In 1964, Hunter Thompson, then 27, came to Ketchum when he was still a conventional journalist. He had not yet developed his signature style, dubbed gonzo journalism, that involved inserting himself, often outrageously, into his reporting and that propelled him into a larger-than-life figure.

Thompson was writing a story for the National Observer about why the globe-trotting Hemingway shot and killed himself at his home three years earlier at age 61. Thompson attributed the suicide in part to rapid changes in the world that led to upheavals in places Hemingway loved most  Africa and Cuba.

Even Ketchum, which in the 1930s and 1940s attracted luminaries such as Gary Cooper, had fallen off the map of cafe society by the late 1950s, Thompson wrote.

In the story, later collected in his book "The Great Shark Hunt," he noted the problem of tourists taking chunks of earth from around Hemingway's grave as souvenirs.

Early in the piece, he wrote about the large elk antlers over Hemingway's front door but never mentioned taking them.

For decades, the antlers hung in a garage at Thompson's home near Aspen, Colorado.

"One of the stories that has often been told over the years is the story of Hunter S. Thompson taking the antlers," said the library's Jenny Emery Davidson, who helped accept the trophy. "These are two great literary figures who came together over the item of the antlers."

Davidson said historian Douglas Brinkley, who spoke at the library in May and was familiar with the antler story after interviewing the writer, contacted Anita Thompson. She called the library on Aug. 1.

Davidson said the antlers have since been shipped to a Hemingway grandson in New York who wanted them. It's not clear if the antlers came from an elk killed by the author, who was a noted big game hunter, or if they were a gift.

Sean Hemingway didn't respond to emails or phone messages seeking comment.

Like Ernest Hemingway, Thompson ended his own life by shooting himself, dying in 2005 at age 67 at his Colorado home.

His widow wants to turn the house where he lived and worked into a museum, planning to open it next year by invitation only. Like Hemingway's home, it's much the same as it was when Thompson was alive.

"I couldn't open it with a clear conscious knowing there's a stolen pair of antlers," Anita Thompson said, noting the theft was unusual behavior, even by her husband's standards.
Munster resident Kimberly Kay Day is a wildlife advocate.

"This may be the last chance we have to save the elephants," says Day, a wildlife advocate who lives in Munster and is author of "The Journey of Timbo: The Indomitable Elephant," which she wrote as a way to raise money for organizations actively working to protect wildlife.

Setting a goal of reaching one million people, Day says that part of the proceeds will go to those organizations trying to save the elephants.

Sending copies of her book out to many who are involved in wildlife preservation, Day received an email from Virginia McKenna, who with her husband, Bill Travers, founded the Born Free Foundation and starred in the movie "Born Free." Their son, Will Travers OBE, is currently the charitys president.

This is an unusual book, McKenna writes. It combines acknowledgments to people who have, in different ways, contributed to the fragile survival of elephants, and alerted the world to their plight. And then the author draws us into the potential tragedy of their disappearance from the wild, through her own anguish at what is happening to this most extraordinary and inspirational of creatures.

McKenna describes the book as a story for young and old.

The tale of Timbo and Balbazar, the elephant spirit, leads us back to an ancient past and on to safety from an uncertain present, continues McKenna in her email. If the ivory gleam one day disappears from Africa, it will be a tragedy of unimaginable magnitude. Kimberley Kay Day understands that well and tries, through this brave little tale to make sure that we understand it, too. The only creature that should carry ivory is the elephant.

Days book is a collage of poems and essays shes written in order to create awareness about the future of both the Asian and African Elephants. Included are photos and her short childrens story about Timbo, who at the time of his death at age 48, was the largest and oldest African bull elephant in the U.S.

Besides McKenna and the Born Free Foundation, the book also honors Daphne Sheldrick of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya and actress Tippi Hedren of the Shambala Preserve. Also lauded is the Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF), a joint initiative created by the Wildlife Conservation Network and Save the Elephants, which recently received a $1 million grant from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The grant provides funds for on-the-ground global anti-poaching, anti-trafficking and ivory demand reduction actions.

Elephant poaching is a brutal crisis, with more than 30,000 elephants killed last year alone, said Leonardo DiCaprio in making the donation. The decimation of these animals is something we have the power to stop, and the Elephant Crisis Fund is a crucial part of the solution. I am honored to support them and recognize Dr. Douglas-Hamilton for his lifelong commitment to protecting this species.

An internet marketer besides author of several books, Day was born in Madisonville, Kentucky, before moving to Gary in the 1960s when her father worked at U.S. Steel. She graduated from Morton High School.

Ive always loved elephants, says Day, who received The International Poetry Society Award in Washington, DC., noting that she wants to make a difference in the world. "I get emotional thinking about how little time we have to save them.

Her book is available through such online book sellers as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Crown Point has been long known for its quaint square and historical courthouse, but it is also home to an impressive selection of beauty salons.

Salons and spas around town offer everything from hair cutting and manicures to massages and facials. There are also highly specialized treatments, full-day pampering and services for men.

Here is just a sampling of Crown Points pampering places:

Beauty and the Beach Salon Spa is a full-service salon, day spa and medical spa. In addition to hair and nail services, the salon offers eyelash extensions and is specifically certified to do NovaLash eyelash extensions. NovaLash provides an upscale look with individual lashes adhered to natural lashes, says owner Karin Kartuska. It has the highest safety rating in the market.

Clients may choose spa facials, waxing, massages, high pressure UV and air brush tanning. Red light therapy to improve fine lines, wrinkles, uneven tone cellulite, stretch marks and muscle aches, as well as full body hydration therapy to hydrate skin and detox are also available.

In the medical spa, an American Academy of Facial Esthetics certified physician performs lip enhancements, and injects Botox, which helps diminish fine lines and wrinkles, and Juviderm, a filler that replaces lost collagen in the face.

Blush Beauty is located inside Sola Salon Studios, a building that rents space to small salons. Blush Beauty owner and operator Ashley Harrison offers facials, chemical peels, eyelash extensions, eyebrow, facial and body waxing, and makeup services.

She uses LED light therapy for anti-aging, acne and for healing Botox injection bruises faster. Manual exfoliation called dermaplaning is used to lightly release the top layer of skin to reveal new, healthier, glowing skin. It takes away peach fuzz on the face and is safer than microdermabrasion.

Harrison is a state-licensed esthetician and has taken many continuing education classes. My license covers everything, but I took extra steps to make clients feel comfortable, she says.

Panache Salon is known for hair servicesespecially keratin treatments and colorand facial waxing and massages. Color keeps me busy, says owner Marissa Quiroga. A lot of young people get the hombres and pink and purple. She says she wants to add facials and other services in the near future. Currently, there are two others on Quirogas staffanother hair stylist and a massage therapistand she says she is planning to hire more stylists.

Shear Magic Salon & Day Spa is a full service salon, offering haircuts, color, highlights, perming, waxing and nail services. We do Balayage color painted on the hair, keratin treatments and Brazilian blowouts, says director and stylist Debbie Morrison.

In the spa, therapist Janet Kelley is certified in neuromuscular massage, which addresses chronic and acute conditions. Its all about pressure, trigger points and the flow, Kelley says. She performs myofascial massage for connective tissue problems, and she is a Reiki Master.

State of Mind Salon & Day Spa is a 6,000-square-foot salon and resort-type day spa where owner Pattie Kobe says clients can come for an hour of tranquility or stay for the entire day. Our philosophy is about health, beauty and a holistic approach to healing and well-being, Kobe explains.

In addition to the hair and nail salon, there are mens and womens locker rooms, an anti-stress relaxation area with shiatsu massage chairs, corporate meeting space, a bridal suite, massage treatment rooms, a pedicure suite and a full cafe. When youre here all day, you need food, Kobe says.

The day spa features a wide range of services such as waxing, ear candling and water therapy. A full team of licensed therapists offers Swedish, sport, hot stone, pregnancy, essential oil, reflexology, bamboo and Reiki massage.

Skin treatments include facials, microdermabrasion, fruit peels and anything that has to do with anti-aging. Kobe says their signature service is the soft pack dry float. Its the creme de la creme of water therapies; its the most relaxing and it benefits hydration and pain management, she says.

Skin Day Spa is a luxury spa that focuses on giving clients individualized attention and treatments. In addition to their sophisticated organic skin care product lines, the spa offers a number of specialty services, such as oxygen infusion, Jet Peel exfoliation, tension-releasing Champagne Mud treatments, and their Diamond Treatmenta signature customized facial and diamond microdermabrasion. A full spectrum of massages and skin rejuvenation services are complemented by lash and brow tinting, makeup services, airbrush spray tanning, and more.

CJ Warren Salon & Spa is a full-service salon and spa that just expanded to 3,100 square feet. According to owner and stylist Corrina Warren, the salon offers haircuts, styles, color, scalp and hair treatments, Balayage painting, eyebrow shaping and waxing. Bridal or special occasion services are available, including up-dos and makeup. Pedicures and manicures are more traditional in the salon and more indulgent in the spa.

Spa visitors can take advantage of custom facials, light therapies, sauna with light therapy, hot stone massages, microdermabrasion, non-surgical facelift and more.

Warren says that education is key to the salon and spas success. Were committed to building a warm, inviting experience by adding talent, techniques and new technology.
BILLINGS, Mont.  Montana is closing a 175-mile stretch of the Yellowstone River to all recreational activities to prevent the spread of a parasite that is believed to have killed tens of thousands of fish, authorities said Friday.

The action is needed to prevent the spread of the parasite that causes proliferative kidney disease and to protect the fishery and the outdoor economy it sustains, said Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials. The closure extends from Yellowstone National Park's northern boundary to Laurel, along with tributaries in those areas.

Over the past week, wildlife officials have documented more than 2,000 dead mountain whitefish and believe the total number killed is tens of thousands of fish. The agency has begun receiving reports that the die-off is beginning to affect some rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

The closure means fishing, wading, floating and boating are not allowed on the river.

"We recognize that this decision will have a significant impact on many people," FWP Director Jeff Hagener said in a statement. "However, we must act to protect this public resource for present and future generations."

Fishing guide Dan Gigone of Livingston says the closure will be catastrophic for his industry.

Gov. Steve Bullock said a threat to Montana's fish populations is a threat to the state's outdoor economy and the jobs it sustains.

The wildlife agency will monitor the river and will lift the closure when stream conditions, such as flow and temperature, improve and fish mortality ceases.

It has set up two decontamination stations near the affected area to try to reduce the chance of equipment spreading the parasite to other rivers. The agency is asking the public to properly clean all equipment prior to moving between bodies of water.
INDIANAPOLIS  The state's chief education officer is asking Hoosier lawmakers to approve another funding increase for Indiana schools.

Glenda Ritz, the Democratic state superintendent of public instruction, last week submitted a budget request seeking a 2 percent across-the-board school funding boost and reallocation of $147 million in existing funds to begin providing pre-kindergarten classes to all 4-year-olds.

"Budgets reflect priorities, and there is no greater priority than our children and investments that we need to make in their future," Ritz said.

"I am calling for common-sense funding increases for all schools, while also making high-quality, public and private pre-K available to Hoosier families in every community."

A 2 percent funding increase would give schools approximately $455 million in new money during the two-year budget period that begins July 1, 2017.

That would nearly match the record $460 million school funding hike the 2015 Republican-controlled General Assembly put in the 2016-17 state budget, though much of that new money was directed at growing suburban districts, charter schools and private school vouchers.

Ritz said this time she wants all schools to receive an equal share and schools with declining enrollments protected from sharp funding drops to ensure they can continue offering comprehensive educational programs.

In addition, Ritz asked lawmakers to end what she calls the "textbook tax" by giving public school parents the same $1,000 per child annual income tax deduction that's already available to private- and home-school families to defray the cost of educational materials.

Indiana is one of just eight states that allow public schools to charge "textbook rental fees" that often amount to hundreds of dollars a year per child.

"The parents of children in private schools have received this tax deduction for years; it is time for middle class Hoosiers to get a tax break as well," Ritz said.

Her plan to expand pre-K beyond the five pilot counties, including Lake County, participating in Indiana's On My Way Pre-K program for low-income children also is supported by John Gregg, the Democratic nominee for governor.

"One of the best things the governor can do to ensure the long-term stability of our workforce is to ensure that Hoosier children are offered early access to education," Gregg said.

"Statewide preschool is supported by business leaders, education experts and Hoosier families. It is time we move forward."

Jennifer McCormick, the Republican candidate for state superintendent, and Eric Holcomb, the Republican nominee for governor, have not announced specific school funding plans should either of them win election in November.

However, Holcomb has declared, "I want to be the best partner I can be with anyone that wants to make sure that every kid in Indiana has access to the best education available."

After the election, the State Budget Committee will evaluate funding requests from all state agencies prior to the Legislature convening in January for a four-month session focused on the next roughly $30 billion state budget.

Any chance for additional school funding largely hinges on whether the December state revenue forecast shows a sufficient projected increase in tax collections over the next two years to cover the cost of extra education spending.
WASHINGTON  Who should be able to vote and how easy should it be? It's a question going to the core of democracy.

Voting rights are in flux in the final months of Barack Obama's two terms as the first black president. Citing a need to combat fraud, Republican-controlled legislatures are tightening voter laws by limiting early voting and same-day registration, by requiring IDs at polling places and more. In 2013, declaring "our country has changed," the Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which required mostly Southern states with a history of discrimination to get advance federal approval to change election laws.

The court decision made it easier for states to impose new restrictions.

Where they stand

Donald Trump: Without offering specifics, Trump has emphasized the dangers of voter fraud, calling America's electoral system "out of control" with people who are "voting many, many times."

He has said  without evidence  dead voters helped elect Obama. Trump opposes same-day voter registration, saying it could allow people to "sneak in through the cracks."

Hillary Clinton: Clinton is urging Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act. She seeks a national standard of at least 20 days of early in-person voting and urges automatic voter registration for eligible 18-year-olds. Clinton backs voting rights for ex-felons. Her campaign has joined lawsuits to stop policies that may burden minorities, including in Arizona, where voters had to wait hours in March after cuts in polling locations.

Gary Johnson: Johnson, along with other Libertarians, is concerned about access to the ballot for candidates. He opposes photo ID requirements for voters, and as New Mexico's governor signed into law a measure allowing convicted felons to regain their rights to vote upon completion of their sentences.

Why it matters

Who gets to vote, and how easily, matters because it can determine who wins elections.

The issue is particularly salient for black Americans, who for much of U.S. history were disenfranchised and then effectively barred from voting until passage of the 1965 law. It's also become more partisan with the rapid growth of minorities, such as Latino and Asian immigrants, who tilt Democratic.

It's unclear how much voting restrictions may suppress turnout. The Government Accountability Office in 2014 found voter ID laws could reduce voting by 2 percent to 3 percent, particularly among young people, blacks and newly registered voters. That can tip a race in close contests. Still, voter enthusiasm for a candidate and mobilization can offset that.
WINFIELD  The town is completing a sewer rate study that began at the end of 2015, and it appears the only ones who will experience an increase are those using less than 1,000 gallons of water a month.

The study is being done by London Witte Group, of Indianapolis, at a cost of $8,000. Clerk-Treasurer Rick Anderson said its the first time the rates have been looked at in 10 years. It is advised that studies be done every five years to make sure the income is keeping pace with the systems needs.

The town purchased the sewer plant in December 2005 and decided at that time to remain outside the control of the Indiana Utility Regulating Commission and set rates itself. Unlike most communities in the area, most of Winfields sewer system is less than 25 years old.

The rate study has been a three-step approach. It started with the development of a sewer master plan by DLZ that looked at the existing system and outlined future needs based on the projected growth of the town. The master plan was finally adopted in July, but before the rates could be set, the council wanted to have video examinations of the sewers in two areas.

Video exams of the Doubletree subdivision and Wiseway plaza, where some of the oldest sewer lines are and where some problems have been experienced, are nearly completed. Anderson said the final draft of the rate study report should be completed within two months.

The system has 1,550 customers and an annual income of about $310,000, of which about $155,000 goes to pay off loans for past improvements. The utility has a cash balance of $1.2 million. Anderson said the existing rate structure is lower than the average for communities of similar size in the state for those using 4,000 gallons of water or less.

The rate is about $3 a month higher for those using 5,000 gallons and more than $20 a month higher for those using 10,000 gallons. He said the difference is Winfield charges the same rate per 1,000 gallons no matter how much is used while most other communities give a discount for higher volume consumption.

In its preliminary draft, London Witte is recommending only two changes. One would set a minimum fee of $9.95 for anything up to 1,000 gallons, a move that would affect about 47 customers. Anderson said those using less than 500 gallons arent charged now because the system rounds to the nearest 1,000.

The other change would increase the standard tap-on fee from the current $1,965 implemented in 2006 to $2,386.

The consultant said the town would have the ability to borrow up to $2.18 million for needed improvements and has another $1 million in cash for the work. Anderson said the plant currently is operating at 50 to 60 percent of capacity, so no major improvements are needed there.

The town does need to make improvements to some lift stations and to deal with any problems revealed in the videos, he said.
HAMMOND  Residents will be asked to for input what actions should be taken to promote fair housing in the city in two public hearings tied to the citys receipt of federal community development block grant money.

City officials will use information gathered at the meetings to prepare their assessment of a air housing plan.

Maurice McGough, Chicago regional director of U.S. Housing and Urban Developments Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said Hammond will be one of the first in the nation to undergo the new assessment process. The information gathered will be used in planning how the block grant money is used over the next five years. For example, McGough said officials may decide they need to devote certain resources to the East Hammond area of the city if they feel they have disparities they need to address in that area.

The first public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Hammond City Council chambers, 5925 Calumet Ave. The second meeting will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 1 in the community room of the Hammond Public Library, 564 State St.

The community is obligated not only to seek input from residents on how they feel disparities should be addressed, but also to respond to residents suggestions. For instance, McGough said that if a resident suggests that the city should invest $10 million at a park in a certain area, the city might respond that it doesnt have the funds to invest in such a project.

The community receiving the federal funding has an obligation to promote integration, McGough said. He noted this includes integration not just in terms of race or ethnicity, but also when it comes to family status, those with disabilities and others classified as protected classes by the federal government.

McGough said a community may look at ways to remove barriers from people moving into as well as making an area more attractive to retain and attract people to an area. He said some of the citys existing programs, like the Homebound Program, that provides down payment assistance for people buying homes, would fit into the programs goals.
HIGHLAND  An afternoon downpour that made for muddier than usual footing could not dampen the spirits of the large crowd of beer lovers who gathered Saturday for the Pints in the Park Craft Beer Fest that started in August 2014 in Wicker Park.

Its inexpensive, its a good crowd of people and theyve got tons of beer, said Glen Wolke, of Thornton, Illinois.

He attended for the second time with his wife, Belinda, who came largely to hear the music performed by Dick Diamond and the Dusters.

Its better than getting the standard beer, Belinda Wolke said. You just kind of feel like youre tasting peoples homemade food.

And there was plenty of food to sample as more than 40 breweries, many of them local, poured more than 150 different beers.

Jeff Dettlo, who helps organize the fest along with his wife, Jennifer, said he expected attendance to eclipse that of the first two years in part because of the weather clearing up before the official 4 p.m. start time.

Radley Robinson, of Highland, also was a return visitor to the fest.

He wore a necklace made of pretzels to enjoy between beverages and help cleanse the palate.

Its a good festival, Robinson said. Theres a lot of room. Its spread out.

He enjoyed a Fountain Square Back Yard Porter from a brewery in Indianapolis but also looked forward to seeing what several local breweries in Griffith brought to the party.

I think people are looking for something maybe a little different than drinking what their dad or mom had when they were younger, and they want something that has maybe a little more flavor and has a different taste to it, Robinson said.

Byway Brewing, which opened in February in Hammond, made its first appearance at the fest.

One of Byways owners, Dave Toth, said its nice to have a beer festival so close to home.

He spoke of the emergence of so many microbreweries in the area.

I think theres a huge artisanal movement out there, Toth said. Everyones developing more taste. Theyre looking for more flavors, not just in beer, but in everything.

This year, Pints in the Park served as the meeting place for two young women from South Africa.

Kelly-Sue Scholtz, of Highland, and Kershea Cademartori, of Chicago, met on Facebook a few months ago and arranged to meet for the first time at the fest.

Scholtz moved to the United States six months ago and Cademartori two years ago.

Cademartori commented on the large selection of beers available and said the fest is a good place to meet people.

Everybody loves beer, right? Scholtz asked.
The Franciscan Alliance Accountable Care Organization will sponsor free Senior Health and Wellness fairs from 1 to 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 14 and 28, in Schererville and Michigan City, respectively.

The first session will take place at Briar Ridge Country Club, 123 Country Club Drive, where Kathryn Mulligan, MD, of Franciscan Physician Network, will present a program titled Pathway to Healthy Living for seniors.

Samuel West, MD, also of Franciscan Physician Network, will discuss the same topic at the Michigan City program, which will take place at the Stardust Event Center at Blue Chip Casino, 777 Blue Chip Drive.

Both events also will offer health screenings, along with exercises led by Franciscan Omni Health & Fitness instructors, information on healthy recipes, area vendors who provide senior services and refreshments and giveaways.

Registration for the Sept. 14 program must be completed by Sept. 7; and by Sept. 21 for the Sept. 28 session.

To register or for more information, call (800) 931-3322.
BURNS HARBOR  Attendees had plenty of options on the opening night of the Burns Harbor Food Truck Square with the first in a series of events featuring regional eateries for dinner and a movie.

The evening drew more than 150 adults and children at 1237 Westport Road, the former site of the Westport Community Club at the corner of Haglund and Westport roads. Families, neighbors and friends enjoyed food trucks/vendors such as Mamas Kitchen, The Brown Bag, Designer Desserts and Xtreme Freeze. The Burns Harbor Fire Department and the Chesterton-Porter Rotary Club were also on-site serving those who attended the Star Wars-themed event.

The next event, The Badge & You, will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday. The community and law enforcement appreciation night will feature a variety of regional officers in attendance. Attendees are encouraged to wear blue to show their support for the fine men and women serving Northwest Indiana.

For more information about upcoming Food Truck Square event dates and activities, visit www.facebook.com/BurnsHarborIndiana or www.facebook.com/BHFoodTruckSquare.
Im sure youve heard the old proverb; Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day but if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.

Well what if everyone helped their neighbors with this same concept. The news is constantly filled with the growing disproportionate wealth in this world and the middle class disappearing bit by bit. But there are still organizations out there that are trying to help those less fortunate help themselves.

Heifer International is an organization with a mission to work with communities to end world hunger, poverty and to care for the earth.

The teach a man to fish philosophy drove Dan West, a farmer from the Midwest and an aid worker to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, to found Heifer International.

Heifer International empowers families all over the globe to turn hunger and poverty into hope and prosperity. The animals that are donated through Heifer International provide the people with both food and income with products like milk, eggs and honey which can be traded or sold in the market.

This brings the community opportunities to build schools, form coops and other things to create their own wealth and make their own way. Its helping people help themselves.

On Sept. 24, Portage First United Methodist Church is hosting Sacred Steps, a 5K run, 2-mile Walk and -mile Kids Fun Run at Imagination Glen Park, 2275 McCool Road. This race is to promote our community involvement in a global cause.

By running this you will help provide education, livestock and self-reliance where hunger is a way of life. Because all the administrative costs fall under the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), 100 percent of the money raised will go to Heifer projects.

Last year the committee of the inaugural run bought chickens, goats, cows and even a water buffalo with the funds raised to give to those who need that hand up.

Check-in is at 7 a.m. The race will start at 8 a.m. and will take place on public roads and paved Rails to Trails. The cost of the 5K is $22 with T-shirt, $16 without T-shirt, $25 race day and the Fun Run is free. T-shirts are guaranteed if pre-registered by Sept. 9.

Post race refreshments will be provided by area merchants. This is a Calumet Striders sponsored race and will be professionally timed by T & H Timing. Register online at www.thtiming.com or go to runsignup.com/Race/IN/Portage?SacredSteps5KRun.
VALPARAISO  Throughout the week, Strack & Van Til customers at the Calumet Avenue store in Valparaiso were surprised to find that area students were busy over the weekend tagging cases of beer and cartons of alcoholic beverages with stickers that read, Think Twice, providing alcohol to minors is illegal!

Sydney Evans, a Washington Township High School student, organized a group of friends to participate in the Sticker Shock Campaign at the Strack & Van Til store on Calumet Avenue in Valparaiso. Sydney worked with Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris to bring the message to adults that may not know the consequences of providing alcohol to those under the age of 21.

Indiana has a social host law that states if adults allow minors to consume alcohol or purchase alcohol for a minor they will face harsh consequences.

Parents need to know that having a party for underage kids is wrong. It is wrong for the kids and it is wrong for the parents, Sydney said.

Some parents are under the impression if they monitor the party, take the keys from the drivers and have them in a safe environment it is OK to serve them. Its not, said Officer Tim Beach, Porter County Substance Abuse Council president.

This project is a visual reminder that it is not OK to host minors.

We have worked in tandem with Strack & Van Tils on getting this message out earlier this year and hopefully we will be able to continue to do so, Harris said.

The message is clear and having the kids involved in the project reinforces peer-to-peer learning.

Youth are a pivotal component to all the programming at the Porter County Substance Abuse Council and it is critical to involve them in activities aimed at reducing underage drinking  they are communicating the message to their peers, said Executive Director Dawn Pelc.
VALPARAISO  Three best friends from Valparaiso earned Girl Scoutings highest achievement, the Gold Award. All 2016 graduates from Valparaiso High School, Carissa Steele, Shelby Hoyert and Breanna Horn, are members of Ambassador Girl Scout Troop 509 under the leadership of adults Sue Reinhold and Linda Horn.

The Gold Award is earned by those young women who have completed the stringent requirements leading up to a major community service project.

Scratch n Sniff is the project created by Carissa Steele with help from her mentor, Tricia Noelle, of Lucky Mutts Animal Rescue. Carissas goal was to help families who adopt abused or abandoned dogs experience a smooth transition from a shelter to their forever home. Using donated items, Carissa created 50 Starter Packs for adopting families which included information on the dogs history, tips for working with abused animals, a blanket, recipes for dog treats all wrapped up in a soft pillowcase. This project will be continued by Brownie Troop 364 at St. Paul School. For more information on Carissas project go to the Facebook page Project Scratch n Sniff.

Carissa, daughter of Heather and Duane Steele, is heading to the University of Maine in Orono to study marine biology.

Shelby Hoyert followed her passion for science by creating I Want to be Curie When I Grow Up: Increasing Interest in Science with Fun Science Kits. Working with her mentor, Mary Costa from ArcelorMittal, Shelby created a series of science kits for children ages 5 to 16. These STEM kits were distributed to local elementary schools for classroom and after-school use. Shelby also held a number of workshops at the Douglas Environmental Center at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Sunset Hill camps, and Girl Scout camps. She helped the children do fun experiments that opened up the world of science for them. Shelby created the website curiescience4kids.weebly.com to give more information about science for kids.

This fall Shelby will be enrolling at the University of Evansville with a major in chemistry and secondary education.

Another passion leading to a Gold Project had its start at the birth of Ambassador Girl Scout Breanna Horn. Born at 1 pound 7 ounces, Breanna spent 99 days in the neonatal intensive care unit and many times in and out of surgeries over the years. Breanna Breanna Horn became aware that spending extended time in hospitals is stressful for parents and children alike so Bear Hug became her project. Working with Junior Troop 148 at Parkview Elementary School 65 teddy bears were sewn, stuffed, and decorated. The bears are being distributed through Associated Pediatricians to children who are having surgery or other fearful procedures done. Some of the bears have also been donated to the NICU at Porter Hospital. Each bear has an inspirational booklet attached letting the patients and their parents know that they are not alone.

The daughter of Lee and Linda Horn, Brianna will be attending Indiana/Purdue Fort Wayne in the fall to study criminal justice and psychology.
International trade figures heavily in the presidential race. Donald Trump said, "Hillary Clinton unleashed a trade war against the American worker when she supported one terrible trade deal after another  from NAFTA to China to South Korea."

He added, "A Trump Administration will end that war by getting a fair deal for the American people. The era of economic surrender will finally be over."

Hillary Clinton offered her own condemnations of trade and globalization. Some see her stance on trade as little more than typical campaign rhetoric. Bill Watson's Reason magazine article, "Hillary Clinton's Protectionist Promises Would Do Serious Economic Damage," looked at Clinton's trade agenda. Watson concluded that for "fans of free trade and globalization, Clinton is a much more appealing candidate simply by not being horrible."

It is true that the number of manufacturing jobs in the United States has been in steep decline for almost a half-century, but manufacturing employment disguises the true story of American manufacturing.

U.S. manufacturing output has increased by almost 40 percent. Annual value added by U.S. factories has reached a record $2.4 trillion. To put that in perspective, if our manufacturing sector were a separate nation, it would be the seventh-richest.

Daniel Griswold's Los Angeles Times article tells the story: "Globalization isn't killing factory jobs. Trade is actually why manufacturing is up 40 percent."

Griswold is senior research fellow and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at George Mason University-based Mercatus Center. He says what changed in recent decades is that our factories produce fewer shirts, shoes, toys and tables. Instead, America's 21st-century manufacturing sector is dominated by petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, plastics, fabricated metals, machinery, computers and other electronics, motor vehicles and other transportation equipment and aircraft and aerospace equipment.

Griswold suggests political anger about lost manufacturing jobs should be aimed at technology, not trade. According to a recent study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, productivity growth caused 85 percent of the job losses in manufacturing from 2000 to 2010.

Manufacturing job loss is a worldwide phenomenon. Charles Kenny, writing in Bloomberg, "Why Factory Jobs Are Shrinking Everywhere," points out manufacturing employment has fallen in Europe and Korea, and "one of the largest losers of manufacturing jobs has been China."

While job loss can be traumatic for the individual who loses his job, such job loss often indicates economic progress. In 1790, farmers were 90 percent of the U.S. labor force. By 1900, about 41 percent of our labor force was employed in agriculture. Today, less than 3 percent of Americans are employed in agriculture. What would Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton have done in the face of this precipitous loss of agricultural jobs?

Losing a job due to outsourcing or losing it to technological innovation produces the same result for an individual: He's out of a job. The best thing that we can do is to have a robust economy in which he can find another job.
Marc Chase Editor Marc Chase is a veteran investigative reporter, columnist and editor of more than two decades. He currently leads The Times news staff as local news editor. He can be reached at 219-933-3327. Follow Marc Chase 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

Most of us can find fault in our neighborhoods.

We lament unruly kids running through our yards, curse about the neighbors whose dogs mess in our grass or scorn the residents whose trash blows onto our property.

As aggravating as such unneighborly variables can be, they're a far cry from worrying about being mugged outside our homes, bullied by transient gang members and hearing gunshots with the frequency of Indiana fireworks.

By the accounts of residents and Griffith police, that's just what the score was at the once infamous Mansards apartments in the town.

That is, until a concerted effort among Mansards residents, management and police began a few years ago.

Those three stakeholders are providing a model for curbing crime and developing shared understanding that should spread like a wildfire through our Region, state and nation.

We've all seen the headlines of the actual fires spreading from violent riots and demonstrations, most recently in Milwaukee, when people and authorities fail to remember their shared humanity.

Stakeholders in the livability of the massive Mansards complex, which house's nearly one out of five Griffith residents, have incorporated an approach of eye-to-eye collaboration rather than torch-to-car.

Three years ago, I implored the town, the complex and the police to make the reality of living in the Mansards match the facade of what were once considered luxury apartments.

The problem at that time  and for many years prior  was the high rate of crime, transient residents and police calls for service occurring there.

What a difference three years makes.

Griffith police Chief Greg Mance reported last week that crime has fallen about 30 percent roughly within that time period.

And within the past six months, it's down about 48 percent, which means the falling crime rate of the Mansards finally mirrors the declines throughout the entire town.

This didn't happen by accident.

About three years ago, Griffith police began dedicated patrols of the 900-plus-unit complex.

Police began working with Mansards managers, encouraging regular audits of lease agreements to ensure those actually living in the units are the ones listed on the lease.

More importantly, a group of concerned residents from both within and outside the Mansards community formed a community club and steering committee focused on communication and understanding.

The group meets regularly with Chief Mance and dedicated Mansards beat officer, Tony Hemphill, to discuss concerns and to plan events befitting one of Griffith's largest neighborhoods. Hemphill attends all the community events, including Halloween and Christmas parties, not just as a cop but member of the greater Mansards community.

At a recent meeting of the steering committee, the real Mansards progress was revealed, not in what residents were telling Mance and Hemphill, but in what they weren't talking about.

"There's five pools in the Mansards and no life guard," resident and community club member Luther Philips said.

Other residents and steering committee members complained about unregistered dogs in the complex  and people not picking up the unsightly messes left by the animals.

Within the past year, Mance has noted these quality-of-life complaints have largely replaced residents raising the alarm about gang and drug activity within the complex.

Even with all of this work, things aren't perfect at the Mansards. But at least the residents, managers and police are looking each other in the eye, shaking hands and working together to make things better.

The reality is beginning to match the facade because people are willing to be real with one another.
The Anderson City Council has become the sixth Indiana municipal legislative body to adopt a resolution calling for a citizen panel to take over drawing district lines for seats in the U.S. Congress and the Indiana General Assembly.

Two public interest groups, Common Cause Indiana and the League of Women Voters, are urging local units of government to adopt such resolutions, and Anderson joins Michigan City, South Bend, Lafayette, West Lafayette and Vincennes in doing so, The Herald Bulletin reported Sunday.

Legislative districts are redrawn every 10 years following the release of information by the U.S. Census Bureau. In Indiana, redistricting is done by the state Senate and Indiana House of Representatives and signed off on by the governor. The next redistricting in Indiana will take place in 2021.

Julia Vaughn, policy director for Indiana Common Cause, said the intent of having municipal units of government adopt a resolution is to show lawmakers there is broad public support for a change.

Citizens seem to feel that the district lines are drawn for political purposes, she said. The consensus is the need to have citizen input in the redistricting process.

California has adopted a system in which a citizens group is responsible for redrawing district lines, and 10 states, including Illinois and Ohio, currently are considering changing how district maps are created.

Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said he supports looking at alternatives to the current system.

Im OK with looking at a citizen panel, Lanane said. I also want to look at the Iowa model.

Since 1980, Iowa has had its nonpartisan legislative services agency redraw the district lines, he said.

It seems to have worked well, Lanane said. It has not been challenged in court, and the districts dont divide counties.

Lanane said selecting citizens to serve on a redistricting commission would be challenging, and added the California model is a grueling process.

Sen. Doug Eckerty, R-Yorktown, said he informed Common Cause that he has no problem studying a change in the redistricting process.

Its not as easy as it sounds, Eckerty said. The biggest challenge would be selecting citizens.

During an Anderson City Council meeting earlier this month, Vaughn said the process has to be opened to any registered voter in Indiana who wants to serve on a redistricting commission.

It will be more balanced and create better districts, she said, adding that competitive districts would increase voter turnout.

In Indianas most recent legislative election in 2014, the races for 44 seats in the Indiana General Assembly were uncontested.

Indiana had the lowest voter turnout in the United States at 28 percent in 2014, Vaughn said.
Personal troubles can burden people in the best of small towns. The best of small towns provide support for those troubles. Dyer is such a town.

There are support groups and servicesinformal, structured, independent and residentialfor a variety of emotional and physical challenges.

Support for Caregivers

Jim and Pat Koehling, co-facilitators for Caregiver Support Group for Alzheimers/dementia and other illnesses, say no matter the health issue, caregivers need to have their feelings heard. It gives them some relief to know theyre not the only ones who experience stress, fatigue, grief and other issues, says Jim Koeling. He and Pat and other leaders of the group are facilitators only; they dont give advice, he says. Its others in the group who may offer something that has worked for them.

Still, I remind them, caregivers need to take care of themselves physically and emotionally so they can care for another person.

Co-facilitators for nearly 16 years since starting the group, affiliated with Alzheimers & Dementia Services of Northern Indiana (ADSNI), the Koehlings see varied attendance, but their commitment is constant. Jim says, I believe when I am in the presence of caregivers, I am in the presence of saints.

The group meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at Franciscan St. Margaret Health in Dyer. For more information, contact Jim or Pat Koeling at (219) 365-3898, or the toll-free help line at 1-888-303-0180.

Leona Bachan, regional director of ADSNI in Munster, says 300 participated in the May 21 Alzheimers Walk, including the Koelings. Bachan, whose office serves 11 counties in Northwest Indiana, encourages caregivers to read The 36-Hour DayA Guide for Families Caring for Someone with Alzheimers Disease, Related Dementias, and Memory Loss.

GriefShare at Village Church

Worldwide GriefShare has groups at Village Church in Dyer, and lay pastor Ed Staska explains, These groups are for people who have lost a family member or friend.

With thousands of groups worldwide, GriefShares Dyer groups began at Village Church four years ago. Two groups of 15 meet, with church husband-and-wife teams co-facilitating along with Staska and his wife, Bev, but attendees come from all around the Region. Theres no pressure to talk and anyone can attend at any time during the 13-week cycle.

A one-time fee of $20 covers a workbook for reflection and writing; the fee allows unlimited meetings.

People flock to us, Staska says with a note of wonder. You cant believe what it means to people that they can talk, cry or hug. Everyone understands one another.

Attendees do not have to be Christian to attend. You will hear about the importance of God, but theres no pressure whatsoever, Staska says.

For more information on meeting times and locations, visit GriefShare.org and enter your zip code.

Faith Church and Hope

Faith Church just began its Overcomers group for caregivers and their patients last month. We became aware of how urgent the need was. Its been widely attended, says Rev. Andy Nearpass. Overcomers meets twice monthly for any serious health care issue, to bring encouragement and hope to both caregiver and patient.

A team of four leads the groups. With two separate groups for caregivers and patients, I think well find theres more freedom to be open, he says.

More than half the attendees have been from outside the church. And thats fine, says Nearpass: It wasnt meant to be an in-house-only ministry. For information about support groups at Faith Church, visit WeAreFaith.org or email Anne at Groups@WeAreFaith.org.
Events took place Sunday in Brooklyn to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the Crown Heights Riots.

Community members honored the memories of Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum at a memorial service at the Jewish Children's Museum.

Cato was seven years old when he was hit by a station wagon that veered onto the sidewalk that he and his cousin were playing on with their bicycles. Cato was killed.

Riots broke out in the neighborhood after rumors spread that a volunteer Jewish ambulance attended only to the car's driver and ignored the children.

Rosenbaum, a Hasidic scholar from Australia, was stabbed to death during the riots.

"From those two dear lives, we're going to be able now to save millions and millions of people because we'll be able to find ways to communicate, find ways to cooperate, find ways to grow together," said Richard Green of the Crown Heights Youth Initiative.

A march was held Sunday through the neighborhood, along with a festival in Brower Park, to promote diversity and unity.

Organizers say progress made in mending fences between the two communities should be celebrated.

"25 years later we're still growing, we're still making progress, we're still looking to each other for answers, and we're still able to show the rest of the world that two people very diverse in terms of our practices can actually still find ways to relate to each other," Green said.

"I think our coalition, which Richard has been a greater leader in, has held things together and really brought the community together," said Eli Cohen of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council.

While Cato's dad, Carmel, did not speak Sunday at a public commemoration of the riots, he did greet the small crowd from the stage.

But Rosenbaum's relatives stayed away, instead holding a small memorial service Friday.

"It has struck a chord that not everyone is happy," said Cohen. "But we do what we do because we feel that we can bring people together."

"There are many people who have been working very hard to create great alliances between our communities here in Crown Heights, and I think it's great that there's a commemoration in which the communities are coming together," one woman said.

But many acknowledged it has not been an easy path in a community traditionally split along racial and religious lines, and which is now increasingly dealing with gentrification.

"We have come now to write a new chapter," said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, who is the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

"Years ago, we spoke of Crown Hate," Potasnik continued. "The new chapter speaks of Crown Harmony."

Even during the at-times awkward commemoration of a dark moment in the city's history, speakers said the words "Crown Heights" have new meaning a quarter century later.

"The world we want for our young people is not the world of that day," said Rudy Crew, the president of CUNY Medgar Evers College. "The attitudes that we want in our young people are not the attitudes that begot that day."
Coney Island's 26th annual sand sculpting contest is more than just castles in the sand.

Amateurs and semi-professionals let their imaginations run wild on the beach Saturday.

The top prize was $250 and bragging rights.

But the artists and supporters NY1 spoke with said they keep coming back to see each other and have fun.

"It definitely is an opportunity for everyone to get together and have a great time, you know," said participant William Petrosino. "And you always hear bad news in the news, and this is something that actually gets the community together and do something good."

"The whole community can come out and enjoy the beach, enjoy the weather, see Coney Island," said Jodi Querbach, the deputy chief operating officer of Brooklyn Community Services. "It's a great, free activity for families and children."

Besides seeing the masterpieces in the sand, spectators got to enjoy live music and dance performances.

The city parks department and Alliance for Coney Island co-hosted the contest.
A Queens woman accused of strangling her 9-year-old stepdaughter was arraigned Sunday on a murder charge.

If convicted, 55-year-old Shamdai Arjun faces 25 years to life in prison after allegedly killing Ashdeep Kaur in their Richmond Hill home Friday.

Arjun's ex-husband was also charged with obstruction in the investigation.

Police were called to the home, near 101st Avenue and 112th Street, around 6:03 p.m. Friday.

Police said another resident living in the house called Ashdeep's father, saying the girl had been in the bathroom for a long time and would not answer the door.

Investigators said Ashdeep was found in a first-floor bathtub.

Police sources said she was lying in a fetal position and had some bruising on her upper body, but they initially said they did not know the cause.

A man, Manjinder Singh, who said he was the victim's cousin, initially identified her and said that there was no water in the tub in which she was found.

He said Ashdeep told him that her stepmother was physically abusive.

Singh said his dad and the landlord were the ones who discovered Ashdeep.

"He came here and as soon as he saw the landlord was here, they broke the door and tried to see her," Singh said.

"When I came down then I saw the ambulance and the fire truck and everything, and I just wondered what happened. And then I heard somebody passed away," one nearby resident said.

Arjun was charged Saturday with murder after police questioned her for most of the day.

"We are saddened by this news and are investigating the circumstances that led to this devastating incident, along with the NYPD," the Administration for Children's Services said in a statement Saturday.
Police are working to find the person they say shot and killed a woman who was playing cards Saturday night in Harlem, just blocks away from a later shooting that left two men wounded.

Investigators said Odessa Simms, 61, was outside playing pinochle with a group of people at 144th Street and Lenox Avenue around 11:44 p.m.

That is when a group of men nearby started shooting at another group, according to the city police department.

Police said Simms was caught in the crossfire and hit in the neck.

She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

NY1 spoke with one neighbor who used to regularly play other games with Simms.

"I played chess with her, I played checkers with her, I played dominos with her," he said. "She didn't do anything, she didn't do anything to anyone."

Friends said the area was a sanctuary for Simms and that she liked to be there with friends, play cards and maybe dominos, and enjoy the evening.

A memorial has been set up at the site of the shooting in Simms's honor.

Community leaders and activists joined friends of Simms on Sunday to pay tribute to her, pray for her and her family, and call for the end of the type of violence that claimed Simms's life.

"Odessa was the warmest and sweetest human being you would ever want to meet," a friend said.

"This is devastating. This is more than you could ever imagine for anyone to have to go through," another said. "I can imagine her family is as devastated, just as much as we are here."

"We stood together to say we do not want to see this kind of violence," a community organizer said. "We need to monitor our communities. We have to police our own communities."

Police said no arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.



Police describe the suspect as a man with a muscular build who wore a black t-shirt at the time of the shooting.

That shooting was not the only violence in the neighborhood Saturday night.

Just three blocks away on 141st Street, two men were shot and wounded in an unrelated incident about two hours later, according to police.

They are both expected to survive.

Anyone with information on the cases should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com
Gone but not forgotten. Ten years after his death, family and friends remember a Queens man shot and killed by police .

They brought video games, food and a bouncy castle to Baisley Pond Park Saturday.

Police shot and killed Sean Bell in Jamaica just hours before his wedding in 2006 . Police thought he and his friends were carrying a gun. The men were not armed.

"When It's Real, It's Forever" -- a non-profit that Bell's fiancee founded after his death, organizes the event every year.

"From the story of Sean Bell, uh, was so much darkness and so much violence. Look what we have today. And that's, and that's laughter," says Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell.

Bell's family says they plan to have a special event in November, in addition to their yearly vigil
CAIRO  President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt expressed disappointment in remarks published Monday at the conviction of three journalists from Al Jazeeras English-language service, saying that their sentences had negative consequences and that he preferred that the journalists be deported rather than put on trial.

Mr. Sisis comments were his first public criticism of a case that has focused international condemnation on the Egyptian government, and they appeared to raise the possibility of a presidential pardon for the journalists, who were all sentenced last month to at least seven years in prison on charges that they had conspired with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false news. One defendant, Baher Mohamed, was given an additional three years in prison for possession of a weapon: a single spent bullet casing he had recovered from a street protest.

The journalists  Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Mr. Mohamed  were arrested in December in a Cairo hotel while filing reports for Al Jazeera. Human rights advocates called the charges ludicrous, and prosecutors failed to present any evidence during the trial that the men, experienced journalists who have worked for international news organizations, had falsified news or endorsed violence.

It was unclear Monday whether Mr. Sisi was also criticizing the convictions of a group of university students who were tried along with the journalists. After the verdict, he said he would not interfere in the case of the three journalists.
Did you miss zombies on TV? Welcome back Fear the Walking Dead, which returns to AMC with the recap talk show Talking Dead. If you prefer less grisly fare, Whit Stillmans droll Jane Austen adaptation, Love & Friendship, is streaming on iTunes.

Whats on TV

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD 9 p.m. on AMC. This spinoff of The Walking Dead is back to finish its second season, after going on hiatus in May and leaving us to wonder what the shows characters will do after what happened at the Abigail compound. (No spoilers here!) Talking Dead, the recap show hosted by Chris Hardwick, returns at 10:01 p.m., with the Fear the Walking Dead cast members Danay Garcia and Kim Dickens and Dave Erickson, the series showrunner.
Latoya Dee Herring, a daughter of Maria I. Escoto of Perris, Calif., and Larry D. Herring of Moreno Valley, Calif., was married Aug. 20 in Santa Barbara, Calif., to Marcus Jordan Williams, the son of Terilyn R. Williams and Larry J. Williams of South Orange, N.J. The ceremony, at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, was led by Alex Torpey, a former mayor of South Orange and a childhood friend of the groom, who became a Universal Life minister for the occasion.

The couple met at N.Y.U., from which they received law degrees.

The bride, 31, is a court attorney in Brooklyn; she assists Judge Alicea Elloras of Kings County Family Court in research and drafting decisions. The bride graduated cum laude from California State University, Long Beach.

Her father, a former Army master sergeant who was deployed three times to the Mideast, retired in 2014 as a staff administrator in the Army reserve, supervising operations of the transportation unit in Bayo Vista, Calif. Her mother is a senior customer service representative at a Sears store in Moreno Valley, Calif.

The groom, 29, is a third-year associate focusing on corporate finance law at the Manhattan law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel. He graduated from magna cum laude Rutgers.
Alexis Monique Zimberg, a daughter of Debra P. Fixler of White Lake, Mich., and Steven M. Zimberg of Huntington Woods, Mich., is to be married Aug. 21 to David Jerome Lerner, a son of Sandra J. Gutman of Southfield, Mich., and Larry B. Lerner of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Rabbi Daniel Nevins is to officiate at the Masonic Temple Theater in Detroit.

The bride, 29, will be taking the grooms name. She is a third-year doctoral candidate in political science and Jewish studies at the University of Toronto. She graduated from Georgetown, where she also received a masters degree in Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies. She is the stepdaughter of Yair Fixler of White Lake.

The groom, 33, is a second-year rabbinical student at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit.

The couple met in 2012, when Mr. Lerner was a Hebrew school teacher at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield and Ms. Zimberg was an administrator, whose duties were to sit in on classrooms to observe the teachers. While she usually spent a few minutes in each class, she found herself spending more time than required in Mr. Lerners classroom. One night after class, Ms. Zimberg asked him out for a drink.
Dr. Erica Holland, a daughter of Mary J. Holland and John Holland of Lexington, Mass., was married Aug. 20 to Alex Orquiza Jr., the son of Dr. Asuncion P. Disini Orquiza and Dr. Rene S. Orquiza of San Jose, Calif. Shiri B. Sandler, a friend of the couple, who received temporary permission from Massachusetts, officiated at the Pozen Center for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Vanessa Orquiza, a sister of the groom, who also received temporary permission from Massachusetts, assisted in leading the ceremony, which incorporated both Filipino and Jewish cultural traditions.

Dr. Holland, 34, is keeping her name. She is a fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. She graduated from Cornell and received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts, Worcester.

Her father, who retired as a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, is a composer of classical, experimental music whose piece, Water, for violin and electronic music, was performed last October at the Arts Society of Kingston in Kingston, N.Y. Her mother is the director of the Orton-Gillingham program for training and supervising teachers working with children with dyslexia at the Commonwealth Learning Center in Needham, Mass.

Dr. Orquiza, 35, is an assistant professor of history at Providence College. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Edinburgh and a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins.
Melissa Ann Duren, a daughter of Annie Duren and Michael A. Duren of Danbury, Conn., was married Aug. 19 to Sean Hanif Conner, the son of Elizabeth Z. Conner and Steven J. Conner of Manhattan. Josh Wand, a friend of the couple, who became a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated at the Liberty Warehouse, an event space in Brooklyn.

The bride, 30, is taking her husbands name. She is the managing director of Jennifer Bett Communications, a public relations firm in Manhattan. She graduated from Fordham University.

Her father is a senior operations technician, in Danbury, for the Barden Corporation, a ball-bearing manufacturer. Her mother is the director of operations in Danbury for Eastern Account Systems, a call center.

The groom, 32, is the chief progress officer, in Manhattan, for ForceBrands, a staffing and recruitment agency for food, beverage and beauty brands, where he focuses on business development. He graduated from Berkeley College in Manhattan.
Samantha Lauren Greenblatt, a daughter of Lisa K. Greenblatt and Jeffrey N. Greenblatt of New York, was married Aug. 20 to Scott Randall Lexton, the son of Cheryl O. Lexton and Michael L. Lexton of New York. Rabbi Peter Rubinstein officiated at the Metropolitan Club in New York, with assistance from Rabbi Joshua Davidson.

The couple, both 27, met while attending the Dalton School in New York and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania.

Later this month, the bride is to begin her second year in the M.B.A. program at Harvard Business School.

Her father is the chairman and chief investment officer of Monarch Capital Holdings, an investment firm in New York that he founded. He is also a life trustee of the N.Y.U. School of Law. Her mother is a real estate broker in New York with Douglas Elliman.
Vivien Ann Gay and Loretta Redd are to be married Aug. 21 at the Kunde Family Winery in Kenwood, Calif. Patrick ONeill, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the event, is to officiate.

Ms. Gay (left), 66, is the manager for international sales and marketing at Silver Oak Cellars, a winery in Napa, Calif. She graduated from La Casa Inglesa, an English language school in Madrid, where she received a diploma in French and Spanish languages. She is a daughter of the late D. Ann Gay and the late Geoffrey Charles Lytton Gay, who lived in London.

Ms. Gays previous marriage ended in divorce.

Dr. Redd, 67, retired as the director of the Central Coast chapter of the Alzheimers Association in Santa Barbara, Calif. She is also the author of Unjust by Coincidence. She served in the Air Force from 1979 to 1982, and in its active reserve from 1982 to 1996. She was last stationed at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga., and was honorably discharged with the rank of captain. She graduated from Georgia State University, from which she also received a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

She is the daughter of the late Alma Wilby Redd and the late James T. Redd, who lived in Atlanta.

The couple met in 2014 through mutual friends in Atlanta.
NEW YORK

An article in some editions last Sunday about the killing of an imam and his friend near a mosque in Queens, using information from the Police Department, misstated the given name of the imam and the surname of his friend. They were Alauddin Akonjee and Thara Miah  not Maulama Aknonjee and Thara Uddin.



A picture caption last Sunday with an article about a 1993 robbery in Rochester in which $7.4 million was stolen, an event that may become the subject of a Hollywood movie, omitted credit for a photograph of Ronnie Gibbons, a boxer who was linked to the case and was later killed. It was taken by Abbot Genser.

METROPOLITAN

The Neighborhood Joint column on Page 3 in some editions this weekend, about Almond, a restaurant in Bridgehampton, N.Y., misstates the surname of a writer who frequents the restaurant. She is Julie Sheehan, not Feehan.

SPECIAL SECTION: EDUCATION LIFE

An article on Aug. 7 about free speech on campuses misstated a response to a survey question about the right to peaceable assembly. The survey showed that 60 percent of black students saw the right as threatened, not as a threat. The article also referred incompletely to how the government broadened the definition of sexual harassment. It was to any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, not to unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, which was the earlier definition.
But to some black parents, those concerns seem academic.

Chris Stewart recalled feeling like a complete loser when his son was entering middle school in Minneapolis. A specialty public school had no room; other parents were warning him away from two nearby traditional public schools; and he could not afford a reduced tuition of $12,000  what he called the poor peoples discount  for a private school.

It really challenged my sense of manhood because I felt like I was watching other people do for their kids what I wanted to do for mine, but I didnt have the resources, said Mr. Stewart, who became a school board member in Minneapolis and now writes a blog on education.

He found a charter school where black students were thriving and classrooms seemed orderly. It wasnt perfect, it wasnt horrible, it just was better, he said. It set my mind at ease and let me go to work every day with a sense that I had done the best that I could.

But Cornell William Brooks, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., noted that not all charter schools are high performers. This is very much a mixed bag, he said, noting that he had given a commencement address at North Star Academy, a well-regarded charter in Newark. This whole notion that charter schools are uniformly excellent, and therefore that people dont even get to raise the question, is simply not the case.

Studies have shown that charters  which are financed by taxpayers but privately run  have improved on traditional public schools in cities like Newark, Boston and Washington. But they have made little improvement in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia, where a large proportion of students attend charters.

Although charters are supposed to admit students by lottery, some effectively skim the best students from the pool, with enrollment procedures that discourage all but the most motivated parents to apply. Some charters have been known to nudge out their most troubled students.
We cant take care of his stomach, or his medicine, or the orphans left for me, said his mother, Khatira, who was away from home during the mortar strike, attending the funeral of a nephew who had been killed days earlier in an explosion.

He feels my love for him has changed because hes disabled now, she said. But Im doing everything within my power  I just dont have the ability to get him the medicine.

The remnants of the family have moved into the ruins of a historic quarter within Lashkar Gah.

Every time the fighting in Helmand has intensified, an annual occurrence since the departure of international combat troops, it grabs the headlines. News reports remind people that the fall of such a strategic province, where thousands of United States and British forces fought years of tough battles, would be a huge prize for the Taliban. The regions vast opium production, which the insurgents are already tapping into, could further fuel their war machine.

What goes mostly unmeasured is the nonstop suffering inflicted on a people by 15 years of perpetual war. Numbers sometimes surface  thousands more displaced, hundreds of wounded arriving at the hospitals. But they cannot fully gauge the cost to families forever changed, struggling to cope with daily loss and indignity.

Even if dozens die, they just quietly bury them  no protest, no complaints, said Hayatullah Hayat, who took over duties as Helmands governor about three months ago. People are so used to death here that it breaks your heart. They are like earth  you hear not even a sigh from them.
ANKARA, Turkey  A bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey killed at least 30 people and wounded 94 others, the authorities said Sunday.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the barbaric attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Other officials said it could have been carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State extremists.

Photographs taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets as a crowd gathered nearby.

Early on Sunday, the Gaziantep governors office raised the death toll to 30 from 22. It said the number of wounded remained at 94.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  Alex Szkaradek is a landlord who seems to have the best of both worlds.

Mr. Szkaradek, 36, collects rent, but he never has to pay for repairs on any of the more than 5,500 homes  many of them rundown  that his firm manages across the country.

The firm, Vision Property Management, blurs the line between what it means to be a renter and a homeowner. These companies do not offer regular leases or mortgages  they offer rent to own contracts on homes that require tenants to make all repairs, no matter how big or small.

Mr. Szkaradek says Vision, a leader in the fast-growing market, is bringing the dream of homeownership to Americans who lack good credit or are too poor to qualify for mortgages.

In many communities, housing prices have recovered from the financial crisis. At the bottom end, however, banks have all but stopped making loans for homes worth less than $100,000, leaving millions of people with few options.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, a growing army of confidential informants  better known as whistle-blowers  has helped federal securities regulators identify and prosecute wrongdoers.

Now the same thing is happening at the state level: Securities regulators in two states (so far) are enlisting the aid of these informants to enforce their own fraud statutes and protect residents from financial harm. And the whistle-blowers are reaping rewards.

On Aug. 19, for example, an informant was awarded $95,000 for helping Indiana securities regulators bring an enforcement action against JPMorgan Chase for failing to disclose certain conflicts of interest to clients about the way the bank invested their money. The monetary award was the first given under that states whistle-blower program aimed at securities law violators.

The informant supplied information about improprieties in JPMorgan Chases asset management unit, including its practice of steering clients to in-house funds that carried higher costs or generated greater fees to the bank. In a July settlement, the bank paid $950,000 to Indiana, whose officials characterized JPMorgans practices as outside the standards of honesty and ethics generally accepted in the securities trade and industry.
In New York City, the Police Department has successfully opposed efforts to decriminalize certain petty offenses or put legal limits on a variety of police behaviors. The Council adopted a new system for handling some minor crimes, but left the decision of when to use that system to the police. A court-ordered body-camera program, which a federal judge mandated in 2013 after finding that the police had engaged in unconstitutional street stops of black and Hispanic residents on a vast scale, has been repeatedly delayed.

New York City and New York State purport to be the progressive capital of the country, so there is a disconnect between the rhetoric and reality, said Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat, who watched as a reform package he sponsored was shelved this year.

New York is also home to one of the countrys most expansive statutes protecting police secrecy, a 1976 law enshrined in the states civil rights code, which precludes the disclosure of most details of officers history, including misconduct. The city has said the law is the basis for the Police Departments practice of withholding information about officers misconduct on the job. No momentum exists to change the law in the Legislature.

If New Yorks recent interest in legislating criminal justice reform lags that of other states, it is quite likely because New York had something of a head start. It is often cited by some advocates as a model.

The state has no death penalty. The state has slashed its prison population by some 20,000 inmates from its high point in 1999, in large part because of the repeal of the Rockefeller laws. It now has an incarceration rate well below the national average. In the last five years, 13 prisons have closed.

We changed the paradigm long ago, Alphonso David, the counsel to Mr. Cuomo, said. The changes that other states are now making, weve already made.

In the city, the Police Department has renounced the excesses of its stop-and-frisk strategies and reduced the number of low-level arrests. There are far fewer people arrested on charges of begging for a MetroCard swipe or sleeping in the subway  two categories of arrests that, critics have said, criminalized poverty and homelessness.
A 61-year-old woman was killed on Saturday night after she was struck by a stray bullet at a playground near her home in Manhattan, where she had been playing dominoes and cards with her friends, the police said on Sunday.

The police found the woman, identified as Odessa Simms, unconscious and unresponsive after they were called shortly before midnight to the Col. Charles Young Playground, near West 144th Street and Lenox Avenue, in Harlem, the authorities said. The police said a fight had broken out and at least one person opened fire; Ms. Simms was a bystander.

She was hit in the neck and the right shoulder, and she was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead, the police said.

The police said that the circumstances of the shooting remained under investigation on Sunday afternoon and that no arrests had been made.
As he seeks to revive his embattled candidacy, Donald J. Trump has seized on a new argument to rally his supporters and to explain away a possible defeat in November: that Democrats are preparing to exploit weak voter identification laws to win a stolen election through fraudulent voting.

The claim has spurred outrage among Democrats and has alarmed some Republicans who worry his tactics will backfire, angering minority voters and threatening the partys chances in close races down the ballot.

Since 2010, Republican governors and Republican-held state legislatures have fought for stricter voter identification laws, which Democrats argue are intended to hinder turnout by the poorest voters, many of them black and Hispanic, who tend to vote Democratic.

But Mr. Trumps language has moved beyond his partys call for rigid identification requirements and the unfounded claims that polls are skewed to predictions of outright theft of the November election. And his warnings have been cast in increasingly urgent and racially suggestive language, hinting that the only legitimate outcome in certain states would be his victory.
In the book, published in 1987, he wrote that his fathers story was classic Horatio Alger, and that his grandfather came here from Sweden as a child.

Mr. Trump has been called to account for the discrepancy in the past, sometimes admitting it, sometimes not. In an interview in his Trump Tower office, he at first claimed not to know that his father pretended to be Swedish, saying: Is that true? I dont know. He later acknowledged that the two of them would occasionally discuss the concealment of their heritage, explaining that his father didnt want to put any pressure on his Jewish friends.

It was a very tough time, he said.

We have a war, we are fighting a war with Germany, said Mr. Trump, who was born a year after World War II ended.

Mr. Trumps family history was recounted by Mr. Walter in an interview and was also the subject of The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate, a family biography by Gwenda Blair. It is the kind of story that echoes the hopefulness and travails of many immigrants still today, and one that many a politician has trumpeted to gain an advantage.

Though a pillar of Mr. Trumps campaign is stopping the flow of immigrants entering the country illegally and deporting them en masse, he often voices his support of legal immigration. And his personal life has been full of emigres.

His mother, Mary Anne Trump, nee Macleod, emigrated from the Scottish Isle of Lewis at age 18, and two of Mr. Trumps three wives were born overseas. In the interview, he even mistakenly said his father was an immigrant who came here when he was 5.
NAIROBI, Kenya  A suicide bomb rocked the Somali town of Galkayo on Sunday, killing at least 20 people and showing that Islamist militants, despite recent setbacks, can still plan and execute deadly attacks anywhere in the country.

Galkayo, a midsize town in central Somalia, had been quiet in recent months.

Yet that suddenly changed at 10 a.m. on Sunday when militants detonated a deafening bomb in a market, sending a column of black smoke shooting into the sky. A squad of militants stormed a nearby government building, engaging in gun battles with security forces.

One of the blasts was so huge, I was really shocked, said Abdirahman Abdweli, a student in the city.

The explosion ripped the roofs off several buildings, scattering sharp pieces of corrugated metal and debris across the area.
ISTANBUL  The wedding on Saturday night was winding down, and some guests had already left. But the music was still playing and people were still dancing in the narrow streets of Gaziantep, a city not far from the Syrian border.

Just then a child  no more than 14 years old, Turkeys president said later  meandered into the gathering and detonated a vest of explosives.

Suddenly, the most joyous of occasions became a scene of blood and gore, with body parts scattered all around. Once again, the horrors of Syrias civil war had visited Turkey.
BAGHDAD  Hatam Kareem received the telephone call on Sunday that he had been waiting for, saying the men who killed his brother had been executed by hanging.

It was the happiest call I have ever received, he said.

Thousands of other Iraqis shared his happiness on Sunday over the executions of 36 men convicted and sentenced to death for taking part in the Islamic States massacre of roughly 1,700 Shiite military personnel in 2014.

The massacre, at the Camp Speicher air base near Tikrit, Saddam Husseins hometown, is the deadliest atrocity to date carried out by the Sunni militants of the Islamic State, either in Iraq or in Syria. The crime galvanized Iraqs historically oppressed Shiites, who have been in power since the 2003 American invasion, and took up a place in their collective memory alongside the atrocities Mr. Hussein inflicted on them.

Video images of the massacre that were made and released by the Islamic State showed killing on an industrial scale, with one man after another being shot in the head and pushed into the flowing waters of the Tigris River. Other victims were killed on land and buried in mass graves. A survivor, speaking to The New York Times in 2014, described how he heard a bullet whiz past his head, then played dead in a pile of bodies and hid out for three days among the reeds along the river.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  Omran Daqneesh, a small Syrian boy from the embattled rebel-held section of Aleppo, somehow snapped to attention millions of people around the world, who watched and shared the arresting video of him as he wiped dried blood and thick soot from his face.

The widespread interest in 5-year-old Omran surprised the doctors who treated him, the photographer who shot the video and many Syrians who wondered whether the world had only just discovered how children have suffered every day in a war that has raged for more than five years.

On Saturday, Omrans 10-year-old brother, Ali, died of wounds he suffered during the same attack, medical workers said. Alis death, which did not draw the same instant social media outpouring as Omrans suffering, only underscored how many Syrian children are dying under the radar of the wider world.
In 1831, Albert Gallatin, the distinguished statesman who served as secretary of the treasury under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, led NYU's founding council. He would later describe his vision for the institution in a letter to a friend:

My wish was to devote what may remain of life to the establishment, in this immense and fast-growing city, of a general system of rational and practical education fitted for all and...opened to all.



At that time, most students in American colleges and universities were members of the privileged classes. Gallatin and the founding council believed that an educated general populace was crucial to the preservation of democratic institutions. They envisioned a new kind of university: non-denominational and open to all, regardless of national origin, religious beliefs, or social background; with a varied, modern curriculum appropriate for both students "who devote themselves to scientific or literary pursuits," and those preparing for "the learned professions, commerce, or the mechanical and useful arts."

Throughout its 188 years, the University has evolved alongside a changing world and major turning points in history:
Since its inception, NYU has been a distinctly urban university, one that NYU founder, Albert Gallatin, called a university that is "in and of the city." Today, the University has evolved into a university that is "in and of the great cities of the world." NYU's global network comprises three degree-granting portal campuses: one in the heart of New York City, a second in Abu Dhabi, and a third in Shanghai.

NYU's more than 50,000 students study more than 4,000 courses in hundreds of degree and non-degree programs at locations around the world. In addition to the three portal campuses, students can study abroad at global academic centers in Accra, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Florence, Madrid, London, Paris, Prague, Tel Aviv, Sydney, and Washington, DC.
The Value of an NYU Education

Ninety-six percent of recent NYU graduates are either working or going to graduate school. Their mean average salary is $64,734. That says a lot about the return on the investment of an NYU education.

But facts and figures dont tell the whole story. NYU students graduate with the experience of living and learning in vibrant, complex cities around the world.

They dont just attend lectures by luminaries in their fields. They create, perform, and conduct research alongside them.

They forge friendships with peers who seem completely different, but in fact share passions like exploring every detail of an artist, inventor, song, meal, town, or topic.
May 22 - August 16, 2023

Experience New York University with one of our unique Summer Programs! Our program offers a variety of course options, including three-, six-, and twelve-week sessions. You'll have the flexibility to create your own schedule and select courses from any of nine colleges at NYU.

Study with world class NYU faculty, connect with industry leaders, and earn college credits. Choose from more than a thousand courses and engage with NYU students from around the world.



NYU also offers summer programs for high school students. Explore NYU Online High School Programs to learn more.
The pages found here, as well as those throughout the NYU website, provide guidance for parents and families at the various stages of their student's engagement with the University. We invite you to explore all the webpages, return as often as you like, and hope they prove helpful as your student moves through this important chapter in their life.
NYU-NY full-time employees may choose from several plans of health coverage. They may also enroll in the NYU Dental Plan and have access to the NYU Retirement Plan, disability and life insurance, NYU LiveSmart wellness programs and activities, and the Employee Assistance Program. They may also be eligible for tuition benefits.
New York University is committed to providing high-quality, comprehensive benefits and programs designed to meet the needs of our dedicated and diverse community.



In the menu, select your faculty group to access your Benefits Guide or select other topics to learn more about NYU-NY's benefits.
In a city that prides itself on offering "everything," residents can feel overwhelmed by all the choices they have for the fulfillment of their daily needs. This page provides faculty with information on everything from banking services to medical care to voting information. And from daily needs to special occasions, there are a wide variety of ways to enjoy the arts, city parks, sports, museums and other cultural activities. For those who are making the big move to New York City, find information here about family considerations, resources for finding housing, financial considerations and more.
A few days ago the Governor had demanded the sacking of Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal from the Council Of Ministers over the latter's remark against him.
Curricular Development

The Center of Faculty Advancement (CFA) at NYU is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Teaching Advancement Grant (TAG). This grant aims to develop innovative curricular programs and projects at New York University, including new academic courses and programs, enhanced and expanded existing courses or programs, and special projects. The Teaching Advancement Grant (TAG) seeks to build upon the success of an earlier fund, the Curricular Development Challenge Fund (CDCF) that has now been sunsetted. TAGs innovative collaboration model will impact classrooms across NYU (and potentially other universities) by developing measurable, evidence-based, and effective classroom practices capable of improving student learning in a variety of contexts. Applications will be due on January 18, 2022, with awardees announced in April 2022.

Fulbright Awards

Fulbright Scholar Program Lecturing and Research Awards are available as an opportunity for professional development in over 150 countries. Grants are awarded to faculty of all academic ranks and come from all areas of the humanities, social sciences, the natural and physical sciences, as well as from applied fields such as business, journalism, and the law.

Funding Resources

Learn more about funding resources available to faculty at NYU's Office of Sponsored Programs.

Global Research Initiatives

The Provost's Global Research Initiatives program supports research-related activities at a select number of NYU's Global sites. The program supports short- and long-term faculty and graduate student visits to the sites; runs dissertation workshops for doctoral students in the final stages of writing; provides funding for workshops, colloquia, and the like at the sites; and supports collaboration between NYU faculty in New York and NYU faculty at the sites and in Abu Dhabi and in Shanghai.



To learn more about these initiatives, and to submit an application, please visit: http://www.nyu.edu/research/provosts-global-research-initiatives.html

Goddard Junior Faculty Fellowships

The Goddard Junior Faculty Fellowship program provides funds to tenure track faculty who have successfully passed their Third-Year Review to advance their research and scholarship interests. These funds may be used for adjunct replacement during the faculty members leave with pay, or to provide support for travel, publications, and other research costs. The award process is school based, selected schools only, with additional information available from the school Deans Office.

Contact: Kelly Long, Office of the Provost (Kelly.long@nyu.edu)



Green Grants

NYU Green Grants fund projects that spark the imagination of the NYU community and advance our future as a sustainable university. Projects should reduce adverse environmental impacts, educate and engage the community, demonstrate the viability of best practices, and/or advance applied research goals.

Center for the Humanities



The Center for the Humanities offers a number of grants and fellowships to full-time faculty in the humanities and art disciplines.

Grants-in-Aid

The Grants-in-Aid competition is devoted exclusively to publication assistance. Funds are limited and awarded on a rolling basis.

http://www.NYUhumanities.org/grants-in-aid/



Faculty Research Fellowships

The Center for the Humanities offers Research Fellowships to full-time faculty at NYU in the humanities and art disciplines, including but not limited to history, art history, music, philosophy, cultural studies, literary and language studies, religious studies, drama and performance studies, cinema studies, and gender studies. Fellows are expected to be present in New York within the University community for the entire year of their residency. They will meet on a weekly basis to discuss their work-in-progress and that of invited guests, and will participate in Center activities.



http://www.NYUhumanities.org/faculty-graduate-student-fellowships/faculty-fellowships

Research Collaboratives (Formerly known as Working Research Groups)

In an effort to build community and foster interdisciplinary exchange on topics with a humanistic focus at New York University, the Center for the Humanities sponsors Research Collaborative grants. The Center envisions a Research Collaboratives as bringing together NYU faculty and graduate students in a carefully planned series of meetings on a focused topic in the humanities where interdisciplinary approaches are likely to be particularly fruitful. The Center expects that the work achieved by the Research Collaborative will generate new curricular offerings, publications, conferences, or collaborative faculty projects.



http://NYUhumanities.org/faculty-graduate-student-fellowships/research-project-teams/

Team-Teaching Stipends

This program is designed to foster creative and dynamic teaching across humanistic disciplines and departments, in the interest of generating innovative new courses and teaching formats. This year we will consider proposals from two faculty members with different areas of expertise within the same department. However, all things being equal, preference will be given to those proposals which bring together colleagues and, ideally, students from different department, disciplines, and schools. Existing courses may be used for the team-taught initiative, or new courses may be proposed, either to be cross-listed in different departments and/or schools.

http://www.NYUhumanities.org/faculty-graduate-student-fellowships/team-teaching-stipends/

Innovation Venture Fund

The NYU Innovation Venture Fund is a seed-stage venture capital fund created to invest in startups founded by NYU students, faculty and researchers, and/or those commercializing NYU-developed technologies and intellectual property. The Fund seeks inventions, discoveries, products or services that were developed in whole or in part at NYU and are ready for commercial product development, rather than those requiring further basic research. Though a complete business plan and team is not required for consideration, the technology underpinning the venture concept should have achieved the proof-of- concept or prototype stage and solve a measurable problem in a large and growing market. The founders should be the nucleus around which a strong, entrepreneurial team can form and execute a financially attractive business plan.

Visit: http://www.nyu.edu/about/university-initiatives/entrepreneurship-at-nyu/fund/innovation-venture-fund.html

Contact: Frank Rimalovski, Managing Director, NYU Innovation Venture Fund (fbr4@nyu.edu)
In the midst of New York City, NYU students are truly part of the tempo and excitement of Greenwich Village and beyond. NYU is committed to safety, wellness education, and outstanding health care as part of the University community.

To maintain the health and well-being of the student body, students in degree-granting programs are required to maintain health insurance. Many are enrolled automatically in a NYU-sponsored student health insurance plan as a part of the University's registration process. Students may also opt to maintain their own health insurance and waive the NYU Plan, and they have the option of enrolling in Stu-Dent, the student dental plan. The Student Health Center offers routine and walk-in Primary Care and Women's Health Services at either no cost or very reduced cost to all matriculated students. In addition, Wellness, Short-term Counseling (talk therapy) and Crisis services are free of charge.
Students come to NYU from all corners of the country and the globe, from varied backgrounds, and with distinct goals and perspectives. Our diversity invigorates the University and creates an enriching and enlightening community of communities: from the greater NYU community, there are a number of student groups who share common situations and concerns. The following list features various communities on campus for those seeking support, resources, and others to connect with. Additionally, visit the Getting Involved page for more ways to meet like-minded peers  or to find productive ways to reach across the divide.


The Auburn Chamber of Commerce, along with sponsor representative Stacey Sanders of Weichert Realtors-Porter Properties, presented the second Customer Service Crown of 2016 to Andreas Anagnostopoulos, banquet director at The Hotel at Auburn University. Anagnostopoulos has worked for the hotel for six years in various positions, and is known for his keen attention to detail, professional demeanor and fervent commitment to customer satisfaction.

The Auburn Chamber created the Customer Service Crown to recognize and reward individuals in the community for providing excellent customer service, either in special circumstances or during regular interactions.

We are thrilled to have another deserving honoree for our Customer Service Crown. Events can be very stressful, but Andreas is a talented and capable host, always setting his clients at ease. We appreciate this opportunity to honor him and celebrate his hard work, said Lolly Steiner, Auburn Chamber president.

A Customer Service Crown is awarded each quarter. Nominations should include the individuals name, business name and reason for the nomination.

Nominations should be emailed to Anna Hovey at anna@auburnchamber.com. The winner will be presented an award and a gift certificate to a local retailer. The Customer Service Crown is sponsored by Weichert Realtors-Porter Properties.
Jason Aldeans Six String Circus Tour may not have had the clowns and acrobats offered by other circuses that have come through Orange County, but not much else was missing from Saturdays country music spectacle at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Aldean, named entertainer of the year at the 2016 Academy of Country Music Awards, performed 21 songs for the nearly sold-out crowd, including many of his greatest hits as well as offerings from his upcoming album, They Dont Know, to be released Sept. 9.

Sporting a cowboy hat, casual jeans and a buttoned-up black shirt, Aldean stepped onto the stage with a presence that could not be described any other way than confident. As he opened with his hit song Just Gettin Started, one could feel that he truly meant what he was singing  that he was just getting started and the crowd had a long night ahead.

There may have been spectacle, but Aldean is definitely all about the music when it comes to getting the party started. The crowd didnt even hear him speak until after he performed his first three songs, the other two being Gonna Know We Were Here and Take a Little Ride.

All of these people say theres not a lot of country in L.A., but theres not a seat in the house left, so what does that say? Aldean said to his cheering fans, many in Western garb. He followed that with When She Says Baby and Night Train.

After performing Big Green Tractor, he shouted out, Take me for a ride, California! and the amphitheater erupted.

Aldean then performed his newest single Lights Come On, which he introduced by saying, This is what happens when you combine country and rock.

The concert continued with Tattoos On This Town, Fly Over States (with beautiful images of a plane wing passing through clouds) and the ballad-like Tonight Looks Good on You.

Another new song was then introduced, A Little More Summertime, for which the band had just finished shooting a music video, followed by The Only Way I Know and 1994.

More colorful images accompanied Amarillo Sky, after which Aldean performed This Plane Dont Go There, which put his vocal range in the spotlight.

He then announced he was finished with the slow stuff and unleashed his four most popular party hits, My Kinda Party, which rocked an instrumental at least four minutes longer than normal so the audience could dance, Shes Country, Dirt Road Anthem (featuring Aldeans notable ability to rap) and Hicktown.

Aldean never really takes a break, so the encore, Burnin It Down and Crazy Town, was pretty indistinguishable from the rest of the set, but his confidence and energy never wavered, and he thanked his Orange County fans for joining him.

Two Nashville acts, up-and-coming country star Thomas Rhett and the musical group A Thousand Horses opened the show, with Dee Jay Silver spinning every genre and catchy hit imaginable between sets.

A Thousand Horses, which includes Michael Hobby (lead vocals), Bill Satcher (lead guitar), Zach Brown (guitar and vocals) and Graham Deloach (bass and vocals), had the crowd on its feet early in the evening with a solid set that included recognizable songs Smoke and (This Aint No) Drunk Dial.

By the time Rhett took the stage, the amphitheaters seats and lawns were filled, and judging from the crowds intense interaction throughout his 11-song set, one could easily argue that he should have been considered a co-headliner.

Known for hit songs such as Anthem, Make Me Wanna and T-Shirt  all of which he performed Saturday  the 26-year-old Country Music Award-nominated Rhett knows how to put on a show.

Simply dressed, along with his band, in a black shirt, pants and sneakers, he performed an energetic hour full of drum solos, tearful ballads that had couples in the crowd swooning, and pop cover songs.

Contact the writer: jmoe@ocregister.com
MIAMI BEACH, Fla.  Michal Keren David stood alone amid the confectionery swirl that draws millions to the adult playground of South Beach, clutching not a minty mojito or even a ubiquitous cellphone, but one of the very latest symbols of life here: mosquito repellent.

As she spritzed herself next to a sidewalk cafe on Lincoln Road, David lamented her ill timing. Just Friday morning, as she headed to fly out of New York, bound for a weekend in Miami, she said she learned the latest news about Zika. The mosquito-borne virus, which can cause birth defects in fetuses, had found a new, albeit small home on South Beach.

Ordinarily, she said, she might have simply shrugged off the news.

Im thinking of trying to get pregnant in the next month, said David, 32. We thought maybe about canceling, but we also thought we have to live our lives. This will get to New York City, too. It will be all over the place.

On Friday, this rollicking southern slice of Miami Beach, a place long accustomed to boom and bust, downtrodden and glamorous, became the second official target zone of the Zika-carrying mosquito, Aedes aegypti, in the continental United States. The discovery forced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise pregnant women not to venture into a 1.5-square-mile area from Eighth to 28th streets on one side and from the beach to the Intracoastal Waterway on the other. But federal health officials also warned them to consider postponing travel anywhere in Miami-Dade County.

As local government and tourism officials emphasized that the safety of residents, workers and guests came first, it was hard to sidestep the obvious: Would tourists stay away from the islands alluring beaches, hip hotels and just-about-anything-goes clubs? And if they did, what would it mean for the economy of Miami Beach  the superstar of the countys $36 billion tourism industry.

As we said before, we will do everything in our power so that people feel safe, said Miami Beachs mayor, Philip Levine, stressing that Miami Beach is having a record summer.

From one moment to the next, a new protocol has taken root, one gleaned from the lessons learned in Wynwood, the small arts district across the bay that became the virus first hub of active transmission in the continental United States. Wynwood has suffered a sharp decline in business.

Some hotels here began to slip Zika information sheets under the doors of the guest rooms. Bartenders offered patrons cans of repellent along with their shaken martinis. Electric fans, already in use to soften the suffocating heat and humidity, were cranked up to high, all the easier to thwart Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

At Meat Market, a steakhouse on Lincoln Road, a teeming pedestrian mall, citronella candles quickly appeared under a row of outdoor tables Friday moments after the news broke. Employees were asked to wear bug spray until repellent wristbands arrived.

We never really have a lot of mosquitoes, said David Tornek, the restaurants chief executive, who said he hoped the problem was fleeting. He paused and added, You hope that people look at this rationally.

The reaction from tourists here, many of them from Europe and Latin America, seemed to swing from panicked to nonchalant.

As she sat on a patch of artificial turf eating pizza and watching her 6-year-old son play paddle ball, Vania Acosta  who is Cuban by way of Naples, Italy, and is visiting South Beach with family  said she quickly became paranoid.

I bought 40 cans of bug spray, Acosta said, a turban atop her head. I am spraying repellent in my room, in my house, right here. What worries me is that they dont know enough about it. When I heard yesterday, I wanted to leave.

But she is staying; it is too complicated to leave. And, she said, she is enamored of the South Beach vibe, a mix of ethnicities and lifestyles, where Prada-shod women stride past tattoo-decorated Doc Martens lovers, all to the murmur of palm trees and foreign languages. Like the woman I saw wearing a long black cover-up and a white wedding veil, she said. I love it here; I love the people here.

Strolling past Art Deco hotels on Ocean Drive, South Beachs most crowded stretch, Lorenzo Villa, 24, a graduate student at West Virginia University who arrived Friday morning for a weeks vacation, made one accommodation: He bought bug repellent. Beyond that, he expects his vacation will be worry-free.

Honestly, I dont think its an issue, said Villa, who was born in Argentina and grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. I dont see any mosquitoes. Maybe its only a problem if theres a big swarm. Im pretty chill.

There are mosquitoes on Miami Beach but, with its strong breezes and saltwater barriers, the chain of islands is less hospitable to mosquitoes than other parts of the county. But it is also dense, with plenty of old buildings full of nooks and crannies. The city is also hampered in turning to a tactic that helped Wynwood reduce its population of aegypti: the aerial spraying of Naled. The area, with its beaches, ocean and high-rise buildings, is not suited for it, county officials said.

Getting tourists to comply with Zika-busting rules will not be easy. People come here to escape obligations and to strip down to the bare essentials. Long sleeves and admonishments are not really welcome. Sex, though, is often on a to-do list, raising concerns that the virus will spread through sexual transmission.

For the most part, visitors who are not pregnant or pondering pregnancy seemed unfazed and crisis-fatigued.

There is always something going on, said Yesenia Medina, 40, a respiratory therapist from Miami who sat at an outdoor bar, Campton Yard, which had installed automatic insecticide misters even before the Zika scare. Now its Zika and last month, it was something else.

But, with a laugh, Medina said she heard a rescue plan was in the works. Donald Trump is building a net over the beach, and hes getting the mosquitoes to pay for it, she said, riffing on the Republican presidential nominees plan to erect a wall on the Southern border and have Mexico pay for it.

As the sun inched below the horizon and a near-full moon glinted over the ocean, Claudia Iraheta, 21, a hostess, stood nearby at the Penguin Hotel cafe, cradling menus over her pronounced belly. The Zika virus is no casual concern for her.

Friday, she said, was an especially long and worrisome day. She thought twice about going to work, where she stands outside promoting the cafe to passers-by.

I was scared, paranoid, said Iraheta, who moved to Miami from El Salvador a decade ago.

But work is work, so she slathered on mosquito repellent and put on long pants, despite the sweltering heat. On Monday, she will head to the doctor to be tested for the virus. She says she does not think she has been exposed.

In the name of God, I hope not, Iraheta said.

Its a baby girl, she said.
Prop. 47 is changing records and changing lives. In November 2014, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 47, reclassifying six nonviolent, low-level felonies to misdemeanors. I strongly supported Proposition 47, investing $1.3 million into its passage. Ive also sponsored two justice fairs, in Culver City and Stockton. Both events were attended by thousands of individuals eager to complete their Prop. 47 petitions for record change.

As a Christian and a conservative, I used to believe that anyone convicted of a crime deserved whatever punishment they received  the longer the better. This un-biblical view, fortunately, was radically altered after meeting with an ex-felon by the name of Chuck Colson  a former Nixon administrator who did time for Watergate crimes. Colson invited me on a tour of the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Angola houses over 6,000 convicts. But what impressed me the most about the prison was its warden, a man dedicated to reforming inmates, and transforming their lives. If you have a heart for ministry, prison is where people are being compressed  either into diamonds or dust.

I supported Prop. 47 because it was time to end harsh, expensive and counter-productive punishments, and to redirect our resources into prevention strategies in order to end the 54 percent recidivism rate.

Exactly who are the faces of Prop. 47? When you walk around a justice fair, or attend a Prop. 47 legal clinic, youll be surprised at what you observe. Primarily, the participants are ordinary-looking men and women. A lot of them could be your neighbors. Some are grandparents. Most are fathers and mothers.

When you talk to these people, youll realize that many are victims of sexual, physical or psychological abuse  or all three. A lot come from divorced families or neighborhoods surrounded by gangs. Unfortunately, for many of them, their parents were either addicted to drugs or alcohol or both. Some, despairing in their circumstances, attempted suicide. Most come from poor families, where life was tough, and opportunities were few and far between.

What were their crimes? For a majority of them, it was some form of petty theft  items worth less than $950. For others it was drug possession, writing bad checks, receiving stolen property, or some type of non-serious, nonviolent crime.

These men and women have obviously made mistakes, but, a person should never be defined by what they did five or 50 years ago. Their felonies are like a scarlet letter F, a ball and chain that follows them throughout their life, eroding their families and costing our communities dearly. Prop. 47 hits the reset button, putting a fresh wind into their sails.

Whats the effect of Prop. 47? Listen to the voices of those who have benefited. Rochelle Solombrino: You feel totally defeated because of your felony conviction. Its a debt to society that never ends. Getting suitable housing or a decent job is almost impossible. Prop. 47 changed all that.

Joseph Barela: Its difficult to find work once youre released from prison. Background checks always catch up. Once my felony was reduced to a misdemeanor I was able to find a good-paying job.

Toni Hunter: Prison is a cesspool  it doesnt do anything but teach you different tools on how to be a better criminal. Fortunately, Prop. 47 allowed me to start a new life. The skys the limit; doors are now opened that had previously been slammed in my face.

Donyell Green: I couldnt get a job with a large corporation and provide for my family because of my felony conviction. After reclassifying my 10-year-old felony into a misdemeanor the company agreed to hire me. What the voters did in passing Prop. 47 was a blessing  that felony cloud was no longer hanging over my head.

Prop. 47 is also historic: never in the history of the United States have so many people  upwards of one million  had an opportunity to change their criminal records. In California alone, there are more than 4,800 state laws that place barriers on people convicted of a felony. It used to be, you do the crime, you do the time. But its no longer like that  a felony lasts a lifetime. Prop. 47 is a four-letter word: Hope. Suddenly, doors that had once been closed are now opened, creating new opportunities.

Prop. 47 requires everyones support. If youre financially able, host or sponsor a justice fair or a legal clinic. Or, volunteer at one of these events  especially if youre an attorney or a paralegal since many of the attendees require assistance in completing their Prop. 47 petitions (see www.MyProp47.org/events). As an individual, educate yourself on the barriers faced by ex-felons. Understanding breeds compassion. If youre an employer, hire ex-offenders. If you have housing, rent to ex-felons. And educational institutions, open your doors  a degree will end the cycle of poverty.

Change your record  change your life not only applies to felons, but to anyone who visits a Justice Fair, or a Prop. 47 legal clinic. What youll experience will profoundly alter your perspective, not only as to those who are attending, but as to the future of our entire criminal justice system, and hopefully, that will be your Angola awakening.

B. Wayne Hughes, Jr., a California businessman and philanthropist, is founder and chairman of the board of Serving California, a foundation that helps ex-offenders, crime victims and veterans.
Dean Spanos probably wasnt paying attention at the time, since his Chargers were playing an exhibition game in Nashville, Tenn., last Saturday.

But when the attendance figures came in from the Rams return to the Coliseum that night against Dallas  89,140, many of whom stayed to the end cheering for third- and fourth-stringers  it sent a clear message. A shot across the bow, even.

The message: Deano, you may want to come up with another Plan B.

The public seems to have spoken: The Rams again own Los Angeles and its surrounding counties. If nothing else, the number of people again wearing Rams gear on the street should be a tipoff.

If there were any doubt that a move north would relegate the Chargers to second (or third, or fourth, or eighth) banana status, it has been removed. L.A. is definitely not the place for the Chargers, and really never was.

So what happens now?

Given the most recent polling, not to mention comments from the general public on social media and at the end of newspaper stories on the matter, the Chargers stadium initiative in San Diego seems to be toast 21/2 months before Election Day.

With a two-thirds supermajority apparently needed for passage  unless the state Supreme Court decides otherwise and does so with unnatural speed  the initiative now known as Proposition C trailed significantly in the last available poll, commissioned by the San Diego Union-Tribune and KGTV/10 and conducted at the end of June.

Specifically, 40 percent of the 687 likely voters surveyed said they would vote against increasing the hotel tax to 16.5 percent to pay for a stadium, with 30 percent in favor and 30 percent undecided.

Meanwhile, sentiment for raising hotel taxes to promote tourism and expand the convention center and not pay for a stadium was 31 percent in favor, 28 against and 41 undecided.

This poll  admittedly a small sample size  revealed that a hike in the hotel tax that didnt involve a new stadium would have a slim majority; that those polled would prefer a new stadium to be built in Mission Valley rather than the Spanos-preferred downtown site; and that while 52 percent consider it very or somewhat important the team stays, 67 percent disapprove of the way the team has handled the situation.

What this means? People have long memories, and the Chargers scorched-earth negotiating tactics over the past few years created an alienation in the community that likely will be too much to overcome.

Granted, the campaign has not yet started in earnest. The official ballot designation only came down this week, and print, broadcast and billboard advertising will almost certainly be coming soon.

The Chargers are already said to have spent more than $3 million on the campaign without advertising. Theyve hired several nationally known political consultants  including David Carney, previously a strategist for Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. They likely will heavily outspend the stadium opponents in getting their version to the voters, and that doesnt even include the 31/2-hour infomercials known as Chargers games.

(Of course, if the team starts badly those could be more of a hindrance than a help.)

They already seem to be taking a heavy-handed approach. Last week the team targeted an opponent, first-term city councilman Chris Cate, paying for Facebook ads and robocalls that asked, Why does Chris Cate want the Chargers to leave San Diego? The ads list his office phone number.

Cate told reporters from the Union-Tribune and USA Today that he didnt want the team to leave but considered the $1.8 billion project a bad deal for taxpayers. But that doesnt matter. He is now the Chargers official villain, much as former city attorney Mike Aguirre was many years (and stadium debates) ago.

And yes, there is a common thread. Mark Fabiani, Spanos attack dog, has taken a less visible role but is still a Spanos employee, and these tactics have his fingerprints all over them.

None of it may matter on Election Day. And should the Chargers effort fail, Spanos options will be severely limited.

He would have until Jan. 15 to exercise his option to join Stan Kroenke in L.A., and eventually in Inglewood, while leaving behind the only fans who really care about his team  and paying $65 million a year in relocation fees for 10 years  and joining an owner who, truth be told, almost certainly would prefer not to share the territory.

And have we mentioned being an afterthought in an already-crowded market?

Theres increasing speculation in San Diego, then, that even if the Chargers lose the Nov. 8 vote it might not be the end, and Spanos may opt to stay put for at least another year.

After all, theres got to be another Plan B out there, right?

Contact the writer: jalexander@scng.com
In a presidential campaign where each turn seems to bring some twist thats never been seen before, the biggest unprecedented development is also probably the worst.

And that is Americas repeated harm and humiliation at the hands of hackers  sponsored or controlled by our biggest geopolitical adversaries.

Americans need leadership and guidance on this decisive issue, and they arent getting it.

The latest example? The cybersecurity of the National Security Agency was breached, some of its own powerful hacking tools posted on the internet. No ragtag band of basement bad guys could have pulled off such a feat. Edward Snowden joined other cyber experts in pointing the finger at Russian operatives. Although Snowdens reliability as an analyst has been called into deep question by the intimacy and secrecy of his relationship with Moscow, the NSA hack is just one of a string of extraordinarily and increasingly brazen attacks, many of which bear the mark of Russian responsibility.

But Americas two party leaders, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, suffer from a pronounced lack of credibility on cybersecurity, and they have shown no indication that they can lead on it. It wasnt until Friday that Trump freed himself of campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose shady Ukrainian dealings fueled nagging allegations about Trumps own relationship with Russian interests. And Clinton has struggled to project confidence and competence in the wake of Russias other recent cyber-coup  a string of systemic hacks targeting the Democratic Party.

For the Clinton campaign, bedeviled by the personal scandals around her unsecure private server and her involvement in pay-to-play schemes funding her family foundation, this failure is particularly galling. In a stark sign of how flat-footed Democrats have become under her leadership, Clinton ally and interim DNC chair Donna Brazile responded to the party hacks by swiftly assembling a cybersecurity advisory board lacking in members with significant practical cybersecurity experience.

These political performances, part tragedy and part farce, are playing out against a backdrop of even more massive breaches over the past few years. Many have adopted an air of resignation over last years pilfering by China of Office of Personnel Management records, placing at risk the personal data of millions of Americans in and out of government  data that must now be assumed to be shared at Beijings pleasure. And the persistence of Wikileaks, a group now widely agreed to be at least collaborative with Russian intelligence, poses an ongoing threat to the privacy and security of American and allied officeholders, policymakers and military officials at the very highest levels of government.

It is painfully evident that U.S. cybersecurity is a work in progress. The task is complicated, in a way Russias or Chinas is not, by Americans insistence (so far) on robust civil liberties protections. But the situation cries out for a single executive to take ownership of the challenge and communicate a clear, compelling approach to the public and private sector. Its just not good enough to make do with the sprawling, disorderly, and not always up-to-date regimes providing patchwork coverage for Americas most sensitive information. But this election season, none of todays presidential candidates have earned the public trust on cybersecurity, and come November, one of them is going to win.
FULLERTON  A man died Saturday afternoon after his car collided with another vehicle and rolled over, police said.

At about 4:45 p.m., Fullerton police officers arrived at Brookhurst Street and Commonwealth Avenue, responding to a call of a three-car collision, Sgt. Jon Radus said.

They found that a 1982 Chevrolet Blazer and a 1997 Ford Ranger had collided.

The driver of the Chevrolet died after he was ejected when the SUV rolled an unknown number of times. He was identified as La Mirada resident Lawrence Kiehl, 62.

A preliminary investigation showed that the Chevrolet was headed westbound on Commonwealth when it collided with the Ford, which was going southbound on Brookhurst, Radus said. The Chevrolet rolled an unknown number of times, ejecting the driver.

The car then side-swiped a Toyota Sienna.

The 23-year-old driver of the Ford and the driver of the Toyota were not injured.

It appears that the driver of either the Ford or the Chevrolet ran a red light, Radus said in a statement. However, it is unknown which driver did at this point in the investigation. It does not appear that alcohol nor drugs are a factor in the collision.

The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact the Fullerton Police Departments Traffic Bureau at 714-738-5313. Those wishing to provide information anonymously can call the Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS or occrimestoppers.org.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 949-445-6397 or tshimura@ocregister.com
When is retaliating against a judge an extraordinary abuse of the law, but still legal? If youre a prosecutor, of course.

The California Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals court ruled on July 24th that the Orange County District Attorneys Office technically operated within the law when it repeatedly removed Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals from cases  a tactic known as papering a judge  despite finding substantial evidence that the OCDA was paying back Goethals for exposing misconduct.

Holding their noses, the judges said they were bound by precedent and urged the state Supreme Court to revisit the law. As courts work to keep doors open and to provide timely and meaningful access to justice to the public, the extraordinary abuse of [judicial disqualification] is a barrier to justice and its cost to a court should be reconsidered, Justice Kathleen OLeary wrote in the majority opinion.

Prosecutors from the OCDA first began allegedly papering Goethals in 2014, when he was presiding over the capital murder case of Scott Dekraai. In several lengthy motions that Goethals allowed to move forward, the public defender in the case revealed that the OCDA and Orange County Sheriffs Department had been operating a secret jailhouse informant program.

In 2015, Goethals removed the entire OCDA from the case, finding that two sheriffs deputies had either lied or intentionally withheld evidence from the court.

In a statement, O.C. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said that, while he agrees with the ruling, he maintains that there has never been blanket papering of any judicial officer. Any exercise of preemptory challenge made by any member of the OCDA has been the individual prosecutors decision to do what is in the best interest of the People, public safety, and crime victims.

The numbers, however, speak for themselves. As the appeals court noted, Goethals had only been disqualified from a murder trial once in the three years prior to the Dekraai case blowing up. In the 18 months afterward, Goethals was disqualified from 46 out of 49 murder cases he was assigned.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Richard Aronson said the district attorney engaged in blanket papering of Judge Goethals and did so to retaliate and punish a widely respected and experienced jurist the district attorney previously accepted on a routine basis.

The OCDA brought the appeal after another Superior Court judge denied its challenge to remove Goethals from a case, arguing the repeated disqualifications were retaliatory and significantly increasing the caseload of other courts. In other words, the OCDA was gumming up the gears of justice to satisfy a grudge.

The California Fourth Circuit judges hands were tied by precedent, but prosecutors are rarely disciplined for misconduct anyway. A ProPublica analysis of both federal and state cases between 2001 and 2011 where serious misconduct occurred found only 30 instances where a prosecutor was punished.

In 2013, Judge Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote a blistering opinion calling on his fellow judges to rein in such prosecutors. There is an epidemic of Brady violations abroad in the land, he said, referring to instances where prosecutors failed to disclose evidence. Only judges can put a stop to it.

Goethals tried, but prosecutors arent used to being taken to task, so we see embarrassing displays like the OCDAs  a courtroom tantrum that demeans their office and erodes the public trust.

C.J. Ciaramella is a criminal justice reporter at Reason.com and Reason magazine.
TUCSON  After a scary trek through three countries to escape gang violence in El Salvador, a 15-year-old boy found himself scared again a few months back, this time in a federal immigration court here. There was an immigration judge in front of him and a federal prosecutor to his right. But there was no one helping him understand the charges against him.

I was afraid I was going to make a mistake, the boy said in Spanish from his uncles Tucson home.

When the judge asked me questions, the boy said, I just shook my head yes and no. I didnt want to say the wrong thing.

Every week in immigration courts around the country, thousands of children act as their own lawyers, pleading for asylum or other type of relief.

Suspected killers and others facing federal felony charges, no matter their ages, are entitled to court-appointed lawyers if they cannot afford them. But children accused of violating immigration laws, a civil offense, do not have the same right. Immigration court is, in fact, the only U.S. court where the government has no obligation to provide lawyers for poor children and adults, legal experts say.

Having a lawyer makes a difference. From October 2004 to June of this year, more than half the children who did not have lawyers were deported. Only 1 in 10 children who had legal representation were sent back, according to federal data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group.

What we have in immigration court is an out-of-step system, said Stephen Kang, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Unions Immigrants Right Project. Children face federal prosecutors at adversarial court hearings that can have life-or-death consequences for the children involved.

A class-action lawsuit, filed by the ACLU and other civil rights organizations, is trying to change that.

The boy from El Salvador went to his first immigration hearing in April. His uncle hoped to speak for him, but, the uncle said, the judge did not let him.

On their way out, a lawyer from the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, which represents young people facing deportation, handed the uncle a business card.

The boy will return to court in October. This time, with a lawyer.
MOSCOW  From a certain perspective, certainly the Kremlins, Vladimir Kara-Murzas behavior in Washington could be seen as treasonous, a brazen betrayal of his homeland.

In a series of public meetings on Capitol Hill, Kara-Murza, a leader in the Russian opposition, urged U.S. lawmakers to expand economic sanctions against the Russian government under a law known as the Magnitsky Act. That would hasten political change in Russia, he argued.

Back in Moscow a month later, in May 2015, the changes Kara-Murza detected were going on in his own body.

Midway through a meeting with fellow dissidents, beads of sweat inexplicably dotted his forehead. His stomach churned.

It all went so fast, he recalled. In the space of about 20 minutes, I went from feeling completely normal to having a rapid heart rate, really high blood pressure, to sweating and vomiting all over the place, and then I lost consciousness. He had ingested a poison, doctors told him after he emerged from a weeklong coma, though they could find no identifiable trace of it.

Though Kara-Murza survived, few others in his position have proved as lucky. He said he was certain he had been the target of a security service poisoning.

Used extensively in the Soviet era, political murders again are playing a prominent role in the Kremlins foreign policy, the most brutal instrument in an expanding repertoire of intimidation tactics intended to silence or otherwise intimidate critics at home and abroad.

Though typically not traceable to any individuals and plausibly denied by government officials, poisonings leave little doubt of the states involvement  which may be the point.

Outside of popular culture, there are no highly skilled hit men for hire, Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University and an authority on the Russian security services, said in an interview. If its a skilled job, that means its a state asset.

No other major power employs murder as systematically and ruthlessly as Russia does against those seen as betraying its interests abroad.

How can you protect yourself? Kara-Murzas wife, Yevgenia, asked. What can you do? Not eat? Bring your own lunch everywhere? How can you predict a poisoning?
ISTANBUL  Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar Assad during a transitional period but insisted he has no place in Syrias future.

The comments came after Assads forces began attacking Kurdish positions last week, leading some Kurdish officials to speculate that a Syrian-Turkish rapprochement was underway at the expense of Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria.

There will be concessions on the Kurdish question, said Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, which expelled the Islamic State group from their northern Syrian stronghold of Manbij this month. I do not know where this will lead.

Turkey is one of the main supporters of rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, and hosts more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees. But Istanbul is concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces across the border and opposes any moves toward Kurdish autonomy or independence. The Syrian government, too, has grown uneasy with the Kurdish forces in the north, who enjoy close relations with the U.S. government, an open antagonist of Syrias Assad.

Damascus has largely refrained from attacking its homegrown Kurdish forces, which have successfully defeated the Islamic State group in multiple battles while expanding their own autonomous footprint.

However on Friday, the Syrian militarys General Command released a statement referring to the Kurdish Asayesh internal police force as the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The militarys statement appeared to be a concession to the Turkish government, which is battling its own Kurdish insurgency in the southeast and has long pressed the Syrian government to label the Syrian Kurdish political movement as an extension of Turkeys outlawed PKK.

Speaking to foreign media representatives in Istanbul, Yildirim said Turkey would aim to become more of a regional player with regard to Syria in the next six months.

Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not, Yildirim said. The United States knows and Russia knows that Assad does not appear to be someone who can bring (the people) together.

There may be talks (with Assad) for the transition.  But we believe that there should be no (Kurdish rebels), Daesh or Assad in Syrias future, he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Fighting erupted between the Kurdish Asayesh forces and the Syrian military last week over control of the northern city of Hasakeh, with Syrian warplanes raiding Kurdish positions inside the city, a first for the five-year Syrian war.

The escalation prompted the U.S. to scramble jets to protect International Coalition forces embedded with the Kurds. The U.S. has 300 special operating troops embedded with the Kurds, according to the U.S. government.

U.S. Navy Captain Jeff Davis said Friday the U.S. would do what was needed to protect coalition forces.

The Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk, he said.
NGKF Capital Markets guided the recapitalized of three multi-tenant office buildings in Orange for $108.5 million. The transaction includes 600 City Parkway West, a 10-story, 199,075-square-foot building; 3800 Chapman, an eight-story, 169,851-square-foot building, and 500 City Parkway, a four-story, 70,320-square-foot building. Kevin Shannon, NGKF president of West Coast Capital Markets, along with Paul Jones, senior managing director, and Ken White, executive managing director, represented the existing partnership of Greenlaw Partners and Walton Street. The firms purchased the buildings separately in 2014 and 2015. All three buildings are fully occupied.

Granite Escrow & Settlement Services in Newport Beach closed escrow on the $100 million sale of the historic Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills. Daren Metropoulos, a 33-year-old principal in the investment firm Metropoulos & Co., is the new owner. Under terms of the deal, Playboys 90-year-old founder, Hugh Hefner, can stay in the mansion for the rest of his life. Metropoulos later plans to connect the 5-acre Playboy estate to his 2-acre digs next door.

PEOPLE IN REAL ESTATE

Brian P. Murphy, founder and CEO of ProActive Professional Management, was named 2017 president-elect of Community Associations Institute-Orange County. He has worked in the HOA industry for 24 years and founded ProActive in 2015. CAI is an international membership organization dedicated to building better communities. CAIs roots are here in Orange County, and the local chapter is one of the organizations largest.

Newport Beach-based Frontier Real Estate Investments, a privately-held commercial real estate investment firm, has promoted of two staffers to its executive team. Tom Carpenter, formerly senior director of acquisitions, was named vice president of acquisitions, while Ryan Carstensen, previously director of development, was elevated to vice president of development. Carpenter joined Frontier in 2011 and has played a key role in some of Frontiers high-profile projects, including the repositioning of a bowling alley in Whittier to make way for Aldi and Beverages N More, and the rebuild of a retail center in Anaheim for Rite Aid, Popeyes, and a food court. Carstensen joined the company earlier this year.

MILESTONES

Several local landscapers have been honored with awards from the Orange County chapter of the California Landscape Contractors Association for projects in north Orange County. Winners include:

 Marina Landscape in Anaheim won the Allen Chariton Memorial Judges award for the best landscape maintenance for the Citadel Outlets project in Los Angeles.

 Richard Cohen Landscape in Lake Forest won the Sweepstakes award for the best overall entry from all categories to on the McLean Residence Project in Villa Park.

 Solscapes in Placentia won the Bill Vandergeest Excelsior award for the Lascari Placentia project, also in Placentia. The award honors a contractor who has been a member of CLCA for less than a year.

 DMA Greencare Contracting Inc. in Anaheim won the Robert Wade Memorial Presidents award for best landscape installation, landscape renovation, or water conservation for the Kreutzinger Residence in Villa Park.

CLCA is a nonprofit trade association of licensed landscape and landscape-related specialty contractors.

Send related executive promotions, property transactions, good works and milestones to Business Editor Samantha Gowen at sgowen@ocregister.com.
Re: California needs drought-proof water [Opinion, Aug. 18]: Bravo to the Register editorial board for making the case for large-scale desalination in their editorial.

It is only in a magical parallel universe that things like letting our lawns die and not flushing our toilets will solve Californias fresh water problem. Bold, common sense solutions that prioritize our future ahead of things like smelt accommodations are essential.

Recognizing that Israel and the U.S. Navy have had significant success with desalination means we dont need to reinvent the wheel.

An effective overall solution to meeting our long-term water needs will entail a comprehensive response, but we can only achieve success through good leadership.

Its about time that Gov. Jerry Brown and our legislature wise up and summon the courage to lead in meeting this challenge.

 Steve Shatynski, Brea

Maybe the Los Angeles Angels should ask L.A.

Am I the only one seeing the obvious answer to the need of a new stadium for the Angels? If the Los Angeles Angels need a new stadium, let the city of Los Angeles help with the cost. Pretty simple.

 Carla Pinnix, Tustin

We are at war with climate change

Were at war, but were not aware of it. We see the damage being inflicted upon us, and others around the world, but we dont make the connection to the common enemy  a warming earth. At our doorstep, the ocean is at record high temperatures, we dont need sweaters in the evening like we used to, 500- and 1000-year floods are happening multiple times a year, and the wildfires are routinely described as the most intense weve ever seen.

Of the Blue Cut fire, people are saying the firefighters who have been out here for 40 years have never seen fire behavior as explosive as this.

We hear about what is happening here, but the same deluges, fires and droughts are occurring world-wide. People are dying, but the survivors dont talk about climate change or global warming. Like most, they dont know that what is happening is exactly what scientists have long predicted  that a carbon-rich atmosphere holds more water. So where its dry it will get drier and where its wet it will get wetter and often in great bursts of rainfall and snow.

Were being attacked and Congress needs to declare war now. America can win.

 Mark Tabbert, Newport Beach

Sanchez should be the next California senator

It is time for those of us in Southern California to start giving serious thought to our vote for the U.S. Senate in November. Kamala Harris was endorsed by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic Party for the primaries. Now both candidates are women  and both are Democrats. But only Loretta Sanchez is from Southern California.

I do not understand the endorsement of Kamala Harris by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. It would seem that this is an intrusion into state politics and it is inappropriate.

Southern California has not had representation in the U.S. Senate for far too long. And of the two candidates, Loretta Sanchez is the experienced congresswoman who has served her constituents well.

As a senator, I believe that she will listen to all of us who may need to express concerns about issues.

She also has a reputation for being able to work across the aisle to solve national problems.

She has been very diligent in working on veterans issues and has provided the space in her office for veterans to gather and work toward a cemetery at the former MCAS El Toro site. As a Republican, I voted for her in the primary and will do so in November. We need Loretta Sanchez as our U.S. Senator.

 Mary G. Smillie, Laguna Hills

Matter of life and death belong to the individual

Re: Assisted suicide is a personal choice [Opinion, Aug. 19]: Abigail Hall Blanco wrote a thoughtful article about euthanasia stating she didnt know whether her morals would allow for her to participate in it herself, but mentioned she hopes shes never confronted with such a scenario.

It is a gift to be born and allowed to follow your dreams. We all hope for the best  good parents, spouse, children, health and success. Yet we are not the masters of our domain as we may think. Weve transplanted pastoral life living off the land, growing crops and raising farm animals, with a high-tech society.

We have become too involved with material gains and a fast-paced existence. This has led to taking pills to sleep, pills to calm us down, and excessive drinking and drug use. If we could plan life to the optimum we wouldnt be wasting the best parts of the day (eight or more hours at work), we wouldnt sleep eight hours, nor drive ourselves into a frenzy to obtaining the almighty buck. Due to medical advancements we are living much longer. In doing so we are susceptible to various illnesses including cancer, diabetes and dealing with geriatrics. Weve become all too familiar with medical terms and disease so much so that when a friend talks about an illness we can offer helpful information.

In reaching old age without being subject to the medical pitfalls that accompanies it, doctors suggest to live even longer we dont fall down. My mother passed away at 98 having the mental acumen she did when she was a young woman. After a number of times falling, the body lost its desire to repair itself as did my mothers will to live. Being bed ridden for a vibrant woman was a death knell. She asked my brother, a chemist, to give her something to end her life. He told her he would wind up in jail if he did so. I was the older brother to whom she turned to next. She told me she had lived a long and fruitful life and did not wish to live the rest of it lying in bed. All her friends had passed on and enough was enough. Could I please help? I told a social worker of her wish to end her life. What could she recommend to hasten death? She was on morphine and I was told to tell her to stop eating, with morphine she would feel no pain. She told me she was not allowed to give out that information, but I pleaded for it. In a matter of days she was gone. The gift of life was no longer a gift but had become a burden.

We miss her very much but acknowledge the fact that she went as peacefully and as comfortably as possible and most importantly on her own terms. Euthanasia should be the option of those who can make the decision for themselves or for those that cannot but have expressed their desires to family and friends beforehand. Their best interests should be of paramount consideration.

 Barry Wasserman, Huntington Beach

Clovis teachers benefit from union gains

Re: On teacher freedom, Clovis sets an example for California [Opinion, Aug. 18]: Kudos to the school teachers and administrators in Clovis. However, I disagree that the unions have played no role in their success.

People need to be compensated financially for their work and level of expertise. The teachers union has been key in obtaining adequate pay for its members. If Clovis paid salaries less than surrounding unionized communities, they would not be able to recruit qualified teachers.

Thus, the Clovis teachers reap the benefits without contributing their fair share financially to the process.

-Sandra McCanne, San Juan Capistrano

Ransom payments sound like treason to me

Re: Donald Trump and the Constitution [Opinion, Aug. 18]: Erwin Chemerinsky writes that Donald Trump has no understanding of the U.S. Constitution because he calls President Barack Obama treasonous, saying further that Article 3 of the Constitution defines treason as levying war against the U.S. or adhering to U.S. enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

President Obama sent $400 million to Iran in what seems like ransom for sailors. He also had the sanctions removed enabling Iran to sell their oil and make more money. These concessions to Iran by the Obama administration, that sounds like aid and comfort to a U.S. enemy.

The only people benefiting from these deals is Wall Street, the EU and the Clinton Foundation. The Constitution is interpreted by the Supreme Court, so it does not really matter what Trumps understanding is of the Constitution. As long as Wall Street makes the laws and runs the media, including the Register, all Americans are in jeopardy.

 Rob Turner, Dana Point

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LANSING, Mich.  The prosecution of current and former state of Michigan employees for their role in Flints lead-contaminated water crisis likely will face an early test over whether one of the most serious charges can even be levied against the middle- and lower-level government officials.

All eight workers charged so far, five from the Department of Environmental Quality and three with the Department of Health and Human Services, face a misconduct in office charge  a felony that can carry a five-year prison term. The cases are in the early stages of prosecution.

But there is no statute clearly defining official misconduct. Rather, it is a common law offense based on judicial decisions and a doctrine whose origins trace back centuries to England.

The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that misconduct in office applies only to public officers, not all government workers.

Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and a former federal prosecutor, said Michigan is one of few states to preserve common law criminal offenses. State courts are still struggling to discern who can face the charge, he said, particularly within bureaucracies staffed mostly with non-elected or non-appointed officials.

The higher up you get in the bureaucracy and the chain of the command, the more likely youre going to be an officer, Henning said.

Just last month, the state Court of Appeals affirmed a lower judges decision to toss a misconduct in office charge against a Wayne County lawyer in a failed jail project. The defendant was a public employee, not a public officer, the court ruled.

Factors to be weighed include whether a position and its duties were created, defined and delegated by the Legislature or through legislative authority. Elected officials such as the governor, lawmakers, mayors and high-ranking appointees are public officers. Police officers have been successfully prosecuted for the crime, too.

The DEQ employees worked in the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. The former chief, Liane Shekter Smith, was fired in February while four others  district supervisor Stephen Busch, district engineer Michael Prysby, water quality analyst Adam Rosenthal and specialist Patrick Cook are suspended but recently began being paid again.

As of Aug. 1, the agency had spent nearly $1.4 million on private attorneys for those employees along with former DEQ director Dan Wyant and ex-communications director Brad Wurfel  who resigned in December and who have been named in civil lawsuits filed by Flint residents.

The Health and Human Services Department had spent $246,000 through Aug. 18 on private lawyers for 16 current or former workers, including those charged criminally: former state epidemiologist Corinne Miller, who retired in April as director of the Bureau of Epidemiology; Nancy Peeler, director of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program; and Robert Scott, data manager for the Healthy Homes and Lead Prevention program.

All but one of the defendants, Shekter Smith, faces at least one other felony charge  typically evidence tampering, conspiracy or both. Her attorney, Brian Morley, called the misconduct charge murky.

By comparison, armed robbery  pretty straightforward. Misconduct in office requires specificity. It requires as with any criminal matter an intent to either do or not do, and I dont think you see that here, he said.

Shekter Smith complied with the law as drafted and did nothing criminally wrong, Morley said.

In announcing the second round of charges last month, Attorney General Bill Schuette said the defendants had deliberately concealed the tap waters danger from the public, allowing children to continue drinking poison. The water was contaminated when the city switched from a Detroit-area water system to the Flint River while under state emergency management in 2014.

State regulators failed to require corrosion chemicals, letting toxic lead from old pipes leach into the supply.

A ninth government worker who was charged in the ongoing investigation  Flint utilities administrator Mike Glasgow  struck a deal, pledging cooperation in exchange for pleading no contest to willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor.

Asked for comment on the felony misconduct charges, Schuette spokeswoman Andrea Bitely said the attorney general and special counsel Todd Flood would not have charged these individuals if they did not have confidence in the charges. We will pursue this case in court.

Flood told WDET-FM on Wednesday that its always the cover-up.  Im not going to prosecute anybody that made a mistake. I will prosecute someone that made a decision, a culpable decision, to commit a crime.
Last September, the states most powerful law-enforcement unions and lobbyists descended on the Capitol and derailed a sensible reform measure that had been sailing through the Legislature with little opposition. The bipartisan bill, Senate Bill 443, would have required police agencies to gain a criminal conviction before seizing peoples houses, boats, cars and cash. It was a simple affirmation of the principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment.

No person shall  be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. Thats the operative portion of the amendment. Note that it does not say Americans shall not be deprived of their property unless it puts a crimp in the governments budget.

Only four Republican Assembly members did the right thing and voted for the bill: Matt Harper of Huntington Beach, Bill Brough of Dana Point, co-author David Hadley of Los Angeles and Brian Maienschein of San Diego. I was particularly harsh toward Republicans in my column, given that Republicans often talk about liberty and the Constitution, so there should be far more than four of them backing asset-forfeiture reform.

Earlier this week, however, the Assembly approved a compromise version of SB443 with the widespread support of Republicans and Democrats. It passed 69-7, with no Republicans voting no (although a couple were absent). If Gov. Jerry Brown signs it into law, it will correct a serious injustice. Most of the states major law-enforcement groups removed their opposition to the bill, which signifies a heartening willingness for constructive change by that powerful lobby.

In the throes of the Drug War frenzy of the 1980s, the U.S. Justice Department came up with a new tool for fighting drug kingpins. Police and prosecutors would seize the property of people suspected of being involved in the drug trade. It quickly spread to the states. Everyone despises drug kingpins, so it sounded great. But the biggest assaults on our liberties are often proposed as a means to fight some kind of evil.

Because forfeiture is a civil rather than criminal process, the standards for government takings are weak. Agencies need only allege the property was used in the commission of a crime before taking it. The owner does not get due process, although there is a bureaucratic process for trying to get the property returned. The system created a perverse incentive, because agencies get to keep most of the assets they take.

The result was entirely predictable. Many individuals who were innocent of any crime lost their property, even their lifes savings. Most takings were for under $40,000, so the legal process to get that property back became so costly that many victims were forced to just walk away. Two of the early directors of the DOJs asset-forfeiture program complained about the way it corrupted policing in a 2014 Washington Post column. John Yoder and Brad Cates wrote that the system led to the most extreme abuses: law enforcement efforts based upon what cash and property they could seize to fund themselves, rather than on an even-handed effort to enforce the law.

Before that September vote, the main opposition argument from law-enforcement groups was about how they would lose a significant portion of their funding. But there needs to be a far better reason to violate the Constitutions due-process and probable-cause requirements than the government wants the money!

Fortunately, the Capitol crowd came to its senses. The compromise version that passed Monday requires law-enforcement agencies simply to get a conviction before taking property in most instances. California police agencies often circumvent the states tougher restrictions by partnering with federal agencies and then splitting the proceeds. SB443 bans such equitable sharing arrangements unless theres a conviction first.

The compromise version still lets police seize cash amounts above $40,000 without a conviction, but they cannot take property without a conviction. Thats important. Consider the Anaheim case where the feds tried (before ultimately dropping the case) to take a couples $1.5 million building after a tenant (a pot dispensary) was accused of selling $37 in marijuana to an undercover officer.

All O.C. Assembly members voted in favor of the latest bill and Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine, spoke in favor of it. Maybe the flames of liberty still burn, however softly, in the halls of the Capitol.

Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. He is based in Sacramento. He was a Register editorial writer from 1 998 to 2009. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
The Affordable Care Act is collapsing, and President Obama blames Republicans.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the president accused Republicans of undermining the health care laws implementation. It has come at a cost for the country, Obama wrote, most notably for the estimated 4 million Americans left uninsured because they live in GOP-led states that have yet to expand Medicaid.

But expanding Medicaid also has come at a cost.

Medi-Cal, as Medicaid is called in California, has enrolled almost 5 million people since January 2014, when the Affordable Care Act expanded eligibility for the safety-net program. In 2010, 7.4 million Californians were covered by Medi-Cal. Today its more than 13 million, about one-third of the state population.

Covered California, the health care exchange where federally subsidized policies can be purchased from private insurers, has enrolled just 1.4 million people since it went online in the fall of 2013.

Is the dramatic expansion of Medi-Cal a success story?

Not if you run a hospital. California pays Medi-Cal providers less than it costs to provide the care to patients. The more people they treat, the more money they lose.

In 2009, hospitals in California were losing a total of about $2 billion annually on the care they provided to Medi-Cal patients. Today its about $8 billion.

The federal government provides matching funds for state Medicaid programs. To help California bring home every available federal dollar, the hospitals came up with the idea of paying a fee to the state, which would be put into the Medi-Cal program to help it qualify for matching funds. Then the state would have more money and could pay the hospitals for providing care to Medi-Cal patients.

It may sound like a game of three-card monte, but the California Hospital Association says the program has helped hospitals lose only $5 billion on Medi-Cal patients instead of $8 billion.

The hospital fee program was written into state law in 2009 and renewed three more times, most recently in 2013. It was well-supported but still bumpy: The state took a $1 billion annual cut of the hospital fees to pay for childrens health programs, and occasionally some of the hospital fees were diverted to other budget priorities.

So the hospitals are asking the voters of California to lock the hospital fee program into the law permanently. It will be on the Nov. 8 statewide ballot as Proposition 52, the Medi-Cal Funding and Accountability Act.

The measure has the endorsement of business organizations and labor unions. Theyre all supporting it because when the government underpays medical providers, medical providers charge everybody else a higher price to make up for it. The federal matching dollars make the numbers a little less terrible.

Even so, insurance premiums for 2017 are going up by double digits in California.

That hits business, labor, and everybody who pays for health insurance except the government, because the government simply chooses to underpay, and nobody can do anything about it except turn away patients. More and more doctors are doing that.

Some of the recently insured report problems accessing medical care, says a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Twelve percent said theyve been told by a doctors office or clinic in the past year that they would not be accepted as a new patient.

President Obama complained in his JAMA article that as of July 1, 19 states still had not expanded their Medicaid programs. Change is difficult, he wrote, but it is especially difficult in the face of hyperpartisanship.

He must be good at crossword puzzles. Thats a 17-letter word meaning math.

Susan Shelley is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach her at Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has sold himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one.

But an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Trumps real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt  twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times inquiry also found that Trumps fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign.

For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in New York, of which Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States; and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, after it paid her $675,000 in speaking fees.

As president, Trump would have substantial sway over monetary and tax policy, as well as the power to make appointments that would directly affect his own financial empire.

Yet The Times examination underscored how much of Trumps business remains shrouded in mystery. He has declined to disclose his tax returns or allow an independent valuation of his assets.

Earlier in the campaign, Trump submitted a federal financial disclosure form. It said his businesses owed at least $315 million to a relatively small group of lenders and listed ties to more than 500 limited liability companies. Though he answered the questions, the form appears to have been designed for candidates with simpler finances than his and did not require disclosure of portions of his business activities.

Beyond finding that companies owned by Trump had debts of at least $650 million, The Times discovered that a substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders, including those that hold the loan on the Avenue of the Americas building. If those loans were to go into default, Trump might not be held personally liable, but the value of his investments would sink.

Richard Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota and, from 2005 to 2007, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, compared Trump to Henry Paulson Jr., a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs whom Bush appointed Treasury secretary.

Painter advised Paulson on his decision to sell his Goldman Sachs shares, saying it was clear that Paulson could not simply have placed that stock in a trust and pretended it did not exist.

If Trump were to use a blind trust, the professor said, it would be like putting a gold watch in a box and pretending you dont know it is in there.

Trump once said on CNN: I am the king of debt. I love debt. But in his career, debt has sometimes gotten the better of him, leading to at least four business bankruptcies.

He is, however, quick to stress that these days, his companies have very little debt.

Trump indicated in the financial disclosure form that he was worth at least $1.5 billion and has said publicly that the figure is actually greater than $10 billion. Recent estimates by Forbes and Fortune magazines and Bloomberg have put his worth at less than $5 billion.

To gain a better understanding of Trumps holdings and debt, The Times engaged RedVision Systems, a national property information firm, to search publicly available data on more than 30 properties in the United States.

That Trump seems to have so much less debt on his disclosure form than what The Times found is not his fault, but rather a function of what the form asks candidates to list and how.

The form, released by the Federal Election Commission, asks that candidates list assets and debts not in precise numbers, but in ranges that top out at $50 million  appropriate for most candidates, but not for Trump. Through its examination, The Times was able to discern the amount of debt taken out on each property and its ownership structure.

At 40 Wall Street in New York, a limited liability company, or LLC, controlled by Trump holds the ground lease  the lease for the land on which the building stands. In 2015, Trump borrowed $160 million from Ladder Capital, a small New York firm, using that long-term lease as collateral. On his financial disclosure form, that debt is listed as valued at more than $50 million.

Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, said Trump could have left the liability section on the form blank because federal law requires that presidential candidates disclose personal liabilities, not corporate debt. Trump, he said, has no personal debt.

We overdisclosed, Weisselberg said, explaining that it was decided that when a Trump company owned 100 percent of a property, all of the associated debt would be disclosed, something that he said went beyond what the law required.

For properties where a Trump company owned less than 100 percent of a building, Weisselberg said, those debts were not disclosed.

Trump, for example, has a 50 percent stake in the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. In 2010, the company that owns the hotel refinanced a $190 million loan, according to Real Capital Analytics, a commercial real estate data and analytics firm.

Weisselberg said a Trump entity was responsible for half the debt, and all but $6.4 million of the loan had been paid off.

The Times found three other instances in which Trump had an ownership interest in a building but did not disclose the debt associated with it. In all three cases, Trump had passive investments in limited liability companies that had borrowed significant amounts of money.

One of these investments involves an office tower at 1290 Avenue of Americas. In a typically complex deal, loan documents show that four lenders  German American Capital, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank; UBS Real Estate Securities; Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company; and Bank of China  agreed in November 2012 to lend $950 million to the three companies that own the building. Those companies, obscurely named HWA 1290 III LLC, HWA 1290 IV LLC and HWA 1290 V LLC, are owned by three other companies in which Trump has stakes.

Ultimately, through his investments, Trump is a 30 percent owner of the building, records show. Vornado Realty Trust owns the other 70 percent and is the controlling partner.

On a smaller scale, Trump also has a 4 percent partnership interest in a company that has an interest in a large Brooklyn housing complex and owes roughly $410 million to Wells Fargo, according to Bloomberg data.

The full terms of Trumps limited partnerships are not known. The current value of the loans connected to them is roughly $1.95 billion, according to various public documents.

Weisselberg said that neither Trump nor the company were responsible for the debt associated with the limited partnerships. Trump, Weisselberg added, was liable for a small percentage of the corporate debt listed on the federal filing but would not elaborate.

Despite Trumps holdings, Weisselberg said, the candidate should not be held to the same standards that might apply to the heads of companies in highly regulated industries.

Others disagree. Trumps opaque portfolio of business ties make him potentially vulnerable to the demands of banks and to businesspeople in the United States and abroad, said Richard Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota and, from 2005 to 2007, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer.

The success of his empire depends on an ability to get credit, to get loans extended to his business entities, he said. And we simply dont know a lot about his financial dealings, here or around the world.
About a week ago, a 40-year-old Turkish man fled the only home hes ever known  a city about 90 miles southeast of Istanbul.

He flew 7,000 miles, to a city hed never seen, a place thats home to the largest Turkish American population in Southern California  Irvine.

The man, who ran a nonprofit that provided humanitarian aid, doesnt want to be identified because he fears for the safety of the wife and two children he was forced to leave in Turkey. They are hidden in a different city, he said, not far from his hometown. Theyve thrown away their cellphones and erased their social media accounts for fear of being tracked down by a government that no longer welcomes them.

He heard from neighbors that police ransacked their abandoned home, looking under sinks, behind picture frames and inside underwear drawers  anywhere they might find evidence of support for the hundreds of thousands of Turks who oppose Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Fortunately, I wasnt among those whose passports had been canceled, he said.

My wifes name was already on the list, which is why she had to stay back with our children, he added. Im worried sick about them.

Since an attempted coup in Turkey in July, and the widespread purge that followed, more than 100 Turks have arrived in Orange County and Los Angeles, hoping to seek asylum and eventually rescue family members who remain likely targets for arrest, torture or worse.

HIZMET IN IRVINE

Many asylum seekers are staying with locals, with at least 45 families signing up to be hosts. Turkish organizations such as Anatolia Cultural Centers in Irvine are helping with basic needs  clothes, groceries and furniture.

We have volunteers in the community, both Turkish and non-Turkish, who have opened their homes to these people, said Irvine resident Pasa Beg. They are taking them grocery shopping and giving them a psychological boost during a very difficult time.

The new arrivals arent planning a quick return to Turkey. Most are taking steps to seek formal asylum from the U.S. government, a process that could take several years.

Were all hoping and praying that democracy returns to Turkey, Beg said. We are extremely worried for our homeland and our families back there.

Followers of the Hizmet movement  the group that follows the teachings of Turkish preacher Fethulla Gulen  feel targeted and threatened, even in the United States. But Beg and others added that those who have left family members behind in Turkey are particularly in danger.

The Hizmet movement is as controversial and influential as its leader, Gulen, 75, who has lived in self-exile on a 25-acre estate in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania for the last 17 years.

Gulen preaches nonviolence and an educational tradition that focuses on science and Sufi Islamic tradition, a mystical practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience with God. The word that describes his followers, Hizmet, means service in Turkish.

Followers locally and elsewhere have denied playing any role in the coup, even if the Turkish government believes otherwise.

The Hizmet movement has from 3 million to 8 million followers around the world, including many in Orange County, which is home to about 5,000 Turkish Americans.

Next to New Jersey, Irvine has the largest concentration of Turkish people in the U.S., which is why those who are fleeing that country are choosing to come here to find a safe haven.

While Gulens supporters worldwide describe their goals as altruistic, detractors describe a cultish movement aimed at building an Islamic elite who will some day rebuild the Turkish state.

Those who have sought refuge in Orange County say Erdogans government has made survival impossible for them in Turkey by shutting hundreds of Hizmet-affiliated schools and media outlets, confiscating property, businesses and bank accounts, and even suspending passports to prevent the movements followers from leaving the country.

Last week, the government took the step of freeing prison space in Turkey, releasing 38,000 people convicted of nonviolent crimes to make room for Hizmet supporters who have been crowding prisons since the coup.

Many who made it to Southern California say they would be in prison or headed there if they hadnt gotten out of Turkey.

She told me not to come back home, a 17-year-old Turk who recently landed in Irvine said of his mothers advice during a recent phone call.

(She said) I had no future there. My parents and younger sister applied for a visa to leave the country, but they were rejected.

The teen, who speaks only Turkish, is living for now in an Irvine apartment with a few roommates. He plans to take English classes first and then finish high school.

NEW HOME

The persecution of Hizmet followers began several months before the coup, says a 68-year-old businessman from central Turkey who now lives with one of his sons in Irvine.

A renowned businessman and philanthropist in his home city, he remains composed as he describes losing his business and savings to the government. His wealth was confiscated, he says, after decades of work.

But when he talks about being branded a terrorist by his own government  a charge he denies  he breaks down.

He explains that he built a comfortable life even after dropping out of school after the eighth grade. He founded an educational nonprofit affiliated with the Hizmet movement, donating money for schools in Turkey and Africa. He provided scholarships and often opened his home to host dinners for students.

Im thankful I was able to share what I had, he says, wiping away tears. Ive seen doctors, engineers and lawyers come out of these schools and colleges that I helped through the foundation. Thats kept me going all these years.

He is still worried for family. His wife and two grown children remain in Turkey, and his son recently was arrested and remains imprisoned.

On a recent evening, as he sat down to dinner with his son at Doner G, a Turkish restaurant in Irvine, he was approached by two middle-aged men.

It turns out they had been to my house for a meal as students and had benefited from scholarships Id provided, he says.

It was heartening to hear that, thousands of miles away, in a strange city.

After the failed coup on July 15  an event that took at least 290 lives  some of the Turkish Americans already living in Irvine were contacted by Irvine police Chief Mike Hamel.

It was, the department said, a message of support and to remind people to ask for police help if they needed it.

Chief Hamels call to the Turkish community was intended to demonstrate our care, thoughtfulness and compassion for the Turkish American community in the wake of unrest in their homeland, said Deputy Chief Julia Engen.

It could take some time for the new arrivals to make a permanent new home here.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, asylum applications filed in August 2011 were being scheduled for interviews between May and July this year.

A Los Angeles man with relatives in Turkey is mobilizing help for Turkish asylum seekers. He said the people hes working with simply cant return home until Turkey is normalized.

People whove sent out two critical tweets of the government are facing eight years in jail, he said. This is not a democracy.

The government, he added, just announced incentives to citizens to turn over family members and neighbors affiliated with Hizmet to the police.

For Turkish people all over the world, these are scary times.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7909 or dbharath@ocregister.com
The Millard West High School marching band and flag corps march along Polk Street toward 162nd Avenue during its eighth annual neighborhood march-a-thon fundraiser on Saturday. The band stepped off about 8 a.m. and covered a 10K route through the neighborhoods around the school, with stops at churches for water and bathroom breaks as well as lunch.

The band performed its music for this years season and collected freewill donations to support the band along the way. For a fee, the Wildcat Band would stop at a house to perform a lawn concert of one to two songs from among 15 choices.

Senior Alan Godfrey, 17, plays the mellophone with other horn players as the band offers a musical thank you to the volunteers who provided lunch at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Amaya Fusselman, 3, is attentive to the band performance  even if it is a bit loud for the little superwomans ears  while Cheryl Bies, kneeling and recording with her phone, and her daughter, Molly, 13, enjoy the show.

Gabriel Armas, Kelley Stilwell and Ashley Silligman, all Millard West graduates and former members of the marching band, also took in the show.
I bought Paul Kalanithi's memoir, "When Breath Becomes Air," the day it came out and set it down on my kitchen table unopened. Several of my best friends from medical school did likewise. We had read Kalanithi's recent articles and knew the story of the Stanford neurosurgery chief resident diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer  a diagnosis that 22 months later would prove to be terminal.

But instead of jumping in, for several weeks we shared email exchanges about what we could expect to find, afraid to confront the actual words on the page. We were all at the end of our residency training (several of us, including me, in surgery), and reading the book, we knew, would make real a fear that no scientific articles and patient stories could: that terrible and unexpected things happen to doctors, too.

I had never really thought about the way physicians die, even though I was seeing so much death around me. But in hospitals, death can feel routine. We encounter it in intensive care units, on the floors and in the trauma bays; we see it happen to elderly patients with dementia, to newborns and to healthy teenagers. And yet I cannot think of any colleague who does not consistently draw a hard line of separation between what happens to "them"  the patients  and what can happen to "us." There is an otherness to the bizarre accidents and the exceedingly rare cancers: In hospitals filled with unlikely catastrophes, the statistics are always on our side.

We trust in the double standard: one recommendation for our patients, a different one for ourselves. We routinely counsel patients on their end-of-life care, and we inquire about living wills before surgery. But in asking around, I learned that none of my fellow residents have living wills, designated proxies or advance directives. I don't have them either, nor have I had a real discussion about what I would want done if the worst-case scenario occurred.

I did end up having a conversation with my best friend, an oncology fellow. "You would know what I would want," I said to him rather nonchalantly, expecting this to be the end of the conversation. "Of course," he said, "so do you. We've always been on the same page." We easily agreed that neither of us would want prolonged breathing or feeding tubes, or holes made in our windpipe, or ending up stuck in a coma. Unless, of course, that coma was reversible.

"What percent chance of reversibility?" he asked. I didn't have an answer - "I guess 5?" My best friend, it turned out, would draw the line at 2 percent, but not if there's significant brain damage involved. How much brain damage is significant? As we considered our end-of-life preferences, it became clear that neither of us knew what the other would want because we had never actually thought through our own stances.

Physicians, like most people, do not want to discuss the implications of their own mortality. We forgo difficult conversations, assuming that our wishes would somehow be innately known by our friends and families. Haven't we always been told that all doctors want the same thing? Indeed, a 2014 survey confirmed that an overwhelming majority of physicians  almost 90 percent  would choose no resuscitation. Most doctors also report wanting to die at home rather than in a hospital.

Perhaps it is these general assumptions that make physicians not feel the need to explicitly discuss and outline their end-of-life preferences. In a survey of almost 1,000 physicians whose mean age was 68, almost 90 percent thought that their family members were aware of their wishes for end-of-life care. Almost half of those surveyed did not think their doctor was aware of their end-of-life choices, with 59 percent of those participants having no intention of discussing these wishes with their doctor in the next year.

But we know that conversations about proxies and advance directives should happen long before they need to be utilized.

A 2016 study found that physicians were as likely to be hospitalized in the last six months of life as were non-physicians. On average, they also spent more days in intensive care units at the end of life and were as likely as others to die in a hospital.

So why are doctors dying in hospitals and in intensive care units instead of at home, when we know that their wishes tend to align with avoiding extreme measures at the end of life? My best guess is that physicians and non-physicians alike are skilled at believing that bad things happen only to others. Repeatedly witnessing tragedy does nothing to temper this human tendency.

At the same time, questions about the end of life are never easy even if we try to pretend that they are, and dealing in absolutes and generalities is seldom helpful. We see patients spending years on life support or clinging to hopeless cancer treatments and agree that we would never want that road for ourselves. Most of the time, however, the issues are markedly less clear. Often, the calculus shifts as life itself changes, as the needs of significant others and children become factored into the equation.

For that reason, living wills or designated proxies cannot exist in isolation. Instead, these questions must begin with a lot of self-reflection and difficult conversations with our loved ones. But none of that can happen until we come to terms with the unsettling reality of our own mortality. Not reflecting on or discussing it, like not picking up a book, does not change our reality: that illness and death are often unpredictable, and that this is as true for us doctors as it is for our patients.
All The Light We Cannot See, the New York Times bestselling novel set in World War II-era France, has been voted the Omaha Public Librarys 2016 Omaha Reads selection.

Every year, the library gathers write-in suggestions from readers, builds a list of finalists and holds a public vote to designate one book as the annual selection for the citywide book club.

This years selection, from author Anthony Doerr, beat out finalists Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

All The Light We Cannot See tells the story of a blind French girl and a German boy as they navigate the challenges of World War II in occupied France.

All The Light We Cannot See is an excellent choice of a book to spark conversation, said Laura Marlane, executive director of the Omaha Public Library, in a press release. Not only does it humanize the war by introducing the reader to new perspectives through its characters, but it also recognizes how warfare evolves with changing technologies. The options for discussion are endless.

Past selections for the Omaha Reads program include Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, The Meaning of Names by Karen Gettert Shoemaker, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

Omaha Reads programs

Libraries in the city will hold the following events related to the themes in this years book, beginning in early September. Find more information at omahalibrary.org or at the hosting branch.

The Importance of Radio in Nazi Germany and Occupied France, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 8, W. Dale Clark Main Library, 215 S. 15th St. Presented by Brian York, the curator of exhibits and collections for the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum.

Cursed Gemstones in History, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21, W. Dale Clark Main Library, 215 S. 15th St. Presented by Karen Bachmann, an instructor at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Book discussion, 6:15 p.m. Sept. 27, Millard Library, 13214 Westwood Lane.

Book discussion, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 28, W. Clarke Swanson Library, 9101 W. Dodge Road.

Forever Heroes, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29, at W. Dale Clark Main Library, 215 S. 15th St. A discussion about various jobs held by World War II service men and women, led by Forever Heroes: A Collection of World War II Stories From Nebraska Veterans by author Joyce H. Winfield.

Alamo hosts The Road for Novel Pictures series

Alamo Drafthouse Omaha will play The Road at 7 p.m. Thursday as part of its Novel Pictures series.

The monthly series  a partnership with Omaha Public Library and The Bookworm  picks a movie based on a book. Following the screening, representatives of Alamo and the library prompt a discussion with patrons about the similarities and differences between book and movie.

The Road is John Hillcoats 2009 adaptation of Cormac McCarthys Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The film follows a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) trudging through and trying to survive a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Previous Novel Pictures movies have included The Big Sleep, Fight Club and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

To buy tickets, go to drafthouse.com/omaha.

Animus tickets now on sale

Tickets are now on sale for the second annual Animus: Film vs. Book.

The Oct. 20 event will show Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at Aksarben Cinema. The 1998 movie stars Johnny Depp and was directed by Terry Gilliam.

Animus is the annual fundraising event for the 1877 Society, a group of library enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s who support the Omaha Public Library Foundation.

Attendees are encouraged to read the book, written by Hunter S. Thompson, before watching the movie. A panel discussion will follow the screening.

Tickets for Fear and Loathing are on sale at aksarbencinema.com. Admission will include appetizers, cocktails, popcorn and the movie ticket. Proceeds from Animus benefit Omaha Public Library programs and services, including adult literacy efforts.

On the calendar

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Book signings: Omaha World-Herald authors Chris Peters and Jeff Sheldon will sign their books, A New Home for LoLo and Nebraska Volleyball: Number One, 1 p.m. today, The Bookworm, 90th Street and West Center Road.

Writers group: Genealogy Writers Group, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. today, Meeting Room 1, W. Dale Clark Library, 215 S. 15th St. No registration required.

Book group: The World War II Book Group will discuss Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton, 2 p.m. Monday, The Bookworm.

Book group: The Crime Through Time Book Group will continue their discussion of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, The Bookworm.

Author appearance: Summer Miller will discuss her book New Prairie Kitchen, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Bennington Public Library, 15505 Warehouse St.

Workshop: Legend Writers Group, 9 a.m. Wednesday, Legend Comics & Coffee, 5207 Leavenworth St.

Book group: The Mysterious Readers Book Group will discuss A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet, 6 p.m. Wednesday, The Bookworm.

Book sale: Friends of the Omaha Public Library, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Swanson Library, 90th Street and West Dodge Road.

Writers group: Wordsowers Christian Writers Group, 6 p.m. Thursday, Swanson Library.

Reception: University of Nebraska at Omaha Womens Archive Project, 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Kaneko, 1111 Jones St.

Writers group: Nebraska Novelists critique group, 7 p.m. Friday, Do Space, 72nd and Dodge Streets.

Book group: The American History Book Club will discuss Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation by Deborah Davis, 10 a.m. Saturday, The Bookworm.

Book signing: Anthony Deane, author of Ramadi Declassified: A Roadmap to Peace in the Most Dangerous City in Iraq, 1 p.m. Aug. 28, The Bookworm.

Information for this column and other book page items should be sent to micah.mertes@owh.com.
Before his body was found, Edward S. Reed III might have been dead up to 10 hours inside his sport utility vehicle parked on a South Omaha street at the end of a stretch of single-story duplexes.

A woman who lives in the house nearest to where the slain 38-year-old man was found early Friday said she woke about 12:30 a.m. after hearing four to six shots.

She fell back asleep, the sun rose and the womans neighbor discovered Reed in his gray Ford Explorer about 10:45 a.m. a half-block west of 30th and Y Streets.

Officer Phillip Anson, an Omaha police spokesman, declined Saturday to release the cause of Reeds death. A relative has said a detective told the family shots were heard in the area in the hours before Reeds body was found.

Police had not announced an arrest as of late Saturday.

Brendee Buckingham, the mother of Reeds girlfriend, Cally Evans, said Evans called her when she got off work about 3 a.m. Friday and said she couldnt reach Reed.

She said Mom, I think somethings wrong,  Buckingham, 55, recalled. I cant get ahold of Edward. 

The street on which Reeds body was found is a block south and on the opposite side of 30th Street from Southside Terrace, a public housing development where a 22-year-old man was shot to death on May 15.

Of the 16 people who have been slain in the city this year, two have died south of Dodge Street  the Southside victim, Terrance Gunn, and Reed.

Reed and Evans had one child together. They had lived at Buckinghams Florence home in the past. He last lived there about three years ago, Buckingham said.

Reed had three other children from a previous marriage.

He had problems, but he pretty much seemed to be going the right way, Buckingham said.

She remembered Reed as true to his friends and affectionate. He would often hug Buckingham and give her a playful Come on, Mom, as the less outwardly affectionate Buckingham would recoil.

Weve never been through something this ...

Her voice trailed off, and she wiped away tears.
The couples were neighbors, all four in their late 20s, with young children and hardy livers.

They hung out and drank together, every day or every other day, in their southwest Omaha neighborhood. The men became friends; the women best friends.

Then came a text.

Christopher L. Adams, 29, texted his neighbors wife, telling her he had feelings for a woman who wasnt his girlfriend.

She asked who.

You, Adams wrote.

The woman said she told him he needed to focus on his girlfriend. A month later they were gathered around a fire pit at her home near 108th and Q Streets. He told her she was beautiful. She walked away.

But what happened one drunken night a month after those overtures?

That was the question in a Douglas County courtroom last week, in a case that involved two neighbors in bed, an angry husband walking in, a cock of a shotgun and a scramble out of the house.

Prosecutors say it was rape. The defense said it was nothing more than adultery.

A jury would decide.

* * *

The woman, now 30, took the stand last week.

Wearing a long, striped dress and blond hair with brown highlights, the woman said she became best friends with Adams then-girlfriend when the couples became neighbors in 2011 or 2012. She also became friends with Adams, by nature of her husbands friendship with Adams.

Adams first broached, via text, his interest in her in late 2014. She said she flatly resisted his overtures, telling him to focus on his girlfriend, with whom he has two young children. She talked to her mom about his advances but decided against telling her husband or Adams girlfriend about them.

I didnt want to lose our friendship, she testified.

Then came Feb. 27, 2015.

The woman quietly testified to what little she remembered of that night.

She and Adams girlfriend went to the Arena Bar near 90th and Boyd Streets to decorate it for a birthday party. She drank some shots and margaritas. Bought a bottle of liquor on the way home. Arrived home to find Adams hanging out with her husband and both couples children in bed upstairs.

All four of them finished the bottle of liquor.

The woman testified she has little memory from then on.

She said she passed out in her bed and woke up the next day to find her jeans, underwear and a tampon on the floor. She said she had no idea what had happened to her. Menstrual blood soaked her bedding.

She walked upstairs to find her husband stewing in the kitchen. He didnt want to talk.

She placed the sheets in the washing machine and went back to bed. When she awoke before noon, she started to piece things together.

She spoke with her husband and Adams girlfriend.

Her husband told her he had interrupted Adams by cocking a shotgun.

The woman and Adams girlfriend got together and drove around, crying and commiserating over the night before.

Adams girlfriend told her that Adams had come home in the early morning hours and admitted that the husband had caught them together.

The wife told Adams girlfriend that she was passed out, that she had no memory of that night.

Hours after the event, the woman testified, she developed a hazy, dreamlike image of hearing a shotgun cocking and seeing Adams on top of her.

Her husband testified he had passed out on the upstairs couch before getting up and going downstairs to the bedroom.

He said he saw Adams in his bed  and initially believed that Adams was having sex with his girlfriend.

He went upstairs, opened a garage door and saw that Adams girlfriends car wasnt there.

He then realized the woman in bed was his wife.

He returned downstairs to find Adams in the bathroom, his head between his hands.

I thought it was (my girlfriend), dude, Adams said. Its not what it looks like.

The husband said he checked the bed to find his wife out of it.

He then grabbed a shotgun and cocked it.

It took all the willpower he could muster to not fire.

* * *

Adams took the stand and admitted he was guilty. Of adultery. Not rape.

The 29-year-old electrician, a Navy veteran who has two children with his now-former girlfriend, acknowledged that he had lusted after his neighbors wife. He said he even texted her a photo of himself nude.

He said she responded with whoa or wow. She neither endorsed it nor condemned it, he said.

His attorneys, Assistant Public Defenders Doug Johnson and Noelle Obermeyer, pointed out that Adams even turned over his phone to police earlier this month in the hopes that investigators would find that exchange. Police didnt, in part because so much time had passed. (For her part, the woman said she never received, let alone responded to, a photo of him.)

And the night in question? Adams said it simply didnt happen the way the woman and her husband described.

He said the woman was tipsy but was nowhere near black-out drunk. (Adams girlfriend later would tell attorneys that the woman couldnt sit up on her own.)

In time he ended up alone with the woman. His girlfriend went home. He didnt know where the husband was.

According to Adams, the two commiserated over their rocky relationships. That led to kissing, then to him performing a sex act on her, then to sex, he said.

Adams said the woman wasnt menstruating; if she had been, he wouldnt have been intimate with her, he said.

He acknowledged that the womans husband walked in on them.

However, Adams said, the husband never pulled out a gun.

If there had been a shotgun, I would have bolted through the garage door and out of the house, he said. I wouldnt have gone upstairs to get my kids.

That didnt make him any less guilty, Adams said.

It was a piece of (expletive) thing for me to do, Adams testified. I had an affair with a married woman. Not just any married woman  I had an affair with my best friends wife. You dont get a meritorious medal for that.

* * *

Adams said he went home and told his girlfriend that he had been caught in bed with her best friend.

He muttered something about it being dark and having mistaken the neighbors wife for her.

She told him to get away from her, then went and cried herself to sleep on the couch.

Adams said he eventually passed out.

He awoke shortly before noon.

He then fired off a series of texts to his neighbors wife.

Adams: So ...

Neighbors wife: I hear youre in trouble.

Adams: To say the least. What are your thoughts on this (expletive) situation?

Neighbors wife: Better make your amends lol and never do that again.

Adams: It was dark. I thought you were (my girlfriend) ... Why didnt you stop me? I was pretty ducked up.

He went on to write that the victims husband was in the house  he owns big-a-- guns. I wouldnt have had sex with you if I knew it was you ... Yall are a couple of my best friends. I dont want to lose that.

Both the prosecution and defense pointed to the texts to try to bolster their case.

Deputy Douglas County attorneys Ryan Lindberg and Erin Hurley argued that Adams preyed on a woman who was passed out and vulnerable. Under state law, first-degree sexual assault occurs if the victim is either unwilling or unable to give consent.

The neighbor couple had no motive to participate in a long and at times humiliating investigation and court case if the allegations werent true, prosecutors said.

And, Lindberg noted, Adams continually tried to insist the next day that he thought he was having sex with his girlfriend ... in his neighbors bed.

If the episode truly was consensual, prosecutors asked, why would Adams persist in sending texts to his neighbors wife about it being a case of mistaken identity?

The defense had questions of its own.

If the episode wasnt consensual, Johnson asked, why did the purported victim use the term lol  text shorthand for laughing out loud  while telling Adams to make amends. (Prosecutors say she had yet to piece together what happened when she sent the lol text.)

Johnson and Obermeyer also pointed to what they called important gaps in the couples story and the police investigation.

 The neighbor wife didnt call police until the Monday after the early-Saturday incident.

 The responding police officer, Matt Williams, testified that she reported a rape. But he said she didnt mention the tampon, blood on the sheets or the shotgun. She also chose not to undergo a sexual assault examination at a hospital. She said she chose not to in part because Williams informed her that it might be difficult to find anything so long after an event.

 It took two weeks for then-Omaha Police Detective Becky Schaefer to do a follow-up interview of the couple.

 Schaefer didnt contact Adams until August 2015, more than five months after the alleged assault. Adams wasnt arrested until December 2015, 10 months after.

 The woman didnt salvage the tampon or the bloody sheets. And police never sought Adams phone  until he offered it up a couple of weeks before trial. By then, some of the phones contents were inaccessible.

Johnson took dead aim at prosecutors suggestion that the couple had no motive to lie.

The neighbors wife wanted to save her marriage after being caught in a tryst, Johnson said. And the husband wanted revenge against Adams.

Those are the actions of somebody who caught his best friend and his wife together, Johnson argued.

The couple, who are still married, denied any ulterior motives.

* * *

Jurors were left to make sense of a sordid case.

The jury of eight men and four women compared the credibility of the woman and Adams.

The womans nonchalant texts and Adams cover story texts. The few-days delay before the woman called police. The months-long delay in Omaha police following up and arresting Adams.

Omaha Police Capt. Kerry Neumann said investigators spent time, at prosecutors request, interviewing other possible witnesses. Detective Schaefer is no longer with the department. Based on our review, Neumann wrote in a statement, there does not appear to be any significant delay on the part of the Omaha police detectives that investigated this incident.

Jurors werent so sure.

Gathered in that fourth-floor jury room, they cast their first vote: 10 not guilty, two guilty.

One of the guilty voters, George Rody, 66, said he believed the womans story.

Rody, a retired carpenter, said he wasnt impressed with Adams on the stand. He didnt buy Adams spin on why he sent the mistaken-identity text.

His story got pretty sideways up there, Rody said.

However, Rody said, his fellow jurors pointed out all the reasonable doubt.

The lack of urgency by her  and by police. The lol in the text.

That was a strange thing for her to write on her phone, he said. I think it would have helped if this thing had been investigated sooner. Maybe we would have had some sort of corroboration. But it ended up just being a he said, she said. 

After four hours of deliberations, jurors had reached their verdict.

A clerk announced it: Not guilty.

Adams collapsed his head on the defense table. He hugged his attorneys on his way out of court. And he vowed never to step inside a courtroom again.

I made a huge mistake in my relationship and my friendship, he said. Its more a matter of I ruined two peoples relationships on a level that should never happen. Infidelity is a horrible thing.

Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the month in which Adams was arrested.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com
Students moving into the University of Nebraska at Omahas Scott Hall got a special welcome Saturday from the Asgardian god of thunder.

Dressed as Thor, resident adviser and UNO senior Jake Bliss of Bennington ushered students through the first floor he had transformed into a medley of Marvel Studio movie clips.

Cut-outs of Ironman, Captain America, Black Widow, Clint Barton and the Hulk graced one wall. On the other wall were motivational quotes and memes from Avengers.

It was all part of UNOs Welcome Week for incoming freshmen and returning students. Students on the Lincoln campus moved in Friday, and Creighton University welcomed its on-campus residents Friday and Saturday.

Per tradition at UNO, resident advisers like Bliss pick a theme and then decorate their hallway in an effort to lessen student jitters. Bliss recalled that when he was a freshman, his hall was decorated in the spirit of Super Mario Bros.

It made it much easier to adjust and have a lot of fun, Bliss said. Instead of the blank halls, it made it feel more like home.

The goal is to make students less stressed and get them to have fun.

Twenty-one resident advisers in five dorms participated this year, but Bliss went above and beyond  from his bright red cape to Mjolnir, the heavy hammer that Thor wields.

We had a couple all-nighters getting it all done, said his mother, Lisa Bliss.

She spent days helping to create the Thor costume and cutting out Marvel paraphernalia. Bliss friends helped decorate the hallway, his grandfather, John Bartels of Beatrice, spent three days making the mighty Mjolnir and his younger brother Zack hand-carved the handle.

Brandi Mountain, another resident adviser, said she and her counterparts participate in the Welcome Week tradition to make dorms a comfortable place that students can call home.

We have people from all over the country, she said. UNO also has many international students who cant easily make it home during a semester.

Bliss said he plans to incorporate the Avengers theme throughout the school year for students on his floor.

Riley Johnson, a UNO junior, said Bliss hallways have never let him down.

Jakes hallways are always great, he said. I love it.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1304, news@owh.com
Four Bellevue police officers have been credited with extreme courage for their actions clearing the Gateway Apartments of residents during a fire that erupted on July 26.

Officers Chris Abbott, Eric Douglas, Cody Albrecht and Jason Cvitanov were commended for quick action after noticing smoke billowing from the apartment complex at 315 Fort Crook Road S.

The citation said Abbott was accompanying trainees Douglas and Albrecht, who had recently returned from the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center in Grand Island.

According to the commendation statement, the three were driving in the vicinity of the apartment complex when Abbott saw the smoke.

The men quickly arrived at the building, at which point it became obvious that the building was on fire.

Without hesitation, the commendation said, Abbott directed the trainee officers to prevent traffic from entering the area and then entered the building in order to clear it. After kicking open three doors and clearing residents from that part of the building, Abbott rejoined the trainees, joined now by Cvitanov, and formed two pairs to clear the west side of the building.

Several doors were forced open, and all the residents were evacuated, the commendation said.

These officers exhibited extreme courage by entering these buildings and clearing them of residents. There was no hesitation and time to plan. The officers put the lives of others before their own and should be commended for their brave actions.

All four officers are now eligible for the Officer of the Quarter award, which will make them eligible for the Officer of the Year award.
The Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church is taking donations to help the victims of the record-setting flooding in Louisiana.

Among the biggest needs are flood-bucket kits that helps victims start to repair the damage once the waters recede. Each fits inside a 5-gallon bucket with a resealable lid and includes:

One 50-ounce bottle or two 25-ounce bottles of liquid laundry detergent.

A 12- to 16-ounce bottle of liquid cleaner that can be mixed with water (no spray cleaners).

A 16- to 28-ounce bottle of dish soap.

One can of aerosol or pump air freshener.

A 6- to 14-ounce aerosol or spray pump of insect repellant.

One scrub brush with a plastic or wooden handle.

Eighteen cleaning wipes (please, no terry-cloth towels).

Seven non-cellulose sponges.

Five scouring pads (nothing with soap built in).

Fifty clothespins.

One 100-foot or two 50-foot cotton or plastic clotheslines.

A 24-roll of heavy-duty trash bags, 33 to 45 gallons of capacity.

Five dust masks.

Two pairs of dishwashing gloves (durable enough for multiple uses).

One pair of work gloves with either a leather palm or all leather.

One 5-gallon bucket with a resealable lid.

All of the items listed above, except the bucket with lid, can be found at most dollar or discount stores. More details about how to pack the bucket for easy transportation to the area in need can be found on the United Methodist Committee on Relief website at umcor.org/UMCOR/Relief-Supplies/Relief-Supply-Kits/Cleaning.

Assembled buckets can be delivered to the Great Plains United Methodist Church Conference office in Lincoln  3333 Landmark Circle  by 5 p.m. Sept. 9. The conferences disaster relief team will deliver the buckets to Louisiana soon after that date.

For more information, contact the Rev. Hollie Tapley, Great Plains Conference director of disaster response, at 316-684-0266 or via email at htapley@greatplainsumc.org.
The Rural Futures Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is teaming up with communities to host three regional forums this fall aimed at showcasing local success stories, talking about the future and sharing results of institute projects.

Forums are scheduled Sept. 22 at the Nielsen Center in West Point, Sept. 27 at the Sandhills Convention Center in North Platte and Sept. 28 at the Chadron State College Student Center in Chadron.

The Rural Futures Institute is uniquely positioned to work with communities to develop real, futuristic solutions tackling some of rural Americas most daunting challenges, said Chuck Schroeder, executive director.

Our goal is to help communities create their desired futures by connecting the dots between research, community and talent, he said.

The forums begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 3:30 p.m. Registration is $25, which covers all activities, tours and lunch. The forums are open to the public. Registration can be found at ruralfutures.nebraska.edu/events.

Schroeder said attendees are encouraged to come prepared to discuss ideas and goals for their community or region and to identify ways the Rural Futures Institute can help. The energy, creativity and leadership of local people is vital to the future of rural Nebraska, he said.

The forums will focus on growing economies, energized leadership and vibrant communities, Schroeder said. Regional leaders will talk about what they are doing to enhance business growth, engage young adults, expand educational opportunities and increase the quality of life for all generations.

For more information, visit ruralfutures.nebraska.edu/events or contact the Rural Futures Institute at ruralfutures@nebraska.edu or 402-472-2940.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
ALLIANCE, Neb.  Nebraska goes dark one year from today.

Well, OK, not the entire state. But a band about 65 miles wide and 468 miles long from Scottsbluff in the west to Falls City in the southeast will fall under the total shadow of the moon during a solar eclipse Aug. 21, 2017.

The eclipses path includes Carhenge near Alliance, Chimney Rock near Bayard, the Archway at Kearney, Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, the State Capitol in Lincoln and Homestead National Monument near Beatrice.

Interstate 80 will be in the path of totality from a point between Paxton and Sutherland to Lincoln, a distance of 251 miles, as the shadow races eastward at supersonic speed.

It will be the first total eclipse of the sun on American soil since 1991, the first on the mainland since 1979 and the first to sweep the entire country since 1918.

Scores of Nebraska communities along the path of totality are gearing up for the party. Hotel beds and campgrounds are expected to fill fast.

Eclipse Day is a Monday. Festivities in most communities will begin the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before as people wait days for the sun to go dark for a few minutes.

Kevin Howard, director of the Alliance Visitor Bureau, said he has been answering eclipse and lodging questions from callers for two years.

Were preparing a three-day party with food, games and bands for anywhere from 10,000 to zero people, he said.

Howard doesnt really expect no one to show up in Alliance, population 8,500, for the eclipse. The community sits on the eclipse center line, meaning it will be darker longer  if only a few seconds  than at towns toward the edge of totality.

And Alliance has Carhenge, the replica of Englands Stonehenge built of vintage U.S. automobiles painted gray and dedicated during the summer solstice in 1987. It will experience 2 minutes and 28 seconds of total darkness.

Although Howard has promoted Alliances proximity to Carhenge (the citys eclipse website is CarhengeSolarEclipse2017.com) he said he isnt convinced that it will make much difference in the turnout.

Being on the center line of the eclipse is a bigger factor, he said. Carhenge is definitely a draw, but people are coming because they want to see the eclipse and this is a great place to do it.

North Platte lies in the path of darkness, but the umbral shadow will make almost direct hits on the nearby Sand Hills county seats of Tryon and Stapleton. Festival viewing sites are being planned in the two small communities.

Brad Mellema, executive director of the Grand Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, said plans are underway for a festival atmosphere in the area during the days preceding the eclipse. He and others will provide a peek of the plans during a press conference with Stuhr Museum officials and others Monday.

The Beatrice Chamber of Commerce already has eclipse fever. It entered a solar eclipse float in the Czech Days parade at nearby Wilber two weeks ago. Beatrice is touting one of the states longest times of totality  2 minutes and 35 seconds  and a full weekend of activities.

The primary viewing area in Gage County will be at Homestead National Monument of America outside Beatrice. Superintendent Mark Engler said the site will be a premier location to watch the solar eclipse because the time of totality, the likelihood of a clear sky and its proximity to four-lane highways and the Interstate system. Bookstores at the national monument are already stocking eclipse maps, T-shirts and custom solar eclipse safety glasses.

And theyve been selling! Engler said.

Communities across the state are working together to market Nebraska as one of the best places to view the eclipse.

Not everyone will be partying in Nebraska. A scientific team from the University of Hawaii plans to arrive in Alliance about two weeks before the celestial event to set up recording equipment, Howard said. The scientists have volunteered to host informational seminars during the countdown days.

Howard said most hotel reservation systems dont permit booking more than about 50 weeks in advance. Some hotels that dont rely on computerized reservation systems have waiting lists. The appropriately named Sunset Motel in Alliance is taking reservations with a nonrefundable, 50 percent down payment.

Some Alliance-area residents are renting rooms in their house, or tent and camper sites on their property. Some churches are expected to invite people to sleep on their basement floors.

One lady with a small, empty, one-bedroom house decided to rent. It wasnt on the market for 24 hours before it was booked, Howard said. We just want everyone to have a spot for their camper or tent and a shower and make sure they have a good time.

Engler said plans are underway to expand camping to include areas at the Gage County Fairgrounds in Beatrice to accommodate the expected crowds.

Howard said knowledgeable eclipse chasers will be prepared to dash up or down Nebraska Highway 2, Interstate 80 or other roads in search of a clear sky during the hours before the eclipse if it appears it will be cloudy in their location.

Western Nebraska is blessed with low rainfall. Did I say that out loud? Howard quipped. There is an excellent chance of cloudless skies. This should be a great place to celebrate the sun, or lack thereof.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

* * *

Omahans will have chance to see partial solar eclipse

Omahans will experience a partial solar eclipse next August.

All of Douglas and Sarpy Counties are outside the total blackout zone. So are the cities of Ogallala, Ord and Nebraska City.

Iowa barely makes the party. About 3 square miles in the far southwestern tip of the state lies in the path of totality. Hamburg will be outside the total shadow. So will Interstate 29.

Eclipse glasses are required for viewing the entire partial eclipse to prevent eye damage.

Direct solar viewing requires eye protection

The only way to safely look at the sun when it is not in total eclipse is through approved filter material designed and marketed expressly for direct solar viewing, such as eclipse glasses.

Eclipse glasses are inexpensive and available through astronomical supply houses, some viewing locations and at the website eclipse2017.org, a clearinghouse of information about the event.

The only safe time to look at an eclipse with the naked eye is during the total phase of a total eclipse, according to eclipse2017.org. Even during the total phase, viewers must always use eye protection any time any piece of the suns bright disk is visible. If you dont have approved filter material such as eclipse glasses, the only safe way to observe the partial phases of the eclipse is by using indirect methods such as projection.

People who ignore this advice risk doing damage to their eyes.
Last week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised.

It should be. It should be alarmed. Irans intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. Thats what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. Consider:

 Iran: The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Irans international relations, Russia rushed in with deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

 Iraq: These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Barack Obamas withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Irans orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

 Syria: When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assads regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand  a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military  he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died, and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldnt he? Hes pushing on an open door.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will conduct joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijings territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesnt care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because hes convinced that in the long run it doesnt matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking  primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers  China, Russia and Iran  know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And theyre going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however  Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands  it matters greatly. Contact the writer: letters@charleskrauthammer.com
10-year-old girl raped, relative arrested: Police

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 21: A 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a relative in northwest Delhi's Bhalswa Dairy area and the man was arrested today.

According to police, the incident took place yesterday when the girl was playing with her friends, including the children of the 30-year-old accused, who is also her distant relative. The man, who stays close to the victim's house, called and took her to a nearby place and raped her behind bushes, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijay Singh said.

Police said when the girl came back home, she told her parents about being allegedly sexually assaulted by the relative from her mother's side whom she used to call 'mamu'. The parents then approached police and a case was registered at Bhalswa Dairy police station in the night under section 376 (rape) of IPC and the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

When the police went to the man's house, he was found absconding. The man was arrested this morning from forest area in Bhalswa Dairy, police said.

PTI
Tuesday is now No Meeting Day in Haryana and officers to be with people on Friday

After Haryana RS poll controversy, EC mulls special pen for voters

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 21: Following the 'ink controversy' in the Haryana Rajya Sabha elections, a working group set up by the Election Commission has recommended various options, including introduction of a special pen, to avoid repeat of such disputes in future polls.

Soon after the controversy erupted, the Commission had set up a working group of officials to recommend measures to plug the loopholes. 12 votes marked using a wrong pen were declared invalid leading to the defeat of Congress-backed independent candidate lawyer R K Anand, who lost to media baron Subhash Chandra.

The EC mandates all votes to be cast using a violet pen for uniformity and to ensure that secrecy of votes is maintained.

Now, the working group has recommended that a special pen bearing either the signature of the returning officer or 'Election Commission of India' inscribed on it be used by the voters to mark their preference, official sources said.

The group said the pen -- possibly a special sketch pen or a felt pen -- be given to voters outside the voting booth and taken back when they come out after casting vote.

The group has also recommended deputing two, instead of the present one, observers for RS polls. The pen will be treated as a voting article and will be sealed along with ballot papers after the elections are over.

Certain rules relating to articles provided by EC for RS polls may have to be amended. EC is carrying out experiments with a pen with indelible ink produced by Mysore Inks specially for the poll panel.

The pen could one day replace the indelible ink bottles in Indian elections. Official sources said the special pen for RS polls could be on lines of the indelible ink pen.

But they said good quality pens can also be procured off the shelf. Since ballot papers are used in Legislative Council polls, the proposed pens could also be utilized for these elections.

"Such rules can be amended after seeking consent of the Law Minister. Once EC makes the proposal we will look into it," a top Law Ministry official said.

PTI
Got an idea of what was to come, former Pak envoy on meeting Ram Madhav

Ram Madhav, Omar slugfest over Kashmir unrest

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Aug 21: A war of words erupted on Twitter between former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav over the situation prevailing in the Kashmir valley.

This began with Omar leading a delegation of Opposition legislators to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and urged him to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issues in the state.

Minutes after the meeting, Madhav took a potshot at Omar, saying talk of political solution is only to score political points.

"They talk of political solution bt nvr clarify what it is 2 d rants of Azadi. In power they nvr offered it when stones were pelted at them," he said in a series of tweets.

"Talk of political solution is only to score political points. They did nothing to help State bring normalcy. In stead helped spread unrest. When govt hosted the I-Day in all districts n Ministers went 2 hoist tricolour most of d worthies were simply absent. That's political solution," he said.

Omar responded: "Why don't you name us instead of just these snide, sly tweets? I challenge you to prove that any of us spread unrest. We have offered you solutions both while in power & out of it but you are deaf to what you don't like hearing!," he said in a series of tweets.

"What is it about us meeting the Hon'ble President that has both @BJP4India & @jkpdp lashing out at us? Is meeting President anti-national?," he asked in another tweet.

IANS
Mumbai: Man heckled on suspicion of carrying leather bag made of cow hide

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Aug 21: A 24-year-old man was allegedly heckled by a group of people for carrying a leather bag as they suspected it to be made of cow hide, police said today.

The incident took place on Friday in suburban Andheri when the victim, who identified himself as Barun Kashyap, was commuting to his workplace in an autorickshaw, whose driver started raising suspicion over his bag. "I started off from my home to work in an auto.

The auto driver was quite curious and intrigued by my long hair and nose piercing right from the beginning and asked me about my native place.

He stopped at a traffic signal and started looking at my leather bag," Kashyap, who works as a creative director in a private firm, claimed in his Facebook post.

Kashyap, who hails from Assam, further said the auto driver then touched his bag and concluded that it was made of cow hide, a charge which he denied.

The youngster then clarified that the bag was made of camel leather, which he had bought from Pushkar.

"Not satisfied with the reply, the auto-driver moved forward and stopped the auto near a small temple on the way to my office. Before I could say anything, I saw the driver signalling at three men sitting in front of a temple, smoking," he said.

"The three men then approached the auto and started conversing in Marathi, which I could not decipher. They asked me to step out of the auto which I refused. When I was busy protesting, one of the men came to the other side of auto and started checking my bag."

"One of them asked my full name. He looked at the other two and said something in Marathi out of which I could only understand the word 'Brahmin'. Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin and left the spot," he said.

Kashyap said he got off the three-wheeler at the next traffic signal and noted the auto number. He said he also asked the driver his phone number, "which he (driver) proudly gave to me saying 'aaj toh bach gaye'."

Kashyap said he then approached D N Nagar Police Station yesterday and filed a complaint against the suspected cow vigilantes (driver and three others).

A senior police official of D N Nagar Police Station said, "Since no physical harm was done to the complainant, we have registered a non cognisable offence. Further investigations into the matter are on."

PTI
Woman, her two children mowed down by train; Suicide not ruled out

Ministers of disaster management from BRICS countries to hold 2 day meeting in Udaipur

India

oi-PTI

Jaipur, Aug 21: A two-day meeting of the ministers of Disaster Management from BRICS countries will be held in Rajasthan's Udaipur from tomorrow to focus on two themes of 'Flood Risk Management' and 'Forecasting of Extreme Weather Events in the context of Changing Climate'.

Three technical sessions on areas of disaster risk management challenges, forecasting and early warning on flood and disaster risk in a changing climate will be held during the meet.

"The objectives of this meeting are to share experiences on flood risk management, current systems in each country for forecasting extreme weather events and to identify opportunities for collaboration between institutions of respective BRICS countries in the area of flood risk management and extreme weather-related events," according to a release.

This is the second meeting and in the follow up of the first meeting of the BRICS Ministers for Disaster Management convened by the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg in April this year.

"Recognising the common challenge posed by natural and man-made disasters, the BRICS countries have identified Disaster Management as an important area of collaboration. "The Ufa Declaration signed by BRICS Nations in July last year identified the need to promote cooperation in preventing and developing responses to emergency situations," the release said.

PTI
A dream, a call and some courage: How a 15-year-old stopped her marriage

Pranab Mukherjee on three-day visit to West Bengal

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Aug 21 President Pranab Mukherjee will be on a three-day visit, beginning on Monday, to West Bengal, it was announced here on Sunday.

The President will inaugurate a CII-IIEST conference on 'Enabling Make in India through Industry Academia Innovation Platform' in Kolkata on the first day of his visit to his home state.

He will also attend a function, 'The Legacy to Humanity: Celebrating 150 years of Homeopathy', on the same day, an official statement issued here said.

On August 23, President Mukherjee will launch in Kolkata Akashvani Kendra 'Moitree' service in Bangla for listeners in Bangladesh and attend 125th anniversary celebrations of 'Bangiya Sahitya Parisad', it said.

He is scheduled to inaugurate a new building of Bharat Chamber of Commerce and address the first foundation day of Bandhan Bank in Kolkata on the same day.

On the last of his visit to the state, the President will inaugurate a Food Park at Jangipur in Murshidabad district, and will attend a convocation of Management Development Institute-Murshidabad before returning to New Delhi.

IANS
Vistara appoints Deepika Padukone as brand ambassador

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 21: Vistara today announced the appointment of Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador. Vistara, whose 51 per cent stake in owned by Tata Sons and the rest 49 per cent by Singapore Airlines, did not disclose other details such as the contract period and fee that it would pay to the actress.

This is the second time Deepika will be performing the brand ambassador's role for an airline as earlier in 2007, she was roped in for the same by the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines. Deepika will kick-start a new campaign from tomorrow, Vistara said in a release today.

The campaign intends to elaborate on the core interpretation of the brand promise of feeling of looking forward to flying again, it said adding the integrated campaign will be deployed across multiple platforms including TV, digital, print, outdoor, cinema and airports.

Vistara had commenced operations in January last year. "We believe the journey should be as enjoyable as the destination. Our new brand campaign with Deepika Padukone highlights the unique feeling of flying Vistara," Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said.

The New Delhi-based Vistara currently operates 475 flights per week with a fleet of 11 Airbus A320 planes. "It is a matter of great pride for me to be associated with Vistara, a brand that carries the lineage of Tata and Singapore Airlines," Deepika said on her appointment.

PTI
Woman injured in building collapse in MP, rains subside

India

oi-PTI

Bhopal, Aug 21: A woman was injured as an old 3-storey building, apparently weakened by the heavy rain of last two days, collapsed in Narsinghpur district, while overall there was a lull in the rainfall across Madhya Pradesh today.

Heavy rain lashed the state for the last two days and till last evening rain-related mishaps had claimed 15 lives. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today met the flood-affected people in Rewa district.

He assured help for the victims of the rain fury across the state. "There might be less rainfall activity over MP for two more days. Rainfall is likely to occur in the evening in some districts," Meteorological Department's Bhopal Centre Director Dr Anupam Kashyapi told PTI.

However, he said, rainfall was likely to increase in east MP again from the evening of August 23 and elsewhere in the state in the following days. Sangita Jain, a woman in her forties, sustained injury when the old three-storey building where she lived collapsed at around 5 am in Narsinghpur town today.

She was pulled out of the debris after more than three hours' efforts, district superintendent of police Mukesh Jain said. Four other residents of the building escaped unhurt. Meanwhile, heavy downpour alert has been issued to Agar- Malwa, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ratlam and Rajgarh districts, while rainfall alert has been issued to Guna, Indore, Shajapur, Ujjain, Vidisha, Dewas and Jhabua districts for the next 24 hours by the IMD's Bhopal Centre.

PTI
2 RPF personnel dead after being hit by speeding train

Woman killed, 23 others injured as fuel tanker overturns and catches fire

UP: 5, including a child, killed and 5 seriously hurt as car hits electric pole

30 killed in Turkey wedding blast

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Ankara, Aug 21: At least 30 people were killed and over 90 others injured on Saturday night in an explosion at a wedding in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, media reports said.

The "terror attack" took place in the Beybahce neighborhood of the Sahinbey district of Gaziantep province, located about 95 km north of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo, Anadolu News Agency reported citing a statement from the regional governor Ali Yerlikaya.

The wedding took place on a street, a common practice in southern Turkey, especially during the summer season.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Video of the aftermath shows hundreds of people in the darkened street as rescue workers lifted victims into ambulances. Orhan Akin, Gaziantep bureau chief for the Ihlas News Agency, told CNN Turk that he saw "at least 20 ambulances carrying injured people".

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemned the attack in a statement.

"Those, who cannot overcome Turkey and try to provoke people by abusing ethnic and sectarian sensitiveness, will not prevail," Anadolu News Agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

Turkey has experienced significant turmoil in recent months, with the attempted military coup on July 15 and a series of deadly explosions, CNN said.

Past attacks have been carried out by the Islamic State (IS), which controls northern Syria across the border, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In the most brazen attack, 44 people were killed in July by suspected IS suicide bombers at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

Last March, two suicide bombers killed at least 40 people in Ankara, the capital. A Kurdish rebel group claimed responsibility for that attack.

On August 10, two explosions killed at least eight people in the southeastern towns of Kizitepe and Diyarbakir.

IANS


Trump pitches softer line on immigration: 'fair and humane'

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Aug 21: Donald Trump's vow to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants if elected president appeared to be undergoing a shift today as the struggling Republican candidate reaches out to minorities alienated by his harsh rhetoric.

The New York real estate magnate intends to lay out specifics of his immigration plan over the next few weeks, Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said.

Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether they will include a "deportation force" that Trump has previously called for, Conway said, "To be determined." Trump met with Hispanic supporters at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York yesterday, when several participants told Spanish-language network Univision that he said his plan will include finding a way to legalise millions of undocumented immigrants.

Trump acknowledged "that there is a big problem with the 11 million people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane," Univision quoted Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting, as saying.

The billionaire candidate, who has slid precipitously in polls since last month's Republican convention, told the group of Hispanic conservatives that his plan would grant undocumented immigrants legal status "that wouldn't be citizenship but would allow them to be here without fear of deportation," Monty added. If true, it would mark a sharp reversal for a candidate who launched his campaign for the presidency with a vow to build a giant wall on Mexico's border, while disparaging illegal immigrants from Mexico as criminals and rapists.

He has repeatedly called for mass deportations of people in the country illegally, a stance critics say is inhumane and unrealistic. "What Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting differed very little from what he's said publicly, including in his convention speech last month in Cleveland," Conway told CNN. "It's that we need a, quote, fair and humane way of dealing with what is estimated to be about 11 million illegal immigrants in this country," said Conway, who also took part in the meeting.

"Nothing was said yesterday that differs from what Mr Trump said previously," she added. "He supports making sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country."

AFP
UK school ablaze as explosions heard

International

oi-PTI

London, Aug 21: A huge fire today engulfed a school in the south of England after reports of loud explosions. More than 75 firefighters tackled the blaze at Selsey Academy in School Lane in West Sussex as huge plumes of black smoke were seen emanating from the site.

The cause of the fire has not yet been established and no injuries have been reported so far. "People in vicinity of smoke from Selsey school fire advised to stay clear of smoke, stay indoors and keep windows closed," West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said.

Chairman of governors for the school, Bill Emerson, told BBC: "There is a possibility we might be able to save a small section of the school and the emergency services are doing their best to do that.

But it is amazing how quickly the fire has spread. "It's shocking. The structures are effectively a skeleton now compared to what they were and we have still got fire raging in sections."

The Academy is a mixed school for pupils aged 11 to 16. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service has sent crews to help West Sussex colleagues and South East Coast Ambulance Service is also at the scene.

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The five people wounded in Turkey, in the Karkamis district of Gaziantep province, were taken to hospital for treatment.
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Reprinted from Consortium News



Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane appearing on Fox News

(Image by Fox screen grab) Details DMCA



Though the competition is stiff, the gold medal for the creepiest Washington Post columnist could go to Charles Lane, who this week mocked Sen. Bernie Sanders and his wife for buying a $575,000 vacation home on Vermont's Lake Champlain -- and cited this modest luxury as proof that capitalism is superior to socialism.

"To go with places they already own in Washington and their home town of Burlington, Vt., the Sanders family has purchased a vacation home on an island in Lake Champlain," Lane wrote , adding: "As a slogan for the political revolution, 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need for lakefront property' doesn't really cut it." Ha-ha! Very funny!

Sanders's wife Jane explained that the house was a replacement for a vacation home that her family had long owned in Maine. But the 74-year-old Sanders and his wife really need no defense for buying a rather modestly priced (certainly by Washington's standards) lakefront property.

Lane's column was also a cheap shot because a U.S. senator has little choice but to have domiciles in both Washington and his home state. So, to cite those two properties as further evidence of Sanders's living a life of hypocritical extravagance is simply unfair.

But Lane is a good example of how a moderately talented journalist can build a prosperous career in Official Washington by sucking up to the powers-that-be and dumping on anyone who even mildly challenges those interests.

I first got to know Lane in 1987 when we both worked at Newsweek. Before Lane arrived at the magazine, Newsweek had distinguished itself with some quality reporting that belied the Reagan administration's propaganda themes in Central America.

That, however, upset Newsweek's executive editor Maynard Parker, who was a strong supporter of U.S. interventionism and sympathized with President Ronald Reagan's aggressive policies in Central America. So, a shake-up was ordered of Newsweek's Central America staff.

To give Parker the more supportive coverage he wanted, Lane was brought onboard and dispatched to replace experienced reporters in Central America. Lane soon began getting Newsweek's field coverage in line with Reagan's propaganda themes.

But I kept messing up the desired harmony by contesting those stories from Washington. This dynamic was unusual since it's more typical for reporters in the field to challenge the U.S. government's propaganda while journalists tied to the insular world of Washington tend to be seduced by access and to endorse the official line.

But the situation at Newsweek was reversed. Lane pushed the propaganda themes that he was fed from the U.S. embassies in Central America and I challenged them with my reporting in Washington. The situation led Lane to seek me out during one of his visits to Washington.

We had lunch at Scholl's cafeteria near Newsweek's Washington office on Pennsylvania Avenue. As we sat down, Lane turned to me and, rather defensively, accused me of viewing him as "an embassy boy," i.e., someone who carried propaganda water for the U.S. embassies.

I was a bit nonplussed since I had never exactly put it that way, but it wasn't far from what I actually thought. I responded by trying to avoid any pejorative phrasing but stressing my concern that we shouldn't let the Reagan administration get away with misleading the American people and Newsweek's readers.

As it turned out, however, I was on the losing side of that debate. Lane had the support of executive editor Parker, who favored an aggressive application of U.S. power abroad and didn't like his reporters undermining those efforts. Like some other young journalists of that era, Lane either shared that world view or knew what was needed to build his career.

Lane did succeed in making a profitable career for himself. He scored high-profile gigs as the editor of the neocon New Republic (though his tenure was tarnished by the Stephen Glass fabrication scandal) and as a regular guest on Fox News. He's also found steady employment as an editorialist for The Washington Post.

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This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Reprinted from Consortium News

On Aug. 17, TV interviewer Charlie Rose gave former acting CIA Director Michael Morell a "mulligan" for an earlier wayward drive on Aug. 8 that sliced deep into the rough and even stirred up some nonviolent animals by advocating the murder of Russians and Iranians. But, alas, Morell duffed the second drive, too.

Morell did so despite Rose's efforts to tee up the questions as favorably as possible, trying to help Morell explain what he meant about "killing" Russians and Iranians in Syria and bombing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into submission.

In the earlier interview, Morell said he wanted to "make the Iranians pay a price in Syria... make the Russians pay a price in Syria."

Rose: "We make them pay the price by killing Russians?"

Morell: "Yeah."

Rose: "And killing Iranians?"

Morell: "Yes ... You don't tell the world about it. ... But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran."

In the follow-up interview , some of Rose's fretful comments made it clear that there are still some American non-neocons around who were withholding applause for Morell's belligerent suggestion.

Rose apparently has some viewers who oppose all terrorism, including the state-sponsored variety that would involve a few assassinations to send a message, and the notion that U.S. bombing Syria to "scare" Assad is somehow okay (as long as the perpetrator is the sole "indispensable" nation in the world).

Rose helped Morell 'splain that he really did not want to have U.S. Special Forces kill Russians and Iranians. No, he would be satisfied if the U.S.-sponsored "moderate opposition" in Syria did that particular killing. But Morell would not back away from his advocacy of the U.S. Air Force bombing Syrian government targets. That would be "an okay thing" in Morell's lexicon.

The FBI defines terrorism as "the unlawful use of force or 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." That would seem to cover Morell's plan.

But Morell seems oblivious to international law and to the vast human suffering already inflicted in Syria over the past five years by government forces, rebels, terrorists and outside nations trying to advance one geopolitical goal or another.

What is needed is a serious commitment to peace talks without unacceptable preconditions, such as outside demands for "regime change." Instead, the focus should be on creating conditions for Syrians to make that choice themselves through elections or power-sharing negotiations.

Morell prefers to think that a few more U.S.-directed murders and some more aerial-inflicted mayhem should do the trick. Perhaps he thinks that's the sort of tough-guy/gal talk that will impress a prospective President Hillary Clinton.

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(Image by Ron Nilson) Details DMCA



You know those ads and commercials that show how much the food industry cares about your well being? The ones where happy and healthy families are laughing and having a good time while consuming generous quantities of the company's latest junk? Pure propaganda. We know it, and yet we still devour. Why? Because they've got us hooked! They know, as with any junkie, we can't resist getting our preferred fix.

The agriculture, dairy, food processing and retail industries only care about squeezing out every penny of profit - at the expense of the public's physical, emotional and spiritual health. Your health and happiness are of no concern, despite all those feel-good images of vibrant consumers.

The public makes two incorrect assumptions regarding Big Food. The first has to do with contamination. We see warnings in the press about mercury in tuna, wood pulp in Parmesan cheese, ground beef treated with ammonia to retard E. coli. These are examples of how some of the dangerous and deceptive practices of Big Food are exposed. The public assumes that corrective measures will be taken once an issue is uncovered - and that's just fine with Big Food. Truth is, too often nothing changes. That means an uninformed customer is their best customer.

Another incorrect assumption is that the US Department of Agriculture exists to protect the consumer. But in fact, the original role of the USDA was to promote the products of the animal agriculture industry. For example: over fifty years ago, the USDA began promoting the so-called four basic food groups, with meat and dairy products in the number one and two spots on the list. Financed by the meat and dairy industry and backed by nutritional scientists on the payroll of the meat and dairy industry, this promotion ignored real science.

Then there's the issue with food manufacturers who make extravagant claims about supporting healthy eating, while in truth, they conspire against it. Here's where the treachery becomes criminal. Like the tobacco cartel, food makers have found ways to fill their products with ingredients (sugar, sugar substitutes, synthetic fats) that increase the desire to consume. There is now scientific proof that sugar has a greater addictive effect on brain chemistry than cocaine.

Some producers even go so far as to package many concoctions in the guise of health food. They may less harmful, but in most cases are far from healthy. It may not be as blatant as when I was growing up and Wonder Bread claimed to "Build strong bodies 12 ways", but it is an effective marketing strategy.

The bad news: the food industry has incrementally taken over our brains, both figuratively and literally.

The good news: the damage can be reversed.

We can reclaim the brain and learn to make nutritional decisions based on what is truly best for our health, rather than the influence of propaganda or brain chemistry.

(Article changed on August 21, 2016 at 11:21)

(Article changed on August 21, 2016 at 11:22)

(Article changed on August 21, 2016 at 11:25)
Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website

Washington's media presstitutes are using the image of the child to bring pressure on Russia to stop the Syrian army from retaking Aleppo. Washington wants its so-called moderate rebels to retain Aleppo so that Washington can split Syria in two, thereby keeping a permanent pressure against President Assad.

As for the little boy in the propaganda picture, he does not seem to be badly injured. Let us not forget the tens of thousands of children that Washington's wars and bombings of seven Muslim countries have killed without any tears shed by CNN anchors. And let us not forget the 500,000 Iraqi children that the United Nations concluded died as a result of US sanctions against Iraq -- children's deaths that Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said were worth it.

Let us not forget that Washington's determination to overthrow the Syrian government has brought many deaths to Syrians of all age groups. Washington alone is responsible for the deaths. The evil Obama regime has stated over and over that "Assad must go" and is prepared to destroy the country and much of the population in order to get rid of him.

According to the Obama regime, Assad must go because he is a dictator. Washington tells this lie despite the fact that Assad was elected and re-elected and has far higher support among Syrians that Obama has among Americans. Moreover, whatever Washington accuses Assad of doing to Syrians is nothing compared to the death and destruction that Washington brought to Syria.

Perhaps the tragedy of Aleppo could have been avoided if the Russian government had not prematurely declared "mission accomplished" in Syria and withdrawn only to have to rush back after the Russian government was again deceived by Washington.


Heres looking at you kid

(Image by George Eliason) Details DMCA



Is Russia really the greatest threat to the world? The answer lies somewhere between how you define a threat and what you're actually afraid of. At that starting point what the western world screams is scaring them isn't a Russian bogeyman or specter of Russian world domination. It's entirely different. It's very weird. Ukraine was right. Russia in this context is the biggest threat to Ukraine and possibly the world.

To make the point many of the citations used in this article will come from Ukrainian nationalist scholarship. There was a brief golden age in Ukrainian nationalist scholarship when the academics actually tried to make sense of things going on in the world. They tried to stay with the facts. After a short time, the 15-year run-up to Euro-Maidan happened. They learned to lie , an d afterward to spout off like th ey were put on what really powerful narcotics to try to r omanticize and justify the atrocities committed in Donbass.

In a word, they joined their Ukrainian nationalist alumni in what US Secretary of Defense Aston Carter characterizes as the intellectually decapitated, which in a much kinder fashion I'll describe as magically lobotomized.

"It (Ukrainian nationalism) was intellectually decapitated as a matter of deliberate policy during the Stalin years and beyond so that the most able and energetic Ukrainians were either killed or magnetically attracted to Moscow and Russified. " Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Ukraine and Europe," Fulfilling the Promise: Building an Enduring Security Partnership Between Ukraine and NATO , Ashton B. Carter, Steven E. Miller, and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, eds., The Stanford-Harvard Preventive Defense Project, 1999, pp. 33-34. "

But you see, this time, they don't have Stalin to blame. It's a matter of their own policy. This time in a like-minded fashion with their predecessors, they gave up the right to think. Ukrainian nationalism and nationalism in general frowns on real intellectual thought.

" The nationalists insisted on the primacy of will over reason, action over thought, and practice over theory. Their doctrine of nationalism was[is] infused with aspects of the irrational, voluntaristic, and vitalistic theories"In the place of objective scientific discovery the nationalists propagated myths and favored an ideologically 'correct' image of the Ukrainian past. They promoted a cult of the struggle and reverence for national martyrs""-Ukrainian Encyclopedia

Why does Ukraine claim to be at war with Russia?

What they are at war with in their own minds and the minds of their handlers is something completely different and alien to most people's conception. Ukraine is at war with the idea of a democratic Russia being more successful than they are and shining a light on the disaster of their imported Ukrainian Nationalist form of government.

For them, the Ukrainian civil war is a godsend to cover up the fact that they don't have the first inkling about how to govern a country. If you look at the above core ideological statements, admitting loss to normal people and not a great power is something they literally can't do on their own. That would negate the superiority of the Ukrainian nationalist spirit and drive. The west can't go back and undo what's been done. The West is stuck with the fact they were sold a stallion and the trailer delivered a gelded pony.

Of course saying they are at war with Russia has made them feel good about themselves. But how many imaginary invasions are they willing to own up to? The real benefit has been appeasing the Diaspora and keeping the money coming in. Having reported on the war for the past 2 years, including doing invasive passport checks on soldiers across Lugansk Peoples Republic (LNR) in 2014, it's simply not the case.

For Kiev, legitimacy is wrapped around it's founding social contract with the Ukrainian people. When that was broken, its legitimacy was lost. What do I mean?

In 1991 Gorbachev called for a referendum to decide the fate of the Soviet Union which was:

1.('Do you consider it necessary to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, in which human rights and the freedoms of all nationalities will be fully guaranteed?'). Kravchuk, the highest political leader in Ukraine added two other questions to the referendum.

2.('Do you agree that Ukraine should be part of a Union of Soviet Sovereign States on the basis of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine?')

3.('Do you want Ukraine to become an independent state which independently decides its domestic and foreign policies, and which guarantees equal rights to all of its citizens, regardless of their national or religious allegiance?')

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Why an intelligent economic plan is needed to jump-start the economy toward prosperity and economic security?

By Farid Khavari

With a coherent and comprehensive economic plan, a government in any country in the world, in cooperation with the private sector, can create a new robust economy simply by deciding to do so.

Millions of idle workers can be employed and mobilized to build or rebuild cities, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, and countless other wealth-producing activities.

The money earned by these workers would enable them to buy the goods and services they need, consequently creating millions of additional jobs.

But, the problem is that no government and no other candidate have a coherent and comprehensive economic plan.

Healthy economies are driven by demand. The reason economic "stimulus" programs in western economies always fail is that they attempt to solve demand-side problems with supply-side solutions. This always fails to achieve any meaningful improvement and only increases deficits and debt. Building a modern factory to produce a great product is useless if people don't have any money to buy the product. You can't even sell water in a desert if people don't have money to spend.

Ironically, the poorest economies with the highest unemployment have the greatest amount of the most important resource in any economy: demand. Demand for housing, water and sanitation, food, clothing, energy, health care, transportation and everything else is inherent in any population that lacks these things. This demand represents a great opportunity for massive job creation and massive wealth creation for families and the national economy as well, which can be accomplished at a net cost of zero.

When one good wealth-creating job is created, the worker has money to spend. This creates more jobs automatically. Those workers spend money, and more jobs are created. An intelligent economic plan serves as a catalyst to start an economic chain reaction to bring prosperity and economic security to all of the people. The only practical limit to the wealth that is created is how many people are put to work creating wealth.
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Ever since Todd Bol built a model of a one-room schoolhouse in tribute to his mother, a schoolteacher who loved to read, Little Free Libraries have been popping up across the country.

The structures look similar to a birdhouse big enough to hold up to 100 books. Access is based on the merit system: take a book and return it  or dont, and bring another one back to donate. No fines, no library cards.

Bol started the movement in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin. There are now at least 40,000 libraries worldwide, according to the Little Free Library nonprofit.

In Midland, theres one on West Carpenter Street. Sheila McCoy set up the lending library on her front lawn last year. Another similar concept greets readers at Plymouth Park.

A Midland newcomer is turning the page to add more mini libraries around the city.

Having been in Midland about a year and a half, Jeff Havens said he sought to build a sense of community. With the help of a brother, the two have invested $5,000 to bring 15 Little Free Libraries to Midland. Theyre being shipped from a builder in Illinois and painted by students at Creative 360.

Havens grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, a town he said is remarkably similar to Midland. He taught high school English and had a stint in standup comedy. These days, hes more widely known as a touring corporate motivational speaker, delivering keynotes titled Uncrapify Your Life! and Unleash Your Inner Tyrant! People in 48 states and five countries have seen Havens live.

But at 38, he said theres been very little in what he does that is tangible. He wanted to do something charitable. An idea came during one of the long Sunday walks with wife, Laura, when they lived in Madison, Wisconsin.

(They were) nice pieces of art scattered around the city, he recalled.

Inside, through the windowed doors, you might see titles ranging from National Geographic to adult fiction, literally anything you can put in it, he said. The libraries are community-monitored and maintained.

Havens hopes to have all the libraries by the end of the month and spend September finding homes for them. The goal is to have an even spread throughout the city, to bridge gaps between libraries and schools out of walking distance.

Its a great way to distribute books and the love of reading, Creative 360 Director Carol Rumba said.

A woodworking student recently finished one specifically decorated for the Chippewa Nature Center.

He had a wonderful time putting his own kind of style and particular kind of art (into it), Rumba said. Its pretty remarkable.

Rumba said a Little Library with a mosaic theme will be set up at Creative 360, too.

Some people dont feel comfortable going to the library, or they cant go to the library, perhaps, she said. I think its a fabulous idea. I love books.

Havens sees the concept as a way for others to dispose of unwanted books without throwing them away, or stuffing them in an attic.

I really just want people to use them, he said. Use, enjoy and share books.

On a sunny-turned-sudden-heavy-rain Wednesday, four children walked up to the mini library at Plymouth Park. Danielle Larson, 34, assisted Jackson, 6, and sister, Sophie, 5. Samantha Davis, 8, and brother, Andrew, 6, also grabbed a title or two.

Its easy, you just take a book. Theyre free, they said.

Havens said he is still looking to install Little Libraries for those interested in having one of their own. Theres no cost to install and they are as easy as a mailbox to put in, he said. For more info, contact Havens at (608) 957-6942.
Entrepreneurs are Renaissance people. To succeed, they have to be interested in multiple fields and the intersections among them. They dive into disparate domains and dig for connections that will make our lives easier and more meaningful.

From modern psychology and twentieth-century history to timeless stories and future predictions, 2016s books on entrepreneurship reflect a breadth of scope and passion. Below are my top choices for books published during the first half of this year:

A Paperboys Fable by Deep Patel.

Seventeen-year-old Deep Patel interweaves 11 timeless principles of success as he chronicles a boys evolution from poor high schooler to savvy business owner. Far from presuming to know all the answers at his age, Patel sticks to what he does know: his fathers rise from paperboy to successful entrepreneur. A Paperboys Fable illustrates the seeds of great businesses so we can recognize and sow our own.

Related: The 9 Principles That People Who Feel Successful Say They Live By

The book also includes interviews with professors, entrepreneurs, CEOs and General David Petraeus -- a section Ill read repeatedly. In these sections, some of the most admired people of our era relay the greatest lessons of entrepreneurship in clear-as-day English. They remind us that the best time to take risks is now and that we dont need to invent a new app or snazzy technology to excel entrepreneurially. We can start in our very own neighborhoods.

Patels fable is thus a refreshing departure from the statistics that flood todays professional development books. He's less focused on indoctrinating his principles with bulleted evidence than he is on relaying examples of whats worked, for our interpretation and use.

Originals by Adam Grant.

Originals was, to my surprise, more about corporate creativity than individual innovation. Perhaps this focus stems from the fact that, as a professor at Wharton School, Adam Grant has consulting and research experience that spans Fortune 500 companies (Disney, Goldman Sachs, NFL) and not individual case studies.

Grants work in both academia and corporate America aids the books brilliance. Two decades ago, social psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi published Creativity, which explored central tenants of creativity through interviews with 100 highly successful creative people. Now, Grant builds on these kinds of theories with convincing cross-sectional, longitudinal research on creativity in the workforce.

In Originals, Grant empirically explains why middle managers are less creative, what your Internet browser choice says about your work style and your chances for success, why familiarity sabotages new ideas, why optimism isnt the best innovation strategy, why last born children tend to be more creative, and why "lone wolfing" kills creative production. He discusses the perks of procrastination, the limits of our intuition on idea generation, and the counterintuitive evidence that entrepreneurs dont have higher risk tolerances.

Smarter Better Faster by Charles Duhigg.

Charles Duhigg is first and foremost a writer, a fact apparent from page 1. While many entrepreneurship books read like engineering manuals, Smarter Better Faster reflects the care and story-craft one might see in a feature in The Atlantic, National Geographic or the New York Times, where Duhigg has been an investigative reporter for the last decade.

Related: 6 Ways to Fast-Track Your Success Every Morning

Duhigg conceptualizes productivity as much more than time management and tech tools. Productivity, he writes, isnt about working more or sweating harder. Its not simply a product of spending longer hours at your desk or making bigger sacrifices. More broadly, and more importantly, productivity hinges on making the right choices: where we put our attention; how we set goals; how we motivate ourselves; who we surround ourselves with; how we absorb information. Without these practices, we can have perfect calendars but unproductive and unfulfilling lives.

From the beginnings of Saturday Night Live, to a poker player competing in a $2 million winner-take-all tournament, to an airplane co-pilot who inadvertently sent himself and his passengers plummeting to the bottom of the ocean, Duhigg relates real and riveting stories of productivity geniuses and failures. As Susan Cain, author of The Power of Introverts, puts it, Duhigg gives us a more human way of thinking about how productivity actually happens.

The Third Wave by Steve Case

In The Third Wave, Internet forefather and AOL co-founder Steve Case predicts the third phase of tech entrepreneurship.

The first phase (which he calls a wave in homage to Alvin Tofflers 1980 sci-fi book The Third Wave) was connecting the Internet -- the technical logistics of making the Internet both possible and widely available. The second wave consisted of connecting the Internet to things -- digitizing physical products and services. And the third wave, Case predicts, will mean connecting the Internet to everything. In this aspect, the third wave will more closely resemble the first wave than the second. It will be a second digital revolution.

Case believes that the third wave of tech entrepreneurship will require collaborations with mature industries -- such as healthcare, finance and foreign policy -- to navigate bureaucratic regulations and instigate systemic change. While the second wave had little barriers of entry and focused on making peoples lives easier, the third wave will be more complex, more institutionally oriented, and more societally meaningful. He also predicts that it will be decentralized, taking business away from Silicon Valley.

Related: How Steve Case Is Preparing for the Web's Third Wave

For entrepreneurs to be successful, they must explore topics indirectly related to their business. Though reading may take you away from work at times, it is essential for creating a healthy balance between work and life.

Related:



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
EDITORS NOTE  OWI means operating while intoxicated. DWLS means driving while license suspended. (MC) is for Judge Michael D. Carpenter. (L) is for Magistrate Gerald Ladwig. (SC) is for Circuit Judge Stephen P. Carras. Sentences may vary based on previous offenses committed by the defendant. Some sentencings include other fees imposed by the state.

Coleman

Nicholas Arthur Stark, 27, disorderly person on March 22, 90 days in jail held in abeyance with credit for two days, $375 fines and costs, three months probation, attend Anger Management, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC).

Freeland

Daniel Alan Rashott, 32, two counts domestic violence on June 13, 93 days in jail with all but 10 days held in abeyance and credit for one day, $1,300 fines and costs, 18 months probation, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, intimidating, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward any person, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed, may participate in work release program (MC).

Merrill

Andrew Steven-Durell Knight, 32, third-degree retail fraud in April 11, $200 fines and costs, $84 restitution (MC).

Midland

Scott Christopher Hale, 29, Carol Court, second-offense DWLS on May 27, six days in jail with credit for one day, $600 fines and costs (MC).

Jason Hoyt Hannah, 44, Huron Drive, impaired driving on March 26, 93 days in jail held in abeyance with credit for two days, $775 fines and costs, one year probation, attend substance abuse program, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed, to be monitored by alcohol tether for six months (MC).

Phillip Conrad Howell, 37, Russell Street, aggravated assault on May 22, 180 days in jail with credit for three days, attend counseling program (MC).

Bradford Ceasar Kemp, 18, Eastlawn Drive, larceny on May 26 and third-degree retail fraud on July 15, 30 days in jail with credit for 18 days for the first offense and 93 days in jail with all but 30 days held in abeyance and credit for 18 days for the second offense, $400 fines and costs, one year probation, 100 hours community service while on probation, attend mental health counseling, no contact with the victim, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed, obtain high school diploma or GED and employment (MC).

Corey Scott Lago, 25, West Cedar Road, attempted third-degree retail fraud on June 10, 46 days in jail with credit for 22 days, $200 fines and costs (MC).

Joshua Alexander Linares, 25, Riggie Street, no proof of insurance on July 8, $210 fine (MC).

Christian Marino Matsoukis, 24, Eastlawn Drive, improper transport of medical marijuana on March 9, $725 fines and costs, one year probation, one year sentence delay, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars (MC).

Donald Joseph Nichols, 25, Satellite Street, impaired driving on April 23, 93 days in jail held in abeyance with credit for one day, $775 fines and costs, one year probation, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed, must submit 25 employment applications weekly until employed at least 35 hours per week (MC).

Aaron Alvin Northern, 26, Dublin Avenue, second-offense second-degree retail fraud on June 16, 180 days in jail with credit for 47 days (MC).

Michael Montese Smith, 38, P.O. Box 1614, third-degree retail fraud on April 10, 30 days in jail with credit for four days, $18 restitution (MC).

Matthew Allen Strobel, 30, East Bombay Road, driving with no or multiple licenses on Aug. 5, $300 fines and costs (L).

Donald Eugene Warner, 29, North Homer Road, malicious destruction of personal property on May 27, 2015, and domestic violence on Oct. 31, 93 days in jail with credit for 66 days for the first offense and 47 days in jail with credit for time served for the second offense, $613.97 restitution (MC).

Cameron Donald Werth, 23, Chatham Drive, impaired driving on April 23, 93 days in jail with all but three days held in abeyance and credit for one day, $775 fines and costs, nine months probation, attend substance abuse program and Impact Weekend, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC).

Ryan Matthew Williams, 29, Glenn Road, driving without insurance on June 3, $500 fines and costs (MC).

David Paul Wojciechowski, 41, Quincy Drive, allowing DWLS on July 11, $500 fines and costs (MC).

Joshua Alan Wrona, 33, Paige Court, third-degree retail fraud on May 23, 2015, and April 26, 41 days in jail with credit for 35 days, $600 fines and costs, $130.50 restitution (MC).

Saginaw

Travis John Bakos, 20, MIP on June 25, $100 fine (MC).

Sanford

Robert Michael Hardy, 54, domestic violence and attempted resisting and obstructing police on May 29, 93 days in jail for the first offense and one year in jail for the second offense with all but 180 days held in abeyance and credit for 38 days, $1,600 fines and costs, 18 months probation, 160 hours community service during probation term in lieu of fines and costs, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, intimidating, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward any person, no contact with the victim, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed, complete inpatient treatment program (MC).

Jody Ray Hulett, 47, third-degree retail fraud on May 3, five days in jail with credit for one day (MC).

James Robert Pate, 40, attempted third-degree retail fraud on April 16, 46 days in jail held in abeyance with credit for one day, $200 fines and costs, $8.93 restitution, six months probation, attend mental health counseling, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, complete adult shoplifting program, attend counseling as directed (MC).

Justin Clay Swarthout, 20, disorderly person on June 14, 2015, 90 days in jail held in abeyance with credit for one day, $500 fines and costs, $3,745.46 restitution, one year probation, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, sentence delay granted, attend counseling as directed (MC).

St. Charles

Zachary Walter Wachowicz, 23, OWI on April 10, 93 days in jail with all but 14 days held in abeyance and credit for two days, $975 fines and costs, 15 months probation, attend substance abuse program, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, to be monitored by an alcohol tether for 90 days, attend counseling as directed (MC).

Elsewhere

Jeffery Allen Cobb, 27, Riverdale, allowing DWLS on April 29, one day in jail with credit for time served, $600 fines and costs (MC).

Nicholas Robert Pullano, 23, Davidson, impaired driving on May 13, 93 days in jail held in abeyance with credit for two days, $775 fines and costs, nine months probation, attend substance abuse program, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC).

Glenn Milne Watt, 56, Hamtramck, unregistered vehicle on July 17, $100 fine (MC).
The Midland Daily News recently published an article on the new director of the DEQ, in which Director Heidi Grether said, Employees are hesitant to make decisions or move on certain things because they dont know what that means for them. To be quite honest, its hard to have your colleagues facing criminal charges for what people may think is doing their job.

I truly hope the best for the new DEQ director, but as a former decorated employee of the DEQ, I question her assessment of the purported hesitancy of DEQ employees being based on, what it means for them. Almost every DEQ employee, in my experience, made decisions on the law and the best application of that law for the citizens of Michigan  not political or personal motives. A small percentage of the employees may have made decisions on their own personal gain (career path versus serving the citizens). My personal virtue as a state employee was that my decisions were about Michigans citizenry and not catering to the direction of politics. The inherent problem is that career paths in this agency often are now greased by that very catering. Ultimately, mid-level and high level managers in the agency are often selected based upon loyalty to political influence rather than the even handed application of regulations it is their job to apply.

Politicians of either party are inordinately against regulatory action because they know who has the strongest influence on their re-election. Term limits complicate their own independent thinking by beholding them to political party influence affecting their ability to make elected public service a long-term career. That influence would include businesses, re-election committees and party plans. Poor communities and defenseless natural resources do not have that influence. The average citizen of this state is probably not aware of the extent to which the civil service appointment system has been eroded by politicians to the point that first line supervisors continued employment is predicated on towing a political line via loss of the protections that the Civil Service Commission provides. The conscience and independence of the chain-of-command degrades to total subservience to gubernatorial appointees.

I hope that the DEQ employees are not inappropriately influenced by the criminal charges filed against a few department employees. I hope for aggressive defense of these employees to ensure due process and a full understanding of the truth. In the end, I hope that Attorney General Bill Schuette does not allow his inquiry to degrade to a witch hunt for sacrificial lambs. With his side-stepping of aggressive action on the criminal behavior of GM in the ignition switch travesty, he has already demonstrated that the prosecution system is not blind to the influence of well healed-funded entities. But back to you DEQ employees, you know what the environmental laws say and it is much easier to have a career of even-handedly applying those regulations as written rather than testing the waters for political backlash. Violators of environmental laws do not deserve to be protected from responsibility for their behavior any more than the typical criminal who steals. Environmental law violators are thieves and are motivated by greed or unwillingness to spend adequate financial resources on environmental protection.

Director Grether, shame on those who select those who lead the agency if they choose to not staff the chain-of-command of the agency with competent, even-handed personnel who know the law, respect those who are most affected by violations, understand the need to protect sensitive natural resources, and have the courage to move the agency to do its job. The Michigan Constitution states that the conservation and development of the natural resources of the state are hereby declared to be of paramount public concern in the interest of the health, safety and general welfare of the people. DEQ employees did not write the statutes they enforce; the legislature did, yet it is that very branch of government that always chooses to ask the agency to softly enforce the regulations, even demonizing the agency. A dilemma then develops that wears down the fortitude of the regulators to do their job like a cancer.

The Flint water crisis is just one example of the erosion of the independence of a crucial regulatory agency and I expect that other incidents will follow unless the DEQ is restored to the nationally recognized agency it once was. Director Grether, as you try to restore morale of the agency and fill positions, I hope you truly understand the insidious disease of politics that has obviously spread through the body of this agency. Surround yourself with people who are confident they can speak their minds. Great leaders surround themselves with subordinates who address their weaknesses.

In the early 1970s, Governor Milliken (Republican) faced restructuring an environmental agency, then the DNR, filled with a similar cancer and succeeded in making it into an organization that the citizens of Michigan could be proud of and to which all other states looked to as a mentor. At that time, environmental protection programs were under the oversight and leadership of a citizen commission, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, appointing the agency director. It is time for the formation of a Michigan Environmental Protection Commission to co-lead and support the director of environmental quality.

Gregory Eagle is a graduate of Central Michigan Universitys biology department, a former DNR conservation officer and retired DEQ environmental law enforcement supervisor who served the citizens of Michigan for 26 years. He served as one of the first six environmental conservation officers in Michigan, helped organize and lead the DEQ Office of Criminal Investigations, served as chairman of the board of directors of the Midwest Environmental Enforcement Association and served as an assistant to the DEQ director in the Saginaw Bay District. He is an active member of the Michigan Resource Stewards and resides in Midland.
The Midland County Health and Human Services Council recently had the opportunity to visit with local state lawmakers. House Speaker Kevin Cotter, Sen. Jim Stamas and Mike Goschka, legislative director for Rep. Gary Glenn, all served as part of a panel, handling questions from the group.

The Midland County Health and Human Services Council is a collaborative group of 27 community leaders with a shared vision for solving local challenges in the areas of health and human services. Its membership fosters collaboration and cooperation among social service agencies, education, health care, business, the faith-based community, the courts, law enforcement, philanthropy and local government. Questions were submitted by council members to reflect community needs and concerns.

Questions for the legislative panel covered areas that included funding, drug use, elder abuse, mental health, human trafficking, Medicaid expansion, schools, budget savings, integration of public physical health and behavioral health systems, environmental contamination and more. Cotter, Stamas and Goschka shared their views, which differed at times, on how to address these concerns.

The topic for funding of community needs, given the monies required for Detroit Public Schools and the Flint water crisis, was a topic of discussion. Cotter and Stamas spent some time describing the process of putting the budget together as they keep in mind critical services required throughout the state. Other budget concerns raised included the cost of corrections in the state. Cotter shared the need to better prepare inmates for release. Criminal justice reform was discussed as was the need to ensure those needing mental health services receive treatment. The panel shared that this is the sixth year in a row the state has had a balanced budget.

The status of the third grade reading bills was discussed. Differing versions have passed in both the House and Senate and they are trying to work out the differences. The bills focus on third grade reading proficiency. The group raised questions on retention, which is included in some of the third grade reading legislation. Stamas shared the importance of investment in early childhood education to improve student performance in later years.

The question on Medicaid in Michigan led to dialogue on the future of Medicaid expansion. Lawmakers said that enrollment has exceeded predictions and is higher than the original budget estimates. Challenges with the current system and access to care were a subject of discussion for both the panel and council members. Goschka said that Glenn is against the Medicaid expansion and supports health savings accounts.

In looking at what can be done for opioid and heroin addiction, the panel and council discussed medical-assisted therapy including the availability of Naloxone for family members of those with an addiction. Cotter said that there are a number of bills on this issue. Stamas commented on some of the positive actions that have been taken in recent years to deal with substance use. Panel members all shared their concern on this issue and the need to continue to work toward solutions.

Cotter thanked the council for the invitation and said that each of the lawmakers welcomes additional conversation. The Health and Human Services Council appreciated the opportunity to engage in dialogue with state lawmakers. The Health and Human Services Council will continue to work toward solutions for local needs and will continue to communicate with lawmakers on importance policy issues.

Sharon Mortensen is the president and CEO of the Midland Area Community Foundation and a member of the Midland County Health and Human Services Council. The Midland County Health and Human Services Council promotes the welfare of the community through systems level planning, collaboration and promotion of health and human services with an emphasis on demonstrated effectiveness and prevention. More information about the council can be found at www.healthymidland.org
BLOOMINGTON  Student handbooks often are treated like a car owners manual.

Students and parents may skim through the book during school registration and then put it aside until a concern pops up later in the year, but school officials want them to read it and know what it says. That is especially true this year because of state-mandated changes to student discipline rules.

The handbook lays out for students and parents the minimum expectation for student behavior and explains their rights within the school, said Mark Jontry, superintendent of the Regional Office of Education 17, which serves DeWitt, Livingston, Logan and McLean counties. If you dont understand something, it gives you the opportunity to ask questions about procedures.

Handbook contents vary based on district and grade level, but most include policies about dress code, attendance, harassment and bullying, use of electronic devices and behavior expectations.

The biggest change in Illinois school handbooks this year centers on student discipline policies, such as expulsions and suspensions, that will be introduced in districts across the state in September after legislation was passed by the Illinois General Assembly.

The purpose of the bill is to put a kink in the the school-to-prison pipeline and keep children in school by reducing out-of-school suspensions and expulsions.

Senate Bill 100 makes some prescriptions for what steps need to be taken before out-of-school suspension or expulsion can occur, said Jontry. It requires districts to make sure they have exhausted all additional resources first.

The law does not prevent districts from administering expulsions or suspensions, especially in extreme cases like weapons or drug possession or gross misconduct.

Jen McGowan, principal at Sheridan Elementary School, and David Lafrance, principal at Oakland Elementary School, collaborated to develop proactive student discipline plans for the Bloomington District 87 handbooks that comply with the law.

Preventative action starts in the classroom, said McGowan. We encourage teachers to really work on those relationships with students. A strong relationship means they can build trust and have better communication."

McGowan compared tending to student behavior problems to helping with learning problems.

If a kid doesnt know how to read, we do an intervention to help them understand, she said. If they arent behaving well, we have to get to the root of the problem, maybe with help from a school social worker or psychologist. Behavior is a form of communication.

All misbehavior situations should be handled on a case-by-case basis, said LaFrance.

Every kid has a different story, and we should listen, he said. Education is the only equalizer to an unfair playing field.

McLean County Unit 5 attorney Curt Richardson said most of the discipline practices recommended by the bill were already in place at the Normal-based district.

Some efforts Unit 5 plans to use before turning to suspensions include school-wide behavior support programs and assemblies, social work groups, behavior analysis and student meetings with administrators and teachers to work through issues.

Its good to do everything we can to make sure students are staying in school to receive the education they deserve, said Richardson. We should address behaviors in school with alternative consequences.

If an out-of-school suspension or expulsion does take place, districts are planning to use restorative practices to ensure the students return to school after the discipline goes smoothly.

Lets say there was a verbal altercation between a student and a teacher. Before the student returns to class, we might set up an opportunity for them to meet and articulate their feelings on the matter, said Jontry. Everyone is human. This meeting would help reset that relationship and keep any grudge from forming.
Last week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Iran's intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. That's what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. That's what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Iran's international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Iran's orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assad's regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand  a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military  he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldn't he? He's pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administration's response to these provocations? Urging "both sides" to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijing's territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesn't care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because he's convinced that in the long run it doesn't matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking  primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers  China, Russia and Iran  know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And they're going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes' view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however  Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands  it matters greatly.
The rising cost of tuition and related student loan debt has brought the expense of college education to the top of the political debate. The Democratic platform has a plan that would eliminate in-state tuition at public universities for families earning less than $125,000 per year (The GOP platform has no such plan).

We are a long way from this becoming a reality, but we welcome the discussion about making higher education more affordable.

Should college be free for all who qualify? Of course, free does not mean there are no costs, rather it refers to who pays for it. The question is, should costs be shared by all taxpayers, or just those who use it?

Over the past 30 years, we have gradually gone toward the latter system. As states have slashed funding, tuition has risen and the cost is now shouldered by students and their families. This was not always the case.

In the 1960s, California offered free college tuition to all residents. Even though by the mid-1970s, students were assessed a small tuition, about $630 in 1975-1976, California residents enjoyed a remarkable period in higher education whereby students were part of a world-class educational experience at virtually no cost. Other states followed suit so that, for example, tuition at Michigan State University was just $450 per year in the early 1970s.

Two generations of students participated  without accruing massive debt. By the end of the 20th century, this dream of affordable, high quality higher education for all who qualify has been all but lost. We have gone down the wrong path, but thankfully it is reversible. In fact, some states and cities have even gone back to the California system.

The Kalamazoo Promise is perhaps the most exciting tuition program. Students attending Kalamazoo public schools receive a scholarship for tuition and fees at any public college or university in Michigan. The Tennessee Promise provides a scholarship for tuition at any community or technical college in the state.

These programs reflect the belief that higher education is a public good and is needed more than ever. Here a few reasons why.

The current pay-as-you-go system promotes economic inequality. When only the wealthiest families can pay for college without accruing significant debt, the result is less-wealthy families don't send their kids to college, or they accrue burdensome debt.

Shifting college costs to families undermines economic mobility. Education, and in particular higher education, is an important part of the American Dream. The Department of Treasury reports that individuals with a college degree is 75 percent more likely to move to a higher-income bracket than their parents.

College education is the economic engine that drives our economy. A worker with a bachelors degree earns significantly more than a person with a high school diploma, and the jobless rate is significantly lower for those with a college degree.

America was founded, in part, on the idea that education is the foundation of democracy. In the mid-to-late 1800s, many of our finest public universities were funded by the Morrill Act that gave states federal land grants to establish these fine institutions. Our leaders have long realized the link between a vibrant democracy and access to education.

What makes America great? The American Dream, which is made possible by affordable, high-quality college education.
Illinois has a couple of months before the General Assembly returns for its fall veto session. Let's hope that's enough time for lawmakers to vet Gov. Rauner's veto of needed voter registration changes.

Last week, the governor vetoed a proposal (passed by both chambers) that would implement automatic voter registration when someone gets or renews a driver's license or state identification card. It's a move beyond the "motor-voter" process that allows people to choose to register when getting or renewing those documents.

Instead, the proposal would make that registration automatic unless the registrant opts out.

Information from the automatic registration would be sent from the Secretary of State's Office to the Illinois State Board of Elections for verification, according to a story by the Lee Enterprises capitol bureau. The information then would go to local election authorities, who would handle the actual registration.

Rauner, in his veto message, wondered whether the idea was fully thought through. What if the people who are automatically registered aren't citizens? The Secretary of State's office, which oversees driver registration and state ID cards, isn't set up to check citizenship.

Point made, Governor. And it's a good one - but not good enough to fully do away with the idea.

To his credit, the governor didn't suggest doing away entirely with automatic registration. It seems he just wants the proposal to contain the extra steps to verify the legality of someone registered to vote.

Illinois has a long and storied history of ineligible people casting votes - sometimes several votes - and sometimes from beyond the grave. Voter rolls need to be purged periodically, and most are, and registrars make sure that voters are legally able to cast a ballot.

That means residency and citizenship. And citizenship is not required to have an Illinois driver's license.

All that aside, it's wise to remember the reason behind the automatic registration proposal.

An alarming number of people are not registered to vote, or choose not to cast a ballot. That means a relatively small number of people - those who do vote - make the decisions that affect the rest of the state. Automatic registration also might help quell lines on Election Day, where same-day registration now is allowed.

The Lee bureau reported that Rauner said he would continue working with supporters to craft a proposal that meets our shared goals while complying with federal law and preventing voter fraud.

There is time to get that work done before the fall veto session, and that should be the goal of the governor and the registration supporters.

In the meantime, lawmakers should consider overriding Rauner's veto and then amending the legislative bill if problems do, in fact, arise.
CBS' "The Bold and the Beautiful" is welcoming a new cast member who will play as the teenage Ridge "R.J." Forrester Jr. Anthony Turpel is taking the role and will debut on the soap this coming September.

Children have to grow up eventually, even in soaps. And it's now the turn of little R.J., son of Brooke Logan Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye). CBS Soaps In Depth reported that the character is coming back to the frame after being away for some years. Anthony Turpel will be the teenage version of R.J., which was last played by Mace Coronel since 2013. He was seen very rarely, only during family gatherings. With the casting of his older self, perhaps R.J. will be part of a bigger story line.

This would be Turpel's first daytime gig. He is scheduled to appear on "The Bold and the Beautiful" on Sept. 14. He is known for his role in "Life in Pieces" and "Comedy Bang Bang."

In a related casting news, another Forrester is set to comeback, as Parent Herald previously learned. Ashleigh Brewer will be seen again on "The Bold and the Beautiful" on Aug. 31 as Ivy Forrester. Previously, Ivy left for Australia when she and Wyatt put an end in their relationship. Her return comes at a time that Wyatt and Steffy's marriage is on the rocks.

Meanwhile, "The Bold and the Beautiful" spoilers for the week of Aug. 22 tease that Ridge will try his best to talk to Eric Forrester (John McCook) to dump the gold digger Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer). The drama will span throughout the week, with Brooke stepping up to offer support to Ridge. A Forrester family meeting will cap off the week, all to revolve around getting Quinn out of Eric's life, via We Love Soaps.

"The Bold and the Beautiful" airs Monday to Friday at 1:30 p.m. on CBS.
"The Winds Of Winter" may be killing more Stark members than "A Song Of Ice And Fire" (ASOIF) saga author George R.R. Martin intended.The bone of contention being how plagued George R.R. Martin has been by fan enthusiasm over "The Winds Of Winter," particularly the release date of "TWOW."

George R.R. Martin is notoriously delayed in delivering "The Winds Of Winter." So much so that the US and UK publishers working with George R.R. Martin have had to speak up for GRRM in the face of "ASOIF" fan clamor for "The Winds Of Winter" release.

Parent Herald cites reports that the last firm date linked to "The Winds Of Winter" release had been an internal schedule with "ASOIF" publishers of December 2015, which George R.R. Martin missed. Speculations link HBO's "Game Of Thrones" series as a major contributor to delay by George R.R. Martin on "The Winds Of Winter" release.

Numerous parties have spoken up on behalf of George R.R. Martin to ease fan impatience for "The Winds Of Winter" release. A separate Parent Herald story cites reports that George R.R. Martin once more targets the year's end to complete translations for "TWOW" opening up 2017 for "The Winds Of Winter" release.

However, George R.R. Martin fans and "ASOIF" saga fans should perhaps refrain from asking GRRM further on the "The Winds Of Winter" release date. According to The Daily Telegraph, George R.R. Martin gets quite affected by questions regarding the release date of each "ASOIF" book.

"Every time I get asked when will the next book be finished, I kill a Stark," George R.R. Martin reportedly told "ASOIF" fans. If indeed, as The Daily Telegraph cites, George R.R. Martin will follow "The Winds Of Winter" and "A Dream Of Spring" with an eight and final "ASOIF" book to close the lore, GRRM may not have any more Stark left to write about.

For the time being, "The Winds Of Winter" fans will be happy to know that the "Game Of Thrones" series has enough House Stark members to see them through "GoT" Season 8. Given "The Winds Of Winter" release date delay, do you think George R.R. Martin could still manage an eighth "ASOIF" book?
Tequila, weed, cash, and a Ford car could be the elements for a hell of a road trip, but theyre actually part of the automakers efforts to be more sustainable. At a Ford-sponsored panel discussion August 16 in San Francisco, senior technical leader Debbie Mielewski showed how the company was working with famed tequila maker Jose Cuervo to use less plastic in its car parts.

Just to be clear, there is no actual tequila in Ford cars, nor is there any weed. What there might be is agave-fiber-infused plastic, thanks to the tons of it left over from Jose Cuervos tequila production. The company was using some of it for compost, as well as paper and local crafts, but much of it was going to waste. Because its operations happened to be near Fords automotive plants in Mexico, Mielewski and her team had a perfect opportunity to try the fiber as a reinforcing material for plastic.

Ford cant remove all 400 pounds of petroleum-based plastic in a typical car, Mielewski said, but incorporating agave fiber or another reinforcing material helps reduce itand finds a new purpose for something that would otherwise be discarded.

Ford Motor Company The dried agave fiber from Jose Cuervo tequila production could help reinforce a more sustainable bioplastic.

At the event, Ford handed out keychains made from the agave-based experimental bioplastic. Its a lightweight, brown-colored material, with shreds of agave fiber clearly showing. Someday, Ford hopes to use it for making internal parts like storage bins or wiring harnesses.

Ford Motor Company The experimental bioplastic with agave fiber could be molded into storage bins and other interior car parts.

Fords actually been working on sustainable materials for 15 years, Mielewski explained. The research gained urgency when oil prices shot up, making petroleum-based materials more expensive to produce. Mielewski and her team were already conducting experiments on soy-based foam, based on soybean oil that local Michigan farmers couldnt sell. Now soy foam is in the upholstery of all Ford cars.

Melissa Riofrio Shredded money is one of the many hard-to-repurpose waste materials that Fords hoping to turn into sustainable plastic.

The cash is retired U.S. currency, which is made of a high-quality, cotton-based paper. Finely shredded, its another material Fords testing with plastic.

Weed could be next. Mielewski said her team looked into using hemp fiber some years ago, but at the time, no one could grow it legally in the United States. Well, except one group, Mielewski qualified: We had talked to Indian reservations that said they could grow it for us, because theyre sovereign nations. Those talks fell through.

Now that some states are allowing marijuana production, Mielewski has high hopes. In the meantime, her team will be busy with the agave fiber and shredded cash, along with rice hulls, coconut fiber, sugarcane, and more.
Samsungs Milk Music streaming service is about to go the way of, well, a litany of other discontinued music services that came before it.

On Friday, the company released a statement announcing that it plans to discontinue Milk Music in the United States on September 22just about a month from now.

We have made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices, the statement continues. We believe that working with partners will accelerate innovation, enhance device sales and provide amazing new experiences for our customers.

The story behind the story: Samsung introduced Milk Music in 2014 as a streaming alternative to Google Play Music for users of its phones. The Slacker-based radio service let you create your own stations, or listen to pre-programmed ones, a bit like how Pandora works. At the time, our Florence Ion wrote that Milk Music is Samsungs way of inching toward its own complete app ecosystemeven as it continues to support the apps and services built into Android.

According to Variety, [t]he writing for Milk Music was on the wall since Samsung laid off several executives related to its media efforts last month.

Milk is gone, but

While Samsung may have given up on its own branded music service, the companys decision to rely on strategic partnerships doesnt necessarily mean its apparent goal of declaring app independence from Google is dead. One possible outcome is that Samsung will work with those partners to build a Galaxy-specific app for one of its partners that conforms to the look and feel of its Galaxy devices.
Saying that the 37,020-acre Blue Cut fire no longer poses a threat to communities, authorities lifted all remaining evacuation orders Sunday, allowing many residents to return to their homes  and some to return to just rubble.

The Nims family were among the first people to return to the West Cajon Valley on Sunday afternoon. Though their house was leveled, parents Lee and Tina and 16-year-old Cody were remarkably calm.

You keep memories forever, Cody said. Everything else was just possessions.

Its better to lose stuff than people we care about the most, he said.

Farther south in Lytle Creek, which came through the fire mostly unscathed, Angie Baker was grateful her house in the Tallys neighborhood survived.

Im not usually a tearful person, Baker said. But when I pulled into Tallys, I got a little choked up, because on Wednesday we thought all this was going to be gone.

Firefighters progress was apparent Sunday. The fire, which burned almost 58 square miles, hasnt grown since Friday, and it is now 85 percent contained. Evacuations orders were lifted in the morning for Lytle Creek, and in the late afternoon for West Cajon Valley.

To get past barricades, residents will need proof of residency, San Bernardino County sheriffs officials said. Some roads in the area remain closed, and officials advised returning residents to be cautious as fire engines and heavy equipment continue operating.

Also Sunday, Southern California Edison crews continued their work repairing and replacing damaged power lines.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District warned Sunday that unhealthy air quality is possible in the Blue Cut fire areas through Monday morning. Southwest winds are predicted to push smoke toward the north and west ends of the San Bernardino Mountains and the High Desert.

Many schools had closed because of the fire or its affect on air quality, but all are expected to be back in session Monday.

THE FIREFIGHTING PLAN

Sundays firefighting efforts went very much according to plan, according to Anne Grandy of the U.S. Forest Service, and Mondays plan is more of the same: strengthening the containment lines and continuing to monitor and patrol active areas.

There still are a few areas without containment lines, she said, including around Wildhorse Canyon near highways 138 and 2. Its part of the reason roads are still closed, she said.

Theres also still some active areas at the top end of Lytle Creek, she said.

Grandy said they received some 911 calls about smoke being sighted Sunday. She said these were mostly cases of trees or other fuels continuing to burn.

The fire hasnt gained, she said. Fuel is continuing to burn within the fire line.

State lawmakers from the region got an early-morning tour from fire officials to see the devastation for themselves.

During an initial briefing, U.S. Forest Service called the fire unprecedented in its growth early on. The effects of this fire will be felt for the next three to five years, they said.

The recovery will be especially difficult for the  folks who lost everything, San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig told the lawmakers.

The Fire Department worked with the county assessors office to warn residents whose homes were lost in the fire, Hartwig said.

The fire destroyed an estimated 105 homes and 216 other buildings.

HOUSE GONE, BUT FAMILY STRONG

Dad, wheres the safe?

Mom, your watering can.

Cody Nims was walking through the remains of his familys destroyed home, pointing out bits and pieces that survived.

Theres the saw. That means the beds are over there.

The saw belongs to his father, Lee, a carpenter and cabinet maker. Hed lived here along Highway 138 near Hess Road with his wife, Tina, since 1999, before Cody and daughter Darby, 14, were born. It wasnt a large house  one bedroom and a few other rooms, Tina said  but it had been home.

Darby was still with the Pinon Hills friends theyd stayed with during the week, so it was the three of them gingerly making their way through their crumpled home.

The grounds still hot, Cody said. Wait, is that a mug?

Lee dug out a coffee mug with Mom stenciled on it. He handed it to Tina.

Cody finds the burned remains of his desktop computers CPU. He also lost a beloved stuffed bear to the fire.

Id had him since 2008, he said. He was my friend when no one else wanted to be my friend.

The Nimses managed to laugh and smile at the memories that rose from the ashes.

I want to yell, but its already done, Tina said. We cant blame anyone. Thanks to God we are still alive.

A friend had told Lee on Wednesday that all was lost. He saw it on news footage and Twitter, too.

Dont think we didnt cry, Lee said.

His next steps?

Getting my family settled, he said.

Which hes already done. After another couple of weeks staying with friends, he has a home lined up for his family near Phelan.

TERRIFYING AND HELPLESS

Angie Bakers homecoming Sunday smelled like rotten food and ant spray.

But at least the Lytle Creek home she shares with her boyfriend Chris Austin still stands.

The smell was overwhelming, Baker said. The contents of their refrigerator  Austin estimated about $1,000 worth of food  had thawed and leaked all over the floor, attracting hordes of ants.

I think Im going to want to wait until after fire season to restock the fridge, Austin joked before leaving to stock up at Trader Joes.

Baker and Austin had stayed at the Dynasty Suites in Redlands since Tuesday. When a reservation agent found out they were evacuees, Baker said they were given the best rate possible  opposite the price gouging some other evacuees reported that first night.

Their two small dogs  Duende the Chiweenie and Daisy the Toy Maltese mixed with Ewok  had a really rough time staying in a hotel, Baker said. They barked at anything that walked by.

Baker and Austin were among many Lytle Creek residents who reported hearing conflicting reports and rumors, especially during the early days of the Blue Cut fire, about how much of their community had burned down. In reality, while flames did threaten Lytle Creek, an aggressive firefighting attack saved almost all the buildings.

The rumors were hard for Baker to stomach. The house, which she bought about six years ago, is her retirement plan.

I put a whole lot of heart and soul and art into this house, she said. It was the most terrifying and helpless feeling ever.

The week away from home, trying to maintain some sense of normalcy, was a constant rolling crisis, Baker said, filled not only with news or rumors about what had come of Lytle Creek but also unrelated items.

Life and all its associated tragedies keeps on going, even when youre evacuated with your own emergency, she said.

Baker said she didnt even consider staying when the evacuation order came.

My dad has ALS in North Carolina and would never forgive me, she said. I figured I would be more useful off the hill.

CLOSE-KNIT GROUP STAYED BEHIND

Laura Bryant, who stayed when others evacuated, kept an eye on things for Baker and her other neighbors. It had been a sleepless week, she said. When Red Cross volunteers drove through the neighborhood Sunday afternoon, distributing snacks and other basic necessities, she came out for human contact as much as water.

Bryant and her husband moved their fifth-wheel trailer down-canyon Wednesday to what she called a safe zone near some water tanks, but they returned home later when some neighbors, retired firefighters, said they thought it would be safe to do so.

The ones that stayed really banded together, she said. If somebody had this and somebody didnt, wed help.

Bryant also pressed herself into service for those who couldnt come home. She photographed homes to show anxious owners they were safe, and she checked in on animals that couldnt be evacuated in time and took their photos as well.

Im just so blessed to be able to see everybody again, she said. Hopefully I can sleep tonight.

TOURING THE DEVASTATION

As firefighting efforts continued Sunday, Forest Service and fire officials took Inland officials on a tour through Glen Helen, Interstate 15, Lone Pine Canyon and a few other areas to show the devastation that affected the people they represent.

Forest Service officials said Sunday that containing and putting out the fire are just the first steps in what will be a long road for the area that has burned.

Our cycle is fire, rain, flood, debris flows, said Forest Supervisor Jody Noiron.

Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga, was appreciative to have seen the firefighters efforts.

This fire spread within one day and they were able to mobilize in such a short time that they were able to contain this fire, he said.

The tour made a stop at the Summit Inn, a historic diner near the Cajon Pass. Once the smoke had cleared, the building was blackened. Only the structures skeleton remained on some parts.

By the time we got back here, the Summit Inn was fully involved, said Shane Littlefield of Cal Fire. We didnt even have a chance to save it.

The fire ignited at 10:36 a.m. Aug. 16 in the Cajon Pass above Devore. Officials still arent sure what caused the fire, but ask anyone with information  including photos or video from that area around that time  to call 1-800-78-CRIME (782-7463) or go to www.wetip.com to submit an online tip.

Staff writers Anne Millerbernd and Joe Nelson contributed to this report.



RELATED

PHOTO GALLERIES: Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

HOW DID IT START? Investigators want your help to pinpoint cause

GOD BROUGHT US HERE: Evacuee facing terminal cancer returns home

DISASTER: County to consider emergency proclamation

LOST PETS: Heres how to find animals missing after fire

ANIMAL AID: How Facebook gave evacuation center a boost

FIRE SEASON: Blue Cut fire triggers extra caution for busy summer, fall

GOING BACK: Wrightwood residents returned home Saturday

WAITING IT OUT: Time as a refugee prompted one man to stand ground

HOW TO HELP: How to aid Blue Cut fire victims
In June 1910, the Riverside Daily Press announced that a train soon would start running between Los Angeles and Phoenix. The new route would include a cutoff to Parker-Bengal. That cutoff would have four stations, one of which was to be known as Blythe Junction.

It was the station for the Blythe Rancho, which included 40,000 acres of land and over 1,000 employees.

Blythe Junction was about 45 miles northwest of Blythe and about 300 miles east of San Bernardino or Riverside, right along the San Bernardino County/Riverside County line.

Two years later, it was reported in the Riverside Enterprise that the boundary line between the two counties  starting from the Arizona state line and heading west at least 60 miles  was uncertain as the survey done was unreliable. No one could say for certain in which county Blythe Junction was located.

The U.S. Postal Service said the small community was in San Bernardino County; the Santa Fe Railroad said it was in Riverside County. A new survey of the entire county boundary would solve the problem, but would cost several thousand dollars. Meanwhile, people in Blythe Junction couldnt vote because no one could say which county they lived in.

Blythe Junction itself was home to just over a dozen people. It offered all the usual vices to the travelers passing through: liquor, women of low morals and gambling. Train passengers who didnt spend all their money on such vices were frequently robbed of what they had left.

Officials of the Santa Fe railroad began to complain about Blythe Junction. As was later reported in the April 1, 1914, edition of the Daily Press, The place was wider open than a border town in the days of the prospectors. Law and order was lost sight of and D.W. Moreno, one of the deputy sheriffs of San Bernardino, was one of the ring leaders of the gang that has been causing most of the trouble for railroad officials.

Given the iffy nature of where exactly Blythe Junction was located, the sheriffs of both counties decided to conduct a joint raid on the place. On Monday, March 30, at 1 a.m., Sheriff Wilson of Riverside County and Sheriff Ralphs of San Bernardino County, five deputies, plus a number of railroad officers arrived and arrested 13 residents, everyone in the town, except one man who got away.

Under the post office, they found one of the best-stocked bars in Southern California. When Sheriff Ralphs saw Deputy Moreno wearing his badge, Ralphs ripped the star right off Morenos coat. According to the Daily Press, Sheriff Wilson said Blythe Junction was the worst mess he had ever dealt with as sheriff.

Those arrested were taken to San Bernardino. On April 1, they were brought to court and, all together, the residents of Blythe Junction were fined over $1,000. They thought about resisting prosecution on the grounds that Blythe Junction was in Riverside County but relented and asked to be sentenced.

Elsie Harris was one of the more colorful residents in custody. She tried to take her two pets with her to jail. One was a vicious-looking sidewinder snake and the other was what Sheriff Wilson described as a touchy scorpion.

As law enforcement was preparing the residents departure to San Bernardino, Harris produced two boxes containing her pets. She was in the process of transferring the venomous snake and poisonous arachnid to her handbag when Wilson told her she couldnt take them with her.

Harris began using some colorful language, and one of the deputies, riled by the situation, shot the snake, killing it. The scorpion was set free.

The survey of the county line was done in 1919. It determined that Blythe Junction was just over the border in San Bernardino County. Around the time of the new survey, Blythe Junction was renamed Rice for Guy R. Rice, chief engineer for the railroad.

The town is now abandoned and no longer has any businesses or residents.

If you have an idea for a future Back in the Day column, contact Steve Lech and Kim Jarrell Johnson at backinthedaype@gmail.com.
For the second time in four years, the Wildomar City Council has put off passing an incentive to attract small breweries to the community.

As in 2012, a proposed ordinance that would have made it easier for microbrewers to set up shop in town was opposed by people with concerns about environmental issues associated with the proposal, such as increased water use tied to an influx of new breweries.

I feel like if we go forward, were going to get sued, and as much as I would like to go forward, with the threat of a lawsuit we cant afford it, City Councilman Ben Benoit said Friday.

The proposed law would have allowed brewers who produce 15,000 barrels or less per year to establish their businesses without obtaining a conditional use permit, which can cost as much as $9,000.

After the draft ordinance received the Planning Commissions blessing in July, the City Council was poised to adopt the law Aug. 10. While the meeting was underway, the city received a letter outlining the objections along with nearly 400 pages of attachments.

Submitted by residents Martha Bridges, John Burkett and Gerard Ste. Marie, the letter states the ordinance would violate state Alcoholic Beverage Control restrictions. They also allege that it reached the council without adequate legal notice to property owners and requires an analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act because new breweries would increase water use during a prolonged drought.

Bridges also led the opposition during the councils consideration of a craft brewing exemption in 2012.

Given the opponents history of legal challenges in the city, council members perceived the submission as a precursor to a lawsuit and the majority voted to postpone action.

According to city officials, fiscal constraints brought on by the recession and a state budget maneuver have hamstrung the citys ability to defend itself from lawsuits.

Planning Director Matt Bassi said the city attorney is analyzing the allegations. No date has been set for the issue to return to the council.

We had no time to look at the letter or prepare a response to it, so (the council) tabled it to give us time to evaluate it in detail, Bassi said.

This most recent attempt at a microbrewery incentive was inspired by entrepreneurs asking about starting breweries in Wildomar.

The industry has become a trend in the region, with numerous such businesses opening in Temecula and Murrieta.

Theres been a lot of interest in the last (few) months, and thats why the council directed us to come back with an ordinance update, Bassi said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9690 or michaelwilliams@pressenterprise.com
As firefighters battle the Blue Cut fire in San Bernardino County, fire officials across the state are bracing for what is expected to be a busy fire season.

As they do every summer as fire season nears, fire agencies have been monitoring fire-prone areas, mainly the foothill and mountain regions, and working with property owners to get brush and dead or dying trees removed and to open up defensible space around properties.

And although it has been nearly 13 years since prolonged drought and a massive bark beetle infestation fueled the California fire siege of 2003, drought and bark beetles remain among the biggest threats.

The spate of 14 wildfires in 2003 included the Old fire, which burned across the San Bernardino Mountains for a week, scorching 91,281 acres, destroying more than 1,000 homes and other structures and killing six people.

We still have a bark beetle issue. Its not as bad as in 2003 when the Old fire hit, but theres still a problem, and its continuing to grow due to the drought and overgrowth in the mountains, said Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Tree mortality

Although more than a million dead or diseased pine trees have been cleared in the San Bernardino Mountains since 2002, it has not been enough to hold back the onslaught of bark beetles, insects the size of a grain of rice capable of taking out stands of towering pines.

Our mountain communities are dense with numerous trees. Our trees are fighting for the water, and when the trees do not have enough water, it allows bark beetles to bore into the center of the tree, and thats what kills it, Martinez said.

Statewide, drought and bark beetles kill 66 million pine trees, said Stephanie Gomes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Services regional office in Vallejo.

In the Sierra Nevada, bark beetles killed 16.8 million pine trees from October 2015 through May, and in the past five years they have killed 32.7 million pine trees, Gomes said, adding that the infestation epicenter is the Sierra, Sequoia and Stanislaus national forests.

Weve been working really hard to mitigate the tree mortality in areas near residents and campgrounds, as well as creating and maintaining fuel breaks, Gomes said.

Also, Forest Service crews have been clearing trees along roads, power lines and trailheads  any areas where fire poses the biggest danger to life and infrastructure, Gomes said.

We cant take every tree down, so what were doing is a triage approach, Gomes said.

Preventive measures

The San Bernardino County Fire Department has been working with county code enforcement and weed abatement to create fuel breaks and clear brush along evacuation routes in the San Bernardino Mountains, Martinez said.

But though firefighters are focusing mainly on the mountain and foothill communities of Southern California in their prevention efforts, the desert regions, as the Blue Cut fire in San Bernardino County illustrates, also are raising alarm.

The foothills and mountain communities are our No. 1 priority because they are more vulnerable, but as you can see, we cant leave our deserts out, Martinez said.

In Los Angeles County, firefighters have been monitoring the Palmdale and Lancaster areas in the Antelope Valley in addition to the foothill areas vulnerable to fire, said Richard Licon, a fire department inspector.

Those are the areas with light, flashy fuels. Those areas burn yearly, Licon said.

Every year, come summer, firefighters begin inspecting the most fire prone areas for dry brush that needs clearing. Notices are sent to homeowners who need to clear brush from their property.

Failure to comply can result in a fine, Licon said.

We know its very costly to do it or have someone come out and do it, but its a matter of protecting those individuals who live within our jurisdiction, he said.

Cal Fire/Riverside County has created a website, readyforwildfire.gov, that provides information on fire prevention and safety, including the proper way to clear brush and dead trees from property, creating defensible space and preparing emergency evacuation plans, said Josh Janssen, a battalion chief for the department.

Fire behavior

The recent wildfire outbreak in California has alarmed fire officials, so much so that a team of fire scientists has been dispatched to the Cedar fire in the Sequoia National Forest to monitor the fires behavior, Gomes said.

The purpose, Gomes said, is to see how differently the fire burns in an area with a large density of dead trees.

This is our first major fire in a heavy tree mortality area, Gomes said, adding that understanding how fire behaves in areas with a high tree mortality rate can better prepare firefighters to battle similar blazes in the future.

The Cedar fire started at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday above Lake Isabella and has burned roughly 9,500 acres. It was 6 percent contained later Friday.

The Blue Cut fire, which ignited Tuesday in the Cajon Pass and rapidly spread, has destroyed more than 100 homes and more than 200 other structures while burning more than 37,000 acres. It has left firefighters astonished by its rate of spread and also concerned about fire behavior in the face of the severe drought.

Weve never seen this kind of fire behavior, and were six weeks ahead of the drying out period, Martinez said, referring to the fall months of October and November, the peak of fire season. The fall is when the Santa Ana winds kick up and fuel the spread of wildfires. On the first day of the (Blue Cut) fire, the fire just spread so quickly and was burning so erratic. The firefighters would get ahead on one section, then the fire would spot 1 to 2 miles ahead and ignite, and the firefighters just couldnt get ahead of it. We had to take more precautions, thats for sure.

Youve got firefighters with 40 years experience who say they havent seen a fire burn like this, Janssen said.

Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said a large chunk of Southern California is above normal for potential wildfire danger.

We have these tinder dry conditions across the state due to drought, and it only takes one spark  whether its a vehicle that pulls over into grass, a campfire or lightning  that has the potential to create a fire that can grow very quickly and potentially do a lot of damage.

Contact the writer: jnelson@scng.com; @SBCountyNow on Twitter
A big sign of Thanks visible from Highway 138 hangs from John and Katherine Paiks West Cajon Valley home abutting a hillside.

Except for the first night of the Blue Cut fire, when they stayed with a nearby friend, the couple waited out the fire. The uncertainty of whether it had burned was too much to bear, they explained.

The young man who lives next door was like Hercules, John said, helping him carry buckets of water to extinguish hot spots until he decided to leave town.

Without his help this house would have burned, John said.

Johns nursing a bum right shoulder, but he still was a one-man bucket brigade, keeping an eye out for hotspots as they appeared in the corral areas he keeps in front of their home.

One thing he learned: Daytime you see the smoke, night time you see the flame, he said.

When asked why he decided not to evacuate, he said years ago he was a refugee, leaving North Korea for South Korea and he underwent hardship and saw cruelty.

That experience, along with age and wisdom, prepared him for the potential hardship.

Time is medicine, he said, shrugging his healthy and bum shoulders.

The fire came as close as some nearby Joshua trees, about 100-150 feet from his homes front. One night, firefighters camped out in his driveway. John served them coffee in the morning.

When firefighters jokingly asked wheres the Starbucks, John said, Im Starbucks Jr.

The firefighters were friendly and thoughtful, John said. They brought up a water tender when the Paiks water pressure dropped after being tapped for firefighting.

They even helped put up the very sign thanking them for their service. John said they didnt want to risk him falling off a ladder.
75th anniversary Fred and Ruth Waugh

Fred and Ruth Waugh of Riverside celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, Aug. 17. Both turned 94 this summer.

The couple were citrus growers in Riverside for over thirty years. In addition, Fred is a WWII veteran, having been a member of the Army Transport Service.

50th anniversary Reyes and Barbara Rivera

Reyes and Barbara Rivera of Riverside celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a party this summer at the Mission Inn. The two were married June 4, 1966 at St. Anthony Church in Riverside. They have two children, Raymond Rivera and Carmen Rivera Garcia, both of Riverside, and four grandchildren.

Reyes and Barbara are Riverside natives.

Reyes worked in maintenance for the state for 27 years and California Baptist University for 10 years. Barbara was a hair dresser for 45 years and worked in real estate, as well.

Now retired, the two enjoy traveling by RV and are active at St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church.

Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the name of San Jacintos city manager. He is Tim Hults.

Several Riverside County cities are hoping to cut through the election season noise and convince residents to support tax increases to pay for police, fire and other key services.

Voters in seven Inland cities will see local tax increases on the Nov. 8 ballot, though two of the measures would tax marijuana and thus hinge on the success of a statewide pot legalization initiative.

Four cities  Hemet, Menifee, Riverside and Temecula  will ask voters to increase the local sales tax by 1 percentage point or 1 cent, from 8 percent to 9 percent. Two others, Moreno Valley and San Jacinto, propose raising hotel room taxes, and San Jacinto and San Bernardino have pot taxes on the ballot.

The local measures reflect a broader trend of putting tax issues to a vote in even-year general elections, said Michael Coleman, fiscal policy adviser to the League of California Cities. Statewide, about 240 local tax issues will appear on ballots this fall, he said. About half are school bonds.

The general election vote is attractive partly because of the larger turnout, Coleman said, but how local issues fare depends a lot on the local politics.

THE NEED

Officials in the four cities asking for sales tax increases say theyre facing deficits, largely because of rising costs for police and fire service.

In Temecula, (the City Councils) history has been very anti-tax, Councilman Jeff Comerchero said, but, when drafting the 2016-17 budget, they realized they could face a shortfall next year.

The last thing you want to do as a city is look up and say, I have no money today. What do I have to cut? he said.

Riverside officials also say they face a structural deficit, which means expenses are rising faster than revenue, and some are costs they cant cut, such as pension contributions.

The fiscal problems the city faces are not going to go away, City Manager John Russo told the council earlier this month. We would not have brought this forward  if we did not think it was absolutely necessary.

WHO PAYS?

So why increase sales taxes? For one thing, theyre typically among cities biggest sources of revenue and a one-cent increase could bring in millions of dollars per year.

Menifee projects an additional $6.2 million annually for city operations if voters approve the increase. Hemet anticipates $10 million more, Temecula would get another $23 million, and Riverside estimates $48 million per year in additional sales tax revenue.

While critics argue that sales taxes have a bigger impact on poor residents, supporters say that because all consumers pay them, theyre more fair than taxes that target one group, as a property tax does.

Menifee officials considered a property tax, utility user tax and special taxing area called a community facilities district, Councilman Matt Liesemeyer said. They settled on a sales tax because it gets people who visit the city and use its roads and other resources to help pay for them, he said, adding, Only taxing the residents of our city is not fair.

In Temecula, a consultants analysis estimated about half of sales tax dollars the city collects are paid by people who live elsewhere, Comerchero said.

WHATS IT FOR?

In Riverside, one common question has been how the city would use the money. Facebook user Brandy Marhefka wrote, The only way I would ever agree (to the increase) is if they show a specific line by line list of what the money would be used for.

But because all four sales tax proposals are general taxes, the cities cant dictate where the money would go beyond naming broad categories or potential examples. Coleman, the policy adviser, said general taxes are substantially easier to pass, because under California law they need support only from a simple majority.

If officials spell out what the money is for  say, hiring police or adding recreation programs  its considered a special tax and requires two-thirds support to pass.

Hemet has seen that special taxes can be a tough sell, even to benefit public safety, which is popular with voters. More than 63 percent of ballots in June favored a sales tax measure for police and fire service, but it was still 600 votes short of the two-thirds threshold.

With Hemets second try, this time as a general tax, our community is even more energized and will likely pass the November measure, Mayor Bonnie Wright wrote in an email.

In San Jacinto and Moreno Valley, where hotel tax hikes are on the ballot, officials also point to rising public safety costs as an ongoing concern, though the ballot measures would provide only a small budget boost.

They say their current tax rate on hotel rooms, 8 percent in both cities, is much lower than their neighbors. San Jacintos initiative would set the hotel tax at 12 percent and bring in about $20,000 a year, while Moreno Valleys proposal would raise the rate to 13 percent and net the city another $650,000 annually.

Taxes on marijuana businesses and products, which are proposed in San Jacinto and San Bernardino, are more of a preemptive strike and would take effect only if California voters decide to legalize recreational pot.

CRITICS CONCERNS

While some residents and community groups say their cities need the money, the sales tax measures have plenty of skeptics. Live within your means is a common refrain at council meetings and in online comments.

Hemet resident Eric Buskirk, who publishes a local newspaper, said the city needs to cut expenses rather than raise taxes. He points to San Jacinto, where voters rejected utility-user tax proposals in 2014 and 2015, but the city has since managed to balance its budget.

If the money is not there, they cant spend it, he said.

City officials say theyve already trimmed where they can. Riverside cut $10.5 million out of this years budget, and San Jacinto City Manager Tim Hults said that although some closed facilities have reopened, 17 city jobs that were cut earlier remain vacant.

Menifees Liesemeyer noted that the city has struggled since the state took away vehicle license fees that totaled about $20 million over a five-year period.

Some business owners also worry about the effect of a tax hike. Shadi Sayes, who owns a Riverside camera store, said his customers come from around Southern California to buy high-end equipment that can cost up to $70,000, so raising the sales tax could drive them to buy elsewhere.

We have probably one of the lower (rates) in the surrounding area, he said. I came here because of that break.

But experts say a small tax increase may not have a major effect on shoppers behavior.

People may generally think theyd go out of their way for a lower price, but they dont always consider the extra hassle and cost in time and gasoline  that it will take them to actually go somewhere else to buy it, said Rami Zwick, senior associate dean at the UC Riverside School of Business Administration.

BALLOT FATIGUE?

The November ballot will be crowded, with the presidential contest and 17 statewide measures above any local issues and races. But Coleman said if the campaign for a local measure is effective, voters will recognize it on the ballot and may even be looking for it.

To pass sales tax increases, cities will have to convince residents they need the money and will spend it wisely on things the community wants.

As Temeculas Comerchero puts it, nobody wants to see the city slide into mediocrity by lowering residents expectations of a safe and well-maintained city.

Can you live in a crappy place? Sure you can. Do you want to? No, and thats what we were facing, he said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9461 or arobinson@scng.com
Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Charles Kwame Asare has commended government for reducing aviation fuel by 20 percent.



Government in consultation with the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) reduced the aviation fuel following industry players complaints that Ghanas aviation fuel was very expensive in the sub-region.



Speaking at the inauguration of the first phase of the upgrade and expansion of the Tamale Airport, the GACL Boss described the reduction as a major boost to the aviation industry.



The inaugural ceremony coincided with the witnessing of the first direct commercial flight from the Tamale International Airport to the Holy City of Mecca.



Charles Kwame Asare also showed appreciation for governments intervention which according to him made it possible for the GACL to retain the 100 percent Airport Passenger Service Tax.



This has allowed the GACL to confidently venture onto the capital market to raise funding for the improvement of infrastructural facilities at the various airports.



He said the rapid transformation of the nations airports has repositioned Ghana as a favored investment destination.



We believe that with the continuous support of government, we will be able to achieve your Excellencys vision of positioning Ghana as the preferred aviation hub and a leader in Airport Business in West Africa.



He stressed, The Board, management, staff and stakeholders in the aviation sector are committed to achieving this vision within the shortest possible time.



Charles Kwame Asare assured President John Dramani Mahama saying, We wish to assure you Mr. President that we would continue to work hard to keep our airport safe and secured and strive to improve our facilities and services to give the travelling public and airport users pleasant airport experience.



He eulogized the late project Manager of Querios Galvao, Mr. Reuben Caudio de Oliveira Neto under whose supervision the Brazilian company upgraded the first phase of the Tamale Airport to meet international standard.

Source: Citifmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghanas High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Victor Smith has dismissed claims that he has left his office in London for political activities in Ghana.



According to him, he had been in Ghana over the past few days because he was on his annual leave.



Speaking to Starrfmonline.com Saturday, the former Eastern regional minister said reports that his absence affected work in his London office are baseless and untrue.



I was in Ghana because I was on leave, and as an ambassador, I am entitled to it just like every other worker. And the claim that my absence affected work here is unfounded because I have a deputy who takes over anytime I am away, so everything is on course here. As we speak, I am back in London and back to my responsibilities, Mr Smith said from his base in London.



Earlier reports had suggested that the Abuakwa North NDC candidate had left his office for many days for campaign activities in his constituency.

Source: starrfmonline.com









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It has emerged that controversial Pastor, Bishop Daniel Obinim who has been sued by renowned human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu, for publicly flogging his amorous adopted son and daughter has hidden himself, making it difficult for him to be served court summons.



Lawyer Sosu on Friday filed a suit against the eccentric man of God, saying he was convinced that the Obinim had violated the dignity of his adopted children and also dehumanized and degraded them, an act he believes is in contravention of Article 15 (1) and 15 (2) respectively of the 1992 constitution.



The controversial pastor ignited public outrage after he was seen in a video flogging the pregnant girl and her boyfriend. Infuriated by the couples lustful actions which resulted in a pregnancy, Bishop Obinim beat the youngman on his bare back with his belt before turning to the girl flogging her mercilessly in the full glare of his congregation.



During the beating session, Obinim is heard questioning the jobless youngman why he got the girl pregnant when he has no finances for her upkeep and the upbringing of the unborn child. The girl who was unable to stand the flogging attempts to escape, but she was held by a right-hand man of the Bishop to enable the bishop to subject her to more beatings.



After that, Obinim instructed his junior pastors to remove their belts and subject the couple to more flogging.



Lawyer Sosu in an earlier interview with Kasapa News said he wants the maverick pastor to answer questions in court for infringing on the human rights of the couple.



We want the court to make a declaration that the conduct of Obinim in flogging his church members in the open violates their dignity, again that conduct amounts to a dehumanizing and degrading treatment, and also praying the court that Obinims conduct violates Ghanas obligation under the UN convention on the Civil and Political rights of people. After that well further pray the court that it restrains Obinim and his church from further violating the rights of Ghanaians in that manner because there are several documentations to the fact that Obinim has violated the rights of some of his church members in the past including stepping on a pregnant women ostensibly healing her.



But Lawyer Sosu has disclosed that although Bishop Obinims church has been served, he (Obinim) has not availed himself to be served legally.



Obinim has been evading service since Friday, however his church the International Gods Way Church has been served. Im hopeful that by early next week hell be served for the case to begin in court.



Meanwhile the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has filed the report at the Accra Regional Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) Office for investigations to be conducted into the incident.



We have been informed; that the Police have commenced investigations into the matter and a complaint has also been filed against him at the Tema Regional Police. We will keep you posted on further developments, Nana Oye-Lithur wrote Thursday.



Also, Amnesty International Ghana has called for an immediate arrest of the Founder and General Overseer of the International Gods Way Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim.







Source: kasapafmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Persol Systems, the only fully owned-Ghanaian IT firm among five shortlisted companies hoping to electronically transmit election results in the December 7 polls, has been dropped at the last hour by the Electoral Commission (EC).



The countrys election management body on Wednesday commenced at its headquarters, the process for the proposed Electronic Results Transmission System (ERTS) ahead the 2016 general election without the Ghanaian company.



Information gathered by ghelections.com, indicates that Persol Systems, Scytl and Smartmatic were the final three companies shortlisted to demonstrate their capabilities to electronically transmit collation center results in the December 7 polls.



But todays exercise took off with only two foreign companies, Scytl and Smartmatic, making presentations to ECs tender committee, political parties and civil society groups in attendance. One of the two selected foreign companies is allegedly being fronted by a Ghanaian who is associated with those controlling the levers of powers.



The demonstration exercise, according to ghelections.coms sources, will end on Friday August 12, 2016, with the winner of the bid expected to sign a contract with the EC on the e-transmission of election results on Monday August 15, 2016.



Controversy over e-transmission of results



The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had kicked against the electronic mode of transmission of the election results.



NPP contended that the e-transmission of results should not be adopted in Ghana because the process had failed some countries including Kenya, Ecuador and Mexico.



According to the partys 2016 Campaign Manager, Peter Mac Manu, the e-transmission process fails to address the critical challenges that the election reform process seeks to overcome.



He further argued that there is no law which gives the EC the power to electronically transfer results. The E-transmission of results does not in any way control the abuse of the electoral process. It does not address foreign ballots and it is an after the fact process.



If there are only 800 voters on the register how will the system prevent transmission of results cast in excess of that number? If the EC was really serious about transmission of results, it should have backed that with legislation. No constitutional instrument supports this radical shift. There is no law which gives EC the mandate to electronically transmit results. Nothing in the law before Parliament makes mention of it.



EC, NDC disagree with NPP



But the EC and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), have rejected NPPs claim, stating that the decision to use the ERTS for the 2016 elections was endorsed by the main opposition party.



Supporting ECs position, the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia at a news conference on Wednesday August 3, said the NPP was fully aware of the decision to transmit the results electronically, because the decision came up at an IPAC meeting.

Source: citifmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, brought commercial activities and vehicular movement to a complete halt in the Central Business District of Accra on Thursday when he visited the Klottey Korle Constituency.



With news filtering into the CMB and Tudu areas about his arrival, Nana Akufo-Addo was met by thousands of market women, business owners, drivers and others who lined the principal streets of Accra to catch a glimpse of the NPP leader.



There were unprecedented scenes in Accra amidst chants of Nana oo Nana! Yresesamu, Afe yi y wafe.



Market women and other business owners abandoned their activities while commercial drivers parked their vehicles to listen to Nana Akufo-Addos message of hope ahead of this years elections.



As the news spread across the capital, thousands of people rushed towards CMB and Tudu from Makola and its environs to hail the arrival of the NPP presidential candidate and his team.



In the company of the partys parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Philip Addison, as well as regional and national party stalwarts, Nana Akufo-Addo addressed separate gatherings at CMB and Tudu.



Nana Akufo-Addo expressed disquiet about the fact that Ghanaians have become too miserable under the leadership of President Mahama.



It is inexplicable that Ghana, a nation blessed with an abundance of human and natural resources, is drenched in poverty, leading many to lose hope in the ability of the country to offer them a decent standard of living, he said.



In spite of this, he urged the thousands gathered to have hope in the fact that a government is on its way, God-willing, from 2017 which will bring development, progress and prosperity to every corner of the country without discrimination.



As is stipulated by law, the time has come, this year, for us to vote and decide who leads us. Let us use the power of our thumbs to change Ghana and bring in a government that can change our circumstances and bring relief, progress and prosperity to all, he entreated.



Addison



With the NPP aiming at securing a decisive majority in the presidential poll, as well as securing the majority of parliamentary seats, Nana Akufo-Addo appealed to NPP members not to entertain any thought of voting skirt and blouse, either in the presidential or parliamentary election.



He, therefore, urged all NPP supporters in Klottey Korle to rally behind the partys parliamentary candidate  Philip Addison  recounting his own experience in 1998 when he fully supported then candidate John Agyekum Kufuor to enable the NPP win the 2000 elections.



A true NPP member always accepts the decision of the partys Electoral College. When its your turn, the party will reward you. That is why I am also here today as flagbearer of the NPP. So those trumpeting skirt and blouse should stop, and rather help Philip Addison and push him to parliament, he appealed.



He continued, This is a gentleman who is well-known in every part of Ghana. We all saw his heroics during the election petition. As an advocate in parliament, you can be sure that the concerns of Klottey Korle will be well-articulated before parliament. The NPPs candidate for Klottey Korle is Philip Addison. We have no other candidate.



Nana Akufo-Addo was also at the Okaikoi North Constituency yesterday.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) appears to be making serious incursions with their campaign in the rural areas.



With barely four months to go to this years general elections, some members of the party have left the comfort of Accra to campaign in mostly villages.



Leading the charge is The Loyal Ladies group of the NPP which have intensified their efforts to help unseat the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.



The volunteer group which is under the partys youth wing is made of up young health workers, lawyers, graduates, teachers and a host of other professionals, have since vowed to unseat the Mahama-administration with the belief that does not have the interest of Ghanaians at heart.

They are currently spread in villages across all 10 regions of Ghana campaigning for change.



We can't sit in the comfort of Accra and think power is going to come on a silver platter; that is why we have decided to leave our comfort zones to the villages to preach the message of change to the people, a leader of one of The Loyal Ladies groups told adomonline.



For days, the ladies, clothed in NPP t-shirts and other paraphernalia, were spotted in some typical villages in Central, Eastern and Western regions.



Farms, cottages, drinking spots, market centres, chop bars, draught joints, prayer camps, amongst other local places, were all stormed by the ladies.

Asked what motivated them to leave their homes to sleep in trenches to campaign for the NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo, another member of the group said "it has become too hard to live in this country, even qualified nurses are unemployed, fuel prices increase everyday, too much borrowing by government but unmatched developments, power outages, high duty costs and unemployment. Life has become too difficult as young ladies. The NDC must go.

She said they would continue their campaign activities in the villages until they see the back of incumbent President John Dramani Mahama and his NDC administration. Sometime in July this year, the Loyal Ladies group undertook a massive fundraising exercise by washing cars at a bay in Madina to support the NPPs National Youth Wing.

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.

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An Australian woman in Bali is facing multiple charges, including second degree murder, following the alleged bashing death of a police officer on Kuta Beach earlier this week.

In addition to the murder charge, Sara Connor, a mother of two from Byron Bay, faces charges of manslaughter committed by more than one person, and/or assault leading to death. If convicted, she faces more than 30 years in prison.

Connor and her British boyfriend, DJ and music producer David Taylor, had both previously been questioned in relation to the death of officer Wayan Sudrasa, who was found dead on the beach at 3.30am on August 17.

The couple were taken to a police hospital for physical examination, and wounds were found on Taylors hands, but he told officers these were related to an old injury, and not to the alleged murder.

Lawyer Erwan Siregar says that Connor arrived in Bali on August 16, and that night, drank a couple of beers at dinner with Taylor, before accompanying him to the beach, where they continued drinking and kissing into the early hours.

Siregar refused to be drawn into questions about whether his client may have acted in self-defence, saying they were yet to go into details of the case. Conner, however, vehemently denies taking drugs on the night in question.

She is tired. She is sad, she is stressed. (Under the circumstances) that is normal, Siregar said about Connors current condition. Of course she misses her sons, she misses her family.

Connor is the founder of Byron Bay Fresh Pasta, and the local community have rallied around her, with friends and colleagues releasing a statement saying the arrest is totally out of character for this beautiful person.

A cremation ceremony for the slain officer will be held today.

Source: Fairfax.

Photo: Barcroft Media / Getty.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Police say a woman who missed the last bus for the night is accused of stealing an ambulance to get home from a hospital in Ohio.

Court documents filed in Hamilton Municipal Court in Cincinnati say 43-year-old Lisa Carr is accused of getting into an ambulance that a driver had left running Thursday night and driving to her home in suburban Cincinnati. The driver apparently had left the ambulance to go inside the hospital with a patient.

Police say the Springfield Township woman was arrested after a short pursuit. They say she told them she took the ambulance because she had missed her bus home.

Carr is charged with theft, failure to comply with a police order and driving under suspension. Court records don't show an attorney for her.
Crashes that slowed traffic across the midstate have been cleared, including crashes that close part of Interstate 83 in both directions.

One crash closed southbound lanes of I-83 in Newberry Township between Exits 24 and 32 for about two hours. Northbound traffic, which was also disrupted by a crash near mile marker 30, is also flowing after the second crash was cleared.

On Route 22, a crash closed part of the highway near the Route 11/15 exit and the exit to Route 147. That crash was also cleared shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday.

For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources.

Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here.

Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.
Logan Hess of York wants to be the person you can call and rely on at 2 a.m. when you hear a noise in your basement.

"I want to serve people - it's not all about gun fights and car chases," said Hess, 22, who was one of about 145 who showed up for the Cumberland County Police Consortium's agility and written tests this weekend at Cumberland Valley High School. Similar testing is offered by state police and other counties on various dates throughout the year.

"My whole life, I can't imagine doing anything else," said Hess, who has also taken the state police and York County tests.

With a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, he said he would bring a different perspective to law enforcement than the military background that many officers have.

"Knowing the other side - the laws, the ethics, the code of conduct and morals" will benefit him in both training and on the street, he believes.

While he believes the police image has suffered nationwide recently, Hess said, "I'm not turning back now. There's only room to improve."

Some of the candidates, like Heather Schaeffer of York County, are already working in law enforcement and are taking tests in multiple counties.

Schaeffer, 23, is a police officer at Franklin and Marshall College, and her goal is to be a Lancaster city officer. "I enjoy city policing - the city environment," Schaeffer said, adding she will be taking the Lancaster County test in three weeks, and also the next state police test.

Schaeffer said she fell in love with the job as an intern while at York College, where she majored in criminal justice with a minor in criminalistics and legal studies at York College.

"I love being out there helping people, not sitting behind a desk - it not your regular 9 to 5 job," she said. "It gives you a sense you're actually helping society, helps the community."

Schaeffer said she believes a "few bad eggs" have hurt the police image, but that "those of us out there doing the right thing" will correct that.

She said policing isn't a career that many women are interested in. "It is a male environment, which discourages a lot of women. It's not a job for everyone. You have to have the right mentality to do this. You need to be able to see the things we see, and be able to talk to people the right way."

Varlee Keita, 23, of Hagerstown, Md., has been a corrections officer for the past year at Franklin County prison and serves in the Army reserves.

"I can protect and serve - I'm in the military, so it's a natural," he said. He comes from a military background - his dad was formerly a police chief in Liberia in Africa.

Keita said he completed the police academy in Hagerstown, and has been applying to many departments. "I'm going to keep on until I get it," he said of a police job.

His skills include investigation skills, attention to detail and being able to "make people follow the rules, even though they don't want to."

Regarding police conflicts that have been reported in communities around the country, Keita said, "We need to all get along. Don't fight the police. If you fight the police, bad things happen."

Josh Robbins, 27, of New Cumberland, had already completed has his Act 120 police training at HACC before recent police-involved shootings began making the news.

"That hasn't changed my mind at all," he said, of wanting to become a police officer. "In today's day and age it's not the easiest thing to do, but it would be a good challenge," said Robbins, who has a degree from Slippery Rock University in professional studies with an emphasis on criminal studies.

He believes departments need to emphasize community policing to help promote a positive image of law enforcement. "Getting out in the public, and making sure they know who you are" will help accomplish that, he believes.

Dan Hagen, 36, of Perry County, is a mail carrier who wants to be a cop.

"I want to have a positive impact. There's a lot of negative impact in the world today, and I know I have the mind set and right intentions," said Hagen, who also took the York County police test.

He said he has compassion, is observant, has the ability to relate to many groups of people, is a good mediator and can earn peoples' trust. "It's a minority within the group that gives a group a bad name," he said of negative events involving law enforcement.

Hagen also believes the media is "fanning the flames" regarding law enforcement conflicts. "People need to critique them and think for themselves," Hagen said.

Raffaele Kissoon of Chambersburg went to a military academy but ended up not being able to join the military.

"This is the best way to serve my area and serve the public. So I'm very excited to get into this," said Kissoon, 32.

"I know what kind of person I am and what police actually stand for," Kissoon said. He said it's "disheartening" to see that "a few bad eggs" do make the news, rather than the good police do.

A Mechanicsburg mother of five said she's been practicing for the agility test for a month-and-a-half. Jennifer McGuire, 34, said she wants to work in law enforcement "to protect and to serve my community."

"I always wanted to be an officer. I have family members who are officers. I just like the job," said McGuire, who works part-time at Home Depot, and is working toward a criminal justice degree.

Frankie Gordon, 25, of Fannettsburg said becoming a cop has been "my life-long dream. I'm applying anywhere and everywhere I can. I'm not going to give up."

"It a respected position, it's a career you can make something out of," he said.

Regarding what's happening around the country, he said, "You worry - you think about it. But as long as you follow the rules, the guidelines, I think it will be OK."

After having two children and regaining her fitness, Kerri Martin, 23, of Dillsburg, wants to give police work a try.

"I wondered what it would be like if I can be on their side, looking through their eyes," she said of police. "I'm just coming today to see if I can pass," Martin said, and "join police officers and help give them a good name."

"I just want to keep everyone safe," said Martin, who has completed college coursework in humanities and Spanish.

Keenen Gordy, 25, of Hershey, is a paralegal trying to enter police work. He said he passed two police exams in New Jersey, but hasn't been hired. He's also taken Derry Township's test.

"I feel I need to have that duty to serve and protect our country and our state," Gordy said.

Regarding police events in the news, he said, "I'm a morally stable person and I respect what's going on in the community and the country, but it doesn't deter me from joining the police department."

Joe Benish, 24, of Carlisle, didn't pass the agility test Sunday, but said he's determined to try again next year. He said he wasn't prepared for the physical challenges, due to his schedule.

"I want to be able to serve and protect my community, and the police field runs in my family," he said. While he said there are some people who don't like police, "I want to do the greater good for any department I work for."

Out of 201 who signed up, about 145 showed up for five sessions of testing offered by the Cumberland County Police Testing Consortium, which serves 17 municipalities.

At least half a dozen failed the agility portion and did not go on to the written test. There were about 56 no-shows, organizers said.

Camp Hill Police Chief Doug Hockenberry, who is president of the Cumberland County Police Chiefs Association, said in advance that he couldn't say how many minority candidates of other races were signed up.

At two of the sessions, there were fewer than a handful. There were also a total of about a dozen women who took the test.

Scores from the written test will be distributed in about a week.

The number of openings varies by department, and Hockenberry said he didn't have a figure, but added that usually double digits are hired.

Departments may have vacancies, but only receive approval to hire at the end of the year, when budgets are completed.
Protestors demanding justice for a 20-year-old man shot by police Aug. 7 marched two miles from his uptown Harrisburg neighborhood to city hall Saturday afternoon.

Kim Thomas

Shouting "Black lives matter. Shaleek Moss matters," the peaceful march attracted about 25 participants, including Kim Thomas, mother of Earl Shaleek Pinckney, the victim of the shooting.

Kim Thomas carried a lime green poster she made in her son's memory, and she and others wore pink T-shirts with the word "Power," which stood for "Peace Over War Equals Restoration."

This Stops Today Harrisburg organized the event in the aftermath of the Aug. 7 shooting of Pinckney at his mother's home in the 2300 block of Green Street.

Thomas disputes the police account that Shaleek was holding a knife at her throat the night he was shot.

"He did not hold a knife at my neck - they're lying," she said, saying the knife was in his pocket.

Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico has said Pinckney was found holding a knife at the throat of his mother, and that after he failed to comply with an order to drop it, an officer fired a single shot, killing Pinckney.

"The only thing I want is justice. It's not over. Harrisburg needs to stop being scared," Thomas said. "After Shaleek, there's going to be another one."

"All the good ones, leave out the bad ones and we'll be all right," Thomas said, referring to police. "We'll be a strong community. This didn't have to happen to my son."

She said Shaleek was diagnosed as bipolar. She said he had had a Protection From Abuse order against him, but that he served three months in prison.

Court records show Thomas received an emergency protection from abuse order against her son in December, but did not appear at two subsequent hearings to extend the order. Emergency orders are intended to remain in effect only until a hearing can be held on whether to issue a temporary PFA.

He had a diploma and certificates, got a job and was turning his life around, and loved his 18-month-old daughter, she said.

The group chanted "Off the sidewalks, into the streets. We don't get down with racist police," passing Thomas' home.

They marched down Green and Third streets downtown, turning onto Walnut near the city police department and stopping at the City Government Center. Marchers only walked between traffic when they got to Second Street, where police had stopped traffic.

Desi Warren, who watched the march outside a business on Third Street, said "Police are shooting at people, people are shooting at police. It's getting to the point where it needs to stop."

Warren, who said he's from Philadelphia, added, "I'm from Philly - you expect that from a place like Philly, New York, but not here."

Past the Capitol, organizers announced they had a legal observer now watching the march, out of concern for their First Amendment rights.

Attorney Delores Ritzman said she was called to watch whether police were funneling their march and possibly infringing on their rights. Police were following the march on parallel alleys and stopping traffic on cross streets along the way.

They shouted "No justice, no peace. No more racist police" and "Hands up, don't shoot," as they headed to City Government Center, where Kim Thomas spoke to the crowd.

"I'm dying, but I'm standing strong," she said. "No, I'm not at peace. But I will be at peace, because justice will be revealed."

The march turned around at Second and Market streets, where police vehicles blocked them from crossing Market. After a few more minutes of chanting, the marchers turned around and headed back uptown.

Robert King, Shaleek's uncle, said there are good police officers, but he also believes there are some bad ones. "We need to get them bad ones out. They are definitely here," he said.

"The most important thing we want is justice," King said. "Justice is for them people wearing the uniforms, that's doing negativity, that we should be trusting and having our faith in, punish them same as the ones without uniforms. And it's not happening."

"We definitely never thought it would happen here, and we're standing here. This man lost a good son," he said, referring to Earl Pinckney, who was standing beside him.

This Stops Today Harrisburg is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the shooting. It also asks that special state prosecutors be appointed in the case of prosecution of any Harrisburg police officers.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up to raise funds for Pinckney's funeral expenses and the family's legal campaign.

His funeral services will be Monday at Goodwin Memorial Baptist Church, 2447 Green St. Viewing is at 9 a.m., and services at 11 a.m.
Ronald Bettig.jpg

This undated photo provided by Penn State shows professor Ronald Bettig. A woman has been charged along with a man in the death of Bettig, who police say was pushed off a cliff at a quarry and fell 80 feet. (Penn State via AP)

A second person has been charged in connection with the death of a Penn State professor.

Danielle R. Geier, 32, of Lemont, is now facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence in the death of 56-year-old Ronald Bettig, the Center Daily Times is reporting.

She joins George G. Ishler Jr., 39, of Pennsylvania Furnace, who was already charged in connection with the death of the professor, who had been reported missing Aug. 13 and was found dead in a quarry.

State police say Ishler drove Bettig to the Blackhawk Quarry in Potter Township under a ruse and pushed him off of the 80-foot ledge.

Ishler and Geier, who were friends with Bettig, believed they were in his will and would benefit financially from his death, the Centre Daily Times is reporting.

The two initially planned to drown him in the ocean in Delaware the day before pushing him off of the cliff, the paper is reporting.

Bettig joined the College of Communications in 1988 and was an associate professor of media studies, according to the university.
CLINTON TRUMP ART.jpg

By Christine Flowers

On the whole, I'm an imperfect Catholic, but there is one particular area of my Christian identity in which I excel: guilt.

Christine M. Flowers (PennLive file)

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my father, who wasn't the sort of person to wallow in guilt, although I'm quite certain he was well acquainted with this shadow friend.

He just didn't talk much about it. Instead, he internalized his feelings and manifested whatever penance he thought he owed through action.



My father risked his life to make sure other Americans not as blessed as he was could vote.

In could have spent the summer of 1967 he went to Mississippi one year before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and three years after young civil-rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.

Voting meant that much to him.





It means that much to me, because of him. I never walked across my own Edmund Pettis bridge, and I never had to fight to get to a polling place.

No one ever tried to deprive me of my birthright, which, had I been born in 1861 and not 1961, would have been unthinkable.

In this country, voting is the most precious incident of citizenship, and when I see how my immigration clients fight to earn it for themselves, I wonder how anyone could ever take it lightly.



But then, this year happened.

I was presented with the most mediocre candidates this country could extract from its bowels, a man and a woman who reflect the basest and most troubling aspects of our identity.

The man wants to use false labels to turn foreigners into criminals and terrorists, while the woman lies and says that abortion is "health care."

The man ridicules war heroes, and the woman calls Republicans and other political opponents "terrorists." I could go on, and I have in other columns, where I've lamented the putrid quality of the candidates, but I don't really have the stomach.



It has gotten to the point that I've said I will not vote for either of the horror shows presented for daily inspection. That has elicited the usual partisan flame-throwing from both sides, and I now expect that no one will be happy with whatever I say about anything, anytime, anyhow.



But that's not the point. I don't really care what other people think about my "non-choice." I care about what I'm doing if I don't vote.

I think back on my father, who is likely looking down upon me with a bemused Irish smile, and saying, "Christine, I'll kick your freckled ass if you mess this up." My mother is probably sitting beside him saying "Ted, leave her alone."



The truth is, I feel guilty at the thought that I won't be able to vote for president this year.

I feel ashamed that I would voluntarily relinquish the gift for which my father fought to give to others less privileged than a white suburban college-educated professional who never had to fight to get to a polling place.

My Catholic guilt is engaged as I think about people who marched through the streets of Cairo and Tehran and Baghdad, courageously saying, "We are here." And I think of my father in Hattiesburg, telling those little, white children with the dirty mouths, "I am here."



So, I'm voting this year. Not for him, and not for her. Both are so soiled and damaged as candidates that billions of Hail Marys would not wipe the stain from my soul if I supported either one. But I am voting, for an as-yet undetermined person whose name will be written in that space left open for me by my father, and those who went before.



And, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee by even considering staying home.



Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Her work appears on Sundays on PennLive. Readers may email her at cflowers1961@gmail.com.


A man mourns over a graveyard as people attend funeral services for dozens of people killed in last night's bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing. Turkish authorities have put a temporary ban on distribution of images relating to Saturday's Gaziantep attack within Turkey. (AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)
Earlier this month, health officials confirmed what they had hoped to never see again in Nigeria: two cases of wild poliovirus.

The country had been polio-free for two years. These cases were in a region where raids by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram and battles with the Nigerian army have made it difficult to vaccinate children, many of whom have been forced from their homes. In recent years, polio workers have been targeted by rebels. Nine were killed in Nigeria in 2013. Earlier this year, seven police officers guarding polio workers in Pakistan and three workers in Afghanistan were killed.

John Germ calls polio "a wicked disease" because it attacks the most vulnerable: children under the age of 5, mostly. They can be crippled by it.

Germ, of Tennessee, is the president of Rotary International, which for 31 years has worked to eradicate polio from the world. The term "wild poliovirus" is used to differentiate it from the rare cases of infection from the live virus that is used in polio vaccines.

Germ came to the Philadelphia area last week to speak about polio and to participate in a Rotary fund-raising event at Tuesday's Phillies game, where he threw out the first pitch.

Let's talk about Nigeria.

The two cases were found in the northern state of Borno, an area that was controlled by rebels, also an area that is very difficult to get to. This virus was traced to a 2011 virus, likely dormant in the sewage there for years. Any time you have a setback like this, obviously it's a disappointment.

It truly does show that until every case of poliovirus is wiped out, it can rear its ugly head. It has re-energized the Rotarians and the government, along with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further reach out and do what is called a mop-up campaign. Volunteers will deliver the oral polio vaccine to all the children in that surrounding area. We're still working on the plans.

For 31 years, Rotary has worked to end polio. Why this disease, in particular?

In 1979, a man by the name of Sir Clem Renouf was president of Rotary International. He had read in Time magazine that smallpox had been eradicated. He thought, gosh, wouldn't it be great if something like this could happen with Rotary leading the charge. Up until that time, Rotary had only been involved in community projects.

It turned out there was a virus that could be eradicated because there was a vaccine. It was something that could be administered by volunteers because it was an oral vaccine; you didn't need a shot. And it was fairly inexpensive. It was polio.

Rotary took on the task of doing a project for $760,000 to vaccinate six million children in the Philippines. After three years, polio in the Philippines was gone. So then Rotary took it on to eradicate polio around the world. They were joined by the World Health Alliance, which consisted of a lot of the countries of the world, plus WHO, UNICEF, the CDC. In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined us in that fight.

I was recently in Dallas, Texas, and I went to visit an individual who was a Rotarian, a major donor to the Rotary Foundation, a lawyer, and he lives in an iron lung. It's hard to imagine that in today's world, there are still people that were afflicted with this disease in the '50s or so that are now still living in iron lungs because of that. The U.S. has been polio-free since 1979. But here's this individual and his main concern was the collars that help seal around the neck for this machine, and whether or not the pump might fail.

What are some of the biggest milestones?

One of the biggest moments was in 2014, when India was certified by WHO as being polio-free. Here's a country that is so large, and there were areas that were having 500,000 births a month. It brought the world's attention to the fact that, yes, polio can be eradicated from a massive country like India. A lot of people believed that when India became polio-free the world would be polio-free.

What is the current status of polio, worldwide?

Pakistan has 13 cases. Their last was in June. Afghanistan has six cases. Their last was in May. So, hopefully, we are winning this battle. We're continuing to work, and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan are working hard, along with the military, to get to some of those isolated villages and villages that are war-torn or in the control of rebel groups. We think we're making great progress. But even after the last case, it takes three years before a country would be eligible to be declared polio-free.

It's been a costly program, and it is going to take about $1.3 billion to finish it up. Until polio is wiped out, you have to continue to vaccinate. We're having to vaccinate more than 400 million children a year. Even in the U.S., children are still getting the polio vaccine. In addition, we're having to do surveillance in 79 countries to make sure that they remain polio-free.

Rotary itself has raised about $1.4 billion over the course of the campaign. The whole world is up to $11.3 billion. Rotary is still raising money. The Gates Foundation is still contributing. We will continue to do that along with the governments of the world.

More broadly, what lessons does the effort to eradicate polio teach us?

It teaches us that it takes persistence. It takes tenacity. And it takes partnership. It takes WHO, UNICEF, the CDC, the governments of the world agreeing to work together. It takes the Gates Foundation and other private-sector individuals. It takes Rotary working with businesses to raise the money that we've had to raise. It's a total partnership effort. Together, everyone achieves more. Nobody could have done it alone.

The important thing is that, as with any other program or project, everyone has to continue to work hard. You can't give up. Yes, this may be a setback in Nigeria, but unfortunately it happens. So it just makes us want to work harder.

sandybauers10@gmail.com












Deep in rural Iowa, hidden by a lush green forest, a sprawling brickyard slowly crumbles as nature creeps in to reclaim it.I woke up early and drove into the town of Lehigh, Iowa as the sun peeked over the horizon. Ragged tatters of storm clouds receded overhead.I'd been in Iowa for less than 24 hours, and already I'd fallen in love with the state. Wending my way along rural roads, stopping to admire the simple beauty of abandoned homesteads and the majesty of a vacant luxury hotel , it quickly became apparent that Iowa was home to many hidden gems.Iowa Brick is one such gem. Closed several decades ago, the old brickyard is still largely intact. Vandals have left it alone for the most part, allowing nature to creep back in and slowly wear away at the structures and equipment that were left behind.[**Note: This facility is located on private property and CANNOT be accessed without permission from the owner]The ceiling of the old workshop has begun to collapse, allowing a bed of moss and small plants to take root.The place looks to have been abandoned very suddenly. Workbenches still line the walls...Forklifts and other equipment are still parked inside several of the old structures.Stacks of brick wait patiently to be shipped out to customers.Many of the rooms were flooded from the previous night's storm.Located near the banks of Crooked Creek, I wouldn't be surprised if flooding was a common occurence in the old brick factory.It would explain why plants have flourished in just about every building.Inside the main factory, eerie silence hangs in the air, interrupted only by the echoing sounds of dripping and my footfalls.It's strange to imagine that these places were once filled with workers' voices and the roar of industry.Half a dozen chimneys keep vigil on the grounds of the old brickyard.Piles of rubble at their bases mark the locations of smaller structures that collapsed long ago.An enormous dome-shaped kiln rusts among the thick vegetation.Time and the elements have done incredible things to the brick walls and floor inside.Lehigh, a small town in Webster County, Iowa, was built upon two major industries: coal mines and brickyards. Brickyards made clay from shale excavated at the local coal mines. Formed into bricks and drain tile, the clay was baked in kilns heated by coal from the same mines.Coal mining declined in Webster County during the first half of the 20th century. The population of Lehigh has fallen steadily since then, from 1,004 in 1940 to about 400 nowadays.Lehigh Brick and Tile company was established in the late 1800s as a producer of bricks and ceramic sewer and drain pipes.In 1896, the company won the contract to produce the paving brick for the city of Dubuque, Iowa. Then in 1897 a serious fire crippled the facility. Several other local brickyards rushed in to fill the void in production. By 1903, Lehigh Brick and Tile had fully recovered from the fire and was back in business.Most of the structures that currently occupy the site were built in the 1950s and '60s, with the final additions made in the late '70s.At some point, the Lehigh Brick and Tile Company became Iowa Brick. It operated under that name until the facility closed in the 1980s.After stopping in Lehigh, I hit the road again and headed off to check out the ruins of an old boarding school Thanks for checking out this article. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to share it on Facebook . While you're at it, please subscribe to Places That Were I have quite a few more pictures from this location -- too many to include here. I'll be sharing them on social media, so be sure to follow me if you'd like to see more:Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/placesthatwere Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JimSullivanPlacesThatWere/posts EyeEm: https://www.eyeem.com/u/placesthatwere Instagram: http://instagram.com/theplacesthatwere Twitter: https://twitter.com/placesthatwere/ Tumblr: http://placesthatwere.tumblr.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jimplicit 500px: https://500px.com/placesthatwere Thank you!
PokerStars' Neil Johnson About the EPT Now Paying Out 20 Percent of the Field

August 21, 2016 Frank Op de Woerd

Season 13 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour has kicked off in Barcelona with a hugely popular Estrellas Main Event and a 10,000 event. Yesterday, the 50,000 Super High Roller has started with a slate of familiar faces.

One of the big changes this season is the announced new payout structure that pays 20 percent of the field, compared to the 15 percent it paid in recent years.

We spoke to PokerStars Department Head of Live Poker Operations Neil Johnson about the change and its implications.

How did the European Poker Tour and PokerStars come to this decision?

We did a lot of research over the summer. We looked at the players, the player base, the overall tour, everything.

One of the interesting statistics we found is that 46 percent of the players on EPT Season 12, played only 1 or 2 events. The whole point, the reason why we have 100 events at a festival, is because we want people to be able to play as many as they can. Thats why we have the $100 and $200 events for example; because we want people to be able to play more and have more fun.

One of the things that came up was looking at the payouts. One of the interesting things in our industry is that it has grown very organically over its history. The payouts have thus grown the same way, from winner-take-all to 5 percent, to 10 percent and 15 percent.

We started looking at the payouts in a vacuum and to see what made sense. We took all the preconceptions out of it. We saw that if we would pay out 20 percent instead of 15 percent, we could give 5 percent of the field a do-over. Its effectively like saying Thanks for coming, I hope you had a lot of fun. Sorry you didnt make it into the big money, good luck the next time because heres money for another shot. If someone has a buy-in to play another poker tournament, thats a good thing. So thats the direction we ended up going.

Have you done a survey amongst EPT players?

Before the start of Season 10, the last time we changed the pay-outs, we did a big survey. We had 1,600 responses to the question which pay-out percentage they wanted. The options were 10 percent, 12.5 percent, and 15 percent, and all three of them got 33 percent of the votes. Whatever we did, 66 percent was going to be angry. We did what we thought was in the best interest of the poker economy at that time.

This time, we ran all the data we had and decided again to do what we thought was in the best interest of the poker economy and poker players. Weve done what we think was the right thing to do.

Is this a try-out, or is this a definitive decision?

Were doing it for the 2016 portion of EPT season 13; Barcelona, Malta and Prague. We really want to give it a solid run. Its like 200 tournaments and this way we will be really able to take a good look at it, and get the feedback from the players. This ultimately is a player driven industry and if the overwhelming feedback is that players love it, hate it, or want it tweaked, well certainly go back and look at it. But it will be in place for these 3 events.

Super High Roller regular Steve O'Dwyer talking to Neil Johnson about the changes

Does the decision come from the ever growing field sizes in live events?

You have these massive small buy-in events where thousands of people sign up. Take for example the opening WSOP circuit events and the Colossus or our PokerStars Cup events. People are paying something like $300 and play huge prize pools, but a lot of money is never flowing back into the poker economy.

Let's say first gets $200,000 in a $300 buy-in event. Thats great and amazing for that player. $197,000 of that is probably leaving the poker economy forever though. A $300 player is not going to become a $2,000 player overnight. Thats just not how progression works in poker. Lets say we now make first place prize $175,000, thats still a huge number of times their buy-in and still life changing money. You take that $25,000 and pay out a lot of people at the bottom, and give them all another bullet to become that $175,000 winner in one of the other events.

To keep a healthy poker economy, a solid liquidity for live tournament poker, you need more winners. You need more people able to buy in and play so the fields continue to grow. You dont want to see a situation where it just stagnates, which happens if theres not getting new money in.

I read an interesting article on Part Time Poker by Steve Ruddock, talking about the consolidation of online gaming. He pointed out something we all know but not think about generally, that poker is the only vertical in gaming that requires other players. It requires a healthy liquidity and a healthy ecosystem and the operators do have to keep that in mind.

The announcement spoke of 20 percent, but the first big event it was implemented came out to 22.9 percent of the field in the money.

We definitely acknowledge the argument whether the 20 percent should be the ceiling or the floor. The old EPT payouts had a 15 percent payout where the 15 percent was the ceiling. Quite frequently events paid out 12 percent or 13.

As the emphasis of this new payout was to pay out more people, the decision was to make the floor 20 percent. In practice, that means it will be in the 20 to 22 percent range.

Thats something were open to looking at. Maybe, if we get all the feedback, that turns out to be a mistake and we move to 17 to 20 percent and make the 20 percent the ceiling. We want to do it in a way that players appreciate it so were always open to looking at any decision as part of the overall process.

What was the consideration to implement a small min cash, worth just about the buy-in?

There was a commenter on the 2+2 forum, RedOak, and he said something that sometimes gets lost. When we went to 15 percent we had a lot of people saying 1.7 times the buy-in as a min cash isnt enough. People commented they needed gas money, hotel, travel money so 1.7 times the buy-in back is not enough.

The reality is that its 1.7 times more than $0, which is what the previous payout was. So people that are saying 1.1 isnt enough are missing the point that we were paying zero dollars before, and now pay out the buy-in back. As that commenter accurately pointed out, these were people walking away with nothing, and now theyre walking with their buy-in back. Theyre getting a do-over.

Some people might say Thats now why we play poker. We respect theres a bunch of pros that say that and I certainly acknowledge that they play poker for a big first place prize, but is that the minority or the majority of people that are playing? We feel the vast majority of players are our online qualifiers and recreational players. While everyone does look at the first place prize, cashing an event is already a big deal for them.

Has the difference between low buy-in events with huge amounts of entries, and the (Super) High Rollers with relatively small field sizes been considered? And the differences between reentry events and freeze-outs?

Weve taken a look at out reentry figures and they average out to between 15 and 20 percent over the course of everything. So that isnt really an argument to make for a bigger min cash. If 50 percent of the players in an event reenters youd have the majority of players in for double the buy-in. But when the vast majority is in for just one buy-in, which is the case at EPTs, we think you need to cater to those guys.

Were going to talk to the guys in the Super High Roller. Weve seen the tweets from Mike [McDonald], Steve [ODwyer] and Daniel [Negreanu]. There's two schools of thoughts. For a tournament that is unlimited reentry where people are firing 5 or 6 bullets, I absolutely agree to differentiate them. We have very few reentry events and the vast majority of them are single reentry though. The only unlimited reentry event is the Super High Roller.

The 50,000 and above Super High Rollers are a unique animal. Its the same 100-200 people across the world who play those. I personally would give em winner take all if they wanted to, really.

But below that is something slightly different. For all of EPT12 we had 6 High Rollers that had 1,672 entries and 1,309 uniques. We satellite 163 players in for 12.5% of the unique fields. So we would argue in that instance, you dont have 1,300+ individuals who are all massive 5-figure buy-in players that would be disappointed with 11,000, the min cash if it had todays pay-out structure.

People might say nobody wants their buy-in back as min cash, but, respectfully, our research disagrees and I will add again, we dont believe we lowered what the min cash means, we added spots that used to be 0 and now pay those spots a 1.0x to 1.2x cash.

Theyre the players we listen to all the time and we want their opinion, so Im going to come in tomorrow before the event starts and talk to everyone. I dont know I would make a change right there for that event as it is difficult to build a consensus with a large group in such a short window of time.

Neil Johnson and the European Poker Tour, after this interview was conducted, decided to switch back the payout structure to 15 percent for the 50,000 Super High Roller and 25,000 Single-Day High Roller.

More players able to enter more events means more rake for PokerStars and the European Poker Tour. Was that not a consideration?

I saw a couple of guys that said Stars is just trying to rake them again! Rake didnt come into it when we were deciding on what to do. I dont say you entering again doesnt give us extra rake, the two are obviously interconnected. But the goal of all of these discussions, and we spent 2 months doing exactly that this summer, was that we wanted people to play more. The reason we run tournaments like Deuces Wild is because we want players to have fun. We want people to be able to play more and we think this min cash gives people the opportunity to do that.

Additionally, this would be arguably one of the most convoluted ways to raise rake possible. First, we have to handle 5% more payouts for every single tournament which increasing staffing and registration costs for all those tournaments, then we have to hope all those players play another event? If, as some have suggested, we wanted to do a rake grab, why wouldnt we just raise the fee on the Estrellas Main to 125 or 150? Much simpler.

Theres been some critique that the announcement came literally the day before the Estrellas Main. Why was the announcement made so late?

It was approved 10 days ago. It has been under discussion a lot, but obviously, its a big change so we had to do the research.

After the new payout was agreed on, it took a couple of days to decide if we wanted to do it for EPT Season 13, or if we want to wait and implement it for events in 2017 when we can launch it for all of our tours, as were kind of in the middle with the APPT, LAPT, UKIPT, etcetera right now. We talked it through and eventually decided to do it for Barcelona. If its ready and we think its the right thing to do, why hold it for 3 months was our train of thoughts?

I definitely understand players feeling that we didnt give them enough notice and acknowledge we could have done better. For that I accept full responsibility and we will try harder in the future to make sure players are better informed in advance.

We really do believe this is the way forward for live event and live room payouts and we hope that everyone who plays in Barcelona, Malta and Prague will provide us with feedback both in person at the events and online via email, Twitter, Facebook, etcetera. We might not answer every Tweet or post, but everything gets seen or read and added to the feedback. We want to hear everyones opinions on the change.

Hi all, thanks for the feedback on 20%, please keep it coming, we're reading it all. Thank you. @PokerStarsEPT #EPTBarcelona  Neil Johnson (@NeilJPoker)
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By Amanda Becker and Luciana Lopez

WASHINGTON/PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)  Hillary Clintons White House transition team, a mix of former advisers of President Barack Obama, close confidants, long-time colleagues and former elected officials, reflects the sense of careful organization the Democratic candidate has aimed to project in her presidential campaign.

But her Republican rival, Donald Trump, could seize on the group to make the point that she is part of the establishment he aims to defeat in Novembers election, and to reiterate his charge that a Clinton administration would be an Obama third term.

The group, which the Clinton campaign named on Tuesday and which will lay the groundwork for her to take charge quickly if she wins, is evidence of Clintons long experience in Washington as a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady.

Transition teams aim to help the president-elect make key decisions during the period between the election and the inauguration, in this case from Nov. 8 to Jan. 20, so the new White House occupant can fill leadership posts quickly.

They are the names you would expect  people who have been advising her for a long time; people who have worked with her for a long time and people who are peers, who she respects, Matt Bennett of the moderate Democratic group Third Way said of Clintons transition team.

The group will be headed by Ken Salazar, a former interior secretary and U.S. senator. He will lead four co-chairs: former Obama national security adviser Tom Donilon; former Obama aide Neera Tanden, who now leads the progressive think tank the Center for American Progress; former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Maggie Williams, the director of Harvards Institute of Politics.

Heather Boushey, the executive director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, will be the chief economist. Two additional policy advisers from Clintons campaign, Ed Meier and Ann OLeary, will also move full-time to the transition team, the campaign said in a statement.

The transition team does not necessarily reflect future policy.

The job here is to give options, not just say there is one policy course you want to take, said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who advised the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry.

Clinton would be the first woman elected to the U.S. presidency and Shrum said Clintons team has got to be the first transition team in history where the majority of its members are women.

Shrum added that Clinton is largely following Obamas template as he prepared for his transition after the 2008 election.

Tanden, who played a key role in shaping Obamas health care overhaul, is a member of Clintons tight-knit inner circle, and has also worked for her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Williams was the 1992 transition director for Clinton when she became first lady, and then her chief of staff in the White House.

Clinton worked closely with Donilon when she led the State Department from 2009-2013. Granholm, the former governor, is also a former state attorney general and has years of experience in Democratic politics.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee applauded the selection of OLeary and Boushey, praising their economic positions. The environmental group Greenpeace criticized Salazar for not curbing fracking in his home state of Colorado.

The announcement of the team came as Clinton has gained momentum in the opinion polls, with the current RealClearPolitics average of national polls showing her 6.7 points ahead, at 47.7 percent to Trumps 41 percent.

Trumps campaign has struggled after he made a string of controversial remarks since formally winning his partys nomination last month.

More establishment Republicans, alarmed by Trumps inability or unwillingness to rein in his provocative remarks, have distanced themselves from the candidate in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal, a leading conservative voice, said in an editorial on Monday that he should fix his campaign in the next three weeks or hand over to his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Trump, a New York businessman who has never held elected office, picked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to head his transition team in May.

(Additional reporting and writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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The Hillary Clinton campaign sent a strong signal today that they are about to go after Trump for his close ties to Russia.

Video:



ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Transcript via ABCs This Week:

ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER:

I would also point out that Paul Manafort has been pushed out, but that doesnt mean that the Russians have been pushed out of this campaign. The hand of the Kremlin has been at work in this campaign for some time. Its clear that they are supporting Donald Trump.

But we now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign. Theres a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed. And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Youre saying hes a puppet for the Kremlin?

MOOK: Well, real questions are being raised about that. We  again, theres a web of financial ties to the Russians that he refuses to disclose. Weve seen over the last few week, him parroted Vladimir Putin in his own remarks. We saw the Republican Party platform changed. She saw Donald Trump talk about leaving NATO and leaving our Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack. The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone whos on the payroll of the Russia Times, which is a basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin. He was sitting two seats away from Vladimir Putin at heir 10th Anniversary gala.

There are a lot of questions here. And we need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin.

One of the many ways to go after Mr. Make America Great Again as too close to one of the countrys biggest adversaries is to highlight is consistent praise of Putin. Even with Manafort gone, Trump continues to insist in his speeches that he will have a good relationship with Russia if he is elected president.

Donald Trump has a fetish for strongman dictator types, but his praise for Putin and the remaining close ties of people on Trumps staff to the Russian government should be troubling for all voters.

The Clinton campaign hasnt had to attack Trump because he does such a good job of self-destructing, but as the campaign moves into the fall, it is clear that Hillary Clinton is moving in for the kill as the time is coming for Democrats to work hard to put the Trump campaign out of its misery.
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Donald Trumps presidential campaign admitted that the Republican nominees recent appeals for African-American voters were really all about making Trump look less racist to white voters. In other words, the premise of Trumps African-American outreach was racist.

Video:



ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Transcript via ABCs This Week:



STEPHANOPOULOS: Lets talk about those comments that Mr. Trump made about the African American community. Heres part of them this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What do you have to lose?

Look, what do you have to lose?

Youre living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs; 58 percent of your youth is unemployed.

What the hell do you have to lose?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know  you were just talking about that. But many in the African American community saw that as insulting because they say most African Americans dont live in poverty and that Mr. Trump was making those comments in communities that are more than 90 percent white.

CONWAY: Those comments are for all Americans. And I live in a white community. Im white. I was very moved by his comment. In other words, he is trying to tell Americans that we can do better. And the thing that he said that I think got a great deal of resonance is that maybe Hillary Clinton looks at you as voters as your  takes you for granted. I look at you as people.

And you  again, George, if you think 58 percent of unemployment in the African American youth community is a good idea, then absolutely please go vote for Hillary Clinton, everyone.

But hes saying, you cant do any worse. Were the party, hes the candidate that believes in school choice vouchers and charter schools for African American and Hispanic students and everybody really. But these benefit  Ive done a lot of work in that space here in New York City. And its just remarkable to see the quality education that these students who are fully capable and very intelligent receive through school choice and charters. Hillary Clintons against those.

In other words, even Trumps message to African-Americans is really all about appealing to white people. The subtext of what Conway was saying was dont worry white nationalists. Donald Trump doesnt really want the support of black voters. Trump is hoping that more whites will vote for him if he sounds less overtly racist.

Trumps appeal to African-Americans was based on stereotypes that Republicans have used for decades when discussing black voters. Trump claims that all African-Americans live in inner cities. According to Trump, African-Americans are in poverty and dont have a job.

Donald Trump is trying to win the White House with only white voters.

It doesnt get much more racist than the strategy that Donald Trump is using in his presidential campaign.
The potential violation of bond covenants and lifting of solar energy generation caps for non-residential customers are some of the initial concerns the Consolidated Commission on Utilities and Public Utilities Commission have regarding a measure that would establish virtual net metering for Guam residents.

The measure, Bill 363-33, also amends and adds to existing laws governing net metering on Guam and the utility's renewable energy portfolio. The bill was introduced by Sen. Dennis Rodriguez.

The measure proposes to develop a new tariff for virtual net metering through a panel consisting of a governor-appointed renewable energy stakeholder or advocate, a representative from the Center of Island Sustainability at the University of Guam and a GPA representative appointed by the CCU. GPA proposals are normally reviewed by the CCU, which oversees policy matters for the utility, before they are forwarded to the PUC, which oversees rates.

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While maintaining the dynamic between the CCU and PUC, the measure does present a major departure from the utility's normal order of business, where GPA would solely determine the rates to put up for review by its regulatory commissions.

According CCU Chairman Joey Duenas, the deviation from normal procedures may see GPA held accountable to bond holders who invested in GPA bonds under certain conditions.

"That pauses us because they now are violating the bond covenants," Duenas said. "The bond holders could say, 'Wait a minute. That's not what we agreed to. We agreed to lend GPA money because it would be the one setting up its rates as regulated by the PUC.'"

Moreover, Duenas had reservations about inserting panel members into the tariff creation process who may be unaware of the utility's operations or who may advocate for certain provisions without taking into account the cost on the utility.

"The bond people who lent us money are going to say, 'No, because now you're negatively affecting GPA's revenues," he added.

Not everyone is concerned with inserting new voices into how tariff schedules are developed, however. Joe Rosario, the business development and marketing director for Micronesia Renewable Energy Inc., said the three-person panel would allow for nonpartisan negotiations, which should lead to a fair rate for GPA and consumers.

His concern, on the other hand, was that establishing virtual net metering could pave the way for GPA to phase out the existing net metering program.

Unlike the existing program, which is at the individual level, virtual net metering or community based renewable energy, allows multiple customers to pool into a single renewable energy source. The current net metering program reimburses customers for their power bill at the retail rate for the renewable energy they pushed back into the system. A recent study by GPA consultant Black and Veatch suggested that the current program overcompensated customers for that energy and recommended replacing the credit structure at the dismay of local solar energy stakeholders. Meanwhile, the study also recommended more focus on virtual net metering as a cost-effective means of promoting renewable energy.

Lifting caps

Duenas and PUC chairman Jeff Johnson have differing views on whether to keep the existing net metering program but both men expressed concerns with removing a capping provision for non-residential customers, as proposed by Rodriguez's bill. The measure increases the renewable energy generation entrance capacity cap for residential customers from 25 kilowatts to 50 KW. It also removes the cap for commercial customers and government agencies, although a feasibility study is required.

"We shared with Sen. Rodriguez that the way GPA is right now, we have an old generation fleet," Johnson said. "Those types of generators don't interact with renewables very well ... So the marriage between fuel based generators and renewables is not a very healthy one just yet."

Solar energy, particularly solar on Guam, can be intermittent because of varying cloud cover during the day. GPA's base load generators are not able to ramp up production quickly enough to make up for lulls in solar generation, forcing the utility to use faster combustion turbine generators, which need more expensive fuel sources than the residual fuel oil base load generators utilize. This issue extends to Guam's first utility solar farm in Dandan, from which GPA buys power.

The situation led the utility to explore battery storage options to even out solar power production in the grid. Johnson has suggested offering rebates to encourage customers to purchase battery storage for themselves.

Neither of these initiatives have come to complete fruition yet, however.

"If we open up too much solar too quickly, we're kind of putting the cart before the horse and we might get ourselves into trouble sooner rather than later," Johnson said. "We've shared that with Rodriguez."

States like Hawaii, which has one of the highest solar energy penetration rates in the nation, have had to contend with the issues distributed energy brings to the health of the power grid. Avoiding these circumstances also forms part of the reasoning behind concerns with the current net metering program, which has seen exponential growth since its inception in 2008.

But at just about 1 percent solar penetration for Guam, Johnson personally sees little reason to end or modify the program.

Integrated resource plan

GPA has developed an updated integrated resource plan, which includes new generation in the form of combined cycle units - engines capable of meeting spikes and falls from solar energy. The plan is still in review by the PUC and Johnson said this was still in the early stages.

While the PUC has initiated discussions with Rodriguez on Bill 363, Duenas said the CCU's legal counsel would be reviewing the bill, how it impacts GPA bond covenants and then bring those concerns to Rodrigeuz's attention.
While some contend that Guams political cycle has an air of predictability that only award those with the political backing and a well-oiled machinery with the much-coveted seat, there are exceptions of course, the lucky few who have surmounted the odds. But those who have unsuccessfully ran a campaign several rounds over, callused but with their spirit unbroken, have been labelled as perennial candidates.

The signs are unmistakable in every corner, election season is here again. There are smiles and handshakes all around, social media bursting with statements from across the aisle, an unending parade of candidates hoisting up their flags in preparation for the primaries. The flurry of activities whirl around those who have resources and support. As in every election season, popularity plays a big factor amidst the diminishing voter interest --- perceived to be an election fatigue manifesting the blase attitude of a new generation of voters, a phenomena seen not only on island but in other jurisdictions as well.

Amidst these challenging circumstances, candidates who have tried in the past see beyond these deterrents. One of them, Vic Gaza, who first ran in 2006 as a senatorial candidate, said that funding continues to be a challenge while social media has been a facilitative tool in getting his platform across a generation of voters . Social media , we use it as much as we can. We started a twitter account. Facebook is probably my biggest asset right now when it comes to getting the message across.

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That platform, according to Gaza, focuses on establishing a business friendly government on Guam, where there is no true middle class, and where restrictive regulations continue to be a deterrent for first-time or aspiring business owners.

Because I work in small business, I truly want to create a business-friendly government. It meant cutting off the red tape, making sure that government is doing all that they can to help local business, he emphasized then added that resources should be provided to agencies involved in the application and permitting processes. So that people who try to open their business will be able to do so in a fair amount of time.

Running this year as a Democrat, Gaza said the switch was not a political move but a move for the people. He said despite the party move, there are still those who continue to support his bid across the political aisle.

When asked about his past attempts at the senatorial elections, he said he felt positive that this year would be different. He also asked the voters to look deeper, and see his qualifications as a candidate. I challenge the people to look at my background. I believe in my credentials, he said.

While now involved in small business, Gaza said his experience working with people from the community and his past professional involvement at the legislature has given him a perspective he described as different from traditional politicians. I am not detached from the people. I go through the struggle everyday, he said. Should this recent bid prove to be unsuccessful, he plans to stay in politics not as a candidate but as a supporter, a person who wants to effect change.

For Adolpho Palacios, third time's a charm. Palacios bid in 1996 and 2002 both failed but 2004 was the year when he finally placed in the roster. He said the growth of his support base and cumulative positive effects of his prior campaigns really helped in his last success.

For candidates who continue to strive every elections he said, Don't give up and defeat yourself; build on the positive attributes of what you already have; observe other very successful candidates and how they conduct their campaign. This election season, Palacios is running for mayor of Ordot-Chalan Pago. My eight years as a senator/lawmaker, and my relationship with current senators many of whom were my colleagues is definitely a great asset that will be very help in how I perform as a mayor. Whatever challenges come my way as a Mayor, I know what to do, when to do it, and who to consult with, he added.

Another senatorial hopeful is Armando Dominguez. Now on his fifth run, he first ran in 1985. The last one was in 2010. I dont lose hope, he said. He came to Guam from the Philippines in 1969 to manage the construction work at Pago Bay Estate but the project didnt push through because the project owner died.

It is an uphill battle for poor guys like me. I shy away from fundraisers. I use my own savings.

His average election expenses is $1,000. He only spends money on flyers and a few signs.

He does the usual campaign tricks familiar to every politician: waving by the roadside, going around the villages and introducing himself to the people and attending funerals. In this election, Ive spent $3,000, he said.

During the first four attempts, he ran as a Republican. I never got any support from the Republicans, even those who promised to support me. Lt. Gov. Ray Tenorio asked me about my qualifications and he was obviously doubting me. He is now running as a Democrat. The Democrats are more welcoming to me. I am glad that (former Gov) Carl Gutierrez is supporting me, Dominguez said, adding Hopefully, I win this time.

Why is he running? I am not running for the salary. Im living comfortably with my own savings. If I win, I might even be willing to donate that salary. I am running because I want to represent the marginalized sectorthose who are unable to speak, whose voices are not heard, he said. There are a lot of issues that are neglected and many questions are left unanswered. Why does the government keep borrowing money? Why do gas prices go up even if the world prices go down? Why are there no streetlights? Some of these things may sound insignificant to the elitist politicians but they are real and serious issues to ordinary people.

When I ran in 2010, my campaign was focused on tax refunds, he added, I dont have any venue to express my opinion other than the newspaper, where I write letters to the editor. Because I am not very good with technology, I have to pay a secretary to help me.

Ron McNinch, University of Guam professor said that in order to run a viable campaign, a candidate has to have several elements in place: a) they have to have last name recognition; b) they need to have done things on a popular level, i.e. regular columns or letters to the editor, etc; c) they have to fundraise at least $15,000 to pass the viable threshold; d) they have to have demonstrated trustworthiness (however that doesnt mean they are actually trustworthy, and; e) they have to be active and not simply think votes will rain out of the sky.

Using the term vanity candidates to describe those who continue to run unsuccessfully, McNinch said, the only successful vanity candidate I am aware of in the last 15 years was Matt Rector, though he made a midpoint campaign shift from vanity to viable status.

McNinch added, if a person wants to win office, they have to run. Sometimes it takes 3-5 times running. But those who keep trying do have an advantage. Vanity candidates become viable once they start taking conventional steps to get elected. But no effort means no votes.

The struggle of the repeat candidate has been looked at from different perspectives --- there are those who see the attempts as futile in a world where resources, political connections and networks determine the fate of an election, while there are those who see their attempts as democracy in action.

While there are those whose repeated quixotic mission should be questioned, the voting public should not discount the struggle of the other repeat aspirants, whose earnest bid to serve the community may have been construed as an unreachable vanity quest due to repeated failures. The point is there could be more to the story than what is seen in the surface.
With the number of net metering customers on the rise and the islandwide power system not yet fully recovered from the August 2015 explosion at the Cabras 3 and 4 power plant, the Guam Power Authority is now considering the possibility of rebates for solar energy battery storage units at the suggestion of Simon Sanchez, a member of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities.

During a work session with the CCU on Aug. 18, GPA General Manager John Benavente said the utility will be performing a cost-benefit analysis on including battery storage in its demand-side management (DSM), or rebate, program.

The rebates are intended to encourage the sale of energy-efficient appliances to reduce energy consumption and lessen the strain on the islandwide power system.

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$1.8M authorized by PUC

The program has been in effect since the end of November 2015. But to date, GPA has spent only about $105,000 of $1.8 million the utility was authorized, by the Public Utilities Commission, to spend on the program. Rebates are offered for air-conditioning systems, washers and dryers. At the current pace, it would take nine years to exhaust the funding, Sanchez said.

To bolster consumer participation, the utility is eyeing the inclusion of additional categories and is expecting to provide a recommendation to the CCU in early September.

Sanchez's suggestions to consider solar battery storage places him in line with PUC Chairman Jeff Johnson, who has said he favors including solar battery storage in future phases of the DSM program. But while the PUC chairman has consistently maintained a positive attitude about the current net-metering program, Sanchez, along with GPA management, has argued that the program's retail rate credits overcompensate customers for solar energy that contributes little to reducing the utility's evening peak load demand.

Many communities on the U.S. mainland are already providing or considering rebates for solar storage systems, Sanchez added. As GPA revisits the DSM program, he said it may be prudent to look at encouraging the purchase of solar batteries to make use of the energy at night, when it would help reduce GPA power consumption at peak load times.

"Right now they don't help us at all. We get (solar energy) at noon. We don't need it at noon, we need it at 6 p.m.," Sanchez said. "You're reducing load with a more efficient air-conditioner. You're reducing load with a solar unit that doesn't need us at night if you have a battery."

In order to cover the period between 6 p.m. and midnight, a customer would need six to eight battery packs, Benavente said. CCU Chairman Joey Duenas said GPA needed to specify the types of batteries for which it would offer a rebate to ensure customers purchase storage units that could contribute to load reduction.

"What they have on Guam, I don't think it does that yet," Duenas said.

'$100,000 every six months'

The CCU chairman also suggested taking a closer look at GPA's customer demographic when determining which appliances to rebate. He said retailers were not purchasing more efficient, but costly, appliances because they understood that the units likely would not sell. Rebates for solar batteries would only attract the few upper-income customers who could afford them, he said.

"At $100,000 every six months, we better come up with other things that people can buy," Sanchez said.

However, he agreed with Duenas' analysis of Guam's consumer base and questioned whether the funding for the program might be better spent on other aspects if the money could not be spent more quickly. Benavente has maintained that the program should increase in pace exponentially as consumers are made more aware of the rebates.

But the commissioners seemed skeptical of an exponential jump in customer participation, considering the trend so far.

"If PUC is okay with nine years for the $1.8 million, then OK. But let's not oversell that we have this wonderful DSM program that is helping people save a lot of money, load or energy, because right now ... it's not good enough," Sanchez said.
Less than two months after touting success in testing a couple of ballistic missiles designed for long-range targets, the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last Thursday specifically threatened the island of Guam as a mark.

If the U.S. is reckless, misjudging the trend of the times and the strategic position of the DPRK, all the U.S. Military bases in the operational theater in the Pacific including Guam will face ruin in the face of all-out and substantial attack to be mounted by the Army of the DPRK, warned the foreign ministry of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

The North Korea regime was reacting to a show of force by the U.S. military positioning, for the first time, all three of its heavy bomber aircraft to Guam. While the deployment is not a long-term fixture, the presence of all three types of bombers in one location is an historic event, according to Air Force officials.

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Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, ranking member of the House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness, assured the public that the U.S. stands at the ready to respond to any aggression by enemy forces towards Guam or U.S. allies in the region.

She scoffed at North Koreas latest threat.

The continuous and noisy rhetoric from North Korea is nothing new as they always respond to routine deployments in this manner. This deployment is a reminder to other actors in our region that we will support our allies and respond to any provocative acts from North Korea. Their continued missile tests have concerned our allies and our airpower is an appropriate counter balance, Bordallo said. The historic deployment of aircraft to Andersen AFB is yet another reminder of Guam's strategic importance to our national security."

Meanwhile, Guam Homeland Security said as it had in threats past that it was working with federal partners in monitoring the development.

The Offices of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense (OHS/OCD), in coordination with the Mariana Regional Fusion Center (MRFC), are closely monitoring events surrounding North Korea including any public statements made by said country, stated Jenna Gaminde, DHS spokeswoman.

The congresswoman added, "The U.S. is committed to ensuring stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, and we routinely keep assets forward deployed to deter aggression and respond to any contingency that may arise. There has been a continuous bomber presence at Andersen AFB since 2004. The deployment of three long-range strike bombers on Guam is part of this mission and is an opportunity to ensure the readiness of our forces.

Bordallos statements are in line with the U.S Air Forces position.

Though the recent North Korean nuclear and missile tests, the Chinese expansionist presence in the South China Sea and the parading of Beijings DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, dubbed the Guam Killer, all suggest a heightened level of military activity in the region.

Last week, senior Air Force officials denied that the current deployment is in response to these elevated conditions stated Post news files. Air Force officials maintained that the intersecting deployment, is simply a unique opportunity for all three bombers employed by the United Sates and their squadrons to train together.

The DPRK however, feels differently and sees the presence of the bombers as a pre-emptive act of aggression.

The introduction of the nuclear strategic bombers to Guam by the US ... proves that the US plan for a preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK has entered a reckless phase of implementation," North Koreas foreign ministry is quoted as stating in its state-run Korean Central News Agency.

In June, without specifying the island Kim, after testing two Musudan missiles, hailed success and improved progress. Kim, in June without verbalizing Guam, noted that his countrys missiles have the capability to reach American soil and interests in the Pacific.

"We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theater," stated Kim in June.

The missiles, during the tests in June were fired hours apart and reportedly under Kims supervision.

The U.S. immediately condemned the launch and initially downplayed Kims claim of success. However, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged one of the two missiles "flew for a long time."

Carter said there is a need to ramp up defense capabilities on Guam and the region.

The South Korean defense ministry also refused to describe the June either of launch as successful, but recognized in its initial assessment that some technical progress appeared to have been made after the second missile soared to an altitude of at least 620 miles before it went horizontal, eventually plunging into the sea some 250 miles off of Japans coast.

The Musudan missile has a range of up to 4,000 kilometers, theoretically putting any part of Japan or Guam within its range. North Korea is believed to have up to 30 Musudan missiles, which officials said were first deployed around 2007, although the North had never attempted to test fire them until this year, according to South Korean media.
With the primary election less than a week away, the Guam Election Commission has acquired three electronic voting machines from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The machines, which are designed for allow voters with disabilities to vote without assistance, were not being used in the CNMI, according to Maria Pangelinan, executive director of the Guam Election Commission.

"These machines are targeted specifically for voters with disabilities," she said. "They allow individuals with disabilities to vote more independently and privately."

The machines are being housed at the commission offices at the GCIC building in Hagatna, where they will stay for the duration of the election. The machines are now property of the government of Guam.

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Pangelinan explained how the machines would assist, for example, a visually-impaired voter.

"What has been the practice before, is that someone would read the ballot to them," she said,

The new voting machines come with headphones that the voter wears and then uses to listen to a recording of the candidate choices. This allows the individual to vote in complete privacy.

Individuals with disabilities who would like to make use of the machines should contact the GEC.

Apart from the machine acquisition, Pangelinan told the Post that representatives of the CNMI Election Commission are to visit Guam to observe the election process. They include Francis Sablan, chairman of the CNMI Election Commission; as well as Jesus Sablan, commissioner; and Kayla Igitol, administrative officer of the CNMI Election Commission.

Other accommodations

Besides providing voting assistance to those who need it, the GEC also accommodates voters who would otherwise not be able to cast their vote in the upcoming primary.

In-office voting, which targets those who plan to be off-island during the election, will continue all this week and end at 5 p.m. Friday. In-office voting takes place at the GEC offices in the GCIC building during office hours, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For individuals who, due to health reasons, are physically incapable of leaving their homes, homebound voting is ongoing. Individuals in need of the service are asked to call the GEC offices to arrange for homebound voting.

For those who can leave their home, but for whom walking or standing for long periods is difficult, the GEC offers curbside voting. Individuals are to park their cars at a polling site and have a friend or family member take a photo ID to polling officials who will then go to the car to collect their votes. Individuals can also seek help from law enforcement officers who will be at polling sites for help setting up curbside voting.

GEC is scheduled to hold a mock election to test its voting tabulation procedures this Friday, Aug. 26, at noon.

Decolonization registry

Gov. Eddie Calvo announced last week that plans to hold a self-determination plebiscite in this year's November general election were scrapped due to feasibility concerns.

Though a plebiscite vote won't be on the ballot in November, GEC officials will still station two decolonization registrars at every polling site to continue efforts to register residents for the eventual plebiscite.

New polling sites

Pangelinan told the Post that voters need to bring photo identification with them when they vote, and said that voters should note new locations for a number of the island's polling sites.

 Agat voters should proceed to Marcial Sablan Elementary School

 The Tamuning precinct is located at John F. Kennedy High School

 The Mangilao precinct has been relocated from the University of Guam to George Washington High School

 Yigo voters will be divided between F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School (for those whose last names begin with A through M) and D.L. Perez Elementary School (last names beginning with N through Z)

 The Dededo precincts have moved from Maria Ulloa and Wettengel Elementary Schools to Okkodo High School (last names A through G), Benavente Middle School (H through P) and Liguan Elementary School (Q through Z)

GEC offices are on the second floor of the GCIC building in Hagatna. The GEC phone number is 477-9791.
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
President Muhammadu Buhari recently challenged Nigerians desirous of knowing the assets he owns to approach the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to request his asset declaration documents.

But in this interview with PREMIUM TIMES team of Ibanga Isine, Evelyn Ukakwu and Georgina Bako, the bureaus chairman, Sam Saba, explains why his Bureau will not release the document to the public despite the president advising it to do so on national television.

EXCERPT:

PT: Recently, a huge leak of document from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, lifted the lid on how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth. The names of many Nigerians were found in the leak aptly called Panama Papers. Are you considering taking action against such people?

Many have asked us this question earlier but at that time we were not in a position to give any answer. But I later asked my counterpart in the ICPC if he was in the picture and he replied in the negative. He, however advised me to approach PREMIUM TIMES.

Already, we have some questions for certain public officers, which I will not be able to disclose at the moment. Until they finish answering those questions, I may not be able to discuss it.

PT: Can you assure Nigerians that you will take action against the indicted persons?

Didnt you hear what I said? I said that already we have correspondences asking us what we know about specific public officers on this matter. And we are doing that. I dont want to reveal the names to you now. But if at the end of the day, I can do that, I will let you know. But I want to let you know that government has written us and given us some names to investigate, based on what they have been reading and hearing regarding the leaked document. In fact, that was why immediately this issue came up, I thought of who to contact to help us.

PT: Talking about your ongoing case against Senate President, Bukola Saraki, are there likely to be more prosecutions in the nearest future?

We are going to discuss it at our board meeting next week, so I cannot disclose that to you right now. I am not going to commit myself now. Let the time come and we will inform you. After all, this is an ongoing conversation.

PT: Can you take us down memory lane on the number of convictions you have secured since the inception of the Bureau?

There are so many. We can give you a list of the convictions. Some people are fined. Of course, nobody is sentenced. The law does not give us that power. Its just fines, seizure or forfeiture of the assets.

PT: What are your major challenges in the course of this assignment.

The major challenges we have are essentially lack of capacity building and inadequate funding.

PT: While CCB is Nigerias foremost anti-corruption agency, nothing much was heard of its operations unlike the EFCC and ICPC. Why did the bureau remain silent this long?

That has been a recurring question and I have a very simple answer for it. What most people do not understand is that the Code of Conduct Bureau is different from the EFCC and ICPC. Cases that are referred to these other agencies concern offences that have already been committed. On the other hand, the CCB is largely a preventive organisation. Is it going to make news to you today for me to say that 30 people have not declared their assets? Or that we have sent 20 names to the tribunal for default in filing their asset declaration forms? I have discovered over this period that Nigerians love a situation where they hear that this person or that person has been caught and taken to prison. That is not the nature of this agency.

This organisation was established to maintain good public service. We do that in various ways. One is through asset declaration, the other is through public enlightenment and the third method is through sanctions. And this is done through the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT. But people often ask; Where are the convictions? Your level of conviction is low? CCB is not the one that does the convictions. It is the CCT that does the convictions.

So if CCT does not give a conviction, it does not mean that CCB has not worked. We are dealing with millions of public officers, and how many people will come out to volunteer information. People are afraid of volunteering information. It is only in recent times that this whistle-blowing thing is taking shape because they see that the present administration is serious about fighting corruption.

Even then, when we take an asset declaration form to a public officer who has just retired; everybody will say they dont know his address. Even when we are able to trace his residence and send people there, nobody takes the declaration form from the staff. As I have always said, the CCB does not have the power of arrest. These other two agencies have the power of arrest. CCT can issue a warrant and the police does the arrest.

PT: What mechanisms do you have to crosscheck and be sure that what public servants declare are true or do you just rely on what people fill in those forms?

We rely on two things  what people fill and the intelligence we gather regarding what they filled. We receive petitions, but when we look at most of the petitions, they are based on frivolous reasoning; either the petitioner and the accused fell out and then one wants to write and tarnish the image of the other.

PT: But do you have a unit that investigates the claims public servants make on their asset declaration forms?

We have a unit that verifies; though we cannot verify everybody. But we verify the executive, including the ministers. We verify principal officers of the National Assembly. We verify governors in the state and local government chairmen.

PT: Dont you also verify judicial officers like the Chief Justice of the Federation?

Every public officer. So long as you draw a stipend from the federal, state and local government; you are a public officer. That is our own definition.

PT: How do you deal with some governors, who come in with almost nothing but when they are leaving office, amassed so many properties?

It is very difficult in the sense that you only hear these kind of stories but in reality they are not so. Ill give you an instance. Most people will tell you that public officers own the big buildings in this town. But nobody will send even an anonymous message saying Mr. A owns this property and we know that he does not have the capacity and legitimate means to own it. It is partly because we do not have a strong whistleblower legislation. Though the legislation is already in the pipeline, we hope that it will soon become implementable.

PT: During his maiden media chat, President Muhammadu Buhari had said you have the power to release his asset declaration document to us in PREMIUM TIMES. Would you be willing now to release the documents to us, just as the president said on live television?

I will give you a very simple answer. He said you are free but who is free? Is the CCB free? The law does not say I should release anybodys asset declaration. The document does not become public document after declaration, it is only the CCB that is allowed by the constitution to retain custody of such documents. That is what the CCB Act says. Besides, Schedule 3, Paragraph 3 (c) of the 1999 Constitution as amended says the bureau shall have power to retain custody of such declarations and make them available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria on such terms and conditions as the National Assembly may prescribe.

PT: And the National Assembly has in the Freedom of Information Act, prescribed that we can have access to such public document. In fact, we have already written to you. Would you oblige us now?

We answered you. Go and read your letter again. And we gave you answers as it was provided for in the FOI Act. Study the response again and compare it with these sections and you will know what I am talking about.

PT: Was the president wrong in insisting that the document should be made public? Remember late President Umaru YarAdua published his own based on an earlier promise. Why did you not stop him at the time?

Because he did not come to us. He just did it. And let me tell you something about late President YarAdua. He was already used to doing so even when he was governor. So for him, it was a normal thing. And he did not need anybodys advice to publish it. That was his business. It has nothing to do with me. I know one director general who has put his own asset declaration on his website. He did it willingly and he told us that he just decided to do it on his own. So, it is a matter of choice. If you are a public officer and you want everybody to know about it, you can do the same.

PT: Dont you think that is a virtue that should be encouraged?

Yes, we encourage it

PT: But if you encourage it and President Buhari said on national television that you have powers to release his own document, dont you think you would be standing on the way of probity and transparency you are talking about?

Did the president say he has written to CCB and said go and make my declarations public?

PT: Are you saying he has to write officially to CCB before you can release the document he promised to make public during electioneering campaigns?

But the President has already declared his assets his assets are there; if there is anything in it he has not disclosed, you should have asked him specific questions.
The police in Ogun State, South West Nigeria have resolved to charge a man to court for naming his dog Buhari.

Buhari is the surname of the Nigerian president, Muhammadu, who assumed office on May 29, 2015.

The spokesperson of the police in Ogun, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told PREMIUM TIMES that after investigations, the police concluded that the mans actions could cause a breach of public peace.

The Ogun State Police Command has resolved to charge the suspect to court on Monday to forestall breach of public peace which the suspects action may likely cause, Mr. Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said.

His action is a provocative one and that is why the suspect will be charged for conduct likely to cause breach of public peace, he added, saying a one-count charge would filed.

The accused, Joe Chinakwe, 30, was arrested and confined to a police cell in Sango Otta, Ogun State, for three days last week after a neighbour complained that he named his dog Buhari, Vanguard Newspaper reported.

The neighbour, who police identified as Halilu Umar from Sokoto State, reportedly told the police that Mr. Chinakwes decision was aimed at ridiculing his father who was named Alhaji Buhari.

The accused told Vanguard that he named his dog Buhari out of the personal affection he has for President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Niger Delta Avengers, the group responsible for renewed insurgency in Nigerias oil rich region, has expressed readiness for a peace deal with the federal government.

The group, in a statement posted on its website late Saturday, said its disposition to dialogue and peace deal with government was conditional. Among its condition was multi-side engagement of relevant actors, restructuring Nigeria, and a cessation of military offensive in the region.

We are going to support any collective/negotiation team emerging from the Chief (Dr.) Papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders conference to engage with the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational Oil Corporations and neutral international mediators, the group said.

Such negotiation should be focused on achieving the short, medium and long term frameworks and objectives to de-escalating conflicts in the Niger Delta, the group said in the statement by its spokesperson, Mudoch Agbinibo.

The Avengers has carried out attacks on oil and gas installations, devastating Nigerias output and revenue.

The group emerged months after former President Goodluck Jonathan lost last years re-election bid, prompting allegations the group has his support.

It has demanded a sovereign Niger Delta. On Thursday, it reaffirmed its vow to declare independence from Nigeria on October 1, a threat observers believe was not practicable.

In Saturdays statement, the militant group suggested the proposed dialogue had an easy task as previous conferences and reports enunciated how to restructure Nigeria.

Most of the frameworks and objectives are clearly stated in various reports, declarations and recommendations of the likes of the Sir Henry Willinks minority rights reports of pre-independence Nigeria (1957-8), The Kaiama Declaration document, The General Alexander Ogomudia report, The Leedum Mittee headed, Niger Delta Technical Committee report and restructuring to fiscal federalism.

Fragile Mandate

The militant group said the Edwin Clark dialogue initiative had a fragile mandate.

Our advice to our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders is that, whenever this inhuman project called Nigeria and her government is ready for dialogue/negotiations with them, this mandate should be treated with that care as driving a vehicle like that of a truck laden with fire, it said

The group added that that it would observe a ceasefire and suspend attacks on oil installations belonging to multinational oil companies. The cessation of hostilities, it said, will only be sustained on the condition Nigeria security outfits and armed forces stop counter offensive.

We are going to continue the observation of our unannounced cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta against all interest of the Multinational oil Corporations, it said. But we will continuously adopt our asymmetric warfare during this period if the Nigerian government and the ruling political APC continues to use security agencies/agents, formations and politicians to arrest, intimidate, invade and harass innocent citizens, suspected NDA members and invade especially Ijaw communities.

Therefore, we will give our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders that tacit support to the dialogue table with the government and the Multinational oil Corporations whenever the enabling environment prevails.
The Enugu State Police Command has nabbed a suspected fake prophecy syndicate that specialises in working with owners of churches to confirm prophecies in order to win more members for such churches.

This is contained in a statement signed by the commands spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu, in Enugu on Sunday.

Mr. Amaraizu said that the syndicate was nabbed at Holy Ghost park axis and popular P&T axis of Enugu metropolis by police operatives of the Central Police Station in Enugu.

He noted that the syndicate, who were nabbed on August 19 and 20 included Obi Ejike from Ubaho Okija in Ihiala Local Government in Anambra and Kuku Mary from Ijebu-ode in Ogun.

The others were Oluwakemi Joy from Ojo in Lagos State, Nwosu Chizoba from Umunze in Anambra and Peter Uchechi from Ebonyi.

The spokesman said that the syndicate was nabbed on their way to a church in Abakaliki and in Enugu to join in the fake prophecy deal before they were apprehended.

Luck ran out of the syndicate as confusion broke out at a bus-stop among them leading to arguments, which attracted the attention of police operatives.

He said the police team observed that Ejike and Joy were up to a nefarious act and on further interrogation they revealed their mission.

The spokesperson said the other group billed for Abakiliki church prophecy were trailed and nabbed at P&T bus stop while waiting for bus to Abakaliki.

Mr. Amaraizu said one of the suspects, Uchechi, maintained that they were recruited in large numbers and kept in a house in Onitsha, Anambra.

Uchechi, he said, maintained that they shuttle to various states to confirm prophecies for the purpose of winning souls for churches and were usually paid through their coordinator.

Mr. Amaraizu said Uchechi told the police that they could be detailed to go to any state but the phone number of the linkman in the church was usually provided to them.

The suspect added that the phone number would be for connectivity on arrival and that they usually dialogue with the pastor of the church on the shape the job would take.

He said they would divulge their names, nature of problem they have and other necessary information to the pastor.

They will state information which is given to the pastor of the church for his guidance and during the prophetic hours they will be among the people with the said problem that will come out, Uchechi revealed.

Uchechi said the pastor would prophesise and one of them would confirm that before the congregation after being touched and falling under the anointing.

The pastor would proclaim the problem is all over and that she has received her healing.

Some pastors use us to grow their church and we are paid later through our coordinator depending on your role, Uchechi said.

Ejike also confirmed their illicit deal while maintaining that he works hand-in-hand with the coordinator.

(NAN)
Fiery Catholic priest, Ejike Mbaka, has said that plans are being hatched to murder President Muhammadu Buhari over his uncompromising stand on corruption.

In a video message obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Mbaka urged the devotees at his popular Adoration Ground in Enugu to desist from speaking evil against the president.

So I want to tell you that so far, God is happy with Buhari. And him whom God has blessed, may you not try to accurse, because God will curse you, said the priest.

Many people are planning, as it is revealed, to kill him. There are many plans on how to eliminate his life so that corruption will continue, so that quantum embezzlement will continue.

But the Lord says God who put you there will not forsake you. Be firm, be resolute, remain focused, and be unbiased. Refuse to be intimidated and refuse to be distracted. Go ahead and war against evil. President Buhari, go ahead and war against corruption. President Buhari, God and his people are behind you, you are the answer of the prayers of the people, amen.'

PREMIUM TIMES could not ascertain the exact date of the message, but it addressed recent occurrences, including the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.

The priest attributed the hardship to past leaders who corruptly enriched themselves and their cronies, adding that all of them  from local government chairmen to presidents  ought to be in exile by now.

It doesnt matter the man of God they worship with, I tell you before God and man, all of them are wicked. They hate this country, he said.

They succeeded in removing the liver, kidneys, and cardiovascular systems of this country, and paralyzed the neurological organs and handed over to Buhari, the new president, shambles, skeleton almost, a nation that is comatic.

Nigeria right now, economically, security wise, is in the intensive care unit. If the oxygen is removed, Nigeria will go.

The entire money voted for hospitals were looted out.

Corruption was in quantum. To the level that the Nigerian bishops had to compose a prayer  Prayer against Bribery and Corruption, and assured all the Catholics to be praying that prayer every day after the Communion.

All the money voted for road constructions were swindled, eaten. Many of them became millionaires and billionaires in Naira, in Dollars, in Pounds, in Euro. Billionaires, when they have no workshop, no business centre. Somebody who has nothing hes doing, yet hes a billionaire, because hes a politician.

In the run up to the 2015 presidential election, Mr. Mbaka threw his weight behind Mr. Buhari, urging his teeming followers to cast their votes for him as the solution to the pervading corruption and insecurity in the country.

In December last year, after Mr. Buhari emerged president, he hosted the priest at the presidential villa where he praised his exemplary courage.

Controversy erupted one month later when the Catholic Church transferred Mr. Mbaka out of his parish and away from his ministry, a decision the church staunchly defended as normal church procedure.

But the priest continued to deliver his pro-Buhari messages culminating in the president felicitating with him last month as he marked 21 years of priesthood.

In his recent message, Mr. Mbaka said Mr. Buhari was Gods answer to Nigerias corruption problems.

People of God prayed from here and there, God answered our prayers and gave us Muhammadu Buhari, he said.

And I want to tell you today, God has told us that Buhari is a prayer answered. President Buhari is an answered prayer. Whether you hate him or whether you like him, Buhari is a prayer answered.

The bishops of Nigeria, the Catholics prayed against bribery and corruption and this president came with a magna charter that has to do with war against corruption.

All the prayers we have been doing against corruption, God answered that prayer through a Muslim, who decided not to discriminate.

Theres nothing like religious, racial discrimination in Buharis administration. Hes a man for all, he means good for this country, and we owe him support; unalloyed support, consistent support, perennial support, unstoppable support, spiritual and otherwise.

Mr. Mbaka also said that contrary to the criticisms of marginalization usually levelled against President Buharis administration, no section of the country is being marginalised.

Our pastnot our past leaders, our past looters, you may not understand, looters, embezzlers pissed on the political positions, have eaten the cake of this country and now everybody is suffering it, he said.

The youths are suffering it. And they want to tell you that we are marginalized. The Yorubas are not marginalized, the Hausas are not marginalized, Efik people are not marginalized, and the Igbo people are not marginalized.

In the present political scenario, Igbo people have the ministerial position for Minister for External Affairs, full portfolio, in the person of Onyeama. Igbo people have the portfolio for Science and Technology, in the person of Ogbonnaya Onu.

You go to Abia, we have the Industry and Commerce. Come over to Anambra, we have the Labour and Employment. And the problem of this country today is employment. If our youths are well employed, kidnapping will go. Kidnapping was a child of the past administration. They delivered that ugly baby, and that baby resembled them.

The priest urged the congregation to reject any claims that the Igbos were being marginalised by the current government, insisting that the present hardship is the product of intrinsically corrupt past political activities.

Many of you were intimidated and you will say what they want you to say, he said.

But that is not the case. It is my job to put your mind right. When anybody want you to say that Igbos are marginalized, dont believe it.

The Igbos in the north are doing well, and the northern people are not chasing them away. The Igbos in the Yoruba land, go to Idumota, go to Alaba, Ladipo and so on, they are treated with utter hospitality, with innovative kindness. The Yoruba people are not fighting the Igbo people, so why are we evolving a war that does not exist.

And as I said in the former message, those who are engineering this have their children abroad and they want to use our youths, unemployed and say come out of the road and begin to walk around, that Igbos are marginalized. Our roads were not done. By the end of this year, you will know who ate the money of these roads.
The Federal Government will train 500 ex-militants in agriculture and aquaculture under its amnesty programme, an official has said.

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Paul Boro, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria shortly after his visit to Bio-resources Development Centre (BIODEC), Odi in Bayelsa .

He said the would-be trainees were selected from Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

The special adviser said the training would create jobs and wealth for the youth, especially now that the country sought to diversify the economy.

According to him, 18 other ex-militants had acquired skills in aquaculture under the programme.

Mr. Boro, who is also the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, said he took a tour of the centre to monitor the progress of staff and livestock in the centre.

The amnesty office is committed to training youths to become productive in the area of agriculture and aquaculture.

We will encourage them to plan their future, study and appreciate the value of knowledge in the modern society, the retired Brigadier General said.

He promised that loans would be made available to the beneficiaries to enable them to establish businesses after the training.

(NAN)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which brought Nigeria to its present situation after 16 years of locust, lacks the moral basis and the credibility to comment on the countrys economy or condemn a government that is working hard to clear the mess left behind by the disgraced former ruling party, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Oyegun, has said.

In a statement issued by his Media Office in Abuja on Thursday, the APC chairman said it was stomach-churning and downright immoral for the ruinous PDP, which has yet to show remorse or exhibit any form of penitence for presiding over the mindless looting of the nations treasury, to now put itself up as the saviour of Nigerians.

Noting that even among thieves, there must be honour, the Chairman said Nigerians, who were now bearing the brunt of the economy that was mindlessly mismanaged by the PDP, cannot forget in a hurry that some $15 billion  which is about half of the nations foreign reserves at the end of the tenure of the PDP-led Federal Government  was mismanaged under the guise of equipping the military, when in reality the funds were largely salted away by PDP fat cats.

He said Nigerians were also not unaware that just before the last general elections, some $2.1 billion was shared out to just a few PDP faithful, either to be used for praying against Boko Haram or for phantom communication purposes, when in reality the soldiers whom the money was meant to equip were dying in droves.

The Chairman listed other instances of the massive looting of the national till under the PDP, which never differentiated between the partys finances and the Nigerian treasury, to include:

 The $20 billion in oil proceeds that was never paid into the Federation Account

 The N33 trillion in national oil revenue that was not accounted for, considering that while the nation earned in excess of N56 trillion over five years under the last Administration, the total budget for those years amounted to about N23 trillion

 The $47 million that was distributed to a few individuals just to oil the election process before the last polls.

He said while indeed it was glaring that the PDP-led Administration was profligate and rapacious, nothing prepared Nigerians for the mind-boggling discoveries that have emerged in the past one year, including the fact that just a handful of people could have plundered far more than half of what belonged to a country of over 170 million people!

What is happening now is clear: Just because the farmer has not checkmated the thief, he (thief) has become so emboldened that he is now making a move to even cage the farmer from whom he has been stealing, Mr. Oyegun said.

How else can one characterize the most annoying statement by the PDP that it is on a mission to rescue Nigeria, the tale of a killer presenting himself as a life saver! Are these people jokers? Do they think Nigerians do not realize that the stage for todays tough economic situation was set by the same PDP that is now masquerading as a saviour? Worse still, is this PDPs bold face not a ploy to distract the Administration that is on a rescue mission?

Nigeria is currently in ICU (Intensive Care Unit), after it was rescued from PDP. Yet, the same PDP has the audacity to constantly pillory the doctors trying to save the patient.

The Chairman appealed to Nigerians not to succumb to the antics of the PDP but to continue to support the efforts of the present Administration, which is working day and night to ease the impact of the tough economic situation on the citizens.

Yes, we knew the situation was bad, but we never imagined that it was this bad. Yes, we knew that the vast majority of our national patrimony had been stolen and converted by PDP and their cronies, but we clearly under-estimated the scope of the stealing. The fact that our country and people survived the PDP and the last administration is perhaps the 8th wonder of the world.

But we have long moved beyond bothering about this mindless party to seeking to bring the nation back to its feet. What we cannot fathom is for the same PDP to now be heckling us and pretending to be the new saviour of Nigerians.

Engaging in a campaign of calumny by claiming that the countrys economy under President Muhammadu Buhari was deteriorating is so unconscionable on the part of the PDP, which frittered away the huge windfall that the nation earned during the years that oil sold for over $100. Even with the number of PDP operatives and officials who have confessed or admitted their complicity in the looting of the treasury, the party has continued to try to pull the wool over the face of Nigerians.

This shameless distraction must stop forthwith, and here is serving notice that henceforth, the PDP will no longer have a field day in trying to twist facts and present the Buhari Administration, which is on an urgent rescue mission, as the villain, Mr. Oyegun warned.
Some inmates of the Abakaliki prisons who sustained gunshot injuries during the August 18 botched jailbreak are set to undergo surgery.

The prisoners are receiving treatment at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, where they were rushed after the riots.

While sources said 19 inmates died during the attempted jailbreak with 16 others injured, prison officials have said 6 inmates died with 10 others injured.

Six prison officers were (also) severely injured, the Comptroller General of Prisons, Jafaru Ahmed, said.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter saw hospitalised inmates with various body injuries. Some of the inmates were chained to their hospital beds.

Prison officials did not allow taking of pictures at the hospital.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Emeka Onwe, said all the wounded were receiving adequate treatment.

All I know is that the inmates in our hospital have gunshot injuries, whether as a result of accidental discharge or not, he said.

Our orthopaedic surgeons are working hard to carry out surgeries on the inmates to remove the bullets that penetrated the inmates during the incident.

Mr. Onwe added that none of them is in the intensive care unit, they are all at the Accident and Emergency Unit. We planning to take them into the theatre and carry out surgery on them as recommended by doctors.

During his visit to Governor David Umahi on Friday, Mr. Ahmed said no prisoner escaped during the jailbreak.

The Controller General, who had earlier inspected the prison, stated that trouble started when prison officials were about to carry out routine cell-search in the morning. He said the inmates in a particular cell resisted the exercise.

They suddenly became riotous, broke other cells and released the inmates.

They eventually broke into the workshop to arm themselves with dangerous weapons and severely attacked some staff trapped in the yard while others made for the main gate and pulled it down, he said.

Mr. Ahmed said the prisons armed squad and officials from other security agencies on guard outside the perimeter fence were firing warning shots to deter the rampaging inmates; but a number of them rushed out to escape.

The bold attempt was resisted by the combined team of armed personnel who presented what would have turned into a catastrophic security situation had the inmates succeeded in escaping, he said.

The prisons boss subsequently set up a 3-member panel to investigate the Thursday incident.

The Abakaliki prison in the Ebonyi State capital was built in 1946 with an installed capacity of 387 inmates. As at the day of the escape, the prison had a population of 920 prisoners out of which 811 were awaiting trial leaving just 109 as convicted inmates. The suspected ring leader had spent about 9 years awaiting trial, according to an official statement by the immigration service.
The 235 housing units constructed for victims of the 2012 flood disaster in Kogi are being occupied by politicians and other unintended beneficiaries, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The houses, located at Old Polytechnic Quarters, Lokoja, comprise two-bedroom and one-bedroom flats.

The estate was built with donations received from the federal government, corporate organisations and other philanthropists.

NAN, however, reports the houses had been converted to other uses including nursery and primary schools and other purposes different from what they were built for.

Some of the illegal occupants were discovered to control between two and three houses at the expense of the people they were meant for.

Some of the victims of the disaster expressed disappointment on the manner the issue was handled by previous governments in the state.

They complained that the former administration of the state had reneged on its promise to allocate the houses to them before vacating office.

Yakubu Abubakar, a victim, said he had been waiting endlessly for the house. He urged the state government to distribute them to the affected persons.

Another victim, Ohiani Gomina, said although allocation letters had been distributed to the affected persons, they could not move in due to governments failure to eject the illegal occupants.

Aminatu Saleh, also a victim, said it was disheartening that the state government could not fulfil its promise four years after the incident.

She urged the government and other stakeholders to come to their aid, alleging that most of the houses had been allocated to politicians and other influential persons.

When contacted, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Abdulkarim Abdulmalik, said Governor Yahaya Bello, was aware of the problem.

He said the problem was one of the numerous inherited from the immediate past administration, assuring that the issue would be investigated soon.

We are going to look into the matter to ensure justice, the houses belong to the victims of the 2012 flood disaster.

The victims will get the houses back, Mr. Abdulmalik said.

(NAN)
The Sokoto State Police Command on Sunday confirmed the alleged murder of a 43-year-old woman, Yemisi Adio, by her husband, Taiwo Adio.

This is contained in a statement signed by the spokesman of the command, El-mustapha Sani, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Sokoto on Sunday.

Mr. Sani said that the incident took place on Saturday at the old Airport Area of Sokoto city.

He said that the suspect had used the same pestle with which he killed his wife, to kill three other persons.

The victims, according to him, were: Rachael Adewole, 42, Dennis Adewole,10, and Esther Badelu, 14, all of the same address.

The police spokesman further said that the pestle had been recovered as an exhibit, while the case was being investigated by the commands Criminal Investigation Department.

All the corpses had been deposited at the morgue of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, for post mortem, he added.

(NAN)
The Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has expressed deep shock over the untimely death of Wariebi Abiri, son of Justice Kate Abiri, the Chief Judge of the State.

A statement issued on Sunday by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said Mr. Dickson made the lamentation after paying a condolence visit to the Chief Judge at her residence in Yenagoa.

A graduate of law and a student of the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, late Abiri reportedly died in a swimming pool last Friday night in the Federal capital Territory, Abuja.

The governor noted with regret, the circumstances under in which, the life of the young Wariebi Abiri was cut short.

According to him, the State government will collaborate with the Police and other relevant agencies, to unravel the real cause of his death.

He described the deceased as a focused and promising young man, who was clearly preparing to make a wonderful career in the law profession, adding that his demise remains a painful loss to the Abiri family and the State in general.

While urging the family to see what has happened as the will of God, Dickson prayed God to strengthen them and grant the grace and fortitude to bear the loss.

As a Government, be rest assured that, we will stand with you shoulder to shoulder in this very very challenging period, especially in working with the Police and other relevant agencies of the Government to unearth the real cause of his death, he stated.
Four years after the 2012 flood disaster in parts of Edo, many displaced person are still staying in public buildings in the affected local government areas, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

Five villages, Daba, Anegbette, Oghomere, Udochi and Ukepeko in Etsako Central Local Government Area were displaced by the disaster.

Similarly, houses and food crops worth millions of Naira were destroyed, leaving the residents with no option than to relocate to public buildings.

Although some have moved out of the camps, many who had no option are still at the temporary camps.

However, to relocate such villagers and provide shelter to victims of similar disaster in the future, the federal government decided to construct a resettlement camp at Oghomere-Ekperi.

The Coordinator of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Edward Osigbeme, while fielding questions from NAN in Benin, said the camp would be completed soon.

He said the project had reached 90 per cent completion level, adding, the project will be handed over to state government in the next few weeks.

He said some of the facilities provided at the camp include single rooms, one bedroom apartments, open dormitory, boreholes, stores, relaxation centres, and security post.

The site engineer, Lucky Iyamah, also confirmed that the camp had reached 90 per cent completion level.

The camp is almost completed, what is left is not much. The camp will be ready in the next few months, Mr. Iyamah said.

The Egiegbai of Ekperi, Deke Kanoba, who commended the federal government for the project, urged the affected persons to be patient.

He said the federal government was working hard to complete the project.

One of the affected persons, Aidun Uduko, also thanked the government for the project and appeal for its immediate completion for them to move in.

(NAN)
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has lent his voice to those of other Nigerians calling for the restructuring of the country. He said it was strange that the All Progressives Congress, APC, which was at the fore-front of the agitation for true federalism was now against restructuring as the ruling party.

The governor, who hailed the position expressed last Thursday by the Southwest APC, said the party, must now go beyond playing to the gallery and set machineries in motion to restructure the country.

In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday by his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, Mr. Fayose said under the present APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria is returning to full-blown unitary system of government.

He also said It is on record that the APC said at a debate on Addressing

the rising insecurity in Nigeria, what is the master plan? organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) on December 18, 2014, that it would ensure true federalism and ensure adequate community policing through the establishment of state-controlled police so as to curb the protracted security challenges in the country.

Sad enough, now that it is the ruling party, the APC is no longer talking about true federalism, especially the state police that it canvassed while in the opposition.

Governor Fayose, who said states must be strengthened for the country to develop, noted that; Nigeria developed faster in the fifties and sixties when it was practicing confederal system of government, with the regions running its own affairs almost autonomously.

A situation where there are mineral resources in a state and the state cannot do anything about them without approval from the federal government will not foster the development that we all yearn for.

A situation where the federal government has turned itself into lord and master over other federating units in the country, using federal agencies to oppress even state governors is not acceptable.

It was in this spirit that the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government organized a National Conference in 2014 and far-reaching decisions were made by eminent Nigerians during the conference.

Sad enough, we are now being told by our president that report of the conference has been thrown into the dustbin of history. This is not good enough, coming from a president, whose party promised restructuring, including establishment of State Police.

It will therefore serve the collective interest of Nigeria and its people for the report of the 2014 National Conference to be considered by President Buhari with a view to, once and for all resolve the various national questions that are holding down the country.
Presidential Palace (photo by Krzysztof Sitkowski / KPRP)

Economic cooperation and Eastern policy will be the focus of talks between Polish President Andrzej Duda and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev who starts a two-day visit to Poland on Monday.

"The presidents will sign and announce an extensive declaration on economic cooperation between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Poland", presidential aide Krzysztof Szczerski has told PAP.

He added that the declaration would concern cooperation in energy, transport, space research, science, technology, finance, environmental protection and agriculture.

The two countries' agriculture ministries will sign an agreement on exports, Szczerski also said, adding that Poland would like to see joint investments with Kazakhstan in the public sector.

Eastern policy and building stability and peace in the East will be another topic of the visit, according to the presidential aide. "We had a pause in top-level contacts, whereas Kazakhstan plays an important role in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) system. It is important to Poland to discuss security and peaceful cooperation within Eastern policy with Kazakhstan", Szczerski told PAP.

The two presidents will take part in the Polish-Kazakh Economic Forum at which a number of agreements will be signed between the countries and between companies.

During his visit President Nazarbayev will also meet with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and Senate Speaker Stanislaw Karczewski.

Poland exports mainly machinery and chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, to Kazakhstan. The main Polish imports from Kazakhstan are mineral products (including petroleum products). (PAP)
BORGATAS EVENT CENTER // 8 P.M. SUNDAY, AUG. 28

WHO IS HE: Hannibal Buress is a stand-up comedian and actor from Chicago who released his first comedy album My Name is Hannibal in 2010 after appearing on Comedy Centrals The Awkward Comedy Show. He worked as a writer for both Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, stars in Broad City and co-hosts The Eric Andre Show on Adult Swim. In October of 2014 Buress was thrust into the national spotlight after discussing the hypocrisy of Bill Cosbys good-guy image despite rape allegations during one of his shows. Video of the routine went viral.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Hannibal Buress is one of the hottest comedians on the scene, having proven himself on television, film and in comedy clubs and theaters all over the country. His comedy style is edgy, uncompromising and brutally honest. His willingness to take on the previously untouchable Bill Cosby is an example of this. On Sunday night he comes to Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa to slay the audience as only he can.

WHATS NEW: Buress recently appeared in an episode of the Adult Swim show Childrens Hospital.

SHOW INFO: Tickets are $45, 455 and $65.
They may not be transporting students over the summer, but Integrity Transportation buses are still working hard.

Parked at locations around Atlantic County, they are serving as giant billboards advertising jobs for school bus drivers.

Its always been a little tight, said Joe Duncan, owner of Integrity. But it got worse last year. We can always use more drivers.

New and more demanding federal regulations for commercial drivers licenses led to a higher failure rate on the CDL driving test, increasing from 33 percent to 57 percent in the year since the more comprehensive test for all CDLs took effect in July 2015, Motor Vehicle Commission data show.

How towns with public preschool recruit to boost enrollment MILLVILLE  The little boy riding his scooter around an apartment parking lot on Dock Street

The state also closed the CDL testing site in Mays Landing, which could not accommodate the new road test, forcing drivers to travel to Cherry Hill or Winslow Township in Camden County. MVC spokeswoman Mairin Bellack said the commission has provided outreach to help train trainers and is working with school bus companies to conduct bulk testing.

In addition to the license, drivers must pass a physical and a criminal background check. The entire process can take as long as three months.

Duncan said Integrity upgraded its training program and now has a 90 percent pass rate on the test. But recruiting new drivers for what is essentially a part-time job with slightly odd hours can be tough.

Its a great job to make some supplemental income, Duncan said. But its not a full-time job.

Other area school transportation coordinators also need more drivers, especially subs, who can often work daily.

Vineland school district transportation coordinator Joseph Callavini said the district raised pay rates three times to $15 an hour in an effort to recruit drivers. He could use at least 15 more drivers and, like other companies, offers driver training.

What role do satellite campuses play in economic development? Kim Conner sees more than bricks and steel rising at High and Vine streets in Millville.

Its the only way to survive, he said. It takes so long to pass the test. If someone starts now, they wont get a date for the road test until November.

Warren Skip Fipp, transportation coordinator for the Egg Harbor Township school district, needs drivers to fill in as substitutes. He said if they stick with it, they could move into a contracted position that includes the districts health benefits.

I have 13 subs now, and I use them every day, he said. The transportation department mechanics and office staff also have their CDLs so they can be backup drivers if needed.

Its not their main job, but I dont ever want to have a route with no driver, he said.

Manuel Cabegin of Sheppard Bus Service said not having enough drivers can make companies more reluctant to fire a driver who is subpar since they never want to leave a bus route uncovered.

Our owner has even covered runs, Cabegin said.

EHT pays $17.60 per run, and a driver typically makes three runs in the morning and three in the afternoon, each taking about an hour. Fipp said they want people ideally who live in or know the township roads, and live close enough to respond quickly to fill the early morning runs.

He knows the job, with its split shift, is not ideal, and some subs will only work the morning, or the afternoon, especially if they have another job.

But it really is the perfect job for a retiree with a good driving record, he said. His drivers have included retired military and law-enforcement personnel, including a former police chief.

The job has also traditionally appealed to mothers looking for a part-time job that has the same calendar as their childrens school year  off on holidays and summers, during which they may be able to collect unemployment depending on their job status.

While its not a requirement, it helps a lot to like children.

You can last a week or 10 years, Duncan said. Drivers do get attached to their children. We try to keep people on the same routes and on routes that are close to their homes.

The expansion of Sheppard Bus into Atlantic County has hurt some companies.

First Student is closing its bus yard in the county after being outbid. About 65 people lost jobs, including some drivers.

Duncan said he picked up a few drivers from that company, as did Sheppard. Drivers will often move to the company that won the contracts hoping to stay on their same routes, and Cabegin said Sheppard did hire drivers who drove the routes they picked up.

Cabegin said they got new drivers when casinos closed and that people like the stability of knowing they have a job, even if it is part time.

It may not be full-time, but its guaranteed work every year, he said. Children will always need to get bused to school.

Contact: 609-272-7241

Twitter @ACPressDamico
MILLVILLE  The little boy riding his scooter around an apartment parking lot on Dock Street stopped in surprise when he saw the small group of women approaching his neighbors door.

What are you doing here? he asked the group of teachers, some of whom he recognized from the preschool program at the Child Family Center.

Kathy Parent, a master teacher in the Millville school districts preschool program, explained they were looking for families that might have a 3-year-old or 4-year-old who could attend the program.

As schools prepare to open next month, Millville is facing decreased enrollment in its preschool program. Staff is stepping up efforts to spread the word that the district offers something available in only 31 school districts in the state  totally free full-day preschool for both 3- and 4-year-olds.

We used to do this in the beginning when we were building the program, Child Family Center Principal JoAnn Burns said of the neighborhood canvassing staff did Wednesday. But then at one point we had waiting lists and also placed children in six private centers. Now were down to just us, Head Start and the Millville Day Care Center.

Should kindergartners get suspended? A kindergarten student at the New York Avenue School in Atlantic City has been out of school

Families are leaving Millville, said Peter Bybel Jr., owner of Rieck Avenue Day Care, which just a few years ago housed four public preschool classes and was just notified by the school district that he will get none this year. Hes hoping to supplement with day care subsidies through a program run by Rutgers Child Care Resource and Referral Service. His summer program has almost 150 children.

Public preschool in New Jersey began in the late 1990s as part of the Supreme Court ruling in the Abbott vs. Burke case. Research had shown children in poor, urban districts entered kindergarten as much as 18 months behind their suburban peers. The 31 former Abbott districts, including Millville, Vineland, Bridgeton and Pleasantville, all got state-funded preschool.

Statewide efforts to expand preschool to all low-income children resulted in about another 110 districts getting some funding, though most just accept 4-year-olds and some are just a half-day. But expansion stalled in the recession. In 2015, about 51,000 children attended public preschool in New Jersey, about 43,000 of them in the 31 urban Abbott districts.

Burns said because most districts dont have preschool, new families dont know its available or what its like.

Some parents will say 3 is too young to start school, she said. They dont understand preschool is different.

W. Steven Barnett, executive director of the National Institute for Early Education Research in New Jersey, said since the state has not actively promoted preschool expansion, it has fallen on the districts to make the extra effort. He said they must use a variety of ways to reach immigrant families and those new to the state.

You need parent and community engagement to show the importance of an early start, he said. Some parents dont think they need to read to very young children or talk about numbers.

Bridgeton Superintendent Thomasina Jones said her district took steps to boost pre-K enrollment and is currently at 98 percent capacity. Among their outreach efforts are parent nights to educate families on the value of preschool, neighborhood walks, a preschool expo and participation in community and church events. Fliers are given to local businesses.

We typically have a waiting list, Jones said.

Should N.J. expand public preschool? Teacher Lauren McBride sat on the floor of a classroom at the Casimer M. Dallago Early Child

On Wednesday, groups of Millville teachers fanned out in the citys housing projects and neighborhoods armed with signs, fliers and registration forms.

Parent and her group of Alice Bird, Erin Garrison, Maria Stoerrle and Donna Makos canvassed the area around the Wood School where Parent once taught. She is stunned by how many homes are vacant or boarded up.

You dont notice it as much when you drive by, she said.

They start at a small complex where a family has an incomplete registration form, but no one is home. They chat with another parent who has a toddler but says she knows someone with children old enough for the program.

Robin Collins-Johnson, a family services worker with the state Department of Children and Families who lives in the area, points out a few more homes where she knows there are children.

I tell parents about the preschool program all the time, she said. A lot of parents do think they have to wait until kindergarten, and some think their children are too young or not ready for school.

Parent said preschool is crucial to preparing children for kindergarten.

Weve had children come in with no language skills at all, she said. Theyre barely speaking.

A study in the early 2000s found that children from professional families knew twice as many words by age 4 as children with parents on welfare. That language gap persisted as they grew, making it harder for poor children to succeed in school.

The teachers walked up and down side streets almost abandoned on the hot, muggy afternoon. They kept an eye out for homes with strollers or toys, dodged a couple of dogs, found a couple of families that had already registered for preschool and left fliers tucked in many doors.

They talked about other options for spreading the word, including pediatricians offices, churches and setting up tables outside Wal-Mart or grocery stores.

One young mom, who recognized a teacher, said she has a 2-year-old who may have learning issues. He could be eligible for early intervention services.

After almost two hours, the group returned to the Child Family Center, where they met up with the others and tallied up their results. Overall, they found maybe 25 new children who could be registered. At a maximum class size of 15, that could fill two more classrooms.

New playground a learning tool for AC preschoolers ATLANTIC CITY _ Students at the Brighton Avenue School got a new learning tool Friday and th

Burns said they do get last-minute registrations but will still have room. Currently there are about 550 students registered, and typically the center handles more than 600. Signs have been posted around town and an all-call announcement sent out by phone.

Burns said she met a mother and child from Bridgeton while she was out recruiting and gave her the number for the Bridgeton program.

I was bummed she wasnt from Millville, she said. But our goal is to get all children in preschool, no matter where they live.

Contact: 609-272-7241

Twitter @ACPressDamico
For years, wine cocktails have gotten a bad rap. Hear the term, and you might vaguely remember college days filled with wine spritzers and bottled wine coolers, the alcohol cut with sparkling water or teeth-jarring sweeteners, with flavorings both natural and otherwise, the beverages a color palette ranging from soft pastels to vibrant neons. Or maybe you think of sangria, at times a syrupy-sweet wine infused with any of a number of herbs and spices, a daily dose of chopped fresh fruit taking up otherwise valuable real estate in each glass.

"There's so much more to wine cocktails," says Darwin Pornel, lead bartender at Faith & Flower in downtown Los Angeles, than most people immediately think. For Pornel, incorporating wine in cocktails is all about balance and finding the right harmony in the glass. "When adding wine, you're looking for flavors that work together. It's not just about topping something with Champagne.

"I wanted to do something different," he says.

Different for Pornel and his bartenders came in the form of a rye whiskey cocktail - not exactly a typical vehicle for wine. The Parade Route, made with Rittenhouse rye whiskey shaken with lemon juice, simple syrup and bitters, then finished with sparkling rose wine, was a way for him to draw drinkers outside their comfort zone.

"It's amazing, because such a wide demographic orders it. You have the rye drinkers, but also the rose drinkers," he notes. "Rittenhouse is very aggressive - it's got a lot of spice. And the rose is nice on its own, but it's really nice paired with the rye. It's a perfect drink for summer."

At the Cannibal in Culver City, head bartender Dan McClary features a drink called Rhum With a View. Served in a Champagne coupe, the drink - inspired by the bartender's trips to the island of Martinique - features two types of rum sourced from a single type of sugar cane, along with fresh guava puree, the drink rounded out with sparkling wine. "The addition of dry sparkling wine simply lifts up the guava a bit, and brightens the cocktail," McClary notes.

For the wine component of the drink, the Cannibal's wine director, Karina Turtzo, decided to use Elbling, a sparkling wine from the upper Mosel, an extension of the Paris basin. "It's somewhat neutral," Turtzo says, "but the Kimmeridgian soil imparts a specific minerality, resulting in a current of citrus flavors and a salinity that blends with the guava and kicks this cocktail up quite a bit."

At Paper or Plastik in West Los Angeles, wine and beer curator Phillip "Mikey" Mikell knows how much, in both wine and food, centers around pleasing different palates. "One customer I've always had a hard time pleasing is the nonwine drinker. My father is a nonwine drinker."

Mikell, who once lived along the coast of northern Spain, recently visited with his father. As they toured Spain and then Portugal, Mikell tried to get his father to enjoy the local wines - but to no avail. That is, until they ended up at Oporto's Sandeman Cellars. There, Mikell's father fell in love with the sangria, which a server finally admitted was a simple mixture of ruby port, Sprite and a little orange juice.

Once back in L.A. aiming to re-create the drink, Mikell tried various ratios of the soda, wine and juice, finding nothing that approximated the taste in Oporto. Until he finally tried adding ginger beer.

For Mikell, the ginger beer made all the difference, as it is less sweet than lemon-lime-flavored sodas and provides a higher dynamic in flavor profile. "Unlike Spanish-style sangrias that are made in large quantities and must cure in a vat, this Port wine sangria is made fresh to order by the glass or pitcher. It lacks the harsh tannins present when introducing fruit." Regarding ABV, "since we start with a 20 percent wine, the result is an 8 percent cocktail that hides its booze well."

When he's not serving the drink at the restaurant, Mikell will make a pitcher to bring to a party or gathering. Simple to make and transport, "it's the perfect summertime cocktail."
The fictional Kit Marshall is back with another Capitol Hill murder mystery to solve.

Readers were introduced to Marshall in 2015, when Colleen J. Shogan, a senior executive at the Library of Congress, published the first book in her Washington Whodunit series, "Stabbing in the Senate."

Now Marshall is back as the legislative director for a freshman congresswoman from North Carolina in Shogan's second book, "Homicide in the House," released in June.

During a shutdown over government funding, Marshall navigates the creepy, cold empty halls of the Capitol to find the killer in a crime that her boss has been accused of.

"She understands Congress a little bit better as an institution," Shogan, 40, said of Marshall. "She's starting to figure out the different career paths that she may want to take within Congress  I think you see this a lot with Congressional staff - it's very natural."

The novel may be particularly interesting to those familiar with Capitol Hill jaunts and hot spots - and unfortunately familiar with government shutdowns - but also gives enough background into the world of a staffer that an outsider can enjoy it too.

Before her job at the Library of Congress, Shogan was deputy director of the Congressional Research Service and was a Senate staffer.

"Those were all my experiences," she said. "All the House side restaurants and bars are really also the restaurants and bars people that work in the Library of Congress go to."

The scenery in Shogan's second book was very easy to write, she said, "because whenever I go out to lunch with friends or colleagues that I work with, I go to all those spots."

Shogan based her second book on the House side of Congress to mix things up for both the reader and Marshall.

"It just seemed like the natural progression to have my main character, Kit, move from the Senate over to the House," she said.

A legislative director is a bit higher position than that of a low-level Senate staffer, the job Marshall had in the first book.

"So now she's managing people and in a position of authority  so that can create all kinds of other difficulties for her," Shogan said.

Shogan is currently outlining the plot of her fourth book. With her busy work schedule, she finds time to write in the evenings, when she tries to put aside an hour a night, or on weekends.

"I don't stress out about it. It's not my full time job. It's supposed to be fun," she said.

Shogan gave HOH some insight into the third book, which will most likely be released in summer 2017. It's set off the Hill at Washington's elite Cosmos Club and is tentatively titled, "Calamity at the Cosmos Club."

"Kit's going to find herself using a lot of the historical sites in Washington, D.C., like the Smithsonian museums, the Archives and Mount Vernon," she said.
ATLANTIC CITY  The women and men of nondenominational Resurrection New Covenant Church held a yard sale and fish fry Saturday that benefited both the people who stopped to buy something and the church.

On the tables were items selling for $1, $2, $5 and $10 in the front lawn of Adrienne Hunters house on North Indiana Avenue. The first thing that was sold at 10 a.m. was the biggest bargain of the day.

Hunter sold her 32-inch, flat-screen TV for $10.

"I wasn't using it," Hunter said. "It wanted it to be a blessing for someone."

Twenty members of the churchs womens fellowship group banded together to collect items that could be sold, Hunter said.

Most of it is brand new, said Hunter, who said women received gifts they were not planning on using and donated them to the yard sale. The goal was to raise $500.

Hunters donations included glasses, dishes, a mirror and toys.

Sandra Taylor, 67, traveled from Egg Harbor Township to support the sale. Taylor, who was born and raised in the city, was looking at a glass sculpture that was engraved with Love Never Fails. She also had her eye on an ornament that showed children marching.

They have a lot of very nice stuff, Taylor said.

The yard sale attracted more than just church members. Debbie Brown, who knew several of the women from their youth at Atlantic City High School, drove from Delaware to attend the event. She bought candle holders, a crystal bowl and made a donation to the church.

Stephen Caldwell Sr.s house, which was couple of doors down from Hunters, was the location of the fish fry. He also had garage sale items available for purchase on his front lawn. For $6, people received two pieces of fish that could have been sold for $6 a piece.

The money raised is to help the church on Baltic Avenue continue to do its ministry work. It was the churchs second fundraiser in two months. Last month, a party was held at King Pin Bowling in Egg Harbor Township.

Contact: 609-272-7202

Twitter @ACPressJackson
BURLINGTON CITY (AP)  Police in Burlington City say a gunman is at large after a shooting that left a man dead and a 5-year-old girl injured.

The shooting happened just before 7 p.m. Saturday.

WPVI-TV in Philadelphia reports (http://6abc.cm/2bD5QCv ) that a 24-year-old man was shot in the head. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The girl is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Police tell the TV station she may not have been shot, but hurt in some other way.

Authorities believe the gunman has escaped on foot. Officers from several police departments are conducting searches in backyards and wooded areas.
SMITHVILLE  Upon hearing the thumping of the drum and piping of the fife, unsuspecting passersby stopped to gaze at the spectacle.

Dressed in red coats and donning tri-cornered hats, the Smithville Fife and Drum Corps was on hand for the third of four summer appearances at Historic Smithville Sunday.

The corps has been playing Smithville for the last 18 years.

The village is a colonial village and we wanted to have something that is an attraction that people talk about and will remember, said owner Tony Coppola Sr. How often do you hear a fife and drum corps play?

Coppola and his wife, Fran, purchased the property 20 years ago with Charles and Laura Bushar.

He said that over the years, the corps has gotten smaller and smaller.

Unfortunately, people just dont study the fife anymore, Coppola said. Were trying to recruit some new people.

But on Sunday, 12-year-old Megan Faucett of Cherry Hill took a turn on the fife for the first time. As part of the days event, the corps paraded around the village playing patriotic music and allowing children to try their hand at the historical instruments.

That was fun! said Faucett, who was on a day trip with her mother, Susan, and grandfather, Len Rykaczewski.

Faucett said she plays the flute, and was excited that the corps gave her a fife to keep. She said she would take it back to show her music instructor.

Its really introducing them to touching an instrument they never thought about touching, corps member Jane Macey said.

The corps on Sunday consisted of Ray Eyler, his daughter, Karen; Macey, and Tim Merrill, all of Audubon, as well as Somers Point resident Charles Dreher.

The corps started in Philadelphia in 1975, getting ready for the bicentennial, explained Ray Eyler, who leads the group.

One of the members at the time owned a shop in Smithville, which is how they came to play at the village.

This is historical, too, Eyler said, noting that Revolutionary troops came through the area.

He said that the corps not only inspires patriotism, but also teaches about the tuning of the tension ropes on the drums, and what exactly a fife is  a small, flute-like instrument.

Eyler said there arent many fife and drum corps in the US, although there are many in Connecticut.

For Macey and Karen Eyler, the two began their interest in drumming from a very young age, participating in a all-girl drum corps growing up in Audubon.

Macey said she got out of it for a while, but returned to the hobby after her children were grown, which is where she met her husband, Merrill.

As they played Sunday, crowds formed around the quintet, many taking out their cell phones to record the moment.

Its just patriotic, said Calvin Soden of Little Egg Harbor Township.

He and his wife, Inessa, said they come to Smithville often so they have seen the corps before, but they still stopped to take it in.

It creates the sense of historical meaning in our little community, Inessa Soden said.

And reminds me of freedom, Calvin Soden added.

Contact: 609-272-7251
It is said George Washington reminded us, "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

Although we presently have dedicated men and women willing to serve, we are at risk of losing future generations if we don't heed the lessons of Washington. When a local veteran sets himself on fire in front of a VA clinic because he couldn't get the treatment he earned and needed and at the same time we have 2,000 homeless veterans in New Jersey, we must ask ourselves if the care and appreciation of veterans equals the commitment and sacrifice they have made. Clearly we must do better if we want to earn the privilege to have dedicated men and women volunteering to enlist to fight for the country in the future.

Under a recently enacted law, I believe New Jersey made a payment forward to the next generation of servicemen and women by helping insure no veteran is homeless.

Since 2001, over 16,000 men and women of New Jersey's National Guard, Air Guard and Reserve have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Each firmly believing in the ideals of the nation and its commitment to defeating terrorism. Their ability to focus on their missions will be sharpened if they believe we at home have their back. While they are gone, we must do everything to help look after their families and their jobs and when they return, we need to assist them in transitioning fully back to civilian life.

I'm proud of the outpouring of appreciation we give these heroes at patriotic events throughout the year. However, gratitude for their service must go beyond words of thanks - as welcomed as they are - and fancy speeches. Underneath the uniform, these heroes are human beings with serious and pressing needs. It's heartbreaking to hear a veteran, like George Benner from Somers Point, say, "I didn't know where to go. I didn't know what to do." Benner, a veteran of the Vietnam War, reached a moment in his life when he had no job and no home and no answers. Benner didn't ask for a parade. He didn't ask to be part of a photo-op. He asked for help. Moreover, when World War II veterans are still expected to ride three hours on a bus with no bathroom to Wilmington, Delaware, just to see a VA doctor, it's obvious we have a lot more work to do.

Recently, New Jersey channeled the right energy into helping veterans transition into civilian life by providing priority status for them and their spouses when seeking affordable housing. A law that directs a state agency to "promulgate regulations" for veterans doesn't make a glamorous headline, but it provides the substantive steps needed to solve the problem. Of course, beyond reducing the number of homeless veterans, we have to continue directing energy into, say, a universal health card that will allow a veteran to receive medical attention from local doctors and hospitals instead of going to Delaware, a common sense change that could be arranged at no additional charge to the taxpayer. Another way to properly show appreciation for veterans is, when convening a Task Force for Veterans Diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Disorder, that it not only meets but takes action.

No one asked for my party affiliation or that of my fellow soldiers when we shipped out to the Persian Gulf. Nor does either party have the market cornered on ideas on how best to care for veterans. Addressing veterans' health and material needs is vital. However, properly appreciating and caring for veterans starts with treating the heroes as human beings, and not minimizing their defense of the country to sound bites for partisan purposes.

Veterans chose to endure hardships so others would not have to. Veterans' services are measures to make these heroes whole again as best we can so they can live normal lives with their families. If we want future generations of young men and women to take up arms in defense of the country, then we have to be equal in the task of caring for them when they return.

Assemblyman Chris Brown, of Ventnor, is a decorated combat veteran.
On Feb. 14, 1979, less than one month after the shah of Iran's exile, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was overrun by Iranian militants. Within hours, it was returned to U.S. hands. Now on notice that U.S. diplomats were stationed at a vulnerable outpost in a sea of anti-Americanism, the Carter administration considered, but rejected, closing the embassy. In October, President Carter permitted the shah - despised by Iranians and the regime that replaced his - to enter the United States. Days later, Iranians climbed the embassy gates again, took the Americans there hostage and demanded the shah's return, beginning a 444-day crisis.

There are no do-overs in history, but there are lessons. The 1979 hostage crisis should have taught us the importance of proactively responding to obvious threats and removing vulnerable targets - a lesson that should be applied now to U.S. nuclear weapons based in Turkey.

After a faction within the Turkish military tried to overthrow the Turkish government last month, one of the many arrested in the attempted coup was a commanding officer at the Incirlik Air Base. That base, according to numerous media reports, is a major NATO installation hosting one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons in Europe.

What if the Turkish base commander at Incirlik had ordered his troops surrounding the perimeter of the base to turn their guns on the American soldiers who reportedly guard U.S. nuclear storage bunkers there?

What if anti-American Turkish protesters, believing that the U.S. was behind the coup plot and that it was harboring the coup leader (ominously reminiscent of how Iranians felt about America and the shah 37 years ago), decided to march on Incirlik chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans (as has actually happened) and take over the base?

The coup aside, what if Islamic State militants were to attack Incirlik? In March, the Pentagon reportedly ordered military families out of southern Turkey, primarily from Incirlik, because of terrorism-related security concerns.

While we've avoided disaster so far, we have ample evidence that the security of U.S. nuclear weapons stored in Turkey can change literally overnight. Now fully aware of the dangers, the Obama administration should remove any remaining nuclear weapons from Turkey - and the next president should remove all U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe.

Granted, as one American analyst has pointed out, any U.S. nuclear weapons stored in Turkey "would be defended by ferociously well-trained and well-equipped American troops. Maintaining control of the weapons would be the top priority if seizure was ever threatened, with all of America's military power put to the task." Well, if that's the case being made to President Barack Obama, he should ask: Why would I or any American president take that risk?

Nuclear deterrence does not require the U.S. to store nuclear bombs in Turkey, or elsewhere in Europe.

As was the case in 1979, the warning bells are ringing.

Steve Andreasen was director for defense policy and arms control on the White House National Security Council staff from 1993 to 2001.
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.




Mr. Schindel found that a special filming technique was needed to faithfully transfer the artwork of children's picture books from page to screen. He developed the iconographic style of filmmaking, in which original artwork from an open book glides in front of a motion picture camera, giving the still imagery cinematic life. By moving the pictures at deliberate, controlled speeds, the camera captures the mood and action that the illustrator conveyed on the pages of the book.

Born in Orange, NJ in 1918, Schindel moved to New York City after college and worked as a clerk in Stern's Department Store. In 1941, he founded ELMOR Manufacturing Company, a machine shop, but he battled tuberculosis and in 1944-45, moved to Saranac Lake, NY to convalesce. In 1949-50 he tried his hand at film, but the company he worked for, Teaching Films, went bankrupt and he became an independent producer. In 1951, he was recruited to serve as Film Officer and Attache in the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and then returned to Connecticut in 1953 to launch Weston Woods Studios. The company struggled in the early years, but in 1966, the federal government passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the first school libraries were opened. Weston Woods' sales quadrupled overnight.

As the company grew in profitability, it also gained prestige, receiving an Academy Award nomination for best animated short in 1984 for "Doctor DeSoto," based on the children's book "Doctor Desoto" by William Steig, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video in 1996 for "Owen," based on "Owen" by Kevin Henkes. In 1996, Weston Woods Studios was acquired by Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, with Mr. Schindel staying on as an advisor to Weston Woods, which has gone on to produce more than 200 additional films based on the books of Scholastic and all publishers. Produced by Paul Gagne, Linda Lee and three others who were on Schindel's original team, these films have been honored with innumerable prizes including 15 Carnegie Medals awarded by the American Library Association for best video of the year based on a children's book.

Richard Robinson, chairman, president and CEO of Scholastic, said, "Mort Schindel not only founded the art form and business of creating films based on outstanding children's books, he also helped generations of teachers and librarians understand how they could reach more children with these great stories through the medium of film, video and television. He pioneered this important art form by working with hundreds of authors and illustrators including Maurice Sendak, William Steig and Robert McCloskey, winning their support by making creative films like Where the Wild Things Are, Blueberries for Sal, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and The Amazing Bone, which adhered absolutely to the spirit and story of the original printed work."

Morton Schindel never stopped innovating. From 1982 to 2016, Schindel served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Weston Woods Institute, a non-profit organization for the support of innovative techniques for educational and cultural communications with children. In 1996, he founded Mediamobiles, Inc., a company that developed mobile multimedia learning environments.

Mr. Schindel received numerous awards and honors including The Regina Medal, awarded each year for a lifetime contribution to the field of children's literature, the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Education Technology, The Action for Children's Television Hall of Fame Award and the American Libraries Services for Children Lifetime Achievement Award for "reaching children from the hills of Appalachia to the suburbs of Tokyo with books, films, stories and songs." He also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Teachers College, Columbia University as the only graduate "who never earned a dime as a librarian or a classroom teacher," but nonetheless became "a teacher to millions."

Mort Schindel loved to share advice with his colleagues, advising them to "find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Because he worked with "beautiful works of art and a wonderful parade of people," he said, "Who could have it better? I wouldn't trade my life with anyone."

Mr. Schindel graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics and received his Masters in Curriculum and Teaching at Columbia Teachers College. He is survived by his wife, Cari Best of CT, a sister, Elaine Martens of NJ, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160821/399866

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100907/SCHOLASTICLOGO

SOURCE Scholastic Inc.

Related Links

http://www.scholastic.com


Ankara, Aug 18 : Three civilians were killed and 40 others injured in a car bombing and gunfire attacks on the police headquarters in Turkey's Van province of Van, officials said.

Police said the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants carried out the attack on Wednesday night, Xinhua news agency reported.

The injured were mostly civilians including two police officials.
Dhaka, Aug 20 : A massive fire broke out at an apparel factory in Bangladesh on Saturday.

The five-storey building of Tropical Knitex at Gazipur district's Kaliyakoir area, was engulfed in a blaze around 12.45 a.m., bdnews24 quoted a fire service official as saying.

The fire started at the second-floor of the building and later spread to the other areas.

"A huge amount of yarn and fabrics stored in the factory have been completely gutted," an official said.

At least 13 tenders rushed to the spot and were trying to douse the fire.

"It seems we will need a few more hours to put out the fire completely," the official added.

The official noted that they were yet to assess the damage and an electrical malfunction might have caused the fire.
A 4.1 magnitude earthquake struck South Korea's central county of Goesan on Saturday, the weather agency said, with no damage or casualties reported so far. The quake occurred i...

Flights from Seoul's Gimpo International Airport to Osaka and Taipei will resume later this week, the state-run airport operator here said Saturday, more than two years after the r...
Pyongyang, Aug 20 : North Korea on Saturday said Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho defected to South Korea to escape punishment.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, Efe news reported.

North Korea had recalled Thae in June to put him under investigation and on July 12 Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, a report said.

North Korea also slammed South Korea's coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish Pyongyang's image and step up anti-North Korea campaigns.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that Britain ignored North Korea's request to send Thae back, but instead handed him over to South Korea.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday that North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to South Korea with his family.

If it was true, Thae would become the highest ranking North Korean diplomat who has fled to Seoul.
Jammu, Aug 21 : Oil tanker operators supplying petroleum products to Kashmir and Ladakh went on an indefinite strike on Sunday, alleging that they were being targeted by mobs in the Valley.

"In view of repeated attacks on the oil tankers and merciless beating of drivers and cleaners by miscreants in the Valley, all Jammu and Kashmir oil tanker operators have decided to suspend petrol, diesel and kerosene oil supplies," Anand Sharma, president of Jammu and Kashmir Petrol Tanker Owners Association told the media here on Saturday evening.

Sharma alleged that the failure of security agencies to protect drivers, cleaners and tankers had forced the association to take this decision.

"Oil tanker drivers have been targeted for the last several days in the Valley. Two tanker drivers were mercilessly beaten by a mob near Khannabal in Anantnag district on Saturday. Both arms of the drivers were fractured. The vehicles were also badly damaged," he said, adding, "At least a dozen tankers have been damaged so far."

"The government has totally failed to ensure security to the drivers and vehicles operating there," Sharma alleged.

On Friday, panic had gripped people in the Valley when rumours spread saying the authorities had decided to suspend fuel supplies to the Valley.

Baseer Khan, Kashmir Divisional Commissioner had denied the rumours saying adequate security would be provided to oil tanker operators to ensure uninterrupted supply to the Valley.

The decision of the oil tanker owners association to go on a strike is likely to plunge the Valley into a fuel crisis at a time when the authorities are battling an unrest that has so far left 67 people dead and nearly 5,000 injured.
Seoul, Aug 21 : North Korea on Sunday slammed the largest-ever artillery drill conducted by the South Korean military as a grave provocation that was endangering regional peace.

Uriminzokkiri, North Korea's main internet-based media and propaganda website, said the exercise carried out along the demilitarised zone that separates the two countries on Thursday is an unacceptable challenge to North Korea and showed that the war monger in Seoul will only respond to merciless force.

South Korea conducted the drill involving 49 artillery battalions and 300 guns as a show of force to mark the first anniversary of a brief artillery engagement with North Korea on August 20, 2015, Yonhap news agency reported.

The exchange of fire resulted from heightened tensions sparked by the land mine attack by North Korea that injured two South Korean soldiers. Last week's exercise aimed to demonstrate Seoul's determination to firmly counter Pyongyang's military provocations.

Uriminzokkiri claimed that South Korea has not learned its lesson from the brief artillery exchange in 2015 and warned that its latest action will lead to direct consequences.

It also blamed South Korea for 2015's exchange of fire and said that Seoul colluded with Washington to instigate the spike in tensions.

The latest verbal attacks comes after the communist country's main newspaper the Rodong Sinmun slammed the exercise on Friday.

"In the past, South Korea has been crazy about military provocations driven by a war fever to invade North Korea, but the latest shelling exercise which involved so many artillery units lurking along the front-line is unprecedented," the North's ruling-party-published paper said.

The media outlet said the act has enraged the North Korean military and people, warning that "any rash military provocation will result in South Korea paying a high-price penalty."
Dhaka, Aug 21 : At least five persons were killed and a score others injured after a jute factory collapsed in Bangladesh on Sunday, the police said.

The factory was located in Faridpur district, around 101 km from Dhaka, Xinhua news agency quoted the police as saying.
New Delhi, Aug 21 : "31st October" -- a film based on the anti-Sikh riots after the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi -- is ready for release after the hassles with the censor board. The film is touted as revealing the truth behind the anti-Sikh riots.

The 1984 riots created a unilateral impression in India about the riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, but the film's director Harry Sachdeva says "31st October" will bring other aspects of the riots before the viewers.

Asked why he decided to make a film on this controversial subject, Sachdeva told IANS: "We all have been hearing about the 1984 riots. The aim behind making this film is to bring out the truth of riots. Till now no film has been made on this subject. So, I am glad that I will present this kind of a film to the audience for the first time."

Usually the films based on true events require a lot of hard work. Something similar was done during the production of "31st October".

"We met the widows of the 1984 riots during our visit to the widows' colony in Delhi. They told us their stories. We met the journalists who covered the riots. Our goal is to show the reality of the riots to everyone. Today's youth should know the truth. We want to give a positive message through it."

The film has been screened at various international film festivals like Vancouver International Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival, among others. The kind of response it has got is quite encouraging, says Sachdeva.

"Research related to the film took 16 to 18 months. It was not easy to meet the people who witnessed and survived the 1984 riots. A lot of these people have fled the country. A lot of them have died. We met journalists of that time and gathered all the facts. The script was written in six months. The film's shooting took almost a year," Sachdeva said.

The film has been tagged by many as against the Congress party, but Sachdeva says "31st October" is not at all an anti-Congress film.

He said: "This film is the story of a night. What happened after the assassination of Indira Gandhi? How a Sikh family in the attacks protects itself, the film tells that story."

Making a film like this is not easy. Sachdeva said: "When we built the film's set in Ludhiana, it was broken in the night. Post that, we asked for police protection and then completed the shooting of the film."

People don't know the whole truth about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, when Sikhs were said to have been attacked by Hindus. Sachdeva says it is not the whole truth as many Hindus also saved the Sikhs during the riots.

"We met Hindus who saved various Sikhs that night. We even got in touch with those who have shifted to Canada and the US through e-mail," Sachdeva said.

Anand Prakash, who has co-produced the film, said that the censor board feared that the release of the film might lead to much controversy.

"That's why they asked us to make 40 cuts in the film. After a long deadlock, the film finally got approved with nine cuts. We felt from the beginning that we will not delete those scenes from the movie that will end its impact," Prakash told IANS.

"People somehow have this fear that the film is against Congress. However, it is not. We have showed truth in the film about 1984 riots.

"31st October" features Soha Ali Khan and Vir Das in the lead.

"I really loved Soha's work in 'Rang De Basanti' and that's the main reason why she is a part of our film. When Soha read the story of the film, she got emotional and quickly said yes," Prakash said.

The film has been shot extensively in Ludhiana, Delhi and Mumbai.

Though the film's subject is controversial and there is a possibility that after its release "31st October" may yet face controversy, Prakash said: "We do not fear controversies. That will continue to happen. Even if we do a good job, then also people would criticise us."

"People want to see movies based on true events. Such films have a class. The movie may be released on October 3 or 7. Hopefully the release of the film will change people's perception about the 1984 riots," Prakash added.

(Ritu Tomar can be contacted at ritu.t@ians.in)
New Delhi, Aug 21 : Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has been roped in as the new brand ambassador of domestic airline company Vistara.

A new multimedia brand campaign of Vistara along with its first TV commercial (TVC) will be launched on Monday.

The campaign reinterprets and delivers on the brand promise of "Fly the new feeling", through the eyes of Deepika.

The concept of the TVC revolves around how Deepika Padukone feels the same wonder and joy every time she flies Vistara, as she felt when flying for the first time.

The campaign intends to elaborate on the core interpretation of the brand promise which is about the feeling of looking forward to flying again.

"It is a matter of great pride for me to be associated with Vistara, a brand that is reliable, warm and friendly; a brand that carries the lineage of Tata and Singapore Airlines...The new TVC aims to capture that feeling in a charming and evocative manner," Deepika said in a statement.

The airline has been giving a sneak peek to its customers through its ongoing teaser campaign #WhichStar running on various platforms, that has captured the imagination of millions of people already. The integrated campaign will be deployed across multiple platforms including TV, Digital, Print, Outdoor, Cinema and Airports.

"Our new brand campaign with Deepika Padukone highlights the unique feeling of flying Vistara. Through this campaign, she has brought to life the special spark of happiness that people feel when they fly with Vistara, the airline that is proud to carry the remarkable heritage of Tata group, JRD Tata, and Singapore Airlines", Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara said.
Karachi, Aug 21 : With the deadly tick-borne Congo virus having claimed 19 lives, hospitals in Pakistan's financial capital of Karachi have set up isolation wards as part of preventive measures to deal with the disease.

In Quetta, the capital city of the neighbouring Balochistan province, a woman died of Congo virus on Saturday, taking the toll to 19.

Isolation wards have been set up at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Civil Hospital and Jinnah Hospital following the death of a patient at Jinnah Hospital on Friday.

Doctors and paramedical staff who attended to the patient are being kept under observation and monitored for possible signs of the virus.

Senior Health Services Director Muhammad Ali Abbasi said an isolation ward containing 40 beds has been set up at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. He said that doctors and hospital staff have been issued instructions to protect themselves against the virus, Geo News reported.

Balochistan's Department of Veterinary Affairs in a bid to counter the virus is spraying cattle with the help from Quetta administration.

Spraying is underway at cattle markets in Peshawar too ahead of Eid-ul-Azha as part of precautionary measures against the virus.

Animals being brought to the cattle markets are also being inspected for the virus.

Jinnah Hospital Deputy Director Javed Jamali suggested that bathing sacrificial animals in chlorine-mixed water removes the ticks.

The latest death from the Congo virus, of a woman named Fatima Bibi, took place at Quetta's Fatimah Jinnah TB sanatorium hospital late on Saturday. She was brought to Quetta from Kandahar city of Afghanistan.

Fatima Bibi's blood samples were confirmed to be affected by the virus.

Twelve people have died of the virus in Balochistan this year, five in Karachi and two in Bahawalpur.

With Eid-ul-Azha near, health experts have advised people to take special preventive measures to avoid contracting the virus.

These include basic hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment, wearing protective clothing like long sleeves or long trousers and wearing light coloured clothing to allow easy detection of ticks on the clothes.

The Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever or Congo virus is a widespread viral disease that is commonly spread by ticks found on hairy and furry animals.
Kolkata, Aug 21 : Three city youths were killed when their speeding car collided with another vehicle on Sunday in West Bengal's East Midnapore district, police said.

The accident occurred near Mandarmani, a beach resort.

The deceased, identified as Vaibhav Rajnish, Suraj Dasgupta and Shivraj Naskar -- all in their early 20s, were residents of Kolkata.

With liquor bottles recovered from the badly mangled car, police suspect it to be a case of drunken driving.
New Delhi, Aug 21 : A delegation of opposition lawmakers from Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi here and discussed ways and means to contain the prevailing unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

The delegation was led by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Speaking to media after meeting Rahul Gandhi, one of the members of the delegation said the Kashmir problem needs attention of the whole nation.

"The situation is of serious nature, the whole country should look at Jammu and Kashmir," he said, adding that lawmakers of national opposition parties should unite to find a solution to the prevailing unrest.

The delegation met President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday. It told the President that Kashmir is faced with a political problem that cannot be handled administratively.
Baghdad, Aug 21 : Iraqi authorities on Sunday executed 36 insurgents of the Islamic State militant group held guilty of the 2014 Camp Speicher massacre in which nearly 1,700 air force cadets were killed, the Ministry of Justice said.

"The ministry executed 36 prisoners in Nasriyah prison after they were found guilty of (the massacre at Camp) Speicher," Xinhua news agency reported.

On June 12, 2014, fighters of the IS, comprising mostly armed Sunni insurgents, launched a surprise offensive on Iraqi security forces and captured a large part of the country's northern and western territories after government troops abandoned their posts and military equipment.

The IS fighters allegedly singled out Shia and non-Muslim cadets from Sunni ones and gunned them down at Camp Speicher in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

Tirkit town is around 170 km north of Baghdad.

Shortly after taking Tikrit, the IS group posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch.

The massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fuelled the mobilisation of Shia militias in the fight against the IS, a Sunni extremist group.

Iraqi forces with the help of US-led airstrikes, retook Tikrit in 2015 and arrested dozens of militants linked with the massacre.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to fast-track the implementation of death sentences following a series of large-scale bombings in and around Baghdad in recent months.

The UN had earlier this month criticised the policy, saying that "given the weakness of the Iraqi justice system", the rushed sentences risk causing "greater injustice."

Iraq ranks among the top five countries in the world to use capital punishment, according to figures compiled by the human rights group Amnesty International.
Islamabad, Aug 21 : Pakistani security forces have arrested at least 198 terrorists, including of Al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban, in a combing operation in Punjab province from December 2014 to August 2016, police said.

According to police records, those arrested belong to various banned organisations from different cities across Punjab.

At least nine Al Qaeda terrorists were arrested, of whom five were caught in Lahore and four in Dera Ghazi Khan. Thirteen of the arrested terrorists belonged to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan while 176 caught were from the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jahngvi group, the most from any organisation, of whom 94 were arrested in Bahawalpur.

No terrorist from the Islamic State militant group (Daesh) was arrested in Punjab, police said, according to Pakistan Today on Sunday.

The combing operations will be conducted till the terrorists are arrested and their hideouts eliminated, The Inter-Services Public Relations said earlier this month.

Following the deadly attack at Quetta's Civil Hospital, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had ordered special combing operations, authorising intelligence agencies to go anywhere in the country and target those linked with the terror acts.

The Quetta suicide bombing claimed at least 93 lives and left over 100 injured.
Chandigarh, Aug 21 : The pruning of the blacklist of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) by the central government, which will enable the earlier blacklisted people to visit India, was on Sunday welcomed by Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the mini-parliament of Sikh religious affairs.

The Ministry of Home Affairs recently pruned 212 names from the list of 324 people.

Most of those figuring on this blacklist were NRIs from Punjab who were accused of having links with the separatist Khalistan movement in the 1980s and 1990s. Majority of them live in the US, Canada and some European nations.

Punjab had witnessed militancy, with hardliners seeking a separate Sikh nation, in the 1980s and early 1990s.

A resolution was passed unanimously by the members of Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, SGPC and DSGMC, at a meeting held here on Sunday, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for getting the blacklist pruned.

"This initiative on the part of the GoI (Government of India) would be instrumental in assuaging the bruised feelings and tormented psyche of Sikh community and their families," the resolution said.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh had earlier sought the pruning of the 'blacklist' of the Sikh immigrants living in various countries.

"All those who went abroad for political asylum were not anti-national as most of them were actually the job seekers. Barring some anti-national elements, those who used the alibi of political asylum actually wanted to seek jobs and there is nothing wrong in allowing them to visit India," Amarinder had pointed out.

The Akali Dal had also sought pruning of the blacklist maintained by the MHA saying that some names were not required for any crime in Punjab.
New Delhi, Aug 21 : A delegation of opposition lawmakers from Jammu and Kashmir met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi here on Sunday and discussed ways and means to contain the prevailing unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

The delegation was led by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

"Discussed the current political crisis in J&K with a delegation of opposition leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar," Rahul Gandhi tweeted after the meeting.

A member of the delegation and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Md. Yousuf Tarigami told IANS that the meeting with Rahul Gandhi was "very cordial".

"We explained our concerns... the unrest and the people's suffering is not just a law and order problem," he said.

"All parties must evolve as common political consensus and deal with this situation," he added.

"We will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow (Monday)," Tarigami said.

"We are meeting top leaders to tell them that the problem of Kashmir should not be seen only from the security perspective. It is not a law and order problem. It is the biggest humanitarian crisis faced by Kashmir," he added.

"The way the situation is being dealt with is proving counter-productive ... a political process of dialogue has to be initiated and the sooner it happens the better," he said.

The delegation met President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday. It told the President that Kashmir is faced with a political problem that cannot be handled administratively.

The meeting comes as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, addressing a public meeting in Samba district of Jammu on Sunday, said those advocating the cause of stone-pelters in the Kashmir Valley are playing petty politics.

"Some people outside talk of human rights in Kashmir. Have they ever visited the valley and seen those security men who have been injured while performing their duty," he asked.

The minister also accused Pakistan of having launched a proxy war against India over Kashmir.

"After getting badly defeated in three wars with India, Pakistan started a proxy war against us in the 1990s. In 2008 and 2010, they gave the new face of stone-pelting to their proxy war and that is what is happening in the valley this time also," he said.

Over 65 people have died in clashes with security forces in protests in the Kashmir Valley following the July 8 killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani.
Agra, Aug 21 : Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, launching her party's election campaign from Agra -- considered the Dalit capital of north India -- lashed out at the Narendra Modi-led BJP government for "atrocities" on Dalits and failing to fulfill promises made before the Lok Sabha elections.

The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are expected to be held some time in February 2017.

Addressing a mammoth rally at the Kothi Meena Bazar ground, Mayawati targeted Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat for asking Hindus to produce more than two children. The Centre can not take care of two children, who will provide for more, she wondered.

Mayawati said the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was soft towards capitalists. It had failed to bring back black money from foreign countries as promised.

The BJP-led government, she said, was deliberately expanding the private sector to hit the Dalits who were being denied benefits of reservation. She was particularly harsh on the issue of cow slaughter and so-called "love jehad".

Mayawati said the BJP was trying to capture power in Uttar Pradesh by circulating lies.

She said the Centre was not able to take care of law and order in Delhi, how can it take care of such a big state like UP. She attacked the Congress for sending a tainted politician to UP as future Chief Minister.

The BSP chief counselled the state's voters that the BJP in desperation could foment communal trouble for electoral gains. "You should remain patient against such designs," she cautioned. It was a 'Tilak, Taraju aur Talwar' party, she said.

Targeting the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati advised Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to stop calling her "Bua" (aunty), recalling the unfortunate incidents at the Lucknow guest house years ago. She said the Samajwadi Party was a government of gundas and anti-social elements.

In her one-hour-long speech, Mayawati minced no words denouncing deserters and those who accused her of collecting money for distributing tickets. She did not even spare the media which, according to her, was under the influence of capitalists and the BJP.

Mayawati, who has been Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times, said Agra was the Dalit capital of north and she would do everything for the progress of the city when in power.
Washington, Aug 22 : Nearly four in ten voters believe that the US media was biased for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US election, a new poll said.

According to the Morning Consult poll released on Friday, 38 per cent US voters say that news coverage favoured Clinton, while only 12 per cent believe that same was true for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Xinhua news agency reported.

The voters voiced dissatisfaction with the fairness of the media, with 33 per cent saying that the media's fairness to each candidate was "poor".

According to the poll, 22 per cent voters believe the media coverage of each candidate was "only fair", and those who describe the media coverage as either "excellent" or "good" account for 35 per cent in total.

The poll came as Trump doubled down on his accusation against "the crooked media".

"I am not running against Crooked Hillary. I am running against the crooked media," Trump said during a rally on August 13.

Though benefitting heavily from the media's wall-to-wall coverage of his campaign during the nomination contests, relations between Trump and the media deteriorated in the past weeks as the billionaire developer got embroiled in one political firestorm after another.

The media targeted Trump during the Democratic National Convention after he derisively answered criticism from Khizr Khan, the father of a US Muslim soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.

Khan blasted Trump for his divisive remarks and proposal to temporary ban Muslims entering the country.

On August 9, Trump caused another round of media frenzy after suggesting that supporters of gun rights could take action against Clinton if she won the election.

As he was still scrambling to tackle the backlash after his gun rights comments, Trump on Aug 10 handed the US media new prime fodder after declaring that US President Barack Obama "is the founder of the Islamic State".

Trump eventually backtracked on his accusation, blaming the media for missing his sarcasm.
Damascus, Aug 22 : Syrian forces and Kurdish fighters have agreed on truce in Syria' Hasakah province after Russian mediation efforts, the local media reported on Sunday.

The regime of calm includes a cessation of battles, evacuation of wounded people, return to the previous lines of both parties, and the start of negotiations, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ceasefire started late on Sunday.

The military positions should return to their previous state, as the negotiations were set to start on Monday at the Qamishli airport between representatives of the Syrian and Kurdish sides as well as Iranian and Russian mediators.

The Russians started mediation efforts to defuse the tension and the battles that have raged between the Kurdish police forces, Assayish, and the Syrian National Defence Forces (NDF), a paramilitary force backing the army.
Ankara, Aug 22 : At least one soldier was killed and three others were injured in a bomb attack on an armoured military vehicle in Turkey's Sanliurfa province on Sunday, the local media reported.

The roadside bomb planted by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) was detonated as the military vehicle passed through a highway in Viransehir district of southern Sanliurfa, Xinhua news agency reported.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US, the European Union and Turkey.
Jane L. Wagner If each of these governmental units had the right to charge tolls for conduits going under and over their streets, the effect would amount to legalized extortion and a crippling of communication and commerce as we know it.

A Circuit Court in Illinois issued a Declaratory Ruling earlier this month enforcing an Illinois law designed to protect telecommunications company access to the public rights-of-way free of charge.

Judge James J. Eder of the Fourth Judicial Circuit ruled that a municipal ordinance assessing a fee for installing telecommunications lines in the public right of way contravened Illinois law prohibiting franchise fees or other charges for the use of the public rights-of-way, including charges for the recovery of reasonable costs of regulating the use of the public rights-of-way.

The case, Metro Communications Company, Inc. v. City of Altamont, Case No. 2016-CH-20, involved a city ordinance that assessed a fee on all utilities prior to approval of installation of utility lines in the public right-of-way.

Metro claimed that Illinois law specifically prohibited such fees under Section 30(a) of the Telecommunications Municipal Infrastructure Maintenance Fee Act. According to Metro's counsel, Jane L. Wagner, the City cannot pass an ordinance that nullifies an Act of the Illinois General Assembly.

Altamont argued the application fee would pay for the application review process. But Judge Eder disagreed finding this type of fee seems to fall precisely into the language of Section 30(a) when it talks about charges for the recovery of reasonable costs of regulating the use of the public right-of-way.

The case reaffirmed longstanding precedent in Illinois granting unencumbered access for telecommunications companies to the public rights-of-way.

As the Illinois Supreme Court noted 23 years ago, there are 1,281 cities and villages in Illinois, 102 counties and 1,434 townships, each of which maintain travelled ways. If each of these governmental units had the right to charge tolls for conduits going under and over their streets, the effect would amount to legalized extortion and a crippling of communication and commerce as we know it. American Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Village of Arlington Heights, 156 Ill. 2d 399, 408-409 (1993).

Metro Communications Company, Inc., was represented by Jane L. Wagner of Marashlian & Donahue, PLLC, The CommLaw Group.

If you have questions about the impact of this case on your business, please contact Jane Wagner at 703-714-1321 or jlw(at)commlawgroup.com.
Tim Mapes, House Speaker Mike Madigans chief of staff, embarked on an interesting challenge recently.

Mapes spoke in Chicago as part of a panel the National Council of State Legislatures, or NCSL, sponsored. He was slated to speak not about Illinois staggering debt or tepid jobs growth. Not stagnant incomes or its out-migration problem. Not property taxes.

Mapes talked political maps.

Defending his boss record on that subject is an impossible task, but kudos to the NCSL for making Mapes try.

Despite overwhelming demand for political-mapmaking reform in Illinois, Madigan has snuffed it out at every turn. And controversy surrounding Madigans maps stretch back more than 30 years.

This year, more than 500,000 Illinoisans signed a petition to put a mapmaking-reform referendum on the November ballot. If successful, it would shrink the speakers influence in legislative map drawing by putting that process in the hands of a broad coalition, rather than the winner-take-all system that has followed the census each decade since 1970.

But Madigans top lawyer, Michael Kasper, sued to strike the referendum from the ballot. A district court ruled in his favor. The case now sits before the Illinois Supreme Court.

It was Mapes job to defend that action at the summit. He failed.

Legislators like to be involved in this state on how they frame their districts. Whether they like all of it is another thing, Mapes said. But they like to be involved, and its still a big part of what we do.

Hes right. Illinois politicians love to be involved in choosing their voters, especially Madigan. In fact, political mapmaking is how Madigan became speaker in the first place.

His first map led to a Democratic rout in the 1982 elections, even though Illinois population trends shown in the 1980 census spelled disaster for the party. Madigan gifted Chicago six more House seats and three more Senate seats than its population dictated. And, after voters ratified a constitutional cutback amendment that pared the ranks of the Illinois House, Madigans map made sure 43 of the 59 eliminated seats belonged to Republicans.

That political wizardry made Madigan a shoo-in for the speakership.

State lawmakers bowed to the king.

Many of them know they wouldnt even be in the General Assembly if it werent for the heavily Democratic map of legislative districts that Madigan crafted in 1981, wrote the Chicago Tribune in a 1989 retrospective.

But not everyone was so delighted with Madigans map.

A three-member panel of federal judges found the map unconstitutionally diluted the voting strength of black Illinoisans on Chicagos south and west sides. To save Democrat seats, Madigan had extended certain city districts into predominantly white areas.

It was the first time a northern state had found the Democratic Party guilty of intentional discrimination against minorities.

In 1982, the Tribune called it a painful victory.

No defeat in court could have left the Democrats with such an inglorious black eye."

A year later, those boundaries were still up for grabs, and Madigan was worried. Reportedly at his request, the U.S. District Court removed a requirement for the map to be published, because Madigan didnt want his name on the court battle.

He was considering a run for governor. And he was scared of being labeled a racist.

Its a travesty, state Rep. Carol Mosley-Braun told the Tribune in 1983. Mike did draw the map, and hes got to live with that. Its just that simple.

Madigan has drawn state legislative map twice more since then, after the 2000 and 2010 censuses.

Most recently, Madigans cartographical cunning came into play when he created a new district to splinter Decatur and Springfield by race, connecting areas of the two cities containing more black voters.

Madigans tinkering gave Democrats a Senate seat and a House seat they wouldnt have had otherwise in the 2012 elections.

Alongside Mapes on the mapmaking panel was Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum. In Iowa, an independent commission draws the maps every 10 years. They have not been challenged in court since 1970.

The legislature has absolutely nothing to say about how these lines are drawn. Just yay or nay, Jochum said.

Mapes response encapsulates so much of whats wrong with politics in the Land of Lincoln.

Senator, great ideas for Iowa, he said. But theyre a little different in Illinois.

They sure are.
Over the years there have been some great night shows on Australian FM radio. Radio Today is putting together a list of The Top FM Night Shows of all Time.

We need your vote for the show you rate as the best of all time.

Our now 22 nominations have been put together by the team at Radio Today, past and present EPs, CDs and Group CDs and from you.

Vote for your favourite / top 5 favourites now.

And let us know of any shows we missed that should be included.
SEA FM Gold Coasts Bella Frizza is ready to walk down the aisle and marry a complete stranger.

Its not a survey stunt on the SEA FM but Bella is starring in the third series of Nines reality TV series Married at First Sight. Launching August 2, it will see Bella meet her mystery spouse for the first time when they walk down the aisle to wed.

While Bella is part of the series, the controversy may just come from NINEs first same sex marriage.
Even before the Cold War, Russia never really rubbed America the right way. The favored representation of Russia in 19th century political cartoons was the bear. Sometimes the bear was portrayed as a clumsy oaf who doesn't know his own strength; other times, the bear was a menacing predator. Russia as inept, and Russia as savage: these two tropes continued to characterize American representations of Russia throughout the 20th century, and still do today.
W. Robert Pearson is a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and is currently a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. This piece has been published in collaboration with the Institute. The views expressed are solely those of the author.

On Aug. 21, 2013, the Syrian government murdered more than 1,400 innocent Syrians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta -- including several hundred children -- in a nerve gas attack. What if the United States had decisively dealt with the Assad government after its chemical weapons attack? It certainly would have been a defining moment for every major participant -- Syria, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. That deadly attack and its aftermath may have profoundly affected U.S.-Turkey relations and the fate of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.

Rewind one year, to August 2012, and recall that it was President Barack Obama who said "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.

Syrian warplanes were nonetheless back in the air three weeks after the nerve gas attack. Facing opposition in Congress over an airstrike and some hesitation among its allies, the United States had welcomed a Russian proposal to negotiate the destruction of Syrias chemical arsenal. Syrias regime had escaped unscathed, and Russia had seized the diplomatic momentum on the Syrian issue.

It is difficult to gainsay President Obamas decision. He had inherited two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that he was trying to end. A third military campaign in Libya had seemingly ended in October 2011 with the capture and killing of former leader Moammar Gadhafi, only to be marred by postwar instability and the 2012 murder in Benghazi of Ambassador Chris Stevens. Since 2006, Washington and its P5+1 partners had been negotiating on a nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, and the president wanted that process to continue. Even so, Israel and some members of Congress seemed to prefer a new war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. That would be three wars fought and two more contemplated for the United States in the Middle East within a single decade.The first two alone had cost Americans up to an estimated $6 trillion, approximately one-third of the countrys annual GNP. The United States was in the midst of its worst economic downturn in 80 years and was facing a long, slow recovery. Finally, and importantly, most Americans were in no mood for another war. By a strict calculation of the pros and cons, the answer looked clear -- stay out of it.

However, Obama could have grounded the Syrian air force through pinpoint targeting, including by cratering runways, without large loss of life or collateral damage. The president could have shown that he understood very well the unique and moral role of the United States in international affairs. Against such American leadership, Syria could not have carried on its relentless air campaign, and Russia when deciding on its options would have been faced with a pre-emptive American move. U.S. policymakers could have then invited Russia to join Washington in seeking an end to the war, thereby maintaining a position of strength sufficient to convert the Syrian strike into an international effort to reach a settlement.

What actually followed is well-documented history. Seeing Washingtons strategic pause, within seven months of August 2013 Russia moved in March 2014 to occupy Crimea and then eastern Ukraine. Russia then entered the Syrian civil war militarily in September 2015, reversing the course of the conflict. Two months later, the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey precipitated a war of words between Moscow and Ankara and significant economic loss for Turkey. Russia has now begun the process of resetting its relationship with Turkey, with the possible strategy of doling out economic favors to Ankara in exchange for more closely aligned views on Syria and on NATOs role in the eastern reach of the alliance.

Turkey was deeply disappointed and frustrated by the American decision of August 2013. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had even called for a full intervention -- a Kosovo-style operation -- to rid Syria of Assad. For Turkey, August 2013 marked the beginning of the end for its stated goals in Syria:

By the end of 2013, the refugee flow from Syria to Turkey was nearing 1 million, and some already were fleeing to Europe. Today there are 2.7 million refugees in Turkey, the equivalent of 8 to 10 million refugees in the United States.

Ankaras determined push for a no-fly zone to be enforced by the U.S. came to naught.

In 2014, rumors surfaced of large movements of ISIS fighters travelling to Syria via Turkey. ISIS began capturing towns in Syria in late 2013 and seized Raqqa in January 2014.

Two costly efforts by the United States to train moderate opposition fighters collapsed in complete embarrassment.

Washington turned to the Kurds in 2014, who rapidly became Americas best allies in the country, infuriating Turkey.

The United States, concluding that the Turks were entrenched in unattainable war aims, deepened their talks with Moscow, implying the likely survival of Assad for any postwar regime.

The seeming slowness of the United States in condemning the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, coupled with rhetorical American missteps that implied to Ankara that Washington was more worried about Turkish generals than Turkish democracy may have helped confirm Turkish doubts about the overall U.S. concern about Ankaras dilemmas. With the chance to simultaneously pressure America on Turkeys extradition request for U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and on military cooperation in Syria, as well as recoup sharp economic losses, Mr. Erdogan leaped at the opportunity to show up in St. Petersburg on Aug. 9.

Needless to say, Moscow will be interested in what Turkey is willing to offer in return for its favors. Movement on Syria along the lines of Russias war aims will figure prominently in the discussions Turkey and Russia will have. Iran has now begun to press its own friendship diplomacy with Turkey.

Would the consequences have been different if the United States had taken military action in August 2013? Could the decision three years ago have actually magnified harm to American interests today? Might the United States and Turkey have found more common ground? Leadership is not only about deciding what is specifically best for you; its also about visualizing the result and using all the tools available to push in that direction with friends and opponents. Events over the last three years may offer us a cautionary tale on the consequences of what happens after nothing happens. Ex nihilo nihil fit does not hold true in international affairs.
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OBI-WAN KENOBI

2016 San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive 6-Inch Figure

Obi-Wan Kenobi was once a noble Jedi Knight in the days of the Old Republic before the Jedi Order was extinguished and before the tyrannical Empire ruled the galaxy. After the fall of the Jedi, Obi-Wan retreated to the isolated Jutland Wastes on the desert planet Tatooine. Many locals dismissed the old hermit as a crazy wizard and never suspected that he was a once-great warrior and former general of the Republic. in actuality, Kenobi was silently observing from afar the young farm boy Luke Skywalker, whose future was unknowingly linked to the survival of the Jedi and the Rebellion. When Obi-Wan saves Luke from a band of Tusken Raiders, he begins to mentor young Skywalker in the ways of the Force, and they set out to rescue the Rebel leader Princess Leia from the Empire's dreaded Death Star.

The Black Series 6-inch Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure featured on this page was, beyond a small quantity sold online through their online store, made available to attendees of the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con that had the what with all to get in line at Hasbro's sales pavilion. The figure itself would see release in the ongoing The Black Series 6-inch action figure collection the following September, but this exclusive edition featured the exiled Jedi Master's hovel table with lights and sounds that allows collectors to fully appreciate the fiesta Republic senator's plea in all its universal iconic cinema glory.
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Since Pokemon Go is advertised as a game, its fitness motivations are disguised more so than with fitness tracking applications such as Fitbit, he said.
The troubled downtown Redding motel has been in receivership since the spring, and the property continues to work its way through the legal process.

A settlement conference with the judge is scheduled for Sept. 12, receiver Richardson Red Griswold told me last week.

First National Bank was the lien holder on the property, but Griswold said that is no longer the case. Griswold told me earlier this month that Shree Shiva, the Americanas owner, was negotiating a settlement with the bank to get the loan paid off.

The Americana is largely vacant today. The 54-room motel on Pine Street has 15 long-term tenants.

Records show that there were 76 police calls for service to the Americana Lodge from January through July of this year, down 42 percent from the 132 calls in 2015 for the same period.

What will ultimately happen to the Americana Lodge is not certain. One option is to demolish the property.

Stay tuned.
This July 16, 2016, photo taken from underwater video shows the "Washington", which sank during a storm in 1803. The team of underwater explorers says it has found the second-oldest confirmed shipwreck in the Great Lakes, an American-built, Canadian owned-sloop that sank in Lake Ontario 213 years ago. The three-member western New York-based team says it discovered the wreck of the Washington earlier this summer in deep water off Oswego. (Roger L. Pawlowski via AP)

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By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  The second-oldest confirmed shipwreck in the Great Lakes, an American-built, Canadian-owned sloop that sank in Lake Ontario more than 200 years ago, has been found, a team of underwater explorers said Wednesday.

The three-member western New York-based team said it discovered the shipwreck this summer in deep water off Oswego, in central New York. Images captured by a remotely operated vehicle confirmed it is the Washington, which sank during a storm in 1803, team member Jim Kennard said.

"This one is very special. We don't get too many like this," said Kennard, who along with Roger Pawlowski and Roland "Chip" Stevens has found numerous wrecks in Lake Ontario and other waterways.

The sloop Washington was built on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania in 1798 and was used to transport people and goods between western New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario. It was placed on skids and hauled by oxen teams across the Niagara Isthmus to Lake Ontario in 1802 after being sold to Canadian merchants.

The 53-foot-long ship was carrying at least five people and a cargo of merchandise, including goods from India, when it set sail from Kingston, Ontario, for its homeport of Niagara, Ontario, on Nov. 6, 1803. The vessel was caught in a fierce storm and sank.

At least three crew members and two merchants were on the sloop. All aboard died. According to Kennard, contemporary records said portions of the cargo and pieces of the ship were found the following day on a shore near Oswego.

The Washington is the oldest commercial sailing vessel found in the Great Lakes and the only sloop known to have sailed on lakes Erie and Ontario, Kennard said. Single-masted sloops were replaced in the early 19th century by two- and three-masted schooners, which were much easier to sail, according to Carrie Sowden, archaeological director at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, which sponsors the New York team's explorations.

Since there are no known drawings of the Washington, the sloop's discovery will help maritime historians learn more about the design and construction of that type of sailing vessel used on the Great Lakes between the American Revolution and the War of 1812, she said.

"Every shipwreck offers something different that adds to our knowledge base," Sowden said.

The oldest vessel found in the Great Lakes is HMS Ontario, a British warship that sank in Lake Ontario in 1780. Kennard and another explorer found that wreck in 2008.
SHARE Jennifer Marie Karlowsky Date of birth: June 7, 1981 Vitals: 5 feet 4 inches, 120 pounds, blond hair, green eyes Charge: Termination of probation Brianna Nicole Hopkins Date of birth: June 21, 1983 Vitals: 5 feet 9 inches, 170 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes Charge: Termination of probation Jerry Ray Applegate Date of birth: Dec. 31, 1957 Vitals: 5 feet 6 inches, 150 pounds, red hair, hazel eyes Charge: Possession of a controlled substance for sale Taniesha Renae Coleman Date of birth: Aug. 5, 1991 Vitals: 5 feet 9 inches, 135 pounds, brown hair, hazel eyes Charge: Robbery

By Staff Reports

Shasta's Most Wanted, featured in the Record Searchlight in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, targets people who have failed to show up in court for sentencing after being convicted.

As of Friday a total of 671 arrests had been made through the Most Wanted program since it began in September 2013. Authorities say they have seen an increase in criminals failing to appear in court since the onset of Assembly Bill 109. Also known as prison realignment, the state program shifted certain state prison inmates to county supervision.

Redding Police Chief Robert Paoletti said court appearances have been going up since the rollout.

Five new people are added each week. Those caught will be held until at least their next court appearances. Shasta County Secret Witness is offering a reward of up to $250 for information leading to an arrest. Tips can be provided anonymously at 530-243-2319 or at www.scsecretwitness.com/home/submit-a-tip.

Anyone with information also can call SHASCOM at 245-6540. The feature appears Sundays in the Record Searchlight's Northern California section and on Redding.com.
Stethoscope wrapped around hundred dollar bills

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By Alayna Shulman of the Redding Record Searchlight

The summer of 2015 was a good one for California vaccine advocates.

A measles outbreak at Disneyland linked to vaccine-resistant parents was over, but not before it became the catalyst to change California's famously lax immunization laws. Finally, the ensuing legislation had passed, and California was dramatically transformed into one of the strictest in the country when it comes to shots for students.

But while the pro-vaccine side was celebrating, parents and even some doctors still dead set against immunizations were brainstorming ways around SB277, California's new law that requires basically all students who go to a classroom be immunized against several illnesses annually.

And they came up with a few.

Chief among them: home-school, two lawsuits and even appointments with anti-vaccine doctors who write children immunization exemptions saying a family history of ailments as innocuous as eczema would put them in danger if vaccinated.

"People have moved out of the state as a result of this; the whole notion of government mandating vaccines, I think, created a turning point for some people," said Jeff Rice, founder and director of APLUS+, an association of personalized learning schools and resources.

Most organizations and school districts interviewed by the Record Searchlight say those kinds of drastic measures are, so far, rare.

And whether significant impacts are looming? They say it's too early to tell. But some are keeping a watchful eye on enrollment  which is tied to funding for schools  and others say they know of parents considering those medical exemptions so their kids stay in school unvaccinated.

Indeed, California Immunization Coalition Director Catherine Flores Martin said there are "pockets of problems" in areas like Shasta County that historically have had high rates of personal belief exemptions, the now-defunct objection waivers parents could submit to get their child out of vaccines  and that now could serve as indicators of future enrollment issues.

"For the most part, a lot of districts aren't experiencing any problems. I think it really depends on how many (personal belief exemptions) were at a school in the first place," Martin said.

According to state public health data, quite a few Shasta County schools  many of them tiny, and therefore more vulnerable to enrollment drops  had very high rates of those exemptions last year. That means the choices of those parents could stand to pack a problematic punch.

"There are some communities where that could be a larger issue," Shasta County Office of Education Superintendent Tom Armelino said. "Charter schools, it may be a bigger issue."

HOME-SCHOOL

Losing students to home-school or independent study isn't necessarily the death-knell for a school.

Take Stellar Charter School in the Redding School District.

Schools like Stellar that have their own independent study programs  meaning a student is technically still enrolled at the school and simply gets most of his or her education in a home instead of a classroom  don't lose any funding based on how many kids are taught primarily by mom or dad instead of a staff member. So the eight students pursuing that this year because of the new law don't pose an enrollment problem for the school, Redding School District, Superintendent Rick Fauss said.

"The funding is exactly the same as long as the student completes his/her work on time," Fauss said via email. "In that case, non-classroom based funding is the same as having a student attend every day."

But for others  particularly very small schools  even what would be a small drop in enrollment at other schools could pose a financial crisis.

At Oak Run Elementary, for example, Superintendent Jaenelle Lampp said there are 57 students signed up. So far, that's only a slight decrease from the most recent year-end roster of about 60.

But the new vaccine law has a grandfather clause that says students who had personal belief exemptions don't need to get shots until they hit seventh grade or start up as kindergartners. So if more parents of would-be students who weren't grandfathered in decide to give home-school a try with each new kindergarten class and enrollment gets down to 40 or lower, "it will be a dramatic change in funding," Lampp said.

"That percentage (of home-schooled students) is much smaller than if you were to look at a simultaneous and immediate impact on (multiple) grade levels," Rice said.

Armelino said it's hard to say what the accumulation of new students now required to vaccinate will look like, since this year the impact is small because it only applies to two grades.

"I can't imagine that it's going to be a large number," he said. "At this point, that's what it is. Who knows what the changes will be."

Last school-year, 41 percent of kindergartners at Oak Run had personal belief exemptions, according to California public health data.

"This is costing the district at several levels," Lampp said. "There's an indirect cost that we don't see."

Other schools aren't facing enrollment catastrophes, but are still making major changes to absorb the demand to keep kids unvaccinated.

Redding School of the Arts is one of them.

The school in east Redding still has a popular traditional stay-at-home program, but added what appears to be the area's first "virtual school" because of the demand anticipated from the new law. It's taught by current teachers, so only the curriculum for the program cost the school any money.

So far, 30 students are signed up, only nine of whom specifically pursued the virtual school because of vaccines.

"When the vaccination discussion started  we thought, well, we could provide for these families whose lives are being altered and also provide for families that have been looking at this program," said Denise Humphrey, the virtual school's program director. "Politics is politics; we wanted children to have an opportunity to be educated well."

Indeed, the decision of whether to pursue home-school or independent study isn't one to be taken lightly, Rice said.

"It's very challenging for a family to go from 100 percent in a school to 100 percent at home," he said. "Independent study or personalized learning is not for everybody."

Rice doesn't see any hypothetical hikes in parents who try and struggle at home-school as a major threat to their child's education, though.

"Most charter school programs have numerous intervention strategies that they're willing to provide to assist the student exhaustively before determining that in fact independent study may not be in their best interests," he said. "There are safety-net protocols, and, of course, while the parent needs to take some level of responsibility ... that responsibility is shared by the credentialed teacher."

Armelino feels similarly.

"I think there are enough ... options for families out there that I think they would tap into," he said. "I don't see a bunch of families choosing to home-school their own children if it doesn't work."

Of course, opinions vary widely on whether parents who have been staunchly anti-vaccine in the past will indeed go the home-school route at all.

Martin said her organization is seeing lots of newly vaccinated students and parents for whom "their children's education is more important to them than their fears."

But Rice said most of these families won't be so easily swayed by a new law.

"If ... they believe that the school is now forcing them, then it's likely that they will make a different choice rather than comply," he said. "I think there's a higher concentration of families who are ... more of the mind to say, regardless of what the government says, my principles tell me that I should have the choice, and therefore I'm going to make a choice based on principle rather than simply complying with the government says."

COMPLICATIONS

Meanwhile, other aspects of the law  and developments in the bid to take it down  trouble vaccine advocates.

For one thing, students in special education are exempt from the new law altogether because it conflicts with the federal mandate that spells out their right to learn.

"There's a public perception out there that suddenly and magically, starting with this school year, everybody is going to be in vaccination compliance, and it's just not true," Rice said.

Martin said her organization doesn't expect the number of parents who both have a child in special education and refuse to vaccinate will be high enough to pose a problem, though.

"That kind of irritated the folks that got this passed, but it's something we're just going to have to live with," she said. "But I don't think it's going to be a large number."

Then there are the high-priced consultations with anti-vaccine doctors for a medical exemption  something Martin called "fraud, essentially," but said plenty of parents are willing to shell out at least $400 to pursue.

"If it was legitimate, in our view, the (regular) doctor or pediatrician would sign off on it," she said. "Some of these doctors are saying, 'Oh, your uncle had schizophrenia or eczema, that means you're eligible.'"

At the same time, two lawsuits have been filed alleging the state is essentially discriminating against unvaccinated students who don't have special needs  proponents say they, too, have a constitutional right to go to a public school of their choice.

Martin said it's highly unlikely the legislation will be overturned, since "the legal precedent supporting vaccination (in other states) is extremely strong."
Voter guide: Race previews, what to know before you vote

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Electricity transformed the world when introduced more than a century ago. In the same way, the internet is fundamentally changing how we live, work, play and communicate.

Business, in particular depends on strong, dependable internet service. From placing and fulfilling orders, to communicating with customers and clients via email, Skype and web meetings, businesses can't succeed unless they're online.

While Redding and Shasta County residents have a selection of internet providers to choose from  ranging from old-fashioned dial-up to broadband and high-speed  there's an even more powerful option out there.

Ultra high-speed internet provides connections up to 1,000 megabits per second. Google Fiber kicked off the premium service in 2010, and hosted a competition among cities to see who would be the first to get the service. Redding sent in its pitch, but it and hundreds of others lost to Kansas City, Kansas.

As Google expands its ultra high-speed internet to other places around the nation, a Redding City Council candidate proposes taking another run at rewiring the city with blazing speed, starting with a privately funded pilot project.

Adam McElvain held a forum earlier this week with three local business people talking about what the service could mean to our community: Jason Eatmon, vice president of Development Group, Inc.; Andy Main, CEO of Shasta.com; and Claudia Escobar, marketing consultant for Thomson Reuters.

They talked about how local businesses could benefit from internet service that would provide seamless video conferencing as well as the ability to send and receive large files at the speed of light.

McElvain envisions bringing the service to Redding in stages. First, he would work with local businesses downtown to create a small hub of ultra high-speed internet. This would be built out and paid for by private enterprise. He stresses that no public funds would go to pay for this pilot project.

After that is put in place, the city could gauge how effective it is and consider expanding it to more of the downtown area, and eventually across all of Redding. To help pay for that, the city could seek state and federal grants, as well as sponsorships.

For a larger expansion, he suggests adding to the existing Redding Electric Utility infrastructure. He says his time on the now-disbanded Electric Utility Commission gave him "keen insight on how the utility works," and that includes  in theory  the ability to provide internet service through REU.

"I'm not one to want government to compete with the private sector, but this is infrastructure," he said. "This will enrich the private sector."

That same private sector would also be helping foot the bill. McElvain estimates customers would pay $200 a month for speeds of 1 gigabytes a second or $100 a month for 100 megabytes per second.

We have said before that we support efforts to bring better technology to our area. We've called on state and federal representatives to find resources to provide 21st century infrastructure needs.

Without an infusion of federal and state dollars or companies such as AT&T, Google, Verizon or others installing the fiber optic cables here, we are likely to have to figure out local solutions to make it happen.

McElvain's plan starts out with a small pilot project paid in part by those businesses who will directly benefit from it. His plan does not include any revenue from the city's general fund in its initial stages.

But even before that first step takes place, it will be necessary to find out how feasible it is and how interested businesses are in participating. That's one of the big unknowns.

Implicit in bringing such internet service to the area is the hopes that it will generate jobs by bringing new businesses here. It goes back to the idea that if you build it, they will come. In theory it sounds like a good plan.

But more than a decade ago, the trend was making sure that cities had ready-to-build business parks to entice manufacturers to town. So Redding officials spent millions of dollars building Stillwater. After spending years trying to market it, a single company has so far moved in  a company already based in Shasta County.

Businesses that want to see this happen will have to vote with their wallets to get it underway.
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The Shasta County Board of Supervisors has been highly active working with Assemblyman Brian Dahle and others to help our biomass plants stay in business. We have sent multiple letters, made many calls and the result so far is not good for our communities.

Contracts need to be renewed with Pacific Gas and Electric for biomass facilities to remain fiscally sound. Unless those contracts are renewed, Burney Forest Power and Wheelabrator are at risk of shutting down. These shutdowns certainly affect the direct employees and also related jobs at Shasta Green and other lumber processing plants, not to mention the health of our forests and our communities.

The governor issued an executive order about the risk in our forests. If we do not have these biomass facilities in operation, our forests and logging companies will have no place to take the products that must be removed from the forest. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes how important having the infrastructure in place enables active management of the forests. We are fortunate in the North State to have them. Southern California is not so fortunate. They have lost their infrastructure. We do not want to lose ours.

But this is all about the cap and trade dollars at play in the state Capitol. I want to be very clear. Write, email or fax the governor's office. He needs to step up and honor his commitment to protecting our forests and rural communities by stepping in and having the Public Utilities Commission work quickly with PG&E to ensure these company contracts are extended and that he commits to finding a longer term fix to this ongoing problem with financing.

Biomass from our forests are green energy. They should be compensated as such. Gov. Brown, step up. Congress, step up. Ensure that our forests are protected and we can keep local jobs and keep our communities and forests healthy.

Contact the governor's office at: https//:govnews.gov.ca.gov/gov39mail.mailphp using its "contact form" or call 916-445-2841 or fax 916-558-3160

Pam Giacomini is a county supervisor who represents the 3rd District in eastern Shasta County.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has bestowed special honours on a PLA battalion posted in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh for its "outstanding performance in safeguarding borders".

Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission which is the overall command authority of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), signed orders to give honorary titles, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"Troop 77656 is now titled as a "model plateau battalion" for its outstanding performance in safeguarding borders, ensuring stability and helping disaster relief," the report quoted a statement as saying.

While the news report has not identified the battalion, Indian defence officials and strategic think-tanks have said it is Gangba 2nd Independent Battalion.

It is based in Shigatse City, Gangba County in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh and is one of the six battalions functioning under the Tibet Military Area Command, official sources here told PTI.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) covers 3488-km border.

While China says that the boundary dispute is confined to 2,000 kms, mainly in Arunachal Pradesh in eastern sector which it claims as part of southern Tibet, India asserts that the dispute covered the whole of the LAC including the Aksai Chin occupied by China during the 1962 war.

Both sides formed a number of mechanisms both at the levels of field commanders and at the level of headquarters to defuse tensions arising out of the aggressive patrolling of the disputed border.

India and China have held 19 rounds of Special Representatives talks to resolve the border dispute.

Xi also honoured Submarine 372 whose crew saved it from a major disaster while on a patrol mission in 2014.

According to Chinese official media reports, Submarine 372 was caught in an underwater trench thousands of metres deep and started plunging down.

The vessel had encountered a sudden change in water conditions, leading it to sink uncontrollably fast, according to a December, 2014 report by state-run China Daily.

The crew quickly seized the little time they had by opening all the emergency air flasks within 10 seconds to fill the tanks and managed to close more than 100 valves and related equipment in less than a minute.

In two minutes, all the cabins were sealed.

The team's swift, coordinated reaction saved everyone, the report said.

The whole armed forces were urged to learn from both examples, according to the Xinhua report.

In a separate statement, Xi signed orders to award merit citations to four military units and 15 persons for outstanding services.

Troop 66114 was given a first-class merit citation for its outstanding contribution to completing tasks, and units 91515, 94669 and 96261 were given second-class merit citations for their outstanding performance in strengthening fighting capacity.

Chen Deming, a researcher from unit 63620, was awarded a first-class merit citation.

Chen was quoted last month by the official media about China's ballistic missile interception system tests.

"The Ballistic missile defence system is a critical link in our strategic defence, and is also an important chip in the contest between big powers. It makes a world of difference whether you have it or not," Chen said.

Footage of the original test has been released on the heels of the US and South Korea agreeing to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system before the end of next year.

While the US insists the system is to defend South Korea from possible attacks from North Korea, Chinese officials have condemned its planned deployment, saying it threatens China's security.

Two others were given posthumous first-class merit citations by Xi.

Twelve individuals, including research fellows, engineers and medical staff, were honoured with third-class merit citation, the Xinhua report said.

Representative Image: Reuters
At least five persons were killed and two others were left injured after a cloudburst triggered by heavy rain hit Pauri region of Uttarakhand on Monday.

All the deceased are said to be of one family.

The Uttarakhand Police and SDRF teams rushed to the spot to help in the rescue operations.

The incident took place at Markhola area in Garhwal division when the family's house was razed to the ground by huge boulders that rolled down the hill following the cloudburst.

The house was inhabited by 75-year-old Dipak Singh and the families of his two sons, Pauri District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Bhatt told media, adding that further details were awaited.

Two people were also left injured in the incident and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

The Pauri-Srinagar highway was also blocked due to the cloudburst, officials said.

IMAGE: Rescue operations underway after a cloudburst hits Markhola area in Garhwal division. Photograph: ANI/Twitter
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah has said that nationalism was being questioned in the name of freedom of expression and "propaganda" against nationalism could not be considered as freedom of speech.

"It has become a fashion for some people nowadays to question nationalism. This is being done in different places and new theories are being planted. Nationalism is being questioned in the name of freedom of expression," he said, addressing a gathering at Mangalore University auditorium as part of BJP's 'Tiranga Yatra' and 'Balidana Smarane' (honouring martyrs) campaign in Mangaluru.

Shah said, "Some people were also campaigning on social media on whether nationalism was necessary or not" and that he would like to tell them that independence would not have taken place if there was no love for the national and patriotism.

"The propaganda against nationalism could not be considered as freedom of speech," he said.

"The entire nation should unite to uphold patriotism. Freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and many more sacrificed their lives for the country," he said.

Shah appealed to the youth to read the history of the country and understand how many people sacrificed their lives for it.

The programmes were being organised to pay tribute to the freedom fighters, to inspire the youth to follow in their path and to remind the youth that the independence the country achieved was because of the sacrifice of lakhs of people, he said.

"This should be an inspiration to the youth to live their life for the country. To live for the nation was the message of this Yatra," he said.

Shah also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his foreign policy has emphasised on trade along with culture. The economy of the nation was moving in the right direction, he added.

Image: BJP National President Amit Shah addressing a public program "Azaadi 70-Yaad Karo Qurbani" in Mangaluru. Photograph: BJP
A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley criticised Nehruvian model of development, saying it had held the country back, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday termed Jammu and Kashmir a glaring example of the "failure" of Nehru's political model.

"Yesterday, Union Finance Minister spoke about the failed Nehruvian model of economy and today I say that if you want to see the failed political model of Nehru, then Jammu and Kashmir is the best example", Singh said while addressing a "Yaad Karo Kurbani" rally in the outskirts of Jammu on Sunday.

Speaking at a function in Mumbai, Jaitley had said, "But when he (Narasimha Rao) became the prime minister, he found that there was no foreign reserves left in its kitty, and that the country was heading towards bankruptcy. So, the reforms were brought in due to that compulsion, due to failure of that system."

Singh said Jammu and Kashmir is a glaring example of the "failed" politics of the first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.

He said the area of Jammu and Kashmir under the control of Maharaja Hari Singh was 2.25 lakh square kilometers, but due to the "failed" political approach of first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, India got only one lakh square kilometers of the area, rest was occupied by Pakistan like area of Gilgit and Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

"The Maharaja was so annoyed with Nehru that he decided never to return to Jammu and Kashmir and breathed his last in Mumbai", Singh said.

He said the 'Tiranga Yatra' started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be complete only after the Indian flag is unfurled in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kotli.

Singh said that raising issue of Human Rights abuses in Balochistan was necessary for the "self defense" of the country, as the situation in the neighborhood directly affects us.

"People say that by raising the issue of Balochistan we are interfering in the internal matters of other country, whether it is interference or not, but when someone across the wall of your house is indulge in slaughter, it is your right to act for your own safety and your defense", he said.

He said that if there was problem in the neighbourhood, then "we are affected, whether it is Baluchistan or Pakistan occupied Kashmir", he said.

BJP Minister Chandar Prakash Ganga while addressing the gathering alleged the stone pelters in Kashmir were being paid to target security personnel and the rate has increased.

Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and other senior BJP leaders also addressed the rally.

Photograph: Umar Ganie/Rediff.com
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has warned the people against the "communal designs" of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party and urged them not to lose their cool in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

She accused the Modi government of raising issues of cow slaughter and 'love jihad' to keep the minorities "under fear" as well as of being "anti-Dalit".

Describing the NDA government at the Centre as "pro-capitalist", Mayawati alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had forgotten all of his promises made to the people before the 2014 general election.

"The black money from abroad has not been brought back nor have cheques of Rs 15 lakh per person been issued as promised," she told a rally at the Kothi Meena Bazar ground in Agra on Sunday.

Referring to a recent statement of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, the BSP supremo said, "The RSS chief wants Hindus to produce more than two children. They cannot even provide for two children. Who will look after them?"

"They (BJP) came to power on the basis of lies and false promises but their performance has been dismal," she alleged.

Mayawati also attacked the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh alleging that it was "run by goondas".

Accusing the BJP of putting up a "facade" in the name of development, Mayawati said had the party been serious about its intentions, it would have worked towards achieving that goal when it was in power in Uttar Pradesh.

Reminding the people of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promises of free water and electricity, foodgrains at an affordable price for the poor and better remuneration for labourers, the BSP supremo claimed that the BJP had failed to deliver on every front.

Stating that the party had promised to double the income of farmers after coming to power, she said, "More than two years have passed. What has been done for the farmers? The BJP had plans to amend the land acquisition laws in such a manner, which would favour big industrialists and the rich."

Claiming that small traders were starving due to the "wrong policies" of the BJP, Mayawati alleged that under the party's rule, the nationalised banks have written off debts of big industrialists to the tune of almost Rs 1.14 lakh crore.

She also took a dig at the BJP by referring to the Vyapam scam and controversies surrounding industrialists Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya.

Training her guns on the Congress, the BSP supremo said the party had ruled Uttar Pradesh for almost 32 years since Independence and now, it was out of power both in the state and at the Centre for its "wrong policies".

Alleging that the party was "eyeing upper caste votes" in the 2017 assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, she said, "In a last ditch effort, the Congress is now mooting a 10 per cent reservation for the poor among the upper castes whereas, the BSP has been batting for the same for not only the upper castes, but also Muslims and other backward sections of the society for long."

Mounting an attack on the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress, Sheila Dikshit, Mayawati said, "They are projecting an elderly woman from the Brahmin community as the party's face for the UP polls. The same woman, when she was the chief minister, had blamed the people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for making Delhi unclean."

Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo
With the rise in level of the Ganga, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed apprehension of further rise in water level by Monday in view of release of water from Bansagar dam as flood-like situation prevailed in the state.

IMAGE: Transport vehicles moving at submerged national highway 31 near Fatuha in Patna district of Bihar on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo

Kumar, who held a high level meeting on Sunday to assess the situation, later went on an aerial survey of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Begusarai and Khagaria.

He told reporters there is at the moment no possibility of flood waters entering into Patna city.

Meanwhile the rising water level of Ganga has more or less created flood-like situation in all the districts situated along the banks of the river in Bihar.

Ganga and six other rivers were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur, Buxar and Hajipur districts, a disaster management department statement said.

Ganga was flowing above danger mark at six places in various parts of three districts - Digha ghat, Gandhi ghat, Hathidah in Patna, Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district, Munger district and Buxar district.

IMAGE: Volunteers help a child to get down from the roof of a submerged house to shift him to safety near Danpur in Patna district of Bihar on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo

The districts which are witnessing flood-like situation included -- Patna, Vaishali, Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar, the department statement said.

Around 15,000 people are sheltered in 82 relief camps after being evacuated from flood affected areas, it said adding that all camps have the facilities of medical team with medicines.

Stating that several districts of Bihar have been facing the threat of inundation, Kumar said that "The water level of Ganga has increased due to release of water from Indrapuri barrage and other rivers merging into Ganga.

"Besides, a huge volume of water has been released from Bansagar dam and it is expected that water level, which has reduced, will once again rise by Sunday night or Monday morning," Kumar said.

The chief minister held Farakka dam responsible for slow discharge of water from Ganga which has become shallow due to heavy siltation. This causes flood water to spread to other areas.

IMAGE: People use tube boats to commute in a flooded locality in Patna on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo.

He appealed to people to vacate the rivebank areas and come to relief camps which would provide them proper food and shelter.

National and State Disaster Response Force have already been deployed in the affected districts, Kumar said and added that apart from taking help of big boats meant to ferry sand to evacuate people and animals, the government has made all preparations to airlift the people if needed.

Besides, Army has been put on alert to help the people out from the flood affected areas, Kumar added.

"We want to assure the people that we are alert... People should not get panicky and should tackle the situation bravely," Kumar said adding that government is taking every necessary step to provide relief to the people as "victims of disaster have the first right on state's coffers."

A disaster management department statement said altogether 1,326 boats are being plied by the government to evacuate the affected people to safer places.

The statement said several other rivers, apart from Ganga, were too flowing above danger mark and they were Sone at Koilwar (Bhojpur) and Maner (Patna), Punpun Sripalpur (in Patna), Ghaghra at Gangpur-Siswan in Siwan and Saran districts, Gandak in Hajipur, Kosi at Baltara and Kursela in Katihar district and Burhi Gandak in Khagaria.

Kumar said all the relief camps would be set up as per 'Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) prepared after Kosi tragedy and people coming to camps will be given utensils and basic minimum clothes for which the payment would be made through Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

Kumar gave necessary directions during the meeting convened to review the flood situation in the state capital. The CM assessed the flood situation with the District Magistrates of affected districts through video-conferencing.

Villages, which have been inundated, will be monitored regularly through patrolling, he said.

The chief minister said that the leaves of all the officers have been cancelled in order to facilitate their deployment in flood affected areas.

All the DMs and SPs of flood affected districts would keep moving in order to assess the ground realities, he said, adding that DMs would carry out aerial survey of their respective districts.

He was accompanied by Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Water Resources Department's Principal Secretary Arun Kumar Singh and CM's Principal Secretary Chanchal Kumar during the aerial survey.
In pursuit of a brighter future Updated: 2016-08-20 07:32 By Yu Ran(China Daily)

An increasing number of midcareer Chinese are seeking greener pastures by furthering their studies overseas, but life has not been all fun and games for some of the spouses who have tagged along

For Zhang Dida, her new life in the United States is a stark contrast to the one she had back in Shanghai where she was constantly bogged down with work.

One of the many Chinese citizens who hold onto the F-2 dependent visa, meant for spouses and children of F-1 student visa holders, Zhang was presented with the opportunity to take over her family business but decided that she would instead follow her husband, who wanted to pursue a master's degree in Business Administration at Boston University. The couple arrived in the US city last August.

Zhang says that she is now able to enjoy a slower pace of life which has allowed her to spend more time doing what she is fond of. She has taken up English lessons, joined a dance team, cooked for her church members and participated in volunteering work. She and her husband are also expecting a baby in August.

"I wanted to show support for my husband who was keen to further his studies in order to secure a promising future for us, and that's why I decided to come and start a new life," says the 29-year-old.

"It is actually quite common to see fellow Chinese walking through the campuses in the US, which is the top choice of my husband and his course mates who harbor strong ambitions to achieve more in life."

Her husband is planning to find a job in the US following the completion of his studies and Zhang says that she is also contemplating whether to follow in his footsteps.

"My dream would be to stay home and raise the kids while my husband holds onto a stable job. He could drive us out of the city for short trips on weekends and we will also adopt a dog and let it be a companion for our children," says Zhang.

Over in Texas, Vincent Ye's five years in the country has been filled with more pressure than excitement. Ye has resorted to being a driving trainer in the day and a restaurant waiter at night as his wife is still a PhD student in traditional medicine.

F-2 visa holders are only eligible for enrollment in vocational or recreational courses and are prohibited from working in the country.

Ye and his wife plan to settle in the US and will start looking for jobs after the latter graduates later this year.
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.
Mental health symposium

Mental Health America of Abilene will conduct its second annual mental health symposium from 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Friday at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, 1674 Pine St. Continuing education units will be available. To register, go to AbileneMHA.org or call 325-673-2300.

New bank being built in Tuscola

Texas National Bank broke ground recently on its new banking location at 533 Garza Ave. in Tuscola. The new site will replace the nearly 60-year-old existing location one block to the east, and provide a more visible and convenient place for the bank's customers to conduct business.

The new office will be about 3,000 square feet and will bring banking amenities to the Tuscola community such as an ATM and motor bank. The new building is anticipated to be complete in the first quarter of 2017.

President and CEO Bill Johnson noted, 'The South Taylor County community has supported their local bank for over 100 years; it's time we return the favor and upgrade the facilities for our customers. We see a bright future in Tuscola, and we are confident about our investment in the community.'

First Financial opens branch in Cisco

First Financial Bank N.A. opened a new location last week at 2006 Conrad Hilton Blvd. in Cisco.

'We are pleased to open the doors of our new building in Cisco,' said David Bailey, president of the Eastland Division of First Financial. 'Cisco is a vibrant West Texas community and we are proud to have been be a part of its growth over the years. This new state-of-the-art location will allow us to further meet the financial needs of the residents and businesses in Cisco while offering the same great customer service they have grown to expect from us.'

Tige Boats names new dealer

Tige Boats has announced that Erwin's Marine, of Valparaiso, Indiana, has joined its network of dealers.

Business workshop

Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conduct a workshop, 'How to Start a Business, ' from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday in the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. To make a reservation, call 325-670-0300.
MONDAY

Sewing circle

DESDEMONA  A sewing and craft circle will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Desdemona Activity Center. Participants are invited to bring a lunch. Admission is free.

'Music at Main'

Violinist Amanda Mylcraine will perform Celtic music at 'Music at Main' at 4 p.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Musicians are encouraged to call 325-676-6026 to schedule appearances.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112.

Schizophrenia Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Fisher County Chronicle, Rotan.

Alzheimer's Association Caregiver Support Group, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Texas AgriLife Extension Office, 101 S. Ave. D, Haskell.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Anorexics Bulimics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Central Texas Gem & Mineral Society of Abilene, 7 p.m., 7607 Highway 277 South. 325-692-0063.

Abilene Toastmaster's Club 1071, 7 p.m., Conference Center, Texas State Technical College, 650 E. Highway 80. 325-692-7325 or abilene.toastmastersclubs.org.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.

Memory Men (4-part a cappella singing), 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1165 Minter Lane. Park on east side, enter through kitchen. 325-676-SING.

Abilene Community Band rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Bynum Band Hall, McMurry University. 325-232-7383.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Avoca United Methodist Church. 325-773-2611.

Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Group. 325-676-1400.

TUESDAY

Business workshop

Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conduct a workshop, 'How to Start a Business, ' from 6-8 p.m. in the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. To make a reservation, call 325-670-0300.

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Key City Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

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).

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Brookshires, Cisco.

Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535.

Alzheimer's Association support group, 4 p.m., 301 S. Pioneer Drive. Libby, 325-672-2907.

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.

Stroke Club, 6-7 p.m., West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-5475.

MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300.

Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., Wisteria Place Chapel, 3202 S. Willis St. 325-829-1470.

Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Exodus Metropolitan Community Church, 1933 S. 27th St.

Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

WEDNESDAY

Dog Days at the Mall

Dog Days will continue from 5-8 p.m. at the Mall of Abilene. Participants are encouraged to bring their dogs. Service dogs and their trainers will be honored.

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, noon to 6 p.m., Sweetwater Lions Club, 1501 Lamar St., Sweetwater.

Blood drive, noon to 6 p.m., First Financial Bank, Sweetwater.

The Alzheimer's Association Brownwood Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Redstone Park Retirement & Assisted Living, 2410 Songbird Circle, Brownwood. 325-643-9056.

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

Square dance workshop

TYE  A-Team will conduct a square dancing workshop 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

'King O' the Moon'

A production of 'King O' the Moon' will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military.

Other ...

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, Cross Plains.

Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center.

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.

Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517.

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.
The 150 miles from Fort Worth to Abilene will seem like a hop, skip, and jump to Monica Braverman as she begins serving as cantor for Temple Mizpah, the local Jewish congregation.

Braverman lives in Crowley and owns an information systems company in Fort Worth. In addition to running a business, she flies almost every week to Boston to take courses leading to two degrees and an ordination from Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.

That's a routine she has grown used to as she juggles her professional life with her life's calling.

'I'm the original wandering Jew,' she joked.

Braverman, 60, will come to Abilene about every two months for services at Temple Mizpah and also on Jewish holidays. She definitely will be here for the High Holy Days, which begin with Rosh Hashana Oct. 3-4 and end with Yom Kippur on Oct. 12. Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement.

Braverman's selection as cantor for the congregation came about almost by happenstance. Rabbi Murray Berger of Dallas served from 2002 until this year. When he announced his retirement, an acquaintance of Braverman suggested that she would be the perfect match for the position of cantor.

She came to Abilene about two months ago to 'audition' for the job.

'I guess it went well,' she said, and she was hired.

Braverman explained that a rabbi and a cantor are authorized to perform the same services. A rabbi's area of expertise is in the study of text. A cantor specializes in liturgy. Braverman will sing or chant parts of the services she leads and will most often be accompanied on flute by Eliza Williams, who came with Braverman to a recent welcoming dinner and service.

When Braverman came for her 'audition,' she received a unanimous vote from the Temple Mizpah congregation, said Marc Orner, president of the congregation.

'When she offered her first prayer,' Orner said, 'we just sat there,' stunned at the power and beauty of Braverman's delivery.

Braverman is the second woman to serve at the temple. Before Berger's tenure, Elisabeth Stern led the services.

Braverman has such a gifted voice that she also sings with Fort Worth Symphony productions. She also is director of the children's choir at Beth El congregation in Fort Worth.

The people who gathered for the welcoming dinner Aug. 12 probably aren't all that interested in Braverman's credentials as a cantorial soloist, which is her title until she receives her cantorial ordination in 2018 from Hebrew College. They heard what they needed to hear the moment she started singing as a call to dinner.

'Her voice is wonderful,' said Barbara Pollack, a member of Temple Mizpah since 1983. 'We haven't had that in a long time.'

In addition to her business experience, her involvement with professional music organizations, and her religious activities and studies, Braverman has an incredibly diverse background.

She grew up in Chicago and earned a bachelor of science degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1976.

That was in preparation for medical school, which she enrolled in and then changed her mind. She decided that technical writing was what she wanted to do and earned a master of arts degree in that field in 1982, also from Bowling Green.

Then, in the 1980s, computers burst onto the scene, and Braverman had a new career to consider.

'This is for me,' was her thought, deciding that she would learn all about computers and then teach software programming.

In preparation for that career, she earned a master's degree in software engineering from TCU in 1996.

'No one told me you can't do it all,' she said.

To prove it, Braverman started her own business in Fort Worth in 1984 and still runs it. But then her true love started calling  her religion and her musical talent.

'That's where my heart ended up going,' she said.

She is active in the Beth El congregation in Fort Worth, serving as a bar/bat mitzvah tutor and a Torah study leader, in addition to her musical contributions. She sings in productions with the Fort Worth Symphony and was in the choir that supported Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli when he performed in Dallas.

It's fortunate for members of Temple Mizpah in Abilene that Braverman is the high-energy, vivacious person she is. In addition to serving the Abilene congregation and involvement at Fort Worth's Beth El, she also serves as a guest cantor for a Longview congregation, which is the same distance to the east of Fort Worth as Abilene is to the west.

Maybe Gene Goltz, a lifetime member of Temple Mizpah, whose father was a founding member, best described Braverman.

'She's a fireball,' he said.
How do I know it'll make a good picture? Naturally, by how hard I hit the brakes.

While driving through downtown Ballinger, I saw a customized deer target propped against the bumper of an ancient car frame up on blocks, I knew exactly who was responsible. I'd published a column about Fred Schwake and his store, One of a Kind Unique Antiques, back on June 3, 2013.

I had developed an appreciation then for his sense of humor. On my way to the Old Texas Theater, I laughed to see Schwake's unique view of the world still on display in full-flower.

Not only was the deer positioned just so in front of the vehicle, he (or perhaps someone else) had helpfully painted a bull's eye on the 3-D target, along with an attached comic strip bubble that read, 'Bummer of a birthmark, Rudolf.'

Yep, these are my peeps.

The image of cattle in the grass I've been hanging onto forever, it seems. I shot it back in April on my way back from lunch at Mary's Cafe in Strawn.

The scene has to work a little harder to get me to pull over if I'm on the first leg of a post-chicken-fried steak food coma. But cows drifting through a sea of waist-high grass will do it. The meadow undulated in the wind as I photographed, I'd like to think the moment was good for my digestion.

I've seen a lot of country over the last six years. My hair has gone from brown and sort-of gray to gray and sort-of brown during that time. My daughter Willow has grown from a tiny baby to starting her first day of kindergarten today. The staff car has gone from 60,000 miles to almost 200,000.

Despite all of those miles, there are still some things that I can never get enough of. Funny characters, beautiful light, the connection of history and Texas culture.

But I admit to photographing a lot of cows as I've wandered around. I think they're noble creatures, if not a little amusing.

Of course they're not the same as chickens; those birds are flat-out funny. Don't ask me why, chickens just make me laugh.

I haven't seen as many chickens as cattle, however. Of course, neither have I used my staff car to herd a flock of cluckers down a bar ditch the same way as I did after I found a young bull outside his pasture a few years ago near Aspermont. A couple toots on the horn and he found his way back through the fence.

Car horns, I've learned, are pretty useful. The device's utility goes beyond notifying the driver ahead of you to put down the phone because the light turned green. They've got an entirely different function in ranching.

Back in March, Lynn Owens  famous world-wide as 'Big O'  invited me to check out his neighbor's white buffalo. Because I'm always down for an adventure.

Big O's Restaurant is in Valera, about 11 miles south of Coleman. I piled my camera gear in the cab of his truck, and Big O got in behind the wheel without bothering to take his red apron off. It took us about ten minutes to arrive at a gate to the T-Bone Ranch, which is owned by Travis and Millie Goree.

'O called a ranch hand for the gate combination and shortly after we rolled through, closing it behind us. The day was late, but it was still bright enough out.

'I know that herd is around her somewhere,' Big O muttered. We wandered around an old house, rattled down a dirt road, and wisely detoured away from a swampy-looking pit that probably would have been no fun in the failing light.

Bless his heart, Big O hit every pot hole that he could, and the small plastic hula girl stuck to the dash wiggled with vigor the entire time. She danced us around the whole ranch.

'Big O, you sure you've seen a white buffalo out here?' I asked after a bit.

'Well, yeah,' he replied. 'We might have to wait until night.'

'What, they glow in the dark or something?'

When you're in trouble, phone a friend. That's what I did when my car battery died last month at Heff's Burgers in Sweetwater (thanks Doug!). Big O dialed the ranch hand once more and the man shortly arrived.

'There ain't no dang buffalo 'round here,' Big O said, poking fun at his friend.

'You try honkin'?' was the reply.

They laid on the horns and within minutes, it was like the beasties sprang up out of the grass. The herd surrounded us, and I wondered what their attitude would be when they realized we didn't have any food for them.

We got out of the truck for a few pictures. I had cameras around my neck, Big O had his red apron. Guess who the buffalo eyeballed first?

Bummer of a birth mark, Rudolf.
Walking into Abigayle Barton's office this past week, it was clear she's the newest member of the Abilene Independent School District's administrative team.

Her walls were white-ish, her desk impeccable and the little, round table set up for her to hold meetings so spotless, it reflected.

Barton, who joined the Abilene ISD as the new associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, has only been fully on the job for about a month, so it's expected that office will eventually be filled with paper and clutter that comes with longevity, especially in the curriculum department.

It might also be the same way at the new house she and her husband, Steve, along with their two elementary-aged children, just moved into within the Austin Elementary neighborhood. But as for their lives in Abilene just getting started, Barton said they've simply dived into the community with both feet.

'We've loved Abilene the last month we've been here,' Barton said.

She looks back fondly on an experience in a hotel the family stayed at before their house was purchased, when they were talking to an employee. They were asked, she said, what they were doing in Abilene.

When they answered that they were moving to town, Barton said, the employee grew a big smile and said 'Welcome to Abilene. You're going to love it here.'

So far, she said she has.

Barton, who was last the executive director for curriculum and instruction in the Corpus Christi district, is taking over a curriculum department that isn't perfect, but is at a very good place, she said. Seventh grade math test scores took a bit of a dip this past school year, so the district is investigating ways to address deficiencies there.

But there are a lot of things going right. It starts, she said, with a focus on the student under the directives of Superintendent David Young.

'I've been spending a lot of time learning about the curriculum here and working with the staff,' Barton said. 'But this district is really doing well. There's a really strong foundation here to work with.'

Aside from learning the curriculum, Barton said she's put a lot of effort into meeting the people who work to educate the students under her department's guidance.

She said the most important aspect of her job at the moment, especially heading into the start of the school year, is getting to know the teachers.

It started with new teacher orientation earlier this month and has continued through campus visits this past week as the educators finish setting up their classrooms.

She's a former math teacher from her days before moving into administration, so she understands teaching. Reaching out to those teachers, especially the ones who are just starting in the profession, will make a world of difference, she said.

'We want (new teachers) to be successful and we want them to come back,' Barton said. 'It's important to me to be on every campus, to meet the staff and see what's going on.'
Teachers: They're the most important part of a school district's staff, serving as the principal point of contact for students and the ones who are tasked with educating the future generation of entrepreneurs, workers and leaders.

So finding the right ones, qualified to teach in the subjects students need to succeed in, is one of the most important functions of the school district.

How did Big Country schools do this summer filling their gaps? According to many superintendents throughout the area, recruitment went well with only a few reporting real trouble identifying quality candidates to fill their needs.

In Abilene ISD, local resources historically help provide a high quality and quantity of applicants for the district to take advantage of, said Joe Alcorta Jr., the district's executive director of human resources. This year was no different, he said.

'We had a very deep applicant pool,' Alcorta said. 'The three local universities and Dyess Air Force Base really help bring in quality applicants. Our classrooms are fully staffed with quality teachers.'

Teacher groups like the Texas AFT, a part of the American Federation of Teachers, expressed concern this past spring that classrooms across the state could fall about 30,000 teachers short of needs when school resumed after summer vacation.

But local results of the summer hiring process showed many districts beyond the borders of Abilene with strong candidates equipped with enough experience to create confidence in the minds of the local leaders.

For instance, Haskell CISD Superintendent Bill Alcorn said he was able to recruit a number of teachers with previous experience  including two from Waco University High  to provide what he called 'the best (applicant pool) in five years.'

Likewise, Bob Spikes of Lueders-Avoca ISD said he had his teaching staff filled with quality teachers by the July 4 holiday.

'That was a first for me in 23 years of school administration,' Spikes said.

Districts in Hawley, Throckmorton, and Zephyr also reported no problems hiring teachers this year.

Difficulties did exist in some districts, though, as both Santa Anna ISD and Rising Star ISD were among those reporting trouble filling spots.

David Robinett, the superintendent of Santa Anna, said he was unable to fill a social studies opening at the high school. To fill the void, he said the district was able to work schedules of other teachers in different departments, qualified to teach social studies, to cover. Only two subjects were left out.

'We have everything covered except government and economics right now,' Robinett said. '(We) may have to do something online for those.'

Rising Star's superintendent, Mary Jane Atkins, said a similar situation came up in their high school Spanish department. While the district wasn't able to fill the position, there was a built-in contingency where the students would learn with online instruction.

While not reporting difficulties hiring teachers, both Sweetwater ISD Superintendent Terry Pittman and Merkel ISD Superintendent Bryan Allen did report less-than-stellar applicant pools for certain subjects. Allen in particular said the district had a hard time finding both math and science teachers this summer.
The corner of North 14th and Beech streets was the place for fun, food and festivities Saturday as neighbors came together to celebrate the last weekend before school starts Monday.

Hosted by Connecting Caring Communities, the 'back to school bash' was an opportunity for families of students starting school at Martinez Elementary School on Monday to enjoy a meal, meet and learn more about one another, said Janet Mendenhall, a CCC community coordinator.

'This is the fifth time we've done this event,' said Mendenhall, who noted that CCC staff handed out flyers at a meet the teacher night Friday at Martinez and also canvassed the neighborhood to invite people. 'It's always a great opportunity for people to come, hang out, enjoy a meal, play and get to know their neighbors better.'

CCC served hot dogs, chips, drinks and snow cones to those who attended, and there were two bounce castles and other toys for the kids to play with.

'We want this event  and other programs we offer  to strengthen the fibers of the neighborhood,' Mendenhall said. 'Even though the process seems slow at times, we believe we are making inroads and getting these neighbors to engage with each other. We're also seeing more and more connections being formed, and that is the beginning of change.'

Tara Heaton, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 10 years, attended the event with her two daughters and her niece.

'We live right by Martinez and found out about this from the flyer they distributed at meet the teacher,' she said. 'It was really fun to be a part of it, and the kids got to meet some of the other kids they will attend school with.'

Heaton's daughter, Hayleigh Martinez, will be in third grade this year, while her other daughter, Alexys, will be in kindergarten. Heaton's niece, Karissa, attends Bowie Elementary in south Abilene.

Mendenhall said the benefit of getting neighbors to gather is what CCC is all about.

'This event is a means to an end. After all, it's fun to get together with your neighbors,' she said. 'Building relationships takes time and we want these neighbors to know they can be a powerful collective voice for change if they will take the time to get to know each other and form connections.'
Donald Trump wants NATO members to pay their fair share into the transatlantic alliance, and that idea is nothing new.

Since the end of the Cold War, every American administration has made the same demand.

And it's still a bipartisan stance. Leaders and candidates in both parties  from Bernie Sanders to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tennessee  have called for NATO members to put more skin in the mutual defense game.

Some of our allies have done just that. In particular, the leaders of Central European countries who most intensely feel the pressures of Russian adventurism, know they need to shoulder their share of the load.

At the 2006 Riga Summit, NATO heads of state agreed that European members of the alliance should spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

Estonia has met that commitment, and others are working in that direction. In fact, in 2015, 19 NATO members halted what had become a pattern of cuts to military spending, and 16 of those nations actually increased spending.

The 2 percent pledge makes sense. A sustained commitment to maintaining armed forces over time makes for a better, more cost-effective defense. Whipping the size of defense forces up and down like a thermostat is what drives a lot of the inefficiencies for maintaining sufficient ships, planes and troops to reassure allies and deter potential enemies.

GDP works as a general measure of obligation much in the way families set aside a portion of their income for housing, savings and other vital expenses  ensuring that essentials are paid for first and that the family can live within its budget.

Were the U.S. to field all the forces needed to protect U.S. vital interests in key regions of the world, doing so would require about 4 percent of U.S. GDP, year in and year out.

The American economy is roughly the same as Europe's. And U.S. defense commitments to NATO plus Asia and the Middle East are twice as big.

For America, 4 percent is not unreasonable. Half that, 2 percent for Europe, sounds about right as a rough, baseline measure.

And there is a need for NATO to be a capable force. The stronger NATO is, the less tempting it is for Russia to meddle in transatlantic affairs, the better the transatlantic community can respond emergencies arising from an unsettled Middle East, and the better the alliance can deal with emerging threats such as cyber warfare and transnational terrorism.

What jarred many in Washington and other capitals was how Republican presidential candidate Trump suggested he would push other NATO nations to fulfill their burden-sharing commitments by making U.S. commitments contingent on theirs.

But campaign rhetoric is not always a reliable guide to what an administration might actually do in office. And certainly there are other ways by which the U.S. could help its NATO allies up their game, such as:

Focus on boosting the transatlantic economy. This will help us and our allies afford the defense we need. Reaching a U.S.-U.K. free trade agreement would be a huge benefit; the two countries account for about 80 percent of NATO's capabilities.

Lead by example. Let's be honest: U.S. military power is what makes NATO a military force to be reckoned with. It does countries no good to build up their capability unless they have a strong, confident U.S. military to partner with. Washington should build back to having four U.S. brigades permanently forward-deployed in Europe.

Make NATO a strong political alliance. With the European Union unraveling, NATO is the only coherent political-military voice that can shepherd peace and security in a part of the world where peace and security is important to the U.S.

NATO needs to get better. And America needs a better NATO.

James Jay Carafano, a 25-year U.S. Army veteran with a master's and doctorate from Georgetown University, is vice president of the Heritage Foundation.
Donald Trump's verbal attacks on American NATO allies that are 'not paying their part' have served to showcase his ignorance of NATO's structure and the real problems threatening American security.

The Republican presidential candidate's confidence in Vladimir Putin, Russia's increasingly powerful and aggressive leader, and his warnings he won't protect certain NATO members have already endangered the homeland and reduced America's global credibility.

For better or worse, NATO plays a major role in protecting the U.S. against a host of threats ranging from the Islamic State to aggressive nations like Russia.

And not all those threats are military ones, as Russian and North Korean hacking of American internet traffic has shown.

Nor do our allies' contributions to the alliance come only in the form of the 'cash transactions' by which Trump measures things. The tiny Baltic States Trump says aren't paying their share are on the geopolitical frontline of Russian aggression and have already been targets of hacking and border incursions. They are the buffers.

The countries of Eastern Europe as well as our allies in Western Europe not only host NATO troops  many of whom are Americans  but have also contributed their own troops to our fights in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Their actions have made them targets.

Whatever Trump claims, neither the new nor the old entrants to NATO are free-riders. All of them pay into the NATO budget, even if some have fallen short of the recommended minimum of 2 percent of gross domestic product.

All members maintain military forces tooled to fit Western models and have fought alongside us when needed.

For new entrants from what was once communist Eastern Europe, this has meant having to chuck their old Soviet arms and battle plans and invest their scarce resources, with our help, to make their militaries compatible with NATO forces.

These nations guard their own borders, a number of which abut Russia, and have stood ready to contribute to mutual causes, as they instantly did after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on 9/11.

Sadly, NATO has not been outdated by the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the rise of international terrorism and Russia's Putin, with whom Trump says he sees eye-to-eye, NATO is as necessary today as it was in 1949.

The new threats are not as simple as the old. Russia, like the old Soviet Union that collapsed around it, is even more transparent and aggressive in its desires to expand power.

The engagement of Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine and Russia's blatant takeover of Crimea in 2014  the first shift of European borders since Hitler's invasion of the Sudetenland  was undeniable proof of its determination to expand.

The shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines flight by a Russian missile is even more proof that there are dangers we can't ignore or fight ourselves.

Not only is Trump frighteningly wrong on the worth of little countries in Europe but he also fails to understand the very meaning of the term 'alliance' and the very real threats in the world.

Rather than talk about building a wall to keep out what he regards as 'dangerous refugees,' he should talk about strengthening the alliances we have, which protect our interests and those of other democracies working with us against dictators and terrorists.

Jane Leftwich Curry of Santa Clara University is a political science professor with an expertise in Eastern European politics. She is co-author of 'Central and East European Politics: From Communism to Democracy.'
Editor's note: Abilenians recently weathered 100-degree days 12 out of 13 days.

Summer in Texas is oppressive  humid or dry, and hotter than hell if I knew how hot hell was.

I would rather not know.

Growing up on the coast of Texas, I experienced more of a humid, drenching type heat, much like a sauna. Having lived in Abilene the past 13 years, I have experienced the pizza/convection oven dry heat, for the most part. Either way, it is just plain miserably hot.

I must admit I never saw temperatures of 114 degrees until I became an Abilenian. Conversely, summers in Corpus Christi entail being covered with sweat after a walk from the front door of the house to the car to drive to work. Yep, it is true. One hundred percent humidity is the equivalent of rain in the form of a warm moistness that saturates one's clothing immediately. Not even an umbrella will prevent this.

Living right across the bridge from North Padre Island, summers as a youth were enjoyed on the beach with the nice Gulf Coast breeze. This was the time of lying out on the sand covered in tanning oil right next to a beautiful blonde in a lime green bikini whom I later called wife and mother of my children. Summer was indeed a season in the sun in the '70s

But then came warnings of skin cancer and introduction of sunscreens that demonized the sun as an evil planet determined to damage its worshippers. Granted, we all looked so glowingly sun-soaked with a sexy summer tan as mere teenagers. Then we learned that this sun damaging soaking up of rays could cause skin damage including premature aging skin as well as skin cancer.

As a parent of young children, often are the times we visited Sea World, Fiesta Texas, Six Flags, various zoos and Schlitterbahn during the unbearably hot Texas summers. Why? Because that is when the kids were out of school. What a cruel joke, right?

The days of $6 lemonades too numerous to mention at these amusement parks dented the family budget as much as lodging. But we did not care. Staying hydrated in the heat of Texas summers is imperative. And, strangely we had fun. Memories are of time spent with family more than time spent in the desert Texas sun. Perspective changes things at least temporarily.

So, for many years, summers in Texas have seemed a time to hibernate inside my darkened home with chilly temperatures. Summers in Texas have made me appreciate the luxury of air-conditioning more than groceries. I have often said I would rather give up groceries than AC. A Texas summer would make anyone feel this way.

Landscapers, roofers, postal workers, FedEx and UPS delivery drivers, air-conditioning repair guys, plumbers, and any other outdoor worker have my deepest sympathy and empathy for working in hellish Texas summers.

I wholeheartedly support double the wage for these workers during the summers the Lone Star State forces upon them. Increased repair bills and lawn care bills, etc. are deserving of these diligent workers. They are tops in my book!

Heatstroke is a real and present danger as well. A plumber who recently installed a new water heater told me he experienced a heatstroke last August.

So, for me, a summer in Texas is an excuse to hibernate within my 70- degree home. You heard me right. Seventy degrees suits me and is well worth sacrificing something else so I can survive comfortably.

Indeed, I know there is a degree of shallowness to this mindset. First-world problems are absurd. We are much more fortunate than we deserve to be afforded these luxuries. Yet, I grew up in a home with no air-conditioning until I left at age 18 and I survived despite Texas summers. Rare were the times I remember even having a fan in my room. Yet, with the long hair of the '70s as a dating teen, I managed to spray enough Brut, Jovan Musk or English Leather colognes to make me acceptable to my date on those hot and sultry weekend summer nights.

All of this is to say, thank you to Willis Haviland Carrier for inventing air-conditioning July 17, 1902. Strangely my home address during my childhood years was 1902 Purdue. How serendipitous I would be thanking Mr. Carrier for what he brought our society and brought to me at age 18, when I married and moved into my first apartment.

'Tis a grand day it was.

So, good riddance Texas summer, albeit a bit prematurely. We will reluctantly see you next year.

Justin Holloway is a grandfather of six, praise and worship minister, former school board president and founder of Sacred Lives Foundation. He lives in Abilene.
A story out of Austin caught our eye last week. You may have seen it online or in our Aug. 9 print edition.

It seems that interactions between police patrolling the streets of our state capital and the homeless there, estimated at more than 2,000, are more cordial. In fact, one group encountering the other is not necessarily a negative.

Police are asking if they can help; the homeless are telling them they can.

The city established a Homeless Outreach Street Team to connect police and the homeless. The grander idea is to reduce the homeless population, which reports say has increased 20 percent this year. The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition there served more than 7,000 people January through May.

Previously, there was zero tolerance for offenses committed by folks who are homeless. They would be arrested or fined  but how could they pay fines if they're homeless?

The cycle of frustration spun and spun. So, something was done about it.

Time will tell if the program works but mindsets are changing. Maybe the homeless are not trouble brewing; maybe police are not the bad guys.

So what about Abilene? Funny we should ask.

As we talk about improving communication and improving relationships here between police and community, the discussion should include our homeless population. We all know we have one. We've seen folks walking about town, sometimes putting themselves in harm's way crossing wide, busy streets or the train tracks.

The annual Feast of Sharing gives the community a chance to eat together, homeless next to those going home after that night's meal. Serving meals at Love and Care Ministries on Sunday nights is staple of local youth group activities. The need is great.

A year ago, a homeless task force was formed  Hand Up, Not Out. Police Chief Stan Standridge said his department, city of Abilene administration, the United Way of Abilene, Betty Hardwick Center, Hope Haven, several churches and Love and Care are among those participating. They are partnering with the School of Social Work at Abilene Christian University to develop a comprehensive needs assessment.

What is our homeless population? Why are they here? What can we do for them to become 'formerly homeless?'

The Dian Graves Owen Foundation and local churches (Highland Church of Christ, Beltway Park Church, First Baptist Church and New Hope Church) have joined with the city to fund this effort.

The last meeting was June 9, at which discussion included the challenges of Hope Haven, which lost significant Housing and Urban Development funding, and a project called City Square, which could house about 40 people at the former St. Ann's Hospital on Cedar Street. ACU personnel discussed the assessment plan, which would include interviews with the homeless and how to use federal, state and local data to our advantage.

Earlier this year, Jeff Hatcher, pastor of Wylie United Methodist Church, toured homeless facilities in Waco to get a better idea of what that city similar to our size is doing to help.

There has been discussion about providing more jobs. These jobs wouldn't pay a lot but pay something, and having a job could turn someone's lifeview around.

The next meeting is planned for Sept. 1 at the Law Enforcement Center, 450 Pecan St.

A program similar to that in Austin has been launched in San Antonio. In some cases, the homeless and police there know each other by name.

Abilene does not have the homeless population of these two larger cities. But we've seen familiar faces too many times on the street. Thinking about the homeless shouldn't be reserved for the holidays, when he weather gets too hot or cold, or when a pedestrian pushing a cart of some sort is killed or injured.

It sounds to us as if the right people, including our police, are addressing the issue. Well, maybe not all the right people.

Perhaps you should be involved. Making our city a better place takes all of us.
GARY BOMAR/BIG COUNTRY AG Scott Anderson, longtime Brown County Extension agent, has been recognized for his work by two noteworthy organizations.

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By Gary Bomar of the Abilene Reporter News

Scott Anderson, who has been the Brown County Agricultural and Natural Resources AgriLife Extension Agent since 1997, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.

The award is the highest honor a county Extension agent can receive at the county level. Anderson formally received the honor at the National Ag Agents meeting recently in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was also honored by the Texas Association of County Agricultural Agents last July in Waco.

Anderson, a 27-year veteran of Extension, is a product of the Big Country. A native of Cisco, Anderson was very active in both FFA and 4-H, receiving both the Gold Star Award and the Lone Star Farmer Degree. His major projects were livestock, where he showed cattle, swine and lambs. While in high school, he maintained a flock of Southdown sheep.

"I always knew that I would always be connected to agriculture in some way," he said. After high school, Anderson attended Cisco College, and then Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. He received scholarships both in agriculture and rodeo. Anderson was an active member of the collegiate rodeo team at both schools and a competing member of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Tie-down calf roping was his main event.

Upon graduation, Anderson worked for the well-known Granada Land and Cattle Company in its Brangus division for two years. In 1989, he accepted the position of Assistant County Extension Agent in Palestine.

"Being under a great trainer agent, Glen Huddleston, I learned a lot, especially dealing with horticulture at the same time developing a strong Extension background," Anderson said.

Even, as a young agent, Anderson was given the responsibility of developing an adult beef cattle program. This was in addition to a large 4-H program for the county.

In 1991, Anderson underwent a major transfer in Extension, from the East Texas position with a large population. He assumed the position of County Extension Agent-Ag in Presidio County, with his office in Mafia.

"The county had more cows than people, and covered vast rangeland," he recalls.

Taking his Extension base, Anderson developed a Range Management Program, and an active 4-H program in this far West Texas county.

"People do not realized that in the south part of the county along the Rio Grande, there are many acres of vegetables commercially grown," he said.

Also, alfalfa is major crop in the fertile river bottom, and Anderson worked with several producers along the Texas- Mexico border. While in Mafia, Anderson earned a master's degree in agriculture from Sul Ross State University.

From far West Texas, Anderson transferred to Brown County in 1997. These past 19 years, he has developed a well-rounded educational program with a strong 4-H and youth base, conducted pesticide training events, taught horticultural activities and maintained an active range and beef educational program with banner events such as the Heart of Texas Annual Beef Conference.

Taking advantage of his rodeo experience, Anderson has been the coordinator of the Texas 4-H roping school for the last 26 years. For this dedication, he was given special recognition by the Texas A&M University Animal Science Department for outstanding equine educational programs and events.

Anderson and his wife Ginger, have three children, Blake, Ryan and Sydnee. In his leisure time, he can be found still in the rodeo arena, no longer calf roping, but now entering in the steer tripping competition.
The Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine continue to accuse each other of violating a cease-fire agreement.

The army said in a statement on August 21 that the separatists had fired 71 times at various government-controlled areas near the front line over the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, posted on Facebook, the most intense shelling occurred in the village of Avdiyivka, which came under heavy artillery fire by the separatists during the night time.

During the day, the separatists shelled Avdiyivka from mortars and grenade launchers, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the separatists claimed that the Ukrainian military launched more than 180 shells on rebel-held areas in Donetsk overnight.

The separatists said the Ukrainian government forces targeted several separatist-controlled areas, including Yasinovataya, Dokuchayevsk, and Trudovskiye.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the situation in eastern Ukraine continues to deteriorate and accused the enemy of trying to undermine the Minsk peace process aimed at settling the conflict.

According to the United Nations, more than 9,500 people have been killed in the conflict since it began in April 2014.

Based on reporting by unian.net and TASS


Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign manager says Republican rival Donald Trump should explain "the extent to which the Kremlin is at the core" of his campaign, her team's latest suggestion of Russian meddling in the November 8 election.



The August 21 comments to ABC News by Robby Mook came just days after the resignation of Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, amid reports about his lobbying work for a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian political party and failure to register as a foreign agent.



"Paul Manafort has been pushed out, but that doesn't mean that the Russians have been pushed out of this campaign," Mook said.



He added that there are "real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race."



Trump has said that if elected, he would seek to improve U.S.-Russian ties that were battered following Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea territory and backing for armed separatists battling Kyiv's forces in the east of the country.



But he says suggestions that the Kremlin is trying to help him get elected are ridiculous. Moscow has rejected the accusations as well.

Based on reporting by ABC News
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."
A poignant suicide note written by a 22-year-old man alleging that local police tried to force him to inform on people growing marijuana in his village is spurring Georgians to take a new look at the country's harsh drug laws ahead of parliamentary elections.

Demur Sturua wrote that it pained him terribly to abandon his mother, but that he could no longer stand being intimidated and beaten by one of the police officers in his western village of Dapnari. He then hanged himself at home.

The August 8 suicide has generated shock in this small Caucasus country, where many see it as evidence of abuse of police power despite largely successful efforts in recent years to clean up law enforcement. But some see Sturua's death as due to something else: strict laws that encourage police to pursue suspected drug users even over relatively soft drugs.

Anger over the suicide has quickly turned political, with parliamentary elections due on October 8. Georgia's leading opposition party, the Free Democrats, has promised to decriminalize all drug use in the country if it comes to power. Headed by former Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, the party said on August 16 it believes responsibility for Sturua's death "rests on the law-enforcement bodies as well as the government, which has had an incorrect drug policy over the last decades."

It is calling for a drug policy based on human rights and social health principles that would exempt users from prosecution and offer them treatment, while creating tougher punishments for drug dealing. It did not say what those punishments should be.

The opposition party's statement puts Georgia's drug laws at the center of campaigning that normally focuses on issues such as political corruption and economic troubles. It also looks set to renew debate over how willing governments in Tbilisi are to fully adopt more Western-leaning values as the country seeks to move closer to the European Union after signing an Association Agreement in June 2014.

Activists say that Georgia, which is often seen as an island of openness in the post-Soviet space, remains highly restrictive when it comes to drug laws. Under Georgian law, possession of more than a minute amount of any drug -- soft or hard -- is punishable by prison, with little distinction made between users and sellers. They say that worsens Georgias drug problems by frightening users into trying to constantly stay ahead of the list of outlawed narcotics by turning to new, unlisted, synthetic drugs that may be even more dangerous -- only complicating efforts to convince users to admit addiction and seek treatment.

"Out of 207 controlled substances, 147 do not [allow for] small amounts for personal use, which means possessing any amount, even microscopic amounts, is enough to go to jail for five to eight years," says Paata Sabelashvili, head of the White Noise activist group in Tbilisi that is seeking to change Georgia's drug laws.

Sabelashvili, who is also a public health expert, says that under current laws possession of just 5 grams of marijuana is enough to go to prison. The strict regulations also allow police officers to pull citizens off the streets and into police stations for urine tests if they have reasonable suspicion the person may be under the influence of drugs.

"You can be taken at any moment, from any place -- from a cafe, from the street -- for urine testing," Sabelashvili says. "Up to 60,000 people from a population of 3.7 million have been taken for urine testing per year."

Activists also say that the fear such draconian laws inspire also opens the way for police to intimidate people into becoming informants, as Sturua's suicide notes alleged happened to him. They say the information obtained then makes it easier for police to carry out drug raids and boost their record for successful investigations.

Georgia's strict laws are a legacy of measures passed in 2006 when President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is largely credited with cleaning up corrupt police practices such as bribe-taking, was at the height of his power. He set a zero-tolerance policy for drugs, including seven- to 14-year prison sentences for possession.

When Saakashvili and his United National Movement party were defeated in elections in 2012 after a decade in power, the incoming ruling Georgia Dream coalition softened the punishments but otherwise kept the zero-tolerance policies in place.

Today, prison sentences for possession are from five to eight years, but defendants are allowed to plead guilty in exchange for suspended sentences and stiff fines that Sabelashvili says commonly total 20,000 to 30,000 laris ($8,500 to $12,800 dollars).

That leaves Georgia with drug laws more like those of other post-Soviet republics than those of the EU. While all countries in Europe specify possession of drugs for personal use as an offense, punishment for small amounts is commonly a fine equivalent to a few hundred dollars.

But in Russia and most other post-Soviet nations, even where drug laws have officially been eased in recent years, possession is still likely to end with imprisonment.

In Georgia, activists have stage street demonstrations to call for the decriminalization of drug use. Protest leaders have called on authorities to "stop jailing people for smoking weed" and said they are not advertising marijuana but protecting the personal freedom of those who smoke it.

But public opinion over how much to liberalize Georgia's drug laws is divided. No formal polls exist, but informal polls, including recent interviews with passersby on a busy Tbilisi street this week, reveal some of the differences in views.

Asked whether people should be punished for using light drugs, one woman told RFE/RL: "By all means, because [otherwise] he will pull in others."



Others favor punishment but not prison sentences.

"Maybe a fine or something like that," said one young man.



Another woman said she preferred to see drug users get treatment rather than jail time. "These people are ill," she said. "What will you achieve by putting them in prison? Will they give up drugs?"

Several draft laws have been submitted to the Georgian parliament over the last four years aimed at softening the drug policy, but all of them have been rejected. However, prospects for doing so may have improved following a decision by the Constitutional Court last year in response to an activist who was detained in 2014 for possession of 70 grams of marijuana.



The activist, Beka Tsikarishvili, challenged imprisonment for drug possession as inhumane. The Constitutional Court agreed, ruling that prison was too harsh for 70 grams of marijuana when there was no documented intent to sell. That leaves legislators with the task of now rewriting the national drug law to bring it into line with the court's decision once a new parliament is elected in October,

RFE/RL Georgian Service correspondents in Tbilisi Giorgi Gvakharia, Eka Kevanishvili, and Thea Topuria contributed to this report
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."
Iraq has executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the massacre by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group of hundreds of military recruits in 2014, officials say.

The men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in the southern province of Dhiqar on August 21, Governor Yahya al-Nasiri said.

IS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers from the Speicher military base when it overran the northern city of Tikrit in 2014.

The extremist group later posted gruesome images online of the soldiers being shot dead.

The men executed in Nasiriyah were arrested after Iraqi forces recaptured Tikrit in 2015. An Iraqi court sentenced them to death earlier this year.

"They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the countrys president approved the executions, said a spokesman for the Dhiqar governor.

The spokesman said some 400 of the massacre victims were from Dhiqar.

Tens of relatives of the victims attended the executions, he added.

The Speicher massacre is considered one of IS's worst crimes since it seized large parts of Iraq in 2014.

Rights groups have criticized the Iraqi government for what they call Iraq's systematic resort to the death penalty.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
Russian authorities are investigating an attack on journalist Yulia Latynina in which the prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin was doused with fecal matter by an unidentified assailant.



State-controlled media reported on August 21 that police have launched a probe into the attack the previous day in central Moscow as Latynina walked to work at the office of Ekho Moskvy radio, where she hosts a weekly political commentary show.



Latynina, a searing critic of Russia's ruling political elite, said that two men wearing motorcycle helmets were waiting for her after she exited her parked car. One of the men approached her and tossed fecal matter on her from a bucket before fleeing with his accomplice on a motorcycle, she said.



She added on her radio show immediately following the attack that the assailant yelled that she was "pouring crap" on Russia.



A video of the attack was later posted online and broadcast during Russian state television reports about the police investigation.

The Russian Union of Journalists said in an August 21 statement that it believes the attack was connected to Latynina's "professional activities."



Latynina herself suggested the attack was connected to comments she has made about Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who headed a holding company that financed a company employing Internet operatives -- commonly referred to as trolls -- disseminating Kremlin talking points and harassing government critics online.



Numerous high-profile journalists and Kremlin opponents have been assaulted or killed during Putin's 16 years in power. Opposition activists have accused authorities of creating an atmosphere of impunity for perpetrators of these attacks.



Latynina temporarily left Russia in March 2015 after her name was linked to a rumored "kill list" that reportedly included the names of numerous individuals who openly criticize Russia's leadership.



She said at the time that she decided to leave the country after noticing that she was being followed on the street.



The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, to which Latynina is a regular contributor, said in a statement that Latynina has "regularly" received threats and that "several years ago" a planned attack on her was thwarted.

With reporting by echo.msk.ru, Novaya Gazeta, TASS, and Ria Novosti
Running an independent newspaper can be a risky business in Russia, where failure to toe the Kremlin line can lead to fines, closure, or even jail. And when a publication has been branded by state-controlled media as U.S. propaganda, the danger that the police will come knocking is even greater.

But the editor in chief of Yakutsk Vecherny, one of the most popular newspapers in Siberias vast Yakutia region, says the publication has stayed out of the crosshairs of local authorities despite a bold rebuke against Kremlin-friendly media that appears in an unusual part of the paper: the weekly TV listings.

In capital letters at the bottom of the page, readers find the following warning:

Beware. TV news programs often contain distorted or false information. The state TV channels NTV and Rossia are guilty of this more than the others.

The publication made sure it had everything in order after adding the warning in May.

We know there are risks, and therefore we are really careful with everything we do. Plus, we have strong support from lawyers, editor in chief Vitaly Obedin told RFE/RL in a recent interview at his office in Yakutsk, a city of some 270,000 about 4,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

Fire safety, and other technical stuff, and taxes, all of it, were as clean as a whistle, said Obedin, citing the kinds of things state authorities sometimes use as pretexts to close organizations that they want shut for political reasons.

Obedin said his papers poke at Kremlin-loyal media was a response to being targeted in an NTV news program earlier this year.

NTV, which is owned by the state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, broadcast a program accusing Yakutsk Vecherny and other independent regional media of serving the interests of Russias enemies because they received money from a U.S.-based NGO.

Right now, telling the truth in Russia means working for the United States, and exposing lies also means working for the United States, said Obedin, who has worked at the paper for about 15 years.

President Vladimir Putin increased state control over the broadcast media in particular after he came to power in 2000, and independent outlets have come under increasing pressure in recent years. TV2 in Tomsk, which many considered the last truly independent regional TV station in Siberia, was taken off the air in 2015.

Yakutsk Vecherny began publishing in 1994 and is issued in print form once a week, on Fridays. There is also a web version.

The initial public reaction to the "TV warning" was less than overwhelming, Obedin said.

However, once social-media users noticed, things changed, and his office was flooded with calls and letters of support.

Most people think it took a lot of bravery to publish it, he said.

Local authorities, however, werent so impressed.

Look, whenever youve been labeled by state media, things are more difficult. Were being watched very carefully. But right now, we are not being targeted specifically by the authorities, Obedin said.

Dozens of other regional newspapers have followed his newspapers lead, adding the TV warning to their pages as well, claimed Obedin, listing at least 10.

According to Obedin, more and more Russians are turning away from print media for their news, getting their information instead from the TV, or the zombie box, as he and many other critics of state media put it.

And the message most Russian state TV is churning out is that the country is under threat.

The message is that all foreign countries are jealous of Russia and dreaming of its collapse, Obedin explained.

Asked how much longer his newspaper plans to carry the TV warning, Obedin said that while he doesnt expect propaganda to disappear, he hopes it will be toned down a bit.

Maybe well end it when the TV channels become less obvious.
KYIV -- Ukraine said on August 21 that a Russian opposition activist known for being repeatedly detained for protesting against Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule has asked Kyiv to grant him political asylum.

Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on August 21 that activist Roman Roslovtsev requested political asylum earlier in the day at passport control at the Novi Yarilovichi crossing on Ukraine's northern border with Belarus.

The border guard service had issued a statement earlier on August 21 that did not name the individual, describing him only as a "famous Russian writer and public figure who was involved in active protest activities against Putin's existing political regime in Russia."

Roslovtsev, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment via Facebook, is not known as a writer but rather for being detained on numerous occasions for staging one-man protests while wearing a Putin mask.

Slobodyan did not clarify why the border guard service's statement had described Roslovtsev as a "famous writer."

Roslovtsev has said his Putin-mask pickets are aimed at demonstrating the absurdity of Russia's protest laws, which Kremlin critics say are enforced arbitrarily in order to stamp out public criticism of the government. 

WATCH: In this video from June 10, Roslovtsev is arrested once again for wearing a mask of the Russian president in Red Square. He was continuing a campaign against a law that bans mass protests in Russia. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)

Roslovtsev told Ukraine's independent Hromadske.tv channel on August 21 that he has asked Ukraine for political asylum because of persecution by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, and "the inability to continue protest activity in Russia."

He did not say in the published version of the interview that he was the individual cited in the State Border Guard Service statement.

The State Border Guard Service added that the man's case has been referred to migration authorities.

Oleksiy Makeiev, political director at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, did not provide details when reached by RFE/RL on August 21.

"I hope I will know more about it tomorrow," he said.

Numerous Russian opposition activists have sought and been granted political asylum in Ukraine over the past decade, claiming political repressions under Putin's government.

Moscow and Kyiv's pro-Western government have been locked in a 2-year-old standoff over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea territory in 2014 and subsequent backing of armed separatists battling Ukrainian forces in the east of the country.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Christopher Miller in Kyiv
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Gov. Terry McAuliffes massive restoration-of-rights order for about 206,000 felons prompted 13,000 of them to register to vote before the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned the order last month.

Because restoration of civil rights is a prerequisite to an application for the restoration of firearms rights, a number of ex-offenders subsequently used their new status to apply to circuit courts throughout the state to restore their gun rights.

But now authorities and individuals involved in gun-rights restoration potentially affected by the court ruling are confronted with a murky legal and logistical question: What to do with ex-offenders who successfully applied to have their gun rights restored and now possess firearms?

Its quite a pickle for the citizens actively involved, said Seth Saunders, a Richmond criminal defense attorney who also specializes in firearms-rights restoration.

None of them did anything wrong ... but its created a minefield of issues when it comes to the process, he said. There is no solid answer right now, and thats part of the problem.

The issue is yet another unintended consequence of the Democratic governors order, and the Supreme Court of Virginias ruling on July 22, in response to a legal challenge by Republican General Assembly leaders.

This is a pretty unusual situation without a clear answer, said Michael Kelly, spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring.

The Supreme Court dealt with voters in its order, but not other Virginians who had relied on the governors order to exercise certain rights and privileges. The situation will ultimately require some judicial clarification from a circuit court, or perhaps the Supreme Court itself.

***

Its hard to gauge how many people are caught up in the gun-rights limbo. Local prosecutors said they did not see a huge leap in applications for firearms restoration after the governors blanket civil-rights restoration orders in April, May and June.

Those orders automatically granted to nonviolent and violent felons alike who had completed their sentences the right to vote, sit on a jury, become a notary public and seek elective office.

But the absence of guidance from the courts regarding the gun-rights restoration since the Supreme Court overturned McAuliffes order restoring other rights has left no clear direction on how to handle those who obtained guns in the interim, people involved in the process said.

I can only imagine that your firearms restoration is not valid if you are someone caught in the middle, said Richmond defense attorney Susan Allen, who handles restoration issues as part of her practice.

If you no longer have a valid civil-rights restoration, you dont meet the eligibility requirements.

Saunders, however, said he could argue that clients who successfully pursued restoration of gun rights under the authority of the governors mass civil-rights restoration order are entitled to retain their firearms, despite the rescinded civil-rights order.

If I took a ripe claim to the courts  which it was at the time a judge signed off on it  that tells me the rights are restored and valid, he said. Otherwise, Saunders said the courts or law enforcement need to clarify the law and let all folks affected know it has been corrected.

The consensus among commonwealths attorneys and law enforcement officials interviewed appears to be that people who obtained firearms using the now-rescinded mass civil-rights restoration order technically are no longer legally allowed to possess them.

Individuals need to refer back to the governors website for direction on how to proceed concerning the steps necessary to secure a valid restoration of their voting rights, the Virginia State Police said in a statement.

Once thats accomplished, then those individuals will have to reapply through the circuit court to have their gun rights restored.

If someone in possession of a firearm as a result of the order is stopped by a law enforcement officer, the state police said the individual would need to show documentation of gun-rights restoration.

The officer would advise the person that any firearm in that individuals possession at the time would have to be turned over to another individual, such as a family member, neighbor or friend, who can lawfully possess a firearm.

Officials said that if no one else was in the vehicle when the person was stopped, the officer would need to take custody of the weapon until a person legally able to possess the firearm could claim it.

Defense attorneys said that if someone possessed a weapon and had not received notice that the gun rights are no longer valid, such circumstances would not warrant the filing of charges for illegal possession of a firearm, let alone successful prosecution.

Youve got a darn good defense, Allen said. You would be hard-pressed to think anybody is going to be convicted under those circumstances.

***

But those caught in the middle of the gun-rights situation still face additional obstacles.

As a result of the Supreme Court ruling, state elections officials set an Aug. 8 deadline for local registrars to remove from the voting rolls the names of the 13,000 felons who had registered under McAuliffes order.

The governor said he would reinstate individually the voting rights of all who had received them under the blanket orders he issued in April, May and June.

To date, however, none of those affected has had their rights individually restored. On Friday, McAuliffes office said he will make a major announcement on rights restoration on Monday.

Felons wishing to vote will have to wait until they receive notice from the governor that their individual rights are restored and then re-register  a process that takes little time and no money.

But people who have to reapply to a circuit court for gun rights potentially face additional court costs and legal fees to restore their firearms rights.

The process, which involves a scheduled court hearing and review by a local commonwealths attorneys office, also can take time  anywhere from three weeks to months, defense lawyers say.

Its not something you can do on a Tuesday afternoon, Saunders said.

Henrico County Commonwealths Attorney Shannon L. Taylor, among the first to raise the gun-rights limbo issue after the Supreme Courts ruling, said she believes a number of circuit judges, recognizing the potential legal challenge to McAuliffes original order, continued cases involving firearms restoration to avoid the potential conflict.

After the Supreme Court ruling, the Virginia Association of Commonwealths Attorneys sent an email to prosecutors throughout the state raising the issue and suggesting ways to handle gun-rights cases once they come back around.

After reviewing the research and communicating with the Henrico Circuit Court, we have decided that for the one or two individuals who fall into this category, we will issue a show-cause motion to bring them back before the court so that the judge might be able to explain what has happened with the Virginia Supreme Court decision and how it voided their order, Taylor said.

It is my understanding that those individuals who acted upon either their right to vote and/or their right to possess firearms are a priority for the current secretary of the commonwealth to ensure that the appropriate executive order is enacted for that individual. Thus, it is our intention to work with the individual to ensure that they are following the law.

Richmond Commonwealths Attorney Michael N. Herring said those who had gun rights restored after McAuliffes order that are now invalidated by the Supreme Court ruling should be given notice that they are technically in violation of the law if they possess a firearm.

The idea that we can reasonably expect the restored to inspect the governors website (to understand their legal status) is ludicrous, he said.

Instead, he hoped that those who possess firearms under the order will do the right thing with the understanding that down the road, we would be there with them through the process to reacquire his rights.

To some, the unintended consequences of the governors rights-restoration effort would have been easier to address before the fact, instead of after.
A Dinwiddie County sheriffs deputy has been charged with second-degree murder after his brother was shot to death Sunday.

Deputy Terrell Coles, 24, is being held without bond at the county jail in the shooting of his brother, Brandon D. Coles, 25, Virginia State Police said.

The shooting happened about 3 a.m. Sunday when the two men got into an altercation and one of them grabbed a weapon at Terrell Coles home in the 15700 block of Allen Drive, police said.
Richmond police are investigating after a man was shot to death early Sunday on the citys North Side.

Officers were called shortly after midnight to the 3900 block of Chamberlayne Avenue, where they found a man with a gunshot wound in the parking lot of an apartment building, police said.

Desmond L. Holmes, 32, of the 7900 block of Tamarind Place in Henrico County, was pronounced dead at the scene.
CHARLOTTESVILE - Charlottesville police are investigating a reported sexual assault that occurred early Saturday on the University of Virginia campus.

According to police, a female U.Va. student was approached from behind on Emmet Street near Thomson Road. An attacker with a knife pulled the victim from the sidewalk and assaulted her.

The attacker was described as a white man who is 20 to 30 years old. He is of average height and has light-colored hair.

Police ask that anyone in the area between midnight and 1 a.m. who noticed anything suspicious contact detective T. Newberry at (434) 970-3280 or Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000.

Friday marked the beginning of opening weekend at U.Va. The school has gone to great lengths this year to keep students  especially the approximately 3,700 entering first-year students  out of trouble on opening weekend. This week, several administrators  including Dean of Students Allen W. Groves and President Teresa A. Sullivan  sent out notices urging students to stay away from Saturdays rowdy Wertland Street Block Party.

While the event is not in any way affiliated with, or sanctioned by, the university, it has nonetheless become a great concern for many of us, given the increasing size of the crowd and the demonstrated potential for negative (and highly serious) incidents to occur, Groves wrote. Sexual assault, dangerously crowded balconies, underage drinking, and other risks inherent in large crowds of individuals you do not know are all very real concerns.

The university had a series of alternative events planned for the same time as the block party, which typically attracts about 5,000 people.

The university sponsored a concert headlined by J. Cole, as well as several late-night events in the Aquatic & Fitness Center. Dining halls were open late, and several dorms hosted their own events.

U.Va. sent out a timely warning notification to students about the reported sexual assault, but many first-year students, such as Sabrina Lingenfelter and Kate Giesler, said Saturday that they didnt know about it and had not received the notification. Both said they thought they had signed up for the notification system at orientation.

I still feel really safe on Grounds, though, because (of), I think, (my) peers, Lingenfelter said. Whenever Im walking with one of my classmates, I still feel really safe.

About 30 other first-year students said they also had not heard about the reported sexual assault. One first-year student said he did receive the email notification.

The university has two types of alerts: timely warnings about Clery Act crimes and emergency notifications for any incident that may be considered an immediate and ongoing threat, according to U.Vas Clery Act website.

The university is reviewing the email distribution system for timely warning notifications to confirm message delivery, U.Va. spokesman Anthony de Bruyn said in an email.

The Jeanne Clery Act, a law passed in 1990, requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funding to share information about crime on campus and their efforts to improve campus safety, as well as inform the public of crime in or around campus, according to the Clery Center for Security on Campus.

The center says institutions have ongoing reporting obligations, and when an incident occurs, they must determine if a timely warning or emergency notification must be disseminated to the campus community. They should have specific policies for both timely warnings and emergency notifications, and they should not conflate the two in their policies or in any description of their policies, the center website says.

At U.Va., the emergency notifications are sent via email and text, among other channels, said de Bruyn, and the timely warnings are distributed via email only.

Eva Cassada and Tom McLaughlin were on campus Saturday to move in their first-year son. They said they had not heard about the reported sexual assault.

All we knew about was this block party, said Cassada. President Sullivan put the word out that it was to be off limits, and so the J. Cole concert is a nice alternative. Thats all we had heard about.

It was not mentioned in President Sullivans address, the welcome to the parents  that was certainly not mentioned, she said.

The Presidents Welcome Address was at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Cassada and McLaughlin said administrators talked about alcohol safety and took questions from the audience. A representative from the U.Va. Police Department talked about the alert system and other safety measures they take for students and staff.

It was a good presentation, but that did not come up, McLaughlin said.

Reports of sexual assault at U.Va. have been in the national headlines over the past two years.

Second-year student Hannah Graham went missing in September 2014 from Charlottesvilles Downtown Mall. Her remains were found just more than a month later on an abandoned property off Old Lynchburg Road in Albemarle County. Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. pleaded guilty in March to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abduction with the intent to defile in the cases of Graham and Morgan Harrington.

Harrington, a Virginia Tech student, went missing after a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in October 2009, and her remains were found the following January on a property in Albemarle.

In 2014, a debunked Rolling Stone graphically described a first-year U.Va. student identified only as Jackie being raped by seven men in a fraternity house. The story crumbled under scrutiny, and a city police investigation turned up no evidence to back it. The magazine issued an apology, saying it had found discrepancies in Jackies account.

U.Va. had 35 reported rapes on campus in 2014  the latest data available  and the rate of reported rapes is 1.5 per 1,000 students, according to data collected by the Department of Education.

In 2011, the Education Departments Office of Civil Rights launched a review into U.Va.s sexual assault policy after U.Va. had been found to be in violation of Title IX. In a letter, the department was sharply critical of U.Va.s old policies for dealing with sexual misconduct complaints, saying the university failed to eliminate a hostile environment and did not take steps to prevent its recurrence.

According a letter from the department, U.Va. did not provide a prompt and equitable response in many cases, often providing delayed responses and sometimes changing things on short notice.

The university was cleared in September 2015.

U.Va. created a new office to ensure the university complies with Title IX law, added new confidential outlets for reporting and hired designated experts to investigate assault claims. These changes were solidified in a new written policy adopted earlier in 2015.

A new sexual assault investigation at the school involves facts that were not covered as part of the previous federal inquiry.

The Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation at U.Va. on July 22.

Department spokeswoman Dorie Turner Nolt said last month that she could not provide details about the investigation, but a spokesman for U.Va. said that the university was aware that a former male student had filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights alleging that he was discriminated against in the Title IX investigation process based on his gender and disability.
FREDERICKSBURG  Donald J. Trump told a crowd of thousands on Saturday that the Republican Party must do better at reaching out to African-Americans, using a campaign stop in Virginia to expand on his newly adopted emphasis on creating a more inclusive party.

I fully recognize the outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better. And it will do better, the GOP nominee told a mostly white audience in the hall of the Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center. The GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln. And I want our party to be the home of the African-American voter once again.

Trump raised the issue of African-American outreach near the end of a roughly 40-minute speech read from a teleprompter. Polls have shown weak support for Trump among African-Americans, but he said Saturday that hes asking African-Americans to honor me with their vote, adding that the issue has very deep personal importance to him.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump said, would continue failed policies of her party that have hurt cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit. A Trump administration would seek to give every African-American child access to the ladder of American success through education and a well-paying job, he said.

We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future, Trump said.

In a slip-up just as he started his speech, Trump greeted the Fredericksburg audience as Fairfax. The crowd continued to cheer.

Trump worked a Virginia-specific political jab into the portion of his speech emphasizing law and order and reverence for law enforcement.

Hillary Clinton is banking on her friend Terry McAuliffe on getting thousands of violent felons to the voting booth in an effort to cancel out the votes of both law enforcement and crime victims, Trump said, referencing McAuliffes recent push to restore voting rights for felons who have finished their sentences and supervised release. They are letting people vote in your Virginia election that should not be allowed to vote. That is sad. So sad.

McAuliffes sweeping executive order that restored rights for more than 200,000 ex-offenders was struck down this summer by the Supreme Court of Virginia, but the governor has scheduled a Monday news conference in which hes expected to announce his efforts to begin restoring those rights a second time on an individual basis.

Republicans accused McAuliffe of trying to help Clinton by unlawfully adding thousands of likely Democratic voters to the rolls in a battleground state. McAuliffe has said politics didnt drive his decision, which he has characterized as an attempt to ease a restrictive policy that has an outsize impact on African-Americans.

State Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, said of the GOP nominee: "I have three main concerns when it comes to Donald Trump: the things he's saying, the things he's hiding, and the ideas he's proposing. Donald Trump has spent his entire candidacy saying things that insult and divide communities along the lines of race, gender and disability. ... I can say with confidence that African-American communities in Virginia would lose jobs, health care, and hope for a prosperous future under Donald Trump."

Leon Benjamin, an African-American pastor from Richmond whos running for the Richmond City Council in the 9th District, gave the opening prayer at the Fredericksburg rally.

We ask now God for a mighty hand to be upon Donald J. Trump. That everything he does shall prosper, Benjamin said as he prayed for victory in November and called 2016 a supernatural year.

Though Republican officeholders in Virginia have largely kept their distance from Trump, he was preceded onstage Saturday by two well-known figures with aspirations for higher office in 2017.

State Sen. Bryce E. Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, whos running for lieutenant governor, served as the events emcee.

Hes going to take back our country, and its going to start right here in Fredericksburg! Reeves said as he introduced Trump.

U.S. Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, a Republican candidate for governor in 2017, gave a warmup speech that highlighted Trumps plans for the military.

We know who will make our military great again, Wittman said.

Though recent polls have shown Clinton with a healthy lead in Virginia, Trump has made frequent appearances in the state. On Saturday, Trump said that if he wins Virginia, we are going to the White House.
LYNCHBURG  It was a particularly muggy afternoon when Lynchburg Animal Control and Wildlife Chief Todd Jones pulled up to a house this month in search of a zombie fox.

But the humidity was the only remarkable part about the call.

Jones and other city animal control officers have responded to hundreds of similar summons by residents reporting ill foxes, the result of a distemper outbreak Jones said is responsible for the deaths of more than 150 foxes in the past year.

We always have foxes that get hit by a car or something like that. But we started seeing them show up in numbers, and each one of them had the same kind of symptoms, Jones said in a recent interview.

The distemper virus, while harmless to humans, is a highly contagious threat to such critters as coyotes, raccoons and skunks. For foxes, which tend to be stealthy and keep their distance from people, the symptoms include the inability to find food, walk or protect themselves.

What we notice in them is they are not afraid of people, Jones said. Theyll kind of sit there and just stare at you. Some of the cases I have seen theyve actually been drooling at the mouth or, in a few rare cases, even foaming at the mouth, to a degree.

At its worst, distemper will leave a fox incapacitated, while others seem to prowl aimlessly.

Jones recalled a case in which a fox was under a front porch. When he approached it, the fox ran at him, stopped and stared at him for several moments.

Thats very unlike a normal fox, Jones said.

Since the fall of 2015, Lynchburgs animal control unit has euthanized about 160 ill foxes. The department tested a few last year, and those came back positive for distemper.

Mike Fies, a furbearer project leader at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Verona office, said he was unaware of any fox distemper outbreaks on that scale.

That number sounds incredibly high, Fies said in a phone interview.

He recalled an outbreak last January in Waynesboro.

But were only talking about 15 or 20 cases, Fies said.

According to Jones, all of the recent distemper cases affected gray foxes, not red foxes. One likely factor is that the city has a higher population of gray foxes than red ones.

Fies said outbreaks in small pockets like this are relatively common, especially in areas where the virus can travel easily.

Where theres a higher population, you have a greater chance it can spread, he said.

Jim Bowman, a regional wildlife biologist at the game departments office in Forest, said euthanizing animals infected with distemper is about the only way to handle these types of outbreaks.

That disease, once it takes off, can spread through a population fairly quickly, he said in a phone interview Tuesday. So as far as controlling it, theres really not a good way to control that disease once it starts passing through the population other than removing the animals once they become available, because they pass it from one animal to another.

Jones, Fies and Bowman stressed that people should not approach any animal that looks ill or acts strangely.
Bob McDonnell faced a future without limits. He won the 2009 gubernatorial election in a landslide; his fast start as governor fed national speculation. And it all came down. He was indicted on corruption charges and eventually convicted on several. His reputation lay in tatters.

This year a unanimous Supreme Court threw out his convictions. A bipartisan list of public figures has asked the Department of Justice not to seek a new trial. McDonnell has suffered enough, Republicans and Democrats say. Republican and Democrats alike also say they do not want him to run for office again. According to a Washington Post poll, two-thirds of Virginians say he should stay out of elective politics.
WASHINGTON

Last week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Irans intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. Thats what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. Thats what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Irans international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obamas withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Irans orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assads regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

***

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand  a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military  he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldnt he? Hes pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administrations response to these provocations? Urging both sides to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijings territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesnt care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because hes convinced that in the long run it doesnt matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking  primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers  China, Russia and Iran  know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And theyre going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however  Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands  it matters greatly.
The Commonwealth of Virginia, like the country as a whole, has a difficult and troubling history that has been easier to ignore or sanitize than to face squarely. On July 22, 2016, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down Governor McAuliffes order that restored civil rights to more than 200,000 Virginians who had completed their criminal sentences. The court relied, not on the text of the Virginia Constitution, but on the backdrop of history  in which no Virginia governor had before issued so broad an order  to reach its conclusion. Understanding what that history is, however, leaves me very concerned about the implications of the courts decision.

While most citizens are aware of the horrors of slavery, far fewer have a detailed knowledge of the continuing atrocities that followed after Reconstruction and into the Jim Crow era. During that time in the Deep South, under the cover of vagrancy and peonage laws, the criminal justice system was used to perpetuate a de facto system of slavery, in which thousands of African-American men were held in indefinite bondage for crimes like unemployment or loitering.

This was followed in a number of the former Confederate states, including Virginia, by the disenfranchisement of former felons, which  along with poll taxes and literacy tests  was used as a deliberate strategy to reduce the political power of black residents. The Washington Post reported that one Virginia state senator in a 1902 report mentioned felon disenfranchisement as a way to eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this State. As part of this strategy, the constitutional revisions in Virginia at that time expanded those provisions to include crimes the convention delegates felt were particularly likely to be committed by African-Americans, according to the official journal of the Virginia Constitutional Convention.

Moreover, enforcement of Virginias disenfranchisement provisions was also historically racist. Historians have found evidence that the lists of felons that were distributed to registrars for use in the enforcement of the policy were limited nearly exclusively to black Virginians, and news articles from the early 1900s in the Richmond Dispatch confirm that white supremacist Democrats had challengers at every precinct, armed with (l)ists of dead negroes and those disenfranchised by crime so that they (could) be barred.

These policies and tactics continued throughout most of the 20th century, led by Gov. Harry F. Byrd and his political machine that ensured the continued suppression of the political power of the African-American community.

In explicitly basing its decision on this backdrop of history, the court implicitly embraced the dark racial history that McAuliffe sought to overcome. By grounding its ruling on the precedent of many governors whose overt motivations were limiting African-American participation in elections, the court put itself in the position of affirming that dark history, and sending a disheartening message to the black citizens of this commonwealth.

My father spent his life focused on overturning laws designed to make African-Americans second-class citizens. He was one of the lawyers arguing the Brown v. Board of Education case which ended legal segregation in the schools, only to see the law flouted by the proponents of massive resistance led by Byrd and other Virginia politicians out of touch with the arc of history. I fear the rhetoric and legal reasoning employed by the Supreme Court of Virginia in overturning the current governors order would have felt all too familiar to him.

For the Virginia Supreme Court, this decision represents another opportunity lost to rectify an instance of racial injustice rooted in the old ways of Virginia. Whereas there may not be a practical way of giving reparations for slavery, or providing compensation for the catastrophic economic effects of Jim Crow, as a society it would seem that we could at least agree on the need to speedily remove all of the obvious vestiges of those dark eras.

I am confident that, were he here to see it, my father would vocally express his condemnation of this decision, and would be equally fervent in expressing his thanks and support of Governor McAuliffe for his efforts in pushing forward one of the most important civil rights fights of our generation.
A cold front that spawned storms in the Midwest is expected to move into Central Virginia this afternoon, bringing a marginal risk of severe weather to the Richmond region, the National Weather Service said.

Scattered thunderstorms are expected in the Richmond region after 5 p.m., and some of those storms could produce heavy rain and gusty winds, the weather service said.

A marginal risk means isolated severe storms with wind gusts up to 60 mph are possible.

THE WEEK AHEAD

This week's temperatures are expected to moderate a little bit, with highs in the 80s most days.

Today: Showers and thunderstorms likely this afternoon and evening. High near 89, low around 68,

Monday: Sunny. High near 86, low around 64.

Tuesday: Sunny. High near 86, low around 63.

Wednesday: Sunny. High near 86, low around 63.

Thursday: Sunny. High near 88, low around 69.

Friday: Sunny. High near 91, low around 71.
People sure do like to take pictures of the Mill Mountain Star. And they like those pictures when they pop up on Facebook.

The Facebook page of Roanokes communications office  a site that the city set up to inform residents about street closures, construction projects, downtown festivals and other news from around town  has evolved into a popular online gallery of Star City photos submitted by professional and amateur photographers alike.

Street scenes, rainbows, churches, the City Market, storm clouds, fall colors and, of course, the famous star are popular subjects among hundreds of photos on the Facebook page. Some pictures are shot with expensive cameras and prettied up with computer software such as Photoshop or Lightware. Others are captured on smartphones and submitted as shot.

The photos have helped more than triple the citys Facebook followers in the past three years to nearly 70,000. The most popular pictures receive thousands of likes and are shared hundreds of times.

Photos help show people here and followers from around the country the beauty of Roanoke, said Timothy Martin, the communications offices media coordinator and manager of the Facebook page. Over the last three years, weve received millions of likes, comments and shares from the thousands of photos weve received.

The pictures arent just Facebook eye candy, Martin said. They pull Roanoke residents to the site, where people learn about local government news and happenings around the city. Roanokes high level of social media engagement with its citizens has earned the attention of other cities around the country seeking to improve their online outreach, Martin said.

In January, a staffer traveled to Sarasota, Florida, to give a presentation about Roanokes social media success. In April, Martin was named Top Social Media Advocate in Government during the Government Social Media Conference in Reno, Nevada.

People may submit their pictures through a Facebook message to the communications office page. (Go online and like the page at www.facebook.com/roanokeva.) Here are just a few of the photos that have been posted.

Its become second nature for someone whos out and about  they snap a photo, and send it in, Martin said.

Terry Aldhizer took this photo of the full moon and Mill Mountain Star around the time of the summer solstice on June 20. Aldhizer, a professional photographer in Roanoke whose pictures are among the most shared on the Roanoke Communications Facebook page, has taken four similar photos over the years. The photos dont happen because of luck. She keeps up with the moons phases and its location during the year. You need the full moon and you need the weather to cooperate, she said. When asked about the spot where she shot the photo, she replied, Wouldnt you like to know!

James Moore got a message from his buddy Tim Lewis that said to meet him at the McAfee Knob Trail the next day for a sunrise training run. So, I got there at four-something in the morning with my camera bag, said Moore, who walked most of the trail while Lewis sped to the top. By the time Moore got to McAfee Knob, the sun was peeking over the horizon on June 20, the longest day of the year. I almost missed it, he said.

Patricia Chehade did what most folks do when they visit relatives in Roanoke  they took a trip to the Star. As evening unfolded across the Roanoke Valley, storm clouds gathered in the distance. Chehade, who lives in the Canadian capital of Ottawa and was in Roanoke visiting family, used her iPhones camera to take continuous pictures of the lightning. I held my camera and took multiple shots, said Chehade, a student at the University of Ottawa. My cousins and I totally got one shot out of 500.

Robbie Jones shot this photo above Mill Mountain with a drone aircraft equipped with a Sony camera. Each time he flies his drone near his Southeast Roanoke home, he checks with Carilion Clinic to make sure Lifeguard 10 wont be lifting off from the hospital. Drone safety is extremely important, he said. He uses an iPad mini to line up the shots on the screen and to adjust the camera settings. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago in the early morning. This is just a hobby for me, he said, but I love getting these natural shots.

Ashley Williams was tossing the ball to her dog in her snow-covered backyard in January when she snapped what she called a lucky capture. Stonewall, a 2-year-old chocolate Lab, went after the ball with gusto. I was playing ball with him in the backyard, and I was taking pictures with my iPhone, Williams said. When I went back through the photos later, I realized I had one that was pretty funny. Williams said shes not a photographer by any means,  even though Stonewall has his own Instagram account (@stonewallthechocolatelab) dedicated to him and Williams two cats.

Jenny Marie Chisom saw the perfect scene to brighten up a cloudy, dreary March day  a canopy of flowering cherry trees in Elmwood Park. She used her Nikon D5100 to capture unique floral tunnel of blooms in Elmwood Park, said Chisom, who lives in Goodview. Here
Gov. Terry McAuliffe will announce Monday that he has restored the rights of more than 13,000 felons on a case-by-case basis, two sources said.

During a noon ceremony at the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial on Capitol Square, the governor also is expected to detail his rights restoration process for other felons who have completed their terms.

In a 4-3 ruling on July 22, the state Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional McAuliffe's April 22 executive order restoring voting and other civil rights to about 206,000 felons who had completed their terms. The court ordered the Virginia Department of Elections to cancel the registration of all felons who had been "invalidly registered" under McAuliffe's actions.

McAuliffe has promised to swiftly restore rights a second time for the roughly 13,000 ex-offenders who registered to vote under his order before the Supreme Court's ruling. The governor's office has termed Monday's event a "major restoration of rights announcement."

As yet unanswered is how McAuliffe's new actions and procedures will affect a series of complications that resulted from the rights restoration dispute.

The Virginia commissioner of elections said Friday that it's up to Richmond officials to decide how to handle the candidacy of a felon who won and subsequently lost the right to vote and ran for office as a result of the governor's now-overturned restoration order.

That guidance pertained only to the case of Richmond School Board candidate Kevin Starlings. He registered to vote after McAuliffe issued the blanket restoration. Starlings was certified to appear on the ballot, but then lost the right to vote when the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned McAuliffe's order.

The rights restoration dispute also has ramifications for Richmond's mayoral race. The ballot signature of a single felon who registered to vote this year, then lost his political rights in the Supreme Court's decision, could be critical to Richmond mayoral candidate Michelle R. Mosby.

Four of Mosby's 545 signatures to qualify for the ballot were from felons who registered under McAuliffe's order that the Supreme Court overturned. One of those four was in Richmond's 1st District, where Mosby obtained 50 qualified signatures, the precise number she needed for each district.

Mosby has been certified as a candidate for mayor, but state officials have not yet given local officials guidance on the issue.

Another side effect of the rights restoration dispute is that the Supreme Court's reversal of McAuliffe's order has left gun rights in limbo for some ex-offenders.

Restoration of civil rights is a prerequisite to apply for the restoration of firearms rights. A number of ex-offenders used their new status to apply to circuit courts to restore their gun rights and now possess firearms.

The governor's office has blamed the complications on Republican leaders in the legislature who challenged McAuliffe's order in court. GOP leaders say they brought the suit to hold McAuliffe accountable to the state constitution.
ARRINGTON  The catastrophic flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Camille 47 years ago on Aug. 19, 1969, will not soon be forgotten in Nelson County.

The Camille stories at Davis Creek are stories of devastation and tragedy, loss of life and treasured home places, Nelson County Historical Society President Bob Carter said during an annual commemorative event Saturday

But they also demonstrate the resilience of Nelson County, its land and its people.

This year marked the 11th time the historical society has hosted the event. More than 200 people attended the presentation at Nelson United Methodist Church in Arrington.

Every year that we do this, we get more stories, more pictures and more information, historical society secretary Woody Greenberg said. The more we get, the better off we are.

This years event was focused on Davis Creek near Lovingston and Woods Mill.

Camille was responsible for dropping more than 25 inches of rain on Nelson County on Aug. 19, according to The Washington Post. Of the more than 250 deaths caused by Camille, 124 people were killed in Nelson County alone, the historical society said. Fifty-two of those lives were lost in the community of Davis Creek.

Camille killed most of the rest when it came ashore as a Category 5 hurricane on the Gulf Coast two days earlier.

The storms winds weakened below hurricane strength as it moved inland, but it retained tropical moisture, dumping much of it on a narrow swath of central Virginia as the systems remnant circulation interacted with a stationary front and the higher terrain of the Blue Ridge.

An approximately 30-minute video shown at the beginning of the event featured interviews from a number of Camille survivors, most of whom lived in Davis Creek at the time.

In the video, Carolyn Thomason recounted the numerous funerals for those who perished in the flooding. As the pianist who played during funerals at Oak Hill Baptist Church, Thomason remembered the extended time it took to identify bodies  and one case in which a man was forced to go through the process of burying a loved one twice when the first body was incorrectly identified as his wife.

A total of 27 people who died when Camille hit are buried at Oak Hill.

Also during the video, Rhonda Deane told of the determination and quick thinking of a little boy who used a piece of tin roofing to keep the rain from overcoming him and his sisters.

Greenberg said even though hes been telling and hearing tales associated with the flood for decades, he hadnt heard that one. He explained because the rain was coming down so quickly, the group of kids probably would have drowned if not for the tin roof.

Yet another story featured in the video came from Charlotte Evans Connor, who told how she volunteered at Nelson County High School after the floods to help people who had suffered the loss of homes or of family and friends. She said she specifically remembers folding baby clothes, as several people who had survived had nothing to put on their little ones.

As Connor told her story for the video, thunder crashed and a flash of lightning could be seen through sheer curtains hanging on the widows in the background, catching her off guard.

Every time theres a thunderstorm, Connor said after the noise had quieted, you relive it.

After the video, Tiffany Spencer, a Nelson County resident whose family lived in Davis Creek when Camilles floods hit, shared stories of each of the 52 people from the area who died nearly five decades ago.

There were so many of them lost on that day, Spencer said. We hear so much about the event, about Camille, Camille, but not actually about the people and their lives  learning about, you know, they had just celebrated their wedding anniversary or they had only been married a few months; little, personal details that I think should be remembered.

Though she wasnt alive at the time of Camille, Spencer spent most of her life hearing stories from her grandparents who survived the flooding. According to Spencer, 22 members of her family, the Huffman family, and one other who lived in the Huffman household perished.

Shes also poured more than a decade of work into mapping out each house in Davis Creek that was destroyed or damaged and has compiled details of the lives of all who were killed in the area.

Saturdays packed program also featured a presentation by Dick Whitehead, whose father was sheriff in Nelson County at the time of Camille, on how the topography of Davis Creek contributed to the major loss of lives and property.

At the end of the event, a short video on the Ginger Gold apple showed the resiliency of the county in the aftermath of Camille.

Now distributed nationwide, the apple was found by Clyde Harvey on one of the few trees left on his Davis Creek property. The unique variety had never been discovered, and after a series of steps to identify the fruit, it was named Ginger Gold for Clydes wife, Virginia Ginger Harvey.

Each year the historical society focuses on a different aspect of the historic disaster to provide perspective. Past events have featured Camilles impact on various communities, individuals, families and first responders; rebuilding efforts; or a look at Camille as a weather event.

For the 50th anniversary of Camille, the Nelson County Historical Society plans to release a book of photos of the aftermath.
Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Stone of Roanoke, Va., died peacefully on Wednesday, August 17, 2016. She was 98.A long-time teacher and guidance counselor at Roanoke's William Fleming High School, she was a loyal Colonel to the end. Betsy was born on July 22, 1918, in Pulaski, Va., the only child of Frank F. Stone and Gillie Wilson Stone, who predeceased her.She is survived by a devoted cousin, Mary Jane Heslep Moore and husband, Lanny, of Greensboro, N.C.; by many cousins, neighbors on "the hill," friends, colleagues, and former students who have cherished their relationships with her; and by Wade Martin and Henry Emerson, her faithful caretakers in her last years.Growing up, Betsy had a ring-side seat watching the design and construction of landmark buildings across this region. Her father, an architect, who came to Roanoke in 1921 to work on the Roanoke City Market Building, was for the next 30 years closely involved with much of our constructed landscape.He worked on major civic spaces, the American Theater and the Academy of Music; religious spaces, Beth Israel Synagogue, First Baptist, West End and Raleigh Court United Methodist, Second Presbyterian and Vinton Baptist; hospitals, Burrell Memorial, Gill Memorial, and Lewis-Gale; banks, Colonial National, Liberty National, and Mountain Trust; schools, Lucy Addison, Jefferson, William Fleming and St. Andrew's; buildings at Hollins, Longwood, Radford and Roanoke Colleges; all of Roanoke's downtown hotels; the Roanoke fire stations; and many offices and homes.Betsy visited these sites with her father. In 1929, he took her to meet Miss Lucy Addison at the formal opening of the new high school being named in Miss Addison's honor, which was the first time Roanoke named a public building after one of its own citizens. This encounter made a lasting impression on the 10-year-old Betsy.Betsy graduated from Andrew Lewis High School; studied at the then, Farmville State Teachers College; earned degrees from Roanoke College and Virginia Tech, with additional study at Columbia University and the University of Virginia.Before and after the war, she taught in the Roanoke County and Botetourt County public school systems. In 1955 she joined the faculty at William Fleming High School, where she taught English, French and social studies; was a guidance counselor; and was the faculty advisor for the annual, retiring in 1979. Many Fleming students and faculty colleagues remained devoted to her and she remained devoted to the school, its faculty and its students.Throughout her life, Betsy was deeply interested in her mother's extended family, the Darsts of Southwestern Virginia. Abraham Darst arrived in the new world from the Swiss Alps in 1743 and made his way to Pennsylvania, eventually settling in Virginia. Betsy was proud of this heritage and treasured family memories from those early generations.No remembrance of Betsy could omit her devotion to her cats, especially the old and infirm ones. Her license plate read "CATMOM."A gathering of friends to celebrate her life and share stories will be held at Oakey's North Chapel, 6732 Peters Creek Road, Roanoke, on Thursday, August 25, 2016, from 5 to 7 p.m. At Betsy's request, there will be no service in Roanoke. A Graveside Service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, August 26, 2016, at the Oakwood Cemetery in Pulaski, Va.Donations in Betsy's memory may be made to your local animal shelter or animal rescue organization. Online condolences may be expressed at www.oakeys.com.
The Virginia Department of Health announced Monday that it is investigating a cluster of hepatitis A cases and has identified a potential association with smoothies from Tropical Smoothie Cafe restaurants in Virginia.

Genetic testing shows the illnesses were caused by a strain of hepatitis A that has been associated with past outbreaks due to frozen strawberries from Egypt, according to a health department news release.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe has since conducted a voluntary product withdrawal of its strawberries sourced from Egypt and found an alternate supply, according to the release. There is a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Blacksburg.

Jon Cash, the franchisee for the Blacksburg and Lynchburg locations, said he received communication from corporate on Aug. 6 that didnt specifically explain the case but revealed there was a quality issue with the strawberries shipped to the restaurants.

We didnt know what those quality issues were at the time, he said, but just as we got wind of it, we were way out in front of it.

The Blacksburg store dumped all its strawberries and immediately bought new ones at Kroger, Cash said.

Cash said he hasnt heard of any illness reports from Blacksburg. He said he heard that the hepatitis cases were reported in the central and eastern parts of Virginia.

Thats as far as I know at this point, and I will definitely follow up, he said.

Part of a new retail and hotel development on the corner of Prices Fork Road and University City Boulevard, the Blacksburg Tropical Smoothie Cafe opened this summer. Cash said the store is currently getting strawberries from California and Mexico.

The health department said people in Virginia who, from Aug. 5-8, had a Tropical Smoothie drink that contained frozen strawberries may still benefit from vaccine or immune globulin to prevent hepatitis A.

People who have had hepatitis A or have been vaccinated for hepatitis A are already immune and therefore not at risk for getting the disease. Anyone who consumed a smoothie after the frozen strawberries were removed from restaurants is not thought to be at risk .

Other restaurants, and firms that supply restaurants, may also have received the frozen strawberries imported from Egypt.

The health department said it continues to investigate cases and work with state and federal partners, including the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to identify additional locations where the product may have been distributed.

Anyone who consumed a smoothie with frozen strawberries at a restaurant within the last 50 days is encouraged to watch for symptoms of hepatitis A. If illness occurs, the health department recommends seeking medical care and taking steps to protect others from the infection.

Individuals can contact their local health department with any questions concerning this investigation.

For more information, visit http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemiology/factsheets/Hepatitis_A.htm.
Al-Sammad: SPC formation meets Yemeni people's will

SANA'A, Aug. 20 (Saba) - The President of the Supreme Political Council (SPC) stressed on Saturday that the formation of the Council came to meet the aspirations of the Yemeni people and to take into account Yemen's interests above all other interests.



Saleh al-Samad said the SPC came also to fill the gaps. Yemen's enemies are trying to disperse the People after their inability to achieve any progress on the ground.



Millions of the Yemeni people took to al-Sabeen square in support of the SPC and authorized it to run the next stage in all fields.



" Do not you see the Yemeni people, these crowds which maybe equal the four times of four Arab Gulf States which they are involved in the aggression against Yemen, who are you to attack the Yemeni people, shame on those who see and hear the will of the Yemeni people by a group who cannot secure itself more than running the country, " al-Sammad said.





He went on to say, " Shame on you to plot against the Yemeni people who have never ever been a concern for the region's countries, nor for the International peace and security. When you conspire against our People, you kill yourself because you kill the Cradle of Arabism and the Cradle of Civilization."



The SPC President addressed the governments as he went on saying" governments in various countries across the world which pay lip service to speak on freedom and respect for the right of peoples to self-determination, why you do not respect the Yemeni People, why you do not respect the people's will and its legitimacy and democratic choices."



The SPC President addressed the governments , as he went on saying, "Governments in various countries across the world that pay lip service when speaking on freedom and respect , and for the right of people to self-determination, why do you not respect the Yemeni People, and why do you not respect the people's will and their legitimacy and democratic choices?



He added that the Saudi regime and those who stand behind it of the Americans they could not kneel this People even if it did not remain only families of martyrs and their relatives as they are going to revenge for these Yemen people, referring to the rally, moreover these millions crowds and others across the Yemen will do so.



The President affirmed that the formation of the SPC came to face the political, economic, security and military and social challenges which left by the aggression. The SPC came to meet the Yemeni people' ambitions and to get out of its ordeal.



In the coming days, the government will be formed to unite all efforts to reach a stable situation, if possible, and to hold general elections, al-Sammad said, calling on the chairman of the parliament and Parliament's members to hold the parliament' sessions to participate in addressing these challenges.



HA



Saba

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[20/August/2016]
A bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in southeastern Turkey on Saturday killed at least 30 people and wounded 94 others, authorities said.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the "barbaric" attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, appeared to be a suicide bombing. Other officials said it could have been the carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State group extremists.

Photos taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets as a crowd gathered nearby.

The Gaziantep governor's office early Sunday raised the death toll from 22 to 30. It said the number of wounded remained at 94.

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party  known by its acronym PKK  or were blamed on IS. In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers, killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  year-long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade long conflict.

Simsek, interviewed on NTV television, said, "This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome." Daesh is an Arabic name for the IS group.

A brief statement from the Gaziantep governor's office said the bomb attack on the wedding in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10:50 p.m. The statement condemned the "treacherous" attack, but did not provide further details.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television, that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

In Gaziantep, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing terrorist attacks.

-AP
SDEROT, Israel (AP)  Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday, prompting the Israeli military to respond with airstrikes and tank fire on targets inside Gaza. No injuries were reported on either side.

The Israeli military said the rocket landed in the southern border town of Sderot, a frequent target of Palestinian rocket fire. The rocket landed in a residential area next to a house, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

Shortly afterward, the military said Israeli aircraft and tanks targeted two posts belonging to the Hamas militant group in northern Gaza. Hamas officials said a training camp in northern Gaza was targeted, but the camp had been evacuated after the rocket was fired in anticipation of an Israeli reprisal.

Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war in the summer of 2014. Since then, a cease-fire has largely held. But militants in Gaza occasionally launch rockets toward Israel.

Israel holds Hamas, which controls Gaza, responsible for all attacks emanating from the territory.

In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, hundreds of masked Hamas militants held a parade to mark the anniversary of the deaths of three senior members killed during the 2014 war. The camouflaged fighters displayed rockets, guns and other weapons as they marched.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the group's military wing, said Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, would continue its struggle against Israel until "victory is achieved."
Dear Editor

In todays rich and famous worshipping society to find a respectable man is almost like finding a needle in a haystack. This is a complete reversal of yesteryears. The youth of today tend to admire the amoral person versus the moral one.

Then, they give that love and respect to the latter while despise the former as outdated or old school. See, I am old school borne in the 80s, but absolutely not a hippie, far from it.

Regrettably, our global society becomes a society of ungrateful, famous-worshipping, boot-licking, and narcissistic people. I dont-care-what-you-said-or-think-as-long-as-Im-better-than- you attitude is todays disease. Fortunately, this is not us; this is not how Samoans roll.

We are people with genuine cultural values based on moral Christian values. In order to cure todays global narcissism, I suggest, being grateful is always a good start.

Indulge me for a moment.

During the last Fathers Day celebration, a cultural practice based on Christian values, I had the privilege and the pleasure to spend quality time with my son as we travelled to Apia to buy car parts.

We took the six oclock boat with the thought of returning on the twelve noon boat to avoid passenger congestion. Unfortunately, sometimes circumstances do not cooperate with our plans and our plans do not coincide with actual turn of events.

Needless to say, we took the four oclock boat with hundreds of passengers, if not a thousand, under the humidity of Samoan weather. Shoving, pushing and climbing over the steel chains took place shortly with the arrival of the boat.

I understand why passengers did what they didit was so hot and uncomfortablenot to mention the possibility of being left behind on the eve of Fathers Day celebration. My poor seven year old son asked me confusingly, Dad, can we do the same? Decisively I said, no son let us follow the line honestly.

While in the boat, something inspiring caught my attention more vividly than before. I noticed how the ship captain maneuvered the boat with high level of expertise. Slowly, carefully, and more importantly, safer than I ever recalled.

He paid sensible attentionto the point of perfectionknowing that he carries on aboard not only passengers who paid monies but people with families anxiously waiting, hoping and praying for the safe arrival of their loved ones. I am not being melodramatic in my description.

I am not quite sure what triggered my razor-sharp-attention-to-details either. Maybe, I was first protective of my sons safety in an assumedly overloaded boat, and secondly, I was extra anxious to be with my wife and two daughters.

It is almost blind foolishness on our part to assume that the boat we are on will surely take us to our destination. We do not even think twice because of the level of confidence we have towards our captain and his crews.

All things considered, I think this man is not only the ship captain; he is also a good husband, a better father, and an upright man. Better yet, he is not only a Christian by belief but he is a practicing faithful Christian in principles. Undoubtedly, he is a better man than stated in his resume.

When was the last time we paused to say thank you to those known, but unseen people because of their every day deeds? When do we ever stop and look back to say thank you to the crews who have taken complete responsibility of our safety every single day? I am talking about the bus drivers, the taxi drivers, the police officers, the firefighters and especially the ship captains with their crewmen to mention a few.

I wonder why we seemed to be more grateful for the inconsequential things we receive in life; while failing to express our utmost gratitude for things with consequential eternal value, our lives, to these aforementioned men.

Be it a new phone, a new car, or a job promotion, these are blessings in life worthy of appreciation. I am simply saying that we should not, we must not, and we cannot let the more consequential things in life be at the mercy of lesser things in life. I guess this is mans nature and just one of the numerous ironies of life.

These men provide safety and protection on a daily basis but get paid less than the service they provide. It stands to reason then that the least we can do is to recognise their dedicated service.

After all, you and I are reading this article because of these men. You and I were able to spend countless Samoan holidays to and fro between Savaii and Upolu because of these heroes.

They are led by the captain himself Capt. Lopaauro Muagututia. Pushing further, I dare say to every single one of us who have taken a boat ride, at least once; every safe trip we have taken to and fro, we technically owe our lives to these men. That is how much they deserve our gratitude!

The captain himself will tell you that he is just doing his job. Are we all not trying to do our job? Truth is, most of us are somewhat allowed to make mistakes here and there. However, the nature of his job does not provide such leverage because simple mistake can be disastrous.

Samoa, the next time we take the boat think of the captains of MV-Lady Samoa III and MV-Fotu o Samoa II including their crewmen. They stand ready to act upon their duties; to serve, to protect and to take us to our families safely while performing their duties with due diligence. It takes complete dedication, patience and focus, year in and year out, 365 days a year without life-threatening incident because of these men.

I encourage the youth of Samoa to emulate the examples of these men not the fake Hollywood-made heroes. Likewise, I invite the government of Samoa to recognise the committed service of these men and women, privately and publicly, as well as individually and collectively.

How much does it really cost to recognise these men? Nothing! In fact, this action will result in profits like; the swelling of hearts and the creation of friendship. This happens because of the joy that will be felt by the giver and the recipient. Indeed, to be grateful is a divine attribute with which our cultural values are based upon as a result of our Christian beliefs. Together, let us take time to thank them and their families as they take care of us.

You sir, are the perfect captain even better than captain America. Your crew members are your equals. Putting everything into proper perspective, you and your crewmen are true modern living heroes of Samoas society! Not a perfect hero, a hero nonetheless in every sense of the word.

Samoa Shipping Corporation also deserves a slice of gratitude for the services rendered now and in the future.

Gratefully yours,

Church College of Vaiola Family








He goes by the name Afitusi when he is performing on the stage at the Siva Afi show but many people may recall seeing him around town selling products on the street.

He is 13 years old from Leone and his real name is Saipele Semo but behind that familiar looking face he has a story to tell.

The Weekend Observer met up with Afitusi and the man who took him in and gave him a lot of reasons to enjoy life as a kid and not roam the streets day and night.

This is where it all started.

Afitusi is the youngest child of 13 children of Semo and the late Isu Anipale of Leone.

He doesnt go to school anymore but instead he performs and works at the Siva Afi for the owners, Leota Lene and Clare Leota.

Two years ago, Afitusi first entered the lives of Leota and Clare as a street vendor.

He would come and go to Siva Afi but every time he came, Leota and Clare always welcomed him with open arms and took him in as one of their own.

Afitusi (match boxes) is what he used to sell on the street amongst other products, said Leota.

At the beginning of this year thats when he started with the club and he has never really left.

I first took him back to school at Falefitu Primary School because I knew he was young and that education is the most important thing in any childs life.

I bought him and his younger brother school bags and they went back to school but then I saw him again on the street selling things.

I asked him why he was not at school and he said he was expelled from school because he wasnt registered for the school, and so I brought him here again.

One day he told me he wanted to attend Apia Primary School and I went and registered him there but it was the same thing he left again and started selling again.

[But] while he sold things he always ended up here at our company at night and I would always welcome him here and feed him because I saw something different in this kid.

So at the beginning of this year he came and said he wanted to know more about fire dancing and so I gave him the chance and now he is working here too at the printing.

Everyone loves him because he is very innocent and I can see that he is determined to do whatever to make sure he gets a better life.

Leota said Afitusi is like a son to him and he is loved by everyone.

We all love him he has a great sense of humour and he loves his family especially his father, said Leota.

Every time I ask him what he does with his pay he said he gives it to his father to buy food and that is a really good sign that he is becoming very mature for his age.

In an interview with Afitusi he told the Weekend Observer that he wants to travel the world byfire dancing.

I am the youngest of our family and my mother passed away last year from diabetes, he said.

I have seven sisters and six brothers but four of my brothers passed away and it is very hard living without a mother and my father doesnt work.

As to why he doesnt want to go back to school Afitusi said because he is the only one working in his family.

The money I get from Leota I give to my dad to put food on our table, he said.

Leota gives me $100 tala every week and that really helps my father and my family, I have been learning how to earn money from a very young age and being able to work at a proper work place and not sell things on the street is the best feeling ever.

I feel like Im the man of my family because all my other brothers dont work they just drink and smoke and stay home but being able to provide for my family and especially my father, feels really good.
Australias Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, is in Samoa.

The Minister touched down at Faleolo yesterday for a three-day visit, her first in Samoa.

Ms. Fierravanti-Wells hits the ground running, with one of her first official engagements being to attend the official opening of the Vaitele Street widening project.

The project which has seen vast improvement to the road infrastructure is supported by Australias aid programme as part of the World Banks Enhanced Road Access Project.

The Minister is also scheduled to attend the opening of Samoas National Pharmaceutical Warehouse funded by Australia, New Zealand and the World Bank at Motootua.

Later today, she will tour the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (S.R.O.S.) at Vailima.

Her programme tomorrow starts with a tour of the Australia Pacific Technical College (A.P.T.C).

She is scheduled to meet with representatives of Rugby League during an activity with students from Vailima Primary School at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.

The Australian Minister is also scheduled to meet with her Samoan Cabinet counterparts as well as other senior government officials.

Ms. Fierravanti-Wells was sworn in as Minister for International Development and the Pacific in February 2016.

Prior to this, she was the Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, with responsibilities in the Attorney-General, Immigration and Border Protection, and Social Services portfolios.

She also served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services, with special responsibility for multicultural affairs and settlement services.

The Minister has previously served in the roles of Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Shadow Minister for Mental Health.

Before entering politics, Minister Fierravanti-Wells worked as a lawyer with the Australian Government Solicitor, as a policy advisor to the Federal Opposition in the early 1990s, and Senior Private Secretary to former New South Wales Premier John Fahey.

For 25 years before entering the Senate, the Minister was involved in many different community organisations, including on the Board of Father Chris Rileys Youth off the Streets organisation for four years, with two years as Chairman. At age 23, she was a founding board director of a nursing home in Wollongong.

The Minister is a strong advocate for the Australian-Italian community, including through her work with the General Council of Italians Abroad (CGIE) and General Committee of Italians Abroad (Com.It.Es.).

In 1995 she was made a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Minister Fierravanti-Wells was the Ministerial Adviser to the Global Diversity Conference in 1995, and served as a member of the Multicultural Advisory Committee for SOCOG, Australias coordinating body for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and European Languages, and a Bachelor of Laws.

She was born in Wollongong, New South Wales and is the daughter of Italian migrants. She is married to Commander John Wells.
Samoas newest commercial airline, Talofa Airways, is taking off today, with the official launch at Fagalii Airport.

And to celebrate the milestone, the airline, run by Chairman and C.E.O. Toleafoa Jeffrey Hunter and his wife Maria Westerlund-Hunter, is offering a range of special fares to its customers for flights between Samoa and American Samoa.

Fly from Fagalii to Pago Pago return for $380 or from Faleolo to Pago Pago return for $447.

Todays launch represents the culmination of many months of planning for the officials behind Samoas newest airline.

Earlier this year, the airline acquired two Twin Commander aircrafts from the United States of America.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer at the time, Toleafoa admitted that setting up the airline has been a painful process.

We already have the local certificate to allow operations, he said.

He said the last part was the approval of a foreign permit from the U.S. and Tonga to allow Talofa to operate scheduled services to those countries.

Those things can take up to months, its just a matter of waiting.

Toleafoa believes the Twin Commanders are the right sized aircraft for this market.

Asked about the cost of the aircrafts, Toleafoa said it was in the millions.

Aeroplanes are expensive and have very sensitive equipment, he said.

Because of the safety we had to make sure that the plane is airworthy to fly and so that it does not compromise the safety of the passengers.

Its a nine-seater and the route will be Tonga and American Samoa and we can look at expanding depending on the beginning (of operation).

Once Talofa Airways begins flying it will be the third locally operated airline alongside Polynesian Airlines and Samoa Air. The airline is scheduled to operate sixeight flights a day from Fagalii to American Samoa.

Flying time from Fagalii is just under 20 minutes. Passengers will be allowed two bags with a limit of 44 pounds.
Mystery surrounds the discovery of the body of a young girl found floating in the ocean by five fishermen last week.

As such, the woman whose identity remains unknown is now the subject of an investigation by Police.

Police Media Officer, Sua Lemamea Tiumalu, confirmed the investigation.

We cannot discuss the details at this point because we have just started the investigation, he told the Samoa Observer. I also cannot confirm the identity of the girl.

Asked if the girl could be linked to an incident at Matautu last Tuesday where a boat was allegedly stolen from the wharf, Sua declined to comment.

According to reports, a young girl had taken off on a 24ft white fibreglass boat from Apia Harbour at around 10am.

The matter was apparently reported to the Police who in turn launched an investigation.

Sua said he was not sure whether that information had reached the office.

But he confirmed that the investigation is being carried out by the Police C.I.D.

One of the first things is to identify the body, he said.

Last week, Sam Taufao, 25, from Utualii was among the fishermen who found the girl. He told the Samoa Observer she was already dead when they found her.

We were out fishing and we saw something floating on the sea, said Taufao.

When we got closer, we discovered it was a body of a young girl already dead.

The young man said the discovery alarmed them.

I have been fishing for more than 10 years but this is the first time I ever discovered something like this at sea, Taufao said.

Taufao and his three brothers were accompanied by their uncle on Wednesday evening when they found the body.

It was lucky we went with my uncle because we would never put her on the boat. Instead, we would have tied her leg to a rope and towed her back to the shore.

But my uncle insisted we carry her on the boat because we found her close to the reef and it was far from shore.

Taufao said he continues to have nightmares about seeing the dead body.

On our way back, her nose started bleeding and it was smelly as well, he said.

I couldnt sleep last night and I couldnt get her face off my mind. The smell remains in my nostrils. She must have died the night before we found her.

When the body was brought to shore, police was contacted right away.

I heard one of the officers taking her photo saying that she was the one who took off in a boat from Matautu, said Taufao.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP)  More mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Sunday for residents affected by a massive California wildfire that drove thousands from their homes.

Nearly all 82,000 people ordered to leave their properties Tuesday when the fire broke out 60 miles east of Los Angeles have now been permitted to return.

Most of those residents are returning to find their homes intact, though not all. A preliminary damage assessment found 105 homes and 216 outbuildings destroyed across the rural, mountainous terrain where large swaths of open terrain have been turned black.

"This fire did not go through a dense community, like some fires do," fire spokesman Costa Dillon said Sunday. "Almost all of this area is sparsely populated."

Residents in the Lytle Creek area were being allowed back to their homes with proof of residence, though a mandatory evacuation order remained for those near El Cajon Valley further north. Some structures were destroyed in Lytle Creek though the area escaped the heaviest damage.

Dillon said the El Cajon Valley is "still the most active fire spot."

The once-fast moving and erratic blaze that burned nearly 58 square miles was 83 percent contained Sunday morning, up from 73 percent the evening before. Firefighters were going property-to-property in the areas most heavily hit to quell any lingering flames and hot spots.

"You don't want somebody to come back to a neighborhood where a fire could suddenly flare up on the property next door from something still smoldering," Dillon said.

Fire officials briefed residents at an evacuation center Sunday morning at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds where about 15 residents remained. Dillon said the residents were "very pleased" to know the Lytle Creek area was open and that those still under evacuation orders were being patient.

He said they understand that "the evacuation is still for their safety."

Johanna Santore, 63, her husband and their 10-year-old granddaughter were among those who learned Sunday they are still not being permitted to return home.

The family's home and nearly all their belongings were destroyed in the blaze.

Santores said the family was "holding up," but that Saturday evening when everyone was asleep she'd gone outside and cried thinking of the family's lost pets and mementoes. The Santores were out running an errand when the fire broke out and were unable to return to save anything.

Four dogs, six cats and a hamster left behind are missing.

"I'm hoping is someone is stuck around hiding someplace," Santore said. "And if I start calling, they might recognize our voices."

In the meantime she's begun looking into how to replace birth certificates, their housing deed and other important documents they are unlikely to recover.

A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite. Six other wildfires were burning in the state, including one in San Luis Obispo County that forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle on Saturday. It remained closed Sunday.

That fire grew to nearly 38 square miles overnight into Sunday morning and remained 35 percent contained. Fire spokeswoman Jaime Garrett said the fire was growing in the opposite direction of the Hearst Castle. The castle is a popular tourist attraction and houses a large art collection that belonged to media magnate William Randolph Hearst.

In rural Santa Barbara County, a 15-square-mile wildfire forced the evacuation of two campgrounds.

In the southern Sierra Nevada, another blaze feeding on dense timber in Sequoia National Forest forced the evacuation of several tiny hamlets.

In Northern California, fire crews were gaining control Sunday on an arson fire that destroyed 189 homes. Officials said the 6-square-mile fire in Lower Lake was 95 percent contained.

A nearly monthlong blaze burning near California's scene Big Sur is not expected to be fully contained until the end of September. Cal Fire said the fire has destroyed 57 homes and charred 133 square miles. It is 60 percent contained.
Viruses are very hard to study because of its peculiar nature. They are obligate intracellular pathogens, it means that virus can only replicate only when they are in living cells. So there's no surprise why vaccine development for Zika virus seems to have no progress. The outbreaks in South American countries like Brazil have no signs of slowing down. Since Zika virus is transmitted via mosquito vectors, scientists want to exploit the hibernation season of these vectors this coming winter. Yes, this may sound ridiculous but desperate times really require desperate measures. They are searching for volunteers in the clinical trials of the experimental Zika virus vaccine.

According to a CBS News report, if health officials approve the proposal, the clinical trials will start this December at John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. According to the leading scientist for the trial, Dr. Ana Durbin:

"We're looking at these human challenge protocols not only as an important step in vaccine development but as a means to learn more about Zika. We can look at things that you just can't do in someone who's naturally infected."

This is a big leap to the scientific community studying the virus. The experimental vaccines were said to be promising after its testing to monkeys. The experimental vaccine contains DNA plasmid, which contains proteins similar with the deactivated Zika virus. The conferred proteins help the immune system to build a defense mechanism against the invasion of an active Zika virus.

According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 50 countries have reported active Zika transmission. Outbreaks in Latin American countries still continues to grow.

The allergy and infectious disease department of National Institutes of Health that conducts and supports the research said that the success of the Phase 1 of the clinical trials is crucial to collect data to be able to proceed the research until the final stages of vaccine development. The scientists expect to accomplish the Phase 1 of the clinical trial by January of 2017.
Jesus Alfredo Guzman El Chapo Guzman son Sinaloa cartel

Less than a week after being kidnapped in a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, the youngest son of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been freed, relatives told AFP.

Alfredo Guzman was abducted along with five other men early Monday morning by a group of armed men. He and the others were released on Friday night, according to AFP.

"They were negotiating all this time, but now are free and well," the Guzman family relative told AFP. Some of the captured men were already back in Sinaloa state, according to the source. The details of the negotiation are not known at this point.

Alfredo's release was first reported on Saturday afternoon by the Sinaloa-based newspaper Riodoce, which cited two different sources.

Alfredo Guzman, who is wanted by the US on a warrant filed in 2009, was identified by state officials in Jalisco based on security-camera footage and other evidence at the scene of the abduction.

Alfredo and his older brother, Ivan Archivaldo  who was initially reported to have been kidnapped, as well  have both been implicated in their father's drug-trafficking organization and are thought to have assumed larger roles in the cartel since their father's arrest earlier this year.

Investigators said earlier this week that the gunmen behind the kidnapping were likely members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), which is considered the Sinaloa cartel's only real rival in terms of power in Mexico. The governors of Jalisco and Nayarit, which borders Jalisco to the north, both said they were preparing for violence in the aftermath of the abduction.

Puerto Vallarta Mexico Pacific coast map

Mexican government officials also said earlier this week that they were looking into the possibility that Puerto Vallarta's municipal police were involved, AFP reported. The kidnapping was pulled off with precision that surprised many, as there wasn't a shot fired.

Story continues

"It was violent but cleanly done," the restaurant's owner, Ignacio Cadena Beraud, told reporters of the abduction.

The Sinaloa cartel and CJNG are believed to have cooperated in the past, but more recently they have reportedly clashed in several areas of western Mexico, including the strategically important smuggling areas of the Baja Peninsula and in Colima state.

Mexico's attorney general's office said it was "still working on the investigation" when contacted by AFP about Alfredo's reported release.

Another official with the federal attorney general's office seemed to suggest the government was not involved in the release, telling EFE news agency that "if Guzman had been liberated by Mexican security forces it would have been reported already."

Recaptured drug lord Joaquin

The elder Guzman was recaptured in northeast Sinaloa state in January this year, after he escaped from the high-security Altiplano prison in central Mexico in July 2015.

After his arrest, Guzman was rejailed at Altiplano until May, when Mexican officials suddenly moved him to a prison near Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico.

Earlier this week, a judge ruled that the Sinaloa cartel chief should be transferred back to Altiplano, a move that may happen in the next few weeks.

Guzman and his legal team are fighting his extradition to the US, which the Mexican government has already approved for two of the indictments leveled against him by US courts. A US official told AFP that the extradition could happen by the end of this year.

NOW WATCH: 1 YEAR LATER: Heres what may come next for 'El Chapo' Guzman





More From Business Insider


While rumors are that Microsoft's alleged Surface Phone 2016 will get a release date sometime next year, a new report claims that the launch might happen by the end of 2016.

According to ChristianTimes, there are chances that the much anticipated Microsoft Surface Phone will get announced at the company's technical event in October. It to be noted that this is just a rumor and the software giant is yet to confirm the news. The Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 is expected to a give direct competition to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's highly successful Galaxy S range of smartphones. Recently, Weibo user Nokibar posted alleged leaked pictures of the upcoming Surface Phone, reported MCrunch. The authenticity of the picture is currently uncertain.

Previous reports suggest, the Redmond will release three high end Surface smartphones with superior hardware configurations and impressive features. The entry level model is expected to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor and 3GB of RAM, the midrange model is rumored to get 6GB of RAM, and the high-end variant is expected to feature a massive 8GB of RAM and 512GB of built-in storage. It is rumored that the handsets will run Microsoft Windows 10 mobile OS. However, a report from Ecumenical News claims that this time the Microsoft made handsets might run Android OS and not Windows.

There are reports which claim that all the three Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 variants will feature an aluminum and magnesium casing along with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display, a 20-megapixel Carl Zeiss rear camera coupled with Surface Pen functionality, a fingerprint reader, accelerometer, gyro, compass, a barometer and proximity sensors. The upcoming Microsoft Surface Phones are also expected to offer Continuum support, which will allow users to connect their phone to other big display devices. The handsets might also have a microSD card a USB Type-C connectivity and liquid cooling technology. Primarily targeted at the business sector, the Microsoft Surface Phones 2016 are expected to be priced between $700-$1100.

Stay tuned to SWR for more updates on Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 release date, specs and price details.
By almost anyones political calculation, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps increasingly problematic drive for the White House will be practically impossible to pull off in November unless he can carry Florida, the premier battleground state.

Although Florida went Democratic in 2008 and 20012, Trump until recently only narrowly trailed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by a few points in the citrus state. Last Tuesday, however, a new poll from Monmouth University showed Clinton with a nine-point lead over Trump, 48 percent to 39 percent.

Related: Congress Doesnt Seem to Care About Zika and Neither Do Most Americans

Some analysts say that Trumps biggest challenge will be to galvanize rank and file Republicans, especially white women, and somehow try to break into Clintons solid support among blacks and Latinos.

But theres another problem that Trump has largely ignored until now that could tip the balance against him if hes not careful: The fast spreading and highly dreaded Zika virus in southern Florida.

Concern within the state about the mosquito-transmitted virus that can damage the fetuses of infected pregnant women has been festering for months and is detected in Miami Beach.

The Republican-controlled Congress departed in mid-July with a $1.1 billion spending bill to fight the spread of the virus and help develop a vaccine mired in the Senate. Democrats complained that the Republicans had loaded up the measure with poison pills including a ban on federal spending for Planned Parenthood.

Related: Zika Could Make Puerto Ricos $70 Billion Debt Crisis Look Like Chump Change

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) blamed the Democrats for blocking final action on the spending bill and holding up action by federal agencies to assist Florida. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the bill was unacceptable in its present form and blamed the Republicans for risking the health of thousands of people and new born infants.

Story continues

Clinton intervened in the Zika virus crisis in early August, joining many Republican and Democratic officials from Florida in demanding that Congress cut short its summer recess and pass the $1.1 billion spending bill to help combat the spread of the dreaded disease in the continental United States.

But Trump has largely ignored the issue, essentially leaving it to Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott to handle. During campaign stops in two Florida cities August 3, Trump dodged reporters questions on what he would do, according to CNN.

"You have a great governor who's doing a fantastic job -- Rick Scott -- on the Zika, Trump said. And it's a problem. It's a big problem. But I watch and I see. And I see what they're doing with the spraying and everything else. And I think he's doing a fantastic job and he's letting everyone know exactly what the problem is and how to get rid of it. He's going to have it under control, he probably already does.

Related: The Senate Dithers Again as Zika Virus Continues to Spread

There is little doubt the Zika crisis could blow up in Republicans faces if theyre not careful. Just as the Republicans won back control of the Senate in 2014 in part by criticizing the Obama administrations lackluster response to Ebola, the GOP could get hit this fall for standing in the way of Zika funding.

Gov. Scott had urged public calm, even as he and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) pleaded with the federal government to provide more resources and called on Ryan and McConnell to summon lawmakers into a special session to break the impasse over the Zika funding bill.

The disease, which is spread by mosquitoes and poses high risks to pregnant women and the elderly, already has affected Brazil, other Latin American countries and Puerto Rico, and now threatens the United States. Until recently, there were no reported cases of homegrown virus infection, in which people contracted the disease from insect bites in the continental United States.

Typically, victims here either contracted the disease while traveling abroad or through sexual contact with someone else who had been infected overseas.

But that all changed earlier this month when Florida public health officials reported a handful of cases originating from mosquito bites in the relative small, one-square-mile neighborhood of Wynwood just north of downtown Miami.

Then on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that the Zika Virus had begun spreading beyond Wynwood, to portions of Miami Beach and beyond. That immediately sparked concern over the potential adverse effects to public health and to Miamis estimated $24.4 billion annual tourism trade.

Related: The US Military Has Declared War on the Zika Virus

Public health officials said that at least five people have been infected in the new expanded area, including two from the Miami Beach and three others who were tourists or visitors from Texas, New York and Taiwan.

The CDC has warned people against traveling to central Miami, a potentially devastating blow to the local economy. Last year was the busiest year for tourism in the Miami area, according to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. Some 15.5 million people visited the city, a 6.4 percent increase over 2014.

The Wall Street Journal reported that officials are concerned about the impact of the Zika on tourism throughout the state if the virus begins to spread. The governor announced last week that 57.4 million visitors came to the state during the first six months of the year, the highest number ever, according to the report.

Political analysts are divided over the potential fallout from the Zika crisis this fall. If the crisis gets worse before November, then some Florida voters could blame incumbent Republican lawmakers or even Trump, the partys standard bearer.

Related: How to Protect Yourself From the Zika Virus

According to Politico, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) has asked Ryan to convene an emergency session of Congress to pass a Zika bill immediately. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) is reportedly worried that Congresss inability to act may seriously harm his chances in what is already a tough reelection campaign.

The GOP made a fateful decision to take a long summer break without first approving the Zika funding, said University of Virginia political scientist Larry J. Sabato. Some Republican congressmen in Florida are paying the price. Can they somehow manage to get the bill passed now, or will the most conservative members of the GOP caucus prevail? We shall see.

As for the impact on Trump, Sabato said that its possible he could be hurt in the backlash, although he has done much to separate himself from the GOP and Congress in his public image. For all we know, hell denounce them, Sabato said in an email.

Whit Ayres, a veteran GOP pollster who advised Rubio during his presidential bid, believes that voters will be far more discerning in assessing blame in the election.

It depends on what Republican and what theyve done about it, and whether or not theyve made a serious effort to try to address it, Ayres said in an interview. He stressed that Rubio has been a leader in the fight for funding for Zika treatment in Florida.

I dont buy this argument that, okay, theres a public health crisis and now theyre going to take it out on one party rather than the other when both parties are part of the problem of not moving off this issue, he said. People are going to make individual judgments about individual candidates.

Ron Bonjean, a Washington policy adviser and former Republican congressional aide, argues that Trump might actually benefit from the controversy among Florida voters by putting the blame and pressure squarely on the Obama Administration for failing to properly manage the issue.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Maritime trade union Nautilus International general secretary Mark Dickinson has written to John Hayes, the minister responsible for maritime affairs, urging the Conservative Government to protect a vital industry from shameful employment practices that undermine common decency and basic international minimum standards.



It comes after Maersk Supply Service blamed unprecedented market conditions and the new oil reality for the decision to cut 400 jobs and cull its offshore fleet by up to 20 vessels within 18 months. The AP Moller-Maersk subsidiary has begun consultations with Nautilus over redundancies.

I have written to the shipping minister today to call for urgent action to defend this island nations maritime skills base and what remains of its shipping industry, Dickinson said.

This dreadful news is the latest in an increasingly long line of jobs losses and cuts in conditions in the North Sea. The scale of the cuts is having a drastic effect upon the employment and training of British seafarers and is threatening to sink the governments Maritime Growth Study aims of regenerating the UK shipping industry.



Maersk Supply Service ceo Jrn Madsen said a key decision to cull the companys fleet was to restore the supply demand balance in the offshore supply market. The consequence affects 27% of the Denmark-based companys workforce.

At the same time as decent companies are being forced to lay-up ships and get rid of highly skilled and experienced seafarers, they are being undercut by unfair competition from flag of convenience ships with exploited foreign crews, Dickinson said.

The ongoing scandal of the sisterships Malaviya Seven and Malaviya Twenty  which were detained in Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth when it was discovered that their crews were owed months of wages  is just one of many examples of the unacceptable practices taking place in the sector.

We cannot understand why vessels can operate so freely on the UK Continental Shelf. These are not isolated cases: other offshore support vessels have been found with seafarers being paid as little as US$3 an hour and crew members being owed substantial levels of back-pay.

Its high time that the UK government followed other countries in protecting a vital industry from shameful employment practices that undermine common decency and basic international minimum standards.

Nautilus International (formerly NUMAST) is the trade union and professional organisation for maritime professionals at sea and ashore. It represents 22,000 maritime professionals from ship masters to shore-based staff.
WATCH: There's Not REALLY A Hole In The Sun, But What Is It?

As it traverses the United States, the total eclipse will be visible within a path of darkness stretching from Oregon through Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and finally South Carolina. The path will average 67 miles (108 km) in width, but it will widen to a maximum of 71 miles (114 km) while moving through western Kentucky, about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the town of Hopkinsville (population 3,000).

For the first 28 minutes, the shadow will only touch open ocean. The shadow will make its first landfall along the coast of Oregon at Yaquina Head, a headland extending into the Pacific Ocean north of Newport.

At local sunrise on Aug. 21, 2017, the dark umbral shadow of the moon will first touch Earth at a point in the North Pacific, about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) northwest of Hawaii. And then, for the next 193 minutes, the shadow will first head east-northeast, then east and finally southeast, darkening a narrow strip of North America along the way.

This August 2017 eclipse will have a potential viewing audience of at least 12 million people who already happen to live within the totality path. However, about 220 million people live within a one-day drive (about 500 miles, or 800 kilometers) of the totality zone.

But at long last, next summer, this greatest of celestial roadshows will be coming to a sky near you.

Indeed, Americans under the age of 40 who have never ventured outside of the country have never witnessed a total solar eclipse . Since 1960, just three such events have been visible from the U.S. mainland - on July 20, 1963, March 7, 1970 and Feb. 26, 1979.

Although many people have viewed a total eclipse of the moon , few have been lucky enough to see a total solar eclipse. In the 21st century, total eclipses of the sun occur on an average of once every 17.6 months, but they're often only visible over open water or from sparsely populated areas.

And a total eclipse will be visible along a narrow track that runs diagonally from northwest to southeast across the Lower 48 - the first such event that's visible for this part of the world since February 1979. It will also be the first time that the path of a total solar eclipse will go coast to coast across the U.S. since 1918. [ Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It ]

On that date, the sun will be partially eclipsed over an immense area that includes all of North America, the northern third of South America, much of the eastern Pacific Ocean (including the Hawaiian Islands), virtually all of the north Atlantic Ocean and a slice of western Europe. For much of the United States, at least 80 percent of the sun's diameter will be eclipsed by the passing new moon . Some eclipse chasers have billed it as the " Great American Total Solar Eclipse ."

Because the moon's shadow will be moving at a tremendous speed, totality will not last very long in any one place. The duration of the total phase is always longest along the center of the shadow's path; as one moves away from the center, the duration of totality time decreases, becoming zero along the path's edges. [Solar Eclipses: An Observer's Guide (Infographic)]

At the Oregon coastline, totality lasts less than 2 minutes, as the shadow will be traveling at more than three times the speed of sound (2,400 mph, or 3,860 km/h). Heading southeast along the center line, the totality time slowly lengthens, reaching a maximum of 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds at a spot in southern Illinois about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of the city of Carbondale.

The shadow will slow to 1,450 mph (2,330 km/h) as it moves through the Tennessee Valley, and then speed up; subsequently, the duration of totality will begin to diminish. Indeed, when the eclipse arrives at the South Carolina coastline, the duration of totality will have dropped to 2 minutes and 34 seconds. The shadow then exits out to sea, finally leaving Earth 75 minutes later at local sunset in the North Atlantic Ocean, 390 miles (628 km) southwest of the island nation of Cape Verde.

RELATED: There's a (Magnetic) Hole in the Sun

Notable cities that fortuitously find themselves inside the totality path include Idaho Falls; Casper, Wyoming; Lincoln, Nebraska; Columbia, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; and Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina. The metropolitan areas of Kansas City and St. Louis straddle the southern and northern edges of the totality path, respectively.

A number of cities and towns lie just outside of the totality zone, and their residents will see the sun cut down to an exceedingly thin sliver of light. These include Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; and Knoxville, Tennessee. But a partial solar eclipse pales in comparison to a total one, even when more than 99 percent of the sun's disc is obscured. The great show can only begin at the moment when the last speck of sunlight is extinguished.

On the edge!

Earlier, I said that 12 states lie within the eclipse path, but to be more precise, there are actually 14; the shadow will also give glancing blows to two other states. About 5.4 square miles (14 square km) of the southernmost tip of Montana's largest county, Beaverhead, will be tucked just inside the northern limit of totality, providing up to 50 seconds of total eclipse. And an even tinier plot of land - 0.7 square miles (1.8 square km) - in the extreme southwest corner of Iowa's Freemont County will be barely nicked by the shadow's northern edge; there, totality will last up to about 30 seconds.

And if you live in either Kansas City or St. Louis, you'll want to know where the boundary line will run between a 99.9 percent partial eclipse and the far grander spectacle of a total eclipse. In Kansas City, the southern edge of totality lies very near to the Central Avenue Viaduct Bridge in the Central Industrial District; the farther north you go, the longer the duration of totality. Totality will last longest in the neighborhood of Ferrelview, with a duration of about 2 minutes.

In St. Louis, the northern edge of totality runs close to the Hi-Pointe and Forest Park South East neighborhoods; heading south will lengthen the time of total eclipse. Totality will last longest in Patch, the southern tip of the historic Carondelet neighborhood, with a duration that's close to 80 seconds. [Incredible Solar Eclipse View Shot During Alaska Airlines Flight (Video)]

PHOTOS: The Psychedelic Anatomy of a Solar Flare

The table below provides local circumstances for 21 cities that are within the path of totality. For each location, it gives the local daylight time (LDT) of the beginning of the partial phase (First Contact), the start of totality and its duration (Dur.) and the altitude (Alt.) of the sun above the horizon at midtotality. Finally, there's the end of the partial stage (Last Contact). "P.A." is the position angle of the point where the sun's and moon's discs touch. It is measured clockwise around the sun's edge from 0 degrees at the north point of the disc. Hence, the value 42 degrees for Yaquina Head means that the first "bite" out of the sun will appear in the upper right part of the solar disc.

Weather prospects

To help observers pick the best opportunity for cloudless skies on Aug. 21, 2017, many experts are scrutinizing climatological records in and near the path of totality. Climatological cloud amounts are consulted only because there are no reliable alternatives.

Unfortunately, meteorological weather forecasts for eclipse day are not possible more than a week or so ahead of time. The best probabilities of clear skies for eclipse viewing appear to be in the region running from western Oregon through Wyoming, where, on average, the odds for fair skies are on the order of about 70 to 80 percent. Going farther east, the odds gradually diminish; across the Piedmont plateau to the Atlantic coast, it appears to be just about a coin toss: 50-50, except perhaps less than 50 percent for people in the western mountains of North Carolina and the coastal plain of South Carolina.

People living around the immediate Pacific coast of Oregon, with its gusty onshore winds and frequent bouts of low cloud and fog, appear to have the lowest odds of seeing the eclipsed sun - probably only around 40 percent. Regardless of where you plan to be, staying mobile to dodge cloud cover will always enhance your chances.

Space.com will be providing more details about the "Great American Eclipse" in the coming months. But for now, be sure that when you get a 2017 calendar, you put a big red circle around Aug. 21!

Editor's Note: This coming Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. EDT, Space.com Night Sky columnist Joe Rao will be giving a special presentation at New York's Hayden Planetarium titled, "Countdown to Totality." Joe will detail all the specifics concerning next year's big solar sky show and, utilizing Hayden's state-of-the-art Zeiss IX planetarium projector, will attempt to replicate the sights and sounds that accompany an actual total eclipse of the sun.

Full details can be found here: http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/adults/hayden-planetarium-programs/astronomy-live-countdown-to-totality

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Originally published on Space.com.

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Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton recently backed a proposal that would give Native Hawaiians the right to limited self-rule, similar to Native American tribes. Some radical activists hope to go even further, and are calling for the state to secede entirely from the U.S. and establish sovereignty.

How would Hawaii fare as an independent nation? Laura Ling has the details, straight outta Honolulu, in today's Seeker Report.

Hawaii's extremely useful location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean makes it a critical strategic asset for the U.S. That's the principle reason why chances for Hawaiian independence are, in terms of realpolitik, less than zero.

Officially, about 1.4 million people live in Hawaii, but the actual population at any given time is much larger. Hawaii is home to about 50,000 U.S. troops and more than 8 million tourists cycle through each year. Double Secret Bonus Trivia: Hawaii is the only state in the union that has never had a white majority population.

Geographically, Hawaii is an archipelago made up of eight main islands and more than 100 smaller islands, with total real estate just a little smaller than the state of New Jersey.

RELATED: Lava Meets the Ocean Near Hawaii Volcano

Economically, Hawaii's extreme isolation is a problem. With the nearest landmass 2,000 miles away, shipping costs are ridiculous, which impacts both imports and exports. Hawaii does send out a good amount of coffee, papaya and macademia nuts each year, but the economy is heavily dependent on tourism.

Hawaii is also, by far, the most expensive state in the entire union. Residents pay more taxes per person than anywhere in the U.S. Utilities, housing, food and imported goods are significantly pricier. On the other hand, there is this.

Unless something really radical happens, full independence for Hawaii is extremely unlikely. But that hasn't stopped activists from drawing up a national constitution. You know, just in case.

-- Glenn McDonald

Check out Discovery GO!

Learn More:

Washington Post: Hawaii's $14 Billion Tourism Industry Back to Pre-Recession Levels

Fusion: Why some Native Hawaiians Want to Declare Independence from the U.S.

Investopedia: States That Pay the Most Taxes
When female pilot Tracey Curtis-Taylor landed in Sydney, Australia after a 14,600-mile journey flying from the U.K. in a vintage open-cockpit biplane earlier this year, the first thing she said was "I need a drink!"

And who could blame her? The treacherous journey was far from easy. It took about three months in total and Curtis-Taylor encountered countless obstacles along the way. Not only did she fly through thick fog in Romania and dust storms in Saudi Arabia, but at one point she found herself surrounded by birds of prey over Pakistan. Eagles, buzzards and vultures swarmed around her. She knew that if one got into the engine her journey would be doomed.

RELATED: Solar Plane Completes Epic Round-the-World Trip

Luckily Curtis-Taylor survived and made it to her destination safely. Her bravery is truly astounding. Trace Dominguez got a chance to catch up with her at this year's Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, England where she told him all about her vintage plane, a Boeing-Stearman named Spirit of Artemis.

A plane like this is "probably the best flying adventure in the world," Curtis-Taylor told Trace. She explained that they're almost like art more than they are machine -- an art that should be preserved because it's starting to die out.

Curtis-Taylor said she often encounters aviation students that don't know how to fly planes like these and she thinks it's quite a shame. "I think this generation needs to be reminded ya know, that civil aviation was based really on people like me getting into wooden-fabric airplanes," she told Trace.

That's the important thing to remember: aviation as we know it today wouldn't have been possible without people like Tracy Curtis-Taylor, her piloting skills, her passion, and her incredible bravery.

-- Molly Fosco
Press Release

August 20, 2016 Why just one week? Recto bats for truce longer than cellphone load expiry Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto has urged government to match the Communist Party of the Philippines' (CPP) declaration of a seven-day ceasefire with its own declaration of a "longer ceasefire" because "peace, even if temporary, should have a validity period longer than a cellphone load." "Any pause in fighting is good news," Recto said. "But the way forward is for the government to respond with its own ceasefire, one that is longer, so that when it is the CPP's turn to respond and they do so positively, then it will have the effect of extending the duration of the truce." While the one-week ceasefire ordered by the communist leadership " is a good starting point to restart talks" to end one of the world's longest running insurgencies, Recto said it can only be classified as "symbolic." "What the people want is peace that is sustained. Hopefully, that will be the end result of the peace talks," Recto said. "In the meantime, let us work that this week-long ceasefire be extended, mutually or by unilateral action by the parties. Okay lang kahit parang cellphone load na may expiry after seven days, ang importante may automatic renewal," he said. Comparing the search for peace to a mothballed car, "It is hard to start at the beginning, and is off to a slow start. It is still in the road test period. The expectation is for it to go the distance." But for peace to be on track, Recto urged the government to respond to the CPP's truce announcement with its own, "but for a longer period." Citing the confidence-boosting moves that it undertook last week which included the release of jailed National Democratic Front (NDF) consultants, Recto expects the military order to its troops to stand down during the period covered by the CPP unilateral ceasefire to be issued soon. "Parating na 'yan kasi Malacanang had showed that there should be no red tape when it comes to starting talks with the Reds," he said. In an official statement, the CPP declared a self-imposed truce that would take effect the first minute of August 21 until the last minute of August 27.
Press Release

August 21, 2016 ANGARA: GOVT MUST BE READY TO PROVIDE JOBS TO OFWS BROUGHT HOME FROM SAUDI Following the marching order of President Rodrigo Duterte to repatriate all stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia, Senator Sonny Angara has stressed that the government must be ready to provide employment opportunities and livelihood assistance to the thousands of workers who will be brought home after losing their jobs. More than 9,000 OFWs are now stranded in various work camps in Saudi Arabia where some of the biggest construction firms have been hit by economic recession caused by volatile oil prices. "Matapos silang magtiis ng ilang buwan na patuloy sa pagtatrabaho kahit walang sweldo at tuluyan ding matanggal ng wala man lang nakukuhang benepisyo, dapat ay handa ang gobyerno na saluhin ang ating mga OFW pagbalik nila dito sa Pilipinas at tulungan silang makapagsimula muli habang kapiling ang kanilang pamilya," said Angara, vice chairman of the labor committee. The lawmaker pointed out that the new Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) law or Republic Act 10801 which was enacted in May this year, can boost the government's capacity to assist retrenched OFWs as reintegration program has been identified as one of the core programs of OWWA. Under the law sponsored by Angara, at least 10 percent of the total collection of OWWA should be used for the reintegration program every year which includes trainings on financial literacy, entrepreneurial development, techno-skills, business counseling as well as job referrals for both local and overseas employment. Based on the latest data from OWWA, 3,858 affected OFWs in Saudi, including those still at jobsites and already repatriated, have received financial assistance of P20,000 each, while 3,297 families in the Philippines of stranded OFWs were granted P6,000 per family. The Saudi government has also pledged to shoulder the airfare of retrenched OFWs who wish to return to the Philippines, and waive immigration penalties of OFWs with expired working visas. "While the Department of Labor and Employment should be lauded for being prompt in taking action and exerting all efforts to provide relief to our OFWs, the huge number of migrant workers still stranded and in dire condition still poses a big challenge for the government," said Angara in his Senate Resolution No. 103 which seeks to look into the implementation of government assistance programs for stranded OFWs in Saudi Arabia. Under the OWWA's "Balik-Pinas, Balik Hanapbuhay" program, displaced or distressed workers can avail of either starter kits worth P7,500 or a livelihood assistance of P10,000, or a special loan facility intended to support enterprise development where an OFW-member or their legal dependent can avail of a loanable amount of P300,000 to P2 million. "He also noted that aside from financial support, retrenched OFWs may also undergo psycho-social counseling, stress debriefing and values reorientation given the difficulties they endured just so they can continue providing for their families back home," he noted.
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More than 16,000 people danced in the streets of the Mission on Saturday for Noise Pops annual 20th Street Block Party Festival, where the smell of grilled Del Popolo pizza and Farmhouse Kitchen Thai filled the air, and the sound of Chicano rock resonated through the alleyways.

This growth in attendance, compared with the events first fest four years ago when only about 8,000 attended, solidified Noise Pops welcomed presence in the neighborhood. The block party has always been popular  free festivals generally draw large crowds  but this years mass was bigger than ever, drawing in crowds of music fans with a lineup that included Miami Horror, an electronic pop act from Australia; Los Angeles rock group Chicano Batman; Oaklands own dream pop performer Hazel English; funk musician Boulevards from North Carolina; and more.

For Miami Horror, this untraditional block party gig did not seem at all outside the canon of a San Francisco event. Noting that the weirdest festival the Melbourne artists had ever played in the city was the Folsom Street Fair in 2013, the bands bassist, Daniel Whitechurch, said that the five-piece always has fun playing in the city. That sentiment was apparent at the bands festival-closing set.

During Miami Horrors hour-long performance, the groups energy was rambunctious  vocalist Aaron Shanahan at some points suspended himself off trees, stood on speakers, and, to the joy of the many fans in the audience, invaded the crowd in bopping along to the sounds of the bands 2010 hit Holidays.

As the headliner, Miami Horror was certainly the main event for most attendees. Evan Paul, who lives in the Mission, planned to attend the event when he found out the band was booked for the shows lineup.

It was a street fest that was in my neighborhood, and it featured one of my favorite bands, Paul said. I couldnt not go. The music was great.

Apartment tenants even opened their windows and danced in their living rooms, or sat on their stoops to check out the scene. Jessie Alvarez, who lives within the perimeter of the festival that spanned 20th Street between Bryant and Harrison as well as Florida and Alabama streets, noted that its a weird mix of people  but in that awesome San Francisco kind of way.

The 20th Street Block Party was also something of a networking event in addition to a community gathering. Noise Pop festivities have long been a rallying place for those working in the independent arms of the Bay Area music industry, but this festival proved a space for those to discuss the future of a few community-benefiting events.

Radio Valencias John Hell chatted up Bay Area Record Fair co-founder Marisa Breall, Oakland artist Madeline Kenney played a live gig at the nearby indie Mutiny Radio (in which this writer participated in a live broadcast), and local vendors like 826 Valencia, Mission de Flores and San Franpsycho met festivalgoers, Mission residents and beyond expanding their fan bases.

And this year, the block party benefited the Mission Language and Vocational School nearby.

The 20th Street Block Party is a festival in the Mission, for the Mission, that sticks to Noise Pops mission, which strives to shine the spotlight on the best of our micro-hood and all of her hidden flavors.

Alyssa Pereira is a staff writer for SFGate. Email: apereira@sfgate.com Twitter: @alyspereira
It's almost that time of year again for Burners to head north in their RVs for the experience of a lifetime known as Burning Man.

Since 1986, the Black Rock City festival has been a community of inclusion, gifting, and relentless self-expression. However, in recent years, the festival, much like its birthplace of San Francisco, has become overly gentrified with rich techies and their luxurious air-conditioned camps.
Lou Pearlman, the disgraced music impresario who promoted the Backstreet Boys, NSync and other boy bands in the 1990s before being convicted of a Ponzi scheme, has died at 62, according to the prison where Mr. Pearlman was serving a 25-year sentence.

The former producer and manager died Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where he was held after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges that included conspiracy and money laundering. No cause of death was given.
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WALKER, La.  Outside the small town of Walker, a rural Baptist church has become an oasis for flood victims.

As waters rose amid torrential rains this month, National Guard rescue crews dropped people off at South Walker Baptist Church because it sits on a ridge of relatively high ground in Livingston Parish near Baton Rouge. Even as flooding has receded in recent days, the church  like many other places across hard-hit south Louisiana  has continued providing sustenance for the body and soul.

It sheltered 96 people in the days after the storm, and Pastor Mark Carroll said the sanctuary is still a dormitory for more than 20 who lost their homes, including a man who had been living in his car until Saturday. It is also housing volunteers who have come to help people rebuild.

With a congregation of about 100 and with help from the community, the church is offering hot meals, running a pantry stocked by donations from around the U.S. and conducting prayer services. Carroll said the church had been planning a revival in about a month, but he believes the storm recovery is making that happen now as people build relationships with each other through God.

Its been this entire community, Carroll said by phone Sunday. We couldnt have done anything without everyone, and I mean just about everyone, pitching in.

Chuck Craft, a member of South Walker Baptist, said Sunday that he and his wife, Karen, lost their home about a mile from the church.

My story is no different than anybodys down the road, Craft said. Everybodys life is out on the curb to be picked up by garbage.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday that people around the country are just starting to pay attention to the extent of flooding that killed at least 13 people in Louisiana. He told CNNs State of the Nation that the disaster has received less attention because it wasnt a hurricane or named storm.

Typically, by this point in a storm, I think Red Cross would be receiving a lot more donations, Edwards said.

Edwards, a Democrat who took office this year, said he suggested to President Obama and presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett that they delay a trip to Louisiana until the initial disaster response was over and recovery efforts had started. Obama is traveling to Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Edwards also praised Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps Friday trip to Baton Rouge, saying it helped to shine a spotlight on Louisiana and on the dire situation that we have here.

Officials are setting up a temporary bus system to help people in and around Baton Rouge whose vehicles were damaged by flooding.

Mike Steele, spokesman for the Governors Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, said two disaster recovery centers also have opened. Steele said more than $30 million in federal housing assistance has been approved for state residents. About 3,200 people remained in shelters.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Eric Risberg/Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Gabrielle Lurie/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Eric Risberg/Associated Press Show More Show Less 5 of 5









Officials with the California Department of Public Health issued a warning on Friday to consumers to avoid eating rock crabs from Half Moon Bay and bivalve shellfish and rock crabs from Monterey Bay.



Dangerous levels of a toxin called domoic acid have been found in rock crabs and bivalve shellfish such as oysters, clams, mussels and scallops.



The warning is in effect for state waters south of 37 degrees 11 minutes north latitude to 36 degrees 35 minutes north latitude, according to health officials.



That's an area roughly between Pigeon Point and Cypress Point in Monterey County.



The advisory covers rock crab caught recreationally or commercially and recreationally caught mussels, clams and the internal organs, or viscera, of scallops, health officials said.



Rock crabs caught in Half Moon Bay showed domoic acid levels in the internal organs of more than 10 times the level that requires the action to be taken. The action level is 30 parts per million.



Portions of Half Moon Bay north of Pigeon Point are still under a fishery closure, but the higher levels of domoic acid detected in the rock crabs in Half Moon Bay and the crabs and shellfish in Monterey Bay raise concerns about the bivalves and crabs caught throughout the whole region, health officials said.



The warning excludes clams, mussels, scallops, or oysters sold through harvesters and dealers who are state-certified. The shellfish sold by these dealers and harvesters are tested for toxins frequently.



Symptoms of mild cases of domoic acid poisoning include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness, all of which usually disappear in a few days, according to health officials.



In severe cases a person may have trouble breathing, be confused, disoriented, have seizures, excessive bronchial secretions, cardiovascular instability, permanent loss of short term-memory, go into a coma or die.



So far no one has reported becoming ill from the crabs or shellfish caught in the area, health officials said.



Domoic acid was behind the closure of much of last season's Dungeness crab fishing, which didn't start until May, causing an estimated $48 million in losses to the industry, state officials said in February.

More for you Crab season faces further delays from sea conditions, pricing

Dangerous levels of domoic acid affected rock crab fishing earlier this year.



Updated information about shellfish poisoning and quarantines can be obtained by calling the health department at (800) 553-4133.







KeithBurbank0014a08/21/16



440-7259












BAGHDAD  Iraq executed 36 men Sunday convicted of taking part in the Islamic State groups massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014, officials said.

The men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq, according to provincial Gov. Yahya al-Nasiri. A Justice Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, confirmed the executions.

Islamic State militants captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after seizing Saddam Husseins hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base just outside the northern city. Shortly after taking Tikrit, Islamic State posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie facedown in a shallow ditch.

The Speicher massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group. The militias now rival the power of Iraqs conventional armed forces.

Iraqi forces arrested dozens of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015 with the help of U.S.-led air strikes. The men executed Sunday were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court this year.

The head of the provincial council in Salahuddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, criticized the judicial process, saying some of the men executed Sunday had been tortured to extract confessions.

Some of them were not even present at the scene of the crime, Ahmed al-Karim told the Associated Press. We support the death penalty for those who committed crimes, but the use of violence and torture (in Iraqi prisons) should be investigated.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to fast-track the implementation of death sentences following a series of large-scale bombings in and around Baghdad in recent months.

The United Nations criticized that policy this month, saying that given the weakness of the Iraqi justice system, the rushed sentences risk causing greater injustice.

Iraq ranks among the top five countries in the world in the use of capital punishment, according to figures compiled by the rights group Amnesty International.
1 Failed coup: Turkey wants the United States to speed up procedures for extraditing U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the man Turkey accuses of orchestrating last months violent coup attempt, the countrys prime minister said Saturday. Binali Yildirim spoke in Istanbul days before a delegation of U.S. officials are due to arrive in to discuss Turkeys demand that Gulen be returned to Turkey to face trial for the brutal July 15 coup. Washington has asked for evidence of Gulens involvement and says the regular extradition process must take its course. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, has denied involvement in the coup attempt.

2 Yemen rally: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched Saturday in support of Shiite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The march in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, was in support of a new combined governing council the rebels and Saleh announced late last month, but which was immediately rejected by the internationally recognized government and the United Nations. Saleh was forced to step down in 2012 amid Arab Spring protests after more than three decades in power. Yemens war pits troops loyal to the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Shiite rebels and Saleh loyalists.
DAVAO, Philippines  The Philippines brash-talking president threatened Sunday to withdraw his country from the United Nations and lashed out at U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his antidrug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.

President Rodrigo Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a bombed building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the U.S. and the U.N. to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.

The U.S. State Department and two U.N. human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations. Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gunbattles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.

Agnes Callamard, the new U.N. special rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings.

Criticisms against Dutertes crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference after midnight Saturday that dragged on for more than two hours.

Maybe well just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If youre that rude, son of a bitch, well just leave you, Duterte said in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern citys longtime mayor.

Duterte also belittled U.N. work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions about the performance of the world bodys agency that fights hunger.

If the Philippines breaks off from the U.N.  which Duterte called stupid  he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body. The U.N., he said, should return Manilas financial contributions.

Reacting to U.S. criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the U.S.

Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground? he asked.
ISTANBUL  Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar Assad during a transitional period but insisted he has no place in Syrias future.

The comments came after Assads forces began attacking Kurdish positions this week, leading some Kurdish officials to speculate that a Syrian-Turkish rapprochement was under way at the expense of Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria.
Former NZX and MediaWorks boss Mark Weldon will leave the board of minnow human resources software developer GeoOp at the end of the month, and will be replaced by an Australian director.

Weldon handed over the chairmanship of GeoOp as part of a merger with Australia's InterfaceIT in April, having led the board through a $10 million private offering ahead of its compliance listing on the NZAX. His resignation is effective from Aug. 31, the Auckland-based company said in a statement.

GeoOp now derives about 60 percent of its revenue from Australia and since the merger with InterfaceIT it's put more emphasis across the Tasman where its senior management team and two of its major shareholders are based. Part of that includes the pursuit of a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange, which it says is "pending clarification" of small-cap listing requirements. That will offer "deeper pools of capital and liquidity," it said.

"With a clear direction toward the ASX, Mark has determined that it is the right time to step down to allow a re-shaping of governance in line with the shift of the company," GeoOp said. "The company intends to recruit an additional independent director in Australia."

Weldon is still a significant shareholder in GeoOp and will participate in an upcoming capital raising, the company said.

The shares fell 3.6 percent to 27 cents, having slumped 30 percent so far this year, and are almost a quarter of the $1 listing price in 2013.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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New Zealand export log prices slid to an eight-month low in August as a stronger local currency and higher shipping rates dented returns.

The average wharf gate price for New Zealand A-grade logs dropped to $110 a tonne in August, from $114 a tonne in July, according to AgriHQ's monthly survey of exporters, forest owners and saw millers. That's the lowest level since December's $104 a tonne.

Shipping rates to both China and South Korea have advanced about 8 percent this month, rebounding from their lows, as fewer ships visit New Zealand due to greater northern hemisphere demand and a drop in local appetite for cargo such as palm kernel. A lift in the New Zealand dollar has also made the country's exports less competitive after the Reserve Bank cut the benchmark rate this month but was less definitive than expected about the need for further easing.

"Nearly all changes in export log markets were negative for New Zealand log traders over the past month," AgriHQ analysts Reece Brick and Shaye Lee said in their report. "Higher shipping rates, the appreciation of the New Zealand dollar, and steady-to-softer in-market pricing have all worked against returns at the wharf gate."

Still, inventory levels at Chinese ports were lower than the same time last year, pointing to stability in prices and the potential for a marginal increase next month, they said.

Meanwhile, returns in the New Zealand domestic market were in line with last month, AgriHQ said.

In the structural market, S1 logs slipped to $114 a tonne from $115 a tonne last month, which was the highest level since June 2014, AgriHQ said.

"Demand for structural logs has been impressive throughout all major regions, primarily a product of strong housing construction through key centres," the analysts said. "Many mills would be more than willing to take more logs than they currently are, but the relative tightness of supply is meaning this is not possible."

In the pruned market, P1 logs declined to $184 a tonne from $187 a tonne last month, which was the highest price since June 1995, AgriHQ said.

There has been an increase in the supply of lower quality pruned logs from owners of smaller woodlots who have been felling trees at a younger age than usual, although there is limited demand for these logs which tend to have issues with sapstaining, which affects the appearance of the wood, the analysts said.

"Mills will be seeking further price reductions in the short-term," they said in their report. "However there is a distinct lack of interest from domestic mills for any poorer quality logs" and Chinese buyers were also eschewing these logs.

Through July and early August, export pruned logs were trading for US$165/JAS (Japanese Agriculture and Forestry Standards), down from US$175/JAS at the same point last month, AgriHQ said.

"A period of increasing processing capacity within China appeared to mean these issues were overlooked, however now the demand situation has stabilised, the effects of trading these poorer quality logs is being felt," the analysts said. "The furniture industry within China is also in a weak state, which has also cut back interest in pruned logs."

Pulp prices were unchanged at $49 a tonne and have held within a range of $49 a tonne and $51 a tonne since September 2014, AgriHQ said.

Forest products are New Zealand's third-largest commodity export group behind dairy and meat products.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police arrested a 33-year-old city firefighter on assault charges early Sunday morning.

Firefighter Eric Marshall was arrested and charged with assault at 4:10 a.m. Sunday at a location within the confines of the 122nd Police Precinct, said police. The incident arose out of a domestic dispute with his wife, police said.

When contacted by the Advance, a city Fire Department spokesman, said he wasn't yet made aware of the incident.

This is a breaking news story. Check back to silive.com for updates on this story.

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The future of Canberra's economy could rest with "high talent" jobs in private sectors working with government on defence and cyber security and a national precinct for design and architectural services, a key ACT government advisor says.

Dr Tim Williams, an advisor to Chief Minister Andrew Barr on his "capital ambitions" strategy and chief executive of the Committee for Sydney, said one of the keys to diversifying the territory's economy would be building on its existing strengths, creating new jobs in firms servicing Defence, the federal government's need for cyber security or in more construction and design firms possibly linked to a local university.

Dr Tim Williams believes developments such as Campbell 5, proposed for this site, could help create new jobs in Canberra. Credit:Jeffrey Chan

"Canberra already has a high talent workforce, so if we can create the environment in which clever people can rub up against each other, they call them innovation precincts overseas, then really that should start to create new jobs," he said.

He said one of the strengths of Canberra was its "unique city-state government", which he said was the envy of Sydney, with its state government and more than 40 local councils across the city.
A 19-year-old woman was injured when her motorcycle crashed west of Canberra.

Paramedics and firefighters were called to a stretch of road two kilometres past the intersection of Brindabella and Cotter roads near Paddys River shortly before 3.30pm on Sunday.

It is understood no other vehicles were involved.

Intensive care paramedics stabilised the woman on scene before taking her to Canberra Hospital with soft tissue injuries on her leg and arm about 4.30pm.
Melbourne businessman Mark Rowsthorn just wants his fellow investors to recognise their $166 million investment in the 2013 IPO of logistics group, McAleese, is now worthless, and move on.

And possibly pour more money into the company as part of its restructure and plans to go private again. Needless to say, it is easier said than done.

Mark Rowsthorn has seen more than $100m go down the drain. Credit:Cole Bennetts

Maybe it would help to know that Rowsthorn has had to come to terms with the fact he has lost all of the $100 million cash he invested in McAleese not long before they did.

It is probably a surprise to a lot of investors that Rowsthorn got as badly mauled by its disastrous performance as they did.
National Australia Bank-owned MLC is urging the government to enshrine in law that the purpose of superannuation be to deliver retirees a similar standard of living to what they had when working, rather than a supplement to the age pension.

As the government faces an internal backlash over policies to rein in superannuation tax breaks, MLC said there was a need to limit tax concessions for the most wealthy retirees.

However, it also argued the system should have the over-arching aim of encouraging people to save enough for an "adequate" income in retirement, rather than to supplement or substitute the pension, as the government is proposing.

The wealth manager's definition of "adequate" is about 70 per cent of pre-retirement income, capped at roughly $95,000 a year for the sake of equity.
Donald Trump walks through construction works in the lobby of the Old Post Office building in Washington, now being developed into a Trump International Hotel. Credit:Doug Mills/The New York Times Painter advised Paulson on his decision to sell his Goldman Sachs shares, saying it was clear that Paulson could not simply have placed that stock in a trust and pretended it did not exist. If Trump were to use a blind trust, the professor said, it would be "like putting a gold watch in a box and pretending you don't know it is in there". Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Credit:Damon Winter/The New York Times Trump once said on CNN: "I am the king of debt. I love debt." But in his career, debt has sometimes got the better of him, leading to at least four business bankruptcies.

He is, however, quick to stress that, these days, his companies have very little debt. Trump-branded merchandise in the lobby of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Credit:Damon Winter/The New York Times Trump indicated in the financial disclosure form that he was worth at least $US1.5 billion and has said publicly that the figure is actually greater than $US10 billion. Recent estimates by Forbes and Fortune magazines and Bloomberg have put his worth at less than $US5 billion. To gain a better understanding of Trump's holdings and debt, the Times engaged RedVision Systems, a national property information firm, to search publicly available data on more than 30 properties in the US. That Trump seems to have so much less debt on his disclosure form than the Times found is not his fault, but rather a function of what the form asks candidates to list and how.

The form, released by the Federal Election Commission, asks that candidates list assets and debts not in precise numbers, but in ranges that top out at $US50 million, appropriate for most candidates, but not for Trump. Through its examination, the Times was able to discern the amount of debt taken out on each property and its ownership structure. At 40 Wall Street in New York, a limited liability company, or LLC, controlled by Trump holds the ground lease - the lease for the land on which the building stands. In 2015, Trump borrowed $US160 million from Ladder Capital, a small New York firm, using that long-term lease as collateral. On his financial disclosure form, that debt is listed as being valued at more than $US50 million. Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation, said Trump could have left the liability section on the form blank because federal law requires that presidential candidates disclose personal liabilities, not corporate debt. Trump has no personal debt, he said. "We overdisclosed," Weisselberg said, explaining that it was decided that, when a Trump company owned 100 per cent of a property, all of the associated debt would be disclosed, something that he said went beyond what the law required.

For properties where a Trump company owned less than 100 per cent of a building, those debts were not disclosed, Weisselberg said. Trump, for example, has a 50 per cent stake in the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. In 2010, the company that owns the hotel refinanced a $US190 million loan, according to Real Capital Analytics, a commercial real estate data and analytics firm. Weisselberg said a Trump entity was responsible for half the debt, and all but $US6.4 million of the loan had been paid off. The Times found three other instances in which Trump had an ownership interest in a building but did not disclose the debt associated with it. In all three cases, Trump had passive investments in limited liability companies that had borrowed significant amounts of money. One of these investments involves an office tower at 1290 Avenue of Americas. In a typically complex deal, loan documents show that four lenders - German American Capital, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank; UBS Real Estate Securities; Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company; and Bank of China - agreed in November 2012 to lend $US950 million to the three companies that own the building. Those companies, obscurely named HWA 1290 III LLC, HWA 1290 IV LLC and HWA 1290 V LLC, are owned by three other companies in which Trump has stakes.

Ultimately, through his investments, Trump is a 30 per cent owner of the building, records show. Vornado Realty Trust owns the other 70 per cent and is the controlling partner. On a smaller scale, Trump has a 4 per cent partnership interest in a company that has an interest in a large Brooklyn housing complex and owes roughly $US410 million to Wells Fargo, according to Bloomberg data. The full terms of Trump's limited partnerships are not known. The value of the loans connected to them is roughly $US1.95 billion, according to various public documents. Weisselberg said that neither Trump nor the company were responsible for the debt associated with the limited partnerships. Trump, Weisselberg added, was liable for a "small percentage of the corporate debt" listed on the federal filing but would not elaborate. Despite Trump's holdings, Weisselberg said, the candidate should not be held to the same standards that might apply to the heads of companies in highly regulated industries.
Tom Gulliford and Matt Ventrella. Both took on apprenticeships with Hutchinson Builders. Credit:James Brickwood "Social structures of support are a vital third element in any mental health care and prevention regime," it says. Quality of training and mentoring can also boost apprenticeship completion rates which are as low as 50 per cent in Australia. Andrew Gulliford is a site manager at Hutchinson. Credit:James Brickwood Study leader Professor John Buchanan said companies that provide quality training and mentoring have completion rates as high as 90 per cent.

The study Beyond mentoring: social support structures for young Australian carpentry apprentices looked at the best apprenticeship training schemes in the Australian carpentry trade and found work-based mentoring and social support could help prevent mental health problems, or detect them early. The study included small businesses and larger companies including Hutchinson Builders, Fairbrother Pty Ltd, Barangaroo Skills Exchange and East Coast Apprenticeships. Professor Buchanan said many young people battle with mental health problems long before they are finally detected. "The right support can prevent a lot of problems from happening. Or if you can't prevent them, you have early warning systems that allow intervention before things spiral out of control," he said. "Among mental health experts is it widely recognised that the next big breakthrough for mental health isn't going to come from drugs and one-on-one counselling, it is going to come from better social structures and support." The study quoted an experienced carpenter and now supervisor with Lend Lease at Barangaroo saying: "I came from Coffs Harbour originally ... I dropped out of school there in year 10 and became a mischievous street kid ... I moved to Sydney to work in a labouring job my uncle found for me ... but it fell through ... I'd just turned 18 and wanted to party with my mates. Sydney has so many openings with clubs, the Cross ... too many distractions ... without them, I'd have been lost."

The research found that quality apprenticeships were not something that could be simply "added on" as a separate program. Quality on-the-job learning and informal and peer-based mentoring was found to be more effective. "An effective social structure support isn't something you bolt onto the side of something," Professor Buchanan said. "When you look at the apprenticeship system the things that really provide the support are not the arrangements that are funded by the Commonwealth Government. It is the quality of the day-in-day-out arrangements that merge skill development and personal development. "When people turned up on the job people took notice of them and respected them and listened to their requests for help, offered insights in how to become more competent on the job and if problems emerged, helped them solve them. They felt safe to ask for guidance." Professor Buchanan said apprenticeships were most effective in workplaces that provided on-and-off-the-job training and enough time for skills to be learned gradually. Will Gulliford, 20, from Narrabeen is six months into a four-year apprenticeship with Hutchinsons and is one of seven apprentices. He hopes to become a site manager like his father and said he socialises with some of the other apprentices. He said older workers are always willing to help him learn the trade.
We will never know the human cost of the Australian policy failures known collectively as the Pacific Solution, but an analysis conducted by Fairfax Media has revealed that the immediate monetary cost of building and maintaining the detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea has so far has been a staggering $2 billion.

That is more than $1 million per detainee since the centre opened.

Australia's taxpayers have spent about $2 billion for the Manus Island Regional Processing Facility. Credit:The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship via Getty Images

We do not know how much has been spent in Nauru, because the government makes that figure very difficult to find. We do know that the centre on Manus will continue to absorb Australian funds until it closes, and after that its former inmates may sue the Commonwealth for up to a billion dollars more.

Now the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and the PNG government have agreed that the centre will be closed, it is worth considering what we have bought for that ocean of money.
I feel for the wife in the $200 million marriage break-up ("The wife, mistress and the $200m break-up", August 14). I don't know how she can possibly manage on a mere $15,000 a month. What was the judge thinking?

I have the knack of being able to stuff up a room full of computers with the click of a mouse and often have people exclaiming in response to my pathetic pleas for help: "Wow! I have no idea - I've never seen that before" while looking over my shoulder at what's on the screen ("Losing our senses over the census", August 14). So confession time: I think that while I was online filling out the census form on August 9 ... well, the rest is history. Sorry for the inconvenience folks.

Alicia Dawson Balmain

In a rare misstep, Annabel Crabb takes us to task for overreacting to the census stuff-up ("Losing our senses over the census", August 14). Nobody died, she writes. Nobody has died, yet. A census provides health, transport, construction and other planners with vital facts that are used to prevent people from dying in the longer term. The fact that we don't know whose life is saved or made appreciably better is beside the point. It is not just the technological problems that are of concern. The privacy issue is huge. There will be those who will not answer all questions truthfully if they know their details will be kept. And that will come at a cost, even if we can't clearly point to exactly who will suffer.

Chris McGregor Cabarita

Dave Horsfall of North Gosford gives my birthplace a bad name by "admitting" he always uses a fake name and address when completing the census (Letters, August 14). I wonder what names and addresses he is using to submit letters to the editor.
Teenage mental health is one of the most critical social issues of our time. One in four young Australians is currently experiencing mental health problems; the same number report being unhappy with their lives; and suicide is now the biggest killer of young Australians, including teenagers, accounting for more deaths than road accidents.

I've been thinking about these dreadful statistics a lot over the past week, since attending a school council meeting at my children's primary school where it was announced that from next year, every student must own their own iPad/device, which they will use in most of their classes, then take home at the end of each day, so that they can continue to work on them at home.

There are many reasons schools, like ours, are introducing BYOD (bring your own device); one of them is to allow schools to create virtual classrooms, and encourage students to become "remote" and "independent" learners, allowing them to extend themselves as far as they can  those lucky kids can now take the classroom home in their bag each night, in a sad echo of what so many of their parents do with their jobs. Another one of the benefits, I've been told, is that kids can all work remotely on the same document, editing each other's work, and receiving teacher feedback, without even having to talk with each other. Apparently it saves everyone a huge amount of time.

And I keep coming back to those heartbreaking statistics about teenage mental health, with the knowledge that my children and their friends will be among this statistical group in a handful of years; that dozens of these adorable kids will contemplate suicide, and that some of them might even go through with it. I wonder if now, while they're young, while we've still got them, if we're doing the right thing by them. I wonder why we're putting so much energy into working out how to make our seven, eight and nine-year-olds achieve better academic results and become better "independent", "remote" learners, when the conversation should really be about how do we create happy, resilient children?
Donald Trump is so loud that he even shouts in print. Last Thursday, he tweeted: "They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!" He meant that he'll defy the polls and pull off a surprise victory in November. That's unlikely. It's a safer bet that we won't be calling him Mr President. Trump's tweet reflects a change of plan. In the primaries there was no plan at all: he said the first thing that entered his head. It worked: he won the Republican nomination. But the shift from primaries to a general election requires moderation, and Trump has struggled to fulfil a promise to be "so presidential that you people will be so bored". Instead, he insulted and argued and outraged  while privately complaining that Trump wasn't allowed to be Trump enough any more. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Credit:AP This week the campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was effectively demoted and one Steve Bannon replaced him. Bannon is a fascinating character. A former Goldman Sachs banker, he is the man behind Breitbart  a far-Right news website that has been one of Trump's few consistent supporters. It's part of what is sometimes called the "alt-Right", a coalition of conservatives in perpetual war against both the Left and the establishment Right. The coalition counts sexists and neo-racists among its number. Some of Breitbart's most arresting headlines include "Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy" and "Young Muslims in the West are a Ticking Time Bomb". The conservatism of Mitt Romney was well-mannered, ethical. Breitbart's people are political punks who, just like Sid Vicious, revel in being despised by the folks they despise. They have a reputation. Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor, called Bannon: "a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies." In Shapiro's view, "Bannon is a smarter version of Trump".

So when Bannon joined the campaign we expected Trump to go turbo. Perhaps extend that wall to keep out the Canadians, too? Instead, he offered what is being labelled an "apology" for his past behaviour. A very Trump apology: he delivered it without humility, shouting that, "believe it or not", he regrets that sometimes people take offence at the things he says. Expect to hear more about this apology. Expect Trump to refer to it as "the most BEAUTIFUL apology ever given!" What the apology shows is that Bannon might be a maverick but, presuming he agreed with this manoeuvre, he is also clever. He and the rest of the staff can read polls: Trump is behind even in once-competitive states such as North Carolina and Florida. As one Republican insider put it to me, it's too late to catch up. The new goal won't be to overtake Clinton but to get close enough  say just three points behind  to be within striking distance on polling day. That's when the Brexit part of the strategy kicks in. Trump's people hope that Americans are lying to pollsters about their voting intentions  just as many Britons may have done during the referendum. Team Trump dreams of victory by stealth. The candidate may even think that he's buying some of the genius behind Brexit. After all, one can draw a direct line from Bannon to Nigel Farage through the UK Breitbart branch, and the two men are reportedly close. But Brexit cannot be bought and imported. For a start, while Farage's anti-immigration campaign was a key component of victory, it probably alienated as many as it seduced. What was far more important was the endorsement of senior Tories and personable characters from Labour. It was a bipartisan movement based on an idea that, love or loathe Euroscepticism, had been on the table for 40 years. Trump, by contrast, is brand new in political terms and fraught with far greater risk. Leaving the EU is a single policy; Trump is a package. Americans are weighing up whether or not to give this guy the nuclear codes. Moreover, Brexit appealed to a coalition of middle-class Tories and working-class Labour supporters. Trump is doing well among the blue-collar voters but haemorrhaging white-collar Republicans. Swing-state polls show Trump losing college-educated whites, a group Romney won by 4 per cent in 2012. Brexit also did well in a few majority non-white areas, such as Slough. In some polls, Trump scores zero per cent among African-Americans.
Bank profits and the number of complaints against them have both skyrocketed in recent years, according to new research that questions the adequacy of "cop out" bodies to keep financial institutions in check.

The analysis, conducted for the Labor Party by the Parliamentary Library, shows complaints about banks to the Financial Ombudsman Service have risen 60 per cent between 2008 and 2015, from 19,107 to 31,895 a year.

Call for a cultural change in banks: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Credit:Penny Stephens

It also points to a 145 per cent increase in credit card complaints from 6731 a year in 2008-09 to 16,458 in 2014-15 and notes the booming profits in the industry, including the Commonwealth Bank's $9.1 billion in 2015-16, Westpac's $8.2 billion, ANZ's $7.8 billion and NAB's $5.8 billion.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said a tribunal to field complaints, being considered by the government, is a "soft touch" that "simply won't cut it" as the non-government organisation FOS already exists.
Profit reporting season is a nail-biting time for companies and investors, as our Shares Race players experienced this week.

Ansell has been one of the stars of reporting season so far. Its shares have risen 12 per cent during the race week  where the All Ordinaries slipped 0.5 per cent  after investors welcomed the potential sale of its condom business to focus on its industrial clothing and protective gloves operations. The stocks sits in the portfolio of second-placed Money editor Caitlin Fitzsimmons.

The AFR's Phil Baker and Money's Caitlin Fitzsimmons have created a commanding lead.

Ten Network is also a strong performer off the blocks for Fitzsimmons, a happy accident as she originally picked Technology One but the code TNE was incorrectly input as TEN. Technology One has lost ground.

But it's Ausdrill that edged out Ansell at the top of the leaderboard, rocketing after the mining services company secured a $157 million contract extension at a mine in Ghana. It has helped lift the Australian Financial Review's columnist Phil Baker into first spot. Baker has also picked some companies that have impressed in reporting season so far, including Magellan Financial, Orora Group and Mirvac Group.
The lawyer hired to defend Peter Scully, the Melbourne man Filipino authorities have accused of some of the worst child-sex crimes in memory, has quit in exasperation over the alleged paedophile's incessant demands for special treatment in prison, Fairfax Media can exclusively reveal.

Alejandro Jose Pallugna said he bowed out after becoming "mightily sick" of the alleged child-porn kingpin's demands for special food, a mobile phone and twice-weekly visits from his lawyer.

Peter Gerard Scully.

"I withdrew as his defence counsel last February as I can't withstand his crazy and eccentric attitude and personality," said Mr Pallugna, who is based in southern coastal Philippines city Cagayan de Oro.

Mr Pallugna said Mr Scully, who investigators have accused of running an online pay-per-view service showing the sexual torture of children, had acted like he was on holiday.
A Perth man accused of instructing his American girlfriend to post images on the internet of teenage girls being whipped and spanked will learn on Monday if he will be extradited to the US.

Christopher Lobban has been in custody in Perth since 2011 when he was arrested for child abuse.

Christopher Lobban will learn on Monday if he will be extradited to the US Credit:ABC News

From his home in Perth, Lobban allegedly gave detailed instructions to Pagoria in Florida on how to build a "spanking bench" and use a leather paddle to beat the girls, aged 14 and 15, to fulfil his and Pagoria's sexual desires, authorities allege.

Pagoria allegedly videotaped the abuse and uploaded the videos to a website for Lobban's review.
The Facebook account of a Sydney woman was accessed more than 100 times in the year after she was killed, and photos of her were deleted from her social media account, an inquest has heard.

But the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has knocked back a request from NSW Police to access Facebook records that may point to who was logging in to Cheryl Ardler's account, and possibly shed light on who killed her.

Cheryl Ardler's Facebook account was accessed more than 100 times in 2013. Credit:NSW Police

Deputy State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan handed down her report on Friday following the inquest into the disappearance and suspected death of the 44-year-old from Cranebrook in Sydney's west.

The report found that Ms Ardler died between December 5 and 25, 2012, and the manner of her death was most likely to have been homicide. But it remains a mystery as to who killed her and where her body lies.
Former NRL star Anthony Watts has been charged with assault after an incident at a Gold Coast wedding over the weekend.

The former Cowboys hooker, 29, handed himself in to Queensland police on Monday morning.

He is due to appear in Southport Magistrates Court later in the day.

EARLIER
It stands vacant on one of Melbourne's busiest thoroughfares, a mystery to many of the thousands of people who drive past every day.

Built in 1910, Fawkner Mansions on the corner of Punt Road and Commercial Road in Prahran is one of Melbourne's oldest remaining apartment buildings. Until a few years ago it operated as a rooming house, accepting referrals from housing agencies until it fell into disrepair.

Fawkner Mansions was a rooming house but has fallen into disrepair. Credit:Penny Stephens

After it closed, housing workers wondered whether it had been sold, abandoned or prepared for redevelopment.

From about the late 1990s Fawkner Mansions provided accommodation to people facing homelessness.
A Frankston man who was tied up and abducted on Saturday evening after he walked into his home to find a man holding a knife is recovering from the ordeal in hospital.

Police have been told the 54-year-old victim found an unknown man with a knife inside his Grimwade Crescent home at 5.30pm.

The man made threats towards the victim and then bound his arms, a police spokeswoman said.

Investigators believe the offender then forced the victim into the passenger seat of his own car and drove away from the property.
Update on the crash between a train and a car in Bairnsdale:

A male motorist is in a critical condition and is being flown to The Alfred for treatment. He is expected to arrive at the hospital at 9.45am.

The man's car collided with a V/Line train at a crossing about 800 metres from Bairnsdale Station. None of the 60 or so passengers onboard the train at the time were injured.

For more information, read Daniella Miletic's article.
The crumpled piece of paper held up to the camera captured the schoolgirl's rage perfectly.

"The length of my skirt or dress does not matter," it read.

What happened next in the textile class at Kambrya College is being celebrated as the perfect response to being slut-shamed.

Year 9 student Faith Sobotker flicked back her hair, looked directly into the camera on her friend's phone and delivered a powerful speech.
The removal of asbestos sheeting from within roof panels at the new $1.2 billion Perth Children's Hospital is "a patch-up job" that shows how poorly managed the project has been, the opposition says.

The asbestos was discovered almost six weeks ago and was blamed as a major reason the lead contractor, building company John Holland, missed the recent handover date.

Asbestos was discovered during building work at the new Perth Children's Hospital. Credit:James Mooney

Removing the asbestos-riddled fibre cement boards from inside their galvanised iron shell - rather than completely replacing the panels - has been trialled, with consulting company Coffey concluding hazardous materials had been satisfactorily removed.

But the CFMEU is concerned about the plan, saying it is too risky and the panels should be completely replaced.
A woman is in a critical condition in hospital after her Volkswagen convertible collided with a Nissan Patrol in Merriwa.

Police say the crash happened just before noon on Saturday.

A woman is in a critical condition in hospital after a car crash in Merriwa. Credit:St John Ambulance

The 20-year-old Volkswagen driver was crossing Hester Avenue to travel east when it hit the four-wheel drive which was heading west.

Paramedics rushed the 20-year-old to Royal Perth Hospital with life threatening injuries.
Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said on Sunday that she does not want the Republican presidential nominee to release his tax returns until an audit by the Internal Revenue Service is completed, abandoning a position that she took five months ago, when she didn't work for the campaign and urged Trump to "be transparent" and release the filings.

"I've learned since being on the inside that this audit is a serious matter and that he has said that when the audit is complete, he will release his tax returns," Conway said during an interview on ABC's This Week program that aired on Sunday morning.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, no longer wants him to release his tax returns. Credit:Bloomberg

"I also know as a pollster that what concerns people most about quote 'taxes' is their own tax liability, and so we appreciate people being able to see Hillary Clinton's plan and Donald Trump's plan and figure out who will really get the middle-class tax relief."

In answering, Conway also took a swipe at Clinton over transparency issues: "I'm glad that he's transparent about a number of things, and we're certainly running against the least accountable, least transparent, I think, joyless candidate in presidential political history."
Bangkok: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has turned from his bloody war on drugs to corruption, sacking thousands of appointed government officials without producing any evidence against them.

"I would like to issue a warning on Monday  I will declare all your positions, all throughout the country vacant. I still hear corruption," the former provincial mayor said in a televised news conference on Sunday.

Mr Duterte also warned that some appointed government officials should prepare to be sent to Jolo, a far-flung island in the southern Philippines that is a base for Islamist militants and kidnappers.

"You will enjoy the ambience (and) enjoy the environment  you have only yourselves to blame for corruption," he said. "Until now, in my provincial visits, I still hear corruption being committed by people, especially in the regulatory agencies."
Hillary Clinton meets with law enforcement leaders at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Credit:Carolyn Kaster How she builds relationships on Capitol Hill, especially with Republicans, will be one key measure of success in the first year or so, Democrats said. A second crucial element will be how effectively she organises a White House staff to keep the focus on her policy priorities and minimise the controversies that have long dogged Ms Clinton and her husband. The most significant unknown - and one that would determine to a great extent her ability to govern successfully - is how poisonous the political climate might be after a defeat of Mr Trump, who has already begun complaining that the election system is "rigged" against him. Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former US president Bill Clinton. Credit:Getty Images "Her greatest challenge will be the environment in which she comes to office," said a former Obama administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I don't think any president has come to office underwater on their favourable image. This would be uncharted waters coming to office as an unpopular person. You don't have a wellspring of goodwill to draw on, even in the first 100 days."

Ms Clinton named a five-member transition planning team last week - headed by former interior secretary Ken Salazar and other familiar names in Democratic circles - that would eventually oversee the selection of cabinet secretaries and thousands of lower-level officials. She also moved some top policy advisers over from her campaign to her transition team, a move that reinforced the notion that she is getting ready to govern. Hillary Clinton stands near the faded sign of the Trump Plaza, at a rally in Atlantic City, New Jersey, last month. Credit:AP Mr Trump, who also has a transition team at work, trails by double digits in some national polls. No candidate in more than 60 years has come back to win after being so far behind at this point in the general election campaign. Trump also is losing in surveys taken in battleground states where he is staking his campaign. Among those states is Virginia, where he has a 14-point deficit, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll published in the past week. Ms Clinton has lately been telling Democratic audiences about her growing support among Republicans and touting what she says is a record of successfully working across the aisle to get things done. Her campaign regularly trumpets Republican endorsements and GOP disavowals of Mr Trump. If Clinton prevails, this will be the third election in a row in which Democrats prevailed with young voters. Credit:AP

It was a subject she treated gingerly during the toughest months of her primary contest against Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who challenged her from the left. Still, some liberal voters who backed Senator Sanders in the primaries eye Ms Clinton's legislative priorities with a mixture of suspicion and high expectations. If she wins, she will be "under great pressure from the left to move on a whole host of issues. The pressure is going to be enormous, more so than on President Obama," said Jim Manley, a Democratic consultant who was a senior aide to Nevada senator Harry Reid when he was Senate majority leader. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton poses for a photo at a campaign event in Cleveland. Credit:Carolyn Kaster Mr Manley said he is highly sceptical that Ms Clinton will be able to get some of her more liberal proposals - such as raising taxes on millionaires - through Congress, even under the rosiest of election scenarios for Democrats. That tax is key to paying for the massive jobs-and-infrastructure package at the heart of Ms Clinton's promise to help rebuild the American middle class. Mr Manley is also less bullish about immigration reform - Ms Clinton's other signature issue - which has repeatedly failed in Congress. And he cautions that if Ms Clinton seeks to implement her immigration agenda through executive action, as Mr Obama has sought to do, she could immediately sour relations with Republicans in Congress.

A Trump supporter holds a copy of Dolly Kyle's recently published expose on Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. Credit:AP Ms Clinton has predicted that Democrats will retake the Senate and narrow the Republican majority in the House, a result that would potentially ease but not guarantee passage of some Democratic initiatives. Democrats are unlikely to retake enough seats to amass a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate, meaning Ms Clinton would need Republican votes for nearly any important achievement. She has pledged to tackle an overhaul of what she calls a broken immigration system within her first 100 days in office and also has promised that the fix would include a means for illegal immigrants to gain US citizenship. "I'm hoping that the outcome of the election, which I am working hard to ensure [is] a victory, will send a clear message to our Republican friends that it's time for them to quit standing in the way of immigration reform," she said at a gathering this month of Hispanic and black journalists in Washington.

Also on the 100-day list is introduction of a constitutional amendment that would seek to reinstate campaign finance rules swept away by the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission. And Clinton has said she would seek legislation to end legal immunity for gun manufacturers right away - in what would be another immediate test of overcoming Republican resistance on the Hill. "She has put out fairly detailed proposals, so in that sense, she has been very direct with the voters about what she could accomplish," campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said. "If she wins, she will be able to point to the fact that she campaigned on a very specific set of policies in order to seek to hit the ground running and enacting as much of that platform as possible." But no one is drafting legislation now, Mr Fallon said: "There's a part of the process that can only come after she wins." Among other pledges, Ms Clinton has said she would expand affordable housing, repair schools, rehabilitate failing water systems and connect every household to high-speed internet by 2020. She pledges to guarantee equal pay for women and improve affordable child care.

And a big, expensive one: make college tuition free for most families and debt-free for all while refinancing current student loan debt. If Democrats do retake the Senate, longtime Clinton ally and New York senator Charles Schumer is expected to become majority leader. He shares Ms Clinton's impulse to seek common ground with Republicans, said a Democratic aide familiar with their past discussions. Already, for example, there has been talk on Capitol Hill about whether Ms Clinton should pair her infrastructure plan with an initiative more palatable to Republicans, such as corporate tax breaks. Ms Clinton chose Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her running mate partly for his record of bipartisan cooperation and good relations across the Democratic spectrum. As vice-president, Senator Kaine would be tasked with pushing many parts of Ms Clinton's ambitious list. Ms Clinton has borrowed some of her economic policy agenda from the liberal Roosevelt Institute in New York, where president and chief executive Felicia Wong said the group has worked for six months to compile a list of "multiple hundreds" of people to recommend for administration positions.

"There's no way to execute on that kind of ambitious policy agenda without excellent leadership," Ms Wong said, adding that she hopes that by pushing jobs and infrastructure first and getting bipartisan legislative victories, Ms Clinton will be in a stronger position to push other parts of her agenda in Congress. Similar lists of recommendations are coming in from other quarters, but Mr Fallon declined to discuss any personnel plans. Of roughly 4000 political jobs to fill, more than 1000 require Senate confirmation. Internal vetting, security clearances and ethics checks can take months. Former Utah governor Mike Leavitt, who served in George W. Bush's cabinet and oversaw transition planning for Mitt Romney's unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign, said it is not too early to begin identifying candidates for roughly 300 jobs that are deemed "critical", many of which require Senate confirmation. "The first task is you have to put a team on the field," Mr Leavitt said, "and the task of getting a senior person into the job goes far beyond just choosing them."
Jerusalem: Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have launched a rocket that landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot, and Israeli aircraft and tanks have responded by shelling the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the Israeli army and police said.

Sunday's rocket caused no injuries or damage in Sderot after it landed in a residential area, police said.

Palestinian masked members from the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades parade with a rocket launcher during a rally in Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Credit:AP

The initial retaliatory Israeli shell damaged a Beit Hanoun water tower with no casualties reported, local residents say.

Multiple air strikes later in the evening hit at least 30 different sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups and two people were lightly hurt, Gaza health officials said.
It shows Assad regime helicopters dropping barrel bombs on children below. Those that are still alive are weeping and in pain but the ones who are already dead look serene and at peace.

"Somehow he thought that the children who died are in a better place than those who are alive," Dr Sahloul said. "This is what happens to children in Aleppo and in other places."

The battle for Aleppo, divided between rebels in the east and government forces in the west, has become one of the most important and destructive of Syria's five-year war. It was not immediately clear whether Ali's death had been counted in the 168 civilians that the observatory said had been killed by Russian or regime airstrikes. Another 165 - among them 49 children - have also died after opposition shelling on the city's government-held western districts.

"Empathy and outrage must be matched by action," said UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake in a statement late on Friday. "Children of Omran's age in Syria have known nothing but the horror of this war waged by adults. We all should demand that those same adults bring an end to the nightmare."
Mogadishu: More than 20 people were killed on Sunday when suicide bombers from the militant al-Shabab group detonated two car bombs at a local government headquarters in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, witnesses and officials said.

Residents of the town of Galkayo in north central Somalia said they heard two loud blasts in quick succession followed by heavy gunfire.

A Somali soldier stands near the wreckage of a car bomb outside the UN's office in Mogadishu, Somalia, on July 26, 2016. Credit:AP

"There were two huge bombs. The first one was a truck bomb, followed a minute or so (later) by another car bomb. My brother was injured at the scene," Halima Ismail, a local resident, told Reuters.

Islamist al-Shabab, which has carried out a series of deadly attacks in the Horn of Africa country as it seeks to topple the Western-backed government, claimed responsibility for the bombings.
PHILIPSBURG:--- After successfully representing Sint Maarten as a Judge for a third consecutive year at the 2016 world Salsa Open in Puerto Rico, Mrs. Paula Daal-Dono has been chosen by the European Salsa Open delegation to Judge at the European Salsa open final which will be held in Portugal early next year.

At this year's World Salsa open final in Puerto Rico, which was held in July, Mrs. Daal-Dono has been

able to judge many of the heats and the finals. Twice in three years a Sint Maarten Judge has taken part in the main final as a judge, its exciting that after a grueling week of judging that the hard work and quality were noticed and Sint Maarten was invited to Judge the Salsa Finals in Europe as well Mrs. Daal- Dono explains. Its very motivating when you complete a competition and you talk with different salsa dancers from the around world at the after party, that you are recognized as that Judge from Sint Maarten.

It must be noted that judges also compete amongst themselves for the opportunity to judge. A judge must upgrade themselves regularly and be able to show their knowledge and skills.

The Directors of Salsa competitions will notice your quality based on your ability to take the latest trends into account, ability to spot technique, style, difficulty, repetition, rhythm, and originality. You cant be able to do this without updating yourself all the time by taking classes with the best teachers in the world. Eventually, you will also have to defend your evaluations to disappointed competitors that have worked really hard the whole year for the event. Its very satisfying to watch competitors whove taken your are advice seriously and seeing them succeed the following year Mrs. Daal-Dono elaborates.

I have some time before this event and will take this period to update myself by taking courses at the New York Salsa Congress which is known to have many Broadway choreographers, dancers and famous performers. Becoming a Salsa Judge has been a long journey, taking classes , learning and studying over

20 years. Its very gratifying that after all the hard work and sacrifice, I am judging next to the people

that I always admired and at the same time, represent the island that I love. Mrs. Daal-Dono concludes.
Putin always gets the better of Obama, despite a much weaker military and much smaller economy. Why?

In a Star Trek episode, the Enterprise discover a powerful alien who possesses an unknown painting by Leonardo da Vinci and an unknown work of music by Johannes Brahms. Kirk and Spock confront him and the man admits that, yes, he is both da Vinci and Brahms. He is in fact immortal and omni-powerful.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the move. His special forces units are preparing for another invasion of eastern Ukraine. In a recent piece in the Washington post, Charles Krauthammer ponders how this former KGB chief has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East from the US-Egypt alliance to the new alliance between Iran and Russia. He is dictating to the US and NATO, the future of Syria. So impressed are they with Putin, that Iran's mullahs for the first time are allowing Russian bombers to use bases in Iran. The first foreign troops on Iranian soil and 50 years. Krauthammer writes:

This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Iran's intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. That's what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. That's what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria.

Charles Krauthammer, The Price of Powerlessness, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-price-of-powerlessness/2016/08/18/f61d2c34-6575-11e6-96c0-37533479f3f5_story.html?utm_term=.6f6e67364bf7

Meanwhile half the Russian navy ships are unable to get underway. A holdover from Soviet days is that Russian naval crews report to their stations, take home a paycheck, and never even report whether or not their ships have working engines. The Russian Navy does have a few good units; but Russia's one aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsova had to be towed into port recently. The oil based Russian economy is floundering to the point where Putin has to arrest formerly allied oligarchs, in order to shake them down for cash.

How is all of this possible?

The obvious explanation is the Putin is some sort of powerful being, such as Vlad the Impaler a.k.a. Dracula. Or that the Russians have discovered the secret to time travel. Photos are circulating though the blogosphere, showing Putin as a soldier in 1920, in 1941, and again today.

So is Putin an all powerful being who has mastered time travel, or an immortal being who has learned secrets only a thousand years of life could reveal? Neither, probably. But he may have risen to power by faking an act of Chechen terrorism, to secure his own election in 1999. The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror that Brought Putin to Power, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439060/vladimir-putin-1999-russian-apartment-house-bombings-was-putin-responsible?utm_source=NR&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=August17satter

David Satter, the only Journalist not killed for investigating the bombing incident, writes: All available evidence points to Putin's complicity in the 1999 apartment-building bombings in Russia. Those who have tried to investigate have been killed off, one by one.

I believe that Vladimir Putin came to power as the result of an act of terror committed against his own people. The evidence is overwhelming that the apartment-house bombings in 1999 in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk, which provided a pretext for the second Chechen war and catapulted Putin into the presidency, were carried out by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Yet, to this day, an indifferent world has made little attempt to grasp the significance of what was the greatest political provocation since the burning of the Reichstag.

So why is it that the average Russian doesn't care? Why is it that about 65% of the Russian electorate approves of Putin, and has elected him leader to four terms over 16 years? Again, Krauthammer explains:

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand - a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military - he has restored Russia to great-power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Putin doesn't see US Interests as necessarily in contrast to America's. Abandon NATO as a relic of the past, he suggests to American friends such as Donald Trump. Russian interests, Putin probably suggests to Trump, are compatible with America's true legitimate national goals. Chinese interests are also not incompatible with American and Russian interests, because they lie in dominating South Asia and the South China Sea. Together with China and Russia, the U.S. can dominate the worlds smaller countries, including those in the Americas, Europe and Asia, throughout the 21st Century. He need not be a time traveller or immortal to see the world in this way, because the Russians have seen it thusly since Lenin.

"At last, Russia has returned to the world arena as a strong state  a country that others heed and that can stand up for itself."--Vladimir Putin, 2008

In a way, Putin really is immortal. His political ideals come directly from the the very first political scientist. Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince in 1513, approved of the leader of a state to lie, cheat, steal and kill, as long as he did it to further the national interest. No wonder Putin appears in Jan van Eyk's paintings from that same time period. Perhaps Vlad and Nikko hung out together, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli
Australian Parliament Member asked to donate this week

Despite several warnings and a criminal complaint, Donald Trump's presidential campaign continues to ask for donations from foreign nationals.

In June of this year, complaints were filed with the Federal Election Committee (FEC) by the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 against Trump after it became public that he had been asking for campaign contributions from members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

UK Parliament Members Peter Bottomley and Bob Blackman both said that they'd received numerous fundraising appeals on the Republican nominee's behalf.

It is illegal for foreign individuals, corporations or governments to give money directly to U.S. candidates or to spend on advertising to influence U.S. elections, and so, obviously, it is also illegal for U.S. candidates to solicit foreign money.

At the time, the nominee's representatives said the emails went out to people who had signed up to receive information from the campaign, but then those addresses from other countries were later deleted.

On Sunday, August 14, an Australian member of parliament, Terri Butler, emailed The Hill with a screenshot of the latest fundraising solicitation she'd received from the Trump campaign, according reporter Jonathan Swan.

The message went to Butler's government email account.

Butler reported that she has received several fundraising solicitations from the Trump campaign at her gov.au account.

It is typical for campaigns to purchase their email lists from well-known and trusted vendors, and then afterward run the list through suppresser programs that eliminate any email addresses that are likely to be foreign in nature.

"gov.au" is clearly an Australian account.

Beyond that, Butler says she has never signed up to receive anything from Trump.

There is no clear evidence that Trump has collected foreign moneys, but a well-run campaign operating above board would be acting with extreme caution after already receiving official warnings.

As a businessman, Trump dealt readily with investors from all over the world. It has seemed to be a real challenge for him to limit himself to just being an American.

"The Trump campaign's continuing solicitation of campaign contributions from people who are obviously foreign nationals is clearly illegal," Larry Noble told Swan. Noble is the general counsel for the non-partisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center.

"Given the news reports, the complaint we filed with the [Federal Election Commission] and the letter we sent to the Department of Justice asking for a criminal investigation, his refusal to put a stop to the solicitations is compelling evidence of the campaign's flagrant disregard for the law."

Trump's people reportedly blamed "scammers" for the foreign emails, because, of course, nothing is ever their fault.

---------------------

Federal Campaign Laws

 30121.

Contributions and donations by foreign nationals

(a) Prohibition. It shall be unlawful for-

(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make-

(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;

(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or

(C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or

(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.

(b) As used in this section, the term "foreign national"

means-

(1) a foreign principal, as such term is defined by section611(b) of title 22, [22] except that the term "foreign national" shall not include any individual who is a citizen of the United States; or

(2) an individual who is not a citizen of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) and who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence, as defined by section 1101(a) (20) of title 8. [23]

It is illegal for a U.S. Presidential nominee to solicit funds from foreign sources.

[22] 22 U.S.C.  611(b) provides: "(b) The term "foreign principal" includes- (1) a government of a foreign country and a foreign political party; (2) a person outside of the United States, unless it is established that such person is an individual and a citizen of and domiciled within the United States, or that such person is not an individual and is organized under or created by the laws of the United States or of any State or other place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and has its principal place of business within the United States; and (3) a partnership, association, corporation, organization, or other combination of persons organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country."

[23] 8 U.S.C.  1101(a)(20) provides: "(20) The term lawfully admitted for permanent residence means the status of having been lawfully accorded the privilege of residing permanently in the United States as an immigrant in accordance with the immigration laws, such status not having changed"
Wedding Bags by Meaghan and Grainwell were the first and second place winners from Bad Girl Ventures' first LAUNCH class. Provided
What you need to know about Powerball and the $825 million jackpot
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Shaun Miller, a fugitive, who had been pretending to be a 70-year-old man, has finally been captured. Friday, Massachusetts police were led to a home on Cape Cod where they hoped to find Miller.

Miller, 31, had been on the run from authorities since April of 2016 after he and other gang members were linked to drug trafficking. When the police knocked on the door, they were baffled to find an elderly man, who claimed to be Shizz.

The law enforcers felt that something was wrong, so they started quizzing the old man, who quickly confessed that he was indeed Mr. Miller wearing a very convincing disguise.

Police ripped it off, and Miller told them that he paid more than $2,000 for the realistic mask. He purchased the old man mask to be unrecognizable and to walk freely in the streets.

A search of Millers home led to the discovery of $30,000 in cash and a laundry basket with two loaded guns. Miller was indicted on charges of possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Massachusetts police shared a picture of the mask and gave the following explanation on the investigation:

The indictment was the result of an investigation into the Nauti street gang on Cape Cod. Other members of the gang have been charged with firearms violations, drug trafficking and even a 2015 murder.

According to local media:

The murder victim was a woman who who had been targeted after testifying against a member of the Nauti gang in 2011.

There is a lot of reaction on social media regarding the creepy mask.

Asi luce la mascara que usaba el narcotraficante #ShaunMiller para no ser capturado en #EEUU @cdn37 pic.twitter.com/2vI0pZqPXO  Elliott Martinez (@ElliottDML) August 20, 2016
Shaheed El Hafed, August 21, 2016 (SPS) The Permanent Bureau of the National Secretariat (SN) of the Polisario Front on Saturday called on the United Nations and the Security Council to establish a permanent checkpoint in the area of Elguergarat to prevent any Moroccan violations of the cease-fire signed between the Polisario Front and Morocco in 1991 pending the decolonization of Western Sahara.

Meeting Saturday in an extraordinary session, chaired by the President of Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, the Office of the SN called for "immediate and decisive" action to stop these "hostile and irresponsible" behaviors and impose compliance with the terms of the existing agreement signed between the two parties to the conflict and return without delay the rest of the civilian component of MINURSO to its full functions.

It also warned against the consequences that may arise from this situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire region, according to a statement of the office of SN released the same day.

The Polisario Front called on the UN to place immediate sanctions against Morocco, to prevent the worsening of the situation in occupied Western Sahara, a theater of violations against the Saharawi population, with disastrous consequences.

"Moroccan forces mobilized military units, in violation of the area in question, supported by mobile units of transport, military engineering, and aerial reconnaissance," the president of Saharawi Arab democratic Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario front, Brahim Ghali, had said earlier in a letter to Ban ki-moon.

The Polisario Front had already warned that in the absence of direct pressure against Moroccan government from the international community on this uncompromising and adventurous approach could be translated as a green light by the Kingdom of Morocco to conduct a new military aggression against the Saharawi people. (SPS)

062/090/TRA
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STAMFORD  Visitors to downtown Stamford can choose any night of the week from a menu of establishments that offer fare from around the world.

The city centers gastronomical diversity will be on display next week during Summer Restaurant Weeks, a showcase of 31 restaurants organized by the Stamford Downtown Special Services District and Stamford Tables, the downtown restaurant association. The culinary event will take place during a thriving period for the citys culinary community  and at a time when many are debating the sustainability of the industrys growth.

Our restaurants make the city vibrant and unique, said Jacqueline Wetenhall, vice president and director of retail development for the DSSD. Its very dynamic  not just locally, but one of the most dynamic in the region.

Growth  and challenges

The city centers evening scene hardly resembles the sleepy after-hours landscape of 30 years ago.

Spurred by population growth that has made Stamford the third-largest city in the state with almost 130,000 residents, the dining scene has boomed with constant openings in recent years. There are about 300 restaurants in the city, including about 100 in the downtown, according to city economic development officials.

When we first opened our restaurant in 1987, there wasnt much as far as restaurants in the downtown, said Michael Marchetti, owner of the Columbus Park Trattoria on Main Street and president of Stamford Tables. Today, the state of the restaurant scene in Stamford is strong. There are a lot of top-quality restaurants and great restaurant owners.

More Information The Stamford Downtown Special Services District and Stamford Tables, the city's downtown restaurant association, have organized Summer Restaurant Weeks, a 10-day event from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 that will offer prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus at the 31 participating restaurants. For more information about Summer Restaurant Weeks, visit: http://stamford-downtown.com/events/summer-restaurant-weeks-2016/#.V7XfV_krLcs See More Collapse

The success of the industry appeals to many restaurateurs who want to open establishments in a stable market. Among the recent arrivals, Wayne Steakhouse debuted last week in an approximately 7,000-square-foot space on Broad Street. The new restaurants opening ends a long-running vacancy in a property that faces the University of Connecticuts downtown campus and stands yards away from the flourishing dining corridors on Summer Street and Bedford Street.

Its better for us to have more restaurants, said Tony Prelvukaj, Wayne Steakhouses owner and executive chef. It brings more people to Stamford when there are more restaurants. It brings people to make the city interesting.

Retail and arts merchants said that they also benefit from the proliferation of dining establishments in the city center.

My business requires that I take clients out, said Fernando Luis Alvarez, owner of an art gallery of the same name on Bedford Street. In terms of the quality of food, service and security, the restaurants around here are really excellent.

But the prevalence of restaurants also creates challenges. Sales this year at Tigin Irish Pub have declined slightly due to the abundance of neighboring eateries, said general manager Ian Fulton. To adapt, Tigin is buying new TVs and furniture, upgrading its sound system and lighting and painting its interior and exterior.

Its a challenge, but you cant complain because its the open market, Fulton said. Youve got to be on your toes and do it and fight for that dollar.

And Stamford residents and visitors from neighboring communities can also choose from a growing list of eateries in other parts of city, including the South Ends budding restaurant scene in the Harbor Point complex.

I think that the dining scene in the South End is fabulous, said Sandy Goldstein, president of the Downtown Special Services District. Its a synergistic environment  you can go to both restaurants in the South End and downtown.

To help downtown restaurants boost their visibility in an increasingly competitive scene, city business leaders organize twice-yearly restaurant showcases. Summer Restaurant Weeks, which will run from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4, will offer prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus at the 31 participating restaurants.

This is a big event, especially since we have 31 restaurants taking part, Wetenhall said. There are a lot of new restaurants participating, so its a very exciting time.

Expanding the menu

Restaurateurs are not expecting local gourmands to soon lose their appetite for more dining options.

A Cheesecake Factory restaurant is scheduled to open in October at the Stamford Town Center, at the corner of Tresser Boulevard and Greyrock Place.

At 59 Broad St., a lease is being finalized with a contemporary-casual dining establishment, with American fare, to take about 3,000 square feet on the ground floor.

Next to Wayne Steakhouse, at the base of Trump Parc, a 3,500-square-foot space could welcome a new establishment. The space could become the home of another eatery: Insert restaurant here, reads a banner, with a picture of a young couple dining, displayed across the window panes.

The continual growth of the residential sector in the city center, including the construction of the first residential hall for UConn-Stamford students and the opening of large apartment buildings such as Summer House, will further improve prospects of downtown restaurants, according to a number of experts.

I think Stamford is under-restauranted, said Skip Lane, of Cushman and Wakefield, who brokered the lease for Wayne Steakhouse. I think theres a lot of room to grow. As the apartment boom goes on, I think the restaurants need to expand there.

City officials said that they are encouraged by the development of the dining sector and do not see a need to regulate the number of restaurants in the city.

The restaurants are a good bellwether to tell how were doing, said Thomas Madden, the citys economic development director. If we were to jump to about 400, Id be worried. But I think were in the right spot now.

Marchetti, the owner of Columbus Park Trattoria, is less bullish about the proliferation of restaurants. He is concerned about an over-saturation in the downtown and city as a whole.

It doesnt benefit anybody to have 100 restaurants downtown that are not busy, Marchetti said. But I would not support any kind of legislation that would stop someone from opening a restaurant. You just have to be cautious, look at the area and see where theres a demand. We have to let the market dictate what happens.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
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STAMFORD  Sitting under a tent after lunch at the Dozynki Harvest Festival at the Holy Name of Jesus Church on Sunday, Gabriela Czaja recalled coming to the United States in 1991 as an 18-year-old after the Berlin Wall came down.

My father told us when we got here, Its up to you what you do about whether you stay here or go back,  said Czaja who grew up near the small city of Wadowice, Poland. I met my husband and got married and started a new life.

Czaja, who lives in Fairfield County, was at the festival with her husband Greg, another Polish immigrant, and three American-born children. She said the annual Dozynki holiday celebration is like a Polish Thanksgiving that allows Polish American residents of the area to celebrate their heritage and cuisine.

A long time ago it was a way for people to give thanks for the fruits of the soil they received, said Czaja, who is a parishioner at the church. Today, it is still a Thanksgiving to God for the same fruits and everything were grateful for.

Hundreds of Polish Americans attended the second day of the two-day 37th annual Dozynki Festival at the parish on Pulaski Street. The festival is observed by Polish people around the world, and celebrates the end of summer.

Sundays festivities kicked off with a Polish language Mass said by Father Paul Hrebenko, with Bible readings done Andrzej Mynarczyk, the star of the Polish soap opera, L Like Love.

Im on vacation and was in the United States and I was free, Mlynarczyk said. For me, celebrating this holiday here, the people are very enthusiastic about maintaining their traditions. To see it makes my heart grow.

After the Mass, festival activities began in the churchs back lot with traditional Polish food, music, dancing, and vendors selling books, movies and other items, including tee-shirts with the coat of arms of Poland.

As attendees ate such delicacies as grilled kielbasa, pierogies and meat-stuffed potato dumplings called pyzy z miesem for lunch, members of the churchs dance troupe Slowianie performed for the crowd to traditional songs in Polish.

The dance groups leader, Svetlana Gabis, who is Polish but grew up in Belarus, came to the United States 20 years ago. She said she travels back to Poland on occasion to keep in touch with her roots.

This festival and Dozynki is a way of keeping up our traditions and in touch with the past, Gabis said.

Proceeds from the festival were expected to be used to support maintaining Holy Name of Jesus Church, which was built more than 100 years ago, Hrebenko said.

In addition to weekly services, the church also runs a Polish Saturday School where nearly 300 students come to learn Polish, and the geography, history and culture of their parents homeland, Hrebenko said.

We have a lot of young families in the parish which is why the church is flourishing, Hrebenko said.

Martin.cassidy@scni.com, twitter.com/martincassidyst.
Cuz.....it's 4 months to the start of election mudflinging.



British Columbia is officially ruling out any increase to its milestone carbon tax, ignoring the advice of its own handpicked panel to build on the groundbreaking levy that was the first in North America when it was enacted eight years ago.



Premier Christy Clark announced Friday that any increase to the levy would be unwise in advance of an expected national price on carbon. Instead, the tax will remain at $30 per tonne.



By comparison, Albertas NDP has introduced a tax that will begin at $20 per tonne next January and will reach $30 in 2018.



No one else has one anywhere in the country, Ms. Clark said.



So what I am saying is we will consider raising the carbon tax as other provinces catch up.  We are so far ahead of everybody else.



The provinces Climate Leadership Team  a government-appointed group of environmentalists, academics, business people and First Nations representatives  last fall called for increasing the carbon tax by $10 per tonne every year beginning in 2018. The tax has not been adjusted since 2012.



The current $30-per-tonne rate translates into about seven cents on each litre of gasoline. Revenues from the tax are used to fund tax cuts, making the levy revenue neutral.



Fridays announcement came with a challenge from the Premier to other provinces grappling with the issue of carbon pricing.



We want other provinces in Canada to catch up to our $30-per-tonne carbon tax, she said.



Ontario is enacting a climate-change plan, but one that does not depend on an outright carbon tax.



B.C. provincial politics were also at play. Ahead of next Mays provincial election, Ms. Clark was laying down a marker on a key environmental policy for the Liberal government, which will be seeking a fifth consecutive mandate that would take it to a 20-year run in office.



Ms. Clark also announced 21 actions to reduce net annual greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 25 million tonnes below current forecasts by 2050. That means the province is working toward the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 80 per cent below 2007 levels by 2050.



Even with LNG projects, the plan will reduce emissions by eight per cent by 2030, said Ms. Clark.



The announcement was quickly denounced by environmentalists and the opposition New Democrats, who accused the government of abandoning the provinces position as a leader in climate policies.



The Pembina Institute said the government had simply pushed the hard work of protecting the environment into the future.



Carbon pollution will not start to significantly decline for almost 15 years  assuming all the reductions in the plan come to fruition, Josha MacNab, Pembinas B.C. director, said in a statement.



New Democrat George Heyman, who speaks for the party on environmental issues, condemned the plan as evidence the Liberals no longer care about the environment.



She has announced a plan that will do less, more slowly than British Columbias formerly world-leading strategy, Mr. Heyman said in a statement.



He said the governments plan replaces targets with vague positive-sounding language.



Andrew Weaver, the sole Green Party member of the legislature and leader of the provincial party, took issue with the governments hands-off approach to the carbon tax.



As we go into another year with temperature records again being smashed across the world and in B.C., this government is content to fiddle and play games with carbon accounting, Mr. Weaver said in a statement. Without increasing the carbon levy, there is no hope that B.C. will meet its [greenhouse-gas] reduction targets.



Ms. Clark said she had to balance the need to address climate change with family affordability and protecting the economy and job creation. Our response to the climate leadership teams recommendations today is about that balance, she said.



Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will begin working on climate-change policies that could include a price on carbon, describing it as key to his governments climate-change plan. Further discussion between the Prime Minister and premiers is expected at a meeting this fall.
I am in deep struggle with the decision Who Do I Vote For For President?

Hillary acknowledges with pride the very powerful role she has played in the mass murder and maiming of millions of women and children, and proposes more of it, as a means of getting control over the world. Hillary has been a strong advocate of genetically modified organisms continuing to not be tested for safety before allowing into our food supply. Ninety percent of the soy in the United States is gmo soy, and it is classified by our government not as a food, but as a pesticide, and it is what we make infant formula from and serve in our hospitals. Knowingly feeding our infants, whose brains are still forming, a neurotoxin, by those we entrust with our health care and the government agencies that regulate them. She has been a supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a bloodless coup of our democracy creating a corporatocracy, i.e. corporations having sovereignty over elected officials in our governance.

I absolutely will not put my vote behind a woman who would lead us blindly into toxifying our own babies, and who sells herself on her record of bringing devastation to millions, making bloodbaths of countries, and who in our faces considers signing our democracy over to corporation-rule, all the while disconnected from the words she is selling herself on.

Id be in violation of my morality, my intelligence, my integrity, and the vision of the thriving world I want to live in, to support such destructiveness. I see Hillarys numbness or the collective numbness to sadism as the source and perpetrator of the use of War  Exponential Violence  stating instead that this use of Exponential Violence is to solve the problem of violence  as a psychopathological mindset. I may not be able to change that mindset but I dont have to join it by betraying my own sanity just because they set me up with such an awful choice: The Warlord or the Psychotically Narcissistic?

Especially when there is someone running who represents connection to the reality of whats going on, and what needs to happen for a turn-around: Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, a platform of the ethics and structures to generate a compassionate, just, and thriving world. Jill is who my vote is in truth and energetically behind.

As clear and sure as I am about this, it does not land in a decision, there is an objection to be resolved. As a Romanian friend of mine says it I will vote for Hillary because I come from a communist country and I know what can happen when a psychotic man gets into power. He asks me to consider How will you feel if he wins because of people voting for Jill Stein?

Going through Hillary, the tremendous grassroots movement were in might be able to effect an overturning of citizens united and have our R-Evolution prevail at some point forward, slower than we might like but I believe in sight. A Trump presidency is already visibly, tangibly, further destabilizing. If Hillary is a spiraling further into destruction, Trump is a nosedive into the fires of hell, with no choice of a peaceful turnaround. But his candidacy is forcing us to confront the question: What mechanisms do we have to disqualify from candidacy those with a destructive psycho-pathology, or addiction issues, etc. the way we have in workplaces where such destructive patterns have much less at stake than the position of the president of the United States?

Where I am up to now is the realization that it is now that we have to generate like wildfire a movement to get behind Jill Stein. If the election were tomorrow, the media has brainwashed the public such that there are only two candidates, and a vote for Jill would enhance Trumps possibility. Its now through social media we have to generate a high percentage of voters behind her, so that come November I am confident my vote supports a Jill victory, not a Trump victory. Using social media Occupy, the Arab Spring, and R-evolutions across the world sprang up over night because the consciousness and will were already in the field.

I believe there are masses of us who wish to refuse to put our signature behind Hillary or Trump, let us right now emerge overnight.

How can we do this?

Psst: and if you are for some other third party candidate its the same message: nows the time. What a different world it would generate if we end up being able to choose between The Green Party and The Libertarian Party, as the highest in the polls, than the choice before us.

Sandra Eagle, who lives in Greenwich, is a licensed clinical social worker and a psychotherapist.
Stamford Police

STAMFORD  A 21-year-old city man who repeatedly failed to appear in court on forgery and other charges was tracked down last week at his girlfriends Bridgeport home and held over the weekend on more than $500,000 bond.

Shyquinn Dix, 21, of Abel Avenue, was arrested Friday and held on $535,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on Monday morning.
P olice have launched a murder probe after a man was shot dead in north London last night.

Residents called police after hearing gunshots ringing out in Sunnyside Road near Highgate at around 9pm.

Police and paramedics rushed to the scene where they found a man, aged 25, with a gunshot wound.

He was taken to hospital but, despite the efforts of doctors, was pronounced dead at 12.10am.

Cordoned off: Police at the scene in Islington / Lucy Young

A spokesman for the Met Police said the man's next of kin had been informed, but he has not yet been formally identified.

Neighbours reported a large police presence in the road overnight as detectives and forensics probed the shooting.

Greg Foxsmith said he saw large numbers of police on the road this morning and a large white tent set up in the middle of the street.

He said: "Police officers were going up and down Hornsey Laner looking in the hedges. I thought they might be looking for weapons.

"I wondered if there might have been a stabbing, or possibly a shooting.

"Forensics guys were out in their white suits."

Detectives from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating.

Anyone who saw what happened should call police on 020 8345 3775 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A 17-year-old boy was today the first to be arrested on the Night Tube as the 24-hour service passed its first weekend in the capital.

Police arrested the youth on a Victoria line platform at Oxford Circus at around 2am today on suspicion of drugs possession and carrying a blade.

The boy was the only arrest over Night Tubes debut weekend as police hailed a safe and trouble-free start to the service.

British Transport Police chief inspector Dominique Ioannou said: This was a historic event for London and we are not only honoured to have served as part of it, we are also delighted it went so well.

There was a great atmosphere throughout and I would like to thank the travelling public for their support and cooperation, which guaranteed the launch weekend passed off peacefully.

"This success confirms what we already knew and what we expected to see: crime on the underground is low and evidence from 24 hour metros around the world suggest crime levels at night are no greater than during the day.

The Night Tube is starting this weekend

However, we are not complacent and we will continue to work closely with Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and other agencies to ensure the safe running of the service beyond the launch and as it is rolled out across the network.

Just days before Night Tube launched on Friday, the officer in charge of policing the London Underground admitted it would be a challenge to prevent higher crime levels on the Night Tube.

Superintendent Chris Horton, of British Transport Police, told the Standard: I dont see anything stopping it from being a success. What we are really focused on is that people need to feel safe as well as be safe.

The challenge for us is making sure there are not more people unlucky to be a victim of crime using the Night Tube.
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P olice have arrested a fourth man after a teenager was stabbed to death on a south London housing estate.

Andre Aderemi, 19, was found with knife injuries in Heather Way in Selsdon, South Croydon, at around 7.40pm last Tuesday, but died in hospital despite the efforts of paramedics and an air ambulance crew.

On Sunday, police said officers had arrested a 19-year-old man.

Three men, also aged 19, have already been charged with murder.

Jamall Longergan, of Woodcroft Road, Thornton Heath, Fabio Cela, of Fryston Avenue, Croydon and Rodney Mukasa, of Greenview Avenue, Croydon, are due to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.

Friends on social media have paid tribute to Mr Aderemi.

Suzie Voce wrote: "I'm so sorry this happened. No one deserves this. My thoughts are with his family. RIP Andre.

"I always liked him through primary and secondary. I can't believe this happened. It's so so sad."

Amy Macartney added: "I can't stop thinking about this. Today it's really hit home that life is way too short.

"I can't imagine what Andre's family must be going through my heart goes out to them."

Additional reporting by PA
T he shocking scale of domestic abuse in London has been revealed, with 76,385 incidents reported to police in a year - more than 200 every day.

The data, recorded between May 2015 and April 2016, the latest time period for which figures are available, showed that more than 61,500 of these offences related to violence against the person, while 2,311 were sexual offences.

Victims also reported a range of other crimes including robbery and criminal damage.

Of the incidents reported to police, 14,631 have so far resulted in a charge or court summons, although several thousand offenders have been dealt with by way of a caution or community resolution, and more than 8,600 cases were still awaiting an outcome.

However, tens of thousands of cases were dropped due to lack of evidence, or because police or the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to proceed.

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In total, more than 40 per cent of cases were dropped, despite a suspect being identified, due to what police described as "evidential difficulties", while a further 7,054 were discontinued because the case was not deemed to be in the public interest.

Of the 72,487 victims, almost a quarter were men, while more than 2,000 were under 18.

The data, released under the Freedom of Information Act, did not include child victims unless they were also an informant or witness, as offences against children are recorded separately by Scotland Yard.

In a statement, a Met Police spokeswoman said cases of domestic abuse were dealt with in Community Safety Units, which operate in every London borough.

She said: "Specialist training for officers is at the heart of our approach, and we have increased the numbers of officers and staff working across our dedicated borough based Community Safety Units to bring the total up to just over 900.

"All frontline officers working in borough policing now get additional specialist training in domestic abuse, incorporating updates on the latest legislation, investigative techniques, victim care and how to best target offenders.

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"We are looking at all the ways in which new technology can be used to increase our effectiveness in bringing domestic abuse offenders to justice, from giving officers fast time access to digital copies of 999 calls, to the use of body worn video to capture best evidence and electronic handheld devices to record statements and photographs at the scene.

"We are also working with criminal justice organisations to explore how we can make the system more responsive, for example through the possibility of using remote video technology to assist the most vulnerable victims to give evidence, and the piloting of two specialist DV courts to speed up the process for victims."

David Bartlett, CEO of domestic violence charity, the White Ribbon Campaign said: "These statistics show that violence against women and girls is still a massive issue in our society, and the vast majority of this abuse and violence is carried out by men."
A teenage boy has been left with "life-changing" injuries after he was hit by a car in east London last night.

Paramedics treated the stricken 17-year-old on the side of Clapton Common, near the junction with Darenth Road, just before midnight.

Photos from the scene showed a string of ambulances and police cars in the road, while a group of concerned locals looked on.

Another picture showed a large pair of headphones and mobile phone lying beside the boy.

Photos from the scene showed the smashed car windscreen / @999London

Further images showed the car with part of its windscreen smashed by the impact.

A spokesman for the Met Police said they were called to reports of a collision between a car and a pedestrian at 11.52pm.

The teenager suffered a head injury in the collision.

He was rushed to an east London hospital where he remains with life changing injuries, police said.

The car driver stopped at the scene and was not arrested.

He is currently helping police with their enquiries.
A destitute former bodyguard to David Beckham has been living in Heathrow Airport for three weeks after watching Tom Hanks film The Terminal.

The Army veteran moved in after falling on hard times, it has been claimed.

According to the Sunday Express, the 46-year-old eats leftovers from customers at the airport, washes himself in the toilets and is using Heathrow's wi-fi to find work after his business collapsed.

The man, who calls himself Simon Jones, told the paper: "I was mulling over what to do.

"I dont want to be a burden on anybody, so felt I couldnt stay on friends floors for more than a night or two, especially since I cant pay my way.

Moved in: The man has been living there for three weeks / Nigel Howard

"Then I remembered the Tom Hanks film about the bloke living at an airport."

Hanks' 2004 blockbuster saw him portray Viktor Navorski, an Eastern European man who finds himself stuck at JFK airport after war breaks out in his home country.

Mr Jones claimed he had only intended to stay for a couple of nights, but has carried on living at Heathrow because no one seemed to mind.

He said: "I slept on the benches at a Caffe Nero. I ate there too, though I never bought anything because I literally dont have a penny. But theres always enough food left over on tables. "

"Its open 24 hours, but the staff didnt question me. I suppose at first they assumed I was a passenger waiting for a flight. But after two nights, I got the impression they werent really bothered.

Alongside serving in the Parachute Regiment, Mr Jones also spent several years protecting the Beckham family, the paper reported.

A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said: It is very sad when people fall on hard times and they occasionally come to the airport specifically because it is a warm and safe place.

"Heathrow employs a team of social workers to give assistance to those who need it.

We take very seriously the safety of passengers and colleagues at Heathrow.

"In partnership with the Metropolitan Police and the Government the airport operates high levels of security, some of which is very visible to passengers and some of it covert. That security is constantly reviewed.
A London taxi that the public can colour is making its way around central London in a bid to raise awareness of youth homelessness in the capital.

Members of the public are invited to colour in the London taxi that has been transformed into a giant colouring book featuring Big Ben, the London Eye, flats, hostels, and portraits of young people affected by homelessness.

The taxi is in ordinary service for Londoners to hire and can be spotted around central London over the next year.

Taxi designer Steve Edge told London Live: I didnt want to just create something that [just had] a badge or a logo on it  theres so many taxis like that driving round London that they all merge together.

Remember theres a child in all of us and when it comes to colouring in, we all want to colour in, so thats what we wanted to do.

Thousands of people wouldve created this one-off piece. Who knows where itll end up? It may end up in the Tate Modern.

Paul Morrish, chief executive of youth homeless charity LandAid, told London Live: Every year about 80,000 young people will experience homelessness and nearly 4,000 of those young people will sleep rough. A huge number of them end up in London.

Theres no way that a taxi in its own right is going to end youth homelessness in London or anywhere else, but if it helps to raise awareness about the real problems young people are facing and helps to raise some money to do something about it, then well have done our job.

I want people to laugh, to smile, get their phones out, take photos of it, text to donate and create a lot of noise.

This is one of the great icons of London, the London taxi cab. Sadly one of the other features of London is the number of young people who are homeless as well  I want people to put two and two together, do something to help us raise money, tell their friends, and make some noise.

Illustrator Clara Bacou said: Its a fun thing to do and I think thats the best way to engage people  to keep it positive.

At the end its going to be a big colour fest  a beautiful mess. I cant wait to see it completely filled up  I think itll be very eye-catching.
A man who died after being swept out to sea while on a family holiday in Cornwall has been named as Londoner Rudy Bruynius.

The 33-year-old was with his wife Lisinda and their daughter McKayla when they were caught out by a freak wave at Fistral Beach, Newquay, on Friday evening.

All three were rescued but Rudy  who was born in South Africa and lived in Morden, south London - died later in hospital. His daughter is said to be still fighting for her life.

Today Lisinda thanked well-wishers for their support as an online fundraising effort for her late husband gathered pace.

"Thank you all so much for your prayers, she said on a JustGiving page as it neared its 15,000 target.

On the page, a friend wrote: My dear friend has had the worst happen on her family holiday in Cornwall.

Her husband, herself and their little girl was swept off a rock by a freak wave. Rudy unfortunately didn't survive and McKayla is fighting for her life on a ventilator.

She is in a critical condition. Lisinda and her two young boys are left in Cornwall, with no financial support, and no emergency measures in place yet.

Can we please help them and please pray for these lovely people, my dear friends.

Another friend Terri-Anne Young Remant paid tribute to the local community in Cornwall for their support.

She wrote on Facebook: "The messages and support has been so overwhelming and appreciated, at this stage we can't respond to everyone individually but we thank you all for your kind words and offer of support at this time in need. The community of Cornwall has been out of this world and we thank you."

The death toll amid strong winds along the coast on Saturday reached four, after a windsurfer died in Essex and a mother and son were killed in Aberdeen.

The windsurfer, in his 60s, died in a Colchester hospital after being rescued by RNLI lifeboats off the coast of West Mersea, in Essex, at around midday.

An Essex Police spokesman said they were trying to establish the events leading up to his death.

A seven-year-old boy died in hospital along with a 37-year-old woman, believed to be his mother, after a rescue operation at Aberdeen beach.
S taff at a charity shop in south London say they are worried someone has made a "big mistake" after an urn containing ashes was dropped off with a donation.

Volunteers at Emmaus Lambeth, the homelessness charity, made the discovery among a large collection of items left at their Knight's Hill store in West Norwood.

The small silver urn came encased in a red box and contains ashes which staff fear could be human - and now the charity wants to return the memento to its rightful owner.

Emmaus Lambeth's Ross Watkins said: "When we realised what had been donated to us we were really concerned that someone had made a big mistake.

"Were really keen to get these ashes back to their rightful owner, as we know how valuable something like this can be.

"Interestingly, the person who donated these also donated a lot of CDs, which seem to be home-recordings of a band.

"However, unfortunately they didnt leave any contact details, so we have no way of getting in touch."

Contact Emmaus Lambeth - which supports 54 once homeless Londoners through social enterprise work - on 020 8761 4276 with any information.
J eremy Corbyn supporters have slammed Sadiq Khan for his intervention in the Labour leadership race, saying he owes his mayoral victory to the embattled leader.

Mr Khan yesterday urged Labour Party members to ditch Mr Corbyn and back his rival Owen Smith instead.

In a scathing attack, the Mayor of London said Mr Corbyn had failed to win the trust of voters and that Labour was "extremely unlikely" to secure a return to power as long as he remained leader.

But a spokesman for Mr Corbyn's campaign said Mr Khan won the mayoralty standing on a Labour platform under Mr Corbyn's leadership and with the backing of a large number of the new members who he had inspired to join the party.

A key trade union ally of the Labour leader described Mr Khan's intervention as "disappointing" and warned that the Labour members in the capital would feel "let down" by his actions.

And a spokesman for the Jeremy for Labour campaign said Mr Corbyn had even defended Mr Khan in the Commons at Prime Minister's Questions when David Cameron accused him of having links with extremists.

TODO: define component type apester

"Sadiq Khan is entitled to his opinion," the spokesman said.

"But he won the London mayoralty, as others have pointed out, by standing on a Labour platform under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn backed by the huge numbers who have joined our party to support Jeremy and now campaign for Labour."

Matt Wrack, the left wing general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union and a strong supporter of Mr Corbyn, said Mr Khan's comments were "a little bit disappointing but possibly no great surprise".

"Sadiq comes from that part of the Labour Party that was in government under Blair and Brown," Mr Wrack told BBC News.

"It is disappointing nevertheless. Jeremy Corbyn gave full support for Sadiq in his campaign for mayor, as did a number of unions including my own.

"Sadiq hasn't consulted us or Labour Party members across London about this latest statement. I think a lot of people will be quite let down by that."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
B ritish band Architects have announced guitarist Tom Searle has died from cancer at the age of 28.

Mr Searles twin brother said he had been suffering from the disease for more than three years before he passed away just after midnight on Saturday.

Dan Searle, who is the drummer for the Brighton-based metal band, said he felt unbelievable pain and sadness as he broke the news on Facebook.

He wrote: He was an incredible songwriter and guitarist. He was my closest and oldest friend.

He was a funny, intelligent and sweet man and he leaves an enormous void in all of our lives.

He said his brother had missed various gigs over the past 15 months as the cancer worsened but discharged himself from hospital against doctors orders to perform his final shows at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in June  rock festivals staged in Mendig, Germany.

He wrote: When we left for our European Festival tour on June 2nd Tom was very unwell.

He had been advised to stay in hospital to receive care but ultimately there was nothing that they could do for him and he signed himself out of the ward two days before we departed for Germany.

Some of you might view this as reckless but this is the way Tom wanted to do things throughout his last year because he never wanted the cancer to get in the way of what he loved.

He got on stage and performed his last two shows at Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, which took him an incredible amount of strength but those are two shows that we will never forget.

Mr Searle said he started performing with his brother in bands from when they were 13 and that the Architects had evolved from musical projects.

He vowed the band would continue ahead of planned tour in Australia but added no new music would be release until they produce something Tom would be proud of.

He added: We will be going to Australia in a few weeks and we will be doing our UK and European headline tour in October and November.

We hope that these shows will be an opportunity for everyone out there to show their respects to my wonderful brother.

It wont be easy for us to get on stage and play every night without him, but its something that we must do.

He also said a JustGiving page had been set up to benefit The Martlets Hospice, a Hove-based centre where Tom spent his final days.
A protected Banksy artwork satirising Government surveillance has mysteriously vanished from a wall in Cheltenham.

The street artists Spy Booth mural depicts three 1950s-style agents, dressed in brown trench coats and trilby hats, using devices to eavesdrop conversations at a telephone box.

It appeared to be created overnight in April 2014 on the wall of a house in the Gloucestershire town, just a few miles from GCHQ where the UKs surveillance network is based.

In February last year, Cheltenham Borough Council granted retrospective planning permission - meaning it cannot be removed without the approval of councillors.

Vanished: Pictures show the stripped back brickwork and rubble on the ground at the mural site / PA

But pictures have emerged of the wall stripped back to the brickwork with rubble strewn on the ground around the telephone box.

A video that emerged on Twitter on Saturday appeared to show the site covered in tarpaulin with the sound of machinery on masonry.

Gloucestershire Police said no reports of a crime had been made and councillors have promised to investigate the murals disappearance.

Cheltenham Borough Council leader Steve Jordan said: It (the artwork) is protected by a listing.

"I will have a look at what the situation is, certainly."

Cllr Jordan said he was aware of work to repair plasterwork on the house but that he was unaware the mural had been removed.
COLUMBUS  Thursday served as a prime example of Katlin Bedfords dedication to horse racing.

She was up early to gallop a horse at Platte County Agricultural Park, then took off for central Iowa to fulfill a commitment she had that evening.

The 25-year-old jockey had a date with a 5-year-old thoroughbred she recently picked up as a side project. She wasnt going to miss her second chance to ride him, even if it meant driving four hours to Prairie Meadows and returning to Columbus in the pouring rain.

Bedford has only been a jockey for five months, but her passion for riding goes back much farther.

Although the New York native grew up on a dairy farm, she fell in love with a different animal. Her father got her first horse when she was 5 and a trip to Saratoga Race Course a few years later cemented her life plans.

I was like, Im going to do that, said Bedford. And I did it.

The 5-foot-1 fireball is currently the only female jockey riding at Ag Park for the Columbus Races.

This could be an intimidating situation for some young riders, but not Bedford, who spent 5 1/2 years in the Marine Corps Reserve after high school.

That experience, she said, prepared her for just about anything life can throw her way.

Theres still people in the military who think females dont belong there either. This is actually easier to deal with, said Bedford, who is aware of the murmurs that sometimes come from her male counterparts.

Her response?

Whatever. Im not worried about you.

Bedford has bigger things to focus on.

Since she started working with thoroughbreds in 2009  bouncing back and forth between jobs in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Florida  she knew the end game was becoming a professional jockey.

Bedford completed the Marines Officer Candidates School. Then I declined my commission because Id rather ride horses, she said.

A call to jockey Larren Delorme, who she met years earlier in Florida, completed her transition to Nebraska.

Bedford rode at Fonner Park in Grand Island and Horsemens Park in Omaha before arriving in Columbus for opening weekend. She picked up her first win here Friday night atop Necessary Party and took two seconds and a third.

Im getting the rides. Thats what I want because it give me more experience, she said earlier in the day.

The young jockey also watches videos of veterans like Ricardo Santana Jr. and Hall of Famer John Velazquez to pick up on their techniques and strategies.

Right now, Im just trying to find my own style and put all the pieces together, she said.

And she has her sights set far beyond the finish line at Ag Park.

Bedford wants to race along the East Coast, back in Saratoga or Florida, while chasing the Triple Crown she learned about as a young girl.

One day, she said, thinking about her ride into the future.
A huge fire has broken out at a secondary school in the West Sussex seaside town of Selsey.

Flames ripped through the large building this morning as firefighters battled to contain the ferocious blaze after explosions were reported.

Ten fire engines were dispatched to The Academy in Selsey, near Chichester, West Sussex, after the blaze broke out at around 8am on Sunday.

Crews from neighbouring Hampshire were also tasked to tackle the flames as stacks of thick, acrid smoke poured from the building.

Blaze: Dozens of firefighters have been sent to the scene / @Sniffer5753

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service described it as a "major" fire amid reports that loud explosions could be heard in the area.

The Academy is a mixed school for pupils aged 11 to 16. It was opened by the Duke of Norfolk in September 1963 as Manhood Secondary Modern School.

The county fire and rescue service said: "People in vicinity of smoke from Selsey school fire advised to stay clear of smoke, stay indoors and keep windows closed."

More than 60 calls were received by the Sussex control room about the blaze, the fire service added.
A t least 30 people have been killed and 94 others were wounded at an outdoor wedding in Turkey following a bomb attack blamed on Isis.

A suspected suicide bomber targeted the outdoor party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep yesterday, President Tayyip Erdogan confirmed in a statement condemning the attack.

Mr Erdogan said it was likely Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night bombing, which hit when a large group of people from a wedding party took to the streets in celebration.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the attack had turned the wedding "into a place of mourning".

He said: "No matter what this treacherous terror organisation is called, we as the people, the state, and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it."

Shock: Photos showed mourning crowds gathering at the scene / AP

Photos from the scene showed a number of bodies covered in white sheets as distraught people gathered nearby.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

This morning, mashed garage doors and windows could be seen at the site of the blast.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Mourning: A relative of one of the victims weeps near the scene / EPA/Sedat Suna

Mahmut Togrul, an HDP member from Gaziantep, said it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.

"It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."



Turkey faces multiple security threats from Islamic State militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria as well as from the Kurdistan Workers Party militant group.

The country is still recovering from last month's attempted coup when rogue troops commandeered tanks and jets in a bid to overthrow the government.

Ankara blames US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen for the July 15 failed putsch. He has denied the charge.

Workers clear the site of the massacre / EPA/Sedat Suna

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

Suicide bombers also killed at least 95 people in October last year when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Violence flared up again this past week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation officials blamed on Kurdish PKK militants.
A n MEP has sparked outrage after he suggested placing pigs heads on Hungarys border to stop refugees from entering the country.

Hungarian politician Gyorgy Schopflin, who represents the ruling Fidesz party, made the suggestion in response to criticism of his countrys attitude towards refugees by a human rights campaigner.

Andrew Stroehlein, a Human Rights Watch director, posted a tweet on Friday in which he slammed Hungary for using creepy masks made from vegetables to frighten migrants at the border.

Authorities in Hungary have placed the masks along a vast border fence as part of efforts to block passage into the country, the Washington Post reported.

Mr Stroehlein tweeted: Refugees are fleeing war & torture, Hungary. Your root vegetable heads will not deter them.

To which Mr Schopflin replied: Might do so. Human images are haram. But agree, pigs head would deter more effectively.

The response drew an angry backlash from Mr Stroehlein and others who accused the MEP of spouting xenophobic filth.

Mr Stroehlein said: Your words are disgusting. I would expect that from anonymous neo-Nazi trolls but youre an MEP. Act like one.

He added: You are an embarrassment to Hungary, to Europe & to humanity.

Mr Schopflin said criticisms of him were beginning to resemble hate speech and refused to apologise.

However, others joined in the row to condemn the MEPs comments.

One woman said: you are an horrible man, you should be out of EU parlement (sic) Gyorgy.

While another added: Wow this is horrible. Are you proud of yourself?

Just 146 asylum applications to Hungary were approved last year out of 177,135 submissions, according to government statistics.

Last March, the Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in response to Europes refugee crisis and deployed an extra 1,500 security officers at the border to deny refugees entry.
T he BBC should not have sacked Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, the corporation's former director general Mark Thompson has said.

While Clarkson could be a "deeply objectionable character", he "spoke to people who didn't find much else at the BBC", Mr Thompson said in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine.

Clarkson was fired from the motoring show in March last year following a "fracas" with a producer, while James May and Richard Hammond quit in solidarity.

The trio will launch new Amazon Prime show The Grand Tour in the autumn.

Jeremy Clarksons new Amazon show to be called The Grand Tour

"Clarkson can be a deeply objectionable individual, and I say that as a friend," Mr Thompson said.

"I don't think people should punch their colleagues. It's hard to keep them if they do."

He added: "But I would say his pungent, transgressive, slightly out-of-control talent was something the BBC could ill afford to lose.

"He spoke to people who didn't find much else in the BBC."

A rebooted Top Gear was launched following Clarkson's departure, fronted by Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans and former Friends star Matt LeBlanc, but it was a ratings flop.

The show initially attracted 4.4 million overnight viewers, plummeting to 2.8 million for the second episode. The show never went back above that figure.

Mr Thompson left the BBC in 2012 to work as chief executive at The New York Times.

A self-confessed Top Gear fan, he described LeBlanc's performance in the revamped series as "promising".

He described Evans as a "great broadcaster" but said: "I couldn't work out why he didn't impersonate Chris Evans, rather than Jeremy Clarkson."
During the last two years, authorities in Tajikistan have been carrying out a crackdown on political opponents. More of a crackdown than usual, that is to say, because the Tajik government has a long record of harassing the country's political opposition.

But the recent campaign against the opposition features a large number of arrests. Already hundreds of people have been detained and dozens, so far, imprisoned.

Some people in Tajikistan worry they might be next, and have fled the country. It has happened before, during the 1992-1997 civil war in Tajikistan. But for those fleeing now, the safe havens of 20 years ago are no longer safe, and they are having to travel further, to Europe.

To look at who these people are, where they are going, and what is driving them there, RFE/RL assembled a Majlis, or discussion panel, to talk about these recent developments.

Moderating the talk was RFE/RL Media Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir.Our friend Edward Lemon, a PhD candidate at the University of Exeter who specializes in Tajikistan joined us. Also taking part from Berlin was researcher and journalist Yan Matusevich, who is the author of a recent article in The Diplomat on the topic of Tajikistan's asylum seekers. As usual, I had a couple of things to say also.

Emigre Numbers Surge

The biggest opposition group -- the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) -- lost the last two seats it had in parliament in the March 2015 elections. It was a signal that the party's fortunes were about to take a drastic turn for the worse.

During the six-month period that followed, state media launched a relentless campaign to blacken the image of the IRPT. The party lost is registration, was ordered to cease all activities, and, by the end of September, was declared an extremist group while its leaders were rounded up and put on trial.

Matusevich said that, since the IRPT lost its last seats in parliament, "we've seen a surge in the number of Tajik asylum seekers making their way to Poland via Belarus." Their numbers are not large, yet, but as Matusevich noted, "Tajik asylum seekers went from being nonexistent in Poland to over 500 in 2015 and already in the first half of this year they've gone over 616 asylum seekers."

More would be in Poland now except for the fact that Polish border guards have been turning them away at the frontier with Belarus.

The reason they're showing up at the Belarusian-Polish border, Matusevich explained, is because "Poland just happens to be the closest EU border that they can make it to, transiting through Russia and Belarus, without a visa."

Kremlin Cooperation

In the past, including during the civil war days, most people fleeing Tajikistan for political reasons went to Russia, but this is now changing. "Russia is no longer safe for Tajik opposition members," Lemon said, noting that his research shows "a real increase since 2014 in the targeting of opposition activists" on Russian territory.

No matter what the ties have been between the Kremlin and Central Asian governments, one aspect of these relationships that has remained solid has been the cooperation between Russian and Central Asian security services. Central Asians wanted on charges back home have sometimes disappeared from the streets of Russian cities only to reappear in jail cells back home.

Turkey has been another possible destination for those fleeing Tajikistan in the past. But Lemon noted that this country has also no longer been considered safe ever since Umarali Quvatov, the leader of another Tajik opposition organization called Group 24, was assassinated in Istanbul in March 2015.

Matusevich said this latest crackdown is so broad that some of the citizens of Tajikistan now trying to get into Poland have, at best, tenuous ties to political activity.

"There was one case of someone who was trying to seek asylum in Poland who was a security guard for the Islamic Renaissance Party, who was completely apolitical," Matusevich recalled. "As soon as the party was shut down he felt he could, potentially, end up in prison."

More Likely To Follow



More of Tajikistan's citizens are likely to surface in Belarus, hoping to make it further west.

Lemon said that, in Tajikistan currently, those with ties to opposition groups are subject to "threats to family, surveillance, monitoring, and that really leads them to have a real sense of insecurity."

Lemon added that the crackdown in Tajikistan is unlikely to abate anytime soon. "I think the legitimization of an authoritarian government is always going to be based on the construction of an enemy," he said. "So they're [the Tajik authorities] always going to need some kind of an enemy; otherwise [President Emomali] Rahmon's regime will struggle to hold some kind of legitimacy."

Matusevich said there are probably some 3,000 Tajik citizens who have been denied entry into Poland with some trying up to "40 times, 50 times, up to a point where the passport fills up with rejection stamps and they can no longer give it another attempt."

But Matusevich credited those from Tajikistan for "really following the procedure despite facing all the difficulties at the border."

"We haven't seen many Tajiks try to cross the Belarusian-Polish border irregularly or just somehow circumvent the border crossing," Matusevich said. "Many times they call ahead, [to] NGOs in Poland to make sure they're doing this in the right way but then finding difficulties on the ground in actually making it through."

It is a very unfortunate situation. Europe is already facing its biggest refugee crisis since World War Two as people flee conflict in the Middle East. The thought of a new group of refugees coming from the east would not sit well with many people in Europe.

On the other side of the coin, the list of perceived enemies of the state is growing in Tajikistan and that will force ever more people there to want to leave the country and try to find a secure place to live. They have limited options as to where they can flee.

The Majlis discussed these issues in greater detail and delved into other topics concerning governance and tolerance in Tajikistan, the situation in Belarus for those who make it that far, and other matters related to the asylum seekers from Tajikistan.

An audio recording of the Majlis can be heard here:

Listen to or download the Majlis podcast above or subscribe to Majlis on iTunes.
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Perhaps you read George Amox Sr.'s obituary in the Record & Landmark last month. He was 75. I considered George to be a friend and had done a front page article on him in the R&L 10 years ago.

George's health had not been good since before I met him. He said he had lost the sight in one eye and had skin lesions from exposure to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, acquired during his two tours of duty in Vietnam. He had other health concerns as well, as did his wife, Peggy, who preceded him in death a little more than a year ago.

But for several years you could see George, "the man with the flag," appropriately standing or sitting in his wheelchair, wearing his usual bib overalls and green Army utility jacket at the corner of the Statesville Civic Center, rain or shine, hot or cold, unless he had to take his wife to a doctor's appointment or to take himself to the VA hospital in Salisbury.

I use the word "appropriately," for the Statesville Civic Center is located on the corner of Front and Center streets. In military parlance when you are told to report "front and center," it means to march smartly to the front and center of a military formation, usually to be recognized or awarded some commendation, medal or promotion.

As is common among many combat veterans, George did not talk much about his own military service, but instead, talked about how his father had been a prisoner of the Japanese and had been among those tortured along the infamous Bataan Death March following the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines. George's father did not survive his captivity, so George never knew his father.

When I worked in the office of the Record & Landmark and drove into town weekday mornings, I would sometimes stop and get George and myself each a cup of coffee and a sausage biscuit. He always saluted me, even though I often reminded him I had been an enlisted man like him. I would stand and talk with him for a few minutes. He would often show me things "jerks" had thrown at him so far that morning, usually gravel. Once he told me someone had thrown a lawnmower blade at him from a passing vehicle.

George had large flags representing the branches of our military services adorning his pickup truck, leading some people to think he was selling flags. He told me that a fellow once came up to him on foot and wanted to buy a flag and asked George how much they cost. George told the man, "Oh, I don't know, I guess about a million dollars each."

The man replied, "No, seriously, how much?"

George repeated his seven-figure price quote and the man went away shaking his head, not understanding that to George, that was a bargain basement price for something that was priceless and had been bought with patriotic blood.

Sometimes people would try to give George money, thinking he was panhandling. George refused to accept the cash and would suggest the person make a donation to the Salvation Army or to a veterans' group.

On his truck's bumper was a simple sign that read, "Support the Troops." That was George's sole message, to support our troops -- not the president, not Congress, not the career bureaucrats in Washington, but the troops who were in harm's way, those who wore the "boots on the ground."

Sometimes I stood with him for a while and he'd give me a big American flag to hold. Passing cars and pickup trucks would honk, people would wave and George would wave back. He also made it a point to salute all passing paramedics, law enforcement and firefighter vehicles. Several years ago George was made an honorary Statesville firefighter and was presented with a certificate and a plaque for his "unwavering support of the Statesville Fire Department."

I asked George if he ever got lonely, standing there by himself for most of an hour. "No," he replied, "I've got 50,000 men at my back," referring to the number of soldiers we lost in Vietnam.



I would imagine that by now George has reported to Supreme Headquarters and is standing front and center on an infinite parade ground with thousands of troops standing at attention behind him.

A Voice says, "At ease, Sergeant Amox."
An untrue rumor that litter boxes are being placed in schools for students who dress up in furry costumes and identify as cats has made its way to two North Carolina school districts  despite the claim being easily debunked. After hearing chatter about litter boxes inside schools, an employee at North Lincoln High School in Lincolnton decided to put the rumor to rest. There is nobody ...
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Touristen warten am 20. August 2016, die Glasbodenbrucke am Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon in der zentralchinesischen Provinz Hunan betreten zu konnen. Die Glasbodenbrucke des Zhangjiajie Grand Canyons wurde am Samstag probeweise eroffnet. Sie uberspannt zwei Klippen des Schluchtengebietes, ist 430 Meter lang und sechs Meter breit und fuhrt uber ein 300 Meter tiefer gelegenes Tal. Der Bruckenboden besteht aus durchsichtigem Glas und kann 800 Personen gleichzeitig tragen.
Dear Readers  The fundamental problem in seeking justice for animals is that our laws view them as mere property. The nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund has been working to change that. The Oregon Supreme Court just issued a landmark ruling in State v. Newcomb that will give animals more of the protections they deserve.

It all started with Juno, an emaciated dog seized by law enforcement. Once seized, Juno received routine veterinary care, which included drawing his blood for tests. However, Junos owner argued that because Juno is his property, the blood draw should be considered a search under the Oregon Constitution and Fourth Amendment, which prohibit unreasonable searches.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund fought back, filing an amicus (friend of the court) brief urging the court to consider that animals are sentient beings capable of experiencing pain, stress and fear, according to legislation the nonprofit helped enact in the state in 2013. The court rejected the owners argument. In a win for all animals, the court emphasized that sentience matters in cases like these, and this dog should not be considered a mere object. The purpose of a blood test is medical diagnosis and treatment, and now investigators in Oregon do not have to go through the long process of securing a separate warrant before a veterinarian can treat an abused or neglected animal who has been lawfully seized as part of a cruelty investigation.

For more information about the Animal Legal Defense Fund and how you can support it and the animals it defends, visit aldf.org.

Dear Dr. Fox  I had a similar experience to many of your readers with a vet regarding Frontline. My dog would significantly react for a day or two after administration of this product, hardly moving and drooling. When I told my vet about this as it related to this product, he said that it was not possible.

My previous dog died at the age of 8 from a cancerous tumor that formed near the site of Frontline administration. After the second dog reacted badly to this medicine, I stopped using it. I am not a fan.  L.L., Berryville, Calif.

Dear L.L.  Every summer, I receive letters like yours concerning the adverse effects of some anti-flea products. There are several safer and more effective anti-flea products and preventive steps to take to deal with these nasty external parasites, which you can read about on my website, DrFoxVet.net. Avoid over-the-counter insecticidal products without consultation with a veterinarian who should do more than sell you a product.

MEDALS OF COURAGE FOR DOGS

In July on Capitol Hill, four dogs received the K-9 Medal of Courage for their military heroism. Matty, Fieldy, Bond and Isky all received the nations highest military honor for dogs due to their bravery in war zones, where they detected explosives and provided protection and comfort.

Perhaps next year there will be some police dogs given this medal after being shot and stabbed in the course of doing their service. Better still, in the War Memorial area near Capitol Hill, it is surely time to put up an epitaph in commemoration of all the various kinds of animals who have served in times of war: horses (in the millions), mules, dogs, pigeons, pigs, dolphins and elephants. And near the National Institutes of Health, another memorial is overdue for all the chimpanzees, monkeys, cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, rats, rodents and other creatures, who have variously suffered and died to help find cures for the diseases of civilization.

Visit Dr. Foxs website at DrFoxVet.net. Send mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Mo. 64106.
The guy who helped knock Eric Cantor off his perch as U.S. House majority leader has set his sights on Missouri.

In 2014, political consultant John Pudner, a Tea Party-infused conservative Republican, helped a massively underfunded political newcomer, Dave Brat, take down Cantor, one of the biggest names in national politics, in an unexpected GOP primary upset.

By 2015, Pudner had founded a new organization, Take Back Our Republic, dedicated to building conservative support for the idea that the nation needs campaign finance reform.

Pudner toured Missouri this month with state Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, and Dan Krassner, the political director for Represent.Us, a bipartisan organization pushing for new laws in states and the nation that target political corruption. They met with Democrats and Republicans, and even a pesky newspaper columnist, to talk about the corruption that oozes out of Missouris no-limits political system.

Their goal is to build on the growing momentum in the Show-Me state for improving ethics laws, bringing limits to campaign donations and, in general, taking away the incentive for elected officials to be overly influenced by outside forces.

In many states, campaign finance reform is pushed only by progressives, Pudner told me. The fact that Robert Schaaf, a Republican state senator, and Fred Sauer, who I understand is as conservative as I am on key social issues, were willing to work so hard for these goals helped us realize the potential.

Last legislative session, Schaaf introduced a wide-ranging anti-corruption bill that would have banned lobbyist gifts, instituted campaign finance limits, required a 2-year cooling off period before lawmakers could become lobbyists, and generally strengthened ethics laws.

It went nowhere.

Sauer, on the other hand, has been successful  so far, at least  on getting a constitutional initiative approved for the November ballot that would enact campaign limits for legislative and statewide offices. The conservative Republican activist from St. Louis faces a legal challenge, however, as the Missouri Electrical Cooperative and Legends Bank have filed a lawsuit claiming the initiative is constitutionally flawed.

Whether Sauers measure is ultimately voted on or not in November, the national organizations brought to Missouri by Schaaf believe voters in this state are ready to enact serious reforms. And they believe their approach  bringing liberals and conservatives, and everybody in between together on an anti-corruption effort  can succeed where others have fallen short.

It would be appropriate if the people of Missouri take matters into their own hands to fight corruption, Krassner said. Missouris no-limit campaign contribution culture is certainly ripe for reform.

Indeed, Missouri is practically Ground Zero in the national discussion over money in politics.

With no limits, its top statewide races  for governor and attorney general, in particular  are attracting obscene amounts of money. In the GOP primary for governor, candidate Eric Greitens accepted the largest single donation to a Missouri candidate ever  $1.9 million  from a federal political action committee that hasnt, and might not have to, reveal its donors.

In Republican primaries this year, one man, St. Louis political activist Rex Sinquefield, spent more than $11 million on three candidates. He lost every race.

Attorney General Chris Koster, the Democratic candidate for governor, regularly takes five-, and six-figure checks from unions and law firms. Koster has traditionally been opposed to campaign finance limits, but, perhaps because of the absurd amounts of money pouring into Missouri, has had a change of heart. He came out this month in favor of Sauers measure.

But its not just money.

This week, a Kansas City Republican state representative, Tony Dugger, resigned before a revolving-door law passed this year takes effect. The law would require representatives and senators to wait six months before becoming lobbyists. Its much weaker than what Schaaf proposed, but its a start. Still, Dugger doesnt want to wait to cash in.

He will likely follow the example set by former Speaker of the House Steve Tilley, who resigned his powerful position early to take a lobbying gig, as did former Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, and as have dozens of elected officials from both parties over the years.

Such decisions have a direct effect on public policy, either in the way lawmakers cozy up to their future employers while still in the Capitol, or, in Duggers case, by making it harder for Republicans to override various vetos in the upcoming veto session.

With no limits and few rules, money and politics make for a corrupt concoction.

Some national reformers want to join hands with folks in the state who know there is a better way.

Godspeed to them.
Robert Bobby Sansone, longtime head of St. Louis powerful Teamsters organization throughout the 1980s, died Friday (Aug. 19, 2016) of respiratory failure at the age of 78, according to his family. His uplifting personality made him one of the citys most gregarious and colorful labor leaders.

For a dozen years, Mr. Sansone was Missouris top Teamster as president of Joint Council 13, which represented St. Louis 35,000 members. He was also past president of Teamsters Local 682 and executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council. He served as labors co-chairman of PRIDE, St. Louis nationally recognized group that strives for labor-management harmony in construction.

There may be a more ebullient, people-oriented trade unionist somewhere in the country, but none comes to mind, wrote union and labor expert Philip Dine when Mr. Sansone retired in 1998. Dine was a reporter for the Post-Dispatch at the time.

Marvin Kropp, the current president of Joint Council 13, wrote a tribute Sunday on social media, describing Mr. Sansone as a man who worked tirelessly to advance the St. Louis labor movement and a mentor to many. If there was a labor problem, Bob was there, Kropp wrote. If he met you once, he remembered your name; and not only yours, but your entire family.

Mr. Sansone worked since the age of 16, when he got a Teamsters union card to drive a dump truck at a concrete plant in St. Louis. When he got out of the Army at the age of 26, he was hired as a business agent at Local 682 and worked his way up the ranks.

But in an upset, Mr. Sansone lost a bid in 1991 for vice president of the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Two years later, after a quarter-century as a Teamster official, Sansone was banned from the organization for failing to look into an aides alleged mob ties. The civil charges were part of the governments effort to crack down on the union after settlement of a racketeering suit.

Mr. Sansones appeal had failed, despite three volumes of affidavits from St. Louis political, civic and business leaders.

The youngest of Mr. Sansones two sons, Nicholas Sansone, 44, of Fairview Heights, said his father never let that or other setbacks dim his spirit.

He handled it with the utmost integrity and never looked back on it, the younger Sansone said. That will always resonate with me for the rest of my life.

On a personal note, Nicholas Sansone remembers he and his brother having to wear tuxedos to their dads award dinners. Their dad also was dressed to the nines. He always made sure his hair was right, the suit was right and the tan was right, his son laughed. He was a dapper guy.

Mr. Sansone was a devout Catholic, and for the last several years, he spent his Sunday mornings serving coffee at St. Vincent DePaul Parish, which provides outreach to the homeless, Nicholas Sansone said. It gave him the most joy.

Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Terri Sansone, of Chesterfield; another son, Joseph Sansone, 47, of St. Louis; a sister, Mary Ann Barthelmass; and two grandchildren.

Visitation is 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Kutis Affton Chapel, 10151 Gravois Road. Funeral services will begin at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday at the chapel with 11 a.m. Mass at St. Anselm Catholic Parish. Interment follows at Resurrection Ceremony, 6901 Mackenzie Road.

Donations can be made to St. Vincent DePaul Parish, 1408 South 10th Street, St. Louis, Mo., 63104; or Most Holy Trinity Scholarship Fund in care of the St. Anselm Parish, 530 South Mason Road, Creve Coeur, Mo., 63141.
IOWA FALLS -- A canoe/kayak float on the Iowa River will be 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 27, hosted by Calkins Nature Area and Ellsworth Community College.

Calkins center staff will lead the trip which will stop along the way to point out interesting features of the river and observe the natural world.

Canoes/kayaks, paddles, and life preservers are available but participants can supply their own vessels and equipment if they prefer.

The float will start at 9 a.m. at the Alden Dam & River Access at the intersection of Main Street and Highway S25 on the north side of the river. Transportation to the launch site after the program will be provided.

The cost of the program is $5 per person to cover supplies and transportation. Participants can pre-register for the event by going to https://ivce.iavalley.edu/modules/shop/index.html and then navigating to the Environmental section where you will see this offering, or call 641-752-4645 to get registered.

If the registration through IVCE is full, contact Calkins Nature Area to check on availability.

Call 641-648-9878 or email calkinsnatureareahccb@gmail.com for more information.
At first, to Christine Compo-Martin, the Expedia.com search results looked like a mistake. As she queried the site for a hotel room in Philadelphia, she found properties without photos.

Honestly, if there arent pictures, I dont even begin to consider it, said Compo-Martin, a retired teacher who lives in New Hope, Penn. I want to know where Im staying  not show up and discover its not fit for cockroaches.

As it turns out, it wasnt a site error. Expedia had intentionally deleted the images in an effort to persuade her to book a different hotel. The practice, euphemistically called dimming, involves deliberately minimizing a hotels appearance or ranking in an online agencys results.

Its the byproduct of a behind-the-scenes conflict between hotels, which want customers such as Compo-Martin to book directly with them, and online travel agencies, which dont want to be undercut by the hotels. The bottom line for customers: When you book online, you may not see the cheapest hotels first. In extreme cases, you may not even be able to book the hotel you want on the agencys site.

The dimming problem flickered to life this spring, after hotels won a series of court victories in Europe that in effect allowed them to offer lower rates on their own websites, according to Dori Stein, the chief executive of Fornova, a technology company that works with hotels. Previously, hotels had contracts with online agencies that gave the agencies sites their best rates.

Online travel agencies retaliated by dimming, Stein said.

The practice quickly spread to affect properties in the United States, where the requirement to offer a better rate was dropped after the rulings in Europe. Expedia, Stein said, is the most prominent dimmer in the travel business, while Booking.com has lowered the rankings of some hotels but hasnt removed their pictures. Booking did not respond to repeated requests for a comment. Expedia acknowledged that it was lowering the rankings of some hotels but said it was for the benefit of the customer.

We want to make sure the hotels with the best rates and inventory are put first, said Melissa Maher, a senior vice president at Expedia. Were doing it because were consumer-focused.

Maher said dimming was not as straightforward as it sounds. Expedias search algorithm weighs several factors, including the room rate; customer ratings; how often the hotel turns away reservation-holding guests and sends them to another hotel; and the commission paid to the agency.

She wouldnt say precisely how many hotels were being dimmed, describing it only as a small percentage of properties. But, she added, if a hotel finds that its photos have been stripped away or it has moved lower in the search results, Expedia tries to work with the company to fix things.

We want to give the hotel the opportunity to change, she said.

Thats not necessarily how customers such as Compo-Martin see it. Dimmed hotels make an online travel agencys search results look incomplete at best, buggy at worst. To her, they run contrary to the implied promise of an online agency, which is to show a comprehensive list of the most desirable hotels.

I use sites like Expedia because I want all of the information up front at once, she said. Im sure Im not the only one who looks at that and thinks, What are they hiding? 

Its hard to know. As a practical matter, the top results on your favorite travel site may have longer descriptions with additional photos, but the properties shown may be more expensive. Lower-ranked hotels may be less expensive, but they may not have photos and their descriptions may be edited to a few sentences. In rare instances, dimmed hotels may not be bookable through the site.

No one except the travel agency doing the dimming knows why a hotel is chosen for the treatment.

From one day to the next, a hotel chain can go from 150 dimmed hotels to 80, said Gino Engels, chief commercial officer for OTA Insight, a London hospitality technology company. One hotel chain may drop in the rankings; another may rise.

As of July 21, OTA Insight said that slightly more than 1 percent of Expedias 260,000 hotel properties were dimmed.

The dimming problem gained momentum this summer just as the travel season was getting started. Its a predictable ritual, with the dimmed hotel receiving a form email from Expedia on the day it falls out of favor with the online agency, warning the hotel that it isnt offering its best rates through Expedia, Engels said.

Theyre trying to hurt the hotel, but they dont want to hurt it too much, he said. If they do that, it will start to affect Expedias bookings. Its just a bit of a political game.

Others said tinkering with search results was wrong and betrayed a trust consumers have placed in online agencies.

Dimming is unethical, said David Rosner, the co-chief executive of SmarTours, a New York tour operator. Thats because the online agency is trying to trick its own customer into buying a more expensive hotel room. This practice is similar to deceptive advertising in the sense that only those who read the fine print truly understand what they are buying.

Dimming also exploits a public perception that the search results on online agencies are as unbiased as an internet search engine. Though many travelers believe an online agency will display the cheapest rates first in a relatively impartial way, the hard reality is that almost every part of the fare display is optimized for profit.

These sites generate revenue through hotel partnerships, commissionable rates and advertisements, all of which can affect search results for travelers, said Jason Shames, the chief executive of Skipper, an online agency that specializes in group travel. Its an open secret that online agencies trade higher search placement to hotels willing to pay higher commissions.

Now more than ever, travelers should do due diligence when searching for the best hotels, industry-watchers say. They recommend starting with a site that searches multiple online agencies, such as Kayak.com or the hotel search on Google.com. (In Googles search box, type hotels in [city].) Check an online agency such as Expedia or Booking to see if it can do better, and, if you find a hotel you like, click on the propertys website to make sure there isnt a better rate.

For many travelers, thats a lot of work  maybe too much work. Which is why, for now, dimming may succeed. Consider what happened to Compo-Martin. She ignored the hotels without photos and booked a different property in Philadelphia, the Rittenhouse, on Expedia.

I found a great deal, she said.
STRATFORD were dragged further into the relegation mire as they crashed to a 53-run defeat to Birmingham League Division Two basement club Stourbridge at Swans Nest Lane.

A scintillating 104 from 100 balls from Taryck Gabriel and 40 from Zain ul-Hassan helped Stourbridge to 217 all out as Ben Pigott took six for 48 for Stratford, who were dismissed for 164.

Opening batsman Dane Kirby carried his bat for 72, but could only muster support from number nine Adrian Witts, who hit 38 in a stand of 70 for the eighth wicket.

Jitesh Jivan-Patel was the most successful bowler for Stourbridge with four for 21 as Stratford survival hopes took another blow.

Match reaction in this week's Herald.
Nick Skelton became Britain's second-oldest Olympic gold medallist in any sport following Friday's success. BEF / JON STROUD MEDIA

JOCKEY Harry Skelton admitted he was "in a bit of a mess" after his father Nick claimed Great Britain's first individual showjumping gold medal in Olympic history.

Competing in his seventh Olympics, Skelton put the seal on a distinguished career with a stunning performance aboard the 13-year-old Big Star in Deodoro on Friday.

The 58-year-old, from Alcester, also became Britain's second-oldest Olympic gold medallist in any sport, behind shooter Joshua 'Jerry' Millner, who won gold in 1908.

Harry Skelton, a successful National Hunt jockey who predominantly rides for his brother, Dan, accepted he struggled to keep his emotions intact when his father came out on top following from an absorbing six-way jump-off.

He said: "As a family, it doesn't get much better.

"It was everything he's ever wanted and everything we've ever wanted for him.

"To get a gold in his last Olympics, I can't quite describe the emotions - I've never felt anything quite like it.

"It hit me hard, to be honest, and I was in a bit of a mess when I spoke to him (on Friday).

"To do what he has done is near-on impossible. He broke his neck in 2000 and was told he shouldn't ride again.

"But that (riding) is all he knows. That's all we know. We don't know anything else.

"The horse has also had to come back from injury and hasn't won since the Aachen Grand Prix in 2013.

"People in racing talk about brilliant training performances, but what Mark Beever, who spends all his time looking after Big Star, has done is just unreal."

Skelton's father was due to return home on Sunday, with his family desperate to be reunited with their hero.
An Israeli policeman carries part of a rocket which the Israeli army and police said was launched from Gaza, landing next to a residential building in the Israeli southern town of Sderot, Israel August 21, 2016. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket that landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot on Sunday and Israeli aircraft and tanks responded by shelling the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the army and police said.

The rocket caused no injuries or damage in Sderot, where it landed in a residential area, police said.

An Israeli shell during an initial retaliation damaged a Beit Hanoun water tower and there were no casualties, local residents said.

Multiple air strikes later in the evening hit at least 30 different sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas, the smaller Islamic Jihad and other militant groups and two people were lightly hurt, Gaza health officials said.

A music festival in Sderot attended by hundreds of Israelis was temporarily disrupted as people sought shelter, television footage showed.

The Israeli military said aircraft had attacked targets in the northern Gaza Strip and added that since the beginning of the year, 14 Gaza rockets had hit Israel.

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement that the military "remains committed to the stability of the region and operated in order to bring quiet to the people of southern Israel."

"When terrorists in Hamas' Gaza Strip, driven by a radical agenda based on hatred, attack people in the middle of the summer vacation, their intentions are clear - to inflict pain, cause fear and to terrorize," Lerner said.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "We hold (Israel) responsible for the escalation in the Gaza Strip and we stress that its aggression will not succeed in breaking the will of our people and dictate terms to the resistance."

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and has observed a de-facto ceasefire with Israel since a 2014 war but some small armed cells of Jihadist Salafis have defied the agreement and have continued to occasionally launch rockets at Israel.

Israel has held Hamas responsible for all attacks originating in the coastal enclave.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

Despite the ceasefire, Hamas has vowed to continue to dig tunnels intended to infiltrate Israel, and while Hamas leaders stress they do not seek an imminent war, they see tunnels as a strategic weapon in any future armed confrontation.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Sandra Maler)
Our family has wanted a boat ever since we can remember. In fact, weve always said we are boat people without a boat. Imagine our surprise when we heard there was a boat for us waiting up north at the family cabin, if only we could haul it back home and perhaps put a new motor in it soon.

Youd think we had won the lottery. My husband and I started scouring the internet for deals on the type of motor wed need. Our sons started planning the outings on our boat and had it booked way into next year. Our life was looking up as far as we were concerned. Weve had a stressful couple of years and finally, this  THIS was just the news we had been waiting to hear.

Youre going to become boat people, our youngest son, Noah, told us. Youre going to start buying more fishing gear and water skis and tubes and probably even wear boat shoes. He was teasing us, but he had that distant look in his eyes, the kind where you know a person is physically next to you but experiencing another life in his imagination. It was a life with parents who wear boat shoesand for the real reason of being on their own boat and not just looking like they came off of one.

Our oldest son, Nic, was equally as ecstatic. Next summer will be the best summer of my life with that boat! he exclaimed. (Now to set the record straight, it takes a LOT for anyone in our family to become really and truly excited  and to have all four of us almost giddy with anticipation was a bit of an anomaly.) Nic then went into great detail about where he wanted to take the boat and who he wanted to come with him. His eyes sparkled and his whole demeanor changed. Who knew a boat could change a persons whole outlook on life? Boat owners thats who  and boat owners we now were!

Since we were headed for a much-needed trip to the cabin in just days, our boat acquisition was serendipity. We already had a trailer hitch on our Durango, and the boat came with a trailer, so that little detail was checked off the list. Plans were made for the title and license and our lives were looking up. All that was left was a quick call to the marina and hauling our boat back home after our family vacation at the cabin. Once home, our boat would just need a little TLC, some cleaning and a new motor in the near future. Life was good.

And then it wasnt.

My husband was the one who broke the news to us that OUR boat had been given away to an employee at the marina last year. It was unbelievable, but true. Apparently, the marina was supposed to sell it and when it didnt sell, my father-in-law had forgotten that he told the marina owner to do whatever he wanted to do with it. Its understandable, but heart-wrenching at the same time.

I heard the news as I was driving and my stomach just dropped. Our boat was gone before we even had it. Our familys complete excitement, anticipation and giddiness was going to take a nose dive once our sons heard about this.

Id like to say otherwise. Id like to say we rose to the occasion and something great happened out of this, but it didnt. It just didnt. It reinforced that we were still boat people without a boat. Our dreams had been destroyed and in only about 12 hours.

We still had an amazing time at the family cabin a short 9 hours north in Baudette, Minnesota. The big family boat was there and this family of four boat people had more luck catching fish than most have had all summer. In fact, my husband caught a 27-inch walleye, second only to his mothers walleye named Wilma, who is hanging above the fireplace and revered within the family.

Our family of four bonded like never before and thoroughly enjoyed each others company as we fished for hours and tooled around the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods. We shared old memories and made even more new ones.

We even went by the marina and looked for our boat, but of course, to no avail. All of a sudden, every For Sale sign on any boat caught our attention  but none compared to the practically free family boat that we had owned for just 12 hours.

For the record, let it be known that we would like to change our status of being boat people without a boat. Id give anything to witness that excitement in our family again  and Im dying to buy some boat shoes as well.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference after talks with Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - There is no reason to lift the European Union's sanctions against Russia as Moscow has not fulfilled all of its commitments under an international peace plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published on Friday.

Merkel told the RedaktionsNetzwerks Deutschland (RND) that Russia had caused a major crisis by annexing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and with its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Europe had to react against this violation of basic principles," Merkel said.

She added that she and French President Francois Hollande were working "with all one's strength" to urge Ukraine and Russia to implement the so-called Minsk ceasefire agreement despite all the difficulties.

"This is and remains the yardstick for the future of the sanctions," Merkel said.

Russia has been under U.S. and EU sanctions over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine for two years.

With fighting occasionally flaring and both sides blaming each other for failing to implement truce terms, the Minsk peace deal looks moribund.

The EU agreed in June to extend energy, financial and defense sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine until the end of January next year.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other leading Social Democrats, the junior partner in Merkel's ruling coalition, have struck a more conciliatory tone in the past months, saying the EU should gradually phase out sanctions if there was partial progress in the peace process.

But even Steinmeier has said that Russia and Ukraine have hardly made any progress in recent talks to implement the peace plan.

"There are no improvements, especially when it comes to security," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli said, adding the negotiations had reached deadlock also in other areas such as political reforms and local elections.

"Still despite the difficult situation and repeated setbacks we think it's important that we keep on trying and do everything we can to make the Minsk peace plan a success," Chebli said.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley and Michael Nienaber; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega and first lady Rosario Murillo greet supporters during celebrations to mark the 37th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution at the Juan Pablo II square in Managua, Nicaragua July 19,2016. Picture taken July 19, 201

By Ivan Castro

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua's election campaign kicked off on Saturday, with President Daniel Ortega the clear favorite to sweep aside a weakened opposition and win a third consecutive term in a Nov. 6 vote.

Ortega, a 70-year-old former guerrilla leader, remains highly popular after nearly a decade in power due to his handling of the economy and a series of social welfare programs that were backed by leftist allies Cuba and Venezuela.

But the political opposition has accused Ortega and his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party of neutering state institutions and trying to install a dynasty after he announced his wife, Rosario Murillo, would run as his vice presidential candidate.

Murillo previously served as the government's chief spokeswoman.

The United States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have criticized Ortega's government for failing to accept international election observers, a decision Ortega defended by arguing that he has lost elections in which such monitors failed to recognize irregularities.

The U.S. government has also voiced concerns over efforts by the country's Supreme Court to weaken the opposition Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), in what it called efforts "to limit democratic space."

"We call on the Nicaraguan government to respect the voices of its people and take the steps for fair and transparent elections that permit the full participation of all Nicaraguan citizens, including by allowing opposition parties to operate independently," U.S. Department of State spokesman John Kirby said earlier this month.

Ortega first ruled the country in the 1980s and returned to power in 2007 after a fracture in Nicaragua's right-wing parties.

Although he maintains his anti-imperialist rhetoric, Ortega has consolidated power by striking alliances with the business sector, helping the Central American country maintain an average annual growth rate of 5 percent over the last five years.

The poverty rate has also fallen, tumbling from 42.5 percent of the population in 2009 to 30 percent in 2014.

According to a poll published in late June, Ortega was seen easily winning a third consecutive term, which would keep him in office until 2020. The poll, conducted by M&R Consultants, showed that 65 percent of those surveyed planned to vote for Ortega's FSLN, compared with just 13 percent for the opposition parties.

The Nov. 6 vote will also elect Nicaragua's 90-member National Assembly.

(Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and G Crosse)
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday that unofficial communication channels with China remain in place despite Beijing in June suspending contacts because the island's new leader would not endorse the concept of a "One China" principle.

The Chinese government blamed the self-ruled island earlier this week for the breakdown of communications.

China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, has been unsettled by Tsai, who took office in May, as she has been reluctant to disavow calls for formal independence.

"While the official mechanism of communication has not been restored, unofficial communication channels with the mainland remain available," she told reporters, without elaborating.

"We hope both sides maintain stability, so there wont be any misunderstanding or misjudgment on either side," she said.

Tsai, who heads the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, reiterated she wanted to maintain the status quo in cross-strait relations, but said "there is no magic medicine to resolve the existing strains.

China has insisted Tsai must recognize the "1992 consensus" reached between China's Communists and Taiwan's then-ruling Nationalists - the political basis for the one China principal - although each have their own interpretation of what that means.

After the defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan following a civil war with the Communists in 1949, China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

(Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
I got in big trouble with my brother last week. Never mind why. OK, Ill tell you. He says I messed in his business without permission. If Id asked him for permission, hed have said no.

Joe is 64 years old, totally blind, severely crippled from cerebral palsy. Hes lived all his adult life on his own, with only occasional help from his family or good people in his church.

His wife, Tommie Jean, was also blind. For 10 years, they were inseparable. Hed lead the way, tapping with his cane, and shed follow holding his hand.

When he lost her to cancer 10 years ago, I feared we might lose him, too. But Joe is tough. He has known more suffering and loss than most of us will ever know. Somehow, by the grace of God, he keeps going.

All he asks for is a little independence, to live his own life, make his own choices without being told what to do.

I very much want that for him. The problem for my sister and me is this: While he is legally an adult with the right to make decisions without our consent, hes also in some ways childlike, with an innocence that, despite his refusals, begs our protection.

We have no authority to act in his behalf. We can only pray and try to help, when hell let us.

Its hard to let go of someone you love and hope that God loves them more than you do.

Last week  only days after we lost our younger brother to a sudden, unexpected death  Joe was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and scheduled to have a pacemaker implanted.

The news shifted my sisterly instincts into hyper-drive. I spent hours on the phone with our sister, who lives 30 miles from Joe. She planned to take him to the procedure. But shes not well herself and I didnt want her trying to care for him after hes released.

Meanwhile, I had recently broken my foot. Not only had I missed our younger brothers memorial service, I couldnt fly home to take care of Joe.

So I made the mistake of trying to arrange, without his permission, someone to care for Joe after his procedure.

Talk about hitting the fan.

As usual, our sister bore the brunt of his fury. He cooled off quite a bit before phoning me.

Sister, Joe said, I know you love me and you mean well. I just want to manage on my own without help as long as I can. I need you to let me do that.

Then he asked me to tell you this story. Joe met Tommie Jean on the phone after a friend gave him her number. They talked long distance for several days.

When he announced his plans to visit her (at her mothers home 200 miles away) our mother threw a hissy fit.

Dont you dare! Mama said. Ill send the police after you!

He hung up on her. Then he called the bus station. He rode all night from Spartanburg, South Carolina, to Charleston, only to be told the bus to Georgetown had been delayed for hours. He got the bus driver to call Tommie Jean to say hed be late. Tommie Jean got a friend to drive her to Charleston to pick him up.

Ill never forget it, he said. I heard her come running, yelling Hey, man! Hey, man! Then she threw her arms around me and we both cried. I swear, Sister, it was love at first sight.

True to her word, Mama sent the police to Tommie Jeans house to check on Joe, but no arrests were made. Three days later, Joe and Tommie Jean were married at city hall.

Joe asked me to tell you that story because he believes we all need to live our own lives and make our own decisions.

If a blind man can hang up on his mama and fall flat-out in love at first sight, he said, he can look after himself after surgery.

Ill be fine, Sister, he said, dont worry.

Can I send you a pizza?

Yes. And when you come home, you can pay for supper.

No, I said. Next time Im home, Ill make you pay.

Sharon Randall can be reached at Box 777394, Henderson NV 89077, or on her website: www.sharonrandall.com.
DES MOINES  Missing too many school days  especially for young students  can result in failure to reach key educational benchmarks and an increased likelihood of dropping out down the road, studies suggest.

So educational leaders across Iowa have set out to minimize the number of young school children who are missing a large number of school days.

Their goal is to develop plans to reach chronically absent students and get them to school before they fall behind and wind up on a path from which they cant recover.

We know when students fall behind early, the problems compound, Ryan Wise, director of the Iowa Department of Education, said at last weeks first meeting of the states Chronic Absenteeism Advisory Council. At the heart of this work is a focus on early identification and intervention.

Early absences lead to dropouts

One in 10 Iowa kindergarteners was chronically absent in the 2010-11 school year, according to an analysis of state education department data conducted by the Des Moines-based Child and Family Policy Center.

Those students were more than 1 times less likely than their peers to be reading proficiently by third grade, a benchmark that educators have deemed critical for educational success.

Students who cannot read sufficiently by third grade often struggle to keep pace with their peers, and according to a 2012 national study by the Maryland-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, they are four times more likely than proficient readers to later drop out of high school.

Its so foundational, and its so important, said Linda Fandel, a special assistant for education in Gov. Terry Branstads administration and the councils facilitator.

The state defines chronic absence as missing 10 percent of school days. For schools that use a 180-day calendar, that means missing at least 18 days, or roughly 3 school weeks.

One council member noted that although that may sound like a lot, it averages out to two days per month during the school year.

Root causes

Unlike older students, young schoolchildren typically miss school for excused reasons, illness being the most common.

But for students who are chronically absent, other common issues arise, according to the Child and Family Policy Center report. These include chronic illnesses, a lack of resources or reliable transportation for the parents and high family mobility.

The report also suggests some schools do not sufficiently warn parents of the dangers of chronic absenteeism. Other outside factors such as neighborhood distress or community violence also can lead to chronic absenteeism, the report says.

Because of those symptoms, children from low-income families are three to four times more likely to be chronically absent, the report says. And in Iowa, that adversely affects minority students.

We have some of the largest disparities by race and ethnicity in the country, said Anne Discher, communications director for the Child and Policy Center. This data very much reflects the broader conversations we should be having.

But chronic absenteeism is not confined to small pockets of the state. Ten percent or more of kindergarteners were chronically absent in one-third of Iowa districts and nearly 40 percent of elementary schools in the policy centers study.

This is an issue that really is not limited to a given set of school districts or a given set of schools, Discher said. It is a widespread challenge.

Developing solutions

The advisory council, which will meet a total of four times this summer and fall, is charged with developing recommendations to make to the Branstad administration, which can then pass along suggestions to school districts.

The goal is to make at least one high-quality recommendation that helps support the work schools want to do and need to do, Fandel said. This does feel like something we can do something about.

While chronic absenteeism is an issue through all grades K-through-12 and is highest among high schoolers, the council will focus its work on young students  kindergarteners through third-graders  because they think that is where they can have the greatest impact.

Amy Williamson, the state education departments Bureau of School Improvement chief, said the policy centers data shows a need for a really good early warning system.

That would help educators help kids very early on so they dont have persistent patterns of not attending school or persistent problems with not learning to read, Williamson said.

Everything we can do to intervene as early as possible is the best thing we can do for kids, she said.

Some Iowa districts already are addressing chronic absenteeism.

Waterloos Bell to Bell program stresses to students the importance of being at school on time in the morning and has a staff member dedicated to reaching out to families whose children have had chronic absences.

The United Way of the Quad-Cities Area has used grant money to employ Attendance Works, a national program that, according to its website, partners with families and community agencies to intervene when poor attendance is a problem for students or schools.

The councils goal is not to establish new policy or mandates, but to develop recommendations, such as a list of best practices, to pass on to school districts.

Theres never a one-size-fits-all (solution). We are never going to come out of this advisory council with, All districts should do X. Thats not how this works, Williamson said. What we can do is say, All districts should have the following resources.
DES MOINES  GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence spent Saturday getting a taste of Americana and a hot beef sundae topped with a cherry tomato along with it during a conspicuous stroll through the Iowa State Fair surrounded by Secret Service agents, campaign handlers and media boom microphones.

Pence, 57, the Indiana governor who is Donald Trumps choice for a running mate, stopped to take a selfie cell phone shot of himself, his wife, Karen, and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in front of the fairs iconic butter cow, flipped chops at the pork tent and cast a kernel of corn for Trump in an unscientific poll at a TV stations fair booth during his two-hour zig-zag around the fairgrounds.

Whos that? Donald Trump? asked one fairgoers whose attention was diverted momentarily from the blur of corn dogs, funnel cakes and livestock sounds by the entourage of TV cameras, reporters and Iowa State troopers that accompanied Pence, his wife and Branstad through Saturdays heavily attended festivities.

Play Free Bird yelled another fair attendee as Pence paused near the stage in Jalapeno Petes bar and restaurant to shake hands with Iowans, greet babies in strollers and navigate the mass of humanity that slowed the pace of movement through the grand concourse en route to the Beef Quarters and the aforementioned beef sundae lunch break.

He said its something hes always wanted to do, said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, who met privately with Pence to talk trade and agriculture before touring the fairgrounds with him, so I think its a perfect fit for him to be here.

The vice presidential candidate got his most boisterous greeting at the GOP booth in the Varied Industries Building, where Republicans chanted We like Mike, Trump and USA before two detractors held up signs saying Make Misogyny Great Again several yards from where Pence briefly addressed the crowd.

The haters always have to show up and the media has to give them attention, one fairgoer observed.

Pence said he was honored to celebrate Iowas great agricultural tradition that was on display at the fair before rallying the GOP troops for the 2016 presidential campaign that lies ahead.

Iowa always plays such an important role in the choice that America makes. I know this fall Iowa will lead the way when we elect Donald Trump the next president of the United States of America, Pence said.

Lets all work our hearts out, he told Republicans gathered at the GOP fair booth. Theres a little over 80 days, but I know in my heart of hearts if all of us do all that we can, we will elect leadership in America that will make America great again.

Exiting the Ag Building, a man stopped Pence to wish him luck and woman shook his hand.

They asked me how this compares to the Indiana State Fair, Pence said, nodding back at reporters still gathered near the butter cow exhibit, I said butter flashing a grin before making his way to the pork producers tent. There a person dressed in a duck costume held a sign saying Donald ducks releasing his taxes which drew chants of lock her up that pro-Pence fairgoers aimed at Trump opponent Hillary Clinton.

At about the same time Pence was touring the fairgrounds, Democrats gathered at a Hillary Clinton Des Moines field office several miles away where former U.S. ag secretary and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and current Iowa treasurer Michael Fitzgerald did not discuss Pence, but rather continued Democrats call for Trump to release his tax returns.

Vilsack released his tax returns annually during the two four-year terms he served as Iowa governor. He said doing so is important to engender trust with voters, and said he does not believe Trumps claim that he is not releasing his tax returns because he is being audited.

Im telling you, theres a reason beyond this audit nonsense that he provides that he doesnt want people to know, Vilsack said. I dont think hes paid much taxes. Ill bet hes paid a lot less tax than most people in this room have paid as a percentage. Im pretty sure he wasnt as charitable as he claims to be. And I wouldnt be surprised if his business dealings are involving people that we would potentially be a little bit suspect of. And hes probably got resources parked outside the United States.

If Im wrong, all he has to do is prove me wrong, Vilsack added. Show me the tax returns.
A New Zealand retail analyst believes Fashion Islands new owners Cotton On is embarking on a step change in the way it handles property.

Cotton on bought Fashion Island in July for a price believed to be substantially below its rateable value.
"One of the things they are asking to consider is it does not clash with any particular battle site commemorations, so that it can be a clean and stand alone date and then people can have their commemorations on their dates free and clear of any hinderances," says Maori King Tuheitias spokesman, Rahui Papa speaking on Stuff.

June, September and October seem to be "fairly clear" and "everyone would likely prefer a warmer month".

A decision around the date is expected before the end of the year.

Deputy Prime Minister Bill English made the announcement on Friday during the return of the Rangiriri battlesite to Maori at Turangawaewae. The historic site was handed back at the 10th anniversary celebrations of Maori King Tuheitias reign.

Representatives for the battle sites met with Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell, seven weeks ago.

"He actually wanted to progress a bit quicker than this, to be able to announce the date at the coronation celebrations," says Rahui.

"But unfortunately people had to go home and seek mandate for things like that so were going to have to have it post coronation."

Creating a specific day to remember the Land Wars will lead to more people exploring what it means.

"Prior to Anzac Day, not a lot of people knew about Anzac Cove," says Rahui.

"It was actually off the armed services creating the national statutory holiday for Anzac Day that there was more promotion, that more generation of information was put out.

"Were sincerely hoping it will heighten exposure to all of that sort of korero and there will be a whole lot more information and a whole lot more connection and engagement with our various communities on these battle sites."

In March, the Ministry of Education refused to include the New Zealand Wars in the national curriculum, but Rahui says the national day is a step in the right direction and the fight isnt over.

"Just like the return of Rangiriri, weve waited for 152 years, so iwi are forever. So well chip away and chip away until there is an awakening, I suppose, so we can get our local history into our local curriculum."

New Plymouth Mayor and staunch Maori supporter Andrew Judd welcomes the announcement.

"It will allow us to heal and move forward as a nation with greater empathy for each other," says Andrew.

Judd, who unsuccessfully pushed for Maori wards to be instated on to the New Plymouth District Council in 2015, hopes the day will lead to more acceptance around what happened.

"You cant keep our actions of our past under the carpet," says Andrew. "If you dont know the stuff, how on earth do you have any concept of who we are?"

New Zealands role in wars overseas is well documented and known, but that is not the case when it came to wars fought locally.

"If you dont know where youve come from, how are going to know where youre heading and how are you going to make sure you dont repeat those mistakes? Even America acknowledges its civil war sites and its civil war battles."

Hes also keen to see the history of the New Zealand Wars taught in schools and wants that expanded to include the Treaty of Waitangi.

"Were still in a form of conflict by not understanding the Treaty," says Andrew. "This is a beginning for those conversations to be had. Its something that I have a passion for."

In June, the New Plymouth District Council purchased the Te Kohia pa site where the first shot of the Taranaki Land Wars was fired, on March 17, 1860. Picking any one day to commemorate the wars will be hard.

"There were so many skirmishes that happened, you would want it to be something that was appropriate and sacred and authentically meaningful for all," says Andrew.
A spectacular fire in a two storey house in Dickson Road drew a large crowd this afternoon as firefighters from Papamoa, Mount Maunganui, Greerton and Tauranga battled the blaze.



Four fire crews fought the fire. Photo: Mark Jensen..



The house at the Papamoa Primary school end of Dickson road was fully alight when fire fighters arrived soon after 2.26pm, says NZ Fire Service northcoms shift manager Daniel Nicholson.

An ambulance was called to assist two people with smoke inhalation and minor burns, but he has no information about whether they are residents of the house or not.

Fire Safety has been called to investigate the cause.
New Zealand Defence Force personnel have shared lessons drawn from responses to recent disasters as they take part in the largest multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) preparedness mission being held in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

The Pacific Partnership mission, which is in its 11th year, provides an excellent platform for knowledge exchange, relationship-building and side-by-side training, says Wing Commander (WGCDR) Michelle White, NZDF Senior National Officer and Chief of Staff for Pacific Partnership 2016.
CLEAR LAKE | Fifty-three years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Americans still are asking questions about the presidents death and the findings of the Warren Commission.

North Iowans will have the opportunity to hear firsthand how some of those questions, dilemmas and findings were addressed and how the findings from 1963 stand the test of time today.

Federal Judge John R. Tunheim, chairman of the U.S. Assassination Records Review Board, will give a special program at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Best Western Holiday Lodge, sponsored by the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce.

Tunheim, chairman of the review board from 1994-98, will discuss the assassination and the many evidentiary issues concerning the assassination that are still talked about today.

These include the Warren Commission, the magic bullet theory, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. The discussion will also address questions concerning organized crime and involvement of foreign governments.

Tim Coffey, chief executive officer of the Chamber, said millions of Americans will never forget the assassination and its aftermath.

"To learn more about what really happened in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, is incredibly important in the history of our country, he said.

Tunheim will describe the many legal and procedural obstacles faced by the board in its efforts to open documents from government agencies.

The program is free and open to the public.
MASON CITY  A day of mud, fun in the sun and a chance to test physical stamina was offered to adventurous participants in Saturdays Slippery Saints Mud Run at the North Iowa Events Center.

It also raised funds for North Iowa groups including the Mason City YMCA, area fire departments and area schools.

The event, in its fifth year, featured a 5-kilometer race with 29 obstacles around the fairgrounds and speedway, including climbing walls, mud pits, hay bales, water slides, monkey bars and tube crawls.

It ended with a rinsing shower from a Mason City Fire Department fire truck and a gathering at a beer tent for refreshments and music.
AUBURN, N.Y. -- A man shot early Saturday morning in Cayuga County is expected to survive, police say.

The Auburn Police Department rushed to North Fulton and Seymour streets in Auburn at 3:20 a.m. after gunshots were reported, said police. When officers arrived, they found an injured 24-year-old man who had been shot, police said.

The man was rushed to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. His injury is not considered life-threatening, police said.

Shortly after the shooting, the New York State Police spotted a vehicle leaving the area. Troopers stopped the vehicle and detained all five passengers, police say.

After conducting interviews, Auburn police released the five people who were detained to troopers for charges stemming from the traffic stop. Police did not name the five people who were detained or say what troopers charged them with.

A handgun was found in the Nelson Street area after the incident, police said.

No arrests have been made. The investigation remains open.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call detectives at (315) 255-4706 or at (315) 255-4702.
The New York State Fair begins its 12-day run this week at the state fairgrounds located on 375 acres in the town of Geddes. Last year, 908,147 people attended the end-of-summer event.

Here's a guide to special days, concerts and new events at the fair.

Special days and events

Thursday, Aug. 25

It's Opening Day. Gates open at 8 a.m., and visitors should expect a line. The New York State Fair will offer $3 Thursdays again this year, a continuing effort to grow opening day attendance. The $3 will cover general admission, which is usually $6 for advance sales and $10 at the gate. It's also Governor's Day.

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice will visit the fair at 6 p.m. in Empire Theater in the NYS Fair's Art & Home Center. Tickets are on sale for $30 for the Q&A with a meet-and-greet or $20 without the meet-and-greet.

At Chevy Court, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will perform at 2 p.m., and Kesha will perform at 8 p.m. At the Lakeview Amphitheater, Keith Urban's show will begin at 7:30 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Thursday, Aug. 25

Friday, Aug. 26

Friday is the first official Pride Day at NYS Fair. Events include a flag raising, an official ceremony, an information fair and participation in the Special Day Parade at 6 p.m. It's also Law Enforcement Day at the fair, with free admission to any active law enforcement personnel who presents a badge and/or picture ID from their law enforcement department.

There will also be a food drive on this day. Volunteers will be stationed at gates 1, 3, 4 and 11a as well as in the Orange Lot at the walkway to accept donations. M&T Bank will donate $1 to the Food Bank for every pound of food donated.

At Chevy Court, Braiden Sunshine and Chance Pena will perform at 2 p.m., and Toto will perform at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Friday, Aug. 26

Saturday, Aug. 27

At Chevy Court, Canadian band MAGIC! will perform at 2 p.m., and emo rockers Dashboard Confessional will take the stage at 8 p.m. At the Lakeview Amphitheater, KoRn and Rob Zombie will perform at 6:30 p.m.

There will also be a food drive on this day. Volunteers will be stationed at gates 1, 3, 4 and 11a as well as in the Orange Lot at the walkway to accept donations. M&T Bank will donate $1 to the Food Bank for every pound of food donated.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Saturday, Aug. 27

Sunday, Aug. 28

Syracuse City Market will set up three dozen booths along the back of Chevy Court in front of the State Park on Sunday. Here you'll find handmade arts, crafts, and antiques, as well as handmade jewelry from around the world. Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

At Chevy Court, Air Supply will perform at 2 p.m., and Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers will perform at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Sunday, Aug. 28

Monday, Aug. 29

It's Dairy Day as well as one of two Senior Citizen Days, Monday Aug. 29 and Tuesday Aug. 30. Senior citizens, 60 and older, are offered free admission. ID showing date of birth may be requested to allow free admittance.

At Chevy Court, Herman's Hermits will take the stage at 2 p.m., and Brian Wilson with Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin will perform at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Monday, Aug. 29

Tuesday, Aug. 30

It's Beef Day and Fire & Rescue Day with free admission to any active member of a fire department or emergency services organization who has a picture ID from that department or organization. It's also the second Senior Citizen Day. Senior citizens, 60 and older, are offered free admission. ID showing date of birth may be requested to allow free admittance.

At Chevy Court, Survivor will perform at 2 p.m., and The Commodores will take the stage at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Tuesday, Aug. 30

Wednesday, Aug. 31

It's Women's Day, Attend the annual Women's Day Luncheon plus many special events have been planned throughout the day. Highlighted events include the Fine Arts and Photo Exhibition in the Art & Home Center as well as judging in the Culinary Arts area. During the entire day, various women's advocacy organizations will be at a "mini-fair" set up in the Chevy Court Pavilion.

It's also Ride For $5 Day. Sponsored by Mello Velo Bicycle Shop, cyclists can join a free group ride beginning at the Salt Museum at Onondaga Lake Park at 9:30 a.m. Anyone who rides a bike to the fair will receive a $5 discounted admission. Bikes will be checked into a secure parking area with staff on hand, provided by Mello Velo.



At Chevy Court, Macy Gray will perform at 2 p.m., and Three Days Grace will perform at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Wednesday, Aug. 31

Thursday, Sept. 1

It's Armed Forces Day, with free admission to any active duty or veteran with identification (Military ID Card, form DD-214 or NYS Driver's License, Learners Permit or non-driver ID card with a veteran designation). It's also the second $3 Thursday.

At Chevy Court, Natalie La Rose performs at 2 p.m., and Flo Rida takes the stage at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Thursday, Sept. 1

Friday, Sept. 2

It's Six Nations Day and Native Americans receive free admission on this day. ID is not required, but it is asked that attendees enter through Gate 4 only. Friday is also Student's Day. Youths 18 years old and younger are admitted free on this day. ID showing date of birth may be requested to allow free admittance.

At Chevy Court, A Tribe Called Red performs at 2 p.m., and Culture Club takes the stage at 8 p.m. At the Lakeview Amphitheater, Florida Georgia Line will perform starting at 7 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Friday, Sept. 2

Saturday, Sept. 3

It's Grange Day, marking the achievements of the NYS Grange organization.

At Chevy Court, X Ambassadors take the stage at 2 p.m., and Rachel Platten and A Great Big World perform at 8 p.m. At the Lakeview Amphitheater, ZZ Top will perform beginning at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Saturday, Sept. 3

Sunday, Sept. 4

At Chevy Court, Robert Cray will perform at 2 p.m., and Daughtry will perform at 8 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Sunday, Sept. 4

Monday, Sept. 5

Labor Day honors those working women and men who make America strong. Supporters of labor can meet at 10 a.m. near Gate 4 and then at 10:30 a.m. they will march to Chevy Court for a Labor Day rally.

Monday is also the fair's "Summer Send Off Dollar Day." Adult admission is $1 per person all day and rides in the Wade Shows Midway are $1 per ride. Food vendors offer $1 specials, as well. Fair parking will still cost $5.

At Chevy Court, Chicago will perform at 6 p.m.

>> Detailed daily schedule for Monday, Sept. 5

Good to know

>> Admission: Adults are $10 at the gate; Children under 12 free every day. Gates open at 8 a.m. Exhibit buildings are open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Labor Day, exhibit buildings close at 9 p.m. The midway is open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. every night except on Labor Day, when it closes at 9 p.m.

>> Fairgrounds map

>> Schedule of Chevy Court music acts and Lakeview Amphitheater music acts.

>> Parking: Lots surrounding the fairgrounds can accommodate 23,000 cars. Parking is $5. For a map and directions visit the fair's website. Parking is $5. Visitors can pay in cash or via EZ-Pass. | Map and Directions

>> The rules: Visitors can bring coolers with food and drink, but no alcoholic beverages, on the fairgrounds. No glass containers. No pets are allowed, unless they are working dogs, canine companions or in a competition. All bags, backpacks, coolers, purses and fanny packs are permitted but subject to search upon entry. You cannot bring alcohol, weapons, guns, signs, placards, selfie sticks, roller blades, skate boards or bicycles onto the grounds.

>> Follow the latest news and features on syracuse.com/statefair.
When Bundchen was at the top of supermodel fame, in Miami Beach

When Gisele Bundchen was at the height of her supermodel fame, she visited the Victoria's Secret store in Miami Beach with other supermodels.
Aug. 21, 2016

SHARE Tropical Storm Fiona, Aug. 21, 2016, 11 a.m.

By Staff Report

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring three systems in the Atlantic.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, a tropical wave located about 1,100 miles east of the Lesser Antilles was producing disorganized showers and a few thunderstorms.

The proximity of this system to dry air is expected to inhibit significant development during the next few days as it moves westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph.

This system is not likely to pose a threat to Florida, according to Indian River County's Emergency Operations Center.

Environmental conditions could become more conducive for development later this week when the system is expected to be near Hispaniola and the southeastern Bahamas.

Formation chance through 48 hours: 10 percent.

Formation chance through 5 days: 40 percent.

Farther east, an area of clouds and thunderstorms show strong potential for development.

Currently located a few hundred miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands, is an area of low pressure area and tropical wave. Environmental conditions are conducive for development, and a tropical depression is likely to form during the next day or two as the system moves westward and then northwestward over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.

Formation chance through 48 hours: 70 percent.

Formation chance through 5 days: 90 percent.

TROPICAL DEPRESSION FIONA

Meanwhile, at 11 p.m., Tropical Depression Fiona weakened from a tropical storm. It was located about 570 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands. Maximum sustained winds are 35 mph, and it's moving west-northwest at 18 mph. This general heading with some decrease in forward speed is expected to continue for the next couple of days.

Little gain in strength is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Fiona could weaken to a post-tropical remnant low in the next day or so.
Owen Holland, a Cambridge PHD student and activist associated with the Cambridge Defend Education protest group, has been banned from the University for a period of two and a half years for his part in the protest staged against David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, at Lady Mitchell Hall last term.

The Cambridge Student understands that Holland has been found guilty of recklessly or intentionally impeding free speech within the Precincts of the University. The Court of Discipline ruled that Holland would not be allowed to attend the University until October 2014 after he took part in the epistle to David Willetts which prevented Willetts from beginning his speech on The Idea of the University. He has 28 days in which to appeal the ruling.

This follows the Spartacus letter signed by more than 60 staff and student members of the University, which asked for the same charge be brought against each of us. Dr Priyamvadaa Gopal, who signed the letter, told TCS I am deeply shocked by this disproportionate and clearly vindictive exemplary sentence against a vulnerable individual, a disgraceful verdict sentence which is intended, above all, to deter others, including those who have signed the Spartacus letter from expressing their views freely and peacefully. Today, I am ashamed to be call myself a lecturer at this university, an institution which is in imminent danger of losing its soul, its moral bearings and its right to call itself a community of thinkers.

Cambridge University Students Union President Gerard Tully told TCS We are dismayed by the University Courts bizarre decision to hand down to a single student a punishment seven times stronger than what the Universitys own prosecutors had asked for  rusticating him until Michaelmas 2014. As the Spartacus letter indicates, many students and fellows took part in the action that the student is being singled out for. This is in no sense a fair application of justice, and students and academics expect better from Cambridge.

A balanced judgment reflecting the evidence and severity of the charges would not have handed down seven times what the University itself asked for. Should an appeal be lodged, we fully expect the University to apply reason and quash this heavy-handed and unfair sentence. For a University that so rightly prides itself on academic freedom and the justness of its procedures, there is simply no alternative.

When contacted for a statement on the sentence, a University spokesman said,

The University notes the decision of the Court of Discipline in its proceedings held today. By Statute the Court of Discipline is an independent body, which is empowered to adjudicate when a student is charged by the University Advocate with an offence against the discipline of the University. The Court may impose a range of sentences as defined in the Statutes.

Emily Loud  News Editor

Related Stories:

Student singled out for punishment over Willetts protest

Students and dons unite over Willetts protest

The Cambridge Student  Editorial Lent 2012 Issue Seven

Questions raised over Cambridge University no confidence in David Willetts vote

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An investigation by The Cambridge Student has revealed that the nationally comparable figures which Cambridge University use to claim that they have one of the "lowest drop-out rates" in the country do not include many students who intermit and then do not return. Significant variation in intermission across colleges was also revealed, with exceptionally high rates of intermission in colleges for mature undergraduates.

The figures indicated that the official Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) dropout rate  which is cited on the Student Welfare page of Cambridge Universitys website as amongst the lowest  in the country  does not include many of those students who intermit but then do not return to finish their studies, a stance adopted as a result of the specifications of HESA.

The process of intermission, which was previously known as degrading, allows students to take time out of their degree  usually a whole academic year  and return at a later date. This is normally granted for medical reasons.

Omission of non-returning intermitting students from HESA statistics

A total of 947 undergraduate students have intermitted in the three academic years since 2011/2012, amounting to an average of 2.7% of all undergraduates during this period. Of these, 227 (24%) did not return to finish their studies. However, it appears that many of these students who did not return to Cambridge after intermitting are not included in the data provided by the university to HESA, which is used to calculate continuation rates across all Universities.

For the academic year 2011/12, HESA presents Cambridges dropout rate as a total of 45 students, yet data provided by the University following an FOI request indicates that 83 students in that year intermitted and did not then return to finish their studies. When contacted, the University stated that the discrepancy is to be expected as the population reported to the HESA website differs considerably to the population of students for which we provided the FOI data. For example, students not included in the HESA data include dormant students (those who have stopped studying but are yet to formally leave their course), non-UK domiciled students and Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man domiciled students.

Significant variation in college intermission numbers

The statistics which were obtained by TCS also revealed substantial disparities in the breakdown of the number of undergraduate students intermitting per college. Girton has seen the highest number of students intermit, with 63 students having intermitted in the three academic years since 2011/12, 4.18% per annum as a proportion of the student body. Homerton (55 students and 2.91%), Trinity (52 and 2.49%), and St Johns (51 and 3.13%) also had high numbers of intermission during this time period.

At the other end of the scale was Corpus Christi College, from where only 14 undergraduates have intermitted in the past three years (2.09% average degrading per annum). Similarly low numbers intermitted from Trinity Hall (15 and 1.31%), and Selwyn College (19 and 1.88%).

Speaking to TCS, the mental health charity Student Minds Cambridge (SMC) said this highlights the ongoing problem of a disparate welfare system across Cambridge. More should be done to ensure that each college has the same baseline of welfare support available for students  When it comes to something as fundamentally important as mental health welfare, there should be consistency across all colleges, so that every student has sufficient support to enable them to complete their studies.

CUSUs Welfare officer Jack Wright, however, argued that a high intermission rate is not indicative of a poor college welfare system, since: A student who feels they need to intermit and has their decision supported is far better off than someone being pressured to keep working against their best interests.

High levels of intermission at mature colleges

The high levels of intermission among undergraduate students at mature colleges is particularly striking. At St Edmunds Hall, which admits approximately 98 undergraduates a year, 31 students have intermitted in the past three years, amounting to 10.5% of the student body. The other three mature colleges in the University also have consistently high rates of intermission: Wolfson College (34 and 8.4%), Lucy Cavendish College (34 and 7.87%) and Hughes Hall (11 and 3.6%).

Patricia Duff, who previously served as the mature students representative for CUSU, commented: It is generally understood that family pressures can be far greater for matures because they are the ones juggling all sorts of demands on their time; so the greater incidence is not surprising. She continued: Advice is targeted at undergraduates of 1821 age bracket and not to those undergraduates and postgraduates of more mature years who have different financial, physical and emotional scenarios.

Jack Wright also expressed concerns about the wider implications of the process of intermission: My main concern with regards to intermitting is that when intermitting is treated as a cure-all, the fact is students with chronic illnesses will be pressured to intermit against their wishes and against medical advice that says the problem will only get worse. He added: If such students degrees are being impacted by a chronic illness, they need to be helped to access the extended study options that exist here, rather than being advised as if they can be cured in a year.

Subject variations

TCS also obtained the breakdown of students who intermit per subject, which highlighted several significant differences in the rates of intermission across different subjects. For certain subjects, including Archaeology and Anthropology, PPS, Maths, and English exhibited consistently high rates of intermission. For example, in the past three years 55 English students have intermitted, compared to seven Geography students.

SMC argued that more information is needed before any action is taken. We need to find out more about the real, personal student experiences of degrading / intermitting. This may involve looking at the pressure put on (or not put on) students by academic staff to intermit against their will and the interactions students had with the colleges whilst they were away  and if this relationship affected their decision to return.

'Degrading is Degrading'

As previously reported by TCS, a petition was created by the Degrading is Degrading (DiD) group in 2011/12, as part of the Disabled Students Campaign. The petition aimed to secure the removal of the requirement for intermitting students to reside outside of Cambridge during their intermission. It also looked to reduce disparities between some colleges intermission processes. The petition suceeded in renaming the process from degrading to a less negative term, disregarding terms, made official by a change in the Statutes and Ordinances of the University.

Esther Leighton, who has previously served as the Disabled Students Officer for the University, told TCS: The DiD campaign had some huge successes, but there is still a phenomenal amount to do The name change was a symptom of a problem with the system, and while the name has changed and some aspects of the system have, more should be done to improve the experience of intermitted students.



Correction: The first paragraph of this article was updated 12/02/15 in light of discussions with the University. The previous version read: "An investigation by 'The Cambridge Student' has revealed that national figures accrediting Cambridge University as having one of the lowest drop-out rate in the country may be misleading when compared with official university statistics."
Larry Nemmers

BANCROFT  Larry Nemmers, 86, of Bancroft, died Wednesday afternoon at his home.

A funeral Mass will be held 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, at St. Johns Catholic Church in Bancroft with Father Sunny Dominic officiating. Burial will be in St. Johns Catholic Cemetery with military honors conducted by the Bancroft American Legion.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22, at Oakcrest Funeral Services of Bancroft.

Other arrangements are incomplete at Oakcrest Funeral Services of Bancroft.
AT&T, Apple, Google to work on 'robocall' crackdown More than 30 major technology and communication companies said on Friday they are joining the U.S. government to crack down on "robocalls," automated, prerecorded phone calls that regulators have labeled a "scourge." AT&T, Google parent Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Comcast Corp are among members of the "Robocall Strike Force" that held its first meeting with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Reuters

Corning responds to that worrying Galaxy Note 7 scratch test video You've likely seen the video: Zack from JerryRigEverything performing his now-familiardurability test on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Surprisingly, he appears to leave visible scratches on the device's Gorilla Glass 5 with a metal pick that rates a 3 on Mohs scale of hardness -- "only one step above plastic," as Zack notes in the video. A new glass from Corning that appears to scratch much more easily than its predecessor is admittedly hot news, but as is often the case, the "scandal" may have gotten blown a little out of proportion. Android Authority

Nasa just made all its research available online for free Care to learn more about 400-foot tsunamis on Mars? Now you can, after Nasa announced it is making all its publicly funded research available online for free. The space agency has set up a new public web portal called Pubspace, where the public can find Nasa-funded research articles on everything from the chances of life on one of Saturn's moons to the effects of space station living on the hair follicles of astronauts. Independent | NASA

SLAC, Stanford gadget grabs more solar energy to disinfect water faster In many parts of the world, the only way to make germy water safe is by boiling, which consumes precious fuel, or by putting it out in the sun in a plastic bottle so ultraviolet rays will kill the microbes. But because UV rays carry only 4 percent of the sun's total energy, the UV method takes six to 48 hours, limiting the amount of water people can disinfect this way. Now researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have created a nanostructured device, about half the size of a postage stamp, that disinfects water... Stanford

The gif is dead. long live the gif. November 5, 1999, was Burn All GIFs Day. Had you visited its homepage that Friday, you would have seen the movement's game plan laid out as plainly as its name: "On Burn All GIFs Day, all GIF users will gather at Unisys and burn all their GIF files." This, alongside a selection of pointedly anti-GIF imagery -- all proudly PNG files. Despite the obvious joke of setting files on fire, acknowledged with a winking plea to "extinguish all GIFs before leaving the vicinity," the anger was real and the mission was earnest... Popular Mechanics

Eleven reasons to be excited about the future of technology In the year 1820, a person could expect to live less than 35 years, 94% of the global population lived in extreme poverty, and less that 20% of the population was literate. Today, human life expectancy is over 70 years, less that 10% of the global population lives in extreme poverty, and over 80% of people are literate. These improvements are due mainly to advances in technology, beginning in the industrial age and continuing today in the information age. Medium

Books you should read: Basic electronics I learned some basic electronics in high school physics class: resistors, capacitors, Kirchoff's law and such, and added only what was required for projects as I did them. Then around 15 years ago I decided to read some books to flesh out what I knew and add to my body of knowledge. It turned out to be hard to find good ones. The electronics section of my bookcase has a number of what I'd consider duds, but also some gems. Hackaday

The World Series of hacking -- without humans On a raised floor in a ballroom at the Paris Hotel, seven competitors stood silently. These combatants had fought since 9:00am, and nearly $4 million in prize money loomed over all the proceedings. Now some 10 hours later, their final rounds were being accompanied by all the play-by-play and color commentary you'd expect from an episode of American Ninja Warrior. Yet, no one in the competition showed signs of nerves. Ars Technica

"I want to write video games" Do you? Do you really? Be honest with me. I mean, I don't want to shoot down your dream. There are lots of people who've done the research, who know exactly what they're getting into when they say this, and who spend years earnestly pursuing their goal. There are also lots of people who like the notion of getting into game development but figure they'll never have any real skills like programming or art so this is their best bet. Medium

People ignore software security warnings up to 90 percent of the time Software developers listen up: if you want people to pay attention to your security warnings on their computers or mobile devices, you need to make them pop up at better times. A new study from BYU, in collaboration with Google Chrome engineers, finds the status quo of warning messages appearing haphazardly -- while people are typing, watching a video, uploading files, etc. -- results in up to 90 percent of users disregarding them. Phys.org

Your Tesla is watching you -- whether or not you're watching the road In the wake of Tesla's first recorded autopilot crash, automakers are reassessing the risk involved with rushing semi-autonomous driving technology into the hands of distractible drivers. But another aspect of autopilot---its ability to hoover up huge amounts of mapping and "fleet learning" data -- is also accelerating the auto industry's rush to add new sensors to showroom-bound vehicles. Quartz

Airbus to build autonomous flying taxis Billing it as a solution to urban congestion, Airbus hasannounced a new effort to build helicopter-like autonomous flying vehicles to transport both small parcels and, even more radically, passengers. The battery-powered passenger vehicles, currently dubbed CityAirbus, would be summoned by smartphone and travel along aerial urban roadways, constituting a system of robotic flying taxis. Fortune

Extremely rare celebration Apple-1 computer The computer that sparked the revolution in home computing! This is the most unique, and quite possibly the first, Apple-1 ever created. The "Celebration" Apple-1 is an original Apple-1 pre-NTI board that has many unique features, period correct power supply, original Apple-1 ACI cassette board (also populated with Robinson Nugent sockets), early Apple-1 BASIC cassettes... CharityBuzz

DRAM will live on as DDR5 memory is slated to reach computers in 2020 Hardware experts believed the last DRAM would be the current DDR4, but that's not the case, with DDR5 memory now under development. Specifications for DDR5 memory will be released this year, and deployment of the DRAM will begin in 2020, according to a slide deck presented at the Intel Developer Forum this week. PCWorld

Hackers claim to be selling NSA cyberweapons in online auction The hacking world's attention was captivated Monday morning when a group called the Shadow Brokers claimed to have hacked the National Security Agency's Equation Group, a team of American hackers that have been described as both "omnipotent" and "the most advanced" threat cyberspace has ever seen. The Daily Dot

From Chrome Apps to the Web We have always believed in making the open, interoperable web as strong as possible. For a while there were certain experiences the web couldn't provide, such as working offline, sending notifications, and connecting to hardware. We launched Chrome apps three years ago to bridge this gap. Chromium

Solid batteries improve safety 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. ETH Zurich

Stealing bitcoins with badges: How Silk Road's dirty cops got caught DEA Special Agent Carl Force wanted his money -- real cash, not just numbers on a screen -- and he wanted it fast. It was October 2013, and Force had spent the past couple of years working on a Baltimore-based task force investigating the darknet's biggest drug site, Silk Road. During that time, he had also carefully cultivated several lucrative side projects all connected to Bitcoin, the digital currency Force was convinced would make him rich. Ars Technica

Mozilla open design We're updating our brand identity using Mozilla open source principles, and everyone's invited. In this, our Concepting phase, we're narrowing from seven possible themes to a few concepts that will proceed to iterative design work. Your comments on the work in progress are welcome. Mozilla
T-Mobile started taking preorders early for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, but its rush recently backfired as customers were denied their free gifts.

The T-Mobile Galaxy Note 7 comes bundled with a free gift, at the customer's choice: a Gear Fit 2, a 236 GB microSD memory card, or a year's worth of free Netflix subscription.

With T-Mobile kicking off preorders early, however, some customers were denied their free gifts on account that the purchase was not made within the promotional period. More specifically, Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 promo started on Aug. 3, offering a choice of free gift to customers who preorder the flagship phablet by Aug. 28. T-Mobile, however, started preorders on Aug. 2 for some regions of the United States, and that was one day before the official promotion kicked into gear.

The specific issue has much to do with time zones. While the date was Aug. 3 once the clock struck 12 on the East Coast (EST), it was still Aug. 2 on the West Coast (PDT). Most carriers and retailers take this into account and start preorders at midnight PST, which is 3 a.m. EST.

As T-Mobile did not take this into account, customers who preordered the Galaxy Note 7 while it was still Aug. 2 on the West Coast received an email from Samsung informing them that they do not qualify for the complimentary gift.

"Your purchase date is Aug. 2, 2016, which is not within our purchase period," read Samsung's emailed letter to customers.

The company initially said that it could not make any exceptions to the rule, but it finally changed its mind and will now allow early preorder customers to benefit from the promotion as well, even if the purchase was registered on Aug. 2.

Samsung has issued a new statement clarifying that its fulfillment agency will get in touch with customers who preordered the Galaxy Note 7 early from T-Mobile, the day before the promotion officially kicked off.

This makes sense, considering that customers were not really to blame because T-Mobile was too eager to kick off preorders. Buyers were told that they would get a free gift for their purchase, and it's only fair to make good on that promise.

Samsung and T-Mobile have resolved the issue and early preorder customers who purchased the Galaxy Note 7 on Aug. 2 should now see their order status as "approved" for the promotional freebie.

"There was a minor error in our redemption system. This has been fixed and everyone who purchased their device within the promotion period will receive their device," Samsung says in an emailed statement to Android Police. "Our fulfillment agency should be reaching out to affected customers over the next few days to confirm with them."

Did you encounter this issue with your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 7 preorder? If so, drop by our comment section below and tell us if it's now clear.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Remember the impending Samsung Galaxy smartphones that surfaced on China's TENAA earlier in August? Now, the Galaxy On7 (2016) has popped up again, but this time it is listed in the database of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the regulatory authority in the U.S.

The Galaxy On7 (2016) from Samsung bearing the model number SM-G610F has been certified by the FCC, hinting that the device's release is imminent.

The Samsung smartphone's listing on the FCC does not give away too many details on the Galaxy On7 2016. However, the listing reveals that the handset will tout a powerful 3,300 mAh battery. This specification affirms the TENAA details, which also pointed at a 3,300 mAh battery for the Android-powered Samsung device.

For the unfamiliar, the Galaxy On7 (2016) is the successor of the Galaxy On7 smartphone that debuted in 2015.

While the FCC listing for the Galaxy On7 2016 does not highlight any essential features or specs of the upcoming handset, it sheds light on the device's dimensions. The Samsung smartphone will measure 151.5 x 74.9 x 8 mm (5.96 x 2.95 x 0.31 inches), which is in keeping with previous rumors. The Galaxy On7 2016 will also offer support for 4G LTE, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Previous leaks have hinted at the Samsung smartphone boasting a 5.5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Under the hood, the Galaxy On7 is anticipated to house an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor, which is clocked at 2 GHz. The device is also expected to tout Adreno 506 GPU and 3 GB of RAM.

The Galaxy On7 is rumored to offer 32 GB of on-board storage, which will be expandable to 128 GB via a microSD card. The smartphone is also said to come equipped with a fingerprint scanner that will be embedded on the home button.

The budget offering from Samsung will potentially house a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera. Selfie lovers will also have an 8-megapixel secondary camera to look forward to.

The Galaxy On7 2016 will come pre-loaded with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and not Android 7.0 Nougat.

Rumors also hint at Samsung releasing the Galaxy On7 alongside its smaller sibling - the Galaxy On5. There is a possibility that the Galaxy On7 might come only in Gold, while the Galaxy On5 will retail in four colors: Metallic Gold, Black, Gold and Pink.

The Samsung Galaxy On7 2016 is anticipated to make its debut at the IFA 2016 in September in Berlin, Germany. With the FCC certifying the smartphone, a strong possibility exists that the handset will hit the U.S. shelves soon after.

Photo: Karlis Dambrans | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Lyft is attempting to draw the attention of

prospective acquirers, but Uber has already made clear that it would avoid paying north of $2 billion to purchase its main U.S. ridehailing competitor.

Insiders from Uber stated under anonymity that the company did not push an official offer for the takeover. However, Uber has been pondering about buying Lyft since 2014, and sources familiar with the matter claim that the companies discussed the possibility in an informal setting.

Uber's helm, Travis Kalanick, purportedly stated in a private meeting that even if Lyft would accept the $2 billion deal, he would oppose it as the merging would face harsh regulatory scrutiny from U.S. authorities.

Sources from Lyft underlined that the company finds the $2 billion offer as below acceptable.

The company recently went in a quest for buyers, proposing a $9 billion deal for its assets. As you would expect, the rivals from Uber focused on downplaying Lyft's value claims to investors, a strategy that the company deployed successfully in the past, as well.

Earlier this year, General Motors Co. valued Lyft at $5.5 billion. The ridehailing company and the automaker did meet for informal negotiations aimed at establishing the grounds for an acquisition, sources familiar with the matter noted.

According to insiders, the talks never reached the point of a formal offer. What is more, it looks like Lyft turned down the proposal formulated by GM.

When asked to comment, the automaker chose to stay mum about the subject.

Qatalyst Partners was the consulting company Lyft selected to help it in its quest to find potential acquirers.

People who were close to the negotiations pointed out that Lyft approached other big names, beside GM and Uber. On the list of possible buyers of Lyft were brands such as Amazon, Alphabet, China-based ridehailing giant Didi Chuxing, and Apple.

In July, Didi agreed to purchase Uber China, ending a rivalry that was ongoing for the past two years. If the past is any indicator, the deal should face an easy time passing Chinese regulators. In 2015, authorities greenlighted the merging between Uber's two largest rivals in the country.

Things are a bit more complicated with the anti-monopoly environment in the U.S. For one thing, the rivalry between Lyft and Uber generated more affordable rides for Americans. In 2016, Lyft peeled off some market share from Uber in metropolitan areas of the U.S. On the other hand, this prompted the smaller company to push hard on investments.

Lyft purportedly has $1.4 billion in cash, which should allow it to keep fighting independently.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
More than 100 individuals in Maricopa County in Arizona have been infected with a parasite that officials believe thrive in at least 20 pools in the community.

Health officials are already working to stop the outbreak at several swimming pools to respond to public concerns since the parasite, known as cryptosporidium, or "crypto," was first reported earlier this month.

The parasite, which has caused illness in more than 100 people at about 20 recreational water facilities, can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting and fever. Those with healthy immune systems usually recover after a week or two even without treatment but those with weakened immune system may develop chronic, serious and sometimes deadly illnesses.

People at risk for serious symptoms are those with inherited diseases affecting the immune system, patients with AIDS or cancer and transplant patients who take certain immunosuppressive drugs.

Although the small intestine is often the site affected, cryptosporidium infection in immunocompromised persons may affect areas of the respiratory or digestive tracts.

"Once infected, people with decreased immunity are most at risk for severe disease. The risk of developing severe disease may differ depending on each person's degree of immune suppression," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

Health authorities did not identify contaminated pools but urged potentially contaminated facilities to be treated. The public is likewise encouraged to be cautious when using public pools, properly wash hands with soap and water as well as frequently take bathroom breaks out of the pool to prevent spreading the highly contagious disease.

The disease spreads in pools when infected people contaminate the water with fecal matter. Pools cannot be tested for the parasite but officials identify potentially contaminated swimming facilities after somebody who swam there reported becoming sick.

"The most important thing the public can do to prevent spread of this disease is to stay out of the water if you have diarrhea, until at least two weeks after symptoms resolve," said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, Maricopa County Department of Public Health medical director.

The parasite is difficult to get rid of because it has strong immunity against chlorine. Chlorine is popularly used to kill other pathogens in the water. People can contract the parasite when they drink contaminated water or beverages or when they swallow recreational water contaminated by the parasite.

Authorities discovered the parasite in Maricopa County on Aug. 4 after 19 people fell ill in July.

Earlier this month, health officials in Ohio declared a crypto outbreak following an increase in cases of the diarrheal illness.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
On Friday, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took advantage of the last debate between candidates before Sunday's presidential elections to accuse the current president,... | Read More
Its hard to imagine any questions that havent been raised about Prestage Foods plans to build a pork slaughter and fabrication plant in Wright County.

Its hard to imagine what other information is still needed after the weeks-long series of meetings on the companys plans to build its $240 million plant in the heart of Iowa hog-raising country, 5 miles south of Eagle Grove  or at meetings earlier when the plant was proposed for Mason City.

With answers in hand and the promise of $11.5 million in state incentives on the table, it seems all is in order for the final step  Mondays meeting where the Wright County Board of Supervisors will cast the ultimate yay or nay vote on the plant that promises to provide jobs for more than 900 workers initially and close to 2,000 in the future.

With thoughts of economic benefits flowing to many corners of North Iowa, we urge Wright County supervisors to approve the proposal with the North Carolina-based company. And if they do, we have to admit well be more than a little jealous.

There was great fanfare when the plant was introduced in Mason City. But the proposal that seemed to be on the fast track toward approval got waylaid by considerable public outcry  some from local residents, some from the state organization Citizens for Community Involvement. After a long, emotional period of weeks, the City Councils 3-3 tie vote meant those jobs were lost, along with the substantial payroll.

While the Mason City Council allowed everyone to speak in meetings that took hours, Wright County took a different route  limiting meetings to two hours, with local residents given first opportunity to speak. We dont like limiting free speech, but it was their house and their rules. There were no new arguments, and although we appreciated every opinion, the positives far outweighed any concerns we heard.

On Thursday, another big step in the process took place when the Iowa Economic Development Authority approved $11.5 million in state tax incentives for Prestage  the same incentives the plant would have had in Mason City.

Approval came after 23 people in the crowd of roughly 70 spoke against the plant while eight spoke in favor of it. Many of the concerns involved opposition to taxpayer assistance for out-of-state companies, even though, as a story by Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau reporter Erin Murphy pointed out, Prestage has operated in Iowa since 2003 and can receive the incentives only if it pays state taxes.

An important point to remember is that the majority of the assistance Prestage will receive from Wright County and the state of Iowa is simply a refund or credit on taxes and other fees it will be paying. This isnt money coming from other taxpayers and being given to Prestage. It is a reduction for a specific length of time in the money that Prestage itself will be paying to do business in the county and the state  money that wouldnt exist at all if Prestage wasnt locating here.

Incentive backing of projects has become a routine part of industrial recruitment and development, and if Iowa didnt approve it, another state might have. It would have been a huge disappointment to let those jobs, that gigantic payroll and promise of related development through the years slip away.

Which brings us, then, to this Monday and the Wright County supervisors final decision.

In rural Iowa, rarely do county officials have the opportunity to approve projects that offer such potential to dramatically change the face of their region for the better.

Rarely are they given a chance at projects that will pump millions of dollars into the economy, through payroll, increased housing and retail trade and through related industrial and other business developments.

Rarely are they given a chance to reverse the trend of declining populations with an opportunity to bring in new workers and families, to bring new students into schools ready to embrace them, to bring fresh faces into surrounding communities to be woven into the fabric of the good life in Iowa.

Thats the opportunity in the hands of the Wright County supervisors on Monday. We urge them to approve the development agreement with Prestage Foods and not let North Iowa lose this remarkable opportunity again.
Elephants leave footprints on a rice field in Dak Lak Province as they look for food outside a jungle. Photo: Tien Thanh/Tuoi Tre

Wild elephants from a national park in the Central Highlands continue to scare farmers living near the area as they have rampaged their fields in search of food.

A herd of around 20 elephants were seen foraging for foods around locals fields and tents near Yok Don National Park in Dak Lak Province on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Rangers have been positioned to chased them back to the jungle if necessary.

The park managers have warned of possible clashes between the elephants and farmers, recommending that the later stay away from their fields for some time.

Around six hectares of corn, rice and sugarcane fields have been damaged.

The elephants are possibly the same herd that showed up on local fields in May, locals said. Forest rangers succeeded in driving them back to the jungle then.

There has never been a more sustainable solution, like expanding their habitat or at least putting an end to deforestation.

Dak Lak is home to the largest wild elephant population in Vietnam, which has fallen from 2,000 individuals in the 1980s to a mere 60 now. Habitat loss and poaching have killed most of the others.
Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans a canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in China's central Hunan province

The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened in China's spectacular Zhangjiajie mountains -- the inspiration for American blockbuster Avatar.

Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans the canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in China's central Hunan province.

Six metres wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass, the bridge can carry up to 800 people at the same time, an official in Zhangjiajie -- a popular tourist destination -- told the Xinhua news agency.

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line.

A tourist takes a photograph on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan province

"I wanted to feel awe-inspired by this bridge. But I'm not afraid -- it seems safe!" Wang Min, who was visiting the new structure with her husband and children, told AFP Saturday.

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure.

They organised a string of media events, including one where people were encouraged to try and smash the bridge's glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it.

"It's crowded today and a bit of a mess. But to be suspended 300 metres in the air, it's a unique experience," said Lin Chenglu, who had come to see the bridge with his colleagues.

A girl looks through the glass on the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is seen above a valley in Zhangjiajie in China's Hunan Province on August 20, 2016

Only 8,000 people each day will be allowed to cross the bridge, Xinhua said, and tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan ($20).

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, and people wearing stilettos will not be allowed to walk on the bridge, Xinhua said.

Local authorities have said that one of the summits in Zhangjiajie Park inspired the floating mountain which appears in the American blockbuster Avatar.

A Hollywood photographer visited the area in 2008, taking images which were used for the film, according to media reports.
A police officer secures the scene of an explosion as locals stand next to him after a suspected suicide bomber targeted a wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, Turkey, August 21, 2016.

At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 km (25 miles) from the Syrian border.

President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and from Syria.

Just weeks ago, Erdogan and his government survived an attempted coup, which Ankara blames on U.S.-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Islamic State has been blamed for other attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions, and the deadliest previous one was last October at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists in Ankara when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people.

Saturday's wedding party was for a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, it said, and the groom was among those injured. The bride was not hurt, one local official said.

A woman pauses as she sits near the scene of an explosion where a suspected suicide bomber targeted a wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, Turkey, August 21, 2016.

Celebrations were ending at the traditional henna night party, when guests have decorative paint applied to their hands and feet. Some families had already left when the bomb went off but women and children were among the dead, witnesses said.

Blood and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit. Women in white and checkered scarves cried, sitting crosslegged outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

The local governor's office said in a statement 50 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

"We want to end these massacres," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Funerals, forensic tests

Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, some weeping at coffins draped in the green color of Islam, local television images showed. But other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

Women mourn as they wait in front of a hospital morgue in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, after a suspected bomber targeted a wedding celebration in the city, Turkey, August 21, 2016.

In Gaziantep, the chief prosecutor's office said they had found a destroyed suicide vest at the blast site.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June.

Violence has also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed the PKK.

Turkey began air strikes against Islamic State last July, in the weeks after a peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targeting PKK targets in northern Iraq.

Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shelling from Islamic State territory, killing civilians on some days.

On Sunday, ruling AK Party lawmakers as well as Erdogan himself emphasized that they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organizations.
FAIRFAX, Calif., Aug. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Ryen Morey and Dr. Kelly Pipkin, veterinarians and 2016 graduates from UC Davis, will join the family veterinary practice in Fairfax, reports Fairfax Veterinary Clinic. Dr. Ryen Morey has experience with cats at a cat only clinic and Dr. Kelly Pipkin has raised chickens, rabbits, sheep and more as part of former 4H club activities. The addition of two new veterinarians at Fairfax Veterinary Clinic helps the team better serve pets and their owners. The Fairfax veterinarian team is pleased to offer the expertise of Dr. Ryen Morey and Dr. Kelly Pipkin to their patients and pet owners.



Dr. Ryen Morey earned a BS in Animal Science and a minor in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology before graduating from The University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine in 2016. He enjoys meeting new pets in a family and working with them as they bond with their human families. Dr. Morey and his partner, Erin, live in San Anselmo with their four cats and four fire bellied toads.

Dr. Kelly Pipkin earned her veterinary degree at UC Davis in 2016 after receiving her undergraduate degree in Animal Science at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She chose to join a small animal hospital in Fairfax because of its perfect family-oriented atmosphere, great clients and patients. Kelly is newly married and has recently moved to San Francisco, where she and her husband, Brandon, plan to find the perfect rescue dog to join their family.

I am thrilled to have Dr. Ryen Morey and Dr. Kelly Pipkin join the veterinary team at Fairfax Veterinary Clinic, said Dr. Aaron Wentzell. The background and experience that they each bring, as well as their passion for animal health and wellness, will benefit our patients and clients greatly, and will be a great fit within our community.

Dr. Aaron Wentzell and Dr. Mary Beth Goetting, owners of Fairfax Veterinary Clinic, serve the residents of Fairfax, San Anselmo, Corte Madera, Ross Valley, San Geronimo Valley and San Rafael communities. The five-veterinarian team offers skilled and compassionate care to area pets and their owners. Services include pet wellness, immunizations, bathing/grooming, pet boarding, internal medicine, surgery, emergency services, and dentistry for all types of household companion animals.

Call (415) 454-8204 to schedule an appointment with one of their five skilled veterinarians on staff, or visit http://fairfaxvet.com/ for additional details on their pet care services.




After the prayers ended Sunday morning at the Baker Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adherents headed into the next room where the hammers, shovels and work gloves were stowed.

"When you're in the service of your fellow man, you're in the service of God," Mississippi attorney and judge Steven D. Boone said while fellow Mormons tore the soggy drywall out of a house in Greenwell Springs.

As happened after Hurricane Katrina, religious relief organizations have begun arriving to help victims gut their flooded homes and start rebuilding. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Teams, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Convoy of Hope and Operation Blessing have all announced their intentions to provide support. Non-denominational relief organization Samaritan's Purse also brought about 120 volunteers to perform mud-outs Sunday, said spokesman Scott Knuteson. Some caravaned in from other states, and one woman decided to help after receiving aid herself in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he said.

+7 Faith community steps in to help south La. flood victims Bethany Church in Baker was inundated with 5 feet of water. Farther south on Highland Road i

In the coming weeks the LDS church anticipates bringing thousands of volunteers from cities as far as Houston, Memphis and Panama City. A vanguard of several hundred were already on the ground last weekend, staging out of churches in Baker and Hammond.

The church has been converted to an operations command post. In Baker, the floor outside the sanctuary is covered in plastic to prevent workers from tracking mud inside. Crates of water and stacks of loaves of bread are available to volunteers. Outside, workers push wheelbarrows and drag sleds to their trucks so they'll have equipment to haul debris once they head into disaster areas.

They also load up with three-gallon buckets stuffed with brushes and cleaning supplies which they leave with homeowners when its time to move on to the next house.

After Katrina, the church's disaster relief efforts got more organized, said Randy Bluth, the LDS welfare services manager for Louisiana and Mississippi. A central command center takes requests for assistance and directs individual teams, who try to muck out several houses each day.

Frequently a church member will request help and his neighbors will see the volunteers  who wear bright yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" T-shirts and ask for help, volunteers said. The service, provided free of charge, can be requested by Mormons and non-Mormons alike by calling (800) 451-1954.

Volunteer Heidi Green knows what it's like to be struck by disaster. After her hometown of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, was hammered by a string of tornadoes, members of the church flocked to the area with chainsaws. They helped clean up the damaged structures, which included her school her children attend.

Bryce Kunz, of Jackson, Mississippi, is preparing to make return trips for the next several weeks. His wife is staying home to care for volunteers' children so more people will be able to make the trip. Some out-of-towners are sleeping at the church so they can get started early each day.

Kunz, who other volunteers likened to the Tasmanian Devil for his energy, said church leaders asked him to visit the flood-affected area. But he also feels a personal obligation. Back home the sun is shining and life carries on as normal, but in Louisiana, people are crying out for help.

"You see their hearts are just broken," Kunz said.

Before they leave, volunteers ask homeowners if they would like to pray. During the break in the flurry of activity while they pray together, many homeowners break down sobbing, Boone said.

The volunteers hope they can mitigate at least some of their suffering, even if only by helping them pull out Sheetrock or dragging warped furniture to the curb.
RoyHalladay wrote:

Some of the top schools generate millions just from app fees, not to mention the insane tuition costs.



The application process is expensive as it is for those of us here in the US...I can only imagine how tough it is for international students. For some applicants a few thousand spent on apps, prep material, exams, essay fees, travel, etc isn't a big deal. But I imagine for some, especially international applicants, this is a HUGE investment.



Out of curiosity, my question for international applicants, especially from India, how are you able to afford the entire process--including financing your education? US $2,000 is over INR 100,000. From what I know, this is a significant amount of money for the average person in India.

It depends on the answer to the classic question - "Why MBA and why this school?" And the truth, not the fancy mask that we wear to serenade the adcom.What are my goals, how do I prioritize them and how do I plan to achieve them? How does a B-school fit in the picture? Do I really wants to change the world as I say I want to or I really just need to escape the dreariness of my daily life? Is business my passion or just the means to buy the hottest car that has caught my fancy? Am I or do I want to be more than the proper nouns on my resume?If one has a clear understanding and has answers to these questions, then the MBA decision, and the gargantuan investment that it entails, is a no-brainer really. Unfortunately, it easier said than done. Especially for a majority of us Indians, who are at a different level in the development cycle than much of the world.
DENHAM SPRINGS  The Denham Springs City Council on Saturday afternoon declared a state of emergency for the city and approved spending caps totaling $4.4 million for debris removal and monitoring, which is slated to begin Tuesday.

The council met at Old City Hall, on Mattie Street in the Historic District, because the new City Hall on Government Drive was ravaged by floodwaters this week.

+5 'It hit everywhere': Denham Springs devastated by record flooding Deanna Welch, her hair up and shoulders bare, sat out on the steamy sidewalk in a soggy offi

Old City Hall, which was spared in the flood, had not been the councils home since the late 1960s, but will once again provide a place for council meetings and city court hearings until the Government Drive building can be rehabilitated.

Offices for the citys administration, marshals office and city court judge will be relocated to a building on Range Avenue owned by Capital One Bank, Mayor Gerard Landry said.

During Saturdays emergency meeting, the council agreed to cap its debris removal contract with CERES at $4 million and its monitoring contract with Thompson Consulting Services at $400,000  the same amounts the city spent after Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

I surely dont expect it to be any cheaper today, Landry said. This is a monumental cleanup.

The council also agreed, without a vote, not to enforce existing city ordinances banning residents from living in travel trailers. The unofficial moratorium on enforcement will last for at least the next few weeks, until a new ordinance can be adopted formally allowing the practice for a set time during the recovery period.

Landry suggested a time limit of six months, with perhaps a 120-day extension, while residents work to rebuild or remodel homes devastated by the flooding.

He said the concerns about the trailers include whether residents would tie into existing sewer outlets and not run the vehicles off overloaded extension cords.

Building Official Rick Foster said neither Entergy nor the city would turn on power in an unsafe situation. If existing sources are not enough to power the trailer, residents will need to have a temporary pole installed.

We appreciate everybodys urgency and passion to get back into the city, but we dont need fires we cant get in to fight, Foster said.

In the same meeting, the council agreed to spend about $54,000 on document restoration, after several hundred documents were destroyed when City Hall flooded.

City officials were able to remove the citys computer servers from the building before it flooded, preserving everything that was backed up electronically, Treasurer Michelle Hood has said.

The council also accepted a $100,600 quote from AdvantaClean for cleanup and sanitation services for both City Hall ($79,000) and the neighboring Council on Aging facility ($21,600).

Hood said AdvantaClean had the lowest quote among five received. The highest  and the first to come in  was $250,000.

The council canceled its regularly scheduled meeting for Monday. The board is scheduled to meet again Sept. 13, but may call another special meeting before then if the need arises.
Trey Poirrier and Jerry Gravois stood in waist-deep floodwater near the St. Amant Fire Department Monday morning trying, unsuccessfully, to re
CARLTON 4.5 7.8 10.10 11.12 (78)

MELBOURNE 2.2 4.8 6.10 7.16 (58)

Goals: Carlton: Buckley 3, Graham 2, ,Everitt, Phillips, Jones, Sumner, Wright, Cripps. Melbourne: Neal-Bullen, vandenBerg, Oliver, Hogan, Hunt, Gawn, Bugg.

Best: Carlton: Cripps, Gibbs, Docherty, Simpson, Buckley, Curnow. Melbourne: Viney, Tyson, Jones, Oliver, McDonald, Petracca.

Umpires: Chris Donlon, Brett Rosebury, Andrew Mitchell.

Official Crowd: 40,693 at MCG.

Carlton have put an end to Melbourne's late finals bid with a determined 20-point win at the MCG.

The Demons needed a win to have any chance of snatching eighth spot from North Melbourne, but the Blues jumped to an early lead and were in front at every change to finish 11.12 (78) to 7.16 (58) in slippery conditions on Saturday.

With so much to play for, Melbourne's sluggish start was all too predictable for their fans, who haven't seen their side contest a final since 2006.
Bluescope Steel has forecast a surge in earnings this half after more than doubling profits in the latest financial year as it benefits from cost reductions and higher margins. The June half underlying profit before interest and tax reached $570.5 million which was well ahead of the forecast that it would top $500 million announced just last month. Bluescope's profit followed successive upward revisions thanks to strong demand and lower costs Credit:Louie Douvis In the year to June, the net profit was $353.8 million, more than double the $136.3 million earned a year earlier. The underlying net profit rose to $293.1 million in the year, boosted by a strong second half contribution of $174.1 million, it said.

The strong profit outlook follows a big profit revision just last month when it forecast its year to June profit before interest and tax at $570 million, following successive upgrades to the second half's performance. Originally, it said the second half profit before tax and interest would run at $209 million which it raised to $270 million and subsequently to $340 million. It cited improved margins, but the uplift also follows heavy cost cutting centred on its Port Kembla steelworks with 200 jobs axed and a three-year pay freeze. A steady 3c a share final dividend has been declared. With the Chinese government pressuring its steel mills to merge to lift efficiencies and margins as well as to cut output, there is optimism within the sector that margins could remain firm for some time yet. A year ago Bluescope took full control of the North Star steelworks in North America for $US720 million ($945 million) while earlier this year put its Taharoa iron sands venture in New Zealand up for sale.
Australian building giant Hutchinson faces being banned from millions of dollars in government work after it discriminated against a contractor for not having a union agreement.

The federal construction watchdog is considering slapping the national builder with an extremely rare sanction, which would ban it from tendering for Commonwealth-funded work for 12 months.

'No such thing as a union EBA project': Fair Work Building and Construction director Nigel Hadgkiss. Credit:Simon Schluter

Hutchinson, one of the country's biggest private builders, operates in every Australian state and employs more than 1300 staff nationally.

Earlier this month it was ordered to pay $26,000 in penalties after the firm and its officials refused to engage a tiling business that did not have a workplace agreement with the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
A Queens man who jumped off of a booze cruise into Flushing Bay early this morning and was pulled back on to the boat by the crew died shortly afterwards, according to police.

A police spokesman said the NYPD responded to a radio call about a male in the water off the coast of Rikers Island at about 2:10 a.m. on Sunday morning. When they arrived on the scene, officers found a 56-year-old man unconscious and unresponsive on the Skyline Princess. The man was taken by the harbor unit to a nearby NYPD pier and then rushed by EMS to Flushing Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The spokesman said that before police arrived, the man jumped a railing and slid down the side of the boat into the water. The boat's crew threw him a life preserver, but he ignored it and grabbed on to the ship's exhaust, which caused burns to his hands and his chest. Once he was pulled back on to the ship, he became combative and was handcuffed by the boat's security. Police found him facedown and unresponsive when they arrived, and after moving him on to the harbor unit boat, officers attempted to revive the man with CPR.

The medical examiner is still determining the cause of the man's death and the police investigation into the incident is continuing. Gothamist has reached out to Skyline Cruises for comment and will update if we hear back.
Labor has seized upon the proposed delay of the same-sex marriage plebiscite to 2017, accusing the Coalition of breaking an election promise and reiterating the call for a free vote among MPs to decide the matter this year.

While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said during the election campaign that he expected the plebiscite to be held by the end of the 2016, the Australian Electoral Commission provided advice to the government last week that "strongly recommended" against that timing.

"Mr Turnbull is willing to waste taxpayers' money and provide a platform for hate campaigns, all because he doesn't have the guts to put a vote to Parliament," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.

"Let's just get on with it. Parliament should do its job and deal with a marriage equality bill, with all parties afforded a free vote."
Banks and utility companies that are charging people for paper statements and bills they used to get for free are in Labor's sights as the practice is branded a "rort" that particularly hurts the elderly and disadvantaged. Opposition consumer affairs spokesman Sam Dastyari says companies such as the Commonwealth Bank and utility providers such as Energy Australia and AGL need to be brought into line. Senator Sam Dastyari Credit:Alex Ellinghausen He wants the Turnbull government to include the "alarming" trend in its ongoing review of consumer law. "The whole process is a rort," he told Fairfax Media.

"Let's not pussyfoot around this. This is a new charge placed on older Australians and people who are less computer literate. This is just another example of the digital divide where those on the wrong side are treated shabbily.



"Getting statements should be a right, not a privilege. The power should be in the hands of the consumer."



Senator Dastyari has written to Treasurer Scott Morrison and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer urging them to look at the issue. He says while telecommunications companies are regulated, for everyone else it's a free-for-all. CBA is introducing a $2.50 fee for each extra statement in addition to the standard two free statements it mails to customers each year, despite record profits of more than $9.45 billion. Energy Australia and AGL have also announced charges for their quarterly bills in recent months. Energy Australia will charge $1.69 for each quarterly paper bill and AGL will charge $1.75. "It's beyond me, considering the fees that are already charged, how the Commonwealth Bank thinks it is appropriate to charge $2.50 for a statement," Senator Dastyari said. "They do it because they can."



National Seniors chief advocate Sarah Saunders also wants the issue included in the consumer review. She says more than 20 per cent of over 65s in Australia don't use or have access to the internet.
Labor has continued to push the Turnbull government into abandoning its planned marriage equality plebiscite, but has remained coy on whether it would work with crossbenchers to block its enabling legislation.

Shadow Assistant Minister for Equality Terri Butler, the member for the Brisbane seat of Griffith, on Sunday seized on revelations the controversial $160 million plebiscite could be delayed until 2017.

Ms Butler, who last year partnered with then-Liberal National Party MP Teresa Gambaro to introduce marriage equality legislation in the Federal Parliament, said the government was in "complete shambles" over the issue.

Ms Butler repeated Labor's calls for the matter to instead be decided on the floor of Federal Parliament through a free vote.
Former High Court justice Michael Kirby says a plebiscite on same-sex marriage will create a dangerous political precedent in Australia where MPs avoid making decisions on controversial issues, instead opting for unnecessary and expensive popular votes.

The government is expected to try to pass enabling legislation for a nationwide plebiscite in coming weeks, before a possible vote in February asking Australians if they agree people of the same sex should be allowed to marry.

But Justice Kirby, who served at the High Court from 1996 until 2009, said plebiscite votes were "alien" to Australia's system of representative democracy and the campaign would drive hatred and abuse towards gay and lesbian Australians.

He said Australian voters had rarely supported referendum questions and there was no reason a plebiscite would be any different.
The political furore over the embarrassing website outage on census night appears to have had a silver lining with the Bureau of Statistics receiving about 1.5 million more completed census forms than expected at this stage of the collection process.

Over 6 million of Australia's 9 million households have now submitted a census form online or by post, well above the 4.5 million responses the bureau had anticipated receiving at this point.

"We actually thought that as few as 50 per cent of the Australian population would respond before we needed to start visiting households," the census head, Duncan Young, told Fairfax in his first extended interview since census night.

"We are ahead of our original plan, which is quite remarkable when you consider the fact that we did not have our online form available for 40 hours, including for some of our peak period on census night."
When Jennifer Hawkins takes her first steps on the catwalk for Myer's spring/summer launch parade on Tuesday night, there will be 1400 very important eyes looking on.

While the media and VIPs will be there, the department store has also invited 700 of its most valuable customers to experience what it's like to live like a front-row celebrity for the night.

Brittany Farinola, 20, tries on a designer dress at the Myer store in Adelaide before her trip to Sydney for this week's spring/summer launch parade. Credit:David Mariuz

It's all part of Myer's new strategy to reward its best customers  including but not limited to its highest spending ones  with money-can't-buy experiences.

"What we want to move away from is points and promotion to experiential relationships with our customers," explains Daniel Bracken, Myer's deputy chief executive and chief merchandise officer.
During one of my mother's recent visits to Australia to see me, I suggested we go to the Sexpo exhibition. She agreed, although without knowing exactly what she was agreeing to.

You see, my mother lives in Crown Heights, a Hassidic neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Along with my father and brothers, she moved there from Israel 15 years ago. In Crown Heights, where the air ripples with klezmer music deep into the night and the residents believe their dead leader Rabbi Lubavitch will eventually make his comeback as the Messiah, exhibitions featuring nipple clamps aren't exactly a prominent feature.

Lee Kofman's visit to Sexpo with her mother was a surprisingly bonding experience. Credit:Stocksy

I don't think my mother even realised that Sexpo had anything to do with sex. All she probably heard was this was an invitation to spend time with her daughter at some mysterious exhibition, and she loves art.

So in my eagerness to shock my mother, to show her how different my life was now from the one she had hoped I would lead, I stooped so low as to capitalise on her naivety.
Greens councillor Jonathan Sri has led what he described as "civil disobedience" in a march through West End and a "creative occupation" of the site of a proposed controversial development in the suburb.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad last month announced she was considering calling in the Brisbane City Council-approved plans for the two-hectare Absoe site in the heart of West End.

Greens councillor Jonathan Sri leads the 'occupation' of the West Village development site. Credit:Cameron Atfield

Should she decide to call in the development, Ms Trad  and not the council  would become the project's assessment manager.

About 150 people took to the streets of the suburb on Sunday morning to protest the West Village development and present an alternative vision for the site.
THE owner of Kittens strip club is negotiating a secret financial settlement with the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang in a bid to resolve a violent two-year feud that has included a string of drive-by shootings and a fire bombing.

Several underworld sources have told Fairfax Media that Jason Dimozantos, who owns Kittens in South Melbourne and Caulfield South, has directed a representative to pay off the bikie gang to stop the repeated attacks on his venues.

It is understood that attempts have also been made to find an independent mediator.

Comanchero national president Mick Murray is understood to want $250,000 to end the bitter vendetta, in a deal described by a senior police source as "obviously extortion".
Culture

Nasernias Calligraphic Confluence at Mestaria Gallery resolves binaries

For me, it was so important to look deeper into this connection and as I was pondering upon their philosophical implications, I became more aware of the importance of language as the main form of encapsulation of thought and consciousness.
Australia's largest not-for-profit animal hospital says it needs to raise almost $500,000 before the end of the year to keep afloat its veterinary service for surrendered animals.

As the Lort Smith Animal Hospital launches its latest appeal, chief executive David Herman said more than $750,000 was spent each year on caring for creatures great and small in its adoption centre.

Who's a pretty Polly: Lort Smith Animal Hospital needs to raise almost $500,000 for vet care for surrendered animals like cockatiel Polly (pictured on the shoulder of animal welfare officer Lisa Varrasso) that it puts up for adoption. Credit:Pat Scala

There was a shortfall of $495,000 to raise before the end of the calendar year.

Asked if the centre, part of the hospital which turns 80 this year, was in crisis, he said, "Our need to continue to raise funds is always to some degree a crisis because we don't get any other funding.
Imagine a change that would save millions of dollars a year  and keep vulnerable young people away from homelessness and the courts. And it is something foster carers like Vicki Bailey have been doing for years.

There is clear evidence that young people who have been in foster or residential care are more likely to get caught in a cycle of disadvantage, which can span generations.

Sam Warner, 18, has spent most of her life in foster care. Credit:Eddie Jim

Now, for the first time in Australia, an economic argument has been made for the benefits of raising the age that young people leave foster care, from 18 to 21 years.

Not only would it mean better outcomes for care leavers, but it would also save millions in areas like welfare, mental health and justice, according new research commissioned by Anglicare Victoria.
The owner of a dog who bit a three-year-old girl on the face in Victoria's north on Saturday night says the attack was out of character.

Police and paramedics were called to a property on Pain Killer Road in Dunolly, west of Bendigo, about 7pm, following reports that a toddler had been injured by a dog.

A toddler was flown to the Royal Children's Hospital in a serious condition on Saturday night. Credit:Pat Scala

The toddler was flown to Royal Melbourne Children's hospital with facial injuries. Surgeons reportedly operated on her face on Sunday afternoon.

Police said the dog was a cross breed.
A 23-year-old Banksia man has been charged over two shocking attacks in Perth's northern suburbs.

One of the victims, a 75-year-old man, is being treated for stabbing injuries to his face and arms.

The Great Escape has been a long-time tenant of Hillarys Boat Harbour. Credit:Erin Jonasson

The second victim, a 48-year-old man, was left with a broken eye socket and fractured skull.

Police say the elderly victim was sitting in his car at Hillarys Boat Harbour around 1.40pm on Saturday when two men got into his vehicle.
West Australian Health Minister John Day has expressed his support for a form a euthanasia.

Mr Day was careful in saying he accepted doctors may hasten a terminally ill patient's death but in the context of providing pain relief medication only.

Health Minister John Day supports a restricted form of euthanasia. Credit:WA State Parliament

"We do need to rely on professional, compassionate doctors to provide care in the best way that they can and if that means giving medication which is to relieve suffering or pain but also brings forward to some extent the time of death then I think that is a reasonable approach," he said.

The minister was responding to a media report on Saturday that revealed a Perth GP admitted giving a lethal injection to hasten the death of a woman in her 80s who was suffering from emphysema.
Mexico City: Discrepancies plague the official account of a deadly assault last year in which Mexican police allegedly executed 22 suspected gang members, burned bodies, manipulated the crime scene and tortured survivors, newly-revealed details show.

In May 2015, a woman walked into a police station in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara and told investigators a group of about 50 men had broken into a local ranch she administered and said they wanted to buy the property.

May 22, 2015: Mexican state police stand guard near the entrance of Rancho del Sol after the shootout with suspected gangsters. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has concluded that 22 people were arbitrarily executed by federal police at the ranch. Credit:AP

It was not the first time the men, suspected members of the fearsome Jalisco New Generation (JNG) cartel, had visited the "Rancho Del Sol", just outside the town of Tanhuato. According to one of the ranch's tenants, they first appeared in 2014, demanding access to tap oil pipes that ran through the property.

The woman, whose husband owned the ranch until he disappeared after being kidnapped in 2012, asked security forces to go to the property and flush out the intruders.
Istanbul: A suicide bomber thought to be as young as 12 killed at least 50 people when he blew himself up among people dancing in the street at a wedding party in southern Turkey.

The attacker was a child between the ages of 12 and 14, President Tayyip Erdogan said.

In comments shown live by broadcaster NTV, Mr Erdogan also confirmed that 51 people had died in the blast, and 69 were wounded in the attack on the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 km from the Syrian border.

Seventeen of the injured were "heavily" wounded, Mr Erdogan said.
Activists protested at the Republican convention in Cleveland over Donald Trump's plans for a wall along the US-Mexican border. Credit:AP Univision, meanwhile, reported that three attendees said Mr Trump "plans to present an immigration plan in Colorado [on] Thursday that will include finding a way to legalise millions of undocumented immigrants". Top Trump advisers were asked on Sunday to respond to the reports, and they did not exactly reject them. Trump's hardline stand on migrants has been a cornerstone of his campaign Credit:Laura McDermott Asked twice whether he was sticking with his plan for a deportation force, newly installed Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway deflected and then told CNN that it was "to be determined".

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said Mr Trump was "wrestling" with how to handle illegal immigrants already in the US. "What I'm certain about is that he did not make a firm commitment yesterday, or the meeting the other day, about what he will do with that," Mr Sessions said on CBS News when asked whether Mr Trump still supports deporting all 11 million. "But he did listen, and he's talking about it." Mr Trump's campaign is playing down the reports and says nothing has really changed. But it clearly has.

Even in equivocating and saying it's "to be determined", the campaign is striking a far different tone than Mr Trump has before. Ms Conway was twice given the chance to reiterate that Mr Trump will deport all illegal immigrants, and she didn't. And, to be clear, that has been Mr Trump's position. Anything else would present a major change from a guy whose primary victory and 2016 campaign writ large have been defined by his hard-line immigration stance. In August 2015, when asked on NBC's Meet the Press whether he would deport all illegal immigrants, Mr Trump repeatedly responded, "They have to go." In September, he confirmed to 60 Minutes that was his position, saying they could apply for legalisation after being deported.

Mr Trump repeated his promise of a deportation force in November, even pointing to "Operation Wetback" - a large-scale removal of illegal immigrants under Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 that is now seen as inhumane - though not by name. And Mr Trump was crystal-clear in a February debate. "We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally," he said. "They will go out. They will come back - some will come back, the best, through a process. They have to come back legally." This weekend, though, is not the first time that Mr Trump has signalled that he might soften that position.

In a February interview with The New York Times editorial board, Mr Trump reportedly said that his plan was negotiable (he later denied that). In June, Mr Trump said he would not describe his plan as "mass deportation". We don't know what Mr Trump will propose in the days and weeks ahead, but the fact that he's even thinking about it is notable, because his existing plan was clear and unequivocal, presented over and over again. Mr Trump's positions on the issues have changed before. He is not a model of consistency, to put it mildly. Loading






AUTO CENTRAL - Chicago, August 21, 2016: Every Sunday Larry Nutson, Senior Editor and Chicago Car Guy along with fellow senior editors Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, give you TACH's "take" on this past week's automotive news in easy to digest mega-tweet sized nuggets. If you wish to know more just click on the link that will take you to the full story as published here on The Auto Channel.

If you are a car and driving fan like we all are here at The Auto Channel, you can easily wish to "catch up" on these stories as well put them in context with the past 20 year's 1,989,279 automotive news, automotive stories, articles, reviews, archived news, video, audio, rants and raves. Just search The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive.

Hey Boston TV viewers, you can now enjoy The Auto Channel TV Network "Free and Clear" on WHDT Channel 3 in Boston and on your local cable systems. Just added Naples Florida, along with all South Florida auto fans who can continue to watch The Auto Channel TV Network on WHDT-TV Channel 9 in West Palm Beach as well as cable channel's 17 and 438, channel 9 Miami. WHDN launched its full schedule (including The Auto Channel)of broadcasting in the Naples-Fort Myers market on digital PSIP channel 9.1 channel. Enjoy and thanks for the positive feedback and ratings. See You Next Week, LN.

Nutson's Automotive News Factoids Week Of August 8-13, 2016

* This middle week in August is the traditional time for two of the most important car events in the country - the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit and the Monterey Car Week culminating in the Pebble Beach Concours dElegance on Sunday. The former celebrates the automobile and motorcycle interests of everyman with every imaginable type of wheeled vehicle spending every evening leading up to Saturday cruising up and down Woodward Avenue where many showed off their cars in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The latter is the most prestigious classic and collector car show in the country with way more trailer queens than driven cars.

* One of the prime corners on the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise route was the scene this week of the Historic Vehicle Associations presentation of the most recent inductee into the National Historic Vehicle Register at the Library of Congress - the first production Camaro ever built. The honor comes on the 50th anniversary of the first of 52 pre-production Camaros built by GM. Logan Lawson from Kansas, 18-years-old and headed for college next month, found the car on a message board. Then he and his dad Corey researched and restored the car. The car is contained in an illuminated glass case for the duration of the Dream Cruise.

* Pebble Beach has become a popular venue for premium automakers to reveal new products. One of those this year is Cadillacs newest concept car called Escala, said to be based on the new CT6 rear-wheel drive big sedan. The Escala reveals a new design direction for the brand according to Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen. The powertrain is a prototype 4.2-liter, twin-turbo V-8 expected to be used in future Cadillac vehicles. Even the infotainment system is a concept design with voice commands and gesture controls.

* Ford CEO Mark Fields announced the companys plan to bring fully autonomous vehicles to the road in high volume by 2021. Commercial ride-sharing or ride-hailing companies will be the first to use these autonomous vehicles, which will have neither steering wheels nor pedals. Fields stressed these were not exclusive to the luxury market and will have an impact on society comparable to Henry Fords assembly line. The company is investing in or collaborating with four startups to enhance its autonomous vehicle development, doubling its Silicon Valley team and more than doubling its Palo Alto campus.

* The AIADA online newsletter reported that according to the website Priceonomics the Toyota brand and its gas-electric hybrid Prius are the winners in keeping maintenance costs low in the long run and luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz are on the high end of maintenance costs. Hyundai and Kia have the lowest maintenance costs for the first 75,000 miles followed by Toyota, Honda, and Subaru.

* And at the Olympics, a small green remote-control pickup, the same kind an 8-year old would play with, plays fetch during throwing events. The pickup is used to ferry shots, discus, hammers and javelins back to the throwing cage.

* Talk to me. Audi's 2017 Q7, A4 and A4 Allroad models will feature the first commercial use of vehicle to infrastructure technology. The technology allows Audi vehicles to talk to traffic signals, giving drivers a advanced warning of traffic light changes. It will be available in select cities and metropolitan areas across the U.S. The Audi receives real-time signal information from the advanced traffic management system that monitors traffic lights.

* Danny Thompson, son of American racing legend Mickey Thompson, has been trying since 2014 to set a Land Speed Record at Bonneville in the Challenger II, a streamliner built by his dad in 1968 and originally known as the Autolite Special. After two years of mechanical frustrations and environmental delays, the Thompson LSR team caught a break last weekend, turning in a pair of passes that averaged 406.7695 MPH, good enough to set a new Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) record in the AA/FS class.

* Federal Transportation regulators issued aggressive new emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks. Officials said the new standards would require up to a 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions (larger than previously proposed) for big tractor-trailers over the next 10 years, and somewhat smaller improvements for delivery trucks, school buses and other large vehicles. The cost to comply is expected to run $12,000 per vehicle and bring improvements from the current 6 mpg average fuel economy for the big rigs.

* Ford plans to extend production of its popular GT supercar for another two years. Ford received more than 6,000 applications for the first 500 GTs that will be produced as 2017 and 2018 model-year cars. Now the supercars run will extend through the 2020 model year with production of about 250 cars per year.

* AutoWeek reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is in talks with Volkswagen in an effort to settle criminal charges filed in January against company officials. The specific charges have not be listed, though in rare previous cases automakers have been charged with making false statements to the government and concealing information from regulatory agencies. The diesel emissions cheating scandal has cost VW billions of dollars in the U.S. and around the world and decimated the sales of previously popular diesel cars. It is unclear whether U.S. jurisdiction extends to individuals at the company in Germany.

* A new NASCAR star is on the horizon. Richard Pettys 15-year-old grandson won his first stock car race last week at the Anderson Motor Speedway in South Carolina. Thad Moffitt drove the Number 46 Late Model Daytona 1 Challenger Series car to a win starting from the pole and he now leads the series. He has been racing quarter midgets and go karts before entering the Late Model Challenger Series. Grandpa Richard Petty is quoted as saying, Im just like anyone else, Im a proud granddaddy."
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
1. Fill in your name or an alias. Do not leave blank or use the name 'guest' or 'anonymous'.

2. No Nivul Peh. Profanity will be deleted.
Monday 05 September, 2016 Reliable information reaching Biafra writers desk has it that the life of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indi...
A likely victory by the All Blacks against the Wallabies in rugby union this weekend will, sadly, give New Zealanders another reason to crow. Investors who follow NZ stocks also have reason to cheer: several that are dual-listed on ASX have starred this year.

Analysis of 45 Kiwi companies listed on NZX and ASX shows some stunning returns. The top 20 performers on a total return basis (assuming dividend reinvestment) delivered a 53 per cent median gain in the year to August 2016 in difficult market conditions,

The A2 Milk Company, Trade Me Group, Auckland International Airport, Chorus, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation, Gentrack Group and Vista Group International have rallied. Energy providers, Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy, have also posted good one-year returns.

More Kiwi companies are dual listing on ASX to access an Australian capital pool and investor base that is several times larger than that in New Zealand. The Australian Securities Exchanges changes to listing requirements for NZ companies also has boosted demand.

ASX last year made it easier for NZ companies to dual list their securities on ASX with the introduction of a NZ Foreign Exempt listing category. It removed the ASX-compliant prospectus requirement and allowed NZ companies to comply with NZX Listing Rules rather than all ASX Listing Rules, saving time and money.

Extrapolating trends from a diverse group of NZ companies is always dangerous. But I suspect NZ companies, in aggregate, are getting a boost from dual listing on ASX because they are satisfying the markets appetite for small and mid-cap growth stocks. Or in the case of large NZ companies, investor demand for new offerings in sectors outside banks and resources.

I have covered several smaller NZ stocks for The Bull in the past 18 months, notably Trade Me Group, Vista Group International and CBL Corporation, another good performer.

Orion Health Group is another that has caught my attention recently. The New Zealand-based healthcare information technology company listed on ASX in November 2014, raising $111 million in an initial public offerings. Orions $5.11 issued shares now trade at $4.24, halving almost halved at one point. Orions early performance again reinforces my view that most IPOs are best bought a year or two after listing, when there is more trading history and better value emerges.

Orion looks undervalued. Healthcare IT has a good long-term outlook. As an ageing population increases healthcare demand, hospital operators will have to find efficiency gains to offset rising costs. Better technology systems will help many hospitals move from silo structures to a more integrated approach where data sharing across departments improves healthcare delivery.

Orions main product, Rhapsody, integrates a complex web of information technology system that often exist in healthcare organisations. It allows different hospital departments to use one main technology stem and connect with other community stakeholders.

Orion looks well positioned to benefit from the move towards electronic health records, within hospitals and outside them. The United States and other developed countries are pushing towards patient care models where individual healthcare is co-ordinated in a more integrated manner. Strong healthcare systems and data are the key.

The potential is healthcare providers across the system being able to access a patients common electronic health record, with permission, in a high security/privacy platform. Thats a lot smarter than different healthcare providers keeping different patient records and not integrating them.

The need to drive efficiency gains through better healthcare technology system is a tailwind for Orion. However, competition in this sector is intense and giant multinationals, such as GE Healthcare, have entrenched market positions in this field.

Orion makes the grade on valuation grounds. Macquarie Equities Research has an outperform recommendation and 12-month price target of $A5.21 ($NZ5.50). That suggests Orion is undervalued at the current A$4.22.

Macquarie says patient health records on Orion software will increase from just over 100 million to 410 million in the next decade and it expects the companys earnings margins to expand from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in that period.

Orion has delivered a 21 per cent total return over 12 months to August 2016 (assuming dividend reinvestment), Morningstar data shows. But it still trades well below the issue price and has disappointed investors since listing.

That should change in the next few years as Orion expands its presence in healthcare software and capitalises on greater hospital investment in technology systems.

As a $678-million company, Orion suits experienced long-term investors who are comfortable with small-cap stocks.

Chart 1: Orion Health Group1 Source: The Bull

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Tony Featherstone is a former managing editor of BRW and Shares magazines. The information in this article should not be considered personal advice. The article has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or particular needs. Before acting on the information in this article you should consider the appropriateness of the information, with regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. Do further research of your own or seek personal financial advice from a licensed adviser before making any financial or investment decisions based on this article. All prices and analysis at August 19, 2016.
They are all Romans now, proclaims Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, as he watches throngs of Jews exult over the chariot victory of their champion, Judah Ben-Hur. The line speaks to one element (among many) that the new Ben-Hur so utterly lacks: any insight into the meaning of Roman identity and power in a culturally diverse world. For a country with long-term military commitments in the Middle East, in landscapes very much like the sets of this hollow remake, that lack is deeply troubling.

Ancient Rome has often served Hollywood studios as a stand-in for America in its role as world hegemon, as well as for the militaristic regimes that threaten American freedom. That dual legacy was a central theme of the Coen brothers film-within-a-film, Hail Caesar!, released earlier this year. In part a spoof of the 1959 Ben-Hur, this savvy comedy set the story of a Roman soldier in Jerusalem against the backdrop of the Cold War. George Clooney, playing an officer of the Roman army of occupation, simultaneously converts (in the interior film) to the worship of Christ and (in the exterior film) to the utopian Communist vision preached by a cadre of pro-Russian screenwriters, while also contemplating a job with an aerospace firm developing new nuclear weapons.

Hail, Caesar! took as its premise the idea that no Hollywood portrayal of ancient Rome exists in a political vacuum. Global hegemony is a rare enough phenomenon, historically, that the Roman Empire inevitably becomes a mirror for American power in the post-World War II world, albeit a distorting one. And when that Empire goes toe to toe with Middle Eastern religious fanatics, as in the Ben-Hur story, the parallels become inescapable, and profoundly disquieting.

The new Ben-Hur seems to highlight these parallels with an important change to the plot of the previous versions (three American films, going back to 1907, and the 1880 novel on which they were based). The incident that sets Judah Ben-Hur, Judaean prince, against his childhood friend Messala, Roman officer, is, in these earlier Ben-Hurs, a piece of fantastically bad luck. While the Hur family watches from their roof a Roman military procession through Jerusalem, a tile slides from a parapet and falls to the street below. Judah and his family are blamed for the affront, however accidental, to Roman authority.

The 2016 Ben-Hur reimagines this incident as an attack mounted by a young Zealot, a Jewish guerrilla fighting the Roman occupation, whom Judah had, for humanitarian reasons, sheltered in his home. This wild-eyed boy fires a single arrow at Pontius Pilate as he passes in the procession, narrowly missing him but killing another soldier. The episode clearly evokes modern insurgent tacticsthe sniper fire and IEDs to which Western troop convoys are exposed, as they pass through the streets of Fallujah and Ramadileaving an American moviegoer somewhat puzzled as to which side in this ancient struggle he or she is on. Judah, for his part, is infuriated by the attack but implicitly condones it by helping the Zealot escape.

Other episodes of the new Ben-Hur, as well as of Risen, another (and considerably better) Rome-in-the-Mideast movie that had a brief run in theaters this February, strongly evoke the role that American troops have had to play in the past 15 years. In both films, Roman officers are seen interrogating suspected guerillas, recruiting informers, and (in the case of Risen at least) going undercover to gain information. The religious opposition to their army of occupation is, of course, Jewish and/or Christian, not Muslim, but one form of fanatical monotheism, from the perspective of the Romans at least, must have looked much like another.

Youre either with me or against me, says Messala to Judah Ben-Hur in the 1959 film, but this new version seems to want to have things both ways. Whereas the death of Messala in the earlier film emblematized the triumph of Judeo-Christian freedom over Roman imperial domination, Messala is strangely rehabilitated in the remake anda spoiler alert would be appropriate here, were the film able to evoke any real emotion or engagementrejoins the Hur family as a convert to  what exactly? The merry band goes off to some vague utopian destiny, but whether Messala is still Roman, or (as his counterpart Clavius was in Risen) a new apostle of Christianity, remains unclear. Somehow the force of universal love is made capable of uniting two mutually hostile world systems.

In another new element in this version, a montage of Messalas career as a soldier in Romes frontier wars, a voiceover speaks vaguely of the goal for which both Judah and Messala are fightinga civilized world. Its perhaps the lowest common denominator shared between two cultures that seem otherwise to be on a collision course. To a moviegoer attuned to recent American confrontations with religious zealotry in the Mideast, the 2016 Ben-Hur suggests, like Risen did before it, a total absence of conviction as to how that goal can be achieved.
Names and faces

Mountain-Pacific Quality Health welcomes back Mark Eichler, RPh, as manager of Pharmacy Programs. Eichler previously served as Mountain-Pacifics Drug Utilization Review coordinator and Pharmacy Programs director. He was with Mountain-Pacific for 20 years.

In this new position, Eichler will oversee the clinical and administrative management of the DUR and Drug Prior Authorization contracts for Montana Medicaid in addition to other pharmacy contracts. Eichler attended the University of Montana School of Pharmacy and is a registered pharmacist. He has more than 25 years experience in pharmacy management services.

***

Carroll College announced that it has appointed Kellie Dold as the new Director of Annual Giving in the Office of Institutional Advancement. Dolds appointment follows the retirement of Gayle Agostinelli, who has led Annual Giving for the past 16 years.

Dold has served as the Senior Annual Giving Officer for six years. Her primary responsibilities have included the IMPACT phonathon, Grateful Saints program and the Senior Grateful Saints Campaign. Dold received a bachelor of science degree in sociology from Montana State UniversityBozeman in 2009.

News and notes

MMA annual meeting upcoming

Montana Medical Association President Roman M. Hendrickson, M.D., of Helena, invites all Montana physicians and health care providers to gather in Helena on Sept. 9-10 for the 138th Annual MMA Membership and Board of Trustees Meeting by registering at www.mmaoffice.org. The theme for this years meeting is "Switch It On! Transformation of Clinical Practices with Telemedicine and Emerging Payment Models."

Attendees of the meeting, held at the Radisson Colonial Hotel, will learn how Montana providers are currently using Telemedicine in their practice, the regulations surrounding the use of technology, and how they can switch on emerging Telemedicine technologies in their practice.

Physician officers and members of the MMA Executive Committee will be elected on Sept. 10 and current MMA President Roman M. Hendrickson, M.D., will pass the gavel to incoming MMA President William S.Gallea, M.D., of Helena.

For more information and to register visit www.mmaoffice.org.

***

Free safety workshop offered

Montana State Fund, the states largest workers compensation insurer, is hosting a free safety workshop in Helena on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at the Holiday Inn Express.

The topics for the workshop include a review of the latest OSHA and Montana Department of Labor and Industry compliance requirements and how employers can create effective safety programs at their businesses.

The workshop will take place from 8:30 a.m.noon. Participants do not have to be a Montana State Fund policyholder to attend. To register, or for more information, go to safemt.com.

***

MVD now accepts credit, debit cards

The Motor Vehicle Services Division (MVD) at the Montana Department of Justice announced customers at its exam stations will now be able to use credit and debit cards to pay for their in-person transactions.

The roll-out of the new payment option began a few weeks ago in Helenas exam station as well as MVDs Records and Driver Control Unit, which administers all driver license records and actions. According to Motor Vehicle Division Administrator Sarah Garcia, credit/debit card payment availability should be offered statewide soon.

MVD exam stations will continue to accept payment in the form of cash or check, in addition to debit cards and Master Card and Visa credit cards.

Last fall, MVD announced the availability of online appointment scheduling in an effort to enhance convenience for its customers. Visit www.dojmt.gov/driving for details about required documentation, fees, and other information needed before scheduling appointments, including written and road tests, converting an out-of-state license to Montana, license renewals, and completion of some types of driver education programs. People who do not have computer or smartphone access can call the MVD Customer Service Center toll free at 1-866-450-8034.

Guidelines

The IR welcomes reports of hiring, promotions, awards, recognition, learning opportunities and other news from local companies and nonprofits. We accept press releases and photos (digital images at 300 dpi or more are preferred, but we can also use regular photos; we dont guarantee return of these).

There is no charge for items appearing in the Business Briefcase. Items are run on a space-available basis, and we reserve the right to edit and use information as we see fit.

The deadline is Tuesday at noon to be considered for publication the following Sunday.
FREDERICKSBURG, Va.By the end of the speech, it still wasnt clear what Donald Trump was doing here in the 120,000-square-foot expo center, a space which usually hosts gun shows or quilting conventions but was on Saturday filled not quite to capacity with people decorated by Make America Great Again! paraphernalia.

Fredericksburg, an independent city of less than 30,000, has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988, when George H.W. Bush got 55 percent of the vote. After Bill Clinton won in 1992 with 47.5 percent, the residents never gave the Grand Old Party another glance.

It is also 73 percent white, at a time when Trump needs to be reaching out to the African-American community. Although he insists he will win 95 percent of the African-American vote, he is polling around 0 or 1 percent with the demographic.

One elderly woman smoking outside the rally before Trump arrived said she was from France and became an American citizen about 20 years ago. She wore a gray T-shirt with an American flag in the shape of a heart on it. She believed that Trump would win if a few black voters decided to support him.

At the rate things are going now with all constituencies, it seems unlikely that Trump could win the presidency without winning Virginia. But his numbers here are only getting worse.

Hillary Clinton has consistently led the polls here since at least October of 2015, according to the data provided by Real Clear Politics.

She led by a double-digit margin until May, when things began to tighten somewhat, culminating in mid-July when she was ahead by only 3.5 points. But the numbers soon changed in her favor.

Over the last several weeks, Clinton has seen a dramatic surge that has her beating Trump by a solid 11 points on average. In a recent NBC/WSJ/Marist poll, she was up by 13 points.

Like so much of Trumps campaign, his travel schedule doesnt have a message, either. The wisdom of campaigning in a small city of predominantly white Democrats, in a state where he is doing worse with each passing day, is unclear.

He seems to go wherever he wants, regardless of the fact that where he wants to go is often a place that he is wasting money by visiting. He recently campaigned in Connecticut, a state which has nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans and hasnt voted for a Republican, like Fredericksburg, since 1988.

The phenomenon of Trumps possibly useless travel is especially curious as it continues this week, amid a staff shakeup thatagainwas supposed to usher in a new era of Trump the Professional Candidate.

Although, maybe he was just here in Fredericksburg for practice.

Trump read dutifully from his teleprompter, straying only to add commentary for comedic or dramatic effect and not to say anything completely insane (by his standards).

To the degree that he has a message, he stayed on it for the duration of his remarks, talking loudly but dispassionately about veterans, trade, law enforcement, immigration, terrorism and the phantom great, safe and wealthy America of some distant but unspecified era.

Law and order will be restored to the United States of America! he said. Put America first! America first! And its going to be America first from now on. He decried the alleged large numbers of gang members [who] are in this country illegally right here in Virginia!

In the audience was David Brat, the Republican Virginia congressman who won a surprise victory over former Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the epitome of an establishment Republican. Like Trump, Brat struck an outsider message.

Brat wore a white dress shirt and blue seersucker pants. He lingered by the press pen and affably talked to reporter after reporter. Weve got the next president of the United States here, so its a good reason to be here, he told me.

We ran on similar issues, he said, although he admitted that Trumps rhetoric is rather different. Everybody steps in it, he said. But, he added, Im praying hell turn things around by staying on message.

The last two speeches he gave were awesome, Brat said, Its African-American, Hispanics: how are the little guys doing, for real? Terrible. Thats the facts, its undisputed. Every inner citys owned, basically, by a Democrat machine. And so hes making a pitch, and I made the same pitch.

Onstage, Trump attempted to talk about race, but it seemed designed to check off a box more than to genuinely make that pitch to African-American voters.

Ive asked the African-American community to honor me with their vote, he said Saturday. I fully recognize that outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better.The GOP is the Party of Lincoln, and I want our party to be the home of the African-American vote once again. I want an inclusive country, and I want an inclusive party. We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.

He said his campaign is about giving voice to the people who turn on television every night and dont see anyone speaking up for themthe forgotten man, the forgotten woman. Although, its difficult to turn on the television any night and not be bombarded by Trump supporters yammering.

I am your voice, he said. I will never let you down.

Then, in rapid succession, he said, Together, We Will Make America Wealthy Again.

We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again.

And We Will Make America Great Again For Each And Every American.

Thank you, and God Bless You!

Although it feels trite at this point to note it here, in the interest of accuracy: Trump left the stage, as he typically does, to The Rolling Stones You Cant Always Get What You Want.
The murder in cold blood and in broad daylight of a religious leader is horrifying enough. Especially in America, we associate our preachers with words not swords and expect them to be immune from violence. But merely a half-century ago, someone could brazenly kill an Episcopalian seminarian and shoot a Catholic priest without being punished. It happened, in August 1965, in racist Alabama.

In a just world, Jonathan Daniels, born in 1939, would be now completing a long, satisfying career as an Episcopal elder. Instead, he died a 26-year-old civil-rights martyr who sacrificed his life protecting a young Black teenager.

Daniels was studying in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Episcopal Theological Schooltodays Episcopal Divinity School. In March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.s call for moral leadership from clerics brought Daniels to Selma, Alabama. Unlike most, he stayed, realizing, I could not stand by in benevolent dispassion any longer without compromising everything I know and love and value. The imperative was too clear, the stakes too high, my own identity was called too nakedly into question. I had been blinded by what I saw here (and elsewhere), and the road to Damascus led, for me, back here.
Karen Finley materialized amongst the audience at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on New Yorks 42nd Street, a phosphorescent eruption of white fur and silvery sleeves, then moved stage-wards, unleashing a stream of commentary punctuated by smiles of unnerving brilliance, her chin thrust forwards.

This evening is billed as Unicorn Gratitude Mystery and Finley is clearly the Unicorn. She got to the stage, swung around and the sharp-edged one-liners began.

Rewind time. I first saw Finleys work at the Pyramid on Avenue A in the East Village in the 80s.

She would deliver herself of searing social and personal commentary, sometimes naked and always with an involving orchestration of shrieks, groans and whoops.

I missed performances during which she applied yams and coated herself with chocolate, actions which have entered the lore of transgressive art, but what was at once terrific and paradoxical about the pieces I did see was that she was communicating abjection with unerring command of her space.

Finley was born in Chicago in 1956 to an Irish-American family which included the unflinching humorist, Finley Peter Dunne, known for such observations as Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, who in a period when the powers-that-be had thicker skins was much admired by his frequent target, President Theodore Roosevelt.

Finley went to college in Chicago, them on to the San Francisco Art Institute, where she became involved with Bay Area Punk, performing in gallery spaces and burlesque houses.

It was there she met Brian Routh, a Brit with the raw performance duo, the Kipper Kids. They were married in 1981.

Finley launched into performance and art-making in New York after graduation and put bread on the table by working in clubs.

I was a bar tender at Danceteria, she says. I worked at Area too. I used to do the liquor inventory on Mondays. I co-curated Obsession Night one summer. The club culture was fierce. And it was radical. I think having fun is a radical gesture. Im interested in spaces which are against being obedient. The obedient culture. I guess thats why I like performing in a club. Its my preferred space.

By the time I saw Finley she was very much part of the culturescape, not just in New York, but far-flunga British performance was shut down in 1986and not just in clubs but in such spaces as Lincoln Center.

Her work was, and is, raw to the point of scariness, accessing such dark materials as her fathers suicide, incest, and the violation of children. But what Finleys pieces are not, of course, is erotic.

Nonetheless in 1990 details of her oeuvre found their way to Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, the conservative co-authors of a powerful syndicated column and a force on TV.

They also learned that Finleys work was sometimes subsidized by such publicly funded organizations as a particular hate-object of the right, the National Endowment for the Arts.

Oh, joy!

The chocolate-smeared woman duly starred in a column. She and three other Performance artists, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller, whose work also dealt forcibly with sexual politics, were de-funded. They sued. Finley Versus the NEA, Finley says. We filed in the Ninth Circuit of Los Angeles and we won.

The Clinton administration took the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled against them four painful and painfully expensive years later.

Finley took off for Los Angeles, devastated. I was thinking I needed a geographical change, she told me soon after her return. And I felt a bitterness towards the art world.

She was attacked for being sexual so she posed for Playboy on chocolate-colored sheets. But she returned to New York in 2000. I realized that I am not Hollywood. Im an artist and a cultural provocateur. I just felt that I needed to be in the art world.

Some woman artists had been important to her when she began, like Carolee Schneemann, whose Meat Joy had been crucial in the 60s. If it wasnt for what she did I wouldnt be doing what I did, she says. Likewise Yoko Ono, Charlotte Moorman, Whoopi Goldberg, and Judy Chicago, whose piece, The Dinner Party, a triangular table with vulva-like place settings had been a pioneering piece in the 70s.

But now, post NEA, support came from artists when she needed it most. Hannah Wilke reached out, Before her early untimely death, she took time to talk to me, Finley says. And Louise Bourgeois was wonderful to me during the Culture War. I spent some time with her and wrote a spoken word piece that she asked me to perform.

Finleys mix-media career has been flourishing ever since, as in Pooh Unplugged, her re-done and re-drawn Winnie the Pooh for grown-up nurseries only (Enemas are a plot point, kiddies); and George and Martha, which evokes the mythic affair between George Bush and Martha Stewart set in an unlovely motel room.

Her most recent exercise in icon-shattering was The Jackie Look, in which she conducted the audience in a breathy-voiced, sharply-etched monologue as the embodiment of Jackie O.

Now Unicorn Gratitude Mystery gives us Karen Finleys readings on the electoral jamboree (with, I note, assistance in the costume department by Violet Overn, her 22-year-old daughter by her second husband, Michael, who she married in 1988).

I wanted to create a work about the politics of the time, Finley says. But I wanted it to have more depth than something you could see on Saturday Night Live. And to go into a more psychological or psycho-sexual portrayal of our times. And the characters and archetypes that were dealing with.

Why a unicorn?

I have always been interested in unicorns. I collect unicorns. I was just interested in the mythology of what it represents. And, she notes, one thing the word Unicorn represents is a billion dollar company in Silicon Valley.

Onstage Finleys Unicorn riff is succeeded by a stretch during which she flashes unnervingly bright grins and stresses her unrelenting gratitude that we were there, listening to her.

I was thinking about the politeness of polite society, Finley said. And the aggressiveness and the hostility within those spaces. Theres a passive-aggressiveness with manners, with the way we present ourselves.

And she doesnt just stick it to conventional targets. The Unicorn Piece, I think in a way it can almost be looked at as Bernie Sanders, though I dont mention him. Next time I do it its going to be about the unicorn returns to Vermont.

Where the performance takes us next seems an organic evolution from The Jackie Look. Finleys hair seems somehow to assume a familiar shape and she is pant-suited.

Yes, this is her Hillary, and she launches into a surreal riff, punctuated from time to time by the haunted question: Who is wearing the blue dress now?

At the climaxshe is wearing black not blueshe clutches something to her chest, melting ice cream one would guess, because suddenly splurges of creamy goo are crawling down her frontage.

The audience convulses.

Then Finley segues into the usual suspect.

Ive been interested in Trump since he was so horrible to Rosie ODonnell. I performed a work where I felt his attack on Rosie was a projection of his own vulnerability.

Well, it would seem hardly possible to create a Donald Trump more over-the-top than the original, but Finley has done so, and her Trump works, right down to the curling wave of blonder-than-blond hair that busts through her/his fly.

Where did that double riff come from?

I was thinking about international trauma, she says. Events where everyone becomes focused on the unknown. I was thinking about when planes would disappear. And looking into the blue. And I made the leap of thinking about the blueness of the colors of the Democratic Convention. And I was looking at Michelles blue dress. And then I went to Monicas dress.

And Donald Trump?

I was looking at the dynamics, and the aggressiveness of Trump. And what he was getting out of it. And looking at Trump and Hillarythe duality that we are witnessing.

It seems all the more forceful in that Finley is by no means a rooting-tooting member of Team Clinton. She remains enraged that the Clinton administration took Finley versus the NEA to the Supreme Court.

They didnt have to do it, she says. The decision, she believes, was driven by Bill Clintons problems.

Finley is next playing Sen. James Duval Phelan, three-time mayor of San Francisco and the first popularly elected California senator, in Far East of Eden, a short movie she co-wrote with Bruce Yonemoto.

The film, which focuses on Phelans overt racism toward Asians and support of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Actwhile also examining contemporary political echoesopens on Sept. 28 at the Montalvo Arts Center in Silicon Valley.

And Unicorn Gratitude Mystery has legs: It will be moving on from New York to Los Angeles.

The election wont hurt. You couldnt make this stuff up, Karen Finley says. Look, Im voting for Hillary Clinton. But I will still be exposing the Shakespearean dynamic of the times we are living in.

Karen Finley: Unicorn Gratitude Mystery is running until Sept. 18, Sundays at 7 p.m., at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.
In a world gone mad, Mel Brooks, now 90, is determined to get people back on his laugh track. Earlier this year, members of the Writers Guild of America voted for the 101 funniest screenplays of all time. Brooks was the only writer to have three scripts he wrote or co-wrote in the top 12: his Oscar-winning original screenplay for The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein.

On Sept. 1 at New Yorks Radio City Music Hall, after a screening of Blazing Saddles, Brooks will discuss why the classic western sendup is still a riot 42 years after its theatrical debut. If that werent enough, a coffee table book of Young Frankenstein will debut this fall.

Brooks is one of precious few to capture the EGOT, taking home Emmy, Tony, Grammy, and Academy awards. Like Don Rickles, Tony Bennett, and his close friend Carl Reiner, who co-created the 2000 Year Old Man bits, Brooks represents an era of show business that will pass when they do. But until that day comes, this old man river of laughs just keeps rollin on.

What did Warner Bros. executives think when they first saw Blazing Saddles?

Mel Brooks: They wanted to bury me and the film. The head of distribution told the owners not to release the picture but they only did because it was already booked in theaters and they didnt have a picture they could replace it with. Only John Calley, an extremely filmmaker-friendly executive at the studio, championed it. The rest of the executives wouldnt acknowledge me on the lot even when Blazing Saddles became a huge money maker.

Why did they hate the film so much?

I actually got notes from the studio head in vivid detail who said, Lose the fart scene, cut out any racial and ethnic jokes, edit scenes where a horse and an old lady get punched, and my favorite note: Can you reshoot Black Bart with a white actor? If I had made their changes the film would have been just 14 minutes long! I stupidly threw all their notes in the trash. Imagine the book I could have written on them today. Then I had a screening on the lot for anyone who worked there, so the executives couldnt think I was faking the results. The screening proved everything the big shots hated was funny beyond belief, and yet the big shots didnt believe the comic tastes of their own employees. I only got my first royalty check recently, which meant it took all these years to show a profit. Hopefully my next check will be in three figures!

And Richard Pryor, of course, was your first choice for Black Bart.

The studio didnt want him because they said he was unreliable due to his personal problems. I fought hard for Richard and was going to quit the film but he told me not to because he needed his screenwriter fees to pay his mortgage. Then we had a long and expensive search to find the right actor for his part. When Cleavon Little auditioned, Richard was in the room and gave me a signal that he was our man!

What other help did Pryor give you on Blazing Saddles?

When I was getting so much pressure to change the script due to it being offensive to blacks, Pryor stuck behind the work. He said the script, which three other people wrote besides us, was hilarious and if it was compromised in any way then we werent going to make the movie we all believed in.

But didnt you cut one big line from the final edit?

Yes. For some weird reason, and I still cant explain why well, theres a scene in Madeline Kahns dark dressing room where shes below frame making Cleavon very happy. She tells him with satisfaction how big he is, and his initial response, which I cut, was: Youre sucking on my arm!

Whats the biggest misconception about Blazing Saddles?

That we shot it in black and white, then we later colored each frame with big crayons.

Do you think Blazing Saddles would ever get made in politically correct 2016?

No!

How do you feel about Hillary and Trump running for president in 2016?

I dont do political humor. Its too passe.

Who makes you laugh today?

Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Maya Rudolph, Zach Galifianakis, Louis C.K., Melissa McCarthy, and Harpo Marx.

What have you learned about pitching projects in todays Hollywood?

Never go to a studio executives office. If you go there, you have a big NO awaiting you. If they come to your office, youve got a 50/50 chance for a green-light for your project.

What was your most unusual pitch meeting?

I went to Alan Ladd Jr., who was running Fox at the time, and pitched him Silent Movie. Even though Young Frankenstein had made him a lot of money, Laddie was very reluctant to do the picture. He said between the slapstick in that film and a non-talkie, it seemed like I really wanted to return to vaudeville, so he said no. I quickly told him I could get Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Marcel Marceau, Paul Newman, and Burt Reynolds, who was the hottest star in Hollywood at the time. I was lying of course, like Im doing to you now, but Laddie said hed make the picture if I got all of them. Newman loved the idea of driving a go-kart and not having any dialogue to memorize. I paid Reynolds $25,000 for a days work and then told him I need him for three more days. Burt was having fun taking a shower with Dom, me, and Marty in the film, of course, I thinkso he stuck around.

Didnt you have a strange meeting when you tried to pitch Young Frankenstein to Columbia Pictures?

The short version is they wanted to make it but wanted to make it for $2 million less than its small budgetmoney Fox made just on the 40th anniversary DVD. My last words at the meeting were, And were going to make it in black and white. As Im walking down the hall I realized I was being chased by 30 executives telling me I had no green-light if I wanted to make it in black and white. And this was when Blazing Saddles was making millions of dollars daily, money that somehow disappeared immediately when I asked Warner Brothers when I would receive a royalty check.

With truly unlimited source material, why didnt you ever make a sequel to History of the World: Part I?

Nobody asked me to. The film made good money. Id enjoy doing a sequel to that and Spaceballs. Theres still so much you can satirize in both movies.

Do you feel any of your pictures are underrated?

The Twelve Chairs. It was a nice, sweet film with a funny performance by Dom DeLuisehis best, I believe, other than when my wife Anne Bancroft directed him in Fatso. My favorite film nobody saw is Life Stinks. I play a multimillionaire who makes a bet with a peer that he can survive on the streets as a homeless person. You root for this guy and you laugh with him, not at him. You know, basically all my films are about greed versus humanity. I never want people to leave one of my productions feeling depressed. If you come out of the play The Producers humming Springtime for Hitler and having a smile on your face, then Im a happy man. Do you realize the last time I was at Radio City Music Hall was when The Producers won more Tonys than any play in history?! That place is bigger than some New England states. Im going to be there with Blazing Saddles Sept. 1 . I may be a 2,000-year-old man but I can still see empty seats. Since Im not getting paid for this fantastic interview Im giving you, then do your best to help me fill those seats. Is that too subtle?!

OK, but only if you answer one final question: Is it true that Dustin Hoffman was going to receive his first starring role in The Producers?

YES! Dustin came to my house late one night and threw pebbles at the windows of my upstairs apartment. Even then I knew better not to eat with an actor or give them my phone number. Dustin told me he had to drop out of my film, a movie I had spent years trying to get financing for, because he was going to Los Angeles to star in The Graduate. I yelled at him so loud it woke up my fellow renters. I screamed, You mean youre deserting me to spend the summer in Hollywood making love to the love of my life [Bancroft]? Then I gave him my blessing by adding, Good choice!
Love, darkness, moodiness, and grim solemnity mark and mar the directorial debut of Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, who spent a decade chasing her ambitious dream project adapted from Israeli author Amos Ozs memoirs. But while A Tale of Love and Darkness is the textbook definition of a noble effortone thats promising for Portmans future behind the camera, if nothing elseits a challenging watch for those with short attention spans and no patience for the kind of opaque, languidly paced, labored storytelling most moviegoers avoid if they can help it.

Chalk some of that up to the pressures someone like Portman must have faced in even getting this film off the ground. A $4 million budget would be absurdly luxurious to just any first-time indie director whose best-case debut might play a festival, score distribution, and open in a handful of theaters. But for a leading Hollywood A-lister making a prestige passion picture laden with personal import, a project like A Tale of Love and Darkness is a loaded litmus test for any serious designs on a career behind the camera.

To that end, Portmans debut both defiantly succeeds and falters, even if Portman deserves to walk away with more respect earned than lost. The 35-year-old filmmaker wrote, directed, and stars in the film adapted from Ozs 2002 memoirs of growing up as a young boy in Jerusalem, the son of a frustrated scholar (Gilad Kahana) and a tormented Eastern European Holocaust survivor (Portman), as idealistic hope gave way to violent tumult during the creation of the State of Israel. Its moody melancholy builds in the fragments of a man piecing together the past through the incomplete observations of his younger self, and as Portman dives into Ozs journey and that of the turbulent geopolitical forces around him, the film rings with obvious reverence.

But Portman ironically loses focus, and tests viewers patience, by relying on the one element the film needs less of: her. Like the book, the film is told through the eyes of Oz himself, whos first introduced onscreen as an older man searching the storied corners of Jerusalems Old City for clues, issuing grave voice-over musings like, Jerusalem is a black widow who devours her lovers while they are still inside her. Haunted by the death of his mother Fania at the age of 38, his memories of her play out in vivid recollections, fixated on how his formative years were shaped by the woman whose spark would slowly, heartachingly, fade from the emotional battery of living through intense trauma and reckoning with her own deflated hopes.

The fact that Portman the director lavishes too much attention on Portman the actor is both blessing and curse, in whats not the typical kind of self-directed vehicle that used to be more widely denigrated as a vanity project in Tinseltown. A Tale of Love and Darkness isnt just set in a stoic, relatively unsexy, post-WWII Jerusalem; it was also filmed entirely in Hebrew, which viewers will either take as admirable authenticity or direct challenge. So while Portmans empathetic performance is exquisitely modulated indeed, there is a vanity to this undertaking at large, one of serious art-makinga pretense underscored by the moody desaturated blues and greens Portman shoots in, the floridly poetic dialogue with which characters communicate, and her occasional overly-intentioned film school lyricism.

Like Angelina Jolie last year with By the Sea, Portman places herself in the line of critical fire with her penchant for heavy-handed scenarios. Both films, coincidentally, feature scenes in which the actor-directors are discovered soaked head to toe by the elements to represent the deep, mournful expression of feelings their emotionally bereft characters cant express. In Tales, this amounts to Portmans Fania sitting despondent outside in a rainstorm. Elsewhere, she sits despondent in her bedroom. Later, she sits despondent in a restaurant. One imagines Portman had to place herself so front-and-center in order to secure the financing to make the damn thing in the first place, too, but its a shame that in doing so she undermines the most intriguing perspective: that of the studiously observant young Oz (Amir Tessler), whos forced to watch his depressive mother stare into the distance for far too many scenes, and we along with him.

The real Oz grew up surrounded and shaped by Israels academic elite, but Tales focuses on the closeness he shared with Fania. Theirs is a loving bond forged through storytelling as she relates fables drawn from her own youth, corralling silent traumas that still haunt her into pained silences and fleeting glances hidden in her face. Portman spins these philosophical lessons into their own fantastical scenes, constructing a vibrant interior life for Oz as he processes the oblique darkness in his mothers careful teachings. Theres a lovely simplicity to how that core relationship mirrors Ozs own understanding of the political conflict hes growing up within: a divided society hes acutely aware of as the philosophies of his parents trickle down to his playground interactions and develop into action as he happily joins wartime efforts foraging for empty bottles to turn into Molotov cocktails.

Ozs struggle to understand his doomed mother is also his struggle to understand his homeland. Israeli-born Portman addresses that omnipresent and still-complex topic with delicacy and relative distance, letting Ozs words voice their collective disillusionment. Israel and Palestine, Tales laments, are two children of the same abusive father. The underlying sentiment is a mournful revelation that once a dream is fulfilled, it can no longer live up to the perfect potential one once envisioned for ita rearview-mirror truism that applies to parents, political utopias, and all artistic endeavors.
The aura of Indian namesMassachusetts, Monangahela, Arapahoe County, Mississippi, Minnesotahangs over America, even after the indigenous people are often gone. A Founding Amnesia has long erased the stories of Native Americans in history texts and the media. From silent movies until the 60s, cowboys and IndiansJohn Wayne as a hero, Apache blood as a sign of savagerywere fixtures and fixations of Hollywood films, the last bastion of the ugly, 19th century military watchword Manifest Destiny.

Thanks to the resistance of the American Indian Movement, however, the record has been corrected, at least in part, to reflect the actual stories of white Americas encounters with native people: tales of expropriation, admirable resistance, and genocide from coast to coast. Nonetheless, the Smithsonian still has a collection of 20,000 indigenous skulls, cut off in massacres, the flesh boiled down. Many had initially been sent to Dr. Samuel George Morten to concoct 19th century anthropometry, a pseudo-science of racial measurements alleging Anglo-Saxon superiority. But in 1990, Congress at last passed NAGPRA, the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. Slowly, slowly, body parts are being returned to indigenous communities for burial.

The U.S. is not alone, however, in whitewashing its encounters with Native Americans. Most remarkably, perhaps, the ethnic cleansing of the Wild West has long been an exotic theme in Germany for more than a century thanks largely to the novels of a very strange man named Karl Maywhich were beloved by none other than Hitler.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama  Derrick Dearman allegedly tracked his girlfriend down to where she was hiding after fleeing his abuse, murdered the family of five sheltering her, and then kidnapped her and the infant child of one of his victims.

Dearman, a 28-year-old Mississippi native with a lengthy criminal record and previous accusations of domestic violence, turned himself in to the sheriffs department in his hometown following the massacre that unfolded on Saturday morning in Citronelle, Alabama.

A Mobile County Sheriffs Office spokesperson told The Daily Beast that upon surrendering, Dearman confessed to having killed at least one of the five victims.

Dearman tracked his girlfriend, Laneta Lester, 24, to the house where she was staying with five others, including a 3-month-old infant. Lester was there to avoid Dearman because, police say, he was abusing her. The house sits on Jim Platt Road, a desolate stretch of Alabama wiregrass about five miles from the Mississippi state line.

Dearman first visited the home just after midnight Friday, but he fled after someone called the police.

He returned a short time later once the scene was all clear, between 1:15 a.m. and daylight, according to the sheriffs department. Thats when Dearman allegedly broke into the house and murdered five occupants, who authorities have now named as Robert Lee Brown, 26; Chelsea Marie Reed (who was five months pregnant), 22; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 27; and Shannon Melissa Randall, 35.

All the victims were related by blood or marriage. The house was owned by victims Turner and Randall. Brown was Randalls brother, and the Reeds were Randalls niece and nephew.

The complaint filed by prosecutors alleges that Dearman entered the home on Jim Platt Road with an ax and a firearm. Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said Dearman used the ax to kill each of his victims before also shooting them to be sure they were dead.

Cochran also said Dearman, who was high on methamphetamine, made several stops after kidnapping his girlfriend before reaching his fathers house in Mississippi, including a visit to a house he knew so that he could continue using drugs. Cochran said Dearman did not tell the people he visited what he had just done in Citronelle. Finally, Dearman released his girlfriend and the infant at his fathers house before turning himself in.

According to her Facebook account, Lester began dating Dearman in January 2016, and her friends responded angrily online. Your [sic] joking, one wrote. Another simply responded, What??!!!

Hes a piece of shit you can do better... another person wrote in June. That same month, a man posted on Facebook about Dearman, warning people to call 9-1-1 if they spotted him.

Dearmans ex-wife Crystal Dearman said she divorced him in 2013 after he abused her and her children for years.

I woke up to him holding a knife to my throat in bed with my baby in the crib, she told WALA-TV.

A family member of Dearmans, who was not identified, also told the station that his girlfriends parents absolutely disapproved of his relationship with Lester.

Lanetas parents have been trying to force her to stay away from Derrick, the family member said. On the other hand I have seen a positive change in Derrick since he has been with her. He contacted me over a month ago saying her parents had kicked her out.

Domestic violence is a serious problem in Mobile County, according to a January 2014 report that followed three homicides in the county in two separate incidents involving cases of continuing domestic abuse. In the three preceding years, domestic violence accounted for 70 percent of all the jurisdictions reported simple assaults.

A man in Leakesville, Mississippi, who knows both Dearman and Lester told The Daily Beast he was aware that Dearman had been using methamphetamine and said it caused him to become aggressive, at those times often abusing Lester.

A spokesperson for the Mobile County sheriff confirmed to The Daily Beast that Dearman was wanted by police in south Alabama for a burglary in December. Dearman was also held in contempt of court last March for failure to pay child support.

Dearman was booked into Mobile County jail on Monday evening, at which time he was formally charged with six counts of capital murder and two counts of first degree kidnapping.

As he was being escorted into jail, Dearman told reporters he had been in a rage induced by ice, a potent form of methamphetamine, when he committed the crimes, and claimed to have little memory of the night.

Drugs [made] me think things thats not really there, he said. I came down and realized what was really going on.

What are you going to say to your kids? WKRGs Jacqueline Quynh asked Dearman.

Dont do drugs, Dearman repeated.

One reporter asked if Dearman deserved to live.

No, he said.

Editors Note: This story has been updated throughout.
SABAUDIA, Italy  Go to any public beach in Italy and chances are youll eventually see a woman wearing a veil and long skirt. But she likely wont be a Muslim in a version of the controversial burqini. She will almost certainly be a Catholic nun in her summer habit either watching children in her care or, God forbid, just enjoying some sun, which is considered a human right here in Italy, where the sea defines the majority of the borders.

No one in Italy would dare blink an eye at the sight of a habit-wearing sister at the seaside or even in the water.

We have nuns on the beach all the time, Marco Beoni, a barista at a coffee bar along the sea near Sabaudia, about an hour south of Rome, told The Daily Beast. They go in the water in their skirts and sit on blankets just like everyone else. Who cares what they are wearing. Whats the problem?

In fact, most Italians are at odds with edicts at several French beach resorts banning women wearing the burqini (also spelled burkini), as the modest full coverage swimwear is called. Even Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls has waded into the debate in Paris, declaring the wearing of the burqini is "not compatible with the values of France and the Republic."

Italys interior minister, Angelino Alfano, himself no great fan of immigration or integration of non-Italians into the country, said he thought France was making a mistake by banning the burqini. We aim to avoid certain prohibitions that can be interpreted as provocations that could trigger retaliation towards Italy, he said when asked if Italy would follow France in banning what has been interpreted as religious wear on the beach. After all, the French model of integration has not yielded great results.

It should be no surprise at all that the Catholic Church, for its part, doesnt see any problem whatsoever with modest swimwear. The head of the Italian bishops, Monsignor Nunzio Galantino, said that caution is understandable, but only when tempered with common sense.

Its hard to imagine that a woman [in a burqini] who enters the water is there to carry out an attack, he told the daily Corriere della Sera in a far-reaching interview on the topic. I can only think of our nuns, and I think of our peasant grandmothers who still wear head coverings.

Making an analogy with the wearing of a cross or a kippah, Galantino said, The freedom to be granted to religious symbols should be considered on a par with the freedom to express ones beliefs and to follow them in public life. And, let me tell you: I find it ironic that we are alarmed that a woman is overdressed while swimming in the sea!

Izzeddin Elzir, the imam of the mosque in Florence and the president of Italys Union of Islamic Associations, has been posting photos of beach-going nuns in habits since the controversy arose in France. His Facebook account was briefly shut down and he had to prove his credentials after someone reported his account as fake, he told Corriere Fiorentino. I didnt write a single word on the photo, he said. The image of the sisters at the sea speaks for itself.

Not everyone in Italy wants to let the burqini be, of course.

Roberto Calderoli of the xenophobic Northern League political party, who is busy protesting plans to build a mosque near the Leaning Tower of Pisa, says that Italy should ban the burqini and the burqaand everything to do with Muslims in betweenand launch a national register of imams and make it a crime for them not to openly condemn sharia law. (Burqinis do not cover the face; burqa, typically worn in Afghanistan, is used in Europe now to describe the niqab and other veils that cover the face except the eyes.)

Calderoli is trying to introduce a unified set of rules in the northern region of Lombardy to ban the wearing of burkinis in swimming pools, calling the full body suit a symbol of arrogance and oppression and violence against women.

He has so far been unsuccessful because many swimming pools are used for scuba diving lessons, and changing rules to make certain full body coverings illegal while accepting others has proved difficult.

Another surprising advocate of the ban is Lorella Zanardo, a feminist advocate whose documentary film Il Corpo Delle Donne, the body of a woman, about sexism in Italian television, has helped change archaic atttidues towards women in this country. She actually donned a burqini and went to the beach to see what the buzz was about. She says she found it to be hot, heavy and uncomfortable.

Even though Zanardo has spent her career trying to make sure women are appropriately covered up in the often blatantly sexist Italian media, she believes, at least in this case, that the covers should come off.

I defend the right of Muslim women to break free of their cages, she says. Immigration should be an introduction to the culture, to the knowledge of rights, customs and traditions of other people. When I travel in the Arab world, I dress simply with a light veil, jeans or trousers. Why is it here we see sad scenes of [Muslim] women in Italy completely covered up and sweaty beside their men who have adopted the local customs and wear light clothes and shorts. Is that freedom? We must not allow the fear of sounding anti-Islamic trump feminism and the struggle for womens rights.

The line in the sand may have been drawn in France, but thats clearly not the case in Italy where, at least for now, the beach is still sacred space for everyone, no matter what they are wearing.
BUTTE -- Is Montana running out of workers?

Some Treasure State employers seem to think so.

In fact, 58 percent of business owners said labor availability will negatively impact their business in 2016, according to a survey conducted by the Montana Chamber Foundation.

Webb Brown, the executive vice president for the Montana Chamber Foundation, presented the information to business and community leaders Wednesday at the NorthWestern Energy Building in Uptown Butte during the annual Economic Update series.

The theme for this years update is The Competition for Talent, which seems fitting given numbers from the survey.

Among employers who took the survey, 33 percent said labor availability will somewhat hurt their business in 2016 while 25 percent said it will strongly hurt. To give you some perspective, only about 11 percent fell into the strongly hurt category last year.

In other words, its hard to get good help these days.

Patrick Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, said these sentiments are more than just perceptions, especially in health care and construction.

The share of the national workforce made up of construction workers, he said, has been low in comparison with historical norms since 2010, and to get back to normative levels the nation will need about 550,000 more workers.

However, there are 500,000 unemployed men aged 55 and younger in the United States, which basically means there arent enough workers nationwide to fill the positions.

If you connect the dots, that says that if we took every unemployed man 55 and under and stuck them on a job site and let them build houses, that would just plug the hole, said Barkey, which is silly  its not going to happen  its an impossible outcome.

As a result, Barkey predicts that, among other things, construction employers will need to raise wages to attract workers from other industries and that a significant portion of construction labor force will continue to be foreign workers (28 percent of the nations construction workers are Hispanic, Barkey said).

Health care is another pressure point Barkey discussed.

Both in Montana and throughout the nation the population is aging.

In Montana, Barkey said, the population 65 and up will grow from 17 to 23 percent in the next 15 years, and nationwide aging will add $2.3 billion to health care spending by 2030. Whats more, innovation in technology and the increasing number of Americans with health insurance brought on by the Affordable Care Act will also increase the demand for health care.

All of these things are putting more fuel to the fire of health care growth, said Barkey. We all want knee replacements, and were getting them and were spending money.

But with the increased demand for health care, he said, there will also be an increased demand for labor.

By 2024, Montana will need 15,557 additional health care workers, but the Montana University System institutions only produce about 1,200 health graduates each year, Barkey pointed out.

Given the shortage of workers one has to wonder: How can Montana employers attract, train and retain qualified employees?

Kate McGoldrick, the executive director at the Center for Enterprise and Executive Development at the University of Montana, spoke on this point.

McGoldrick said that employers could do well by, among other things, understanding the changing needs of the workforce, especially among millennials.

These millennials want something really different than the previous generations have, said McGoldrick. Theyre looking for flexible workplace assignments. They want teleworking more often. They have different ways of communicating in the workplace. So  who are these high-performing workers that you need that are going to fulfill your critical roles, and whats going to make them successful?

She then asked audience members what skills they saw lacking in tomorrows workforce and how the skill-gap can be addressed.

One business leader said that he felt modern workers need to become better communicators.

Social skills, he said. Why do I need to talk to a human being anymore? Why do we need to pick up a phone anymore?

Another audience member said he felt company loyalty was a problem.

Youve got to give to get, he said, referring to the preference among millennials for more flexibility. Its got to be a two-way street. And what I see in the younger folks today is all get.
Love old or unusual movies but never know when they're on? Here are several I recommend:

Eight Legged Freaks (2002): Remember those wonderful, tacky late '50s and early '60s drive-in science fiction horror movies about radioactive creatures bent on destroying all humans? Eight Legged Freaks brings that tradition back, but this time with bloodcurdling computer graphics. In a small western mining town, a chemical spill has caused the local spiders to grow to the size of SUVs, sending residents David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scarlet Johansson, Doug E. Doug and others scurrying for safety. The movie is silly, scary and fun -- which is exactly what it's supposed to be

HBO, 5 a.m. Monday

They Were Expendable (1945): You don't want to miss this classic John Ford tale of heroism in the Pacific in the early days of the war. After Pearl Harbor, fleets of experimental PT boats were assigned the unbelievably hazardous duty of patrolling Manila Bay and other locations in the Philippines. Robert Montgomery (himself a PT boat veteran) stars as the commander and John Wayne as his lieutenant. Ford's Pacific WWII films have a rich authenticity because he spent so much time in the midst of the actual war himself making documentaries. They Were Expendable is one of his most powerful efforts.

Turner Classic Movies, 10 p.m. Monday

Drumline (2002): Have you ever felt like the studios made a movie just for you? (And if your answer is Silence of the Lambs, please stay away from me.) I spent many, many hours during high school playing in and practicing with the marching band. It's an unusual activity -- difficult, fun, hot and weirdly rewarding. Drumline goes into that world (in this case at a largely black Southern university). Nick Cannon is a hotshot drummer from New York who thinks he can make it in a legendary band program. The generalissimo of the band is played by the wonderful Orlando Jones. If you ever had this kind of experience in high school or college, you've simply got to see this snappy movie.

Cinemax, 7:05 a.m. Tuesday

Stand Up Guys (2013): Probably the sweetest gangster movie you'll see. Al Pacino gets out after a long stretch in the joint and meets up with his old gang (Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin). That's really all you need to know about this picture, right? Seriously -- it's Pacino, Walken and Arkin on screen together, having one last night on the town while they see if they can escape the past or if the past will catch up with them. It's nice spending time with these old pros.

Now available on Amazon Prime Video.

Trivia Question #647: Which of this week's stars has a sister who's an Oscar winner?

Answer to Trivia Question #645: Elizabeth Banks directed the hit musical Pitch Perfect 2.

 Bryan native Ray Ivey is a writer and movie fan in Hollywood, Calif. He would love to hear from you at rayivey@ca.rr.com. You can also visit his blog at www.starkravingray.com.
Several of my favorite contemporary Texas women writers have new novels on the shelves this month. Or, in one case, an older novel revisited.

Leila Meacham, who became a best-selling author with Roses and most recently Titans and other 600-page Texas epics, wrote three shorter romance novels back in the 1980s that are being reissued in new editions in the next few months.

The first of them, Ryan's Hand (Grand Central Publishing, $20 hardcover), is set on a West Texas ranch, where a young female Boston librarian has taken up residence against her better judgment as a promise to a dying friend.

She and the single, gruff, domineering ranch owner do not hit it off at all -- in fact, they can't seem to stand each other. So you can probably see where this story is headed.

Meacham, as the 2016 A.C. Greene Award winner, will be featured at the West Texas Book Festival in Abilene on Sept. 24.

Linda Castillo continues her popular thriller series set in the Amish country with Among the Wicked (Minotaur Books, $26.99 hardcover).

Castillo's newest novel branches out a bit from the regular Ohio setting, however, with Police Chief Kate Burkholder going undercover in an isolated and secretive Amish community in rural upstate New York.

Castillo fans will find that her newest offering may well be the best yet. If you haven't read any of her earlier mysteries, go ahead and plunge right in. Once you've zipped through one of her novels, you'll probably want to go back and read the others.

The fourth book in Amarillo novelist Jodi Thomas's Ransom Canyon series is due out on Aug. 30. Sunrise Crossing is the third title published this year, following Rustler's Moon back in January and Lone Heart Pass in April.

Thomas's stories, while technically in the romance genre, make good reading for men as well as women. And although they are part of a series, each title can be read as a stand-alone. A few familiar characters come and go throughout the series.

Abilene's Karen Witemeyer says she writes historical romances "to give the world more happily ever afters," and she's making quite a name for herself with more than 300,000 copies sold and several awards framed.

Her latest is No Other Will Do (Bethany House, $14.99 paperback), set in 1882 in a women's colony in Texas where women in need are offered a fresh start. But when an assailant threatens to drive them out, Emma Chandler sends out a plea for help to a man she knows. She once saved his life; now he has a chance to return the favor.

Fans of Dixie Cash will be excited to know that the fun-loving two-sister writing team is back with an intriguing new title, You Can Have My Heart But Don't Touch My Dog, set in a gourmet pet food bakery in Midland (available in paperback and e-book).

The 10th book in Diane Kelly's delightful Death and Taxes series featuring female Dallas IRS agent Tara Holloway is Death, Taxes and a Satin Garter (St. Martin's, $7.99 paperback).

Kelly also has a second mystery series going, Paw Enforcement, starring a Fort Worth police officer and her K-9 partner. Kelly's stories are always entertaining.

 Glenn Dromgoole writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
MISSOULA -- From telemarketing scams to identity theft, fake check scams and business fraud, senior citizens lose an estimated $3 billion annually  a 12 percent increase from 2008, Tim Summers, the state director of AARP Montana, said recently.

In an attempt to help prevent what Summers called "epidemic" fraud, dozens of people showed up at the downtown Holiday Inn in Missoula to watch the American Association of Retired Persons' presentation on outsmarting con artists.

The presentation, which largely focused on keeping sharp, included lectures from several experts, and dozens of brochures packed with information.

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox was one of those experts.

I always like talking with Montanas senior citizens, Fox said to an audience largely made up of that demographic. And youre a very savvy group. But somehow, one in every four seniors in Montana have been successfully scammed.

Fox said in todays digital world, its easier than ever to be scammed, especially for those who arent necessarily accustomed to using technology. The key to preventing fraud, Fox said, is equipping seniors with the knowledge of how to identify it as its happening.

Fox talked specifically about the tricks con artists use while scamming, including their ability to change caller ID using voice-over-Internet-phones. With this kind of technology, Fox said, con artists can made it look like theyre calling from legitimate businesses, or even federal agencies such as the IRS and the FBI.

Why do the phone companies let this happen? a man asked from the audience.

Fox explained that voice-over-Internet-phones are extremely difficult to trace and in most cases, law enforcement  let alone phone companies  cant even track down the scammers.

Fox also added that scams can happen anywhere, including over the phone, at your door and on the Internet. And the scammers are merciless.

One senior was told over the phone that he'd won thousands of dollars, in return for making small payments, Fox said. The man's wife had just died of cancer and he wanted a new start. Over the course of several months, the man lost $75,000.

Another woman with dementia was scammed out of thousands.

Some women were even scammed through an online dating site. The con artist used Tim Foxs photo on the site, telling the women he was starting a business and needed money. Collectively, the women sent the man more than $150,000. Authorities were able to track the man down and prosecute him -- a rare case.

When my wife heard people were scammed using my photo on a dating site my wife said, I dont know what those girls saw in him, Fox said with a laugh. But really, scam can happen to anyone. It doesnt matter who you are, what education youve had or how old you are.

Fox said he knows what its like to be getting older and more out of touch with technology. The audience applauded when Fox said hed be turning 59 soon.

Oh, hes just a kid, a woman laughed as she clapped.

Next up was state Auditor Monica Lindeen, who serves as commissioner of securities and insurance. She talked about the other ways scams can happen  with people you trust.

Lindeen said part of her job is to check on Montanas financial advisors, to ensure that they arent pulling Ponzi schemes, a form of fraud in which people are tricked into investing in a nonexistent enterprises.

Ninety-nine percent of our financial advisors in town do a really good job for their consumers, Lindeen said. But there are always bad apples. And before I had this job, I knew there were bad apples trying to take our hard- earned money, but I had no idea how many there were.

Lindeen said most people pulling Ponzi schemes arent even licensed financial advisors. The best way to prevent this sort of a scam is to check your advisor out, make sure he or she is licensed, and backed by a real company.

Lindeen said that seniors are and will continue to be a prime target for scammers because three-fourths of the nations wealth is held by seniors.

The presentation also included lectures from Tim Summers, the state director of AARP Montana, and Alex Ward, the president of AARP Montana.

Director of Communications for AARP Montana Stacia Dahl said these fraud presentations are important for seniors because they are less likely to Google the telltale signs of a scam while theyre in the midst of one. AARPs goal is to equip seniors with knowledge of scams before they happen.

There is even a community shredding event planned for Sept. 10 in Home Depots parking lot. Dahl said people can bring their bank statements and other personal info that needs to be thrown away and AARP and the Office of Public Safety will shred it for them.

This is to help protect peoples identities, Dahl said. Some con artists will still dumpster-dive for peoples Social Security numbers and bank information. So its important that stuff be destroyed.

The key statement made by every speaker at the presentation on Wednesday was, If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The State Auditor is one of the most important statewide offices nobody knows about. The office of State Auditor is our strongest tool for fighting fraud and protecting the middle class. One of the State Auditors top jobs is to fight for consumers. If you or a loved one gets scammed or your insurance company refuses to honor their commitment, its the State Auditor you need to call. Serious issues call for serious and qualified people. Thats why Im supporting Jesse Laslovich for State Auditor this election. Jesse Laslovich has the frame of mind and experience to get the job done. Over the course of his career, Laslovich has recovered millions of dollars to scammed Montanans and held insurance companies accountable when they refused to pony up. He is, without a doubt, the most qualified person for the job.
Iowa high school football playoffs: All the state quarterfinal games

The winners of this week's Round-of-16 games advanced to next week's state quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
In regards to "Safe Montana's" contested signature's, I'm going to have to call bull. I've run into three different signature gatherers this summer, and none of them even knew what they were attempting to do. I was told by all three that by signing with them, it would ensure those that required medical marijuana within the state would receive it. All three assured me, as well as those around me, that they were doing what was best for mmj patients. They also specifically claimed that their agenda was "the only way to keep medical marijuana legal in our state." When questioned, none of these people where informed enough to make anything resembling a valid argument. So while " Safe Montana" is contesting 6,000 people they say signed on with them, my question would be how many people they coerced into signing something they would wholeheartedly be against if they knew the true facts of the matter. "Safe Montana" is only out for their own agenda, and it is time that everyone was made apparent to said agenda.
Is your new business a lemonade stand? Thats the term we use to describe businesses that were set up quickly with lots of passion but will fade into oblivion instantly when hit with the first sign of a legal or tax challenge. Lemonade stands are not serious businesses and are not worthy of funding. Lemonade stands are here today, gone tomorrow, and never create a legacy of wealth or success for their founders.

Dont let your next business be a lemonade stand.

Related: A Simple 6-Step Process to Starting a Small Business

Instead, opt for the Fortified Cash Machine model by using these five smart tips for structuring your new business right from day one:

1. Set up an operating entity rather than being a sole proprietor.

With guidance from your tax attorney or CPA, select and establish an operating entity, such as a corporation or LLC, through which to conduct your business. While operating as a sole proprietor is certainly the easiest method, doing so clearly shows youre more interested in building income for yourself rather than in building an actual business.

It almost never makes sense to conduct business in your own personal name, says Tim Berry, an asset protection expert in Phoenix, Ariz. Operating in that manner exposes you to the worst of everything: The worst legal liability, the worst tax rates and the lowest chance of being able to ever sell your business in the future.

2. Establish a trust to hold your operating entity.

Its wise to have a buffer between you and your new business so that challenges that you or your business might face in the future will be confined and not threaten everything else that you own. Establishing a trust is a great way to create such a buffer, and it can provide a plethora of other benefits.

A trust is essentially a way to separate yourself from some of the risks of owning things like businesses, vehicles or other assets. When a trust is well-structured, it gives you the benefit of controlling an asset -- like your new business -- while taking far less risk. Its a very wise move Berry says.

Trusts can be very expensive to form, but don't need to be. Expect to spend a few thousand dollars to get a solid basic trust in place for your new business.

3. Separate your intellectual property from your business.

You might think that your new business has no intellectual property, but youd be mistaken. The two most obvious and potentially valuable pieces of intellectual property your business already owns are its telephone number and its web address.

Related: 5 Ways to Protect Your Small Business Against a Legal Fallout

Berry offers this ominous warning: Imagine its 10 years from now and your business has been very successful, when a frivolous lawsuit is brought against your company by a competitor. Unfortunately, your company loses the lawsuit. If your company owns your telephone number or website address, your competitor could actually legally take over your phone number and website and benefit from your great reputation.

A simple solution is to let your trust own all of your business intellectual property, and simply license those assets to your business. This separates those assets from your business in the event your business ever faces any problems, and also could create some tax reduction possibilities, Berry says.

4. Establish a solo 401(k) for your business.

A solo 401(k) -- sometimes called a self-directed 401(k) -- is a special type of retirement savings account thats available only to small businesses. It enables you to sock away as much as $50,000 or more per year and get huge tax deductions.

But tax savings arent the only reason to set up a solo 401(k).

The money you place in a solo 401(k) is, from a legal perspective, extremely secure Berry says. If you handle the account correctly, almost nothing can touch your 401(k) savings, including bankruptcy, lawsuits and usually even the IRS.

5. Name your business with funding in mind.

Banks and traditional lenders prefer to lend to certain types of businesses more than others, and if you need to get funding for your business, you must bear this in mind when naming your business.

Weve seen over and over that some businesses are just less attractive to lenders than others. For example, all else being equal, most lenders will provide financing to a marketing or management company long before theyll fund a real estate company, because the perceived risk is so much higher in real estate says Ari Page, CEO of Fund & Grow.

Related: 3 Routes to Register Your Business Name

This does not mean you shouldnt be in the real estate business. Rather, its a suggestion that you should not stack the deck against yourself by making the name of your business overtly real estate-related, as that stigma alone may be enough to be rejected by your lender of choice.

Creating a new business is incredibly exciting and utterly terrifying at the same time. But if you use these five strategies to form your new venture on a firm foundation, your new business can rocket past its lemonade-stand-like competitors and enjoy a strong foundation forever.

Related:

8 Ways Companies Can Use The Olympics to Boost Business

Ten Mistakes You Might Be Making As An Entrepreneur In Morocco

The Top 10 Best Cities to Start a Nutritionist Business



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
The patrimony of a civilization can be lost at the very moment of that civilizations material triumph. In any culture worthy of the name, men must be something better than the flies of a summer; generation must link with generation. Some men among us are doing whatever is in their power to preserve and reinvigorate our common heritage.

Western civilization, North Atlantic community, the unity of the free worldsuch phrases are employed nowadays by our publicists and our politicians so frequently and loosely that, to a good many of us in America, the words have ceased to signify much. Yet the United States of America is engaged in a tremendous defense of an ancient culture in which our country participates. We sense that, in this time when the fountains of the great deep are broken up, we are resisting as best we can a barbarous force: The power of a totalitarianism which would put an end to our civilization. It is high time, I think, that we began to come to a better understanding of the cause which is ours.

Nearly a generation ago, in The Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gassett wrote that American civilization could not long survive any catastrophe to European society. Ortega was right. American culture, and the American civil social order, are derived from principles and establishments that arose in Europe. We are part of a great continuity and essence, bound up with an ancient culture. In conscience and in self-interest, we dare not abandon our fellow-sharers in that cultured inheritance.

The Christian Religion

The principal elements of this common patrimony of American and European civilization are the Christian faith, the Roman and medieval heritage of ordered liberty, and the great body of Western literature. It is a legacy of belief, not a legacy of blood. So far as race and nationality are concerned, the continuity between Europe and America is very confused and imperfect.

The most valuable thing in our common inheritance is the Christian religion. As one of the most perceptive of American philosophers and critics, Irving Babbitt, wrote more than two decades ago, economics moves upward into politics, politics into ethics, ethics into theology. This is no less true in the United States of America than in ancient Egypt or modern India. And the United States is a Christian nation, notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary expressed by Thomas Jefferson in his message to the Bey of Tunis. The church attendance figures seem to confirm this, in our time; but it is not the statistics which really signify. What matters, so far as the civil social order is concerned, is that the great majority of Americans voluntarily subscribe to the faith we call Christianity. In the things which most nearly concern the private life and the public good, they draw their moral and intellectual sustenance from the Old World. The prophets of Israel, the words of Christ and His disciples, the writings of the fathers of the Church, the treatises of the Schoolmen, the discourses of the great divines of Reformation and Counter-Reformationthese are the springs of American conviction on the most important of questions, as they are of European conviction. They underlie even the beliefs of those Americans and Europeans who deny the validity of Christianity.

In its immediate influence upon culture, perhaps the most important aspect of the genius of Christianity is its account of human personality: the doctrine of the immortal soul, the belief in the unique character of every human person, the concept of human dignity, the sanction for rights and duties, the obligation to exercise Christian charity, the insistence upon private responsibility. Both European and American civilization have been erected upon the foundation of the dignity of manupon the assumption that man is made for eternity, and that he possesses dignity because he has some share in an order more than temporal and more than human.

Christianity has always been an immense moving force among Americans. The student who endeavors to ignore the role of Christianity in European and American culture is as foolish as a physician would be if he endeavored to ignore the patients personality. Christianity, with its Judaic and Greek roots, is the core of our civilizationits vitality, indeed. Even the virulent totalist ideologies of our century are influenced by Christianityinspired by a misunderstanding of Christian doctrines, or a reaction against Christian principles; hate it though they may, the ideologues cannot break altogether with the Christian religion.

Law and Justice

The second article in our common patrimony is our theory and practice of ordered liberty; our system of law and politics. This is derived from Roman and from medieval Christian sourcesand more remotely, through both the Roman and Christian traditions, from Greek philosophy. To the Roman and medieval ideas of justice, and to the Roman and medieval experience of society, there has been added a modern body of theory and experiencealthough too often we moderns, including the scholars among us, exaggerate the importance of liberal contributions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some of which latter contributions have not very stoutly withstood the severe tests of our twentieth-century time of troubles. The doctrines of natural law; the idea of a polity, a just and balanced commonwealth; the principle of a government of laws, not of men; the understanding that justice means to each his own; the whole complex of reverence for the reign of lawthese passed directly from Europe into American theory and practice. Cicero, more than any other single figure, influenced the theory of both European and American politicsand through theory, our political institutions. The fact that Cicero is little read in our schools nowadays does not destroy the work his writings accomplished over the centuries.

To this general European heritage, the English added their common law and their prudent, prescriptive politics; and the English experience became directly part of the American social order. The founders of the American Republic, especially the lawyers and colonial representatives among them, took for granted this English pattern of politics, only modifying it slightly to suit the new nationand even then modifying it not in favor of some newfangled abstract scheme, but rather on the model of the Roman Republic. So America has in common with Europe a coherent legacy of justice and order and freedom, a balancing of things public and things private, derived from Greek and Roman philosophy, Roman jurisprudence, Judaic moral law, and the Christian and medieval understanding of personal freedom and personal responsibility. The principle that power must be effectively counterbalanced and curbed and hedged, for instance, exists throughout Western Europe and America, however much it may be violated in practice from time to time. It has been so in America since the beginning of civilization in this continent.

A Noble Literature

The third principle article in our common heritage is the body of literature of our European-American civilization. The great works of imagination and reason join us in an intellectual community. They, far more than the endeavors of the United Nations Organizations, transcend the barriers of nationalism. The philosophers and the poets of 3,000 years have formed the mind and the character of Americans as well as Europeans. The most influential of all books, of course, has been the Bible. Homer, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine, the Schoolmen, Dante, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Bossuet, Cervantes, Milton, Johnson, Goethe, Coleridge, and all the rest are the general property of civilized people in the West. The best of American letters is part and parcel of the achievement of European literature. Novelists like Hawthorne, and historians like Henry Adams, though possessing characteristics distinctly American, nevertheless stand in the grand tradition of our common Western literature.

Civilization in Doubt

In all essential respects, Europe and America have a common faith, a common history, a common system of law and politics, and a common body of great literature. They make one civilization. Until the terrible events of our own century, at least, a native of Romania and a resident of Alaska, let us say, had more in common than two Indian villagerssupposing one to be a Hindu and the other a Moslemliving within a few yards of each other. The general assumptions of the Romanian and the Alaskan concerning the nature of things, the character of man, and the principles of justice have been, in essence, much the same.

So it was in the Western world for some centuries: These cultural ties outlived dynasties, empires, and even philosophies, injured now and then by war fanaticism, yet rising with renewed vigor after each period of violence. We cannot be confident, nevertheless, that our common civilization will endure forever. It is possible to exhaust moral and intellectual capital; a society that relies entirely upon its inheritance finds itself bankrupt. With civilization, as with the human body, conservation and renewal are possible only if there is healthful change regularly. It is by no means certain that our present common civilization is providing for its own future. We moderns pay a great deal of attention to material and technological means; we pay very little to theological, moral, and social or to the cultural ends or to the cultural instruments by which any generation must fulfill its part in the contract of eternal society.

Twentieth-century man, in Europe and in America, tends to be contemptuous of the past; but he contributes little enough of his own, except in applied science and technology, toward the preservation of culture, let alone its improvement.

Here, then, I venture some words of misgiving as to the future of our common inheritance of civilization. The facile optimism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is much diminished in Europe and America nowadays; but this does not mean that naive notions of inevitable Progress have been replaced by much serious reflection on the problem of how to conserve and renew our common cultural patrimony. The present threat to our civilization comes as much from indifference, apathy, and selfishness as it does from the totalist powers; and pessimism for pessimisms sake is as bad as optimism for optimisms sake. It seems to me that there are grim symptoms discernible of an absolute decline of the higher culture in both America and Europe; and also symptoms of a decay of the ties that join together the civilizations of Europeans and Americans.

American Ideals

Although for a good while it has been the fashion of European intellectuals to sigh or snarl over the allegedly increasing barbarism of America, I doubt very much whether the decay of the higher culture is proceeding faster in America than in Europe; indeed, in a number of respects the contrary seems to be true. The average American working man, for instance, has much more knowledge of, and respect for, religious teachings than has his English or French counterpart. The average American scholar is less liable to be swept away by ideology than is the European intellectual. The American people at large, in our time, are much more strongly attached to their inherited political institutions than are any other people in the world, even the English.

In any age, there are a good many people in rebellion against their cultural inheritance. In our time, the number of such persons has become alarming. A spirit of defiance or harsh criticism which may be healthful, when confined to a creative minority, can become perilous if it is taken up by a popular majority. To the people who rebel against their cultural inheritance, that legacy seems a burden, rather than a foundation. I doubt whether there are more of these rebels in America than elsewhere in the world; but cultural restoration, like charity, begins at home; and so I venture to touch here upon some signs of the American neglect of the common inheritance of civilization.

So far as our Christian heritage is concerned, there exists little danger that Christianity may cease to be popular in America. The peril, rather, is that Christianity may become altogether too popular for its own good. As Alexis de Tocqueville observed, there is a tendency in the American democracy to re-fashion religion on a democratic patternto deny all intermediary powers between God and man, and to emphasize the social virtues of religious faith at the expense of salvation through grace. Atheism, agnosticism, and anti-clericalism, even at the height of their nineteenth-century vogue, never exercised much real influence in America. These attitudes now are confined principally to eccentrics and to certain members of university and college faculties of the sort that the Irish call spiled praists and the Scots call stickit ministers. And financially, at least, the American churches are in a healthy condition.

The Quality of Faith

Yet the quality of American religious faith is another matter. Many of the clergy tend markedly toward a sentimental and humanitarian application of religious doctrines to the reform of society, at the expense of the supernatural element in religion and the personal element in morality. There also exists a tendency toward making the church into a club and a means of communal self-praise. Christian hope and Christian charity both suffer under this attitude. Yet a healthy reaction against this sentimental and convivial excess seems to have set in: There is a revival of orthodox theology and Christian discipline in the seminaries. America never will build her equivalent of the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, nor will the American churches ever be so much the center of all life as were the medieval churches. But Christian theology and Christian morals probably are not going to yield much more ground to twentieth-century indifference and apathy and vulgarization.

Decline of Law

As for our legacy of ordered liberty, however, I think there is cause for misgiving among us. I do not refer to the laments of the anti-anti-Communists, nor to certain foreign criticisms of American politics. Representative government and civil rights are in no real immediate danger. The disturbing symptoms which I have in mind are a growing disregard of the first principles of justice and jurisprudence, even among judges and lawyers; and the tendency toward concentration of power in Federal and state executive branches and bureaucracies.

The cause of this drift may be found, in part, in the gradual substitution of practical standards for the doctrines of natural law, in jurisprudence, and in political theory. Our schools of law, with few exceptions, have encouraged this tendency. We may yet see the triumph of what Professor Eric Voegelin calls theoretical illiteracy. This affliction exists at every level of American society, and the ascendancy in this century of the bodies of doctrine called instrumentalism and positivism has something to do with the trouble. With this is joined a tendency of our jurists to substitute their own notions of social expediency for the reign of authority and precedent. Certain recent criticisms of Supreme Court decisions by judge Learned Hand and Dr. Edwin S. Corwin describe this latter drift better than I could.

According to a lawyer-friend of mine, passion, prejudice, and private interest exert an increasing influence upon our courts. These are the consequences of theoretical illiteracy and lack of respect for precedent and tradition. This decay of understanding of the reign of law extends to obscure quarters. A university student of considerable natural intelligence recently inquired of me why all American checks and balances in politics were desirable. Why could we not simply train up an elite of governmental administrators, he asked, trust to their good-will and ability, and let them manage the concerns of the nationdiplomatic, domestic, and economic?

This growing naivete, which amounts to an ignorance of the essence of European and American political theory, too often is unchallenged by the pragmatic and technical approaches popular in many of our schools of public administration and governmental research at our universities. It also reflects a wondrous ignorance of human nature and statecraft. It is the attitude which the late Lord Percy of Newcastle called totalist democracya trust in an abstraction called The People combined with an unquestioning faith in The Expert. It amounts to the negation of many centuries of historical and political experience.

Our theoretical illiteracy in politics and jurisprudence, produced in part by the failure of twentieth-century American schooling, is paralleled by a decline of appreciation of humane letters. We have not succeeded in reversing this driftnot by the Great Books movement (which has serious faults of its own), not by the amorphous survey of humanities and world literature and survey of civilization courses in our colleges and universities.

Deterioration of Learning

The study of great literature in our Western culture has aspired to an ethical end through an intellectual means. The improvement of the private human reason for the private persons own sake, and the incidental improvement of society thereby, was the object of the traditional literary disciplines. Both the aim and the discipline itself are badly neglected in twentieth-century America. An obsessive vocationalism has done mischief to the higher learningand, for that matter, to secondary schooling; while the Progressive methods injured in other ways the old disciplines. Such slogans as education for living, learning by doing, schooling for social reconstruction, life adjustment, and schools to serve the community have been employed for a generation as weapons against any genuine training of imagination and reason. Among the consequences has been the steady reduction of leadershipmoral and intellectual talentin America. The founders of the American Republic learned the first principles of human nature and society from the Bible, Cicero, Plutarch, and Shakespeare. But the present generation of school children is expected, instead, to learn to live with all the worldthrough a rash of scissors-and-paste projects.

When poetry is replaced by communications skills, and narrative history by doctrinaire social generalizations, the whole intricate inheritance of general culture is threatened. There are professors of education who seriously argue that no young person ought to read a book more than fifty years old. The imaginative and rational disciplines, so painfully created over centuries, can be immeasurably injured by a generation or two of neglect and contempt.

I repeat that these disquieting signs of the decay of our common culture are not peculiar to the United States. Despite our American liking for material change, we never have had much taste for novelty in morals, politics, and the fabric of civilization. An able Scottish editor writes to me that in his opinionand he had traveled in this countryAmerica still is characterized by vitality, diversity, and simplicity of life. I think this is true, and that we need not despair for our culture.

Change and Continuity

Yet we live in an age in which the expectation of change seems to be greater than the expectation of continuity. The patrimony of a civilization can be lost at the very moment of that civilizations material triumph. In any culture worthy of the name, men must be something better than the flies of a summer; generation must link with generation. Some men among us are doing whatever is in their power to preserve and reinvigorate our common heritage. This is not a work that can be accomplished through positive law or the creation of international commissions. Yet if a people forget the ashes of their fathers and the temples of their gods, the consequences soon will be felt in the laws and in international affairs. Without cultural community between America and Europe, there is little point in political alliance. If we have no real civilization, no enduring cultural bonds, to unite us against Soviet totalism, we may as well let the alleged Communist culture have its way with us.

This essay was originally published in Christianity Today (January 1960) and is republished with gracious permission from The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

The featured image is View of the Colosseum (1747) by Giovanni Paolo Panini, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. It has been brightened for clarity.
The Helena Citizens Council, an elected advisory group to the city commission, would like to see a 2-cent tax added to the cost of every gallon of gasoline sold in Lewis and Clark County to generate funds for transportation needs.

The group's request for the Lewis and Clark County Commission to put a local gas tax on the ballot came during a recent meeting of the city and county commissions.

While the county commission agreed to consider the request, a ballot measure seeking voter approval may not happen soon.

Eric Bryson, the countys chief administrative officer, said the county commissions top priority has been to gain voter approval for funds needed to address overcrowding at the countys detention center.

County Commissioner Susan Good Geise confirmed the commissions interest in resolving jail overcrowding and said requests to voters need to be considered sequentially.

Earlier this week, Bryson said nothing regarding a local fuel tax had been placed on the county commissions calendar for consideration or discussion.

Based on the number of gallons of fuel sold in the county in 2015, a 2-cent-per-gallon tax was projected to generate $487,69, according to information provided by the Helena Citizens Council.

How the annual fuel tax would be divided is among issues that would have to be decided should the county agree to place it on the ballot.

Gary Spaeth, a member of the Helena Citizens Council, described it as a use tax and said those who use streets and roads would be able to see the benefit from the added cost per gallon of fuel.

The Helena Citizens Council wasnt unanimous in its recommendation to bring the measure for the countys consideration. Spaeth noted that the vote was 23 to 3.

Sumner Sharpe, another member of the council, said discussion on a fuel tax had been ongoing for about a year.

And 2 cents is the maximum that state law allows, he added.

The tax would provide an opportunity to generate local funds to pay for local roads, Shape said.

Traffic delays at the intersection of Montana Avenue and the Montana Rail Link railroad tracks has been a topic of discussion for the Helena Citizens Council and could be a project to fund through a local fuel tax, he noted.

In the 15 years of discussions on the traffic delay caused by that railroad crossing, this was the first funding source identified to help resolve the problem, Mayor Jim Smith said.

In recent years the city commission has discussed a grade separation that could result in an overpass or underpass for Montana Avenue -- a city street that helps funnel commuter traffic in and out of the city each day.

City Commissioner Rob Farris-Olsen said he fully supported a gas tax and saw it as an opportunity to raise funds without implementing additional property taxes.

He said he hoped it could be a ballot issue next year, and the tax also drew support from City Commissioners Ed Noonan, Andres Haladay and Dan Ellison.

Ellison credited the Helena Citizens Council for its work and said it was the most precise and formalized proposal hes seen from the group.

County Commissioner Andy Hunthausen said he wasnt opposed to the proposal but wanted more information on how it would affect rural parts of the county.

Geise said a citizen petition for the tax would result in more community support.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  In Missouri, a number of farmers have turned to food plots to help create a supplemental food source for wildlife, to help attract animals to their property and to help their populations grow for the purpose of aesthetics, recreational hunting and beyond.

Tim Kavan, a private land conservationist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said food plots can be useful to help feed wildlife groups in critical need.

Its a food source, a source of nutrition during stressful times of the season, he said. Whether its deer, turkey, quail or dove, theyre there for the food component, for the nutrition.

He added there are further benefits beyond nutrition for local wildlife.

Some of the benefits are just the manipulation of the soil, disturbing it, getting annual weeds to grow, whether its pigweed or weve got coreopsis, just those annual weeds, Kavan said. Over time, it will mature and turn into grass and then unwanted trees, so just having the disturbance and the management on the field is an added bonus.

Also, the landowner can begin a rotation where food plots are tended to every other year, so they can grow as a wild habitat for turkeys, rabbits, quail and other animals.

Its a form of management to disturb the ground and get some new growth instead of it all maturing at the same time; it offers different stages of habitat, Kavan said.

At a farm in Matthews, Mo., Kavan pointed out the production of sunflowers to help attract doves. He said once a thrasher runs through the field, the ground-level seeds will create a food source for doves, which have weak beaks and feet unable to crack into seeds like other birds. Also, it creates a sort of sheltered living area for various types of birds.

It provides shade and dusting areas, Kavan said. All of our bird species, they take baths in dust. They dont go to water to take baths, so theyll come out here and dust and get all the insects and parasites off of them that way.

The draw for farmers to create food plots on their land, Kavan said, could be for personal enjoyment, including activities like aesthetic wildlife viewing, hunting, a sense of involvement on their land and being able to manipulate the land to provide those animals nutrition at different times throughout the year.

For Ed Graves, a farmer south of Biehle, Mo., his food plots on a 20-acre land area  set aside for the Conservation Reserve Program  are used to help build an annual quail population to assist in field trialing Brittany hunting dogs.

The CRP is a cost-share and rental program led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the USDA Farm Service Agency. In exchange for government money, farmers can develop food plots on their land to help improve environmental quality, conserve the wildlife and build up natural populations throughout the state.

Kavan said the Missouri Department of Conservation also offers cost-share money for farmers to create food plots in pivot corners on farms, in timber openings and in opportunistic areas like near power lines.

Even if youre not a hunter, the food plots still a good alternative as far as a form of management on your property, he said.

In Graves case, he recommends using food plots on an every-other-year basis. In the past, he has had sunflower and milo grain food plots to attract quail.

Milo seems to work the best for quail, he said.

Considering quail nest on the ground, Graves decided to place native wildflowers that attract insects to create a food source for the quail chicks once they hatch. Since the flowers are low-lying, the birds have easy access.

Even though some farmers like Graves use food plots to facilitate training programs and other functions, Kavan said by far, hunting is the top draw for having a food plot.

That sense of, if you harvest an animal on something that you did, you know, last year you invested the money, the blood and the sweat and the research, and youre able to harvest that animal, thats just a sense of fulfillment on your property, he said. You changed the landscape from X and made it Y, and it proved to be successful and put food on the table.

There are different types of grain food plots, ranging from corn to sunflowers to soybeans and beyond. Green browse food plots consist of clover, wheat or rye, and offer forage consumption throughout the winter.

Kavan said food plots can cost around $200 an acre, with variance throughout the year, when the costs for soil testing, fertilization, seed, the tractor and fuel are combined.

Kavan said thought and care should be put into planning, especially considering where the plot is located and of what it consists. For instance, in certain cases, manipulation of the land every other year is discouraged.

When it comes to waterfowl, manipulation is a no-no. You have to let it grow and you cannot disturb that grain, then you start getting into baiting issues and that is a federal offense, he said. So youve got to know the parameters of the species youre looking to take.

Kavan said having active food plots on farms may increase the property value, and could make the property more appealing to potential buyers. More than anything, he sees it as an opportunity for the landowners personal enjoyment and to help keep the wildlife happy and healthy.

The whole take on point is the management, Kavan said. Its disturbance, its getting a complexity of annual grains and native vegetation and cover all within a certain framework, and thats what the wildlife really need to complete their life cycle.
EUGENE, Ore.  Marilyn Warner, 74, of Eugene, Ore., passed on July 27, 2016, after an 18-month battle with breast cancer.

Private family service will be held in the future.

Marilyn was born at Murphys Maternity Home on July 5, 1942, in Greeley to Raymond and Winifred Warner.

She is survived by her son, David Benak and his family of Topeka, Kan.; four brothers, Jerome of Greeley, the Rev. Jim of Harlingen, Texas, Joe of Waverly, and Dave of St. Paul; and two sisters, Patricia of Greeley and Catherine (Kate) of Canaan, N.H., who had the pleasure of performing hospice care for Marilyn the last weeks of her life.

Marilyn also is survived by many nieces and nephews and their offspring.

Marilyn spent 33 years of her life teaching English at OPS/Burke High School in Omaha. She won the National Endowment Seminar, National Endowment for Independent Study on Frontier Women, ConAgra Creative Teacher Award and League of Jewish Women on isms award. She was also president of Omaha AAUU for 2011-12.

Marilyn traveled extensively throughout her life, which was one of her joys. She moved in 2013 to Eugene, Ore., where she was active in P.E.O., was a generous donor to the Nobel Laureates Peace Park and the Oregon Cultural Trust. Marilyn was a collector of depression glass, vintage broaches, quilting fabric and all genre of literature. She loved to bake for family and friends alike. She gave generously of her time, talents and her wealth. She will be missed for her gentle laugh, dry wit and loving nature.

Marilyn has requested no floral arrangements to be sent for her funeral. Anyone wishing to make a donation in her honor may do so by contributing to the Greeley Care Home, c/o Medical Equipment Fund, Greeley, NE 68842.
WASHINGTON  Like shipwrecked mariners clinging to a floating mast, many Republicans rationalize supporting Donald Trump because of the court. This two-word incantation means: Because we care so much for the Constitution, it is supremely important to entrust to Trump the making of Supreme Court nominations. Well.

In a Republican candidates debate, Trump complained that Ted Cruz had criticized Trumps sister, a federal judge. Trump said: Hes been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito, a very conservative member of the Supreme Court, with my sister, signed that bill. Trump, the supposed savior of the Supreme Court, thinks federal judges sign bills.

The mast-clingers say: Well, sure, he knows nothing about American government, including the Constitution, which he vows to defend all the way to Article XII. He will, however, choose wise advisers and humbly defer to them.

This does not quite seem like him, but the mast-clingers say: Dont worry, he already has compiled a list of admirable potential nominees, and, stickler that he is for consistency and predictability, he will stick to this script written by strangers. This, too, does not quite seem like Trump, but the mast-clingers say: Dont worry, he has said enough to reveal what his instincts are. Indeed he has.

The courts two most important decisions in this century are Kelo and Citizens United. Conservatives loathe Kelo; Trump loves it. Conservatives celebrate Citizens United; Trump repeats the strident rhetoric of its liberal detractors.

Kelo did radical damage to property rights. The Constitution says private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. Until Kelo, the court had held that for public use meant for something used by the general public (e.g., roads, public buildings) or to remove blight. In Kelo, the court held, 5-4, that the government of New London, Conn., behaved constitutionally when it bulldozed a residential neighborhood for the public use of transferring the land to a corporation that would pay more taxes than the neighborhoods residents paid to the government. Trumps interests as a developer and a big-government authoritarian converge in his enthusiasm for Kelo.

Citizens United said that Americans do not forfeit their free speech rights when they band together in corporate form to magnify their political advocacy. The court held that the First Amendment protects from government restriction independent (not coordinated with candidates campaigns) candidate advocacy by Americans acting collectively through corporations, especially nonprofit advocacy corporations such as the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association, etc.

Hillary Clinton favors amending the First Amendment to empower government to regulate the quantity, content and timing of campaign speech about the governments composition and conduct. It would do this by regulating campaign spending, most of which funds the dissemination of speech. The rationale for this, and for the broader liberal objective of replacing private funding with public funding of politics, is the theory that politicians are easily bought and that private contributions breed quid pro quo corruption. Trump loudly voices this proposition.

The court has said that campaign-speech regulations can be justified to combat corruption or the appearance thereof. Trump says he has made innumerable contributions to members of both parties because, When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.

Before he decided to solicit contributors, he said his wealth made him the only candidate impervious to corruption. It is unlikely that he would nominate to the court persons who believe that the First Amendment, properly construed, requires the deregulation of political speech. The mast-clingers should remember that Trumps hostility to First Amendment values is apparent in his desire to loosen libel laws, thereby making it easier to sue or intimidate people who criticize people like him.

Most mast-clingers are properly dismayed by President Obamas anti-constitutional use of executive orders to implement policies Congress refuses to enact. Trump promises more executive orders: Im going to use them much better, and theyre going to serve a much better purpose than hes done. So, mast-clingers straining to justify themselves by invoking the court are saying this:

Granted, Trump knows nothing about current debates concerning the courts proper role. We will, however, trust that he will suddenly become deferential to others preferences about judges. And we will ignore his promise to continue Obamas authoritarian uses of the executive branch that will further degrade the legislative branch. We will do this because we care so very much for the Constitution.
WASHINGTON  One of the most cynical men in America has taken Donald Trump under his wing and warned the bombastic billionaire to straighten up and fly far, far right or risk losing the November presidential election.

Roger Ailes, ousted earlier this summer as head of Fox News following allegations of sexual harassment from a number of former female employees, is the brains behind Foxs self-aggrandizing fair and balanced slogan, which actually describes the exact opposite of what the network pushes. Ailes probably has done more to foment political division and lack of civility in this country than anyone else and is now telling his old friend Trump what to do if he really wants to win.

And Trump, apparently, really does want to win.

After news of Ailes advising Trump broke, the often foul-mouthed, off-the-rails tycoon immediately read  actually read  a teleprompter speech in a lily white town near Milwaukee in which he stuck to the conservative script of being tough on law and order, berating Hillary Clinton and insisting that Democrats merely want to exploit African-Americans.

Next we learned Ailes is forcing Trump to run TV ads, something Trump so far has not wanted to spend money on, preferring free publicity. Ailes was behind the Morning in America messaging that got Ronald Reagan re-elected. He also helped Richard Nixon get elected and worked to take the patrician edges off George H.W. Bush. Hes a best friend of Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who has become one of Trumps hardest-working surrogates.

Up until now, Trump has refused to listen to Republican graybeards who have said he needs to stay on-message, stop bloviating pure nonsense and vitriol, and keep focused on blasting Clinton. But as his polls plummeted and the pundits began looking at Trumps poor performance among college-educated voters, women, and minorities and in swing states, even Trump began to panic.

This is all of a pattern, folks. Rich, influential Republicans want to win. Trump was flailing. Tired of fretting, the big boys have taken the situation in hand.

Trump also tapped for his team two other friends, Kellyanne Conway, a take-no-prisoners GOP strategist, and Stephen Bannon, the pit bull executive chairman of Breitbart News, which long has touted Trump and derided Clinton.

If Trump listens to Ailes, Conway and Bannon, as well as his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who helped pull strings for the Russians in Ukraine, November will be a narrow contest between Trump and Clinton.

Potentially both have a little over 40 percent of the vote just by virtue of being a Democrat and a Republican. So the real fight is over the roughly 13 to 15 percent of undecided independents who really dont like either one of their choices and who are waiting to see if Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson gets 15 percent of the polls to qualify for the all-important debates.

The first debate on Sept. 26, warns Ailes, will be crucial for Trump, who likes to say he needs no debate preparation and that Americans loved his all-over-the-place, domineering style in the Republican debates. Ailes, Conway, Bannon and Manafort have persuaded Trump that debating Clinton will be a different ballgame and that Trump better learn different rules and behavior. Fast.

Trump sulked a bit and fretted that if he changes, hell lose his base. The we-who-must-be-obeyed quartet is sweet-talking Trump into realizing that its not his base he has to worry about now  its moderate Republicans and disaffected Democrats who want a candidate who isnt Clinton but who sounds rational, especially on economics.

Make no mistake, Trump will keep up his coded braying to his followers, assuring them that political incorrectness, sexism, racism and xenophobia are still OK with him. But he will put a fine sugar-coating on his words. And middle-of-the-roaders will begin to convince themselves that Trump isnt so bad after all. He will say exactly what the oligarchs  and Trump is a true oligarch  want him to say: That lowering taxes on the rich will raise all boats (although it never has), the end justifies the means, cruel as they may be, and strange bedfellows produce results, although they may be the opposite of what most people want.

Do not gloat, Democrats. This is not over. In this wacky world of do-overs and second chances and mass manipulation, sow ears are made into silk purses all the time.
The New York Times detailed how Donald Trumps advisers had pleaded with him to become a more disciplined, credible candidate. Mr. Trump bowed to his teams entreaties, the Times reported. It was time, he agreed, to get on track.

Trump immediately denounced the story. He hadnt bowed to anyone. He wasnt going to change. I am who I am, he tweeted.

That reaction reveals a key reason why Hillary Clinton, a deeply unpopular candidate, is running so far ahead. Trump firmly believes in his own wisdom and boasts constantly about defeating 16 opponents in the Republican primaries. And yes, he defied the predictions of virtually every political analyst, including us.

But the primary period is profoundly different from a general election. Trump might still be the same  I am who I am  but hes now operating in a new world. A new universe, really. And he cant, or wont, understand that tectonic shift.

Once candidates get the nomination, once they actually have a chance of becoming president, the spotlight gets much brighter and hotter. Every word, every gesture, every innuendo becomes magnified, scrutinized, dissected.

Trump blames the media for his plunge in the polls, and in a way hes right, because theyre taking him much more seriously. They are subjecting his words to a much sterner test, and holding him accountable for them. As a result, the outrageousness that earned him almost $2 billion of free TV time in the primaries is now being turned against him.

For months, he insulted just about everybody  Mexicans and Muslims, women and the disabled  while primary voters cheered him on. But once he became the nominee, and demeaned the parents of a slain Muslim soldier, or casually incited Second Amendment people to violence, the intensity of press coverage became his enemy, not his friend.

We are reminded of a story told by the late Charlie Mohr, a New York Times reporter covering Barry Goldwater in 1964. He was outside a campaign rally when a tearful woman burst out of the room and cried, Stop them, stop those reporters, theyre writing down every word hes saying.

And its not just the media. In the primaries, Trumps rivals were generally reluctant to attack him directly because they didnt want to alienate his supporters. Now, Team Clinton and the Democrats are savaging him daily, joined by a steady stream of Republicans who have decided that, alas, Trump is who he is: undisciplined, unqualified and downright dangerous.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine spoke for many of those Republicans when she told CBS why she couldnt support her partys nominee: I always expected that he would evolve and change and that we would see a new Donald Trump after the primary. Instead, the constant barrage of the ill-informed and cruel comments continued.

Another difference is the political landscape. Republican primary voters are much whiter, and more conservative, than the country as whole. Now Trump faces a national electorate that is only 70 percent white. And in many swing states, the voting population is even more diverse: about 50 percent white in Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, 40 percent in New Mexico.

Sure, he continues to attract large and enthusiastic crowds, but he willfully deludes himself into thinking those crowds reflect the wider voting population. For instance, he defended his attacks on President Obama as the founder of ISIS by telling radio host Hugh Hewitt, Everyones liking it.

Of course everyone who comes to a Trump rally was thrilled. But they wont decide the election. To others, the comment was an outright lie, one more example of why hes totally unfit to be president.

Voters are taking Trump more seriously, as well. As the election gets closer, they are viewing him through a different lens and holding him to a much higher standard. Hes no longer just a celebrity, a reality TV star who tells it like it is. Folks are starting to evaluate him as a possible president, and for some  particularly well-educated Republican women  that process is causing them to change their minds.

I liked that he was politically incorrect, Trish Grove, a banker in suburban Philadelphia, told The New York Times. But now I feel, enough already. He is not going to win a majority of voters by sounding offensive and ridiculous.

No, hes not. There is no New Trump, and no campaign shake-up will change that. He is who he is. And at last the country is starting to say, Enough already.
DECATUR  After moving to different places every few years, new Richland Community College President Cristobal Cris Valdez has been looking for a place for his family to call home.

He's hoping to have found it in Decatur.

At the same time the family settles in and discovers everything the Decatur area has to offer, Valdez is focused on what Richland is able to provide the community.

We see people realize their dreams here every day, Valdez said. The college touches the lives of a lot of people.

Valdez, who became Richland's seventh president on Aug. 1, is watching enrollment figures closely with the fall semester starting this week. He said student numbers for the fall have exceeded the projected target but that it's still down after a conservative estimate.

We're trying to reverse that trend, Valdez said. We want people to see we do fantastic things here.

To be able to provide the most impact for students, Valdez said Richland needs to keep classes affordable. Tuition costs have been rising as the college looks for alternative sources to state funding, Valdez said.

We are developing a financial model to reduce dependency on state funding, Valdez said. If we can do that, we will be able to be sustainable and strengthen our financial position.

The Richland Foundation has shown it can help in easing the financial burden on students and taxpayers, as Valdez said it awards approximately $750,000 annually in scholarships. He said it has also shown the ability to provide funding for capital projects, particularly with the $3.5 million Carroll Center for Business project.

Unlike the state-supported Student Success Center project, Valdez acknowledged plans for the Carroll Center are moving forward because of the donations the college has received.

One of the first tasks will be finding a new executive director for the Foundation, following the retirement of Richard McGowan earlier this summer. A new director could be in place later this fall, but Valdez said in the meantime, the current staff has been incredible in stepping up.

The new president has been impressed by what he's seen with the dedication of faculty and staff throughout the college. They're motivated to help students navigate the higher education process and succeed, he said.

We want to have the strongest team possible, Valdez said. That's already built into the structure.

Valdez is learning about the culture at Richland, particularly as he meets individually with employees.

Bruce Campbell, Richland Board of Trustees chairman, said Valdez was selected for the job in part because of his work experience, which Campbell thinks can assist in dealing with issues such as the state budget. Campbell said Valdez can help Richland move forward as it's at a point to build on the great things that are already in place.

With a contract at Richland running through June 30, 2019, Valdez is starting off by trying to build on experience, having most recently been president of Central Wyoming College since 2014 and prior to that president of Edison Community College in Ohio.

With that experience, we're moving quicker as there's not a steep learning curve, Valdez said. I believe in the mission of the community college.

He indicated part of the college's mission will continue to prepare students to meet the community's workforce needs, particularly for employers such as Archer Daniels Midland Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Tate & Lyle. He said Richland will work to align its curriculum with the need of employers to continue providing the area with a well-prepared, skilled workforce.

After moving and living around the country while he's been working in higher education administration, Valdez said his family has been looking forward to getting back to the Midwest where they feel most comfortable. Valdez and his wife Robin have four children, with Antonio, the oldest, in college and the others, Ali, Aaron and Andi, in middle and high school.

He said they've already felt at home with the welcoming spirit of the community.

This is one of the most inviting communities I've seen, Valdez said. It's a great fit for our family.

They've been to events, including Decatur Celebration and the Blue Mound Fall Festival. During a lunchtime meeting last week prior to the school year with faculty from the Health Professions Division, Valdez was offered more suggestions for things to do in the area.

A reception to welcome Valdez to Richland will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, in the Shilling Community Education Center.
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

For some people, food is about more than just taste. It is about history, philosophy and culture waiting to be discovered.

Joining a culinary tour is an interesting way to learn more about the stories behind the foods we enjoy. Kelana Rasa, for example, is a gastronomy tour organizer that explores local and international foods. Established in 2011, it has visited several regions in Indonesia including South Sulawesi, West Sumatra and Maluku. Our purpose is simple; we want Indonesians to love our archipelagos gastronomy that is less well-known, said founder Arie Parikesit.

During the tour, Kelana Rasa provides more than simply food tasting for its participants, who are mostly members of traveling and culinary communities. Aside from tasting [the food], they said they also learned about many new things, such as the ingredients, local cooking methods, eating habits and new spectrums of flavor, he said.

During a trip to Minangkabau in West Sumatra, for example, participants learned how to make rendang (beef simmered in spices and coconut milk), while in Bangka they visited a forest known for its unique kulat pelawan mushroom, which can be made into the traditional lempah kulat pelawan (mushroom stew).

Prior to creating new trips, Arie explores destinations to decide whether they are unique enough to be included on a culinary tour. It includes the availability of local food as well as additional value, such as souvenirs, cooking classes and other factors, he said.

(Read also: South Sumatra forms Tourism Promotion Board to get more visitors)

A photo posted by Arie Parikesit (@arieparikesit) on Jul 6, 2016 at 8:53pm PDT

Another culinary tour organizer, Jakarta Food Adventure (JFA), invites its participants to explore the history and culture of Jakarta through its cuisine. "Based on my observations, there's no trip organizer in Jakarta that particularly offers food or culinary tours that explore foods, history as well as culture for foreigners, said founder Ira Latief.

(Read also: Three city experiences to enjoy in Jakarta)

Though only recently founded in February, JFA has explored numerous locations including Jakarta's Chinatown in Glodok, Little India in Pasar Baru, the Arab quarter in Cikini, Portuguese village in Kampung Tugu and other fascinating locations. The group has also visited Yogyakarta in Central Java for an Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? movie adventure.

The location [choices] are usually based on our observations of the number of ethnic communities or thematic restaurants that can be found there, said Ira. For example, Pasar Baru is home to many Indian restaurants as well as Indian communities and Indian temples.

(Read also: Explore these 5 spots in Pasar Baru, Jakartas Little India)

A photo posted by Jakarta Food Adventure (@jakartafoodtour) on Apr 6, 2016 at 4:05am PDT

Before establishing Kelana Rasa, Arie traveled for work for more than 10 years, which allowed him to explore various cuisines and later share his experiences in food-related forums and mailing lists.

A study by Gajah Mada University recorded at least 5,000 Indonesian cuisines exist today, he said. I dare say that Indonesia has the highest level of culinary diversity in the world compared to Europe and America; this is something that we have to promote and preserve together.

The organizer is currently in the process of inviting foreigners, especially those from Malaysia and Singapore, to experience Indonesian culinary tours, as well as adding new destinations such as Kalimantan, Lombok and Toraja.

Meanwhile, JFA also plans to add more destinations to its tour program. We will hold food tours in Bandung, Bekasi and Depok, Ira said. (kes)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

Commuter line passengers have expressed concerns over the Jakarta administrations recent decision to increase train fares to Rp 3,000 (22 US cents) from Rp 2,000.

The new policy will be enforced from Oct. 1.

Passenger Niko, 51, who boarded a train at Tebet Station in South Jakarta on Friday, said no matter how small, the fare increase would significantly impact his expenditure because he used the commuter line every day.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, August 20 2016

Tim Coppens x Eastpak Modern Military Backpack



After Belgian designer Tim Coppens released his 2016 spring/summer collection at New York Fashion Week, he has finally made his pieces available to the public. Check out his collaboration with Eastpak on a chic military backpack. This limited-edition piece draws inspiration from urban youth culture with a dash of classic military motifs. Available in three colorways and two styles at timcoppens.com.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

A politician from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has urged political parties to think twice before endorsing Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in his bid for reelection next year on claims of him being disloyal to political parties and his volunteer group.

"Not just the PDI-P, but the political parties that have thrown support behind him must reconsider unless they want to be Ahok's victim," PDI-P politician Andreas Pareira said on Saturday.

Andreas went on to list Ahok's stints in political parties.

Ahok was a member of the New Indonesia Party (PIB) when running for East Belitung regent in 2005. In 2009, he joined the Golkar Party to run as a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, but left it in 2012 to run for Jakarta deputy governor with the Gerindra Party.

Ahok reportedly left Gerindra in 2014 in protest of the partys move to support reinstating indirect elections for local heads. The Jakarta governor decided in July to go the political party route in his bid for reelection despite the efforts of his volunteer group Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) to collect over 1 million vote pledges to secure his candidacy on an independent ticket. Ahok has secured support from the Golkar Party, the Hanura Party and the NasDem Party.

Ahok is also eyeing support from the PDI-P to strengthen his candidacy.

Ahok has pit Djarot against the PDI-P by boasting about his support from Megawati. He is now using the devide et impera tactic. With his bad track record and tricky political style, political parties must be careful when deciding whether to back Ahok, Andreas said referring to Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat. (rin)
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

Bali Police named Australian woman Sara Connor and British man David James Taylor suspects on Saturday for allegedly murdering a policeman on Kuta Beach earlier this week.

"We named them suspects based on the evidence we have acquired. Even if they do not confess, it doesn't matter," Denpasar Police chief Sr. Comr . Hadi Purnomo said on Saturday mentioning statements from witnesses, blood of the suspects and broken beer bottles found at the scene as evidence.

Police charged the two suspects under Article 338 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on murder, which carries a maximum 15 years imprisonment.

Connor and Taylor were arrested on Friday afternoon, three days after the murder took place in the early hours of Wednesday. The suspects are accused of murdering a local policeman named I Wayan Sudarsa, whose severely bruised body was found on Kuta Beach.

Both Connor and Taylor have reportedly admitted to having interacted with the victim, but denied involvement in the murder.

Taylor reportedly told police that he saw the policeman and tried to help him. "But he could not explain how he helped him," Hadi added. Meanwhile, Connor reportedly told police that she got into an argument with Wayan at the beach gate after she reported losing a bag on the beach, Hadi said, without giving further details.

The couple was questioned by the police on Friday and underwent an injuring examination. Their attorney Erwin Siregar said they were asked 16 questions. (rin)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has vowed to intensify efforts to prevent vote buying, known locally as "money politics", in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election through coordination with the National Police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO).

Bawaslu commissioner Nasrullah said with the upcoming election in sight, the agency has continued to raise awareness of the importance of fair competition among the candidates, since such foul play would be bothersome for law enforcers.

"We already have overcrowding in penitentiaries and the government has spent too much on prisoners' needs. It will be better to see no candidate arrested for money politics, which is illegal and dangerous," Nasrullah said in Jakarta on Friday.

He asserted that the sentra gakkum (law enforcement center), which was established to create synergy between election supervisors, the police and prosecutors, would impose sanctions, such as disqualification and criminal penalties, on all parties found guilty of vote buying.

Bawaslu had finished drafting a joint regulation as a guidelines for the sentra gakkum, Nasrullah said, adding that the agency was now waiting for National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian and Attorney General H. M. Prasetyo to sign the draft.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, with whom the Bawaslu team coordinated on Friday, also encouraged the commitment of the sentra gakkum in enforcing the law to ensure a real democratic election. (ags)
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

An expert has slammed the government for oversimplifying the citizenship status of Arcandra Tahar, as an official has said the dismissed energy and mineral resources minister is expected to be fully reinstated as an Indonesian citizen by next week.

The government is looking to reinstate Arcandra's status through the 2006 Law on citizenship, but his politically charged case may encounter difficulties in obtaining approval at the House of Representatives, an international law expert from the University of Indonesia, Hikmahanto Juwana, said on Friday.

"It may be solved at the government level, but it would still need to be considered at the House," Hikmahanto said in reference to the law, which grants Indonesian citizenship to foreigners who have provided good services or achieved extraordinary achievements for the country, without naturalization.

However, Arcandra's case is politically sensitive and affiliations to different factions at the House could dissuade members from approving, he said.

Hikmahanto urged the government to be fair in granting citizenship and not push for a swift amendment due to a political agenda, such as to reinstate him as minister.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo dismissed Arcandra with honor on Monday following the revelation that he held US citizenship after spending 20 years there as an oil executive. Law and Human Rights Ministry official Freddy Haris said on Thursday that the ministry had started the process to reinstate Arcandra's Indonesian citizenship status within a week. (rin)
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

The government must consider the benefits of embracing the Indonesian diaspora, but at the same time must also remain careful in handling dual citizenship issues following recent debate over the Citizenship Law, experts have said.

Indonesian Diaspora Network advocacy team Mey Hasibuan urged the government to look to neighboring ASEAN countries, such and the Philippines and Vietnam, that have acknowledged the economic potential from their diaspora network.

There needs to be openness in thinking about the essence of citizenship and nationalism, she said. Allowing dual citizenship could help increase contributions and investment from Indonesians spread across the globe.

However, international law expert with the University of Indonesia Hikmahanto Juwana cautioned the government over becoming too lenient and giving into public pressure to accommodate dual citizenship. The government must consider potential compromises to national security and tax runaways, he said. He pointed out that intelligence and success abroad may not necessarily translate in the country.

"Even if the government agrees to dual citizenship, they must be very selective," he said.

Two recent incidents catapulted debate on the Citizenship Law, the revelation that former energy and mineral resources minister Arcandra Tahar and 17-year-old national flag-hoisting (Paskibraka) member Gloria Natapradja Hamel held US and France passports, respectively.

Indonesia only acknowledges single citizenship. An Indonesian loses his or her citizenship after pledging loyalty to another country, according to the 2006 Law on citizenship. (rin)
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Toba Samosir, North Sumatra  Sun, August 21, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has called for greater public participation in the protection of Lake Toba following the government's plan to revamp the tourist destination in North Sumatra.

"I ask people and local chiefs to protect Lake Toba. We have started to plant trees and will continue to do so," the President said on Saturday during a tree-planting event in Parparean I village, Toba Samosir regency.

In the event, Jokowi and First Lady Iriana planted around 250 trees. The pair is also scheduled to attend a tree-planting event of 1,500 trees with locals in Samosir regency, an area located in the middle of the well-known Lake Toba on Sunday.

The event aims to revitalize the surrounding ecosystem of Lake Toba as part of efforts to make it a world-class tourist destination, Jokowi said.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry has collaborated with various stakeholders to run the greenery programs on the hills of Lake Toba. To ensure the effectiveness of the programs, it involved individuals from all parties, the President said.

"Without the help of the people, the feat would be impossible," Jokowi added.

Lake Toba was formed by one of the largest volcanic eruptions the world has seen, some 75,000 years ago. The eruption formed Samosir Island and a huge caldera known as Lake Toba. (rin)
BENTON  State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, and some other state legislators blasted Gov. Bruce Rauner on Saturday for his veto of a bill that would have re-opened the Hardin County Work Camp.

The camp closed in January of this year, sending more than 60 employees to other parts of the state, creating an economic deficit in that area, according to a news release.

The work camp opened in 1980. In June 2015, the governor announced the closing of the work camp as part of budget cuts, saying it would save $1 million annually and save on $9.8 million worth of repairs that needed to be done to keep it open, according to past articles.

Forby and the others expressed their disappointment.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I shocked? No, Forby said. This governor doesnt give a lick about Southern Illinois. Hes just another snake oil salesman from Chicago. Closing down state facilities in parts of the state that truly need an economic boost just doesnt make sense."

Forby said this bill received bipartisan support because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understand the importance of the work being done at the camp and the economic impact to the surrounding communities.

"The only explanation I can come up with is, hes just a terrible governor," Forby said.

Also sharing his surprise was state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg.

I was shocked that Gov. Bruce Rauner single-handedly closed the Hardin County Work Camp, after Democratic and Republican lawmakers urged him to keep the facility open, Phelps said.

Phelps said he worked with fellow legislators in both parties to pass legislation to reopen the facility.

"By vetoing the bill, our billionaire governor from Chicago once again demonstrated he doesnt care about communities in Southern Illinois and showed everybody how much is at stake in the November election and in 2018 when he is on the ballot again," Phelps said. "Southern Illinoisans will not forget.

State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, accused the governor of using his money to buy "legislative lapdogs" who would not defend the interests of Southern Illinoisians.

"Rauner's veto was a result of his obsession with annihilating organized labor and hurting union members, like those who worked at the Hardin Camp," Bradley continued. "Rauner hates unions because they fight for fair wages, decent benefits and safe working conditions for everyone, and in the private sector they demand that workers receive a fair share of the profits, which means less money for people like Rauner."

He went on to say that Rauner made his fortune at an investment firm that owned companies that profit from privatization of prisons and the probation system.

"Rauner may well be trying to dismantle and privatize our criminal justice system to financially benefit himself, his former business partners, and the wealthy individuals who fund his political activities," Bradley said.
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

Despite successfully forging the Kinship Coalition at Jakarta's City Hall, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is now considering leaving it to support the encumbant governor in an upcoming election.

The chairman of the PDI-Ps Jakarta gubernatorial candidate selection team, Gembong Warsono, said the party was open to the possibility of supporting Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in the 2017 gubernatorial election, a move that will definitely break up the coalition.

Talking about possibilities, it is possible for us to leave the coalition if the partys central executive board (DPP) orders us to do so. However, the DPD will try to deliver the residents and coalitions aspiration to the DPP, Gembong told The Jakarta Post on Friday in Jakarta.

Previously in July, the acting chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the PDI-P, Bambang DH, said 80 percent of PDI-P voters objected to Ahok enjoying a prolonged leadership. After establishing the Kinship Coalition with six other parties on Aug. 8, Bambang pointed out Ahoks poor performance.

Separately, the chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the United Development Party (PPP), Abdul Azis, said he hopes that the PDI-P will stay in the coalition to support an alternative candidate to compete against Ahok in the election.

The PPP has agreed to not support Ahok. If the PDI-P decides to support Ahok, we wont follow them. However, if the PDI-P appoints another candidate besides Ahok, we will surely follow them, Abdul said.

The party has asked the PDI-P to bring Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini into the election. However, other candidates from the PDI-P, such as deputy governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat, would be fine for the party since it officially only rejected Ahok's leadership, he said. (ags)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 21, 2016

Noted poet and writer Afrizal Malna has turned down the 2016 Achmad Bakrie Award for literature, saying he did not want to be associated with the Bakrie family's group of businesses.

"That means I would become part of their construction [Achmad Bakrie Awards]; therefore it is better for me not to accept it," he told tempo.co on Sunday.

The 59-year-old literary figure also pointed to the image of the award in the public eye, given the background of the Bakrie family's business empire. Achmad Bakrie is the father of businessman and Golkar Party politician Aburizal Bakrie.

The literature award was an effort to silence the development of literature itself, Afrizal claimed.

An advisor to the Achmad Bakrie Award committee, Rizal Mallarengeng, said the refusal did not annul Afrizal's victory.

"There are controversies, but for us that does not matter," he said, as quoted by tempo.co.

The committee said Afrizal's achievements as a poet and writer had enriched the cultural life of the country. The award aimed to appreciate his works and to inspire younger generations, Rizal said on Saturday. Furthermore, Afrizal was also awarded because the committee considered him successful in creating modern poetry on urban lives.

Afrizal's refusal adds to a long list of respective figures that have turned down the awards in the past. Catholic intellectual Rev. Franz Magnis-Suseno declined to receive the award in 2007 because of Bakries connection to a mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java.

Other figures include noted poet Sitor Situmorang, social scientist Daoed Joesoef, poet and journalist Goenawan Mohamad and literary figure Seno Gumira Ajidarma. (rin)
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Linkedin (Associated Press)  Sun, August 21, 2016

With rebels and government forces each promising to unite the divided city, Aleppo is once again a main battlefield in Syria's devastating civil war. Relentless shelling and airstrikes have killed more than 300 civilians in the city since rebels broke through a government blockade of the opposition-held east on July 31.

A look at Aleppo:

A shattered historical treasure

Syria's largest city and once its commercial center, Aleppo was a crossroads of civilization for millennia. It has been occupied by the Greeks, Byzantines and multiple Islamic dynasties. As one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, Aleppo's Old City was added in 1986 to UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.

But the civil war has damaged its landmarks, including the 11th century Umayyad Mosque, which had a minaret collapse during fighting in 2012, the 13th century citadel and the medieval marketplace, where fire damaged more than 500 shops in its narrow, vaulted passageways. Some historic sites have been used as bases for fighters.

Aleppo was one of the last cities in Syria to join the uprising against President Bashar Assad's government.

In this Feb. 11, 2016, file photo, children peer from a partially destroyed home in Aleppo, Syria. After four years of grinding battles, Aleppo's divided residents face a common fear as the prospect of a total siege looms. With rebels and government forces each promising to unite the divided city, Aleppo is once again a main battlefield in Syria's devastating civil war. (Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP/Alexander Kots)

The key to victory?

Because of its heritage and its economic potential, it is often said that whoever holds Aleppo wins the war. In fact, rebels hold other pockets around the country, but their defeat in Aleppo would mark a turning point in the conflict and deal a devastating blow to the movement to unseat Assad.

But Aleppo also sits just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Turkish border, making it the central theater to the Syrian-Turkish proxy war. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an open critic of Syria's Assad and has shown strong support toward the rebels. Ankara enjoys wide influence in northern Syria, and most rebels' supplies flow across the shared border. In a national address in June, Assad vowed Aleppo would be Erdogan's "graveyard."

In this Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012 file photo, smoke rises over Saif Al Dawla district, in Aleppo, Syria. With rebels and government forces each promising to unite the divided city, Aleppo is once again a main battlefield in Syria's devastating civil war.(AP/ Manu Brabo)

Breaking the siege

In August, the International Committee for the Red Cross called the battle for Aleppo "one of the most devastating conflicts in modern times."

A photo of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, who was rescued from the rubble of a missile-struck building, sitting alone in an ambulance, confused and covered in debris and blood, has become the haunting image of the unforgiving struggle.

Pro-government forces, supported by overwhelming Russian air power, had managed to encircle rebels and some 300,000 civilians in the city's eastern quarters in July, leading the U.N. to raise the concerns of catastrophic suffering if a protracted siege ensued.

But a fierce offensive led by thousands of rebels from outside the city broke the blockade on July 31, and fighting has only intensified since then. Both sides are bombarding their opponents indiscriminately, at a tremendous cost to infrastructure and human life.

The main Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, controls several predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods.

The main insurgent groups in the city are the Nour el-Din Zenki brigade; the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group; and the Al-Qaida linked Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Mon, August 22, 2016

Bad weather caused a wooden boat to capsize off Tanjungpinang Port, Riau Islands, on Sunday morning, leaving at least 10 people dead, an official has said.

Most of the 17 passengers on board were tourists heading to Penyengat Island, Tanjungpinang Naval Base commander First Admiral S. Irawan said on Sunday. Two passengers survived the incident and five remain missing.

"Heavy rain fell during the trip and the captain could not control the boat, which caused the boat to capsize," he told The Jakarta Post.

The Navy and Tanjungpinang Search and Rescue Team intensified the search for the missing five passengers.

One of the survivors, Resty, 20, told officers that the ticket seller at Bintan Pura Port said the trip was safe despite the cloudy weather in the morning. Penyengat Island is a 15-minute boat ride from the port.

The island is a famous local tourism destination and features one of the oldest mosques in the country, the Grand Mosque of Sultan Riau, which has been named a heritage site. Tombs of the Malay Riau kings are also located on the island.

Not long after leaving the port, strong winds and heavy rain struck the traditional wooden boat, locally known as a pompong, as well as high waves, which caused water to enter the boat. Resty managed to reach the overturned boat and stay afloat before being rescued by crew members of other nearby boats, Irawan said. (rin)
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Linkedin Julie M. Aurelio (Philippine Daily Inquirer) Manila  Sun, August 21, 2016

The 177 Indonesians who tried to pass themselves off as Filipino pilgrims are now facing deportation proceedings for being undesirable aliens.

The Bureau of Immigration said the foreigners were now detained at its detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Metro Manila following their arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

They have been charged for misrepresenting themselves as Filipinos and for being undocumented and undesirable aliens, confimed BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang.

It may be recalled that the 177 Indonesians were arrested with five Filipinos escorting them to their Philippine Airlines flight before dawn on Friday to Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Posing as Filipinos with genuine Philippine passports, the foreigners were on their way to the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.

What gave away the foreigners identity was their inability to speak Filipino, or the Maranao, Cebuano or Maguindanao dialects when interviewed by immigration officers. They could only converse in English.

The BI recovered the genuine Philippine passports from the Indonesians possession, who admitted to paying US$6,000 to $10,000 to join the sacred pilgrimage.

The Indonesians used the quota reserved for Filipino pilgrims to the Hajj given by the government of Saudi Arabia, since there were no more available Hajj slots for Indonesians.

Mangrobang said the BI was coordinating with the Indonesian Embassy to ascertain the identities of the foreigners before they were deported, as well as with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other law enforcement agencies in investigating the fraudulent issuance of Philippine passports to foreigners.

She added that the agency had not yet set a date for the deportation of the Indonesians back to their home country.

No date for deportation yet as we need to ascertain their identities, clearances from the National Bureau of Investigation would have to be secured prior to their actual deportation, Mangrobang said.
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Linkedin Anthony Q. Esguerra (Philippine Daily Inquirer) Manila  Sun, August 21, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday threatened to withdraw the countrys membership in the United Nations (UN) amid calls from rights experts to put an end to extrajudicial killings.

Duterte hit the UNs supposed meddling in the state affairs when special rapporteurs from the intergovernmental body welcomed the challenge to look into the rising death toll attributed to the administrations intensified war against illegal drugs.

Maybe we just have to decide to separate from the United Nations, Duterte said in an early morning press conference in Davao City.

If you are that rude, we might just as well leave, he added.

Duterte said the UN special rapporteurs broke protocol when they aired a statement criticising his administration.

You do not just throw that kind of allegations or statement without even coming here, he said, Youre just relying on the reports of newspapers and tabloids. Thats what you do.

Reminding the UN that he was not just a mayor anymore, the chief executive demanded to see the rapporteur in the Philippines or somewhere else.

Let them talk to me and let them face me with hard facts, he added.

Earlier, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the government did not extend any invitation to any third-party observer, adding that the drug situation is being responsibly addressed by Philippine authorities.

Duterte said the inutile UN, which could not end wars and maintain peace among its members, had not done any good for the Philippines.

So take us out of your organisation. You have done nothing. Where were you here the last time? Never. Except to criticise, he said.

When have you done a good deed to my country?

The UN, he said, should refund the countrys financial contribution so we can go out.

I can build so many rehabilitation centres with that amount, he said.

He brought out the possibility of forming a new intergovernmental organisation with China and African countries.
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Linkedin Chong Zi Liang (The Strait Times) Singapore  Sun, August 21, 2016

Muslim leaders in Singapore have called for a scheme that endorses religious teachers to be made stricter, amid the spread of extremist ideology on the Internet that has led to the radicalisation of some Singaporeans.

They want all asatizah to be registered with the Asatizah Recognition Scheme (ARS), started in 2005 to help Muslim Singaporeans assess and recognise qualified religious teachers.

About 20 community and religious leaders asked for the scheme to be made mandatory on Saturday at a closed-door dialogue with Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim and Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli, where they discussed issues such as the economy and the threat of terrorism.

Their call comes a day after the government announced the detention this month of two Singaporeans who planned to travel to Syria to fight with terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Since January last year, eight citizens have been detained under the Internal Security Act for terror activities, and five were placed on Restriction Orders.

Many of them had been radicalised through the extremist teachings of foreign preachers they came across online.

Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) chief executive Abdul Razak Maricar told reporters after the dialogue: "It will be an important assurance to the community that the young get guidance on religious matters from those who are qualified to teach the religion, particularly in the context of a multi-religious Singapore."

Agreeing, Madam Rahayu Mohamad, president of the Singapore Muslim Women's Association, said parents will also be more confident about sending their children to madrasah, or Islamic religious schools if all religious teachers are certified.

Currently, 80 per cent of asatizah here are under the ARS, which has certified 1,700 religious teachers.

Muis is working with the Asatizah Recognition Board and the Singapore Islamic scholars and religious teachers association (Pergas), which oversee the scheme, to reach out to asatizah who are not certified, including older teachers who may not have had structured religious education, and informally trained younger teachers.

The recognition board's chairman, Ustaz Ali Mohamed, said graduates of religious studies come from various schools, including overseas universities, and there was a need to ensure they have a vision of Islam that is compatible with Singapore as a secular state. "The ARS helps to ensure that our asatizah avoid being influenced by external influences that are extremist and exclusivist in nature," he added.

The two men detained this month had listened to a Batam radio station that aired programmes preaching that Muslims should keep away from those who do not share their views.

Religious leaders here have emphasised the need for religious teachers to be aware of local sensitivities.

The Muslim community is looking at setting up an Islamic college here to produce home-grown religious leaders who are grounded in Singapore's unique multiracial and multi-religious society.

The plan to expand the ARS was first announced earlier this month by Dr Yaacob, who is also Minister for Communications and Information.

Ustaz Pasuni Maulan, a senior scholar with Pergas, said a small minority of religious teachers may be unreceptive due to a lack of awareness. But he added that they will see a need to come on board when they realise they can upgrade themselves through ARS programmes.

Association of Muslim Professionals chairman Abdul Hamid Abdullah said encouraging all asatizah to be certified will "clearly signal, not just to the Muslim community, but to the rest of the communities in Singapore, that we are concerned about getting the right, credible people to teach religious teachings".
DECATUR  Mother Nature chose to not cooperate with St. Patrick School's plans for Saturday.

Last year, the school implemented STREAM curriculum  science, technology, religion, engineering, art and math  and as part of that focus, the students built a boat. The plan on Saturday was for the students to launch that boat at the Commodore Decatur Yacht Club, and then get a sailing lesson.

The original plan was to have the Commodore Club to talk to the crew who built our sailboat, and if the weather cooperated, they were going to learn to sail today, Principal Jan Sweet said. Today, they'll just give them some simple directions, and we'll try again another day. The wind is just too severe today.

In fact, the wind was so strong and so fickle, blowing first this way and then another way, that club member Jason Dion, who bravely took to the water in his Sunfish and provided a visual lesson in sailing to the kids on shore watching, went over once.

The Rev. Richard Swan, pastor of St. John's Episcopal Church and a sailor with 55 years of experience, talked through the steps that Dion took to right his boat and get going again as everyone watched him.

The first thing, Swan said, is that if there are other people on the boat with you, you spot them and make sure they're OK. Dion was alone on his Sunfish, however. He was wearing a flotation device, and he paddled around to the bottom of the boat, where he pulled the boat upright before the mast could go under and get stuck in the bottom of the lake, as he was in a shallow area. With apparent ease, he clambered back aboard and was under full sail in no time.

It's too bad the wind is shifty today, but that's the way it is, said the Rev. John Barnette, pastor of Sts. James and Patrick Catholic Churches. When you're learning to sail or learning to fly, for that matter, the weather needs to be pretty good so you can go out and have a good experience.

Swan gave them a talk on basic terminology for sailing, explaining the different styles of sailboat, many of which were docked at the Yacht Club so he could point them out and explain the features of each. Two compacts, owned by the club itself, are named Mary Ann and Ginger, which made the adults laugh.

You kids will have to go home and Google 'Gilligan's Island,' Swan said with a chuckle.

Those boats are used to give free sailing lessons to associate club members, who can join for $75 a year. Once you have a boat of your own, club membership is $250 a year and includes storage and dock access. Swan is hoping to get a boat of his own in the next year, he said.

I was watching a boat sailing across and having a heck of a time staying upright, Swan said. Out there today, the wind is shifting 20 degrees without any warning. That can cause some very big problems.

The kids had some questions about sailing, especially considering that some sailboats have no motor, like Dion's Sunfish. Without wind, he isn't going anywhere at all.

We call (motorboats) stink pots, Swan said with a grin. At least you do if you're a true sailor. That's because they smell, and you can still smell them after they've gone by.
NORMAL  Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has drawn attention to women in politics, but a relatively new national monument in which an Illinois State University faculty member has been involved shows that women's political activism started long before today or even the raucous 1960s.

Women's activism has been going on since certainly the colonial era, said Kyle Ciani, an associate professor of history. It's a history of ordinary people. All the women involved were our grandmas and great-grandmas.

Ciani was part of a team involved in getting national monument status for the Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, D.C., now known as the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument.

At one time, the Sewall-Belmont House was the headquarters of the National Woman's Party, founded in 1916 by Alice Paul, the author of the original Equal Rights Amendment proposal, in 1923.

The building houses an extensive collection of books and artifacts related to women's suffrage and equality.

It became a gathering place of feminism, Ciani said. It's important for people to step into these spaces and see where people actually were doing the work and to see it in proximity to the Capitol.

The building, which dates back to the early 1800s, is on Capitol Hill, literally in the shadow of the Hart Senate Office Building.

One of the unique collections that it holds contains calling cards and extensive notes from the women who met with senators to lobby them for passage of an Equal Rights Amendment, said Ciani.

They would come back and document their meetings, Ciani noted. You could see over the years how these women were relentless.

Some of their activities, such as protesting in front of the White House, were considered radical in their day and resulted in jail time, she said.

A photograph in Ciani's office in Schroeder Hall shows one of those protests.

They, as the photograph shows, were in the president's face and that was a radical move, she said.

It took another president, Barack Obama, to designate the house as a national monument.

I want young girls and boys to come here 10, 20, 100 years from now to know that women fought for equality, it was not just given to them, Obama said at a dedication ceremony in April as reported by The Associated Press.

In addition to Paul, the monument also honors Alva Belmont, a primary benefactor of the National Woman's Party and its president from 1920-1933.

Ciani's involvement goes back to 2010, when Page Harrington, executive director of the house and museum, asked her to join a team of historians evaluating materials in the archives.

Harrington was one of her students when Ciani taught women's history at the University of San Diego, before she joined the ISU faculty.

Being part of the National Park Service system will provide more resources for cataloging the collection, making it more accessible for academic research, Ciani said. The higher profile also is likely to draw more visitors.

More children and other people are going to be exposed to this story and that's important, said Ciani.

Most textbooks focus on the 19th Amendment  giving women the right to vote  and not much beyond that, she said. The monument will broaden the experience, Ciani said, and show them some ordinary folks were involved in this.

The monument's website said the house stands as a testament to our nation's continued struggle for equality and tells the story of a community of women who dedicated their lives to the fight for women's rights.
One in a million: All you need to know about winning the Thai Lottery

So youve heard all about the Thai lottery but never knew how it worked? Heres your definitive guide to the Thai government lottery, what the major prizes are, and how to claim them.



By The Phuket News

Sunday 21 August 2016, 11:00AM

Twice a month, one of a million numbers could be your lucky one. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot.

QUESTION

I am an expat living in Phuket and wondering what is the deal with the Thai lottery. Can you explain to me the rules for Thai lottery? Can anyone buy a lottery ticket, including foreigners? Where can I buy a ticket and who is allowed to sell them. Do I need prove if I win, and where do I claim my prize?

It was reported last year that GLO scrapped jackpot prizes for getting right not only six digits but also two additional ones. This bonus prize could bring a lucky person some B20-30 million instead of B4-6 million. Have these prizes really been cancelled?

Also, there used to be two types of Thai lottery tickets: Thai Government Lottery (TGL) and Thai Charity Lottery (TCL) tickets. TGL tickets had a first prize of B2 million and a bonus prize of B30 million, while TCL tickets had a first prize of B3 million, a bonus prize of B22 million. But now I can see only one type of ticket available for sale. Can you clarify what types of tickets are offered now?

 Cheryl, Pa Khlok.

ANSWER

Any person, Thai or foreign, of at least 20 years of age can play and win prizes in the Thai government lottery.

This year we have not held a Thai Charity Lottery yet. The Thai Charity Lottery is a special project lottery launched each time for a specific charity under special ministerial approval.

The last one ended last year, and so far we have not had another one this year. When the Ministry of Finance orders us to hold another one, we will make a public announcement.

For the Thai Government Lottery, there are two draws each month, with the results announced on the 1st and 16th of every month. Prizes must be claimed within two years of the draw

VENDORS

Only Thais registered with the GLO are permitted to sell lottery tickets. All vendors must be at least 20 years old.

There are nearly 35,000 registered lottery vendors in the country, with more than 15,000 in Bangkok and more than 19,000 in the provinces. A list of all the registered ticket vendors is posted on the GLO website (click here).

Details of the registered vendors by province can be found at http://echannel.glo.or.th.

We are now working on posting all details of all vendors in Thailand, including where each vendor sells their tickets, on our website. Please check website for when that becomes available.

Any person can actually sell the tickets on behalf of a registered vendor, but usually registered vendors issue their subvendors with copies of the official ID card to allow them to sell lottery tickets.

If you have a doubts or feel comfortable buying a ticket from a particular vendor, you can always choose another vendor or check the tickets they are selling very carefully to make sure they are genuine.

If you want to report any vendors, or if you want to become a vendor, contact us through www.glo.or.th or call us at 02-3451466.

A point to note is that as vendors technically buy the tickets from us, vendors can claim any prizes for unsold tickets that have winning numbers that they bought from us.

TICKETS

Each lottery ticket features a six-digit number. To deter people from printing counterfeit lottery tickets, the tickets are printed on special yellow, thin, smooth paper and feature a two-tone watermark of a mythical bird called a Wayupak in Thai.

Also, there are two types of silk thread in the paper. One can be seen with the naked eye, the other can be seen only under ultra-violet light.

Further, the paper is coated with chemicals. To test the paper, drops of bleach will show stains. Without the special chemicals, the paper will not show any blots or stains.

Please note that the main image printed in normal ink changes for each lottery draw. For example, lottery tickets for the August 16 draw feature an image of Phra Pharuehatsabodi to celebrate Thai Khon masks as used in the Phi Ta Khon Festival held in Loei province every year.

Please check our website to see what the images are for the next upcoming lottery draws to make sure the tickets you buy are genuine.

TICKET PRICES

Lottery tickets are sold in pairs, and cost B80 per pair. The price is set by law, so please report any vendors charging more than this by calling us at 02-3451466 or contacting us through our website complaint form via our website www.glo.or.th.

PRIZES TO BE WON

We print tickets for a million numbers for each lottery. Most times we print five pairs of each number, but sometimes we print six pairs to increase the chance of winning bigger prizes.

The reason why tickets are sold in pairs is so that the winner can detach one half of the pair and share it as a prize with another person.

First prize is B3 million per ticket stub, hence with one pair you will win B6 million. The more pairs you buy, the greater the prize you will win. The same applies for all prizes to be won.

There are separate draws for other major prizes, as follows:

Second prize  B100,000 (5 prizes available)  Matching six digits in the second prize draw.

Third prize  B40,000 (10 prizes available)  Matching six digits in the third prize draw.

Fourth prize  B20,000 (50 prizes available)  Matching six digits the fourth prize draw

Fifth prize  B10,000 (100 prizes available)  Matching six digits in the fifth prize draw.

There are also the special prizes, as follows:

The ticket number above the winning first-prize number  B50,000.

The ticket number below the winning first-prize number  B50,000.

There are also smaller prizes as follows:

First three digits  B2,000 (two prizes available).

Last three digits  B2,000 (two prizes available).

Last two digits - B1,000 (one winning pair).

There used to be jackpot prizes, also called First Prize Bonus prizes of B30 million and B22 million, but these prizes are no longer offered.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE

Any prizes of B20,000 or less can be claimed in cash from the vendor who sold you the winning ticket. Any prizes over B20,000 must be claimed in person at the GLO head office at 359 Nonthaburi Rd, Tambon Tha Sai, Muang District, Nonthaburi, where you will receive a cheque for your winnings. This cannot be done in Phuket, as there is no GLO office there.

Our office is open from 8:30am to 3pm (open during lunch), Monday through Friday (closed on public holidays).

To claim your prize, fill out a claim form, fill out the details on the back of the winning tickets and take a queue number. When called, you will have to present the winning ticket/s and your Thai ID card or passport (for foreigners).

Please note that all winners are subject to pay 0.5% stamp duty on government lottery winnings and 1% stamp duty on charitable lottery winnings.

The stamp duty is payable on all winnings, including for prizes of B20,000 or less paid in cash by vendors, who are required to collect  and pay  the stamp duty on the winners behalf.

For full details on how to claim your prize call the Department of Prize Payment at 02-5289621 or visit www.glo.or.th. If you win a major prize, it is strongly recommended that you report your winning tickets to the nearest police station as soon as possible to prevent any thieves from falsely claiming your prize.

 Marketing, Government Lottery Office, Nonthaburi.
Police nab more small-time drug, gun suspects in ongoing media publicity parade

PHUKET: Provincial Police continue to showcase the prosecution of small-time illegal plant, meth and gun users as part of an ongoing crime sweep across the island.

drugspolicepolitics

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Sunday 21 August 2016, 10:54AM

Details about five recent arrests were revealed to the press at 10pm on Saturday (August 20) by Pol Maj Littichai Chumchuai, a narcotics suppression officer with the Phuket Provincial Police, as follows:

At 4pm on Thursday (August 18), Vichit Police arrested Mr Wanchai Thepthong, 36, who was caught in possession of 0.66 grams of crystal meth, and subsequently charged with possession of a Category 1 drug (Ice).

At 3.30pm on Friday (August 19) Chalong police arrested Mr Phichit Muansakul, 30, caught with 130 grams of crystal meth, a .22 calibre rifle and 93 .22 calibre bullets. Police charged him with possession of a Category 1 drug (Ice) without permission, and possession of a gun and ammunition without permission.

At 4.30pm on the same day, Chalong police also booked two more small-time drug suspects: Mr Boonlert Sukprasit, 33, was caught with 5.5 kilograms of fresh kratom leaves, as well a homemade pistol along with two accompanying .357 calibre bullets. Mr Boonlert was charged with possession of a Category 5 drug (kratom) without permission, and possession of a gun and ammunition without permission.

Also thrown the book was Mr Sarawut Tubmood, 21, who was caught in possession of about 0.75 grams of marijuana, which he had mixed with an amount of dry tobacco, a mild mixture known in Thai slang as Yum neua, commonly consumed by smoking using a water bamboo bong.

Police also seized from Sarawut other items of paraphernalia, which as indicated by the police photo, included a bamboo bong, cutting board and knife.

Sarawut was charged with possession of a Category 5 drug (Ganja) without permission.

The last arrest revealed to press was of Mr Nattawat Dechakul, 25, who was nabbed by Chalong Police at 3.30pm on Saturday (August 20), after he was caught with five kilogrammes of fresh kratom leaves, 11.76 grams of dried marijuana and other undisclosed paraphernalia, before being charged with possession of two Category 5 drugs (kratom and ganja).

In Thailand, it is not uncommon for police to ramp up publicity efforts towards increased prosecution of small-time drug offenders in the months leading up to the end of a the central government's fiscal year, which concludes on September 30.
Senegal authorities sweeping child beggars off streets

SENGAL: In recent weeks, packs of shoeless boys and girls have been coaxed off the streets of the Senegalese capital Dakar where they have spent their childhoods, crying and frightened as they are loaded onto buses.

culturecrimereligion

By AFP

Sunday 21 August 2016, 04:00PM

A young Senegalese boy, known locally as a talibe, begs at the window of a car in Dakar in April 15. Photo: Malick Rokhy/AFP

The crackdown on child begging comes after years of inaction and has been praised by childrens groups but greeted with anger by powerful Islamic figures in the west African nation.

The children are from a mix of poor or homeless families and others known as talibes  boys sent out to beg by Islamic tutors to make money for their boarding schools.

They are brought to Guinddi Childrens Centre in the capital accompanied by social workers, where they are interviewed and checked for signs of maltreatment and disease.

"The children are generally unaccompanied. When they come here we ask them for the telephone number of their tutor or Koranic teacher and they give it to us, explained Maimouna Balde, director of the Guinddi centre.

Parents, or Islamic teachers known as marabouts, will generally come and pick up the children themselves, Balde said, whereupon the centres staff explain that if their charges are found on the streets again they will be prosecuted.

The operation will continue for as long as there are children on the streets, she said.

With 270 street kids picked up in the first two weeks of July in Dakar, according to the authorities, the initiative is a long way from dealing with the 30,000 talibes estimated to be begging daily.

Often from poor rural families, the talibes are sent to Dakar and other Senegalese cities nominally to memorise the Koran, but are often left vulnerable to abuse and receiving little education.

Sometimes the journey home is long: on July 11 nine children were repatriated to neighbouring Guinea after being collected from the streets, according to one Guinean charity.

The current crackdown is the first time a decade-old law has been firmly applied, with parents or guardians of child beggars potentially facing two to five years in jail and fines of up to 2,000,000 CFA (B117,389).

There are fattened calves hidden behind this education system to exploit children through begging, which is an easy and profitable business, Niokhobaye Diouf, national director of child protection services.

Parents of street children should be assessed to see if they could benefit from state welfare and health programmes to deter them from relying on their childrens labour, he said.

Talibes are told to beg for food and money and not to return to their daara  Islamic school  until they have collected enough.

Even late at night in Dakar, children only visibly out of kindergarten, can be seen shaking empty tins of food, trying to get enough to be allowed to finish up for the day.

Dealing with the systematic slavery of children in Senegal in this way has been attempted and then abandoned by the state several times before.

Until now, the power of tradition means few have been willing to challenge the marabouts, given their status and the respect they are afforded as Islamic scholars.

Muslim elder Sidy Lamine Niasse told journalists the government doggedly pursued daaras to stigmatise and demonise them.

But the schools have a long history of abuse: in February, the Senegalese authorities found 20 boys aged between six and 14 kept in chains by their marabout  resulting in a rare prosecution.

Mustapha Lo, president of the national federation of Koranic schools, said the street sweep was taken without consulting Muslim educators and downplayed the concerns relayed by childrens charities.

The majority of us manage our Koranic schools without making the children beg on the streets. Some Koranic teachers do that because they lack any other financial means, Lo said.

Countering their arguments, Diouf said the government hopes to reform the daaras curriculum while giving them a better level of financial support.

More than their education is at stake: the authorities want to avoid children falling prey to jihadist recruiters in the region, who are luring young men away with promises of riches and glory.
CARBONDALE -- An outreach group for medical cannabis plans to open a clinic in Southern Illinois that will help patients get registered for the states medical marijuana program.

Caprice Sweatt, founder and CEO of Medical Cannabis Outreach, said the facility will open in early December, most likely in Carbondale, although the exact location is still to be determined.

Before the opening, the group plans to hold two educational seminars in the area to explain the application process and educate the public on the drugs medical uses.

On June 30, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill extending Illinois medical marijuana pilot program by 2 years. The bill also added post-traumatic stress disorder and terminal illness to the list of qualifying medical conditions, which now total 41.

Under the new law, doctors are no longer required to state in recommendations that it is their professional opinion that a patient will receive a therapeutic or palliative benefit from medical marijuana. They simply have to verify that the patient has a state-recognized qualifying condition.

But Southern Illinois major health care providers  including Southern Illinois Healthcare, Heartland Regional Medical Center and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine  have been hesitant to back the program. Major health systems and smaller providers have directed physicians not to certify patients for medical marijuana, citing legal concerns.

This is why we are moving into the area, because there are so many patients in dire need and physicians that are associated with the medical groups in that area that are refusing to sign off, Sweatt said. This is a legal medical program, and its really disappointing that so many physicians literally refuse to take a look at it.

In addition to obtaining a physicians recommendation, patients must undergo a fingerprint-based background check, obtain proof of residency and pay a $300 application fee.

Medical Cannabis Outreach, which travels all over the state to conduct educational seminars, will help patients through each step of the application process and refer them to cannabis-friendly physicians for certification.

We advocate for the patient, we hold their hand through the whole process, and we make sure they actually get that card in their hand, Sweatt said.

Medical Cannabis Outreach has also partnered with local marijuana dispensaries Thrive Harrisburg and Thrive Anna to help educate patients.

I think theres a lot of people who are curious about the program, especially the new changes that went into effect recently. Its about education and awareness, said Thrive co-owner Rosie Naumovski.

A longtime supporter of medical cannabis, Sweatt has used marijuana to treat her Crohns disease for the past 25 years.

I was on 22 medications a day. I went off all of my medications at the age of 25, and Ive been prescription drug-free since then, she said.

Ive just made it my lifes mission, honestly, to inform people of what happened to me, and we encourage people to be truthful about their own story, because people hide whats happened to them, too.

The groups first educational seminar will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, in Carbondale Public Library. The second seminar will take place at at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, in Mount Vernon Public Library. Both events are free and open to the public.
Event at local bar getting set to mark its first birthday
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat sparked off a controversy after he urged Hindu community to increase their population in the country.

Addressing a huge gathering of university and college teachers in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, Bhagwat said the dwindling number of Hindus in India was a matter of grave concern.

Which law asked Hindus to produce fewer children, he wondered. When people from another faith are producing more children, why can't the Hindus? the RSS chief asked, while pointing out at the alleged rising growth rate of the Muslim population.

In his lecture on Hindu culture in Agra, Bhagwat said Bharat and Hindu were same and that the entire world described India as Hindu. In our society, you have to think about yourself, your family and your national interest, he said, and added that these three issues should be the top priority.

Bhagwat also asked teachers to join the RSS.
The older brother of the Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an air strike, shocked people around the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained in the same incident, a war monitor and a witness said.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesday's air strike, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys' father.

He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told the witness.

His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust- and blood-caked face.

The video and pictures were widely circulated online and in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syria's five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo.

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege.

Fighting and air strikes in and around Aleppo has killed 448 civilians so far this month, the Observatory said.

Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran. Russia began air strikes last September.

On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as "nightmarish" amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria.

Russia on Thursday said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.
Mher Mazmanyan, arrested on July 26 on suspicion of aiding the Sasna Dzrer armed group that seized a Yerevan police building, has six minor children under his care.

Who is taking care of them today?

Who is taking care of the other minor children of those now in jail after being arrested for a variety of charges stemming from the public protests that occurred in Yerevan and elsewhere during the armed standoff?

According to Article 140 of Armenias Criminal Procedural Code:

Under-aged persons, as well as disabled persons left without care and means of subsistence as a result of their parents or a bread winner being detained or as a result of other actions taken by the body which carries out the criminal proceeding are entitled to support which shall be provided from the state budget by the body which carries out the criminal proceeding.

Nevertheless, our conversations with lawyers for those arrested with minors under their care shows that no state budget money has so far been allocated to organize such support.

Prior to being arrested, Mher Mazmanyan was the sole breadwinner of the family that lives in a rental. Nikolai Baghdasaryan, his lawyer, has written to Armenias Correctional Service (ACS) to organize such care. The ACS has responded that will review the matter and see whether if Mazmanyans family actually needs such assistance.

Sasna Dzrer member Arayik Khantoyan, the familys sole wage earner, cares for two minor children. Arayik Papikyan, Khantoyans lawyer, told Hetq that his client doesnt want his family to receive any government assistance. The ACS hasnt taken any steps to provide assistance to the family.

Garo Yegnukian is the sole breadwinner for two minor and three adult children.

Tigran Hayrapetyan, Yegnukians lawyer, told Hetq that he hasnt written to the ACS seeking financial assistance since he is sure that his client would oppose the idea of his family receiving state assistance.

In response to a Hetq inquiry, the ASC says it is still examining the case files of those arrested in regards to the Sasna Dzrer case to see whether or not those with minors qualify for state support.

Photo (from left): Arayik Khantoyan, Mher Mazmanyan, Garo Yegnukian
At least 30 people were killed and 94 others were injured Saturday when a bomb exploded at an outdoor wedding in southern Turkey, the provincial governors office said.

Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the blast during the wedding in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, was a terror attack.

A brief statement from the governors office said the explosion in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10:50 p.m. (3:50 p.m. ET) The statement condemned the treacherous attack, but did not provide further details.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

Ambulances raced to the scene as authorities attempted to get a handle on the resulting carnage. Photos taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting Allah is great as well as slogans denouncing terrorist attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Samil Tayyar, a minister from the ruling AK Party, said on Twitter that ISIS was believed to be behind the attack.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last months failed coup attempt which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told NTV, This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome. Daesh is an Arabic name for ISIS.

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party  known by its acronym PKK  or were blamed on IS. In June, suspected ISIS militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people.

(AP)
2:25PM IL: Red Alert Sirens are sounding in Sderot, Gavim, Sapir College, the Shar HaNegev Industrial Zone and other areas. More to follow.

2:43PM IL: At least one rocket fell in Sderot, between two homes. Bchasdei Hashem there are no reports of fatalities or injuries.

2:51PM IL: The impact area of the rocket is closed off as police bomb-demolition technicians are operating in the area.

2:54PM IL: The IDFis attacking terrorist objectives in the Beit Hanoun area of Gaza following the unprovoked rocket attack into Sderot earlier this afternoon.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos: Via Media Resource Group)
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

Katie Couric is a very famous American journalist and author, who is probably halachically Jewish. She currently serves as Yahoo! Global News Anchor and has been a television host on all Big Three television networks in the United States.

It has recently been revealed that Katie Couric had cut her salary by $1 million when she was anchoring CBS Evening News to save others jobs at the network.

Agent and author Alan Berger recently wrote that in the third year of Katies tenure . . . upcoming budget cuts would involve significant layoffs . . . from senior-level producers to young associate producers  all key contributors to the production of the daily newscast.

After Couric met with Sean McManus, CBS News president at the time, Katie decided . . . to take matters into her own hands and voluntarily, and quietly, agreed to cut her CBS salary by over $1 million, creating a savings to preserve the jobs of her associates on the broadcast.

She insisted on two conditions: the money would be directly used to pay for her staff so that they would not be terminated, and that this would be done quietly and with no public or private acknowledgment or announcement about her gesture. Couric was at CBS from 2006 to 2011.

SAVING SOMEONE ELSES PARNASSAH

Katie Couric went out of her way and gave up a substantial sum of money to save the jobs of her peers. The question is, what does Jewish law have to say about the matter? Was what Katie did a voluntary Mitzvah, a halachic obligation, or perhaps not even a Mitzvah?

THE MAHARAM PADUAS BUSINESS VENTURE

About four and a half centuries ago, the Maharam Padua, at great personal expense printed the Rambams Mishna Torah. A gentile printer, in an attempt to stifle competition, wished to damage the Maharam Padua financially and decided to print the Rambams Mishna Torah as well, and to undercut the Maharam Paduas price.

REMAHS RULING

Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the Remah, dealt with the issue in a responsa (#10), and prohibited the purchase of the gentile printed Mishna Torah. He writes, And do not say that it is only in that case (an interest loan referred to in Bava Metzia 71a), where he does not lose his own funds, but merely does not make a profit.. For there is explicit proof otherwise in tractate Avodah Zarah (20a).. The same is true in our case where each man is obligated to establish the hand of his peer.

The Tashbatz (Vol. III #151) also writes about the obligation to purchase from a fellow peer rather than someone else even when there is a price difference.

DOES IT EXTEND TO EMPLOYMENT?

These sources, of course, have to do with purchases. But do we see any authority extending this principle to issues of employment? The answer is yes.

CHIEF RABBIS VIEW

Rabbi Ben Tzion Meir Hai Uziel (1880-1953), the first Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel writes (Piskei Uziel Sheelot HaZman 48), In regard to employment of peers there is not just an obligation of charity  rather there is a brotherly national obligation.. This Mitzvah extends to purchases, employment and matters of business.

NOT ALL AGREE

It seems from this Remah and from the Chief Rabbi that the issue is an obligatory one, even when there is a significant loss involved. Not all poskim agree with this position, however. Indeed, it seems that the majority position may be otherwise. The Chsam Sofer (Kovetz Teshuvos 46), the Maharsham (Mishpat Shalom 189) and the Shaar HaMishpat (97:1), and Dayan Weiss (Minchas Yitzchok 3:129) all seem to write that when there is a significant amount of money involved there is no obligation.

We do find precedent in the Talmud (Gittin 56a) for providing economic assistance during difficult financial times. The wealthy people of Jerusalem did so during the Second Temple period of destruction. They shared their incomes. Rav Yaakov Epstein in Chevel Nachalaso (2:67) suggests that there is no obligation, of course, when there is a danger that the business will not survive economically. Indeed, it would seem to this author that in such a case it would not even be considered a Mitzvah at all, when there is a strong likelihood of taking ones own business down. The Gemorah in Bava Metzia (62a), in fact, understands the verse in VaYikrah (25:36) that states, And your brother shall live with you on the emphasis on the last word  with you. Your existence has precedence.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion? Katies move was certainly a Mitzvah. Rav Uziel would hold it is an obligatory Mitzvah, and so might the Remah, if the extension between purchasing and employment is valid. Others would hold that it is not an obligation, but certainly meritorious. If, there is a strong danger of the entire operation closing then it may not even be a Mitzvah.

The author can be reached at [email protected]
In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. Its painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home.

Officials estimate that at least 105 residences and 213 outbuildings have been destroyed in the massive fire that burned ferociously through Southern California mountain communities this week and was still smoldering Saturday.

Those numbers could rise as damage assessment teams pore through the aftermath of the blaze about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, said Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Drought conditions in California have left plenty of fuel for wildfires.

The fire sparked Tuesday was 73 percent contained and firefighters who were on the offensive for days were finally transitioning to mop-up phase, officials said.

Operating from a mobile command center just south of the 58-square-mile blaze, Horton leads a team of 15 investigators, technicians, hazardous materials experts and others responsible for determining the extent and nature of the damages.

We come in right on the heels of the fire, Horton said. Once its cool enough, we go parcel-by-parcel.

Often properties are so decimated that its difficult to know if a smoking ash heap was a home, a trailer or a water tank, he said. Technicians consult mobile computer applications that can download geographic data and county assessors information to learn what might have been there before flames swept through. Numerous photos are taken and each gets its own narrative of what the team saw, Horton said.

Some evacuations remained in place but the majority of those ordered out were allowed to return Friday, when crews made huge gains against the blaze, fire spokesman Brad Pitassi said.

Things are extremely positive, said Pitassi, adding that officials expect more progress and more residents returning home throughout the weekend. At the height of the fire, some 82,000 people were under evacuation orders.

Even before they go back, anxious residents can sometimes get a sense of what awaits them thanks to reports filed swiftly by the damage assessment team. The goal is to compile the data even before the fire is fully extinguished and make them available online, via phone recordings and on postings at evacuation centers.

Maps are color-coded with red areas signifying complete damage, orange describing damage between 40 and 75 percent, yellow showing damage of less than 40 percent and green meaning no damage.

Green, youre in good shape, Horton said Friday. Any other color and you should be concerned.

Johanna Santore was among those left homeless. She was running an errand Tuesday when the fire charged through her neighborhood. She tried to rush home to rescue the familys four dogs, six cats and hamster but was blocked by closed roads.

A group of animal rescue volunteers found the house in smoldering ruins  with no signs of the pets.

Im actually feeling numb, said Santore, who fled with her husband and granddaughter to an evacuation center. Its like a nightmare.

A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite. Six other wildfires were burning in the state, including one in San Luis Obispo County that forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle on Saturday.

Fire officials say the wind-driven fire, which destroyed 48 structures and burned 31 square miles since it began August 13, is about 3 miles from the hilltop estate overlooking the Central Coast. The castle, a popular tourist attraction that houses a large art collection belonging to media magnate William Randolph Hearst, canceled tours and closed the grounds to visitors, said California State Parks spokeswoman Gloria Sandoval.

In rural Santa Barbara County, a 15-square-mile wildfire forced the evacuation of two campgrounds.

In the southern Sierra Nevada, another blaze feeding on dense timber in Sequoia National Forest forced the evacuation of several tiny hamlets.

In mountains north of San Francisco, a 6-square-mile blaze was 80 percent contained after destroying 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses, in the working-class community of Lower Lake. All evacuation orders have been canceled.

(AP)
Turkey over the weekend approved the agreement with Israel by which Jerusalem will pay Turkey $20 million in reparations for the deaths of Turkish nationals on board the Marvi Marmara in May 2010.

The deal to restore diplomatic ties with Turkey was ratified by Turkey lawmakers on Shabbos. In response, the Prime Ministers Office response read, Israel welcomes the Turkish Parliaments decision to approve the deal recently concluded by the two governments and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation, including the return of our respective ambassadors.

The agreement states Israel will make payment within 25 days following which there will be a gradual restoration of diplomatic ties including the return of the Turkish ambassador to Israel. In response, Turkey will drop all threats of legal and civil suits against Israel.

The Marvi Marmara flotilla tried to break the Israel Navy marine embargo on Gaza. Shayetet 13 commandos boarded the vessel and were attacked by what was believed to be unarmed civilians. As a result, members of the force were injured, some very seriously. A number of Turkey nationals were killed in response to the life-threatening attacks against the force and Turkey has since cut ties, demanding compensation for the families.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The Knesset Audit Committee chaired by MK (Yesh Atid) Karin Elharrar convened last week to discuss the matter of PA (Palestinian Authority) illegals inside Green Line Israel. The meeting was also attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott. Eizenkott told the committee that 44% of the terror attacks carried out in the past months, since last Rosh Hashanah, were perpetrated by PA residents inside Green Line Israel illegally.

The military commander explained about 60,000 PA residents have permits and cross into Israel daily along with another 40,000 employed in factories in yishuvim in Yehuda and Shomron. In addition, an estimated 50,000-60,000 are inside Green Line Israel illegally.

Eizenkott explained that the terror attacks during the last year showed very low involvement among PA residents with permits to work in Israel yet there was 44% involvement among those without work/entry permits. This is leading the IDF to take a number of steps towards the prevention of future attacks, including the issuing of additional entry permits.

NIS 260 million has been allocated for the construction of a separation barrier in the Tarkumiya area south of Yerushalayim and work is already ongoing in the hope the barrier will serve as another obstacle to keep illegals out of Green Line Israel.

Committee members also learned that of the 4,300 arrests made, indictments were only handed down in 1,500 cases. Committee members also cited they feel the punishments meted out to illegals is usually too light and while the law permits imprisoning someone for five years, in most case, the punishment was more like five months imprisonment.

Some additional issues are tied to PA illegals inside Israel proper beyond concerns surrounding terrorism. Committee members explain when these people work illegally, they are not paying taxes, they have no social benefits and can be fired without notice since they are illegal. In addition, often, when they are unsuccessful in finding work they will resort to crime. Authorities are now trying to encourage more PA residents to apply for permits in the hope of cutting down the number of illegals.

Officials told the committee that today, there are actually 73,300 entry permits of which only about 61,000 are used. The security establishment is now taking steps to make it easier for one to obtain a permit and work, which today is limited to persons 22 and older. The plan is to increase the number of entry permits to 130,000 in the hope of curtailing the number of potential terrorists in the future.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The PA (Palestinian Authority), the largest regional supplier of tainted eggs, e-coli vegetables and black-market slaughter, is calling on its residents not to buy Israeli products following recent reports of salmonella and listeria in Israel products including Telma cereals, Shamir Salads, chickens, Osem products and more.

Interestingly, PA officials did not mention salmonella as being the cause for the boycott, as prominent legislator Dr. Mustafa Barghouti said the reports of the presence of salmonella are yet another reason not to use Israeli products. He proudly calls on PA residents not to use Israeli products because of political realities.

Adding to elected PA officials, its Consumer Protection Council based in Ramallah over the weekend called on PA residents not to buy Israeli products, informing them of recalls by various Israeli companies due to the salmonella. The PA Health Ministry joined in, instructing residents to avoid Israeli products, especially tehina. The PA posted a list of infected products on official websites.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
City lobbyists are set to argue for a 'hard Brexit' deal in which banks and insurers trade on the basis of having equivalent regulations to Brussels  ditching the 'passporting' regime that allows financial firms to offer services to EU clients in all areas.

The move would mean that financial companies could retain access to the single market despite Britain no longer being a member.

City lawyers believe the so-called 'equivalence' rules can be beefed up and extended as part of the UK's exit negotiations.

Hard Brexit: Banks could retain access to the single market despite Britain no longer being a member

Those rules allow banks around the world to offer services to EU clients if they can show their regulations are as strong as those in the EU.

Barney Reynolds, a partner at law firm Shearman & Sterling who is close to the City's lobbying process, said: 'There are significant sovereignty issues with passporting which make it a more difficult option to negotiate satisfactorily.

'Three weeks ago some banks were looking at going down an equivalence route with identical rules to the EU.

'Various hedge funds and other market participants wanted different rules and a more negotiated equivalence position, allowing the UK to take a different position on certain topics while still obtaining equivalence where it matters.'

Many banks are now said to be swinging behind the 'negotiated equivalence' plan, which could allow the UK to loosen the bonus cap and capital rules in areas which do not affect the EU financial system.

The cap limits bonuses to a maximum of twice a banker's salary. The UK opposed its introduction and banks have tried to get round it by paying staff extra through fixed annual 'allowances' rather than through bonuses.

EU access: Many banks are said to be swinging behind the 'negotiated equivalence' plan

Retaining the EU passport for banks would be fraught with difficulties as EU officials insist it would mean retaining freedom of movement, adopting EU laws and making payments to Brussels.

Some US financial institutions offer services to EU clients from New York on the basis of equivalence rules.

The rules in place already would allow financial firms to carry out many wholesale activities including derivatives trading, but the same rights for areas such as retail financial services and even for lending by banks to EU corporate clients would have to be negotiated.

The British Bankers' Association said: 'The banking sector unequivocally wants to maintain the current level of full access to the EU market.
Trouble: They claimed the bank wanted to use their assets to pay down its debts

Small businesses are launching a 1billion legal case against Royal Bank of Scotland  claiming they were destroyed by its turnaround unit.

The 140 companies say they were pushed into administration by NatWest owner RBSs global restructuring group so the bank could use their assets to pay down its debts.

They have also accused the City watchdog of sitting on a report into the GRG, which it says is not yet finished.

The businesses had intended to wait for this to be published before acting, but have said they cannot hold on any longer.

Active during the financial crisis, the GRG was meant to help struggling firms stay afloat. But it has been alleged that the group deliberately sought to sink them instead.

In 2013, a report by Government-backed entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson argued that executives at many companies were forced to stand by and watch an otherwise-successful business be sunk by the decisions of the bank.
Almost half of export specialists expect their business growth to fall as a result of Brexit.

The Institute of Export  a charity that trains trade experts who work in businesses across the country  said 42 per cent of its members expected their business growth to decline in the long term as a result of leaving the single market.

Only a quarter thought their business growth would increase over the same period.

Hit by Brexit: One exporter said a third of their workforce are foreigners legally in the UK

More than 600 members of the IoE responded to its post-Brexit survey, which is likely to be taken seriously because it reflects the views of experts at the forefront of international trade.

'Our volume of intra-EU trade is currently three times the size of our trade outside the EU so a "hard Brexit" will require significant investment in personnel and systems to ensure we can cope with the increased requirements for export processing,' one respondent said.

Many fear that their trading arrangements will be hampered by export controls and licensing procedures.

'A third of our workforce are foreigners, here legally. Their right to remain obviously will have a massive impact on the business,' said another exporter.
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.
In this frame grab taken from video provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center, 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh sits in an ambulance after being pulled out of a building hit Aug. 17 by an airstirke, in Aleppo, Syria. The White Helmets were among the crowd of first responders who pulled Omran and his family from the rubble of their apartment building.
Ambridge music museum to close & go up for sale; items to be relocated
The sun shines on the Senate, right, and the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Mr. and Mrs. Don Maxwell celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Aug. 20.

The couple have three daughters, Jennifer Andrews and Melissa Boerma, both of Wichita Falls, and Penny Berg, of Dallas.

Mr. Maxwell, a native of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Nancy Breneman, of Benton, Kansas, were married Aug. 20, 1966, in her hometown.

Mr. Maxwell is a professor of voice at Midwestern State University. Mrs. Maxwell retired in 2010 as a teacher and counselor for Wichita Falls ISD.

The couple are members of Grace Church. They have two grandchildren.
The deadline for submission for this year's Mystery Art event is 5 p.m. Sept. 7.

Mystery Art is an annual exhibit by local and regional artist of all levels. The artwork is donated by the artists and their name and the title of the work is hidden, thus becoming a mystery. Artwork is displayed in the NorthLight Gallery at the Kemp Center for the Arts.

Throughout the course of the exhibit, interested patrons may submit proxy bids on the artwork. If a piece of art meets the highest silent auction bid possible, it goes to a live auction on the night of Mystery Art Fest. During the live auction, all of the artists are revealed and the mystery is solved.

Artists of all levels are invited to submit a limit of two 8-by-10-inch works. Artists must be at least 14 years old. There will be a special exhibit area for artist under 13. The artwork may consist of any type of media, including oil, watercolor, acrylic, glass work, mosaic and mixed media. Freestanding sculptures must fit within the confines of an 8-by-8-by-10-inch space. No photography, digital artwork or jewelry will be accepted.

The proceeds from this event enhance the forum's educational programs and help the Kemp continue the promotion of the arts. The Mystery Art event will be Oct. 21.

Top consignments

Top of Texas Market is look for consignments for its fourth annual event Sept. 23-25. This year, the market is moving to the Multi-Purpose Events Center. It will be climate controlled, with more vendors and more going on than ever before.

The weekend begins with a preview from 6-8 p.m. Sept. 23 and the show runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 24 and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 25.

The Wichita County Heritage Society will have a consignment booth and the organization is asking the community for consignment items to sell. Help the heritage society make this event a success. Clear some of your treasures out of your house and make some money in the process.

For more information, call 723-0623.

Give blood

A celebration blood drive in memory of Peyton Hood will be Aug. 27 at River Bend Nature Center, 2200 Third St. Look for the Bloodmobile at the center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, call 767-0843.

Board boot camp

Whether you are a board member, executive director of staff member of a nonprofit, you are doing one of the most important jobs for your organization. Be the best you can be by attending the Fundraising Bootcamp from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Nonprofit Center of Texoma, 2301 Kell Blvd. The event will be conducted by Carole Rylander. Rylander inspires and engages nonprofit leadership to maximize mission impact by enhancing fund development, planning and governance practices.

The event is $60 per person and lunch is included. To sign up, call the center at 322-4961.
DUNDEE  While not every person lives permanently out at Lake Diversion, the location still holds a special place in his or her life.

Some have only recently found what has been described as a hidden piece of paradise, but for others like Kevin Myers, that love has grown over a lifetime.

'My dad has had that cabin since I was 9 years old,' he said earlier this month. 'I'm fixing to be 60 years old. It was passed down to me about 10 years ago.'

Myers and his family live in Iowa Park, but they use the lake cabin to escape from the real world when they need a break.

'We came up year round. This was our getaway,' Myers said.

Planning on passing it down to their youngest daughter, who loved the cabin and couldn't wait to take it over for her family, Myers and his wife, Debby, had invested over $40,000 fixing up the cabin, including almost $3,000 completely redoing the bathroom a few months ago.

'If you could see the poster on our wall over at the cabin of the before and after, you wouldn't believe what it was,' Kevin Myers said.

However, all of those plans changed to instead figuring out how to move everything they keep out at the cabin before Jan. 31  the date their current lease agreement ends.

The residents found out earlier this month, through a post on the community board and a certified letter the next day, that the leases would not be renewed next year after the new owner of the Waggoner Estate, Stan Kroenke, chose to 'return the lake shoreline to its natural, uninhabited landscape to support and improve the microecosystem in and around Lake Diversion.'

'It was heartbreaking. We both just got sick at our stomach and couldn't believe it,' Kevin Myers said.

In just a few months, Kevin Myers will only be left with photographs to recall all the time he's spent on the lake in the last five decades.

'That's what we were just sitting here talking about,' said Kevin Myers after the August Cabin Owners Association meeting. 'I've raised all my kids out here  taught them how to ski and inner tube  and started on my grandkids. I've got three of them now that will never know it because they are too young.

'There are so many memories out here.'

The Myers, who own K&D Mobile Home Service, help tear down, transport and install mobile homes across Texas and Oklahoma for a living.

'I'm so sad. I wish I could help every one of them,' Debby Myers said. 'If they were in a mobile home, we'd donate our time to move everybody out of here.'

Even with that cost waived, the homeowners would still have to find the funds needed to purchase a new property to move the home to, install a septic tank and get electricity hooked up, Kevin Myers said.

While many of the residents were scrambling to figure out the next step, the Myers were sure of a few things they wouldn't be losing with the devastating news.

'They can't take our friends away. We've got them for a lifetime,' Kevin Myers said. 'And we've met a lot of friends out here.'

'And they can't take the memories  those are ours,' Debby Myers added. 'But, we can't make any more.'
Budget cuts, downsizing and rising global threats have put the next president of the United States in a precarious position when it comes to national security and defense, U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry asserts in a paper published in the magazine 'Foreign Affairs.'

The House Armed Services Committee chairman from Clarendon, Texas, co-authored the article with Andrew Krepinevich Jr., a national defense expert at Leesburg, Virginia-based Solarium and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The piece offers their thoughts on a defense strategy the new president will need deploy to successfully protect the country and its interests.

'With the current approach failing, the next president will need to formulate a new defense strategy,' they wrote. 'It should include three basic elements: a clear statement of what the United States seeks to achieve, an understanding of the resources available for those goals, and guidance as to how those resources will be used.'

Their strategy, they contend, if followed will go toward preventing power grabs by other countries such as Russia and China, and allow continued access to the worlds unowned oceans, air space and space.

Primary areas of concern, aside from the United States proper, include Europe, the western Pacific and the Persian Gulf. U.S. involvement in Europe during World War II, Korea and Vietnam on the Pacific Rim, and Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan are examples.

Not only does the country face physical threats from outside, but defense cuts have put the military resources at risk of not being able to meet the needs required for defense.

'Yet even as the challenges to U.S. security grow, Washington continues to cut its military spending,' they said. 'Between 2010 and 2015, the U.S. defense budget fell by over 14 percent in real terms, and by roughly 30 percent as a percentage of (the gross domestic product), and it will likely fall further over the next decade, as interest payments on U.S. government debt rise.'

They continued, 'But Washington needs to do more than simply spend more money on defense. It needs a strategy that allocates these dollars more efficiently and in ways that create a more effective military.'

The authors suggest the next president should first focus on the threats Russia and China pose, and secondly on threats from Iran and radical Islamic groups. To achieve this, the military should take up a 'one-and-a-half-war posture' that will allow them to quickly deploy forces to Europe or the Middle East.

But, instead of waiting, for example, for China to become more aggressive in the region, they recommend the next president begin work on increasing ground forces in Japan, the Philippines and possibly Vietnam before the option becomes more difficult to do so or is no longer available.

The same could be done in Europe to address Russian 'proxy forces' that go 'beyond its boarders' like in Crimea and Ukraine.

Another focus of the new strategy is working toward the United States maintaining its technological military advantage as other countries look to close the gap.

'To sustain its advantage in key areas of competition, the U.S. military will have to develop new operational concepts  the methods by which it organizes, equips and employs forces for deterring an enemy or prevailing against one should deterrence fail,' the said. 'Above all, this means ensuring that the military is focused on the right set of challenges, such as the A2/AD (anti-access/area-denial) threats in those region where the United States has vital interests.'

A2/AD includes technologies 'such as long-range precision-strike weaponry, antisatellite systems, and various cyberweapons.'

Part of the problem, though, is how long it takes for new technologies from the private sector to reach the military. They said officials at the Defense Department 'push new systems' performance characteristics to an extreme,' often resulting in blown budgets.

'Compounding the problem, Uncle Sam too often spends, relatively speaking, thousands of dollars ensuring that it doesn't get cheated out of nickels and dimes,' they said. 'It's past time to reform that system by setting more realistic requirements and speeding new equipment into the field.'

The pair also suggests that a new nuclear age has begun, one in which precision-guides armaments and cyberweapons have entered the fray as methods to potentially disrupt any early warnings of attacks. They also indicate the United States under the Obama administration has continued to count nuclear weapons as done in the Cold War instead of focusing and adjusting to the new nuclear age.

'A key initial step toward adapting the U.S. nuclear arsenal involves developing detailed plans to address various plausible crisis scenarios  ones involving the United States, China, and Russia; the possible use of nuclear weapons by minor powers such as North Korea; or a conflict between two nuclear-armed states, such as India and Pakistan,' they said.

But, there is good news, the authors noted. A bipartisan Congress exists in Washington, D.C., on the matter of restoring defense funding levels to those proposed by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2012. If those levels are reached again, they said, it would put the nation's military in a better position to address security concerns at 'a reasonable level of risk.'
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While Brazilian authorities were sorting out the accounts of four Team USA Olympic swimmers, including Ryan Lochte, who said they were robbed at gunpoint Sunday, the Internet went wild with the idea that the story may not be true at all.

Lochte is back in the United States but Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz remain in Brazil. The latter two were removed from a plane late Wednesday after a judge ordered them not to leave the country, according to an Associated Press report.

RELATED: Lochte, Feigen indicted by Rio authorities for allegedly falsely reporting crime

Police in Brazil say they have found little evidence that a robbery took place and have recommended that both Lochte and Feigen be charged with falsely reporting a crime. Feigen who graduated from Churchill High School in San Antonio remains in Brazil.

RELATED: 2 Lochte teammates in robbery probe pulled off plane

Lochte already flew home not realizing that authorities might have wanted him to stay, according to a transcript of an interview with Matt Lauer who spoke to Lochte before the indictment.

RELATED: Surveillance video casts doubt on Feigen, Lochte's robbery tale

Lauer said that Lochte had changed some details of his story including backing off from the statements that he had been pulled over by people posing as police or had a gun pointed to his head.

He told Lauer that the taxi was already stopped at a gas station when the car was approached by men with guns and that one was pointed in his general direction, the transcript said.

"I think people listening at home might think that it was an embellishment at the time. But that is up for people to decide," Lauer said.

See what people have to think in the gallery of internet reactions above.
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Troy

In 1979, when Iranian militants took over the U.S. Embassy in the country's capital, Westley Williams was among the Americans taken hostage. Like the others, he was blindfolded, beaten and tortured.

Today, most of the former hostages are set to receive up to $4.4 million in compensation for the ordeal they suffered  roughly equal to $10,000 for every day they were held.

But not Williams. Black and female former hostages, who were released early, are getting nothing.

More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

"I was there and got my ass beat and everything else," Williams told me. "But I guess my service isn't good enough for them."

Williams is 60 years old and lives in a small apartment along Burdett Avenue in Troy. He's wiry, without a hint of paunch. He speaks rapidly, almost aggressively, with a voice that's as sandpaper rough as the life he's led.

Back then, Williams was a young Marine who had escaped, at least for a time, the tough streets of Albany's Arbor Hill. He was an elite guard who had been in Tehran for only two weeks when the embassy fell amidst a geopolitical firestorm.

"They overwhelmed us," Williams said of the militants. "Bum-rushed us."

Williams caught a break when, 20 days later, the Iranians released only the 13 black and female hostages as part of a publicity move designed to draw attention to the hypocrisy of American discrimination.

The other hostages would be held for an additional 424 days  and there's little doubt they suffered far more. Still, Williams says his life has been haunted by his experience in Tehran.

"It was horrible," he said. "They did what they did. There was no sexual stuff, but there was a lot of hitting, a lot of interrogation and a lot of abuse."

Williams stressed that he did not want to leave the other hostages, including fellow Marines, behind. Doing so went against the Marine Corps credo, but the Iranians left no choice. They forced him on the plane at gunpoint, he said.

Nevertheless, the hostages who were released early faced whispered insinuations that they had earned their freedom by betraying their country's secrets. And decades after the end of the crisis, the two groups of hostages remained largely in distinct camps.

While both groups sought compensation for their suffering, and each fought for decades to receive it, they did so largely on separate tracks that included distinct lawsuits.

That helps to explain how Williams' group was left out of the fund created last December.

The language of the bill was based on a lawsuit filed against the Iranians by the larger group of hostages, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, who agrees that the legislation, as passed, is unjust and flawed. "Paul believes that anyone held for any amount of time, including Mr. Williams, should receive compensation for being held hostage," a spokesman said.

The money is coming from a $8.9 billion penalty paid by BNP Paribas, a French bank, for doing business with terrorist nations under sanction. The fund will also compensate other victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

But it won't help Williams and the 12 other Americans released with him.

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"Why are we not included?" Williams asked. "I don't understand how they could do this."

I don't either, but the fix should be easy. Just amend the legislation or pass a new bill.

Still, it is unclear whether Tonko or anyone else in Congress will work to address the issue.

Williams, who has a six-year-old daughter, isn't shy about his main motivation: He needs the money.

His life since he left the Marines in 1983 has not been easy. He has struggled with demons, including drug-and-alcohol addictions and a violent temper. He has been jailed more than once, but said he has worked to clean up his life after being diagnosed with PTSD related to his time in Iran.

Williams' military disability payments are his only income. If Williams were compensated at the same daily rate as the other hostages, he would be due $200,000.

In fact, all 13 of the black and female hostages could be compensated for nearly $2 million less than the money due to just one of the 53 other victims or their families.

Williams refused to blame racism or sexism for Congress excluding the black and female hostages. But he did note that his Iranian captors repeatedly told the black hostages that they didn't matter to the U.S. government and that America didn't care about them.

Williams dismissed the claims as mind games then, he said. But now, he's wondering if the Iranians were right.
Major Hollywood premieres can sometimes elicit applause during the closing credits, a collective cheer as the film rolls, or a sea of similarly costumed fans, but the premiere of a highly anticipated Indian film evokes the feeling of a rock concert.

Seeing an Indian film in the theater is a far cry from the general silence of Hollywood film fans  with the audience constantly cheering for the protagonist or jeering the bad guys.

There are three theaters in the Madison area that consistently show Indian films: Marcus Point Cinema, AMC Fitchburg 18 and Market Square Theatre.

Weve developed a nice little community (in Madison) that looks forward to our playing them and its been well received, said Sonny Gourley, senior vice president of film for Marcus Theatres.

When the movies appear in local theaters, they often do so quietly, but some of the films open in the city with a bang.

For instance, Kabali, a new film that premiered July 21 in Madison, features Indian film star Rajinikanth. The gangster drama focuses on Kabali, a man who gets out of prison for a false charge after 25 years. He was a leader among a group of Tamilians who were treated as slaves by the British who forced them to work in rubber factories.

Kabali transforms in the first half of the film from being a leader of mistreated workers in Malaysia to being a powerful mafia don. He must fight back against the rival gangs in the city to protect himself and those he loves.

Opening night showings sold out at Marcus Point Cinema and Market Square Theatre, according to Tarun Rama of Indian Film House, a film distribution and theater rental company.

So much excitement surrounded the films premiere that a second showing was added at Market Square for the people who couldnt make it to the first showing, said Abhi Bitra of Indian Film House.

Just a short distance away, the new Bollywood hit Sultan, a film about a former wrestling champion, was playing at the AMC Fitchburg 18 theater.

In Indian cinema, the a term like Bollywood is tied to where the film was made or what language its in.

According to The Bollywood Ticket an American guide to Indian movies  run by a then Jennifer Hopfinger, who is now Jennifer Tomshack Bollywood is a term that refers to the Hindi-language film industry based in the Indian city of Mumbai, which used to be called Bombay.

Bombay plus Hollywood equals Bollywood.

Bollywood and modern day Hollywood are much different  though the emotional nuance of classic Hollywood might be what draws Western viewers in.

Tomshack said that her love of Bollywood might be connected with her fondness for classic American films that displayed a greater sense of emotion than the American films of today.

The biggest thing I like about it is how emotional they are, said Tomshack who lives in Chicago. You just dont find melodrama in the West anymore. People think that Bollywood is a musical, but its like an opera. Its an elevated sense of melodrama, even in films about mundane life. You dont find that in Western film anymore.

Maybe were too cool to have those kind of giant emotions on display, she said. Maybe were too sophisticated, too hip, or we just fancy ourselves that way.

That heightened sense of emotion is true, too, in other branches of Indian cinema, of which there are several.

There is Kollywood which are Tamil-language films from the Kodambakkam district in the city of Chennai, Malayalam-language cinema from Kerala is Mollywood and Telugu-language films from the state of Andhra Pradesh is Tollywood, according to The Bollywood Ticket.

Theaters in Madison show a little bit from each of the different sections of Indian cinema which is important because Madison has a growing and diverse Indian population.

There are approximately 3,000 Indian families living in the Madison area, according to Samir Datta, the treasurer of the local American Hindu Association.

Area theaters recognized that growing community as an opportunity to share different kinds of cinema.

Marcus Theatres began its Bollywood series about 2 years ago in areas with sizable Indian communities such as Milwaukee and Madison, according to Gourley.

It gradually developed into four or five theaters that we concentrate on playing as many as we can, he said. We are making a conscientious effort to play all sorts of content.

Its a goal of mine to play independent products as much as possible.

The number of Indian films being shown around the city has increased quite a bit in recent years, according to Vikram Iyer who has lived in Madison for about six years.

Jeevan Ramanujakootam, who lives in Houston, Texas but sometimes travels to Wisconsin for work, said he sees as many Indian films as he can when theyre offered.

Ramanujakootam said its a ritual to attend all of Rajinikanths films on opening day and hes done so since 1998.

(The film) doesnt have to be good or great, he said. Its an experience.

And for those who havent attended an Indian film premiere in the past, its an experience unlike any other movie premiere.

I love to see (Indian films) in the theater, Tomshack said. It can be a little Rocky Horror Picture Show when audiences react to things that happen in the movie.

You go to a film on the first day just for fun, said Ramanujakootam, who said that if he sees a film in India, the audience is often so loud he cant hear some of the dialogue and hell see it again to actually take in the movie.

Luckily for audiences  even if the theater is filled with exuberant response  there are subtitles in the film.

Unfortunately, subtitles may be a big part of the reason that non-Indian audiences dont attend the films, Tomshack said.

Gourley said that the primary audience for the Bollywood Series is fairly specialized, although he estimated that about 30 percent of the audiences seeing the films are non-Indian.

Iyer also said that it seems only about 30 percent of the audiences are non-Indian when he attends films.

I applaud the local theaters for doing these experiments to reach a target audience, said Agatino Balio, professor emeritus of the department of communication arts at UW-Madison.

Balio, whose expertise includes foreign film distribution in the United States, said that Madison theaters showing Indian films is an exceptional case because there is a large enough community to support the film and make it worthwhile for the theaters.

Tomshack cites the 2008, Oscar award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire for getting theaters interested in playing Indian films and for audiences becoming more interested in the foreign cinema  although Slumdog is not an Indian film, it reflects the style of Bollywood.

Ten years ago, people in the U.S. werent seeing Indian films and the fact that chain theaters are now carrying them makes a big difference, Tomshack said.

I think if you have an open mind, theyre just good movies, Tomshack said. If you like good movies its reason enough to see it  if you have an open mind and are willing to see things in a different cultural lens with different values.
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Prattsville

Christine Owad has lived on the 135-acre family farm that hugs the Batavia Kill Creek near the confluence with the Schoharie Creek in the Catskills since 1966, when she was 18 years old.

She said that she had deferred her dream to attend Smith College, and instead handed over $900 she had saved for tuition to help her parents with the down payment on the Greene County farm.

Now 68, the retired state worker is left all alone with a tumbledown white farmhouse that is unfit for habitation, crammed with the detritus of her late parents and grandparents.

And she is being evicted.

The house is dank and mildew-mottled from four feet of water that rose up the walls of the first floor as the fury of Tropical Storm Irene struck in late August 2011.

Owad sleeps in a trailer in the yard. The house's swayback front door, which remains ajar, is adorned with a National Rifle Association sticker, a private property sign and a placard that reads: "These Premises Protected by Video Surveillance."

After sitting with Owad for an hour on the cluttered front porch, a portrait of contradiction emerged from the honey-voiced woman in a bright red dress, matching lipstick, pearl necklace and black and purple running sneakers. Later, inside the ramshackle mess, she claimed to have three master's degrees and fluency in four languages as she picked through derelict upstairs bedrooms overflowing with books.

"I'm so ashamed of this," she said, as she led a visitor through darkened rooms of decay.

She also spoke of those she claimed were out to get her, including the Russian mafia, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

She presented herself as an innocent old lady who is being evicted from her farm by the evil forces of government and she eluded in whispers to dark conspiracies.

"This is a government scheme to defraud me of my land," she said. "They have all the power and the guns. It is just me against all of them."

"I'm overwhelmed," she said. "I feel so abandoned. But I am going to stay and fight. I've lived on this land for 51 years. It made me who I am. This is not over."

At one point, her bottom lip quivered and she brushed back tears as she recounted what she passed off as an American Gothic tale.

What Owad didn't reveal was the long criminal trail of a con woman. She's done jail time for fleecing more than 50 Irish immigrants a decade ago in a bogus immigration services scam from her home office near Windham in the so-called "Irish Alps." A judge's ruling fined her $105,000 and ordered her to make $198,000 in restitution payments to Irish victims for her fraudulent acts and empty promises of green cards and citizenship. The court decision made headlines in the Irish Echo newspaper.

Last year, Owad was charged with grand larceny and welfare fraud by Greene County, for whom she once worked. The resolution of those charges could not be determined immediately. She's been sued by an ex-husband who claimed she owed him nearly $100,000 from their divorce. She declared bankruptcy twice. She tried to transfer the farm to a sham Delaware limited liability corporation where she listed her aliases as company directors. She refused to pay the restitution and fine in the immigration fraud case from 2006 and the state Attorney General's office eventually took ownership of the farm through foreclosure. The long-running legal saga snarled multiple agencies of city, county and state government and kept a half-dozen lawyers busy. She ran off officials who came on the property during the drawn-out litigation. She also attracted hundreds of supporters on a Facebook page titled "Save Historic Owad Farm from Demolition."

The case seemed to reach its denouement after Owad refused to vacate the premises that the state legally owns and she was served on July 9 with a notice by the state Attorney General's office that she had exactly 30 days to get off the farm.

"This is a court-ordered judgment after she was indicted on multiple charges of forgery and grand larceny and a long chain of events," said a spokesman with the state Attorney General's office. "Eventually, she will be forced to leave."

Owad managed to plead hardship on behalf of her four rescue horses, chickens and turkeys. The eviction notice was extended until Oct. 15 as she managed to win one final round in her long war of attrition.

Meanwhile, the state Attorney General spokesman said the agency continues to receive calls from her victims, who are back in Ireland and have not seen a penny of the restitution Owad was ordered to pay them.

She deflected questions about the criminal convictions with a rambling series of excuses. "I never claimed I was an immigration attorney," she said. "They've been harassing me since Eliot Spitzer was attorney general. They have it in for me. It's a witch hunt against me and the Russian mafia is involved."

"This is the most unusual and drawn-out legal case I've ever worked on. She's managed to create a situation where everybody is fed up and does not want to help her anymore," said Kingston attorney Andrew Zweben, who was appointed by the state Supreme Court as the court-appointed fiduciary and receiver of the property the state seized.

"She has resisted and resisted and fought very hard while representing herself in the legal case," Zweben said. "She has exhausted all her appeals and legal maneuvers. This is coming to an end in a sad way after she refused to take a good deal she was offered."

One of Owad's former attorneys, Allen Morganstern of Westbury on Long Island, expressed a similar exasperation.

"She's a very bright person and I feel sorry for her because her life is in a shambles," said Morganstern, who last represented Owad a decade ago on the green card scam case. "I've tried to be a compassionate person with her. She's not as innocent as she portrays herself to be. She seems to live in a fairy tale where she sees herself as a victim of evil forces."

A metaphor for Owad's life could be found atop a rise on an overgrown pasture of wildflowers as we bumped over the overgrown farmland and past its 1.6 miles of Batavia Kill creek frontage in her rusty 2002 Subaru station wagon.

There, like a mirage on the edge of a stand of pine trees, stood a glass house slowly being enveloped by underbrush.

"It's a scale model of Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House," she said. "He's my favorite architect. I had it built in 2003 for $22,000. It was a pure fantasy where I could get away from the world."

Christine Owad also uses the aliases of Marie and Ahes, a French name she said her parents gave her when she was born in 1947 in Paris. Her Ukrainian father and French mother met in Europe and came to the U.S. after World War II. Her paternal grandparents, who immigrated from Ukraine, purchased the Prattsville property because it reminded them of the Ukraine, which they fled during Stalin's purges of the 1930s.

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They bought the farm from an old Dutch family who had run a dairy operation there for generations. They raised chickens and grew vegetables. Her late father, Jerry Owad, an engineering draftsman who died in 2003, bought the farm from his parents in 1966. He moved there from New Jersey with his wife and two daughters  Owad's younger sister, Jaroslawa, lives in Ohio.

Christine Owad commuted to a state job with the Education Department in Albany.

"It was always my dream to be a farmer," Owad said. "I believe in the Jeffersonian ideal that we are a nation of farmers. The connection to the land is the foundation of American democracy."

Owad had a knack for foreign languages. She said her fluency in French came from her early years in Paris and conversing with her late mother, Romana Owad, a linguist. She also speaks Polish and Ukrainian.

She majored in French at Rutgers University and said she later added three master's degrees, including two from the University at Albany, degrees she put on her letterhead.

Gradually, her ability to maintain the farm exceeded her modest state pension.

Morganstern, her former attorney, said Owad reminded him a bit of Miss Havisham, the spinster trapped in a tumbledown mansion in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations."

Her conspiracy theory against the New York City Department of Environmental Protection  which has acquired thousands of acres of land in the Catskills to protect streams and reservoirs that supply drinking water to New York City's 8 million residents  is also misguided.

"We are always interested in property in the watershed to protect water quality, but only if there is a willing seller," said Ted Timbers, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP. He said the DEP had never set its sights on Owad's farm and had not made covert plans to acquire it, counter to her claims.

For her part, Owad's half-century on the farm seemed to be ticking down to its final weeks.

She claimed she would make a last-ditch effort to donate the farm to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, who once camped there in years gone by.

"I refuse to let the DEP or the state take my land. They are like snakes," she said. "I can't give up the farm. It made me who I am. This is America. We don't live in the Soviet Union. Evicting someone from their farm is un-American."

She eased the old Subaru into gear. In the distance, the glass house glittered.

pgrondahl@timesunion.com  518-454-5623  @PaulGrondahl
If Hoosick Falls residents finally get some straight answers on the state's slow and arguably inaccurate initial response to the village's water contamination crisis, they may well have Donald Trump to thank for it.

On Aug. 30, after a celebrated reversal following intense local pressure, the Republican dominated  barely  state Senate will hold a public hearing at Hoosick Falls High School on "drinking water contamination in the Hoosick Falls area."

Even so, it is still unclear whether the senators, who up to now have been responding as puppets on a string to whatever the governor wished on the subject, are truly inclined to find believable answers to hard questions local residents have about the state Health Department and local and state governmental sluggish responses. Or will they attempt a whitewash.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who desperately wants the entire politically embarrassing situation to disappear  it's his Flint, Michigan  tried unsuccessfully to prevent public hearings. His tactic has been to deflect and deny. Deny that his administration, notably his Health Department, failed to rise to the occasion, and deflect any responsibility for missteps to the federal government for failing to officially "regulate" the contaminant, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.

So in addition to the on-site first hearing in Hoosick Falls, there will be further hearings by a joint state Senate and Assembly committee in Albany on Sept. 7, and Long Island on Sept. 12. Waiting in the wings is the gorilla of hearings, a congressional committee, date pending.

So back to Trump and his role.

Up to now, a tenuous working relationship has existed between the Republican Senate and the Democratic governor, which meant the senators had to dance to the governor's tune when required. The motivation is survival. In a blue state getting bluer all the time, Republicans in power will look for any arrangement they can find, and who can blame them? The governor has obliged by barely paying lip service to helping fellow Democrats regain Senate control. Our governor favors the dynamic he's created, because then he's in charge.

Our governor is also poll driven, and the polls are not looking good for The Donald in his home state. Hillary Clinton is up by 30 percent and climbing. Much ink is being wasted speculating about the coattail effect this will have on the state Senate. Right now, the Senate power coalition is the oddest of ducks, a combination of 31 Republicans, a Democrat who caucuses with them, and five "independent" Democrats who have aligned themselves with the Republicans but could be lured away in a shift. Frankly, speculation what kind of shift might happen because of the Trump candidacy is mostly a waste this far out. Anything can happen between now and November and in the age of real time media, dramatic turnarounds can happen very quickly. Anyway, it's way too early  except perhaps for the governor.

Based on the perception of where this is heading, Cuomo seems to be showing signs he might switch camps and actually work for Democratic Senate candidates. He does not want to be caught supporting the losers, particularly if they happen to be not as true blue as he is.

This leaves the Republican Senate leadership in a bit of a quandary. With survival at stake for them, they may be reduced to the last desperate throw of the dice for any politician  appealing to the voters. After all, it's not the Senate's Health Department that has a lot to answer for over the Hoosick Falls debacle. It's Cuomo's.

There is an additional motivation that goes right to the heart of it. Unless Republican state Sen. Kathy Marchione makes a very good accounting of herself at the hearing on Aug. 30  she's on the panel  there's a fair chance she will be ex-Senator Marchione come November. She represents Hoosick Falls, at least on paper. She has played politics with the water contamination issue at the cost of her own constituents, and they know it. The response she's gotten for denying the need for public hearings when her constituents were pleading for them, and later for nearly sabotaging an extension of the statute of limitations for the afflicted to sue, is as negative as for any politician in the state.

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She had better come out slamming, grilling, and torturing whoever shows up to offer testimony from the Health Department or she may be political dead meat herself.

So our dear friends in the Republican Senate have a choice to make: do business as usual and be laughed out of town, or make a serious go of it and earn some respect. It would be supremely ironic if the loss of the Republican leadership in November were to pivot on the loss of Marchione, for playing puppet at the governor's behest. But the perception is that it's a very real possibility, and turns out to be to the enormous advantage of the residents of Hoosick Falls. The Senate GOP may have to act responsibly out of necessity.

Of the three hearings that could bring relief to Hoosick Falls, the Senate hearing is the least likely from past performance, and therefore in the best position to surprise and enlighten. Although I'd say the highest hopes rest with a Congressional hearing, the only one untainted by the governor's guidance.

flebrun@timesunion.com  518-454-5453
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The pain started five years ago, when she was 13.

The Capital Region resident, who asked that her name be withheld, described it this way: Imagine each joint as a tulip bulb. At the beginning of the day, every bulb throbs. The pounding gradually emanates outward, like shoots and stems, the intensity growing. By the end of the day, the plants are intertwined, the pain ubiquitous, its source mysterious.

Doctors could not identify a cause, and prescribed no treatment. Over-the-counter pain medication didn't work. She spent most days in bed. By 16, she turned to alcohol to numb herself.

Then last fall, a doctor diagnosed Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare inherited disease that affects connective tissue, and prescribed her a narcotic, tramadol. Three months later, though, the doctor cut her off, fearing she would become dependent on the habit-forming opioid. She called the moment terrifying.

More Information Don't take an opioid when ... There are three kinds of chronic pain for which opioids should never be prescribed, according to Dr. Charles Argoff of Albany Medical Center. 1. Fibromyalgia: Patients with this disorder experience pain in the muscles and bones throughout their bodies and can have problems with sleep, memory and mood. They also have defective opioid receptors, which prohibits those chemicals from blocking pain. 2.Headaches: Long-term medication overuse can create so-called rebound headaches, which can occur daily and be very painful. 3. Nonspecific abdominal pain: When there is no clear diagnosis, the pain could be from psychological stress or trauma rather than have a physical cause. Source: Dr. Charles Argoff, Albany Medical Center Opioid overdoses Inpatient and outpatient visits for opioid-related conditions statewide. These include poisonings from prescription drugs, heroin and other narcotics. 2010 6,424 20117,273 20127,810 20138,672 20149,568 2015 12,629 Source: New York State Department of Health, Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System How did we get here? The overprescribing of opioids marks a turnaround from a couple of decades ago. In fact, as recently as the 1990s, doctors were roundly criticized for failing to address pain. Some medical specialists argued they were not adequately treating backaches, joint pain and other common forms of pain that could benefit from opioids. Drugmakers' multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns - not always transparent about how addictive the drugs were - fueled that message. So along with checking temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure, doctors began asking patients to assess their pain, typically on scales from 1 to 10. "Pain became a fifth vital sign," said Dr. Kirk Panneton, regional director of Latham-based BlueShield of New York, who at the time was a practicing doctor caring for older patients. In recent years, patients have rated their hospital experience, and to some extent their doctors, on how well that pain is addressed. Until this summer, hospitals' payments from Medicare were linked to these patient assessments of pain management, which are now seen as one way doctors may be pressured to overprescribe narcotics. - Claire Hughes See More Collapse

"I don't want to be 18 and addicted to narcotics by any means. But I don't want to be confined to a wheelchair, either," she said. "I'm trying to find a happy medium."

Chronic pain is tough to treat, even under the best of circumstances. Unlike other medical assessments, whether body temperature or the presence of a gene, there's no hard-and-fast way to detect and measure pain. It's both real and a matter of individual perception.

In the midst of an epidemic of opioid abuse, treating ongoing pain is tougher still.

Doctors must balance patients' need to live pain-free with their risk of getting hooked on these highly addictive drugs and the availability of alternative methods to relieve suffering, which are not always covered by insurance. That balance is not always achieved, and some patients do not get the help they need, flying in the face of the medical edict to do no harm.

"It's causing harm to that group of individuals," said Sean Philpott-Jones, director of the bioethics program at Clarkson University's Capital Region Campus in Schenectady.

There's no doubt, however, that narcotics like OxyContin and Vicodin are being overused. U.S. sales of prescription opioids, as well as overdose deaths from them, quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, but there has been no overall change in the amount of pain Americans report, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In New York, admissions to state treatment programs for prescription opioid use rose 155 percent between 2005 and 2014.

The path to addiction  whether to prescription opioids or their illegal cousin, heroin  often begins with a non-controversial use of narcotics, to treat an acute episode of pain caused by surgery or an injury. The Times Union has published numerous stories in the last several years about drug abusers who got hooked this way. The stories often involve getting way more medication than needed for short-term pain; an oft-repeated anecdote involves the teen who got a 30-day prescription after having wisdom teeth pulled.

Brittany, a 22-year-old student at an Albany college, said she was hooked nine years ago, at age 13, after just one intravenous dose of morphine administered in the hospital for severe abdominal pain. The morphine helped her pain and also eliminated the depression and anxiety she started to struggle with.

She was sent home with a month's supply of hydrocodone, which she continued taking after her pain subsided, to get high. Then she took the unused narcotics in her parents' medicine cabinet. Next, she was hanging out with older kids who were partying with prescription drugs. Then illicit drug experimentation led her to injecting heroin. She overdosed twice, saved each time by a friend who knew CPR.

She has struggled to stay clean for one reason, she said: "I didn't want to be dead."

The epidemic of opioid and heroin abuse and the subsequent rise in overdose deaths have given prescription narcotics a bad rap, even when the drugs are used judiciously, said Dr. Charles Argoff, a pain management specialist in the neurology department at Albany Medical Center. A key problem, Argoff said, is that too many primary care doctors and others with inadequate training in pain management prescribe opioids as the first line of defense against pain, Argoff said.

Narcotics are one important tool in controlling chronic pain, which can be challenging and highly individualistic, he said.

But other options should be tried first, he said. They include nerve blocks, epidurals and spinal-cord stimulation, as well as non-opioid pain relievers. Physical therapy, acupuncture and hypnosis can be "opioid sparing" treatments that reduce pain and the need for medication.

But no treatment will work with every patient. Finding what's effective is a matter of trial and error.

Argoff now treats the 18-year-old woman with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. He has prescribed tramadol for her again, and she is back to taking short walks and performing light tasks, like cleaning her room.

He is also experimenting with other treatments for her. Her condition blocks the potency of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like ibuprofen and naproxen. So Argoff has tried infusions of lidocaine, a non-opioid anesthetic, on her, to little effect. Regular physical therapy has not worked, so a new PT regime is being customized to her condition.

She said she is optimistic.

"It has opened me up to a lot more pathways for me to go with my pain management," she said.

Marilyn Suthers, a 61-year-old Cohoes woman, has received pain management on and off for multiple conditions that have kept her disabled for a decade. They include degenerative discs in her back, osteoarthritis in her knee, broken bones that have healed but emit lingering pain, carpal-tunnel syndrome and severe nerve pain in her shoulder. She hurts nearly all the time, she said.

She has tried spinal-cord stimulation and cortisone injections, among other ways to treat pain. But about the only thing that has worked and allowed her some mobility is a fentanyl patch. Fentanyl is an opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine that is prescribed for severe pain, often in patients with end-stage cancer.

As illegally produced fentanyl, often cut with heroin, has been linked to a rise in overdose deaths in recent months, however, Suthers' doctor will no longer prescribe it.

Asked whether she has ever worried about addiction to narcotics, Suthers said no.

"It has never made me feel euphoric," Suthers said. "My body is in such agony, it just goes straight to the pain."

There are no biomarkers to help doctors determine which patients will respond well to opioids, Argoff said, or which are likely to develop an addiction. Doctors are challenged to determine when an addicted patient is conning them to get more drugs, though the state's prescription-monitoring system, known as I-STOP, helps to identify the ones who seek prescriptions from multiple sources.

Another big unknown is why opioids actually make pain worse for some people, Argoff said. It could be a function of tolerance  the phenomenon of a drug's repeated use lessening its effectiveness, requiring users to take higher doses to get the same effect. Or there could be another cause, said Argoff, who is currently engaged in a study to address that question.

When opioids ramped up the pain of one 43-year-old area woman, who asked that her name be withheld, her doctor's response was to prescribe more.

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She began experiencing severe pain 15 years ago after injuries from a car accident. The pain worsened after shoulder surgery in 2008. Once the nerves emanating from her neck were affected, no remedy seemed to help.

"The pain was so bad," she said. "It feels like you're putting your body into a bucket of ice, and it's so cold that it burns."

Even while she tried alternate therapies, like a spinal cord stimulator and an implant that pumped a non-opioid medication into her system, her doctor kept increasing her narcotics. She was on a complex, staggered schedule of drugs for pain and stress-reduction, including the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone.

By late 2012, she was hallucinating and regularly screaming at her family. She had lost bladder control. Suspecting the drugs were the cause, in April 2013, she abruptly took herself off everything except the non-opioid ziconotide dispensed by the pump. She spent four days detoxing at the hospital, but went home in less pain and thinking more clearly.

"They overlooked the obvious, that the medication was making it worse," she said.

She still uses the pain pump, and to lessen muscle spasms and stress that can heighten her sensation of pain, she gets physical therapy, massages and chiropractic adjustments. She pays for all but the pain pump out of pocket, because her health insurance policy doesn't cover the other treatments.

Insurance coverage is another factor influencing decisions on how to treat pain and perhaps the over-prescribing of opioids, experts said. While narcotics are usually covered by health policies, other treatments often are not. Doctors are reluctant to prescribe remedies that patients will not stick with because they can't afford them.

Kirk Panneton, regional director of Latham-based insurer BlueShield of Northeastern New York, said coverage is evolving along with new thinking on how to treat pain. Individual policies differ, but many now offer some amount of chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy and physical therapy.

Doctors and covered patients are not always aware of the coverage, he said.

Doctors' prescribing patterns are being more carefully scrutinized, too, by insurers, law enforcement and professional regulators. The increased surveillance can make the already complex treatment of chronic pain even more challenging, said Dr. Bruce White, director of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Med. They can find themselves in an ethical dilemma  weighing what they think is right for their patients against actions that could get them in trouble.

"Doctors are supposed to act in the patients' best interest. When doctors start worrying about getting into legal trouble, they are acting in their own best interest," said White. "Doctors are not supposed to make decisions that way."

Yet it may finally be the time that pain management will improve among all medical professionals, Argoff said. Diabetes was poorly treated before obesity was an epidemic in America, he said. Now primary care doctors are well-versed about the disease and quick to identify overweight patients at risk of developing it.

Amid the epidemic of opioid abuse, federal health officials issued guidance to doctors earlier this year, recommending treatments like PT, exercise and over-the-counter drugs be considered before opioids. New state laws that went into effect this summer limit opioid prescriptions for acute pain to a seven-day supply, down from 30 days, and require doctors to take courses on opioids. Last month, the American Dental Association President wrote to dentists urging them to review prescribing practices and consult prescription-tracking databases like New York's I-STOP.

"Because it's in our face, we are going to take care of this," Argoff said.

chughes@timesunion.com  518-454-5417 
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.
Their brother acquired a plasma torch for his welding business not knowing it would spark Dana Derber and Debra Derber Oien to start their own business as well.

Alan Derber is a welder/artist in Montana. When his sisters were visiting last summer, he enlisted the graphic design skills of Dana Derber to letter words for a metal fish-shaped sign produced with the plasma torch for a craft show. As she was sitting at his computer fulfilling his request, Dana Derber realized she could create her own designs from her computer in Sun Prairie and send the digital file to Alan Derber to cut out in metal with his plasma torch.

That realization, and all the wildlife they photographed on their visit to nearby Glacier National Park, was very inspiring for Dana Derber and Oien.

Our artistic juices were flowing, Oien recalled, I said, You know, this would be a good time to pool our talents and energy. At this time in our life, its now or never.

Derber Design, Inc., was created in October and they began selling metal artwork, mostly wildlife themed, at fine art shows. This summer, they began marketing online through Etsy; and will soon be adding more inventory.

A UW-Madison graduate with a bachelors degree in art, Dana Derber worked as a graphic and web designer in advertising and publishing for many years. Using her graphic design experience, she creates original artwork for Derber Design and offers custom work highlighting businesses or clubs. Alan Derber manufactures the metal artwork at his welding business in Montana.

Were planning a trip out west next month (mid-September) and well be bringing back more inventory, Dana Derber said.

Oien is a UW-Madison graduate, as well, with a degree in horticulture. She now works in home care. She lives in Beaver Dam and handles the marketing and sales for Derber Design. One aspect of her marketing is offering wholesale orders to museum and gift shops.

Dana Derber created a custom piece specifically for Horicon Marsh featuring a heron in a wetland. She and Oien have it, and other select Derber Design pieces, available for purchase at Flyway Gift Shop operated by the Friends of Horicon Marsh Education & Visitor Center, N7725 Highway 28, Horicon.

The sisters continue to be inspired when they hike and photograph parks, woods and marshes  something they love to do and attribute to their late father. He would really like this, Oien said about Derber Design. Its kind of neat because he instilled that love of nature in all of us and its resurfacing.
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Fill in the caption with a clever quip by Wednesday and win publication of your line with the cartoon in next Sundays newspaper. Youll also receive a signed print of the cartoon by artist Phil Hands.

Send your suggested caption or captions to YouToon@madison.com. Please write You Toon in the subject line of the email and include your full name, address and phone number for verification. You also can mail an entry to You Toon, P.O. Box 8058, Madison, WI 53708.

Editorial cartoonist Phil Hands reads every entry and picks a dozen or more submissions he thinks are best. Then a group of State Journal editors votes on a winner.
Catholic Key: Mass of the Holy Spirit kicks off new school year

In his homily, Bishop Johnston noted that the Holy Spirit makes all things new. Thus as teachers, administrators, students and their families prepare for a new school year, its fitting that we do so with a Mass of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is sent to make God present and active in us; and in a real sense to make things new again  to bring things back to life  to renew and change us.

As a bad Catholic, this'll be the closes TKC gets to Church today but it's worth noting if only because broke-ass Catholic schools have higher graduation rates, better test scores and far fewer in-school beat downs than KCPS without enjoying MILLIONS worth of funding . . . And only a few molestation-y incidents that don't come to light till years later.Here's a much more optimistic outlook on the start of another Catholic School year in Kansas City.Money (donation?) line . . .More in a bit . . .
Two German tourists refused to pay their taxi driver with the excuse that Greece owes Germany money.

After taking what may be considered a long taxi ride from Agia Pelagia Hotel in Crete to the Airport in Heraklion, two German tourists refused to pay their taxi driver with the excuse that Greece owes Germany money.

Of course, life doesnt really work that way and the German tourists were literally trying to get a free ride, which the taxi driver wasnt about to let happen.

The taxi driver made a request for assistance to ELAS and the airport police were notified. Under the threat of having a formal complaint filed against them, the German tourists asked the taxi driver for his bank account number, saying that they would wire the money to his account when they returned to Germany.

The taxi driver didnt have any of it and insisted that they pay up or face the consequences. Eventually, they did pay the taxi fare and boarded the plane to return to Germany.

According to the taxi driver this isnt the first time that tourists, particularly Germans, have tried to take a free ride.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Modul University Dubai, a subsidiary of Dubai Investments and Austrias leading international private university in the Middle East, recently organised a special information event for students and their families at its new campus in Dubai.



The campus is spread across 25,000 sq ft at One JLT, Jumeirah Lake Towers.



During the preview, students interacted with Modul University Dubais team of advisors about the curriculum and scholarships on offer, ahead of the official opening of the university in September 2016.



Modul University Dubai offers European undergraduate and MBA degrees in the areas of international management and tourism and hospitality.



The university is also hosting an open day on September 2 at its campus.



Dubai Investments is a leading investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market with over 19,800 shareholders and a paid-up capital of Dh4 billion.



Modul University was established in 2007 in Vienna, Austria, focusing on social and economic development, particularly in the areas of tourism, new media information technology - TradeArabia News Service
Oman plans to build two major independent water desalination plants to meet growing demand for potable water in the northern region, a report said.



Sites are being evaluated for a 60-million-gallons-per-day (mgpd)-capacity project planned in Muscat, added the Times of Oman report, highlighting that the project is likely to start operations by 2021.



Another 44-mgpd-capacity project in the Northern Batinah and Dhahirah regions is scheduled to commence operations in 2022, the report said, citing a seven-year outlook for power and water demand released by the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP).



Tenders for selecting multinational firms or consortiums for developing these desalination projects are expected from OPWP, the report added.
Iran has revealed plans to export gas to Europe, said a senior official recently in a report.



Irans main objective is to transfer the product in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily News report, citing Mehr News Agency.



The minister also touched on steps taken by the Oil Ministry to supply petrochemical complexes with feed asserting that the issue at stake is that producers need to pay taxes for selling feedstock to domestic petrochemical companies and downstream industries while sales to the global market is tax exempt.



He noted that companies producing feedstock are not eager to sell products to domestic customers due to tax requirements.



Zanganeh reiterated that producers will not be charged taxes on their profits from exports though for domestic activity, tax payment is required, which discourages them from working with Iranian complexes.
Wisconsin Republicans are still tormented by Donald Trump.

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson endorses him. But his successor, Scott McCallum, is still not ready. Fox Valley Congressman Reid Ribble says he will never vote for Trump.

Locally, former Madison School Board member and Thompson speechwriter Rick Berg is never Trump. Former Dane County Board member David Blaska was a Ted Cruz alternate delegate in Cleveland. Hes not done fighting.

Blaska this month wrote a letter to the Republican National Committee urging members to dump Trump as the partys nominee. Blaska writes: Under Rule 9(a), the Republican National Committee may fill vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise. Otherwise includes disqualification and removal. Please call a meeting to replace Donald Trump as the partys nominee prior to the printing of balloting for the general election to disqualify, remove, and otherwise replace him before all-but certain defeat in November.

Former Gov. Scott McCallum says: If Trump doesnt show some traction by Labor Day, he should remove his ego and step aside. McCallum is still not ready to endorse Trump because of Trumps failure to seriously address federal budget deficits and the national debt. He also worries about Trumps protectionist tone on trade, and dislikes Trumps negative remarks about NATO.

McCallum consults Baltic States while working for the Hamilton Advisory Group in Washington, D.C. And McCallum says he doesnt like the lack of respect Trump and Hillary Clinton show Supreme Court justices and decisions they dont like.

McCallum says he would like to see Trump do well. He gets encouraged when Trump shows glimpses of rationality. But for now, the former governor concludes: We have two deeply flawed candidates.

Milwaukee talk show host Charlie Sykes never misses a chance to make fun of Trump when gleefully serving as a guest on Clinton-friendly cable television network MSNBC. Madison and Milwaukee conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna says: I keep waiting for Trump to do better, but he never does. McKenna is clearly never going to vote for Clinton, and she still says Trump has time to win her over before November.

The most powerful voice among Wisconsin Republicans is Thompson. He says about Republicans here who are opposing or resisting Trump: I love them all, but its time for them to come home. You dont change horses in the middle of the race.

He goes further on the metaphor: You have to ride the horse running in the same direction. You have to take the long view. The next president may pick the next three to four Supreme Court justices who could serve 25 to 30 years. Who do you want choosing them, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

A seasoned campaigner who won more than he lost, Thompson says, Its too early to discount him. The debates will be very important. Ultimately, Thompson adds, It will come down to two choices, and Donald Trump is the much stronger candidate.

A Republican presidential candidate has not won Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale by 9 percentage points in 1984. Trump trails Clinton by 15 points in the recent Marquette poll. The New York businessman dug a hole in the Republican stronghold of southeast Wisconsin when he trashed Gov. Scott Walker in his GOP primary loss to Cruz, followed by his jabs at Paul Ryan, before finally endorsing the House speaker.

Lets be blunt: Even Michael Dukakis won Wisconsin in 1988 when the Republicans were unified behind George H. W. Bush. This year, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson may serve as an attractive escape hatch for never Trumpers and doubters who could never vote for Clinton.

If Trump doesnt show some traction by Labor Day, he should remove his ego and step aside. Scott McCallum,

former governor
The Audi Lunar quattro moon rover has recently been tested in the Qatari desert as part of the preparations for its mission to travel to the moon and win the Google Lunar XPrize competition in 2017.



A team of German engineers from Part-Time Scientists leading the challenge are supported by Audi with expert knowledge in innovation and technology  from quattro all-wheel drive and lightweight construction to electric mobility and piloted driving, said a statement from the company.



The Part-Time Scientists team chose Qatar as the terrain in the surrounding desert has a common resemblance to the environment on the moon, it said.



This is the first time that the moon rover has had its capabilities practically tested in extreme hot climate conditions after conducting strict lab-based tests in its development phase, it added.



To win the competition, a team  which must be at least 90 per cent privately financed  needs to transport an automated vehicle to the moon. Competition rules state that this rover must drive at least one-half kilometre distance on the moon and transmit high-resolution images and video footage back to Earth.



Additionally, the lunar vehicle with the Audi lunar quattro must launch into space by the end of 2017 aboard a launching rocket that will travel over 380,000 kilometres to the moon. The trip takes five days and  according to estimates by the Part-Time Scientists  it will cost around 24 million ($27.18 million).



The target landing zone is north of the moons equator, close to the 1972 landing site of Nasas last manned mission to the moon, Apollo 17. In this region, temperatures fluctuate an enormous 300 degrees celsius; when the sun is shining, it gets up to 120 degrees celsius due to the lack of an atmosphere.



The Part-Time Scientists  whose headquarters is in Berlin and whom Audi is assisting  are the only German participants. So far, their rover prototype has already won two prizes known as Milestone Prizes in the competition. These prizes, which carry a monetary value of $750,000, were awarded by the competition jury for development of the rover and its optical systems. The Berlin-based researchers are continually refining their lunar vehicle, and extensive tests have been conducted in such places as the Austrian Alps and Tenerife.



Many of the rovers components are made of high-strength aluminium, and it weighs 35 kg. In continued development of the vehicle into the Audi lunar quattro, its weight will be further reduced by the use of magnesium and design modifications, even though the vehicle might grow somewhat in size. A swivelling solar panel captures sunlight, and the electricity it generates is fed to a lithium-ion battery that powers the four wheel hub motors. All four of the wheels can be rotated 360 degrees.



The theoretical maximum speed is 3.6 km/h  but more important on the rugged surface of the moon are the vehicles off-road qualities and safe navigating abilities. Two stereo cameras that acquire detailed 3D images are mounted to a moving head at the front of the vehicle. A third camera is used to study materials, and it generates extremely high-resolution panoramic images.



The Audi working group that is assisting the Part-Time Scientists currently consists of 10 employees from different technical departments. In addition to their lightweight design competence, they have much more know-how to offer, especially their expertise about the quattro permanent all-wheel drive system and the electrical e-tron drive system. The goal here is to further enhance performance by making additional improvements to the electric motors, power electronics and battery.



The brand with the four rings is also providing wide-ranging assistance in testing, trials and quality assurance. Using their high-tech tools and methods, specialists from Quality Assurance will study the parts of the future Audi lunar quattro for wear. The motors and electronic components must withstand stress tests in climate chambers. In parallel, Audi Concept Design Munich continues to refine the form of the rover.



The Google Lunar XPrize started with 34 teams, and 16 groups remain today. The Part-Time Scientists team was founded in late 2008 by Robert Bohme, who works as an IT consultant in Berlin. The majority of its team members, who currently number over 70, come from Germany and Austria.



Experts from three continents support the team, including former leading Nasa employee Jack Crenshaw from Florida. Assisting the group, in addition to Audi, are numerous research institutes and high-tech companies such as NVIDIA, the Technical University of Berlin, the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), it added.  TradeArabia News Service
Batelco, Bahrain's leading digital solutions provider, has signed a partnership agreement with Microsoft to improve and elevate productivity for small and medium entreprises through the launch of key solutions.



As part of the partnership, Batelco has launched Microsoft Office 365 to its portfolio of cloud services.

Microsoft Office 365 is a web-based version of Microsofts Office suite of enterprise-grade productivity applications and comprises the most popular and in-demand office services.



Two packages, Office 365 Consumer and Office 365 Business, have been designed to suit the needs of small busineses and individuals. Microsoft Office 365 package includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. Also, optional add-ons include installation and training and one year support for back up services.



Batelco cloud and ICT product marketing senior manager Hussain Mohammed and Microsoft Bahrain and Oman General Manager Sherif Tawfiq signed the agreement at Batelcos Headquarters on August 8 in the presence of officials from both organisations.



Batelco Bahrain CEO Engineer Muna Al Hashemi said that Batelco was very pleased to strengthen its relationship with Microsoft through the signing of the partnership agreement.



Batelco aims to lead the local market by providing the most reliable and stable services for entrepreneurs and small operations, and by working closely with other market leading organisations such as Microsoft, we can meet our aims.



As the innovation driver in Bahrain, Batelco offers a series of cloud-based services to empower businesses to digitise their processes and improve their operational efficiencies. Batelcos cloud solutions serve businesses of all sizes across all industries, added Al Hashemi.



Tawfik said Microsoft understands that small businesses need the same level of expertise and first class services as larger organisations in order to be competitive and grow.



Office 365 levels the playing field for small businesses in particular because it makes enterprise-grade tools affordable and easy to set up and manage. We are pleased to work with Batelco to provide Bahrains entrepreneurs with communication and collaboration tools which have been designed to enhance productivity, promote collaboration and reduce operational costs.



Batelcos Cloud Services, which reflect the Companys innovative style, continue to grow in popularity due to their cost effectiveness, accessibility and reliability. The Microsoft Office 365 packages are available for existing and new customers and details can be found on www.batelco.com or by calling 196, Batelco said. - TradeArabia News Service




A suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 carried out the attack on a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday that killed at least 51 people, the president said.



The attack was the deadliest in a series of bombings in Turkey this year, and President Tayyip Erdogan said Islamic State was likely behind it.



"Initial evidence suggests it was a Daesh attack," Erdogan said in Istanbul on Sunday, using an Arabic name for the hardline Sunni Islamist group. He said 69 people were in hospital and 17 were "heavily injured".



A destroyed suicide vest was found at the blast site, officials said.



Islamic State has been blamed for other similar attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions. The deadliest was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists in Ankara.



Saturday's attack comes with Turkey still in shock just a month after Erdogan and the government survived an attempted coup by rogue military officers, which Ankara blames on U.S.-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen has denied the charge.



The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the wedding party was for one of its members. The groom was among those injured, but the bride was not hurt.



The bomb went off as guests spilled out into the streets of the city close to the Syrian border after the traditional henna night party, when guests have their hands and feet painted.



Women and children, including a three-month-old baby, were among the dead, witnesses said.



Blood and burn marks stained the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit. Women in white and checkered scarves wept outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives.



"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."



"We want to end these massacres," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We are in pain, especially the women and children."



FUNERALS, FORENSIC TESTS



Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, with coffins draped in the green of Islam. But some ceremonies would have to wait because many victims were blown to pieces and DNA tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.



"Every type of death is painful. But it is even more painful when it comes with religious slogans. It is even more painful when they mix religion with politics," said Omer Emlik, who said he was an uncle of two of the victims.



"All the people here are suffering."



The United States condemned the attack and said Vice President Joe Biden would discuss the fight against terrorism during a visit to Ankara this coming week.



"The perpetrators of this barbaric act cynically and cowardly targeted a wedding, killing dozens and leaving scores wounded," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, in a statement.



Anti-government protests erupted at at least one funeral, where threw plastic bottles and chanted "Murderer Erdogan!"



Some in Turkey feel the government has not done enough to protect its citizens from Islamic State.



NATO member Turkey is a partner in the Western coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, allowing U.S. jets to fly missions against the group from its air bases. It has also supported some rebel groups in Syria.



Syrian rebels backed by Turkey were preparing to launch an operation to capture a town held by Islamic State near the Turkish border, a senior Syrian rebel said on Sunday.



Islamic State is also fighting U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish rebels, who have taken ground from the hardline group. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters a terrorist group and worries their advance against Islamic State will encourage Kurdish militants in Turkey.



ETHNIC FAULTLINES



"ISIS has been trying to agitate or exploit already tense ethnic and sectarian faultlines to retaliate for the advancement of Syrian Kurds in the north of Syria and by Turkey's attack on ISIS targets in Syria," said Metin Gurcan, an independent security analyst and retired Turkish military officer who writes a column for Al-Monitor.



"For ISIS it is hitting two birds with one stone."



Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June.



Violence also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on PKK Kurdish militants.



Turkey began air strikes against Islamic State in July 2015. A peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targeting PKK targets in northern Iraq.



Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shells fired from Islamic State territory, sometimes killing civilians.



On Sunday, Erdogan and ruling AK Party lawmakers emphasised they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organisations.  Reuters
Hollywood actor and comedian Marlon Wayans experienced Emirati culture and hospitality at Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi on Al Maryah Island. His visit to Abu Dhabi for his standup comedy show was part of Abu Dhabi Summer Season, organised by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority.

Wayans explored some of the other popular spots such as The Galleria and Rosewood Abu Dhabi. Moreover, a social media contest on @almaryahisland Instagram saw two lucky winners meet the comedy king right before his performance.
Saudi Arabia demonstrated its ability to move oil markets last week with Brent crossing $50 following comments by Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih that the kingdom was "ready to take action", said a leading analyst.



Following the Brexit vote on June 23, oil dropped more than 20 per cent, thereby moving into a technical bear market. Within the past few weeks, however, a 22 per cent rally has taken it straight back into bullish territory, said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, in a commentary.



The weakness seen during July was driven by concerns that high inventories of oil and products would further delay the rebalancing process, not least considering that we were heading towards the time of year when refinery activity normally begins to slow thereby adding additional pressure on oil storage facilities, he said.



This combined with a rising number of US oil rigs and rising production from several major Opec producers helped to support a major accumulation of short positions by hedge funds. Oil production in Iran and Saudi Arabia has also risen by 1 million barrels/day since January, reports Bloomberg.



The verbal intervention in the oil market which initially came from weaker Opec members got a strong boost when Saudi Arabia's energy minister joined in. While weaker members desperately need higher prices, Saudi Arabia's agenda was more likely to try and stabilise the market after having oil reverted to a bear market in the weeks following the Brexit vote, Hansen said.



What the Saudis actually succeeded in doing was to influence market sentiment and thereby force a reduction of what was a rapidly expanding speculative short position in the futures market. This reduction  and not the potential impact of a freeze deal  is what has triggered this recent, phenomenal rally, he said.



August and especially September tend to be challenging months for the oil market with supply rising as refinery demand slows. By preempting these developments, then, a better sentiment has been engineered.



The fear of freeze action will potentially be enough to dissuade traders from going aggressively short into September, a month that has been host to oil price declines for the past five years, said Hansen.



Having seen the price of oil return to $50 per barrel, Opec is now (if it is maintained) unlikely to do anything at the late-September meeting in Algiers. Once again, we have seen Saudi Arabia's ability to move markets supported by an impeccable timing.



It was undoubtedly Oil Minister Al-Falih's "ready to take action" comment that did the trick in helping squeeze the shorts out of the market, he said.



"We see the upside as being limited from here and expect Brent crude will find resistance in the $50 to $52 per barrel area before correcting lower back into our preferred Q3 range between $45 and $50/b," he added. - TradeArabia News Service
As the Eid Al Adha holiday slowly draws near, many families will be looking forward to planning a short holiday.



Whether travellers are looking for a solo retreat, fancy holiday for two or a family-friendly getaway, global airline and tourism representative Aviareps has listed numerous holiday deals to choose from.



Quick Getaway Deals



If time is short, but travellers still want to get away, theres still a place to relax and reconnect with the world. Slovenia is readily accessible, offering some great outdoor activities and wellness retreats without taking up too much of your precious time getting there.



Spend four nights reconnecting with nature, family and yourself and indulge in a health and wellness tour including thermal spa, body detox and organic farm stay as part of Slovenia Tourist Boards I Feel SLOVEnia Travel package for Middle East travellers. The package includes return economy flights with FlyDubai, two nights in select hotel in Ljubljana, one night family-friendly fam stay including organic farm activities, one night thermal spa resort stay, complimentary Ljubljana city tour, complimentary airport and hotel transfers. Prices start from Dh3,300 per person ($898.4). Call (04) 375-3578 or email [email protected]



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With summer almost coming to an end and school time just around the corner, Eid Al Adha is the last chance to treat kids and the whole family to a well-deserved holiday vacation. OC California and Philippines are all host to a fun-filled, family-centered packages that the whole family will absolutely enjoy.



OC California Dreaming



Stay seven nights in the heart of Southern California exploring world renowned family attractions such as the original Disneyland, Universal Studios, LEGOLAND, Knotts Berry Farm, Disneys California Adventure plus an array of amazing shopping at worlds best shopping destinations such as South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum as part of OC&ME Travel Package. Book OC&ME Travel Package that includes return economy flights with Etihad or Emirates plus seven nights in select four or five star properties and receive an exclusive OC&ME Privilege Card which includes complimentary VIP shopping and leisure discounts such as: complimentary VIP personal shopper experiences, gifts with purchase and discount vouchers at OCS premier retail destinations such as South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum, the OC&ME card will now also offer an extended offering of value at South Coast Plaza which has increased its discounts to 20 per cent and expanded the number of retail partners, within South Coast Plaza, where the card is accepted. Prices start from Dh11,000 ($2,994.7) per person. Call (04) 375-3298 or email [email protected]



Its More Family-Fun in the Philippines



Seven days in the island paradise of the Philippines is more than enough to create and treasure new family memories that will last a lifetime. Explore the best of both worlds with the countrys top rated islands of Boracay, Cebu, Palawan and Bohol plus the trendy and cosmopolitan city of Metro Manila, for all families to enjoy. Book Philippines Kids Stay Free Travel Package which includes four star accommodation, airport transfer, city tour and access to select amusement parks. The package is aimed for families with two children under the age of 11 and offer them an array of activities, food, accommodation and other experiences all on a complimentary basis. Additionally, the packages allow families to twin both the Philippines capital Manila with another exotic Philippine destination such as Cebu, Palawan, Boracay, Bohol, Davao or Bicol, allowing for both an urban and idyllic getaway experience. Prices start from Dh4,000 ($1,089) per person. Call (04) 375-3295 or email [email protected]



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For those who've got a bit of cash to spare, why not go all out? Soak up the culture and history in Japan or grab friends and family and indulge with sushi, ramen, pokemon, manga and samurai or get fancy and treat yourself for an ultimate spa retreat in Hua Hin, Thailand.



Turning Japanese: KYOTO & TOKYO plus HOKKAIDO in 10 days



Spend 10 days in Japans old and new capital exploring key attractions, including Disneyland Tokyo, Universal Studio Japan, a stay in a traditional Ryokan-style accommodation plus an extended trip to Japans northern gem, Hokkaido. The package includes return business class flight with Cathay Pacific, domestic flight from Hokkaido to Tokyo, Bullet Train from Tokyo to Kyoto, Two nights in Art Hotels Sapporo, one night in Rusutsu Resort, three nights in Shinjuku Prince Hotel and three nights in Hotel Granvia or similar, Private Tours in Hokkaido, Tokyo and Kyoto, one day Pass at Tokyo Disneyland, one day pass at Universal Studio Japan, complimentary airport transfer with English speaking drivers and complimentary fruit picking tour in Hokkaido including strawberry, cherry, etc. Packages start from Dh25,500 ($6,942.3)per person. Call +971 (4) 375-3297 or send an email to Kyoto Convention and Visitors Bureau Dubai Office at [email protected] (Takao Yamamoto). Promo valid until December 31, 2016.



Amazing Thailand Luxury Retreat



Indulge in a five-night luxury spa journey to Thailand to enhance your aesthetic virtue and confidence with specialised treatments. The package includes five star accommodation, Health and Wellness activities such as: Physical & Skin Analysis, Scalp Massage, Spa Dinner, Thai Massage, Health & Wellness Consultation, Fitness & Leisure Activities, Body Polish, VIP airport assistance and land transfer. Airline fee is excluded. Packages start from Dh18,065 ($5,065.2) per person. Call +971 529952758 for more details. - TradeArabia News Service
Most yard signs for political candidates do little more than tout a candidates name and the office he or she is seeking.

Jimmy Andersons lawn sign does so much more. It reads, simply, I sit with Jimmy.

The 29-year-old Fitchburg man rides in a wheelchair because a drunken driver six years ago slammed into his familys vehicle, killing his parents and younger brother while leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.

Anderson, a UW-Madison Law School graduate, just won a hard-fought Democratic primary for the open 47th District seat in the state Assembly. Because no Republican is challenging him in the general election, hes expect to become the next representative for Monona, McFarland, Madisons Southeast Side and parts of Fitchburg and nearby towns. His only remaining opponent in the heavily Democratic district is independent Adam Dahl.

I dont want to be the disabled legislator, Anderson said last week. I want to be a legislator who happens to be disabled.

Similarly, he doesnt want to be the anti-drunken driving lawmaker. He wants to be the lawmaker with good ideas for combating Wisconsins drunken driving scourge.

That includes making a first offense for operating while intoxicated a misdemeanor crime. Wisconsin is the only state that treats first-time drunken driving as a mere traffic ticket.

Its more of a cultural change, he said. If people see it only as a ticket, people think, Oh, I can get one and thats OK.

That needs to change.

Yet Anderson isnt anti-alcohol. The nonprofit he founded after his crash, Drive Clear, works with tavern owners to get free breath testers into the hands of patrons who need them. With accurate information about their blood alcohol levels, those bar patrons are more likely to avoid getting behind the wheel when they shouldnt.

They not only give you a readout, Anderson said of the devices that plug into smartphones. They tell you when youre going to be safe to drive again.

Andersons nonprofit helps victims of drunken-driving crashes, too, by providing financial assistance during recovery.

Anderson lists education, the environment, health care and tax policy as his top priorities if elected in November. Yet Anderson understands his perspective as a victim of drunken driving gives him more standing (from the seat of his wheelchair) to persuade others to act. When he sees an opportunity for progress on legislation, he said, hell take it.

Anderson stressed the need for treatment and monitoring of repeat offenders. He sounded open to allowing police checkpoints, in which all drivers are stopped to assess their conditions, usually late at night. He is concerned, however, that taking a car away from a drunken driver could cost that person his or her job.

Anderson brings an open mind and optimism to the cause of reducing drunken driving in smart ways.

The Legislature definitely needs more of that.
I am Kerry Burgess. This is what I think.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 21

Yet another attempt of drug smuggling was thwarted today by personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF), who seized two packets, weighing 4 kg, of contraband suspected to be heroin. The area from which the drug was seized falls under the Uddhar Dhariwal border outpost, Ex-88 Bn BSF, Amritsar sector.

According to Deputy Commandant, BSF (Punjab Frontier), NP Negi, the instance occurred on the intervening night of August 20-21 at 0010 hours. A BSF sentry on duty at border outpost of Uddhar Dhariwal heard a sound of something being thrown over the security fence.

He immediately alerted nearby sentries and HIT parties. During search of the area, BSF troops recovered two packets, (approx 4 kg) of contraband suspected to be heroin, lying near own side of the border security fence. Smugglers vanished taking advantage of the dark, he said.

Keeping in view vulnerability of the border due to heightened activities of smugglers/anti-national elements, Inspector General, BSF, Punjab Frontier, has issued operational guidelines to all sectors and battalions. The idea is to further strengthen the border domination and to remain extra alert so as to effectively check activities of anti-national elements on the Punjab border with Pakistan.

The enhanced vigil of BSF troops has once again thwarted the attempt of smugglers to smuggle contraband items into India. Tactical operations are being mounted to foil their bids.

This year, BSF has recovered 161.26 kg heroin (including todays seizure). Besides, the BSF seized 10 weapons, 15 magazines, 211 rounds of ammunition, 14 Pak mobiles, 26 Pak SIM cards, 11 Indian mobiles and six SIM cards, respectively.

Six Pakistani intruders and smugglers each, were intercepted by the force. As many as 25 Pakistanis, who crossed border, were apprehended. BSF stopped two Indian smugglers, besides apprehending nine others. As many as 49 Indians, who crossed the border, were also arrested by the BSF.
Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 20

Residents of Partap Nagar today staged a protest against the local administration and the Municipal Corporation over the installation of a mobile phone tower in the area.

The mobile company concerned last night started installing the tower on a vacant plot in the area. However, residents noticed workers installing the tower in their area this morning. All residents living in the area started a protest against the same. The protesting residents also lodged a complaint against the mobile company with the local police.

Rajinder Sharma, Bobby, Krishan, Khem Singh, Manish Sharma, Titu, Chandermohan, Sukhmander Singh, Mohinder Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur, Angrej Kaur and Leela Devi, all resident of the area, said the installation of mobile towers in residential areas was hazardous to the health of residents, especially children, as these towers emit and receive harmful waves. Hence, they would not allow the installation of the same in their area. They said it had been scientifically proven that such radiations might also cause fatal diseases such as cancer.

They added that when the workers started the installation work in the area, they asked the owner of the plot about the nature of the work.

However, he told them that he had started some renovation work of his old house.
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 21

The Democratic Rights Front Punjab today organised a convention in the city.

The Front also took out a march in the city demanding the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Acts (AFSPA) and other draconian laws in Kashmir. Members of the Front are also demanded to stop violence against the locals. The Front also presented its report on the Kashmir violence.

Speaking on Kashmir issue, its sovereignty and democratic rights in the convention, Dr Parminder Singh and Dr Narbhinder Singh from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, key orators, said Kashmir was acceded to India under special circumstances after the Indian government promised referendum .

Addressing the convention, Dr Parminder said Kashmir was facing the most non-democratic and inhumane conditions. The right to live was being taken away from the people of Kashmir.

After the convention, a silent march was carried out in which a large number of people, including women, participated.

The convention was dedicated to Satya Goel who was a member of the Democratic Front and had recently passed away in Bathinda after prolonged illness.

The Front also passed resolutions demanding the rights of the Kashmiris people should be reinstated and removal of media restrictions.

It criticized the promotion of hatred among religious minorities, including the Dalits and Adivasis, and the promotion of communal fascist environment.

The Front also criticized the decision of the police in which the police had registered a case of sedition against Amnesty International.

The gathering in the convention also paid their tributes to famous writer Gurdial Singh and Mahasweta Devi.

BKU Ugarahan, BKU Dakaunda, BKU Krantikari, Punjab Agricultural Workers Union, Agricultural Workers Union, Punjab Students Union (Shaheed Randhawa), Young India, SBS Students Union Central University, TSU Revolutionary Democratic Front, and other organisations participated in the convention.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised the Tiranga yatra, led by city party president Sanjay Tandon. The yatra started from the party headquarter in Sector 33, Chandigarh, and passed through Sectors 20, 30, 29, 28, 27, 19, 18, 17, 22, 16, 15, 14, 24, 25, 37, 36, 35 and 34 before culminating at Sector 33.

The conveners for the yatra were Ramvir Bhatti, Mayor Arun Sood, party general secretary Chander Shekhar, district BJP president Ravikant Sharma, Shakti Prakash Devshali, Devi Singh, Brajeshwar Jaswal and Hukam Chand.

A large number of party activists, riding on scooters, bikes, cars and tractors with the National Flags in their hands, participated in the yatra. They raised slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram. Addressing party activists, Sanjay Tandon thanked them for their participation and said such type of yatras were being held throughout country to mark Independence Day.

The yatra was also organised in all city wards. The BJP Yuva Morcha also held a mashal yatra. The women wing of the party celebrated Raksha Bandhan with defence personnel and ex-army men. The movie, Sardar-The Iron Man of India, was screened for party activists at Kamlam, the party headquarter.

He said PMNarendra Modi had appealed to all party activists to celebrate Independence Day to remember unknown martyrs. Their sacrifice for the nation should be highlighted, he added.
Air Marshal Brijesh D Dayal (retd)

AS part of the last Cabinet reshuffle, the erstwhile minister of state for defence was shifted to another ministry. At the time, media reports had suggested that the reason was his involvement in a major row during a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by the Raksha Mantri. He had reportedly blamed members of the Army and the defence acquisition wing for an unfair carbine selection leading to a single vendor, which was an Israeli company, and battled for the inclusion of a second vendor, even suggesting a CBI probe into the matter.

A recent report now mentions that this company is so frustrated with the delay in decision-making in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that it is rethinking its investments in India. If, as reported, 70 per cent of the FDI in defence in the last two years has come from this companys joint venture alone, it makes for very poor copy for the Make in India campaign.

In financial terms this procurement proposal must be modest. That even this has resulted in a piquant situation points to a deeper malaise afflicting defence procurement, due to which defence modernisation and indigenisation continue to face an indifferent future.

The traditional tug-of-war in the endless file driven decision-making process has normally been between the user service and the civilian bureaucracy with the Minister normally being the proverbial rubber stamp. Indeed, one grouse that services often have is of Ministers letting the bureaucracy have complete sway, even as procurement proposals linger for years, if not decades, whilst operational capabilities wither.

While this episode does raise the interesting question of whether a change is creeping in where the smug bureaucratic order is being challenged within the South Block, one thing is certain; the Armys wait for the carbine is destined to get longer, no matter what the cost in human life. They must continue to do with what they have, the pregnant expression used by the then Army Chief when the nation was faced with the prospect of wider conflict during the Kargil episode. Clearly, the one disposable commodity in our completely broken down defence procurement and modernisation process, is life of those in uniform, for whom there appears little parliamentary, ministerial or bureaucratic empathy.

If this sounds harsh, one needs to look back at the IAFs requirement for an advanced jet trainer whose need was first spelt out in 1982. The first aircraft arrived after 25 years while its non-availability continued to take a heavy toll in terms of training-related accidents. Bharat Rakshak website data indicates 543 IAF aircraft losses during this 25-year period, of which a significant number were fighter aircraft and most attritions were indirectly attributable to this wilful procrastination.

The chequered history of defence procurements dates back to 1948 and the Jeep scandal, but it was the Bofors scandal in 1987 and the ensuing political controversy that resulted in procrastination becoming the process mantra. The services termed this the Bofors Syndrome, a mindset where few in the decision-making chain would venture to take decisions on merit for fear of falling prey to shenanigans of others in the complex procurement system.

This syndromes unique feature is that it works smoothly where government-to-government contracts are concerned, but goes into deep freeze when faced with an open tender purchase. This would explain the dichotomy of over $10 billion defence purchases from the US and much more from erstwhile USSR and Russia, but decades of procrastination for the MMRCA or the howitzer, or now even carbines!

There is an added fallout. Massive investments have been made in defence PSUs and ordnance factories, yet India is among the worlds leading importers of arms! One effort to address this imbalance was a proposal to select and co-opt some private enterprises and designate them as Raksha Utpadan Ratnas. The proposal remains stillborn precisely because the decision-making eco-system avoids the prospect of choosing amongst private parties.

As part of the post-Kargil review, the DAC was set up to expedite the procurement process. In 2002, the syndrome-afflicted ecosystem invented a new tool called the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). Over the years, so much anticipation and hype accompanies each DPP revision that every new edition appears to be an end in itself rather than a means to an end.

DPP 2016 was the ninth such version and the first under the NDA government committed to the Make in India mission. There was an air of optimistic anticipation, especially with regard to private sector involvement, more so as a committee had proposed a strategic partner model, wherein selected Indian private enterprises would exclusively make designated military platforms. Not surprisingly, the proposal is proving to be contentious and the subject of study by successive committees. But the crucial chapter on strategic partners was missing from DPP 2016, to be issued later. Clearly, the Bofors Syndrome is at play again.

The underlying spirit of successive DPPs no longer appears to be for delivering and sustaining effective and affordable war-fighting capabilities to the users within a specified time frame. Instead, arriving at a perfect and foolproof system on paper takes precedence over achieving the outcome.

Defence acquisition is a mission for committed professionals and not administrative generalists and uniformed specialists working on rotating assignments, burdened with other chores and pressures. Elsewhere, it is considered a full time profession where people train, specialise and work full time. The US even has a Defence Acquisition University committed to creating acquisition professionals.

If the outgoing MoSs outburst and ministerial over-reach results in a grudging acceptance that we need to rethink our defence acquisition system and processes, with accountability of outcomes suitably factored, he may have provided yeoman service to the armed forces. If on the other hand, we continue to treat defence acquisition as a routine administrative chore, our Commanders will continue to face future threats with what they have. The nation should be prepared to bear the consequences.
Anupma Mehta

Anupma Mehta

A cherubic young girl carrying a heavy schoolbag on her drooping shoulders, cheerfully negotiating the mountainous terrain, with the hope of a bright future writ large on her face  this is the most endearing image of the schoolgoing girl child in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh. Through what is often described as an ongoing schooling revolution, the state has literally taken girls education on a higher plane as it were.This is ratified by data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the first large panel survey in India, conducted jointly by the National Council of Applied Economic Research and University of Maryland for the same households at two points in time, viz. 2004-05 and 2011-12.

According to the IHDS-II data, the enrolment figure for girls aged 5-15 years in Himachal Pradesh was as high as 98.01 per cent in 2011-12, going up from 92.02 per cent in 2004-05. Simultaneously, the drop-out rate declined from 7.98 per cent in 2004-05 to only 1.99 per cent in 2011-12, indicating that most girls enrolled in primary school were continuing their education (Table 1).

Both the Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE Revisited: A Report on Elementary Education in India, 2011) and the Census 2011 figures also show that Himachal Pradesh has fared much better in the field of primary education than some of its more prosperous neighbours. The PROBE surveys, conducted in 1996 and 2006, respectively, studied 48 villages in seven districts in Himachal Pradesh and interviewed 154 households. It was found that of the 285 children aged 6-12 years in the sample households, only five had never been to school and the proportion of girls attending school was as high as 95 per cent, which is very close to the IHDS figure. The Census of 2011 also calls the schooling revolution in Himachal Pradesh even more impressive than that of Kerala, which has traditionally led the nation in literacy rates.

Reasons for the success

The state's success in augmenting education levels for girls can be attributed to various factors, most importantly its cultural background. The lower social stratification in the state facilitates a smoother implementation of social programmes than in other states. The state government's campaign to promote schooling as an essential part of every child's upbringing has made literacy an accepted norm. Himachal Pradesh is the only state in the country to spend Rs 1.03 per capita on education, which is almost twice the national average.

Interestingly, the educational expansion in the state has been achieved largely by government schools. The IHDS-II records that 80.78 per cent of the girls aged 5-15 years were enrolled in government schools in 2011.The state places persistent emphasis on investing in rural infrastructure, especially roads and government-run village schools, even in remote tribal districts like Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti,thus reducing inter-regional and gender-based disparities in educational levels.

Another factor that has pushed up primary level female literacy figures is parental interest, combined with high levels of adult education in the state. The IHDS panel data (Table 1) shows a significant rise in both enrolment figures for girls aged 5-15 years and adult education levels in their households from 2004-05 to 2011-12. The IHDS-II found that in these households, only 7.15 per cent of the adult members were illiterate while the remaining 92.85 per cent had acquired various levels of education, in sharp contrast to the all-India illiteracy figure of 24.33 per cent in 2011-12. The PROBE survey also shows that 90 per cent of the parents in the state, as opposed to 80 per cent in other PROBE states, support compulsory primary education, and 100 per cent said that they wanted their children to pursue higher education.

The IHDS and PROBE data are corroborated by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), based on an annual survey being conducted by Pratham since 2005, to evaluate the impact of educational programmes in the country. The ASER, 2014, figures show that primary school children in Himachal Pradesh exhibit significantly high degrees of learning as compared to their counterparts at the all-India level (Table 2).

A refreshing finding of most surveys is the virtual lack of any gender bias among parents in the state. As many as 67 per cent of them, as compared to merely 40 per cent in the other PROBE states, stressed the need to educate their daughters so that they can benefit from improved employment and income opportunities.

Thus, Himachal Pradesh has done a lot of things right where educating the laadli is concerned. If the high primary level literacy figures in the state are maintained, the cherubic Himachali girl, with her overloaded schoolbag, could soon become a role model for laadlis in other states, egging them on to pick up books and march towards a future filled with limitless hope and aspirations.

The writer is Consultant Editor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research. The views expressed are personal.
Junior minister Kiren Rijiju broke from the usual BJP mould of sweeping categorisations and provided a nuanced explanation for entry by the Chinese forces into Indian territory. These were instances of transgression and not of incursion, he explained. Last month, New Delhi rapped Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on the knuckles when he described the camping of Chinese soldiers as an incursion. Rawat soon recanted, describing the incident as a transgression. But before the Modi government was swept into office, its parliamentarians were routinely railing against the government of the day for the Chinese forces entry into India. Most of the time, the word they used was incursion. Pray, what has changed to warrant this sophistry?

On its part, China too is putting its best foot forward. It dispatched its envoy on South China Sea for a discussion with South Block mandarins while its media have suggested that the door is still open for Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. This is also totally out of place with Chinese behaviour, especially after India laid the blame for the failure of the Modi-led diplomatic exertions to enter the NSG on Beijings door. Both countries are putting their best foot forward because they will host two high-level summits.

India needs an acquiescing China at the BRICS summit at Goa to take forward talks regarding the BRICS Bank. India needs huge dollops of investment to build its infrastructure and has decided on a high debt model to achieve the aim. China must keep India in good humour at the G-20 summit at Hangzhou, where they must put up a united front in insisting that the West honours its promise of putting up $100 billion to combat climate change and make the Bretton Woods more democratic. The truce will be temporary because their strategic interests put them on a collision course, be it the South China dispute, the China-Pakistan economic corridor or the border separating them. With new combinations shaping up in the Middle-East and South East Asia, both countries need nimble diplomatic footwork to seize the chances without stepping on the others toes.
Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

The euphoria around the womens police stations, opened in every district of Haryana on August 28 last year, has not lasted a year. Worst, these have been reduced to ordinary police stations. And two problems are glaring  heavy workload and staff crunch.

The problem of staff crunch can be gauged from shelving of a plan to open police stations in sub-divisions. For now, the government has opened a helpdesk in a sub-division in every district.

Subsequently, the helpdesks will be converted into womens police stations. The government is in the process of recruiting policewomen. About 1,000 women constables have been recruited, while 1,000 more constables and 100 women Sub-Inspectors will be inducted. The target is to increase the strength of women in the force to 33 per cent. At present, women make up 6 per cent of the force. The strength will soon be increased to 10 per cent, Khattar said.

He added the government would focus on strengthening existing police stations before opening new ones.

Staff crunch, primarily of investigating officers, has taken a toll on the functioning of police stations. Complainants claim they frequently visit the police stations to pursue their complaints.

At most police stations, policemen have been deployed to address staff shortage. But the task of lending a patient ear to a complainant has been left to women.

Staff crunch notwithstanding, the police stations disposed of 94.3 of complaints between September 1 last year and June 30 this year.

Initially, the police stations had taken off well. The staff was flooded with complaints, resulting in long working hours. A year on, working hours have slashed because of drop in the number of complaints.

Most police stations receive 10 to 15 complaints a day, a woman cop in Mewat says. Personnel in other districts echo the sentiment.

The womens helpline number 1091, however, continues to ring all day, keeping policewomen on their toes. According to the police, 45,175 calls were received between September 1 last year and June 30 this year. That makes nearly six complaints a day.

The Police Department has suggested hiring retired DSPs and Inspectors on contract to deal with the shortage of investigation officers, besides recommending additional vehicles and budget for police stations.

VIEW FROM GROUND ZERO

We are being typecast

Faridabad: Initially, enthused policewomen worked round the clock in view of the continuous flow of complainants. One year and their enthusiasm seems to be wilting under the monotonous work pressure that, they feel, restricts their career growth.

We are being stereo-typed into dealing with particular kinds of cases such as rapes, molestation, domestic violence and other crimes against women. Most of us feel, the womens police stations are severely hampering our growth since we do not know how to deal with other kind of cases, a constable in Faridabad says.

She and her colleague say if they are shifted to a regular police station, they will not know how to deal with other cases. After all, we are not forever condemned to these police stations. Someday, one of us will go as an SHO to a regular police station, but wont know anything. We are feeling restricted, another policewoman says.

Training for what?

Jind: Women cops are critical of frequent training programmes. An expert lectures us during training programmes. Theoretical classes are of no use till these are followed by hands-on experience, a policewoman says, adding a separate desk at regular police stations would have served the cause of women better.

Protection officers only in name

Gurgaon: The government deployed Protection Officers of the Social Welfare Department at womens police stations. The idea, however, doesnt seem to have caught on.

At 12.30 pm, in the womens police station here, a woman is sleeping in a room with a plate outside reading Protection Officer. On being called out, she reluctantly wakes up and steps down from her diwan.

On being asked where the Protection Officer is, she says: I am the Protection Officer. Tell me. I had my lunch and dozed off since there were no complainants and I wasnt needed. Everybody sleeps after lunch. What crime did I commit if I slept?

Policewomen claim Protection Officers in Faridabad and Mewat report to work regularly and offer counselling services, but their absence after office has opened cant be explained.

Lend an ear to complainant

Mewat: Newly married Pooja from Tauru has been a frequent visitor to the Mewat womens police station. She alleges the personnel have been dragging their feet on her complaint against her in-laws for nearly three months. I was married in Rewari. Soon after the marriage, they sent me to my parents and refused to take me back. I approached the police, but they seem to be dragging their feet on my complaint. We have to spend so much time in travelling only to pursue the case, she says.

A member of the BJPs nigrani samiti in the district, Ram Swarup Prajapat, says womens police stations are of no use. While accompanying a victim of molestation to file a complaint, he says waiting for at least two hours is normal. These women personnel have no time. I know of two cases in which the investigation was shoddy and the accused were let off. I approached the authorities, but nothing seemed to be working, Prajapat says. Major Khan, who visited the police station to lodge a case of domestic violence on behalf of his daughter, seconded Prajapats view.
Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 21

Lashing out at senior party colleague Shanta Kumar for maintaining double standards over the quashing of appointment of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) in Punjab, state BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia today asked Kumar why he had not raised his voice on the appointment of CPSs when he was the state BJP incharge.

Kalia in a letter posted on his Facebook wall has asked Kumar that while he has applauded the quashing of CPSs appointments by the High Court, why he did not oppose the appointments if they were wrong.

The post supported by many crucial documents was written in response to an article written by Kumar in a Hindi daily on August 15 this year.

His dubious nature is evident from the fact that while he has welcomed the decision, he himself had appointed two CPSs when he was the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh from 1990 to 1992, alleged Kalia.

He said while the appointment of CPS was originally adapted from the British Parliament and was notified in Punjab in 1964, it was only after 2002 the appointments were made in the state as former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee restricted the number of cabinet ministers to 15 per cent of the strength of the House.

Adding fuel to the controversy, Kalia tagged along a letter of the then Financial Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh written during Kumars tenure as Chief Minister in 1991 where he granted permission to the Kangra Divisional Commissioner under special circumstances for exchange of a chunk of private land owned by Kumars son Vikram Sharma with that of a government land located at a prime location.

I would like to ask Shanta Kumar as to what were the special circumstances under which the land rules were relaxed for his son and he was allotted a prime government land in exchange of his private land, asked Kalia . He said Kumar was yet to reply to his allegations regarding embezzlement of party funds up to crores during the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.

Kalia and Kumar have no love lost between each other since 2011. During that time, Kumar as Punjabs party affairs incharge was instrumental in removing Kalia from the state cabinet over a corruption case registered by the CBI against Rajpura BJP MLA Raj Khurana in which Kalias name also cropped up.

Though nothing came out against him during the probe, Kalia was not inducted in the cabinet when the SAD-BJP returned to power in 2012.
New Delhi, August 21

Coming out in support of National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah for saying that the problem in the Valley is a political one and cannot be handled administratively, the Congress on Sunday said it would be wrong to consider the Kashmir unrest a matter of law and order.

Congress leader Meem Afzal said all the Opposition parties in Parliament stood firm on Abdullahs statement.

If you think the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is a law and order matter, then you are wrong. Kashmir is not an issue of law and order. It is a political issue and we should see how to progress with a solution, he added.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Escalating his attack on the Centre, Afzal said if Pakistan is involved in the Kashmir unrest, what the government is doing to tackle the situation.

When we tell this to the government, it says Pakistan is involved in it. If Pakistan is involved in it, then what is the government, our Home Ministry and our Army doing? The people will ask if Pakistan is sponsoring it, then why arent you stopping it. The government should understand its responsibility, he added.

Omar yesterday led a delegation to President Pranab Mukherjee in the National Capital and submitted a memorandum requesting the latter to get the Centre to acknowledge that the root cause of what is happening in the Valley, lies in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir, and the solution also must be found politically, not administratively and not through the use of force.

Omar said their meeting with the President, which cuts across party lines, symbolised the deep concerns that they have for the prevailing situation and also their disappointment at the way the matter has sought to be handled, both by the Centre as well as the state government.

Further stating that it was ridiculous to blame Pakistan completely for the Kashmir unrest, he added that Islamabad was partially responsible in fanning the flames, but they were not solely to blame.  ANI
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung

Tribune News service

New Delhi, August 21

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been under immense pressure to observe restraint and yet protect its men from the protesters and terrorists under the garb of protesters, in the aftermath of militant commander Burhan Wanis killing in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the latest CRPF data, its 1,900 men have sustained injuries in stone-throwing and other attacks across Kashmir.

Officers serving in the force said the protests in J&K were far more violent and difficult to handle than in any state in India. The situation has become trickier with the Pakistan-based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), sending its men to mingle with the protesters and attack the security forces.

According to the latest data, there have been 10 instances of lobbing of grenades or firing at security forces from protesting crowds in J&K, after Burhans death. On more than 10 occasions, weapons such as AK-47s have been sighted in the crowds by our personnel. The intention of firing or lobbing grenades at us is to provoke us to retaliate. But if we do that there will be heavy civilian casualties, said a CRPF officer.

Furthermore, there have been 40 incidents of stone-throwers hurling petrol, acid and kerosene bombs at security forces, according to the CRPF. There have been 116 attacks on CRPF camps in J&K by protesters. At least 300 CRPF vehicles have been damaged by stone-throwers and similar attackers. These are figures of attacks after Burhans death only.

While the force has been asked to observe restraint, at times it is difficult to differentiate between protesters and LeT men. The CRPF has not been able to find any alternative to pellet guns in protecting themselves and containing the protests. These are the least lethal weapons in its armoury. The only other alternatives in the offing are ammunition, like dye-marker, which stains protesters clothes when fired, or the chilli grenade. These are also not suitable for the current situation, said the CRPF.

Injuries caused to security personnel can also be attributed to a variety of duties assigned. In J&K, the ambit of CRPFs work varies as per the situation. They can be employed in counter-terrorist operations and then abruptly put on law and order duties. This is not a healthy trend as troops take time to come to grip with the situation.

This is also what happened on August 15, when CRPF troops were deployed on law and order duties in Nowhatta when they were engaged by terrorists and commandant Pramod Kumar lost his life.

Besides this, training companies of units also get deployed at times. Everybody gets induction training before being deployed to J&K. But the refresher courses and annual training have suffered as our training companies are also deployed in operations. A total of 114 such companies have been taken out of training, the CRPF DG had said last month.
Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 21

As oil tankers continue to be off the roads for the second consecutive day in protest against the attacks on tanker drivers and their vehicles in the Valley, the state has started to feel the pressure as refilling stations are running dry in the state.

Though the administration swung into action and held a meeting with the All J&K Oil Tankers Drivers and Conductors Union today, it yielded no result.

The strike call was given by the All J&K Oil Tankers Drivers and Conductors Union on Saturday, stopping fuel supply to the entire state.

More than 1,800 oil tankers and truckers are on an indefinite strike against the attacks on drivers and vehicles. Their strike has started to impact the daily life of people in the state as fuel is not available anywhere. People along with their vehicles were seen waiting in queues at almost all refilling stations, but there was no fuel.

Meanwhile, president of the All J&K Oil Tankers Drivers and Conductors Union KD Wani claimed that the government had agreed to their demands. He said they were yet to take a decision on calling off the strike till the government formally announced the compensation.

We met Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pawan Kotwal and Inspector General of Police, Jammu, Danesh Rana and put forth our demands of providing foolproof security to our vehicles, compensation for the damaged vehicles and the drivers injured in attacks, Wani said.

The administration has assured us that on Monday at 10 am, it will handover Rs 10,000 cheques to the injured drivers and also provide compensation to those whose vehicles have been damaged, Wani said, adding that they will decide on calling off the strike in Jammu when the money is handed over to them.

We will not resume supply to the Kashmir valley until security is provided to us, he added.

The union is also getting support from the Jammu and Kashmir Oil Tankers Association. Its president Anan Sharma also had a meeting with the administration and put forth similar demands.

Meanwhile, the administration is hopeful that the tanker drivers will call off their strike tomorrow.

There was nothing wrong in their demands. Some of their demands have been accepted, said Simrandeep Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu. He said the administration had decided to pay Rs 10,000 to each injured driver and also repair their vehicles. On restoration of fuel supply to the Kashmir valley, the Jammu divisional administration will be talking to the Kashmir divisional administration to see how to go forward.

The standard operating procedure will have to be discussed with the divisional administration in Kashmir and it may take some time. As far as the Jammu region is concerned, supplies may be restored tomorrow, the Jammu DC added.
Kashmir needs to step into the next day with hope. It must hold off some bad things that could happen. The daily routine of protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs and excessive use of pellet guns has compounded the Valleys continuing agony. It is wrenching. The test lies in finding a better tomorrow.

More than the real-time violence on the streets, the narrative generated by the politicians, serving and retired bureaucrats, police officers, hate-generating Kashmir experts, mostly from Delhi, is doing more damage to the psyche in the Valley. Many facts have been consumed by the worsening situation: Kashmiri Muslim business leaders have shifted places of their investment to other parts of the country, silent migration is taking place at an unimagined scale, children sick of the 24x7 sloganeering and sight of stomping boots and the thud of stones and flame of petrol bombs are telling their parents to move out of the nightmare forever. They have started envying Kashmiri Pandit migrants.

And, it should be clear to all policy-makers in Delhi and elsewhere that this is not the time for any experiments. Any fresh experiment or any move to upset the applecart would play havoc. Needless to say, it would be irreversible. True, the writ of the state must run, but that should be done with the execution of delicate plans, not hawkish-looking steps. Blinded children cannot read books nor work on laptops. There are images of Insha, a teenager, who has lost her eyesight, which haunts other children.

The step into the next day should be two-fold. The constituency of peace with dignity should be rediscovered Give people voice, support and protection. The attack on the national authority should be countered with the counter-narrative on virtues of peace. That can be initiated by invoking the relevant and realistic recommendations of five working groups, and the interlocutors report should be revisited. An unequivocal declaration to implement the implementable recommendations can offer a good starting point.

Negating history and its lessons would land the people and the national authority nowhere. It is important to think how the gathering storm can be neutralised instead of waiting for the day when it will lose steam. The 2016 storm will leave permanent scars. A firm course correction needs to be done now for a step into the next day.

The importance of early and credible action should be realised keeping in mind the atmosphere building around Jammu and Kashmir, internally and externally. Today, the internal dimension is giving a fillip to the external dimension, with many trying to satisfy their appetite by the interventionist agenda, to the delight of Pakistan.

Islamabad is invoking human rights, though its whole yard is splattered with terrorism and unspoken human rights abuses. This nation has a double stand on terrorism. But its Goebbelsian machinery has worked overtime, putting India in poor light on the unfortunate killings and the daily clashes between protesters and security forces. That has caught the attention of some of the international players, including the nations that are victims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

Within Kashmir, each and every atrocity is being played out by Pakistan at the international forum as its diplomats have an unparalleled expertise in using the Goebbelsian art of deception and distortion. These diplomats are citing reports emanating on the social media  broadband is working in Kashmir  with a paranoid passion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces a crucial test. Success here is more important than revelling in any other glory of the nation.
Jammu, August 21

As unrest continues in Kashmir, the Centre on Sunday outlined its priorities, asserting that there will be no compromise with those indulging in violence even efforts will be made for development of the state that was "denied" for the last 60 years.

Acknowledging that situation in Kashmir was "serious", senior union minister Arun Jaitley said those indulging in stone-pelting in Kashmir are "not satyagrahis but aggressors" who target police and security forces but some people with limited vision cannot see this.

Addressing a rally on the outskirts of Jammu, he also blamed Pakistan for the current unrest saying it was "attacking the integrity of India" in a "new way" after failing to take the state by waging wars and stoking violence since partition in 1947.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has three priorities for Jammu and Kashmir, said Jaitley, Minister of Finance.

Outlining these priorities, he said: "There will be no compromise on the security and integrity of the country and no compromise with the people who indulge in violence.

"Secondly, as Jammu and Kashmir has faced violence and wars, it needs development which was denied for past 60 years by National Conference and Congress governments. Thirdly, Jammu, being the support base of BJP, needs added attention."

His outlining of the priorities assumes signficance as the opposition has been accusing the Modi government of having no policy with regard to dealing with the unrest. The opposition parties have been pressing for a political solution and dialogue to address the unrest.

Talking in the context of ongoing 44-day unrest in Kashmir, Jaitley said: "Now this time, a serious situation has emerged in which Pakistan, separatists and religious forces have joined hands and now with a new way, they are attacking the integrity of India".

Describing it as a "major challenge", he said: "Today in such a challenge, the need of the country is that we don't compromise with the integrity and security of the nation." He asked people of Jammu and Kashmir to stand with the country in the "struggle against the separatists" so that "this new phase of Pakistani strategy of war is defeated this time as well".

He described those indulging in stone-pelting as aggressors.

"They (stone pelters) are not satyagrahis but aggressors.

If a police post manned by 10 police personal is attacked by 2000 stone pelters, it is an attack, but some people do not realise it," he said. PTI
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 21

A delegation of opposition leaders of the state, which had met President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday, will now meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. The delegation led by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will meet the Prime Minister at 9.30 am to apprise him of the prevailing situation in the Valley.

Spokesman of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee Ravinder Sharma, who is part of the delegation camping at New Delhi to meet leaders of all political parties, confirmed that a meeting had been fixed with the Prime Minister on Monday morning. In the afternoon, the delegation will meet CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, he added.

This afternoon, the 21-member delegation led by Omar Abdullah called on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. During the hour-long meeting, the delegation discussed with the Congress leader the turbulent situation in the Valley and sought his intervention to restore peace in the state.

Sharma said the members of the delegation belonging to different political parties of the state told Rahul Gandhi that the Congress being the principal Opposition party must play an important role in exerting pressure on the Centre to take concrete steps to restore peace in the Valley. Rahul Gandhi assured the delegation that he would take up the issue with the Centre, Sharma said.

The Congress, however, made it clear that the delegation comprised different political parties and every political party had its own ideology and philosophy. He said the Congress had its own agenda on Kashmir.

Seeking to distance the Congress from some statements of Omar, Sharma said restoring peace was the only agenda of the delegation. What Omar Abdullah is saying is the stand of the National Conference. The Congress has its own stand and roadmap on the Kashmir issue, he said while admitting that terrorism and Pakistans role in the unrest were also issues to be addressed. Omar had recently stated that Pakistan had no role in the ongoing Kashmir unrest.
Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Smailpur (Samba), August 21

Terming stone-throwers in the Valley as attackers, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said such elements were aggressors and not satyagrahis.

They are not satyagrahis, but attackers who have attacked security camps. Pakistan, separatists and religious forces, through a new tactic, have attacked the integrity of India, which is a serious situation. No compromise will be made on security and integrity of India and the country will defeat them, he said.

If a mob of 10,000 attacked a police post of merely five or 10 men with stones, it was an attack, he said. He was addressing a public gathering at Smailpur in Samba district, the birthplace of Praja Parishad and former Jana Sangh president Pandit Premnath Dogra.

Since Pakistan never accepted J&K as a part of India, it had no positive agenda for education, poverty alleviation and development. It nurtured its peoples mindset for aggression against India and turned out to be a failed state, said Jaitley.

Soon after Partition, invaders from Pakistan attacked Kashmir and took a portion of J&K, he said. Referring to the Amarnath imbroglio of 2008 and the 2010 unrest, he said Pakistan and separatists took to stone-throwing as an alternative to raise the issue.

Referring to the 1990s, the Finance Minister said Pakistan, after acknowledging that it could not win against India in war, pushed terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan tried the new tactic of stone-throwing on security forces and targeting their camps. India slowly learnt its tactic and over the years neutralised a large number on terrorists, which gave a serious setback to Pakistan, said Jaitley.

Terming the present turmoil as another serious situation, the Finance Minister said the aggression was jointly launched by Pakistan, separatists and religious forces. No compromise will be made on security and integrity of the state and the government will win, he asserted.

Jaitley said Pakistan raised the Kashmir issue globally and tried to internationalise it, but in this attempt turned its own state into a terrorism hub, which the world recognised after the 9/11 attack in the US.

Referring to the JNU incident, he said those raising anti-India slogans were motivated by Congress leaders who met them and patted them on the back.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 21

Three recently infiltrated militants were killed in an encounter with the Army on Sunday near the Line of Control in the Tangdhar sector of north Kashmirs Kupwara district.

An Army spokesman said three militants were killed in the remote Tangdhar sector as their attempt to infiltrate into the Kashmir valley was foiled. The spokesman said the operation was in progress and further details were awaited.

The identity of the slain militants was not immediately known. The Army spokesman, however, said the militants killed in the latest counter-infiltration operation were involved in an attack on a Border Security Force camp on August 19.

Three paramilitary personnel were injured when militants had attacked and fired at the Border Security Force camp at Nachin village in Kupwara. The camp also housed an ammunition depot.

There has been an increase in infiltration of militants from across the Line of Control into the Kashmir valley in recent months. According to official estimates, at least 54 militants had managed to infiltrate into the Kashmir valley in the first half of this year while 35 had infiltrated last year.

On August 15, the Army had foiled a major infiltration attempt and killed five militants in north Kashmirs Uri sector. A large cache of arms and ammunitionwere recovered from them.
Actress Divya Dutta is busy with life, but not too busy to not be living it. Shoots, family time, short vacations, time out with school friends; her social media posts are all inclusive. There are times, I dont get time to even sleep and I thank God for that, shares the actress as she just lands up back in Mumbai after a three- day shoot schedule in Chandigarh for a television show Savdhaan India. There is nothing like the fields, I drove a tractor, and had gur waali chai, shares the actress as she gets chatty over all thats kept her busy, and will keep her busy over the course of the year.

In between, a couple of more visits to Chandigarh are impending. I am doing a Punjabi film that has not been titled yet. I play the female lead and Mukul Dev plays a negative character. Its a very different genre but all I can say is that it will be thoroughly entertaining.

Bollywood, a tough place to survive?

Very, its not an easy place to be at, and it is definitely easy to make a place for yourself! You have to have the grit, the focus and will-power. I have been there for 20 years now and its a long innings for a woman. Even post the biggest hits you cannot say, I have been there, done that.

Stereotyped, has she been?

Bollywood has a cruel penchant for stereotyping. Once a heros sister, heroines friend always so. I dont agree with it at all. I romanced the hero in Badlapur. In fact, all the characters that I am going to be playing are the lead characters. Just because I am not romancing heroes the mainstream way, does not mean I have been stereotyped. We dont use terms like character artiste for actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

What next?

There is a lot to be done, still. I have a long wish list of directors I havent worked with, Vishal Bhardwaj, Anurag Basu, Imtiaz AliMeanwhile, I am also writing a book on my mother.

An impressive line up of films

Theres Ram Singh Charlie. A film in which she has a totally no make-up look. I play a simple wife who stays quiet. Theres yet another, Shyam Benegals Jang-E-Azaadi, Iraada, Babu Moshai Bandookbaaz, opposite Irrfan Khan. Little wonder, theres no time to sleep.

Manpriya Singh
Jasmine Singh

He submits himself to the director, totally, but unknowingly however, there is always something of Vansh Bhardwaj that doesn't stick off. And it is this residue that takes the form of improvisation! "Yes," he laughs softly, "I don't consciously interrupt or make it a habit to do so, when I feel that a particular role can be treated differently, I always share it with my director's, if they agree, well, I go ahead. My directors are always open," shares this Chandigarh lad who has been a part of Neelam Man Singh Choudhry's theatre group for a while now!

Vansh will soon be leaving for the Toronto Internal Festival with director Deepa Mehta's film Anatomy Of Violence which is based on the Nirbhaya case. Vansh of course has lots on share on this. "Actually, this is a first of its kind projects where the actors of the film are the real screenplay writers," he goes on to explain how. "Deepa ma'am actually organised a workshop with Neelam Man Singh being the instructor. We would be given a scene, and then asked to improvise in our own way. So, the film, Anatomy Of Violence is basically these workshops joined together to give it a form of the film."

Vansh who was recently seen in Meeruthiya Gangsters and Udta Punjab is a theatre person, does this give a different swagger on the sets? After all actors in Bollywood with a theatre background are known to stand apart from the crowd. "This isn't true in my case. I am of the opinion that a background or a degree in theatre doesn't make one a good actor. Acting is all about emoting, Alia Bhatt hasn't done theatre, but she is fabulous actor," Vansh certainly hasn't given himself a tag, neither does he intends to. "How can I label myself, I am an actor, and doing different kinds of roles is what keeps me alive and going on screen. I don't tell myself that I am from theatre, and I should think of myself any different."

It is this notion of trying different characters that lands Vansh in the film Commando 2. The earlier one Commando starred Vidyut Jamwal in the lead. Now, are we going to see Vansh in barechested throughout the film? "This was and is left to Vidyut only, you wouldn't be seeing in gunjee's or anything, I can only assure you that Commando 2 is a new package all together, and so is my role," the actor packing right for his flight to Toronto, already!
Kolkata, August 21

Amid growing concerns over terrorists using the porous Indo-Bangla border, the BSF has submitted a detailed proposal to the West Bengal government about the amount of land needed for setting up fences in a highly sensitive 81.7 km area on an urgent basis.

The issue of erecting fences along the international Indo-Bangla border was in cold storage for last several years.

It was taken up just months after the terror attack in Dhaka and various intelligence inputs about how the porous Indo-Bangla border is fast turning into a transit point for terrorists and cattle smugglers.

The matter of identifying land and survey of land was held back since 2009. But recently the state government had sought detailed proposals from us regarding the amount of land that is required in the south Bengal frontier.

We have placed a detailed report about the amount of land and alignment that is needed and other basics that is required by the BSF, Sandeep Salunke, Inspector General BSF (South Bengal frontier) told PTI.

According to Salunke, that the BSF had handed over a detailed report of land plots needed in North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad district to fence 81.7 km without delay.

Bangladesh and West Bengal share about 2,216.7 km of border.

Out of the 915 km of border in the South Bengal frontier only 371 km is fenced. So we have sent the proposal for setting up fences in 81.7 km at an urgent basis. These areas are highly sensitive. Fencing would be an added advantage in border patrolling, a senior BSF official said.

According to state secretariat sources, the report was handed to the state chief secretary and home secretary and the process for the survey of the land has already started.

Yes we had received a report from them. Now the state has land purchase committee, under the state owns land policy, which will look into it. The BSF will pay for the land and it will be registered under BSF only.

The process of survey of that land and alignment has started on an war footing. The entire process will be completed very soon, a senior official of the state home department told PTI on condition of anonymity.

According to BSF and state home department sources, 67.38 km in North 24 parganas, 7.99 km in Nadia and 6.41 km in Murshidabad district need immediate fencing as these areas are fast turning into safe heavens for JMB members and other anti-socials.

The North 24 Parganas district shares nearly 241 km of international border with Bangladesh. As per state police and BSF sources, till July more than 50 Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested for illegally crossing over.

According to state government sources, the deadlock over the land issue came after there was agreement with the Bengal governments suggestion of direct land purchase by the BSF with help from the state administration.

Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given strict instructions to the police and district administration to stop cow smuggling across the international border.

According to BSF and state home department sources, the recent terror attack in Dhakas posh Gulshan area and recent arrest of Mohammed Musiruddin (25) that has exposed the presence of the terror group in the state, particularly in the districts bordering Bangladesh including Burdwan.

After Burdwan blast it came into light how this porous border was used by the JMB terrorists to set up their base in the state. A proper border fencing would help in checking it, a senior state IB official said.

Burdwan district entered the terror map in October 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices at a rented house at Khagragarh. The JMB wants to established the Sharia rule by overthrowing the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh, the NIA had stated in its charge sheet.  PTI
New Delhi, August 21

A police constable and two criminals were injured in an encounter between the two sides in Rohini area of outer Delhi today.

Several rounds were fired from both the sides during the encounter which took place around 10:30 AM.

There was an encounter between a police team and a group of criminals in Rohini Sector 24 in which constable Pradip sustained bullet injury in the thigh, while two criminals Sudhir and Vijay were also injured, said Vikramjeet Singh, DCP (outer).

The injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital.

The police managed to catch five criminals of the gang, including Sanjay, Farman, Sunny, Sudhir and Vijay, said the officer.  PTI
New Delhi, August 21

Turkey has claimed that an organisation linked to the Turkish cleric it accuses of staging last months failed coup has infiltrated India.

In an interview to PTI on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed that the organisation  Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation  had been increasing its presence around the world and it had also "infiltrated" India through associations and schools.

"I have already taken up this issue with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories," he said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

He said terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constituted a threat.

"Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial. This is what both Turkey and India are focused on," he said.

Asked for a response to the Ministers comments, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side was sensitive to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were looking into Ankaras demand for shutting down of associations connected with the FETO.

The statements come on a day when at least 50 people were killed and more than 90 others were injured in a suicide bomb attack in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday.

Turkey has been reeling under frequent terrorist strikes by the Kurdish PKK, an organisation designated as militant by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

Some 240 people died and more than 1,500 were wounded in an failed coup on July 15.

President Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen  a former ally of the Turkish strongman who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999  of masterminding the attempted coup and has called on Washington to extradite him.

Gulen, who cooperated closely with Erdogen while he was Mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s and after his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, has condemned the coup and denied involvement.

More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation following the coup attempt, prompting fears that Erdogan was using the events to crack down on dissent.

Washingtons refusal to heed to Erdogens demands to extradite Gulen until it had evidence of his involvement has strained ties between NATO allies.

Turkey has cracked down on educational institutions and associations with "suspected" links with Gulen.  Agencies
New Delhi, August 21

The Ganga today crossed the danger mark in West Bengal, Bihar and neighbouring districts of UP where the Yamuna is also in spate, while heavy rainfall has created a flood-like situation in some parts of Rajasthan, where six persons have died so far.

However, the weather was hot and dry in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.

In Bihar, the National and State Disaster Response Force has been deployed and the Army put on alert as the rising water level of the Ganga has created a flood-like situation in all districts situated along its banks.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Ganga and six other rivers were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur, Buxar and Hajipur districts, a disaster management department statement said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today expressed apprehension of further rise in the water level in view of release of water from the Bansagar dam. Nitish, who held a high-level meeting to assess the situation, later undertook an aerial survey of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Begusarai and Khagaria. He said there was, at the moment, no possibility of flood waters entering Patna.

In UP, the Ganga is flowing above the danger mark at Fafamau (Allahabad), Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur and Ballia, while the Yamuna is flowing above the red mark at Chillaghat (Banda), Naini (Allahabad) and Mohna (Jalaun). Vast areas in several villages of Malda district in West Bengal have submerged.  PTI
New Delhi, August 21

The Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), which Turkey blames for last months failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan, has infiltrated India, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said.

Asserting that FETO is secretive transnational criminal network with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said: Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools.

In an interview to PTI after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish Foreign Minister said: I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart. The visiting minister said: In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories.

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External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side was sensitive to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were looking into Ankaras demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities. Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said: Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial. This is what both Turkey and India are focused on, he said.

On last months coup attempt, the Turkish minister said a clandestine faction led by FETO within the Turkish army attempted a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government. We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Swaraj, Cavusoglu added. PTI
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 21

Launching a frontal attack on the BJP, BSP chief Mayawati today alleged that the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre was contemplating the abolition of reservation.

Addressing a massive Bahujan Hitai, Bahujan Sukhai rally at Agras Kothi Meena Bazaar Maidan, Mayawati formally launched the BSPs 2017 election campaign.

Accusing the BJP of rising atrocities on Dalits and minorities, Mayawati said Modis words should match punitive action against the guilty if he wants to protect Dalits from mounting atrocities.

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To show how atrocities against Dalits were increasing on all fronts, she quoted some recent cases, including the circumstances leading to the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula, thrashing of Dalits in Una and expelled BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh using abusive language against her.

Accusing Modi of claiming power on the basis of false promises, Mayawati said his government had not only comprehensively failed on all fronts, but it was also now banking on communal polarisation to save its skin. Not sparing the RSS either, Mayawati said while the BJPs policies had not been able to control prices and address poverty, the RSS was asking Hindus to produce more children. She also attacked the SP government on the law and order front, saying only the BSP could rescue the people from the prevailing jungle raj.
Suresh Dharur

The Telangana Governments move to redraw the boundaries of the countrys newest state, adding 17 more districts, has stirred the hornets nest. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) justifies the decision on grounds of administrative convenience. But the Opposition parties view it as a move to benefit ruling party leaders.

A Cabinet sub-committee, headed by Deputy CM Mohammed Mahmood Ali, has recommended that the number of districts be increased from 10 to 27. However, Hyderabad will remain untouched. A notification in this regard will be issued on August 22 and feedback from the public sought within a 30-day time frame, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has said.

There has been a gust of demands from people across Telangana to declare their towns as districts. Even as the government convened an all-party meeting to secure the nod of various parties for the move, massive protests broke out in Karimnagar district, demanding that Siricilla, a textile town, be made a district. Demands for new districts have also come from Warangal, Mahaboobnagar, Adilabad and Medak districts.

As per the governments plan, the process of creating new districts will be completed by Dusehra (October). Arguing that smaller districts would improve administration, the Chief Minister has asked the District Collectors to adopt a scientific method while recommending new districts.The basic criteria for re-drawing the boundaries is that every district should have four to five Assembly constituencies and an average of 20 mandals (revenue administrative units) since the number of constituencies would go up to 153 from 119 as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. Reorganisation should be based purely keeping in mind administrative ease and public convenience. These will not be carved simply on the demands of political leaders and parties.The districts in Telangana are too large, the CM has announced.

The government will allocate Rs100 crore each new district to create infrastructure. The Department of Personnel and Training has raised the cadre strength of IAS officers for Telangana as requested by the state government.

DNA index system

In a first such experiment in the country, Andhra Pradesh has launched the DNA index system that allows DNA profiles from live samples such as saliva and bloodstains. A pilot project has been launched to test the efficacy of the system, to generate DNA profiles of a batch of convicts and crime suspects. The aim is to bring down the crime rate.

This system uses the latest DNA technology tool developed by IntegenX, US, known as RapidHIT DNA System. It allows DNA profiles to be created from live samples  such buccal swabs, bloodstains and saliva  within less than two hours. DNA profiling plays a crucial role in solving crime cases and can link a series of crimes. It could also help suspects prove their innocence.
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 21

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to skip the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela next month. This is despite the fact that Venezuela has twice extended invitations to India for the summit and out of consideration for the PMs busy schedule, Venezuela even moved the summit from July last year to this year.

Sources in the Venezuelan diplomatic circles said Venezuela was yet to receive a communication as to who would be representing India at the summit. They said they remained hopeful that Modi would attend the summit as NAM inspires a multi-polar world as opposed to big forces dominating the world unilaterally. The US is the only country which doesnt want NAM to succeed because the success of NAM is a defeat for the US.

However, indications seem to be that Modi is still not going to attend the summit; and that will indicate a policy shift for India. All PMs to date, except Charan Singh in 1979, have made it a point to attend NAM summits.

India was one of the founding members of NAM and hence, the attendance of the PM is something Venezuela was keen on. However, it is now more likely that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would represent India at the summit. This week, she met her Venezulean counterpart who extended an invitation to her to attend the summit.

While officially India has maintained a silence on the question of whether the PM will be attending the summit, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday offered an insight into the governments thinking on blocs and multilateral forums. He said, Blocs and alliances are less relevant today and the world is moving towards a loosely arranged order. Another reason that is doing the buzz in the corridors of South Block is that NAM is today regarded as an almost defunct alliance and the government wants to be seen making efforts in multi-lateral forums such as BRICS and the G20 which give India a global role.

Another reason is the perceptible change in Indias foreign policy which has seen the Modi government embracing the US eagerly. NAM has traditionally been regarded as being anti-US and that is one sentiment the government wants to shed. The foreign policy, under the Modi government, is focusing on pushing its Africa relationship as seen in the grand India-Africa Summit India hosted last year along with the visits by the President, PM and Vice-President to the continent. There has been a great outreach by the Modi government to the countries of the Gulf and also in its Look East policy.

The PM has made it a point to travel to many countries and has given his personal touch to many of the bilateral relationships India has today. Skipping the NAM Summit is a quiet message that India has outgrown an alliance whose roots go back to the colonial era and India now sees itself as an emerging global and not a regional player.
Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, August 21

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal is positioning itself to squeeze out the last drop of political capital from Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys faux pass on Thursday while paying tribute to Bose on his death anniversary.

Launching a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi-led Centre Government yesterday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not forget to mention Jaitleys controversial tweet. Jaitley cannot have posted the tweet just like that, she said. That was a well thought-out conspiracy hatched by the BJP, she claimed.

The TMC is also contemplating a legal action against Jaitley for his gaffe.

The tweet, later deleted by Jaitley, read, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was an icon of exemplary valour and sacrifice. We remember and pay him our respectful tribute on his death anniversary.

Jaitley was forced to delete the tweet after a number of people associated with Mission Netaji (a Delhi-based organisation dedicated to research on Bose), as well as Mamata Banerjee objected to it.

There are many people who have never accepted the version that Netaji died in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. A section of Netaji crusaders also believe that the Indian National Army (INA) chief survived the plane crash and migrated to Soviet Union and later came back to India and lived for several years in disguise as Gumanami Baba.

Surajit Dasgupta (64), who has met Gumanami Baba and believes that the Hindu holy man was indeed Netaji, said he was quite surprised when he heard about Jaitleys tweet.
Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

Instead of the 65-year-old Bharat Scouts and Guides, the Punjab Education Department has for the first time given responsibility of conducting training camps for government school students in Majha and Doaba regions to an organisation whose office-bearers are top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from Gujarat.

Hindustan Scouts and Guides aims to train boys and girls, men and women to revere God or dharma through yoga, all-faith meditation and prayer. The teachers union has termed it an attempt to promote a majoritarian agenda, a charge denied by the organisation.

In a decision circulated recently, the Director of Public Instructions (DPI), Schools, ordered that Hindustan Scouts and Guides will train students in eight districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, SBS Nagar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Kapurthala. Bharat Scouts activity has been restricted to the schools of Malwa region.

Before Punjab, Hindustan Scouts was granted permission to run camps in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Haryana.

Bharat Scouts and Guides claims to be the only recognised body to conduct Scout training programmes in the country since 1950 for all state-run schools. Narinder Singh, state secretary of Bharat Scouts and Guides, claimed that his organisation imparted Scout training to one lakh students every year.

There were several Scouts training organisations before 1947. However, the education ministry merged them in 1950-51 and formed Bharat Scouts and Guides. It was decided that it would be the only recognised training body in the country, exclusively entitled to financial and other help from the government. Moreover, ours is the only organisation that is affiliated to the World Organisation of Scout Movement, he added.

Hindustan Scouts was given recognition by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs during the BJP-led NDA government in 2001. However, its recognition was withdrawn during the UPA-I tenure in 2005 but it was again recognised in 2013.

Bhupinder Singh Waraich, president, Democratic Teachers Front (DTF), Punjab, said, Hindustan Scouts first objective is to promote reverence of God through yoga. Entry of such an organisation in schools is a discreet move to implement a majoritarian agenda in Punjab schools, he alleged.

Refuting the charge, Ravinder Singh Talwar of Hindustan Scouts said, Today, yoga is an internationally popular discipline. There is nothing wrong in promoting yoga. Moreover, ours is a non-political, non-religious organisation. Just because some of our top office-bearers are associated with BJP doesnt mean we are backed by BJP.

He added that there was no rule that only one NGO could work in this field. Rather, the then President had in 1997-98 himself directed the Centre to open doors for new Scouts training organisations.
Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, August 21

A Toyota Fortuner vehicle, mostly used by IYC chief and Gidderbaha MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, identified by his constituency people as Warrings personal car, allegedly mowed down a 10-year-old boy at Doda village in Gidderbaha assembly segment on Sunday.

Two aides of Warring identified as Randhir Singh, Gurpreet Singh and driver Sujan Singh were travelling in the vehicle, when the mishap occurred. Notably, Warring has gone to Mumbai to participate in the national executive meet of the Indian Youth Congress and scheduled to return from there tomorrow.

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Talking to The Tribune, a close aide of Warring said, Randhir and Gurpreet were moving towards Gidderbaha along with a driver in silver-colour Fortuner (CH01AJ7337), which is registered in the name of Warrings friend, when a boy suddenly came in front of it at Doda village on Muktsar-Bathinda highway. The boy was injured after the vehicle hit him. He was immediately taken to a private hospital in Muktsar in the same vehicle, where the doctors declared him brought dead.

Some leaders of other parties, including Sunny Dhillon, younger brother of SADs Gidderbaha constituency in-charge Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, visited the victims house. Some AAP activists, too, had gathered there, but the victims family told them that they do not want to make it a political issue.

Gurkanwal Singh, son of Dharminder Singh, had gone to a barber shop opposite his house on the other side of the road and was returning when he was allegedly hit by the Fortuner vehicle.

While the body had reached the village, the family was waiting for some kin who had gone to Sirsa to return before they could perform the last rites.

Gidderbaha DSP Gobinder Singh, too, visited the victims house. Terming it to be a mishap, the boys father told him that neither they want to have a post mortem conducted nor any legal action. They were also about to give it in writing to the police.
Ottawa, August 20



An Indo-Canadian Sikh Cabinet Minister, Bardish Chagger, was sworn in as the new leader of the government in the House of Commons, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the Canadian Parliament, the media reported.



"This is a tremendous opportunity. I have been involved in the political process for basically my whole life," Chagger was quoted as saying, after her swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, by cbc.ca on Friday.



Chagger, 36, replaces House leader Dominic LeBlanc.

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"I know what democracy should look like. Democracy should be engaging Canadians. That is the leadership of our Prime Minister," Chagger added.



Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his confidence that Chagger will be "a worthy successor."



Chagger, who is a rookie MP and is one of the four Sikhs  Harjit Sajjan, Navdeep Bains, Amarjeet Sohi being the other three  was elected to Trudeau's cabinet in 2015,in a move that drew worldwide attention.



Chagger had a brief and unremarkable stint as small business and tourism minister.



She will retain that portfolio in addition to her new position.



Chagger was born and raised in the Waterloo region, attending the University of Waterloo where she was the president of the Young Liberals.



After graduating with a Bachelor of Science she worked as an assistant to former Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi for four years before becoming a community organiser in 2009.



Chagger also worked as a volunteer on Trudeau's leadership campaign in 2013.  IANS
Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 21

The state government and agencies involved in the beautification of the route to the Golden Temple has dropped the idea of having an earthern colour on the facades of buildings on the line of Hazaratganj in Lucknow.

Instead, facade on the route is being spruced up with Nanakshahi bricks, red sand stone and motifs of flower in white colour. Officials associated with the project said Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal is personally monitoring the project and the motive is to give a heritage look to the facade.

Contractors executing the project have been strictly asked to use Nanakshahi bricks. The demand of bricks has shot up in the market with widespread use of the centuries old bricks on the beautification of this stretch to the Golden Temple. These bricks, which are easily identified by their small size, would offer a pristine look to the devotees. Even as the ordinary brick is available for Rs 4.20 in the retail market, an old Nanakshahi is sold at double the price.

These Nanakshahi bricks, available in 4x4 and 4x6 sizes, are sourced from old and dilapidated houses being demolished in the walled city.

Contractors are engaged in this profession and they sell parts the debris, wooden frames, doors, windows, used bricks and other material. Mukhtiar Singh, a dealer, said the demand of Nanakshahi bricks has far exceeded its supply in the market. PWD, Executive Engineer, Jasbir Singh Sodhi said Nanakshahi bricks an aesthetic look which do not come from ordinary bricks.

After the Union Ministry of Tourism granted an ambitious project to bring uniformity in the facade of the approach of a stretch of the holiest Sikh shrine, a Mumbai- based Darashaw Consultancy Private Limited had prepared its DPR.
New York, August 21

A nine-year-old Indian girl was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her house here with police charging her stepmother for the murder.

Ashdeep Kaur had moved to Queens here from India just three months ago and lived in an apartment with her father Sukhjinder Singh and her stepmother Arjun Samdhi Pardas that was shared with another couple.

Ashdeep was found dead in the bathtub of her home in Queens with bruises on her body. Pardas, 55, has been charged with murder for allegedly strangling Ashdeep on Friday, the New York Post quoted sources as saying.

The housemate had seen Ashdeep going in the bathroom with Pardas, who later came out alone and left the building.

When Ashdeep did not come out, the housemate checked and discovered her lifeless body in the bathtub that had no water.

Ashdeeps relatives alleged that the young girl was previously abused by Pardas, who had been entrusted with her care while Singh worked in a local restaurant.

The girls mother, who lives in India, was devastated by the news, relatives said. She and the girls father are divorced.  PTI
Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 21

A Mukerian-based family of a 12-year-old girl has been running from pillar to post in search of their daughter as just after two weeks of the rape of their daughter, the girl has mysteriously disappeared from Mukerian.

Suspecting the role of four persons, including a woman from Mukerian, the family has filed a complaint at the Mukerian police station where a case under Sections 363 and 366-A of the IPC has been registered against unidentified persons. However, the family is demanding registration of a case against suspects named in the complaint.

Hailing from Bihar, the parents, currently residing in Fatuwal village of Mukerian, also submitted a complaint with IGP, Jalandhar zone, Lok Nath Angra.

The IGP said he had marked an inquiry to an officer of the Hoshiarpur police and if the persons named in the complaint were found guilty, they would be booked in the case.

The police will inquire the role of the suspects and efforts are also on to trace the girl, Angra added.

The girls father alleged that his daughter was raped on July 14 by Murli Yadav. He was later arrested and jailed in the case. On July 28 his daughter went to buy milk, but did not return home.

I also met the Hoshiarpur SSP on August 11 in this regard, the father said.

The victims parents alleged that they were suspecting the role of the said four persons because the rape accused was known to them and was working in the agricultural fields of one of the persons.

I am still receiving threats from the suspects that if I approach the police to file a kidnapping case, they will kill my daughter, the father alleged.

Advocate Kanwarjit Singh, who is helping the family, said the Mukerian police should trace the girl soon so that the girls life could be saved.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 21

Seven persons, including five women, were killed in a cloudburst at Markhola village in the Pabo block in Pauri Garhwal district yesterday.

Two men and five women belonging to two families died when a double-storied house they were living in collapsed at Markhola village, 33 km from the Pauri Garhwal district headquarters. The road from Pabo to Srinagar was also blocked due to landslide debris triggered by the cloudburst.

District Magistrate Chandrashekar Bhatt said extensive rescue and relief operations were undertaken and all seven bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the collapsed house. The Pabo-Srinagar road was being cleared of the debris on a war-footing, he added.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who conducted an aerial survey of Markhola village, directed Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited to provide contractual employment to Chandan Singh, who survived the tragedy. He also directed the District Magistrate to provide necessary assistance to the family members of the deceased for constructing a house, besides ex gratia.

He later attended the last rites of the deceased at the Kotavar crematorium on the banks of the Nayar river in the district. He consoled the aggrieved family members. Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department in Dehradun has forecast heavy rains in the coming days.
Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, August 21

Two Congress leaders  Mussoorie Municipal Council president Mamnohan Singh Mall and state Congress vice-president Jot Singh Bisht  have decided to support the candidate that the party fields from Dhanaulti in the 2017 Assembly elections. However, they resolved not to support any outsider (read PDF candidate) or an Independent candidate even if the party decides to do so. Both leaders had fought the last Assembly elections from Dhanaulti (Manmohan Mall on the Congress ticket and Bisht as an Independent candidate) and lost to BJP candidate Mahavir Rangard.

This was decided at a meeting organised at Pantwadi, near Nainbagh, in the Dhanaulti Assembly segment. Congress workers from the nyay panchayat regions in the Assembly seat, namely Shrikot and Myani, attended the meeting chaired by Nainbagh Congress president Jot Singh Rawat.

Mamnmohan Mall had contested the elections from Dhanaulti in 2012 while Jot Singh Bisht rebelled and stood against him and played a spoilsport. Party workers persuaded both leaders to come together and present a united front against the BJP to win the Dhanaulti seat in the 2017 Assembly poll. Mohan Lal Nirala, a Congress leaders from Nainbagh, said the party leaders should work in tandem to ensure victory that had eluded the party for the past 10 years.

Manmohan Mall said they had come here in deference to the wishes of party workers. Mall and Congress workers present at the meeting said they would not support any Independent candidate from Dhanaulti even if the party decides to do so.

The two leaders are wary of Urban Development Minister Pritam Panwars plans to contest the election from Dhanaulti seat from the PDF quota, feel political experts. The PDF has been a close ally of the Congress and under such circumstances, Pritam Panwar should contest from the Yamunotri seat from where he was elected in the last elections. However, all are free to contest from any seat in the state, said Bisht.
Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, August 21

The decision of the state government to grant the Other Backward Class (OBC) status to the Phekwal community of the Paratap Nagar region has led to a similar demand from the Gangadi community residing in the Thauldhar region of Tehri Garhwal district.

The Gangadi community under the banner of the Thauldhar Sanskritik Lok Kala Manch has demanded the OBC status for the Gangadi community as granted to the Phekwal Community that resides across the Tehri lake and faces similar economic and social deprivation.

Vijay Bindwal, president of the Thauldhar Sanskritik Lok Kala Manch, while speaking to mediapersons in Mussoorie today, said the demand of the OBC status for the Gangadi community was not new. If the Phekwal community residing across the Tehri lake in the same region could be granted the OBC status, why the Gangadi community was being deprived of it. Former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had consented to the justified demands and had assured us of doing the needful, but in vain, he added.

Bindwal said the Jaunpur community had been granted the OBC status but the Gangadi community from Thauldhar in the same Assembly segment had been left out. Dhanaulti MLA Mahavir Rangad had also extended his support to their cause. However, political experts say the government by announcing the OBC status for the Phekwal community had stirred the hornets nest that could prove to be counterproductive to the Congress in the next Assembly elections.
Kabul, August 21

At least 43 Taliban militants were killed as Afghan security forces mounted an operation in the country's Kunduz province, the authorities said on Sunday.

"Joint Afghan security forces backed by the army's air power also injured 14 militants in Khan Abad, Ali Abad and Imam Sahib districts during an ongoing operation codenamed 'Thunder 14' on Saturday," Xinhua news agency cited an army statement as saying.

The Taliban on Saturday seized Khan Abad, but the security forces regained control of the strategic

district which is located 25 km east of the provincial capital Kunduz city.

"Taliban district governor Hussain from Khan Abad was also killed," the statement said. Sporadic clashes were going on in the militancy-hit province, sources said.  IANS
Gaziantep, August 21

An Islamic State group suicide bomber as young as 12-year-old attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 51 persons and wounding dozens of others, the Turkish president said today.

The bombing late last night in Gaziantep, near Turkeys border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbuls city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 persons were wounded, with 17 of them in a critical condition.

It was clear that Daesh had such an organisation in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times, Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for the IS.

Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity. A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldnt believe the party was targeted.

This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party, Hamdullah Ceyhan told Anadolu. The attack was deplorable.

Funerals, forensic tests

Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, some weeping at coffins draped in the green colour of Islam, local television images showed. But other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

In Gaziantep, the chief prosecutors office said they had found a destroyed suicide vest at the blast site.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbuls main airport in June.

Violence has also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed the PKK.

Turkey began the air strikes against Islamic State last July, in the weeks after a peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targetting PKK targets in northern Iraq.

Just a half-an-hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shelling from Islamic State territory, killing civilians on some days. On Sunday, ruling AK Party lawmakers as well as Erdogan himself emphasised that they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organisations.  Reuters

Leaving a trail of destruction: How did they do it?
Gaziantep (Turkey), August 21

At least 50 persons were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said on Sunday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the likely perpetrator of the bomb attack in Gaziantep late yesterday (in local time) that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were woungAIded in the abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding.

Erdogan said in a statement there was no difference between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep.

Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack usyou will not succeed! he said.

Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence.

The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groomBesna and Nurettin Akdoganwere in hospital but their lives were not in danger.

Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey such as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.

Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921 when it defeated French forces in Turkeys Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

Our grief is great but be sure our unity and togetherness will defeat all these diabolic attacks, he said.

Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said there was a high possibility it was a suicide attack, comments echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek.  AFP
MANILA, August 21

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organisation and invite China and others to form a new one.

Two UN human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.

As many as 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.

Duterte on Friday denied that the government was responsible and in a middle-of-the-night news conference in his home town, Davao, said the deaths were not the work of the police and invited UN experts to investigate themselves.

The news conference was broadcast by local media and the full version was posted on Facebook by GMA news. "I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert," he said, urging them to count not just the number of drug-related deaths, but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.

He then launched an attack on the United Nations and its members, including by inference Manila's traditionally close ally, Washington, saying it could not fulfill its own mandate but was "worrying about the bones of criminals piling up".  Reuters
London, August 20

The Night Tube was launched in the London Underground on Saturday-almost three years since the plan was first announced.

Trains will now run on the Victoria and Central lines on Fridays and Saturdays between 12.30 am and 5.30 am, the BBC reported.

London Underground expects 50,000 people to use the Night Tube each weekend, rising to 2,00,000 once all five lines are open.

The city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, was among those to board the first Victoria line service in the early hours of Saturday, the report said.

Khan spoke to passengers on the train, which departed from Brixton, south London, at 12.34 am. I'm really pleased that 100 days or so after becoming the mayor we've got that right," Khan said.

About 100 British Transport Police officers patrolled the network on the launch of the service.

Superintendent Chris Horton insisted there was "no reason" why passengers would not be as safe as during the day. He said the force would focus on "being visible" and ensuring it was "able to intervene in places that are likely to see significant issues", the BBC said.

Plans for the Night Tube service were announced in November 2013, with Transport for London saying there was a "huge demand" due to passenger numbers on weekends soaring by 70 per cent since 2000.

The service was intended to begin in September 2015, but strikes over pay delayed the start by nearly another year, the BBC added.  IANS
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, AUGust 20

Even as India moves closer to the US, the India-Russia relationship is the one in which momentum is being maintained. Russian Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin today called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and briefed him on the progress in the ongoing projects between both nations.

During the meeting, Modi referred to Russia as 'time-tested and reliable friend' and he reaffirmed India's commitment to expand bilateral ties.

Modi also informed Rogozin that India looks forward to the visit of the Russian President here soon. India and Russia have been traditional allies but of late, there has been a distinct shift in the government's policy of moving towards a more pro-US line. The casualty in that case might be the relationship India has shared with Russia.

The two countries are today working together in the area of nuclear energy and earlier this month, Modi and Putin jointly inaugurated the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1.

The PM has said that India plans to build a number of 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants with Russian help. During his visit to Moscow in December last, the two sides agreed to develop a road map for cooperation in nuclear energy which envisages the construction of 15 nuclear reactors in India, including the one at the Kudankulam site.

Modi and Putin are expected to meet in China early September on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Some legal experts say a state question dealing with the death penalty does little, is unnecessary and could lead to additional litigation.

Voters on Nov. 8 are expected to decide a number of state questions, including State Question 776.

The attorney general determined the legislation wording that put it on the ballot didnt accurately describe the measure and provided a substantial rewrite.

The measure now says lawmakers can designate any method of execution that is not prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. It also says that death sentences will not be reduced because a method is ruled invalid.

The measure says that if a method is deemed invalid, the death penalty shall remain in force until it can be carried out with a valid method.

Finally, it says that under the state constitution, the death penalty cant be ruled cruel or unusual punishment.

Lawmakers in 2015 put the measure on the ballot by passing Senate Joint Resolution 31, by Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore.

It was done following the 2014 highly publicized botched execution of Clayton Lockett at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Lockett died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the lethal injection process began.

Another inmate, Charles Warner, was put to death in 2015 using the incorrect combination of drugs.

Basically, I dont think it does anything, said Oklahoma County Public Defender Bob Ravitz. Oklahoma law has always been that.

The state question reiterates what the Court of Criminal Appeals has said for 100 years, Ravitz said.

Sykes did not respond to requests for an interview.

Sykes was an author of House Joint Resolution 1056 that put an earlier state question on the ballot. State Question 755 banned Shariah law, which is Islamic law and based on the Quran and the teaching of Muhammad. It passed on Nov. 2, 2010, by more than 70 percent of the vote, even though state courts do not and did not use Shariah law.

It drew a lawsuit and was tossed out by a federal court saying it was an unconstitutional infringement on individual rights. The state had to pay $303,333 in attorney fees to the plaintiffs who challenged it.

The issue of the method of execution has a very real potential to be litigated because there is a great deal of litigation pending now in reference to methods of execution in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and that becomes a real question, said Tulsa County Public Defender Rob Nigh.

He called the state question an incredible waste of time, energy and resources at a time when the state cant properly fund education and incarceration rates are bankrupting the state.

It is a distraction from the business we ought to be taking care of, Nigh said.

Robert Durnham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the bulk of the state question is unnecessary.

The portion commenting on cruel and unusual punishment attempts to place the states execution process above the law and eliminate the checks and balances process provided by the judiciary, he said.

It would deny Oklahoma state courts the power to determine whether the death penalty was being administered in a cruel and usual manner, Durnham said. That means a whole range of constitutional protections against the unfair administration of the death penalty would be unavailable in Oklahoma courts.

He said there is no question the measure, if approved by voters, will draw additional litigation.

Durnham said the question was written prematurely.

At the time the Legislature approved this ballot question, they were unaware of the colossal systematic failures by the State Department of Corrections in carrying out executions, he said.

Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler said the measure was an effort to ensure that if lethal injection were determined unconstitutional, the state would still be able to proceed with a different measure in a constitutional manner.

Meanwhile, a coalition has been formed to oppose the measure.

We feel it is unnecessary, said Connie Johnson, a former state senator who chairs the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. It represents a direct affront to the balance of power between the three branches of government.
Turkey's presidential spokesman on Friday urged Europe and the U.S. to see the PKK for what it is and condemn its terrorist activities.

In his weekly column in English-language newspaper Daily Sabah, Kalin wrote: Instead of calling on Turkey to treat the PKK as if it is a benign civil society organization, Europe and the U.S. must see the PKK for what it is, condemn its terrorist attacks without ifs or buts, and stop its financial operations and propaganda in European cities.

Kalin also called on Turkey's friends and allies to stand by the country because Turkey's security is key to their security.

"As Turkey reels from the bloody July 15 coup attempt, it is now faced with the three security threats of the PKK, Daesh, and the Gulenists [Fetullah] Terror Group (FETO)," he added.

The presidential aide stressed that supporting the PYD  the terrorist PKKs Syrian affiliate  and the YPG militia in the name of fighting Daesh is a huge mistake. The PKK is simply using the Syrian war as a smokescreen to continue its activities, he argued.

He said Turkey has received little help in its fight against the PKK. Instead of tightening their own security and sharing intelligence, some European countries have criticized Turkey for not catching Daesh terrorists or suspects who hail from Europe.

How is Turkey supposed to know about terrorists of European origin if the source countries do not fulfill their duties in the first place? Several Daesh terrorists carried out attacks in France and Belgium after they were deported from Turkey, he added.

Kalin said Turkey has been fighting the PKK for several decades. A primary goal of what came to be known as the reconciliation process was the disarmament of the PKK."

"Instead of disarming and despite calls from its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, though, the PKK stepped up its terrorist activities, recruited new members, and carried out violent attacks in urban centers, he stressed.

He adds that the PKK kills both Turks and Kurds without discrimination. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) entered parliament [last year] with the promise of helping the reconciliation process. Instead, it became a mouthpiece for the PKK and never dared to even condemn its most heinous terrorist attacks."

"The HDP has not taken any serious initiative for the PKK's disarmament. Instead, it has chosen to seek ways to soften the criticism of the PKK and villify [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, he added.

The PKK  listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU  resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015. Since then, more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and more than 7,000 PKK terrorists killed.

Syrian war

Kalin said that Bashar Assads regime continues to attack civilians, including women and children.

Pictures of new atrocities emerge every day and the silence of the world reaches new heights of shame. The two monsters of the Syrian war, i.e., the Assad regime and Daesh, feed off each other, he said.

There is no solution to completely eliminate the Daesh menace without ending the war in Syria, and there is no end to the war without Assad out. Sharing a 711-kilometer border with Syria, Turkey carries the bigger burden. Of course, it is the Syrian people who suffer the most, he added

Turkey has done more than many other countries in the fight against Daesh. In addition to being part of the anti-Daesh coalition and opening its air bases to coalition jets, Turkey has arrested, deported, or denied entry to more than 50,000 Daesh members and/or people suspected of links to Daesh, Kalin said.

Turkey increased border security amid floods of refugees from Syria, and its border cities have become targets for Daesh rockets. Daesh has also launched attacks in Ankara and Istanbul, killing hundreds of innocent people, he wrote.

Kalin said Daesh cannot be defeated without containing the larger context in which it operates.

The civil war in Syria and the effect of failed states and weak governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere provide ample ground for Daesh recruitment and propaganda. Despite these mounting challenges, Turkey will continue to fight against Daesh terrorism politically, ideologically and militarily, he added.

FETO

Kalin said the power capacity of Gulenists in Turkey has been largely dismantled [since the defeated July 15 coup], but there is more work to do. Seeing their demise in the country, Gulenists are now using their resources to run smear campaigns against Turkey abroad.

Turkeys friends and allies in Europe, the U.S., Middle East, Africa, Asia and the rest of the world must be vigilant against these campaigns and pay attention to the dark side of the Gulenist cult, he added.

Just as Turkey supports the fight against Daesh terrorism, which is a global threat to us all, it is also legitimate for Turkey to expect its friends and allies to support it in its fight against the PKK and FETO.

The fight against terrorism cannot succeed without taking a clear and consistent stance against all of its forms. The rhetoric of my terrorist versus your terrorist only plays into the hands of terrorists. Security is a key asset for all and works only when it is available to everyone, he concluded.

Turkey's government has said the defeated coup, which left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.

Gulen is accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

Anadolu Agency
The Syrian regime has repeatedly violated UN Security Council resolution 2118, which required Syria to dismantle its chemical weapons arsenal, a rights group has said.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said it has documented 139 chemical attacks in Syria since September 2013 when the UN Security Council issued resolution 2118 for dismantling Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

Some 136 attacks were carried out by the Syrian regime, the London-based group said.

It added that the Daesh group has also carried out three chemical attacks in Syria since 2013.

The rights group said that some 88 people had been killed in chemical attacks in Syria since 2013, including 45 opposition fighters and 36 civilians.

The group registered the highest number of chemical attacks in the northern Idlib province, Rif Dimashq province and the central Hama province.

The statement was released on the 3rd anniversary of a regime chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs of al-Ghouta in which more than 1,400 people were reportedly killed.

While Syrian opposition forces and human rights groups accuse the Bashar al-Assad regime of perpetrating the atrocity, the Syrian regime denies the claim.

Human Rights Watch said that it has strong evidence proving regime involvement in the Ghouta chemical attack.

Since March 2011, the Syrian opposition has demanded an end to more than 44 years of Assad family rule and the establishment of a democratic state.

The Syrian regime responded to the peaceful protests with military force, pushing the country into a vicious downward spiral of violence, bloody battles and a civil war that is still ongoing between the regime and opposition forces.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.

Anadolu Agency
Season 2 of Narcos begins on Netflix on Friday September 2nd.

There are 10 more episodes this season.

This raw, gritty series chronicles the gripping real-life stories of the drug kingpins of the late 1980s and the corroborative efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. It details the many, often-conflicting forces  legal, political, police, military and civilian  that clash in the effort to control cocaine, one of the worlds most valuable commodities.

The series stars Wagner Moura (Elite Squad, Elysium) as Pablo Escobar alongside Boyd Holbrook (Gone Girl) and Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones) as real-life DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Pena.

Jose Padilha (Elite Squad, RoboCop) and Eric Newman (Children of Men) serve as executive producers of the series. Narcos is produced by Gaumont International Television for Netflix .
A 5 a.m. commute in a 50,000 pound Army helicopter isn't a normal morning commute for most people, but for the National Guard members of the 2nd Civil Support Teammilitary personnel specially trained to find chemical, biological, and radiological weaponsit's just another day in the office.



Twelve members of the New York team linked up with a New York Army National Guard CH-47 flown by Soldiers of Company B, 3rd Battalion 126th Aviation from Rochester, N.Y., for a ride to work on July 27, 2016. The team would participate in an emergency response exercise in nearby Vermont.

New York Army National Guard CH-47 F model left the Army Aviation Support Facility in Rochester, N.Y. for Stratton Air National Guard Base in Schenectady, N.Y. on July 27, 2016, aviators and crew members from Detachment 1, Company B, 3rd Battalion 126th Aviation Regiment picked up service members from the New York National Guard's 2nd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team (CST) and landed at the Burlington Air National Guard Base in Vermont. The Battalion is part of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. Christopher Giebel) The combined training satisfied an annual requirement for the members of the Civil Support Team, known as a CST, to practice deployment via helicopter. The Rochester aviators, part of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, also practiced one of their routine aircrew missions: deploying the CST from Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia.



"It was a great opportunity for us to provide the 2nd Civil Support Team with unique CH-47F aviation assets, said Maj. Eric Fritz, a Webster, N.Y. resident and one of the CH-47 pilots for the flight. This also gave us an opportunity to develop a team relationship and understanding of how we can assist in their mission.



The CST was participating in a Vigilant Guard disaster response exercise hosted by the Vermont National Guard. The national-level exercise in Burlington required New York's 2nd CST to provide support to fellow CST teams from Maine and Vermont. The exercise, involving both National Guard forces and Vermont first responders, simulated scenarios requiring urban search and rescue, cyber terror defense, a viral outbreak and bio-chemical terrorism.



The scenario required the New Yorkers to check for the presence of contaminants at the Burlington Air National Guard Base as other CST elements focused on other events.



After the hour flight, the team arrived in Burlington with the sunrise. After initial coordination with an incident commander, two CST members suited up in their hazardous material (HAZMAT) protective suits while other Soldiers and Airmen provided decontamination and medical support.



The CST trains to assist first responders with identifying agents and substances, assessing current and projected consequences and advising civilian incident commanders on response measures.



By late morning, the team had established a decontamination site and a two person team went inside a vacant building to search for suspected hazardous materials, working together to clear each room inside the building.



The team trains constantly and we have to be prepared for many different scenarios, explained Army National Guard Maj. Amy Benedetto, deputy team commander and Schenectady, N.Y. resident. The strong bond and trust our team has towards one another allows us to accomplish our missions successfully, she said.



I have been a part of the CST for over nine years and it is so important for us to be experts at our jobs for when we go down range, said Air National Guard Master Sgt. Brian Gifford, resident of Altamont.



Adding to the heat of the summer day in July, the temperature inside the CST HAZMAT suits reached more than one hundred degrees by the time the team cleared all the rooms.



If the Soldiers are not 100 percent healthy, not only is their health in jeopardy but also the mission, said Air National Guard Maj. Philip Smith, physician assistant for the CST and resident of East Nassau, N.Y. Each Soldier will get a physical to monitor their vitals, these Soldiers must be in great health to wear over forty pound chemical suits.



Every team has a graded evaluation we must participate in every 18 months, so it pushes us to train hard all year long and take every mission seriously, Smith said.



Less than six hours from their arrival, the team provided an all-clear assessment to the incident commander, completing their task and successfully redeploying back to Scotia in the early afternoon.



The 2nd CST is one of two Civil Support Teams in the New York National Guard. New York also maintains the 24th CST, based at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, and focuses its operations in the New York City metropolitan area. The two teams, manned by full-time National Guard members, are prepared to deploy throughout New York or the northeast as required. By NY National Guard, Capt. Jean Marie Kratzer

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Let's say you know nothing about auto mechanics. But you have a burning desire to soup up your car without any help. You go online and find various tips about how to do that. One week, you try to install a turbocharger. The next week, you attempt to change the gear ratio of the car's rear end.

How do you think that car would run after a few months of this?

It's the same deal with a computer. Too many people  earnest and with good intentions  spend their time trying various computer tweaks they find online, search out free programs that are promoted as a way to instantly fix computer problems and bravely attempt all this without the slightest notion of how things really work.

So it is no wonder that they end up fixing their computers until they are in a real fix.

I'm not being mean-spirited when I say all this. The impulse is noble. It's just that all this fights against one of the truisms of do-it-yourself. If you don't know what is wrong, then there's a really good chance that your fixing will make things worse.

Almost every reader I've heard from has the capability to learn enough to safely work on computers. But to do it, they'd have to spend time learning first. And considering how much there is to learn that's enough to be intimidating to anyone. It's like being faced with eating a 4-pound steak for dinner. But there's a way to comfortably eat that steak  all you have to do is slice it up and have a bit now, a little more tomorrow. It's the same with learning about computing  narrow things down into manageable bites.

If that sounds reasonable to you, let's continue to refine your educational plan. I suggest you start with real basics  how does a computer work? What is an operating system and what does it do? How is software put together? None of that will have a great practical effect on your ability to fix your computer. Instead, it will provide you with a basic level of knowledge that will help you understand things as you study more practical areas that will let you work on the computer.

For instance, after the basics, you may want to study anti-malware software and the various ways it works. Or you may want to read about firewalls, or basic networking. The world's your oyster and you can construct your own path for learning.

The web is a great resource for learning. Just stick with reputable websites and be especially mindful of brand-name sites as well as those from educational institutions. But there are many other sources of help including adult education courses offered by some colleges and universities and even old-fashioned books.

As what you learn moves forward, test your ideas by doing some tinkering at a practical level. After all, the whole idea here was to learn enough so that you could safely work on your computer. So try some easy chores. You may still make mistakes but  now that you are student  even the mistakes are part of your educational process. The difference is that instead of making blind mistakes you'll now know enough to figure out what you did wrong.

As you go along, you'll either find out that all this is fun and that you are actually learning, or you may find that it's boring and confusing and not for you. No big deal either way. After all, you can cope just fine with not knowing as long as you promise yourself not to go back to fixing things you don't understand.

Bill Husted writes about technology. Contact him at tecbud@bellsouth.net.
CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR SAGE Publications displays a time capsule enclosed in a glass case in the lobby of its new office building. The capsule will be opened in 2040.

SHARE CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR A portion of the time capsule at SAGE Publications is shown. It is enclosed in a glass case in the lobby of their new office building and will be opened in 2040. BELOW: A time capsule enclosed in a glass case is displayed in the lobby of SAGE Publications' new office building. The capsule will be opened in 2040. CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR SAGE Publications CEO Blaise Simqu greets Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Claudia Bill-de la Pena at the ribbon-cutting for the company's new Thousand Oaks office building. PHOTOS BY CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR ABOVE: SAGE Publications CEO Blaise Simqu speaks during the ribbon-cutting at the company's new Thousand Oaks office building.

By Mike Nelson, Special to The Star

Employees as "ecosystems"?

An odd definition, maybe. But at SAGE Publishing in Thousand Oaks, the 500 or so employees working at its corporate headquarters  about half of whom would be affected by the company's recent expansion into a new building less than a mile away  are a source not only of great pride, but great concern to SAGE's corporate leaders.

"When you think about expansion, or moving to new office space," said Blaise Simqu, CEO of the worldwide publisher of college and university educational materials, "you must consider that each employee's life is a very fragile ecosystem. He or she may be caring for an elderly parent, or have kids in school, or sharing the car with a spouse, and any move could disrupt that system."

So when it became clear that SAGE  whose sales have grown in every year since it began in 1965  needed additional space, it was important to company leaders that the new space be close to its headquarters on Teller Road.

"In assessing a new location," Simqu said, "I said I didn't want us to move more than one or two freeway exits from where we were. Maybe we could have moved to Camarillo, maybe 4 or 5 miles down the Conejo Grade, but that could disrupt the lives of our employees who live in the San Fernando Valley by adding another 15 minutes, or more, to their commute. And the same if we'd gone to Moorpark; what about our employees who live in Ventura?"

Considering that all but a handful of SAGE's Thousand Oaks office-based employees interviewed for the positions locally, "it means that most of our people live in the area, and build their lives around where they work. So as an employer, when you have a choice to make that affects the lives of your employees, you we need to be mindful of that."

So it is that SAGE now occupies 100,000 square feet of space on Conejo Spectrum Street, walking distance from its warehouse. The building is 30 percent larger than its Teller Road corporate headquarters, a building SAGE has occupied for a quarter-century and where employees will continue to attend its traditional bimonthly meetings.

And, Simqu said, the move has been smooth and virtually painless  "excellent," in fact.

"There are two keys to a successful move," he pointed out. "One, your building broker owner  in this case, the Cusumano Family, of Burbank, who has been terrific to work with. And second, your own company's facilities team  in our case, headed by Tracey Ozmina (chief operating officer and executive vice president)."

Such a move, Simqu said, is similar to a military operation, "with the same kind of planning and precision required, and our team did a great job. They made sure the employees' boxes and equipment were coded and numbered so they could leave Thursday afternoon, come in Monday morning, and be up and running. And we never had a delay or had to send people home because things weren't set up."

The Thousand Oaks move (celebrated with a July 21 ribbon-cutting) is the latest in a decade of expansion for SAGE, whose nearly 2,000 employees are spread around the world. In the past decade, SAGE has opened offices in Singapore, Washington, D.C., and Australia, joining its offices in London and New Delhi as well as "satellite" offices in Asia and Europe.

Overall, business continues to grow with more expansion targeted for the "digital space" markets, as SAGE continues to serve colleges, universities and libraries by supplying students, professors and libraries with course material, research material, scientific and medical journals. SAGE now publishes more than 800 books and more than 900 journals annually, and has increased its array of library products (archives, data, case studies, video and its online tool SAGE Research Methods).

"To continue to serve in an environment where information and research are so quickly updated, where the world changes so rapidly, is a good challenge, and we can never be complacent about that," Simqu said. "But it's a challenge we've been able to meet for decades, and by doing so, we've successfully grown our business."

SAGE also participates in its local community through outreach activities, including the recent assembling and distribution of 1,000 backpacks with new school supplies, for donation to underprivileged children in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Partnering organizations for this project included Casa Pacifica, Many Mansions, School on Wheels and Transition House.

"We believe we're educating the next generation of our world through our work in the areas of science, technology and policy. We service people whose goal is to make the world a better place, and I'm very proud to be part of this industry, and this company."

He noted that when he interviewed with SAGE founder Sara Miller McCune in 1986, "she said they were moving the company from Beverly Hills to Thousand Oaks for the quality of life and to build the company. And that's what we've done in the last 30 years in Thousand Oaks. Obviously, for all of us, that was the right decision."
photos by JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Helen and Hank Kawecki are being evicted from their Thousand Oaks home. Neighbors Linda and Doug Emerson are leading an effort to help them.

Hank and Helen Kawecki married and settled into a home on Hauser Circle some 50 years ago.

The couple, now both 88, planned to live in the Thousand Oaks ranch-style house until death did them part.

Perhaps I've grown sentimental in my dotage but I recall those '60s days as a time when neighbors would sit outside on summer nights, shooting the breeze and swatting mosquitoes, as the kids ran through the lawn sprinkler.

Folks of a certain age might say the fabric of our communities grew less close-knit as our lives went digital. These devices give us the power  or the temptation  to overschedule our families so that neighbors share little more than a wave as they stare into their screens.

Some might bemoan this shift; I might have been one of them  until what happened to the Kaweckis showed me the Digital Age has not been the death of neighborliness, rather its redefinition.

When all seemed lost, the couple discovered not only did the residents of their quiet lane come to their aid. So did their new neighbors living in Pakistan, Australia and across America.

Last month, I wrote that the Kaweckis faced eviction from their home because loans their grandson, Chadd Moore, took out against the property went into default. The Kaweckis have filed suit against Moore and several lenders. Ventura County Sheriff's Office detectives are investigating the case.

With little income to pay moving or rental expenses, the Kaweckis faced homelessness after a judge ruled against them in an eviction proceeding. Helen then expressed to me that she felt she had little to live for.

Dozens of people pitched in to help these good folks, but it's fair to say no one has done more to keep a roof over the Kaweckis' head than their neighbors Doug and Linda Emerson.

Among the aid they offered, the Emersons set up an online account asking strangers to help Helen and Hank.

A former educator and homeless advocate, Doug Emerson figured the fund would raise maybe $10,000.

Fueled by media coverage the Emersons helped fire up, that much came in a single day.

To date, the Kaweckis' account on GoFundMe.com totals $117,048. These gifts vary from five to a thousand bucks. Four donations came in while I wrote this column.

So successful is the campaign, it drew the attention of the lender's attorney, who went back to court last week asking the judge to order the Kaweckis to pay rent based on the GoFundMe total, said the couple's attorney Ed Elrod of Ventura. The judge denied that request.

And if your faith in humanity is circling the drain about now, I urge you to go to https://www.gofundme.com/27m9zvn3.

There, 3,500 people, mostly strangers to the Kaweckis, left money and encouragement. A few offered graphic suggestions on a just fate to the person or people who did this to the couple.

Karen Gardner donated, saying "I almost lost my house due to battling cancer, and I had special people help me." Nancy Morris pitched in $40, although she said she herself is in danger of losing her house.

Lorna Golter gave $25, assuring the couple Canada loves them. Sami Badil signed up for $100 from Pakistan. John Taylor from Wales sent 10 pounds across the pond.

An array of businesses ponied up. American Freedom Distillery of Tampa raised $100. The folks at Speedway Motors Covina put in a fast $50. The GoFundMe Team itself donated $1,000.

Carol Wolkins bestowed $100 on the couple, noting that it was a windfall from her own escrow.

"I don't need it. This is a gift from God," she said.

How right she is. While strategies designed to keep the Kaweckis in their home fizzled, a Plan B financed by the GoFundMe proceeds will give them a new lease on life.

Using those donations, the couple bought a unit in a quiet Newbury Park mobile home park. Their application was approved as I wrote this. The court ordered the Kaweckis to vacate their home on Sept. 27. Escrow now is slated to close on the mobile home around Sept. 1. So they have time to downsize. California PODS has promised a storage unit at no charge while the couple sorts things out.

The new digs are in rough condition, Doug Emerson told me. The GoFundMe money will help, but the volunteers are already lining up to give the couple the comforts they deserve. Emerson lists on the GoFundMe page the name of Realtors who are handling the paperwork and escrow at no charge. He names tradesmen who will donate the inspection as well as the repairs.

"With all the negativity going on in the world, this is reassuring," Doug Emerson said.

Yes. It's nice to know virtual strangers really can become the new neighbors.

Email Colleen Cason at casonpoint101@gmail.com.
DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR The West Coast Ravens put on a performance Saturday during the Wings Over Camarillo air show at the Camarillo Airport.

SHARE DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR A World War II B-25 bomber flies past for spectators Saturday during the Wings Over Camarillo air show at the Camarillo Airport. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Spectators watch an aerial performance Saturday during the air show in Camarillo. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Rob Gordon (left) from WWII Visual Living History, invites Aisling Spurgeon to sit in a jeep Saturday during the Wings Over Camarillo air show. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Robert Clark holds his son Curran as they watch vintage planes fly by Saturday during the Wings Over Camarillo air show.

By Jeremy Foster, Special to The Star

Annie Dafoe slid into the front of a World War II B-25 Mitchell Bomber while her parents, Kat and Eric Dafoe, waved and took photos of her from ground level.

The 6-year-old waved back and later told them it was "cool" to have been inside the plane called Executive Sweet.

The Dafoes were making the rounds of historic aircraft Saturday during the 2016 Wings over Camarillo Air Show at the Camarillo Airport. The show continues from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the airport, 555 Airport Way.

Eric Dafoe said the show reminded him of his childhood, when he visited military air shows with his father.

"This is my first time at the show here in Camarillo, and I'm really surprised," he said. "I have either been to military air shows or private air shows. This seems to have it all."

Nearby, Steve Johnson, one of the Mitchell Bomber's pilots, helped coordinate with crew members as they prepared the plane for takeoff.

"Executive Sweet here never saw combat, but it would have served in the South Pacific during World War II," he said. "What made her famous was that 16 of these planes, under Jimmy Doolittle in April 1942, launched the first air raid to strike the Japanese home islands."

The medium bomber that's on display, he said, was used in the 1970 film "Catch-22."

Johnson has been flying in the show for 25 years.

"The great thing about this show and these airplanes, and especially now, is that there's so many generations who have no idea what these planes were used for," he said. "This is really a chance for them to come out and not only see history, but touch it, smell it and hear it. This show is also the last chance we have to recognize a generation that gave up so much for our freedom."

The day kicked off with an Air Force recruitment ceremony that featured Lt. Colonel Robert J. Friend, one of the last surviving original Tuskegee Airmen. The air show featured a P-51 Mustang that flew in honor of him.

"I'm really happy to be here today and happy to see the recruits because I'd like to ensure we have a good foundation for the future of this country, which I am so proud of," he said.

Nearby stood a C-17A Globemaster III that landed at the airport weighing 325,000 pounds and is on display at the show for the first time. The plane was flown in by the 729th Airlift Squadron of the Air Force Reserve.

Before the planes took to the skies, many of their pilots mingled with visitors.

Jason Somes, operations officer for the Commemorative Air Force, flew an Aero L-29 Delfin on Saturday. He'll fly a Grumman F8F Bearcat and a Fairchild 24 on Sunday.

What he loves most is talking to visitors about the planes.

"I hear so many stories about someone's parent or grandparent or how they have some direct connection with the kind of planes we show," he said. "A lot of people want to see a show and many are really into it."

Retired Staff Sgt. Verne Horton stood by a PBJ-1J, which after 23 years of restoration took to the skies at the show for the first time.

He was a crew member with Marine Squadron VMB-611 during World War II and said tears flooded his eyes when he saw the plane again after 70 years.

"It was memorable in that I felt more reverence than anything else," said Horton, who flew 43 combat missions during the war. Horton said the plane was restored the way he remembered it, "and the story behind it is fantastic."

"As someone who was in this during the war," he said, "I can authenticate that the work they all did was true to this aircraft."
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Oxnard Councilwoman Carmen Ramirez and other members of a trade delegation visit the Great Wall of China. Alan Wapner (from left), president of Ontario Airport Authority; his wife, Judi Wapner; Ramirez; Craig Young, former mayor of Yorba Linda; and Ali Taj, mayor pro tem of Artesia.

SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Oxnard Councilwoman Dorina Padilla poses for a photo with members of the Ocotlan fire department, which received uniforms and fire engine donations from the city. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO An Oxnard fire engine is seen in Ocotlan, Mexico, a sister city with Oxnard.

By Wendy Leung of the Ventura County Star

Oxnard officials have a tendency to brag about their city. The beaches, the culture, the strawberries.

Two council members recently bragged about Oxnard to some very faraway places. Councilwoman Dorina Padilla returned from a trip to Ocotlan, Mexico, made through the sister cities program and Councilwoman Carmen Ramirez returned from a multicity tour of China as a trade delegate.

Residents of Ocotlan are quite familiar with Oxnard. The sister city relationship was first formed in 1964. When Padilla arrived, she and others in her group were escorted from the airport by a fire engine donated by Oxnard. There's even a street there named after Oxnard.

In China, Ramirez didn't meet anyone who had heard of Oxnard or Ventura County. But she made a presentation about Oxnard and handed out souvenirs.

"The things I told them about Oxnard was a hit," Ramirez said. "They think California coastal life is a dream."

Gifts she brought included T-shirts, Channel Islands National Park brochures and jars of strawberry jam. Ramirez later realized that the lapel pins she had brought with her were made in China.

It was strictly a trade and investment trip, not a political one. But politics crept up here and there with some Chinese people curious about Donald Trump and asking about the presidential candidate.

Ramirez prepared her answers carefully, saying she's a Hillary Clinton supporter.

In addition to visiting ancient temples and the Great Wall, Ramirez visited a steel foundry and a power plant. The tour, which included the cities of Beijing, Nanjing, Shenzhen and others, also took the delegation to the headquarters of WeChat, the popular social networking app. There Ramirez learned about the shake function, which enables users to find services and even love with the shake of a smartphone.

Ramirez was among a group that included state Treasurer John Chiang, Southern California and Nevada mayors and business leaders. The trip was paid for by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, local friendship associations and the Chinese government.

"When you actually talk to people, there's a lot of room for common ground," Ramirez said. "Beyond the official discussion, people are really attracted to what the U.S. has to offer."

Some Chinese cities have expressed interest in developing a sister city relationship with Oxnard, something Ramirez would like to explore. But she said that may be difficult considering the distance and language barrier.

To visit Ocotlan, it's only a three-hour plane ride.

As part of the sister city relationship, Oxnard has donated medical equipment, fire equipment and even uniforms to Ocotlan. Oxnard fire officials have also provided training to Ocotlan firefighters.

It's a great way to build city-to-city diplomacy, Padilla said.

She stayed in the downtown area with a host family and viewed some of the mixed-use development, something Oxnard hopes to have in its downtown.

"The program is an opportunity for cities to engage with one another, share customs and see what works in each municipal setting," Padilla said.

The trip is paid through fundraising from the Ocotlan sister city program and by the participant.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Raja Gemini performs during the Ventura County Pride festival Saturday at Promenade Park in Ventura. Gemini was the Season 3 winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race."

SHARE JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Michelle Carrillo blows big bubbles Saturday during the Ventura County Pride festival at Promenade Park in Ventura. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Raja Gemini performs during the Ventura County Pride festival Saturday at Promenade Park in Ventura. Gemini was the Season 3 winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race." JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Ed Partido (left) and his husband Ignacio Partido, of Oxnard, dance Saturday during the Ventura County Pride festival at Promenade Park in Ventura. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR The crowd watches Raja Gemini perform at during Saturday's Ventura County Pride festival in Ventura.

By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

Finding a place to feel safe has become a priority for the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community, the vice president of the Diversity Collective Ventura County said Saturday during the group's Ventura County Pride festival.

The annual festival has been put on by various organizations since it originated in 1999. This is the third year for it to be organized by the Diversity Collective, with about 60 volunteers on Saturday hosting the festival at the Ventura Promenade Park as hundreds of people enjoyed music, food, fellowship, information and support.

Diversity Collective Vice President Joseph Summers said many in the LGBT community are still reeling from the shootings in Orlando, Florida.

"It's especially important to honor the victims of Orlando. We also want to celebrate marriage equality. We're not there yet, though, with equal rights," Summers said.

Summers, who has been volunteering to help with the festival since 2000, said he has seen a move toward more inclusiveness throughout Ventura County.

"California is very welcoming to the gay community, and Ventura County is on the cusp of being a blue county," he said, referring to the traditional delineation by color between the major political parties  blue being Democratic and red Republican.

The primary purpose of the festival is education and advocacy, Summers said, pointing out booths representing many churches, county agencies, nonprofits and colleges among the 65 vendors.

In addition to the daytime festival, the weekend also included a wide range of parties and activities, including an after-party and a Sunday brunch.

At the Lemonade Lounge during the festival on Saturday, a booth with a sitting area sponsored by the Rainbow Umbrella youth group, young people crowded the small area looking for support.

According to one of the organizers, Stephanie Zanda, of Ventura, the organization exists to offer young people a place where they can explore their gender and sexual identity without judgment.

"This is a place for young people to meet other kids like them. It gets bigger and bigger every year. I've been doing this for the past four years, and now we're getting people who come from all over," Zanda said, adding that creating a "safe zone" is vital.

"They need to feel loved and wanted in a place where everyone is accepting of their feelings."

Spencer Jay, 16, and Seth Stevenson, 17, both of Ventura, said they were at the festival to support people they know.

"We have a lot of gay and bisexual family friends," Jay said before speculating that increasing acceptance of the LGBT community is "an awakening of liberal thought."

Stevenson called the increased awareness "the second civil rights movement."

"There are big parallels to the '60s era," Stevenson said. "Things have changed a lot since our parents' generation."

Enjoying a beer at the Paddy's Bar and Lounge truck, Angel Castro said he came to the festival to support friends in one of the bands playing throughout the day  Pasa Dangerous.

"I'm gay, and I'm here to support the LGBT community," Castro said, adding that an event that promotes tolerance and education is welcome.

At the Oxnard College booth, Susan Carrasco, assistant counselor, and Gaby Rodriguez, student activities specialist, were handing out condoms, bags and squishy stress hearts.

Carrasco said the Oxnard College effort is part of school nurse Deanna McFadden's effort to reach out to LGBT students, especially when it comes to matters of health.

"We offer free HIV tests and health services for the Oxnard College family," Carrasco said.

Rodriguez expressed concern about national statistics on hate crimes and cyberbullying.

"At Oxnard College, we are taking a stand and making everyone welcome," Rodriguez said.

Learn more: Call 648-5428 or visit http://www.diversitycollectivevc.org for more information about the Diversity Collective.
SHARE

Is this the "pivot" by Donald Trump we've all been waiting for? It looks more like a giant step backward.

Instead of adopting a moderate position on immigration that could make the Republican presidential nominee more palatable to the mainstream  which, polls indicate, doesn't favor mass deportations and supports earned legal status if illegal immigrants acknowledge wrongdoing  a recent shift in Trump's immigration plan makes the candidate appear more xenophobic.

I didn't believe this was possible for someone who launched his campaign on a promise to protect Americans from Mexican criminals and rapists  a fear-mongering tactic that seems passe now that Trump is more worried about the Islamic State.

The candidate is framing his recent call for "extreme vetting" of legal immigrants who come from countries where there is a lot of terrorism as a national security measure. Supposedly the objective is to prevent future attacks against the United States. Yet it's also being pitched as part of his overall immigration policy.

This is not at all helpful. As evidenced by the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Orlando, the new threat is from Muslim Americans who are already in the United States but have become radicalized. How does cracking down on immigration stop that?

Also, the immigration debate in the United States is largely a discussion about what to do with Mexican immigrants who, in better economic times, stream across the U.S.-Mexico border and who now seem to be headed in the opposite direction. It's not fair to mix this group with radical Islamic terrorists.

Here's how we tell them apart: One threatens our lives by wanting to do harm; the other makes our lives possible by doing the cooking, landscaping and vacuuming.

Trump's vetting plan is the brainchild of Sen. Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, to whom the candidate outsourced the job of shaping his immigration policy.

Since these ideas are on loan, Trump may not see them through if he is elected president. The GOP standard-bearer seems to have no core beliefs, but he does have a willingness to compromise. He might just be pushing a right-wing hard line on immigration to energize the GOP base, with no intention of ever implementing it.

Earlier this year, Trump had an off-the-record conversation with The New York Times editorial board in which he supposedly said his campaign rhetoric about removing scores of illegal immigrants with a "deportation force" was probably not something he would follow through with. Instead, Trump said, that kind of talk was merely the starting point of a negotiation.

This would mean Sessions could soon find himself on the sidelines, as have other Trump former advisers. Still for now, the senator seems to be driving Trump's policy agenda on immigration. And that's not good.

It's one thing to take a stand against illegal immigration because, as Trump said early in his campaign, without laws and borders, you don't have a country. But it's another thing to make it harder to immigrate legally. Legal immigration is something most Americans support and seem to agree isn't the real problem.

After all, if you argue that people have to follow the rules, how do you then turn around and penalize those who have done just that??

You'd be surprised. This conflating of legal and illegal immigration happens every day in the immigration debate, which has always been about keeping out not just the undocumented but foreigners in general.

For one thing, that's where the numbers are. There are, in the United States, more than three times as many foreign-born Americans (roughly 40 million) who are here legally as there are illegal immigrants (about 11 million).

Besides, some insist legal immigration leads to illegal immigration because people from other countries try to join family members in the United States, even if they must do so illegally.

So if what motivates you to take a hard line against immigration is a concern over the racial and ethnic composition of America, sooner or later you have to drop the pretense that you're only concerned with illegal immigrants and go after their legal brethren.

Accordingly, whereas Trump was initially worried only about illegal immigrants, he now wants to put obstacles in the way of some legal immigrants  if they come from the wrong countries.

The GOP nominee brags about his intelligence. But you have to wonder: What part of "legal" does The Donald not understand?

Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.


As part of the Set Your Life to Music summer concert series, last night (Saturday, Oct. 10), The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas welcomed alternative rock band Garbage to Boulevard Pool as part of the bands 20 Years Queer Tour (Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com).

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com

Indie artist Torres kicked off the night with her contagious mix of rock and folk songs before Garbage rocked the crowd with a high-energy set including songs Only Happy When It Rains, Queer and Supervixen.

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com

Garbage is touring to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its self-titled debut album.

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com

Photo credit:  Erik Kabik / www.ErikKabik.com
File photo: Indonesian navy conducting a patrol off the waters of Nusa Kambangan. (AFP/Rohmat Syarif)

The small boat was carrying 17 passengers from the port city of Tanjung Pinang in Riau Islands province east of Sumatra when it encountered bad weather, navy spokesman Edi Sucipto told AFP.

"Twelve people have been found, but ten had already passed away," he said, adding the two injured were in critical condition.

A navy speedboat was still searching for the five still missing, Sucipto added.

The stricken vessel was only a small craft equipped with an outboard motor, he said. The journey was supposed to take around an hour.

The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on boat transport, but fatal accidents are common. More than 60 people died in December when huge waves capsized a ferry charting a course through Sulawesi province.
The office of Gameloft, a French video game developer, in Viet Nam. Enterprises from the EU remain optimistic on the business environment in Viet Nam. - File Photo

Accordingly, the majority of European enterprises acknowledged that the countrys macroeconomic stability will likely continue, with 56.3 per cent of respondents forecasting stabilisation and improvement and just 9.4 per cent of respondents expecting deterioration and 34.4 per cent think that it will not change.

The chamber revealed that about 49 per cent of the respondents expect the number of orders or revenue to increase slightly in the next quarter while 15.6 per cent of them were even more optimistic. Therefore, when they were asked about investment and personnel development plans, responses were also positive, consistent with the expected business orders. Specifically, 43.8 per cent of respondents answered that they would increase investment, while 43.7 per cent expected an increase in headcount.

A very small amount of respondents said that they would reduce their headcount (4.1 per cent), while 50 per cent would maintain the same level. This result was similar regarding investment plans, with 40.6 per cent of the surveyed businesses responding that investment will be maintained at the same level for the next quarter.

The trend is considered a good sign for the implementation of the European Union-Viet Nam free trade agreement (EUVFTA), which is expected to boost business and investment activities by foreign enterprises in Viet Nam.

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) showed that two-way trade between Viet Nam and the EU reached US$21.2 billion in the first seven months of this year, up 9.05 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Of this figure, Viet Nam shipped $16.2 billion worth of goods to the EU, a year-on-year increase of 8.68 per cent while importing over $4.97 billion worth of goods, up 10.28 per cent against the same period in 2015.

Tran Ngoc Quan, deputy head of the EU Market Department under the MoIT said in the countrys export strategy to 2020, with a vision to 2030, the EU was considered one of the key trade and economic development partners, but in order to make the most of the preferential treatment offered from the EUVFTA, the local business community should take the initiative in all spheres, including market orientation, partnerships, manufacturing renovation and business culture.


During the trip, he did not stay in any hotel because he carried a small house with him, on his motorcycle.



The house is 0.5m wide and over 1m high.



It is equipped with a small bed, a fan, a kitchen and even a dual beam for daily exercise.



On the roof is a solar panel to produce electricity for the operation of an electric fan, an electric stove and lights. To fight the sun, he covers it with a layer of artificial grass and a heat insulator layer.
Rescuers carry an injured man to hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey, following a blast which left at least 30 dead AFP/Ahmed Deed

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack in Gaziantep late Saturday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30.

Erdogan said in a statement there was "no difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep".

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!" he said.

KURDS TARGETED

Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom - Besna and Nurettin Akdogan - were in hospital but their lives were not in danger.

Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey such as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines".

Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921 when it defeated French forces in Turkey's Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

"Our grief is great but be sure our unity and togetherness will defeat all these diabolic attacks," he said.

'HAPPIEST DAY POISONED'

Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said there was a "high possibility" it was a suicide attack, comments echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek.

Dogan news agency said the suicide bomber had mixed in with the guests before detonating the charge. Security forces are now searching for two individuals who entered the celebration with the suspected bomber and then fled, it added.

Gulser Ates, who was wounded in the attack, told Hurriyet the attack took place as the party was breaking up.

"We were sitting on chairs, having a chat with one of our neighbours.

"During the explosion, the neighbour died on top of me. I remember being underneath. If my neighbour hadn't fallen on top of me, I would have died," she said.

"The bride and groom's happiest day was poisoned."

HUB FOR SYRIANS

A major city lying just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Images from the scene showed bodies covered in white sheets while distraught relatives of the victims were comforted in the street.

Police also fired in the air to prevent further tensions after scuffles broke out when a group brandishing Turkish flags arrived on the scene, images showed.

As has been the case in previous attacks, Turkey's broadcasting regulator RTUK banned broadcast of footage from the scene of the attack in Gaziantep.

IS suicide bombers have carried out attacks in Istanbul several times this year, while Kurdish militants have hit targets in both Ankara and Istanbul.

On Thursday, 12 people were killed in a spate of bombings blamed on the PKK, who Erdogan said had killed 70 members of the security forces in the last month alone.

The blast in Gaziantep came just hours after Yildirim said Ankara would in the next six months play a "more active" role in efforts to solve the Syrian civil war.

Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of IS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies, but has taken a tougher line after the jihadist attacks on its soil.
A view of urban areas in west of Sai Gon River in HCM City. The construction ministry is drafting a project on management of the property market. - VNA/VNS Photo The Anh

Ha said at a meeting with property developers -- held by the Viet Nam Real Estate Association last week -- that the property market in the first seven months of this year was stable and that no unusual developments were seen.

However, there were potential risks to which special attention must be given.

Ha said the imbalanced developments in supply and demand of luxury projects and housing projects for low-income earners were a problem, adding that oversupply of the former and shortage of the latter had been forecast from the beginning of 2017.

Viet Nam needs 10 million square metres of social housing, but currently has only 30 per cent of that. In addition, there is a severe shortage of housing projects for lease.

Promoting social housing developments would be the focus, and policies would be prepared to encourage property developers to invest in this segment, Ha said.

The concentration of the credit flow in high-end projects or a minority of developers was another risk, although outstanding loans in the property sector remained at a safe eight per cent of the total outstanding loans, he said. Ha said property developers should tighten management of their own projects to ensure liquidity and be prepared for credit tightening policies.

Ha said while there was some speculation in some projects, it had not become a widespread phenomenon.

The ministry would closely watch the market developments to ensure sustainable growth and efficient and cost-effective use of resources, Ha said, stressing the importance of the real estate market in macro-economic stability.

Ha said financial resources for property development played a key role. "It's time Viet Nam eyed new capital sources such as from real estate investment trusts," Ha said. Capital for property development in Viet Nam main comes from developers, banks and citizens.

In the draft, the ministry is seeking to prepare policies to accelerate the capital market for property development. Improving the transparency of the property market is also an important measure.

Ta Van To, general director of the CEO Group, said the ministry should hasten the simplification of administrative procedures.

President of the Viet Nam Real Estate Association Nguyen Tran Nam said detailed instructions for transactions in unfinished property projects were needed, together with tighter management to ensure compliance.

Nam said the construction ministry should work with relevant ministries and agencies to publicise areas where foreigners would not be allowed to buy houses or apartments.

Nam said the association expected to jointly work with construction authorities in building a market database that was necessary to boost the development of the real estate market.
Old apartment buildings in District 5, HCM City. The Ministry of Finance proposed that the Government offer a preferential corporate income tax of 10 per cent for firms that renovate deteriorating apartment blocks. - VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai

This is aimed at attracting developers to participate in restoring unsafe old apartment buildings, which are a pressing problem in terms of living standards, safety and the urban landscape in major cities such as Ha Noi and HCM City.

Under the proposal, which will be submitted to the National Assembly for comments in October, firms will enjoy a preferential tax rate of 10 per cent in the 2017-20 period, compared to the current popular rate of 20 per cent.

Firms must declare the income of each project separately to enjoy this preferential tax rate, according to the ministry's proposal.

Tran Duc Thang, director of Cienco 1, one in three property companies involved in renovating the C1 Thanh Cong apartments in Ha Noi said this was good news, noting that developers might consider lowering housing prices in response.

However, a representative from another company said the 10 per cent tax rate was applicable for only a three-year period, which is too short as it usually takes at least five years to complete renovations before earning any revenue or profit.

According to Pham Dinh Thi, director of the Tax Policies Department, after 2020, the ministry might consider signing the proposed corporate income tax into law for these firms.

Incentives and policies to encourage firms to participate in renovating deteriorating apartment blocks have become essential, as firms remain hesitant because of low profits and complicated regulations.

After the government issued Resolution 34/2007/NQ-CP in 2007 on measures to renovate these apartment blocks, the results were still far below expectations.

For example, in Ha Noi, only 1 per cent of old apartment buildings were renovated over the past decade.

Statistics from the Ministry of Construction showed that there were some 4,000 old apartment buildings, built before 1991, covering a total area of more than 3 million sq.m., of which 1,516 were in Ha Noi and 900 in HCM City. More than 200 buildings were severely dilapidated and needed to be rebuilt.
Seafood exporters and producers have asked relevant ministries to work with the Chinese side to remove bottlenecks in the export of aquatic products to China. - VNA/VNS Photo

The Chinese side had recently raised some technical queries with regard to a few aquatic products from Viet Nam.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that aquatic shipments to China, a key agro-forestry-fishery export market of Viet Nam, have encountered a few problems.

For example, China requires factories which want to ship their processed aquatic products into the country, to have export code numbers, and exporters to be approved by them.

Meanwhile, according to the regulations of Vietnam's National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD), producers only need to be recognised as eligible to export to China in order to trade.

Some products such as salmon also have not been allowed to enter China. NAFIQAD has sent numerous documents to the Chinese side, but there has been no official response yet.

Amid the Chinese importers' surge in purchasing Vietnamese seafood, China's authorised agencies have also been asking for health certificates issued by Viet Nam's competent bodies for aquatic products from here. As a result, many Chinese businesses have stopped or reduced their purchases.

VASEP have asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to work with China's authorised agencies to clarify the country's requirement for export codes and increase the number of aquatic products from Viet Nam allowed to enter China.

The association has also called on the government and the two ministries to address technical barriers and troublesome administrative procedures.

Viet Nam's aquatic shipments to China reached US$384.3 million in the first half of 2016, a year-on-year rise of 42.8 per cent. The figure included $217.43 million worth of shrimp and $117.03 million worth of tra fish, up 41.8 per cent and 66.7 per cent from a year earlier, respectively.

Meanwhile, the country spent $32.14 million on importing aquatic products from China, which rose by 16.2 per cent from a year before, according to VASEP.
From a start-up with two cows, and after several serious economic losses, ang Ngoc Phong, from a poor farming family in the Mekong delta province of ong Thap, now owns a large cow farming business.  Photo thoibao.today

The 35-year-old owner said he inherited his parents love of labour and hard work. During his childhood, the familys economy was miserable as it was based mostly on small-sized farming and pig breeding with poor technology in Tan Phu ong Commune, Sa ec City.

When he grew up, Phong had a dream to develop a business to fully look after his parents. Taking guidance from a friend, he borrowed money from his parents to buy two traditionally breed Vietnamese cows, but the venture failed. He then went on to buy six cows of different breeds from an An Giang neighbours farm.

He recognised that the cows were growing slowly due to a lack of natural forage. He decided to grow grass on his family-owned 2,500sq.m of farmland, aiming to ensure a supply of cattle feed throughout the year.

It really is a process of difficulties and hardships. Sometimes I fail and totally collapse. Phong said. However, I continue standing up for my family and because of my passion for cattle breeding.

Phong learned about the technology from books, newspapers, a local agriculture department-organised training course, and especially through trial and error himself.

In 2011, Phong developed his own farm by breeding new cows from Vinh Long Provinces Ba Tri District and HCM Citys Cu Chi District.

He said the beef from two cow breeds was of high-quality and had less diseases, so met the demands of domestic consumption. And he also provided young cows to local farms at a cost of VN15-20 million (US$650-900) each, all of which has brought a good stable income for Phong over the last five years.

Success and know-how

In 2015, Phong was awarded an excellent farmer certificate by the ong Thap Provinces Youth Union.

At present, Phongs farm has a 70sq.m ox breeding area with 20 different-breed cows. Good technology, a source of feed, and disease prevention measures, he said, were supporting the cow herd to grow well. A fully grown cow can expect to weigh 1-1.3 tonnes.

He said the farm used to have 80 cows during the rush period in late 2015.

High quality cattle feed, good hygiene in the cow house and know-how is the source of Phongs business success.

Grass, fodder, maize and bran are used as cattle feed throughout the year. A drainage system was built separately to remove animal waste, requiring much investment.

He also actively utilised the feed from his 9,000sq.m of grass growing area.

Phong joined in Tan Phu ong Communes cow breeding co-operative in 2013 in order to have a professional business environment, share experiences and create more jobs for local labourers.

All of Phongs 10 employees are local young people who are qualified for grassing, cattle feed processing, feeding and taking care of the cow herd.

Luong Ngoc Nam, deputy secretary of the local Youth Union praised the cow breeder, saying Phong was a successful example of a job start-up in the province.

Besides his individual business, Phong also participates in supporting other social activities, Nam said.
A tribunal ordered Chad's ex-dictator Hissene Habre on Friday to pay more than 4,700 victims at least $17,000 each for abuses suffered during his time in power.

The Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal found Habre guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment on May 30 for crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and sex crimes committed during his presidency from 1982-1990.

The trial against Habre began in July 2015 and was the first in which courts of one country prosecuted the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes. Victims and survivors have been pursuing the case for more than 15 years.

Judge Gberdao Gustave Kam awarded about $34,000 each to victims of sexual violence, $25,000 to those imprisoned or tortured and $17,000 to indirect victims. The court didn't announce the total figure but it is estimated to be more than $85 million.

Victims had asked for $285 million

Jacqueline Moudeina, head lawyer for the civil parties, said lawyers would consult victims to see if they want to appeal. They had requested $285 million and a monument in honor of those who died.

There was great suffering, so it is entirely normal that a victim would say they are not satisfied, she said.

A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission accused Habre's government of systematic torture, saying 40,000 people died during his rule. It also accused Habre of stealing an amount equivalent at the time to $13 million from the national treasury before fleeing to Senegal in 1990.

The tribunal has already frozen some of Habre's assets. The defense has 15 days to appeal the reparation award. They have already appealed the conviction.

In March 2015, a Chad criminal court convicted 20 security agents involved in the abuses and rewarded 7,000 victims reparations of about 75 billion CFA francs ($125 million). The money has not yet been paid.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit famous battlefields of the Revolutionary War and U.S. Civil War  Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Bull Run. But there have been other bloody conflicts on American soil  such as the Hawaiian Civil War and the French and Indian War  not as well-known, and their battlefields are rarely visited.

The 19th-century Rogue River Indian War is another conflict lost to history for most people. It started with an uprising of natives against miners and other settlers in southwest Oregon in the mid-1850s. There were massacres, reprisals, pitched battles and a final forced expulsion of tribes from their homelands to distant reservations.

Looking back, two things stand out. Artifacts from the mostly forgotten battles lie just beneath the surface. So, too, does interest in the conflict by descendants and neighbors.

The human side of history

A team organized by Southern Oregon University just wrapped up a monthlong excavation of two sites near Gold Beach on the Oregon coast, part of an effort by battlefield archaeologists to resurrect one of the many conflicts that shaped the American frontier.

One site is a former homestead where a family of German immigrants was slain or taken hostage by tribal warriors. Today, only a family cemetery remains for visitors to see at the forested, 1.5-hectare Geisel Monument State Heritage Site.

A few miles away, archaeologists led by professor Mark Tveskov uncovered the foundations of a crude earthen fort. Here, native forces laid siege to more than a hundred settlers and miners for a month until the U.S. Army arrived and beat the tribes back.

"You can see things you can't get just from the written word," he said, explaining the importance of the material record. "Like the desperation of the people at Miner's Fort is not captured in any pioneer memoir where they crafted a kind of heroic picture of what happened. Here, we can see them cowering in a cabin, being rained on by musket balls, burning their wagons and whaleboats to the last piece of hardware."

The investigators say they were surprised by how many artifacts they found in this pasture. Project archaeologist Chelsea Rose shows off one of her favorites, a broken chunk of imitation cut crystal. "I love these because they are absolutely impractical. They're heavy. They're bulky. They're breakable. They're everything you wouldn't think you'd want inside this fort."

But Rose says she can relate to the unknown frontier family who, in their moment of desperation, chose to flee with a cherished leaded glass bowl, because she's also had to flee her home. "I have had to evacuate twice for [wild]fire. And what did I bring? Basically, the equivalent of this  like photo albums, paintings  you know, nothing practical."

Miner's Fort produced huge numbers of musket balls, nails, a few musket parts, trade beads, bottle stoppers, pottery shards, crucibles and little pieces of lead type. Apparently, a set of movable type from a printing press was being melted down to make bullets and lead shot.

Rose said the excavation unearthed animal bones broken into tiny pieces, which showed the besieged colonists were desperate to extract every last bit of nutrition from the food they had. The researchers avoided uncovering human remains.

Family ties to the battles

While the archaeologists and summer field school students work, they receive a steady trickle of visitors bearing questions, stories or artifacts collected long ago.

The cultural resources director for the Siletz Tribe visited several times. Robert Kennta says for tribal folks, the history of the Indian war "is not that old." His grandmother's father lived through it.

"That's very fresh in our family stories, how he by some miracle was able to survive the wars as an orphan boy, spending that last winter in a kind of hollowed-out sugar pine snag, just scraping by."

Kennta says it's difficult to be reminded "of all the suffering people went through on both sides." But he and other tribal visitors came to support the excavation. "It's part of that reconciling of the past with where we're at today and understanding what your family has been through and your whole community has been through. In some ways, it can help you navigate toward a healthier future."

It's these kinds of reactions that motivate archaeologists Tveskov and Rose.

"Everything we do as archaeologists, we're always trying to get back to the people," she says. "All these artifacts are fun to look at, but really they are a means to an end. That is to tell the human story. "

Last month, the National Park Service awarded Southern Oregon University nearly $100,000 to survey several more Rogue River Indian War sites and then seek a National Register of Historic Places nomination. Tveskov hopes this eventually raises the profile of the battlefields and leads to better conservation and interpretation.
Firefighters made headway overnight against the Blue Cut wildfire in Southern California that has destroyed more than 300 homes and outbuildings, officials said Saturday.

The fire, which started Tuesday about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Los Angeles, is nearly 70 percent contained, the U.S. Forest Service said. The fire has burned more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) in the mountain areas of San Bernardino County.

No deaths have been reported in the Blue Cut fire, officials said, adding that an investigation into the cause of the blaze was continuing.

San Bernardino County fire spokesman Brad Pitassi said firefighters on Saturday were moving into a mop-up phase.

"Things are extremely positive. We're checking for additional hot spots that could potentially jump the line," Pitassi told the Associated Press. He said officials expected more residents to be able to reutrn to their homes throughout the weekend.

At its height, the wildfire threatened more than 34,000 homes, and more than 82,000 residents were told to evacuate.

Fire officials on Saturday said at least 105 homes and 213 outbuildings had been destroyed.

Late Friday and Saturday, evacuation orders were lifted for tens of thousands of people, allowing many to return to their homes, officials said. However, about 7,000 other residents, mainly in the mountain communities of Lytle Creek and Wrightwood, were still being kept from their homes.

The Blue Cut blaze is just one of several burning in California, where a five-year drought has left huge swaths of land with dried trees and brush.

Between January 1 and August 13, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported 3,874 fires that have burned 45,700 hectares (113,000 acres) and killed seven people, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This week alone, nearly 30 major wildfires have burned about 850 square kilometers (330 square miles) in eight Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The center blamed the fires on the prolonged drought in many areas, as well as unusually hot weather.
It has been 10 years since a ship named the 'Probo Koala' unloaded toxic waste into Abidjans ports, sickening hundreds of thousands and killing at least 15. A decade after the scandal, Ivorian authorities say they have cleaned the dumping sites and taken measures to make sure this doesn't happen again. Despite this, the victims are still demanding justice and compensation.
A massive disaster recovery effort is underway in the southeastern state of Louisiana, as flood victims continue to clean homes, rebuild, and search for people who may have been trapped by widespread flooding. The flooding has been so powerful that caskets have been swept away from some cemeteries.

The flooding, which the American Red Cross describes as the "the largest natural disaster to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy," has claimed the lives of at least 13 people and damaged about 60,000 homes. More than 100,000 people have registered for federal aid.

As people in the flood-ravaged areas attempt to recover from the disaster, many are wondering why they were not aware of the event's magnitude. Between August 8 and 14, nearly 27 trillion liters of rain fell on Louisiana, three times the amount rain produced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to WeatherBell Analytics meteorologist Ryan Maue.

Trying to understand



University of Georgia atmospheric sciences professor Marshall Shepherd believes communications issues are the core reasons people were not aware. In an essay, Marshall writes that the storm system that produced the flooding did not have a name. "The American public is somewhat conditioned to perceive a named or higher-category storm as more of a threat."

Shepherd writes that nomenclature could have also played a role. He cites that one National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office described the storm as "sheared inland tropical depression," a phrase he says "is not going to resonate with the average citizen."

He also believes a busy news cycle dominated by the fatal shooting of an African American man shot dead by a black police officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Olympics, coupled with reduced weekend newsroom staffing, were contributing factors.

Because flooding happens more frequently than tornadoes and hurricanes, Shepherd says "such familiarity may shape perception of risk," even though he writes the National Weather Service warns that flooding and heat are the two most deadly weather events each year.

As recovery efforts continue, so do damage assessments. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it has already dispersed more than $34 million in aid.

Obama to visit



President Barack Obama is to visit the Louisiana town of Baton Rouge on Tuesday. The White House says Obama is eager to see the impact of the floods, but wants to make sure his presence does not "interfere with ongoing recovery efforts."

Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said Saturday that state offices will be open in all parishes on Monday for the first time since the flooding started.
It has been 10 years since a ship named the Probo Koala unloaded toxic waste into Abidjans ports, sickening hundreds of thousands and killing at least 15. A decade after the scandal, Ivorian authorities say they have cleaned the dumping sites and taken measures to make sure this does not happen again. But the victims are still demanding justice and compensation.

Nicole Blegno walks with neighbors among the hilly, open-air landfill behind her village of Akouedo, a dozen kilometers from Abidjan.



She recalls the night 10 years ago when she woke up to a smell of rotten garlic.



"It is here that they offloaded the toxic waste," says Blegno, pointing her finger at a nearby stream. People cultivate the land nearby.



On the night of August 19, 2006, trucks illegally discharged toxic waste from a ship named the Probo Koala in several open-air locations around Abidjan.



Hundreds of thousands of people living near the sites soon got sick and at least 15 died.



Symptoms persist

Blegno says residents are still feeling the symptoms.



We all have problems with our eyes, with our skin, strange stomachaches, she said.



Local residents say there was never any medical follow-up and have been asking to have their medical expenses covered. Most do not have money to seek treatment.



The exact composition of the toxic waste from the Probo Koala remains unknown. Trafigura, the Dutch oil trading firm that chartered the vessel, has never disclosed it, despite NGOs such as Amnesty International repeatedly asking them to do so.



Residents also say they can still smell the peculiar odor when it rains, despite the Ivorian government announcing last year that all locations had been decontaminated.



Eager to prove their point, Ivorian authorities have recently invited a UN team to come and check. The results of their audit are expected by the end of the year.



The director of the CIAPOL anti-pollution center, Martin N. Dibi, says new measures have been implemented during the past decade.



Dibi says that each time a ship arrives at the port and indicates it is transporting liquids they want to offload, authorities send a team over to run an analysis.



Meanwhile, victims still feel that justice has not been done.



Quest for justice



In 2007, Trafigura agreed to pay a multi-million-dollar settlement to the Ivorian government in exchange for being exempted from prosecution.



As he flips through the piles of victims folders in his office, the president of a collective of victims' associations, Denis Yao Pipira, says bringing Trafigura to justice is key is deterring similar behaviors in the future.



Pipira says that if there is no exemplary sanction, it will pave the way for new dumping grounds similar to the ones they have experienced in 2006. "Companies only focused on saving money will come to Africa to get rid of their waste with total impunity," he adds.



Ten years later, many victims are still waiting for compensation. Some recently protested outside the American embassy in Abidjan, asking for the international community to step in.
The United States can expect the Zika virus to "hang around" as long as two more years, with the Gulf Coast states being the most vulnerable, according to one of the country's top medical experts.

"I would not be surprised if we see cases in Texas, in Louisiana, particularly now where you have a situation with flooding in Louisiana," Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC television's This Week broadcast Sunday.

Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes the Gulf region is ripe for ZIka because it is a "sub-tropical or semi-tropical region with the right mosquitoes and individuals who have travel related cases."

He said the U.S. has to be prepared for a "broad outbreak" of Zika, but he does not think that is likely because of what Fauci calls "conditions" in the U.S.

"Hopefully, we get to a point to where we could suppress it so we won't have any risk of it," he said.

The Centers for Disease Control has warned pregnant women to avoid the popular South Beach area of Miami Beach, Florida and the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami after seven suspected Zika cases were discovered last week.

The mosquito borne virus has spread across much of Latin America and the Caribbean, and has recently surfaced in the continental U.S.

Zika causes mild or no symptoms in most victims. But it is linked to a severe birth defect called microcephaly in pregnant women, in which babes are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
Before Wenxia Man was arrested for attempting to broker the $50 million sale of military equipment to the Chinese government, she knew the risks.

In conversations with an undercover federal agent posing as a dealer, the California woman admitted she knew smuggling three jet engines and a drone out of the U.S. would be illegal, according to federal court documents.

Yet she pressed on, communicating with the fake dealer and a Chinese "technology spy," Xinsheng Zhang, who was acting as an official agent for the Chinese government to import military equipment and technical data, authorities said.

Now Man, a 45-year-old married mother of two young children and vice president of a tech parts company in San Diego who also goes by the name Wency, will serve out a 50-month sentence for her role in the plot. A judge handed down the ruling in a south Florida U.S. district court last week.

Man stood to receive a $1 million commission on the deal if it had gone through but nearly year-long discussions stalled in 2013.

The U.S. has had an arms embargo against China since 1990; no defense items can be sold or transferred to the country without written government approval, and Man wasn't a registered broker. Man was arrested in September 2015 and pleaded not guilty to federal charges of Conspiracy to Export and Cause the Export of Defense Articles from the United States and unlicensed brokering of defense articles. A jury convicted her in June.

Man, who was born in China, has been a U.S. citizen since 2006.

"The potential for harm to the safety of our fighter pilots, military personnel and national security which would occur had the defendant been successful is immeasurable," the assistant U.S. attorney wrote in his sentencing recommendation. "It is beyond doubt that Man and Zhang were engaged in efforts to allow the Peoples Republic of China to increase its military capabilities and might."

Complicated plot



The plot goes back to at least March 2011 and continued until June 2013; Zhang and Man expressed interest in military items and ultimately became involved via phone and email in talks with the Department of Homeland Security undercover agent, according to court documents. They negotiated which items would be sold and discussed with the fake dealer the need to transport the items through a third country  naming South Korea and Israel as options  to avoid detection, according to court documents. Among the equipment requested was a MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and three types of fighter jet engines.

Man repeatedly told the undercover agent that Chinese government would be the equipment purchaser, according to court documents. A secondary goal of the scheme, which was never carried out, was for China to reverse engineer the drone and jet engines to create its own.

But in a phone interview Sunday, Man's lawyer Alexander Strassman maintained that his client's actions never rose to the level of the charges.

"Her conduct didn't actually mature into a conspiracy," he said, days after the sentencing. The federal law regarding conspiracy, he added, "ought not to have captured this."

He added that Man had no knowledge of military paraphernalia before a contact in China asked her to inquire about them in the U.S.; she was an executive at a San Diego capacitor business that was struggling financially, Strassman said; Man ultimately put the alleged arms dealer and Zhang in direct contact and her role in the negotiations seemingly staled, which lead to a 27-month period before her arrest last September without evidence of criminal behavior, according to the defense attorney and court documents.

The judge ordered that Man receive mental health treatment during and after her prison sentence of 4 years and two months (she is being credited with time served for several months spent awaiting trial in jail). Man's lawyer argued that mental health problems, like depression, anxiety and panic disorders, contributed to a "diminished capacity" that partly explained her criminal behavior, as well as what he called "bizarre" outbursts in court.

"This was an interesting case where the principal target of a government investigation [Zhang] was in China and was never going to be gotten. The only person they could go after was Ms. Man," Strassman said.

Zhang, who is not believed to be in the U.S., has not been detained in connection with the charges.

An emailed request for comment on the case from China's embassy in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned Sunday.

In May, the U.S. defense department released a report on military and security developments involving China that said Beijing is using extensive cyber and human espionage to acquire foreign military technology.
The leader of Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries, Walter Magaya, has appeared in court facing charges of allegedly raping a 25 year-old woman.

According to the independent Standard newspaper, Magaya spent Friday night in police custody and appeared in court the following day.

The newspaper reports that Magaya was arrested soon after conducting a midnight mass prayer in Harare.

Magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe granted him a $2,000 bail and ordered him to report to the Criminal Investigations Departments Law and Order Section three times a week.

Magaya was also asked to surrender his passport to the clerk of court, reside at his given address and not to interfere with witnesses.

Like in most cases, the rape victim who is believed to be a student at the Midlands State University, was not identified.

The Standard reports that the rape case occurred at Magayas house and the victims was allegedly given money to silence her. The state claims that it has audio recordings of the event.

Magaya told the newspaper that he was aware of the arrest ahead of time, saying it was only a passing phase which he will take in his stride.

Magaya reportedly told congregants during the Friday prayer that there were girls in his church who had been offered money by his enemies so that they lay false rape charges against him.
The Historic Waco Foundation will commemorate the ongoing 100th anniversary of World War I with a free program, Waco Citizens Remember the Great War: Tales From Baylors Institute for Oral History Archive, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lee Lockwood Library and Museum, 2801 W. Waco Drive.

Steven Sielaff, the senior editor and collection manager at Baylor Universitys Institute for Oral History, will present firsthand, recorded accounts from Waco residents who lived through the Great War, detailing the many changes and challenges the conflict brought to the Waco area.

For more information, www.historicwaco.org/students-and-adults.

Waco NAACP

The Waco NAACP will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Education Center at the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum, 100 Texas Ranger Trail.

The agenda will focus on education, with the latest information about state testing, school closings and a new campus-based family services project.

For more information, call 733-5261.

Paul Quinn banquet

The Cen-Tex Paul Quinn Alumni Association will have its annual scholarship banquet from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Scottish Rite Library and Museum, 2801 W. Waco Drive.

Jolanda Jones, criminal attorney and former participant on the reality television show Survivor, will be the keynote speaker.

Tickets cost $30.

For more information, call 799-8163.

Baylor String Project

The Baylor University String Project is conducting enrollment for fourth- through eighth-graders who are interested in group instruction on violin, viola, cello and string bass.

Classes will meet from 4:15 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting Sept. 22, in Waco Hall East at Baylor.

Cost is $75 per semester, and instrument rental is between $25 and $35 per month.

For more information email Michael_L_Alexander @Baylor.edu or visit www.baylor.edu/music/index.php?id=859368.

Picnic in the Park

Keep Waco Beautiful is having a Picnic in the Park fundraiser from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Cameron Park Clubhouse, 2601 Sturgis Road.

The event will feature live music, beer, wine and food trucks. Attendees can bring their own food and blankets.

Tickets cost $20. Proceeds will be used to renovate Miss Nellies Pretty Place in Cameron Park.

For tickets, call 750-5728 or email kwacob@gmail.com.

Submit printed or typed items Briefly, P.O. Box 2588, Waco 76702-2588; fax to 757-0302; or email to goingson@wacotrib.com.
In seven years, word seems to have got around that you need to get to the furniture place early for the best chance of getting what you need.

First Baptist Church of Waco has been conducting Furnishings@First since 2009 at a warehouse at 400 S. Sixth St., offering furniture and other household items for loan without charge to Baylor University graduate students.

They were lining up at 8:30 a.m., a half-hour before we opened the doors, church volunteer Jim Hudson said at the start of the event Saturday.

Doors were open from 9 a.m. to noon and will be open the same hours next Saturday, Hudson said.

Hudson is responsible for organizng the events 15 volunteers.

Donors have announced plans to send more items through the week to restock supplies, said Curt Kruschwitz, the churchs associate pastor for college and community missions and overall coordinator for the event. More students are expected, and students who came Saturday may return for more, Kruschwitz said.

The event has been held in the churchs 4,600-square-foot warehouse since it started, but leaders will have to find another location since the church sold the property to Live Oak Classical School, he said.

The school was gracious enough to let us hold it here this year, but well have to move, Kruschwitz said. Were looking at other possibilities.

Volunteer Sara Moore, who was supervising loading onto pickup trucks for delivery to students quarters, said she was thankful for the cool breezes under overcast skies. The trucks were digging a few shallow ruts in the grass, but the ground wasnt muddy enough to be sloppy.

Last year, and in years before that, its been about 100 degrees out here, Moore said. This is a lot more pleasant.

The morning also offered a break in the rains of the past few days, forecast to resume in the afternoon and for the rest of the weekend.

The project began when church members who were moving or downsizing their living arrangements asked the church how their extra furniture could bless the community, Kruschwitz said.

A group from the church approached Baylor officials with an eye toward helping graduate students, who were often forgotten in projects to help new undergraduates living away from home for the first time.

Instead of giving the furniture away, they decided to loan it out so it could be used again as students graduate and move away. Each student or couple is loaned one large piece of furniture and some smaller items such as kitchen utensils.

About half the students the project serves are international students who might have trouble finding needed items in addition to other adjustments. The church has a biweekly International Bible Study that meets in homes during the school year and a Sunday school class for graduate students.

Kruschwitz said there is some attrition, but most of the items make it back. Church members and others have become familiar with the program and donate items throughout the year, he said.

The project served about 75 to 80 students Saturday, Kruschwitz said. Among them was David Roach, of Frankfort, Kentucky, who is studying 19th-century American religious history with an eye to teaching. Kruschwitz was waiting for a truck to return so he could pick up a couch.

Metta Sandjaja, a student from Indonesia, was volunteering. Her husband, Iwan, who is studying for his doctorate, is serving a church at home until the end of the year, when he will return to resume his studies. The couple had received furniture from the project in previous years.

Our members, Baylor students and faculty and others all donate and help with this, Kruschwitz said. Theyll offer donations to us first and then look elsewhere if were full. They get a lot of joy from it.

Anyone with items to donate for next Saturday may call the church at 752-3000.
Given campaign rhetoric about NATOs being obsolete and the inability of Muslims to govern free of religious dogma, the significance of last months failed coup in Turkey is being overlooked at a time when it ought to be front and center, particularly as Americans contemplate their own role in an increasingly unstable Middle East.

Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan argue the United States had a hand in this bungled coup. Others claim the founder of the Gulen movement, a self-exiled Turkish cleric named Fethullah Gulen  who ironically resides in Pennsylvania  was behind it all. To confound matters, Gulen is (some claim) involved with a string of charter schools, including in Houston and Waco, that encourage the teaching of science and math rather than religious ideology. The conflicting claims and charges about all this have left security analysts scratching their heads.

To those who claim the United States had a hand in the coup, the question is this: What possible motive could the United States have for manipulating the coup? The Turkish situation is far different from, say, what took place in Iran in 1953 when both the CIA and Britains famed MI6 orchestrated the coup that ousted Mohammad Mossadegh. At the time Iran was seen as hostile to the United States and a threat to our strategic interests in the region.

Its unlikely Turkey will follow the Iranian model and spark an Islamic revolution such as that of 1979. Erdogan is no Khomeini. And Turkey doesnt fit the profile.

Whatever else, Turkey on paper remains an ally of the United States, despite its no longer necessarily sharing Washingtons particular interests and vision. And its still a NATO member. So the argument the United States would seek to destabilize a country pivotal to American interests including broad regional defense must falter on the altar of stone-cold reason.

And while it offers some plausibility, the argument about Gulens backing the coup lacks evidence. Even so, the Turkish government has requested the United States extradite him to Ankara to face justice  a contentious political issue in already tense U.S.-Turkish relations.

Despite its failure, the coup could have major ramifications. The concern among Western capitals is: What sort of foreign policy will Erdogan pursue now that he appears to wield even more power after his crackdown on remaining opposition, including the arrests of some 16,000 people? Washington has already expressed displeasure with Erdogans authoritarian tendencies. To the chagrin of the United States, Turkeys increasingly combative nature could hinder regional efforts to crush ISIS.

The failed coup also paves the way for closer ties between Moscow and Ankara. This comes as analysts gauge vulnerabilities of the U.S. nuclear arsenal at Incirlik air base in Turkey.

In a world where tests of secular Muslim leadership too often seem to fail, whats unfolding in Turkey is discouraging. Chaos and lack of trust are becoming the order of the day. This could extend to massive surveillance programs under the dubious pretext of preventing further coup attempts. That means democracy is faltering, freedom of the press will cease to exist and Turkey, the one secular Muslim power we admired from afar, could become another example of short-circuited governance. This could confirm my theory that there will never be real democracy in the Muslim world  and that the West needs to stop fantasizing about this unrealistic idea. And that means no more futile nation-building exercises in the Middle East.

Where does Turkey go from here? Who knows? Whats certain, however, is that the Turkish government has no desire to take steps that bolster democratic principles. This means the United States needs to evaluate this relationship and decide how to proceed, because Turkey no longer conforms to whats expected of a U.S. ally. Turkey is convinced it no longer needs to pursue a foreign policy that meets Washingtons expectations. Instead, it is pursuing a path that will allow it to play a more influential role in the region, one playing on Muslim passions in more extreme parts, even as it seeks to entice Russia into its toxic orbit.

David Oualaalou is a global affairs analyst, blogger, author and professor. A former international security analyst in Washington, D.C., he is a professor of political science at Texas A&M University  Commerce. He is author of More Than a Handshake: The Ambiguous Foreign Policy of the United States Toward the Muslim World. He lives in Hewitt.
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When two young ISIS devotees murdered an elderly priest in a French church in July, they made a video of the killing. The footage has never been viewed  except presumably by the French security service  because police succeeded in killing the offenders before they had a chance to do anything with it.

The fact that this particular act of horror will likely forever remain unbroadcast is not because of the swift and lethal intervention of the cops, however. It is because the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, was evidently free of CCTV, and the four terrified hostages forced to watch the outrage were given no opportunity to record it on their smartphones.

Illustration: Michael Leunig

This last was, frankly (and, I know, distastefully), a mark of the inexperience of the killers. Because in the current context, politically motivated acts of violence, regardless of the ideology that claims them, are inextricably tied to the assumption of witness footage and the widespread sharing thereof.

And that's why you're scared.
The Australian Greens are using the shocking abuse at the Don Dale youth detention centre as a fundraising tool.

In a letter sent to supporters across the country in recent days, Greens senator Rachel Siewert seeks to use the Don Dale revelations to leverage money for the party's ailing Northern Territory election campaign.

"Many Australians were shocked at the images that came out of Don Dale youth detention centre, showing a child strapped to a mechanical chair with a bag over his head. However  perhaps more tragically still  while that image was shocking in its brutality, it was hardly surprising," she says in the emails.

Liberal and Labor governments have made deliberate decisions over the last 20 years to increase the number of children in detention, she says.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's latest plan for the GST would create a new nightmare of complexity and controversy.

At least that was the advice offered up by Treasury when it was headed by Martin Parkinson  the man who now runs Mr Turnbull's own department.

Malcolm Turnbull and Colin Barnett on Barrow Island on Monday for a tour of the LNG project. Credit:Ray Strange

Mr Turnbull threw ailing West Australian Premier Colin Barnett a lifeline last week by pledging to introduce a GST "floor"  a threshold to ensure no state receives less than a certain share of revenue from the tax.

The commitment was short on detail but was welcomed by Mr Barnett, who is down in the polls and argues his state is being shortchanged.
John Momis, president of the autonomous government of Bougainville, during a speech in Canberra. Credit:Darren Boyd / ANU College of Asia & the Pacific Rio Tinto has refused. Correspondence obtained by Fairfax shows the dual London-Melbourne listed giant insisting it has no responsibility for environmental or other consequences from the mine. "We believe that [the company] was fully compliant will all regulatory requirements and applicable standards at the time," Rio Tinto executive Joanne Farrell wrote to Dr Momis on August 6. The rebellion The mine has not operated for more than a quarter of a century after locals  angry about environmental destruction, poor wages and distribution of profits  broke into the site, seized explosives and sparked a separatist rebellion that would last almost a decade. PNG police and military carried out severe reprisals. Rio Tinto has never been back.

Before that, Panguna mine had accounted for about 45 per cent of exports from PNG and generated more than $1 billion in national tax revenue and dividend payments. But locals complained only a trickle of cash ever made it to Bougainville, while millions of tonnes of acid-laced mine tailings killed the Jaba and Kawerong rivers. The rivers had been a source of water and food for thousands, but large sections now resemble a moonscape, forcing people to leave their homes. Abandoned heavy mechanised trucks are still rusting on the deep tracks that loop around the edges of the pit. Local landowners, some armed, have designated the surrounding area a "no go zone". The abandoned Panguna copper mine in Bougainville  once a rich source of profits  sparked a costly environmental and social crisis. Credit:Friedrich Stark / Alamy Stock Photo A peace deal in 2001 saw Bougainville win autonomy within PNG, but any talk of reopening the mine remains hugely controversial.

Dr Momis wants the mine to start again. It is the best, perhaps one of the only, sources of revenue for his government, he believes. With a final decision on Bougainville's independence approaching in a referendum expected in 2019, the future economy of the island nation is a pressing issue. "Rio was able to pay back its debt in loans within three years, I think. After that it was all profit," Dr Momis told Fairfax Media. "The people of Bougainville got a pittance out of it, even though they were the owners of the resources." Dr Momis said he was disappointed people in Australia do not show more concern about the problems. "PNG was Australia's only colony, and the Bougainville mine bankrolled PNG's independence," he said.

Rio withdraws Rio Tinto's announcement on June 30 it had freely surrendered its 53.8 per cent controlling share of Bougainville Copper Limited came after years of variously flirting with reopening or quitting the mine. To get out, the company created a trust to split the shares between the governing authority on Bougainville and the PNG national government in Port Moresby  provided they were taken up within two months. "By distributing our shares in this way, we aimed to provide landowners, those closest to the mine, and all the people of Bougainville a greater say in the future of Panguna," a spokesman for Rio Tinto said. "It also provides a platform for the [autonomous government] and PNG government to work together on future options for the resource."

The decision to divide control immediately raised fears of complicating the already fragile peace process. Momis' government said it would accept the shares  but insisted Port Moresby should surrender its offer. On Wednesday, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill declared all the shares offered to Port Moresby would instead be handed over directly to the landowners, rather than the autonomous government. Dr Momis accused Mr O'Neill of deliberate interference in Bougainville's affairs and warned, ominously, "the future of peace is now truly under threat". In August, 2014, Bougainville paved the way for reopening the mine, with a new mining law that led some to hope the trucks might once again rumble into the pit at Panguna. But that too would be controversial. Some locals, supported by activists overseas, including a group known as Jubilee Australia, have accused Dr Momis of consistently downplaying opposition to mining. A family panning gold in the polluted Jaba river flowing from Panguna copper mine. Credit:Friedrich Stark / Alamy Stock Photo Jubilee believes farming and horticulture offer Bougainville a sustainable future.

But Dr Momis insists the mine is supported. "My well considered view is the majority would want the mine to be opened so the mine legacy issues can be addressed, as well as to generate revenue." Is it even economic? Panguna was once considered the jewel in the crown for Rio Tinto, and the company is expected to hand over valuable technical survey data about the estimated 3 million tonnes of copper reserves remaining in the mine. But other close observers doubt there is any way the mine could re-establish operations.

"This really puts the nail in the coffin  there is no way the mine is going to reopen in the next decade," said Thiago Oppermann, a Pacific specialist at the Australian National University. For Rio Tinto's part, it based the decision to withdraw on the results of an almost two-year strategic review. The company's Ms Farrell wrote to the Bougainville government that low global commodity prices meant they could not to take any part in future mining at Panguna. "This does not mean we don't see a future for the mine which is a significant resource but we are not in the position to participate," Ms Farrell wrote. And Rio Tinto insists the way to address environmental concerns is to get the mine running again, with local safety and stability assured, and investor friendly laws.
Bali: Denpasar's police chief says the claim Byron Bay woman Sara Connor had been attacked by a "bad cop" was a "false statement" and she had promised to confess the "honest truth" about what she did on Monday.

Ms Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor have been declared suspects in the alleged murder of Wayan Sudarsa on August 17. They face up to 15 years' jail.

On Sunday, Mr Taylor's lawyer, Haposan Sihombing, indicated that he believed his client was hiding something and would also reveal the "whole truth" soon.

Mr Haposan had also claimed that Ms Connor had told his client she had been pushed into the sand by a "bad cop", who then lay on top of her.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 21, 2016 | 07:07 AM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY

A Paducah woman faces DUI and endangerment charges after a crash Saturday night that sent four people to the hospital.

According to the McCracken County Sheriff's Office, the collision happened at around 10 pm in the 7000 block of US Highway 45. Deputies said 49-year-old Jennifer Smith, of Paducah was traveling on Old US Highway 45 and attempting to cross US Highway 45 when she pulled into the path of a southbound SUV driven by 33-year-old John Farris, of Mayfield.

Farris and his two passengers, 33-year-old Bridget Farris and eight-month-old Skyler Farris, both of Mayfield, were taken to Baptist Health Paducah by a family member.

Smith and one of her passengers, 57-year-old Nikita Tyler, of Fancy Farm, were taken by ambulance to Baptist Health Paducah for treatment of their injuries. Deputies determined that Smith was under the influence of alcohol and prescription medication at the time of the collision.

Due to her injuries, she was cited to court on five counts of wanton endangerment, two counts of criminal mischief, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol and 2nd degree assault.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 20, 2016 | 11:46 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Kentucky Community and Technical College System President Jay Box announced Friday the appointment of Dr. Anton Reece as president of West Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Reece currently serves as associate vice provost for Academic Affairs and director of the Student Success Center at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He also was dean of Student Affairs and Enrollment, and Minority Affairs coordinator at Paducah Community College.

Reece begins his duties as WKCTC president on October 1.



Reece earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology and research at UT, and a masters degree in counseling, student personnel services at Eastern Kentucky University.




Search of Mayfield home snares alleged meth trafficker and two others
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 21, 2016 | 07:32 AM | MAYFIELD, KY

Power Truss Inc., a producer of wood roof and floor trusses for the construction industry, will expand its operation in Mayfield with a more than $1.6 million investment projected to create up to eight full-time jobs.

"The growth of Power Truss  and its decision to remain in Mayfield  comes as great news for the people and economy of Graves County," Gov. Matt Bevin said. "For nearly 40 years, this family owned company has literally provided the building blocks for growth in Kentucky. This expansion by Power Truss further strengthens Kentucky's construction industry and I wish the company all the best in the years to come."

Power Truss plans to construct a 26,400-square-foot building to more than double the size of its operation in Graves County. As well, the company plans to purchase new computerized, automated production equipment to decrease labor costs and raw-material use while increasing output.

"Power Truss is excited to announce plans to expand our production facility," said Neal Power, vice president of Power Truss. "A new 26,000-plus-square-foot manufacturing facility will be constructed on site to accommodate the addition of state-of-the-art structural component production equipment, allowing Power Truss to offer the highest quality and value in the structural component industry."

Don and Lynn Power founded Power Truss in 1978. Their sons, Brad and Neal, have since joined the business as corporate officers. Operating under a mission of manufacturing high-quality wood roof and floor trusses, the company also provides engineered wood products and joist hangers. Power Truss supplies customers  primarily lumber dealers and commercial contractors  throughout Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas with trusses specifically designed for residential, commercial and agricultural projects.

Sen. Stan Humphries, of Cadiz, said Power Truss has had a positive impact on the local economy as well as the construction industry.

"I am pleased to hear of Power Truss' expansion in Graves County," Sen. Humphries said. "This company has been a great economic partner in our community and the construction industry, and I look forward to their success in future enterprises."

Mayfield Mayor Teresa Rochetti-Cantrell, described Power Truss as one of "Mayfield's hidden treasures."

"The City of Mayfield is excited about the success of businesses that have helped to create who we are as a city," Mayor Rochetti-Cantrell said. "Power Truss is just that kind of business  years of service, family tradition and a true example of what we like to call 'Mayfield's Hidden Treasures.' Congratulations to the Power Truss family on this incredible continued investment in Mayfield!"

Graves County Judge-Executive Jesse Perry said this expansion is the next step in the community's growth.

"I am proud that Power Truss is expanding in Graves County," Judge Perry said. "This is our next step in seeing Graves County grow and prosper. We have already seen an impact of Power Truss' influence with employment for many years operating in Graves County. We look forward to their continued growth and building strong ties in the community."
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/08/2016 (2260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

China watchers in the West have been fruitlessly searching for signs of democracy for more than 25 years. But there has not been a sustained democracy movement in China since the tragic end of protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in 1989.

Most outside observers agree the Peoples Republic of China remains what it has been since its founding in 1949: a one-party authoritarian regime.

Most Chinese citizens do not see it that way, however. In a nationwide survey in 2014, more than 4,000 urban Chinese were asked how democratic they perceived China to be at different points in time. The vast majority view the level of democracy as increasing steadily since the late 1970s. Almost 60 per cent believe China is already somewhat or very democratic today. Remarkably, more than 80 per cent are optimistic that in the near future China will enjoy a level of democracy on par with the United States.

KING CHEUNG / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Hundreds of protesters march on a downtown street during an annual pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong last month.

How can this be? How can external assessments of Chinas government and the perceptions of people living under it be so radically different?

The answer turns on the meaning of the word democracy.

Survey respondents were given the opportunity to define democracy in their own words. Most Americans would define it as a political system with free elections, competitive parties, rule of law and related institutions of liberal democracy. But fewer than five per cent of Chinese pointed to those attributes.

About 15 per cent defined democracy in terms of rights: for example, people enjoy the right to information and the opportunity and right to tell the government their views. Another 15 per cent identified equality and justice among citizens: Everyone is treated equally and to be more equal in terms of income, housing and employment were typical responses of this type.

In short, about one-third of urban Chinese defined democracy in terms of checks and balances or other ways that closely match western notions.

By contrast, a different 30 per cent of Chinese described democracy in terms of how leaders should run the government, not how they are chosen. Comments such as the people and the government are interdependent and government policies reflect public opinion get at this notion. More importantly, these comments suggest the publics interests and the states interests are fundamentally in harmony (or at least should be).

The purpose of democracy, as seen by many Chinese, is to make the state strong so it can better provide for the common well-being of the people and the nation as a whole. It is not a way to hold leaders accountable through elections, limit the states authority in order to protect individual rights and freedoms or adjudicate between competing interests.

But by far the most popular definition of democracy  given by a third of the urban Chinese respondents  was I dont know.

These differing definitions of democracy correlated with how satisfied people felt. Almost 65 per cent reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with the level of democracy China has. Those who defined it in terms of elections, parties and rule of law were the least satisfied  and rightfully so  whereas by and for the people and dont know were at the high end of the scale. The most satisfied were those who defined democracy in terms of economic growth, but less than three per cent did so.

These popular understandings (or misunderstandings) of what democracy is help explain why there has not been a sustained democratization movement in China. People who are optimistic about the future are less inclined to support calls to fundamentally change the regime.

The activists who promote western-style liberal democratic reform face suppression from the state and indifference from much of society. Liu Xiaobo, for example, was arrested in 2008 for his role in drafting Charter 08, a bold call for building liberal democracy in China. When he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, many in China were unfamiliar with him. Others doubted he had achieved anything worthy of the prize.

Despite lacking political rights and freedoms we take for granted in the West, many Chinese see their country as becoming more open. Even as the Communist party continues to monitor and suppress any potential threats to its monopoly on power, most citizens still see the state as less intrusive than in the Maoist era or the immediate post-Tiananmen years.

Still, its hard to be sure that trend will continue.

Since Xi Jinping became president in 2013, the scope of repression has increased. The party has tightened control over media content, arrested human rights lawyers and warned scholars against discussing topics such as universal values, civil rights, civil society, press freedoms and judicial independence. Xis ongoing anti-corruption campaign has exposed the venal top echelons of the party, government and military, which may erode support for the regime. Growing economic inequality and social injustice may also lead people to be less satisfied with the status quo.

But for the moment, besides the party itself, the major obstacle to Chinas democratization is the popular belief the process is already underway.

Bruce J. Dickson is a professor of political science and international affairs and chairman of the political science department at George Washington University. This article was adapted from his recent book, The Dictators Dilemma: The Chinese Communist Partys Strategy for Survival.

 Los Angeles Times
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/08/2016 (2260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti  At the top of the hill where an old colonial fort overlooks the immaculate grounds of a razed presidential palace, newly built sidewalks and widened back lanes lead into new residential communities being shaped by tree-lined courtyards, indoor plumbing and towering condominium-style apartments.

Below, bulldozers move listlessly from one partially built concrete structure to another along a once battered Rue Estime as construction workers beat back scorching heat and hammer as fast as they can.

Imagine if all of the houses were like this, Ulrick Gilles, a 40-year-old unemployed husband and father, said from the confines of his newly constructed, government-subsidized, second-floor apartment in one of this capitals most quake-ravaged neighbourhoods.

The transformation provides training and work for Fort National residents.

Even if you couldnt call it a paradise, it would still allow people to live better lives.

A haphazardly built and volatile slum foreign donors and international aid groups once shunned, Fort National is getting a long-overdue makeover courtesy of a little-used co-property law that finally allows Haitians such as Gilles, who lost his house in the cataclysmic January 2010 earthquake, to be homeowners again.

Though the law initially came into existence in 1974 and was strengthened in 2009, it wasnt until then-president Michel Martelly issued more protections in a 2011 executive order that the government and international community dared use it.

Youre slowly seeing the transformation of a neighbourhood, said Claude-Andre Nadon, senior program manager with the United Nations Office for Project Services, which has built 600 new housing units and repaired more than 1,200 in eight neighbourhoods since the earthquake left 1.5 million homeless.

This place was a disaster zone.

Fort Nationals transformation comes as 61,302 Haitians continue to live underneath squalid tents and as Haiti and foreign donors continue to face enormous challenges in providing permanent housing amid dwindling aid dollars and a deepening political crisis.

The countrys failure to replace the 100,000 houses levelled by the quake by all accounts has been the biggest failure of the reconstruction response. Haiti and U.S.-financed housing projects have been slammed for shoddy construction and unaccountable contractors, while both governments also have come under fire for failing to follow through on housing goals.

But if theres anything close to a model of the lessons learned over the years, it is Fort National. The construction of almost 300 single and condo-style units, installation of street lights and the rehabilitation of water kiosks and streets may seem small. But supporters note its changing the facade of an informal settlement and providing employment and training to locals in proper and anti-seismic construction techniques.

I am not just hiring five guys. I am hiring everyone from the neighbourhood, Nadon said. So when that guys asks for an extension (on his single unit), hes going to ask the foreman, and that foreman now knows how to do it properly. Their way of building has completely changed.

Imagine if all of the houses were like this. Even if you couldnt call it a paradise, it would still allow people to live better lives Ulrick Gilles on his newly built home

The housing is very nice, well-built. The engineering? A-plus, said Clement Belizaire, executive director of Haitis Housing and Public Buildings Construction Unit. But the real success of Fort National and everything that has had to do with housing is the change of mentality.

Nadon and his team first visited National in 2011. They spent three years negotiating with gang leaders and community residents to launch the project, and then with skeptical residents to give up their plots and shacks sometimes barely larger than a bedroom  in exchange for decent corridors, public spaces and a 376-square-foot apartment.

In lot of cases, people didnt want to move, he said. All would say, Haitians dont like living on the second floor; they dont want to live together.

Eventually, many would agree. Some would even donate as much as 80 per cent of their land back to the community in order to allow the chaotic landscape of vacant plots and sweltering tin and tarp-covered shacks to be transformed.

Haitians are no different from a guy in Miami or Canada. They want to live in a decent home, Nadon said.

(Eventually) they understood that in order to have something like this, you need space. You need space to put septic tanks, you need space to have water pipes coming in, you need space to have the trees. After a while, they get it.

Belizaire, the housing czar, said the co-property law makes a lot of sense in a densely populated Haiti, but the social mobilization to get people to think rationally and not selfishly is quite a challenge.

Were living in the city, and we want to live in rural mode, he said.

Fritzner Oriols two-storey tin shack sits in a courtyard of newly built concrete houses in Fort National.

Everybody wants to have their own yard; everybody wants to have their own house; nobody wants to share walls with neighbours. When you share a wall, you cut the costs. We have to start thinking multi-level housing.

The concept first surfaced months after the quake when then-president Rene Preval vowed to rebuild Fort National. Preval dispatched government bulldozers to remove rubble. He also asked international aid organizations to redirect cash-for-work dollars to the slum, and he tapped the head of his state construction agency  and eventual presidential candidate  Jude Celestin to build two-by-three-feet-wide units for 6,000 displaced families.

Celestin, an engineer who is once more seeking the presidency, proposed constructing multi-storey apartments instead. Some US$174 million was approved for Fort Nationals reconstruction by Haitis Parliament as part of the budget, and the no-bid contract was given to a firm owned by powerful Dominican Sen. Felix Bautista.

But 2010 presidential elections would bring chaos and a broken promise. A newly elected Martelly scrapped the Fort National project and reallocated the funds to initiatives. Among them: 3,000 units at Morne-a-Cabrit on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince that were so poorly built by one of Bautistas firms, Belizaires housing division refused to accept many of them.

In recent weeks, the original Fort National project has come under scrutiny as a Haiti Senate ethics and anti-corruption commission raises questions about the awards and Bautistas relationships with Martelly and some Haitian officials.

Headed by Sen. Youri Latortue, a one-time Martelly adviser, the probe is supposed to focus on a decades worth of government disbursements under Venezuelas Petrocaribe discounted-oil program. Most of the focus, however, has been on the already investigated Bautista contracts.

Former Haitian prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who awarded the Fort National contract to one of Bautistas firms, has said it was done legally under an emergency law. He calls the Senate inquiry a political witch hunt and has accused senators of trying to make him a scapegoat because no one can say what happened to the US$174 million, including US$22 million he disbursed under Martelly for the homes.

Do you see 20,000 (new) homes in Fort National? Bellerive said on the Vision 2000 radio station. That is what I contracted for.

PHOTOS BY JACQUELINE CHARLES / MIAMI HERALD The Fort National neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince was one of the communities most affected by Haitis 2010 earthquake. It was also one of the first areas where rubble was removed at the request of then-president Rene Preval.

The challenges of building in an existing community are visible along Rue Estime, where new construction is interrupted by pockets of empty lots.

There is nothing there because one guy has refused, for many reasons, Nadon said as construction workers moved up and down the main street.

Sometimes its because they are scared its not going to happen, or its pressure from other people who dont want the project to succeed.

Unfortunately, the project is nearing its end even as the needs remain endless, Belizaire said, because the US$20 million in funding from Canada, the UN and two other donors has run out. Despite Haitians reluctance to share a wall, he said, the government is finding success with multi-storey dwellings. Similar constructions were done in the low-income communities of Morne Hercule and Morne Lazarre. The UN first applied the co-property law in Morne Lazarre to build three-storey condominiums.

Fort National benefited from what we did in Morne Hercule and Morne Lazarre, Belizaire said, hoping donors keep the revitalization going.

Theres a big difference between showing somebody something on a nice layout plan, 3D designs and pictures, and when you actually take the people, put them on a bus and bring them to talk to the beneficiaries.

Fritzner Oriols two-storey tin shacks sits in the middle of a palm tree-lined courtyard of yellow and lime-coloured apartments. He proudly boasts he turned several of his distrusting neighbours from skeptics into believers the program was good for the long-neglected community.

Ultimately, there was one person Oriol, 49, could not convince.

For the past two years, the United Nations Office for Project Services has built new earthquake-resistant homes in the neighbourhood.

One of my sisters doesnt agree because she wouldnt get any benefits out of it, Oriol said, explaining why his shack is the only un-built structure in the courtyard.

There are a lot of beautiful houses inside these corridors, he said.

When people see them they say, These houses should be on the main street. They arent the kind of homes you hide in a corridor. I am a product of the neighbourhood. I know what I am talking about because I know what kind of neighbourhood we had.

 Miami Herald
Next weekend, Winona will celebrate the completion of one of the largest public infrastructure projects in its history.

The new interstate bridge, built at a cost of more than $150 million and over the course of two years of nonstop construction that included some of the largest changes to Winonas downtown in decades, will open Saturday, Aug. 27, with a special public ceremony.

The ceremony will mark just the halfway point of the larger project, which will also include expected rehabilitation work on the existing historic structure.

The nearly decade-long undertaking to ensure residents and businesses across the Winona region could safely cross the Mississippi River didnt begin in Winona, but with tragedy north along the same waterway.

A closure, then plans for the future

Concern over Minnesotas major spans  as well as those across the country  was brought into sharp focus in August 2007, when the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring nearly 150.

The renewed attention the disaster brought to public infrastructure included additional inspections of Winonas bridge, which was already known to be deteriorating and given a designation of fracture-critical, meaning the failure of a single component could cause the bridge to collapse.

The worst outcome, thankfully, never happened. But then possibly the second-worst did.

In 2008, the bridge was closed for nearly two weeks, with Minnesota Department of Transportation inspectors making emergency structural repairs.

The decision created turmoil among the regions commuters and businesses, with those who used the bridge daily or even occasionally suddenly forced to travel dozens of miles north to Red Wing, or south to La Crosse, in order to cross the Mississippi. A hodgepodge of formal and informal transportation alternatives were hastily arranged, with residents taking ferries, boats or canoes across the river.

The bridge re-opened 11 days later, its short-term safety secure but its long-term future anything but. State Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, one of the citys key advocates at the state level for determining the bridges future, recalled how the closure set off a flurry of discussions.

When you shut down the main artery, things happen, Pelowski said.

One vein of discussion centered on a much longer closure: building an entirely new four-lane span to replace the aging bridge.

The conversation shifted late 2009 and into 2010, including input from the State Historic Preservation Office, which notified city leaders and MnDOT that the bridge was eligible for the national historic register.

Slowly, the conversation shifted toward how to rehabilitate the old bridge while making space for a new one to be built alongside the existing span.

That wasnt a simple process, from the planning to finding the funding across local, state and federal levels. But with assistance, persistence and advocacy from a variety of political corners, including then-Winona mayor Jerry Miller, Pelowski and state. Sen. Jeremy Miller, Gov. Mark Dayton, and U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, among several others, the process moved forward.

In August 2012, MnDOT announced it had made a decision: It would built a two-lane span next to the historic bridge, and then rehabilitate the existing structure.

Design, details set

Next came all the details, primary among them: What will the bridge look like? Where will it land in downtown Winona?

Potential locations for a new bridge had included alignment that touched down immediately east or west of the current bridge, a curved alignment connecting to Huff Street, a straight alignment touching down at Huff Street, or an alignment touching down in the mid-block area between the current bridge and Huff Street.

Because of traffic patterns, safety and other considerations, including the absence of any long-term road closures across downtown, the current design landing on Winona Street was chosen.

As with any project of this scale, there were properties that stood in the way. The new bridge required the full taking of 11 residential properties and five businesses, several of which had multiple properties. That included Dahl Automotive, the Americinn hotel, and Severson Sinclair gas station.

The offers for the last of the buildings were finalized just before the end design in early 2014.

Next came the choice of design.

MnDOT soon narrowed the list down to three finalists, and eventually the box girder design now seen crossing the Mississippi was chosen, in part to fit in with the historic design of the existing span.

I think in the end the right decision was made, said Winona Mayor Mark Peterson. It complements the original bridge.

MnDOT also created a volunteer committee of Winona residents to set a number of visual and cosmetic details related to the bridge, including colors, lighting, and other details.

A new approach

Bridge project manager Terry Ward, who came on in 2013, said the behind-the-scenes and public work for the project, especially the historic rebuild planning, presented unique challenges.

That said, MnDOT was keyed in on delivering a new bridge as soon as possible  and accomplished the goal, with the new span opening two years after breaking ground and months ahead of the initial timeline.

The project was MnDOTs first use of the construction manager/general contractor process, in which the contractor works directly and collaboratively with the designer and MnDOT to identify risks, provide cost projections and create the project schedule. Then, the contractor and project owner negotiate on the price for the construction contract.

Because it was the first attempt, the processes were not in place, Ward said. They had to create the system while simultaneously working on a separate path with traditional construction, environmental reviews and other work.

We had to start from the ground up  internally, Ward said. That was a very extensive effort.

MnDOT has seen the system and the learning involved in building it as successful in its first project, including reducing the complexity of working with multiple contractors and allowing for early work on the historic rehabilitation.

The real testament to the new bridge is the really aggressive schedule in delivering it, Ward said. Thats the story in my view  that just doesnt happen every day.

A community project

One of the notable aspects of the project, which receives praise often from officials involved, was the community input into the process from the design and implementation of the bridge to plans for the development of the area under the bridge.

Peterson said that MnDOT has been easy to work with, while U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, who had helped push for the project, said the ongoing collaboration among government officials, agencies, local elected officials and the community is representative of everything thats right.

I am most proud of that project because of the way it brought the community together and the way the governance responded, Walz said. Those are the win-wins.

Pelowski said the project already has had positive impacts on the city, and believes it was one of the biggest motivations for the new renovation and changes in downtown.

It affected the entire thinking, Pelowski said. We want to keep the past, present and future linked.

The next steps

Work will be continue on the bridge area even after it is open. That includes renovation of the area underneath the bridge, which is set to include green spaces in addition to reconnecting the bike trail to Levee Park.

For the time being, traffic will leave Winona on one lane of the existing bridge, and return from Wisconsin on the new bridge; eventually, both lanes of traffic will move to the new bridge when rehabilitation work begins.

Questions linger about the scope of the renovation.

The rehabilitation part of the project headed back to the planning table earlier this year, after estimated costs rose by as much as $30 million, mostly because the bridge has been deteriorating faster than expected.

MnDOT explored a number of options in collaboration with the Federal Highway Administration, the Minnesota Historic Preservation Office and the city of Winona, groups that all leaned heavily toward maintaining the bridges look as close to the original as possible.

The two final renovation options, chosen from a larger list created earlier this year, are similar.

Both involve a rehabilitation of the through-truss and main bridge, and removal of the current approach spans. The project is estimated to cost $38 million and is scheduled to begin in early August, with the existing bridge remaining open until construction on the new one is completed this fall.

MnDOT will be exploring whether to replace the current approach, which includes short, nonmodernized concrete beams, with exact replicas or use modern beams to reduce the cost.

The last part of the project will include the reconstruction of the approach spans, the remaining roadway work and site work under and around both bridges, and is scheduled for spring 2017.

That is expected to cost $20 million to $27 million, depending on the decision regarding the approach spans, which is expected in the fall. The whole project is scheduled to be completed by fall 2019 or spring 2020.
The Winona County Board of Commissioners should do the right thing and vote to approve the planning commission's recommendations regarding frac sand mining.

The state of Minnesota does not support a frac sand ban; the city of Winona does not support a frac sand ban; the Winona County Township Officers' Association does not support a frac sand ban; the Winona County Planning Commission does not support a frac sand ban; and the Winona Daily News supports the decision of the planning commissions recommendations.
Even veterans of the circuit learn something at events like the Badger Steam & Gas Engine Club show. Even after bringing machines to such events for decades, hard-core gearheads still encounter antiques theyve never seen before.

You never learn it all, said Gary Schacht of Stanley, who displayed a half-size scale model of a Case steam tractor.

Wide-eyed visitors flocked to his tractor and a neighboring Case steam tractor owned by Ken Majeski of Ellsworth. Majeski spent six years rebuilding the 1909 tractor, a 30-horsepower model that formerly hauled ore at a Colorado mine. It was beat to death by those rocks, he said. It was a big job.

Schacht and Majeski were among dozens of exhibitors who showed off their toys at the 53rd annual Badger Steam & Gas show Friday through Sunday on Sand Road between Baraboo and Reedsburg. A wide variety of antique farm implements were on display, spread out across 264 acres and 25 buildings.

Live demonstrations took place throughout the weekend, with antique equipment sawing logs and shingles, threshing oats, baling straw and crushing rocks. A daily parade featured vintage cars, trucks and tractors. A 7-acre flea market offered crafts, collectibles and engine parts.

Heavy rain Friday morning created a soft track for the machines, which led to muddy conditions throughout the grounds.

Its real nice when it isnt raining and we can drive around a little, Majeski said.

He and Schacht are set to attend a handful of similar events this year, but the Badger Steam & Gas show stands out. Its considered Wisconsins largest collection of early steam- and gas-powered farm equipment.

This is one of the nicer shows in the state, Schacht said.

Gearheads hardly can be blamed for wanting to show off their machines. In many cases, they spent years  and thousands of dollars  refurbishing their prized engines. A lot of these were in pretty rough shape when they were bought, said Majeski, a retired Pierce County Highway Department worker.

He had a new boiler installed in his Case tractor, and had to custom-make some parts. The project has cost tens of thousands of dollars, but Majeski doesnt seem to mind. It needed a little TLC, he said. Youve got to have toys.

Its in your blood, Schacht said. Its got to be: Why else would you put up with all the work?
President overstepped constitution

Evidently you are not well informed on what goes on in Washington. You need to pay closer attention and use discernment. In this free country all decisions are supposed to be made according to our constitution and must go through congress. President Barack Obama bypassed Congress more than once and did things on his own in the guise of executive privileges. Even executive privileges must be in accordance with our constitution.




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Fire Crews Attend House Fire in Caia Park

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Aug 21st, 2016

Fire crews were this morning called to a blaze at a property in Wrexham.

At 11:13am this morning North Wales Fire and Rescue Service were called to a fire at a home in St Annes Court, Caia Park.

Two crews from Wrexham attended the fire, which was out on arrival.

A spokesperson from North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was caused by a chip pan.

Welsh Ambulance Service also attended the scene, however it is not yet known if anyone was injured as a result of the fire.
Paws on Patrol! Two Puppies Join North Wales Polices Dog Section

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Aug 21st, 2016

Two new puppies have been welcomed to North Wales Polices Dog Section.

Eight-week-old Labrador Luna and 10-week-old Malinois, Diesel are now settling in with their new handlers, PC Gareth Wedley and PC Sonia Stobbart.

Bred in Scotland specifically for police work, Luna  named after a character in the Harry Potter books, lives with PC Wedley and she joins the North Wales Police Dog Section which currently has 17 dogs.

Lunas handler, PC Wedley has been a police officer with North Wales Police for 16 years but has spent half of his service with the Dog Section. He currently has another working dog, two-year-old general purpose dog called Axe.

Speaking about the arrival of the newest addition to the family, PC Wedley said: Luna is doing really well at the moment  shes already displaying a desire to chase and find a ball and bring it back to me, when she wants to give it back that is. This is something which I havent seen in a puppy Ive had of her age before.

Shes currently undergoing some training and we are also trying to introduce her to various environments. Eraly socialisation and introducing the dog to a wide range of people, animals and experiences is essential to ensure a sociable, well-adjusted and balanced dog which is suitable for police work.

Her current training regime is done in a relaxed and gentle way to ensure she develops at her own pace. At the moment the signs are good  shes adjusted really well and is embracing her new role. That said shes one of the most demanding puppies Ive had and is really inquisitive. This in itself brings a whole host of additional dog care and help from the family is very much appreciated!

Diesel was also bred in Scotland specifically for police work and comes from the same breeding lines as PC Wedleys Malinois, Axe.

Diesel has been with his handler PC Sonia Stobbart for the past two weeks and has settled into life as a police puppy very well. His name was chosen by fans of the North Wales Police K9 Cops Facebook page and has been named after the police dog who died during the recent terror attacks in Paris.

Diesels handler PC Stobbart has been working for North Wales Police for 13 years and has spent the last five years as a dog handler. She has another working dog, PD Zak who is a six year old Malinois and has previously handled retired specialist dog Albi  a springer spaniel.

PC Stobbart said: Having another puppy is hard work, theres plenty of sleepless nights and hours of your own time spent with them. Its all worth it to know that you have a dog that you have put everything into yourself because I will spend the next eight years working with him, he will be my protector and best friend.

Weve spent the first two weeks creating a bond and laying down some ground rules, hes learnt so much already. Hes had his jabs now so we will be able to start socialising him to make him environmentally sound.

The role of the Dog Section is to provide police dog and handler teams to support their colleagues across North Wales and to respond to emergency calls where their unique skills can be used to help make the region safer.

They are always on the look-out for new venues and different environments to train the dogs. Anybody who may be able to assist should contact the Dog Section via 101.

You can also follow the team for up-to-date news and photos of the four-legged team on their popular Facebook Page.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Four arrests have been made after a yearlong investigation into an illegal archaeological dig in Jefferson County.

The Tallahassee Democrat (http://on.tdo.com/2bsgETu ) reports that Darin C. Reynolds, Taylor C. Passetti, Matthew P. Munsey and Jordan T. Patterson were arrested last week on charges of an unlawful evacuation of an archaeological site. State wildlife officers had been investigating their activity at the Aucilla River Management Area since June 2015.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Bekah Nelson told the Democrat that the area had also been looted in the past. The site is several miles from an underwater location where earlier this year Florida State University researchers found stone tools that may be up to 14,550 years old.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

8/21/2016 3:19:52 PM (GMT -4:00)
Newspaper collection provides glimpse of America from World War I through the end of World War II
Last weeks release of statewide test scores undoubtedly left the public wanting more information.

With almost 300 school districts in the state, thousands of schools and even more students, the scope is very wide.

The same could be said for digging through Yakima County test score data. After all, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction posted proficiency rates for Smarter Balanced exams in grades 3-8 and 10-11; the Measurements of Student Progress, or MSP, in science for fifth- and eighth-grade students; and high school end-of-course exams in algebra, geometry and biology.

While it would be impossible to analyze every row and column of data in one story (at least for this reporter), here are 10 items of interest that may have gone unnoticed:

 Participation may vary. Among the data released Tuesday were participation rates, or the percentages of students who took the exams.

This year, participation rates in grades 3-8 all exceeded the 95-percent participation threshold the U.S. Department of Education has in place. The same cannot be said about 11th grade English and math, as 88 percent and 61 percent of students took those, respectively. Keep in mind, the 11th grade math exam is not yet a requirement for state high school students.

The U.S. Department of Education has warned states it could withhold some funding if the threshold isnt met. However, OSPI spokesman Nathan Olson said the agency doesnt expect any repercussions, given it is only the second year under Smarter Balanced. The work-in-progress Every Student Succeeds Act consolidation plan will address what could happen if schools dont have 95-percent participation, Olson added.

 Some Yakima Valley districts posted perfect attendance (for testing). Union Gap data shows all its students in grades 3-8 took their respective exams. All of Grangers students in grades 3-8 and in 11 took the reading exams.

 Are high school juniors college and career ready? Under Smarter Balanced, students can fall under Level 1, 2, 3, or 4. If a student scores a 3 or 4, he or she is considered college and career ready.

According to state data, almost 76 percent of juniors hit a 3 or 4 in language arts, while 22 percent met the same mark in math. The numbers are difficult to decipher, as the math exam is still not a requirement and the language arts exam was under transition into becoming a requirement.

OSPI: Local test scores largely up from last year but lagging state averages YAKIMA, Wash. -- Local student scores ran the gamut in terms of scoring above or below state

 Same goes for local high school juniors. According to state data, the majority of juniors in the ESD 105 region are college and career ready, with 66 percent of students posting a 3 or 4 in language arts. But once again, the percentage of students refusing to take Smarter Balanced math affected local scores, as under 18 percent were proficient. Test refusal means a student gets a score of zero, and the zeroes count against school districts when the assessments are graded.

 Hispanic students in third grade classrooms are lagging behind in reading and writing. Among county districts with posted numbers, Hispanic third-grade students posted rather low figures when it comes to English language arts. According to the data, about 29 percent of the students were proficient in reading and writing. A number of factors can come into play, such as growing up in a migrant family or learning how to read and write English, said Ric Pilgrim, assistant superintendent for Educational Service District 105.

Another factor is the poverty level, he added. Research has shown poverty  which is tracked by schools via free and reduced meal figures  has a great impact on student learning. Resources and experiences at home may be more limited for a low-income family than in a middle- or upper-class home.

 White students do have a head start, but local numbers behind states. White students generally posted better language arts scores than Hispanic students. Third-grade students identifying as white posted better language arts scores, as 59 percent of the students met proficiency.

However, proficiency rates still trail the state average. In fourth grade language arts, 60 percent met proficiency, but the state average is 65 percent.

In sixth grade math, 44 percent of white students in the ESD 105 region met proficiency, but the state average was closer to 55 percent.

 Native American scores trail state. Proficiency rates among Native American students in the ESD 105 region trail the proficiency rate averages among Native Americans in the state in all categories. For instance, 21 percent of students were proficient in fourth-grade math but trailed the state average of 29 percent. Native American students make up more than 3 percent of regional enrollment, behind white and Hispanic students.

 A tale of two cities. Just south of the largest local district of Yakima, more than 600 students attended Union Gap, the smallest school district in the county. Union Gap is a one-school district serving students through eighth grade. Demographics are fairly similar, too; both districts Hispanic students make up more than 70 percent of their enrollment, the majority of students qualify for free or reduced meals.

However, Union Gap student scores were higher than Yakima at every grade level and in math and language arts. Keep in mind, though, the Union Gap sample size was significantly smaller than Yakimas. For instance, in seventh grade, Union Gap had 65 test takers, while Yakima had 1,059.

 Zillah tops Lower Valley, except for ... Among the Lower Valley districts, Zillahs proficiency rates were the highest in language arts and math for grades 3-8. One outlier, though: its proficiency rates in sixth-grade math were on the lower end of scores across the Valley.

 Yakima School District tops 16,000. For the first time, the school district topped the 16,000 mark in terms of enrollment. According to the OSPI data, Yakima had enrolled 16,238 students throughout last school year, making it the 19th largest in the state.

Yakima is not the largest regionally, though. Both Kennewick and Pasco down the I-82 corridor reported much larger enrollments of 17,722 and 17,441 students, respectively.
Homeless campers relocate their belongings as maintenance workers from the state Department of Transportation clear encampments under Interstate 5 in Seattle. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)
Was Magda Goebbels, the wife of Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels and a woman known as "the first lady of the Reich," actually the daughter of a Jew? This hypothesis is actually receiving significant support following the discovery of a new document in the Berlin archives by writer and historian Oliver Hilmes, which was published in an article in the German newspaper, Bild.

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Until now, it has been accepted that Magda's mother, Auguste Behrend, was impregnated with Magda by engineer Oskar Ritshel in 1901, before the couple were married. On Magda's birth certificate however, only her mother's name is listed. In 1904, they divorced and Auguste remarried four years later to a Jewish businessman named Richard Friedlander, and moved with him to Brussels.

The Goebbels family with Hitler

The new document is actually Friedlander's residency card, in which he wrote that Magda is his biological daughter. This hints that Magda did indeed attempt to blur her Jewish connection through her mother's second marriage. With her marriage to one of Adolf Hitler's senior regime figures, she received the many social and personal benefits that were fitting of such a position in the Third Reich.

When the Nazis came to power, Friedlander was arrested and later sent to Buchenwald. Magda did not attempt to save him, but rather continued to keep her Jewish connection secret. Friedlander died in Buchenwald in 1939.

All the years that Magda was beside the club-footed Joseph Goebbels, she was always presented as a shining example of the Aryan woman. Her family, including her six blonde-haired children, was described many times in Nazi propaganda as being the "ideal family."

In 1934, her world turned upside down when she discovered that her mother had had an affair with Friedlander before she met Ritshel, and that most likely her real father is Friedlander. This theory is further granted legitimacy when examining an entry from Joseph Goebbel's diary, in which he states that in 1934, Magda discovered something shocking and horrible about her past.

At the end of the war, Magda wrote a farewell letter to her son Harold from her first marriage, who was a prisoner of war in Canada. In the letter, Magda confessed that she was going to kill herself and her six children with Joseph. On May 1, 1945, Magda and her husband killed their children using morphine and shortly thereafter, committed suicide themselves. Her Jewish identity has remained a mystery until today.
ISTANBUL -- Turkey's president on Sunday blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing of an outdoor wedding party in the southeast that killed 30 people and wounded 94 others.

Officials say Saturday's attack in Gaziantep, near Syria's border, appeared to be a suicide bombing.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement early Sunday saying that IS was "the most likely perpetrator of the Gaziantep attack."

Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.
While Israel's leadership is busy exhausting itself arguing over Hamas's tunnel digging in Gaza in 2014, they are missingor perhaps ignoringa major threat the terror organization is preparing in the West Bank. This political threat, which very well might pose obstacles to Israel's operations in the West Bank, can't be destroyed using technological measures.

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Hamas is about to take over the municipal centers of power in the West Bank in a legal and democratic way in several weeks time as part of its plan to take over the entire Palestinian Authoritybut we, as we always do, may have missed the train yet again.

It started just like any other minor event the neighbors were holding. When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that municipal elections would take place on October 8, Hamas said it wouldn't participateand Israel lost interest.

Abbas meets with Mashal in Doha (Photo: Reuters/Archive)

The Palestinian leader was sure he was going to recreate his success in the 2012 local elections , when Hamas expressed its distrust of the PA and decided not to take part. Abbas's representatives defeated themselves that year, and even that was a hard-won battle due to the PA's distinct lack of popularity.

However, Hamas lulled everyone into a false sense of security and then, all of a sudden, dropped a bombshell two weeks ago when the terror group announced it would participate in the elections, setting the entire West Bank aflame. The entire situation changed at once.

And it's not just Hamas. The left wing factions in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and even Islamic Jihadwhich has never participated in any electionsannounced that they will run too.

No analysts or commentators predicted this. Everyoneboth on the Israeli and Palestinian sidefell out of their seats, while the PA went into shock.

These elections are no longer just a vote over sanitary conditions in the Palestinian cities, but rather a process with national and political significance that threatens to unseat Fatah from the centers of power in the West Bank.

Some 2.6 million eligible Palestinian voters will go to the polls in 416 local authorities in Gaza and the West Bank141 of them considered cities or large towns, and 13 are major cities. Even in the most optimistic predictions in the PA, no one has any doubt that Hamas is about to sweep many areas and large cities.

The Palestinian electoral registry in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was completed a little over a month ago, which was probably the moment Hamas decided to throw its hat into the ring. By mid-August, the organization will have revealed its candidates. It will likely present its candidates as "independents," to stop Israel and the PA from banning them over the fact they are affiliated with Hamas. Hamas might also try to establish coalitions with left-wing organizations and others to oust Fatah candidates in areas where Abbas's party holds more sway.

70 activists arrested

Hamas's surprising move came as Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman was in the midst of intensive discussions with the IDF chief of staff, his deputy, the head of Military Intelligence, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the GOC Central Command and representatives from the Shin Bet over Israel's policy in the West Bank. He recently completed the discussions on the issue and last week presented a series of measures he intends to take.

It's unclear how involved the prime minister was in the process and whether he supports the decisions made. In a meeting with military reporters, Netanyahu dubbed Lieberman's ideas as "more original than those of his predecessor." However, Lieberman will be judged, as prime minister says, based on results.

Among the measures discussed by the defense minister was the construction of another Palestinian city like Rawabithe first planned city built for and by Palestiniansin an effort to strengthen the Palestinian middle class in the PA and boost the local economy.

Another recommendation discussed was to legalize illegal houses in Area C (which is under Israeli control), where some 200,000 Palestinians live. These houses "spilled over" from urban and rural areas in Areas A and B into Area C and take up one percent of the West Bank area. In order to avoid political bickering in the government over the legalization of these structures, the area will continue to be under full Israeli sovereignty, but the Palestinian Authority will be in charge of granting construction permits. This will lift the threat of demolition of the homes of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Defense Minister Lieberman, center, meets with IDF Chief of Staff Eisenkot (L) and other senior officials at the Northern Command headquarters (Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Defense Ministry)

Yet another idea concerns Jewish construction in the territories. Here, too, to avoid political obstacles, construction will be allowed within the settlements, but not outside their security fences.

Lieberman defines his measures as a "carrots and sticks" plan . Officials who participated in the discussions over the measures stated that the defense minister displayed a very pragmaticsurprising, evenapproach to the "carrots," the measures meant to strengthen the Palestinian civilian sectorthose not affiliated with or participating in terror activity. The "sticks," meanwhile, include broad collective punishments, with economic and security measures to be taken in areas where terrorism prospers.

Some of the measures examined by the defense minister were recommended by COGAT two years ago. At the time, there was a general feeling in Israel that the gestures made towards the Palestinians over the years have been exhausted, and a proposal was put together for a series of economic and political measures that have since been partially or tentatively implementedif at all.

During an event marking the Egyptian Revolution Day at the home of Cairo's ambassador to Israel a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian Ambassador Hazem Khairat and Netanyahu's close confidant Yitzhak Molcho had a conversation behind closed doors that lasted nearly an hour. The Egyptian envoy was trying to find out the extent of Israel's commitment to the peace initiative led by President al-Sisi. The questions he put to the prime ministerlikely with the utmost of politenesswas what measures Israel was planning to take to bring the Palestinians to the negotiations table. The "carrots" part of Lieberman's plan could definitely meet Cairo's basic demands.

The defense minister believes the conflict with the Palestinians can only be resolved as part of a regional initiative. The Palestinian Authority, in his opinion, is not strong enough to constitute a true partner for peace negotiations, and that is why it needs the support of Arab states. In Lieberman's view, Egypt is a strategic partner for Israel. Cooperating with Cairo and with the Arab League could, he believes, lead within a year to a significant drop in security tensions with the Palestinians or, at the very least, to an interim agreement that Israel could live with.

Even Lieberman's close confidants understand that a diplomatic plan including a handful of tactical measures meant to stall for timeis a waste of time.

It appears the defense minister has a problem vis-a-vis the Egyptians, as the prime minister had taken over the diplomatic and political dialogue with them using Molcho, while partially neutralizing some of the channels between the Defense Ministry and Cairo. Defense officials believe this is a temporary situation, as the true key to launching meaningful talks with Egypt over a regional agreement is the defense minister and the military. After all, it is the defense establishment that presides over the main channel of communications with the Palestinians.

A considerable amount of time in the discussions over Israel's West Bank policy was dedicated to the day after Mahmoud Abbas. If it were up to Lieberman, that day would come sooner rather than later. The defense establishment believes that Israel could and should influence the selection of the PA leader's successors, so it could, in the future, have a dialogue with them.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AFP)

The moment Hamas threw its hat into the ring, Israel was supposed to wake up and ask itself whether it should join forces with the PA in an effort to sabotage the elections and thwart the terror organization. The defense minister has recently asked for a special meeting with the IDF to discuss the ramifications of the elections and what should be Israel's policy on the matter.

Palestinian local elections Hamas propaganda video presents Gaza as Singapore of Middle East Elior Levy Ahead of Palestinian elections, Hamas releases video breaking with past efforts to show an 'open prison camp,' instead demonstrating apparent Hamas achievements of a blooming Strip. Hamas propaganda video presents Gaza as Singapore of Middle East

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, has already started taking action. The Palestinian security forces recently arrested 70 high-ranking Hamas political figures, and it's safe to say that this was only the beginning. However, arresting the terror organization's representatives doesn't necessarily guarantee Hamas would be stopped in its quest for power. Earlier this year, the PA tried to stop the Islamic bloc from winning in student council elections at Birzeit University by arresting many of its political figures, but to no avail.

Hamas, on its part, is careful not to give Israel any reason to interfere: It is careful not to provide the IDF with cause to escalate the situation on the Gaza border and avoids mentioning the possibility of elections in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods.

In tandem with Hamas's announcement that it would participate in the municipal process, the head of its political bureau, Khaled Mashal, was quoted in Arab media as saying there was no reason not to have negotiations with the enemy (Israel)under certain political circumstances. This is an unprecedented statement meant for Israeli and Western ears, to assuage concerns over a Hamas victory in the local elections.

Furthermore, Mashal was also quoted as saying he views the revival of ties between Israel and Turkey as an opportunity that could accelerate the possibility of negotiations to achieve real peace.

Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: EPA)

Israel is not buying these hidden messages. The municipal elections held in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in 2004-2005 ended with Hamas coming out on top and served as a preview for the general elections in 2006, when the terror organization was also victorious. At the time, a national Palestinian government headed by Hamas was established and lasted for about six months, until the terror group brutally kicked Fatah out of the Strip, leading Abbas to dismantle the government and cut ties with Hamas.

Now, Israeli officials believe that an achievement by Hamas in the municipal elections will not only make a "lame duck" out of Abbas, but also lead the Gaza rulers, like in 2005, to demand general and presidential elections, following which it will work to achieve its greatest dream: Taking over the PLO.

General and presidential elections could bring to naught all of Israel's "day after" plans for Abbas's successors, reaching a regional agreement and making interim measuresas Hamas will be the one ruling in the West Bank. The policy of treating Gaza and the West Bank as two separate political entities, which has been the basis for Israel's official policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians since the Hamas takeover in 2007will be no more. Hamas will be the sovereign in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Firing up the Palestinian public

The municipal elections in the territories are usually done gradually, each time in a different area, so moods and trends can be discerned before the voting is done. The last time all cities went to the polls on the same day was in 1976. It appears that this precedent will now repeat itself in the coming elections. There will be no option to course-correct. Any arbitrary postponement of the elections could fire up the Palestinian public. The international community will not quietly accept such undermining of the democratic process in the West Bank, either.

Political analysts in Israel are predicting a victory for Hamas in the city of Hebron, in the nearby towns and villages, and in southern Mount Hebron areaa dedicated Hamas stronghold that hasn't gone to the polls in 40 years. The terror organization is also expected to win in Jenin and in Nablus, where Adly Yaish, who is affiliated with Hamas and has already served as the mayor of Nablus, is expected to run again. Hamas is also likely to claim victory in Qalqilya, where Wajih Kawas, a known Hamas politician who spent time in Israeli prison, will run. The results in Tulkarm remain uncertain, but many other bad surprises are expected as the Palestinian Authority pays the price of 20 years of corruption and neglect.

Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal (Photo: AFP)

In an effort to reduce the number of cities that would fall into Hamas's hands, Abbas issued a presidential decree that calls for Christian mayors to be elected in 11 municipalities. He is already butting heads with Hamas over this decision. It appears as if the PA is looking for any excuse to cancel the elections. Meanwhile, in election events organized by Hamas, the terror organization makes no secret of the fact it plansas part of its campaignto fire up the Palestinian public.

If Hamas does indeed take over the majority of the major cities in the West Bank, how exactly could Israel have talks with municipality leaders affiliated with an organization it does not talk to? And what is Israel going to do if the mayor of Qalqilya, on the border of Kfar Saba, decides to arm his inspectors with guns, or establish a local armed police? Will the IDF set out to disarm the Qalqilya police?

These are just some of the easy questions, but even those don't have an answer yet, as the cabinet is still fixated on those tunnels.
Israeli employees at 12 of the country's delegations abroad will strike on Monday to protest their salaries. The missions affected are those in Atlanta, Amman, Berlin, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, New York, Ottawa, San Francisco and Washington.

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Those striking are the "local Israeli employees" (LIEs)workers who have personal contracts with the government and who were recruited for specific positions, serving alongside the state's emissaries. The approximately 1,200 LIEs work both in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and in other ministries, including Tourism, Economy and Defense.

LIEs in London protesting in June

They are alleging economic difficulties, particularly in countries with higher cost of living. For example, an LIE in New York earns a net salary of $30,000 per year. Ministries' delegates receive higher salaries.

The various LIEs across the world began to communicate with each other some three years via WhattsApp and Facebook, according to Tal Horowitz, a member of the action committee of LIE and one of the leaders of the current fight.

After unionizing, the LIEs declared a labor dispute 2  years ago and began negotiations with the Ministry of Finance. The committee's chairman, Avishai Azriel, claims that the government was interested only in excuses and not in real negotiation.

"We won't continue being modern slaves supported by the state," he exclaimed, lamenting that the long negotiations have not led to actual improvement. Azriel stated that he hoped that the strike would bring about the end to what he termed "foot dragging."

This is the LIEs' second strike, after a three-hour warning one last June in New York, Paris and London. Monday will be the first time that LIEs in the Ministry of Defense will join in on the strike with the addition of the defense mission in New York.

The MFA stated that decisions regarding the LIEs' salaries were taken by the Finance Ministry but did emphasize that LIEs did significantly contribute to the MFA's work.
A Code Red rocket alert was sounded in Sderot and Sha'ar Hanegev just before 2:30pm on Sunday. Shortly afterwards, an explosion was heard, and a rocket was found between two residential houses in Sderot. There were no injuries or damage, though forces were immediately dispatched to the area.

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Site where rocket fell

X

In response, the Israeli Air Force attacked a Hamas military wing position in Beit Hanoun in the north Gaza Strip, and IDF tanks attacked further terrorist infrastructure. According to Palestinian sources, a 20-year-old man was lightly injured by shrapnel.

Scene of rocket fall (Photo: Roee Idan)

Palestinians also claimed that IDF tanks fired at a water tower in Beit Hanoun. However, the IDF has yet to confirm these reports.





Scene of rocket fall (Photo: Roee Idan)

Yaron, the owner of the home next to that that which was struck by the rocket recalled the incident as it unfolded: A red alert was sounded. Obviously we all entered the bomb shelter. A big boom could be heard which was close by,  he said. We came out and saw smoke and dust in the air. That is when we understood that it was close.

Yaron also said that one year ago, a rocket exploded on his home: It is extremely concerning at the moment. It is getting closer again.

Rocket fired from Gaza (Photo: Avi Rokeah)

Hamas is evacuating all its outposts and security facilities in the Strip out of fear of further reprisals from Israeli forces. This is standard practice after rockets are fired from Gaza to Israel.

Photo: Roi Idan

The rocket, which was fired from the north of the Gaza Strip, is the third to have been launched since the end of Operation Protective Edge and is the second to have landed in Israel in two months.
At least 51 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among a group of people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 km from the Syrian border.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that ISIS militants carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and from Syria.

Photo: EPA

ISIS has been blamed for other attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions. The deadliest attack having been last October at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists in Ankara when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people.

According to local officials, Saturday's wedding party was for a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party and the groom was among those injured. The bride was not hurt, the official added.

Celebrations were ending at the traditional henna night party, when guests have decorative paint applied to their hands and feet. Some families had already left when the bomb went off, but women and children were among the dead, witnesses said.

Blood and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the blast occurred. Women in white and checkered scarves cried, sitting outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives.

Projectiles from the bomb (Photo: AFP)

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

The local governor's office said in a statement 51 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

"We want to end these massacres," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Photo: AFP

Photo: AP

Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, some weeping at coffins draped in the green color of Islam, local television images showed. But other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were injured beyond recognition and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

Funeral of one of the victims (Photo: EPA)

In Gaziantep, the chief prosecutor's office said they had found a destroyed suicide vest at the blast site.

Violence has also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK.

Photo: Reuters

Turkey began air strikes against ISIS last July, in the weeks following the collapse of a peace agreement with the PKK, whom Turkey also began targeting in northern Iraq.

Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis, which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shelling from ISIS territory, occasionally wounding and killing civilians.

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On Sunday, ruling AK Party lawmakers, as well as Erdogan himself, emphasized that they see ISIS as no different than the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organizations.
YAOUNDE - A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed three people and wounded 24 on Sunday at a market in north Cameroon, where Islamist Boko Haram is waging an insurgency for a breakaway Islamic state across four countries, authorities said.

A senior military official said the bomber was also killed in the attack in Mora, in Cameroon's Far North province. He said that it was possible one of the three victims was also on the bike. Another security source said authorities were convinced this was the work of Boko Haram.

A regional offensive against Boko Haram led by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger - the four countries most affected by the militant group - has chased it out of towns in the Lake Chad region.
Paintings drawn by Lt. Hadar Goldin will be put on display in the central hallway of the UN in New York City in September as world leaders arrive to give speeches at the general assembly. Lt. Goldins body has been held captive by Hamas terrorists since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

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Lt. Goldins parents and twin brother Tzur will open up the exhibition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in attendance.

Hadar Goldin was known for being a prolific artist, even drawing on army stationary before entering Gaza with his troops.

The Goldin family decided to hold the exhibition at the recommendation of an art curator who went to mourn the loss of Hadar at the family home and was moved by the paintings.

A painting by Lt. Hadar Goldin

The exhibition will be called The Final Peace, based on a misspelling Hadar made on one of his paintings. One of the pieces to be featured in the exhibition will be a sketch he made which was to have been put on the invitations to his wedding.

Painting by Lt. Hadar Goldin

The young Lieutenant was killed and his body was captured in a surprise attack by Hamas under the cover of a UN brokered ceasefire.

Its important that the leaders of the world see up close that on top of being kidnapped during a UN ceasefire, Hadar was a talented individual, full of life and possibilities, and that his whole life was ahead of him. The UN and the international community must take responsibility in having his body returned to be buried in Israel, Hadars mother Leah Goldin said.

Lieut. Hadar Goldin

The Israeli UN delegation is coordinating meetings between the family and high ranking officials from various countries and high ranking UN officials to try and retrieve the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.

Hadar Goldin was killed and his body taken by terrorists during a UN sponsored ceasefire, said Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Dannon. Its extremely important that high ranking UN officials and world leaders see that on top of being a brave soldiers who was killed defending his country, Hadar was also a son, a brother, and a talented artist.
NEW YORK- A memorial and a march are among the commemorations marking the 25th anniversary of one of New York City's darkest chapters.

The 1991 race riot in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn started after a black 7-year-old boy was hit and killed by a car in a rabbi's motorcade. Hours later, a Jewish doctoral student was stabbed to death. Four days of violence followed.

The neighborhood is holding a series of anniversary events Sunday as part of "One Crown Heights." One of the events, a festival, has been criticized by relatives of the Jewish student as being insensitive and trivializing what happened.
Around 150 Haredi protesters took to the streets of Jerusalem on Sunday evening outside the IDF drafting office in response to the arrest by the Military Police of a Haredi individual police suspect of draft dodging.

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Haredi demonstration in Jerusalem (:    24)

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The demonstration, which began peacfully, showed signs of violence as some began hurling rocks at the security forces. The police stationed at the demonstration said that a number of the participants also attempted to block the road and were swiftly removed by the police from the area.

Haredi protestors in Jerusalem (Photo: Yoav Davidovich)

The Haredi individual in question who was detained at the recruitment office is from Jerusalem and is 23 years old. Following his arrest, he claimed that he failed to show up at the office one month ago because he did not receive the order in the mail.

Photo: Yoav Davidovich

The arrest of another 20-year-old Haredi individual, who is supposed to get married in two weeks, also led to public disturbances by Haredi protesters on Thursday night in the capital and in Beit Shemesh.

Photo: Yoav Davidovich

In the process of the demonstration, which attracted hundreds, garbage dumpsters were used to block roads and rocks were also thrown by some at the police presence. Moreover, insults could also be heard against the police such as Nazis.

Photo: Yoav Davidovich

Haredi protestors take to Jerusalem's streets (:  )

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During that protest, the police arrested six individuals suspected of rioting and disrupting public order. In Beit Shemesh, a number of protesters were also arrested.
The actor, Wayne Knight, most familiar for his role as Newman in the acclaimed comedy series Seinfeld, landed on Sunday morning in Israel.

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Knight will be staying in the country until Wednesday and will be photographed for the launch campaign of a new catalogue for the furniture company giant Ikea.

Wayne Knight who plays Newman in Seinfeld lands in Israel (Photo: Shoka Cohen)

Photo: Shoka Cohen

The Holy Land seems to be loved by all the stars of Seinfeld, which broadcast 9 series and came to an end in 1998.

Photo: Shoka Cohen

The lead star of the hit sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld also landed in Israel less than a year ago for a performance as part of his world tour. Moreover, Jason Alexander, best known for his role as George Costanza on the hit series visited Israel five years ago.
Hamas terrorists from the organizations military wing staged a parade on Sunday in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip during which they presented rockets produced by the group and bragged about terrorists from the commando unit.

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Hamas terrorist displays prison cell with words written in Hebrew, 'Prison for enemy prisoners' (Photo: Reuters)

Tiny prison cells were also exhibited at the parade bearing the words, written in Hebrew: Prison for the enemy, an apparent hint at future kidnapping attempts.

Gaza's children view the rockets intended for Israel (Photo: Reuters)

Hamas commando militant (Photo: Reuters)

The parade took place just hours after a rocket was fired on Sderot from the Strip. The Salafi Jihadist movement in Gaza claimed responsibility for the rocket fired which landed in Sderot. On the groups social network page, it was written that the rocket was fired as revenge for Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.

Homemade Hamas rockets (Photo: Reuters)

The military marchwhich was planned in advanceis just one of many similar exhibits staged by the military wing two years after Operation Protective Edge honoring the memory of two of the organizations southern commanders killed by the IDF.

Photo: Reuters

Hamas militants (Photo: AFP)

During the march a Hamas spokesperson threatened that the organization will treat Israelis in the same way that they treat Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons while drawing attention to the worsening of conditions which Hamas prisoners claim to have taken place recently. The spokesperson added that despite the Israeli blockade of the Strip, the military wing continues to develop its military capabilities ahead of the next round of fighting with Israel.
The IDF is reported to have continued a combined air and artillery assualt on Hamas targets in Gaza Sunday night in retaliation for rockets fired from the Strip into Sderot earlier on Sunday afternoon.

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According to the Palestinian report, the strikes were carried out by the Israel Air Force and Israeli artillery units on a Hamas military wing position in Beit Hanoun in the north Gaza Strip, from which the rocket was launched earlier on Sunday afternoon. The report indicates that one of the targets was a military outpost belonging to Hamass security apparatus.

Moreover, the report claimed that a 17-year-old Palestinian boy was lightly wounded during the retaliatory attacks, along with three other children suffering from shock.

IDF continues to retaliate in Gaza for rocket fire into Israel

The response of the IDF signals a departure from the norm as it usually retaliates once during the hours immediately following the rocket fire or the night after. While the reports were not originally officially verified by the IDF late Sunday night, explosions were heard by residents of Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip. Guy, a resident of Sderot said, "There is a feeling of pressure and fear. We hope everything is going to be ok."

Strikes in southern Gaza

Later, the IDF released a statement accounting for the continued attacks: "The IDF attacks are in response to the rocket fire into Israeli territory. The rocket fire constitutes a threat to the security of Israel and a strike against the State of Israel's sovereignty," the statemen read. "The Hamas terror organization is the sovereign power in the Gaza Strip and it is therefore responsible for all terror activities emanating from it."

Tensions mounted after a Code Red rocket alert was sounded in Sderot and Sha'ar Hanegev just before 2:30pm on Sunday

Rocket which fell in Sderot (Photo: Avi Rokeah)

Shortly afterwards, an explosion was heard, and a rocket was found between two residential houses in Sderot. There were no injuries or damage, though forces were immediately dispatched to the area.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said during an interview with a number of journalists in Egypt on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin informed him that he is ready to host direct talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The Egyptian president mentioned Israeli convictions of of peace are strengthening. Al-Sisi also invited everybody to take part in moving the peace process forward which, he said, was the key to stability in the region.

Moreover, he added that there is no avoiding a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah since only this, he contended, could lead to genuine concerted efforts to bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Arizona News

Sierra Vista, Arizona - Streamflow and groundwater levels are declining in some locations along the San Pedro River near Sierra Vista, Arizona, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Future groundwater discharge into the San Pedro River and the adjacent river bank, or riparian area, will likely continue to decline in some areas. In other areas, however, water-management measures have resulted in stable or improving hydrologic conditions.

Scientists looked at the Sierra Vista subwatershed, which includes a majority of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. This critical ecosystem provides habitat for half the bird species found in the United States. The 30-mile stretch of the San Pedro River and riparian area supports 389 species of birds, 84 species of mammals and 47 reptile and amphibian species. Groundwater is an essential component in sustaining the streamflow and habitat of the San Pedro River ecosystem.

The new USGS report represents one of the few studies assessing groundwater sustainability on a subwatershed scale. Scientists evaluated many aspects of the Sierra Vista subwatershed system, including regional and riparian area groundwater levels, streamflow levels in the San Pedro and Babocomari Rivers and rates of groundwater flow into springs. While some areas of the subwatershed appear to be experiencing sustainable conditions, others are not. The full USGS study is available online.

Results from the northern part of the Sierra Vista subwatershed suggest unsustainable conditions currently exist, said USGS hydrologist Bruce Gungle. However, long-term monitoring is the first step in helping resource managers make informed decisions. Water-management actions have resulted in positive, sustainable effects in some areas along the San Pedro River, such as ending agricultural pumping in the Hereford area and recharging treated wastewater into the aquifer near Charleston.

The Upper San Pedro Basin extends from around the town of Canena, Mexico to about 11 miles north of Benson, Arizona. The Sierra Vista subwatershed is an area within the Upper San Pedro Basin that is surrounded by the Huachuca Mountains and the Mule Mountains and Tombstone Hills.

Pumping throughout the Sierra Vista subwatershed, which has been most intensive in the Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista areas, captures groundwater that would otherwise go to the river, said Gungle. The hydrologic data indicate that pumping has resulted in decreased groundwater flow toward some reaches of the San Pedro River and a tributary, the Babocomari River.

This report was prepared in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, Cochise County, the City of Sierra Vista and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Border News

Nogales, Arizona - Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a man and juvenile during separate weekend attempts to smuggle heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine through the Dennis DeConcini crossing in Nogales, Arizona.

The first incident occurred Aug. 12 when officers referred a 62-year-old man from Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico, for a secondary inspection of his Dodge truck and discovered multiple packages of narcotics within the cabs back. The packages contained more than 5 pounds of heroin, worth more than $94,000; more than 15 pounds of cocaine, worth in excess of $171,000; and more than 20 pounds of meth, valued in excess of $60,000.

On Aug. 15, officers referred a 16-year-old for further inspection as she entered the U.S. through the DeConcini pedestrian lanes. The search revealed more than 2 pounds of heroin, worth almost $40,000, within her brassiere.

Officers seized the vehicle and narcotics, and turned both subjects over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.
Border News

Douglas, Arizona - Customs and Border Protection officers at the Raul Hector Castro Port of Entry in Douglas, Arizona, arrested a 29-year-old man from Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico for attempting to smuggle 275 pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $137,500, into the United States on Wednesday.

After officers referred the man for a secondary inspection of his Jeep SUV, a CBP narcotics-detection canine helped officers locate numerous packages of marijuana from various locations inside and outside of the vehicle, including the tires.

Officers seized the drugs and vehicle, and turned the subject over to Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.
Latest News

Fort Worth, Texas - One of the Mexican citizens convicted for his role in the May 2013 revenge murder of Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa in Southlake, Texas, was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in federal prison.

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. This investigation was led by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Assistance was also provided by the following agencies: Southlake (Texas) Police Department; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Texas Department of Public Safety; Tarrant County (Texas) Sheriffs Office; Tarrant County District Attorneys Office; Fort Worth Police Department; and Grapevine (Texas) Police Department.

Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, 32, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 20 years in federal prison. Ledezma-Campano pleaded guilty in March 2016 to one count of interstate stalking and testified for the government at trial.

Two co-defendants in this case, his father, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, aka Chuy and Juan Ramos, 60, and his cousin, Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, 60, also Mexican citizens, were each convicted at trial in May 2016 on one count of interstate stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Each offense carries a maximum statutory penalty of life in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Cepeda-Cortes was also convicted on one count of tampering with documents or proceedings, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Both are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Means Sept. 22.

On May 22, 2013, at 6:47 p.m., Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa was ambushed and shot multiple times with a 9mm pistol while seated in his Range Rover that was parked at Southlake Town Square. A Toyota Sequoia pulled up behind the Range Rover, a gunman got out of that vehicle, walked up to the Range Rover, and fired several times through the window at Mr. Chapa, who died at the scene. Nearby, Mr. Chapas wife was not harmed; Ledezma-Campano admitted seeing her screaming outside the vehicle.

According to evidence presented at trial and documents filed in the case, from about March 1, 2011, until May 22, 2013, the three defendants traveled in interstate and foreign commerce from Mexico to Southlake, and elsewhere, with the intent to kill, injure, harass and intimidate Mr. Chapa, and as a result of that travel, Mr. Chapa was killed. In addition, from about May 23, 2013, until Sept. 5, 2014, Cepeda-Cortes took steps to destroy evidence on his computer related to this investigation.

The defendants were acting on orders from a man in Mexico, Rodolfo Villarreal Hernandez, known as El Gato, or the Cat, who wanted Mr. Chapa killed as revenge for his fathers murder. Over the course of the conspiracy, Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cortes received money from Ledezma-Cepeda to pay for their expenses. Ledezma-Cepeda was paid by El Gato.

Ledezma-Cepeda asked his son, Ledezma-Campano, to assist in the search. Ledezma-Campano used his skill with electronic devices to assist in the search, and he created email accounts for Ledezma-Cepeda and El Gato to communicate with each other.

The defendants exchanged information via email to locate Mr. Chapa  exchanging personal information about Mr. Chapa and his family as well as information regarding vehicles associated with them and photographs of the Chapa residence in Southlake.

The defendants used various means to locate and track Mr. Chapa and members of his family. Cepeda-Cortes purchased surveillance cameras that were placed in various locations in Mr. Chapas neighborhood. In addition, while in the area, the defendants purchased and rented several vehicles that allowed them to frequently change vehicles and use non-descript rental vehicles to avoid detection by Mr. Chapa and his family. They placed automobile tracking devices not only on their own vehicles, but on vehicles owned and operated by Mr. Chapa and his relatives, including the Range Rover Mr. Chapa was in when he was murdered.

After the defendants located Mr. Chapa, El Gato sent two assassins from Mexico to Southlake to kill him. Ledezma-Campano met the two, whom he identified as Clorox and Captain, and concluded they were sent to kill Mr. Chapa. One of the men was, in fact, the gunman who killed the victim on May 22, 2013, and the other drove the Toyota Sequoia.

On the day of the murder, Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda followed the victim around Southlake. That afternoon, while the victims Range Rover was parked in a Walmart parking lot, Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda switched the tracking device on the Range Rover.

At about 6 p.m. on May 22, 2013, Mr. Chapa and his wife drove to Southlake Town Square. Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda, who had been parked near Chapas home, followed them. Mr. Chapa parked in his regular parking spot near a yogurt store, and Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda parked directly across from them and used binoculars to watch them.

As they waited, Ledezma-Cepeda was in regular contact, via Blackberry Messenger, with El Gato. Ledezma-Campano saw Clorox and Captain drive by in a Toyota Sequoia. Ledezma-Campano entered a coffee shop in the Town Square; while inside, he heard a commotion outside. He returned to Ledezma-Cepeda who told him they shot him.

Ledezma-Campano and Ledezma-Cepeda waited several minutes as law enforcement responded before leaving the scene. El Gato told both of them to stop using the tracking device they carried in their vehicle. The next morning, they returned the rental car and drove directly into Mexico, along the way destroying the phones they had used.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Burgess and Aisha Saleem are prosecuting this case.
Latest News

Minneapolis, Minnesota - One of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) 10 most wanted human trafficking fugitives was arrested, by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in Chicago, while he was leaving a hospital in Gary, Indiana, on Friday afternoon.

Jamal Moore, 33, is currently wanted in Hennepin County (Minneapolis) Minnesota on a state charge of promoting prostitution of a minor. A bench warrant was issued after Moore failed to appear for a pre-trial court date to face the charge in January 2013. The bench warrant was issued via the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office.

Moores arrest Friday resulted from a tip that he had recently checked into a Gary, Indiana hospital under an assumed name.

This case was initiated in August of 2012 after information was obtained that a juvenile girl was posted online for the purposes of commercial sex acts. HSI St. Paul and the Minneapolis Police Department, responding to the tip, rescued a juvenile female from a local hotel room.

In addition to the charge of promoting prostitution, Moore is wanted in Minnesota on a second charge of felony domestic assault. Moore will be extradited to Minnesota to face these charges.
By PTI: Dhaka, Aug 21 (PTI) A fire today broke out at a shopping mall in the Bangladeshi capital, with authorities evacuating shoppers and staff but 12 people remained trapped inside the complex.

The fire originated from a leather shop on the sixth floor of the eight-storey building in Bashundhara City here around 11:20 AM.

Nineteen people, including three women, were rescued by fire fighters who brought the flames under control after two hours of efforts.

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"12 persons were trapped on the roof of the eight-storey mall. They are safe and the fire-fighters are trying to rescue them," an official was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com.

"We rescued a total of 19 people including three women from two rooftop around 4:14 pm. They had taken shelter on the rooftop in panic," Fire Service and Civil Defence Deputy Director Mizanur Rahman said.

The cause of the fire - the fourth such incident in the same mall - could not be confirmed yet.

"I also want to know why this mall catches fire again and again," Dhaka Mayor Annisul Huq said, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Two more units joined the fire service team, Rahman said.

He also said that several more people were on the rooftop of the building and firemen were trying to rescue them.

No casualities have been reported so far.

Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Sheikh Maruf Hasan said: "We have not got any report of casualties so far but a lot of people are stuck on the terrace". PTI KJ/RSD AJR SAI AJR

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By Srijani Ganguly/Mail Today: In just over three weeks, Gurgaon-based DJ Sahil Sharma's latest track (Never Let You Go) has raked up over a million views. That is quite a feat, especially considering the fact that Sharma is only 21 years old.

Sharma, who goes by the moniker Zaeden when he is behind the turntables, started Djing when he was 14. He truly came of age only two years back, in 2014, when he released a bootleg of Coldplay's 'Magic' and then went on to get signed on Spinnin' Records and Music All Stars.

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"It's not about becoming a DJ or a producer," he says, when asked how he came into this profession. "It's always about being happy. Making and listening to music has made me happy since I was a kid. All I did was to continue being happy."

His latest track, which he has produced along with DJ duo Nina & Malika, is the result of his happy state of mind. Nina Shah and Malika Haydon, who are also signed on to Spinnin' Records, have plenty of catchy tunes to their names as well.

Talking about how the collaboration between the three came about, Sharma says, "Sometimes while making music, your friends come up with some really cool ideas which the track demands. In this case, I shared the idea with them, and Nina came up with some catchy guitar riffs and grooves."

In his own words, "people are finding 'Never Let You Go' soothing and the perfect means to end their summer across the world. It has more of a radio vibe, so we will be having some club edits for live shows. Overall, I am really happy with how the song has turned out."

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Lahore: As many as 175 terror suspects have been arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province in the past two days in a combing operation that was launched after 74 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a hospital in Balochistan earlier this month.

According to a statement issued by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), "More than 175 terror suspects have been arrested in combing operations in Punjab during the last two days."

The terror suspects belong to different banned organisations, it said.

Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has ordered combing operations in the country following the Quetta suicide blast in which 74 people, mostly lawyers, were killed.

Meanwhile, Geo News said the security forces have arrested 198 terrorists in combing operation in Punjab between December 2014 and August 11, 2016, citing police records.

Of 198, 9 terrorists belonged to al Qaeda, 13 to Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and remaining to Lashkar-e-Jahngvi.

No terrorist from Daesh (ISIS) has been arrested in Punjab, the police record said.
Islamabad: At least nine persons were killed and 35 others injured in a road accident in Sindh province of Pakistan, the police said on Sunday.

The deaths occurred when a bus, headed to Shahdad Kot from Karachi, collided with a truck late on Saturday in Thatta district, Dawn online quoted the police as saying.

The injured persons were transferred to Thatta Civil Hospital. At least 10 of the injured were said to be in a critical condition.
New Delhi: A 54-year-old constable was mowed down by a speeding car allegedly driven by an 18-year-old youth, who did not have a driving licence, near Welcome metro station in northeast Delhi this morning.

Naresh Pal Malik, a Head Constable in Delhi Police's Special Branch, was knocked off his scooter on his way to work around 8.30 AM.

Locals chased the car and caught hold of Shubham who was driving it. He does not have a driving license, a senior official said.

Pal, who suffered serious head injuries, was taken to GTB Hospital, where he was declared brought dead, police said.

He was a resident of Surya Vihar, Ghaziabad, and had joined Delhi Police in 1982.
New Delhi: A 54-year-old Delhi Police head constable was killed when a speeding car driven by an 18-year-old rammed into his motorcycle while he was on way to work on Sunday, police said. The errant driver has been arrested.

Naresh Pal, who was posted with the Special Branch of Delhi Police, was hit from behind near Seelampur area in east Delhi around 8.15 a.m.

Pal was rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur hospital where doctors pronounced him dead, a police officer said.

He said car driver Shubham was arrested from the spot and booked under section 304 A (causing death by negligence).

The officer added that Pal had joined Delhi Police in 1982 and was residing with his family in Surya Nagar in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district.


New Delhi: Gujarat Congress leaders on Sunday submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee highlighting "atrocities" against Dalits in the state, and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "having the time to think about people of Balochistan" but turning a "blind eye towards the suffering of Dalits" in his home state.

Demanding a time-bound action against the perpetrators, the Gujarat Congress leaders also sought the President's intervention in the matter.

The Congress leaders said they had apprised the President of the "rise in social terror in Gujarat, a phenomenon that has manifested over the past 18 years of BJP rule" in the state.

According to a memorandum they submitted to Mukherjee, more than 1,000 atrocities are committed against Dalits every year in Gujarat. Over the last 13 years of BJP rule, the total number of atrocities against Dalits stands at 14,613. "These are merely the number of reported cases. The actual number is much higher as many cases go un-reported," it added.

The delegation included Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Congress president's Political Secretary Ahmed Patel, Congress legislature party leader Shankar Sinh Vaghela, and AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry.

"The Prime Minister has time to acknowledge the suffering of people in Balochistan but it is unfortunate that he and his party have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the marginalized and underprivileged in his home state," Gujarat PCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki said.

"The atrocities in Una is not an exception but the norm. And the fact that even after the Una incident shook the nation's conscience, atrocities against Dalits still continue with impunity shows the extreme insensitivity embedded in the Gujarat administration," he added.

Solanki said: "He (Prime Minister) spoke eloquently over rogue cow vigilantes but did not tell us how as Chief Minister he encouraged the very business of such vigilantes. For a party whose ideology is based on dividing society, we have no hope that they will take any serious action to erase the deep fault lines in Gujarat."

Congress leaders also requested Mukherjee to intervene in the matter through the Governor of the state.

"We have come to seek the protection of the President and have urged him to use his good offices and issue relevant directions to the administration," said Solanki.

"We, the member of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee wish to bring to your kind attention the rising atrocities being committed against men, women and children belonging to the Dalit community in the state of Gujarat and the BJP led State government's refusal to take any action against those perpetrating these horrendous acts of barbarity," read the memorandum.

The memorandum read: "Given that the present state and central Government have decided to turn a blind eye to the plight of Dalits in Gujarat, we request the Rashtrapati ji to intervene and use his high office to ensure that safety as per law is provided to all Indian citizens."


Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday bestowed special honours on a PLA battalion posted in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh for its "outstanding performance in safeguarding borders".

Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the overall command authority of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), signed orders to give honorary titles, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"Troop 77656 is now titled as a "model plateau battalion" for its outstanding performance in safeguarding borders, ensuring stability and helping disaster relief," the report quoted a statement as saying.

While the news report has not identified the battalion, Indian defence officials and strategic think-tanks have said it is Gangba 2nd Independent Battalion.

It is based in Shigatse City, Gangba County in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh and is one of the six battalions functioning under the Tibet Military Area Command, official sources here told PTI.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) covers 3488-km border.

While China says that the boundary dispute is confined to 2,000 kms, mainly in Arunachal Pradesh in eastern sector which it claims as part of southern Tibet, India asserts that the dispute covered the whole of the LAC including the Aksai Chin occupied by China during the 1962 war.

Both sides formed a number of mechanisms both at the levels of field commanders and at the level of headquarters to defuse tensions arising out of the aggressive patrolling of the disputed border.

India and China have held 19 rounds of Special Representatives talks to resolve the border dispute.

Xi also honoured Submarine 372 whose crew saved it from a major disaster while on a patrol mission in 2014.

According to Chinese official media reports, Submarine 372 was caught in an underwater trench thousands of metres deep and started plunging down.

The vessel had encountered a sudden change in water conditions, leading it to sink uncontrollably fast, according to a December, 2014 report by state-run China Daily.

The crew quickly seized the little time they had by opening all the emergency air flasks within 10 seconds to fill the tanks and managed to close more than 100 valves and related equipment in less than a minute.

In two minutes, all the cabins were sealed.

The team's swift, coordinated reaction saved everyone, the report said.

The whole armed forces were urged to learn from both examples, according to the Xinhua report.

In a separate statement, Xi signed orders to award merit citations to four military units and 15 persons for outstanding services.

Troop 66114 was given a first-class merit citation for its outstanding contribution to completing tasks, and units 91515, 94669 and 96261 were given second-class merit citations for their outstanding performance in strengthening fighting capacity.

Chen Deming, a researcher from unit 63620, was awarded a first-class merit citation.

Chen was quoted last month by the official media about China's ballistic missile interception system tests.

"The Ballistic missile defence system is a critical link in our strategic defence, and is also an important chip in the contest between big powers. It makes a world of difference whether you have it or not," Chen said.

Footage of the original test has been released on the heels of the US and South Korea agreeing to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system before the end of next year.

While the US insists the system is to defend South Korea from possible attacks from North Korea, Chinese officials have condemned its planned deployment, saying it threatens China's security.

Two others were given posthumous first-class merit citations by Xi.

Twelve individuals, including research fellows, engineers and medical staff, were honoured with third-class merit citation, the Xinhua report said.
New Delhi: Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed for last month's failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has "infiltrated" India, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Asserting that FETO is "secretive transnational criminal network" with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, "Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools."

In an interview to PTI after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish Foreign Minister also said, "I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart."

The visiting minister said, "In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories."

Asked for a response to the Minister's comments, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side is "sensitive" to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were "looking into" Ankara's demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities.

Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said, "Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial."

"This is what both Turkey and India are focused on," he said.

Talking about last month's coup attempt, the visiting dignitary said that a clandestine faction led by FETO within the Turkish Army attempted to stage a coup on July 15 to overthrow the democratically elected government.

"We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Swaraj," Cavusoglu added.

More than 240 people died and over 1,500 others were injured as a fallout of the failed coup.

Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. Gulen currently lives in self-imposed exile in the US.

The Turkish minister also expressed concern over the situation in Syria, maintaining that his country was directly impacted by every dynamic of the conflict there.

He also asked the international community to work together to bring about the much-needed political transition in Syria. "This is not only a prerequisite to end the conflict, it is also essential to effectively fight terrorism," the minister asserted.
New Delhi: Coming down heavily on Pakistan for supporting ISIS, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Sunday said the terrorists cannot be divided into categories of acceptable or not-acceptable as they are all bad.

"When they cause harm to people, to citizens, to society, they are bad and this is how you should treat them," he told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

Karzai, who was the president of Afghanistan from 2001-2014, also agreed with the fact that Pakistan was supporting the ISIS.

"We have no doubt about that. We have evidence, information coming to us from our population that deals the case," he said.

When asked whether the Indian military has any role in Afghanistan, he said, "I see a great role for India in Afghanistan. India has already been at the forefront of Afghanistan and to Afghanistan people in infrastructure, education, development, building of institutions of democracy and all of that."
Agra: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has racked up yet another controversy in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh after he called on the Hindus to increase their population, saying that their dwindling number in the country is a matter of grave concern.

When people from another faith (read Muslims) are producing so many children why can't the Hindus? Is there a law which says not to increase population? he asked.

The RSS chief said that there is no such law that is preventing Hindus to produce more children. He called on them to produce more children.

The issue is not related to governance. It's a question of our social structure. In our society, you have to think about yourself, about your family and about your national interest.

These three issues should be your top priority and there should be progress in all of them, he said at a conference of teachers from Agra. The state will go to polls next year.

Congress leader Sandip Dikshit hit out at Bhagat for the comments and said if such a thing would happen there would be a lot of upheaval in the society.

There will be hunger and unemployment and there will not be adequate resources with the government to deal with the situation, he said.

As far as the Muslim population is concerned, there has been a decrease in their population over a period of time, he added.
New Delhi: As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said as the two countries agreed to upgrade their security consultations.

Assad made the assertion during a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar when the latter called on him yesterday during his Syria visit.

"There was an agreement between both sides for further upgrading security consultations," the sources said. However, the sources did not mention the level to which they have been upgraded to.

During the meeting, Assad also welcomed India's objective position on the conflict in Syria and both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem, sources said.

"As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism," sources quoted Assad as saying.

On his part, Akbar, during their meeting, said the age of destruction should give way to the age of reconstruction in Syria.

Assad also invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy.

Both leaders agreed that as secular nations, India and Syria believe in faith equality.

Akbar is currently on a nearly week-long visit to West Asia from August 17.
By PTI: Dhaka, Aug 21 (PTI) At least four persons, including a woman and a child were today killed and 50 injured after the roof of a jute mill collapsed during a tornado in central Bangladesh, police said.

The incident occurred around 2.00 PM (local time) when around 350 workers were working in the jute mill in Faridpur district, some 100 kms from here, local media reported.

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A portion of the tin roof of the mill collapsed during the storm, Jamil Hassan, superintendent of Faridpur police, was quoted as saying.

Four workers, including a woman and a child, were killed in the incident.

The bodies were recovered from the spot while the injured were admitted to Faridpur Medical College Hospital. The condition of 22 of them is said to be critical. PTI EMY SAI

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday over the monogrammed suit donned by the PM during his meeting with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi last year, which entered the Guinness World Records as 'the most expensive suit sold at auction'.

Rahul tweeted saying - "Just rewards for Modi ji's immense sacrifice."

Just rewards for Modiji's immense sacrificehttps://t.co/tXqNLz92pi  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 21, 2016

The monogrammed suit donned by PM Modi had gone under the hammer in February last year and was purchased for Rs 4.31 crore by Surat-based diamond trader Lalji Patel, who owns Dharmananda Diamond Company.

The Guinness World Records acknowledges the suit as the "most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs 43,131,311 and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibhai Patel (India) in Surat, Gujarat, India on February 20, 2015."

The suit has stripes with the name 'Narendra Damodardas Modi' woven into it in glittering gold letters.

The suit was reportedly prepared at a cost of Rs 10 lakh and was auctioned at a base price of Rs 11 lakh.

The money raised from the auction of the suit has been earmarked for the Centre's clean Ganga mission.

"It is a matter of happiness and pride that the suit has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We had applied for the world record around five months back on the suggestion of our company's HR management team. Within a couple of months, we received a certificate acknowledging that it was the world's most expensive suit sold at an auction," Hitesh Patel, son of Laljibhai, had said in Surat (Gujarat) yesterday, as per PTI.

The suit had kicked up a political row with Opposition parties accusing the PM of 'narcissism'.

Rahul had latched on it to accuse PM Modi of heading a 'suit-boot ki sarkar' which worked only for the rich.

The government had hit back, saying it was in fact a 'soojh-boojh ki sarkar' (a government with wisdom).

(With Agency inputs)


New Delhi: Amid row over an affidavit filed by Army Chief General Dalbir Singh, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday came out in support of Union minister VK Singh.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has claimed that the minister was "continuously being targeted by certain corrupt forces" unhappy over his role in preventing illegal kickbacks in weapons purchase.

The Rajya Sabha MP also urged the government to take steps to protect V.K. Singh, a former army chief, from "this paid slander campaign, since being a minister he cannot defend himself in a slugfest with the present Chief of Army Staff".

"The DV (Discipline and Vigilance) Ban on the appointment of certain Generals was issued after due process. No COAS (Chief of Army Staff) can issue a DV Ban on a whim. The matter is examined by not just the Vigilance Branch but also by the MoD (Ministry of Defence) at the highest levels. Only after these three bodies recommend the DV Ban can the process be initiated," Swamy said in a statement here.

"The most recent attempt to slander General Singh (retd) is for the vigilance inquiry ordered against Lt. General D.S. Suhag in May 2012," the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

General vs General

General Dalbir Singh on Thursday briefed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar about the affidavit, which was originally filed in the Armed Forces Tribunal in 2012, in which he accused former Army chief General V.K. Singh.

In the affidavit, Dalbir Singh said he was "victimised" by Singh "with the sole purpose of denying promotion to the appointment of Army Commander".

The affidavit had been filed by Dalbir Singh in his "personal capacity" when he was not the army chief, nor was Singh a minister.

The old affidavit was resubmitted by the present army chief after the matter came before the Supreme Court.

V.K. Singh slapped a discipline and vigilance ban on Dalbir Singh between April and May 2012 for alleged "failure of command and control" in an operation in Assam's Jorhat in 2011.

The ban was lifted in June 2012 after General Bikram Singh succeeded V.K. Singh as the army chief.

Dalbir Singh was then appointed commander of the army's Eastern Command.

(With agency inputs)
Srinagar: The Indian Army personnel killed all three terrorists in an encounter that broke down in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Sunday.

The Indian Army's 4 Para commandos were retaliating to the fire by the three terrorists, who were trapped during the encounter.

The gunbattle broke out between Army personnel and terrorists in Tangdhar area of Kupwara early today. As per the report, security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in the area following information about presence of terrorists there.

Further details awaited.
New Delhi: With Kashmir under curfew for the last 44 days, former state chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday led a joint delegation of Opposition parties for a meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi where he pitched for efforts to find a political solution to the violent unrest which has claimed 64 lives so far.

The delegation had called on President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

The Opposition leaders from the troubled state asked Gandhi to make efforts at the national level for finding a "political rather than administrative" solution to the current spell of unrest, the longest in recent memory, in the aftermath of the killing of militant 'commander' Burhan Wani by the security forces on July 8.

The PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir led by Mehbooba Mufti has been flayed by Abdullah's National Conference and other opposition parties for "creating disaffection" in the Valley, particularly among the youth, by trying to find an administrative solution to end the current spiral of violence.

"Discussed the current political crisis in J&K with a delegation of opposition leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar (Omar Abdullah)," the Congress leader tweeted after the meeting.

CPI-M MLA M Y Tarigami, who was part of the delegation, told Gandhi that the ongoing stir in Kashmir should be considered a national problem and a consensus be built among political parties for evolving a political approach to deal with the situation.

"The present crisis should not be looked through the prism of another round of violence but needs a closer look keeping in mind the scope and implication of this serious crisis," Tarigami said.

State Congress chief G A Mir, who was also in the delegation that called on Gandhi, said "There is an urgent need to reach out to the people and not treat the present situation as a mere law and order problem."

He thanked the Congress vice president for taking up the issue in Parliament and forcing the government to a debate on the issue.

"Violence and bloodshed is leading to no solution. The political doors need to be opened urgently before the situation turns more violent," he said.

The delegation also comprised senior National Conference leaders including A R rather, Ali Mohammed Sagar, Nasir Wani, Davinder Rana and independent MLA Hakeem Yasin.

The delegation had met President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and submitted him a memorandum urging the Centre to deal with the present crisis "politically" rather than administratively.

It would meet Prime Minister Modi tomorrow to impress upon him the need for finding a "political solution" to the crisis by initiating a dialogue with "all stakeholders".
Delhi: As the unrest in the state continues, leaders of Opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

The delegation will be led by working president of National Conference and former J&K CM Omar Abdullah, as per media reports.

On August 20, the Opposition parties from the state had knocked at the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee, requesting him to urge the Centre in finding a solution 'politically'.

The Opposition delegation while seeking the President's intervention had also submitted a memorandum and apprised him of the 'worsening' situation in the state.

Omar had said that the delegation had also requested the President to use his 'influence' on the state as well as the Centre "to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley".

"The failure of the Central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation," Omar had told reporters after an hour-long meeting with the President, as per PTI.

"We have requested the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issue in the state," the NC leader had said.

The delegation had also comprised CPI-M MLA M Y Tarigami, Congress MLAs led by its PCC Chief GA Mir and independent MLA Hakeem Yaseen.

Blaming Mehbooba Mufti-headed PDP-BJP government for having failed on all fronts to normalise the situation, Omar had added that the CM was directly responsible for the deteriorating situation.

The former CM, who was also accompanied by senior leaders of NC including provincial presidents of his party Nasir Wani and Davinder Rana, Ali Mohammed Sagar and AR Rather, had said, "The fire that has been raging in Kashmir Valley has already started spreading across Peer Panjal and Chenab Valley in Jammu region and Kargil area."

(With PTI inputs)
Srinagar: One person was killed in a clash between a mob and security forces in downtown Srinagar this evening, shattering the peace that was by and large witnessed in Kashmir through the day with curfew in force in the capital and two other towns.

Irfan Ahmed was injured in a clash between stone pelters and security forces in Fateh Kadal area and he succumbed to his injuries in SMHS hospital later, a police official said.

With this, the toll during the 44-day unrest has gone up to 65, including two policemen.

Earlier, the situation was largely under control through the day with incidents of stone pelting reported only from three places -- Kangan in Ganderbal and Trumgund and Behrampora in Sopore.

The miscreants assembled on roads and pelted stones on police and security forces, police spokesman said.

Apart from these incidents, "the situation remained under control across the valley till the filing of this report", he said.

Curfew was in force in the entire Srinagar district as well as in Anantnag and Pampore towns as a precautionary measure, a police official said.

He said restrictions on the movement of the people were also in force in rest of the Valley.

Shops, private offices and petrol pumps remained closed while public transport continued to be off the roads.

Mobile internet also continued to remain suspended in the entire Valley, while postpaid mobile services and incoming facility on prepaid mobiles were resumed yesterday. However, outgoing facility on prepaid services remained barred.

The separatist camp had called upon people to assemble and occupy local chowks and centers from 3 PM to 5 PM today.

The separatists have also asked the people to paste on walls the letters, asking all ministers, MLAs and MLCs from all parties to resign from government and party positions.

The separatist camp, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, has extended the agitation till August 25.
Srinagar: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday lashed out at Pakistan while holding it responsible for the ongoing unrest going on in the Jammu and Kashmir.

Jaitley, who reached Jammu today to address Bharatiya Janata Party's Tiranga Yatra, used the opportunity to hit out at the neighbouring country for their stand on terrorism and infiltration activities and said, 'Pakistan doesn't consider Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India. In 1990, when they realised that they can't win in wars, they started infiltrating terrorists into the state of Jammu and Kashmir'.

"A new serious situation has arisen. Pakistan and various other forces are involved in it, and the countrys unity has been challenged once again," Jaitley said, adding that people of Jammu and Kashmir should jointly fight against this aggression.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, we have three clear priorities for Jammu and Kashmir. First is that there will be no compromise with the security of this nation and those who threaten with violence. Secondly, the focus is on the development the state, which the Congress and the National Conference refused to address for seven years. And third, as BJP has a stronghold in Jammu, Nirmal Singh should think about gathering resources from the Centre to contribute to the state`s development," Jaitley said.

Stating that Pakistan began to send terrorists to infiltrate into India after losing both the 1947 and the 1965 wars, Jaitley said that India had initially found it difficult to handle the situation but with time, overcame the hurdle.

"After 9/11, everyone's hatred toward terrorism intensified and the whole world believed that one can`t win through means of terrorism. Pakistan was told on an international scale to put an end to terrorism," he said.

"In Jammu, when the Amarnath revolution in began in 2008, 2010, they started a new trend of stone pelting. Kids would fill their school bags with stones instead of books and attack security forces. If a troop of 8-10 police personnel is attacked by 200 men with 10, 000 stones what else is that except an attack. But then the nation emerged from that as well," the Finance Minister said.

Talking the rampant state of violence in the Valley at present, Jaitley emphasised on the active involvement of Pakistan in the unrest, besides Separatists and divisive forces."And once again, in a new way, the unity of this nation has been attacked," he added.

"Raising slogans which advocate disintegration of the nation cannot be seen as freedom of speech," he said.

The development comes after the Jammu and Kashmir opposition submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday over the unrest in the Valley stating that it needed a political solution and asserted that Pakistan was not solely responsible for the state of violence.

As many as 65 have been killed and thousands of civilians and security personnel reported injured in protest-related violence following the encounter of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.
Mangaluru: BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday said nationalism was being questioned in the name of freedom of expression and "propaganda" against nationalism could not be considered as freedom of speech.

"It has become a fashion for some people nowadays to question nationalism. This is being done in different places and new theories are being planted.

"Nationalism is being questioned in the name of freedom of expression," he said, addressing a gathering at Mangalore University auditorium as part of BJP's 'Tiranga Yatra' and 'Balidana Smarane' (honouring martyrs) campaign here.

Shah said, "Some people were also campaigning on social media on whether nationalism was necessary or not" and that he would like to tell them that independence would not have taken place if there was no love for the national and patriotism.

"The propaganda against nationalism could not be considered as freedom of speech," he said.

"The entire nation should unite to uphold patriotism. Freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and many more sacrificed their lives for the country," he said.

Shah appealed to the youth to read the history of the country and understand how many people sacrificed their lives for it.

The programmes were being organised to pay tribute to the freedom fighters, to inspire the youth to follow in their path and to remind the youth that the independence the country achieved was because of the sacrifice of lakhs of people, he said.

"This should be an inspiration to the youth to live their life for the country. To live for the nation was the message of this Yatra," he said.

Shah also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his foreign policy has emphasised on trade along with culture. The economy of the nation was moving in the right direction, he added.
New Delhi: National security does not get compromised when a few people shout slogans, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said, defending Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara's clean chit to Amnesty International in a case of alleged sedition slapping which he contended was a "big mistake".

"National security of our country is not going to be compromised by few people shouting slogans. We are stronger than that, we are bigger than that, we are better than that," Tharoor told PTI.

"Charging Amnesty with sedition law was already a big mistake. The NGO has not advocated violence and no one at the conference did so," he said, adding "we are not at war at the moment. We don't have to think in terms of treason and all."

The former diplomat advocated a law that criminalises any appeal or incitement to violence.

"What we need is a law that criminalises any appeal to violence and incitement to violence and encouragement to violence but not the expression of political opinions or opinions we don't like," Tharoor added.

Yesterday, Parameshwara had said that Amnesty has never involved itself in any kind of anti-national activity after the human rights organisation was slapped with sedition charges over an event held by it in Bengaluru where anti-India and anti-Army slogans were allegedly raised.

Tharoor, a Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram, while delivering his valedictory address to plenary session of the international conference on 'Innovation for shared prosperity: IPRs, competition and standard setting in the ICT sector' organised by JGU and Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition, said the government should encourage local telecom manufacturers to invest in India.

"Most of India's ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector manufacturing in telecoms is relying on import and assembling and not on new developments and I would argue to our government that 'Make in India' should also include make something new in India," he said.

"The best minds need to come together for a flexible, innovative and fresh approach to resolve the dilemmas around ICT. We don't always have easy answers everywhere and I am pretty sure this international conference on 'IPR, standard setting and completion in ICT sector' has taken a step in the right direction to find all the answers," he added.

In his address, Professor C Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor of JGU, said, "As a global university that is deeply committed to research, knowledge creation and capacity building, we are delighted to enable policy discussions that can reflect upon such issues in an intellectually rigorous manner."

Professor Stephen Haber from Standford University hailed the scholarship programmes of JGU, saying he himself got into a college and studied because of certain scholarship programmes.
Chandigarh: The Patiala police on Sunday arrested Gau Rakshak Dal chief Satish Kumar, a fortnight after he was booked for sodomy, rioting, extortion and other charges'.

Rajpura SP, Rajinder Singh Sohal confirmed the report and said that Kumar, who had been on the run since past 10 days, is under their arrest. He, however refused to divulge any further details.

Kumar, who was arrested by the police outside Punjab, was produced before the local District Magistrate court today afternoon after which he was sent to one day police remand.

Kumar was on the run ever since he was booked under Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises unnatural sex, after a youth from Saharanpur alleged he was abducted and sodomised by the Gau Raksha Dal chiefs goons. A case under sections 382 (having made preparation for causing death), 384 (committing extortion), 341 (wrongfully restraining any person), along with sections 148 and 149, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was also registered, police said.

According to reports, several victims of the group have told the police that they were detained by the self-styled cow vigilantes, robbed, tortured and also sodomised by Satish.

One of the victims, who hails from Saharanpur, had told a judicial magistrate that Kumar along with 10-15 goons had forcibly taken him to a cow shelter in Rajpura where he was sodomised. He also claimed that some goons even urinated in his mouth.

Another victim, who had complaint of being sodomised, told the police last week that he was detained by the self-styled cow vigilantes, robbed, tortured and sodomised by Kumar.

Based on the complaints, the police booked the Gau Raksha Dal chief under charges of abduction with intent to hurt, wrongful confinement and other Sections of the IPC.

The development came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly rebuked cow vigilantes, saying most of them are `anti-social` elements who are running `shops` in the name of cow protection.

In his first comments on the violence against Dalits by cow vigilantes, Prime Minister Modi also asked the state governments to prepare dossiers on the so-called cow protectors as 80 percent of them do illegal activities at night and become cow protectors in the day.

"The people, who are troubled by the unity of the society, are in the name of gau rakshaks attempting to create friction the society. I urge my fellow countrymen to be aware of such gau rakshaks," he said.
By Pankaj P. Khelkar, India Today Web Desk: Mr Perfectionist as he is known, Bollywood star Aamir Khan might not be the brand ambassador of the Incredible India Campaign of Ministry of Tourism, but this well-read actor's knowledge about regional cinema is just incredible.

Recently Aamir Khan's surprise visit to a college's Silver Jubilee celebrations in pune stunned everyone. The students as well as the panelists were taken aback when this surprise guest walked into the venue, accompanied by the cast of his upcoming movie Dangal, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra.

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ALSO SEE: Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan to team up for the first time ever in YRF's Thug

It was a panel discussion organised by Pune-based Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication and the discussion was on regional cinema. The event saw engaging and enriching discussions between the eminent panel members and speakers,

Aamir Khan "I don't watch other languages so much so I'm a little less aware of what's happening in other languages but I'm a little more aware of Marathi so I know films like Sairat, the film before Sairat was Court, a fantastic film and before that, Natsamrat. I feel that Marathi cinema has really evolved over the last 10 years. Young minds have come in with different ideas and audiences in Maharastra have welcomed that and it has really grown a lot in the past decade. I think that's one of the most important things in our country, the diversity that we hold and we should preserve that. "

Aamir khan even shared his learning from his Marathi teacher, who emphasised upon the importance of languages in building a society, "Mr Suhas Limaye, my Marathi teacher, told me how languages hold culture and emotions and geography. It's amazing that we have a country that makes movies in all these different languages Tamil, Telugu and Kannada have always been vibrant languages."

The Ghajini actor pointed out that there was a time when there was a slump in Marathi cinema but slowly it has recovered. Punjabi cinema has come up a lot in the last few years. "The kind of films you make is relevant, not the language. Cinema has got no language. I've watched films from different parts of the world and don't know the language but still understand the film. The fact that we're growing in our own regional cinema is a great thing," said Aamir.

The guests also included Music Director duo Ajay-Atul, 10-time National Award winning film director Jahnu Barua, and Vibhawari Deshpande, best known for her role in Harishchandrachi Factory, Chintoo and Natrang.

--- ENDS ---
Hyderabad: The first batch of 340 pilgrims left from Telangana for Saudi Arabia on Sunday to perform the Haj pilgrimage.

The Air India flight carrying the pilgrims, clad in "Ihram" or special white clothing for Haj and amid chanting of prayers, took off from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here.

Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mehmood Ali and Haj Committee of India chairman Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser flagged off the first flight for Jeddah.

Earlier, Ali also flagged off the buses carrying the pilgrims from Haj House to the airport.

The pilgrims, including 146 from Hyderabad, boarded the buses after completing customs, luggage and immigration formalities at Haj House.

Emotional scenes were witnessed as relatives and well-wishers bid adieu to the pilgrims with requests to pray for them at the holy places.

Hyderabad is the embarkation point for Haj pilgrims from three states. Air India will operate daily two flights from August 22 to August 27 and one flight on August 28 to carry a total of 5,000 pilgrims from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and four districts of Karnataka.

Seven flights were arranged for the pilgrims leaving from Telangana, four for Andhra Pradesh and one flight for Karnataka. The other three flights would have pilgrims from all three states.

Haj House is serving as the transit and boarding point for the pilgrims. The authorities have made boarding and lodging arrangements for the pilgrims.

All arrangements have been made under one roof for safe departure of pilgrims.

All the flights from Hyderabad will leave for Jeddah and on the return journey they will take off from Madinah. The pilgrims are scheduled to return from Madinah between October 4 and October 8.

Over 1.56 lakh Indians will perform Haj pilgrimage this year. According to the central Haj committee, 36,000 pilgrims will be going through private operators.
Dehradun: At least seven persons were killed and several others were left injured after a cloudburst triggered by heavy rain hit Pauri region of Uttarakhand on Monday.

All the deceased are said to be of one family.

The Uttarakhand Police and SDRF teams rushed to the spot to help in the rescue operations.

The incident took place at Markhola area in Garhwal division when the family's house was razed to the ground by huge boulders that rolled down the hill following the cloudburst.

The house was inhabited by 75-year-old Dipak Singh and the families of his two sons, Pauri District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Bhatt told media, adding that further details were awaited.

Two people were also left injured in the incident and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

The Pauri-Srinagar highway was also blocked due to the cloudburst, officials said.
Kolkata: Amid growing concerns over terrorists using the porous Indo-Bangla border for infiltration, the BSF has submitted a detailed proposal to the West Bengal government about the land needed for setting up fences along the highly sensitive 81.7 km border on an urgent basis.

The issue of erecting fences along the international Indo-Bangla border was in cold storage for last several years. It was taken up just months after the terror attack in Dhaka and various intelligence inputs about how the porous Indo- Bangla border is fast turning into a transit point for terrorists and cattle smugglers.

"The matter of identifying land and survey of land was held back since 2009. But recently the state government had sought detailed proposals from us regarding the amount of land that is required in the south Bengal frontier.

"We have placed a detailed report about the amount of land and alignment that is needed and other basics that is required by the BSF," Sandeep Salunke, Inspector General BSF (South Bengal frontier) told PTI.

According to Salunke, that the BSF had handed over a detailed report of land plots needed in North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad district to fence 81.7 km without delay.

Bangladesh and West Bengal share about?2,216.7 km of border.

"Out of the 915 km of border in the South Bengal frontier only 371 km is fenced. So we have sent the proposal for setting up fences in 81.7 km at an urgent basis. These areas are highly sensitive. Fencing would be an added advantage in border patrolling," a senior BSF official said.

According to state secretariat sources, the report was handed to the state chief secretary and home secretary and the process for the survey of the land has already started.

"Yes we had received a report from them. Now the state has?land purchase committee, under the state owns land policy, which will look into it. The BSF will pay for the land and it will be registered under BSF only.

"The process of survey of that land and alignment has started on an war footing. The entire process will be completed very soon," a senior official of the state home department told PTI on condition of anonymity.
Jakarta: At least 10 persons were killed and two others injured when a boat capsized in western Indonesia on Sunday, an official said.

The boat carried 17 persons, of whom five went missing, Xinhua news agency quoted navy spokesman Admiral Edi Sucipto as saying.
Ankara: Several people were feared to have been killed on Saturday in a late night militant attack on wedding party in the city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, officials and reports said.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said the explosion in the city centre was due to a "terror attack", state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

Turkish MP Mehmet Erdogan told CNN-Turk broadcaster that people had lost their lives in the blast.

"There are people who lost their lives and we have initial information suggesting it was a bomb attack. We don`t know numbers of injured," said Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep.

It was not clear who was responsible for the explosion. Erdogan said there was a high possibility it was a suicide attack.

The lawmaker added that it was the type of attack that could have been launched by the Islamic State (IS) group or the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK).

The Dogan news agency said the explosion, which went off at 1940 GMT, had caused injuries and fatalities.

A Turkish official confirmed an explosion in Gaziantep but would not say how many casualties there were.

"The explosion took place during a wedding. According to initially available information, the ceremony was being held outdoors," the official said."The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said Deputy Prime Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament.

"It is barbaric to attack a wedding," he told Turkish television.

Just north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a major hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country`s civil war.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara in deadly attacks, while IS suicide bombers have twice killed tourists in the centre of Istanbul.

Meanwhile the country is still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his supporters from all state institutions.

Twelve people were killed on Thursday in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on the PKK who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup.

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the five-year Syrian civil war.

In a sign that Turkey`s position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russia and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.

"He is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not," said Yildirim.

Iran and Russia are the main allies of Assad whereas Turkey has always insisted his exit was a precondition for the end of the conflict.
Ankara: At least 30 people were killed and over 90 others injured on Saturday night in an explosion at a wedding in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, media reports said.

The terror attack took place in the Beybahce neighborhood of the Sahinbey district of Gaziantep province, located about 95 km north of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo, Anadolu News Agency reported citing a statement from the regional governor Ali Yerlikaya.

The wedding took place on a street, a common practice in southern Turkey, especially during the summer season.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Video of the aftermath shows hundreds of people in the darkened street as rescue workers lifted victims into ambulances. Orhan Akin, Gaziantep bureau chief for the Ihlas News Agency, told CNN Turk that he saw "at least 20 ambulances carrying injured people".

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemned the attack in a statement.

Those, who cannot overcome Turkey and try to provoke people by abusing ethnic and sectarian sensitiveness, will not prevail, Anadolu News Agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

Turkey has experienced significant turmoil in recent months, with the attempted military coup on July 15 and a series of deadly explosions, CNN said.

Past attacks have been carried out by the Islamic State (IS), which controls northern Syria across the border, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In the most brazen attack, 44 people were killed in July by suspected IS suicide bombers at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

Last March, two suicide bombers killed at least 40 people in Ankara, the capital. A Kurdish rebel group claimed responsibility for that attack.

On August 10, two explosions killed at least eight people in the southeastern towns of Kizitepe and Diyarbakir, CNN added.
A suicide bomber as young as 12 killed at least 51 people at a wedding in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, pointing the finger at the Islamic State group.

Erdogan said Saturday`s blast in Gaziantep near the Syria border "was the result of a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 who either detonated (the bomb) or others detonated it."

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

The president said the Islamic State group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor`s office said according to broadcaster CNN-Turk.

Gulser Ates, one of scores wounded in the attack, told Hurriyet the attack took place as the party was breaking up in the mainly Kurdish neighbourhood.

"We were sitting on chairs, having a chat with one of our neighbours.

"During the explosion, the neighbour died on top of me. I remember being underneath. If my neighbour hadn`t fallen on top of me, I would have died," she said.

"The bride and groom`s happiest day was poisoned."

The bride and groom -- Besna and Nurettin Akdogan -- were rushed to hospital but were not seriously wounded.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, the bride was released from hospital, saying as she left: "They turned our wedding into a bloodbath."

She later returned to hospital after repeatedly fainting, Anadolu reported.Funerals for many of the victims took place on Sunday with an AFP photographer saying some covered relatives` coffins with the Kurdistan flag.

As hundreds waited to say their final goodbye, some voiced anger at what they perceived to be the government`s failure to prevent the attack.

Shouts of "shame on you, Erdogan" rang out while others hurled water bottles at police who kept their distance from rowdy crowds for fear of violence.

One distraught mother wailed: "I lost my children, now I will never see them again."

Erdogan told reporters the death toll was now 51 with 94 hurt in the attack.

A total of 69 people remained in hospital, with 17 in critical condition.

Health Minister Recep Akdag said a large number of those injured were women and children.The bride and groom were reportedly from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples` Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding, also attended by many women and children.

Erdogan said such attacks aimed to sow division between Turkey`s different groups including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines".

Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.

A defiant Erdogan said there was "no difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen -- whom he blames for the failed coup bid -- the outlawed Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep".

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us -- you will not succeed!" he said.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921, when it defeated French forces in Turkey`s Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

World leaders condemned the suicide bombing, with French President Francois Hollande denouncing the "vile" incident and German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling the attack "cowardly and underhand".

The United States also condemned the "heinous attack". "We stand by our ally and partner Turkey and reaffirm our commitment to defeating the common threat of terrorism," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

The pope urged the faithful to pray for the victims while UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for the perpetrators to be "quickly identified and brought to justice".A major city just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

IS suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Istanbul this year, while Kurdish militants have hit targets in both Ankara and Istanbul.

On Thursday, 12 people were killed in three bombings blamed on the PKK, who Erdogan said had killed 70 members of the security forces in the last month alone.

The blast in Gaziantep came just hours after Yildirim said Ankara would play a "more active" role in efforts to solve the Syrian civil war.
Damascus: At least 10 people were killed in two explosions in Galkayo, central Somalia, on Sunday morning, a local official said.

"There were two car bomb blasts which targeted the local government headquarters. More than 10 people have been killed," said police officer Mohamed Abdiqani.

Local resident Hassan Abdukadir said he counted a dozen bodies, some burned beyond recognition.

"It was horrible. The first blast was caused by a truck loaded with explosives, and the second was a minibus," he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsiblity but the Al-Shabaab militant group carries out frequent attacks against government targets using suicide car bombers.

In March, Shabaab militants attacked a hotel in Galkayo killing at six people including a senior local government official.

An Al-Qaeda aligned group, the Shabaab is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in the capital Mogadishu and it is expected to try and violently disrupt elections due to be held in September and October.
Arizona: A Phoenix mother literally leapt for joy and into her sons arms after her son gave her a surprise at her workplace.

The mother, who was not expecting her 26-year-old soldier son to see for another month, was left in a bundle of joy, after he purportedly showed up where she worked.

Larry Sterns, who works as a janitor at Phoenixs Central Station, when a security staff (who was also a part of the entire episode), asked her to help with a cleanup at a particular area of the plaza.

As Sterns was towards the site, she noticed a soldier sitting on a ledge. It took her few seconds to realise that the young man clad in Army dress is her only son, Larry, who serves in the 101st Airborne Division of the Army at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

"I saw the Airborne patch and thought maybe I should say something, to thank him for his service," Denise Sterns told ABC News today. "Then I saw him starting to laugh, in his profile, and realized it was Larry."

"I couldnt even believe it," said Denise Sterns.

Denise' father Terry Sterns, and brother Hugh Sterns coordinated the entire surprise with Larry and were off to the side capturing the emotional reunion on their camera. The video has been shared on Youtube and has gone viral.
Washington: Donald Trump's vow to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants if elected president appeared to be undergoing a shift today as the struggling Republican candidate reaches out to minorities alienated by his harsh rhetoric.

The New York real estate magnate intends to lay out specifics of his immigration plan over the next few weeks, Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said.

Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether they will include a "deportation force" that Trump has previously called for, Conway said, "To be determined."

Trump met with Hispanic supporters at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York yesterday, when several participants told Spanish-language network Univision that he said his plan will include finding a way to legalise millions of undocumented immigrants.

Trump acknowledged "that there is a big problem with the 11 million people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane," Univision quoted Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting, as saying.

The billionaire candidate, who has slid precipitously in polls since last month's Republican convention, told the group of Hispanic conservatives that his plan would grant undocumented immigrants legal status "that wouldn't be citizenship but would allow them to be here without fear of deportation," Monty added.

If true, it would mark a sharp reversal for a candidate who launched his campaign for the presidency with a vow to build a giant wall on Mexico's border, while disparaging illegal immigrants from Mexico as criminals and rapists.

He has repeatedly called for mass deportations of people in the country illegally, a stance critics say is inhumane and unrealistic.

"What Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting differed very little from what he's said publicly, including in his convention speech last month in Cleveland," Conway told CNN.

"It's that we need a, quote, fair and humane way of dealing with what is estimated to be about 11 million illegal immigrants in this country," said Conway, who also took part in the meeting.

"Nothing was said yesterday that differs from what Mr Trump said previously," she added.

"He supports making sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country."
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 18 (PTI) With the focus shifting to affordable housing, the number of launches has nearly doubled to 17,130 units during January-June 2016, a recent study has said.

As per the study by Cushman & Wakefield, the top eight cities including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, recorded new launches of 61,847 units during the period out of which those in the affordable segment were 17,130 units.

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The total number of launches recorded a 17 per cent growth in the first half to 61,847 units from 52,782 units in the corresponding period, it said.

While the number of units launched in the affordable housing segment increase by 97 per cent from 8,698 units in H1 2015 to 17,130 units in January-June this year, mid-income segment witnessed a growth of 10 per cent from 32,997 units to 36,267 units.

The high-end segment witnessed a decline of 29 per cent in the new launches to 7,525 units from 10,662 units, while 925 units were launched in the luxury segment against 425 in the corresponding period in 2015, said the report.

"It is heartening to see that demand for this segment which was neglected for a very long time, is now being catered to as this formed a very large segment of latent demand. The uptake of affordable housing in the market, will have a cascading impact on the overall economy at large," Cushman & Wakefield Managing Director (India) Anshul Jain said.

The rise in the launch of affordable housing can be attributed to a steady demand for this segment of housing in key cities of Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Mumbai, he said.

"Going forward, we expect to see more affordable housing projects to come up given that there is a cost benefit in creating these units. The time taken from ground breaking to completion is lower than that for the mid or high end apartments," Jain added.

He also said sales can happen a lot faster in this segment thus helping developers realise their costs earlier than usual.

"Further with the government defining the affordable space as 30 sqmt in Tier 1 and 60 sqmt in tier II and announcement of benefits for development of such apartments, we expect this segment of residential housing to grow," he said.

According to the report, city-wise the number of launches in the affordable housing stood at 4,155 in Bengaluru, 4,170 in Pune, 2,985 in Delhi NCR, 2,445 units in Ahmedabad, 2,000 in Kolkata, 1,266 in Mumbai and 109 in Hyderabad. PTI PSK NRB ABI RDS

--- ENDS ---
Ankara: At least 50 people were killed and over 90 others injured in an explosion at a wedding in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, the media reported on Sunday.

At least 17 of the injured were in critical condition following Saturday's attack, Xinhua news agency quoted Health Minister Recep Akdag as saying.

The "terror attack" took place in Sahinbey district of Anatolia region which is about 95 km north of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo, Anadolu News Agency reported.

The wedding took place on a street -- a common practice in Turkey, especially during the summer season.

A video footage showed hundreds of people in the darkened street as rescue workers lifted victims into ambulances.

Orhan Akin, Gaziantep bureau chief for the Ihlas News Agency, told CNN Turk that he saw "at least 20 ambulances carrying injured people".

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemned the attack, saying: "Those who cannot overcome Turkey and try to provoke people by abusing ethnic and sectarian sensitiveness will not prevail."

"Our country and nation only have a single message to those who attack us -- you will not succeed!"

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey will continue to combat all types of terrorism with determination.

Turkey has experienced significant turmoil in recent months, with the attempted military coup on July 15 and a series of deadly explosions, CNN said.

Past attacks have been carried out by the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which controls northern Syria across the border, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In the most brazen attack, 44 people were killed on June 28 by suspected IS suicide bombers at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

Last March, two suicide bombers killed at least 40 people in Ankara. A Kurdish rebel group claimed responsibility.

On August 10, at least eight people were killed in two explosions in the southeastern towns of Kizitepe and Diyarbakir, CNN added.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack.
Istanbul: An Islamic State group suicide bomber as young as 12 years old attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens of others, the Turkish president said today.

The bombing late last night in Gaziantep, near Turkey's border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbul's city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

"It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times," Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for IS.

"Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity."

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldn't believe the party was targeted.

"This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party," Hamdullah Ceyhan told Anadolu. "This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?"

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its acronym PKK, or were blamed on IS.

In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last month's failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.

Earlier, Erdogan said there was "absolutely no difference" between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen's movement, calling them terrorist groups.

"These bloodthirsty organizations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation," he added.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, two-and-a-half year long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.
The Congress leader said that merely organising an event or shouting slogans does not amount to sedition.

By Akshaya Nath: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Saturday said that Amnesty International was not wrong in organising an event and that cannot amount to sedition. This comment comes at a time when there is a lot of resistance and protest by the ABVP against Amnesty in the state.

On August 14, an event was organised by Amnesty International called 'Broken Families' which had Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims sharing their experience in Jammu and Kashmir. During the event, anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. The ABVP has been staging protests demanding the arrest of the organisers and people who raised anti-national slogans.

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POLICE STILL INVESTIGATING



After a case was registered, the police have started investigation and have sent the video recorded during the event for forensic testing to find out the exact words that were used. Meanwhile, the police have also used lathi charge to control the ABVP crowd, which has been vehemently opposing Amnesty international.

At this juncture, the state's Home Minister has come out in support of Amnesty and said, "I do not think Amnesty international has conducted any seditious activity. The programme by Amnesty was organised to instil confidence among Kashmiris who face overindulgence of the security forces in their state. Shouting slogans does not constitute anti-national activity," said Parameshwara.

ANANTHAKUMAR MEETS ABVP PROTESTORS

Ananthakumar today met the ABVP protestors. He has taken a letter requesting the investigation to be taken up by the NIA, following the remarks of the State Home Minister. The letter will be presented to the Home Minister Rajnath Singh.



ABVP SLAMS STATE AND POLICE INACTION



The ABVP have been protesting saying that there has been inaction from the side of the police. The Home Minister's comment only makes their doubt stronger. ABVP Bengaluru state president Dr Shyam Bhat said, "The state government has bogged under the undue pressure of Amnesty International. The Congress government has used brutal police force on innocent student volunteers of ABVP."

"There is a serious human rights violation, serious woman rights violation in the last week for questioning Amnesty for anti-national sloganeering, which has created deep anguish among the civilised society , armed forces, relatives and Kashmiri immigrants.The non-cooperation agitation will continue against the state government, till it initiates criminal action against Amnesty and Theological College," he added.

AMNESTY STATEMENT



The Amnesty International India executive director Aakar Patel during a press meet earlier clarified that the organisation or its employees were not involved in raising anti-national slogans and added that the show was planned in different cities across the country and that dates of the events have been changed because of the issue that has been raised in Bengaluru.

Amnesty International has been booked for sedition and for promoting enmity by the Bengaluru police.

--- ENDS ---

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The Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India has written a letter to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India saying that rabbits are a threatened species and its meat cannot be consumed.

The Animal Welfare Board tells the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India that rabbits and hares are threatened species.

By Baishali Adak: Protesting against plans to include 'rabbit' in the list of 'hygienic and legal meats,' the Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has written a strong letter to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

PROTECTED SPECIES



In a letter dated August 9, Major General RM Kharb of AWBI has informed FSSAI that 'Leporids' (rabbits and hare) are, in fact, protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. He has also stated that two of its existing species in India are categorised under the 'IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List' of threatened species.

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Mail Today had reported on July 27 the government's decision to name 'Leporids' as the fifth category of meat that can be legally consumed in India. The existing four are: Ovines (sheep), caprines (goat), suillines (pig) and bovines (the cattle family, including buffalo and bison). The move came, apparently, after pressure from the 'rabbit farm' lobby in Kerala, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir. The small mammal is reared in these states for meat and fur.

The changes would be made in law in the form of an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.

Also Read

Rabbits and hare may soon land on your plate





--- ENDS ---
Robert Bakish who has led Viacom's international television business over the past 10 years, will be acting president and chief executive starting November 15

Media giant Viacom announced a formal agreement Saturday in its nasty corporate power struggle, under which mogul Sumner Redstone will remain atop his empire and chief executive Philippe Dauman leaves the company.

Under terms of the deal, Dauman will also end his legal battles against Redstone and his daughter, Shari.

The agreement, which was presented Friday in an internal memo, settles all disputes between parties and "all lawsuits among them will be terminated," a statement by Viacom said.

Dauman will "resign immediately as president and chief executive officer" and be replaced by chief operating officer Tom Dooley until September 30, with the board to decide his permanent successor.

Viacom's management, led by Dauman and board member George Abrams, had alleged in court that Shari Sumner effectively controls her ailing father and was making a power grab for his $40 billion media empire.

Under the agreement Dauman will remain as non-executive chairman of the board through September 13, giving him a chance to pitch his plan to sell a minority stake of Paramount Pictures, which is controlled by Viacom.

The agreement also expands the size of the board, adding five new directors nominated by National Amusements, Sumner Redstone's holding company.

"I care deeply for Viacom, which has been an important part of my life since I joined Sumner in the acquisition of the company 30 years ago," Dauman said in the statement.

"I believe this agreement will give the company and its employees the best opportunity to continue a smooth evolution into the future," he said.

Shari Redstone thanked Dauman for "his many years of dedicated service and the important role he has played at Viacom."

"We also welcome the new board members who join us today. By strengthening Viacom's governance and leadership, these changes will enable the company to embark swiftly on a strategy that strengthens its position as an industry leader," she said.

In addition to Paramount Pictures, Viacom controls hit names like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central.

Sumner Redstone, a Hollywood legend whose fortune is estimated at $5 billion, is also the majority shareholder in CBS media group.
English | Publisher: Springer, 2007 | 518 Pages | PDF | 26 MB

home page http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783540850342

download from free file storage click to show download links

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 4th International Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval Symposium, CMMR 2007, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August 2007 jointly with the International Computer Music Conference 2007, ICMC 2007.The 33 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the area, the papers address a broad variety of topics in computer science and engineering areas such as information retrieval, programming, human computer interaction, digital libraries, hypermedia, artificial intelligence, acoustics, signal processing, etc.CMMR 2007 has put special focus on the Sense of Sounds from the synthesis and retrieval point of view. This theme is pluridisciplinary by nature and associates the fields of sound modeling by analysis, synthesis, perception and cognition.
By Osman Orsal and Umit Ozdal GAZIANTEP, Turkey (Reuters) - A suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 carried out the attack on a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday that killed at least 51 people, the president said. The attack was the deadliest in a series of bombings in Turkey this year, and President Tayyip Erdogan said Islamic State was likely behind it. "Initial evidence suggests it was a Daesh attack," Erdogan said in Istanbul on Sunday, using an Arabic name for the hardline Sunni Islamist group. He said 69 people were in hospital and 17 were "heavily injured". A destroyed suicide vest was found at the blast site, officials said. Islamic State has been blamed for other similar attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions. The deadliest was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists in Ankara. Saturday's attack comes with Turkey still in shock just a month after Erdogan and the government survived an attempted coup by rogue military officers, which Ankara blames on U.S.-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen has denied the charge. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the wedding party was for one of its members. The groom was among those injured, but the bride was not hurt. The bomb went off as guests spilled out into the streets of the city close to the Syrian border after the traditional henna night party, when guests have their hands and feet painted. Women and children, including a three-month-old baby, were among the dead, witnesses said. Blood and burn marks stained the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit. Women in white and checkered scarves wept outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives. "The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere." "We want to end these massacres," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We are in pain, especially the women and children." FUNERALS, FORENSIC TESTS Hundreds gathered for funerals on Sunday, with coffins draped in the green of Islam. But some ceremonies would have to wait because many victims were blown to pieces and DNA tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said. "Every type of death is painful. But it is even more painful when it comes with religious slogans. It is even more painful when they mix religion with politics," said Omer Emlik, who said he was an uncle of two of the victims. "All the people here are suffering." The United States condemned the attack and said Vice President Joe Biden would discuss the fight against terrorism during a visit to Ankara this coming week. "The perpetrators of this barbaric act cynically and cowardly targeted a wedding, killing dozens and leaving scores wounded," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, in a statement. Anti-government protests erupted at at least one funeral, where threw plastic bottles and chanted "Murderer Erdogan!" Some in Turkey feel the government has not done enough to protect its citizens from Islamic State. NATO member Turkey is a partner in the Western coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, allowing U.S. jets to fly missions against the group from its air bases. It has also supported some rebel groups in Syria. Syrian rebels backed by Turkey were preparing to launch an operation to capture a town held by Islamic State near the Turkish border, a senior Syrian rebel said on Sunday. Islamic State is also fighting U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish rebels, who have taken ground from the hardline group. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters a terrorist group and worries their advance against Islamic State will encourage Kurdish militants in Turkey. ETHNIC FAULTLINES "ISIS has been trying to agitate or exploit already tense ethnic and sectarian faultlines to retaliate for the advancement of Syrian Kurds in the north of Syria and by Turkey's attack on ISIS targets in Syria," said Metin Gurcan, an independent security analyst and retired Turkish military officer who writes a column for Al-Monitor. "For ISIS it is hitting two birds with one stone." Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June. Violence also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on PKK Kurdish militants. Turkey began air strikes against Islamic State in July 2015. A peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targeting PKK targets in northern Iraq. Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shells fired from Islamic State territory, sometimes killing civilians. On Sunday, Erdogan and ruling AK Party lawmakers emphasized they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organizations. (Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva, Daren Butler, Humeyra Pamuk and Ayla Jean Yackley; Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington; Writing by Patrick Markey and David Dolan; Editing by Andrew Roche)
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By Adila Matra: Professor of history at King's College, London, Jon Wilson penned down his immensely investigated book India Conquered (Simon & Schuster UK; Rs 559) for a reason. "There were different accounts of the British rule in India, in the form of memoirs of generals and lords who came back. But there is not a single stringed narration from 1680 to 1947," says the author. After four years of intense research and a whole year dedicated to writing, Wilson has come up with a tome that claims to record the real reasons the British flourished and stay put in India for 200 years, the chaotic and problematic rule that they brought along and the enduring crippling after effects that India faces even in the 21st century.

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While Indian discourse is moving towards 'Mughals plundering India', Wilson's premise suggests otherwise. "Mughals certainly did not loot India. They did demolish temples, but it was more about power than religion. They destroyed mosques too. Their regime was imbalanced but they created a society which, by Indian standards, is prosperous. We always see Mughals as more centered to the North but I was surprised to discover that they had sovereignty over the country and individual rulers submitted to them while having their own power. The invasion by Nadir Shah in 1739 and the subsequent political breakdown and financial crisis that India underwent in parts for about 20 years gave the opening that the East India Company exploited," Wilson explains.

Wilson busts quite a lot of myths that we associate generally with the British rule. The railway network in India is widely credited as one of the greatest gifts that the British rule has bestowed on India. "Realising that the railway story is what not people imagined, was definitely a surprise," says Wilson. "It was built to protect British power. In Bombay, looking at the records from the railway department, it becomes clear that railways were not meant as a means for economic or social transformation. They were just a vehicle to protect British power and character," he adds.

Wilson goes on to say that this is exactly why the book is relevant in India, now. "The British controlled the top positions of authority, yet there was chaos. They had no ability to get things done, there was no 'people' in the picture. The current government in India is influenced by the British's obsession to build. There is no interest in social relations; all that matters is some kind of conquest. And this is not just particular to this rule," Wilson gives us food for real thought.

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Assad also invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy.

By Press Trust of India: As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said as the two countries agreed to upgrade their security consultations.

MEETING WITH MJ AKBAR

Assad made the assertion during a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar when the latter called on him yesterday during his Syria visit. "There was an agreement between both sides for further upgrading security consultations," the sources said. However, the sources did not mention the level to which they have been upgraded to.

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During the meeting, Assad also welcomed India's objective position on the conflict in Syria and both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem, sources said. "As a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism," sources quoted Assad as saying.

RECONSTRUCTION

On his part, Akbar, during their meeting, said the age of destruction should give way to the age of reconstruction in Syria. Assad also invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy.

Both leaders agreed that as secular nations, India and Syria believe in faith equality. Akbar is currently on a nearly week-long visit to West Asia from August 17

ALSO READ:

Syrian boy Omran's older brother dies of wounds from Aleppo airstrike

Russia uses Iran to strike Syria militants again, rejects US censure

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Dearth of relief camps and government's apathy have forced several villagers to camp on National Highway 30 in Bihar.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: As flood waters entered villages on the outskirts of Patna and with no government relief camp in sight, affected people are now taking shelter on the National Highway 30 which is the Patna-Bakhtiarpur Expressway.

Flood affected people in Sukulpur village, just 10 kms outside Patna camped on the NH-30 after flood water submerged their houses.

People who were stranded were evacuated through private boats after which they took shelter on the expressway. Angry victims parked their tractors of the expressway and blocked vehicular movement from one side.

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MASSIVE TRAFFIC JAM ON EXPRESSWAY



All throughout Sunday, there was massive jam witnessed on this 45 km long expressway with flood affected people blocking movement on one side of the road where they are camping.

Humans as well as cattle with livestock for cattle on the expressway provided for some unprecedented scene in Patna. People were seen cooking as well as sleeping on the expressway. Many complained of no government help forthcoming.

"We are forced to live on the NH-30 as the government has not provided any relief camps for us," said a local from Sukulpur village.

RESCUE WORK HIT



Ambulances moving with patients also had a harrowing time because of flood victims camping in the national highway. Its only after much persuasion that the flood victims allowed passage for ambulances.

The police also appeared helpless in front of hundreds of flood victims camping on the expressway. What best they could do was to start to and fro traffic from one side of the lane.

CM VISITS AFFECTED AREAS



Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today visited flood affected areas to take stock of the situation. The is conducting aerial survey of Patna, Ara, Vaishali, Buxur and Begusarai, all flood affected districts.

CM spoke to the DMs of Patna, Vaishali, Arrah, Buxur and Begusarai that severely affected by the raising water levels in Ganga.

Amidst the chaos there was some respite for those dwelling near the Sone and Ghaghra rivers as their water levels receded.

Also read:

Bihar: Lalu visits flood affected areas in Patna and Vaishali districts

Flood threat looms large over Patna as Ganga continues to swell



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After PM Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech, Balochistan has been the talk of the town. But did you know our very own Bollywood legends hailed from Balochistan?

By Mayank Pratap Singh: It is not the first time India is talking about Balochistan. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his concern over the happenings in Balochistan in his Independence Day speech, everyone was vocal in their reactions against the PM, asking what was the reason behind his speech on Balochistan, that too on our Independence Day.

WATCH: Kareena Kapoor's baby bump makes Neha Dhupia jump with joy!



SEE PICS: Shah Rukh begins shooting for Imtiaz Ali's next in Prague, sends greetings



However, many of us are not aware of the fact that Balochistan has been an integral part of the Indian society; both religiously as well as on the business platform. Our relations with Balochistan dates way back. Balochistan has been a helping hand for India, be it in matters religious or of business. Even after the Independence, in 1947, many residents of Balochistan who came to India during Partition, made it big in Bollywood.

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Bollywood actors Kader Khan, Rajkumar, Amjad Khan and Suresh Oberoi were either born in or had connections with the Balochistan province in Pakistan.

Legendary actor Kader Khan was born in Pishin in Balochistan of Undivided India. He spent most of his childhood in Pishin with his mother. His father later moved to Mumbai along with his family for business.

The high-base voice, and one of the most romantic dialogues of Hindi cinema, "Apne pair zameen par mat rakhiyega, maile ho jayenge," from Pakeezah, became immortal when Kulbhushan Pandit popularly known as Rajkumar, gave his his voice to it.

The actor was born in Loralai in Balochistan on October 8, 1926, who later moved to Mumbai where he worked as a sub-inspector with the Mumbai Police before he started acting.

"Are o sambha, kitne aadmi the?" Remember the famous dialogue from Sholay? When Ramesh Sippy finalised actor Amjad Khan for the role o Gabbar Singh, he would never have thought that the dialogues written by Salim-Javed for Gabbar Singh would be so popular that its legacy would continue to appeal to younger generations as well.

Born in Quetta, Balochistan on November 12, 1940, Amjad Khan gave Bollywood yet another connection to Balochistan.

The list doesn't end here. Some of the other actors who hail from Balochistan are Suresh Oberoi, born in Quetta, Balochistan; Veena, whose real name is Tajour Sultana; Zeba Bakhtiyar, the famous heroine from Henna, and many others.

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The Bombay High Court upheld the department's right to penalise him, in spite of acquittal by the trial court.

The Bombay High Court said that the penalty was small relative to the gravity of the charge proved against him.

By Press Trust of India: The Bombay High Court has refused to interfere with a 2008 order of Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) confirming departmental penal action of stopping increment for three years in case of a prison guard who was found carrying 40 grams of brown sugar at Yerwada central prison in Pune more than a decade ago.

The guard claimed that he was acquitted by the trial court and hence the departmental action of imposing penalty of stopping increment was not legally justified.

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HIGH COURT SAYS ACQUITTAL NOT BAR TO DEPARTMENTAL PUNISHMENT

A division bench, however, held, "merely because a government servant may have been acquitted in criminal prosecution, that by itself, is neither a bar to commence departmental proceedings nor a bar to hold the charges in the departmental enquiry, as proved.

"The Enquiry Officer, the disciplinary authority and the appellate authority have correctly appreciated the position in this regard and confirmed findings that the charge levelled against the petitioner stands proved. The MAT has also appreciated the material on record as well as the legal position and declined to interfere with the penalty imposed upon the petitioner," a bench of Justices V M Kanade and M S Sonak observed in a recent order.

GUARD HAD CHARGES OF SMUGGLING NARCOTICS IN JAIL AGAINST HIM

The bench also held that the charge levelled against the prison guard was "quite serious".

Shankar Shivaji Khuspe was charged with smuggling narcotics substance in jail premises. However, he was acquitted by the special NDPS court on October 30, 2007.

During the trial, however, departmental action was taken against him by stopping his increment for three years following which he challenged the same before MAT which later confirmed penal step against the prison guard and dismissed his plea.

SEEKS COURT HELP IN DROPPING PUNISHMENT

Being aggrieved, he moved the High Court which declined to set aside the MAT order.

The lawyer of prison guard, Nitin Dalvi, submitted that the foundation of the charge in the disciplinary proceedings and foundation of charge in the NDPS prosecution launched against the petitioner was one and the same.

Dalvi submitted that since, the criminal prosecution ended in 'clean acquittal', there was no basis for the enquiry officer and the disciplinary authorities to conclude that the charge against the petitioner stands proved.

The High Court, however, held, "We are satisfied that there is no substance in the contentions raised by advocate Dalvi on behalf of the petitioner. The charge levelled against him is quite a serious one, in that, the petitioner was found in possession of brown sugar weighing 40 grams at the gate of Yervada Central Prison, where, he was posted as a guard."

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COURT SAYS IT WAS BENEFIT OF DOUBT, NOT CLEAR ACQUITTAL

The High Court further said that if the judgement of the NDPS court of October 30, 2007 is perused, it would be observed that it is not the case of clear acquittal of the petitioner as he was granted benefit of doubt by trial court.

"That apart, it is well settled that the scope and object of criminal proceedings and departmental proceedings is distinct and different. In criminal proceedings, prosecution is required to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt.

Conviction in a criminal prosecution might result in curtailment of liberty. In contrast, the standard of proof in departmental proceedings is only preponderance of probabilities," the HC observed.

UPHOLDS DEPARTMENT'S RIGHT TO IMPOSE PENALTIES

Adverse findings in departmental proceedings, might result in imposition of penalty, which may range from, minor penalty like the one awarded to the petitioner in the present case or penalty of dismissal, the bench observed.

"Merely because a government servant may have been acquitted in criminal prosecution, that by itself, is neither a bar to commence departmental proceedings nor a bar to hold the charges in the departmental enquiry, as proved," the Judges remarked.

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"In the present case, there is no complaint of any violation of principles of natural justice in the course of the departmental proceedings. There is no question of disproportionate penalty, particularly because, we are satisfied that the minor penalty, with which, the petitioner has got away is in fact not proportionate to the charge which is held as proved against him," the Judges further observed.

The Judges said, "It must be remembered that the petitioner is a prison guard and normally, there is no question of leniency, when, charge of attempting to smuggle narcotic substances is held as proved. Possibly, minor penalty has been imposed, taking into consideration some mitigating circumstances, which are not evident from the record. Be that as it may, we are satisfied that no case whatsoever has been made out to interfere with the impugned order."

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Employee's Serious Burns Bring Big UK Fine

A British distillery was fined about $353,000 on Aug. 18 in a case prosecuted after one of its employees was engulfed in flames during a fire that destroyed an Alcohols Ltd warehouse and its contents.

A British distillery was fined about $353,000 on Aug. 18 in a case prosecuted after one of its employees was engulfed in flames during a fire that destroyed an Alcohols Ltd warehouse and its contents. Ethyl acetate, a highly flammable liquid, was being transferred from a bulk storage tank into an intermediate bulk container when the 21-year-old employee was engulfed. He sustained burns to 20 percent of his body, mainly his head, neck, and hands, the Health and Safety Executive reported.

An HSE investigation of the Nov. 26, 2012, incident found that static electricity generated by the transfer of the liquid was the most likely cause of the fire. Contributing causes were poor maintenance of pipework and associated valves in the warehouse and failure to competently inspect the equipment or monitor the systems of work.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined and ordered to pay court costs.

"Companies that fail to ensure the integrity of their safety critical equipment place their employees, members of the public, emergency services, and their entire livelihood at risk of serious harm. Poor management of highly flammable liquids can have catastrophic results both for individuals and businesses," said HSE Inspector Kieron Jones.
At least 10 people were killed Sunday in two explosions in a town in central Somalia, police said. The Shabaab militant group claimed responsibilty for the blasts in the town of Galkayo, some 700 kilometers (440 miles) northeast of Mogadishu. "There were two car bomb blasts which targeted the local government headquarters. More than 10 people have been killed," said police officer Mohamed Abdiqani. Local resident Hassan Abdukadir said he counted a dozen bodies, some burned beyond recognition. "It was horrible. The first blast was caused by a truck loaded with explosives, and the second was a minibus," he said. Shabaab said it carried out the attack, in a message distributed via the Telegram messaging service, claiming "at least 30 people, including military personnel and apostates were killed." The Shabaab carries out regular attacks against government, military and civilian targets using suicide car bombers and gunmen. In March, Shabaab militants attacked a hotel in Galkayo killing at six people including a senior local government official. An Al-Qaeda aligned group, the Shabaab is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in the capital Mogadishu and it is expected to try and violently disrupt elections due to be held in September and October. The Shabaab was forced out of the capital by African Union soldiers five years ago but continues to launch regular attacks including, in recent months, on restaurants, hotels and military bases. The jihadists have also staged repeated attacks in neighbouring Kenya and a recent security analysis warned the group was expanding its horizons with cells active in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as well as Somalia.
Nominations are now being accepted for the sixth edition of the South East Asia Property Awards (Singapore), organised by PropertyGuru Group and presented by Hansgrohe...

Group photo of the winners at last years Awards, which was attended by more than 400 guests.

Nominations are now being accepted for the sixth edition of the South East Asia Property Awards (Singapore), organised by PropertyGuru Group and presented by Hansgrohe.

The event aims to showcase the best developments from the city-state at a time when cooling measures have caused transactions and rents to decline.

Despite a slow year for new launches, Singapore is still a model for many emerging markets in the region. Quality, sustainability and green building are the top priorities for many developers, said Terry Blackburn, Founder and Managing Director of the Asia Property Awards.

Submissions are open to developers, consumers and the general public. All eligible entries will be assessed by an independent judging panel, and will be supervised by accountancy and auditing firm BDO.

Aside from the existing award for Special Recognition in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there will be a new category this year for Special Recognition in Sustainable Development.

Said Blackburn: Were confident that this new category will recognise the growing importance of sustainability among developers not just in Singapore but in Southeast Asia as a whole.

Meanwhile, the category for Best Commercial Development has been expanded to include entries for Best Retail Development, Best Office Development, Best Hotel Development and Best Mixed-Use Development.

In addition, the editors of Property Report magazine (which is now part of PropertyGuru) will name the Real Estate Personality of the Year who has contributed significantly to the industry.

Nominations will remain open until 9 September, while the finalists will be announced in the last week of October.

A gala dinner to honour the winners will take place on 24 November at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore. Last years ceremony drew more than 400 guests.

For more information, visit AsiaPropertyAwards.com/seapa/.

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
Sri Lanka's national carrier has suspended a captain who failed a breathalyser test just before he was due to fly 274 passengers and crew from Frankfurt to Colombo, the airline said Sunday.

"Upon receiving the results (of the test) SriLankan Airlines took immediate steps to suspend the services of the said captain and took alternative measures to operate the flight to Colombo," the airline said in a statement.

An airline source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Flight UL554 was held up at Frankfurt airport for more than 15 hours on Friday as staff scrambled to find another captain for the Airbus A330.

The crew raised the alarm after noticing that the captain was visibly drunk, the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told AFP.

The airline said an internal investigation was underway into the incident and it would cooperate with any probe by German authorities.

The cash-strapped airline is due to stop its flights to Frankfurt from October as it slashes routes to European destinations.

It is also planning to lease out some of its A330 planes to other airlines in an attempt to raise cash. Suffering from an accumulated $1-billion loss, it is seeking a foreign partner to take over its management.
The Chun Cui He milk tea and latte has been making rounds in the news for the past few weeks. Despite the steep price of $2.80, the beautifully designed bottles of coffee and tea that are exclusively sold at 7-eleven have proven to be popular. People have been grabbing these drinks off the shelves as soon as they were restocked, even if that meant staying up till ridiculous hours such as 1am.

Despite the craze over these drink, it wouldnt be unfair to say that at $2.80 per bottle, Singaporeans are probably being overcharged for these drinks. In Taiwan, each bottle costs NTD 28-30. That is about SGD 1.10-1.30. That means we are paying more than double of that for the same drink in Singapore.

Why is that so?

Transport Costs

The bottles of milk tea and coffee are shipped from Taiwan and then distributed to the 7-eleven stores around Singapore. The company importing these goods have to pay for the transportation. The drinks must also be kept chilled, hence there are extra costs to transportation.

Because the drinks have a shelf-life of 15 days, they must be transported quickly. All these delivery costs are then transferred to end consumers.

Storage Costs

If these products have to be stored at a warehouse before they are dispatched to the different stores, it will also incur a cost.

Rental Costs

The Chun Cui He brand is being sold at 7-Eleven stores right now. As such, the company may have to pay 7-Eleven rent for using their shelves to display their product.

In the grocery retail industry, brands typically pay a fixed cost for the display of items at the shelves of distributors (e.g. your 7-Eleven, NTUC, Cold Storage). Thereafter, distributors also charge a markup to end consumers from what they paid for the product.

Anticipated Demand

Before the drinks even reached our shores, Singaporeans have already been raving online about them. This created anticipation for their product.

When there a craze for a product, a higher price can be set because there is low price elasticity of demand. Consumers are not price sensitive to the product (at least in the initial phase) and would (still) be willing to overpay for a product.

Story continues

Furthermore, If the product turns out good, it also sets a preceedent for the value of it in the future. In other words, many people in Singapore have it in their minds now that the Chun Cui He drinks are worth $2.80 per bottle, even though its really not.

Read Also: Why Food Fads Dont Last  An Econs Approach

Comparison With Another Taiwan Imported Good

To assess whether the costs above justify the extra $1.50-$1.70 we are paying for, we will compare the price of Chun Cui He drinks to another popular import from Taiwan: Gold Medal Taiwan Beer.

The 330ml can of beer costs NTD30 (or SGD1.30) in Taiwan, but the same can costs around $3 here. This means that Singaporeans are charged $1.70 more for the beer, which is the same difference in price as that of the milk tea.

However, when we take into account that alcohol is taxed heavily in Singapore while milk tea is not, it is easy to see that we paying a higher premium for the milk tea.

In conclusion, while there are cost reasons as to why the Chun Cui He drinks are significantly more expensive in Singapore, the high mark-up is largely due to the anticipated crazy demand for them. It might also be good for Singaporeans to remember that for $2.80, you can get milk tea at your favorite bubble tea stores without having to stay up and compete with others for a drink.

DollarsAndSense.sg is a website that aims to provide interesting, bite-sized financial articles which are relevant to the average Singaporean. Subscribe to our free e-newsletter to receive exclusive content not available on our website. Follow us as well on Instagram @DNSsingapore to get your daily dose of finance knowledge through photos.

The post Taiwan Milk Tea Craze: Are Sporeans Paying Too Much For Chun Cui He? appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
Nicaragua kicked off its presidential election campaign season on Saturday amid opposition calls for a boycott, as the hugely favored President Daniel Ortega seeks a third consecutive term. A former Sandinista guerilla rebel who has led the Central American nation with an authoritarian hand, the leftist Ortega is running against a fragmented opposition weakened by a court ruling that changed the leadership of a key party and booted many of its deputies from parliament. Calling on Nicaraguans to boycott the November 6 election  in which the 70-year-old Ortega named his wife as his running mate  the opposition dismissed the vote as a "farce" aimed at allowing the president to start a family dynasty. Ortega has 79 percent of support among the electorate and Murillo 73 percent, a survey by the M&R polling agency taken between July 27 and August 1 showed. "Who will win these elections goes without saying," said Yasser Matus, a worker at Managua's vast outdoor market Mercado Oriental. "There is no more to say, the Sandinista Front will continue to govern." Managua's streets feature giant pictures of Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo. More than 80 percent of Nicaraguans are afraid to express political opinions in public, M&R found in January. The opposition has called for the Organization of American States, the European Union and the US Carter Center to monitor the vote. Ortega has vowed not to allow international monitors to observe the election, calling them "shameless observers." Opposition and civil society groups have scheduled protests to demand free and fair elections.
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - August 20, 2016) - Jacob Frydman, real estate expert, commercial developer, and humanitarian is once again determined to donate his time, attention, and resources in support of the Brem Foundation during breast cancer awareness month. Frydman has been committed to this worthy cause and continuously assists in championing the Foundation's diligence to empowering women in becoming proactive in this fight year round.

The Brem Foundation is dedicated to the early detection and treatment of breast cancer as it is the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer among women - second only to skin cancer. Misinformation and late detection are the two elements allowing this ailment to remain so deadly. One of the most popular misconceptions surrounding this illness is that only those with a family history are in danger of developing breast cancer and while the risk for women who have a first degree relative (mother, sister, or daughter) with it doubles, statistics show that 85% occurrences are in women with no family history at all. An estimated 246,660 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2016 alone, making it imperative that awareness be brought to this issue. The Brem Foundation, along with its partners and donors, are working to eradicate the lack of knowledge surrounding the matter by educating women on risk factors, screening options, and even providing diagnostics for those without health insurance. A staggering 95 percent of women survive when diagnosed early; while the survival rate plummets to 20 percent when the illness goes undetected until the latter stages. Their message is clear and simple-a breast cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence nor does it have to equate to a diminished quality of life. In fact, thousands of survivors are living testaments that breast cancer -- when caught early -- can be conquered.

Jacob Frydman is one of the many advocates supporting the Foundation's important and life changing work. Through his donations, time, resources, and concerted efforts pushing their campaign forward, the Brem Foundation is able to provide community outreach programs and free screenings for underserved communities in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) metropolitan areas. The foundation's mobile mammography program is one of the primary ways in depth diagnostic screenings are provided to neighborhoods where residents have little access to health care services. The idea is to provide a complete view of breast cancer and treatment, through initial screenings, exposure to valuable information concerning risk factors, yearly mammograms, self-examinations and a myriad of viable options if the diagnosis is not positive-in short they are extending hope and a life line where none existed. Frydman understands and underscores the vision of the Brem Foundation and through their partnership, and his generous donations of time and much needed funding; he is determined to help defeat this curable disease.

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Throughout his 30 year career, Jacob Frydman has taken on causes such as breast cancer awareness that expose his, compassionate nature and commitment to philanthropic endeavors. As a well-respected and successful real estate tycoon, he has participated in over $2 billion worth of investment and commercial development transactions. He shares his experience and in-depth knowledge of value added investments and the art of configuring, financing and brokering complex real estate agreements on Fox News, CNBC and Bloomberg TV and by also serving as an expert panelist at industry seminars and lecturing at universities across the nation. He earned a degree in finance from Boston University and a Juris Doctor from Case Wesern Reserve University School of Law. To learn more about the Brem Foundation, visit: http://www.bremfoundation.org/

Jacob Frydman - Blog - JacobFrydmanNews.com: http://JacobFrydmanNews.com

Jacob Frydman (@jacobfrydman) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacobfrydman

Jacob Frydman - Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/jacob-frydman

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Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYlCSBjQbU


CBI is probing a test-rigging scam after four people were arrested for manipulating the answer sheets of government job exams.

CBI had registered a case on June 28 after a complaint that candidates in Combined Graduate Level Examination 2015, Tier II had intentionally left answer sheets blank or partially filled to be later filled by some evaluators at the SSC.

By Sneha Agrawal: The CBI is probing a possible test-rigging scam in selection of government employees following a complaint from the Staff Selection Commission that recruits for several posts in ministries and departments at the Centre.

After registering a case on June 28, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested four contractual SSC employees allegedly involved in manipulating answer sheets. While Mahender and Dharmendra were arrested on August 18, Anil and Yograj were taken into custody on Saturday.

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"Some candidates in the Combined Graduate Level Examination 2015, Tier II, had intentionally left their sheets blank or partially filled, which would be filled with the correct answers by some scorers (daily wage employees) in the SSC at the time of the evaluation of the OMR sheets," the FIR says.

Mukesh Saroja, counsel for one of the accused, said his client is being targeted as he is a temporary employee. The act cannot be committed without the involvement of regular staff and police must probe this, the lawyer argued.

OMR TECHNOLOGY

The Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) technology scans a printed form and reads predefined positions and records where marks are made on the paper. This mechanism is useful for applications in which large numbers of hand-filled forms need to be processed quickly and with great accuracy, such as surveys, reply cards, questionnaires and ballots. A common use is in the "bubble sheets" for multiplechoice tests. A candidate has to answer a question by filling in the corresponding bubble.

COMPLAINT TO THE CHAIRMAN

SSC chairman A Bhattacharyya said in his complaint to the CBI last November that he received a message on his phone tipping him off about the dubious methods being used for money to help aspiring candidates. The informer provided three roll numbers for verification.

"In the investigation so far it has come out that the four men arrested are not earning more than Rs 15,000 but had huge amounts, up to lakhs, in their bank accounts and even had properties in their name," a CBI officer said. "We are trying to find the mastermind behind the act."

The complaint was marked to the secretary, department of personnel and training.

The commission found in an internal inquiry that from the three roll numbers, two OMR sheets had been only partially filled and in one answers were marked against all questions. The SSC then examined the answer sheets of the same candidates for the Combined Graduate Level Examination 2015 Tier - I and discovered that there was a difference in the ink colours used to mark answers.

The part one that comprises columns such as name and roll number were filled with a certain ink that was different in colour from the ink used to fill the second part in which the answers are marked in the spaces provided against the questions.

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Also read:

SSC paper leak: Delhi Police Crime Branch starts enquiry



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Aug 21 (PTI) Chinas largest high speed train maker has announced that its first USD 63.4 million joint venture plant in India to repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines has started operations.

The state-run China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) is the first foreign company to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled his ambitious Make in India campaign in 2014, the company said in statement.

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The joint venture named CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Co. Ltd., is housed in Haryana.

The plant was set up with an investment USD 63.4 million and the Chinese side holds 51 per cent of the share, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The India plant will repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.

It will also provide technology support to Indias rail system and supply electric transmission systems to oil drilling, wind power generation and mining equipment making in India, the report said.

This is Chinas first major investment in Indian Railways after the two worked out a multi-pronged collaboration for Chinese participation in the modernisation of Indian railway systems.

While Indian Railway engineers are getting trained in China in heavy hauling, China is also cooperating with India to set up a railway university similar to the one it developed.

Besides the high speed train, India and China have agreed to cooperate to identify the technical inputs required to increase speed on the existing railway line from Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.

China is also conducting feasibility study to build a high speed railway line between Chennai and New Delhi.

Japan has bagged the first bullet train project to build a high speed rail line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

CRRC Vice President Yu Weiping said the new plant will create jobs and tax revenue for local people and help improve infrastructure.

It will advance cooperation in industrial capacity and local equipment manufacturing, he said.

India has one of the worlds largest railway network spanning about 64,000 kilometres.

Since its presence in the Indian market in 2007, CRRC has supplied it with subway trains, locomotive engines and other railway vehicles and parts, the report said.

"Given more than 60,000 kilometres of railways in India, it is far from enough to build a single locomotive engine plant in India," Yu said.

"CRRC will build more plants (that are) able to produce trains, locomotive traction systems and other key parts in India," he said.

CRRC, formed from the merger of former rivals CNR Corp. and China CSR, has been aggressively reaching out to overseas markets, exporting rail transportation equipment to 101 countries and regions.

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Its first plant in North America started operations in September 2015 in Massachusetts. PTI KJV ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
Grass varieties bred by Agri-Food and Bio-Sciences Institute (AFBI) in cooperation with Barenbrug feature highly throughout the 2016/17 Recommended Grass List for Scotland.

This year, five Barenbrug marketed ryegrasses and one clover variety have achieved acclaimed 1st Choice status.

In addition, two brand new ryegrass varieties available from Barenbrug secure a listing for the very first time as Provisional 1st Choice options.

The Scottish Recommended List of Grasses is an independent study of the grass seed varieties available to Scottish farmers.

Published by Scotlands Rural College (SRUC), the list ranks grasses by performance  making it easier for farmers to pick varieties that are proven to thrive in Scottish conditions, and deliver a quick return on investment.

In compiling the 2016/17 Recommended List for Scotland, SRUC retested ten intermediate tetraploid ryegrass varieties that had been given 1st Choice status in previous years.

Of the ten ryegrasses retested, only three remained categorised as 1st Choice: Malone, Seagoe and Dunluce  all varieties available via Barenbrug.

In addition, two other Barenbrug marketed ryegrasses  Glenariff and Clanrye  plus Katy, a clover, were confirmed as 1st Choice having spent a couple of years listed as Provisional 1st Choice.

Furthermore, Gosford and Carland  two new intermediate perennial ryegrass varieties available from Barenbrug  were added to the Scottish list for the first time, going straight in as Provisional 1st Choice options.

A quarter of ryegrasses bred by AFBI

In total, 82 perennial ryegrasses appear on the Scottish list, almost a quarter of which are bred by AFBI in cooperation with Barenbrug through a specialist breeding partnership.

Other ryegrass varieties on the list and available from Barenbrug include Kilrea and Moyola (early); Fintona, Ramore, Spelga, Moira, Caledon and Copeland (Intermediate); and Tyrella, Drumbo, Navan and Dunloy (late).

Alongside Katy, three other white clover varieties from Barenbrug also appear including Crusader  a medium leaf white clover, and the only clover variety to ever win the prestigious NIAB Variety Cup.

Commenting, Mhairi Dawson, Research & Development Manager for Forage at Barenbrug UK, said: "Naturally we are delighted that so many of our varieties are going to be included on the Scottish Recommended Grass List for 2016/17 and importantly, have achieved 1st Choice status.

"This result is testimony to the quality, innovation and continual improvement of our breeding programmes, which create varieties with genetics that stand the test of time."

"Buying grasses and clovers that are bred by specialists like us, and included on the Recommended List, gives farmers peace of mind that they will be able to maximise the productivity of their grassland and get a good return on investment."

Grass varieties that appear on SRUCs Recommended List are subject to rigorous checks and are evaluated under both conservation management and simulated grazing at SRUC sites in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Ayrshire.

Varieties are also scored for winter hardiness, ground cover and disease resistance before being approved as fit to thrive in Scottish conditions.
Farmers have been accused of carrying out large-scale, illegal gassing of badgers on farms in a bid to control the spread of bovine TB.

Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, claims that badgers in Britain are regularly killed by farmers, landowners, hunt masters, game keepers and others.

In Mr Dyers new book, Badgered to Death, he states the problem is far wider than illegal criminal activity by such individuals.

See also: Anger and frustration over spread of bovine TB in Wales

It goes right to the heart of government and the farming industry, which all too often turn a blind eye on illegal badger persecution.

In a chapter entitled Illegal culls, Mr Dyer recounts an incident in October 2013 when he came face to face with this brutal reality at the end of the first six weeks of Defras pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

Gassing badgers is illegal

Mr Dyer said he spent an afternoon filming with Sky News reporter Isabel Webster, who told him a farmer in Somerset had bragged about gassing badgers on his farm  and added that neighbouring farmers were doing the same.

He writes: Was this important? Yes, I said. Gassing is not an approved method as it is considered inhumane. It is also illegal. No badgers can be killed without a licence from Natural England: the farmers were acting illegally.

Mr Dyer goes further, by suggesting this incident is proof the illegal culling of badgers is widespread in the farming industry.

The interview showed what many in the badger protection movement feared: that farmers were organising themselves into groups to carry out the large-scale, illegal killing of badgers on their farms, both inside and outside the official culling zones.

In the cull zones of west Somerset and Gloucestershire, Defra revised down the estimated figures for the badger population from 2,400 to 1,450 and 3,400 to 2,350 respectively.

Disease, breeding patterns and the weather were the causes of the decline, according to the secretary of state, writes Mr Dyer.

Yet there was a hint that something else may have been to blame as well, or instead.

Mr Dyer said following further interviews with farmers Ms Webster later uncovered evidence of illegal gassing by farmers using a hosepipe and vehicle engines on 14 farms in Somerset and Gloucestershire.

Industry reaction

Responding to the claims, the NFU told Farmers Weekly it was not in a position to comment because it had not received a copy of Mr Dyers book.

Defra has said it is researching different methods of deploying gas in a humane way as a potential method of removing diseased badgers from the countryside.

But a Defra spokeswoman said any illegal killing of badgers could not be condoned.

She added: If there is a belief that someone is illegally killing badgers, it should be reported to the police.
Plans for a coastal path in Somerset could wipe out some of the oldest British Beef Shorthorn genetics in the UK, claims a local farmer.

Although Beef Shorthorns arent especially rare, one herd in Somerset boasts genetics that date back to early 20th-century bloodlines, and are probably the last remaining of their type.

But now the introduction of the coast path threatens their very survival, says Steve Hamilton, of Wharf Farm, near Kingston Seymour.

See also: Advice for landowners as coastal path progresses

Mr Hamilton has 36 traditional Beef Shorthorn cattle with genetics dating back to the 1940s.

The herd is involved in a 20-year breeding programme with the Rare Breed Survival Trust (RBST), aiming to preserve and distribute its genetics worldwide.

New coast path

But Natural England wants to put a section of the new coast path  part of the longest coastal walking route in the world  through the farm.

Mr Hamilton said this would take up 35% of the 41ha farm and involve fencing the level fields which are divided by traditional drainage ditches known as rhynes.

It could cause us to lose our livestock and our living  and the walkers cant even see the coast from here, he said.

Its something very special that we have got here, why should protecting wild birds be more important than protecting our livestock and livelihood?

Its something very special that we have got here, why should protecting wild birds be more important than protecting our livestock and livelihood? Steve Hamilton, Wharf Farm

Natural England wants to route the path inland to avoid walkers disturbing nesting wild birds nearer to the coast, but Mr Hamilton insists his rare cattle should be afforded the same rights.

The majority of walkers are fine, but one or two careless people could destroy our breeding programme and irreplaceable bloodlines.

There are going to be 10,000 people walking through with no one to control their actions.

The main risks to the herd are neospora-related abortion, dog worrying, and the potential transmission of bovine tuberculosis.

The farm is the only clear farm in the area and has been TB free for the past 20 years, said Mr Hamilton. With his small herd size an outbreak could be devastating.

Traditional methods

The farm operates using traditional methods, is in the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme and works with the Avon Wildlife Trust on multiple projects.

This farm is achieving a balance for livestock and wildlife, said Richard Broad at the RBST.

This balance has taken years to create, but could be quickly destroyed. It would then take years or may even be impossible to reinstate.

Mr Hamilton is organising a meeting with Natural England, the RBST and the NFU in early October, and hopes to secure a practical outcome.

A Natural England spokesman said the government agency was aware of the situation.

We are in discussions with the landowner and the RBST to find a route that protects both the interests of the landowner and the rare breeds, as well as the interests of the local wildlife.

But Tom Beeston, chief executive of the RBST, said he was extremely concerned about developments around Wharf Farm.

Farms need just as much protection as wildlife, and special consideration should be taken in this instance with regards to the farms breeding line Matt Uren, NFU

It could affect both the amazing historical meadow habitats, and put at risk one of our rarest and most traditional populations of Shorthorns.

The risk is 100%, without a full understanding of the importance of the habitat and the animals, we could lose all the animals and a good proportion of the habitat.

NFU adviser Matt Uren said: Farms need just as much protection as wildlife, and special consideration should be taken in this instance with regards to the farms breeding lines.
Prisoners across the United States, including in Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, and elsewhere, are calling for a strike on September 9. Their call to action states: On September 9th of 1971 prisoners took over and shut down Attica, New York State's most notorious prison. Onof 2016, we will begin an action to shut down prisons all across this country. We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves.In the 1970s the US prison system was crumbling. In Walpole, San Quentin, Soledad, Angola and many other prisons, people were standing up, fighting and taking ownership of their lives and bodies back from the plantation prisons. For the last six years we have remembered and renewed that struggle. In the interim, the prisoner population has ballooned and technologies of control and confinement have developed into the most sophisticated and repressive in world history. The prisons have become more dependent on slavery and torture to maintain their stability.Prisoners are forced to work for little or no pay. That is slavery. The 13th amendment to the US constitution maintains a legal exception for continued slavery in US prisons. It states neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. Overseers watch over our every move, and if we do not perform our appointed tasks to their liking, we are punished. They may have replaced the whip with pepper spray, but many of the other torments remain: isolation, restraint positions, stripping off our clothes and investigating our bodies as though we are animals.Slavery is alive and well in the prison system, but by the end of this year, it wont be anymore. This is a call to end slavery in America. This call goes directly to the slaves themselves. We are not making demands or requests of our captors, we are calling ourselves to action. To every prisoner in every state and federal institution across this land, we call on you to stop being a slave, to let the crops rot in the plantation fields, to go on strike and cease reproducing the institutions of your confinement.
James Kilpatrick is sued by China Town tenants and Oakland City AttorneyLandlord is sued for mistreating Oakland China Town rentersBy Lynda Carson - August 21, 2016Oakland  James Kilpatrick, Jaevon Marshall, NAI Northern California/Highview Property Management, and Green Group LP, the owners of 524 8th St in Oakland, have been sued for damages and equitable relief by around 14 residents of an Oakland China Town residential building. The low-income renters are receiving legal help from the Oakland City Attorney, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, and attorney Robert Salinas of the law firm Sundeen Salinas & Pyle. James Kilpatrick and the group he is operating with has also been ordered by a judge to repair a number of shared bathrooms and shared kitchen areas that have been demolished in the cockroach infested building at 524 8th St., according to reports. Presently around 34 residents share one kitchen, according to reports, and they are allegedly terrified, angry, and pissed off about the current slum like conditions existing at the building. The tenants pay around $400 a month in the SRO, but some new tenants who allegedly have rented some rooms recently there through Airbnb are paying as much as $70 a night to live in a building that is more like a construction area, with slum like conditions.According to public records, James Kilpatrick of 475 14th Street, Suite 700, in Oakland, has had problems in the past, and has a brokers license that was suspended in 2009, and in 2012 NAI Northern California - License ID: 01870488 is licensed in California.Highview Property Management, LLC, entity number 201304610166 is listed with the Secretary of State in California as being active in the jurisdiction of Nevada, but the record search in Nevada is down for maintenance at the moment, and it can not be verified.Green Group, LP, entity number 201519000005 is listed as being active in California, with Jaevon Marshall as the Agent for Service of Process.On Tuesday, August 23, another hearing is scheduled for case number RG16820040.Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com >>>>>>>>>>>>
By the end of this year, 112 will be the new helpline number in case of emergencies for Delhi resident.

Delhi Police is working with the MHA & telecom ministry to make all services available under one emergency number.

By Shashank Shekhar: Delhi Police will be the first security agency to implement the common emergency number - 112 - before the end of this year. This integrated number will help people reach out to the police, ambulance and fire service departments immediately, a senior officer said.

Implementation of the emergency number is part of the pilot project and eventually it will be replicated in other cities as well. Once the hardware is procured by the Ministry of Home Affairs, (MHA) the trial run will begin.



TRIAL RUN SOON

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"We have agreed with the architecture of the project. We will be the first city to implement 112. This will run parallel to the existing response systems in place - police (100), fire brigade (101), ambulance (102) and Emergency Disaster Management (108)," said a senior Delhi police officer.

Single emergency number 112 would be similar to the '911' all-in-one emergency service in the US. The service will also be accessible in SIMs and landlines whose outgoing call facilities have been stopped or are temporarily suspended.

As per the plan, a person in distress will only need to call 112, which will direct the call to the concerned departments and help will come immediately.

CONFUSION IN RELATION TO EMERGENCY NUMBERS

In Delhi, there's much confusion related to emergency services with each department having a different helpline number. Several states have initiated helpline numbers for other instances as well, like - women in distress (181-Delhi), missing children/women (1094-Delhi), crime against women (1096-Delhi), etc.

Delhi police is working with the MHA and telecom ministry to make all of these services available under one emergency phone number. The trial run of the project will begin by the end of this year, following which the existing numbers will get scrapped, a year after the service is fully functional.

"112 will work as a one-stop number for all emergency services. The number will be initially set up outside police headquarters in ITO as existing emergency number (100) operates from here. But, as the trail run is completed and helpline is matured it will be shifted to headquarters," an officer said. Without giving a timeline, he said that as numbers like 100, 101 and 102 are popular, scrapping of these numbers will take time.

"Existing numbers will be kept functional parallely till the time the software for the new emergency number 112 is matured. We will encounter several technical glitches, which will require months of testing before being fixed," the officer said.

MHA has identified the vendor for the hardware and it will be bought by them. "Buying the hardware is an easy process but the real challenge lies in integrating all these numbers through the software and considerable time will be needed to test the software," he said.

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Central agency Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and NIC is working on the technical end of the project. Once the purchase formality of hardware and other permissions are taken care of, the trial run will begin. The process is expected to take three months of time and service may begin before the end of this year.

"It will be a bigger set-up than existing control room as demands of Delhi has grown by many folds," he said.

The user can communicate even through SMS and the system will learn about the location of the person and share it with the nearest help centre. "Telecom operators have already been asked to direct all emergency calls to 112. The process of directing calls made on 112 to concerned departments is being worked upon," the officer said. The emergency service calls will also be supported through a call centre-like facility, which will have representatives speaking in Hindi, English and local languages.



ALSO READ

Haryana government to come up with common helpline for emergencies



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- The Niger Delta Avengers have agreed to maintain peace with the federal government while plans to negotiate are ongoing

- The negotiation is reportedly being initiated by Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, and other elders from the region

- An effective negotiation with the militant group may bring lasting peace to the region which currently funds a major part of the country's revenue base

Reports reaching Legit.ng indicate that the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has declared a ceasefire while indicating its readiness for negotiation with the federal government.

Members of the Niger Delta Avengers now support negotiation with the federal government

The group accused of attacking oil installations in the Niger Delta region of the country, said in a statement it trusts the outcome of a negotiation team being planned by Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, and other elders of the region.

Leaders and elders in the Niger Delta region met last Friday to fashion out the right strategy for lasting peace in the region which is currently suffering serious environmental degradation partly because of attacks on pipelines.

With this ceasefire, the group allegedly sponsored by some notable Nigerians who have also come out to deny the claims, may also reconsider its plan to declare independence from Nigeria on October 1.

READ ALSO: Nigerians mock Avengers over independence declaration

In a statement by Brig-General Mudoch Agbinibo, its spokesperson, the Niger Delta Avengers reiterated that its struggle is in favour of the region.

Here is the full statement:

We are going to support any collective/negotiation team emerging from the Chief (Dr) Papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders conference to engage with the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational oil corporations and neutral international mediators that will be focused on achieving the short, medium and long term frameworks and objectives to de-escalating conflicts in the Niger Delta. Most of the frameworks and objectives are clearly stated in various reports, declarations and recommendations of the likes of the Sir Henry Willinks minority rights reports of pre-independence Nigeria (1957-8), the Kaiama Declaration document, the General Alexander Ogomudia report, the Leedum Mittee headed, Niger Delta Technical Committee report and restructuring to fiscal federalism.

We have resolved to reject any idea of the peace of our times; we want the peace with honor this time around! Our advice to our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders is that, whenever this inhuman project called Nigeria and her government is ready for dialogue/negotiations with them, this mandate should be treated with that care as driving a vehicle like that of a truck laden with fire.

READ ALSO: Lawyers warn Buhari on probing Jonathan over ND Avengers

We are going to continue the observation of our unannounced cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta against all interest of the multinational oil corporations, but we will continuously adopt our asymmetric warfare during this period if, the Nigerian government and the ruling political APC continues to use security agencies/agents, formations and politicians to arrest, intimidate, invade and harass innocent citizens, suspected NDA members and invade especially Ijaw communities.

We promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails. Therefore, we will give our Niger Delta elders and genuine stakeholders that tacit support to the dialogue table with the government and the multinational oil corporations whenever the enabling environment prevails.

READ ALSO: Declare republic, face treason - Police to Niger Delta Avengers

We also use this medium to warn those using rogue platforms like the defunct so-called MEND, RNDA- Cynthia Whyte especially Charles Okah who is franchising these internet based banditry from his prison cell, through Victor Ebikabowei Ben (Boyloaf), Timipre Silva, Selekaye Ebikabowei, Ayirimi Emani, Michael Johnny, to please inform those their paymasters that the days of doom are here. That those sold and bought up interests from around the corridors of power cannot arm-twist the NDA with bandits, drug addicts, illegal bunkerers, bank robbers and disorganized characters to derail the Niger Delta struggle.

Brig-Gen Mudoch Agbinibo.

Spokesperson.

Source: Legit.ng
The gangsters, on their way to loot a property dealer who was going to make a big cash transaction, were gathering in Rohini.

By Tanseem Haider: A group of gangsters on their way to commit dacoity were nabbed by the Delhi Police today morning. The gangsters, on their way to loot a property dealer who was going to make a big cash transaction, were gathering in Rohini.

This information was revealed to the Delhi Police. On receiving the information, three teams constituting of the cops, started searching for the vehicle involved in the crime.

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The entire encounter took place in the sector-24 of Rohini in west Delhi. The police had to fire in self-defence after the accused open fired on the police after which the police was able to end the encounter.

After searching the accused persons and car, police recovered two pistols and live rounds of 7.65mm ammunition, one desi katta with four live rounds of .315 ammunition and one knife.

The five arrested are also wanted in murder, attempt to murder, loot, kidnapping cases.



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- The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate has warned NPDC against carrying out repairs on the blown up trunk line in Udu, Delta state

- The new militant group said it was in the struggle to correct an injustice that has lived with them, from the time of their fathers

- The group claims to be agitating for the upland host communities to oil facilities

Militants belonging to the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) have claimed responsibility for the blown up Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) major trunkline/delivery line in Udu local government area of Delta state.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Aldo Agbalaja, the group warned the NPDC not to effect any repair on the blasted facilities until the oil company heard from it, This Day reports.

The NDGJM said: Peace cannot be realised in an unjust environment, like we said from the onset, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not just about causing calamity and delighting in chaos, rather a child of circumstance, bore to correct an injustice that has lived with us, from the time of our fathers.

READ ALSO: Federal government to train 500 ex-militants in farming skills

We are in this struggle, not to create any acrimony with our friends and brothers in the riverine axis, who are equal citizens of this over sapped region, but to call the attention of the world to our peculiar experience; that we, as people of diverse tongues and orientation, have kept faith with both the Nigerian government and oil multinationals over the years, by being peaceful, patient and law abiding all through the years, but have in turn been abused and abandoned by these same supposed partners.

They have all along taken our quietness and disposition for peace and choice for orderliness for granted. We have watched and seen that they only encourage lawlessness and violence.

The militant group said it would only embrace peace when its people and lands aret treated right

The NDGJM demanded that the federal government should call an urgent and all-encompassing meeting of genuine stakeholders of core Niger Delta communities, especially those from oil producing communities to create a truly Niger Delta platform, where real issues of injustice and what correcting them should look like.

The group added that The oil multinationals must be part of the meeting while the United Nations would serve as witness to this alongside some very credible international NGOs.

READ ALSO: ND Avengers declare ceasefire and readiness to negotiate

According to the group it was not comfortable with the insinuation that the whole of Niger Delta was involved in the ongoing negotiations between the federal government, oil companies and the Ijaw elements in region.

The militants asked the federal government to identify with a selection of very credible persons from all regions and not some political criminals looking for breast pocket money.

It also demanded that the military stop harassing its people and communities in the region, saying it was aware of plots by the federal government to attack communities in the creek in the name of wiping out militancy.

The NPDC delivery line was blown up at about 2am on Friday, August 19, though security sources disclosed that the said gas trunk line has not been in use for a long time now and the militants just breached it to claim unnecessary attention.

It was attacked a few hours after the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2nd Division of the Nigerian Army, Ibadan, Major-General Kasimu Abdulkarim visited Asaba, the Delta state capital.

Source: Legit.ng
- Ibrahim Magu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed his challenge

- Magu believes there are some forces fighting the EFCC as the agency battles corruption in the country

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has accused some dark forces of infiltrating the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Ibrahim Magu, EFCC boss, says dark forces frustrating the fight against corruption

He said he expected lawyers to rally round the anti-graft agency and help tackle these dark forces.

Sahara Reporters quoted Magu as making the revelation while presenting a paper: This is our chance at a symposium organized by members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL) in Lagos.

He said those plaguing the EFCC and its duties are a gang of rogue elements who have become a clog in the wheel of progress.

READ ALSO: EFCC releases detained blogger, Nigerians react (photos)

Magu, who did not give details of the dark forces, reportedly said: When these dark forces gather (as they have), our expectation is that bodies such as the National Association of Democratic Lawyers would rise up, without any further prompting and come to our rescue.

The tug-and-pull for the soul of the EFCC aptly mirrors that for the control of the destiny of our dear nation.

Despite the frustration, he said the EFCC would overcome, adding: Whilst we may not claim omniscience, one thing we are convinced of in the Commission is that Nigeria will be doomed if we fail to win the war on corruption.

He vowed that the commission would go against anybody, including lawyers and judges, where it is evident that they soiled their hands.

READ ALSO: EFCC arrests three for trying to dupe PDP of N16m

The biggest form of corruption is not the ones you find in government offices or banks; it is not the ones that is plaguing the oil industry or pension administration.

The biggest, most virulent form of corruption that ever existed is the one that has eaten deep into the fabric of the Temple of Justice.

It is to you who minister in the temple of justice that we all run to -high or low, mighty or weak, lawmakers, law breakers and law enforcers. It is to the courts that we all run, for protection.

However, we are all witnesses to the abuse of skills, knowledge, powers, position and privileges by a few rogue elements, who, whilst being a tiny fraction, have an outsized influence on the direction of the Nigerian judiciary and indeed, the Nigerian nation, he said while calling on Nigerians to join in the fight against corruption which he said was the cause of the current challenges facing the country.

READ ALSO: Stop using President's name to solicit favour - Minister warns

It is important to note that what has made the EFCC to stand out from every other law enforcement agency in Africa, are our conviction, commitment and professionalism, backed by the unshaken support of ordinary Nigerians, Magu said.

Magu was appointed following the removal of Ibrahim Lamorde, but since his emergence, there are allegations that the anti-graft agency had not been able to secure a celebrated conviction.

Instead, the allegation had been that the agency had only engaged in witch-hunt going after officials of the last administration.

The EFCC, on Thursday, August 18, 2017, filed a 17-count charge of fraud against Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, former President Goodluck Jonathans former aide.

Source: Legit.ng
- Factional PDP chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff has come under harsh criticisms again

- Barr. Chris Okewulonu wondered why Sheriff was bent on remaining PDP chairman

- He said a critical check will show Sheriff was a non-card carrying member of the PDP

Barr. Chris Okewulonu, a former secretary to the Imo state government (SGI), has described the embattled factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as a pretender.

According to him, Sheriff was bent on bringing the party to its knees, Leadership reports.

Okewulonu was reacting to leadership crisis rocking the party and the ruling of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.

READ ALSO: PDP National Convention: Nigerian speaks on crisis

Speaking in Owerri, the Imo state capital, the former SGI said Sheriffs desperation to remain chairman was a bad omen to the party.

He insinuated that Sheriff was a non-card carrying member of the PDP, saying a critical check on his membership will prove that he was not even registered in his ward and therefore may not even have a PDP membership card.

Okewulonu said: The ward is where membership of a party is anchored. I bet you, Sheriffs name is not in PDPs membership register in his ward because he suddenly jumped into PDP from APC. He is acting as if he is harbouring an age long bitterness against PDP and the opportunity has now provided itself for him to strike.

The former SGI wondered what Sheriff stands to lose if he does not become the national chairman of the PDP.

READ ALSO: PDP will bounce back, Sheriff to decide next move - Gana

He noted that the issue of Sheriff has been blown out of proportion by the media thereby, portraying our party as being in crisis.

Okewulonu stated that the PDP is greater than any of its members and is still intact, Sheriff or no Sheriff.

He therefore cautioned party members to be humble enough to subject themselves to party constitution.

For months, Sheriff and the leadership of the opposition PDP have been at loggerheads following his removal as the national chairman of the party and the inauguration of a caretaker committee headed by Ahmed Makarfi to lead its activities.

Despite his removal, Sheriff has maintained that he remains the chairman of the party.

Some stakeholders in the PDP have said that he is mole in the party and thus want him severely punished.

Source: Legit.ng
Bangladeshi and Indian investigators jointly interrogated a suspected Islamic State terrorist Mohammed Masiuddin in Kolkata last week. He revealed details about the recent attacks in Dhaka.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Last week, Bangladeshi and Indian investigators jointly interrogated Mohammed Masiuddin, a suspected Islamic State terrorist who also has links with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), in Kolkata.

Indian national Mohammed Masiuddin alias Abu Musa during his interrogation revealed that, the mastermind behind the Holey Artisan Attack in Dhaka was JMB leader Mohammed Suleiman. Mohammed Suleiman is also accused of the murder of English professor Rezaul Karim at Rajshahi University.

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Masiuddin told his interrogators that Suleiman, who has asked him to carry out lone wolf attacks on foreigners in Srinagar and Kolkata, came to India twice to meet him.

Suleiman traveled to Kolkata two days after the professor's murder and stayed at a hotel with another yet-to-be identified person associated with the jihadi outfit and IS.

Agencies are trying to ascertain whether the person staying with Suleiman was Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif alias Tamim Chowdhury, chief of Islamic State of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, which is closely working with India, has already expressed its concern that Suleiman and Canadian-Bangladeshi Tamim could be hiding in India.



Also Read

Bangladesh identifies masterminds of Dhaka attack





--- ENDS ---
Montres Allison produces a manual wind watch with a mechanism to prevent over-winding.

Media Contact

Linda Galiza

***@montresallison.com

7207221177 Linda Galiza7207221177

End

-- Montres Allison watches is proud to announce that it has completed a new manually wound tourbillon with a unique clutch mechanism to prevent over-winding."We saw a need to provide a manually wound watch that can keep being wound without stopping and without breaking the main spring," said Tim Strong, CEO of Montres Allison. Strong added "To the best of our knowledge, no other manually wound watch is produced with this feature."In a normal manual wind watch, a user can break the main spring by winding the winding crown too far. This is usually the result of a novice watch enthusiast not understanding that he or she must stop winding the crown when it becomes tight. This new feature on the latest Montres Allison tourbillon will undoubtedly prevent unnecessary repairs due to user error. On the new Montres Allison tourbillon with over-wind prevention, the user can continue to wind the watch endlessly without breaking the main spring.Montres Allison invites those who are interested in artisan watchmaking to visit the Montres Allison website located at montresallison.com.Contact Montres Allison at 720-722-1177 to inquire further.About Montres Allison:Montres Allison manufactures 18k gold, palladium, sterling palladium, platinum, sterling platinum, and non-tarnishing sterling silver cases, dials, movement components, buckles, and crowns in Colorado, USA for customers who demand unique hand-crafted custom watches and prototypes.In most custom projects, some of the stock movement components are re-fabricated from 18k gold and/or platinum and hand finished in Colorado, USA by Montres Allison watchmakers.Founded in 1999, Montres Allison produces some of the most interesting watches available in the world in the 21century.
New Office Staff Includes Communications, Technical & Legal Professionals

By: Saint Monica University

End

-- Saint Monica University (SMU): The American International University today announced the staff for the Office of the President and Chief Executive Officer. The staff is expected to assist the University's President in the execution of his duties and reflects the needs of the Office.The new staff will be led by, who will serve as the. She comes to the table with experience working for other educational and non-profit organizations, where she held multiple leadership rules including Acting Director and Human Resource Manager. She is working on her PhD in Human Resource Management and holds Master of Arts in Translation as well as an undergraduate degree in Mass Communication.Serving as thewill be, who will manage the President's schedule and all other administrative activities in the office. He has had experience at SMU as an Admissions Officer and has ran errands for the President. He comes on board with a Bachelor of Arts in History and is pursuing a Master of Public Administration at SMU.Thewill be, who will advise the President with regards to administrative issues and represent him to external constituencies. He has a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and a PhD all in Electrical Engineering and has served as the University's Provost. Prior to coming to SMU, he was the Director of the College of Engineering at the University of Buea.will serve as the. As General Counsel, he will handle all legal issues for the University; and as Ombudsman, he will listen to and address all grievances from the University's employees. He holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the United States, where he practiced as a lawyer for many years before returning to Cameroon. He also has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology. He has been at SMU since last year, where he was a lecturer in the Department of Public Administration."As Saint Monica University continues to grow, my work has increased substantially and I need an experienced staff to help me accomplish these duties," said Professor Januarius Jingwa (JJ) Asongu, President and Chief Executive Officer of SMU. "I have brought together a staff that understand and are committed to the mission and vision of Saint Monica University and are prepared to help me achieve it. Those selected bring strong experience and expertise in strategic planning, communications, law, information technology, budgeting, operations and organizational leadership."Saint Monica University (SMU) is a leading private university in Cameroon. It is an American-style non-ecclesiastical Catholic institution, offering career-focused programs that are at the intersection of the liberal arts, science and technology. It is dedicated to providing educational opportunities for the intellectual, social, entrepreneurial and professional development of a diverse student population. SMU is focused on the student experience and helping our students achieve their educational and career goals, and contributing to a more sustainable society. We offer various certificates and diplomas as well as bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through the School of Arts, Education, & Humanities (SAEH); School of Business & Public Policy (SBPP); School of Health & Human Services (SHHS); and School of Science, Engineering & Technology (SSET). SMU is accredited in the United Kingdom by the Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges, and Universities (ASIC) with Accreditation No: AS22357/0614 and is listed on the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP) with the UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN): 10048183. SMU is also fully accredited in Cameroon by the National Commission on Private Higher Education at the Ministry of Higher Education (MINESUP) with the Ordinance of Creation No: E14/0028/MINESUP/SG/DDES and the Ministerial Letter No: 15-09643/L/MINESUP/SG/DDES/ESUP/SDA/MM authorizing SMU to offer over 60 undergraduate and graduate diploma and degree programs. SMU is a member of many international academic organizations including the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), Global Universities In Distance Education (GUIDE), and the Talloires Network. For more information about SMU, visit our website: http://www.smuedu.org or write to us at admissions@smuedu.org.
Seiko Watches recently inaugurated its first-ever exclusive boutique in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province

End

-- Seiko Watches recently inaugurated its first-ever exclusive boutique in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, when Al-Hussaini & Al-Yahya Investment Group, the exclusive Seiko distributor in the Kingdom, opened the bespoke outlet in the prestigious Al Rashid Mall in Al Khobar.The move is part of the brand's overall strategic expansion plan that involves bringing Seiko's watch collections closer to the large number of watch and fashion aficionados in the country. The opening of the new boutique is a continuation of the excellent partnership between Al-Hussaini & Al-Yahya Investment Group on one hand and Seiko Watch Corporation on the other in the local market, which stretches back over five decades of cooperation.The inauguration was attended by Shunji Tanaka, Senior Vice President, Seiko Watch Corporation, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Othman Al-Hussaini, Vice Chairman of Al-Hussaini & Al-Yahya Investment Group and Muhammed Saleh Hasan Eid, Executive President of the group.Speaking at the inauguration, Othman Al-Hussaini, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Al-Hussaini & Al-Yahya Investment Group said: "We are glad to operate in the Eastern Province after a long wait, and are grateful to the great trust of our customers who adore the Japanese brilliance and technical expertise in this sector."The boutique will showcase two of Seiko's most elegant and technically accomplished collections;namely, Grand Seiko and Seiko Astron. They include very attractive watches, each of which is considered an innovative masterpiece for sophisticated tastes," he added.Al-Hussaini & Al-Yahya Investment Group is part of the Al-Hussaini & Al-Yahya Group of Companies that was established in 1950. It is well known for its pioneering spirit and deep-rooted legacy in the luxury watch industry across the Kingdom for over half a century.The exclusive Seiko boutique will be the latest edition to a global network of 68 existing boutiques and will house some specific models that will not be available at any other store in the country.
Zayed University opens doors to 20 top achievers from Eritrea

Contact

Sara Hassan

Media Relations Specialist

***@zu.ac.ae Sara HassanMedia Relations Specialist

End

-- A total of 20 distinguished Eritrean students will enjoy a fruitful and promising learning experience at Zayed University's classrooms today (Sunday) with their counterparts.In line with the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Eritrean students were offered scholarships that aim to nurture the minds of future generations through education.The 20 top achievers will enroll at the College of Technological Innovation at Zayed University to study information technology.Professor Reyadh AlMehaideb, Vice President of Zayed University, Dr Marilyn Roberts, Acting Provost, and Dr Fatima AlDarmaki, Assistant Provost for Student Affairs, met 16 male and 4 female Eritrean students in Abu Dhabi campus and welcomed them to Zayed University."Welcome and congratulations for joining Zayed University to complete your undergraduate studies. I wish all of you a bright future. Zayed University offers a wide range of options and challenges and I encourage all of you to optimize and maximize your potential to make your experience at the university as personally enlightening as it is academically rewarding."Dr Marilyn also advised new students to regularly meet their professors and get in deeper contact with them. "Their doors are wide open for your requests," she added.She also encouraged students to share ideas and start discussion with faculty members at Zayed University as well as colleagues. "These discussions and insights will strengthen your personality,"Dr Marilyn said.During the meeting, students expressed their gratitude for the warm welcome and support they received at Zayed University.Dr Fatima AlDarmaki also advised students to visit the recently opened counseling center at Zayed University, which aims to boost the mental health and well-being of students."The center can help students to overcome problems such as stress, time management, depression and anxiety. I am always happy to meet your requests and assist you with all matters related to your academic progress and personal development,"Dr Fatima added.Zayed University welcomed a total of 2098 freshmen students and around 61 international students, who will bring their experience, background, and culture to both its campuses.Zayed University is accredited by the Middle State Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). It has rigorous academics that earned 5 of its 6 colleges international accreditation or recognition. ZU faculty and students have produced quality scholarly work that is regularly noticed and recognized, all of which has contributed to the university's continued institutional accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), and the Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MOHESR).Zayed University is today the premier national university in the United Arab Emirates and a regional leader in educational innovation and change. It has created and implemented a skills-rich, outcome-based general education program that systemically develops student skills, knowledge, and values associated with liberal learning and provided a solid foundation for pursuit of disciplinary majors and future careers. Zayed University welcomes national and international students, and provides them with a high quality education, offered by seasoned teaching scholars to prepare them to shape the future of the United Arab Emirates.Zayed University offers Undergraduate and Graduate degrees in the following Colleges: College of Arts & Creative Enterprises (recognized as substantially equivalent by NASAD), College of Business (Accredited by AACSB), College of Communication & Media Sciences (Accredited by ACEJMC), College of Education (Accredited by NCATE), College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Natural and Health Sciences, and College of Technological Innovation (Accredited by ABET). For more information, visit www.zu.ac.aeMedia contacts: Sara Sabry, Media Relations Specialist at the Office of the Vice President at Zayed UniversityDir-Tel: 025993630Mobile: 0566561059E-mail: Sara.Hassan@zu.ac.aeWeb: www.zu.ac.ae
The Third Annual National HBCU Pre-Law Summit will be held at Georgia State University College of Law and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. This event is the only national conference in the country designed especially for HBCU students and graduates interested in law school and becoming lawyers.

By: National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo

LSAT Panel Discussion

Media Contact

National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo

***@hbcuprelawsummit.org

281-944-LAW4



Photo:

https://www.prlog.org/ 12581302/1 National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo281-944-LAW4

End

-- The Third Annual National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 23rd, 2016 and Saturday, September 24th, 2016 at Georgia State University College of Law in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. There will also be an Official Pre-Summit Kickoff Event taking place on Thursday, September 22nd, 2016 at Morehouse College, a well-known HBCU that is the nation's sole liberal arts college for Black men. This groundbreaking summit is the only major national event of its kind in the entire country focused on empowering HBCU students and graduates interested in going to law school and becoming lawyers, and addressing the unique issues, concerns and challenges facing them. Current students and alumni from all HBCUs are invited to meet and come together in Atlanta this fall to take part in three intensive and power-packed days which will expose them to game-changing information, resources, and connections designed to help them achieve success in a demanding educational endeavor and field in great need of diversity.The summit will provide inspirational keynote sessions featuring prominent and dynamic speakers. Confirmed keynote speakers include Ronald S. Sullivan, Esq., Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Willie E. Gary, Esq. Partner, Gary, Williams, Parenti, Watson & Gary, P.L.L.C. (Stuart, Florida), Dr. Kim Hunter Reed, Deputy Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education and Acting Executive Director, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Washington, DC), Pamela J. Meanes, Esq., Partner, Thompson Coburn LLP and Past President, National Bar Association (Saint Louis, Missouri), and Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Esq., Partner, Lawrence & Bundy LLC (Atlanta, Georgia). All keynote speakers are proud graduates of historically Black colleges and universities.There will also be unprecedented talks featuring deans from all six HBCU law schools including John Pierre, Esq., Chancellor and Professor of Law, Southern University Law Center (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Angela Felecia Epps, Esq., Dean, Florida A&M University College of Law (Orlando, Florida), Phyliss Craig-Taylor, Esq., LL.M., Dean and Professor of Law, North Carolina Central University School of Law (Durham, North Carolina), Dannye Holley, Esq., LL.M., Dean and Professor of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law Texas Southern University (Houston, Texas), Reginald McGahee, Esq., Dean of Student Affairs, Admissions and Financial Aid, Howard University School of Law (Washington, DC) and Katherine Shelley Broderick, Esq., M.A.T., Dean and Professor of Law, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (Washington, DC).Other special guests include Khyla D. Craine, Esq., Assistant General Counsel, NAACP and Chair, National Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (Baltimore, Maryland), Cheryl F. Turner, Esq., President, Gate City Bar Association (Atlanta, Georgia), Janet Scott, Esq., President, Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (Atlanta, Georgia), John C. Brittain, Esq., Professor of Law, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (Washington, DC), and Dr. Timothy E. Sams, Vice President for Student Development, Morehouse College (Atlanta, Georgia).In addition to keynote and special guest speakers, the event will showcase panel discussions on critical topics for aspiring lawyers including law school admission, the law student experience, and the different career paths for those armed with a law degree. Also planned are special sessions on financing legal education, managing student loan debt, writing an effective law school personal statement and diversity statement, preparing for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), knowing your rights, and getting involved and demonstrating leadership during the current Black Lives Matter Movement.Further, a law school expo will take place on both major days of the summit where students will have the opportunity to meet with law school representatives from more than 50 law schools across the country to find out about their law programs and get answers to their questions. Refreshment breaks and networking receptions are scheduled to take place where attendees will have the opportunity to participate in both structured and informal networking activities to help them connect with other aspiring law students, current law students, and lawyers.Moreover, attendees will have the opportunity to tour Morehouse College and all three Atlanta law schools including Emory University School of Law, Georgia State University College of Law and Atlanta's John Marshall Law School. They will also get the chance to participate in admissions sessions and mock law classes designed just for them at the law schools.Even more, one-on-one consulting sessions will also be offered so that participants can receive personal assistance and feedback on their personal statements, diversity statements, resumes, addenda and get any burning admissions, preparation or career planning questions answered. Complimentary resources will be provided to all pre-law attendees and a free LSAT course will be raffled. The closing session will end on a high note with the National HBCU Pre-Law Hall of Fame Awards and the Aspiring Lawyers Pinning Ceremony.The Sunday after the summit is an optional day of making connections and learning where participants can sign up for and take part in a Black Atlanta group tour to visit many sites of historical significance to African Americans and the American Civil Rights Movement which will include the King Center, the childhood home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ebenezer Baptist Church, Auburn Avenue, and more.This event will feature knowledgeable law school administrators, law students and lawyers who will share their own experiences and also directly address issues of concern to HBCU students and alumni which are commonly ignored in general law school informational events. What is particularly unique about these sessions is that all of the panelists have an understanding of and genuine interest in the success of students who attend or have attended HBCUs, many having attended HBCUs themselves. Not only that, there is an emphasis on sharing the historical and present day significance of African Americans gaining access to a legal education and the tremendous need for them to go back, give back and serve the community, and particularly the Black community, which is underserved when it comes to legal services.According to the summit's founder, Evangeline M. Mitchell, Esq., Ed.M., an HBCU graduate and first-generation college student, law student and lawyer, "This is a life-changing opportunity of a lifetime where we are bringing together all of these incredible and accomplished people from across the country in order to inspire and empower HBCU students and alumni who are interested in law school. This event is highly professional but there is also a family-like atmosphere because those who come are grounded and are willingly volunteering their time and sharing their knowledge and experiences because they deeply care. We understand that success is not just individual attainment, but it's collective and that we have a responsibility to those coming behind us and our community.""We know that the idea of becoming a lawyer can seem intimidating and out of reach to so many African Americans who are firsts to pursue this path. We want to demystify what it really takes to gain access into law school and the legal profession. Our goal is to break down those walls of exclusivity and exclusion to help them see their goals as attainable, and at the same time we want to be honest and transparent so that they understand the very real difficulties and obstacles they will face so they can prepare themselves to overcome them and succeed," says Attorney Mitchell.Admission to the event is completely free of charge, open to the public, and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. All aspiring lawyers, pre-law and career advisors, professors, parents and supporters are welcomed to register and attend. For more information, please visit the summit's official website at http://www.hbcuprelawsummit.org/
The Commonwealth's Premier Networking, Educational, and Professional Development Event for Small, Women-Owned, and Minority-Owned Businesses (SWaMfest) Is Headed to Newport News, VA

Images from SWaMfest 2015

Media Contact

Angel Livas

info@dcmediaconnection.com

2029303262 Angel Livas2029303262

End

-- This fall, hundreds of small, women-owned and minority-owned (SWaM) businesses will convene in Newport News, Virginia for SWaMfest 2016. This premier event connects hundreds of SWaM businesses to the purchasing power of the Virginia Association of State College and University Purchasing Professionals (VASCUPP), as well as other large and small businesses. The two-day event will take place at the Newport News Marriott at City Center, October 12 & 13th.SWaMfest is the Commonwealth's primeevent for SWaM businesses. According to University of Virginia, Supplier and Diversity Director, Leslie Haughton "the VASCUPP group of schools actively share cooperative contracts with each other. Which means if a business acquires a contract with one VASCUPP school, it could potentially be shared with all the others."So, what schools make up VASCUPP? James Madison University, George Mason University, Longwood University, University of Mary Washington, Old Dominion University, Radford University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Tech, and the College of William & Mary.Haughton went on to say that VASCUPP essentially networks amongst themselves and shares information on suppliers who are new and perform at a high level. The Virginia Association of State College and University Purchasing Professionals is committed to helping Virginia's SWaM businesses remain strong, vibrant, and successful.Confirmed SWaMfest speakers include Newport News Mayor, McKinley Price, Dr Greg Fairchild from UVA's Darden School of Business, Nicole Eickoff of the Northern Virginia Women's Business Center, and many others.SWaMfest is open to certified and uncertified small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses. Early bird registration is available through September 15th. Tickets are available online at www.swamfest.com
Bajaj Autos new Chetak e-scooter outsold TVS Motor Companys iQube in March 2020

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Bajaj Auto has temporarily stopped the production of its new Chetak electric scooter. As of now, the Indian governments lockdown protocol extends to 3 May 2020 but certain automakers have started operating their facilities with limited resources and proper guidelines from concerned authorities. Meanwhile, several automotive dealerships are on the verge of going out of business permanently.

Even if Indias business sector returns back to normal from the start of May, Bajaj Auto might still be unable to continue production of its new EV. This is because Bajaj imports the Chetaks electric powertrain from Bosch in Germany, which is currently at the early stages of relaxing its lockdown measures. Furthermore, experts state that logistics will take a longer period to recover from the pandemic, depending on various nations plan of action. Hence, automotive supplier networks would remain weak even if plants are allowed to work in full capacity.

In a customer service statement, Bajaj Auto has shared that Chetak orders made by 29 February 2020 would be delivered only in September at the brands dealerships in Pune and Bangalore. The order of delivery will depend on booking sequence, document verification and payment date. Customers can make the final payment once the respective order reaches the dealer.

The ongoing nationwide lockdown measures were implemented towards the second half of March 2020. Since then, automotive sales have dropped drastically. Still, Bajaj Auto managed to sell 91 Chetak units from the EVs limited dealership network. In comparison, TVS Motor Company could sell only 18 iQube units. Both the TVS iQube and Bajaj Chetak are direct rivals to each other and come at a similar price range. Either e-scooter was launched in January.

Bajajs new Chetak EV is available in two variants: Urban and Premium. Ex-showroom prices stand at Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.15 lakh, respectively. The electric scooter is powered by a 3kWh IP67-rated lithium battery that can charge from empty to full in about five hours (using a standard wall charger). It packs an output of 4.8kW or roughly 6.44bhp and 16Nm of torque. On a full charge, the Bajaj Chetak can travel more than 95km. There are two rides modes: Eco and Sport.

Indias EV market witnessed a 20% growth in FY2020 with almost 1.56 lakh units on the sales chart. Out of this, more than 1.25 lakh units were electric scooters, especially low-speed models which do not require a riders licence.

Source
An FIR has been filed with the Fort Police station in Chennai against the DMK MLAs for gathering inside Tamil Nadu Assembly premises without permission.

By Pramod Madhav, Akshaya Nath: An FIR has been filed with the Fort Police station in Chennai against the DMK MLAs for gathering inside Tamil Nadu Assembly premises without permission.

DMK MLAs protested inside Secretariat on August 18-19 to allow them inside the Assembly premises to go to the opposition leader office.

A case under IPC section 143 for 'Unlawful Assembly' and another for under Section 188 for ' Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant' have been filed against the suspended MLAs in V3 Fort Police Station.



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DMK legislators led by Stalin, also the party Treasurer, have held a protest outside the Assembly on the issue of suspension of its MLAs earlier this week.

DMK MLAs were evicted and suspended en masse by Speaker P Dhanapal on August 17 for a week for disrupting the assembly proceedings.

Initially 80 MLAs were suspended but later the suspension of one legislator was revoked as he was not present in the House during the ruckus, triggered by remarks by a ruling AIADMK MLA ridiculing Stalin.

On August 18, DMK held a mock assembly in the precincts of Fort St George claiming that it was conducted to show a "model Assembly" and how the proceedings should be held.

Meanwhile, a case has been already filed by DMK in Madras High Court challenging Speaker Dhanapal's decision to suspend them from Tamil Nadu State Assembly for a week.

Police file two cases for defying order and provocation with intent to cause riot.

DMK has also planned a mass public gathering at North Chennai on August 22 where DMK Chief Karunanidhi will speak on the 'lack of democracy' inside the State Assembly and seeking live telecasts of all Assembly sessions.





Watch the video here:



Also Read:

Suspended DMK MLAs conduct shadow Assembly

All DMK MLAs evicted, suspended from Tamil Nadu Assembly Blocking proceedings, making obscene gestures got DMK evicted from the House: Ma Foi Pandiarajan



--- ENDS ---
Reliance Industries in-house lawyer, Janhavi Gadkar who was drunk at the time when she rammed her Audi into a taxi while driving in the wrong lane across the Eastern Freeway and killed two on June 10 this year, has been let off scott free. Out on bail since August, she has not only been given back her Audi car which she was driving at the time but her driving license has also been returned to her. Unlike a similar Salman Khan case, where there were apparently no witnesses, this one was a solid case for the Indian judiciary system with sworn statements from 57 witnesses and a 560-page charge-sheet. So how did Ms Gadkar manage to get back into the free world? Does the verdict of allowing Janhavi Gadkar to return to normal corporate life draws attention to the flaws in our judicial system? The taxi which was rammed by Ms Gadkars Audi Q3. Inside the taxi were 57 yr old driver, Salim Sabuwala in front passenger seat, his wife and three children in the rear seat. Driver and Salim died in the accident. While police strongly resisted Gadkars bail plea, her lawyer, Amit Desai (the same lawyer who managed to get Salman Khan bail after he was convicted of culpable homicide by a Mumbai Sessions Court Judge), and Sessions court judge Sanjay Patil argued that since the accused was a woman, her case should be dealt with differently. Really? Gadkar rammed her red coloured Audi Q3 into a Maruti Eeco taxi while driving across the Eastern Freeway in Mumbai, killing two persons on the night of June 10, 2015 as she returned after a corporate party. She was booked under rash driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Also See  Salman Khan acquitted by Mumbai High Court, all charges dropped in the hit and run case

A 560 page report with 57 witnesses was filed, her license was revoked while her Audi Q3 was taken into police custody. However, six months into the incident, Gadkar, a repeated offender of drunk driving, is a free woman with her license returned, her car given back and she free to once more drive the streets.
The developing world is awash in substandard, degraded or falsified medications, which can either directly harm users or deprive them of needed treatment. And with internet sales of medications on the rise, people everywhere are increasingly at risk. So, a team of researchers has developed a simple, inexpensive paper-based device to screen suspicious medications.

The researchers will present their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

"People who don't have access to the best-quality medicines also don't have as many resources to buy the analytical instrumentation to detect the quality problems," says Marya Lieberman, Ph.D. "Instead of a $30,000 instrument, we've developed a $1 paper card. We designed the card so it would be as easy and inexpensive to use as possible."

Medications can be compromised in many different ways. For example, they may be bulked up with fillers, or they can degrade because they are stored improperly. Identifying poor-quality medications is challenging, as inspectors may not know in advance what chemical adulterants or degradation products they need to look for. Plus, bad-quality medications may contain at least some of the active ingredient, so simply detecting the presence of the real medication isn't enough to rule out issues.

In this study, Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame, along with Hamline University undergraduate Sarah Bliese, developed a card to detect falsified or degraded antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin or ceftriaxone, both of which the World Health Organization lists as "essential." To screen for a variety of potential quality issues, the researchers included 12 lanes separated by wax barriers on the paper device. Each lane contained a different set of reagents to detect materials or functional groups found in active pharmaceutical ingredients, degradation products or common fillers.

To run a sample, the researchers crush a pill and rub the resulting powder across all 12 lanes, and then dip the bottom of the paper card in water for three minutes. The water wicks up the lanes, bringing reagents into contact with the powder. Colors are formed when the reagents interact with the pharmaceutical, filler or degradation product. The researchers then compare the color pattern from the sample with the color patterns obtained from high-quality pharmaceutical products. The comparison can be done by eye or with an image-analysis program on a smartphone.

Ceftriaxone is sensitive to heat and breaks down if storage temperatures climb too high. As an experiment, the researchers subjected ceftriaxone to high temperatures and ran the card test, simultaneously analyzing the degradation products via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. They verified that the colorimetric pattern for the degraded antibiotic was different from that of the correctly stored product. In addition to these tests on the pure active ingredient, Lieberman and Bliese analyzed dozens of real-world samples of ceftriaxone from Kenya and Uganda.

Unscrupulous makers of falsified medication sometimes add colorants containing toxic heavy metals to their products to make the illicit pills more closely resemble their legitimate counterparts, Bliese says. So, in a related project at Hamline University, Bliese and Deanna O'Donnell, Ph.D., are exploring whether a portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy device can scan pills for these substances.

In June, Lieberman and Bliese traveled to Kenya to test a new paper card which can detect substandard antibiotics. While Lieberman is currently focusing her work on the developing world, she says her cards could be applicable worldwide to perform, for example, the analysis of herbal medicines and nutritional supplements. "Sometimes those 'herbal products' are actually spiked with pharmaceuticals," she explains. "The paper test cards could be a defense against this." Bliese says her next project will be to develop a paper test card to help first responders identify drugs of abuse and differentiate them from household products or legitimate medicines.
Friday, 19 August 2016 23:38:39 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Chilean mining and steelmaking group CAP posted a $2.8 million net loss in H1, reverting a $12.7 million net profit reported in the same period of the year prior. As for Q2, the CAP Group posted a $5.9 million net profit.





The groups steel arm, CAP Acero, saw its net loss in H1 rise 87.6 percent, year-on-year, to $10.5 million thanks to a 20.6 percent decline in average steel prices in H1, year-on-year.





CAP Acero sold 356,574 mt of steel in H1, up from 345,627 mt in the same period of the year prior. Average sales cost per mt fell 12.6 percent in H1, year-on-year, the company said. The company attributed the declining revenues to persisting price distortions.





As for its mining arm, CAP Mineria, the company said net profit in H1 was $8.3 million, 60.6 percent down, year-on-year, due to a 15.9 percent decline in the same period in the average prices of the iron ore shipped in the six-month period.


Friday, 19 August 2016 23:41:48 (GMT+3) |

Several communities in the Sierra Negra region in Mexico are opposing a hydroelectric project that will be built in the limits of Zoquitlan, Coyomeapan and Tlacotepec, and supply electricity to the mines of Mexican ferroalloys producer Minera Autlan.





Local communities complain that the project will contaminate natural resources, harming local rivers, trees and animals.





Martin Barrios, president of the Human Rights Commission for the Tehuacan Valley, said the project will dry local rivers within a 7-kilometer distance, harming plants, aquatic and wild life. He also argued the project should also affect some 160,000 habitants of local communities.





Barrios said Semarnat, the countrys secretariat of the environment and natural resources, gave a conditional permission for the project in 2012 based on the nations electric industry law, by which local populations should be consulted. Barrios said local communities werent consulted so far over the past four years.





A Mexican media report said the project is valued at MXN 500 million ($27.3 million).


Wow, says Cameroonian immigrant Jende Jonga, mesmerized by a New York sunset, I know the sun comes up and goes down, but I never knew that it does it so nicely. Thats how I feel about Behold the Dreamers, the novel of which Jende is the star: Ive heard this immigrant story before, but I never knew it could be told so nicely.

Behold the Dreamers arrives with much fanfare. Unknown author Imbolo Mbue sold the rights to her manuscript for a reported seven-figure advance  dizzily high for a debut novelist and among the highest ever for an African writer.

The novels premise is familiar: a young immigrant family crosses the globe to pursue the American dream. When Jende Jonga lands a job as chauffeur for a wealthy executive, hes giddy with excitement. His wife, whos loving New York City  the abundance, the opportunities, the knock-off designer purses!  can now become a pharmacist, and their young son will have a fine future. But disaster looms: the year is 2008 and the boss works for Lehman Brothers.

Both families become victims of the economic collapse, and Mbue explores the interconnections. Their lifestyles are radically different  the black family lives in a Harlem walk-up, while the white family has a house in the Hamptons  but both men, strangely bound together as the driver and the driven, must alter their versions of the American dream. Their wives lives also intersect, in unexpected ways. Ironically, while Jende would sacrifice almost anything to stay in America, the bosss privileged son cant wait to ditch law school and the system for a perceived truer life in India.

Mbue, who immigrated to the U.S. from Cameroon a decade ago, writes with authenticity and a subtle authority. Her white and black characters are equally empathetic, equally imperfect. For instance, Jendes wife had such a hard time understanding African-Americans  they embarrassed themselves in front of white people left and right and didnt seem to care.

Although the tale isnt earth-shatteringly original, the telling feels fresh, the characters charismatic. Behold the Dreamers is a quietly absorbing, compulsively readable first novel that hints at more, and better to come.

Marcia Kaye is a frequent contributor to the Stars books pages.

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SUDBURY, ONT.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet went back to school Sunday with one minister  Jane Philpott  trying to shed her newfound reputation as a problem pupil.

The health minister used the start of a two-day cabinet retreat at Laurentian University to apologize in person for repeatedly using a pricey luxury car service owned by a man who volunteered on her election campaign last fall.

Casting the controversy as a learning experience for all ministers, Philpott repeated her vow, made in a written statement last week, to reimburse at least $3,700.

"I'm happy now to say in person, in front of all of you, that I apologize for what took place," Philpott told reporters on her way into the retreat, her first public appearance since the controversy broke last week.

"The costs were too high. Those costs were inappropriate and I apologize for that."

Philpott called the controversy "a mistake" and insisted she never deliberately intended "to do anything that was wrong."

Still, she admitted that she could have been more clear when she told Parliament, in a written response to an opposition question placed on the House of Commons order paper, that she'd never used a limousine service.

Company owner Reza Shirani has confirmed that the vehicle Philpott used was a Lexus luxury sedan, prompting opposition charges that Philpott misled Parliament.

Philpott said the response was crafted on the advice of her department.

"I don't want to get into the semantics of definitions of types of vehicles," she said.

"Again, in retrospect, we could have obviously been much more specific and clarified exactly what car service was used in some of my work. Again, lessons learned."

Opposition critics weren't satisfied with her explanation.

It was a yes or no question and the minister chose to answer it the way she answered it," said Conservative MP Colin Carrie.

"She needs to face the consequences and there could be a contempt of Parliament issue coming out of this."

Similarly, NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus remained convinced Philpott misled Parliament.

She needs to understand that as a minister of the Crown, when she signs off on an order paper question it is because it is true, not because they've come up with some dodgy language to make it convenient," Angus said.

"She is responsible for this ... This is not credible behaviour from a minister with such an important portfolio.

Philpott paid $3,700 to Executive Sedan Livery Service Inc. for travel around Toronto and to Hamilton and Niagara Falls on March 31 and July 12  an amount she's promised to reimburse.

She paid another $3,815 to the same company for 20 trips to Toronto's Pearson Airport. She has asked her department to review those charges to ensure fair market value was paid and she's promised to reimburse any that turn out to have been excessive.

Still, Philpott defended Sunday the use of a car service, rather than simply taking a taxi to the airport from her home in Stouffville.

"Ministers need to travel in a way that is safe and secure and reliable and also where we can conduct business while we're in the vehicle," she said.

The controversy underscores the need for "absolutely rigid, rock-solid procedures, check lists that we go through and that all of government needs to go through" before racking up bills at taxpayers' expense, Philpott said.

"We have a huge responsibility not only to get the work done ... but to do so in a way that is absolutely cognizant of the fact that the public puts their trust in us, that we have a responsibility to the public purse."

Trudeau did not take questions on his way into the retreat, which he billed as an opportunity to focus on the agenda for what promises to be "a very busy fall." One of the big themes of the retreat is "relationships"  relationships with provincial and territorial governments, with indigenous peoples and with the United States, he added.

On the federal-provincial front, one of the biggest challenges looming this fall is a planned first ministers' meeting that's supposed to hammer out a national strategy to combat climate change, including putting a price on carbon.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna conceded there are "some difficult issues" to overcome but insisted "very good progress" has been made in behind-the-scenes negotiations. She vowed that Canadians "will see a serious climate plan in the fall," as planned.

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Donald Trump wants blacks to consider Republican Party as their home, trying to woo non-White voters, specially African-Amercians, he promised better education, jobs and opportunities if voted to power.

By Press Trust of India: Seeking to reboot his flagging presidential bid, Donald Trump has made a strong pitch to African-American voters, saying he wants the Republican party to become their home once again as it used to be in the Abraham Lincoln-era.

"The GOP is the Party of Lincoln and I want our party to be the home of the African-American vote once again. I want an inclusive country and I want an inclusive party," Trump said at an election rally in Virginia, a swing state, which is now leaning towards the Democrats.

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TRUMP BEHIND CLINTON AMONG NON-WHITES



Recent polls indicate that Trump is trailing behind Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton among non-White communities, in particularly among African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latinos.



This week, Trump appears to have made mid-course correction by delivering speeches to woo African-Americans. He continued the trend in Virginia yesterday.

"We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton who sees people of colour only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future. We've seen what the Democratic policies have done in cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago," the 70-year-old business tycoon said.



TRUMP FIRES AT CLINTON ON BLACKS' WELFARE

"Now, Hillary Clinton wants to make things worse by raising taxes on 2.6 million African-American owned businesses in this country. My goal is to provide every African-American child in this country with access to the ladder of American success: a good education and a good-paying job," Trump said.



"This includes school choice. It means reforming regulations so young Americans can get the credit they need to start a small business. It means trade and immigration policies that put American workers at the front of the line," he said.

Trump alleged that the immigration policy of Clinton would not help African-Americans in getting jobs. "She would rather provide a job to a refugee living

overseas than a young unemployed African-American youth in Virginia," he said.



HILLARY CLINTON WILL MAKE AMERICA POOR: TRUMP

"A Trump Administration will put American workers first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. We will bring America together as one country again -- united as Americans in common purpose and common dreams," Trump said.



A Trump Administration, he said, will end the Obama-Clinton "war on the American worker". "We will unleash an energy revolution the likes of which

we have never seen before," he said.



Trump said according to the Institute for Energy Research, lifting the restrictions on all sources of American energy will increase GDP by more than USD 100 billion annually, add over 500,000 new jobs annually and increase annual wages by more than USD 30 billion over the next 7 years.



"Hillary Clinton will 'Make America Poor'. I want to 'Make America Wealthy Again'. Another industry of huge importance to this state and country is agriculture," he said.



ALSO READTrump appeals to black voters: You live in poverty, have no jobs...What do you have to lose?

--- ENDS ---

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DENHAM SPRINGS, LA.After floods devastated pockets of south Louisiana, mental scars are already showing on the youngest victims of a disaster that prompted more than 30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged.

Children who endured harrowing rescues are returning home to a jarring landscape that even their parents can scarcely grasp: Homes filled with ruined possessions must be quickly gutted. Damaged schools and daycare centres are closed indefinitely. Parents juggling jobs and cleanup work must also line up caretakers for their kids.

Michelle Parrotts children hear thunder when there is no storm. When rain does fall, they ask their mother if the floodwaters are rising again.

Parrott, her husband and her six children, ages 6 to 17, have slept in cars, a shelter and a hotel room in the week since they had to be rescued by boat. The flooding wrecked their home in Livingston Parish, where one official has estimated that three-quarters of the residences are a total loss after more than 2 feet of rain fell in three days.

The emotional toll on the kids has been heavy. Theyre all in a bit of shock and stress and having meltdowns and tantrums, Parrott said. Trying to get back into their routine is going to be difficult when we dont know what the future holds for us.

Routines are particularly important for her 17-year-old son, Blake, who is autistic and attends special needs classes at one of the many Denham Springs schools damaged in the floods.

He feels unsafe constantly. Hes had a lot of breakdowns, she said. Weve had trouble getting his medications in. The therapist flooded, so hes lacking the emotional support he needs from professionals.

Thirteen deaths have been attributed to the storm and its flooding, and nearly 4,000 people remain in shelters.

But signs of recovery emerged Friday.

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that FEMA will start paying for hotel rooms for storm victims staying in cars, hotels, shelters or their workplaces. A disaster food stamp program will begin Monday. And the state intends to start consolidating shelters this weekend as more of the displaced return home or find other places to stay.

Related:

Continued flooding, displaced caskets pose challenges for Louisiana cleanup

Residents struggle to save homes in Louisiana

The floods hit just as the school year was starting in many districts, reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina abruptly ended a new school year in New Orleans in 2005. With the city under water for weeks and much of its population scattered for months or even years, the first public school didnt open in New Orleans until three months after the storm.

Some school districts, including in East Baton Rouge Parish, plan to reopen next week. But in Livingston Parish, it could take several weeks for some individual schools to be able to open. All told, Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White said 22 public schools were so heavily damaged around four parishes that they cant be opened by next week.

Amanda Burge, 35, said one of her friends from Denham Springs plans to temporarily enrol her daughter at a school in Covington while they stay there with a relative. Burge said she cant move her three sons to another district because her husbands job is rooted here, but they havent had time to weigh their options. On Thursday, the couple was racing to clean out their flooded home before the mould sets in.

Everything is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone, said Burge, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Denham Springs Elementary School.

Her 11-year-old son, Logan, smiled at the prospect of a second summer.

At the same time, Im starting to miss my teachers and my friends, he said. Im wondering if theyre all OK from the storm.

Bonnie Nastasi, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans specializing in school psychology, said addressing the disruption of childrens lives is as important as helping them with the trauma they experienced during the flooding. Many had to be rescued in nighttime darkness, plucked from their homes and packed together in crowded shelters.

If they can resume normal routines, that helps them to feel more safe and more secure, Nastasi said.

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From 5,000 feet up, its difficult to make out where Louisianas coastline used to be. But follow the skeletal remains of decades-old oil canals, and you get an idea. Once, these lanes sliced through thick marshland, clearing a path for pipelines or ships. Now theyre surrounded by open water, green borders still visible as the sea swallows up the shore.

The canals tell a story about the industrys ubiquity in Louisiana history, but they also signal a grave future: $100 billion of energy infrastructure threatened by rising sea levels and erosion. As the coastline recedes, tangles of pipeline are exposed to corrosive seawater; refineries, tank farms and ports are at risk.

All of the pipelines, all of the things put in place in the 50s and 60s and 70s were designed to be protected by marsh, said Ted Falgout, an energy consultant and former director of Port Fourchon.

Louisiana has an ambitious  and expensive  plan to protect both its backbone industry and its citizens from this threat but, with a $2 billion deficit looming next year, the cash-poor state can do only so much to shore up its sinking coasts. That means the oil and gas industry is facing new pressures to bankroll critical environmental projects  whether by choice or by force.

The industry down there has relied on the natural environment to protect its infrastructure, and that environment is now unravelling, said Kai Midboe, the director of policy research at the Water Institute of the Gulf. They need to step up.

Every year in Louisiana, more than 20 square miles of land is swallowed by the Gulf. At Port Fourchon, which services 90 per cent of deepwater oil production, the shoreline recedes by three feet every month. Statewide, more than 610 miles of pipeline could be exposed over the next 25 years, according to one study by Louisiana State University and the Rand Corporation. Private industry owns more than 80 per cent of Louisianas coast.

The land loss exacerbates another natural threat: storm-related flooding, like that affecting Baton Rouge now. As days of heavy rainfall caused water to overrun levees along several tributaries this week, Exxon Mobil Corp. began shutting units at its Baton Rouge refinery, the fourth-largest in the U.S. About 40,000 homes in southeastern Louisiana have been affected by the devastating flooding, and at least 11 people have died.

In Louisiana, marshes, swamps and barrier islands can mitigate flooding, soaking up rainfall like a sponge and reducing storm surge. But as the land erodes, storms advance without a buffer, and Louisianas flood protection systems become less effective. The state estimates that damage from flooding could increase by $20 billion in coming years, if the coastline isnt reinforced.

Midboe, with the Water Institute and the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, is leading an effort to get companies to invest in restoration projects that directly affect their infrastructure. This month, over a lunch of fresh Gulf shrimp at Port Fourchons headquarters in Galliano, Midboe made his pitch to a group of about 20 industry representatives.

The problems are real. We need to deal with them now, Midboe told the executives. The public funding needed to protect this infrastructure is going to fall far short.

The task force, Midboe explained, would identify restoration projects that could protect the industrys hard assets. Member dues would cover operational costs, and companies that would benefit from projects would share the cost of construction.

The oil and gas sector is already losing an average of $14 billion a year to environmental threats to its infrastructure, according to a study by Americas Wetlands Foundation and Entergy Corp. By 2030, those losses could exceed $350 billion.

The Americas Wetlands Foundation has already partnered with ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp. and CITGO Petroleum Corp. to build a one-mile, $1 million pilot project mitigating erosion along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a shipping route used by oil and gas companies.

I would think that the larger investors in Louisiana would be willing to look at this as part of their long-term business plan, Val Marmillion, managing director of Americas Wetlands, said. We can figure out a way to do these projects.

But so far there is little sign that companies are clamouring to spend the millions  or billions  of dollars needed. BP Plc., Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. declined to comment on the extent of their investments in environmental projects.

ConocoPhillips, the largest private wetlands owner in the state, said a combination of public and private funding was used to pay for 77 restoration projects enhancing 177,000 acres of its own wetlands. An additional 18 are underway, spokesperson Andrea Urbanek said.

Theres another model for getting a company to pay up.

On the southern tip of Louisiana, state contractors are working 24 hours a day on a narrow strip of beach island along the Gulf of Mexico that will shield nearby Port Fourchon  and its more than $1 billion of infrastructure  from storms and flooding.

The project is being paid for out of the nearly $9 billion Louisiana is receiving from BP Plc and others for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The state has earmarked the bulk of those funds for rebuilding its coastline. While other Gulf states affected by the oil spill must use their settlement money on projects that directly remedy harm caused by the disaster, Louisiana fought to spend its share on unrelated coastal restoration projects.

Louisiana asked for very specific language in the plea agreement, said Tanner Johnson, director of the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund responsible for dispensing $2.5 billion of the BP payout.

That decision has jump-started Louisianas efforts, but even those billions wont be enough. Saving Louisianas coastline could cost between $50 billion and $100 billion, according to the states Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. That has prompted some state and local officials to press other oil and gas companies for even more cash.

Those responsible for the Deepwater Horizon spill are paying, but we are still tens of billions short in paying for the coastal restoration plan, New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu said at a conference in June. Its time for a new covenant, between the leaders of the oil industry and the people of Louisiana: We want you to drill and explore, but only if we repair what you have broken.

Landrieus remarks touch on a sensitive issue for Louisianans: The BP settlements are funding a good deal of the states coastal restoration plans. To what extent should the rest of the oil and gas industry do the same? Its not just a theoretical question.

Four parishes  Jefferson, Plaquemines, Cameron and Vermilion  are suing dozens of oil companies for money to fund coastal restoration projects in their vicinity. The suits allege that, over decades, the companies violated their coastal land use permits by not remediating the areas in which they operated.

The industry has been contending with similar legacy suits for at least 15 years. New this time around is the establishment support this effort has received from politicians as high as Gov. John Bel Edwards, D. In April, Edwards moved to make the state of Louisiana a plaintiff in the litigation.

If there are any financial proceeds that come out of this, we want to make sure they are appropriately used to restore the coast, said Patrick Courreges, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, which intervened in the litigation on the governors behalf.

BPs payments should not be a model, others in the industry argue.

Thats a situation where money was obtained because a companys conduct caused a problem. Thats not a license to sue all oil companies, Bobby Meadows, an attorney representing Chevron, said about the lawsuits.

Industry representatives argue that oil and gas companies are already paying for coastal restoration through offshore oil and gas royalties. However, low oil prices and related production cuts have dramatically reduced the revenues that Louisianas receiving from offshore royalties. In 2015, the state pulled in just $816,728.

That could change within a few years. If production increases, Louisiana could receive a maximum of $176 million in 2018.

Thats a lot of money thats going to be going into the coastal program, said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. Those revenues, he argues, are a sufficient contribution from the industry. As such, There is absolutely no talk among industry of any settlement to the lawsuits, Briggs said.

Settling would be tantamount to shouldering responsibility for a crisis that has many causes.

From the passenger seat of a Cessna 185 sea plane, some of the thousands of miles of canals cut through the delta are still visible as straight lines of green jutting out into the murky Gulf waters. The canals played a role in todays coastal crisis, enabling salt water from the Gulf to infiltrate the freshwater wetlands, deteriorating them, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

While many Louisianans are frank about the damage that oil production has done to coastal lands, they hesitate to lay the blame on industry alone.

Unquestionably, oil and gas activity has impacts, said energy consultant Falgout, who owns large swaths of marshland affected by erosion and subsidence. But oil and gas did what government let it do, like everyone else.

Another culprit is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which made the fateful decision to levee the Mississippi River after the Great Flood of 1927, thus preventing the river from naturally depositing its sediment across the delta. Also, shipping lanes were dredged over decades, and agriculture played a role.

Chris Dalbomb of the Tulane University Water Institute says, I dont think any of us can say we are not responsible to some extent.

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SDEROT, ISRAELPalestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday, prompting the Israeli military to respond with airstrikes and tank fire on targets inside Gaza. No injuries were reported on either side.

The Israeli military said the rocket landed in the southern border town of Sderot, a frequent target of Palestinian rocket fire. The rocket landed in a residential area next to a house, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

Shortly afterward, the military said Israeli aircraft and tanks targeted two posts belonging to the Hamas militant group in northern Gaza. Hamas officials said a training camp in northern Gaza was targeted, but the camp had been evacuated after the rocket was fired in anticipation of an Israeli reprisal.

Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war in the summer of 2014. Since then, a cease-fire has largely held. But militants in Gaza occasionally launch rockets toward Israel.

Israel holds Hamas, which controls Gaza, responsible for all attacks emanating from the territory.

In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, hundreds of masked Hamas militants held a parade to mark the anniversary of the deaths of three senior members killed during the 2014 war. The camouflaged fighters displayed rockets, guns and other weapons as they marched.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the groups military wing, said Hamas, which is sworn to Israels destruction, would continue its struggle against Israel until victory is achieved.

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SRINAGAR, INDIAOne young man was killed and dozens wounded in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sunday as government forces fired shotguns and tear gas at protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

The man was hit by a tear gas shell in his chest during clashes between rock-throwing protesters and government troops in Srinagar, the regions main city, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy. The man died later at a hospital.

At least 70 civilians, including four women, were injured during several clashes in the northern areas of Sopore, Baramulla and Ganderbal that erupted as government forces tried to prevent the villagers from stopping protest rallies, the officer said.

Troops fired tear gas and pellet guns at rock-throwing protesters, he said.

A security lockdown and protest strikes continued for the 44th straight day Sunday, with tens of thousands of Indian armed police and paramilitary soldiers in full riot gear patrolling the tense region. The killing of a popular rebel commander on July 8 sparked some of Kashmirs largest protests against Indian rule in recent years.

At least 65 civilians have been killed and thousands injured, mostly by government forces firing bullets and shotguns at rock-throwing protesters. Two policemen have also been killed and hundreds of government forces have been injured in the clashes.

Meanwhile, Indian army soldiers on Sunday killed three suspected rebels near the heavily militarized line of control that divides disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the subsequent Indian military crackdown.

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BAGHDADIraq on Sunday executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the Daeshs, also known as ISIS or ISIL, massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014, officials said.

The men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq, according to provincial Gov. Yahya al-Nasiri. A Justice Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, confirmed the executions.

Daesh captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after seizing Saddam Husseins hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base just outside the northern city. Shortly after taking Tikrit, Daesh posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lay face-down in a shallow ditch.

The Speicher massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fuelled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against Daesh, a Sunni extremist group. The militias now rival the power of Iraqs conventional armed forces.

Iraqi forces arrested dozens of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015 with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes. The men executed on Sunday were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year.

The head of the provincial council in Salahuddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, criticized the judicial process, saying some of the men executed Sunday had been tortured to extract confessions.

Some of them were not even present at the scene of the crime, Ahmed al-Karim told The Associated Press. We support the death penalty for those who committed crimes, but the use of violence and torture (in Iraqi prisons) should be investigated.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to fast-track the implementation of death sentences following a series of large-scale bombings in and around Baghdad in recent months.

The United Nations criticized that policy earlier this month, saying that given the weakness of the Iraqi justice system, the rushed sentences risk causing greater injustice.

Iraq ranks among the top five countries in the world in the use of capital punishment, according to figures compiled by the rights group Amnesty International.

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ISTANBULA child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and wounded nearly 70 others at a Kurdish wedding party near Turkeys border with Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, decrying the attack as an apparent attempt by Daesh to destabilize the nation by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions.

As of now, the preliminary conclusions by our governors office and the police establishment point to an attack by Daesh, Erdogan said.

It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times, he said.

The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

It comes amid ongoing struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK, and as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of last months failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.

Erdogan said immediately after the Gaziantep attack, which he blamed on Daesh, also known ISIS or ISIL, that any strategy meant to incite the citizens against each other along ethnic and religious lines will not work.

Later, addressing the nation before Istanbuls city hall, Erdogan said the attacker in Gaziantep was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

He again blamed the attack on Daesh, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The pro-Kurdish political party HDP condemned the attack on the wedding, which it said was attended by many of its party members.

It said in a statement that it was quite significant that the attack, which it also blamed on Daesh, came hours after the Kurdistan Communities Union, a militant organization that includes the PKK, announced plans to try to negotiate to end a three-decade conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish government.

This attack targets those determined and persistent in peace, resolution, and those struggling for democracy, equality, freedom and justice, the HDP said. The attack was planned to disable the spread of peace and success of possible negotiations.

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldnt believe the party was targeted.

This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party, Hamdullah Ceyhan told the state-run Anadolu Agency. This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?

The bride and groom werent in life-threatening condition and were undergoing treatment, but the grooms sister and uncle were among the dead, Anadolu reported.

Multiple opposition parties denounced the attack, as did many foreign governments including the U.S., Germany, Austria, Russia, Egypt, Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan and global institutions including the United Nations, the European Union and NATO.

We stand by our ally Turkey and pledge to continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism, said U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass.

In the Vatican, Pope Francis led hundreds of people in silent prayer for the victims of the attack, concluding by asking for the gift of peace for everyone.

Security expert Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military officer and columnist for the online newspaper Al-Monitor, said that Daesh view the attack as hitting two birds with one stone  as retaliation for Syrian Kurdish advances on their forces in Syria, and for Turkeys attacks on Daesh targets.

Gurcan said in an email to The Associated Press that Daesh has been trying to agitate or exploit ethnic and religious tensions in Turkey, and we know very well to what extent wedding attacks can sow disorder in nations social fabric from the Afghanistan experience.

The suicide bombing follows a June attack on Istanbuls main airport where Daesh suspects killed 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on Daesh at a peace rally in Turkeys capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 people.

Meantime, there have also been ongoing attacks claimed by the PKK or linked to the militant group, as well as the coup attempt blamed on Gulens movement. Gulen has denied any involvement.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  year peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In the immediate aftermath of the Gaziantep bombing, Erdogan said there was absolutely no difference between Daesh, Kurdish rebels and Gulens movement, calling them terrorist groups.

Gurcan said, however, that it was a grave mistake to lump the three together.

Putting these three organizations with different political objectives, tactics and techniques into the same basket ... causes the failure of tailoring specific counter strategies, he said.

Following the attack, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Outside the perimeter, hundreds of residents gathered chanting Allah is great as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the countrys health minister travelled to the scene, visiting the wounded and inspecting the site.

This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism, Simsek told reporters. We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield.

In Istanbul, HDP supporters organized a rally attended by hundreds Sunday evening to protest the bombing. One participant, shop owner Ercan Yilmaz, 36, told the AP it was always those kinds of people being targeted  a Kurdish wedding party, opposition groups or people calling for peace in Ankara, referring to the peace rally attacked in October.

On the other hand, the AKP (Turkeys ruling Justice and Development Party) has gatherings and rallies everywhere but theyre never bombed, he added.

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It was what Aaron Driver didnt say during the Skype call that now has shaken Prof. Alexandra Bain and made her question how Canada responds to those drawn to groups like Daesh.

Bain, a 61-year-old Fredericton professor, is an unlikely confidante of extremists, many of whom live much of their life online. When she started her research as part of a study on foreign fighters, she vaguely knew about Skype and had never heard of social apps like KIK or Telegram.

But, as a mother, a grandmother and a Muslim convert of more three decades, once Bain had help figuring out the technology, she managed to connect with young aspiring jihadists.

They treated me like they treated their elderly auntie, or their mum. Some laughed and said, I know youre a coconut, but at least youre willing to listen,  she says. (Coconut, is a term used disparagingly by Daesh groupies to mean not a true Muslim  brown on the outside, white on the inside.)

Aaron Driver was one of her subjects who agreed to be interviewed, although at the time she knew him only as Harun Danyal.

During one 45-minute call, she asked him about his passport. He said he was having trouble acquiring one but, if he got it, he would leave for Syria and not look back.

But if you cant travel, Bain asked, what do you think of the advice of others who made it to Syria, such as Canadian John Maguire? In a propaganda video Maguire said, If you cant pack your bag, sharpen your knives.

I think its safer for me to not comment on that, Driver replied.

Well, that kind of is a comment.

I think its sort of a non-comment. But. . .

An awkward silence ensued.

That was early 2015 and, in hindsight, his words are chilling given what happened 10 days ago. Driver, who was subject to a peace bond, was shot and killed in a cab after he reportedly detonated an improvised explosive device.

But Driver had expressed many radical beliefs  whether to Bain, or to others like my colleague Allan Woods  or in his own online postings.

Sadly, his comments arent that uncommon either.

Go on Twitter and search, and you will quickly be overwhelmed  and thats just Twitter. If every person who wrote violent sentiments were put in prison, the prisons would be full.

Driver was part of what is known as the baqiyah family, an online international network of Daesh supporters. Driver communicated with many of them. He also was connected online with young wannabe members of the group that Bain and her students started calling the backpack gang.

Bain says it wasnt her job as an academic to judge or dissuade the actions of her subjects, unless there was a direct criminal threat she had an obligation to report. For someone like Driver, she already knew CSIS and the RCMP were watching him.

But as Bain now questions what happened in the final weeks of Drivers life  and considers what a close call it was for others  she wishes more had been done.

**

Fingers first point to authorities, and there is reason.

Drivers case is a story of their success and failures. Fast action stopped a potential terrorist attack.

But why was Driver pushed further down the RCMPs list of targets? Does the U.S. have better access to online or encrypted material  and, if so, why?

Both the RCMP and CSIS say they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential suspects. The knee-jerk reaction is to offer more funding or power to federal agencies, which runs the risk of bringing undue attention to Muslim communities and further strain relations.

What is only recently being discussed in Canada is the idea of more community empowerment or involvement.

Driver may have been determined and there was little to stop him. But, as early as 2014, he seemed to have a need to explain himself, as many terrorism suspects do. Yet he seemed to speak more openly to those in neutral positions such academics or journalists. Those closest to him likely did not know him very well.

During their recorded Skype call, Bain asked: Your support of the Islamic State  do you share that with the people at the mosque?

No, I dont, Driver replied.

Have you ever tried?

No, Driver answered, explaining, I dont want to be stigmatized in the community. Then he talked about his online community, where he seemed to take on a different persona.

Cutting Driver off from online activity with other extremists, which should have been done according to the conditions of his peace bond, is a needed security measure.

But, as Bain points out, that was also his world. And without providing a real network to replace the virtual one, theres was a risk of pushing him to action.

We have to disengage them from notions of violence first. Trying to talk them out of this. I think it can never be one person, she says. It has to be a social network that deals with these young people. It has to be more powerful than the baqiyah family. That becomes everything to them. We have to offer them something back, an alternative.

There have been small steps taken toward this idea in Canada, but they are still in their infancy and are often stalled by bureaucratic or political inertia.

**

Calgary police Sgt. Paul Dunn was the only Canadian authority to attend a November Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) conference in Aarhus, Denmark, a city that has earned the international distinction of being a leader on CVE for developing the Aarhus model.

While the Aarhus program starts with the local police force contacting someone who is seen as a threat, the case is quickly turned over to community members. The program is voluntary. If the youth at risk agrees to a meeting, they are introduced to a mentor who works intensely with them with the support of various municipal resources. Sometimes the relationship lasts for years.

Two months before the conference, Dunn became co-ordinator of Calgarys ReDirect program.

I think of all the models that Ive seen around the world, Aarhus is the one were most representative of, Dunn said. (It) was nice to see what they were doing because were following the same philosophy.

Like Aarhus, this is a police co-ordinated initiative. But as Dunn notes, each participant is told that while the program is administered by the Calgary Police Service, were not an agent of law enforcement; we dont share it in any way whatsoever.

But there are important distinctions. In Calgary, participants work with a police officer and a social worker, while in Aarhus they are quickly referred to a trained community mentor.

Mentorship is one (idea) we have on the radar, Dunn says. We have already had some conversations with some groups that are trying to get off the ground here in Calgary.

A programs success is largely based on its reputation. And, in most Canadian cities, it will be an uphill battle to build trust for a police- or government-led initiative. As part of the programs promise to maintain anonymity, Dunn wont say how many participants they have had in the last year.

ReDirect has kept a fairly low profile and police refer most cases. Ideally, we want to get to a position where referrals come from everywhere, from policing, the community. Often the people who notice or have a concern first are friends, family or school teachers, people who see people on a daily basis and notice the change in behaviour  even health-care referrals, says Dunn.

Canadas best-known CVE initiative is in Montreal. Earlier this year, during a visit to Quebec, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised the efforts of the well-funded Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization.

The program is not connected to police, which helps with its credibility. But there has been some criticism about its politics. Last December, Montreal researcher and Islamic law and religious studies scholar Hicham Tiflati was dismissed from the centre after co-authoring an opinion piece for the Star that highlighted Quebecs unique style of Islamophobia.

Tiflati, who supports the centres work, said he agreed to leave to quell the controversy.

Meanwhile, in a report analyzing how more than a dozen young Muslims from Quebec had turned to Daesh, which the centre released Friday, one of the findings was what Tiflati and his co-author, Amarnath Amarasingam, were arguing  that youth in Quebec perceive a culture of Islamophobia. Many cite the proposed Charter of Quebec Values, which was introduced by the Parti Quebecois in 2013 and would have banned public sector employees from wearing conspicuous religious symbols. The most obvious example of this is the hijab.

Many of these young Muslim Quebecers saw the public debate on State religious neutrality not as a neutral debate, but a further attack on the Muslim community, the report states.

Herman Okomba-Deparice, the centres director, held a press conference to present a report Friday and stressed the need to take a more humane approach to terrorism cases. He also highlighted the lack of programs for those who return from Syria. There have only been a few cases in Canada so far, but there are bound to be more as Daesh loses territory and popularity.

A family member quoted in the report said one Montrealer who left for Syria deeply regrets his decision. He is suffering there and wants to come back. But society offers him two options: either be treated as a traitor by Daesh and be killed, or prison awaits him in Quebec.

Montreals program is different from ReDirect, as the only police involvement comes if a case is referred as a criminal threat. In an interview earlier this month, Okomba-Deparice said there had been hundreds of calls to the centre, many benign. But 324 were investigated and, of those cases, 100 are now being handled by the centre. Fourteen had been referred to police.

People can call here and we have a confidential and anonymous phone line, which is answered by psychologists, social workers, criminologists, and they offer help to the families. This is what is important. Our objective here is not to judge, but to help, he said.

**

There is no CVE panacea and what works in Montreal, may not work in Vancouver or Toronto. Any federal initiative would likely fail. Both Dunn and Okomba-Deparice agree on the need for local solutions.

The role of the federal government should only be to facilitate and co-ordinate these centres, says Okomba-Deparice. The real work happens at the local level. We have to find a way to work together and share expertise.

The only harm in developing city programs is to introduce a CVE project that brings increased focus on Muslim communities, as has been the case in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe.

CVE cannot be forced upon those affected, or be seen as an arm of the government.

Canada has already studied many of these issues extensively. There is a $10-million bookshelf of reports funded by the Kanishka Project, a federal government research program that began in June 2011.

Academics Sara Thompson and Daniel Hiebert, along with retired CSIS director general Larry Brooks, wrote earlier this year about Canadas state of CVE, calling it fragmented, rather than cohesive.

Bain is among Canadas academics who have extensively studied those who are drawn to Daesh or like-minded groups.

At this point, we know who many of these young people are, we know about their childhood or teenage pain, their struggles and concerns, says Bain. We know the importance and process of social bonding they go through, the power of feeling part of something meaningful. It is a new religious movement; they used to call them cults.

We need to stop asking Why? and start asking What can we do about the next Aaron Driver? 

**

About the series: The Atkinson Fellowship awards a seasoned Canadian journalist with the opportunity to pursue a yearlong investigation into a current policy issue. This award is a collaborative project of the Atkinson Foundation, the Honderich family and Toronto Star.

Michelle Shephard, the Stars national security correspondent and author, travelled to a half-dozen countries and interviewed foreign fighters, security experts, policy-makers and religious leaders for this years series. Her stories about Generation 9/11 will explore the issues of Daeshs foreign fighters and how Canada and the world should respond. They will run periodically throughout the year.

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I am a woman swimming alone in the sea.

I am an Arab woman. Or at least half of me is, or all of me, depending on who is watching me or asking me where Im from.

I am not wearing a burqini, but sometimes in these northern Pacific waters where my Syrian ancestors settled  so far from the warm Mediterranean  I wear a wetsuit.

As I swim today in my modest one piece, the cold saltwater against my skin, I reflect on how the wetsuit resembles a burqini. There are many women who come here to swim alone, wearing the black second skins that make them look like fierce sea creatures. Why are women in second-skin burqinis deemed oppressed? Why cant they also be fierce?

I swim through a bed of kelp and reflect on the thin membranes of skin that protect us and contain our bodies that are 60 per cent water, on the thin veneers of liberalism masking racism and on the otherisms we inflict on each other.

Im also thinking of the male gaze.

Why are the bodies of women and how they cover them the subject of such debate among men, from Cannes to Raqqa, while male apparel is about as newsworthy as the weather?

And what is it about the act of swimming that conjures so many misogynist demons? From arrogant French men conflating the gospel of laicite with Islamophobia who ban citizens who choose to cover themselves to Gazan seasides where ladies dare not swim even on the hottest of days?

I count my swimming strokes slowly, deliberately, almost as if my front crawl were a political act. And perhaps it is. As I approach 500, I try to forget something I heard on the news today, about the Syrian survivors of torture in Assads prisons, especially the story of a 50-year-old woman, who was hung naked in her cell, there for the jailors to assault at random.

I hope the cold saltwater will block out this horror, as well as the endless Daesh sex slave narratives ingested all summer, as well as the stories of missing and murdered native women that lurk  as a I swim in unceded Coast Salish territory  beneath the televisual surface of violence-against-women-only-happens-in-other-places newscasts.

Why, amidst all the horror  televisual or buried  are we still obsessing about what women wear? Why, in 2016, are our bodies not our own?

I think again about the male gaze, which is partly why Im here.

A creepy voyeur who walked in on me when I was alone in the shower room at a local swimming pool has turned me into an open water swimmer, a fierce sea creature of my own making, interrupted only by waves and the occasional seal. Here I am safe from the eyes of men who might want to leer or label or condemn. The cold saltwater envelops me like a veil.

As a swim I remember visiting a pool in Tehran where I spoke with women about bikinis and the Shah, about wage parity and revolution. Why, asked one woman, are people in the West so obsessed about the fact that before the Revolution women wore mini-skirts and now they wear hijab? We still faced the same issues as women before and after.

I remember stories about my Syrian Christian great-grandmother Sarah, who insisted on wearing hijab, as was the custom in her village, even in new world North America and in spite of her embarrassed assimilated childrens pleas. I remember her looking proud and strong in the black and white photos I inherited as well as her stories of escaping the Turks by sea.

And as I near my 1,000th stroke, I smile and think of Yusra Mardini, the Syrian refugee who saved a boatload of her people by swimming the sinking ship to safety, before going on to compete in the Olympics.

I visualize a whole sisterhood of fierce sea creatures out there, of women who swim swiftly past Islamophobes and creepy voyeurs alike, splashing the male gaze of those who seek to ban them or abuse them as they go.

Racist mayors, thugs of all nations, be very careful now when you step into the water. There is something stirring there, beneath the surface.

Hadani Ditmars is the author of Dancing in the No Fly Zone and at work on a new book for IB Tauris called Between Two Rivers: a Journey Through the Ancient Heart of Iraq.

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Canada likes to think of itself as a principled middle power, projecting a moral voice in the world. But in the rugged fields of international mining, oil and gas, it is a muscular giant whose power is not always wielded in an ethical way.

Thats why Father Melo, a Honduran Jesuit priest who is under death threats for defending environmental rights, travelled to Toronto last week to plead for help from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He wants the prime minister to make Canadian mining companies accountable for respecting human rights and environmental standards, including a halt to displacement of local indigenous communities.

The focus on Canada is not random. More than half of the worlds publicly listed exploration and mining companies working in 100 countries reportedly had headquarters here in 2013. And the reputation of those companies has been tarnished by allegations of complicity in forced land clearances, environmental destruction, toxic pollution and persecution of activists who protest mining activities.

In Honduras, the Canadian footprint is huge. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 90 per cent of its foreign mining interests are Canadian. It is also one of the worlds deadliest places for environmental defenders.

Thats just one reason why the government should make it a priority to re-introduce  and strengthen  a private members bill that was narrowly defeated in 2010.

Bill C-300 was introduced by Liberal MP John McKay to establish corporate accountability for Canadian mining companies in developing countries. It would have set environmental and human-rights standards, allowed for complaints of violations to be reported to the ministers of foreign affairs and international trade, and provided for public reporting of complaints.

Most tellingly, it proposed that financing through Export Development Canada, and the political and logistical help given by Canadian embassies, be contingent on complying with the guidelines.

The defeat of the bill speaks to the power of the multi-billion-dollar Canadian mining lobby. But since then, demands for accountability have risen along with reports of attacks on the environment and its defenders. The industry has improved its practices, and the Harper government appointed a corporate social responsibility counsellor to scrutinize complaints about Canadian mining operations. But he lacked the teeth needed to keep violators in line.

A new bill could include a more empowered ombudsman capable of investigating complaints, issuing subpoenas, compelling evidence and recommending sanctions against companies that flout the guidelines. And unlike a private members bill  which has no financial powers  the updated version would not only urge that standards be upheld, but punish those who violate them.

It could do that by withdrawing tax breaks and loans and guarantees given to mining companies by Export Development Canada, along with political risk insurance that may be too costly to obtain from the private sector. In extreme cases it could apply the nuclear option of withdrawing investments from the Canada Pension Plan. And it could mandate cutting off diplomatic services.

The Trudeau government has not been eager to revisit Bill C-300, although the prime minister personally favoured it as a young MP. Father Melos plea may help to convince him that its time has come. So might the need to restore Canadas image in the world. And for thousands of powerless people who have run up against Canadian mining interests and suffered as a consequence, it is long overdue.

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Two cops were injured in an encounter with criminals in Sector 24 of Rohini today. All five criminals have been arrested.

By Tanseem Haider: Two cops were reportedly injured in an encounter between Delhi Police and criminals. The police had received a tip off that two criminals were going to rob someone near Sector 24 of Rohini area in Delhi.

Following the tip off, the police laid a trap to nab the duo.The police intercepted their vehicle neat Begumpur check post.

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When the police tried to arrest the accused, they opened fire on the police in retaliation.While the two criminals suffered bullet injuries, two policemen sustained injuries in the gunbattle.

Sources said while one of the policemen was shot, the other suffered minor abrasions following the incident.

All five criminals involved in the shootout have been arrested.



--- ENDS ---
Background:

Colima volcano is one of the most active in North America and one of the potentially most dangerous ones. It has had more than 30 periods of eruptions since 1585, including several significant eruptions in the late 1990s. Scientific monitoring of the volcano began 20 years ago.The Colima volcanic complex is the most prominent volcanic center of the western Mexican Volcanic Belt. It consists of two southward-younging volcanoes, Nevado de Colima (the 4320 m high point of the complex) on the north and the 3850-m-high historically active Volcan de Colima at the south.A group of cinder cones of probable late-Pleistocene age is located on the floor of the Colima graben west and east of the Colima complex. Volcan de Colima (also known as Volcan Fuego) is a youthful stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km-wide caldera, breached to the south, that has been the source of large debris avalanches. Major slope failures have occurred repeatedly from both the Nevado and Colima cones, and have produced a thick apron of debris-avalanche deposits on three sides of the complex. Frequent historical eruptions date back to the 16th century. Occasional major explosive eruptions (most recently in 1913) have destroyed the summit and left a deep, steep-sided crater that was slowly refilled and then overtopped by lava dome growth.---
Cinque Henderson, a new teacher, knew he needed help. His seventh-grade English students were far behind in vocabulary and much else. But, to his shock, the principal he had counted on for support instead walked to the front of his class within two months of his arrival and denounced him to his students.

Henderson had been experimenting with having every student in his Los Angeles Unified School District class copy out the definitions of two words at the beginning of each class. It seemed to improve their comprehension, but when the principal visited with two district officials, she was enraged.

Young people, tell me you arent doing this, the principal said, according to Henderson. Tell me you arent simply copying vocabulary definitions. Henderson tried to explain, but she cut him off. Im not speaking to you, she said.

Young people, she said, if this is all your teacher does, he has failed you.

Principals bullying staff is an old problem about which there is little research. All signs indicate it still hurts many schools , though some areas are more prone to it than others. That this administrators supervisors tolerated such behavior suggests Los Angeless reputation for mistreating teachers is not going away any time soon.

Asked to respond to Hendersons account, school district spokeswoman Shannon Haber said: I have no information to share.

Henderson is a writer who has contributed to the New Yorker, the New Republic and the HBO show The Newsroom and wanted to help low-income children. The principal of low-performing Audubon Middle School hired him at age 38 apparently because of his good work as a substitute. Fifty-nine percent of Audubon students are black, as is Henderson, another mark in his favor.

[The nations teacher force lacks diversity, and it might not get much better]

But he had trouble keeping order. His mentor teacher wasnt much help, he said. The principal seemed to resent his suggestions and avoided his attempts to speak to her until her verbal attack in early October 2014.

A few days later, Henderson said, the principal spent 90 minutes lecturing him on what she called the 11 pages of mistakes he had made, which she said she would give him in writing but never did. She said his teaching was arrogant and self-centered. She said she knew he had gone to Harvard, but I have six degrees, so what? She said the students desks were poorly arranged and his classroom management was abysmal.

Then she took the humiliation to a level I have never heard of in a U.S. school: Henderson said she marched him into seven other classrooms and insisted that I say out loud what these teachers were doing that were better than I was doing.

She berated other teachers, but he was a favorite target, he said. He tried to improve. He invented a contest called Stump the Scholar, a student favorite, in which they used their notes to answer questions. He had Oscar-nominated director Orlando von Einsiedel speak to his class. His students published a six-page newsletter, the first in the school in many years.

It didnt help his case. He was told the principal felt he was stealing her ideas. In April she ordered his dismissal. The assistant principal suggested he resign, but that would have threatened his teachers license. Instead he filed a 50-page workplace violence complaint accusing her of bullying.

He said the investigator told him he had a case if it could be proven. But only one of his nine witnesses was questioned, he said. His complaint was denied due to insufficient evidence.

Two other teachers confirmed Hendersons account. One described a palpable sense that all of us working here may be dispatched at any moment. Another called the principal a very vindictive person.

Back with his writing career, Henderson still wonders why a principal would turn so quickly, publicly and viciously against him.

I wonder the same thing. Also, why is that principal still in charge of a school full of teachers who need all the support they can get?
Wilbur E. Bill Garrett, a well-traveled photographer and onetime picture editor of National Geographic magazine, who was abruptly terminated as the magazines top editor in a policy disagreement, died Aug. 13 at his home in Great Falls, Va. He was 85.

The cause was a stroke, said a son, Kenneth Garrett.

Mr. Garrett left National Geographic in 1990 after 10 years as editor in a widely publicized dispute with the president and chairman of the National Geographic Society, Gilbert M. Grosvenor, scion of the family that had managed the society for a century.

Both men were reticent in public speech about Mr. Garretts departure, but others at National Geographic said its origins lay in a festering feud over Mr. Garretts intent to attract younger readers by breaking tradition and boosting coverage of current and controversial events.

On his watch, the magazine did stories on the postwar reconstruction of Vietnam, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill in Alaskas Prince William Sound, AIDS and Growing Up in East Harlem. Grosvenor, his boss and predecessor as top editor, was said to have favored closer adherence to the magazines time-tested fare, including photographic celebrations of nature and descriptions of global cultural customs.

Wilbur E. Garrett, with cameras, on assignment for National Geographic Society on the Taiwanese island of Quemoy in 1959. (FRANC SHOR/National Geographic Creative)

Mr. Garrett joined National Geographic magazine as picture editor in 1954. His hiring was directed by Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the grandfather of Gilbert M. Grosvenor, and also a former National Geographic editor. The elder Grosvenor had seen some of Mr. Garretts work when the latter was a student at the University of Missouris School of Journalism.

Wilbur Eugene Garrett, a native of Kansas City, Mo., was born Sept. 4, 1930. He attended the University of Missouri intending to become an engineer, but his college years were interrupted by two years in the Navy. He was a photographer aboard an aircraft carrier during the Korean War. He returned to Missouri as a journalism student, graduating in 1954.

As National Geographics picture editor, he was responsible not only for photography but also for planning and editing stories. He began making annual trips to Vietnam in 1960, years before the U.S. became militarily committed to the Southeast Asian war. He went back year after year until 1968. The following year, he won the National Press Photographers Associations Photographer of the Year award.

He then stopped visiting Vietnam because too many of his friends had been killed, and he no longer wanted to risk his life as a war photographer, his son Kenneth Garrett said.

Instead, he took pictures on the Colorado River, at Angkor Wat in Cambodia and at Mayan ruins in Belize and Guatemala. He combined picture-taking trips to Alaska with family vacations with his wife and sons.

When Mr. Garrett became editor of the National Geographic magazine in 1980, he made it a point to travel several weeks a year to a place hed never been to before, just to expand his understanding of the planet, his son said.

Under Mr. Garretts leadership, the magazine published two of its best-known covers: The Afghan Girl in 1985 and the holographic cover in 1988.

Garrett was picture editor of National Geographic when it published this 1985 cover with Steve McCurrys iconic photograph of a young Afghan girl in a Pakistan refugee camp. (Steve McCurry/National Geographic/Steve McCurry/National Geographic)

The Afghan Girl, as she became known at National Geographic, was taken by photographer Steve McCurry at a refugee camp in Pakistan in December 1984. Initially, the photograph was passed over for publication, but Mr. Garrett was dissatisfied with the images that had been selected, and he looked through a box of excess pictures, finding the one of the Afghan girl.

Viewers would not forget that image: a girl, probably in her mid- to late teens, with piercing green eyes and a red shawl draped over her shoulders. It would become the only photograph to appear twice on the National Geographic cover, the second time for the magazines 125th anniversary issue in 2013.

For 17 years, she remained an enigma, an unknown and nameless woman whose face had become instantly recognizable to millions. In 2002, a National Geographic team was dispatched to find her. They found Sharbat Gula, then about 28 to 30 years old, living in the Afghan mountain region of Tora Bora.

The holographic image was published in December 1988, as the cover of National Geographics 100th-anniversary issue, with the theme Can Man Save This Fragile Earth? Depending on which angle it was viewed from, the hologram on the cover illustrated the planet earth as an intact terrestrial ball or as an exploding sphere.

After leaving National Geographic, Mr. Garrett maintained his interest in photography. There was always a camera on his kitchen table. He participated in a variety of conservation and eco-tourism activities and led a foundation to help preserve the Mayan ruins of Belize and Guatemala.

Survivors include his wife of 65 years, Lucille Hall Garrett of Great Falls; a son, Kenneth L. Garrett of Broad Run, Va.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A son, Michael Dean Garrett, died in 2007.

In his years at the helm of National Geographic, Mr. Garrett was sometimes described as the chief of what came to be known as the Missouri Mafia, from what sometimes seemed to be a disproportionately large number of Missouri graduates at the magazine.

His editorial sessions were dominated by a jocular authoritarianism, a 1984 Washington Post article noted. Writers and editors tend to go on about the moons of Saturn or religious festivals on Grenada. . . . Out of those sessions, according to one who attends them, come ideas for unusual contemporary stores, such as ones on Burma, Kampuchea, children of the Dust Bowl, the shakeout from El Nino, and the global opium loop.

As Mr. Garrett explained to The Post, We try to go to places that need to be explained. We get the stories that other people miss.
Sunday, Aug. 21

Zentangle art class Learn the method of creating non-representational, non-directional art. Bring a lunch. 11:45 a.m.-3 p.m. Vint Hill Craft Winery, 7150 Lineweaver Rd., Vint Hill. 410-302-9879. harmonyinspiredart.com. $50.

Liberia Plantation tour The 1825 home was used by Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War and still features graffiti left by soldiers. Noon, Liberia Plantation, 8601 Portner Ave., Manassas. 703-257-8265. Free.

Bingo Proceeds support local veterans. Doors open at noon Sunday with games beginning at 2 p.m. Doors open at 5:15 p.m. Mondays with games beginning at 7:15 p.m. Woodbridge American Legion, 3640 Friendly Post Lane, Woodbridge. 703-494-4304. $15 minimum.

Manassas Symphony Orchestra Hosted by Robb Spewak of The Mike OMeara Show, the orchestra presents Sounds of the Silver Screen. 3 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. Free.

Let It Rain II Suzanne Jepsons paintings in this series all include an orange umbrella to add a pop of color. Through Sept. 4, Loft Gallery, 313 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-490-1117. loftgallery.org. Free.

Warm and Cool An exhibit of paintings by Roger Frey of Woodbridge and jewelry by Tyler Kulenguski of Annandale. Through Sept. 5, Artists Undertaking, 309 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-494-0584. theartistsundertaking.com. Free.

Jamie McPhail and Caleb Mathews exhibit Works by McPhail, an encaustic artist, and oil paintings of clouds by Mathews. Through Sept. 17, Center for the Arts, 9419 Battle St., Manassas. 703-330-2787. center-for-the-arts.org. Free.

Monday, Aug. 22

Job search network group Plus, discussion of various topics related to the search process. 1-3 p.m. House of Mercy, 8170 Flannery Ct., Manassas. 703-659-1636. Free.

Bingo Proceeds support Dale City Knights of Columbus activities and charities. Doors open at 6 p.m. with games beginning at 7:30 p.m. VFW Post 1503, 14631 Minnieville Rd., Dale City. 703-491-2378. $9 minimum.

Cabin Branch Quilters meeting 7 p.m. Lake Ridge Baptist Church, 12450 Clipper Dr., Lake Ridge. 571-285-5405. cabinbranchquilters.org. Free.

Paws and Whiskers pet series This seminar focuses on responsible pet ownership. 7 p.m. Chinn Park Regional Library, 13065 Chinn Park Dr., Woodbridge. 703-792-4800. Free.

Tuesday, Aug. 23

Paintings by Greg Skrtic Artist reception for this exhibit of acrylic paintings. 12:15-1:30 p.m. Northern Virginia Community College, Colgan Gallery, 6901 Sudley Rd., Manassas. 703-323-3000. nvcc.edu. Free.

Take Out Tuesday concert Folk Americana guitarist Gary Smallwood performs. 6-8 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. Free.

Genealogy program Certified genealogist Darlene Hunter discusses the challenges and rewards of researching Virginia families. 7 p.m. Bull Run Regional Library, 8051 Ashton Ave., Manassas. 703-792-5450. Free; reservations required.

Wednesday, Aug. 24

Basics of Home Food Preservation Virginia Cooperative Extension leads a class on canning, freezing and drying. 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Manassas Church of the Brethren, 10047 Nokesville Rd., Manassas. 703-792-4371. manassasbrethren.org. $25; registration required.

Schools and Discipline discussion Sponsored by the League of Women Voters, a talk on Stopping the School to Prison Pipeline. 7-9 p.m. Central Community Library, 8601 Mathis Ave., Manassas. 703-743-1831. Free.

Lake Ridge Toastmasters Club Members 18 and older develop their public speaking and leadership skills. 7:30-9:15 p.m. Tall Oaks Community Center, 12298 Cotton Mill Dr., Lake Ridge. 703-491-3020. contact-8913@toastmastersclubs.org. lakeridge.toastmastersclubs.org. $34-$64 membership fee.

Thursday, Aug. 25

Historic Manassas walking tour Learn the history of the city. Wear comfortable walking shoes. Thursday-Friday at noon, Manassas Museum, 9101 Prince William St., Manassas. 703-368-1873. manassasmuseum.org. Free.

National Park Service 100th birthday celebration Park staff members share stories around a campfire of how the park service originated. 4-6 p.m. Prince William Forest Park, 18100 Park Headquarters Rd., Triangle. 703-221-7181. nps.gov/prwi. Free.

Quantico Marine Corps Band The final concert in the Marine Corps Heritage Foundations summer concert series. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and picnic. Concessions will be available. 7 p.m. National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Triangle. 877-635-1775. usmcmuseum.com. Free.

Friday, Aug. 26

Bristoe Station Anniversary tour To commemorate the 154th anniversary of Stonewall Jacksons capture of Bristoe Station, park staff members lead an in-time walking tour of the site. 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, 10708 Bristow Rd., Bristow. 703-366-3049. nps.gov/frsp/bristoe.htm. pwcgov.org/history. $5.

Civil War Weekend The impact of the Civil War on Manassas will be highlighted with drills and artillery demonstrations, reenactments, historical debates, a Civil War dance, period music, bourbon tasting, local author talks and tours of the Liberia Plantation. Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Manassas Museum, 9101 Prince William St., Manassas. 703-368-1873. visitmanassas.org. Free.

American Legion dinner The public is invited to dinner with a different special every week. Proceeds support local veterans and the community. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Woodbridge American Legion, 3640 Friendly Post Lane, Woodbridge. 703-494-4304. vapost364.org. $5-$15.

Saturday, Aug. 27

American flag collection service Operated by the Bull Run District Committee of the Boy Scouts, who will collect flags and demonstrate proper folding techniques. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Prince William County Balls Ford Road Yard Waste Compost Facility, 13000 Balls Ford Rd., Manassas. Free.

Yoga on the Lawn Vinyasa yoga taught by certified instructor Christopher Glowacki. 9 a.m. Rippon Lodge Historic Site, 15520 Blackburn Rd., Woodbridge. 703-499-9812. pwcgov.org/ripponlodge. $5.

Dog Days of Summer Military working dogs demonstrate their skills at this event that also features local pet adoption agencies, the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia, a bulldog kissing booth, speakers and childrens activities. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Triangle. 877-635-1775. usmcmuseum.com. Free.

Home seller seminar Presented by local real estate broker Bob Hummer. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Strayer University, 13385 Minnieville Rd., Woodbridge. 703-878-4866. military-realestate.com. Free.

Battle of Kettle Run anniversary tours Park staff members and volunteers lead walking tours on the 154th anniversary of Stonewall Jacksons capture of Bristoe Station and the Battle of Kettle Run. 1-4 p.m. Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, 10708 Bristow Rd., Bristow. pwcgov.org. $5.

Music on Mill The outdoor concert series continues with Alexandria-based reggae band FeelFree. Bring a blanket or lawn chair. 5-7 p.m. Through Sept. 3. River Mill Park, 458 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-491-1918. occoquanva.gov.

Movie Under the Stars E.T. 7 p.m. Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, 14900 Potomac Town Pl., Woodbridge. stonebridgeptc.com. Free.

U.S. Army Band Downrange An outdoor concert of modern and patriotic tunes. 7 p.m. Leesylvania State Park, Marina, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 202-433-3366. Free.
Prince William schools bus assignments go online only

Prince William County public schools have announced that bus assignments for the coming school year will not be mailed.

The assignments will be online beginning Monday at pwcs.edu and on specific school sites. Click the Bus Assignments notice and you will be directed to a Web page where you will enter the students street address for bus information, according to a news release.

Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign in county

Prince William County police, along with law enforcement agencies throughout Virginia, launched the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign Friday. The effort to crack down on drunken driving will run through Labor Day weekend, when there is a surge in drunken driving incidents, officials said in a statement.

Police advise anyone who has been drinking to use a designated driver, call a cab or a friend, or use public transportation. Never drive if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

In addition, police advise drivers and passengers to always buckle up. Seat belts are the most effective traffic safety device for preventing death during a crash, and belts are the best defense against impaired drivers, officials said.

If motorists are caught driving while impaired, officials said, they will be arrested.

Wade House, Manassas deputy fire chief, to retire

Manassas Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Wade C. House will be recognized Monday by the Manassas City Council with a resolution outlining his 52 years of fire service.

House, who was the first career firefighter in the Manassas Volunteer Fire Station, and who served as a career firefighter in Prince William County and Manassas, is retiring.
D.C. rapper Swipey, who had amassed a dedicated fan base in the region and thousands of followers online, was shot and killed early Sunday in Prince Georges County, police said.

Swipey, whose real name was Douglas Brooks, was found shortly after 1 a.m. outside a home in the 3600 block of Parkway Terrace Drive in Suitland. Police had responded to a call of gunshots and found Brooks, 18. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Police said Sunday that they do not believe the shooting was random but that they were still working to determine a suspect and motive. They are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the killing.

The young rappers death triggered an outpouring of grief on social media, where friends described him as a promising rapper whose life and career were cut short.

His manager, Kevin Baldwin, chief executive of the record label M.O.P3, said that at 18, Brooks had already performed alongside big-name acts including rappers Wale, a D.C. native, and Fat Joe. His videos collected hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, and his Instagram following was upward of 40,000. One of his songs Money Money Money featured producer Jazze Pha, known for his work with Usher, Missy Elliott, Ciara and Lil Wayne.

He only had been signed with me one year, and he accomplished all of that, Baldwin said.

Brooks graduated from high school in the District and at one point planned to attend college at Morgan State University, Baldwin said, but ended up deciding to pursue a career as a rapper.

Music, to Swipey, is everything, Brooks said of himself in a recent radio interview with WPGC-FM (95.5). Ive got a tattoo on me: Music is life.

The circumstances of Brookss death were not clear Sunday afternoon. Baldwin, who was grieving with family members Sunday, said they recalled an argument erupting following a party Saturday night. Later, a vehicle drove up and shots were fired, he said, according to family members recollections. Police did not confirm those details.

In the interview with WPGC, Brooks said his passion for music began when he was about 14 or 15. Following the radio appearance, he boasted, Im from Southeast (Washington). I got a song with Jazze Pha  yeah, what?

Baldwin said Brooks was raised in a home that was at times unstable but overcame his circumstances, emerging as a bright student who was very intelligent.

After signing Brooks a year ago, Baldwin said he filled in as a father figure.

Basically, I was teaching him, he said. Hed never been on a plane  the first time he went on a plane was with me. Hed never been out of town.

But Baldwin, 47, sometimes clashed with the young artist over the company he kept, he said.

The issue was he was being successful on every level, but the hardest part was to get him away from his friends  the negativity, he said. Thats where him and I bumped heads.

Brookss mother, Freda, was overcome with grief Sunday, surrounded by family as she coped with the news of her sons death.

He was a good guy, he was a nice guy, he never tried to start no trouble, she said in brief comments to The Washington Post. Im crying. Im crying because I love my son.

On social media, friends and fans posted tributes. Among them: Grammy-nominated artist Wale, who was born and raised in the Washington region.

God bless DMV, read, in part, a tweet from Wale, using a moniker for the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region. It was followed by the hashtag #ripswipey.
Several districts are reeling under floods as incessant rain has wreaked havoc, crippling normal life and obstructing road transportation.

Stranded residents of one of the apartments near the Ganga basin in Patna.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: No rains have been reported over the last 24 hours in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, brinigng some much needed respite to the four states which have been lashed with heavy rains.

NDRF has mobilised 32 teams across the four states.



MADHYA PRADESH

Close to 5000 people have been rescued by NDRF and the army in areas like Satna after heavy rainfall lashed Madhya Pradesh in the past 48 hours. The situation has improved in all rain washed areas except for Vidisha.

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Seven teams of NDRF have been deployed in MP.

Incessant rains have badly affected normal life in Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions. Major rivers and streams including Son, Ken and Tamas are dangerous full and could over-flow at any moment. Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Chattarpur, Panna, Katni, Damoh and some other districts are also facing a flood like situation.

The army is assisting in relief and rescue operations in rural areas of the Rewa district where several villages were inundated.

The road connectivity has been badly disturbed in several districts as major rivers and streams are overflowing.

UTTAR PRADESH

In UP, there was flood-like situation in Varanasi as the water level of Ganga rose the above the danger level.

In Prime minister's constituency of Varanasi, the river was flowing at 1.18cm above danger mark.

River Ganga in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh was flowing at an unprecedented level. As per a government release, it was flowng at a level of 60.28 m which is 2.66 m above its danger Level of 57.615 m.

In Allahabad, several areas have been flooded as water enters residential areas of the region.

Several districts are reeling under flood as incessant rain has wreaked havoc, crippling normal life and obstructing road transportation.

On the other hand, the flood threat is also looming large in Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Ballia and other districts due to continuous rise of river Ganga which has swelled to dangerous levels but situation has improved over the past few hours due to a halt in the showers. 10 NDRF teams have been deployed in UP.

BIHAR

River Ganga wreaked havoc in Patna with water entering residential areas. NDRF flew in 5 teams comprising 45 trained personnel from chennai. They have 14 teams working across different districts of the state.

Due to the increase in the water level of the Ganga, the water has reportedly entered into the riverine areas of districts like Buxar, Bhojpur, Munger, Saran, Vaishali, Bhagalpur and Samastipur.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, already pre-positioned in Patna, Vaishali and Gopalganj, have been put on alert while State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been put on alert in Patna and Bhagalpur.

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In Rajasthan one team has been deployed. As per high level sources, situation in the state is largely under control.

ALSO READ:

Flood threat looms large over Patna as Ganga continues to swell

Uttar Pradesh floods: 11 killed, Rihand dam gates opened to ease out pressure





--- ENDS ---
An off-duty D.C. firefighter was shot and wounded Saturday afternoon while driving his personal car in Southeast Washington, fire officials said.

He was in stable condition at a hospital, and was conscious and alert, said fire department spokesman Vito Maggiolo.

The firefighter was 44 years old and has been in the department for 24 years. His current assignment is to a firehouse in Northwest. The firefighter was not named.

A family member was in the car with him, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 4 p.m. in the 3300 block of Southern Avenue. The site is close to Branch Avenue and about a half mile north of Suitland Parkway.

No motive in the attack could be learned immediately.

Police said they were looking for someone on a motorcycle.


Adam Schwager, left, embraces his mom, Leslie, as they prepare to depart Kensington, Md. for the drive to Ohio where Adam will begin his freshman college year on August 19. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

When Victoria Dawson flew last week from Washington, D.C., to Boulder, Colo., to drop off her daughter Ellie for her freshman year of college, she and Ellies father saw it as a chance for some final quality time together. But in the middle of breakfast, their daughter disappeared into a nearby shopping area. She returned with a gift bag  not a goodbye memento for her mother or father, but a birthday present for a new dorm mate shed never met.

It was jarring for Dawson, who was feeling sad about leaving her daughter, and she told her so. Basically I said shes going to have weeks and months and probably years to go out and be with these people, she said.

The moment epitomized a rocky rite of passage that many families across the country are enduring this summer as one phase of life ends and another begins. This brief interlude, between high school graduation and the college move-in days of August and early September, can be surprisingly bittersweet.

After intense years of focusing on grades, extracurriculars, and college applications, families suddenly face the end of life together as its been for 18-odd years. For parents and kids, the impending separation brings new freedoms, but it can also upend family dynamics as children pull away in subtle and not-so-subtle ways and parents struggle to let them go.

It can be a pretty stressful time for both generations, said Barbara Mitchell, a sociology professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Moms, often their identities as mothers are very much tied up into daily mothering activities . . . and recent research shows dads can often have attachment crises similar to moms.

Even the countrys First Father has expressed anxiety this year about his older daughter Malia graduating and leaving home. And Modern Family producer Danny Zuker tweeted this week, My twin girls left 4 college this week but Im trying to stay positive as I start this exciting new chapter of my life where I wait to die.

While most young people dont view it as darkly, the summer between high school and college can feel like a roller coaster for them, too. On some days its this exciting adventure ahead of them, but at the same time youre leaving friends and family and a familiar routine. . . . That can be a scary thing, Mitchell said.

Robert Shea of Alexandria, Va., has seen that duality in his oldest daughter, who will start at New York University this week . Our headstrong, independent daughter, you see a little weepiness creeping in, he said. Shes got a very close relationship with her sisters, so shes worrying about missing them. Shes also seeing her very close friends leave in succession, so thats a very traumatic, dramatic experience.

At the same time, he said, she has recently been even more headstrong than usual, wanting to stay out late with her friends and chafing at parental instruction. I think shes torn between wanting to be really free and being afraid of what freedom looks like, so shes breaking away and clinging at the same time.

For both generations, the angst has intensified since the 1980s, when kids just went off to college without nearly the fanfare it attracts today, said Frank Furstenberg, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, adding that the portion of American 18-year-olds who go away to university is still a minority compared with those who commute from home or dont attend college at all.

[Why millennials are more likely to live with parents than in any other setup]

Today a college transition bears more freight, he said. Obviously, the far more intensive style of parenting these days where parents monitor and manage far more for a much longer time means that the empty nest or even the penultimate empty nest is more emotionally salient than it was in previous postwar cohorts of young adults.



Adam Schwager lifts up a care package from his family. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Technology has also helped young adults start their college social lives before they leave home. Dawsons daughter, Ellie Le Blanc, has used social media to set up a sense of community even before she arrived, Dawson said in a phone call from Boulder. Shes set up chats with people in her dorm, with people from the Washington area. I think its neat. It gives her a kind of sense of community, but its hard. I didnt expect to have to vie with them for her attention and time before we even left.

For parents from other cultures, the shock of separation can be even more unsettling. Ana Rivas Becks parents immigrated from Spain and Brazil and didnt let her move away for college. Her son is about to leave for Duke University in North Carolina, and it has caused tension in their Alexandria household.

His dad and I want to see him; its turned into this big battle, and its just ratcheting up, she said. He wants to be with his friends every minute and doesnt have anything to say to us when he sits down at the table. . . . Hes breaking away, and he wants to really see his friends, and I get it, but hes acting like hes getting on a ship and going to America and hes never going to see these people again.

My parents are apoplectic, she added. Literally my moms over here right now, cooking his favorite foods.

Saying goodbye to her daughter also felt unnatural to Elizabeth Gomez, a Mexico City native who lives in Redwood City, Calif., whose daughter will attend Kenyon College in Ohio. When we dropped her off she just said goodbye; they just want to move on, she said. It made me feel sad. Especially coming from Latin America, I feel like if she were a cake shes not cooked yet, the U.S. kind of forces them out of the oven. But after all, shes an American teenager.

Parents with just one child can also feel the college drop-off even more intensely, since they go from life as theyve known it directly to an empty house.

What has consumed the last about 19 years of my life has been my son, and now that has ended, to a point, said Alisa Myatt of Charles Town, W.V., a week after dropping off her only child, Tyler, at West Virginia University in Morgantown. Now Im like almost not a mom anymore, because Im not going to be mothering.

At the drop-off, my husband and I were standing on the street weeping, she said. He handled it much harder than I thought he would. He was in the street just sobbing. He said, Hes my buddy. 

Tyler, on the other hand, simply seemed excited.

Likewise, when her parents finally hugged her goodbye in Boulder on Thursday, Le Blanc, 17, didnt let herself cry. It was definitely emotional, but I was about to go have a floor meeting in my dorm, so I didnt really have time for all the emotions.

But even if kids retreat, it doesnt mean they dont still need their moms and dads. Parents need to be a prop, a support, said Fran Goldscheider, professor emerita of sociology at Brown University. Research shows that this is the worst time parents should choose to get divorced; that its the most disruptive. If youre going to leap, you have to leap from some place thats firm and secure.

At the same time that they feel sad, many parents also embrace the opportunities that come with having more free time. And likewise, not all graduates pull away; some nudge closer. There were definitely days when she was a little clingy  Mom, let me go with you to run errands, because you know Im going to school, said Leslie Tune of Silver Spring, Md., a single mom whose daughter, Aman, left this month for Hampton University in southern Virginia. Her younger son was also more solicitous, bickering less over bathroom time and asking for his sisters advice about what teachers to take and what to wear. So I felt like we really cherished those little moments more than we had in the past.

On Friday morning , Leslie Schwager of Kensington, Md., blinked back tears as her 18-year-old son, Adam, sat in the kitchen eating his last bowl of cereal before college.

She had spent the summer dreading this day.

Youre preparing your child for college and youre so focused on getting good grades and college applications that you forget that theyre going to be gone in a short period of time and it just went by so fast.



Adam Schwager, right, packs one of his bags with help from his father Stuart. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Adam Schwager schleps one of his bags to the car. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

In retrospect, I think I would have stepped back and trusted him more and been less of a helicopter parent. But at the same time, she razzes him to put a cot in his dorm room for her.

Adam, whose last weeks were spent lifeguarding and hanging out with friends, said he wasnt too concerned about leaving. Its not like Im moving out, he said. Im thinking of it more like extended vacation; maybe thats how I cope.

The car was all packed for Schwager, her husband, Stuart, and their two younger sons to drive Adam to Kenyon College in Ohio. But first she had one last surprise  a care package for his dorm room.

He pulled out gifts one by one. A tea-maker. A hot-water boiler. A phone charger. Then he saw something his brother Justin, 15, had slipped in: an old photograph of Adam as a toddler, lying with his infant brother wrapped in his arms, protecting him.

Looking at it, Adams eyes filled and he went silent.

You okay, bud? his dad said.

Yeah, he said softly. Then, with a teenagers eye-roll, he quipped. Now I have to pack all this stuff.
Mercedes N. Kirkland-Doyle opened the Good News Community Kitchen this summer in Occoquan. The nonprofit group provides food and other help to those who find themselves in need. (Jonathan Hunley/For The Washington Post)

While her seventh-grade classmates in South Carolina may have been focused on crushes, video games or who was popular, Mercedes N. Kirkland-Doyle worried about the homeless. Later, she was thinking about how to help women going through hard times. She even wrote in her journal about opening a halfway house for female residents called Almost Home.

Her notion of assisting others didnt fade as the years passed. When she was in the Army, she sought opportunities to volunteer. She has done the same in her second career at the Veterans Affairs Department. So what she accomplished this summer isnt really surprising.

Now 33, Kirkland-Doyle, who lives in Woodbridge, opened the doors of a new nonprofit group in June  the Good News Community Kitchen.

The organizations home in Occoquan is more than 400 miles from St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Columbia, S.C., where Kirkland-Doyle first fed the homeless when she was a child. But she said last week that she has the same kind of connection with those she aims to help now that she did with those she served back then.

Her family didnt always have it easy. When she was volunteering at the church, she was away from her mother and being raised by her grandparents.

So she can understand the struggles others face. She can relate if parents cannot afford quality snacks for their children. Or if students have a headache in class because they didnt eat a good breakfast before arriving at school.

I lived it, she said.

In founding the Good News Community Kitchen, Kirkland-Doyle took all the issues that affected her family  not just those that had to do with hunger  and tried to create programs to address them.

Food-specific initiatives include distributing ready-to-eat meals to the homeless and to others who have difficulty getting nourishment, providing warm Southern family-style dinners at a shelter and giving out emergency meal units to families with an immediate need.

Kirkland-Doyle also designed an effort called Hygiene Heroes that calls for handing out toiletry items to underserved populations at the same time that meals are distributed. Many people who find themselves without a home learn where to get meals, she said, but dont have a place to acquire essentials, such as toothbrushes, deodorant and feminine hygiene products.

Other missions of the nonprofit include collecting professional clothes for those who are returning to the workforce after unemployment, and stockpiling coats and blankets for those who will need them this winter.

The backpacks, markers, notebooks, crayons and other school supplies that filled a tabletop in the organizations home last week attest to its commitment to children. They will be donated to local students.

Officially, Kirkland-Doyle is the executive director of the Good News Community Kitchen, and she is supported by a board of directors.

But she joked that, right now, the organization is essentially her third child in addition to her son, Marcus, 9, and daughter, DeLanie, 7. For example, she is funding most everything for the kitchen herself.

Kirkland-Doyle has received help from a local Home Depot, however.

The home-improvement chain donated supplies to refurbish the kitchens space on Poplar Alley in Occoquan, and a handful of employees from the store in Woodbridge volunteered their time to spruce it up for Kirkland-Doyle, who plans to work full time at the nonprofit when she retires from government service.

Karen Calvert, who works in the store, said Home Depot frequently donates materials and labor for tasks, such as repairs to the homes of military veterans.

Kirkland-Doyles situation was a bit different, Calvert said, but the store decided to provide the aid because she is a veteran and the work benefited a nonprofit.

The two women have become friends, and Calvert said Kirkland-Doyle has a knack for helping people in a respectful way.

Its hard to find places where people can find help and not feel uncomfortable, she said.

Sisc Johnson said shes also had difficulty finding a nonprofit that was easy to support.

But Johnson said she was so impressed with the kitchen after reading about it online that she wants to volunteer with the organization.

I cant think of a better place, she said last week as she came to Occoquan to donate some womens clothes.

For information about the Good News Community Kitchen, go to tgnck.org.


Pallbearers unload a coffin at Smith Cemetery in Strunk, Ky. Over the last 15 years, the states McCreary County has seen a 75 percent increase in the mortality rate for white women between the ages of 35 and 59, one of the highest increases in the nation, according to a Washington Post analysis of national mortality rates. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

UNNATURAL CAUSES SICK AND DYING IN SMALL-TOWN AMERICA | Since the turn of this century, death rates have risen for whites in midlife, particularly women. The Washington Post is exploring this trend and the forces driving it. Read part one, part two, part three and part four.

She died alone in the middle of the night, and her body was swiftly autopsied, embalmed and carted 135 miles to a remote Kentucky county where she had been raised. There, Dan Ridener waited. The undertaker watched as the Cadillac Escalade pulled up and the corpse was wheeled inside. Then he removed the blanket covering McCreary County Funeral Homes newest arrival.

Curly, blond hair. A haggard face. Dark circles under both eyes. Nails bitten and bloodied. A provisional report of death came with the body.

Name: Lois A. Maxwell.

Age: 44.

Race: W.

Sex: F.

The document didnt say anything about a cause of death, but Ridener didnt need it to know what had happened: Another white woman had died in what should have been the prime of her life. Across America, especially in rural and working-class communities, death rates have been accelerating among middle-aged white women for a generation, and in McCreary County, which is 91 percent white, no one knows this better than the undertaker, who now lifted Maxwells body onto an aluminum table.

She doesnt look 44, an assistant said, snapping on blue latex gloves.

She looks older, said Ridener, who did the same.

She looks a lot older than that, the assistant said. She looks 60, Id say.

Ridener peered down at the body. As with most of the people who end up on his table, he was familiar with Maxwell and the troubled life she had led. In the last decade, Kentucky courts had convicted her of 11 separate drug- and alcohol-related charges. At the time of her death, she was facing four more.

Drugs, Ridener said, looking at the effects. He placed a fresh sheet over Maxwells body, and then, knowing that nothing dries out skin like death, his assistant began slathering moisturizing cream on her face to prepare her for the coming arrival of her family.



Customers eat at a diner-style restaurant in Whitley City, Ky. A study by a research center at the University of Washington found that McCreary County women are more likely to be obese than those of previous generations. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

* * *

So there would be a funeral in McCreary County, another funeral, which, in and of itself, was nothing remarkable. In a county of 18,000 people in southern Kentucky, about 250 of them die each year, a number that hasnt changed significantly in decades.

What has changed, however, is the age of the people dying. Over the last 15 years, McCreary County has seen a 75 percent increase in the mortality rate for white women between the ages of 35 and 59, one of the highest increases in the nation, according to a Washington Post analysis of national mortality rates. The analysis also showed that the mortality rate for similarly aged white women nationally increased 23 percent; for white men increased 16 percent; for black women decreased 10 percent; for black men decreased 20 percent; for Hispanic women decreased 11 percent; and for Hispanic men decreased 16 percent.

Another study, by a research center at the University of Washington, found that McCreary County women are more likely to be obese and engage in life-shortening behaviors such as binge drinking than in previous generations, and a separate tally kept by the funeral home showed that, in 2013, 20 white women younger than 60 were buried; last year it was 31.

Those deaths have all been charted by Debbie Murphy, the owner of two of the countys three funeral homes, where she employs Ridener as her undertaker. She maintains spreadsheets that enumerate every burial in McCreary County, and, like Ridener, knows most of the people, too.

Dan Ridener, who serves as undertaker for McCreary County Funeral Home, drives a hearse to a service. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

She killed herself, she said to Ridener one morning, scanning the lists.

She pointed to another name. She drank herself to death.

She pointed to two more names. Jerry and Amanda.

He actually shot her, Ridener said. And then shot and killed himself.

And they were in the same casket together, Murphy said.

And theyre my cousins, Ridener added.

That was drugs, he said of another, as Murphy nodded.

Drug use, he said of another.

I dont remember her, Murphy said of a 49-year-old. I dont think she was drugs, though, was she?

She wasnt drugs. She was just lice, Ridener said, and not long after that came word of another death, this one a 59-year-old woman. He got behind the wheel of one of Murphys three hearses and drove through a landscape that in his 48 years has gone from a place of promise to one where, according to Census Bureau and state figures, nearly 40 percent of households receive food stamps and 77 percent of students qualify for free or reduced school lunches.

He passed turnoffs for once-thriving coal mines, the last of which stopped producing in 1995. He passed by desolate factory towns where hundreds once found work; the main row of restaurants, all of them fast food; the local grocery store thats always selling out of Mountain Dew; and skinny roads leading to cemeteries where the county gravedigger has found syringes in the grass.

Now as he drove past Blue John Road, where in 2008 the county coroner was arrested for drug use after being found slumped over the wheel of an official Chevrolet Suburban, a syringe in his hands, Ridener found himself thinking there wasnt a single family in McCreary County that hasnt been affected by drugs, including his own daughters. He remembered a day when he got a phone call from his 8-year-old grandson. He said, I need you to come pick me up. Dad is high. Hes got this white powder laying there.  He remembered going to the house and his grandson coming outside. He said, I didnt want you to think I was lying to you, so I brought you proof.  He remembered the boy opening his clenched fist, the boys surprise that the powder had disappeared, his own fear that the boy had absorbed the powder through his skin, the trip to the emergency room, his threat to his son-in-law that, If anything happens to my grandson, Im going to kill you, and his relief when his daughter and grandson moved out, not that theyve had an easy time of it since.

He now parked the hearse outside Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital and went up to a room on the fourth floor. He expected to meet a family crowded around the remains. Instead, he found a dead woman by herself.

The body was that of a woman named Betty West, who was born in McCreary County and lived in a home of corrugated iron and plywood, supported herself with disability checks, died of lung cancer, and whose life had come down to sitting in a brown recliner, watching television and smoking cigarette after cigarette.

They dont think that smoking really will kill you, a nurse, Desiree Middleton, 32, now said to Ridener. Its one of those teenage mind-sets.

There was a whiteboard with four phone numbers hanging on a wall. Each belonged to one of Wests family members. When West was about to die, Middleton said, she had started calling the numbers even though it was 4 a.m.

I called her husband, Middleton said. We tried calling every kid, and I even resorted to calling grandchildren, and got nothing. But I stayed with her, and thats what Im here for. She looked down at West, whose face was wrinkled and worn. That is what makes it harder. She looks a lot older than 59.

We got a 44-year-old yesterday, Ridener said. And she looks a lot older than 44.

Ridener hoisted Wests body onto a gurney and zipped around it a maroon body bag emblazoned with McCreary Funeral Home. Then he wheeled the gurney to the elevator. The doors opened.

Yall going down? he asked the people inside. Yall care to ride with a body?



Debbie Murphy waits for her husband, Jim Murphy, and undertaker Dan Ridener to remove a coffin from a hearse outside McCreary County Funeral Home in Whitley City, Ky. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

* * *

Two dead white women now in the funeral home: Lois Maxwell in the embalming studio, Betty West in the casket room. Ridener wanted to keep them separated. He was worried the sight of too many bodies would upset members of Wests family, two of whom now walked into the funeral home.

One was Wests 20-year-old granddaughter, Kristen Chitwood, accompanied by her mother-in-law. Chitwood walked toward the body. In silence, she looked at the woman who had raised her when her own mother went to prison on drug charges, and then she touched her grandmothers arm, red and bruised from IV lines. I just want it to be a dream, she said.

Ridener arrived with tissues. Whats some of the things she did in her life? he asked. What kind of work did she do?

She was just a housewife, Chitwood said. She took in children that werent hers to raise them.

Did she smoke? Ridener asked after a moment, remembering what the nurse had told him.

She smoked off and on, Chitwood said. She used to smoke five packs a day.

A lot of them will say that it was cigarettes, Chitwoods mother-in-law said. But it wasnt that. My mother-in-law is 85, 84 and she gets around better than me and she has smoked two packs of cigarettes her whole life since she was 14, probably.

Chitwood continued staring down at her grandmother. Nearby was a brochure listing coffins for sale. The Bronze Tribune: $4,295. The Wilbert Bronze: $4,395. The Venetian: $1,995. There would be other costs as well. Embalming would be $595. Rent for the chapel would be $495. The hearse would be $200. The services rendered by staff would be $1,750. All totaled, the cheapest funeral would be nearly $5,000. Chitwood stroked her grandmothers hair and wondered how her family would come up with the money, while Ridener excused himself to take care of some paperwork in the office.

Only after the two visitors left did he step into the embalming studio.

He flipped on the fluorescent lights. He and an assistant wheeled out Maxwell and wheeled in West.

Ridener fitted a pinch of chewing tobacco into his mouth, and the men stretched on blue latex gloves. He walked over to two cabinets on the far wall. Each was filled with embalming chemicals. One was for drug users who dont embalm like a normal body because theyve already got so many toxins in their system. The other was for people such as West, who didnt have a history of drug use.

Ridener opened five bottles and poured them into a machine, which churned them into a soupy mixture. He lifted Wests bluing body onto an aluminum table. He placed her hands in repose across her stomach. Then he pulled out a scalpel, made an incision underneath Wests collarbone, fished out an artery and inserted a tube into it that unleashed bursts of chemicals with the deliberate rhythm of a heartbeat.

You can see the color coming back, the apprentice said. Pinkness returned to Wests cheeks and appendages, erasing the blues. Her skin began to feel firm. Ridener started washing her scalp. This hair is going to be a mess, he said. Shes got real thin hair and very little of it.

The embalming fluid continued to cycle in, and little by little West came back to appearing as the woman she had been the day before: 59, filled with cancer and one heartbeat away from an early death.



Debbie Murphy stands outside a service at Pine Knot Funeral Home in Pine Knot, Ky. She owns that mortuary and McCreary County Funeral Home in Whitely City. Murphy knows about the rising trend of early deaths for middle-aged white women in her area, and pays attention to her health: She eats vegan meals and does Pilates. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

* * *

The following day, Debbie Murphy was returning from another lunch at McCreary Countys only vegan restaurant. To Murphy, burying people has been a constant education, and one of the things she has learned from burying so many middle-aged women is that she doesnt want to be one of them. Her own mother died at 51 of breast cancer. Then came her sister-in-law: dead at 50 when Murphys nephew, high on drugs and hallucinating, shot her to death in her bed. Fifty-six years old now, Murphy wears a patch on her shoulder that releases nutrients into her body. In the evenings, she practices Pilates. In the mornings, she makes a shake from a pouch of antioxidant leaf powder. And lunch is at the vegan restaurant, where she always orders the special.

Back in the funeral home now after some ratatouille, she was at her desk when a young woman walked in carrying a pair of blue jeans, a white button-down shirt, a black tank top and a pair of gold hoop earrings.

And you are? Murphy asked.

Erica, the woman said. She was Erica Leach, Maxwells only daughter, who had come to drop off clothing for her mothers burial.

She handed over the bundle of clothing, and Murphy unfurled the jeans. They were well-worn. The white shirt had cigarette-burn holes on the front.

I didnt really want a pair of jeans, but I kind of got what I could get, Leach said. Thats the only jewelry I could get. I mean, I dont even know if she could even fit in this stuff. I mean, I found the clothes I could, so . . .

Well, lets see, Murphy said.

I had an outfit picked out for her, but it wasnt there. Or I couldnt find it, Leach said, beginning to stammer, and then explained that right after her mother died, her house had been broken into, and the whole house is like disheveled and everything.

Do you have any idea of why, or who? Murphy asked.

She has been prone to, like, she does have a reputation, Leach said of her mothers chronic drug use. Maybe the thieves were after drugs, maybe it was money. Maybe it was retribution. Whatever the reason, Leach had photographs of what they had done. One showed a door ripped off its hinges and thrown across the living room. Another showed a ransacked kitchen. A third showed her own childhood bedroom, also ransacked, which was where her mother had taken to sleeping lately at the end of a life that hadnt gone according to plan: a car accident that led to a prescription for pain relievers, some mental health issues and more pills, a divorce and more pills, arrest after arrest and always more pills, until the end.

There was a silence, and Leach explained that she wasnt living with her mother anymore, that she was in college and spending the summer in Lexington: Im majoring in psychology and minoring in international studies, and Im going to get a Japanese certificate.

Really? asked an employee who had been listening. You know Japanese?

I can already speak a little of it, Leach said. And Ive been through 101 and 102, and its one of my backup plans to teach English in Japan.

Murphy and Ridener looked at her for a long moment, quietly measuring the distance between a daughter who had gotten away and a mother who had died alone in that daughters bed.

Are you driving back up? Ridener asked her.

Im driving to Corbin, she said of the town where her mother had lived and died. Ill be here tomorrow.

Ridener nodded and watched her leave.



Undertaker Dan Ridener, left, and apprentice Israel Clark prepare a coffin in the embalming room in Pine Knot, Ky. Samples of vaults are on display outside, at a range of prices. Many cost thousands of dollars. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

* * *

The next morning, he was still thinking about what Leach had said. That little girl going to college is a breakthrough, he said. He was standing in the embalming room. The funeral home was quiet and empty. It was his favorite time of day, before more families walked in with more tragedy, before other employees showed up. Its a huge accomplishment, he said, and then he turned his attention to her mother.

It was time to get her ready.

He started with the blue jeans Leach had brought. These pants are not going to fit, he said, trying to pull them up over a body that was stiff to the touch. He tried again, tugging a little. I really believe these jeans didnt belong to her, but to that little girl. He tugged harder. Theres no way. But he got them on, buttoned her into the shirt with the cigarette burns and added the black tank top over that.

That adds a lot more class to that shirt, and it hides the pants, he said.

Next, he wheeled in her coffin. He fluffed its pink pillow and laid her body inside. He shaped her blond hair and slid the gold hoop earrings through her ears. An assistant arrived with a bottle of red nail polish.

All right now, get to painting, Ridener said.

Aint nothing going to make her nails look good, the assistant said, scrubbing away at a lifetime spent in this place. Im trying to get this dirt off.

Okay, Ridener said after the job was done. Shes ready.

Two hours later, the first family member to show up for Maxwells funeral was Leach. She walked into the funeral home, saw the coffin propped open in the chapel and decided not to go in until it had been closed. Everyone else can go in, she said. I dont want to see it.

More people began arriving, including several women who remained outside, smoking cigarettes and drinking Mountain Dew. We got to figure out what were doing, because I didnt bring enough cigarettes, one of the women said to her daughter.

Some of Leachs college friends arrived, too, and they were nearby Leach when an old man in cowboy boots recognized her.

You still making good grades in school, Erica? he asked.

Now a skinny woman came over, knelt down, whispered condolences and went back to her cigarettes.

From the back, the undertaker watched it all. He watched as the friends and relatives of Maxwell folded themselves into the pews, then rose again when the service was finished and went back outside to their cigarettes. He was there to advise the pallbearers who nearly dropped the coffin when placing it inside the hearse, and then he was driving the hearse deep into the countryside, into a terrain of hills and hollows and little else, until he came upon a cemetery so small and so remote it didnt have an address.

It was a good funeral, he would say later, when he had a moment to think about it, a good funeral, but for now he had to hurry. It was late afternoon, and he had a long drive back to McCreary Funeral Home, where Betty West awaited. He didnt have much time to prepare. The funeral of one dead white woman was over, and in a few hours, the next one would begin.



The McCreary County gravesite of Lois Maxwell  who died at 44  at a cemetery so small and remote that it does not have an address. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

Dan Keating and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
California

Crews gain on separate large fires

Residents were returning to their homes Saturday as crews made gains against a wildfire that officials say has destroyed more than 100 homes in Southern California.

Fire spokesman Brad Pitassi said evacuation orders for Wrightwood went from mandatory to advisory Saturday for the town of about 4,500 in the mountainous area of San Bernardino County. Pitassi said the preliminary total of destroyed homes is at 105.

Crews also made progress containing an arson fire that has destroyed almost 200 homes in Lower Lake in Northern Californias Lake County.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that the blaze was 80 percent contained after destroying at least 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses.

 Associated Press

PENNSYLVANIA

3 dead, 1 injured after boat overturns in river

Three men died and another was injured when a boat ran aground and overturned on the Allegheny River, authorities said Saturday.

Clarion County Coroner Terry Shaffer said the 21-foot boat apparently ran up on the bank and flipped a couple of times and turned upside down.

Officer Gregory Pochron of the Fish and Boat Commission said three men were found dead in the boat. Their names, ages and towns werent immediately released. A man in his 70s found pinned beneath the boat was taken to a hospital in Pittsburgh.

 Associated Press

2 deadly shootings at annual anti-violence event: For the second straight year, an annual anti-violence event in Newark, N.J., has been marred by deadly shootings. Two men were killed and a woman seriously wounded in separate shootings that occurred about the same time late Friday in Newark, prosecutors in Essex County said. It did not appear that the incidents are connected, authorities said. The shootings came just hours after city officials launched the fifth annual 24 Hours of Peace celebration. Two men were killed in separate shootings during last years event.

WWII veteran, 93, completes run across United States: After two years and 10 months, 93-year-old Ernie Andrus has made it across the country. The World War II veteran dipped his toes in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday morning, ending a cross-country run that started in San Diego. He started his trek Oct. 7, 2013 on the sands of San Diego, weaving his way over the months and years through the southern United States until he reached St. Simons Island in Georgia.

 From news services
YEMEN

Thousands rally

for Houthi rebels

Tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied Saturday in the center of Sanaa, the capital, to show support for the Houthi-led bloc as Saleh al-Samad, head of the groups new governing council, vowed to form a full government in the coming days.

Economic affairs will be the priority of our work in the coming period, Samad said, as he outlined the councils plans for running the war-ravaged country after the breakdown this month of U.N.-sponsored peace talks. Houthi demonstrators packed Sanaas Sabeen Square waving Yemeni flags and chanting slogans.

The declaration formalized a recent vow by the Houthis and their allies in the General Peoples Congress, the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, to establish a body to govern the capital and other parts of the country they control.

Ambassadors from the group of 18 nations that backed U.N. talks condemned the unconstitutional and unilateral actions in Sanaa.

Saturdays demonstration took place as the Saudi-led coalition backing exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi stepped up airstrikes. Three strikes targeted the presidential compound, located 600 yards from the protests. No injuries were reported.

 Reuters

SYRIA

Turkey says Assad would still have role

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday that his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a transitional period but insisted that Assad has no place in Syrias future.

Turkey is one of the main supporters of rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, and it hosts more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees. But Ankara is concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces across the border and opposes any move toward Kurdish autonomy or independence. The Syrian government, too, has grown uneasy with the Kurdish forces in the north, who enjoy close relations with the U.S.

Yildirims comments came after Assads forces began attacking Kurdish positions this past week, leading some Kurdish officials to speculate that a Syrian-Turkish rapprochement was underway at the expense of Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria.

 Associated Press

At least 30 die in bombing of wedding in Turkey: At least 30 people were killed and 94 were wounded, security sources said, in what a regional official in southern Turkey called a terrorist attack on a wedding party. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the barbaric attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, appeared to be a suicide bombing. Other officials said it could have been carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State extremists. Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

U.S. officials to travel to Turkey to discuss Gulen: Officials from the U.S. departments of Justice and State will fly to Ankara to discuss government accusations against Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric Turkey accuses of masterminding a failed military coup, according to a Justice Department official. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that the U.S. extradite Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, over the July putsch in which more than 200 people were killed. Gulen has denied any involvement.

London mayor says Labour leader should be replaced: London Mayor Sadiq Khan, in an article in Britains Observer newspaper, called on fellow members of Britains opposition Labour Party to replace leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying his failure to drum up support for Britain remaining in the E.U. shows he cannot command the backing of voters. The Labour Party has been in turmoil since Britains June 23 vote to leave the E.U. Corbyn, a veteran left-wing member of parliament, has been challenged for the leadership by fellow lawmaker Owen Smith.

 From news services
Indonesian police carry the body of a victim after a small wooden boat capsized in rough seas and sank off Indonesias Bintan island. (Albert/Associated Press)

SOMALIA

Blasts kill at least 17, wound more than 30

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gates of a local government headquarters in Somalia while another bomber targeted a nearby marketplace, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 30, police said Sunday.

Abdisalam Yusuf, a member of the police force, said one of the bombers rammed the car into a checkpoint in Galkayo town on Sunday morning after reaching the main gate of Puntlands local government. Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia, controls the northern part of the town, while the southern part is controlled by rival regional state Galmudug.

Al-Shabab, which is linked to the terror network al-Qaeda, asserted responsibility for the blasts. Unlike other parts of the country where al-Shabab continues a deadly guerrilla campaign, Galkayo rarely experiences such attacks.

Al-Shabab is waging an insurgency against Somalias weak government, which is backed by the United Nations. The insurgent group seeks to establish an Islamic emirate ruled by a strict version of sharia law.

More than 22,000 peacekeepers are deployed in Somalia as part of a multinational African Union force. Al-Shabab opposes the presence of foreign troops in the country.

 Associated Press

CONGO

Opposition calls for strike over vote delay

A coalition of Congos opposition parties is calling for a general strike after the countrys electoral commission said a presidential election meant for November will not be held until next year.

A national dialogue on a new electoral timeline begins Tuesday, but the coalition says it will not take part because several conditions have not been met. It urges a strike that day instead.

Congos opposition has long expressed concern that President Joseph Kabila wants an election delay to remain in power beyond his mandate, which ends in December.

The electoral commission announced late Saturday that voter registration for the election would not be ready until July because of logistical issues and lack of money.

Kabila, in power since 2001, is barred from running for a third term under the constitution. The constitutional court said in May that the president should remain in office until a new leader is elected.

Since Congo won freedom from Belgium in 1960, there has never been a peaceful, democratic transition of power in the country.

The opposition coalition said in a statement that it rejects the upcoming national dialogues African Union-appointed mediator, Edem Kodjo, claiming he has ties to Kabila.

The coalition also said that of the 24 people officially pardoned last week, only four were on its list of more than 100 political prisoners it wanted freed to participate in the dialogue. It also called for more media freedom.

 Associated Press

10 dead, 5 missing after boat sinks in Indonesia: Ten people died and five were missing after a small wooden boat capsized in rough seas and sank off Indonesias Bintan island, officials said. Two people were rescued. Two children were among the 10 people who died. Search efforts were being hampered by high waves and strong currents, a disaster agency spokesman said. He said the people on the boat were local tourists traveling to Penyengat island. The boat was close to its destination when it sank.

Iraq hangs 36 sentenced to death in 2014 killings: Iraq said it hanged 36 militants sentenced to death over the mass killing of hundreds of mainly Shiite soldiers at a camp north of Baghdad in 2014. As many as 1,700 soldiers were killed two years ago as they fled Camp Speicher, a former U.S. military base just north of Saddam Husseins home town of Tikrit, when it was overrun by the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group.

Palestinian rocket strikes Israel, drawing reprisal: Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel, prompting the Israeli military to respond with airstrikes and tank fire on targets inside Gaza. No injuries were reported on either side. The Israeli military said the rocket landed in the southern border town of Sderot, a frequent target of Palestinian rocket fire. Shortly afterward, the military said Israeli aircraft and tanks targeted two posts belonging to the Hamas militant group in northern Gaza.

Man killed as Indian forces fire at Kashmir protesters: One man was killed and dozens wounded in Indian-controlled Kashmir as government forces fired shotguns and tear gas at rock-throwing protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. The man reportedly was hit by a tear gas shell in his chest during the clashes in Srinagar, the regions main city, and died at a hospital. Meanwhile, troops killed three suspected rebels near the heavily militarized line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

 From news services
MONDAY MARKS the 20th anniversary of the great domestic policy innovation of the Clinton administration: welfare reform. The federal cash assistance program for the poor was converted from an open-ended benefit to a time-limited one conditioned on work effort, paid for by fixed federal grants to the states (plus state dollars). Born amid fierce ideological controversy, welfare reform has grown to maturity amid equally intense scrutiny, with both supporters and critics mining the data for validation.

It is not surprising, therefore, that think tanks and academics marked the landmark legislations birthday with more studies supporting their points. The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities produced a report noting that the share of poor children living in deep poverty grew in the wake of welfare reform. Scott Winship of the conservative Manhattan Institute countered, arguing that conventional measures of poverty may, for various technical reasons, understate welfare reforms positive impact.

All of this added to an already ample information base; none of it, though, altered the basic picture laid out this year in a comprehensive review of the literature by economists Marianne Bitler and Hilary Hoynes: Welfare reform contributed to a significant reduction in welfare participation and an increase in female employment, with little consistent evidence that reform led to an increase (or decrease) in poverty or a worsening of (or improvement in) child well-being. We might add that one of welfare reforms declared objectives  a dramatic reduction in teen pregnancy rates  has also been achieved over the past quarter-century. Though that positive trend started before welfare reforms passage, it is at least plausible that its continuation had something to do with pregnancy prevention programs tied to the bill.

More to the point, 20 years is a long time for any policy to remain on the books without structural revision, and welfare reform is no exception  especially given its necessary link, via the work requirement, to the fast-changing U.S. labor market. Congress, however, has failed to pass a comprehensive authorization since 2010; it has been making do with a series of temporary extensions. Meanwhile, total federal funding has been frozen at $16.5 billion per year since 1996. States continue to game the block-grant mechanism, using money for programs well outside the laws core purposes  helping the poor get work and providing cash assistance until they do. Some states are squeezing benefit levels and shortening lifetime eligibility periods  to as little as one year in Arizona.

A welfare reform update would keep its core principle  benefits conditioned on work effort  while requiring states to spend more of their funds on achieving the work goals. Congress should permit more flexibility in how individuals may meet work requirements to reflect needs for education, vocational training, addiction treatment and other long-term services. It should also increase support for child care, to help parents who take low-wage jobs with unpredictable schedules to meet the work requirement. There should also be a mechanism for increased funding during recessions.

It seems that every year, Washington greets welfare reforms anniversary the same way: by arguing about it. This time Congress ought to celebrate with less talk and more action.
Regarding the Aug. 19 news article Cash payment to Iran was leverage, not ransom, State Department says:

The $400 million that the United States delivered to Iran immediately after the release of several hostages was clearly not ransom. As explained in Allen S. Weiner and Duncan Pickards Aug. 12 op-ed, Fulfilling a promise to Iran isnt ransom,  the $400 million belonged to Iran, and the United States had agreed to return it to Iran.

Iran got not a penny more than what was legitimately owed to it. That the United States waited to deliver the money until three detained Americans were in the air was not ransom but a prudent move on the part of the United States to ensure that the Americans would be released. Had the money been returned to Iran before the release of the Americans and had Iran then reneged on releasing them, the Obama administration would have been pilloried, rightfully, for not holding back Irans money as insurance for the Americans return.

David Tillotson, Washington
By Mustafa Shaikh: Barun Kashyap, a creative director has alleged that he was subjected to harassment by 'self-proclaimed cow protectors in Bombay'. He told India Today that he feared that his complaint might hurt sentiments of cow vigilantes and hamper his safety. Kashyap has already got hate messages for putting up his ordeal on Facebook.

The incident took place on Friday evening, when Kashyap who works with a production house, took an auto-rickshaw for his workplace. The auto driver, identified as Ashish, saw a leather bag in Kashyap's possession. At a traffic signal he leaned back and touched the bag before telling Kashyap that the bag was made of cow skin.



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AUTO-DRIVER TURNED COW VIGILANTE



Spotting of the leather was the beginning of an ordeal for Kashyap, who told the auto-driver that he bought it from Rajasthan. Admonishing Kashyap, the auto-driver told him that 'because of people like me cow slaughter is encouraged'.



Kashyap retorted by asking the auto-driver to mind his own business, which he did by taking his auto in a bylane. He stopped near a temple and signalled three men sitting and smoking in front of the temple.



GAU RAKSHAKS PLAY THEIR PART



"Three men with red Tilak mark worn on the forehead approach the auto and start conversing in Marathi, which I could not decipher," reads Kashyap's Facebook post. One of the men came near Kashyap and asked him his name. He replied by saying, "Barun". He was then asked to tell his full name. "Barun Kashyap Bhuyan", said Kashyap.



The three men then conversed in Marathi, which Kashyap could not understand. "I could only understand the word '' Brahmin'', reads his Facebook post. "Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin. They left the site after bidding farewell to the autowala, the fellow cow protector," Kashyap writes further.



'YOU ESCAPED TODAY'



After getting down from the auto on a main road Kashyap paid the fare and asked for the name and phone number of the auto-driver, who identified himself as Ashish and gave a number, which turned out to be incorrect.



"Aaj to back gaye" (you escaped today) was the parting remark of the auto-driver to Kashyap. He had a sigh of relief. But soon, the creative director thought of lodging a police complaint so that such elements don't get an encouragement.



THE RELUCTANT POLICE



When Kashyap arrived at the police station to file a complaint, he got the taste of bureaucracy as police seem reluctant in entertaining a case against cow vigilantes. Finally, a non-cognizable complaint was registered under IPC sections 506 and 504 pertaining to criminal intimidation.



His Facebook post reads, "I was made to run to different police stations to find the right jurisdiction. After many denials, the police started to write a complaint. Inspite I telling them that I don't understand Marathi my statement was taken down in Marathi. I called up a friend to read my statement and he said that the important portion from the complaint is missing. I has to insist on adding those points. (sic)"



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ALSO READ:

India Today expose: How Gau Rakshaks turn into extortion mafias

PM Modi slams gau rakshaks, says anti-social elements hiding behind the mask

Punjab Gau Raksha Dal chief Satish Kumar arrested for extortion, sodomy



--- ENDS ---
NPR made a big announcement in the middle of last week: It is ending its users ability to offer comments at the bottom of each story posted on its site.

Weve reached the point where weve realized that there are other, better ways to achieve the same kind of community discussion around the issues we raise in our journalism, Scott Montgomery, NPRs managing editor of digital news, explained.

This is terrific news. And all other major media organizations should follow NPRs lead.

No, I am not anti-First Amendment. And, no, I am not so thin-skinned that I cant take criticism. Neither am I so arrogant as to believe that I have the right way of looking at everything in the political world.

But I do hate the comments sections of media websites. Or, more accurately, I have grown to hate them.

When I started The Fix in 2006, I spent lots of time thinking about the comments section  and nurturing it. I would regularly go into the comments to interact (or try to interact) with readers. I incentivized and deputized regular commenters to keep order.

Then I gave up. Because none of the tactics or strategies we tried had any real effect on the quality of the dialogue happening on The Fix. No matter what the original post was about, a handful of the loudest  or most committed  voices in the room hijacked the comments thread to push their own agendas. Anyone trying to urge the conversation back to the topic at hand  or even something approximating the topic at hand  was shouted down and shamed.

It was the opposite of the community I was trying to build. Instead of providing a place where political junkies could trade thoughts, ideas and jokes about the political scene, the Fix comments section turned into a town in which the loudest and most obnoxious guy appoints himself mayor.

What I also came to realize  thanks to the rise of software that allowed real-time quantitative analysis of who was reading what  was that the number of people commenting was minuscule compared with the overall audience for the blog. It was like my freshman year of college. I assumed everyone was going out every night and getting drunk because the people who were doing that were SO DAMN LOUD about it. Only later did I realize that the loud, party-all-the-time crowd was a minority and that there were lots of people who rolled their eyes at them.

NPR found the same thing. These stats are telling: In July, NPR.org recorded nearly 33 million unique users and 491,000 comments. But those comments came from just 19,400 commenters, according to Montgomery. Thats 0.06 percent of users who are commenting, a number that has stayed steady through 2016, he added.

Numbers like that make clear that comments sections arent fostering conversation  theyre killing it. A very small group of people are dominating every conversation, making it more difficult for someone who may be, say, an expert on a particular topic to offer their opinion for fear of being berated for trying to break into the club.

The rise of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook  as well as more niche question/answer sites such as Quora  have made comments sections increasingly obsolete, as well. No, not everyone has a Twitter account or Facebook page, but (1) they will soon, and (2) accessing conversation around a particular topic or story is far easier on these social platforms than trying to navigate the still-clunky comments sections of most media outlets.

The best-case scenario for retaining comments is providing real-time moderation of them to keep the conversation as close to the topic and as far from being mean-spirited as possible. But even that is impractical for two main reasons. First, its cost-prohibitive. No media outlet can afford to have staffers monitor every piece of content  or even half, or even a 10th  that gets posted every day. Second, monitoring comments brings its own problems. Who is the monitor? How do they decide what comments are good and which are bad? Does being partisan make a comment bad? Why? And so on and so forth, ad infinitum.

Ill be the first to admit that rooting for comments sections to die seems and feels, at first glance, profoundly undemocratic. But thats because you are probably thinking of your platonic vision of comments sections  in which someone you have never met before offers up a great, on-topic article you missed, you strike up a friendship, connect offline and become the best of friends forever. Which never happens.

What the comments section actually is in this supercharged partisan media environment is a mud pit where the only rule is that there are no rules. And, by definition, when fighting in a mud pit, no one comes out clean.

So, good on you, NPR for taking a stand against comments sections. I hope everyone in the media space follows your lead. It would help make online conversation great  or maybe just less worse  again.
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.

Donald Trumps campaign wavered Sunday on whether he would continue to call for the mass deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants from the United States, the latest in a series of sometimes-clumsy attempts to win over moderate GOP voters without alienating millions who have flocked to his hard-line views.

After insisting for more than a year that all illegal immigrants have to go, Trump met with a newly created panel of Hispanic advisers on Saturday and asked for other ideas  making clear that his position is not finalized, according to two attendees. Any shift would represent a remarkable retreat on one of the Republican nominees signature issues.

The meeting prompted attempts by Trump advisers on Sunday to clarify his position. Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on CNN that Trumps stance on mass deportations was to be determined but that he will be fair and humane for those who live among us in this country. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a close Trump adviser, said on CBS that the nominee is wrestling with the issue but has not changed his position yet.

People that are here unlawfully, came into the country against our laws, are subject to being removed, Sessions said. Thats just plain fact.

The remarks were the latest in a series of moves by Trump or his aides in recent weeks to alter or shade his position on issues that have been central to his appeal  an effort that has accelerated as he fades in the polls behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The shifts appear aimed at shoring up support among white GOP moderates who have been reluctant to support extreme positions staked out by Trump during the Republican primary, including a massive U.S.-Mexico border wall, deportation of illegal immigrants and a total ban on foreign Muslims.

Appearing on political television shows Aug. 21, Donald Trumps new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said the Republican candidate just had the best week of his campaign. Conways Democratic counterpart Robby Mook defended the Clinton Foundation amid criticism about its acceptance of foreign donations. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

At the same time, any oscillation carries the risk of alienating Trumps most loyal supporters, many of whom adore his willingness to buck political correctness by laying out brash proposals. Trump has thrived in part by staying vague on most of his policy positions, vaccillating between extreme rhetoric and assurances of reasonableness.

[The Fix: Trump could be considering his biggest flip-flop yet  on immigration]

Hillary Clintons campaign aides and critics of Trump within his own party have urged voters to focus on the concrete promises and proposals that Trump has made rather than the opaque rhetoric he often employs.

One key case in point is Trumps position on foreign-born Muslims. In December, Trump issued a written statement  still on his campaign website  calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, although within days he said it would be temporary and would include a number of exceptions. By spring, he seemed to back away from the controversial proposal, calling it just a suggestion, only to double down once again following an Islamic State-inspired mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub. Then this summer, Trump stopped using the word Muslim, instead saying he would focus on areas of the world where theres a proven history of terrorism against the United States  he wouldnt say which ones  and implement extreme vetting.

Im talking about territories now, Trump told Sean Hannity of Fox News in late July, insisting that his position had not changed but had expanded. People dont want me to say Muslim  I guess Id prefer not saying it, frankly, myself. So were talking about territories.

Rick Wilson, a longtime GOP strategist who strongly opposes Trump and is now working on the campaign of independent candidate Evan McMullin, called Trumps shape-shifting on such issues irritating.

He lets people fill in the blanks mentally for what they think hes saying, not what hes actually saying, Wilson said. So when you hear him saying one day: Im going to ban all Muslims, but then you hear him say another day, Well, Im going to ban the dangerous, bad ones. And then you hear him another day saying, Im going to ban the ones from the bad countries. So it always flips, and then the people that are fanatics about Trump just say, Oh, well, he meant the one that I liked. 

A woman in a U.S. flag themed dress poses for photos as GOP nominee Donald Trump speaks in Virginia on Saturday. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Trump has been equivocal on a long list of other issues as well, including the fight against terrorism, abortion and gun control.

[Trump is finally raising money, but his campaign isnt spending it]

On the Islamic State terrorist group, for example, Trump has presented a panoply of options throughout the campaign: Allow Russia to handle the problem. Send in tens of thousands of American troops. Bomb the s--- out of oil fields controlled by the group and seize the oil. Or just bomb the hell out of ISIS, using a common acronym for the group.

Trump has also promised to revive waterboarding of terror suspects, only to say later that he would never force members of the military to break U.S. and international law. Then he said he would change those laws.

On guns, Trump implied that he wants to arm intoxicated club-goers and bar patrons  an idea that concerned even the National Rifle Association  then later insisted he was obviously talking about additional guards or employees. He suggested that Japan arm itself with nuclear weapons, then insisted he had never said that. He promised to raise taxes on wealthy individuals like himself, then insisted he never said that.

Trump called for banning abortion and then punishing women who have the illegal procedure, a position he quickly abandoned. He has said that wages are too high and too low, while calling for both an end to the federal minimum wage and an increase of it. He was opposed to H-1B visas used by skilled foreign workers, then in favor of the program, and then once again opposed.

Trumps campaign did not respond to a request to clarify his positions on these and other issues. This spring, Trump insisted in an interview with The Washington Post that his positions have not changed at all.

I mean I feel that Im very consistent but you must have flexibility, Trump said, seeming to take two positions on the question. If you have a position, that doesnt mean that there is not a better alternative . . . Im very upfront with people and I will tell people, but I think Ive been extremely, I think Ive been steadfast in my beliefs, actually. But with all of that being said, sometimes there is flexibility. Sometimes you want to negotiate.

Greg Mueller, a GOP strategist who worked on Pat Buchanans 1992 presidential campaign, said Trumps positions have undergone tweaks but his big-picture stances on immigration, taxes and the economy have remained consistent  unlike Hillary Clinton, whom he accused of doing a 180 on trade. Trumps views should become even clearer as the GOP nominee gives more policy speeches that have been more deeply thought out than a quick answer on cable news, Mueller said.

Candidates of all stripes running for all sorts of offices, especially national office where theyre dealing with a large breadth of issues . . . they modify or refine positions as campaigns go on or as issues change and we learn new information, he said.

[The Take: Trump staff shake-up is a sign of a candidate who has lost his way]

At the heart of Trumps campaign is fierce opposition to illegal immigration. Trump has proposed building a mammoth wall along the southern border  so tall that no ladder could ever reach the top, he has said  and then to deport the millions of immigrants illegally in the country but allowing them to apply to reenter legally.

They have to go, Trump said on NBCs Meet the Press last year.

This June, Trump expressed hesitation in using the term mass deportations, although his aides would not say whether his position had changed. In the meeting Saturday with his Hispanic advisory panel, Trump asked to hear policy ideas  although the campaign said that should not be taken as a sign that Trump has changed his position.

He addressed the immigration issue himself and said, Look, I know its an issue. The biggest problem is the 11 million that are here. He asked for our input on how to deal with them, said Jacob Monty, a Houston-based immigration attorney who handles complex immigration issues for large corporations, including the New York Yankees.

Conway  who was just hired last week amid a campaign shake-up  was asked during an interview Sunday on CNNs State of the Union whether Trump still wants a deportation force removing the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants.

To be determined, said Conway, who in the past has supported creating a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants illegally living in the United States.

What he supports is to make sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country, she said earlier in the interview.

Conway said the candidate will reveal the specifics of his immigration plan as the weeks unfold. Trump is expected to give an immigration policy speech on Thursday in Colorado.

Clintons campaign responded by listing Trumps clear calls for mass deportations over the past year and noting his favorable comparison of his plans to Operation Wetback, which were mass deportations carried out during the 1950s under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Whether Donald Trumps immigration plan includes a deportation squad to forcibly remove millions of families from their homes has been asked and answered by the candidate himself time and time again, Lorella Praeli, Hillary for Americas national Latino vote director, said in a statement. When someone running for president says he looks upon a plan called Operation Wetback favorably, we should believe him the first dozen times he lays out his intentions.

Ed OKeefe contributed to this report.
A bomb blast at a wedding party in southeast Turkey killed at least 50 people overnight, Turkish officials said Sunday, in what is now the deadliest in a string of militant attacks in the country this year.

The explosion late Saturday tore through a crowd of revelers at an outdoor marriage ceremony in the city of Gaziantep, roughly 35 miles from the Syrian border, and was blamed on Islamic State militants who operate in the area.

The Turkish president said the suicide bomber was between 12 and 14 years old, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities in Turkey have blamed the Islamic State for at least three attacks in 2016, including a June assault on Istanbuls Ataturk Airport that left 44 people dead. But the group, which has long used Turkey to access its base in war-torn Syria, has not claimed any of the attacks.

Saturdays blast would mark the first suspected Islamic State attack in Turkey since the airport assault.

A man is carried as he cries during a funeral for victims of the suspected suicide bombing attack on a wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey. (Ilyas Akengin/AFP/Getty Images)

This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said at the site of attack, the Associated Press reported.

We . . . are united against all terror organizations, he said. They will not yield.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) said in a statement that the wedding party had been for one of its members and that many citizens, including women and children, lost their lives.

Images from the wedding showed guests wailing as ambulances carried away the dead and wounded. Turkish media reported that the bride and groom were injured but were not in critical condition.

Turkey has been locked in a battle with Kurdish militants in the southeast for more than a year. The government has accused the HDP of supporting Kurdish guerrillas who want more autonomy for ethnic Kurds. The HDP has denies the accusation.

The Kurdistan Workers Party  or PKK  is the largest Kurdish militant group and has carried out attacks on Turkish security forces in recent months. The fighting comes after a 2013 peace deal ending decades of conflict fell apart last year.

In addition to clashes between Kurdish and government forces, suicide bombers linked to the Islamic State struck two Kurdish peace rallies in Turkey last year, killing more than 120 people.

Read more

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Tourists visit the Turner Contemporary museum in the British seaside resort town of Margate. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

There has been a rash of gloomy economic forecasts for Britons ever since they voted to abandon the European Union. But heres a bright spot of news: Frumpy tourist towns in England may be poised for a boomlet.

You might have to be a hotelier in Cornwall or a publican in the Cotswolds to appreciate the irony, but the call for tighter borders marked by the Brexit vote in June could be a win for the tourism industry in the United Kingdom, at least in the short term.

The Yanks are coming. The Europeans, too. Theyre suddenly finding hotel rooms in London nearly affordable, because the value of the British pound is at a three-decade low against the dollar and has also slumped against the euro and Asian currencies.

But the Brits may be their own best customers. This may be a fine time for foreigners shopping for discounts in the United Kingdom, but it is tough for people here who traditionally travel abroad in search of sun during the summer months.

Its too soon to know for sure, but tourism officials say British travelers may be bidding adios to Majorca and saying hallo to Blackpool.

A Margate fish joint awaits customers. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

Out: Bouillabaisse at Chez Fonfon in Marseilles.

In: Jellied eels at Mannings Seafood Stall in Margate.

On the eve of the Brexit vote, Michael OLeary, head of the budget airline Ryanair, launched a 24-hour super-discount sale of 9.99-pound fares to European cities from Britain. The Irish executive was hoping Britain would vote to remain in the European Union.

OLeary warned that leaving the bloc could usher in an age of higher-priced jet travel to the continent.

The possible uptick for British tourism is another in a long row of dominoes to fall in the post-Brexit world, where no one really knows what will come next.

Will Britons really stay put this summer  and are they returning to resorts such as Margate, often derided in the British press as a seaside slum?

Weve been ridiculed over the years, so it would be satisfying to see more visitors, said Trevor Lamb, who rents affordable bouncy castles for kiddie parties in Margate.

Tourists do a little fishing in Margate. The city has been struggling economically, but locals hope that the Brexit vote will mean more visitors on staycations. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

By ridiculed, Lamb meant how the London press heaps scorn on also-ran cities in the east of England.

The Guardian once wondered aloud if Margate may be the saddest of all Britains seaside towns. The Telegraph favors Poverty-by-the-Sea as a descriptor.

As the English seaside towns withered, British social scientists said they became dumping grounds for the poor and welfare-dependent.

The British resort towns essentially invented the modern seaside vacations. They also voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union.

They thrived before they were abandoned by British tourists lured away by cheap international airfares and globalized package vacations to southern Spain and the Greek isles.

Today, theres a kind of Coney Island in the 1970s vibe to some of the resorts, with plenty of boarded-up shops, tattoo parlors and Chinese takeout.

Well see if it comes back, said Lamb, who admitted he was skeptical. It seems too good to be true.

He said he hadnt voted in years but turned out to cast a ballot to leave the European Union.

Its busy today, Lamb said, pointing toward the yellow-sand beach packed with DFLs, local slang for Down From London weekenders who hop on the train for the hour-long trip.

The beach was crowded with partygoers blasting reggae, grilling jerk chicken and competing in tug-of-war contests.

The Tourism Alliance, a trade association, predicted that the British pounds post-Brexit slump may depress outbound travel but could encourage a kind of Staycation 2, a repeat of the last domestic boom that followed on the heels of the global financial meltdown of 2008, when a mass of British holidaymakers decided to forgo trips abroad and vacation at home.

British tourism officials reported a spike in online searches for flights and hotel bookings in England, Wales and Scotland after the Brexit vote.

For a generation of Britons, going on a holiday meant catching a low-cost flight on discount airlines to a country where spotting the sun is virtually guaranteed.

They have transformed  for better, often worse  vast stretches of Spanish coastline with cities of time-share villas.

Last year, Britons spent substantially more money abroad than did those coming into the United Kingdom for vacation.

At the Margate tourism office, a staff member said there have been days when visitors call asking about available hotel rooms and they have to scramble to find them one.

A circle of day-tripping DFLs were crowded into the Lifeboat pub, drinking local Kentish ale, skeptical about the idea of a Brexit bump in stay-at-home tourism to places like Margate. The pound was low, but they wondered why anyone would spend more than a day here. Then again, they conceded Margate was cleaning up its act. The old brick city center is bustling with vintage clothes shops, wine bars and art galleries.

Down by the seafront, the Turner Contemporary museum opened in 2011, an extension of the Tate Modern in London.

Its free and popular  and part of an arty renaissance.

The Automobile Association said that 1 in 14 holidaymakers who had planned to travel abroad this summer will either stay at home or staycation in Britain.

Anecdotally, theres evidence of an uptick, said Patricia Yates, director of VisitBritain, the nations tourist body. Liverpool is talking about a spike in U.S. visitors. Isle of Wight says theres a significant leap on website traffic. Yorkshire is predicting a boom, particularly in domestic holidays. And the weather here is cracking.

Yates said that there were signs of the rising popularity of staycations before Brexit. She said that in the first quarter of 2016, 7.3 million Britons vacationed in England, up 10 percent compared with the same period in 2015.

She said one reason is security fears: Britons were shying away from once-popular destinations such as Tunisia following concerns about terrorist attacks.

Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, an industry body, agreed that it was too soon to tell if the weakening pound would lead to a surge of business for the hospitality industry.

Theres a real sense of optimism, hope and opportunity and a desire to seize this opportunity and lock in our competitive advantage, she said.

David Wells, a partner in a Margate vintage clothes and accessory shop called Just Jane, said he is seeing new admiration for the town.

There was a fellow the other day who told me he hadnt been here in 10 or 20 years and heard, Oh, what a . . . hole, but then they see it for themselves and they say, Wow, I cant wait to come back. 

Theres a lot to see if people give us the chance, Wells said.

Adam reported from London.

The Brexit wild card? Ireland.

Britains scientists are freaking out over Brexit

Europes strange vacation habits: Men shave their chests en masse; coast guard fights towels

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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.
Days after the hooch tragedy at Gopalganj of Bihar that claimed lives of 16 people, police on Saturday arrested the mastermind behind the tragedy.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Gopalganj police has arrested Nagina Pasi, the mastermind behind the hooch tragedy in which 16 people lost their lives. Earlier, this week this tragic incident took place in Khajur Vani locality in Gopalganj town of Bihar where several persons died after consuming spurious liquor.

According to sources, Pasi who was on the run after the incident was intending to surrender before a local court in Gopalganj on Sunday but the police managed to arrest him before that.

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Six associates of Nagina Pasi who were involved in the business of manufacturing illicit country made liquor in Gopalganj were arrested the same day when the incident took place.

CACHE OF ILLICIT LIQUOR RECOVERED

Soon after the deaths took place, local police had cracked down on Khajur Vani locality and recovered about 1000 liters of illegal country made liquor which was hidden underground. The police dug many parts of Khajur Vani and recovered illegal liquor.

In the incident, the Gopalganj SP has already suspended 25 policemen who were posted at the town police station for dereliction of duty and not enforcing prohibition in their area.

The opposition has been attacking Nitish Kumar over the incident asserting that deaths after consuming liquor punctured the tall claims made by the Bihar CM on prohibition that the law was being strictly enforced in the state.

Also read:

Nitish govt faces heat as hooch tragedy kills 13 amid liquor ban in Bihar



--- ENDS ---
A 4-month-old boy survived an attack at an Alabama home that left five people dead.

Police found the baby in the home in Citronelle, Ala. after the attack on Saturday. The victims, including a pregnant woman, were killed by firearms and several other weapons, police said.

Officials identified the pregnant victim as Chelsea Marie Reed. The other victims were Robert Lee Brown, Justin Kaleb Reed, Joseph Adam Turner and Shannon Melissa Randall.

Derrick Ryan Dearman, 27, turned himself in following the murders at a police station in Mississippi, CNN reported. Dearman allegedly kidnapped a woman and a 3-month-old baby from the home, and drove to Mississippi, letting them go before he turned himself in. Police said the woman and baby are safe and in good health.

Dearman will be charged with six counts of capital murder to include the unborn child, Captain Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriffs Office told CNN.

According to Burch, multiple people were in the home at the time of the attack. Neighbors said a brother, a sister and their families lived in the house.

[CNN]

For more news videos, visit Yahoo View.
Afghan forces have recaptured a district that had fallen briefly to the Taliban, officials and residents said Sunday, after thousands of people fled their homes in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province.

Khan Abad district, which is around 30 kilometres east of Kunduz city -- the provincial capital where militants last year scored their biggest ever victory -- had fallen to the Taliban after they launched a pre-dawn attack on the district centre on Saturday, according to local officials.

Several hours later Afghan special forces were deployed to the area -- a key route to Kunduz city -- to retake the district.

The district was recaptured by government forces on Saturday evening, according to Sayed Mahmood Danish, a Kunduz governor spokesman.

"Taliban are now being chased away. The threat to the city is gone. We are expanding our operations beyond the district," Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told AFP.

A shopkeeper in Khan Abad district, Khalid, told AFP that people were still worried about the Taliban making a return to the city.

"The roads are empty, few shops are open in the city. People do not have access to food and drinking water. We still cannot come out of our houses," he said.

Another resident, Mohammad Sahim, said the militants had looted and set fire to government buildings.

"People are in fear, you don't see many people in the streets, schools are closed," he said, adding that there is a danger of food shortages.

The Taliban briefly captured Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war.

The militants were driven out almost two weeks later by Afghan forces backed by US aircraft and NATO soldiers, but it marked the first time since 2001 that the Taliban were able to take control of a major city in the country.

After the brief Kunduz city takeover, US and Afghan officials insisted that they would not allow another urban centre to be captured.

Earlier this month, the Taliban launched a major offensive in volatile southern Helmand province, surrounding the capital Lashkar Gah, a town of 200,000 inhabitants, but were stopped by Afghan forces supported by American air strikes.

The fighting in Helmand and Kunduz comes as Afghan troops are stretched on multiple fronts across Afghanistan -- including eastern Nangarhar province where the Islamic State group is making inroads.
Rev. Al Sharpton thinks old rap allegations against Nate Parker are surfacing to sabotage the release of The Birth of a Nation.

Parker wrote, directed, and stars in the film on the slave revolt led by Nat Turner, which sold for a record $17.5 million at Sundance. Anticipation for the film had been strong, until recently.

The release of explicit details from Parkers 1999 rape trial  in which he was acquitted of all charges  quieted the film buzz, and Sharpton questions the timing of it all.

I want answers, Sharpton told the New York Daily News. Im suspicious.

Though Parkers story has never been hidden (the case appears on his Wikipedia page), Sharpton cant shake his skepticism. The timing and the standard is my concern, he said.

Seventeen years ago, Parker and his Birth of a Nation co-writer, Jean Celestine, were accused of raping a fellow Penn State student. While Parker was cleared of wrong-doing and transferred to another college, Celestine was sentenced to six-months in jail, but won a mistrial on appeal after the accuser refused to testify a second time.

Since both men were eventually cleared in court, Sharpton doesnt understand why Parkers career should be suffer adding, If a person is accused of a crime and is acquitted, are we now saying they should not be considered for an Oscar?

Parker, a now 36-year-old married father of five, recently addressed the case in during two interviews. and a Facebook post after it was revealed that his accuser committed suicide in 2012.

In his Facebook statement from last Tuesday (Aug. 16), Parker expressed sorrow over the suicide, but reasserted his innocence.

While I maintain my innocence that the encounter was unambiguously consensual, there are things more important than the law, Parker wrote. There is morality; no one who calls himself a man of faith should even be in that situation. As a 36-year-old father of daughters and person of faith, I look back on that time as a teenager and can say without hesitation that I should have used more wisdom.
paul chelimo

American runner Paul Chelimo won the silver medal in the men's 5,000 meters on Saturday night, but for a little while he thought he had been disqualified, and he was told the news in the worst way possible.

Chelimo thought he was about to be interviewed on NBC as the silver medalist in the men's 5,000 meters. Instead he found out he had been disqualified. Fortunately, the decision would later be reversed, but not before a few tense moments on live TV.

Chelimo had just crossed the finish line moments earlier, second to race favorite Mo Farrah of Great Britain. It was seemingly a fantastic finish for the Kenyan-born American.

Instead NBC's Lewis Johnson started his interview by saying, "Paul, I am getting some information here that you have been disqualified in this final."

Needless to say, Chelino's reaction was one of complete shock.

Snapshot_20160820_201336

After several moments of silence, Chelimo finally said under his breath, "Disqualified? No, no, no."

Chelimo appears to have been disqualified over contact that occurred on the final lap. Johnson showed the video to Chelimo, who tried to explain the contact, noting that he felt other runners had blocked him toward the inside and weren't letting him move to an outer lane.

"I was trying to go to the outside to get in position,"Chelimo said. "They were blocking me in. They were pushing me into the rail. I was trying to save myself from all of the pushing."

Here is some of the contact on the backstretch with about 300 meters to go. Chelimo is in blue.

Snapshot_20160820_202028

"I can't believe it," Chelimo continued. "I was running a fair race. I wasn't trying to pick someone. I was trying to go to the outside because the Cuban guy kept blocking me the whole time."

The US coaches eventually appealed the decision, and it was reversed, giving Chelimo the silver medal. However, it seems like this all could have been avoided if it had been handled better.

NOW WATCH: Lebron James reveals the latest details of the much-anticipated 'Space Jam 2'





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Lisbon (AFP) - Portugal Under-21 striker Andre Silva has penned a five-year contract extension with Porto, the Portuguese giants announced on Sunday.

Silva, 20, broke into the Porto first team last season and his new deal, which includes a 60-million-euro ($68 million) release clause, will keep him at the club until 2021.

He scored a late winner for Porto in Saturday's 1-0 victory at home to Estoril, having also netted the equaliser midweek against Roma in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie.
By Suhani Singh: Cast: Abhay Deol, Diana Penty, Jimmy Shergill, Ali Fazal, Piyush Mishra, Kanwaljeet Singh, Javed Sheikh, Momah Sheikh.

Direction: Mudassar Aziz

Rating: (2.5/5)

Most films involving Indians and Pakistanis are melodramatic, politically-charged affairs. Mudassar Aziz's comedy is a refreshingly new addition to the genre. It starts off on a simple premise: Happy (Diana Penty), a runaway bride from Amritsar, jumps in to a wrong truck and ends up in Lahore, Pakistan. There she finds herself in the abode of a heavyweight politician's son, Bilal Ahmed (Abhay Deol), who is being groomed to be the nation's future Jinnah-like leader who will "change the history of Pakistan". It's a joke oft-repeated but credit to Aziz that its timing is such that it never stops being funny. Bilal soon becomes a reluctant host to Happy for she threatens to jeopardise his family's political standing by lying about them bringing in an Indian without paperwork. Much to the bewilderment of many including his fianc Zoya (Momal Sheikh), Bilal takes it upon himself to get her lover, Guddu (Ali Fazal) to Pakistan and get them married. Obviously, things don't go according to plan.



ALSO READ: Abhay Deol, Diana Penty's Happy Bhag Jayegi is an inoffensive entertainer

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ALSO READ: Farhan Akhtar's Bhaag Milkha Bhaag did not do justice to the great man, says Happy Bhag Jayegi's Ali Fazal

The funny thing about Happy Bhag Jayegi is that after 126 minutes you don't know or care much about the titular female character. All we know is that she has shades to Aanand L Rai's Tanu in that she speaks her mind out and is reckless but other than that the character is not etched well enough to make her a charismatic presence that has men running all over. It's also because while Diana Penty is easy on the eyes she lacks the thespian skills to uplift the spirited character. Instead audiences will find themselves more drawn to colourful supporting ones like jilted groom Bagga (a fantastic Jimmy Shergill) and Pakistani police officer Usman Afridi (the reliably good Piyush Mishra).

The film's funniest bits, and there is a generous spread of it, are devoted to the duo and they only enhance the scenes with their pitch-perfect performances. Bagga wants Happy back more to protect his pride and justify the stupendous money he spent on the marriage. As he delightfully puts: I called in a choreographer from Mumbai and did a solo dance and the wedding cards were distributed all over. Carrying off purple aviators with aplomb, Shergill is once again the guy who is unlucky in love but he manages to bring the only negative character humanity. Meanwhile, Mishra's Usman Afridi is the India-wary cop who repeatedly wishes that renowned Indian personalities were Pakistani. The long list includes everyone from Yash Chopra to Kapil Dev.

Equal participants in their misadventures are Deol's Bilal and Fazal's Guddu, Happy's jobless but endearing lover. Fazal makes the most of his screen time, delivering a measured performance and walking away with two of the film's most memorable moments. Even as Mudassar Aziz delivers one-liners, play plenty of repartee and indulges in word play in both Urdu and English, the forced inclusion of a love triangle is a twist that doesn't work. Bilal's attraction to Happy comes out of the blue and is never quite explained. It also makes way for a superfluous mushy song that sees Zoya sending accusing glares of betrayal to Bilal and sulking.

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The comedy sticks to the tried-and-tested format of bringing all the characters under one roof for the kerfuffle that is the climax and let one whimsical but contrived situation after another unfold. Happy Bhag Jayegi is certainly not short in the laughs department but one walks out wishing for a sharper narrative and a stronger female protagonist that isn't merely the object of men's affection.

--- ENDS ---
By Libby George and Ulf Laessing

LONDON/LAGOS (Reuters) - Oil companies and even Nigerian officials are losing faith in a deal anytime soon with militants who have slashed the nation's oil output, casting doubt on a production recovery in what is typically Africa's largest oil exporter.

In the six months since the first major attack on Nigeria's oil  a sophisticated bombing of the subsea Forcados pipeline  dozens of attacks have pushed outages to more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), the highest in seven years.

Talk in the country has shifted from ceasefire optimism, and oil companies' assurances that repairs were underway, to hedged comments from the government and radio silence from oil majors.

On Sunday, the Niger Delta Avengers militants, which have claimed several major pipeline attacks, said in a statement they were ready to give dialogue a chance.

But highlighting the fracturing of militants into small groups, the previous day a group called Niger Delta Green Justice Mandate claimed an attack on a gas pipeline in the southern swamps lands.

Without a unified command and groups dominated by "generals" unable to fully control their own fighters, it is difficult for the government to identify the right people to talk to or enforce any ceasefire.

"People are giving up in the short term," one oil industry source told Reuters of a resumption in exports of key Nigerian grades such as Forcados or Qua Iboe, adding you "can't get anything" out of the majors, including Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil or ENI, about when the oil might come back.

Shell declined to comment, while the other companies did not immediately responded to a request for comment.

In June, Nigerian government officials said privately it had a ceasefire with militants. But pessimism crept in, with even Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu telling journalists this week "we are talking but (it) is not an easy thing," and "we need a ceasefire"  a contrast to the belief that a ceasefire was underway.

Story continues

He has also said another challenge to brokering a ceasefire is that there were several militant groups to talk to.

DEEP-SEATED ISSUES

The problems reflect deep-seated issues in the Niger Delta, which produces the bulk of oil but whose local communities complain of pollution, a lack of opportunities and what they say is an insufficient share of petro dollars. These problems are compounded by an economic crisis and a government battle with Boko Haram militants in the north.

"This is likely the beginning," Elizabeth Donnelly, deputy head and research fellow of London think-tank Chatham House's Africa Programme said of the unrest, adding that "the resolution that will come will not come quickly."

The government this month resumed cash payments to militant groups that it stopped in February, just before the launch of the worst violence since the payments began under a 2009 amnesty. But attacks continued anyway.

The Delta Avengers claimed the bulk of them, announcing strikes on Twitter even before oil majors themselves knew their remote pipelines had been hit. Twitter shut the group's account, but sources said the Avengers have extensive knowledge of oil sites, and follow the media closely to track companies' actions.

"With the Avengers, you don't want to say 'we'll be back up next Wednesday', because then you'll get a bomb next Tuesday," one oil executive said. "They have to be careful."

But new groups, such as the self-styled Revolution Alliance, which claimed an attack on a Shell-owned oil line, loom, while non-violent local protests have also exacted a toll.

Collings Edema, a local youth leader of the Itsekiri group that has blocked access to Chevron's Escravos tank farm for almost two weeks, said "the oil companies have not shown any sign that they are ready to improve our lives".

Experts warned that as long as people are unhappy, militants and their targets could evolve in unpredictable ways.

"This is also about frustrations of younger people coming up in the Niger Delta and needs not having been addressed," Donnelly said. "This isn't just about militancy, though the political and economic context feeds it."

Adding to the division of the militant scene, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), another group which agreed to a ceasefire in 2009, denounced the Avengers due to its "criminal and treasonable activities".

"MEND reiterates its full support for the ongoing military presence in the Niger Delta," it said in a statement, referring to a recent military campaign to hunt down the Avengers.

(Additional reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, editing by David Evans)
Gaziantep (Turkey) (AFP) - "They turned our wedding into a bloodbath," said bride Besna Akdogan on Sunday as she left hospital after a suicide bombing killed 51 people at her wedding in southeastern Turkey.

The funerals of some of the victims took place, meanwhile, with feelings running high in the town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border where hundreds gathered following Saturday's bombing.

Shouts of "shame on you, Erdogan" rang out as others threw water bottles at police, amid anger at the president for not doing more to prevent the attack on a Kurdish wedding which the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the Islamic State group had threatened to carry out.

A lawmaker from President Recep Erdogan's Ruling Justice and Development Party for Gaziantep had hoped to attend the funerals but pulled out when the extent of the anger became clear.

"I lost my children, now I will never see them again," wailed one woman confronted with the sight of rows of freshly dug graves.

Erdogan said earlier that the attack -- the deadliest in 2016 -- had involved a child aged between 12 and 14, adding that IS was the likely perpetrator of the bombing on a wedding that had many Kurdish guests.

- Suicide vest -

With 69 people still in hospital, 17 in a critical condition, the HDP said warnings about IS's growing foothold in Gaziantep had fallen on deaf ears. IS see Kurds as enemies due to the prominent role of Kurdish militias in fighting the jihadists.

"Over the years, step by step, Gaziantep became a host for IS. For a long time, people who lived in the province said IS was building up a presence," it said in a statement.

After twin suicide bombings targeting a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara in October 2015 killed 103 people, IS had warned it would attack a Kurdish wedding, it added.

"Unfortunately, the political powers did not take the necessary steps to prevent these plans despite warnings," it said.

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The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene on Sunday, according to the chief prosecutor's office.

An AFP photographer who visited the scene found body parts still strewn across the ground along with victims' belongings.

In a room of a house near to where the bomber struck, debris could be seen everywhere with windows flung open and walls pockmarked with bomb damage.

At local hospitals, relatives of the injured gathered to await news of their loved ones.

Some fainted in the heat as they struggled to comprehend the scale of the loss of life.

The bombing is the seventh major attack in Turkey this year blamed on either IS or The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical offshoot of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
With Korea and Japan standing in the forefront for beauty shopping, Hong Kong may not be the first place that comes to mind when youre planning for a trip thatll earn you cosmetic a cosmetic haul with good bargains.

Or so I thought, until the day when I realised that a number of my favourite drugstore (and mid-range) beauty brands are actually cheaper in Hong Kong, and best of all, are widely available there!

Essentially, that means you wont have to go around searching high and low to feed your beauty need, for these cosmetic chain outlets are all over Hong Kong  and were now introducing them to you beauty junkies, once and for all.

The trick to shopping for cosmetics and skincare in these stores is that you must be prepared to look into the nooks and crannies of the space for the best deals. Rents are high in Hong Kong, and thats why most stores try to fully utilise every available space to its full potential. Walking aisles might be a lil constrained, but as the saying goes  no pain, no gain!

You can now bet that you wont miss any of these stores when youre there!

1. 759 Kawaiiland

Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong

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Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong:

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Surprise, surprise! SaSa may be the most well-known place to shop for cosmetics in Hong Kong, but were leaving it for later. Our favourite discovery would be a new cosmetic chain outlet called 759 Kawaiiland, and were in love. The younger generation of Hong Kong flock to these outlets because of one reason: They stock literally everything from personal care products to stationary, and goods are imported directly from Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

If youre looking to only browse through to hottest and most popular of brands in Asia, 759 Kawaiiland is for you. Its a fuss-free shopping experience, theres no need to constantly trawl through rack after rack of lesser known brands  if what you need is something thats trending (and something that every girl wants too), youd probably be able to find it at 759 Kawaiiland. Some of the products are also exclusive to this chain only, and could not be found at other cosmetic chain outlets.

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Brands available include Biore, Shiseido, Hadalabo, Heroine Make etc. Its also a great place to stock up on facial masks!

Locations: There are quite a number of outlets around Hong Kong, and you can spot them by their kawaii purple storefront design. Here are some places that you can find them at:

Hong Kong International Airport

Terminal 2, Level 5

Non-restricted Area

Tel: 3669 6984

Opening Hours: 09:00  21:00

East Point City

Unit 195

Tel: 3669 6903

Opening Hours: 11:00-22:00

2. SaSa and Bonjour

Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong:

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Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong:

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Its okay if you havent stepped into the SaSa outlets in Singapore (though theyre almost in every heartland mall). But its a crime if you dont check out the ones in Hong Kong. And I mean it  after all, SaSa is from Hong Kong and theyre literally present on every street.

The same goes for Bonjour, and its safe to say that these two are big-time cosmetic chain outlets that local (and older) shoppers usually go to.

Theres a wide variety of cosmetics, skincare and perfume for shoppers to pick from, so you can expect everything from household drugstore brands like Revlon, LOreal and Maybelline, to less known brands waiting to be discovered.

While SaSa holds throne to having the widest variety, Bonjour has a larger collection of Japanese cosmetics, and also offers makeup tools (such as brushes, sponges, etc) as well. The trick is to obviously pop by both stores to compare prices and get the best deals. They are after all everywhere anyway.

Products are stocked up according to category, so simply narrow down your items according to type (toner, lipsticks, moisturiser etc) and search from there. It may be tricky at first, but Im sure its all worth it given the wallet-saving discounts.

Location: Everywhere! Youll have absolutely no problem locating one, Ill guarantee you that.

3. Colourmix





Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong:

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A smaller competitor to SaSa and Bonjour, Colourmix is a cosmetic chain store that targets younger women. They offer a good range of products from skincare, cosmetics, perfume and accessories as well.

The store also aims to be a little more trendy and spacious (than its competitors) for a more comfortable shopping experience. However, do expect a smaller selection of goods compared to its competitors. Youre probably able to score some good deals here as well. Shopping at Colourmix is great for when you are not looking to squeeze through cramped spaces and already have a specific product/brand in mind.

Location: There are more than 40 stores islandwide, but here are some of the addresses:

G/F., No. 519 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay

Tel:2836 6617

Opening Hours:11:00am  11:30pm

Shop 110, 1/F., Silvercord, 30 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel:2314 7887

Opening Hours:10:00am  10:00pm

Shop 10-12, G/F., Argyle Centre Phase I, Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok

Tel:2395 5330

Opening Hours:10:00am  00:00pm

4. Angel Cosmetics and Aster Cosmetic Centre

Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong:

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By now it should have already been established that Hong Kong is full of beauty treasure troves. Angel Cosmetics is no different. Fellow beauty junkies who visited the stores have commented that the spaces are not as well-renovated as SaSa or Bonjour, but the steals are still worth raiding the store nonetheless.

As for Aster Cosmetic Centre, there are more than 400 different brands in-store, from normal to mid-range. These may not be as prevalent as SaSa or Bonjour, but smart beauty shoppers will know that there is absolutely no harm hunting one down just to browse through. There might be hidden gems lying around that are not available in bigger retail outlets!

These two outlets are less established as compared to 759 Kawaiiland, SaSa and Bonjour.

Locations: They belong to the same tier as Colourmix. Here are some addresses:

Shop C, G/F,

Jardine Centre,

No. 50 Jardines Bazaar, Causeway Bay, HK

Tel: 2915 7711

Monday to Sunday

11:00am  9:00pm

G/F, No. 26 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Tel: 2368 4862

Monday to Sunday

10:00am  11:00pm

5. Watsons and Mannings

Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong:

Source

Pharmacies such as these two should not be overlooked too. You might be able to cop some good deals on health and skincare while browsing. Plus, just like the Singapore outlets, they do have small sections of top drugstore brands, such as Revlon, Loreal and Maybelline.

Locations: Can almost find them in every other mall.



At the end of it, what more can I say? Id want to book a flight straight down to Hong Kong now, just to get my hands on those beauty treats. But should you not be able to head down to Hong Kong yourself, and yet still want certain products from the country  simply post up a request on Airfrov and a friendly traveller will bring it back for you!

If youre not sure as to what brands are cheaper as compared to Singapore, dont worry, weve got your back. Keep a lookout for our next Hong Kong beauty shopping installation for price comparisons of drugstore brands (i.e. even cheaper drugstore prices!)

HK

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The post Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong: Where to go? appeared first on Airfrov Blog.
Cotonou (AFP) - At the old train station in Benin's economic capital Cotonou, a rundown locomotive imported from France in the 1960s arduously roars to life, ready to haul 600 tonnes of goods to an inland city.

"If it doesn't break down, it will get there in 12 hours," says Marcel Agon, who has been stationmaster since 1985, about the 430 kilometre (270 mile) trip to Parakou.

Only 20 good trains leave the small terminus each month, yet a fine new regional express passenger train with blue seats and bright paintwork, also from France, has never rolled out of Cotonou.

When French industrial giant Bollore took Benin's rail network in hand in April 2014, railway employees thought things were getting back on track, until a court stopped work the next year. It upheld a complaint from a Beninese businessman with his own plans to knock the railroad back into shape.

Now Benin's new businessman president has promised to find a solution to the conflicting interests that have blocked the hopes of modern rail transport.

"We are going to get out of this hornet's nest soon," President Patrice Talon recently told journalists.

- Going off the rails -

It was in November 2013 that the heads of state of little Benin and landlocked Niger to the north initially decided to establish Benirail, a multinational firm with Bollore as a strategic partner.

In barely three months, Bollore Africa Logistics (BAL) renovated the station, paid wage arrears and imported track to link Cotonou with Niger's capital Niamey, with further plans to extend the railway to Burkina Faso and Togo and on to Abidjan in Ivory Coast.

The aim was to kickstart growth in five of the world's poorest countries in West Africa.

Railroads came to Benin, then called Dahomey, in 1936. But like other African nations the railway was just internal. No significant international network exists except in South Africa.

BAL's start however was a bit too fast for its Beninese rival, millionaire businessman Samuel Dossou, CEO of Petrolin, who had his own rail plans and filed a suit against Bollore.

Story continues

This is "a project that he started himself and paid out of his own pocket for the studies," Dossou's wife and Petrolin board member Claudine Afiavi Prudencio said at the time.

The days when "people can trample on the rights of Beninese businessmen in their homeland are over," she added.

Indeed, BAL had no legal authorisation to begin work. In a ruling handed down on November 19, 2015, the Cotonou court of appeal upheld Dossou's complaint and ordered "the end of all work undertaken" immediately.

Dossou has been trying to take charge of the rail network in the former French colony since 2004, the year the state relaxed its grip on the OCBN (Joint Benin-Niger Organisation of Railways and Transports).

But for lack of funds, no tenders were honoured until 2010, when Dossou and the two states finally negotiated to integrate a rail network. Studies were carried out, but came to nought, according to Gustave Sonon, a former minister of public works.

"Dossou didn't have the resources," Sonon said.

"When I went into government, I had a choice between allowing Bollore to continue or totally blocking the project," the former minister told AFP. "Good progress had been made and for that reason I pushed things on a bit."

- Oxidising in the sun -

But since the court brought work to a halt last year, a huge stock of new track intended to cover a distance of 500 kilometres (310 miles) has been lying in Cotonou, oxidising in the sun.

Across the border in Niger the Bollore group has begun to lay 150 kilometres of track in the vast and partly desert nation, which sorely needs access to the sea, and is threatening to bypass Benin.

"They are threatening to build a railway through Togo and abandon the port of Cotonou if Benin doesn't choose Bollore," said a source close to the case, who added that "in any event, everything will be negotiated in Paris."

Both Petrolin and BAL declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

But Talon, a cotton tycoon who was elected president with 65 percent of the vote and took office in April, declared that negotiations were under way when he gave a press conference after returning from Paris, where he had talks with industrial magnate Vincent Bollore.

"What has been done up until now has many flaws because it was done in haste," Talon admitted, but insisted the impasse would end soon.

Marcel Agon, the elderly stationmaster, sure hopes that a working compromise can be reached -- before his retirement in the next two or three years.

"God willing, before I retire, I shall see this station full of passengers and my country moving forward," he says as the rusty old goods train trundles towards the horizon.
After a day full of performances from Ariana Grande, Martin Garrix, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd and more, Billboard Hot 100 Fest 2016 opened the gates for its second day on Sunday (Aug. 21). Beach breezes helped allay the midday heat at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, while performers kept it hot on the various stages.

Here's some of the most memorable moments of the fest's second day -- so far (Note: We'll be updating throughout the day).

Hot 100 Fest Photos: Check Out Exclusive Backstage Portraits

12:55 pm: Some enterprising Hot 100 Fest-goers got the party started early by setting up a table in the parking lot for a rousing, competitive game of beer pong. Now that's how you tailgate a music fest.

2:01 pm: Only one half of Seeb, the Swedish duo who turned Mike Posner's "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" into a hit with their remix, made it to the festival. But no matter. The audience bounced and jumped their way through the set, which included a slightly different remix of "Ibiza." And then their typical "Ibiza" appeared again at the end, allowing the crowd to take over the lyrics. In the middle of the song, Seeb seamlessly added a few lines of Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling," drawing applause from fans.

Billboard Hot 100 Fest Performance Photos

2:26 pm: "We about to get real lit," opened Atlanta rapper Madeintyo (pronounced "Made In Tokyo," a nod to his time spent living in Japan as a ninth grader) before launching into his set at the W Hotel's Next Up stage. Tyo got the crowd hype with live renditions of his paper-chasing tracks "Haters," "The Check" and "20K." "Last year I was on my couch. This morning, I woke up and said 'I'm about to perform on this Billboard stage,'" he offered before performing his motivational anthem "I Want," which 2 Chainz remixed. The crowd recited every lyric when he set it off with his Hot 100 hit "Uber Everywhere."

Story continues

Billboard Hot 100 Fest: Ariana, Fetty & More Memorable Moments From Day 1

2:33 pm: Brooke Eden was one of the new country artists at Billboard Hot 100 Fest, and while her hard-charging, fiercely defiant songs touched on country music mainstays -- drinking, lovers who done you wrong and standing up for yourself -- her between-song banter cast her songs in a 21st century light. Talking about going on a break with a boyfriend only to see him posting photos on social media of a new girl within days, Brooke Eden sounded like a fiery country star-in-the-making for the Internet era. While originals about not giving her ex the satisfaction of a crazy rant or refusing to be someone's Saturday night without also being their Sunday morning were highlights, she demonstrated her versatility by covering "Drink You Away" during her set. "Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton had a divine intervention at the CMAs," she said of last year's ceremony. "I literally felt like God was speaking out of Chris Stapleton's mouth." God may not have been speaking through her mouth at Hot 100 Fest on this very hot Sunday, but damn, it still sounded heavenly.

3:15 pm: "How many people here have seen Suicide Squad?" asked Skylar Grey a few songs into her set on the main stage at the Billboard Hot 100 Festival on another scorching hot afternoon. As the crowd cheered in response, she and her drummer and DJ launched into "Wreak Havoc," one of her two contributions to the film's successful soundtrack, which is currently atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. (She also co-wrote "Gangsta," performed by Kehlani, for the soundtrack.)

4:18 pm: Party Thieves broke into the Star Wars theme at the peak of its set. The producer also worked the theme from Lion King into his set for a turnt, cinematic performance.

4:23 pm: The W Hotel's Next Up Stage was like a mini dance fest all its own. Haywyre graced the late afternoon beachside air with a DJ set that showed off his jazz piano skills, as he improvised some keys over his own beats.

4:32 pm: Haywyre took time out for some idol worship. "One of my earliest inspirations in electronic music was Daft Punk. This is a tribute to them." He soared through an intergalactic suite of sounds and accompanying visuals reminiscent of the French duo.

4:58 pm: Major Lazer's own Jillionaire had Hot 100 fest-goers getting low for his high octane set at W Hotel's Next Up stage. The Trinidadian DJ/producer busted out the party starters like Jack U's "Febreze" ("if you know you're the shit, point to yourself," Jillionaire told the crowd), Wiz Khalifa's "We Dem Boyz," Desiigner's "Panda," Calvin Harris' "This Is What You Came For" featuring Rihanna, and Major Lazer's "Lean On" ft. M. After playing the Jack U and Justin Bieber jam "Where Are U Now," Jillionaire proclaimed, "I really wish Justin Bieber would come back to Instagram. Justin, we miss you."

5:05 pm: "Are y'all ready to party with us?!" came the call from singer/DJ duo Timeflies, who kicked of their main stage set with the anthemic "All The Way" before tapping into a nostalgic vibe with Biz Markie's "Just a Friend" that segued into their own "Ride." But the clear highlight of the set came when vocalist Cal Shapiro freestyled over producer Rob Resnick's mashup of the beats from Desiigner's "Panda" and DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win." Using prompts up on the screen -- Billboard Hot 100, Yankees, Shake Shack and Summer were the first of several sets of words -- he combined each into subsequent lines in what turned out to be an impressive five-minute freestyle, backing up the hype surrounding their set with an impressive display of skill.

6:12 pm: A few hours before he was scheduled to play the Sun Stage, Marshmello made his way through general admission near that stage. It's hard to stay incognito when there's a giant marshmallow bucket on your head, so naturally dozens of fans and their phones followed him until he made it to the Hot 100 Artist Village, at which point he hung out with Party Thieves backstage for a bit.

6:20 pm: As clouds continued to gather above the Sun Stage, Nashville's Moon Taxi brought some brightness with immediately memorable guitar riffs and soulful, airy vocals. Whether delivering hefty, crunchy guitars, synths or lightly funky material, Moon Taxi had more people dancing than any other rock band at the Hot 100 Fest.
An army official revealed that the three militants had been involved in the attack on the BSF post in Tangdhar sector on August 19 which left three jawans injured.

By Ashraf Wani: The Indian Army on Sunday foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Tangdhar sector of Kupwara district, killing three militants who were believed to have been involved in an attack on a BSF post in the area two days ago.

MILITANTS HAD EARLIER ATTACKED BSF POST

An army official revealed that the three militants had been involved in the attack on the BSF post in Tangdhar sector on August 19 which left three jawans injured.

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"Army foiled an infiltration bid in Tangdhar sector of Kupwara district. Three terrorists have been killed in the operation," the army official said.

COMBING OPERATION ON

Three AK rifles, 15 AK magazines and other arms and ammunition were recovered from the killed militants and combing operation is still on.

The group is believed to have recently crossed the LOC and had been on the army's radar.

On August 21 morning the militants were trapped in Shamaswari forests with the help of Para troopers, who had been called in specially for conducting the operation in the dense forest.



Watch the video here





--- ENDS ---
Caitlyn Jenner, Matt Bomer, Stevie Wonder, Lance Bass and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gathered in support of the Orlando, Fla., shooting victims and the LGBT community during an emotional Hollywood benefit on Saturday night.

The Lance Bass-hosted fundraiser paid tribute to the 49 victims murdered in the mass shooting of Pulse nightclub with Ryan Murphy-directed videos featuring Lady Gaga, Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Jamie Lee Curtis along with Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry, Jenner, Sofia Vergara, Jane Fonda and Laverne Cox.

The event featured surprise performances from Jessie J and Stevie Wonder, who called for an end to gun violence before he performed "More than a Love Song."

"People that just feel they have to have their guns, it's a heartbreak because it tells me that too many believe that it is easier for them to hate," said Wonder. "It is easier for them to be destructive when we were all created in - in my religion - God's image. As was said earlier, we have the right to love who we decide to love because love truly is the key."

He continued: "I say that the only way that we can really put an end to this is check our egos. The only way we can end this is by remembering that every time we hate someone, we're hating God or we're hating Allah or whatever your religion might be. I believe that we all must come together in the spirit of love to put an end to all of this."

Music filled the evening as the band LP gave two performances, Melissa Etheridge performed via live stream and Jessie J later followed with a performance of "Who You Are," a song she said she wrote 11 years ago when she "was going through confusion of myself and who I was." She followed that up with an acoustic version of "Domino," which she said she heard was a popular track spun at Pulse.

Bass, an Orlando native and regular Pulse attendee, introduced a recorded video from whom he exclaimed as "our next President" Hillary Clinton, which featured the Democratic presidential nominee stressing the need to reduce gun violence and her commitment to the LGBT community.

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Bomer also expressed his support for Clinton. When asked about gun control he told The Hollywood Reporter, "There are many reasons that I support Hillary's campaign, and I support Hillary. I think she has policies that she is willing to try to put in effect that can help to reform it in a way that it needs to be reformed."

Mayor Garcetti added that he was going to do his part to support the LGBT community in Los Angeles as well.

"If it means stepping out for the first time with the first transgender job fair on the steps of City Hall, we will do that," said Garcetti. "We will change the bathrooms as we have when people are trying to use the bathroom just as they did in segregation. We will continue to push forward with young people in the city to make sure they are not bullied or beaten up and they can be the beautiful people that we know them to be."

Pulse nightclub owner Barbara Poma also was in attendance with some of the staff who were working the night of the shootings. She said onstage that she was looking forward to a "new location where the LGBT community and all of Orlando will dance again."

"We'll stand strong against hate," Poma concluded.

Proceeds from the fundraiser went towards the onePulse Foundation, which plans to build a memorial at the site of the Pulse nightclub. The foundation also gives 90 percent of funds to be distributed to mass shooting victims through the National Compassion Fund. Donations can be made by texting PULSE to 91999.

Read more: Study: L.A.'s Wealthy Give $1 Billion Less a Year to Charity Post-Recession
Federal health officials at the Centers for Disease Control have confirmed that five new cases of Zika were diagnosed in the popular South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida.

The CDC has urged pregnant women and their partners to avoid travel to Miami-Dade Country.

As reported by the New York Times, the new Zika cases were diagnosed in two men and three womantwo residents of the state of Florida, and three tourists who were visiting South Beach from New York, Texas, and Taiwan.

The CDC also warns it is possible that other neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County have active Zika transmission that is not yet apparent. In the past month, Zika cases were reported in Miamis Wynwood neighborhood.

The CDC's updated page on the Zika virus advises:

Pregnant women should not travel to these areas.

Pregnant women and their partners living in or traveling to these areas should follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.

Women and men who live in or traveled to these areas and who have a pregnant sex partner should use condoms or other barriers to prevent infection every time they have sex or not have sex during the pregnancy.

Pregnant women and their partners who are concerned about being exposed to Zika may want to consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.

All pregnant women in the United States should be assessed for possible Zika virus exposure and signs or symptoms of Zika during each prenatal care visit.

Pregnant women who live in or frequently travel to these areas should be tested in the first and second trimester of pregnancy.

Pregnant women with possible Zika exposure and signs or symptoms of Zika should be tested for Zika.

Pregnant women who traveled to or had unprotected sex with a partner that traveled to or lives in these areas should talk to their healthcare provider and should be tested for Zika.

Last week, CDC added Cayman Islands to the list of travel notices for Zika.

Related Articles
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yoenis Cespedes doesn't feel his timing is all back after a stint on the disabled list.

But it's hard to imagine it's off that much, either.

Cespedes hit two long home runs and added an RBI double in his second game back from the disabled list, boosting Bartolo Colon and the New York Mets over the San Francisco Giants 9-5 Saturday.

The Mets had lost five of six before topping the team that began the day leading the NL West. The Giants dropped to 11-22 since the All-Star break.

Cespedes, who'd been out since Aug. 4 with a strained right quadriceps, drove in three runs. He has 24 homers this season.

''It was his show today,'' Mets second baseman Neil Walker said. ''He had a great day.''

The slugger's shot off Matt Moore (7-10) in the third inning went 457 feet, according to Statcast.com.

Cespedes added a 418-footer off reliever Jake Peavy in the seventh.

''Today was a good day, I think for any ballplayer you could say today was an excellent day,'' Cespedes said through a translator.'' I can't say that the timing is 100 percent back, though. We'll see what goes on next.''

The Mets are hoping that what's next for Cespedes is another second-half power surge, like the one he had last season that took them to the World Series.

''He's the guy in the lineup who does a lot of the damage, so when he's there it makes it a little easier on the guys behind him and it takes the pressure off,'' Mets manager Terry Collins said. ''They kind of feed off what he does.''

Alejandro De Aza hit a three-run homer during a four-run sixth that stretched the Mets' lead to 7-2.

Colon (11-7) allowed two runs, scattering nine hits and a walk in 6 1/3 innings. He has three quality starts in four outings this month and a 2.25 ERA in August.

''I think everything worked out well,'' Colon said through a translator. ''I was throwing a lot of sinkers, the ball out here moves a lot for me.''

Story continues

Colon's pitches hit the strike zone with pinpoint accuracy. On a day when the Mets needed the 43-year-old right-hander to go deep into the game with a bullpen taxed, he threw 103 pitches - 73 for strikes.

''He's not worried about lighting up the radar, he's worried about missing barrels,'' Walker said. ''It makes it difficult as a hitter when you have to cover a lot of the plate and that's what he does.''

Moore, acquired at the trading deadline from Tampa Bay to bolster the back end of the Giants rotation, is 0-3 with a 4.70 ERA in four starts with his new team.

Moore gave up three earned runs and five hits in five innings. It was the first time in 13 outings he pitched less than six innings going back to June 2.

''I'm not getting ahead of the hitters and then I'm losing them,'' he said. ''I didn't do a very good job of managing the game with the 90 pitches they gave (me).''

Denard Span hit a ''splash'' home run off Colon into the San Francisco Bay in the third. The home run was Span's seventh and his second ''splash'' hit this season.

Angel Pagan extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a bunt single in the first. The Giants outfielder exited after three innings with tightness in his right groin.

BABY WATCH

Mets second baseman Neil Walker will fly to his home in Pittsburgh after Sunday night's game to be with his wife Niki for the expected birth of their baby girl. Walker said doctors will induce the birth on Monday night, a Mets off day. Walker said his wife is doing well. ''It's just been a big waiting game,'' Walker said. ''I knew as soon as she got pregnant that we'd probably be out here on the West Coast, whether it was here or Arizona or St. Louis, we knew that was going to be challenging.''

LINED UP

The Giants have set their rotation ahead of their pivotal three-game series at Dodger Stadium next week, with the trio of Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Moore set to start the Aug. 23-25 series, manager Bruce Bochy said.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mets: RHP Jim Henderson was activated from the disabled list on Saturday. The hard-throwing setup man had been on the disabled list since June 21 with shoulder tendinitis. In a corresponding move RHP Tyler Goeddel was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Giants: Pairing up C Buster Posey with Moore for the first time factored in Bochy's decision to start the All-Star catcher in a day game after a night game. Bochy sat Posey for two straight games earlier in the week because of lower back tightness. ... LHP Josh Osich, who's been on the disabled list with a left forearm strain since July 28, could be activated soon. Bochy said the 27-year-old is developing a changeup in a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento.

UP NEXT

Mets: RHP Noah Syndergaard allowed two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings in his most recent outing against Arizona in which he snapped a streak of six straight winless starts. He is 1-2 with a 4.86 ERA in August and 0-2 with a 6.17 ERA in two career starts against the Giants.

Giants: RHP Jeff Samardzija is 1-0 with 2.31 ERA in his last two starts but the Giants have won just two of his last nine starts. He is 0-3 with an 11.40 ERA in three starts against New York and has an 8.72 ERA in nine career appearances against the Mets.
Just as the Group Representation Constituency system ensures that members of minority races are represented in Parliament, so the government is looking into the same issue for the elected president, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.



Speaking in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday (21 August), which was delivered at the ITE College Central, Lee said that this was important in order to ensure the preservation of the Republics multiracial ideal.

His address came three days after the Constitutional Commission submitted its report on a review of the Elected Presidency system on Thursday (17 August), six months after the nine-member commission, led by chief justice Sundaresh Menon, was formed.

The Constitutional Commission was tasked to study the qualifying criteria for presidential candidacy, how minorities can be given the chance to be elected, the framework that governs a presidents custodial powers, and whether the views of the council of presidential advisors can be given more weight.

Previously, when the president was elected by parliament, we could ensure that all groups of Singaporeans could become president from time to time. So, we had past presidents like Encik Yusof Ishak, Professor Benjamin Sheares, Mr. Devan Nair and Mr Wee Kim Wee. But now, the president is elected in a national election. It is harder for a non-Chinese to get elected as president. If a non-Chinese can be elected like president S.R. Nathan, that is good, he said, during his Malay speech.

But if this process does not allow a minority to become president in a long time, it will cause disappointment and cause ill-feelings in minority communities we must make the changes now while it is peaceful and society is united, he added.

PM Lee also assured that while Singapore must make sure that a president from the minority race must be elected from time to time, the government will maintain a stringent qualifying criteria, to ensure that every president who gets elected would meet the high standards.

Story continues

The support of the Chinese community

Lee also called on the Chinese community to support constitutional changes that would ensure the election of a minority president.

While the government has practised racial and religious harmony, Singaporeans are not completely race-blind. It is only natural, said Lee, for voters to ask if a candidate can speak to them in their mother tongue, or understand their culture and unique circumstances.

All things being equal, a minority candidate contesting in a Chinese-majority constituency is at a disadvantage, said Lee, pointing out that all constituencies in Singapore are Chinese-majority.

And while some may ask why there is a need to make provisions for minorities, Singaporeans must face up to the reality that there may not be a non-Chinese president for a long time. This may affect the countrys cohesion, and even its safety,

Lee pointed to former president S R Nathan as a shining example of a president who was able to unite all Singaporeans. While he is Indian, he reached out to all races and looked after the interests of all Singaporeans.

Regarding the Constitutional Commissions recommendations to strengthen the Council of Presidential Advisors, PM Lee calls them incremental and straightforward.

In principle, the government accepts the Commissions main recommendations, but is still studying its report and will subsequently publish a White Paper on how the system will change, Lee said.

Thereafter, a constitutional amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament and a full debate will take place when the bill comes up for the second reading, he added.

Related:
Jaitley said Pakistan has never accepted that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India

By Naseer Ganai: The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday described the present crises in Kashmir as fifth round of aggression by Pakistan against India and said the country will not compromise with its integrity.

ATTACK ON INTEGRITY

"This time situation is very serious (in Kashmir) and Pakistan's hand is in it. Separatists are involved in it and religious organizations are also involved. It is an attack on the integrity of the country. This is a challenge for us and we will not compromise with the integrity of the country," Jaitley said addressing a public rally in Smailpur area of Samba district in Jammu.

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This is in contrast to the stand of BJP's coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party, which is seeking dialogue with Pakistan and all stakeholders in Kashmir including separatists. Kashmir continues to be under lockdown and intense curfew since July 8 after massive protests erupted in the Valley after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

PAKISTAN'S REFUSAL TO GET OVER J&K

Jaitley said Pakistan has never accepted that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. He said since the day of the partition when two nation states came into existence, there were differences in the outlook of the two countries with India having a positive agenda to remove poverty and uplift the economy while Pakistan remained fixiated in diverting people's attention towards Kashmir and India. He said Pakistan carried out an attack in 1947 presuming it will win Kashmir through a war.

He said India had more conventional strength in both 1965 and 1971 and Pakistan was defeated in both the wars. He pointed out that in the 1990s Pakistan started infiltrating militants into the state of Jammu and Kashmir. "We had difficulties initially but slowly India learned this and thousands of militants have been killed."

"After 9/11 the whole world stood up against terrorism and the international community demanded Pakistan to stop funding terrorism. They failed to internationalise the Kashmir issue but terrorism emanating from their country got internationalised", he said.

ANOTHER ROUND

The Finance Minister said Pakistan thought it has lost its fourth round as well but when the Amarnath agitation began in 2008 in Jammu, they started a new trend of stone throwing. "Kids would fill their school bags with stones instead of books and attack police and security forces," the Finance Minister claimed.

"People could see the arrested stone throwing kids but not thousands of injured policemen. ," the Finance Minister said alluding to various human rights and political groups who have been highly critical of arrest of thousands of youngesters in Kashmir.

He said those involved in stone-throwing in Kashmir were "not satyagrahis but hamlavaars (aggressors)".

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PRESENT SITUATION

He described present situation as serious and said people of Jammu and Kashmir should jointly fight against this type of agression and and defeat it.

He alleged that Jammu and Kashmir was neglected by Congress-National Conference government for the past 70 years. He reiterated the state's need for development. He called the Jammu region the support base of BJP and it said it would be given attention. He said Jammu has never showed dissent towards the country as protesting goes against nationalism as taught by Pandit Prem Nath Dogra.

As part of the 70th Independence Day celebrations "Yaad Karo Qurbani," Finance minister Arun Jaitley was addressing the function to pay tributes to Pandit Prem Nath Dogra. Jaitley said that his contribution to the freedom struggle and integration of J & K will be remembered.

INSTILLING NATIONALISM

Attacking Congress and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Finance Minister talked about sacrifices and struggles made during Mughal and British rule to get freedom and said it was necessary to remember those who fought for the country and instil sense nationalism among people. "This is responsibility has taken by biggest political force of the country," he said without mentioning the BJP. Spelling out the reasons behind taking such a responsibility, he pointed to the recent pro-azadi slogans at the Amnesty event in Karnataka as an example.

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"Four days ago in Bangalore, Karnataka, at a function organized by an organisation which gets huge assistance from foreign countries, Azadi slogans were shouted. Those who shouted were few in number. The organisation which gets a lot of assistance from foreign countries had organized this function," Jaitley said.

"Yesterday I heard Karnataka Home Minister saying nothing wrong has happened. After paying such a high price (for independence), the psychological makeup of some political parties is such that they link it with the vote bank. When in the JNU, slogans of "Bharat k Tukday Tukday" were shouted, we were the only political party, which was saying in the Parliament and outside that this is wrong that someone would shout such slogans in Delhi," he said.

On the other hand, he said, Congress Vice President went to the JNU to support those youths.

He said it was unfortunate that after independence, the anti-national thinking was not countered except by Praja Parishad or Bharatiya Jan Sangh and now the Bharatiya Janata Party. He alleged that many other instead try to use anti-national sentiment to get votes.



ALSO READ:



Pakistan has been waging a proxy war against India, says Jaitley

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Ram Madhav, Omar Abdullah trade barbs over Kashmir unrest on Twitter



--- ENDS ---
Shah Rukh Khan has finally started shooting for Imtiaz Alis The Ring. The actor, who will be seen playing the role of a Punjabi tourist guide, was seen walking on the streets of Prague. He was in the skin of his character and was shooting the sequence of calling up the tourists.

Recommended: Watch: SRK and Anushka say Hello from Prague! To start shooting for Imtiazs next

Some of the SRK fans got an opportunity to get the glimpse of their favourite star. They shot some interesting videos of the scene, where a song was being played in the background. They even caught up Imtiaz explaining the shots to King Khan in between.

These pictures and videos show how interesting it would be to watch the first outing of both talented actor and filmmaker. Anushka Sharma who is paired opposite SRK in the film is likely to join the team soon as she has already reached Prague. She will play the role of a Gujarati girl in the film.

Check out the pictures and the videos right here and tell us about it in the comments.


Cheers: This study touts the health benefits of drinking champagne

Cheers: This study touts the health benefits of drinking champagne

Lets be real, when most of us are slinging back a flute of champagne (or two, or more), we arent thinking about preserving our long-term memory. Yet a study from University of Reading in the UK, which is making the rounds again, suggests just that  that regular champagne toasts is the key to staving off Alzheimers and dementia in your later years. Say what?

Though scientists have been looking at the health effects of alcoholic drinks, especially wine, for years, this particular studied isolated a compound found in pinot noir and meunier, wine grapes that make up parts of pinot noir and champagne. Study participants who drank at one or two glasses of champagne during the week reported having sharper memory, but the details of the study, originally first reported in 2013, are fuzzy: What percentage of participants, in which age bracket, reported having better memory? What did that mean to them? And, what kind of follow-up studies have been planned?

Of course, these questions underline an ongoing conversation around potential vice foods like chocolate, coffee, and alcohol  we want to believe that some part of our consumption there could actually be good for us, and as such, were more likely to pick up on studies that suggest as much. But healthy skepticism aside, wine alcohols are indeed the most likely bad habit to actually have good health benefits  and if champagnes not your speed, reds got a great reputation as well.

The post Cheers: This study touts the health benefits of drinking champagne appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Clanking cowbells were my alarm clock, while the cows moos served as snooze. I would peer out groggily from my bedroom window at the four-legged noisemakers. I was teaching French at a small Swiss boarding school, where I fell in love with the Alpine view, a fellow teacher and raclette.

Colleagues and students alike looked forward to the evenings, when we would queue in the courtyard, baked potatoes in hand, waiting for oozing cheese to be scraped onto our plates from a half-circle-shaped raclette burner. And while that summer ended long ago  along with my fling  my love for the original Swiss cheese lives on.

While raclette is a dish best served hot, this 8.3-million-strong land of neutrality is happy to eat it year-round  rain, snow or shine.

According to Jurg Kriech, director of Bern-based Raclette Suisse, everyone in his homeland loves this pale yellow, wheel-shaped foodstuff, a semihard cheese made up of more water than its compatriots, Gruyere and Emmenthal. It enjoys a tradition dating back to 13th-century Swiss cow herders  those boisterous bovine were trying to tell me something  but today its consumed by many other Europeans, especially in France and Germany.

The national meat, as Kriech refers to it, is always aromatic, but the taste changes, he says, depending on how long it has matured. Three-month-old raclette tends to be acidic, milky and mild, while a more mature wheel of six months offers a bolder flavor. Swiss cheese-lovers tend to prefer theirs melted over potatoes or small vegetables  and refuse to pair raclette with meat or still water. It is the meat, Kriech says, acknowledging that raclette can be used in pasta sauces and on pizza. According to Kriechs colleague Daniela Pachali, the best drinks to accompany the cheese are white wine, hot tea, beer or sparkling water, to keep it from sitting in your stomach like a stone. And while raclette is a dish best served hot, this 8.3-million-strong land of neutrality is happy to eat it year-round  rain, snow or shine.

In other places, raclette is considered a winter feast. One New Years Eve a few years back, while I was living in Germany, I joined some friends for dinner and was thrilled to learn that their Neujahr tradition included gathering around a table equipped with a party-style raclette burner  complete with individual trays for melting as much of the creamy goodness as we liked. In addition to tiny onions, potatoes and other veggies, the Deutsch happily fry up bacon bits or beef to pair with the heavy cheese.

A few days after my German reunion with raclette, I was the proud owner of my very own burner (available in electric, gas and candle varieties). It lets me share with my family the remarkable flavor of a cheese I learned to love years ago, and reminds me of my romantic Swiss summer.
Paris (AFP) - Turkey's president has blamed an attack on a wedding party in Turkey that killed at least 51 people on a suicide bomber aged "between 12 and 14".

Militants have used children or young adults as suicide bombers in several countries, notably Nigeria, but this appeared to be the first such attack in Turkey.

Here is the situation in other countries where children have been forced to carry out suicide bombings.

- Nigeria -

In an April report, UNICEF said the number of children used by Nigeria's Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings had risen 11-fold in one of the most "horrific" aspects of the Islamist insurgency.

"The number of children involved in 'suicide' attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger has risen sharply over the past year, from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015," UNICEF said.

More than 75 percent of the children involved in such attacks are girls, added UNICEF, who described them as "victims" not "perpetrators."

At least 15 people were killed in November when two female suicide bombers, one said to be aged around 11, blew themselves up at a busy mobile phone market in northeast Nigeria.

In January 2015 a girl thought to be just 10 years old blew herself up in a crowded market, killing at least 19.

- Afghanistan -

In 2012, a suicide bomber struck outside NATO HQ in Kabul killing six people, including child beggars. Afghan authorities said the attacker was 16 although the Taliban, which claimed the bombing, denied this.

In March, a 12-year-old would-be suicide bomber surrendered to Afghan forces in eastern Nangarhar province.

The Taliban sent him to kill "infidel troops", he told local media, but he had last-minute misgivings after seeing soldiers praying inside a mosque.

The insurgents say "boys with no beards" are never used in military operations, but Afghan authorities routinely report intercepting Taliban child bombers - some as young as six.

Story continues

Officials say children are used as "human missiles", their tiny bodies a nimble conduit of flesh-searing explosives, able to penetrate layers of security.

- Syria -

In July 2015, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State group was increasingly relying on children to carry out suicide bombings.

The observatory said IS had used 18 children as suicide bombers so far that year, most recently in its fight against Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria.
(Repeat story published on Friday)

* Australia formally rejects Chinese bid for energy provider

* State leader pledges to reboot privatisation process

* Australian pension fund will consider new tender

By Jonathan Barrett and Anshuman Daga

SYDNEY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - China voiced anger on Friday over a decision by Australia to rule out on security grounds the preferred Chinese bidders for an energy grid potentially worth more than $7 billion and restart the sale process.

Australia's Treasurer Scott Morrison, who must approve major foreign investments, formally blocked the sale of Ausgrid to State Grid Corp of China and Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings earlier in the day.

Last month, Britain said it would review plans to build two nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point with financial backing from China General Nuclear. Prime Minister Theresa May was concerned about the security implications of the proposed Chinese investment, a former colleague and a source said.

The disqualification of State Grid and Cheung Kong Infrastructure prompted the state of New South Wales (NSW) to restart the tender process for a majority stake in the grid.

"The NSW Government will now move immediately to relaunch the transaction process for the partial lease of Ausgrid and notes the strong market interest for this valuable asset," NSW Premier Mike Baird said in a statement.

The decision to halt the A$10 billion ($7.6 billion) sale - Morrison made a preliminary decision to block last week before confirming the stance officially on Friday - has caused a rift with China, Australia's biggest trade partner, just eight months after their A$100 billion free trade agreement took effect.

China's commerce ministry said in a statement on its website that the decision showed uncertainty in Australia's investment environment and would seriously hurt the willingness of Chinese companies to invest in the country.

State Grid said it "found it hard to understand and deeply regretted" the decision, adding it had followed regulations set by Australia in its bid and met all the bidding requirements.

Story continues

The Ausgrid delay is the latest in a series of setbacks for planned privatisations across the country, including the shelving of energy asset sales in Queensland and the Fremantle Port in Western Australia; both of which were disrupted by a lack of support in their state parliaments.

Proceeds from the sale of Australian state-owned assets are designed to be ploughed back into the economy through job-creating infrastructure projects, including public transport networks.

AUSTRALIAN BIDS FAVOURED

The re-run of the Ausgrid tender opens the way for a local bidder, with Australia's pension funds likely to play a role as a partner in any fresh offers.

One investment manager at a major Australian superannuation fund told Reuters that the bar on foreign bidders meant his fund would now look more closely at the asset, although he said it would take a long time to be in a position to bid.

"Typically around the world the Chinese have been the highest payers," said the investment manager, who declined to be identified.

"As investors, we've been reluctant to get involved. This might open the door but it's very early."

Morrison said on Friday that the proposed structure of the Ausgrid bids would be contrary to the national interest. He has previously cited "national security issues", without elaborating.

Foreign bidders will likely need to restructure their deals and bring in local partners to succeed in Australia, said Matthew Fitzgerald, an Australian-based corporate partner at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills.

"One example would be that rather than have a majority Chinese consortium buying the asset, you might have three or four different investors, some of whom are Australian, some of whom are Chinese," Fitzgerald said.

($1 = 1.3141 Australian dollars) (Additional reporting by Matt Siegel in SYDNEY and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Dale Hudson)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Bohai Steel Group, the indebted state-owned conglomerate, may receive help from a local government bailout fund to restructure its debts, the online financial magazine Caixin said at the weekend.

Bohai Steel, which was created in 2010 through the combination of four manufacturers, holds liabilities of 192 billion yuan ($28.9 billion) from 105 creditors, alongside assets of nearly 290 billion yuan, Caixin reported.

The Tianjin government plans to create a local asset manager to assist in the debt workout of Bohai Steel, alongside other troubled Tianjin enterprises, the magazine said.

Restructuring of the group represented the biggest since the global financial crisis, Standard & Poor's analyst Christopher Lee told Reuters in March.

Bohai Steel creditors include the Tianjin branch of the Bank of Beijing Co Ltd , the magazine reported earlier, and several trust companies such as Tianjin Trust, Beifang Trust and Guomin Trust.

China has been moving to empower special purpose restructuring managers, while accelerating debt-for-equity swaps with creditors, in a bid to manage rising state sector debt.

In February, the top industrial asset manager appointed China Chengtong Holdings Group and China Reform Holdings Co. to pilot shareholding reform among loss-making government firms.

The country's steel sector has been pressed to restructure following an extended slowdown in the nation's real estate industry, a major consumer of basic materials.

(Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Around 1,800 people from the Chinese community in France took part in a march near Paris Sunday calling for greater security after a deadly robbery earlier this month.

To cries of "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" ("liberty, equality, fraternity"), demonstrators marched through the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers where Zhang Chaolin, a 49-year-old tailor died after being set upon by three thieves on August 7.

The trio had tried to snatch a bag belonging to a friend of Zhang, who died a few days later from injuries sustained in the altercation.

"There are frequent attacks but we don't sue because we don't speak good French. And, we're working, we don't have time," said one protester, 26-year-old Paris bar worker Cai Jiang.

"We are appealing to the state because we are French citizens, even if we don't feel that we are considered as such," said another participant, 23-year-old shop owner Marina.

The protesters flew several French flags during the demonstration.

One banner read: "I was Charlie like you. I am Chaolin, where are you?" in reference to the "Je Suis Charlie" solidarity slogans widespread after the January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper.

There has been a tripling in violent robberies in Aubervilliers targeting the Chinese community, who are seen as lucrative prey as they are thought to carry large sums of cash on their person.

Police there have bolstered their forces and recruited a Chinese-speaking staff member to improve the service to the large community in the suburb.

At the end of the demonstration, the crowd set upon a suspected robber in the protest. Police used tear gas to pull the suspect clear of the angry mob, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
robby mook

The Clinton campaign is still looking for someone to play Donald Trump in preparation for the presidential debates in September and October.

In a Sunday interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, said they haven't settled on an opponent to play the outspoken Republican presidential nominee because he's difficult to mimic.

"It's very hard to find someone to mimic the reckless temperament and the hateful instincts and divisive instincts of Donald Trump. Preparing for a debate with him is a challenging task," Mook said.

Mook denied that the campaign was having difficulty finding someone willing to criticize the Democratic presidential nominee and raise sensitive potential lines of attack.

"She has been in this game a long time. She has had a lot of tough things said to her. That's not the challenge here," Mook said.

The Clinton campaign is keeping its debate prep under wraps. But Politico recently reported that the campaign is readying the former secretary of state to face questions with a personal and conspiratorial bent.

Some observers have speculated that potential picks to play Trump include Sen. Al Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" cast member and comedian, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who joked recently that his proclivity for Trump-like outspokenness could make him a good debate sparring partner.

For its part, the Trump campaign appears to be preparing for the debate already. The real-estate magnate reportedly sought advice from former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in his debate-prep sessions, though the campaign has denied Ailes' involvement.

NOW WATCH: Trump attacks Clinton on immigration in his first general election TV ad





More From Business Insider


robby mook

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, suggested that Donald Trump may be a "puppet" for Russia.

In an interview on Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Mook told host George Stephanopoulos that the Republican presidential nominee and his campaign's ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime suggested the real-estate mogul could be appeasing Russian state interests.

"We need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his campaign," Mook said.

"There are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race."

Mook asserted that Trump's actions indicated a cozy relationship with Russia, noting Trump's favorable comments about Putin and the campaign's successful push to soften language in the Republican Party platform that would've mandated providing weapons to Ukraine.

Clinton's campaign manager also noted several Trump advisers' ties to Russian organizations, including former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn's relationship with Russia Today, a state-sponsored Russian news network.

"There are a lot of questions here and we need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisors are having meetings with the Kremlin," Mook said.

Over the past several days, the Trump campaign has worked to play down potential links between the real-estate magnate and Russia.

Last week, former Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort resigned amid growing revelations about his deep financial ties to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by Putin.

Watch the clip below, via 'This Week':

Clinton campaign chair Robby Mook: Questions being raised about whether Donald Trump is "puppet for the Kremlin" https://t.co/8tI03Z1tgu  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 21, 2016

NOW WATCH: Trump attacks Clinton on immigration in his first general election TV ad





More From Business Insider


Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that Pakistan has been regularly pushing its negative agenda in Jammu and Kashmir.

By Ashwini Kumar: Hitting out at Pakistan over its continuous meddling in internal affairs of India, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that Pakistan never accepted Jammu and Kashmir and has been waging a proxy war against India.

Blaming both Pakistan and separatists for triggering unrest in Kashmir valley, Jaitley maintained that Pakistan has been regularly pushing its negative agenda in J&K.

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He said that in 1990 Pakistan felt that they cannot win wars with India so they started pushing infiltrators inside the Indian territory and waged a proxy war against India.

WILL NOT COMPROMISE ON SECURITY

"We will not compromise with the security of the country," Jaitley added.

"We won't compromise with separatists in Kashmir valley as they have been singing in chorus with Pakistan and spearheading their agenda," he said.

Addressing a public rally in Smailpur area of Samba district in Jammu, Jaitley also lashed out at the Congress vice President Rahul Gandhi for supporting those who raised anti-India slogans inside Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Jaitley said vice President of a political party even went there (in JNU) to lend support to those chanting anti-India slogans.

Also read:

Kashmir unrest: Modi government should put in efforts to douse the ongoing fire, says Omar





--- ENDS ---
The public shouldnt take the exit of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort as the end of his ties to Russia, says Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook.

Following Manaforts exit amid questions over his lobbying for pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs, Mook said told George Stephanopoulos on ABCs This Week that Trump still needs to explain a web of financial ties that connects the Republican candidate to Moscow.

Theres a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed, he said. And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race.

Mook cautioned that the Russian government is still at the core of Trumps campaign, and went on to accuse Trump of parroting remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Its clear that they are supporting Donald Trump, he said. But we now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign.

We saw the Republican Party platform change, he went on. We saw Donald Trump talk about leaving NATO and leaving his Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack. The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone whos on the payroll of Russian Times, which is basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin.

The man that Mook was referring to is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a former Defense Intelligence Agency director who serves as an analyst for Russian English-language network RT. He noted that Flynn attended RTs 10th anniversary dinner in Moscow late last year.

He was sitting two seats away from Vladimir Putin at their 10th anniversary gala, he added.

Trump has made several trips to Russia himself, and has previously said of Putin, I think hed like me. I think Id get along great with him, if you want to know the truth.

Watch the video below.

Clinton campaign chair Robby Mook: Questions being raised about whether Donald Trump is "puppet for the Kremlin" https://t.co/8tI03Z1tgu  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 21, 2016

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Story continues

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Twitter Imagines Donald Trump as a Film Critic With #TrumpExplainsMoviePlots

Paul Manafort Resigns From Donald Trump's Campaign
By Igor Ilic ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia's two biggest parties are promising tax cuts and toning down talk of tough reforms as well as building alliances with smaller, mostly upstart parties to try to convince voters they can produce a stable government in September's snap election. Last November's election produced a fragile government embroiled in disputes over sensitive political appointments, reforms that would have meant massive public sector job cuts and a conflict of interest case. It collapsed after five months. While opinion polls for the Sept. 11 vote point to a slight advantage for the SDP social democrats over the HDZ conservatives - who led the last government with the reformist Most party - neither is seen winning an outright majority. "The parties know each other better now, so I expect the post-election coalition talks to be quicker than last year," the Economist Intelligence Unit's Maximilan Lambertson said, noting that Most and other newcomers are running for the second time. "However, political instability may still persist amid possible disputes within a government on various reforms, like public administration or privatization issues." Opinion polls forecast that Most, or "Bridge", will come third again in the election, giving HDZ - with new leader, EU lawmaker Andrej Plenkovic - an advantage. "I feel no responsibility for earlier difficulties in relations between Most and HDZ. I'm entirely open to cooperate, on a rational basis," Plenkovic has told national weekly Globus. Most says it wants to put an end to two decades of control of Croatia's politics by the two biggest parties, which it accuses of clientelism and corrupt practices. The SDP, which has formed a pre-election coalition with three other smaller parties, is also eyeing a partnership with the left-leaning regional IDS party from the western Istrian peninsula and national minorities groupings. "We have a serious program and experienced people ... we offer a safe course," SDP leader and former prime minister Zoran Milanovic told a rally this week. The recent instability, combined with the major parties' promises to lower the tax burden for consumers and businesses, is raising eyebrows among business leaders and economists. "I see two problems here. The parties largely offer partial economic ideas without offering a big, consistent picture. Also, the state is still a dominant factor in the economy and there is little talk about how to change it, about privatization issues for example," independent economist Damir Novotny said. "What basically prevails are talks about welfare transfers toward citizens." Croatia's unemployment rate is close to 14 percent and growth at about 2 percent is not enough to create jobs, throwing into high relief the fact that SDP and HDZ are short on detail on issues such as how to overhaul the costly health and pension sectors, cut red tape and improve the glacial legal system. "We want the (future) government to state clearly what it plans to do in the first year... It's about time to start spending just what we earn and do it responsibly," the national employers' association HUP's Davor Majetic has told state TV. (Editing by Ingrid Melander and Louise Ireland)
Danish international distributor LevelK will start world sales of Norwegian director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakkens action adventure thriller Cave at New Nordic Films, the market of the 44th Norwegian Intl. Film Festival in Haugesund. The market unspools at the Scandic Maritim Hall Aug. 23-26.

Cave, Dahlsbakkens third feature, will close the festival Aug. 25. In Haugesund, we will introduce it to the international market for real, said LevelK CEO Tine Klint. LevelK handled Norwegian-Kurdish director Halkawt Mustafas drama El Clasico (2015), which won two prizes at New Yorks Tribeca Film Festival, and Norwegian director Aslaug Holms documentary, Brdre (Brothers), licensed to 24 countries.

I see many talented Norwegian filmmakers and a huge variety of features that we can also market internationally  there is a tremendous curiosity and creativity both in storytelling and financial structures, Klint said, announcing at Haugesund that she has also acquired the Norwegian director Izer Allus feature debut, Hunting Flies.

Dahlsbakken, who scripted, directed and produced Cave, has described the film as probably my most ambitious project so far, after his 2015 debut Returning Home and this years Sensommer (Late Summer); he currently has 1920s-set thriller The Outlaws (De fredlse), in post, and is developing Cave 2.

Shot in Norway and Mexico, starring Heidi Toini, Benjamin Helstad, Mads Sjgard Pettersen and Ingar Helge Gimle, Cave follows a a group of former military elite operatives who set out to explore an uncharted abyss, not knowing their worst nightmare is waiting for them deep beneath the ground. It was lensed and co-produced for FilmBros by Dahlsbakkens brother, Oskar Dahlsbakken.

Hunting Flies, scripted by and produced by Aliu, co-produced by Khalid Maimouni for Storyline Pictures, and starring Burhan Amiti, is set the day when Ghani, an idealistic teacher, has lost his job. In a final attempt to get it back he locks his students inside the classroom and forces them to try to resolve a generation-long conflict between their villages.

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Outside Norway, Klint has inked a pact for Danish director Rasmus Heisterbergs directorial debut, In the Blood (I blodet). The writer/co-writer of films by Nikolaj Arcel, Mikkel Nrgaard, Sren Kragh-Jacobsen sets a story that follows a medical student who share an apartment with three friends during the happy-go-lucky days in Copenhagen. But Simon is not ready to leave the party, drink and chase girls, while the others want to sell the apartment, steadily gravitating towards the safe haven of adulthood. Pic stars Kristoffer Bech, Elliot Crosset Hove, Aske Bang and Mads Reuther in the Caroline Schluter Bingestam production for Profile Pictures feature.

It is rare that a documentary travels that well, she said of Holms Brothers (2015), which has so far screened at 35 international festivals, bringing home seven awards, including best international documentary at Torontos Hot Docs; it also won Holm an Amanda, Norways national film prize, for best director. The brothers in the film are her own sons, Markus and Lukas  now 14 and 11 years old  whom she filmed over a period of eight years, to go into the childrens real world and discover truth and original life. It was produced by Tore Buvarp, for Fenris Film.

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The big question on everyones mind following Conor McGregors win over Nate Diaz at UFC 202 is whats next for the Irish superstar. The UFC has already declared Conor would go back down to 145 and defend his featherweight title. But when asked if interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo was next, Conor didnt mince words.

Probably not, he admitted.

The belt situation is lingering, McGregor explained during a backstage interview following his victory. Ive got to talk. Ive upset Lorenzo [Fertitta] and Dana White there, I know it was [Lorenzos] last day a few days ago. I was expecting Lorenzo and his family to come [to UFC 202] for me. And Im speaking to the new people now, so I dunno. Ive got to talk about whats next. Theres a lot of options. And some might not be this sport. So well see.

Thats a pretty overt reference to a superfight with Floyd Mayweather, a match up McGregor recently claimed was in the financing stages. Later during the full press conference, Conor elaborated on his disinterest in fighting Aldo so soon after their last fight eight months ago.

How long was I going back and forth with Jose? That must have been a two year build up, he said. Its hard for me to get excited about that, especially after his last performance. It was a decision, he didnt go out and get it like I wanted him to get it. So I dont know. Well see. Im the 145 pound champion. The interim 145 pound champion is a man that I KOd in 13 seconds.

If he was worried about the UFCs threat to strip him of his featherweight title if he didnt defend it, McGregor didnt show it.

I dont think theyre gonna do that, he said. I mean, how can they do that? If they wanna do that, if they wanna give my belt to the guy I KOd in 13 seconds and bury that division in the prelims and the fight pass and stuff, because thats what theyre gonna do, well see. How can they do that? What would that do to the division if the guy I KOd in 13 seconds is the unified champion?

So weve got a lot to talk about. Im in a good position right now, and that was built through hard work, and Im going to capitalize on that. He ended the press conference on a cryptic note. Theres a lot of stuff in the pipeline. S**ts about to hit the fan, I feel. So well see.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Sunday Turks would only be granted visa-free travel to EU countries from October if Ankara meets all the requirements, including reforming anti-terror laws. Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his government could stop helping to stem the flow of refugees and migrants to Europe if the 28-nation bloc failed to relax travel rules for Turks from October. His comments coincided with increased tensions between Brussels and Ankara following the failed July 15 coup in Turkey. Europe has been alarmed by a crackdown since the coup and has long worried that Turkey's anti-terrorism laws are applied too broadly to quash dissenters and critics of President Tayyip Erdogan. "The question of visa-free travel, which is directly connected to the agreement on handling refugees, can be implemented on October 1 only if all the conditions are met," Juncker told the European Alpbach forum, an annual conference in Austria. "Anti-terror laws cannot be used to imprison intellectuals, scientists and journalists. That is not the fight against terror that we mean," he added. Brussels wants Turkey to soften the legislation but Ankara has refused, saying the laws are vital to fighting Islamic State and Kurdish militants. Turkey, meanwhile, is furious over the EU's cautious response to the failed putsch, in which 240 people were killed. Since the coup, more than 17,000 people have been placed under formal arrest, and tens of thousands more suspended from their jobs. Turkish authorities blame the failed putsch on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies involvement and has condemned the coup attempt. (Reporting by Michael Shields and Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Helen Popper)
Despite the negotiations between state government representatives and union of petrol and tankers, the oil supply to Jammu will suffer as the drivers and their vehicles are not provided with safety. The meeting between the officials hasn't reached any outcome.

In the last two days, more than 50 tankers were damaged in Awantipura and Kangan areas of the valley and because of this situation, vehicles cannot be sent to Kashmir. (Photo: Reuters)

By Ashwini Kumar: Negotiations between the representatives of state government and unions of Petrol and Tankers associations started today and no fruitful result has come out to restart the supply of petrol and diesel to the Jammu and Kashmir state.

Kharudin Wani, President, All J&K Drivers and Conductors Union and Anan Sharma, President, All J&K Petrol Tankers Owners Association met the Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal separately. Danesh Rana, IG, Jammu among other army officers, was present in the meeting to address the demands.

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Both associations demanded security cover for all tankers from Banihal to Srinagar along with compensation for all injured drivers and tankers.

COMPENSATION TO BE PROVIDED



Senior officers have agreed to give compensation to drivers and their damaged vehicles, but till now no assurance was given about the security cover to drivers and conductors from Banihal to Srinagar in Kashmir valley. They are in touch with divisional commissioner and IG of Kashmir about the security cover for around 300 to 400 tank drivers as daily these vehicles go to Jammu to Kashmir valley and Ladakh.

50 TANKERS DAMAGED IN TWO DAYS



Anan Sharma alleged that in the last two days, more than 50 tankers were damaged in Awantipura and Kangan areas of the valley and because of this situation, they cannot send the vehicles to Kashmir.

Both unions have told the state government that if they are not provided with security in the Valley, oil cannot be supplied from Jammu. However, if the government agrees to give compensation to drivers and damaged tankers, then supply to Jammu can restart from tomorrow.

But this requires the assurance from the government in writing to both the unions.

Sources said that now government has to take decision by tonight so that the oil supply can be started for Kashmir.

Also read: Opposition parties ask President to intervene in Kashmir crisis, BJP calls it political drama

--- ENDS ---
Washington (AFP) - Growing numbers of Westerners appear to be trying to join the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq before it's too late, frontline volunteer warriors say.

IS group jihadists have suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq and Syria in recent months, including the loss of key towns and facilities surrounding the remaining major strongholds in their self-declared "caliphate" -- Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria.

Although limited or unreliable public data make it difficult to track numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests aspiring anti-jihadists -- many of them military veterans -- recognize they may be running out of time to fight IS in a pitched battle as the group loses territory and morphs into a traditional terror group.

The volunteers are eager despite being strongly discouraged -- and sometimes banned by their home countries -- from doing so.

With the fight for Mosul expected to begin in the coming months, US-led coalition advisors, warplanes and drones are conducting "shaping operations" that will lay the battle groundwork.

Louis Park, a 26-year-old Texan who returned to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region for a second stint with local anti-IS forces in June, told AFP he had seen a sharp uptick in queries from aspiring Western fighters.

"People know that the end is near and they are trying to get in while they can," said the US Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan.

Park, a Christian, has embedded with the Dwekh Nawsha, an Assyrian Christian militia working with US-backed Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect the towns of Telskuf and nearby Baqufa, around 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Mosul.

"I'm getting inquiries from all around the world -- 60 or 70 since I've been back," he said in a phone interview from close to the Baqufa frontline.

According to a study released last week by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, of the 300 or so foreign fighters it tracked via social media heading to fight the IS group, more than a third are Americans.

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The fighters are motivated by various factors, including wanting to make a difference or do something meaningful in their lives, and anger over a perceived inadequate international effort to counter the IS group's barbaric acts.

"The primary grievance relates to atrocities being committed against civilians, with many accusing world leaders of turning a blind eye to the ongoing suffering of those caught up in the conflict," the report said.

Park headed to Iraq largely because he missed combat and wanted to serve.

"I don't want to die, but I'd rather be in this position than someone who doesn't have to be," he said.

- 'Broke and disappointed' -

Another volunteer fighter who goes by the nom de guerre "Mike" said he is getting around a dozen messages a day from people who want to join the fight. A year ago, it would have taken him a week to get as many.

The uptick in foreigners heading to the Iraq's Kurdish region has put authorities in a bind, with increasing scrutiny of volunteers and the equipment they bring.

"My advice for them would be: don't bother coming down here," the former Norwegian soldier with Kurdish roots said in an email.

"You will most likely not be allowed to fight and will leave broke and disappointed."

The Kurdish government is under considerable pressure to keep Western volunteers away from the front line, he added.

"So they often place them at inactive fronts or in camps, where they are safe and free to post pictures of themselves with gear and weapons on their Facebook page," Mike, 31, said.

Instagram, Facebook and other social media sites are filled with images from volunteers -- sometimes showing dead IS fighters, sometimes depicting the monotony of life on the front.

Park and Mike have garnered tens of thousands of followers under their Instagram handles, "louis_tex" and "peshmerganor," respectively.

While most requests come from Americans, Mike said he's received inquiries from Australians, Europeans and even from an Iranian.

"I'm guessing people are realizing ISIS is coming to an end and want to be able to tell people back home they have fought them in the battlefield," he added, using an acronym for IS.

Different countries have different rules regarding nationals fighting alongside friendly foreign forces.

The United States strongly discourages, but does not prohibit, such actions.

"Our ability to provide consular assistance to individuals who are injured or kidnapped, or to the families of individuals who die as a result of taking part in the conflict is extremely limited," the State Department warned.

Some 250 private Americans have gone, or tried to go, to Syria and Iraq to fight, the FBI said last year, although it did not differentiate between those fighting the IS group and those joining the jihadists.

The agency did not provide more recent numbers.

US Customs and Border Patrol said returning fighters, like all travelers, may be subject to extra scrutiny.

"CBP does coordinate with other law enforcement agencies to provide the appropriate support as requested," the agency said in a statement.

Other countries, such as Australia and Belgium, bar their citizens from fighting with foreign forces, even those perceived as friendly.
* Former resources centre hailed as model for re-tooling economy

* China trying to steer economy towards domestic consumption

* Yulin's diversification has hit problems as economy slows

* City has struggled to develop tourism and services sectors

* Oil and coal business still playing an important role

By Sue-Lin Wong

YULIN, China, Aug 22 (Reuters) - At the section of the Great Wall of China that runs through Yulin, tour guide Gao Jing says she tried to learn English in expectation of the increased number of overseas visitors the city planned to attract as part of its economic transformation.

But the international tourists haven't come to Yulin, once a coal, oil and natural gas boom town in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, and in their absence she has forgotten her English.

"Sure, there's lots of talk about developing our tourism industry but walking the talk is a different matter," said Gao, who's been a tour guide there for 10 years.

"There's an immediate return on investment if you invest in energy. But you may need to wait 10, or even 100 years, if you want to see a return on investment in tourism."

The experience of Yulin carries a lesson for other Chinese cities trying to re-tool their economies - establishing a vibrant services sector takes time, and in the meantime you cannot afford to abandon your industrial strengths.

As its economy matures, China is trying to steer away from the export and investment-led model that fuelled its dizzy rise towards a more sustainable base built on domestic consumption.

Yulin has been a poster child for that attempt to move up the value chain, singled out by the national media as an example of economic transformation worthy of study by other regions.

Aside from gushing news articles about Yulin's success in diversifying its economy away from natural resources, the provincial government is notable for releasing a 27-step plan in 2013 about how this economic transformation should occur.

But since then things have not gone precisely to plan.

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A slowing economy has dragged down industries such as tourism and renewable energy, handpicked by the provincial government as new drivers of Yulin's economy.

"At the peak of the coal boom we were already thinking about how to transform our economy, move it up the value chain, but it hasn't been the success we'd hoped it would be," said Zhang Changqing, Yulin investment bureau's party secretary.

GROWTH LESSONS

The goal was for Yulin to shift into services, move away from an economy dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOE) towards one with private businesses at its core, and produce higher value coal, oil and natural gas.

Services made up just over 30 percent of Yulin's economy in 2015, and the government has set an ambitious target of raising that to nearly 40 percent by 2020.

With a population of 3.4 million, Yulin is a smaller city by Chinese standards, and its fluctuating fortunes highlight the challenges facing similar lower-tier centres.

Yulin's published GDP growth rate plummeted to 4.3 percent in 2015, from a high of 23 percent in 2008, although, as at the national level, there are some who doubt that official figures reflect the true state of the real economy.

"It's meaningless to look at the official statistics as an indicator of growth," a government official at the local bureau of commerce told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

A retired official from a state owned enterprise (SOE) was also sceptical about GDP data.

"I look at tax revenue instead, it's been dropping rapidly these past few years," he said. "The problem is there aren't enough people here for us to rely on the services industry to spur economic growth."

In the first half of 2016, Yulin's total fiscal revenue dropped 21.2 percent from the previous year, according to official statistics, and investment in services plummeted 36.6 percent in 2015.

CAN'T ALL HAVE A TERRACOTTA ARMY

Exacerbating Yulin's difficulties, nearby cities that were similarly reliant on traditional industries, such as Ordos and Baotou in Inner Mongolia, are trying to attract comparable kinds of investment projects and develop industries such as tourism.

"It's hard for us to develop a tourism industry. We don't have the same history as Xi'an," the retired SOE official said, referring to the ancient home of China's terracotta warriors.

"You come to Yulin maybe once in your life and you're finished seeing the whole city in half a day."

The government is also trying to boost consumption, both through e-commerce and bricks and mortar stores, but locals have been hesitant to spend in the downturn, with Walmart Stores Inc pulling out of Yulin early last year, Zhang from the investment bureau told Reuters.

Meanwhile real estate projects, a favourite growth stimulant for local governments in China, have dried up, meaning fewer jobs for migrant worker and less demand for raw materials.

Sprinkled around the city are empty or half-completed apartment buildings, a far cry from the days locals planted their excess cash made from the resources boom in property.

"Most of these projects are from years ago and many of them stopped mid-way, when the developers and construction companies ran out of money," said the official at the commerce bureau.

Blessed with abundant sunshine and wind, the government is hoping to develop the region's renewables industry, but demand for energy and electricity has shrunk as the property sector has tanked.

To be sure, Yulin hasn't abandoned the industries that fuelled its economic boom - indeed, some of its efforts to make its oil and coal companies more competitive are starting to pay off.

The Yulin Coal Trade Center has shifted from logistics and quality control to providing clients with a full supply chain, from procurement to financing options, according to Luo Wenjie, from the company's operations department.

Their clients are scattered around the country, and mostly find the company on popular online platforms such as WeChat.

"Unlike smaller companies that may swap out Yulin's high-quality coal for lower-quality coal, we're big enough to provide clients with peace of mind that we won't do that," said Luo, adding that the company has 100,000 employees.

"Our competitive advantage is that we aren't going to run off with our client's money."

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Additional reporting by the Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Alex Richardson)
After the New York Times report stating that Frank Ocean could possibly release a new album titled Boys Don't Cry on Aug. 5 turned out to be a major false alarm, fans were rewarded after waiting as an LP called Blonde arrived as an Apple Music exclusive on Saturday (Aug. 20).

While the album cover on iTunes initially showed the album title as Blond, Apple lists its spelling as Blonde.

Pop-up stores in cities including New York and Los Angeles appeared on Saturday, where a magazine (reportedly with the album inside) was given out. Earlier in the day, Ocean released a video for Blonde album opener "Nikes." Thursday night (Aug. 18), he dropped the "visual album" Endless.

Everything We Know About Frank Ocean's Long-Delayed Album

Last April, Ocean created hype by hinting at a release date of July 2, 2015. Then, in May, he posted a mysterious photo to his website of an old library card, most recently stamped with July 2016 and the date crossed out.

One source told Billboard in May that Ocean's label Def Jam Records had already spent more than a $1 million and as much as $2 million on crafting the album.

Listen to the album on Apple Music and iTunes here.

#BLONDE from Frank Ocean.

Exclusively on Apple Music.https://t.co/bk5j3bWsja pic.twitter.com/AHOHnbCPJJ- Apple Music (@AppleMusic) August 20, 2016
Frank Ocean made a zine and Kanye West wrote a poem for itabout McDonalds??

Frank Ocean made a zine and Kanye West wrote a poem for itabout McDonalds??

Following the release of his amazing new album, Blond, Frank Ocean launched an accompanying magazine which features a number of collaborators, including the one and only Kanye West.

The zine  titled Boys Dont Cry after the original name for the album  was offered last night at pop-up shop locations in New York, London, L.A. and Chicago, Pitchfork reported. In addition to Kanye, the publication features Tom Sachs, Tyrone Lebon and Wolfgang Tillmans, as well as an interview with his mother, Katonya Breaux.

The rest of the content includes photo series and a personal essay by Ocean, in addition to Kanyes poem about McDonalds, called The McDonalds Man. In the poem, he asserts he is wary of any food that smells that good. (We feel you, Yeezy.)

midny

Fans in the four locations were able to get a free issue of the magazine when they purchased the album, but for everyone else its going to be a bit harder to get your hands on it.

Complex reported that people are reselling their zines on eBay for $1,000. Back in 2015 when Kanye West released his Seasons zine in a similar fashion, fans also took to the online auction site to sell and bid for the exclusive copies.

KANYE WROTE A RAP ABOUT MCDONALDS FOR FRANK'S MAGAZINE, IM DEAD pic.twitter.com/qdr2Ub2YNs  Jack Dudley (@duddersj) August 21, 2016

Blond comes on the heels of Oceans visual album Endless, and a music video teaser for the song Nikes on the Blond album. Ocean fans have been waiting for four years for the musician to release his much-awaited follow up to Channel Orange. It includes a number of collaborators, including James Blake, Jazmine Sullivan and Radioheads Jonny Greenwood, Rolling Stone reported.

And if his magazine continues to feature such incredible collaborators and, well, surprising poets, were sure itll be a big success.

The post Frank Ocean made a zine and Kanye West wrote a poem for itabout McDonalds?? appeared first on HelloGiggles.
A quick look at the news in India, and it is clear that there are many contestations around our Constitutional right to free speech and expression that are ongoing. Whether it is Outlook magazine being slapped with charges of defamation and inciting communal hatred (153A) or Amnesty Internationals India Desk being at the receiving end of both sedition (124A) and 153A cases, these incidents seen in the light of the JNU episode earlier this year highlights the increasing dangers that journalists, human rights activists, students, face in expressing their opinions openly. Both 124A and 153A have been prone to misuse.

They are both laws that criminalize speech acts that tend to have an impact on public order  the former by causing disaffection against the state, and the latter by promoting enmity between communities of people. The indiscriminate use of these laws has resulted in creating a situation where any one who airs a public opinion needs to think twice about what they are saying. It creates categories of themes, which become off limits for discussion. It allows for third parties (members of political parties, goons, self righteous folk) to hold free speech to ransom, and exercise a Hecklers veto. A Hecklers veto, as described in legal discussions occurs when the government restricts the speakers right to freedom of speech in order to prevent a third part from reacting. Thus the police, instead of protecting the right of Amnesty India to organize a discussion, file a case against them after ABVP members complained of anti-national slogans allegedly raised at the meeting.



Satterfield cartoon about sedition laws. Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Satterfield_cartoon_about_sedition_laws.gif



The Amnesty incident prompted the organization Common Cause to file a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court asking the court to intervene to prevent the misuse and misapplication of the sedition laws. According to the Outlook article in question different Sangh outfits trafficked 31 tribal girls, some as young as three years, from tribal areas of Assam, to Punjab and Gujarat. According to the article, the trafficking occurred despite orders from the Assam State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, the Child Welfare Committee (Kokrajhar), the State Child Protection Society, and Childline (Delhi and Patiala) to these organizations by to return the children to Assam. The Assam police registered an FIR against Indranil Roy (Publisher), Krishna Prasad (Editor) of Outlook and Neha Dixit, writer of the story based on the complainants BJP spokesperson and Gauhati High Court advocate Bijon Mahajan, BJP Minority Cell member Mominul Awwal and Assistant Solicitor General Subhash Chandra Kayal Subhash Chandra Kayal. The filing of the case against Outlook has drawn widespread criticism, and ironically the article online has gone viral.



If this was not enough, in another shocking incident, the Chhattisgarh police filed a sedition charge against a resident of Bhilai for liking a page on Facebook that they deemed anti national. This incident brings back memories of the draconian section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which the Supreme Court struck down in March 2015 in the Shreya Singhal case. The court ruling in this case that there is a distinction between discussion, advocacy and incitement and that mere discussion or advocacy does not amount to incitement, the standard that is necessary to prove in order to curb speech. Despite this, the police is continuing to file cases for such frivolous acts of liking, forwarding, sharing or commenting ones opinion about a serious political situation  in this case the turmoil in Kashmir. Unfortunately it is not the law in itself that is at fault. There is enough legal precedent to suggest that many of these cases that are meant to curb speech will not stand in court. But the impact of these cases cannot be judged just by whether someone is convicted or acquitted. Once someone is dragged into the arena of courts, police stations, files, bail applications and the rest, this in itself begins to serve as a deterrent to express ones opinion freely and without fear of the repercussions.


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket that landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot on Sunday and Israeli aircraft and tanks responded by shelling the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the army and police said. The rocket caused no injuries or damage in Sderot, where it landed in a residential area, police said. An Israeli shell during an initial retaliation damaged a Beit Hanoun water tower and there were no casualties, local residents said. Multiple air strikes later in the evening hit at least 30 different sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas, the smaller Islamic Jihad and other militant groups and two people were lightly hurt, Gaza health officials said. A music festival in Sderot attended by hundreds of Israelis was temporarily disrupted as people sought shelter, television footage showed. The Israeli military said aircraft had attacked targets in the northern Gaza Strip and added that since the beginning of the year, 14 Gaza rockets had hit Israel. Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement that the military "remains committed to the stability of the region and operated in order to bring quiet to the people of southern Israel." "When terrorists in Hamas' Gaza Strip, driven by a radical agenda based on hatred, attack people in the middle of the summer vacation, their intentions are clear - to inflict pain, cause fear and to terrorize," Lerner said. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "We hold (Israel) responsible for the escalation in the Gaza Strip and we stress that its aggression will not succeed in breaking the will of our people and dictate terms to the resistance." Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and has observed a de-facto ceasefire with Israel since a 2014 war but some small armed cells of Jihadist Salafis have defied the agreement and have continued to occasionally launch rockets at Israel. Israel has held Hamas responsible for all attacks originating in the coastal enclave. More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups. Despite the ceasefire, Hamas has vowed to continue to dig tunnels intended to infiltrate Israel, and while Hamas leaders stress they do not seek an imminent war, they see tunnels as a strategic weapon in any future armed confrontation. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Sandra Maler)
BERLIN (Reuters) - For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday. Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month. Berlin announced measures earlier this month to spend considerably more on its police and security forces and to create a special unit to counter cyber crime and terrorism. "The population will be obliged to hold an individual supply of food for ten days," the newspaper quoted the government's "Concept for Civil Defence" - which has been prepared by the Interior Ministry - as saying. The paper said a parliamentary committee had originally commissioned the civil defense strategy in 2012. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the plan would be discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday and presented by the minister that afternoon. He declined to give any details on the content. People will be required to stockpile enough drinking water to last for five days, according to the plan, the paper said. The 69-page report does not see an attack on Germany's territory, which would require a conventional style of national defense, as likely. However, the precautionary measures demand that people "prepare appropriately for a development that could threaten our existence and cannot be categorically ruled out in the future," the paper cited the report as saying. It also mentions the necessity of a reliable alarm system, better structural protection of buildings and more capacity in the health system, the paper said. A further priority should be more support of the armed forces by civilians, it added. Germany's Defence Minister said earlier this month the country lay in the "crosshairs of terrorism" and pressed for plans for the military to train more closely with police in preparing for potential large-scale militant attacks. (Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) With Kashmir under curfew for the last 44 days, former state chief minister Omar Abdullah today led a joint delegation of opposition parties for a meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi where he pitched for efforts to find a political solution to the violent unrest which has claimed 64 lives so far.

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The delegation had called on President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

The opposition leaders from the troubled state asked Gandhi to make efforts at the national level for finding a "political rather than administrative" solution to the current spell of unrest, the longest in recent memory, in the aftermath of the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani by the security forces on July 8.

The PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir led by Mehbooba Mufti has been flayed by Abdullahs National Conference and other opposition parties for "creating disaffection" in the Valley, particularly among the youth, by trying to find an administrative solution to end the current spiral of violence.

"Discussed the current political crisis in J and K with a delegation of opposition leaders from the state led by @abdullah_omar (Omar Abdullah)," the Congress leader tweeted after the meeting.

CPI-M MLA M Y Tarigami, who was part of the delegation, told Gandhi that the ongoing stir in Kashmir should be considered a national problem and a consensus be built among political parties for evolving a political approach to deal with the situation.

"The present crisis should not be looked through the prism of another round of violence but needs a closer look keeping in mind the scope and implication of this serious crisis," Tarigami said.

State Congress chief G A Mir, who was also in the delegation that called on Gandhi, said "There is an urgent need to reach out to the people and not treat the present situation as a mere law and order problem."

He thanked the Congress vice president for taking up the issue in Parliament and forcing the government to a debate on the issue.

"Violence and bloodshed is leading to no solution. The political doors need to be opened urgently before the situation turns more violent," he said.

The delegation also comprised senior National Conference leaders including A R rather, Ali Mohammed Sagar, Nasir Wani, Davinder Rana and independent MLA Hakeem Yasin.

The delegation had met President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and submitted him a memorandum urging the Centre to deal with the present crisis "politically" rather than administratively.

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It would meet Prime Minister Modi tomorrow to impress upon him the need for finding a "political solution" to the crisis by initiating a dialogue with "all stakeholders". PTI SKL SPG SK SK

--- ENDS ---
ZURICH (Reuters) - Germany has tightened border controls with southern neighbor Switzerland to choke off a flow of illegal immigrants, Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said, calling it evidence that Germany has withdrawn its welcome mat for migrants. Germany's interior ministry confirmed border staffing had been reinforced. More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere arrived in Germany last year. The mood towards them has soured after a spate of attacks on civilians last month, including three carried out by migrants. Switzerland itself has cracked down on migrants -- many of them African -- trying to enter from southern neighbor Italy after crossing the Mediterranean. Humanitarian groups are scrutinizing if the stance violates human rights conventions, which Swiss officials insist they will safeguard. Maurer, who as finance minister oversees border guards, used the tougher German line to justify Switzerland's approach of sending back to Italy up to 1,000 migrants a day trying to transit to Germany or other points north without valid papers and without applying for asylum in Switzerland. "Germany is consistently securing the border to Switzerland," Maurer told a weekend congress of the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), according to remarks reported by the NZZ am Sonntag paper and confirmed by his ministry. The main transit path to Germany last year was the Balkan route via Austria, but as border controls have been tightened, more people are traveling via the Mediterranean and Italy. NZZ am Sonntag cited German federal police in Berlin as saying they caught 3,385 illegal immigrants from Switzerland so far this year, up 40 percent from a year ago. Maurer said German authorities had assigned an additional roughly 90 border guards and 40 police officers to the border segment to turn back illegal migrants from Switzerland, adding: "Germany has clearly moved away from its welcoming attitude." Asked about Maurer's remarks, Germany's interior ministry confirmed that federal police were deployed at the Swiss border to detain and expel people who violate entry requirements and do not seek formal protection. The numbers of such people has been increasing over the last few months and are in the low- to mid-double digits a day, a spokesman said by email, adding: "The development is related to the still significant Mediterranean route to Italy." German Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has suffered in the wake of the attacks and 52 percent of Germans think her migrant policy is bad, a poll published this month showed. (Reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich and Caroline Copley in Berlin; Editing by Toby Chopra)
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Germany's Thomas Rohler took Olympic gold in the men's javelin on Saturday with a best throw of 90.30 meters. Kenya's world champion Julius Yego threw 88.24 meters on his first attempt, a season best and good enough to hold the lead until the penultimate round when Rohler unleashed his massive throw. A limping Yego then retired from the competition having faulted on two of his previous throws. London 2012 champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago threw 85.38 meters on his second attempt. He needed a personal best on his last throw to bump Rohler from the gold medal position but produced a no throw and finished with bronze. Rohler has struggled with a back injury this season but showed promising form ahead of the Olympics, having thrown a world leading mark of 91.28 meters in June. (Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
Culiacan (Mexico) (AFP) - The son of jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been released following his abduction earlier this week, a member of the Sinaloa cartel leader's family said.

Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 29, reportedly was freed late Friday along with the five other men with whom he was kidnapped from a bar, a relative who requested anonymity for security reasons told AFP.

"They were negotiating all this time, but now are free and well," the source said, adding that some of the captured men were already back in Sinaloa state.

Guzman Salazar -- one of Guzman's sons from his first marriage -- was attending a celebration early Monday at an upscale restaurant and bar in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta when gunmen in pick-up trucks swooped in and kidnapped him and five of his six companions.

Several women who were also at the fete were allowed to leave unharmed.

The younger Guzman -- himself a key operator in the Sinaloa cartel who is wanted for arrest under a 2009 warrant -- was identified by the Jalisco state prosecutor's office based on security camera footage.

Notified by AFP about the reported release, the Mexico Attorney General's office said simply that it is "still working on the investigation."

Authorities had said they suspected the gunmen who seized the men were from the Jalisco New Generation cartel, an upstart rival of the Sinaloa cartel.

Jalisco New Generation has grown into a powerful force in recent years, spreading into Asia and Europe and defying the authorities with attacks and ambushes. Last year it brought down an army helicopter with a rocket launcher, killing seven soldiers.

The governors of western Jalisco and Sinaloa states, where the two crime syndicates are based, have warned of possible reprisals or even a full scale warfare between the drug cartels if Guzman Salazar was not released.

- Violent but 'cleanly done' -

There was still no word as to who is responsible for the kidnapping, but government officials said earlier this week that they were investigating the possible involvement of municipal police in the resort of Puerto Vallarta.

Story continues

Security camera footage of the abduction showed armed men bursting in and making their victims kneel down with their hands on their heads before taking them away.

"It was violent but cleanly done," the restaurant's owner Ignacio Cadena Beraud told reporters earlier this week, describing the brutal precision of the abductions.

'El Chapo' Guzman was head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel and one of the world's most notorious criminals until he was recaptured and imprisoned in January.

Guzman was arrested in 2014 but staged a spectacular jailbreak one year later, becoming for a period the world's most-wanted man.

He is now being held in a maximum security federal prison in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez and fighting extradition to the United States.

The Mexican government gave the green light to extradite Guzman after US officials promised that he would not face the death penalty, a punishment outlawed in Mexico. Legal maneuvers however continue to try to avoid his extradition.

Nevertheless the United States expects Guzman to be extradited by the end of the year, a US official told AFP, which would be a relatively short period for this type of procedure.
Halt and Catch Fire is the sneaky feminist show you MUST WATCH and it might have an EVEN SNEAKIER premier!

Halt and Catch Fire is the sneaky feminist show you MUST WATCH and it might have an EVEN SNEAKIER premier!

Halt and Catch Fire is one of those awesome shows that always seems to stay just below the radarremember how long it took for Breaking Bad to catch on? Also on AMC, H&CF is about to return for its third season, and that gives you JUST enough time to catch up.

So why should we watch?

Halt and Catch Fire did one of the sneakiest season two turnarounds in TV history. While Tshow started out focusing on two dudes, Lee Pace as Joe and Scoot McNairy as Gordon, trying to build their own personal computer at the dawn of the PC age.

But then stuff got awesome, as season one was a sloooooow pivot to making it apparent that the two main women in the show WERE ACTUALLY BETTER AT EVERYTHING.

hcf1

Wait, you dont mean like cooking and taking care of the mens egos, right?

NO! Mackenzie Davis as Cameron turns out to be a genius programmer, and Kerry Bishe as Gordons wife, Donna, evolved from thankless mom in the background to killer engineer and organizer. By the end of season one, the two women had essentially bailed on the dudes to form their own company, appropriately called Mutiny.

hcf2

Are you telling me theres a show about two women building computers and kicking ass and no one has told me about it??

I AM. And moreover, the 80s set design and costumes are perfect and will having you longing for Camerons amazing punk aesthetic and Donnas on-point country club styling.

Annette Brown/AMC

Annette Brown/AMC

Tell me where I may consume this joy?

Both seasons are streaming on Netflix and Amazon, but were going to warn you, the show doesnt start as a feminist juggernaut. Both the ladies get kicked around a lot by the overwhelming egos of their dudes, but that only makes the ensuing takeover and ladybossing MORE awesome. Think season 6 of GoT awesome.

You mentioned a sneakier premier

YES. This morning, TV critic Alan Sepinwall tweeted that there might be a sneak-attack of the premier TONIGHT, TWO DAYS EARLY, on AMC. Might be just a rumor, but then this happened

Story continues

Who is RTing, you ask? Why one of the showrunners of Halt and Catch Fire himself, Christopher Rogers. That sounds like confirmation to us.

Now get watching, as Rogers and his partner Christopher Cantwell remake a universe in which women rule the computer world.

Oh and PS, Lee Pace looks like this this season, in case you need some scruff with your feminism:

lee

The post Halt and Catch Fire is the sneaky feminist show you MUST WATCH and it might have an EVEN SNEAKIER premier! appeared first on HelloGiggles.
By Venus Wu HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters rallied on Sunday against Hong Kong's disqualification of six candidates from legislative elections, the latest outpouring of anger at a perceived tightening grip on the city's freedoms by China. The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under an agreement that gave ultimate control to Communist Party rulers in Beijing while promising Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. But Beijing's refusal to grant full democracy, which prompted widespread street protests in 2014, has triggered tension with growing calls for Hong Kong to split from China. "Against the political filtering (of candidates), give us a fair election," chanted the demonstrators in sweltering heat of 32 degree Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit). Police estimates put the number of demonstrators at 760, while organizers said 1,300 took part. The government took the controversial decision to invalidate six candidates nominations on the grounds that they could be advocating for Hong Kong independence, an idea anathema to Beijing. But only three of the six showed up on Sunday. One of the barred candidates, Edward Leung, a figurehead of the "localist" movement putting the financial hub's interests before those of Beijing, said he did not join because he was not invited, illustrating a growing split in the opposition camp. Leung was barred from running despite declaring to the Electoral Affairs Commission that he did not promote Hong Kong independence. "This split has been around for a long time," said Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who joined Sunday's protest and helped lead the 2014 protests that paralyzed the main streets of Hong Kong for more than two months. "There is an actual difference between the ideals of the localists and the democrats. Personally I think this is unnecessary and harmful to everybody, but this issue cannot be solved within a short time, Tai said. The organizer of Sundays march, Jimmy Sham, said the absentees might have had their own reasons for staying away. "You cant say this shows there is a split just because they did not show up for one event, he said. Among the disqualified candidates who did join the march, Alice Lai, of the pro-colonial days "Hong Kong-UK Reunification Campaign", said electoral freedom concerned everybody. "This is about protecting our election rights and our freedom of speech," she said. The government said in a statement its officers had been handling election matters in line with the law "as well as the principle of impartiality with a view to ensuring that the election would be held in an open, fair and honest manner". The Legislative Council election is on Sept. 4. (Editing by Nick Macfie)
Indian soldiers killed three suspected rebels in a gun battle Sunday in Indian-administered Kashmir, the army said, as the region reels from weeks of deadly violence between protesters and security forces.

The rebels were killed in Tangdhar north of the main city of Srinagar after crossing over from the Pakistani side of the heavily militarised border that divides the area between the two countries, it said.

"Three terrorists were killed in the fight. Three assault rifles were also recovered from the site of the gun battle," army spokesman Colonel N.N. Joshi told AFP.

The army was trying to determine if the rebels were part of the same group that attacked an Indian ammunition depot in the area on Friday, injuring at least three border guards.

Indian Kashmir has been under curfew since protests erupted over the death last month of a popular young rebel leader, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight with security forces.

More than 60 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan region since 2010.

Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan region in full.

Wani's Hizbul Mujahideen and several other rebel groups have fought for decades an estimated 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence for the region or its merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting since 1989 when the armed rebellion began.

India blames Pakistan for arming and sending rebels across the de facto border to launch attacks on Indian forces.

Islamabad denies the allegations saying it only provides moral and diplomatic support for the Kashmiri struggle for right to self-determination.
In the past 44 days of violent unrest, all developmental projects in the valley have been stopped.

By Ashwini Kumar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and PDP President , Mehbooba Mufti has landed in Jammu today to check the status of the on going developmental work started by her government . This is her first visit to Jammu after the Kashmir unrest began 44 days ago following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen Commander, Burhan Wani in the Kokernag area of Anantnag district of the Kashmir Valley.

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MEHBOOBA'S SCHEDULE

Official sources said that Mehbooba Mufti has reached here around 6 pm and will today meet some of her party leaders to take their views to tackle kashmir unrest .

Tomorrow, Mufti will check the works started by the Economic Reconstruction Agency(ERA) in the Gandola rope way between Mubarik Mandi and Bagh-I-Bahu . In addition to this, she will also inaugurate the Bhagwati Nagar Sewerage Treatment Plant.

Chief Minister Mufti was scheduled to visit Jammu last month but due to the unrest , she could not check the progress of all the projects. In the past 44 days of violent unrest, all projects in valley have been stopped.

Sources said that Mehbooba will return to the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday and will have a meeting with top officials on the security situation in order to get more details about the latest episode of unrest in the valley.



ALSO READ:

Curfew not enough in Kashmir, CM Mehbooba wants to starve people: National Conference

Ram Madhav, Omar Abdullah trade barbs over Kashmir unrest on Twitter



--- ENDS ---
By Agustinus Beo Da Costa JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities are investigating whether a suspected militant arrested last week was plotting an attack on the resort island of Bali, police said. Bali, a popular tourist destination, saw a number of attacks by homegrown militants in the early 2000s, the deadliest being a nightclub bombing that killed 202 people, mostly Australians. Police found a bomb and "high (impact) explosive materials" during a raid on the suspects house on the western island of Sumatra, media said. The man, whom police have yet to identify, was arrested on suspicion of having links with extremist group Islamic State and of being involved in planning a suicide bombing at a police station in the central Javanese city of Solo last month. The Solo attack only killed the bomber himself and wounded one police official. Edy Hartono, chief of the counter-terrorism police unit, said police were looking into the suspected Bali plot. "It was still just a plan," he told Reuters, declining to elaborate. The arrest in Lampung, Sumatra, was among a series of terrorism-related arrests across several cities in Indonesia last week as authorities intensify a security crackdown in the world's largest Muslim-majority country. Indonesia saw its first Islamic State-linked attack in January when four militants mounted a gun and bomb attack in a busy commercial district in the capital Jakarta. Eight people were killed, including the militants. (Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Zara Terez Kyleen James

AQUA STUDIO

I expected Aqua Studio to be a hybrid of SoulCycle and Water Aerobics, but Aqua Studio has a much more holistic approach to their workout. The classes are small, and even at capacity, do not feel overcrowded. The instructor is well trained and lead us through a cathartic workout combining spin, stretching, and whole body training, using the water as resistance. The music was not lyrical, or like anything you would hear in a standard spin class, but more melodic and what you would expect in a yoga class. It fit the general mood of the class, and helped keep me on beat. Although I felt muscle fatigue throughout the class, I never felt I was exerting myself too much, or at risk of injury. My legs, butt, and arms were sore the next day. The studio is impeccably maintained, and has an aura of serenity. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking to shake up their work out routine.

- Callie Turner, assistant to the fashion director
Nasiriyah (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of up to 1,700 military recruits, officials said.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where the recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group.

"The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison," a spokesman for the governor's office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, told AFP.

"The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions," Abdelhassan Dawood said.

"They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions," he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

The Dhiqar governor confirmed to AFP that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq's south.

"Tens of relatives attended the executions," said Dawood. "They shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), they were happy to see those people dead."

Among them was Najla Shaab, a 30-year-old woman whose husband was killed in the massacre, leaving her to raise their children alone.

"Thank you God, it's a fair punishment for the worst crime, a triple crime of killing, throwing bodies in the river and burying people alive," she told AFP by phone.

- Botched trials -

One of the sites of the massacre was the former river police building inside former president Saddam Hussein's palace complex in Tikrit.

Story continues

Video footage subsequently released by IS showed an assembly-line massacre in which gunmen herded their victims towards the quay, shot them in the back of the head and pushed them in the water one after the other.

The trials that have led to Iraq's latest batches of death sentences have been severely criticised by rights groups as failing to meet basic standards.

Amnesty International had slammed Iraq's systematic resort to the death penalty following the execution of 22 other people in May this year.

"The use of the death penalty is deplorable in all circumstances, and it is particularly horrendous when applied after grossly unfair trials marred by allegations of confessions extracted under torture as is frequently the case in Iraq," the group's Iraq researcher Diana Eltahawy said.

The United Nations had criticised Abadi's call to speed up executions, which according to Amnesty already topped 100 for 2016 before Sunday's hangings.

"Fast-tracking executions will only accelerate injustice," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said earlier this month.

The Speicher massacre is considered one of IS's worst crimes since it took over large parts of the country in 2014.

Combined with a call by the country's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to take up arms against them, the Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass recruitment of Shiite volunteers to fight the jihadists.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said on Sunday it had hanged 36 militants sentenced to death over the mass killing of hundreds of mainly Shi'ite soldiers at a camp north of Baghdad two years ago. It is the highest number of militants executed in one day by the Iraqi government since Islamic State fighters took control of parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014. The executions were carried out at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya, state television quoted the Justice Ministry as saying. As many as 1,700 soldiers were killed two years ago after they fled from Camp Speicher, a former U.S. military base just north of Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, when it was overrun by Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group. The government came under increased pressure from local Shi'ite politicians to execute militants sentenced to death after a massive bombing that targeted a shopping street in Baghdad on July 3, killing at least 324 people. Claimed by Islamic State, the truck bomb that blew up in the Karrada district was the deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraq's Justice Ministry announced days later that 45 death sentences had been carried out since the beginning of the year. The United Nations said on Aug. 1 that Iraq's efforts to speed up the execution of militants could result in innocent people being put to death. An estimated 1,200 people are on death row in Iraq, including possibly hundreds who have exhausted appeals, the U.N. statement said. "Given the weaknesses of the Iraqi justice system, and the current environment in Iraq, I am gravely concerned that innocent people have been and may continue to be convicted and executed, resulting in gross, irreversible miscarriages of justice," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in the statement. Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili dismissed the concern, saying each case "was reviewed in detail" before being sent to Iraqi President Fuad Masum, whose approval is needed for a death sentence to be carried out. "There will be more executions," Zamili added, speaking at a ceremony to mark the hangings in Nasiriya, attended by the families of the Speicher victims and broadcast on state TV. (Reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Andrew Bolton and Alexandra Hudson)
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israel targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip by air and with tank fire Sunday, injuring four people, after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave crashed into the Israeli city of Sderot.

Police said the rocket hit "between two buildings on a road" in Sderot, which is less than four kilometres (2.5 miles) from Gaza, causing no casualties.

Army spokesman Peter Lerner said Israeli forces retaliated by hitting targets of the Palestinian Islamist movement in northern Gaza.

"In response to the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the IAF (Israeli air force) and tanks targeted two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip," Lerner said in a statement.

Palestinian health and security sources said two people were lightly wounded by the Israeli fire.

"One of them is a 20-year-old (young man) who was hit by shrapnel in the face," said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Later on Sunday, two more Palestinians were wounded by further Israeli strikes in the area, Qudra added.

Security sources in the territory said several targets in northen Gaza were struck by Israeli fire, and that a reservoir in Beit Hanun was destroyed.

Witnesses said a base of Hamas's military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in nearby Beit Lahya, was also hit.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Sderot.

Israeli media said it was the first time downtown Sderot had been hit by a rocket from Gaza since the last war with Palestinian militants in the territory in 2014.

On July 2, Israeli air raids hit four sites in Gaza after a rocket struck a building in Sderot. There were no casualties in either incident.
This Italian city is officially vegetarian-only. Huh?

This Italian city is officially vegetarian-only. Huh?

Italy seems to be going through some sort of vegetable moment right now. Last week, an Italian lawmaker proposed banning vegetarianism for kids (and only kids) throughout the country. And this week, Italian city Turin just became the first city in Europe to launch a formal, government-sponsored initiative to bill itself as a vegetarian and vegan-friendly city.

Turin, which recently elected its first female mayor Chiara Appendino, is home to 133 vegetarian-friendly, if not outright vegetarian or vegan, restaurants. This perhaps seems unremarkable on its own, until you realize that in a city like Rome, which is almost three times larger than Turin, only has 150. One would imagine that even those numbers are high in Italy, as so much of the regions cuisine is based in and heavily features meat and dairy products.

But for Appendino, Turins vegetarian bent is a natural platform for city marketing, and she wants tourists from other parts of Italy, Europe, and the rest of the world alike to know the city for its plant-heavy cuisine. And as GOOD Magazine points out, theres precedent for Turin especially to challenge existing modes and models of food consumption  Piedmont, the region of which Turin is capital, was the birth of the Slow Food movement, which prioritized notions like local, regional eating in the 80s; long before those ideas would be picked up by food world behemoths like McDonalds.

Will Turins vegetarian agenda take hold? As its a government campaign versus a government mandate, were curious as to how city residents will actually take to it. But in a way, theyve already chosen a side, having had that many veggie-centric restaurants there in the first place. Between this and the proposed childrens vegetarianism ban, its clear veggies are on lawmakers minds.

The post This Italian city is officially vegetarian-only. Huh? appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Jaden Smith is talking about dressing outside gender norms  and were listening

Jaden Smith is talking about dressing outside gender norms  and were listening

All-around wunderkind Jaden Smith now has his own fashion line focused on gender-neutral clothing and we cant get enough. The line, called MSFTSrep, was developed for people who want to dress like themselves no matter what, as Smith told Variety.

He said, [The clothing line is for] the girl that wants to be a tomboy or the boy that wants to wear a skirt, and people try to condemn. Were here for you. Tell us your stories. If someone at your schools trying to pick on you, it doesnt matter because Jaden Smiths got your back.

jaden dawg

Smith is a pretty busy 18-year-old, between acting in the Baz Luhrmann musical Netflix series The Get Down, rapping and running MSFTSrep. He has long been known for his bold fashion choices like wearing dresses and skirts, as well as an amazing white Batman suit that he wore to both his prom and the Kim Kardashian and Kanye West wedding.

what a night  A photo posted by  Mecca Nism  (@meccandcheese) on May 17, 2015 at 6:27pm PDT

Ive always been super-duper fly and super-duper different, Smith told Variety. People just start caring when they have a reason to start caring.

With parents like Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, its no surprise Jaden and his sister, Willow, are so talented, but we love how conscientious he is. Jaden has also been outspoken about environmentalism, a cause his parents support  both are investors in JUST Water, which sells water in recycled bottles.

Keep it up, Jaden. We are loving what we are hearing and seeing.

The post Jaden Smith is talking about dressing outside gender norms  and were listening appeared first on HelloGiggles.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese companies overwhelmingly say the government's latest stimulus will do little to boost the economy and the Bank of Japan should not ease further, a Reuters poll showed, a setback for policymakers' efforts to overcome deflation and stagnation.

Below are the questions and answers to the poll conducted Aug. 1-16 for Reuters by Nikkei Research. Answers are denoted in percentage points, while poll and reply totals are represented in actual figures.

1a. How do you expect the government's planned stimulus will have effects on the underlying economy? (Pick one)

Sectors Considerably A little bit Not much Not at all Polled Replied

All 3 63 31 3 533 267

Manufacturers 3 60 36 1 261 141

Non-Manufacturers 4 67 25 4 272 126

1b. How do you expect the government's planned stimulus will have effects on bolstering Japan's potential growth? (Pick one)

Sectors Considerably A little bit Not much Not at all Polled Replied

All 2 45 45 8 533 266

Manufacturers 1 46 46 6 261 140

Non-Manufacturers 4 44 43 9 272 126

1c. How do you expect the government's planned stimulus will have effects on stimulating private consumption? (Pick one)

Sectors Considerably A little bit Not much Not at all Polled Replied

All 0 43 49 8 533 266

Manufacturers 0 44 49 8 261 140

Non-Manufacturers 1 42 49 8 272 126

1d. Do you expect growth to accelerate with government's plan to bring forward opening of maglev train services by tapping Fiscal Investment and Loan Program?

Sectors Greatly A little bit Not much Not at all Polled Replied

All 5 60 31 3 533 269

Manufacturers 5 62 30 3 261 143

Non-Manufacturers 6 59 33 3 272 126

1e. Should the government expand fiscal spending to promote new technology such as IoT and AI? (Pick one)

Sectors Considerably Not really Polled Replied

All 63 37 533 268

Manufacturers 58 42 261 142

Non-Manufacturers 67 33 272 126

2. With the government showing active stance on fiscal spending, how should the Bank of Japan act? (Pick one)

Sectors Enhancing Maintaining Taming monetary Others Polled Replied

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monetary easing status quo easing and head

to exit

All 37 35 27 1 533 263

Manufacturers 38 30 30 1 261 138

Non-Manufacturers 34 42 23 1 272 125

3a. Japan's main securities industry body set new guidelines to prevent leaks of unpublished corporate information by analysts. Are you changing the way you deal with analysts? (Pick one)

Sectors Yes Plan to change No plan to Polled Replied

from now on change

All 4 19 77 533 262

Manufacturers 5 21 74 261 140

Non-Manufacturers 3 16 81 272 122

3b. Do you see any problems in dealing with the securities industry's new guidelines? (Pick plural choices)

Sectors Considering Considering whether Others Polled Replied

to what to change content of

extent discussions with

qualitative securities companies

information and investment fund

can be management companies

discussed

All 65 27 23 533 208

Manufacturers 63 32 19 261 111

Non-Manufacturers 68 22 27 272 97

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Izumi Nakagawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
AISA Delhi State Secretary, Ashutosh Kumar, responded to the development saying, "We stand by the complainant and will extend all possible support in her fight for justice".

By Anindya Banerjee, Arvind Ojha: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and controversies seem to go hand in hand. Not long that anti-India slogans were allegedly chanted inside the JNU campus, now the country's premier education institute is shocked by rape of one of its own.

A 28-year-old, first year PhD student today complained that she was raped by one Anmol Ratan, a student of JNU and an activist of left leaning student organisation All India Students Association (AISA).

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HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED



The victim alleged that in June 2016, she had put a statement on social networking site Facebook that she wanted to watch a film called 'Sairat' and asked if anyone had a copy of the same. The victim alleged that Anmol messaged her saying he had a copy of the film. She further added that on August 20, Anmol picked her up from her hostel to give her the CD of the film. She said he took her to his hostel at Brahamputra where she was sexually assaulted after being given a spiked drink by the accused.

The complainant further alleged that Anmol threatened her off due consequences if she told anyone about the incident. On the basis of her statement, an FIR was lodged under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 376.

AISA RESPONSE

Responding to the situation, AISA Delhi State Secretary, Ashutosh Kumar, today released the following statement:

"AISA takes serious note of the fact that Anmol Ratan, a leading activist of AISA, is facing a criminal complaint of sexual assault. He is, henceforth, expelled from the primary membership of AISA. AISA will reflect on and deal with this issue with all the firmness it deserves.

AISA will be unflinching for the principles of gender justice even if it involves a leading member of the organisation. We stand by the complainant and will extend all possible support in her fight for justice."

ALSO READ:

Constable suspended after rape attempt

Delhi landlord arrested for raping his tenant's daughter and abusing their son

Now, another JNU student leader to pen book on sedition row





--- ENDS ---
Justin Timberlake has spoken out following the news of Lou Pearlman's death.

Pearlman, a former manager of boy bands like *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, died at age 62 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Miami, Florida, where he was serving a 25-year sentence, ET can confirm.

Timberlake took to Twitter on Sunday, writing, "I hope he found some peace. God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman."

I hope he found some peace. God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman.  Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) August 21, 2016

NEWS: Lou Pearlman Dies in Prison at Age 62

Pearlman fostered a number of male pop groups, including O-Town, who gave an exclusive statement to ET on Sunday.

"Hard to articulate the emotions being felt among our group. Lou brought us together and no doubt helped contribute joy to millions across the world," they wrote. "However, we cannot ignore the pain he inflicted on the innocent families, our band and our musical contemporaries. For these reasons, his death is far more tragic."

O-Town's Jacob Underwood also tweeted about Pearlman, writing, "Hard to describe what I'm feeling.. He was always nice to me, even when he was stealing from me. RIP. Power and money are not our legacy. It's the people we help, and the positive effect we have in the world. Praise God for life and love."

Hard to describe what I'm feeling.. He was always nice to me, even when he was stealing from me. RIP. https://t.co/Elyg4EgGHH  Jacob Underwood (@JacobUnderwood7) August 21, 2016

Power and money are not our legacy. It's the people we help, and the positive effect we have in the world. Praise God for life and love.  Jacob Underwood (@JacobUnderwood7) August 21, 2016

WATCH: *NSYNC Reunites for JC Chasez's 40th Birthday

Underwood's bandmate, Erik-Michael Estrada, also posted to Twitter. "Many reasons I'm sad about the news. Primarily because we should be celebrating the man for his musical accomplishments. Instead.. we're not," he wrote over a series of three tweets. "That said - I'm sorry for all the families and lives affected by his choices. But I'm forever thankful for my brothers in @OTownOfficial and for my extended family @backstreetboys @lfo and @nsync #anamericantragedy."

Story continues

Many reasons I'm sad about the news. Primarily because we should be celebrating the man for his musical accomplishments. Instead.. we're not  ERIK-MICHAEL ESTRADA (@iamerikestrada) August 21, 2016

That said - I'm sorry for all the families and lives affected by his choices.  ERIK-MICHAEL ESTRADA (@iamerikestrada) August 21, 2016

In 2008, Pearlman was convicted for his involvement in a massive Ponzi scheme that swindled 1,700 investors out of a half-billion dollars. He was also sued by most of his former acts, including *NSYNC, BSB, O-Town, LFO, Take 5, Natural, and Aaron Carter, for fraud and misrepresentation.

NEWS: Former 3 Doors Down Guitarist Matt Roberts Dead at 38

Nonetheless, though conflicted, Timberlake and O-Town weren't the only ones who shared their condolences via social media. *NSYNC members Lance Bass and Chris Kirpatrick expressed their sympathies on Twitter, as did a number of Pearlman's other former clients.

Word is that #LouPearlman has passed away. He might not have been a stand up businessman , but I (cont) https://t.co/nsczUEVOOQ  Lance Bass (@LanceBass) August 20, 2016

Mixed emotions right now, but RIP Lou Pearlman.  Chris Kirkpatrick (@IamCKirkpatrick) August 21, 2016

#LouPearlman my old manager died in prison... Rip Lou not the best business guy really at all but he did discover me karma is real  aaroncarter (@aaroncarter) August 21, 2016

Many emotions at the news of Lou's passing. Without Lou I wouldn't have met my four brothers or had the opportunity of a lifetime. RIP.  AJ McLean (@skulleeroz) August 21, 2016

God rest your soul Lou Pearlman  Brad Fischetti (@bradfischetti) August 21, 2016

Timberlake's former bandmate, Joey Fatone, recently opened up about the possibility of *NSYNC performing again in the future. Find out more in the video below.

Related Articles
By Lesley Wroughton NAIROBI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and counterparts from eight African nations meet in Nairobi on Monday to discuss ways to prevent South Sudan from sliding back into civil war and advance a political transition in Somalia. Kerry arrived in the Kenyan capital late on Sunday - after a two-week summer break - for his second trip as secretary of state to Nairobi since May 2015. On Tuesday, he travels to Sokoto, Nigeria, the historic Muslim city in the remote northwest, followed by talks with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. "We will ... talk about how we move forward in trying to implement peace in this country," a senior State Department official said of South Sudan. "The people of South Sudan have suffered for far too long, and the continued instability there has led almost a million refugees and a humanitarian crisis that is far beyond the abilities of even the international community to respond to," the official told a conference call. The international community has poured billions of aid into supporting the world's youngest nation, which gained independence in 2011. Oil production, by far the biggest source of government revenue, has plummeted. But worsening violence has raised fears of a return to civil war that erupted in late 2013, which broadly ran along ethnic lines, pitting President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against his rival and vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer. Violence flared when Machar withdrew his forces from the capital Juba in July and was sacked by Kiir as vice president. Machar was picked up by U.N. peacekeepers in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo a week ago with a leg injury and was handed over to authorities in Congo. Machar led a two-year rebellion against forces loyal to rival Kiir before the two sides reached a peace deal in August 2015. Under the deal, Machar returned to Juba in April to resume his role as vice president. On Monday, Kerry will meet Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta before joining foreign ministers from Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Djibouti, Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia to discuss South Sudan and Somalia, where there are concerns that delays in the approval of new election rules could dampen its recovery from conflict. World powers and regional states have struggled to find leverage over the warring factions in South Sudan, despite U.S. and European sanctions on some military leaders and African threats of punitive actions. Especially of concern to Washington was an attack on a Juba hotel in July by uniformed men who killed a U.S.-funded journalist and raped civilians, including aid workers. The U.N. has launched an investigation into accusations U.N. peacekeepers in Juba failed to respond properly to the attack. In Kerry's talks with Kenyatta, he will also discuss Kenya's presidential election set for August 2017, the senior State Department official said. Opposition protests in Nairobi since April have stoked fears among church leaders and Western diplomats of a repeat of the violence following the 2007 election in which 1,200 people were killed. In a letter to Kerry before his visit, the Human Rights Watch group urged him to discuss rights concerns with Kenyatta. The group said it had documented 34 cases of extrajudicial killings and another 11 deaths of people last seen in state custody over alleged links with al-Shabaab militants in Nairobi and in the northeast. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Hasakeh (Syria) (AFP) - Syria's military said Sunday a truce deal has been reached with the Kurds in the flashpoint city of Hasakeh, but a Kurdish source said it has yet to be finalised.

The northeastern city has been rocked by deadly clashes between US-backed Kurdish forces and fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since Wednesday.

In a bid to calm tensions, a delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in the nearby city of Qamishli on Saturday for talks with the two sides.

A Syrian military source told AFP the deal was struck between regime forces and Kurdish fighters after two days of mediation by regime ally Russia.

The three-point agreement calls for a "halt to all hostilities and the return to regime forces of any positions seized by Kurdish fighters" since Wednesday, the Syrian military source said.

It also stipulates that casualties would be transferred north to Qamishli.

The military source said additional negotiations would take place on Monday.

However, a Kurdish military source told AFP from Hasakeh that none of the three points had been agreed.

"No agreement has been reached on a ceasefire or the return of positions to the regime," said the source, who declined to be named, stressing that more negotiations are due on Monday.

Earlier a source from the Hasakeh governorate said a delegation of Russian officials and members of the pro-regime militia National Defence Forces (NDF) had arrived at Qamishli airport for a meeting to take place on Monday.

- Common enemy -

A local journalist working with AFP toured seven army checkpoints that had been seized by Kurdish fighters and confirmed that regime forces were back in control.

But Kurdish fighters still held three positions previously controlled by the NDF in Al-Nashwa, a southern district of Hasakeh, the journalist said.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, but there have been growing tensions between them in Hasakeh.

Story continues

Clashes erupted last week after Kurds demanded the NDF be dismantled in Hasakeh, and violence escalated on Thursday when regime warplanes bombarded Kurdish-held positions in the city for the first time.

Regime aircraft overflew the city on Sunday morning but without carrying out attacks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The unprecedented regime strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as they battle IS in northern Syria.

Since Wednesday, the fighting has left 43 people dead including 27 civilians, among them 11 children, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

Thousands of civilians have fled Hasakeh, where electricity has been cut and bakeries shut.

In the northern province of Aleppo, the scene of heavy clashes all month between government forces and rebels allied with jihadists, 28 civilians were among 38 people killed Saturday in strikes by the regime and its Russian allies, the Observatory said.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
Los Angeles (AFP) - Firefighters in California said they are making progress slowing the advance of several devastating wildfires, but authorities ordered the temporary closure of a historic villa in the path of one dangerous inferno.

The iconic Hearst Castle, also known as San Simeon, is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the state, drawing millions of visitors each year, according to local tourism officials.

Administrators of the castle -- a national landmark once owned by newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst -- said on its website that the site is "closed until further notice due to wildfires in the area."

"Fire conditions will be assessed daily to determine when Hearst Castle reopens and tours commence," the site read.

Built in 1919, the Hearst Castle is the site of a museum and state park that houses a large European art and antiques collection.

Local media reported that the leading edge of the 24,000-acre Chimney Fire was just two miles from the castle, located some 40 miles from the town of San Luis Obispo.

The Los Angeles Times wrote that bulldozers, trucks and firefighters are digging containment lines around Hearst Castle, but that no evacuation orders have been issued for the area as yet.

Wildfires are raging across several US states, but have hit parched California -- a state suffering from a years-long drought -- particularly hard.

Firefighters are battling to bring some half-dozen active fires raging across California under control.

Officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the 19,000-acre Rey Fire in southern California is just 10 percent contained.

The Chimney Fire imperiling Hearst Castle is around 35 percent contained, officials said.

The Clayton Fire in the northern Clear Lake region -- near the Sonoma and Napa wine regions -- measures some 4,000 acres and is 95 percent contained. Four thousand people have fled the Clayton fire, started by an arsonist, according to police.

Story continues

Another inferno, the Bluecut Fire, which has burned some 37,000 acres near San Bernardino in southern California, is now 85 percent contained, fire officials said.

Fires have scorched swaths of the Angeles National Forest in southern California, and displaced tens of thousands of Golden State residents, including the entire populations last week of Wrightwood and Lytle Creek -- towns of a few thousand people -- and most of those in nearby Phelan.

Since the beginning of the year, some 4,600 fires have ripped through 121,000 hectares of Californian scrub and forest.

Nearly 1,000 homes have been destroyed and several people have been killed this year due to fires in America's most populous state.
Leonardo DiCaprio abruptly has dropped out of hosting a Tuesday fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at his Hollywood Hills home, sources confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. The $33,400-per-guest event, part of a series of late-August fundraisers for Clinton in Los Angeles, now will be held at the nearby residence of Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.

On Saturday, an unidentified source close to the event told People the reason DiCaprio backed out was work-related - that his current project will keep him in New York until Wednesday. He is taking his documentary The Turning Point to the Toronto International Film Festival next month. He currently is not filming a movie as an actor.

But the move comes as DiCaprio, 41, has become linked in press reports to a $3 billion Malaysian embezzlement scandal. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an asset-seizure complaint in federal court pertaining to a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund called 1MDB. The fund allegedly backed Red Granite Pictures, the production company behind DiCaprio's The Wolf of Wall Street. He is mentioned only as "Hollywood Actor 1" in the complaint, but it suggests the actor's eponymous foundation may have benefited from gifts made by Red Granite, its principal Riza Aziz and a key 1MDB figure named Jho Low. (THR published an extensive look at the foundation and its connection to 1MDB on Wednesday.)

Read more: Leonardo DiCaprio, the Malaysian Money Scandal and His "Unusual" Foundation

Hillary and Bill Clinton's own eponymous charitable foundation has been the subject of intense scrutiny during the campaign, particularly its connection to foreign money. The Clinton Foundation has said it will not accept foreign contributions if Hillary is elected president. One source with experience planning presidential fundraisers said it would be a "no-brainer" to keep DiCaprio away from a Clinton event amid the 1MDB suit and press reports, but another said candidates tend to have a lower standard for vetting of celebrity fundraisers.

Story continues

DiCaprio's rep, Shawn Sachs, maintained the scheduling conflict forced the actor to bow out. Josh Schwerin, a spokesperson with the Clinton campaign, told THR any suggestion that the 1MDB scandal is connected to DiCaprio dropping out "is completely . It's not at all true." He added: "If we could have had the event at his home, we would have loved to. He was gracious enough to find us a new host. We hope to do something with him in the future."

Co-hosts at the Timberlake-Biel fundraiser are still expected to include DiCaprio's friend Tobey Maguire and his manager Rick Yorn, along with Shonda Rhimes, Scooter Braun and ICM head Chris Silbermann.

Read more: #ImWithHer: Hollywood Celebrates With Hillary Clinton As She Accepts Nomination
Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan shall be honoured with the prestigious 'Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres' (The Knight in the National Order Arts and Letters) by the French government.

Kamal Haasan to be appointed as Knight in the National Order Arts and Letters

By Pramod Madhav: Actor Kamal Haasan has been appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight in the National Order Arts and Letters) by the Minister of Culture and Communication, France.

Adding yet another feather to the cap, the distinction is in recognition of his high level of artistic excellence and his distinguished career achievements. The award will be conferred on Kamal Haasan at a special ceremony. Ordre des Arts et Lettres is the recognition of significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields, given by the Minister of Culture, France.



ALSO READ: Sabash Naidu: Kamal Haasan to resume shoot in Visakhapatnam



ALSO READ: Kamal Haasan: My accident is silly, just like Amitabh's one in the '80s

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The name Kamal Haasan goes synonymous with dedication to arts and cinema. Being one of the versatile actors in India, he was won several awards and accolades.

In a career spanning over five decades, he has won three National Awards for the Best Actor and President's Gold Medal for the Best Child Artist for the film Kalathur Kannamma (1960). He was conferred with Padma Bhushan by the Indian government in 2014. Other Indians who have been an awardee of the Chevalier Order include actors Sivaji Ganesan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Nandita Das and Shah Rukh Khan.



Meanwhile, the Vishwaroopam star, who bore the fracture after he slipped and fell in his Chennai office, will resume shoot of his upcoming comedy trilingual Sabash Naidu.

Haasan also awaits the release of his magnum opus Vishwaroopam 2, the sequel to the blockbuster film Vishwaroopam.



--- ENDS ---
Washington (AFP) - Lou Pearlman, the producer who launched the hit 1990s boy band groups Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, has died in prison while serving a 25-year sentence for bilking investors of $300 million.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said the disgraced businessman died on Friday, providing no other details. He was 62.

Inspired by the success of the boy band New Kids on the Block, Pearlman recruited a group of unknowns to form the Backstreet Boys, which soared to stardom in 1996, becoming one of the best-selling boy bands of all-time.

The group sold more than 130 million records, its website says.

Some members of Pearlman's other bands, including Justin Timberlake of NSYNC and Britney Spears, went on to achieve major stardom with solo careers.

But Pearlman was convicted in 2008 of fraud and cheating investors -- including friends and family -- out of more than $300 million through Ponzi and bank-fraud schemes that lasted two decades.

He had been serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas.

Timberlake tweeted Sunday that he hoped Pearlman had "found some peace."

Lance Bass, another former NSYNC member, tweeted, "He might not have been a stand up businessman, but I wouldn't be doing what I love today (without) his influence. RIP Lou."
Lou Pearlman, a convicted Ponzi scheme operator who became famous in the 1990s as the record company owner and manager behind a string of top-selling pop groups including Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, died Friday from undisclosed causes while in prison. He was 62.

From Flushing, NY, Pearlman began his adult life working in aviation, attempting in the late 1970s to launch an air taxi business using helicopters and, later, a similar business using airships. By the early 90s he was a millionaire owing largely to a talent for fraud, and turned his attention to music. Pearlman founded his own record label, Trans Continental Records, with the goal of copying the boy band model pioneered by New Kids On The Block producer Maurice Starr, and struck gold with his first band, Backstreet Boys. Following in their success, Pearlman and his associates repeated the process step by step with the almost equally successful NSYNC.

He would go on to sign pop groups like reality TV project O-Town, Take 5, Natural and US5, the girl group Innosense, and solo artists like Aaron Carter, Jordan Knight, Smilez & Southstar and C-Note.

Pearlman enjoyed huge success with his artists, but with the exception of US5 ended up being sued by all of them for misrepresentation and fraud. For example, he and his label made millions from the Backstreet Boys, while the group itself made only $300,000. Pearlman either lost every case or was forced to settle out of court. He eventually left music production and moved into talent representation, but the company he formed went out of business after multiple accusations of fraud.

Pearlmans fall came in 2006, when it was discovered that he had for nearly 20 years ran a complex Ponzi scheme, drawing investors for companies that existed on paper only. When Florida state regulators seized his companies and brought charges against him, Pearlman fled the country. He was caught in Indonesia in June 2007 and, after being returned to the U.S., was sentenced in 2008 to 25 years in prison without the possibility of release until 2029.

Story continues

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By Sam Karlin BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) - Quenton Robins watched on Sunday morning as a giant metal claw clamped down on his mother's ruined belongings, snapping wooden cabinets with an audible crack as the operator of a giant mechanized arm slowly cleared a mound of debris from her yard in Baton Rouge. Five feet (1.5 meters) of water swept through the homes in the quiet Park Forest neighborhood just over a week ago, shocking residents who had been told they did not live in a flood zone. "It's not a flood zone," said Robins, a 27-year-old Navy veteran. "At least it didn't used to be." As efforts in Louisiana turn from rescue to recovery, renters and homeowners who do not have flood insurance are facing an uncertain financial future. Private insurers do not cover flood damage and flood insurance in the United States is underwritten by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Homeowners who live in designated high-risk flood zones are required to carry flood insurance if they have a federally backed mortgage. In Louisiana, an estimated 42 percent of homes in high-risk areas have flood insurance, according to FEMA. Only 12.5 percent of homeowners in low and moderate-risk zones do. Many of the areas hit hard by record rainfall last week were not considered at high risk for flooding. Those residents without flood insurance are eligible for up to $33,000 in FEMA individual disaster assistance funds, although most will likely receive less than that, based on payments following other major disasters. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA paid $6.6 billion to approximately 1.07 million households and individuals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, an average of just over $6,000 per grant, according to agency figures. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 produced an average payout of under $8,000 for about 180,000 residents of New York and New Jersey. FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said the individual assistance is intended to supplement insurance and to provide short-term relief for immediate needs. "It's not designed to make survivors whole again," said Lemaitre, adding that FEMA recommends all homeowners obtain flood insurance regardless of the risk in their area. He also said residents could apply for low-cost loans from the Small Business Administration. FEMA has approved more than $55 million in aid so far and some 106,000 Louisiana residents have registered for emergency assistance after the record floods, which killed at least 13 and damaged more than 60,000 homes. U.S. President Barack Obama plans to visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday. Down the street from Robins' mother, retired widow Betty Bailey sat in the shade of her carport, waiting for her damaged possessions to be taken away. Bailey, who did not have flood insurance, said she moved to the neighborhood in part because it is not in a flood zone. When she applied for FEMA aid, she said they recommended she look into loans to cover her losses. "How do they know I can afford a loan with all the bills I already have?" Bailey said. "That's not right." Looking out at her neighborhood, Bailey added, "Some of these houses will never be built back." (Additional reporting and writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Bill Trott)
Lydia Hearst is a married woman! The actress wed the Talking Dead's Chris Hardwick on Saturday in front of 450 guests at the Langham hotel in Pasadena, California.

For the big day, the star chose a stunning custom-made Christian Siriano gown while her fiance opted for a beautifully cut custom Prada suit. The 31-year-old gave her fans a sneak peek of her dress last week when she posted a photo of herself wearing the gown and staring wistfully out of a window.

CLICK TO VIEW GALLERY



Lydia Hearst and Chris Hardwick wed on Saturday afternoon Photo: Getty Images

I am truly blessed to have you in my life @hardwick. I love you, and I will never stop loving you. I cannot wait to marry you in one week, she captioned the sweet pic.

Speaking to People before the big day, the Condemned star said she and her mother, Patricia Hearst, had planned the perfect wedding. I could never have envisioned a more perfect wedding day, she said.

CELEBRITY ENGAGEMENTS OF 2016

It's better and more magical than I could have ever dreamed of...It's going to be perfect, and even if it isn't that's how it was meant to be. I'm more excited than anything else! Although, Lydia admitted that despite the lavish celebrations the most important thing to her is Chris' happiness.



The actress wore a stunning Christian Siriano gown for the nuptials Photo: Instagram/@lydiahearst

Everything else is just a bonus, but Chris is the most important person and vital component to me...This is a celebration of our love and an incredible moment to share with our family and friends.

INSIDE LYDIA HEARST'S AMAZING BACHELORETTE PARTY

On Friday evening the groom-to-be shared a candid snap of the pair at their rehearsal dinner held at Lucky Strike in Downtown L.A. Wedding rehearsal! #AllTheEmoji, the Nerdist CEO captioned the picture of him embracing and kissing his wife-to-be.

Last month Lydia and her closest friends, including her former Gossip Girl co-star Michelle Trachtenberg, jetted off to Hearst Castle in California to celebrate her bachelorette party. The women enjoyed horse rides through the castle's ranch, a viewing in the castle's private screening room and lunch outside in the luscious grounds.
Officials said that in less than 24 hours, strike was announced as majority of petrol pumps in and around Jammu went dry. This comes right after the meet negotiating the demands of the Petrol tankers union couldn't reach a conclusion.

Through out the day commuters queued up in front of the petrol pumps and had to wait for long hours to get rationed supply of petroleum products. (Photo: Reuters)

By Ashwini Kumar: While senior BJP Ministers have been moving up and down the main city roads in big cavalcades, the common masses in Jammu are reeling under acute shortage of petroleum products due to the strike called by All J&K oil tanker Drivers and conductors union and J&K Petrol Tanker owners association after yesterday.

Anan Sharma, President of Tankers Owners Association said that in less than 24 hours, the strike was announced that the majority of petrol pumps in and around Jammu went dry leading to a chaotic situation in the region.

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Through out the day, commuters queued up in front of the petrol pumps and had to wait for long hours to get rationed supply of petroleum products. In some cases the petrol pumps started running dry leading to chaos in the middle of the roads as long queues were converted in to long traffic jams.

BJP TURNS IGNORANT?



Ironically, the senior BJP ministers who had to attend the public rally in Smailpur were seen moving up and down the national highway with their supporters in long cavalcades.

The same leaders remained ignorant about the hardships being faced by the common masses in the absence of petrol and diesel supplies. At many places, the commuters were seen entering into an argument with the petrol pump owners and their workers for failing to provide them minimum quantity of petroleum products to run their vehicles.

Ironically, the state government functionaries were nowhere to be seen working to resolve the crisis.

The drivers of petrol tankers decided to go on strike to protest absence of security leading to attacks on them in the Valley. They went on strike seeking adequate security cover.

According to official sources, the divisional administration, Jammu through one of their Additional deputy commissioners, has called a meeting of their representatives to diffuse the situation before it takes an ugly turn.

DEMANDS OF THE DRIVERS UNION



Drivers union is demanding Rs 1 lakh per injured driver of the tanker and about one dozen drivers were injured in fresh attacks during the Kashmir unrest in different areas and they are admitted in civil and army hospitals. Sources said that government is paying them Rs 10,000 per driver and driver union is adamant on their demand.

Divisional Commissioner, Pawan Kotwal and other police officers are going to meet agitating drivers and assuring them compensation, but how much government will announce, it will be understood in the meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

But drivers and owners of the oil tankers have categorically told government that they will not supply oil to Valley till protection is provided.

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Sources said if drivers agreed for compensation, then oil supply can be restored to Jammu only, that also after tomorrow afternoon.

Also read: Kashmir unrest: Oil supply to suffer after meeting fails to assure safety to tanker drivers



--- ENDS ---
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Left-hander Manny Banuelos has agreed to a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels following his release by the Atlanta Braves.

A former top prospect in the Yankees organization, the 25-year-old Mexican was designated for assignment by the Braves on Aug 12 after being demoted from Triple-A to Double-A.

Banuelos had two strong minor league seasons, then missed 2013 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was traded to the Braves on Jan. 1, 2015, made his big league debut on July 2 last year and went 1-4 with a 5.13 ERA in six starts and one relief appearance.

He had surgery to remove a bone spur from his pitching elbow on Sept. 17 and felt more elbow discomfort this spring. He was 0-5 with a 5.33 ERA this year in 14 starts and three minor league levels.

Los Angeles closer Huston Street went on the disabled list Aug. 2 with right knee inflammation and is seeking a second medical opinion that may lead to surgery. Angels manager Mike Scioscia said any surgery likely would be minor and would take place during the offseason.
After barely making it on time to his Billboard Hot 100 Festival set on Saturday (Aug. 20), Martin Garrix made sure it was one to remember.

The 20-year-old Dutch superstar hit a snag with delayed flights enroute from his residency at Ushuaiah Ibiza, and then was forced to fly to Amsterdam to take a jet and helicopter to arrive 30 minutes prior to his headlining set.

Hot 100 Fest 2016 Pictures: Ariana Grande, Rae Sremmurd & More Performances

If the travel took a toll on Garrix, it didn't show in his energetic Hot 100 Stage outing. The DJ/producer delivered a high-octane set packed with unreleased productions that kept the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater faithful on their feet while pyrotechnics flared at the stage's front.

The show's highlights included Garrix's recent release with Bebe Rexha, "In the Name of Love," which he will perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday (Aug. 22), as well as his Usher collaboration "Don't Look Down."

For more on Martin Garrix's travel woes, collaboration with Rexha and forthcoming album, check out Billboard's video interview below:
Santiago (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people protested Sunday against Chile's privatized pension system, a legacy of late dictator Augusto Pinochet that opponents say is leaving many retirees destitute.

Launched in 1981, Chile's "pension fund administrators" have been held up by pro-market politicians and pundits worldwide as a model of how to privatize a national pension system.

But opponents say the system has left the 10 million Chileans enrolled in it with extremely low retirement benefits -- far short of the Pinochet regime's original promise of 70 percent of workers' last paychecks, they maintain.

Waving Chilean flags and banners calling for reform, a sea of demonstrators swarmed Alameda Avenue in central Santiago, in one of the largest marches of recent years in Chile -- a country that has seen a succession of major protests calling for education and labor reforms.

Organizers put the turnout in the capital at 500,000 to 600,000 people. Smaller protests were held in other cities around the South American country.

Facing pressure to overhaul the system, President Michelle Bachelet announced a package of 12 planned reforms two weeks ago.

They include a universal minimum pension, cuts to fund administrators' commissions and a requirement for employers to contribute to the system for the first time, taking the total contribution from 10 to 15 percent.

The average pension is currently around $400 a month, less than the minimum wage.

The private administrators manage about $170 billion. Any losses on investment are borne by the contributors.

Pinochet's dictatorship, which lasted from his 1973 military coup until 1990, remains heavy baggage for Chile.

Despite the atrocities committed by his regime, which killed an estimated 3,200 people and tortured 38,000, Chile's constitution and much of its policy framework still date to his rule.

Chile's first female president, Bachelet won a second term in 2013 promising deep reforms.

But the center-left leader's popularity has since tumbled to 15 percent amid a corruption scandal involving her son, and it is unclear whether she still has the political capital to deliver on her reform agenda.
Matt Roberts, former guitarist of the alternative rock band 3 Doors Down, has died, according to TMZ. He was 38.

While the cause of death has yet to be confirmed, reports have circulated that Roberts died in the early hours of Saturday morning. Roberts' father, Darrell, claims he last saw his son after a rehearsal that ended at 1 a.m. on Saturday. Roberts was expected to perform at a charity event just outside of Wisconsin later that night.

WATCH: ESPN Journalist John Saunders Dies at 61, Hannah Storm Makes Tearful Announcement on Live TV

Roberts was an original member of 3 Doors Down, along with Brad Arnold and Todd Harrell; the three formed the group in 1996. Four years ago, Roberts left the band due to health issues concerning blood circulation.

The loss has been devastating for fans of Roberts and the band, many of whom have taken to social media to express their grief.

Wow!!! Sad...another one lost. The struggle is real. https://t.co/uL22uLrxZR  Paul Phillips (@PaulJPhillips) August 20, 2016

RELATED: 'Rugrats' and 'Bob Newhart Show' Star Jack Riley Dies at 80

Damn. Wake up from a nap to hear of Matt Roberts passing. Love you brother. Have a good journey  Jasin O'Neil Todd (@jasintodd) August 20, 2016

Rest In Peace Matt... My heart goes out to the Roberts Family, and all of @3doorsdown  Brent Smith (@TheBrentSmith) August 20, 2016

My heart goes out to Matt Roberts and family .... 3 Doors Down will always be my family and people I care about. What a tragic loss ....RIP  Zach Myers (@ZMyersOfficial) August 20, 2016

WATCH: 'Star Wars' Actor Kenny Baker Dies at 81, Hollywood Mourns the Man Who Brought R2-D2 to Life

Story continues

Related Articles
Matt Roberts, the original lead guitarist for 3 Doors Down, was found dead in a hotel outside of Milwaukee on Saturday morning. He was 38.

While a cause of death is currently unknown, his father, Darrell Roberts, said his son has had problems with anxiety and prescription drugs. He told TMZ that he believes an accidental overdose is to blame.

I know he had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety, Darrell Roberts told CNN. This was his way of dealing with it.

Police responded to a call about a man who was either passed out or asleep in the hallway at the Hampton Inn in West Bend, Wis., at about 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. Emergency responders were unable to revive the man, who was identified as Roberts. An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.

Roberts was in Wisconsin preparing to perform at a Saturday night concert at the Our Place bar, benefiting veterans organization Stars and Stripes Honor Flight. His father, in a video posted on the West Bend Daily News Facebook page, took the stage that night to address the crowd and dedicate the concert to Roberts.

Roberts co-founded 3 Doors Down with friends Brad Arnold and Todd Harrell in 1996 in their hometown of Escatawpa, Miss. The band found success through touring and in 2000 released its first studio album, The Better Life, which went six times platinum.

3 Doors Down scored with hits such as Here Without You and When Im Gone, but it was the first single off the album, Kryponite, that propelled it to international stardom. The single hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

Roberts left the band in 2012, citing health problems. He said circulation issues and a rigorous performing schedule forced him to take a break.

Related stories

Top Ten Things You Didn't Know About 'The Late Show with David Letterman,' Courtesy Of the People Who Write The Show
Italian broadcaster Mediaset has taken legal action against French media conglomerate Vivendi for alleged breach of contract in a new twist in the ongoing tensions between the two European media giants over a pay-TV deal which has gone sour.

The concrete legal step follows a war of words between Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine and Mediaset chief executive Pier Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) ever since Vivendi in late July announced it was backing out of the deal.

Mediaset, which is controlled by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis family, announced on Friday it has filed a suit asking a Milan court to enforce the sale to Vivendi of its Mediaset Premium pay-TV arm.

In a statement Mediaset said it is asking for damages estimated at 50 million euros ($56.6 million) per month for every month of delay starting from July 25.

In April the two companies had announced an agreement that would see Vivendi acquire a 100% stake in Mediaset Premium as part of a wider strategic alliance that included a 3.5% share swap.

But Vivendi announced last month it was seeking to pull out of its purchase of the loss-making pay-TV unit claiming that analysis by audit group Deloitte of Mediaset Premium revealed different numbers than those they had been provided by Mediaset and also an unrealistic business plan.

Mediaset shares tumbled in the ensuing war of words. Mediasets stock value has dropped 14% since the deal collapsed, according to a calculation by Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

Mediaset in the statement said that if Vivendi does not honor the deal it risks losing 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion).

But at this stage Mediaset is not asking for those damages, indicating they are still seeking to negotiate.

The damages sought concern purely the delay accumulated so far and possible further delays caused by inventive and dilatory proposals of different accords than the one in place, the Mediaset statement said.

Mediasets legal action takes place just as its stock value picked up 2.75% last week because of rumours that it was starting to work out an alternative agreement behind the scenes with Vivendi that would keep their strategic alliance in place.

Story continues

The key to seeing where the two companies really stand is expected to be Vivendis upcoming board meeting on August 25.

Related stories

European Media Giants Mediaset and Vivendi Set For Possible Court Clash

Vivendi Pulls Back From Mediaset Pay TV Deal

Vivendi to Close Watchever's SVOD Service in Germany
Carlos Lehder

Pablo Escobar is remembered as the face of the Medellin cartel, the Colombian criminal organization that flooded the world with cocaine in the 1980s.

But for all his deeds and bluster, Escobar was just one member of a clan of traffickers who helped create the Medellin cartel.

And in terms of narco eccentricities, one Medellin capo stands out: Carlos Lehder Rivas.

Born to a German father and Colombian mother in Armenia, a district in west-central Colombia, in 1949, Lehder spent most of his childhood in Colombia, but after his parents separated, he relocated to New York City when he was 15, Colombian newspaper El Espectador reported in 2012.

In the US, he got involved in petty crime, working on the US East Coast and in Canada leading a stolen-car ring and moving marijuana. He got picked up for car theft in June 1973 and was sent to federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. His brief stint in jail would forever alter the US and the world.

George Jung, the now famous drug smuggler and subject of the movie "Blow," was Lehder's cell mate and described the Colombian-American as well mannered and well dressed. As Jung told PBS, even while locked up for minor crimes, Lehder had his mind on a more ambitious criminal enterprise:

"As time wore on, we got to know each other and then he asked me if I knew anything about cocaine and I told him no. And I said, 'Why don't you tell me about it.' And he said, 'Did you know it sells for $60,000.00 a kilo in the United States?'"

"And I said, 'No. I had no idea. How much does it cost down in Colombia?' and he said, '$4,000 to $5,000.' And immediately bells started to go off and the cash register started ringing up in my head."

"It was like destiny" that Jung and Lehder ended up together at Danbury, Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider.

Story continues

Jung and Lehder were released in the late 1970s, but they soon hooked up again, setting up an airborne-smuggling operation that moved cocaine from Colombia to the southeastern US.

As their operation expanded in the late '70s and early '80s, Lehder grew closer to the capos back in Medellin, and in the Caribbean, they looked for a way station for their bustling trafficking business.

'It just turned into a freak show'

Norman's Cay Bahamas George Jung Carlos Lehder Medellin cartel drug cocaine smuggling

"They used to smuggle drugs through Nassau, Bahamas, by using corrupt officials that would open up the airport and look the other way ... But they wanted a more isolated area  an area where they could operate more freely and not have to pay a ton of Bahamian individuals," Vigil told Business Insider. "So that's when they came out to Norman's Cay."

At Norman's Cay, a small spit of land 210 miles southeast of Miami, Lehder's eccentricities  fueled by his growing cocaine habit  came to the fore.

Lehder, considered handsome by men and women, was regarded as intelligent and charming, but given to excess and probably lacking self-control, Ron Chepesiuk, author of "Crazy Charlie: Revolutionary or Neo-Nazi," told Vice.

Lehder was also an aggressive businessman, and he eventually forced Jung out of their arrangement, but not before Jung visited Norman's Cay and observed Lehder's behavior. "He wasnt crazy he had delusions, though. He loved John Lennon and Adolf Hitler at the same time. That should have been a sign for me," Jung told High Times.

"I mean, Walter Cronkite showed up there, and these thugs came with machine guns and told him, 'You better leave.' It just turned into a freak show," Jung said.

Carlos Lehder Norman's Cay Medellin cartel drug trafficking Bahamas Caribbean

"There were other people that lived there, but they started to drive them out, and Carlos Lehder started to develop kind of like a neo-Nazi group there, that would protect the planeloads of coke and intimidate the people that lived there," Vigil said.

Lehder started behaving more erratically on Norman's Cay, hosting parties and orgies and running roughshod over the community on the island. Spooked by law enforcement and emboldened by the officials he had bought off, Lehder went so far as to drop leaflets over Nassau, the Bahamanian capital, saying "DEA go home."

"Eventually Carlos started to become more visible and started to be in the crosshairs of the DEA, and that's when the Bahamian government said, 'hey, you have to go. You can't be here anymore because the DEA is coming, and we don't want them meddling in our business and investigating us as well,'" Vigil told Business Insider.

Lehder retreated to Colombia after a DEA raid on Norman's Cay in 1980. His airborne-smuggling operation had accelerated Medellin's cocaine business and made Lehder a valuable member of the cartel  a status his actions in Colombia would start to erode.

Carlos Lehder Pablo Escobar

He built a hacienda and started spreading money around his home turf in Armenia and around Quindio, the state where Armenia is located. He built a statue of John Lennon on his front lawn and raised eyebrows by buying the state government a modern airplane as a gift. Like Escobar, Lehder had a political awakening in the early 1980s.

Escobar went along with Colombia's democratic system and won a seat as a backup for a legislator in the National Assembly. Lehder, however, lifted the Nazi leanings he likely absorbed from his father (the younger Lehder was reportedly a Holocaust denier) and used them to undergird his political movement in Colombia.

"He wants to get into politics and his idea is to form like a Nazi-type of government in Colombia," Vigil told Business Insider. "This is how deranged he is now and delusional."

"There is plenty of evidence to support the characterization that Lehder was a neo-Nazi," Chepesiuk told Vice. "He certainly wasn't shy about giving interviews or expressing his views. He often praised Hitler and railed against the Jews."

He retreated into the jungle but still held press conferences and declared his intention to fight the government. He was also known to quote Hitler, who he admitted to admiring, according to El Espectador.

A Colombian national-police raid on a home linked to Lehder in a remote part of Colombia uncovered several million US dollars, "and the whole house is plastered with photographs and memorabilia of Adolf Hitler, who he idolized," Vigil told Business Insider.

Carlos Lehder Colombia neo-Nazi

His party, called the National Latin Movement, had a "fascist-populist program [that] called for radical changes in Colombia's political landscape." He also embraced anti-imperialism, criticizing the US for its involvement in Latin America. He saw cocaine as a means of liberation, calling it Latin America's atomic bomb, Vigil said.

Like Escobar, Lehder's political efforts also focused on defeating Colombia's extradition agreement with the US, which, after the 1984 assassination of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, allowed for immediate extradition of Lehder and other narcos if they were caught.

'He knew that Pablo Escobar had turned him in'

Lehder's megalomania, heavily fueled by cocaine, sparked his falling out with Escobar, which would set the stage for his undoing.

At a party at Escobar's Hacienda Napoles, outside of Medellin, "Carlos is high on coke, and he gets into an argument with one of Pablo Escobar's sicarios, or hit men, and shoots and kills him," Vigil told Business Insider.

Pablo Escobar

This angered Escobar, Vigil added, because it made it look like the Medellin chief, who was particularly close to his hit men, couldn't protect the people who worked for him.

Escobar, having decided that Lehder was more of a liability than an asset, "basically gives him up, gives up his location" to the Colombian government, Vigil said. Escobar later denied he rolled over on Lehder in a public letter, according to Chepesiuk.

At 6 a.m. on February 4, 1987, on a ranch near Medellin where Lehder was again embracing his hedonism, Colombian police and soldiers moved in, capturing Lehder after a brief firefight.

Eleven hours later, he was bound for Miami, becoming the first victim of the extradition agreement he had fought against.

He soon arrived at a federal prison in Marion, Illinois. With the US-Colombian campaign against Escobar reaching full throat, Lehder was a person of interest to US authorities.

Vigil, a DEA official at the time, traveled to Marion to meet Lehder upon his return to the US:

Carlos Lehder

"Very short individual, fluent English. The first impression that I had of him was that he was a con artist, a manipulator. ... He really didn't want to talk about his involvement in the drug trade."

"His whole focus  and he knew that Pablo Escobar had turned him in  and he said, 'listen, I can help you capture Pablo Escobar. I'm willing to go back to Colombia. You can put me under the security of the Colombian army, and I can find Pablo Escobar for you.'"

"But we were not going to take a chance on him going back to Colombia and getting into the wind again. But he definitely, definitely wanted to do Pablo Escobar."

Lehder's split with Escobar in the mid-1980s left him without information that US authorities were interested in trading for.

He was sentenced to life without parole plus 135 years in 1988, a term the judge said was "a signal to our society that it will do everything it can to rid itself of this cancer."

Lehder's involvement in the drug trade proved valuable when he was able to testify against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who had assisted the Medellin cartel with its money-laundering activities.

Lehder got his sentence reduced, but he remains locked up in the US. His exact whereabouts aren't known, as he is probably in witness protection, though his lawyers occasionally appear on his behalf.

The nearly 30 years he has spent in prison have weighed on him. He has accused the US of violating his rights and reneging on an agreement to let him out in return for his Noriega testimony. He has written to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, asking for help to repatriate himself so that he can die on Colombian soil  a wish he might well get upon returning.

"He's got a lot of enemies in Colombia" Vigil said. "So if he went back there, I don't think he'd survive more than a few months."

NOW WATCH: Pablo Escobar: The life and death of one of the biggest cocaine kingpins in history





More From Business Insider


Mogadishu (AFP) - At least 10 people were killed Sunday in two explosions in a town in central Somalia, police said.

The Shabaab militant group claimed responsibilty for the blasts in the town of Galkayo, some 700 kilometers (440 miles) northeast of Mogadishu.

"There were two car bomb blasts which targeted the local government headquarters. More than 10 people have been killed," said police officer Mohamed Abdiqani.

Local resident Hassan Abdukadir said he counted a dozen bodies, some burned beyond recognition.

"It was horrible. The first blast was caused by a truck loaded with explosives, and the second was a minibus," he said.

Shabaab said it carried out the attack, in a message distributed via the Telegram messaging service, claiming "at least 30 people, including military personnel and apostates were killed."

The Shabaab carries out regular attacks against government, military and civilian targets using suicide car bombers and gunmen.

In March, Shabaab militants attacked a hotel in Galkayo killing at six people including a senior local government official.

An Al-Qaeda aligned group, the Shabaab is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in the capital Mogadishu and it is expected to try and violently disrupt elections due to be held in September and October.

The Shabaab was forced out of the capital by African Union soldiers five years ago but continues to launch regular attacks including, in recent months, on restaurants, hotels and military bases.

The jihadists have also staged repeated attacks in neighbouring Kenya and a recent security analysis warned the group was expanding its horizons with cells active in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as well as Somalia.




With both the Diaz and McGregor crews being banned from attending, the UFC 202 weigh-ins without a hitch for the most part. Nate Diaz looked disdainful of the whole experience, Conor McGregor flinched, both #RoganFace and #DanaFace were on full display.pretty much your standard night at the park, overall.

Before the evenings main eventers hit the scales, however, somethinginteresting did transpire in the staredown between promotional newcomer Mike Perry and welterweight striker Hyun Gyu Lim. After weighing in at 169 and 171 pounds, respectively, for their main card clash, Perry extended a hand to Lim in an apparent show of respect for the South Korean knockout artist. As Lim went to reach in, however, he was given the ol oops, too slow! from Perry, who then proceeded to shout Bring it! as if unaware that the fight was not actually scheduled until the following evening.

It was quite possibly the most embarrassingly lame move ever pulled at a weigh-in, with even Joe Rogan sarcastically pointing out that that was a first before likely hiding his head in shame.

Understandably, the Twittersphere has been raking Perry over the coals for his act of incredible douchebaggery.

I can picture the MMA Gods mulling over Mike Perrys fate. #UFC202 pic.twitter.com/7PkZBWGXiL  Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 20, 2016
According to NIA, there has been sudden spurt in transfer of money, between certain accounts, allegedly to fund militancy in the violence-hit region.

By Gaurav C Sawant: Amid ongoing protests and violence in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has initiated a probe into the flow of funds to certain bank accounts in Kashmir.

According to NIA, there has been sudden spurt in transfer of money, between certain accounts, allegedly to fund militancy in the violence-hit region.

"Based on technical inputs received, certain bank accounts in Jammu and Kashmir have witnessed an unusual inflow and outflow of funds in the last few months. These accounts belong to people who do not warrant such banking transactions. Information also indicates flow of funds and disbursement from accounts of persons of interest. The NIA has registered a preliminary inquiry," sources told India Today Television.

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The developments came after India Today Television, on July 14, broadcasted a report on how the youth in the Valley were paid to pelt stones at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).



India Today Television had shared a video of an alleged stone pelter, claiming to be paid by a separatist leader to pelt stones in the violence-hit region. Sources in the CRPF confirmed that the video was that of the recent violence in the region.

Atul Karwal, Inspector General (Srinagar Zone), CRPF, told India Today Television, "Most of these pelters are unemployed youth. They are paid a certain sum of money, Rs 500 to Rs 1000 per day, for pelting stones. We need to do something about it."

Following the revelations, cameras are now being fitted on all vehicles to keep a close watch on the activities of stone pelters and petrol bomb throwers.

Sub Inspector Surinder Singh, a CRPF officer posted in Srinagar, verified the video broadcasted by the channel and also shared it with higher officials. Singh also said that the CRPF and JKP (Jammu and Kashmir Police) often recorded the ground action to identify potential trouble makers and also familiarize new battalions inducted into the area.

The video verification process came after a local youth, Bilal Ahmed Dar, claimed that the video telecasted by India Today Television was shot in 2008. Dar alleged that the video was filmed by the CRPF in 2008, where he was forced to say that he was paid money by separatist leader Geelani to pelt stones.

Few separatist leaders also claimed that the video was old and was available online since 2010. But, none were unable to substantiate their claims.

However, Singh refuted the claims and confirmed that the video was shot recently.

"It is not an eight-year-old video. This is a recent video. We caught a number of stone pelters who admitted being paid for their jobs," Singh said.

"The pelters fear the separatists and terrorists. They confess the act under duress. If they don't pelt stones, they fear being targeted by terrorists too. So at times they say one thing to us and another thing to the separatists," Karwal added.

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Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also went on record to say that protests in the Valley have turned into an industry.

"Five to ten youngsters are taken from one area to another and in some cases, people carry money, join protests, pay protesters and prompt them to attack security force camps. Police are forced to retaliate, resulting in casualties. This needs to stop," Mufti said.

--- ENDS ---
North Korea on Sunday demanded the repatriation of a dozen restaurant workers who jointly fled to South Korea, a day after blasting Seoul over a separate high-profile defection.

Sunday's statement was Pyongyang's first reaction to Seoul's announcement last week that the 12 restaurant staff and their manager had been released from government custody.

The group had been "released into society", the South's unification ministry said, after the intelligence service had completed investigations into their case.

North Korea claims the group was kidnapped.

A spokesman for its emergency committee set up for "rescuing" abductees described the ministry's announcement as a "mean plot" aimed at "covering up the truth behind the group abduction".

"Keeping them hidden from the public... citing 'safety reasons' shows that the puppet government's announcement is a complete fabrication," he said.

"We will continue fighting until we can rescue and bring back our female citizens," the spokesman added in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

The waitresses had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China. They made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years.

While Seoul said they fled voluntarily, Pyongyang claimed they were kidnapped by South Koreas National Intelligence Service and waged a vocal campaign through its state media for their return.

The campaign has included emotional video interviews with the women's relatives in the North, angrily denouncing South Korean authorities and demanding a meeting with the women.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression at home to settle in the capitalist South.

But group defections are rare, especially by staff who work in the North Korea-themed restaurants overseas and who are handpicked from families considered "loyal" to the regime.

Story continues

In another high-profile case, the South said last week that North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had defected to Seoul.

It said Thae Yong-Ho was driven by his disgust for the Pyongyang regime, admiration for South Korea's free and democratic system and concerns for his family's future.

North Korea on Saturday lashed out at Thae's defection, claiming that the "human scum" had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for the South and had fled "for fear of legal punishment for his crimes".

It said the South had brought the "fugitive" to Seoul to use him in its anti-Pyongyang smear campaign.

Thae was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years.

Analysts said he had a privileged background and powerful connections with the ruling elite, and his defection represented the flight of some of the North's best and brightest.
Natalie Dormer is writing a movie and heres EVERYTHING we know

Natalie Dormer is writing a movie and heres EVERYTHING we know

Natalie Dormer is our IRL queen, which is comforting when we remember we love her most for playing badass women in stuff like The Hunger Games series and Game of Thrones  the latter of which had her playing an actual queen, because obviously.

But now shes dabbling in screenwriting, for a new indie thriller called In Darkness, in which she will also star alongside Emily Ratajkowski. According to Deadline, the film is a psychological revenge thriller about blind musician Sophia (Dormer) who gets pulled into Londons dark underbelly after she hears a murder committed in the apartment above her. As she becomes embroiled in this violent and murky world, it appears she is out of her depth  until we realize she has been following her own path of revenge for some time.

We sense a UK-set Kill Bill vibe, and we are HERE. FOR. IT.

KillBillSword

But Dormer admits this new foray into balancing writing and acting in the same project isnt easy  namely, because shes doing it with her fiance.

Its tough! Dormer told PEOPLE at the World Humanitarian Day event at the United Nations Headquarters on Friday, where she was a speaker (because FYI, shes also a perfect humanitarian). I dont know if youve ever been in a writing room but I wouldnt recommend it with your other half.

GIRL, we get it. Its difficult enough working through the usual challenges of a relationship without having to bring work drama into the mix. Stars, theyre just like us.

JoffreyMargaery

Luckily, though, Dormer seems more stoked about the project than she is nervous.

Im very excited about it because Ive never done anything that Ive written before. It was a very interesting process  we were trying to write real interesting characters, both male and female, she said.

Fitting, considering gender equality is so important to the actress. In fact, the speech she gave at the UN touched on the awful conditions women live in worldwide, and how the support for them is so lacking.

We will see whatever you write/act in/touch in any way, Natalie, so do us a favor and dont worry too much because whatever comes out of your beautiful, ridiculously intelligent brain will be amazing. (We totally feel you on the work/love-life balance, though, so good luck sister.)

The post Natalie Dormer is writing a movie and heres EVERYTHING we know appeared first on HelloGiggles.
[UPDATE: PM Lee resumed his speech at 10:40pm]

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong bounced back from a health scare Sunday night (21 August) to complete delivery of his National Day Rally speech.



His multi-hour speech was temporarily suspended midway after Lee, 64, took ill.



At around 9:15pm, he was escorted off the stage. From the live video feed, PM Lee was seen slurring his words and appeared to have stumbled, moments before the feed was cut off.

According to the Prime Ministers Office, the medical team who assessed his condition said that it was not serious.



PM Lee was feeling unsteady because of prolonged standing, heat and dehydration. His heart is fine and he did not have a stroke, PMO later said.

After returning to the stage, PM Lee was greeted with applause from the audience, and he resumed his speech to touch on leadership succession.

I think what happened makes it even more important that I talk about it now, he said. He then thanked the Singapore Civil Defence Force officers whom he invited for responding to the emergency call.



The SCDF team who responded to the emergency call did an excellent job and Im glad that they are here today. I should say thank you to them because I invited them as guests and they came to treat me just now, he said.



Finance Secretary Heng Swee Keat, who has recently recovered from a stroke suffered in May, said in a Facebook post that he hoped Lee would take some rest.



Before Lee resumed his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia that the doctors have assessed that Lee is fine.



Tharman said that the prime minister was resting and would like to finish his speech.

Im happy to say he is in good shape and I wouldnt worry too much. This is a little blip, said the DPM.

Related:
Saint-Barthelemy (Switzerland) (AFP) - Had Eric Favre not married an Italian woman, it's possible none of us would be drinking Nespresso.

The man who conceived of single-portion coffee capsules four decades ago told AFP he was always destined to be an inventor, but some teasing by his wife Anna-Maria steered him towards the idea that revolutionised home coffee consumption.

A trained rocket engineer, Favre said he joined Nestle's packaging department in 1975 to learn the inner workings of a multi-national corporation before branching out on his own.

That's when Anna-Maria told her Swiss husband that his country knew nothing about making coffee.

"I wanted to prove to my new wife that I have the capacity to make the best espresso," Favre, 69, said during a tour of his office in Saint Barthelemy, Switzerland, which includes a small museum devoted to his iconic invention.

In the coming months he scoured Rome in search of the perfect brew and developed a prototype espresso machine that looked like an unused prop from one of the "Back to the Future" films -- an awkward assembly of cylinders and tubes.

Resistance within Nestle against home-made espresso was stiff.

Nescafe, its enormously popular instant coffee blend, was enjoying its initial boom and company executives saw little need to invest in expensive home espresso machines, certain the instant mix would remain home consumers' preferred brew.

Favre persisted and Nespresso was finally launched in 1986, with Favre as its director general.

Thirty years on, the counter-top machine is a key revenue generator for Nestle, the world's largest food and beverage company. It no longer gives breakout statistics for Nespresso but the Bloomberg news agency estimated sales at $4.5 billion in 2015.

Yet challenges are mounting as competitors cut into Nespresso's market share and environmental concerns have risen about the waste generated by used pods.

Favre left Nestle long before Nespresso became a massive global brand with a movie-star pitchman, but voiced hope that the coffee pod's creation story would not be lost.

Story continues

"It's not just about pictures of George Clooney," he said, referring to Nespresso's brand ambassador.

- A curiously busy cafe -

In 1975, Favre's coffee quest took him to the Caffe Sant'Eustachio, now listed in travel guides as a place serving one of the best espressos in Rome, but which at the time stood out because it was busier than everywhere else.

Using Anna-Maria as his "spy", Favre said he discovered that a key to Sant'Eustachio's superior coffee and crema was repeated aeration while hot water was being pumped through the coffee grinds.

His idea for a machine that aimed for maximum aeration through a carefully formulated single-portion pod was born while watching Sant'Eustachio's barrista, Favre explained.

In 1983, Nestle sent Favre on assignment to the Nescafe factory in Japan.

He decided to pitch Nespresso's merits to the chief executive there, hoping for better luck than he had with his bosses in Switzerland.

The plan worked and Nespresso launched in 1986, but it suffered initial stumbles and Favre left Nestle in 1991.

- 'Cannibals' in the market -

He went on to found a string of successful coffee pod companies, including Monodor, which developed more energy efficient pods that had more coffee and generated less waste from packaging.

Nespresso's popularity, meanwhile, exploded but several of its key patents expired in 2011, which represents "a major threat" to its future growth, said Virginia Lee, senior beverage analyst at market research firm Euromonitor International.

Competitors including companies that make Nespresso compatible pods "are growing rapidly and cannibalising Nespresso's share of coffee pods due to lower prices and wider distribution," Lee wrote in a 2016 report.

In Western Europe, for example, Nestle's coffee pod market share fell from 41 percent in 2011 to 37 percent in 2015, according to Euromonitor.

Favre predicted this five years ago, telling the Global Coffee Review magazine in 2011 that Nestle would face threats from new capsule makers flooding the market and that to stay ahead, the company would have to maintain a rigorous focus on quality.

And despite leaving the company a quarter-centry ago under somewhat acrimonious circumstances, Favre is still willing to help.

Moving through his homemade exhibit that details the evolution of his capsule from clunky prototype to the widely sold version shaped like a miniature bucket, the businessman seemed proud that Nespresso's current chief executive Jean-Marc Duvoisin made the trip to Saint Barthelemy two months ago.

Asked why a top Nespresso boss would visit him, Favre said: "to learn this story".
Managua (AFP) - Firefighters have contained a massive refinery fire on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, officials said Sunday.

The blaze at the Puma Energy facility ignited Wednesday when one of four huge fuel tanks exploded at the site in the port of Puerto Sandino, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital Managua. A second tank ignited on Thursday.

"For all practical purposes, we have extinguished the fire," said Salvador Gallo, deputy director of the national firefighter department, who said however that there have been some "small, residual" flareups.

Puma Energy expects that any remaining waste oil in the tanks would finish burning Sunday, a source from the company's Managua office told AFP.

Each of the damaged fuel tanks is capable of holding some 144,000 barrels, although the company ruled out a fuel shortage following the fire.

The disaster did not cause any deaths or injuries, but government medical brigades have been dispatched to the area to assess the impact of smoke exposure on the health of nearby residents.

Oil from the spill could be seen on the coast and in surrounding vegetation, according to environmentalists, who said the damage to sensitive habitat could take years to reverse.

Surrounding beaches are home to important nesting grounds for several turtle species, while the Puerto Sandino coast and nearby Miramar beach produce 12 percent of Nicaragua's salt.

Puma Energy, a majority Dutch and Angolan-owned company with headquarters in Switzerland, bought the refinery in 2011. It had previously been run by the US group Exxon.
By Tife Owolabi YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed a wave of attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, said it was ready for a ceasefire and a dialogue with the government. The restive southern swampland region has been rocked by violence against oil and gas pipelines since the start of the year, reducing the OPEC member's output by 700,000 barrels a day to 1.56 million bpd. Any ceasefire agreement would be very difficult to enforce as the militant scene is divided into small groups dominated by unemployed youth driven by poverty, who are difficult to control even by their "generals". "We are going to continue the observation of our announced ceasefire of hostilities in the Niger Delta against ... the multinational oil corporations," the Niger Delta Avengers said in a statement received by Reuters on Sunday. "We promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails," it said. The Niger Delta Avengers have claimed several major attacks but have been apparently less active in recent weeks, which has led to speculation about a ceasefire as the government has been trying for two months to reach out to the militants. The group said it would support a dialogue "to engage with the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational Oil Corporations and neutral international mediators." It only said it wanted talks to focus on de-escalating the Niger Delta conflict. The group previously said it was fighting for oil revenues to drag the region out of poverty, floating even the idea of secession, a goal out of question for the government. The statement was sent to Reuters by mail but it was not possible to contact the group which only communicates with the media via statements on social media, its website or sent by mail. Like other militant groups, the Avengers has apparently split, making it difficult for the government to identify the right people to talk to. The was no immediate statement from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari but a youth council representing the largest ethnic group in the swampland urged the government to seize the opportunity for dialogue. "We welcome the conditional declaration of ceasefire by the Niger Delta Avengers if it is actually from them," the Ijaw Youth Council said in a statement. "We call on the federal government, especially President Buhari, to take advantage of this ceasefire to aggressively dialogue with the people of the region to address the issues affecting the region." (Reporting by Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Toby Chopra)
By Tife Owolabi

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed a wave of attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, said it was ready for a ceasefire and a dialogue with the government.

The restive southern swampland region has been rocked by violence against oil and gas pipelines since the start of the year, reducing the OPEC member's output by 700,000 barrels a day to 1.56 million bpd.

Any ceasefire agreement would be very difficult to enforce as the militant scene is divided into small groups dominated by unemployed youth driven by poverty, who are difficult to control even by their "generals".

"We are going to continue the observation of our announced ceasefire of hostilities in the Niger Delta against ... the multinational oil corporations," the Niger Delta Avengers said in a statement received by Reuters on Sunday.

"We promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails," it said.

The Niger Delta Avengers have claimed several major attacks but have been apparently less active in recent weeks, which has led to speculation about a ceasefire as the government has been trying for two months to reach out to the militants.

The group said it would support a dialogue "to engage with the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational Oil Corporations and neutral international mediators."

It only said it wanted talks to focus on de-escalating the Niger Delta conflict. The group previously said it was fighting for oil revenues to drag the region out of poverty, floating even the idea of secession, a goal out of question for the government.

The statement was sent to Reuters by mail but it was not possible to contact the group which only communicates with the media via statements on social media, its website or sent by mail.

Like other militant groups, the Avengers has apparently split, making it difficult for the government to identify the right people to talk to.

Story continues

The was no immediate statement from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari but a youth council representing the largest ethnic group in the swampland urged the government to seize the opportunity for dialogue.

"We welcome the conditional declaration of ceasefire by the Niger Delta Avengers if it is actually from them," the Ijaw Youth Council said in a statement.

"We call on the federal government, especially President Buhari, to take advantage of this ceasefire to aggressively dialogue with the people of the region to address the issues affecting the region."

(Reporting by Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Tim Cook

After the unprecedented breach of hacking tools and exploits stolen from the US National Security Agency's elite hacking unit, some privacy advocates see it as clear vindication of Apple in its fight with the FBI earlier this year.

Apple: If we're forced to build a tool to hack iPhones, someone will steal it.

FBI: Nonsense.

Russia: We just published NSA's hacking tools  Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) August 17, 2016

"The component of the government that is supposed to be absolutely best at keeping secrets didn't manage to keep this secret effectively," Nate Cardozo, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Business Insider.

In February, a judge ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock an iPhone that was used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two attackers who killed 14 people in a December terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. That order set off a vigorous debate between law-enforcement officials seeking evidence and technologists worried over broader implications for personal privacy.

While the company's legal team fought the order, Apple CEO Tim Cook published a letter arguing against being forced to build a so-called backdoor that would subvert the encryption that not only kept the shooter's phone secure, but also the smartphones of millions of other Apple users.

Most in the technology community rallied around Apple at the time, arguing that weakened encryption might help government investigators, but it would also make customers vulnerable to hackers.

Now, with a massive top-secret archive of some of the NSA's own exploits having been leaked online, it appears they were right.

NSA headquarters

"The NSA's stance on vulnerabilities seems to be based on the premise that secrets will never get out. That no one will ever discover the same bug. That no one will ever use the same bug. That there will never be a leak," Cardozo said. "We know for a fact, that at least in this case, that's not true."

Story continues

The government eventually backed down from its fight with Apple in late March, after investigators said they were able to unlock the shooter's phone with the "a assistance of a third party." It never disclosed who that was or how it broke into the phone.

Exactly how the FBI got into the phone is yet another case where the government is holding on to "zero days," or software exploits that are completely unknown to companies and users. These exploits, when found, are typically disclosed to vendors so they can fix the problem, used by hackers to break into systems more easily, or sold on the black market.

But Cardozo believes the FBI's exploit of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5C, its still unknown exploit of the Tor web browser in another case, and NSA's apparent hoarding of exploits that have now been made public, raises a larger issue around the legalities of government hacking.

"When the government finds, creates, or discovers a vulnerability in a system, there are essentially two things they can do: They can disclose it, or they can use it," he said. "But the rules around that are completely broken."

There are some guidelines around how the government is supposed to deal with vulnerabilities in what is called the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, a framework that is supposed to outline how and when it would make sense to disclose a vulnerability to an affected company if the larger security risk is greater than the reward it could yield.

But the VEP is just nonbinding guidance created by the Obama administration  not an executive order or law  that has no legal standing.

"We need rules, and right now there aren't any," Cardozo said. "Or at least none that work."

NOW WATCH: Theres a glaring security problem with those new credit card chips





More From Business Insider


Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah presented a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee over the current unrest in Kashmir, blamed the state and central government for the lack of empathy.

Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah talks to reporters after a delegation of all opposition parties from the state called on President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Saturday.

By Naseer Ganai: As the opposition political parties led by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah presented a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee over the current unrest in Kashmir, the state BJP on Saturday accused them of not extending cooperation to the PDP-BJP alliance government to restore peace and normalcy. In the memorandum, the Opposition expressed "deep disappointment and displeasure at the response of both the central and the state government".

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"They talk of political solution bt nvr clarify what it is 2 d rants of Azadi. In power they nvr offered it when stones were pelted at them (sic)," BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

In response to it, Omar Abdullah tweeted, "We have offered you solutions both while in power & out of it but you are deaf to what you don't like hearing!".

In another, tweet Omar said, "What is it about us meeting the Hon President that has both @BJP4India & @jkpdp lashing out at us? Is meeting President anti-national?" (sic)

CONGRESS, NC AND CPI (M) HUNTING FOR PUBLICITY?

However, the BJP insisted that leaders of Congress, NC and CPI (M) are only in a rat race of remaining in the news. "They have rather played negative role and incited the people by their statements instead of helping the government to control the situation. Instead of coming forth and extending any fruitful cooperation, the opposition parties are playing to gallery. Meeting President Pranab Mukherjee is nothing but a political drama," State BJP spokesman Balbir Ram Rattan said.

"There had been number of occasions after trouble erupted in the valley when All Party Meetings were called at different levels for putting united efforts to bring normalcy. In one of the meetings called by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, NC stayed away and in the other meeting called by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, it was the Congress that boycotted it," the BJP spokesman said.

WHAT DID THEIR MEMORANDUM SAY?

"One fails to understand why these leaders held separate meeting and decided to meet President to submit memorandum. These parties were only misleading people of the valley and it is astonishing to note that none from these parties ever appealed the misguided youth in Kashmir to desist from violence nor did they showed any concern or yearning for restoring peace," Ram Rattan added.

In their memorandum, the opposition parties described the Kashmir situation as "a grave, heart-rending tragedy and asked the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issue in the state. "We also request you to influence the central and the state government to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley," they said.

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"A continued delay to engage with the people of the state through a comprehensive and sustained political initiative will further deepen the sense of alienation in the Valley and cast a shadow of uncertainty on its future generation," the memorandum stated.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Holding both the state and centre government responsible for the current crises, the political parties in their memorandum said, "We express our deep disappointment and displeasure at the response of both the central and the state government to the current unrest in Kashmir, which stems from their insensitivity towards the sufferings and sentiments of the people of the state. The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation. The Centre's refusal to deal with the situation through a political approach is disappointing and can have serious long-term implications on peace and stability in the state."

"The unchecked use of lethal force against civilians has maimed and blinded hundreds of young boys and girls. The use of such weapons, particularly pellet guns continues unabated while as repeated appeals to ban their use have yielded no results," the memorandum reads. Since July 8, around 70 civilian protesters were killed in the government forces action against the protesters.

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Also Read

Kashmir unrest: Modi government should put in efforts to douse the ongoing fire, says Omar





--- ENDS ---
An Ohio lawyer who was sentenced to jail time after she refused to remove a Black Lives Matter pin in court last month, is taking legal action.

Andrea Burton filed a lawsuit against Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Milich and his colleague Elizabeth Kobly on Thursday (Aug. 18), reports ABC News.

Milich found Burton in contempt of court because she wouldnt remove the pin, which he said was against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bans political pins from court. Milich sentenced Burton to five days in jail, though she was granted a stay of appeal and released from custody.

A judge doesnt support either side, he later explained an interview. A judge is objective and tries to make sure everyone has an opportunity to have a fair hearing, and it was a situation where it was just in violation of the law.

By ordering her to remove the pin, Burton felt that the judge dishonored her First Amendment Rights. She wore the pin as a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and to make a statement against police brutality.

Im not neutral in injustice , Burton said after the incident. To remain neutral becomes an accomplice to oppression.
Managua (AFP) - A massive refinery fire in Nicaragua caused an oil spill that has contaminated sensitive nearby coastal habitat, a nonprofit group here said.

In the aftermath of the refinery fire at the Puma Energy facility on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, oil has slickened nearly one-half of a square mile of the nearby water and soil, said Victor Campos, director of the Humboldt Center, an environmental group.

Meanwhile, authorities said Saturday they hope to soon have the fire contained at the facility, this Central American nation's sole oil refinery.

The fire, which has been burning since Wednesday, began when one of four huge fuel tanks exploded at the site in the port of Puerto Sandino, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital Managua. A second tank ignited on Thursday.

Oil from the spill could be seen on the coast and in surrounding vegetation in photos provided by Campos, who said that the damage done to the area would take years to reverse.

Environmentalists said the affected area includes ecologically sensitive habitat.

Surrounding beaches are home to important nesting grounds for several turtle species, while the Puerto Sandino coast and nearby Miramar beach produce 12 percent of Nicaragua's salt.

The area has "a number of natural resources as well as people, agriculture, livestock, local fauna, coastal marine life and birds," said resource specialist Ruth Herrera.

She added that environmentalists also expect that some wells in the area will also be contaminated.

Each of the damaged fuel tanks is capable of holding some 144,000 barrels, although the company ruled out a fuel shortage following the fire.

The Nicaragua and Puma energy said Saturday that they hope to extinguish the fire within hours, and said that the company would be strengthening its water contamination monitoring and surveying the environmental impact.

A huge plume of acrid smoke at one point billowed up to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) at the disaster scene, but has largely dissipated, local media said.

Puma Energy, a majority Dutch- and Angolan-owned company with headquarters in Switzerland, bought the refinery in 2011. It had previously been run by the US group Exxon.
paul chelimo

Getty Image

No one had a crazier Saturday night than Paul Chelimo, an American runner who competed in the mens 5,000 meters. Chelimo crossed the finish line second, which would lead you to think that he took home a silver medal, right?

Well, as it turns out, someone decided that Chelimo needed to be disqualified. According to SB Nation, Chelimo allegedly broke rule 163.3(b), which says that a runners not allowed to cross the inside border of a track.

That seems pretty cut and dry, but there was one huge issue: no one thought it would be a good idea to tell Chelimo before he went onto NBC for his post-match interview. Leslie Jones summed up everyones feelings on this.

Wtf reporter of doom why is you the one telling peo they getting DQ?What is this fuckery?!Where is blue jacket dude pic.twitter.com/twTfxvNoL4  Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) August 21, 2016

It was bizarre, and it left everyone in a really awkward position: NBC because it had to tell Chelimo (well, it didnt HAVE to, but it did), and Chelimo because he learned about this on live television. He was understandably taken aback, because this is the worst possible way to learn that you lost out on a silver medal.

But dont worry, this all ended up working out for Chelimo in the end. The decision to disqualify Chelimo was appealed and the decision was overturned, meaning that he got his silver medal back.

JUST IN: Paul Chelimo reinstated after appeal and will now be awarded #Silver in the Men's 5000m. #USA #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/N4951sNbjj  ABC News (@ABC) August 21, 2016

Still, this kind of thing shouldnt happen. Chelimo got the biggest gut punch possible on live television, and while the decision got overturned, hopefully this never happens to any other Olympian again.
By Caroline Stauffer RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Dressage riders, often dismissed as prissy remnants of the past for their so-called horse dancing, do not often become Internet sensations. Spain's Severo Jurado Lopez, however, won over Brazilian spectators, briefly dominated Twitter and got shout-outs on billboard.com and Gawker after he performed a Latin rock-infused routine to Santana's Smooth, featuring Rob Thomas. "Give him the gold, make it real or else forget about it," declared People Magazine. "I never wanted a horse more than when I found out you can teach it to dance to Smooth," said one Twitter user. The mostly Brazilian audience present for the final freestyle ride, the equine version of a gymnastics floor routine, were on their feet cheering -- and booed when judges put Lopez and horse Lorenzo in fifth place on Monday. "I knew that Brazil, a place that understands music so well, might like it," Lopez told Reuters. "I am happy for both, the applause and the boos." Sandwiched between riders that chose mostly classical music, Lopez also ended his ride on a non-traditional note by trotting down the centre of the arena to Bon Jovi's "It's my life." "I identify with Bon Jovi's song and Santana has my musical style of the south, able to reach a very international crowd," Lopez said of his musical selection. Lopez, who is based in Denmark, defended the format of Olympic dressage competition, which requires all riders to perform the same two technical tests with absolute precision. But he said riders can have a little fun in the third and final freestyle phase. As dressage occasionally surfaces as a sport that could be cut from the Olympics, riders should try new musical styles to keep the audience interested, he said. "Yes, in Freestyle (innovation) is necessary," Lopez said. (Reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Jan Harvey)
An investigation has revealed that mislabeled pills found at Princes Paisley Park estate contain fentanyl, according to the Associated Press  two months after an autopsy revealed that the legendary musician died from an overdose of the drug.

The AP, citing an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said at least one of the pills of the more nearly two dozen found tested positive for fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin. The counterfeit pills were mislabeled Watson 385, a stamp thats supposed to indicate pills containing a mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone.

Its currently not clear how Prince obtained the drugs. The official told the AP that Prince did not have a prescription for any controlled substances in the 12 months before his death. The investigation is ongoing.

Some of the other drugs police found also reportedly contained codeine, and some were not controlled substances. An aspirin bottle found on his estate contained more than 60 pills, the AP reports. Authorities also apparently found ten oxycodone pills in a bottle with someone elses name on it (police are not revealing the name).

Prince was found dead in his home outside of Minneapolis, Minn., on April 21 at the age of 57. His autopsy results were released in June.

Related stories

Prince's Properties Set to Be Sold Off by Estate Administrator

BET Awards: President Debra Lee Thought of Prince Tribute 'Since the Moment That He Passed Away'

Prince Died of Fentanyl Overdose, Autopsy Reveals
Cincinnati (AFP) - Former US Open champ Marin Cilic snapped Andy Murray's 22 match win streak Sunday to claim his first ATP Masters 1000 title with a 6-4, 7-5 win at the Cincinnati tournament.

The 94-minute victory for the 27-year-old Croatian marked a career breakthrough as he earned his first Masters title on his 71st career attempt.

"This week is going to be remembered, it's really, really something special," said Cilic, who had seven aces and broke Murray three times.

"I look forward to the US Open in a couple of weeks. I hope we can continue with good form."

Cilic accomplished the feat on little rest, as he did not leave the court after his semifinal win over Grigor Dimitrov until 2:00 am Sunday morning due to rain delays.

Olympic silver medalist Angelique Kerber lost to Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-1 in the women's final of the joint WTA-ATP tournament.

The defeat ended Kerber's chances of replacing Serena Williams as the No. 1 ranked player in the world.

It was the German's the second defeat in a final in just over a week after losing to Monica Puig in the gold medal Rio match.

"I tried my best, but sometimes you have days where it's not working so good," Kerber said.

Cincinnati is only Cilic's second title since winning the US Open two years ago.

Murray has been on a tear this season, winning grass titles at Queen's and Wimbledon before triumphing a week ago over Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympic final.

But the accumulation of tennis finally proved to be too much for the Scot, who played his 14th match in 15 days dating back to the Games.

Cilic's win was his third against 11 losses to Murray. He is the lowest-ranked Cincinnati champion since number 17 Carlos Moya in 2002.

Momentum mounted for Pliskova on a sunny day as she lifted the trophy after hitting 24 winners.

"The match was not as easy as the score looked. I think she might be a little bit tired or she felt a little bit of pressure on herself," Pliskova said.

Story continues

"I'm really happy with my game today. I was playing aggressive almost without mistakes. There was not one thing what I would change in this match."

The Czech, who now owns seven career titles and stands 3-4 against Kerber, claimed the opening set in 32 minutes and needed 62 minutes in total to complete her role as spoiler.

Pliskova is the first Czech to win the Cincinnati trophy. She finished with seven aces and five breaks of Kerber.

She earned her second title of the season after claiming the honours in June on grass at the Aegon Open in Great Britain and is predicted to rise to 11th in the world.

Kerber fell into a 5-1 deficit in the second set after a double-fault. Pliskova served out the biggest win of her career a game later on a second match point.

Kerber is looking forward to the US Open which begins in eight days.

"This season I won my first grand slam, everything what's happened in the last months is just incredible. I'm trying to enjoy it," she said.

"Some days you're losing matches, some days you win. I'll try to take the positive things from the match and from the last few weeks to New York," she said in reference to the upcoming US Open, the year's final Grand Slam Tournament.
Hundreds of protesters marched through Hong Kongs main streets on Sunday against a ban on pro-independence candidates from running in an upcoming legislative election, as fears grow over Beijings influence in the city.

In the last month five candidates who advocate a split from China were rejected from standing in the September 4 vote, with officials saying their stance went against Hong Kongs mini-constitution.

Critics have slammed the move as censorship as fears grow over Beijing interference in the semi-autonomous city in a range of areas, from politics to media and education.

The idea of independence is dismissed as illegal by Beijing and Hong Kong authorities, and was a taboo subject until recent months, when new parties emerged campaigning for a breakaway.

"I hope that people are aware of the political vetting. It is something that every Hongkonger should be concerned about because damage has been done to the rule of law as well as fairness in elections," protest organiser Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, of Civil Human Rights Front, told reporters before the rally.

Marchers held banners with the slogans "No political vetting!" and "Watch out! Iranian-style election in Hong Kong!" and shouted: "Give me back fair elections!" and "Defend freedom of speech".

"Talking about independence is part of freedom of speech. I'm worried that in future people will have to watch what they say," 20-year-old student Arry Tsui told AFP.

Police said up to 760 people participated in the protest, with organisers claiming more than 1,000 supporters.

Support for the independence movement has surged since the five were banned from standing in the elections.

Earlier this month, they led the city's first pro-independence rally as tension over the upcoming vote escalates.

The growth of "localism", and new calls for self-determination and independence, grew out of frustration among many young activists at the failure of mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 to win any political reforms from Beijing.

The city was returned from Britain to China in 1997 with an arrangement that guaranteed civil liberties.
Police custody of Salafi preacher Maulana Mohammad Haneef, accused of indoctrinating youths to join the Islamic State, has been extended till Monday by a Mumbai Metropolitan court.

By Vidya : The Esplanade Metropolitan Court of Mumbai has extended the police custody of Kerala-based Salafi preacher Maulana Mohammad Haneef till Monday. The 26-year-old religious preacher is being questioned by the Mumbai Police for suspected links with the Islamic State.



The investigating officer of the case told the court that a team was in Kerala to investigate and get material from there in order to corroborate Haneef's statements. To complete the ongoing investigation Mumbai Police sought more time. Police also told the court that Haneef spoke only Malayali and the interrogating team was facing a lot of difficulties in translation for accuracy.



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WHO IS HANEEF?

Sprouting a few strands of hair on his chin, the lean preacher from Kerala, Haneef identified himself loudly in the court. He is a resident of Wainar district of Kerala. Haneef was arrested after the father of a missing youth, Ashfaq registered an FIR against four people including Muhammad Haneef.

The three others were Abdul Rashid, a teacher of Peace International School in Kerala; Arshid Qureshi and Rizwan Khan- both associated with controversial preacher Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation.

THE CASE



Haneef was arrested by Mumbai Police one week ago. According to Mumbai Police, Haneef received formal education only till 6th standard but he is well versed in religious studies. After prayers in mosques, Haneef used to teach religion to a handful of youth.



Police arrested Haneef after the father of one of the missing youths from Kosaragod lodged a complaint. Paramban Majeed, who is a Barelvi Sunni Muslim and runs a lodge in Mumbai Central area, alleged that his son, Ashfaq had joined the Islamic State after he was indoctrinated by four persons in his native state, Kerala.



INDOCTRINATION OF ASHFAQ



Majeed lived in Mumbai, while his entire family used to stay in Kerala. Police said that Majeed's family noticed some changes in Ashfaq's behaviour, who had started following a different sect from Barelvi's. Soon, they found out that Ashfaq had been initiated into Ahal-e-Hadees or the Salafi sect.



Confirmed of his son's indoctrination, Majeed asked his family members to track down all the people his son Ashfaq was meeting those days. "It was through this that the family got to know about the fundamentalist religious preachers and thus these are the ones against whom the FIR was registered by the father," said an officer of the crime branch.



CRACKDOWN IN KERALA



Kerala Police last month arrested Arshid Qureshi, a guest relations manager at preacher Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation, and Rizwan Khan. Under the new law Unlawful Activities prevention act (UAPA) an extended custody of 30 days can be taken for the purpose of investigation.



"It's going to be 30 days of custody by Kerala police for Arshid Qureshi and Rizwan Khan. We are hoping that we will get their custody and bring them to Mumbai to conduct our investigation. It's only after we get this that our investigations will pick up," said another police officer.

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Handful of youths from Kerala has gone missing in the recent months. On the basis of the inputs provided by their parents, the investigating agencies suspect that these people were brainwashed to join the dreaded terror group, the Islamic State. After Kerala police swooped in and made the arrests, Ashfaq's father registered an FIR at Nagpada police station in Mumbai leading to the arrest of Mohammad Haneef.



ALSO READ:

Mumbai Police arrest cleric for radicalising Kerala youth to join ISIS



--- ENDS ---
This report is part of a project on voting rights in America produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program.

Politicians and voting rights advocates continue to clash over whether photo ID and other voting requirements are needed to prevent voter fraud, but a News21 analysis and recent court rulings show little evidence that such fraud is widespread.

A News21 analysis four years ago of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases in 50 states found that while some fraud had occurred since 2000, the rate was infinitesimal compared with the 146 million registered voters in that 12-year span. The analysis found only 10 cases of voter impersonation, the only kind of fraud that could be prevented by voter ID at the polls.

This year, News21 reviewed cases in Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Kansas, where politicians have expressed concern about voter fraud, and found hundreds of allegations but few prosecutions between 2012 and 2016. Attorneys general in those states successfully prosecuted 38 cases, though other cases may have been litigated at the county level. At least one-third of those cases involved nonvoters, such as elections officials or volunteers. None of the cases prosecuted was for voter impersonation.

Voter fraud is not a significant problem in the country, Jennifer Clark of the Brennan Center told News21. As the evidence that has come out in some recent court cases and reports and basically every analysis that has ever been done has concluded: It is not a significant concern.

Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Rutgers University-Camden who wrote a book on the phenomenon in 2010 called The Myth of Voter Fraud, said in an interview that she hasnt seen an uptick in the crime since. Voter fraud remains rare because it is irrational behavior, she said. Youre not likely to change the outcome of an election with your illegal fraudulent vote, and the chances of being caught are there and we have rules to prevent against it.

Story continues

Christopher Coates, former chief of the voting section in the Department of Justice, disagrees. The claim by the liberal left that there is no voter fraud that is going on is completely false, he told News21. Anytime that there are people voting that are not legally entitled to vote thats a big issue. It carries with it the potential for deciding elections a way that is contrary to the voting majority of people.

This story is part of Accountability. The latest investigations about waste, fraud, corruption, abuse and mismanagement. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Coates, who now works as the general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union, pointed to a list of voter fraud allegations kept by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. The list, based largely on news clippings and news releases, counted more than 100 allegations of voter fraud in the U.S. since 2012, only two of which were allegations of voter impersonation that could have been prevented by voter ID. The Republican National Lawyers Association also has a list of more than 200 allegations of election fraud of all kinds reported by news outlets since 2012.

The 2016 Republican platform, adopted in July, urges states to require proof of citizenship and photo ID out of concern that voting procedures may be open to abuse. At the same time, this summer, several federal courts struck down or revised a number of the state laws requiring specific forms of photo ID at the polls.

In July, U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson struck down parts of Wisconsins strict voter ID law, concluding that there is utterly no evidence that in-person voter impersonation fraud is an issue in Wisconsin, or in the rest of the United States.

The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities, Peterson wrote in his ruling. To put it bluntly, Wisconsins strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease.

Reid Magney, spokesperson for Wisconsin elections, told News21 that the state did not track voter fraud until recently. The responsibility to prosecute those crimes lies with district attorneys across the state. The numbers of prosecutions are so low that it hasn't been a priority for us to track those things, Magney said. If somebody was charged with fraud it would make (the) newspapers."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told News21 that the number of fraud cases is beside the point. All it takes is one person whose vote is canceled by someone not voting legally and thats a problem, he said. I always tell folks who oppose (the ID law) tell me whose vote they want canceled out.

A similarly strict Texas voter ID law was weakened by a federal appeals court after a panel of judges determined that the law violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by discriminating against minority voters. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that African-Americans were 1.79 times more likely  and Latinos 2.42 times more likely  than whites to lack the required identification.

Judges have also found that minority voters are less likely to own a car and therefore less likely to get a driver's license that could be used as an ID.

The appellate court did not strike down the Texas law entirely, but under a temporary fix signed off on by a federal judge, the state's voters won't have to show ID in the November general election.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called voter fraud rampant in Texas. A records request from News21 to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas shows that more than 360 allegations of voter fraud were sent to the attorney general since 2012. Fifteen of those cases were successfully prosecuted. Four of those convicted were voters  the rest were elections officials or third-party volunteers.

Minnite, who has studied voter fraud for 15 years, said that actual instances of fraud lie somewhere between the number successfully prosecuted and the number of allegations. In her experience, few allegations meet the criteria of fraud: intentional corruption of the electoral process by voters.

Don't miss another Accountability investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

Large numbers getting reduced, reduced, reduced at each level is the pattern that Ive seen over and over and over again, Minnite said. The assumption should be the reverse of what it is. It should be Weve got a lot of errors here.

Kim Strach, director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, testified in a recent court case about North Carolinas voter ID law that she has referred two cases of voter impersonation to prosecutors since 2013.

In July, a federal appeals court for the 4th Circuit decided that the North Carolina law intentionally discriminated against minority voters and ordered the state to make voter ID requirements less strict. In attempting to combat voter fraud and promote public confidence, the state ignored the issue of absentee ballot fraud, instead cracking down on voter impersonation, a problem that did not exist, according to the court decision. Absentee ballots are disproportionately used by whites, the court said, while the voter ID restrictions enacted target African Americans with almost surgical precision.

State Sen. Ron Rabin, who helped push the voter ID bill through the North Carolina Senate, said the law wasnt intended to discriminate. I dont want to disenfranchise anybody, he said. I want to have them enfranchised so that one vote, one person. Thats the whole thought behind that whole bill.

Presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that he was afraid the election was going to be rigged without ID laws. Theres a lot of dirty pool played at the election, he said in an interview with The Washington Post. If you dont have voter ID, you can just keep voting and voting and voting.

To vote repeatedly in person on Election Day  the kind of fraud that Trump worries about  someone would have to steal another voters ballot. Minnite, the Rutgers professor, says thats as difficult as pickpocketing a cop.

A voter would need to know names, addresses and other identifying information about whoever they were impersonating, she said. Then they would have to show up to the polling place and pretend to be that other person in front of the same elections officials who had likely seen them vote in their own name. Beyond that, theyd have to hope that nobody in the polling place knew the person they were impersonating.

Given that Americas turnout rates are so comparatively low, the idea of widespread voter fraud just doesnt make sense, said David Schultz, professor of public policy at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Theres this image that somehow, people are clamoring to go to the polls on Election Day to commit fraud, he said. Look at our voting statistics. It just doesnt bear out.

Thats not to say fraud doesnt happen at all.

In Arizona, 13 cases were prosecuted for double voting. One of those was Mesa resident Regina Beaupre, who was convicted in 2015 after voting in Michigan and Arizona. She was 71 years old. Carol Hannah was similarly caught for voting in Arizona and Colorado. She argued in court that both cases involved local races and didnt constitute double voting, because no candidates appeared on both ballots. An appeals court agreed and threw out the 2015 conviction. Neither of these cases would have been prevented with voter ID.

In 2014, Verna Roehm, a 77-year-old from Waxhaw, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to voting twice. Roehm voted once at the polls and a second time with an absentee ballot in the name of her dead husband. She told prosecutors she had fulfilled her husbands dying wish to cast his ballot for Mitt Romney in November 2012.

Since only one of Roehms ballots was cast in person, her crime also would not have been prevented with voter ID.

Sean Holstege, Hillary Davis and Andrew Clark contributed to this report.

This story is part of Accountability. The latest investigations about waste, fraud, corruption, abuse and mismanagement. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

Related stories

Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
If a drug den isnt your preferred venue for toking, elevate your marijuana experience at San Franciscos very first private cannabis club.

Harvest, a San Francisco dispensary, announced the opening of its members-only club last week. Already, the lounge is being compared to a cannabis country club for its steep fees, exclusive membership, and tasteful decorbrown leather couches, oriental rugs, and glass ashtrays (duh).

While anyone can buy pot from the dispensary, only members can get access to the smoking room in back. Other perks of membership include a locker for storing goods, invites to educational events and, of course, the ability to puff, puff, pass with the citys other well-heeled pot aficionados.

Those who aspire to membership have to go through an application process and, if accepted, pay monthly fees comparable to the cost of an Equinox gym membership, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. (An Equinox memberships runs about $200 per month, for those wondering.)

Welcome to #HarvestShops. Experience retail cannabis in a whole new way! pic.twitter.com/Ln3A7XwcrW

 Harvest Shop (@HarvestShops) January 30, 2016

Thousands of people are in Harvests collective (basically a list of people who have registered to buy pot from the dispensary), but founders envision the private club only having a couple hundred members. Applicants have to pass a criminal background check and be personally approved by Harvests founders.

Although Harvest isnt the first dispensary to allow use of their product in the back, its the only dispensary in California that charges membership fees to do so. There are a few private club options for the discerning stoner (with cash to throw around) in Denver, however theyre not exactly legal and are occasionally raided by the police.

Cailey Rizzo writes about travel, art and culture and is the founding editor of The Local Dive. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @misscaileyanne.
* Merkel, Hollande, Renzi to meet off coast of Naples

* Second trilateral meeting since Britain voted to leave EU

* Leaders want to show unity, promote "a better Europe"

By Isla Binnie

NAPLES, Italy, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany, France and Italy will meet on Monday to discuss how to keep the European project together in the second set of talks between the premiers of the euro zone's three largest economies since Britain's shock vote to leave the bloc.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on an island off the coast of Naples ahead of September's EU summit called to discuss reverberations from the Brexit vote.

Officials in Brussels and Berlin fear the June 23 vote could lead to a referendum in the Netherlands - a founding member of the union - on whether to also leave the bloc.

"Monday aims to show the unity of Europe's three biggest countries, but not to create a specific club," a French diplomatic source said, noting that the aim was to prepare for the groundwork for the forthcoming Bratislava summit.

Faced with existential risks, Merkel wants to cement "a better Europe" rather than forge ahead with "more Europe". Renzi wants Italy to have a strong voice in how the bloc's future is shaped after Brexit and, according to the French diplomatic source, Hollande wants an EU-wide investment plan to be doubled.

The three leaders differ over how to boost economic growth - which slowed across the 28-nation bloc in the second quarter and stagnated in France and Italy - and cut unemployment.

France supports Renzi's push for expansionary measures and against austerity, Germany is likely to oppose any undermining of Europe's deficit and the debt constraints that Italy and France have struggled to comply with.

Italy is eager for greater European consolidation in the wake of Brexit, but Merkel is more concerned about preserving the integrity of the eventual 27-member bloc.

Story continues

For her it will be the beginning of a whirlwind week of meetings with other European governments that will see her travel to four countries and receive leaders from another eight.

"The goal must first of all be to preserve the status quo and to prevent a further disintegration of the EU-27," said one EU diplomat.

MORE THREATS

Renzi chose to meet on the island of Ventotene because of its symbolic significance as the place where two Italian intellectuals, held there in World War Two, wrote an influential manifesto calling for European political unification.

One of the two, Altiero Spinelli, is buried on the island and the three leaders will lay a wreath on his tomb.

Lingering threats to the union that emerged long before the Brexit vote are also likely to be on the agenda, including internal and external security after Islamist militant attacks and Europe's migration crisis.

Emboldened by the Brexit vote, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called a referendum on Oct. 2 on whether to accept any future EU migrant settlement quotas as his government steps up its fight against the EU's migration policies.

In another symbolic choice of venue, the three leaders will hold their closing news conference on the Italian aircraft carrier, the Garibaldi, which is the flagship of the EU's "Sophia" mission in the Mediterranean.

The naval operation has a mandate to tackle migrant smugglers, help enforce an arms embargo off Libya, and train the Libyan coast guard.

The EU plans to offer incentives to African governments to help slow the flow of migrants who have poured into Europe over the past three years, but disagreements on how to handle the situation have laid bare divisions between member states.

Italy, the main entry point for Africans but rarely their planned destination, is struggling to house migrants turned back from neighbouring countries including France, and has disagreed with Germany over how to finance the response.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Paris and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Louise Ireland)
* Merkel, Hollande, Renzi to meet off coast of Naples

* Second trilateral meeting since Britain voted to leave EU

* Leaders want to show unity, promote "a better Europe" (Adds Renzi comments)

By Isla Binnie

NAPLES, Italy, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany, France and Italy will meet on Monday to discuss how to keep the European project together in the second set of talks between the premiers of the euro zone's three largest economies since Britain's shock vote to leave the bloc.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on an island off the coast of Naples ahead of September's EU summit called to discuss reverberations from the Brexit vote.

"They will be coming to discuss how to relaunch Europe from the bottom up, there's a big need," Renzi said on Sunday.

"Relaunching Europe is a totally open game but it needs to be played," he said.

Officials in Brussels and Berlin fear the June 23 vote could lead to a referendum in the Netherlands - a founding member of the union - on whether to also leave the bloc.

"Monday aims to show the unity of Europe's three biggest countries, but not to create a specific club," a French diplomatic source said, noting that the aim was to prepare for the groundwork for the forthcoming Bratislava summit.

Faced with existential risks, Merkel wants to cement "a better Europe" rather than forge ahead with "more Europe". Renzi wants Italy to have a strong voice in how the bloc's future is shaped after Brexit and, according to the French diplomatic source, Hollande wants an EU-wide investment plan to be doubled.

The three leaders differ over how to boost economic growth - which slowed across the 28-nation bloc in the second quarter and stagnated in France and Italy - and cut unemployment.

France supports Renzi's push for expansionary measures and against austerity, Germany is likely to oppose any undermining of Europe's deficit and the debt constraints that Italy and France have struggled to comply with.

Story continues

Italy is eager for greater European consolidation in the wake of Brexit, but Merkel is more concerned about preserving the integrity of the eventual 27-member bloc.

For her it will be the beginning of a whirlwind week of meetings with other European governments that will see her travel to four countries and receive leaders from another eight.

"The goal must first of all be to preserve the status quo and to prevent a further disintegration of the EU-27," said one EU diplomat.

MORE THREATS

Renzi chose to meet on the island of Ventotene because of its symbolic significance as the place where two Italian intellectuals, held there in World War Two, wrote an influential manifesto calling for European political unification.

One of the two, Altiero Spinelli, is buried on the island and the three leaders will lay a wreath on his tomb.

Lingering threats to the union that emerged long before the Brexit vote are also likely to be on the agenda, including internal and external security after Islamist militant attacks and Europe's migration crisis.

Emboldened by the Brexit vote, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called a referendum on Oct. 2 on whether to accept any future EU migrant settlement quotas as his government steps up its fight against the EU's migration policies.

In another symbolic choice of venue, the three leaders will hold their closing news conference on the Italian aircraft carrier, the Garibaldi, which is the flagship of the EU's "Sophia" mission in the Mediterranean.

The naval operation has a mandate to tackle migrant smugglers, help enforce an arms embargo off Libya, and train the Libyan coast guard.

The EU plans to offer incentives to African governments to help slow the flow of migrants who have poured into Europe over the past three years, but disagreements on how to handle the situation have laid bare divisions between member states.

Italy, the main entry point for Africans but rarely their planned destination, is struggling to house migrants turned back from neighbouring countries including France, and has disagreed with Germany over how to finance the response.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Paul Carrel in Berlin and Silvia Ognibene in Marina di Pietrasanta, Italy; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Louise Ireland)
By Isla Binnie NAPLES, Italy (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany, France and Italy will meet on Monday to discuss how to keep the European project together in the second set of talks between the premiers of the euro zone's three largest economies since Britain's shock vote to leave the bloc. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on an island off the coast of Naples ahead of September's EU summit called to discuss reverberations from the Brexit vote. "They will be coming to discuss how to relaunch Europe from the bottom up, there's a big need," Renzi said on Sunday. "Relaunching Europe is a totally open game but it needs to be played," he said. Officials in Brussels and Berlin fear the June 23 vote could lead to a referendum in the Netherlands - a founding member of the union - on whether to also leave the bloc. "Monday aims to show the unity of Europe's three biggest countries, but not to create a specific club," a French diplomatic source said, noting that the aim was to prepare for the groundwork for the forthcoming Bratislava summit. Faced with existential risks, Merkel wants to cement "a better Europe" rather than forge ahead with "more Europe". Renzi wants Italy to have a strong voice in how the bloc's future is shaped after Brexit and, according to the French diplomatic source, Hollande wants an EU-wide investment plan to be doubled. The three leaders differ over how to boost economic growth - which slowed across the 28-nation bloc in the second quarter and stagnated in France and Italy - and cut unemployment. France supports Renzi's push for expansionary measures and against austerity, Germany is likely to oppose any undermining of Europe's deficit and the debt constraints that Italy and France have struggled to comply with. Italy is eager for greater European consolidation in the wake of Brexit, but Merkel is more concerned about preserving the integrity of the eventual 27-member bloc. For her it will be the beginning of a whirlwind week of meetings with other European governments that will see her travel to four countries and receive leaders from another eight. "The goal must first of all be to preserve the status quo and to prevent a further disintegration of the EU-27," said one EU diplomat. MORE THREATS Renzi chose to meet on the island of Ventotene because of its symbolic significance as the place where two Italian intellectuals, held there in World War Two, wrote an influential manifesto calling for European political unification. One of the two, Altiero Spinelli, is buried on the island and the three leaders will lay a wreath on his tomb. Lingering threats to the union that emerged long before the Brexit vote are also likely to be on the agenda, including internal and external security after Islamist militant attacks and Europe's migration crisis. Emboldened by the Brexit vote, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called a referendum on Oct. 2 on whether to accept any future EU migrant settlement quotas as his government steps up its fight against the EU's migration policies. In another symbolic choice of venue, the three leaders will hold their closing news conference on the Italian aircraft carrier, the Garibaldi, which is the flagship of the EU's "Sophia" mission in the Mediterranean. The naval operation has a mandate to tackle migrant smugglers, help enforce an arms embargo off Libya, and train the Libyan coast guard. The EU plans to offer incentives to African governments to help slow the flow of migrants who have poured into Europe over the past three years, but disagreements on how to handle the situation have laid bare divisions between member states. Italy, the main entry point for Africans but rarely their planned destination, is struggling to house migrants turned back from neighboring countries including France, and has disagreed with Germany over how to finance the response. (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Paul Carrel in Berlin and Silvia Ognibene in Marina di Pietrasanta, Italy; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Louise Ireland)
Asuncion (AFP) - American thrash metal band Megadeth cancelled a show in Paraguay Saturday after swarms of fans crashed through the security gates protecting the stage, in a stampede that left several injured.

It had already been a rowdy concert at the Sport Colombia stadium in Asuncion, where vendors were selling alcoholic beverages in glass bottles -- which some fans hurled onto the stage, according to witnesses.

It came to an abrupt end when hundreds of fans broke through the security barricade, crushing several people and leaving them injured, according to police.

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine announced on Twitter that the band had called off the show.

"Dear Paraguay, after all three barricades broke and hundreds of fans crushed three security guards, almost killing one female fan, we regretfully had to cancel the show," he wrote.

He also posted a picture of what he described as the inadequate security barrier.

"Barricade held by a string at Asuncion. Two crew hit by broken glass thrown by persons in audience. Disappointed."

He promised the band would return to Paraguay someday and use a different venue, security and promoter.
Kerala police officer was killed during routine patrolling in Kochi. Probe is underway as police suspect that bullet accidentally got fired from his office pistol.

By India Today Web Desk: In what is being said to be a freak accident, a Kerala Police officer was killed on Sunday morning. The officer has been identified as Sabu Mathew, who was on a routine patrolling duty in Kochi when the incident took place.

Though probe was underway, the preliminary inquiry suggested that a bullet might have been fired accidentally from his own revolver. The bullet hit his chest and pierced through his seat. The incident took place inside the police patrol van around 2.00 am.

Photo: ANI

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Mathew was an Assistant Commandant posted at the Armed Reserve Camp in Thrippunithura.

--- ENDS ---
These Stranger Things cast members just did #22PushUp challenge and it was awesome

These Stranger Things cast members just did #22PushUp challenge and it was awesome

Just when you thought the kids of Stranger Things could not get any cooler, they go and do something like this.

The casts precocious child actors recently took part in the #22PushUp challenge, a social-media movement dedicated to raising awareness about the high suicide rate among U.S. veterans pioneered by non-profit organization 22Kill. (The number 22 relates to a troubling statistic: An average of 22 veterans commit suicide every day.)

Some of our favorite actors took part in the cause, including Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler on the Netflix original series, and Millie Bobby Brown, also known as the Stranger Things character Eleven.

Finn cranked out his 22 push-ups on a hotel room floor, nominating fellow actors Isabel Vidovic, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Joe Keery (his Stranger Things co-star) for the next round.

#22pushupchallenge I nominate @izabelavidovic @jackdgrazer @uncle_jezzy A video posted by Finn Wolfhard (@finnwolfhardofficial) on Aug 17, 2016 at 5:14pm PDT

Millie did her push-ups on the beach, nominating her co-stars Matthew Modine and Noah Schnapp and friends Maddie Ziegler (because she looks flawless in everything she does) and Chloe Grace Moretz (Im a big fan of her, shes a big fan of the show, I know she can do it! Millie says. Shes too cute.).

#22PushUpChallenge #Done #Strength&Guidance A video posted by Millie Bobby Brown (@milliebobby_brown) on Aug 17, 2016 at 5:21am PDT

I think this is a great way to raise awareness for the veteran mental health charity, Millie says in her video.

After watching these kids make their videos, were feeling inspired to make our own. Were sure their efforts are definitely going to make a difference!

The post These Stranger Things cast members just did #22PushUp challenge and it was awesome appeared first on HelloGiggles.
The 44th Norwegian Intl. Film Festival kicked off its main program Aug. 21 with the world premiere of a local film, Vibeke Idses The Lion Woman (Lvekvinnen), and it will close Aug. 25 with the launch of another domestic production, Henrik Martin Dahlsbakkens Cave. On Aug. 22, Benjamin Ree will have the first Norwegian presentation of his documentary Magnus after it has toured five international festivals including Tribeca-New York, Munich and Moscow.

But not only the main competition has Norwegian entries: a total of 19 local films have been selected for this years showcase, with Peder Hamdahl Nss Little Grey Fergie  Full Throttle (Grasass gir gass), the fifth film about Norways most famous tractor, a Ferguson TE20, in Cinemagi, the childrens festival, others in the documentary, short film, Next Nordic Generation and Norwegian National Film School sections. Three Haugesund films sneak-opened the festival: Karl Johan Paulsens documentary Gold Is Running in the Streets  a City Built on Herring Bones, Cato M. Ekrenes short Run, and Andre Lynings documentary Cocks & Crosses.

There are several reasons for the strong Norwegian representation, said festival and program director Tonje Hardersen, of the Norwegian International Film Festival. First and foremost the opening films in 2015 and 2016  Roar Uthaugs The Wave and The Lion Woman  show that Norway can deliver productions that are not inferior to Hollywood grandeur, though on significantly smaller budgets. At the same time Norwegian cinema in 2016 is marked by a couple of young, aspiring filmmakers, who already deliver top level features  at this years festival we have two films by 27-year-old directors, Dahlsbakkens Cave and Rees Magnus. 

Hardersen notes that kidpics are usually best-sellers in the Norwegian cinemas  last year they accounted for almost half of Norwegian admissions, and four titles exceeded a total of one million admissions. But most of them are adaptations, and the reviewers didnt like them. So I look forward to the Aug. 23 festival debate about childrens cinema. Norwegian documentaries have in recent years reached still larger audiences, and we show them in several sections, including Cinemagi: Dancing Hearts from, Erlend E. Mo, Hanna Heilborn and Victor Kossakovsky.

Story continues

While Denmarks LevelK is only starting international sales for Cave in Haugesund, both The Lion Woman and Magnus have been widely licensed internationally by Denmarks TrustNordisk. Idses period drama has been acquired for 70 countries including China, France, Benelux, and Latin America; 46 have been contracted for Rees documentary including North America, UK/Ireland, Germany/Austria, France, Benelux, and Russia.

Based on Norwegian author Erik Fosnes Hansens novel, although with a new ending, The Lion Woman  which, with a $10 million budget, is Norways second-most expensive feature  is set between 1912-1937 and follows Eva, who is born with hair covering her whole body. Despite the many challenges she faces, she manages to overcome them. Starring Rolf Lassgard, Connie Nielsen, Burghart Klaussner and Kjersti Tveteras, it was produced by Norwegian veteran producer John M Jacobsens Oslo outfit, Filmkameratene.

In Magnus, Ree portrays Magnus Carlsen, who as a 13-year-old introvert schoolboy mostly interested in chess and bullied by his classmates, declared, I hope to become the world chess champion. In 2013, at 22, he did become the world chess champion. The documentary about his way to the title was produced by Sigurd Mikal Karoliussen, for Moskus Film.

 Cave is something different from my previous films, an intense action-thriller about a group of former military elites who set out to explore an uncharted abyss. We filmed everything on location in Norway, except for some underwater scenes in Mexico  I think people will be utterly surprised when they see the result, said Norwegian director Dahlsbakken about his festival closing feature. Starring Heidi Toini, Mads Sjgard Pettersen, Benjamin Helstad and Ingar Helge Gimle, it was produced by Dahlsbakken for Filmbros.

Pictured above: Magnus

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Jordan Rodgers and JoJo Fletcher partied with friends and family. (Photo: Instagram)

Jordan Rodgerss past relationship drama isnt keeping him from celebrating his engagement.

JoJo Fletcher took to Instagram to share a photo of their massive group of family and friends, who surprised the couple with an engagement party on Saturday night.

My heart is so full! Fletcher wrote in her Instagram post. Jordan and I were going out to what we thought was just a little dinner with friends but instead walked into a room full of both our friends and family to celebrate in our engagement. We are so incredibly blessed.#fletchersmeettherodgers.

Her fiance shared the same hashtag in a photo with his brother Luke.

"When you think you are just going to dinner with your fiance and a few friends and you walk into a room full of both your families and best friends! So blessed to not only have found the love of my life @joelle_fletcher , but have an amazing family and new family to share a life with. So blessed to do life with these people! #fletchersmeettherodgers.

My heart is so full!  Jordan and I were going out to what we thought was just a little dinner with friends but instead walked into a room full of both our friends and family to celebrate in our engagement. We are so incredibly blessed. #fletchersmeettherodgers A photo posted by JoJo Fletcher (@joelle_fletcher) on Aug 20, 2016 at 9:06pm PDT

The couple has been sharing many posts about their love, despite a recent series of posts by Rodgers ex-girlfriend Brittany Farrar, who accused the Bachelorette winner of cheating on her in the past.

Just before the festivities, Fletcher posted one photo of the couple holding hands with the caption, The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. & tacos.

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. & tacos.  A photo posted by JoJo Fletcher (@joelle_fletcher) on Aug 20, 2016 at 11:57am PDT

Fletcher and Rodgers officially announced their engagement on the finale of The Bachelorette, which ended in Rodgers emotional and romantic proposal.

Despite accusations about Rodgers past infidelity, Fletcher told PEOPLE she trusts her fiance.

Everything that Jordan has ever said to me Ive believed to be 100 percent genuine, she told PEOPLE last month. I never doubted him. And since the show ended, he has proved his love to me every single day. Hes never given me one reason not to trust him.


By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an attack to seize a town from Islamic State on the border with Turkey, a senior rebel said on Sunday, in a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand in the area. The rebels, Turkish-backed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days, said the rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified. "The factions are gathering in an area near the border (inside Turkey)," the rebel said. Another rebel source said they were gathering at a Turkish military camp near the town of Qarqamish just opposite Jarablus. "Every day there are groups of fighters entering from inside Syria across a secret crossing to a Turkish base where they are gathering in preparation of the assault on Jarablus," the source said. Fighters mostly drawn from Failaq al Sham, Sultan Murad, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabha al Shamiya groups were coming from Syria's northwestern rebel-held Idlib province and also from the town of Azaz. Another source, in Ahrar al-Sham, expected the assault on Jarablus to begin in the next few days. Jarablus, on the western bank of the Euphrates river, is the last significant town held by the militant Islamist group on Syria's border with Turkey. It is 34 miles (54 km) east of al-Rai, a border town FSA rebel groups recently took from Islamic State. RIVALRY WITH KURDS By taking Jarablus themselves, the rebel groups would preclude an assault on the town by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish-dominated militias who on Aug. 6 took the city of Manbij, 20 miles (30 km) to the south, from IS. A group allied to the SDF and calling itself the Jarablus military council issued a statement on Sunday accusing Turkey of supporting radical jihadist groups and calling on the U.S.-led coalition to back the council. The U.S.-led coalition has helped the SDF to make significant gains against Islamic State militants in northern Syria since it was established last year. Turkey, an important supporter of the FSA groups, is worried that Kurds are using the SDF's westwards expansion against IS to extend their influence across northern Syria. The SDF already holds the eastern bank of the Euphrates opposite Jarablus. On Saturday Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara would play a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the coming six months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines. The rebel source from Ahrar al Sham said Turkish artillery had since Friday been pounding several Islamic State positions in villages on the outskirts of Jarablus near the border strip. The mainly Sunni Arab rebel groups are now aiming to regain control of the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Marea in the northern Aleppo countryside, currently in the hands of the YPG, the powerful Kurdish militia. Islamic State has pulled personnel out of Jarablus in recent days, the rebel leader said. On Friday families of IS fighters were evacuated from Jarablus and another city nearby, al-Bab, to the group's stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The rebel operation aimed to effectively end Islamic State's presence on the Turkish border, the official said. "There will certainly be resistance. They will have mined it heavily," he said. "The operation of entering Jarablus will not be easy." (Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Roche)
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and the candidate (Photos: Reuters)

Four days after being promoted to manager of Donald Trumps presidential campaign, Kellyanne Conway hit the Sunday morning talk-show circuit to defend both the candidate and her previous criticisms of him  including his decision not to release tax returns before the election.

During the Republican primary, Conway  who was then working for a super-PAC supporting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz  charged that Trump had built his businesses on the backs of little guys and said his tax returns should be transparent.

Now that I am on the inside, I know something I didnt know then, which is he is under audit and what that means, Conway said on CNNs State of the Union. He has said clearly, and I back him up completely, that when the audit is completed hell release the tax returns.

Ive learned since being on the inside that this audit is a serious matter, she said on ABCs This Week With George Stephanopoulos.

On Wednesday, Conway was promoted to campaign manager and Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of the conservative website Breitbart News, was named chief executive of the Trump campaign. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned Friday following reports that suggested he may have secretly taken cash payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine in 2012.

The campaign shakeup came as Trump fell behind Hillary Clinton by more than 7 points in postconvention polls and a day after the brash real estate mogul said he doesnt want to moderate his tone for the general election.

Everyone talks about, Oh, youve got to pivot, Trump said on Tuesday. I dont want to pivot. I dont want to change. You have to be you. If you start pivoting, youre not being honest with people.

In February, Conway called Trumps attacks on rivals like Cruz vulgar.

Do I want somebody who hurls personal insults, she asked on CNN, or who goes and talks about philosophical differences?

On Sunday, though, Conway claimed that Trumps tone has changed and that hes already made a pivot on substance.

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He doesnt hurl personal insults, she said. What hes doing is hes challenging the Democratic Party. Hes challenging Hillary Clinton and President Obamas legacy.

On CNN, Conway was asked whether his purported pivot would include a reversal on his vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

To be determined, Conway said.

According to several reports, Trump told Hispanic leaders on Saturday he plans to unveil a new policy that would help find a way to legalize some of those living illegally in the United States.

Conway also defended Trumps attempted outreach to minority voters.

Youre living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs, Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin. What the hell do you have to lose?

Many in the African-American community viewed Trumps comments as stereotyping.

Those comments are for all Americans, Conway said on ABC. I live in a white community. Im white. I was very moved by his comments. In other words, he is trying to tell Americans that we can do better. And the thing that he said that I think got a great deal of resonance is that maybe Hillary Clinton looks at you as voters, takes you for granted. I look at you as people.
Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's vow to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants if elected president appeared to be undergoing a shift Sunday as the struggling Republican candidate reaches out to minorities alienated by his harsh rhetoric.

The New York real estate magnate intends to lay out specifics of his immigration plan over the next few weeks, Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said.

Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether they will include a "deportation force" that Trump has previously called for, Conway said, "To be determined."

Trump met with Hispanic supporters at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York on Saturday, when several participants told Spanish-language network Univision that he said his plan will include finding a way to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.

Trump acknowledged "that there is a big problem with the 11 million people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane," Univision quoted Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting, as saying.

The billionaire candidate, who has slid precipitously in polls since last month's Republican convention, told the group of Hispanic conservatives that his plan would grant undocumented immigrants legal status "that wouldn't be citizenship but would allow them to be here without fear of deportation," Monty added.

If true, it would mark a sharp reversal for a candidate who launched his campaign for the presidency with a vow to build a giant wall on Mexico's border, while disparaging illegal immigrants from Mexico as criminals and rapists.

He has repeatedly called for mass deportations of people in the country illegally, a stance critics say is inhumane and unrealistic.

"What Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting differed very little from what he's said publicly, including in his convention speech last month in Cleveland," Conway told CNN.

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"It's that we need a, quote, fair and humane way of dealing with what is estimated to be about 11 million illegal immigrants in this country," said Conway, who also took part in the meeting.

"Nothing was said yesterday that differs from what Mr Trump said previously," she added.

"He supports making sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country."

Senator Jeff Sessions, a Trump adviser, also said the candidate made no firm commitments during his session with Hispanic supporters, "but he did listen and was talking about it."

According to Sessions, Trump is "wrestling with" what to do about the country's undocumented immigrants.
This bear was kept in a tiny cage all alone for seven years of her life. She was rescued and is now free.

By India Today Web Desk:

This family in Xuan Truong district, Vietnam, kept a sun bear inside a small cage for seven years who was rescued by Animals Asia last week.

Short video of her rescue posted by Animal Asia on Facebook.







Annemarie is a seven-year-old sun bear who was kept behind bars for most of her life but has now arrived at her new abode at Vietnam animal sanctuary.

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SEVEN YEARS OF SADNESS AND LONELINESS

Annemarie was bought as an exotic animal when she was just a cub by the family's son's father, who has passed away now.

She was kept inside a tiny cage and suffered lack of open space and good diet.



Animal Asia posted this video on Facebook.







According to a Telegraph report, Animal Asia explained "His son - having learnt of the legal requirement to register bears - is keen to do the right thing and voluntarily hand over the bear."

"However, there is always a physical price to pay for these bears when they have suffered a lack of space, poor diet and inexpert care.

"Our vets will carry out a health check as part of the rescue and she'll enjoy ongoing rehabilitation and vet care back at our sanctuary."



LIFE STARTS NOW

When Animals Asia helped rescue Annemarie on August 17, she was greeted by students lined up in the streets giving some much needed love to the bear .



"After arriving, Annemarie was still very frightened and wary of people around her," bear manager Louise Ellis told Telegraph.

"Eventually she began to relax a little and was given a cooling shower with the hose pipe to help revive her after the journey. She soon began to enjoy the spray, pawing at the water and sitting up so her belly could get wet.

"She appears to like watermelon and kept going back to the food bowl to take a piece. She was left to settle overnight.

"She is still very scared but hopefully with time, she will begin to relax a bit more and settle into her new life here."



Animals Asia has rescued as many as 600 bears and Annemarie will be the 150th bear they are taking care of at the Vietnam sanctuary.

--- ENDS ---
Donald Trump 's campaign cash haul ballooned in July even as spending increased, but the Republican still trailed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the money race.



Trump's campaign reported $36.7 million in receipts for the month, compared with $52.3 million for Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission data released Saturday. Trump's campaign ended July with $38.4 million on hand, short of Clinton's $58.5 million.

Trump's spending jumped to $18.5 million, more than double its $7.8 million in June. Clinton's campaign reported $38.2 million in disbursements for July, up from $34.5 million in the prior month.



In July 2012, Mitt Romney's campaign reported $32.7 million in disbursements. President Barack Obama's committee said it spent $58.9 million.



The fundraising haul came as both candidates formally accepted the presidential nominations at their parties' conventions. The financial data for August, in which Clinton gained a solid polling advantage amid self-inflicted wounds from her opponent Donald Trump , is not due until next month. Recent gaffes from Trump have raised speculation that the Republican Party could move funds away from Trump and down the ballot.

Clinton was expected to raise more money than Trump's campaign in July and end the month with more cash available. In a separate statement, the Clinton campaign said it saw $62.3 million in total contributions for July. Those are pledged donations that may not have gone to the campaign's coffers during July.

However, Trump has spent significantly less than Clinton throughout the election. Trump has relied on intense news coverage and social media to push his message throughout his campaign, largely shunning traditional advertising channels and some methods of voter outreach.

The Clinton campaign put up its first general election TV ads more than two months ago and has since spent more than $60 million on them. The Trump campaign's first ad buys this month in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio cost about $4 million, according to NBC News.

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It remains to be seen if the increase in July spending means the Trump campaign will be more willing to burn cash to make up the deficit against Clinton in August and beyond.

A large part of Trump's spending jump went to Giles-Parscale, a San Antonio, Texas-based web design and digital marketing firm. Trump's campaign reported nearly $8.4 million in expenses to the firm, about 45 percent of its total, and up from about $1.6 million in June.

The firm designs Trump's campaign website and aids it with online marketing efforts. The campaign reported the payments for "digital consulting/online advertising."

Its spending on payroll and ground operations did not budge much.




Tunis (AFP) - Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party, the largest in parliament, said on Sunday it has "some reservations" about the line-up of the country's new unity government announced the previous day.

"We have some observations and reservations to pass on to the head of the government-designate," Abdelkarim Harouni, head of the party's top body the Shura Council, told reporters.

The council met for several hours on Sunday after premier-designate Youssef Chahed unveiled his unity government Saturday, pledging to work to try to resolve deep social and economic crises that plague Tunisia five years after the Arab Spring revolt.

If his cabinet is confirmed by parliament, Chahed, 40, would become the youngest Tunisian prime minister since the North African country won independence from France in 1956.

"We will not accept any suspicion of corruption (among the government members), nor any personality who would seek to exclude Ennahda or any other party," Harouni said, without naming anyone.

But he also added that Ennahda's reservations would not prevent it from given the line-up its vote of confidence, noting that the Shura Council had ratified the level of the party's participation in government.

"We will not go as far as to block the government," Harouni said, adding that the Ennahda parliamentary group "will announce its precise position later" on the confidence vote.

Two Ennahda ministers figure in the proposed cabinet, as opposed to one previously.

Parliament will on Monday set a date for the vote of confidence in the new government.

With 69 members in the 217-seat legislature, Ennahda is the largest party in parliament.

If his cabinet receives parliamentary approval, Chahed's main task will be to tackle the economic and social crises gripping the North African country since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Chahed has also pledged to combat terrorism and corruption.
Gaziantep (Turkey) (AFP) - A suicide bomber as young as 12 killed at least 51 people at a wedding in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, pointing the finger at the Islamic State group.

Erdogan said Saturday's blast in Gaziantep near the Syria border "was the result of a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 who either detonated (the bomb) or others detonated it."

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

The president said the Islamic State group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.

The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor's office said according to broadcaster CNN-Turk.

Gulser Ates, one of scores wounded in the attack, told Hurriyet the attack took place as the party was breaking up in the mainly Kurdish neighbourhood.

"We were sitting on chairs, having a chat with one of our neighbours.

"During the explosion, the neighbour died on top of me. I remember being underneath. If my neighbour hadn't fallen on top of me, I would have died," she said.

"The bride and groom's happiest day was poisoned."

The bride and groom -- Besna and Nurettin Akdogan -- were rushed to hospital but were not seriously wounded.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, the bride was released from hospital, saying as she left: "They turned our wedding into a bloodbath."

She later returned to hospital after repeatedly fainting, Anadolu reported.

- Women and children wounded -

Funerals for many of the victims took place on Sunday with an AFP photographer saying some covered relatives' coffins with the Kurdistan flag.

As hundreds waited to say their final goodbye, some voiced anger at what they perceived to be the government's failure to prevent the attack.

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Shouts of "shame on you, Erdogan" rang out while others hurled water bottles at police who kept their distance from rowdy crowds for fear of violence.

One distraught mother wailed: "I lost my children, now I will never see them again."

Erdogan told reporters the death toll was now 51 with 94 hurt in the attack.

A total of 69 people remained in hospital, with 17 in critical condition.

Health Minister Recep Akdag said a large number of those injured were women and children.

- 'You will not succeed' -

The bride and groom were reportedly from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding, also attended by many women and children.

Erdogan said such attacks aimed to sow division between Turkey's different groups including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines".

Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.

A defiant Erdogan said there was "no difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen -- whom he blames for the failed coup bid -- the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep".

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us -- you will not succeed!" he said.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921, when it defeated French forces in Turkey's Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

World leaders condemned the suicide bombing, with French President Francois Hollande denouncing the "vile" incident and German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling the attack "cowardly and underhand".

The United States also condemned the "heinous attack". "We stand by our ally and partner Turkey and reaffirm our commitment to defeating the common threat of terrorism," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

The pope urged the faithful to pray for the victims while UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for the perpetrators to be "quickly identified and brought to justice".

- 'More active' Syria role -

A major city just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

IS suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Istanbul this year, while Kurdish militants have hit targets in both Ankara and Istanbul.

On Thursday, 12 people were killed in three bombings blamed on the PKK, who Erdogan said had killed 70 members of the security forces in the last month alone.

The blast in Gaziantep came just hours after Yildirim said Ankara would play a "more active" role in efforts to solve the Syrian civil war.
London (AFP) - The UK government on Monday unveiled plans to tackle Islamist extremism in prisons, including banning offensive literature and removing inmates from worship if they promote beliefs deemed against "fundamental British values".

The justice ministry said extremism in prisons was a growing threat which needed to be treated as an "urgent priority".

"For the highest risk terrorists and radicalisers, the government will use all the measures at its disposal, including separation from the mainstream prison population, to contain their risk and prevent the spread of poisonous ideologies.

"Extremists cannot be allowed to prey on the vulnerable," the ministry said in a response accompanying the review on extremism in prisons.

New measures to be brought in include greater vetting of prison chaplains and tighter controls on worship.

"We will ensure that governors use their existing powers to remove prisoners from corporate worship where they are behaving subversively or promoting beliefs that run counter to fundamental British values.

"We do not, however, believe it is the right course of action at present to alter the provision of worship more generally or, for example, to pursue in-cell alternatives," the ministry of justice said.

A total of eight measures will be introduced, including a review of staff training and the removal of literature considered extremist and offensive.

The government said it had additionally created a new department -- the Security, Order and Counter Terrorism Directorate -- which will be in charge of developing the plan to counter Islamist extremism in prisons.

The new plans follow a review commissioned by the former justice minister, Michael Gove, which saw a team visit more than 60 prisons in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

Gove's successor, Elizabeth Truss, threw her support behind the overhaul.

"Islamist extremism is a danger to society and a threat to public safety -- it must be defeated wherever it is found.

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"I am committed to confronting and countering the spread of this poisonous ideology behind bars," she said in a statement.

In their review, researchers said some prison imams faced intimidation , while inmates were confronted with "aggressive encouragement" to convert to Islam.

They also identified "charismatic IE (Islamist extremist) prisoners acting as self-styled 'emirs' and exerting a controlling and radicalising influence on the wider Muslim prison population".

The review found both Muslim and non-Muslim inmates were vulnerable to radicalisation and called for leadership to ensure Muslim prisoners could safely practise their faith: "Throughout the review the team emphasised the importance of faith to prisoners, and its potential to transform lives for the better.

"Its premise was that Islamism a- a politicised, expansionist version of Islam -- is more ideology than faith, and is driven by intolerance and anti-Western sentiment."
Following unanimous approval by the Boards of Directors of Viacom and National Amusements Inc. of a settlement in the ongoing dispute over Viacom leadership, Philippe Dauman has stepped down as president and CEO of Viacom.

Thomas Dooley, Viacom Chief Operating Officer since 2010 and a 36-year company veteran, has been named interim president and CEO, and will serve in this position through the end of September. Sumner Redstone will remain Chairman Emeritus, and Shari Redstone will remain Non-Executive Vice Chair.

Dauman will continue to serve as Non-Executive Chairman through September 13. At that time, the Board will choose a new Chairman, with the final decision on Daumans successor to be in place by the end of Dooleys term as interim head of the company.

The settlement, which resolves all disputes between NAI, members of the Redstone family, and related parties, will see all ongoing lawsuits terminated, and the creation of an expanded Viacom Board of Directors that, following Daumans departure, will consist of 15 members. The expanded board will include the five independent Directors elected to the board by NAI in June: Kenneth Lerer, Thomas May, Judith McHale, Ron Nelson and Nicole Seligman.

Seligman will serve as head the Governance and Nominating Committee, Nelson will head the Audit Committee, and McHale will lead the Compensation Committee. The five new Viacom Board directors will comprise a majority of each committee.

While serving as Non-Executive Chairman, Dauman will be allowed to submit a proposal for approval by the Viacom Board on the previously-announced potential sale of a minority equity stake in Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures. Unanimous agreement by the Board will be required for approval of any such proposal.

Related stories

How To Cure Ailing Viacom? Wall Street's Prescriptions Are Mixed

Sumner Redstone's Granddaughter Seeks To See & Maybe Stop Dauman Exit Deal

Tom Dooley: Philippe Dauman Was "Always A Champion For Viacom"
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Sunday blasted the "heinous" suicide bombing that killed 51 people in Turkey, and offered its assistance to Ankara in the fight against "the scourge of terrorism."

"The United States strongly condemns yesterday's heinous attack," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.

"We extend heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of the victims and we wish a full and speedy recovery for the many who were wounded," he added.

"We stand by our ally and partner Turkey and reaffirm our commitment to defeating the common threat of terrorism."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that a child as young as 12 carried out Saturday's attack at a wedding in the town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, probably for the Islamic State group.

A spokesman for the National Security Council, based in the White House, condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms."

"The perpetrators of this barbaric act cynically and cowardly targeted a wedding, killing dozens and leaving scores wounded," NSC spokesman Ned Price said.

"We are in close touch with Turkish authorities, and Vice President Biden will visit Ankara on Wednesday, August 24 to reaffirm our commitment to work together with Turkey, our valued NATO Ally and partner, to confront the scourge of terrorism."
This man was locked inside a huge store after he fell asleep in a massage chair. He even live-tweeted from inside the store. Yeah, a massage chair!

By India Today Web Desk:

Japan's electronic stores are massive to find anything you are looking for. From a computer to a massage chair and maybe a good night sleep, it's all out there on the shelves.

Japan's Ks Store is famous for its massage chairs, and also people falling asleep in these comfy chairs and getting locked inside the store.

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A Twitter user on Monday was killing Monday blues at Ks Store freeloading the comfort of a massage chair at the store when he ended up dosing off.

Apparently, nobody even noticed the sleeping beauty dreaming all the way to glory in the massage chair.

He live-tweeted the scene saying, "Oh man, I'm locked in!"



The employees always check if people have left Ks before closing but surely missed out on this dude. Thankfully their alarm system was too tight to monitor such things and went off.

The dude chilling, was soon surrounded by 10 police officers as the alarm notified the police.

The man was thoroughly checked and officers made sure there were no stolen goods on him before he was let free.



And that's how you beat your Monday blues.

--- ENDS ---
Berlin (AFP) - Bundesliga side Werder Bremen kicked off their new season by being dumped out of the German Cup in the first round with a 2-1 defeat at third-tier club Sportfreunde Lotte on Sunday.

Viktor Skripnik's Bremen fell behind early on to a goal by defender Matthias Rahn, but Austrian international Zlatko Junuzovic levelled on the stroke of half-time.

Lotte midfielder Andre Dej struck though in the 54th minute, and the home side held on for a famous victory over the six-time winners.

There were no other major shocks, but plenty of top-flight teams still struggled elsewhere on Sunday.

Bayer Leverkusen were given a scare, but edged to a 2-1 win at fifth-division SC Hauenstein thanks to goals from Javier Hernandez and Karim Bellarabi.

Eintracht Frankfurt could only scrape past Magdeburg on penalties after being held to a 1-1 draw, while Mainz also progressed on spot-kicks at fourth-tier outfit Unterhaching after blowing a 3-1 lead in the 90th minute to draw 3-3.

Ingolstadt were held to a 0-0 stalemate at Erzgebirge Aue but came on top 8-7 in a marathon shoot-out, while Salomon Kalou scored the winning spot-kick as Hertha Berlin edged out third-division side Regensburg on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

There were no such problems for Darmstadt though, who thrashed Bremer SV 7-0 to ease into round two, while Andrej Kramaric grabbed a hat-trick as Hoffenheim put six past Egestorf-Langreder.
London (AFP) - West Ham United striker Andy Carroll will be sidelined for several weeks after suffering a knee injury, Hammers boss Slaven Bilic revealed on Sunday.

Carroll sustained the problem during West Ham's Europa League play-off first leg 1-1 draw against Astra Giurgiu on Thursday.

The injury-plagued 27-year-old is expected to be out of action for four to six weeks, while France playmaker Dimitri Payet was also ruled out of Sunday's Premier League clash with Bournemouth.

"Slaven has confirmed that @AndyTCarroll faces 'a few weeks' out with a knee problem, while @dimpayet17 has a 'knock' to his leg," a message on West Ham's Twitter account read.

Former Liverpool and Newcastle United star Carroll promised to make up for lost time as soon as he returns, tweeting: "Devastated about my recent injured but I'm still the 15-20 goal man!"

Carroll's latest injury adds to a growing casualty list for Bilic, who this week lost club-record signing Andre Ayew for four months to a thigh injury.

Aaron Cresswell, Sofiane Feghouli and Manuel Lanzini are also currently injured.
If theres one way to truly understand a culture, its through eating its typical dishes. And, increasingly, governments are investing in their culinary reputation abroad to draw tourists in for the real thing.

A decade ago, Thai food was still a largely-untapped market in the United Statesthere were only about 5,500 restaurants across the country. Then the country started a government-funded gastro-diplomacy program. Thailand invested serious cash in Thai restaurants across the world.

After the program, tourist numbers to Thailand jumped and, a few years ago, almost one-third of tourists to Thailand cited cuisine as their main motivation for traveling to the country.

And South Korea took notice.

In 2008, the countrys president formed a coalition to better South Koreas reputation abroad. The Presidential Council on National Branding formed with the aim to move South Korea up the international ranking of countries. South Korea spent $77 million, according to Priceonomics, to improve the countrys culinary reputation abroad. That included setting up more Korean restaurants, and focusing on the national dish: kimchi.

some like it hot. kimchi sliced up everyday at nishis brunch. pic.twitter.com/aUZvIwgpmu momofuku (@momofuku) August 14, 2016

The Kimchi Institute, a real thing set up by the South Korean government, was born in 2009. It aimed to research the countrys signature spicy, pickled cabbage and prepare it for international exporting.

Researchers worked on fine-tuning kimchi for different marketplaces: The United States got a kimchi thats less tangy; Japan got a kimchi thats very sweet. The result was a very quick popularization of the dish.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a Korean taco truck was making headlines with two-hour waits for their spicy, fermented fusion foods. A group of young Koreans, sponsored by a Korean food company, traveled around the world as the Bibimbap Backpackers, promoting their favorite dish. Everything came together in a perfect culinary storm.

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Tourist arrivals to Korea jumped 70 percent from 2009 to 2015a feat which many attribute to the culinary influence abroad.

While gastro-diplomacy is still a very new area of study, its effects are undeniable: The way to a travelers heart is through their taste buds.

Now, other countries are following suit. Australia, Peru and Malaysia all have government-funded culinary outreach programs in hopes of increasing tourism.

Cailey Rizzo writes about travel, art and culture and is the founding editor of The Local Dive. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @misscaileyanne.

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MICK FOLEY 1

Tonight,

WWE returns to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for Summerslam, one of the company's biggest pay-per-view events of the year.

Following the broadcast of Summerslam, the WWE Network will debut the premiere episode of the reality series "Holy Foley," starring WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley.

Foley recently took over as the general manager of "Monday Night Raw," which airs weekly on USA. He regularly appears on the show, where one of his main roles is deciding on which performers will square off against each other during the show.

In a phone interview with Foley, I asked him what it's like to work with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who still oversees almost every creative decision that goes into what ends up on TV.



"I've always told him and always felt that he's on the level of US Presidents," Foley said of McMahon.

"I don't think he understands that other human beings need to sleep. I've been told at 3, 3:30 in the morning, Mr. McMahon will give a call and (say) 'hey, pal' and have an idea ... His work ethic is unparalleled, and I think we all learn from his example."

When so much of the creative direction of such a large company depends on the opinion of one man, it might be intimidating for a performer new to the roster to attempt to get face time with the extremely busy chairman. I asked Foley if this is true, and if McMahon's door is indeed open to employees who want some one-on-one time with the boss.

"He is an intimidating presence. He's a larger-than-life superhero in some sense. But it's really important for everyone to have some type of relationship with him," Foley said. "He wants you to knock on his door and ask for some of his time. He wants to set up appointments. He wants to know how you feel about things.

"I tell people the most important move they can make is not in the ring. It's taking the time to get to know Mr. McMahon."

Listen below to hear my full conversation with Mick Foley where we discuss WWE's extremely successful developmental promotion NXT, the differences between Japanese and American wrestling fans, and his take on the difficulties superstar Roman Reigns has faced in winning over WWE fans.

Story continues

NOW WATCH: 12 awesome facts about WWE superstar Brock Lesnar





More From Business Insider


Winter in Chicago means frosty air, warm coats, and a memorable New Years Eve watching fireworks light up Lake Michigan. Bundle up to sit outside at Grant Park, hitch a ride on a boat, and watch fireworks illuminate the Willis Tower, or make your way to one of the many parties that help Chicagoans ring in the New Year with style.

Heres where to ring in 2017 in the Windy City:

Chi-Town Rising

To ring in 2016, Chicago decided to shake off its second city status and throw a party to rival the shindig in New Yorks Times Square. The free event, called "Chi-Town Rising," filled the Chicago Riverfront with over 100,000 revelers ready to watch the star (not a ball) drop at midnight. There were all the trappings of a New Years blow-out with food vendors, bars, and live music, topped off with a performance, fittingly, by the band Chicago. Millennium Park hosted afree family-friendly countdownas well as a number of activities for the entire family. This year the city is getting ready to do it all again.

More information, this way.

The 5th-Annual Chicago Resolution Gala at The Grand Ballroom

For the last five years, the Resolution Gala has takenover the Grand Ballroom at Chicagos Navy Pier. Attendees can take advantage of the 30 bars andincredible array of food stationswhilecounting down with the help of the Chicago Bulls music coordinator, DJ Metro. When midnight strikes,fireworks light up the sky over Lake Michigan.

More information, this way.

New Years Eve Party at The Drake Hotel

Ring in the New Year at The Drake Hotel, which has hosted Chicagos preeminent New Years Eve Party for over 16 years. Revelers from across the Midwest come to fill the Drakes five ballrooms with revelry and merry making, dancing the night away as DJs spin tunes until the balloon drop and champagne toast at midnight. And bonus: there are over 35 fully staffed bars and a huge spread of hors doeuvres.

More information, this way.

Girl Power 2017

Start your New Years resolutions early by ringing in 2017 while giving back. The Girl Power party bills itself as a 100 percent giveback event with a portion of the proceeds going to five great causes including Shes the First, Girls Write Now, and Girls Who Code. This celebration puts the fun in fundraiser, giving guests the chance to count down to midnight at Dave & Busters for a celebration filled with games, food, and prizes.

Story continues

More information, this way.

Spirit of Chicago Cruise

Spend New Years Eve on a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan aboard the Spirit of Chicago. Eat, drink, and be merry with a dinner cruise while the clock ticks down to midnight and then youll have a front row seat to the fireworks that fill the sky over the great lake. The lake is the perfect vantage point for watching the lights of the city as the new year rolls in.

More information, this way.

Big Night Chicago

Convince somefriends to go all in ona mammoth New Years Eve party at the Palmer House Hilton (which is where Ferris Bueller went to party). Theres a fully stocked bar, a food buffet, multiple places to bust a move, and many bands to keep guests entertained. If you book a room at the Hilton, you wont even have to fight for an Uber home. With so many guests on hand, there will not only always be someone to talk to, but youll have a chance to kick off 2017 with 3,000 brand new BFFs.

More information, this way.

Family Friendly New Years Eve

Celebrate the New Year without staying up until midnight at the Brookfield Zoos annual party. The party features all the hallmarks of a New Years throw down with a DJ, games, and party favors as well as a bedtime-friendly countdown that takes place at 8 p.m. The zoo will be all decked out for the holidays with its annual light display:over a million twinkling lights lighting the paths and exhibits. Families can visit the animals, ring in the New Year, and still be in bed at a reasonable hour.

More information, this way.

Brew Years Eve

If youre tired of sipping champagne at midnight or elbowing for room to order another round of miniscule Cosmos at the bar, Brew Years Evemay be the alternative youre looking for. The beer-lovers paradise features 10 breweries pouring 30 different varieties of craft beers. This isnt just a college kegger, though; theres live music, passed hors doeuvres, and a late-night pizza buffet (Chicago style, natch). This is all spread out over three floors of Salvage One, a 60,000-square-foot architectural salvage-filled venue. And if you somehow need a break from beer, theyll have wine and signature cocktails on hand, too.

Related Articles
DOHA (Reuters) - A newly-formed governing council in Yemen could work with Russia to "fight terrorism" by allowing Moscow use of the war-torn country's military bases, Yemen's former president said on Sunday. Ali Abdullah Saleh, a former counter-terrorism ally of the U.S. who was toppled by mass protests in 2011, told state-owned channel Russia 24 that Yemen was ready to grant Moscow access to air and naval bases. "In the fight against terrorism we reach out and offer all facilities. Our airports, our ports... We are ready to provide this to the Russian Federation," Saleh said in an interview in Sanaa. The ex-strongman may lack the clout to implement such an offer. But officials from the party he heads now run a political council that controls much of the country along with the Houthi movement allied to Iran. For the first time last week Iran let Russian jets take off from its territory to bomb armed groups in Syria. Russia is the only major country that maintains a diplomatic presence in Yemen where a 16-month war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels has killed over 6,500 people and raised the prospect of famine in the Arab World's poorest country. The war has allowed Islamist militants including al Qaeda and the Islamic State to flourish, even though the United States has for years launched drone strikes against groups in Yemen. Russia abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution in 2015 that imposed an arms embargo on the Houthi rebels. Moscow's relations with Yemen date back decades and until the break-up of the USSR, thousands of Soviet military advisers and trainers worked in the formerly-independent south. On Saturday tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in the capital to show support for the Houthi-led bloc as the head of the group's new governing council vowed to form a full government in the coming days. In an apparent response to the Houthi show of force, ambassadors from the G18 group of nations, including Russia, that has backed U.N. peace talks to end Yemen's civil war issued a statement condemning "unconstitutional and unilateral actions in Sanaa." (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Writing by Tom Finn; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday launched her party's campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in UP from Agra by mounting scathing attacks on the BJP and the ruling Samajwadi Party.

By Siraj Qureshi: Launching the Bahujan Samaj Party's poll campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in UP, party chief Mayawati on Sunday mounted scathing attacks on the BJP and the ruling Samajwadi Party at rally in Agra. She accused the BJP of being anti-Dalit and the SP of encouraging "goondas and mafias".

Mayawati played Dalit card to woo the community as she eyed a possible comeback at Lucknow. Mayawati accused the BJP of playing divisive politics in state in the view of the next year's elections. "People have understood the BJP's game and are fed up of the party. That is why, the BJP could orchestrate a Hindu-Muslim riot in UP before the elections and the people should beware of this," she said.



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ATTACK ON BJP, RSS



Slamming the BJP and the RSS, she said, "The central government has failed on all counts. Amid rising unemployment, RSS chief (Mohan Bhagwat) is asking people to have more children. I want to tell him, if Hindus produce more than two kids, will you get them food?"

"The RSS chief should tell the BJP chief to first arrange for food for extra children," she said. At a public meeting in Agra, Mohan Bhagwat had on Saturday reportedly exhorted the Hindus to produce more children.

The BSP supremo said that the BJP had waived off over Rs 1.14 lakh crores of loans of the rich, while the poor were committing suicides. She said that Modi had promised to bring back black money in 100 days, but it turned out to be a lie. The BJP and Congress are siblings when it came to corruption.



'NOT SELLING PARTY TICKET'

Mayawati rejected the allegations of taking money in ticket distribution for the assembly polls. The now expelled BJP leader, Daya Shankar Singh had accused the BSP chief of selling party tickets. Mayawati retorted by using a Hindi metaphor getting thunderous response from the crowd.

"Aasmaan pe thookne se aasmaan kabhi nahin ganda hota hai , khud pe hi thook girta hai (If you spit towards the sky, it doesn't affect the sky, it falls back on you)," she said.

"I want to ask our opponents, you say the BSP is a spent force, we are finished then why would people be so interested in buying our tickets? The truth is that other parties want to malign us," said Mayawati.

Addressing a gathering of over one lakh Dalits at the Koti Meena Bazar grounds, she said that if BSP is voted to power, "Daya Shankar Singh will face the consequences of his comments on her".



REACHING OUT TO DALITS

Dalit voters, who constitute about 21% of the state's population, have been the main strength of the BSP for years. Once again, Mayawati tried to reach out to them and expressed hope that the Dalits would vote her party to power in the UP elections.

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She recounted the incidents of discrimination and violence against Dalits since Modi government came into power at the Centre. "In BJP ruled states, Dalits are being persecuted, whether it is Rohith Vemula or Gujarat or what Daya Shankar Singh said about me. They are just like the Congress. If you go around sharing meals with Dalits , it doesn't mean anything," she said.

Expelled from the BJP for using unparliamentarily language for Mayawati, Daya Shankar Singh has been on a damage control mission. On Saturday, he had lunch with a Dalit family claiming that he is not anti-Dalit but his statement was aimed at Mayawati's brand of politics.

LASHING OUT AT AKHILESH GOVT

The former chief minister of UP lashed out at the incumbent Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav accusing him of presiding over a lawless state. She claimed that law and order machinery has collapsed in the state.

Mayawati alleged that "the Samajwadi Party government is only interested in helping goondas and mafias."ALSO READ:

Mayawati demands Bharat Ratna for Dalit icon Kanshi Ram



--- ENDS ---
London (AFP) - The ban on the Islamic burkini swimsuit on some French beaches has triggered disdain in English-speaking countries, where outlawing religion-oriented clothing is seen as hampering integration.

Newspaper commentators have condemned the ban as an absurdity, and one questioned how a burkini could be more offensive than "middle-aged bum crack" bursting out from traditional Western beachwear.

And experts said the debate raised questions about the French one-size-fits-all model of integration.

In Britain, the full-face veil is not an uncommon sight in towns and city districts with big Muslim populations, but ostensibly does not stir as strong a reaction as in France.

One of the world's most secular countries, France strongly separates religion and public life.

Defenders of the policy say a common arena without religious connotations helps avoid sectarian conflicts and encourages equality.

As a result, the burkini -- like the burqa before it -- has come under fire in France. Some deem it a garment that channels radical Islam and oppresses women.

"It is the expression of a political project, a counter-society, based notably on the enslavement of women," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said of the burkini Wednesday.

Such views are widely contested in Britain, both on the grounds of tolerance and practicality.

Britain's best-known example of burkini-wearing was not by a Muslim but by TV chef Nigella Lawson, who hit the headlines in 2011 when she wore a black version of it on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

- 'Wetsuit demonisation' -

A BBC look at the issue found women in Britain speaking in favour of the burkini and saying it aided integration.

"The burkini allows me the freedom to swim and go on the beach, and I don't feel I am compromising my beliefs for that," Aysha Ziauddin told the broadcaster.

Maryam Ouiles said: "It's outrageous that you would effectively be asked to uncover some flesh or leave.

Story continues

"People are always complaining that Muslims should integrate more, but when we join you for a swim that's not right either."

Commentator David Aaronovitch, writing in The Times newspaper, said only "warped minds" would impose a burkini ban.

"The idea that full-length clothing provokes attacks on the wearer, as the French suggest, displays a poisonous logic," he said.

No problems are solved by this "French absurdity", only new ones created, he wrote.

Remona Aly, the communications director for the Exploring Islam Foundation, produced a list of "five reasons to wear a burkini -- and not just to annoy the French".

"Nothing says 'losing the plot' to me more than demonising what is, let's face it, a wetsuit," she wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

"Is full-piece swimwear really more offensive than seeing a middle-aged bum crack?"

- Assimilation v multiculturalism -

Sara Silvestri, who specialises in religion and politics at City University London, said France's approach to integration was one of assimilation, whereas Britain had encouraged multiculturalism.

Neither country could claim success, she said.

"Both models of integration are in crisis: they are no longer applied or understood in a clear-cut manner, and both countries are looking at each other to learn lessons and potentially modify the way in which they deal with minorities," she told AFP.

Patrick Simon, an international migration and minorities expert at the French Institute for Demographic Studies, said the burkini debate was driving the impression that minorities, rather than the structure of French society, were the problem.

"There is a difficulty in the French integration model in accepting cultural and religious practices in the public domain," he told AFP.

Recent terror attacks bolstered the notion that diversity could threaten national cohesion, he said.

"The state discourse has gone from one of tolerance to one of exclusion regarding one section of society."

In the United States, the ban was being seen as illogical -- imposing rules to stop women having to obey rules.

The ban is about more than religion or clothing, Amanda Taub wrote in The New York Times newspaper.

It is about "protecting France's non-Muslim majority from having to confront a changing world".

The burkini was invented about a decade ago by Australian designer Aheda Zanetti, who spotted a gap in the market for Islamic sportswear.

Zanetti told AFP she was frustrated that the word now had negative connotations.

French politicians "symbolise it as an Islamic term in a bad way when it's really just a word," she said.
- By Sangara Narayanan





Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) are primarily wireless carriers and earn most of their revenues from this segment, but things are changing at the hearts of these two companies. Apart from the above-4% dividend yield that both these companies have on offer, both are increasingly becoming so divergent that 10 years down the road, a direct comparison between these two will be an apples to oranges effort at best.





Why diversify?

Verizon has been building a content empire by buying AOL and Yahoo, while AT&T has doubled down on their fiber internet business, GigaPower. AT&T is also eyeing the unpredictable European market even though the competitive domestic landscape has forced the company to go slow on that plan.

At the root of that is necessity. Verizon, for example, ended up reporting a 5.3% revenue decline during the second quarter of this year, its first such decline in six years. Verizon earns most of its money from its wireless segment, and the growth in subscriber base is a crucial factor for the company to keep increasing its top line.

The U.S. market is the most developed market for smartphones and mobile devices, so although rapid growth in the past was able to bring Verizon to its heights, the high penetration is now telling on their ability to push even further. Essentially, once penetration reaches a certain point the market yet to be covered becomes a morass for even the most aggressive marketing efforts.

Strategy Analytics PR US wireless outlook 2015

According to Strategy Analytics, nearly 100 million connections will be added through 2020, reaching 128% penetration in the market. If we assume the current relative market positions to continue until then, Verizon can add another 30 to 35 million users to its existing user base in the next four years. Beyond that point growth can only come from poaching subscribers from other carriers.

Story continues

Can their moats be breached?

This is a huge problem down the road, and both AT&T and Verizon know that this day is fast approaching. But even in the most highly penetrated market in the world, Verizon and AT&T will have the muscle to survive and turn into a stable revenue stream, but further subscriber expansion will become a real challenge.

In preparation, Verizon is building a mammoth digital media network that can keep the advertising revenues flowing, while AT&T is expanding its product lineup and trying to cross the pond into Europe as well.

No matter which way you look at it, these two companies are going to stay at the top of the mobile carrier pecking order. Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) will keep fighting for third and fourth place, but for a new operator to come in and duplicate the massive infrastructure that these companies have built is nothing short of impossible.

Take Google (GOOG) as a prime example. Even though they've shaken up the wireless world with Google Fiber and are even testing super-fast wireless internet carried on a fiber backbone, they've barely been able to make a dent in the industry in the six years since they launched Fiber. If Google can't crack the moat that America's top communications companies have, then who can?

But as for new lines of business, the top two players' divergent strategies will take them far and deep into segments unfamiliar to them until recently. On that count, I will have my money on Verizon to come out on top as the company that shows more growth over the next ten years.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Start a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Facebook just launched an app that can only be used by teens and it looks so cool!

Facebook just launched an app that can only be used by teens and it looks so cool!

Facebook has yet to win over teens the way Snapchat has, but it wont stop trying.

Facebook launched a brand new app on Saturday for people 21 and under, and it actually sounds really cool.

Created by Facebooks 19-year-old prodigy Michael Sayman, Lifestage is a standalone iOS app that asks users to fill out profile questions by shooting videos instead of simply filling them out by typing words  like on Facebook.

Each user takes a biography quiz, which asks you to take videos of yourself showing your happy face, sad face, your likes, your dislikes, your best friend, the way you dance, etc.

Lifestage takes those clips and turns them a video profile your friends can watch.

So instead of a thumbs down, itll show you making a nope face.

Pretty cool, right?

You technically dont have to be 21 and under to download the app, but if youre older than 21, youll only have access to your own profile. Which is obviously boring and probably not worth doing.

The purpose is to keep the app a safe place for high school students to learn about their classmates and share fun things with their friends without worrying about stranger danger.

And just in case youre faced with someone you dont want to connect with on the app, one quick swipe lets you block and report people.

To sign up for Lifestage, you simply select your high school and then all the video profiles from people at your school and nearby schools will show up.

Its similar to how things used to be with Facebook when it launched in 2004 (Remember when only people with a .edu email address could sign up?). Lifestage will only show you other people in your network once 20 people from your school sign up  ensuring the app goes viral.

Because what fun is a social media app if no one is using it?

You can download Lifestage here.

The post Facebook just launched an app that can only be used by teens and it looks so cool! appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Brianna Keilar has had an eventful week on CNNs The Situation Room when it comes to the many twists and turns of Donald Trumps campaign. Earlier in the week she found herself in the middle of says who situation with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen in response to poll numbers. The former White House correspondent didnt have to do too much in order to create the moment, which became the latest gaffe to spread online involving the Trump Campaign. She was also on air during Ben Shapiros Turd Tornado explanation, leading to another humorous exchange.

Now shes getting credit for doing it again according to Mediaite. This time the topic was Trumps recent string of appeals to black voters, particularly in Milwaukee where he spoke to a mostly white crowd in the wake of the unrest in recent weeks. Trump supporter and former Congressman Jack Kingston was opposite this time, attempting to spread the word that Trump was making strides with African American voters, something that Keilar immediately nipped in the bud:

Kingston: Last night in North Carolina, we saw a lot of African-Americans. I wasnt sure about the crowd content tonight Keilar: It was white. We checked. Kingston: But theyre open to the public, theres nothing exclusive

Despite almost neverending coverage, CNN has notably been vocal in calling out the claims of the Trump campaign up to this point. Their chyron operators alone have been brutal in some of their fact-checking. With Keilar, it isnt even some form of gotcha situation. She just seems to keep falling into it.

(Via Mediaite / CNN)
BJP Party Secretary, Shrikant Sharma said, "She invokes Dalits for electoral gains ahead of elections. But in reality she has no interest in uplift of the community," .

By Press Trust of India: Targeted over the issue of atrocities on Dalits, BJP today hit out at BSP supremo Mayawati claiming that Uttar Pradesh witnessed heightened attacks on members of the community under her rule and said her speech at the Agra rally proved she is frustrated at her party's prospects in next year's state assembly elections.

FOOLING THE ELECTORATE

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In a statement issued here, BJP accused Mayawati of trying to fool the electorate of Uttar Pradesh and of invoking Dalit issues for electoral gains.

"People of UP know that whenever BSP has ruled the state, the graph of Dalit atrocities has increased. A Home Ministry report points out that between 2008 and 2011, 30,000 cases of Dalit atrocities were registered and 1,074 Dalits killed," party secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

He said for vote-bank politics, she reaches Una in Gujarat but does not meet the rape victim in Uttar Pradesh.

"She invokes Dalits for electoral gains ahead of elections. But in reality she has no interest in uplift of the community," he said.

MAYAWATI'S ATTACK

The BJP's statements comes in the wake of them being attacked by Mayawathi for being anti-Dalit. Earlier today, when she was launching the Bahujan Samaj Party's poll campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in UP, Mayawati mounted scathing attacks on the BJP and the ruling Samajwadi Party at rally in Agra. She accused the BJP of being anti-Dalit and the SP of encouraging "goondas and mafias".

Mayawati played Dalit card to woo the community as she eyed a possible comeback at Lucknow. Mayawati accused the BJP of playing divisive politics in state in the view of the next year's elections. "People have understood the BJP's game and are fed up of the party. That is why, the BJP could orchestrate a Hindu-Muslim riot in UP before the elections and the people should beware of this," she said.

ALSO READ:

Mayawati plays Dalit card as she launches BSP's poll campaign from Agra

Mohan Bhagwat to dine at dalit household ahead of Mayawati's Agra rally

--- ENDS ---
Arjun Samdhi Pardas, the 55-year-old step mother, allegedly strangled Ashdeep Kaur on Friday, local media quoted police as saying. Kaur had come to the US only about three months ago from India.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A woman of Indian origin was charged on Saturday with killing her nine-year-old step daughter whose lifeless body was found in a bathtub in their home, according to media reports. according to media reports.



SECOND INCIDENT INVOLVING INDIAN STEPMOMS

Arjun Samdhi Pardas, the 55-year-old step mother, allegedly strangled Ashdeep Kaur on Friday, local media quoted police as saying. Kaur had come to the US only about three months ago from India.



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This is the second incident involving step mothers of Indian origin in New York City. Last month 35-year-old Sheetal Ranot was convicted of slashing her 12-year-old step daughter with a broken metal broom handle so severely that it cut her wrist to the bone.

In the latest case, The New York Daily News said that a neighbour had seen Pardas come out of a shared bathroom on Friday and later leave the house with her two grandchildren telling her that the child was taking a shower. When the neighbour went to use the bathroom later that evening, she found Kaur's lifeless body in the bathtub.

Police tracked down Pardas and arrested her. WCBS said two children with her were taken away by child protection authorities.



STEP MOTHER ABUSES CHILD

An uncle of Kaur, Manjinder Singh told the News, "Her father wanted her to be here, to stay in US. There are better schools over here. Everything is good. She was doing good, learning English."

He told the Post that the child had complained of abuse by her step mother, but it had not alarmed him because "that is how we grew up in Punjab". He added, "I was thinking, 'It's normal, it's OK. It's family,'."

The News said that according to relatives, Pardas came from Guyana and the child had lived with her mother in Punjab.

RICHMOND HILL RICH WITH INDIAN IMMIGRANTS

Kaur's 35-year-old father, Sukjinder Singh, was distraught and had to be helped to a car after he visited the police station where Pardas was taken by police.

The family lived in Richmond Hill, an area with a large immigrant population of Indian origin, in the Queens district of New York City.

In the earlier case decided last month, Sheetal Ranot and her husband, Rajesh, were also accused of torturing the child for two years, including locking her up in a room without food or water for extended periods of time, the News reported, quoting officials.

For the child endangerment and assault charges Sheetal Ranot was convicted of, she faces up to 25 years in prison, the newspaper reported. Rajesh, who also faces similar charges, is to be tried later. They were both arrested in 2014, but the case came up for trial only last month.

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They also lived in in Queens in the Ozone Park neighborhood, which has a large immigrant population.

Also Read: US father kills 4-month-old daughter by punching her 22 times

--- ENDS ---
Having resigned as Minority Affairs Minister from the Union Cabinet, Najma Heptulla will be sworn in as the Governor of Manipur today.

By Press Trust of India: Najma Heptulla will be sworn in as the Governor of Manipur today at Raj Bhavan, officials said. She will be administered the oath of office by Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Manipur R R Prasad at 11.30 am today.

Heptulla arrived on Saturday afternoon at Imphal International Airport where she was received by state Chief Secretary O Nabakishore, Director General of Police L M Khaute and other officials.

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Heptulla, 76, had last month resigned as Minority Affairs Minister from the Union Cabinet. The resignation had come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have set an unwritten writ of '75-year age bar' for ministers.

Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan is currently holding the additional charge as Manipur Governor.

--- ENDS ---
Dr Najma Heptulla was sworn-in as the 18 Governor of Manipur today.

By India Today Web Desk: Former Union minister Dr Najma Heptulla was today sworn in as Governor of Manipur at Raj Bhavan here.

Acting Chief Justice of Manipur High Court Rakesh Ranjan Prasad administered the oath of office at 11.30 AM.

Heptulla, the 18th governor of the state, replaced Shanmuganathan who was holding the dual charge of Governor of Manipur and Meghalaya.

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The swearing in ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi and his cabinet colleagues among others, an official statement said.

Heptulla, 76, is the 18th Governor of Manipur. She had resigned as Minority Affairs Minister from the Union Cabinet.

Also read:

Najma Heptulla to be sworn in as Manipur Governor today



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Ahmedabad, Aug 21 (PTI) Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today flagged off the first batch of 300 Haj pilgrims from Gujarat from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here.

Around 7,500 people from the state will go on the pilgrimage in separate batches. The Haj Committee has facilitated the travel of 1,00,020 pilgrims to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 21 points, an official release said.

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Around 36,000 pilgrims have proceeded through private tour operators, it said.

The Minister of State for Minority Affairs said the holy pilgrimage will spread the message of peace, prosperity and harmony in the country and across the world.

"India is a very large country...the largest number of Haj pilgrims is from India. The pilgrimage is a cherished desire of every Muslim in his life time. We will continue to increase the number of pilgrims in coming years," Naqvi said.

The Minister said adequate arrangements have been made at all the 21 centres in the country as well as in Saudi Arabia to facilitate the pilgrims.

Gujarat Civil Aviation minister Babubhai Bokhiria, Women and Child Welfare minister Nirmala Wadhwani, Gujarat Haj Committee Chairman Mohammad Ali Kadri were present on the occasion. PTI KA NRB GVS SDM

--- ENDS ---
The first look for the third film in the Sarkar franchise will be unveiled on August 26.

By India Today Web Desk: Ram Gopal Varma has made an announcement about the third film in the Sarkar franchise, which began in 2005. The film will not have Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who were expected to take the franchise forward after 2008's Sarkar Raj.

ALSO READ: Abhishek Bachchan has an apt answer for 'split with Aishwarya' questions

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At the end of 2008's Sarkar Raj, Aishwarya's character is seen taking control of the Nagre family after Abhishek's character is killed. However, it looks like that story-line will not be continued in the third film of the franchise, as the Satya director has very categorically tweeted that the actor-duo will not be a part of the film.



Sarkar 3 first look will be launched on 26th August..Going by the story both Abhishek and Aishwarya will not be featuring in this segment Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) August 20, 2016

The director, once upon a time revered for films like Satya, Rangeela and Company has seen the down-low after trying to remake Sholay. Since then he has also become a social media personality, by tweeting out controversial opinions for which he's recieved a lot of backlash.



Scale of Sarkar 3 will be much more larger and intense than the earlier two...Rest of the cast details will be soon announced Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) August 20, 2016

The director who last directed the Veerappan biopic, is looking to get back to the top among Bollywood directors with his third Sarkar film. He promises the scale of the third film will be bigger than the first two films and will be more intense. The rest of the announcements of the cast will be made at the launch of the first look of film on August 26. The director is currently shooting Rai, with Vivek Oberoi based on the life of gangster Muthappa Rai.



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The film happens to be one of Shah Rukh's favourites from his own films, despite its box-office failure.

By India Today Web Desk: Shah Rukh Khan's Dil Se might not have made money, when it came out in 1998, but the movie slowly, steadily created a fan-base of its own. Southern stalwart Mani Ratnam's first Hindi movie featured an intense love story between the characters of Shah Rukh Khan, Manisha Koirala with the backdrop of insurgency in the North-East, and the much-debated Armed Forces Act still prevalent.

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The movie was unlike the regular fare coming out of Bollywood, and it didn't find much favour during its initial release. However, looking back Dil Se has one of Shah Rukh's most intense portrayals of the Bollywood romantic hero. And today, as the film turns 18 the Dilwale actor paid a tribute to one his own favourite films, like only he can.



The one u love the most is sometimes not loved by most...but the love doesn't change. My favourite. #18yearsofdilse A video posted by Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) on Aug 20, 2016 at 5:00pm PDT

The film pushed the envelope in many ways with Rahman's music, Tigmanshu Dhulia's dialogues, Santosh Sivan's cinematography and Mani Ratnam's ability to capture the lead pair's intimacy. Here are the top 5 moments from the film:

1) Chhaiya Chhaiya

2) Shah Rukh confronts Manisha Koirala for the first time

3) Dil Se title song

4) Manisha Koirala recounts the horrors of her past

5) Manisha Koirala finally confesses her love for Shah Rukh





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"We do not need a war with Pakistan. But if Pakistan interferes in our internal matters, I think we should take control of PoK," Ramdas Athawale said.

By India Today Web Desk: Amid the ongoing war of words between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale today said India should take control of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) if the neighbouring country did not stop its mischief.

"We do not need a war with Pakistan. But if Pakistan interferes in our internal matters, I think we should take control of PoK," Athawale said.

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Accusing Pakistan of fueling terrorist activities in India, the minister said that the Pakistan would never succeed in spreading terrorism in India.

"Forces like Pakistan are conspiring against India by spreading terrorism. Pakistan should stop anti-India activities as the Indian army is far stronger than Pakistani army," the RPI (A) chief said.

"We appeal to Pakistan to give up its control of PoK. The part of Kashmir which is occupied by Pakistan is India's integral part," he added.

Athawale remark's came after Pakistan invited India for talks on Kashmir last week. Pakistan said that it is the "international obligation" of both the countries to resolve the issue.

However, India objected Pakistan's proposal to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on Kashmir and insisted that discussions should be held on "aspects related to cross- border terrorism which are central to the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir."

Meanwhile, Athawale also hit out at China, saying that it should not encroach upon Indian territory.

Also read: Pakistan has been waging a proxy war against India, says Arun Jaitley



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By PTI: From Gurdip Singh

Singapore, Aug 21 (PTI) Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today asked the majority Chinese community to support constitutional changes that would allow the election of a non-Chinese as President from time to time to represent the minority community in the city state.

"I hope the Chinese community will support the constitutional changes we may propose so that if we have a good minority Presidential candidate, he can become the President, and represent all Singaporeans," said Lee in his National Day Rally today, a traditional address on economic, policies and politics, delivered after the National Day.

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Lee has proposed changes to the president scheme in January this year to ensure that, among other things, there is a non-Chinese President from time to time.

Earlier, speaking inChinese during the national address, Lee said he hoped the majority of the Chinese community will support constitutional changes to allow an election of non- Chinese President from time to time to represent the minority community in politics in the city state.

Multi-racialism is the fundamental reason Singapore became a nation in the first place, said Lee, who started speaking at the rally at about 6.30 pm and was to finish it by 10 pm, before he was taken ill.

He also recited a famous quote from the first Prime Minister of Singapore and his father: "This is not a Malay nation, not a Chinese nation, not an Indian nation. Everybody will have a place in Singapore."

"All things being equal, a minority candidate contesting in a Chinese-majority constituency is at a disadvantage, which is why group representation constituencies exist to ensure minority representation in Parliament," Lee said.

It is also why he proposed changes to the elected president scheme in January this year to ensure that, among other things, there is a non-Chinese President from time to time, he said.

A recent survey by Channel NewsAsia and Institute of Policy Studies also showed that most Singaporeans across all races will accept a Prime Minister or President of another race, but a significant number show a strong preference for these leaders to be of their own race.

"It is important to have a Malay, Indian or someone of another race as President from time to time, as the role as head of state is a unifying symbol for all Singaporeans," he said citing the example of S R Nathan.

"Nathan is Indian, but as President, he looked after the interests of all Singaporeans. He proactively reached out to all races and got to know them well," he said.

Singapore has had three non-Chinese presidents. The first was a Malay, Yusof Ishak, the second was a Eurasian, Benjamin Sheares, followed by an Indian, Devan Nair andanother Indian S R Nathan.

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But the last presidential election had four candidates of Chinese-origin vying for the country?s highest office.

Tony Tan was elected from that keenly contested election in 2011.

The Chinese accounts for 75 per cent of the population followed by Malays, Indians and Eurasians among others in the multi-national society of the city state.

The Prime Minister took a break from the lengthy speech saying he was feeling unsteady because of "prolonged standing, heat and dehydration". PTI GS SUA NSA

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By Mail Today: Indians have a rich love for grilled and barbecued dishes from mouthwatering kebabs to juicy paneer tikkas. A large majority of the population appreciates these smoked flavours as they enhance the aromas of the ingredients.

So it's no surprise that a new trend has developed towards infusing smoked aromatic flavours in cocktails. Smoked cocktails add a certain complexity and depth of flavour that turn a regular oldfashioned cocktail into a work of art with a cozy campfire taste and aroma.

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But before you get to smoking cocktail ingredients to impress your friends and family, you need to know the basics of smoking and some of the methods to induce those rich flavors into them. There are many ways to add a fragrant smokiness to your favourite cocktails. The simplest and most common form is to use a smoky spirit like Mescal or Scotch. Alternatively, with a little help of a food smoker, smoking gun or even a mini blow torch, flavoured smoke can be produced and stored in bottles and spirits can then be passed through these bottles to capture the flavour.

At times, these techniques are simply applied directly to finished cocktails, giving them an entirely different dimension. The smoke gun works much like a smoking pipe, infusing a smoky aroma in the cocktail, just like we love a garnish over our favourite barbeque food.

The smoky cocktail trend is a favorite amongst bartenders, both for its theatrical presentation and for its depth of flavour. Pairing smoked cocktails with food depends on the style of the smoked cocktail. The smoky movement traces back to 2007, when a New York bartender named Eben Freeman produced a new take on the traditional "Jack and Coke" by smoking his own Coca-Cola syrup. Since then, the smoked phenomenon took over bars in the US.

Whether it was smoked ice and rim salt, tobacco infused syrup or even smoked herbs, every classic cocktail was given a smoky twist. And now, the tradition has travelled to our Indian shores through the mixologists at Smoke House Deli.

Smoke House Deli have produced their take of smoked concoctions after months of trials, using the same art of enriching flavours and aromas. Whether it's the Misty Apple Sour made with vodka and green apples, or the Smoked Maple Kentucky, a combination of bourbon, maple syrup and apple juice, the new smoked cocktail menu is a refreshing change for everyone's taste buds. The ultimate smoky spirit is Scotch whisky, which owes its distinctive iodine-smoke flavor to peat. All scotch has a smoky flavor component according to master mixologist Vijay Prakash at Smoke House Deli & Social.

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With monsoon in the air, the days of having a frozen Margarita to cool you down are gone. Instead, it's time to try a new generation of cocktails with the intoxicating flavours of these smoky drinks and fall in love with the drinking pleasures.

Smoked Maple Kentucky

Smoked Maple Kentucky

INGREDIENTS:

1. 60 ml jim beam

2. 10-ml Smoked Maple

3. 2-3 dashes of bitters

4. Small pinch of raw sugar

5. Orange slice & Cherry

METHOD:

In a glass, muddle sugar and bitters. Stir in bourbon and fill glass with ice. Add a splash of club soda and garnish with orange and cherry.

Smoked Lapsang Souchoung Margarita

Smoked Lapsang Souchoung Margarita

I recommend doing this the slow way, employing lapsang souchong, a Chinese smoked tea that you should be able to find easily at specialty tea shops. However, if you're feeling too lazy to make the smoked tequila, get yourself some mezcal instead - the smokier, the better.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 45 ml smoked tequila

2. 15 ml Cointreau or Grand Marnier

3. 10 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (not lime!)

4. 1 tsp loose lapsang souchong tea (For smoked tea tequila)to garnish: flaky smoked salt

5. Garnish: Flaky salt and optional lime wedge

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METHOD:

Dip the rim of a chilled cocktail glass in lime juice and then into a plate of salt to coat it. Place tequila and tea in a jar together, close lid and shake well. Let it sit for three hours. Place a coffee filter inside a funnel and pour the tequila through it to strain out the tea. (Alternatively, you could simply use a tea diffuser to hold the lapsang souchong, and remove it after three hours.) The tequila is now ready.



- Vijay Prakash is the mixologist of Smoke House Deli and Social

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BMC is all set to install solar power system at Asia's largest water treatment plant in Bhandup to save expense on electricity.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to install a solar power system at asia's largest water treatment plant in Mumbai's Bhandup area as part of energy efficiency upgrade. According to sources the solar unit will be installed at the plant by October. This plant will generate around 2.5 Mega Watt of power.

"This unit will help us to tackle the volatile electricity prices. Use of Solar power will help us reduce carbon and our operational cost," said an official.

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This solar power unit will bear around 30 per cent of energy demand of the Bhandup plant, which treats raw water from four dams before supplying it to more than 20 lakh households across Mumbai.



CM APPROVES SOLAR PANEL INSTALLATION

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has given a green signal to install solar panels at the plant. In 2008, plans to install solar energy unit on the water treatment plant was proposed but standing committee approved it in 2015 after fulfilling necessary financial provisions.

The installation work is in the final phase and the plant will be operational by October this year.

"It will ease the burden of power supply on the plant," said a senior civic officer.

BMC is planning to install more such solar panel projects across city in next six months in a bid to cut down its expense on electricity.

Also read:

Solar power tree developed for generation of electricity



--- ENDS ---
Sushma Swaraj said that all claims would be settled even after the workers returned to India.

By India Today Web Desk: Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj today urged Indians, who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia, to file their claims and return to India.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Sushma asked the workers to file their claims for unpaid dues with their employers and return at the earliest. The minister said that all claims would be settled even after the workers returned to India.

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"Indian workers in Saudi Arabia - please file your claims and return home. We will bring you back free of charge," she tweeted.

Indian workers in Saudi Arabia - please file your claims and return home. We will bring you back free of charge. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 21, 2016

When Saudi Government settles with the Companies which have closed down, your dues will also be paid.; Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 21, 2016

The minister also told the workers that there was no point waiting since clearing the dues would take time.

Please appreciate that settlement of claims will take time. There is no point in waiting there indefinitely.; Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 21, 2016

The MEA chief also said that the Saudi administration was arranging for providing food and other assistance to the camps where Indians were lodged.

Sushma said that Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh visited the region where he interacted with important Saudi authorities, including Saudi Minister of Labour and Social Development Mufrej Al Haqbani.

Earlier this month, the King of Saudi Arabia had given instructions to help the thousands of Indian workers stuck in the Gulf kingdom, including giving them free passage back home.

Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh interacted with important Saudi authorities, including Saudi Minister of Labour and Social Development Mufrej Al Haqbani.

Thousands of Indian workers have lost their jobs due to slowdown in Saudi economy, triggered by low oil prices and cut in spending by the government.

The Indian government had requested the Saudi authorities to give the unemployed Indian workers exit visas without NoC (No-Objection Certificate) from employers and also urged it to clear the dues of workers who have not been paid for months, whenever they settle the accounts with the companies concerned.

As per rules, no foreign employee can leave the country without NoC by the employers.

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The Saudi government also agreed to allow transfer of Indian employees, who have lost their jobs, to any other company within Saudi Arabia.

As per rules, foreign employees cannot change jobs with permission of the company where they were employed.

With inputs from PTI



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The discussions between Sushma Swaraj and Aung San Suu Kyi are expected to focus on the bilateral content of the relationship as well as plans for the upcoming outreach summit of BRICS.

By Indo-Asian News Service: In the first high-level visit from India after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) assumed power in Myanmar earlier this year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit the eastern neighbour on Monday.

Sushma Swaraj will be calling on Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw and hold discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor and Foreign Minister of Myanmar.

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The discussions are expected to focus on the bilateral content of the relationship as well as plans for the upcoming outreach summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) in India.

According to the External Affairs Ministry, the day-long visit reaffirms India's commitment to heightened partnership with Myanmar in areas accorded priority by the new government of Myanmar.

India and Myanmar share close relations with a development cooperation programme in areas such as agriculture, information technology, human resource development, infrastructure development and culture.

During the visit, Sushma Swaraj will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and other senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs.

India and Myanmar reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral issues during the 15th round of Foreign Office Consultations here earlier this month including high-level visits, security and defence-related issues, boundary matters and border management, trade and commerce, development cooperation, connectivity, cultural and consular matters.

They also exchanged views on issues of mutual interest at regional and multilateral forums.

The consultations are of special significance as these were the first institutionalised exchanges between India and Myanmar after the swearing in of the new NLD government in Myanmar on March 30 this year.

In the intervening period, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Myanmar as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16, 2016, and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman led a high-level business delegation to the eastern neighbour for the India-Myanmar Business Conclave on May 18-20, 2016.

Last month, in a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Suu Kyi said that she looked forward to visiting India.

As her country's constitution bars her from becoming President, the Nobel Peace laureate serves as the State Counsellor and Foreign Minister.

Suu Kyi made her first visit in her current capacity to China last week.

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Conversations with everyday vendors in the streets of Delhi seemed to suggest that the Tiranga Yatra campaign has not quite had the effect it was intended to have.

By Parbina Purkayastha: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his ministers and party leaders to set out on Tiranga Yatra to evoke "nationalism and patriotism". However, the jury is still out if Tiranga Yatra helped in evoking patriotism from the masses.

Conversations with everyday vendors in Delhi streets seemed to suggest that the campaign has not quite had the effect it was intended to have.

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TIRANGA YATRA

On August 15th, all BJP MPs, MLAs and other office bearers went out in their respective influence zones with a tricolour perched on top of a bamboo pole. The Prime Minister insisted that all party members get involved in the Yatra. The goal behind the yatra was to pay homage to the freedom fighters and evoke a sense of patriotism among the people.

The Yatra comes at a troubled time when the nation is facing several challenges including unrest in Kashmir, Gau rakshaks, Maoist insurgencies and such. Thus, it was an idea that was intended to being the nation together on Independence day so that people take pride in their Indian identity. The Yatra was especially aimed at reaching the average blue-colour Indian labourers and street vendors living across the length and breadth of the country.

COMMONER'S PERCEPTION

While talking to street vendors, it became clear that they couldn't connect to the Tiranga Yatra in any emotional sense. They were more focussed on earning a decent livelihood rather than celebrating the unity of the country. Their reactions seemed to suggest that dwelling on the greatness of our nation was a luxury that they couldn't afford as they had to sell their goods in order to get their next meal.



For Mukesh and his daughter their business and the location of the business changes every day. They say after 12pm on 15th August, they will get back to Kalkaji signal and sell bangles. For today it is all about the tricolour flag.

"For us it is more about managing the next meal. It can be any good and today it is flag. We follow the mood of the day", said Mukesh. After spending good amount of time in signals, Manisha understands who are the customers who are genuinely interested and people who just waste her time. "but I try to convince everyone", she adds.

Mukesh bought his stock from Sadar Bazaar, Delhi biggest wholesale market. " I Have bought them in bulk and will finish the stock on 26 January".

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The flag they are offering at traffic signals for Rs.150 costs them Rs.60-70 in the wholesale market. One of the largest wholesale markets of household items in the Capital, Sadar Bazaar in Old Delhi has around eight vendors selling miniature flags and other Independence Day items. One of them is Mohammad Yamin.

"Market is good this year but not as good as last year. The small flags are in demand people are not much interested in the big ones. We are trying to finish the stock as much as we can", says Yamin.

Does this Tiranga yatra at traffic signals invoke any patriotism and nationalism?

It turned out that's the most uncomfortable question we asked Manisha and his father and we returned with an unanswered question.

PATRIOTISM A LUXURY?

Every interaction with different vendors went along the same lines and the question about patriotism was met with either a silence or a innocent smile. It was clear that to these people, they have more pressing concerns in their everyday life to stop and consider the beaty of democracy or liberty.

Although the Tiranga Yatra was a great event that seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people across the country, those at the lower ends of the economic ladder would prefer better jobs, healthcare and housing. Their love for their country will get greater if their country contiues to develop and provides them better means to earn a decent livelihood. Flagship programs like the Tiranga Yatra doesn't seem to have done a whole lot to invoke their love for India.

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ALSO READ:

Tiranga Yatra aimed at enhancing spirit of patriotism: Dave

Tiranga Yatra: BJP leaders don tricolour turbans and test their biking skills on merciless roads





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Asserting that FETO is "secretive transnational criminal network" with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, "Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools."

By PTI: Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), blamed for last months failed coup to topple President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, has "infiltrated" India, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

FETO INFILTRATED INDIA



Asserting that FETO is "secretive transnational criminal network" with presence around the world, Cavusoglu said, "Unfortunately, FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools."

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In an interview to PTI after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, the Turkish Foreign Minister also said, "I have already taken up this issue with my counterpart."

The visiting minister said, "In all countries where FETO has a presence, we ask them to take immediate actions to remove them from their territories."

Asked for a response to the Ministers comments, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian side is "sensitive" to Turkish concerns and Indian security agencies were "looking into" Ankaras demand for closure of associations connected with FETO which were carrying out illegal activities.

EXCHANGE INFORMATION ON FETO REFUGEES



Asserting that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations constitute a threat to India and Turkey, Cavusoglu said, "Therefore, exchange of information regarding these threats and bilateral and multilateral cooperation and solidarity against terrorism is crucial."

"This is what both Turkey and India are focused on," he said.

Talking about last month's coup attempt, the visiting dignitary said that a clandestine faction led by FETO within the Turkish Army attempted to stage a coup on July 15 to overthrow the democratically elected government.

"We appreciate the prompt support to our democratically elected government by my Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Swaraj," Cavusoglu added.

More than 240 people died and over 1,500 others were injured as a fallout of the failed coup.

GULEN ON SELF IMPOSED EXILE IN US



Erdogan had blamed US-based cleric Gulen for the attempted coup last month. Gulen currently lives in self-imposed exile in the US.



The Turkish minister also expressed concern over the situation in Syria, maintaining that his country was directly impacted by every dynamic of the conflict there.

He also asked the international community to work together to bring about the much-needed political transition in Syria. "This is not only a prerequisite to end the conflict, it is also essential to effectively fight terrorism," the minister asserted.



Also Read: Turkey: 50 killed in suicide blast at wedding party in Gaziantep



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Anadolu Agency quoted Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya as saying the explosion in the Sahinbey district was a "terror attack".

People react after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack.

By AP: At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the local governor's office said.

ISIS BEHIND ATTACK?



President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria.

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The local governor's office said in a statement 50 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

Blood stains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the wedding party was attacked while women in white and checkered scarves cried sitting crosslegged and waiting outside the morgue for word on missing relatives.

At least 12 people were buried on Sunday, but other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

TURKEY: AN EASY TARGET?



The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Mahmut Togrul, an HDP lawmaker from Gaziantep, around 40 km (25 miles) north of the border with Syria, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.

"It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Turkey is still tense after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Violence flared up again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants.



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Watch the video here:

ALSO READ

3 killed in car bomb attack in Turkey

3 dead, 40 wounded in car bomb explosion near police station in eastern Turkey







--- ENDS ---
Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy today met with a road accident in Chhapra of Saran district in Bihar. Rudy sustained minor injuries.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

By India Today Web Desk: Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy, today met with an accident in Patna, Bihar.

Sources from the Patna police said that Rudy was rushed to a private hospital following the incident and that his condition was stable.

Rudy is safe and moved on further to attend a function at Garkha block for distribution of LPG connections among BPL and differently abled families.

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"His car received a minor dent in the incident," Garkha police station SHO Mithilesh Kumar

Rudy reportedly went to Chhapra in Saran for an official work and was returning when the incident took place.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) Vistara today announced the appointment of Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador.

Vistara, whose 51 per cent stake in owned by Tata Sons and the rest 49 per cent by Singapore Airlines, did not disclose other details such as the contract period and fee that it would pay to the actress.

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This is the second time Deepika will be performing the brand ambassadors role for an airline as earlier in 2007, she was roped in for the same by the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.

Deepika will kick-start a new campaign from tomorrow, Vistara said in a release today.

The campaign intends to elaborate on the core interpretation of the brand promise of feeling of looking forward to flying again, it said adding the integrated campaign will be deployed across multiple platforms including TV, digital, print, outdoor, cinema and airports.

Vistara had commenced operations in January last year.

"We believe the journey should be as enjoyable as the destination. Our new brand campaign with Deepika Padukone highlights the unique feeling of flying Vistara," Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said.

The New Delhi-based Vistara currently operates 475 flights per week with a fleet of 11 Airbus A320 planes.

"It is a matter of great pride for me to be associated with Vistara, a brand that carries the lineage of Tata and Singapore Airlines," Deepika said on her appointment. PTI IAS ASV RG ASV

--- ENDS ---
By Javed Anwer: Call it the new Digital India. The Indian government, with the help of internet service providers, and presumably under directives of court, has banned thousands of websites and URLs in the last five odd years. But until now if you somehow visited these "blocked URLs" all was fine. However, now if you try to visit such URLs and view the information, you may get three-year jail sentence as well as invite a fine of Rs 3 lakh.

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This is just for viewing a torrent file, or downloading a file from a host that may have been banned in India, or even for viewing an image on a file host like Imagebam. You don't have to download a torrent file, and then the actual videos or other files, which might have copyright. Just accessing information under a blocked URL will land you in jail and leave your bank account poorer by Rs 3 lakh.



Also Read: It's over! Torrentz, world's top torrent search engine, shuts down

If you visit such a URL, you will be shown the following warning.

"This URL has been blocked under the instructions of the Competent Government Authority or in compliance with the orders of a Court of competent jurisdiction. Viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating an illicit copy of the contents under this URL is punishable as an offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957 which prescribe imprisonment for 3 years and also fine of upto Rs. 3,00,000/-. Any person aggrieved by any such blocking of this URL may contact at urlblock@tatacommunications.com who will, within 48 hours, provide you the details of relevant proceedings under which you can approach the relevant High Court or Authority for redressal of your grievance"

This is a change compared to the earlier message that users would encounter on the blocked URLs in India. The earlier message would read that the URL has been blocked at the direction of DoT. Of late, however, the government bodies were not only experimenting in how to implement the blocks but were also trying to figure what message to show to users. Recently, the blocked URLs also gave out not reachable error without specifying any message.

In India, most of the URLs and websites were blocked using DNS-filtering. This means the DNS of the blocked site was added to a list maintained by the internet service provider and whenever a user tried connecting to that site, the DNS server of the internet service provider would block that request. However, this was easy to bypass as a lot of people started using - or were already using - third-party DNS services such as those maintained by Google. It is also ineffective if a site uses HTTPS or in other words encryption to secure the network between the user's computer and the site server.

But in the last couple of years internet service providers, probably at the request of government bodies, have invested lot more in bolstering the mechanism through which they block websites. Indian government bodies too, instead of relying on internet service providers that are many, has started bring into play the big companies like Tata Communications and Airtel that manage a number of internet gateways in India.

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The latest warning message clearly implies that the URL blocking is now happening at the internet gateways - in this particular case for the example the gateway is seemingly managed by Tata Communications - and that is more difficult to circumvent. The connection on which this message was served is from MTNL. But the message came from Tata Communications. We sent an email to Tata Communications at the specified address to get more information but it bounced back (see above).

While the message in itself is ominous and surely must have been vetted by a government body, it is not clear how it will be enforced. It doesn't look possible that the government will be monitoring the whole world wide web, looking for people may access or try to access a blocked URL. It is also not clear how, if someone does land in trouble for accessing a blocked URL in India, will be prosecuted and what process will be followed.

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Lack of clarity on it as well as no prior information on something like this, which may make, almost every web user in India a criminal, does indicate that this is just a message and not any sort of official government policy, which is going to be enforced. However, at the same, it is also clear that the mere presence of this message to web users mean that they may end up in trouble if a government body or cops do decided to follow through on anything that they believe is an "offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957".



Blame it on John Doe

The problem, for now, doesn't seem to that India is moving to block half of the internet through a policy the way China does. Instead, the issue is likely due to the John Doe orders that Indian courts are issuing at the regular interval at the request of content creators like Bollywood film makers. The lawyers of film studios often approach courts ahead of a movie's release seeking preventive blocks on the URLs they compile in the list.



Also Read: Torrentz.eu clone is up but 5 reasons why you should not use it

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In reality these lists are poorly compiled and often block is sought on full websites just on the basis of whims and fancies. However, courts have regularly issued orders in the favour of film studios in India. These court orders are issued against John Doe or in other words an unnamed entity that may indulge in piracy of the film.

Once this order is issued, the copies of the order along with the list of URLs to be blocked go to DoT, which them passes an order to internet service providers to block these sites. The interesting bit here is that once a URL is blocked it remains blocked, even years after the release of the film.

Update: The new message that you may have started seeing on the "blocked" URLs in India is possibly result of a recent court directive. According to SpicyIP, Bombay High Court recently asked internet service providers in India to not just block URLs but also explain to users why the URLs are blocked and possibly warn them of consequences of illegally accessing copyright work.



The idea is to tell consumers that downloading a film is illegal. The idea is to tell them that if they download a film, they will face trouble. However, it seems that Tata, which in this case allegedly came up with the wordings of the message, slipped. It came up with a message that is incredibly poorly worded and the intend to convey something more than what was implied. The message not only implies that you may get in trouble if you download a film but may also face the law if you just manage to access that URL and "view" the content of the URL.



As of now, it is clear that you may land up in jail -- or at least in trouble -- if someone pushes for it. Now, it is possible whatever charges you face if you visit a blocked may not hold up in the court but as far as the warning message is concerned, it makes it clear that visiting any blocked URL in India -- and not just a torrent URL -- has potential to land a web user in trouble.



Also Read: The 3 years jail fiasco for torrents shows absurdity of India's John Doe orders

--- ENDS ---
By Saurabh Singh: Reliance Jio 4G Preview offer is now available for all 4G-enabled smartphones. It doesn't matter if you own a Samsung phone, an LG phone, a Lenovo phone, a Xiaomi phone or any other smartphone for that matter. As long as your smartphone supports 4G LTE, you can get yourself a free Jio SIM and avail free unlimited access to Jio's Digital Life -- HD voice call, HD video call, apps, data and SMS -- for 90 days. You can be a beta tester for Reliance Jio, just like its employees and select partners. All of you. Of course, it is a limited period offer.



Also Read: Reliance Jio 4G Preview Guide: Getting your free SIM and early impressions

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The Reliance Jio 4G services (beta) have been available to Jio's partners and employees since December last year. The availability -- of Reliance Jio 4G Preview scheme -- was eventually extended to the general public after Jio tied up with Samsung to offer its 4G Preview scheme on select handsets. These included the Samsung Galaxy A5 2015, Galaxy A7 2015, Galaxy A8, Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy Note 5 Duos, Galaxy Note Edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, Galaxy S7, and the Galaxy S7 Edge. On Saturday, a few more Samsung 4G phones -- notably, its Galaxy J-series -- joined the bandwagon.



At the same time, the scheme was also extended to select LG 4G phones, namely, the K332 (K7 LTE), K520DY (Stylus 2), K520DY, H860 (LG G5), K500I (X Screen), K535D (Stylus 2 Plus), LGH630D (G4 Stylus 4G), and LGH 442 (LGC70 Spirit LTE).



It has however come to light that, Samsung and LG aren't exclusive to Jio anymore. The offer has been extended to virtually every 4G-compatible handset out there, but, a broader roll-out will take at least a week. Sources have told India Today Online that although Reliance Jio Preview scheme is now available for all 4G phones, not each and every Reliance Digital and Digital Xpress Mini Store has been intimated of the same. This means, there will be some stores where you will readily get a free Jio Preview SIM, and yet others where you will be told that no such offer exists for now. Logistics for every store vis-a-vis the scheme will be different, and as such the complete roll-out will take some more time. "By the end of this week, it is expected that Jio 4G Preview will be available for all 4G handsets, at all Reliance Digital and Digital Xpress Mini Stores," the anonymous source informed us.

So ideally, it would be better if you pick that phone up and dial the number to your nearest Reliance Digital and Digital Xpress Mini Store before walking into it. This way, you would know beforehand if you will be able to get the SIM with your 4G phone or not. The folks at the Reliance Digital and Digital Xpress Mini Store would be very discreet when talking to you on the phone. He/she will tell you that you can get the free SIM with any 4G phone, if the store has already been intimated by Jio. Additionally, he/she will also ask you to carry two recent passport-sized photographs along with a valid photo (and address) ID, for instance your Aadhaar Card (original and a photo-copy), to the store. You are also required to carry your 4G-compatible handset to the store. But, no other information will be provided. For instance, I was curious about the whole procedure involved here, since earlier you required a specific Preview code (a bar code) to get the SIM.

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Speaking of which, you don't need to generate the Preview code anymore (Samsung and LG phone users still have to generate that code, by the way). The code will be manually provided to you at the store itself. You might want to download and install the My Jio app and the entire suit of 11 apps that come bundled inside, on your phone though.

Also, it is possible to get more than one SIM now, although not in each and every store. Earlier, you could generate one code and use it on one eligible phone. Now it seems, you can carry two 4G-compatible phones to the store and get two SIMs, if you're good with words.



Also Read: Reliance Jio 4G & Lyf phones: How to get SIM and everything else you need to know

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That, Reliance Jio is going for the kill now by making each and every 4G phone eligible for Preview could mean only one thing. We are fast approaching an official roll-out. Previous reports hinted at an August timeframe. It is now being speculated that Jio 4G will go live in October. The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited subsidiary has much-ambitious plans to offer up to 80 per cent of Indians high-speed mobile Internet as well as voice services in the days to come. The Preview scheme that provides free unlimited 4G Internet along with free 4G voice and video calling for three months is already a rage across the country. Making it available on more 4G phones means even more people can get the free SIM, which means even more bad news for rival telecom companies. At least, for now.



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--- ENDS ---
Early in August, it was revealed that the January payment, reportedly the first installment in the 1.7 billion dollar settlement of a decades old debt, had taken the form of stacks of foreign currency delivered in the middle of the night on wooden pallets. Subsequently, Pastor Amir Hekmati, one of the American citizens released in the January prisoner swap, reported that Iranian authorities had stated that the hostages release was delayed because they were awaiting the arrival of another plane. This was widely interpreted as evidence that the release was conditional on the arrival of the cash.

The latest revelation at first appears to differ from Hekmatis account. Anonymous State Department sources told the Wall Street Journal that the relationship between the two issues operated in the opposite direction, with the US allowing delivery of the cash only after the prisoners had been released. Nevertheless, this appears to only confirm that the two incidents were directly dependent upon each other. Furthermore, the full account in the Wall Street Journal actually aligned with Hekmatis revelation, although the arrival in question was apparently not in Tehran, but Geneva.

If the latest account is accurate, it arguably shows a high degree of coordination, thereby suggesting that both sides of the transaction were aware of the money being exchanged for the hostages. In order to guarantee that the two moves overlapped and that neither could be withdrawn after the fact, the Iranians apparently kept the hostages waiting on the runway until they confirmed that the money had arrived in Geneva, where the hostages would arrive before moving onto the US. Meanwhile, the Americans allowed that money to be taken onto a second plane to be flown to Iran only after they had confirmed that the hostages were in the air.

This fuller account of the exchange further supports the conclusion that many critics of the Obama administration had already arrived at: that the 400 million dollar cash transfer was unmistakably a form of ransom for the hostages. If one accepts that conclusion, it necessarily means that the Obama administration broke with established American policy of not paying ransom, on the understanding that it would encourage more hostage taking and terrorism. Beyond that, the incident also raised the question of whether the administration had broken the law.

Biz Pac Review reminded readers on Thursday that US Representative Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican and member of the House Committee on Intelligence, had previously urged the Treasury Department to explore this question. The article also noted that Pompeo believes that general question to be settled in light of the latest revelations.

What we know now there is no way the money could have gotten to Tehran without the law being broken, he said, adding, Sanctions were violated. Who instructed them to do it and on what authority?

In raising these more specific questions, the new account of the apparent ransom payment can be expected to also buttress criticism of President Obamas Iran policy, which many critics have labeled as appeasement. Indeed, the ransom payment was cited in Jennifer Rubins latest Washington Post column on the topic of Iran. In it, she argued that the next president should undertake an immediate reversal of the current administrations Iran policy and should put pressure on Iran over issues like its hostage taking and its testing of ballistic missiles, even if the regime threatens to walk away from the 2015 nuclear deal as a result.

Rubin also tied her argument to this weeks other leading Iran story, namely the ongoing deployment of Russian bombers from Iranian air bases, en route to Syria. Rubin recommends that the next president also take a more hard line on Russia with regard to its expanding military relations with Iran, and its support for the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. She argues that in so doing, the US would not only reverse a trend toward appeasement of its traditional enemies, but would also restore confidence in US leadership among Arab nations, most of which share a major interest in the ouster of the Assad regime.

This interest has only grown as Syria has become a clearer symbol of expanding Iranian influence in the region  influence that has met resistance from an Arab coalition operating in absence of US leadership. The intensity of Arab opposition to Irans growing strength was highlighted on Thursday when The Tower reported that there is internal conflict within Hamas regarding its would-be Iranian patronage.

Hamas officials in the West Bank reportedly are publicly opposed to Tehrans efforts to tighten the relationship between itself and the Palestinian terrorist group. Those officials have indicated that they fear the Sunni Muslim Hamas becoming a tool of Iran, like Hezbollah and other Shiite proxies. But more than that, Hamas is apparently concerned about the response that such a relationship would obtain from the Gulf Arab states, which have overwhelmingly broken or diminished their relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as listing Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

With Hamas and other Sunni groups wary of the worlds leading Shiite power, the only regional powers that are clearly not prepared to stand against Iran are those in which Iran has a major foothold, specifically Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. And although these footholds are tenuous as the moment, they stand to deepen if action is not taken against them.

The recent expansion in relations between Iran and Russia may encourage other powers to contribute to a growing alliance. This possibility was demonstrated on Thursday when Newsweek reported that Iraq had opened up its airspace to the Russian air force. This is arguably the clearest indicator of multilateral ties among Irans allies and dependents since it was announced that Russia, Syria, Iran, and Iraq were embarking on a formalized intelligence-sharing scheme.
Itongadol.-Aboud Dandachi, a Sunni Muslim from the city of Homs now living in Istanbul, has created a website dedicated to the Israeli and Jewish organizations and people helping Syrian refugees.

The website, Thank You Am Israel, highlights the humanitarian aid being given to displaced Syrians and also refutes any reasons why Israelis and Syrians should be enemies.

As a Syrian, I am morally obligated to ensure that the goodwill that Israelis and Jews have displayed towards my people will not be overlooked nor forgotten. The day will come when the conflict in Syria will come to an end, as all things come to an end. On that day, it is imperative that Syrians reciprocate the enormous goodwill shown towards us by Israelis and the Jewish people. Whatever supposed reasons we may have had to be adversaries is dwarfed by the compassion shown to us during our darkest days, a time when we have nothing to give back except our gratitude, writes Dandachi in a January opinion article on his site.

Dandachi, a 39-year-old high-tech project manager, says he never imagined the civil war in Syria would last five years. Dandachi left his hometown of Homs in September 2013 for Lebanon and then made his way to Turkey.

I grew up with statements like These people are your enemies. The Jews are evil. And then I saw that the Jews are the most humane and generous people of this era.

In December 2015, he created a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page in appreciation of the assistance given to Syrian refugees by Israeli and Jewish organizations and individuals.

I wanted to start this blog a while ago, but I was a little wary of the political climate in Turkey. But now it seems the Turks are reconciling with Israel so that gives me an opening, so to speak, Dandachi tells ISRAEL21c on a Skype call from Istanbul. When youre a refugee you have to be very careful about what you say and what you do. When youre a refugee youre on your best behavior in your host country. You never want to offend your host country.

The site includes news stories and opinion pieces on the global humanitarian aid being offered by Israeli and Jewish people to the Syrian people. (Am Yisrael is Hebrew for Nation of Israel.)

There are new stories of Israelis helping Syrians every day. As far as Im concerned, because we as Syrians cannot give back to Jews what they give to us, we should at least thank them, Dandachi told Ynet news.

He says this one-man operation is a personal mission and that he had no idea what feedback hed get, if any.

Ive been getting tremendous feedback and messages of support, Dandachi tells ISRAEL21c. What surprised me is the feedback from Arabs. I was expecting hostility from Arabs and instead a surprising number have told me that Im saying what they cant say and that I should keep saying what Im saying. It surprised me the number of Arabs and refugees like me who say that.

Dandachi tells ISRAEL21c that his site has also prompted great interest from Israel. He says he gives talks via Skype to groups in Israel and is regularly interviewed by local media here. While he would love to visit Israel, he says: Im a Syrian. Visiting Israel is not even remotely possible. I would love to visit Israel when it becomes possible.

A displaced Syrian refugee

Dandachi blogs: Turned away from Arab countries, increasingly unwelcome in Europe, Syrian refugees have found support, aid and assistance from the last place they could have expected: Israeli and Jewish organizations and individuals.

While thousands of Syrians languish on the borders of neighboring countries, Israeli medical teams and hospitals have been tireless and unstinting in treating Syrians in need . . . Israeli and Jewish organizations are, despite considerable personal risk, on the ground in Greece and the Balkans, providing aid and assistance to the seemingly endless wave of refugees fleeing the mayhem of the Middle East.

No one could have faulted Israelis and Jews had they taken a strictly hands-off approach to the humanitarian catastrophe created by the Syrian conflict. Indeed, with six Arab societies tearing themselves apart and in different stages of failed statehood, the sensible thing for Israelis to do would have been to hunker down, and wait until the mayhem beyond had burned itself out.

Dandachi calls himself a displaced Syrian refugee currently living in Istanbul. His site chronicles aid, assistance and medical care to Syrian refugees from 2011 to the present.

Dandachi told Ynet about his childhood anti-Israel education. I grew up with statements like These people are your enemies. The Jews are evil. And then I saw that the Jews are the most humane and generous people of this era. When I see that Hezbollah and the Iranians are coming to kill me and Im forced from my home by Syrians, and then I hear that Israelis and Jews are helping Syrians, my view of the world changes.

Why are we the Jews enemies? he asks. At a time when Donald Trump is defaming us, when Denmark and Switzerland confiscate Syrian refugees belongings, when all these countries are against us  we have the Jews who even endanger themselves to help us. So why should I be an enemy of the Jews? They have proven that they want to be my friends. They held out their hand, so why should I turn against them?

This is why he created the Thank You Am Israel portal.

For what it is worth, you have the thanks of at least this Syrian. I myself am not a media mogul, or a well-placed columnist. I am at heart a simple Syrian village boy caught up in events far bigger than himself, trying to muddle through as best as can be expected. My powers of persuasion are limited. Heck I cant even convince one of my own brothers to stop being such a Russophile, he writes.

But by chronicling and acknowledging the numerous acts of compassion and generosity shown by the Jewish people to my own people, I can try to ensure that Syrians, Arabs and the world at large never be allowed to forget what you have offered and provided to Syrian refugees, at a time when you had every historical and practical reason not to.

Thank you Am Israel, and may you always be safe and blessed.
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- The body of a U.S. Navy service member from Mattoon who died in a motorcycle accident last week is scheduled to be brought to his hometown Tuesday evening in preparation for funeral services here.

Flags will be lined along Charleston Avenue to honor the memory of Chief Petty Officer Ryan T. Myers, 31, and show support for his family, said family friend Tom Schrock.

The Navy is scheduled to fly the body of Myers to the Indianapolis airport at 6:25 p.m. central time Tuesday, Schrock said. A hearse procession accompanied by Patriot Guard riders is slated to arrive in Mattoon between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Tuesday via Illinois Route 16, he said.

Community members are invited to line the procession route alongside the flags, Schrock said. The procession will be bound for Schilling Funeral Home, which is handling the funeral arrangements.

Schrock said Myers died in a motorcycle accident on Aug. 15 in Escondido, Calif., on his way to work. Schrock said Myers is married and has two children and two stepchildren. He is the son of local residents Bill and Rhonda Tatman.
EFFINGHAM -- The Effingham Elks 1016 Lodge, in cooperation with the Illinois Elks Childrens Care Corporation, will sponsor a free childrens orthopedic assessment clinic on Thursday.

The clinic starts at 8 a.m. and is by appointment only. To make an appointment, call the Illinois Elks Childrens Care office at 1-800-272-0074 between the hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. There are no charges for any services at this clinic.

The Elks will hold the clinic at the Bonutti Orthopedic Clinic, 1303 West Evergreen Ave., in Effingham. Dr. Timothy Gray will be the clinician in charge.

No medical referral is necessary for the clinic but physicians are welcome to refer patients to the clinic for a specific reason or second opinion. School nurses are welcome to refer children and families to the clinic.

The Elks has been working with physically challenged children since 1928 and this is one of the 16 clinic locations throughout Illinois. The clinic is an ideal time to have a child reviewed for bone and joint development. If your child has feet pointing out or in or complains of back, knee, leg, ankle pain or has a back curvature, they can be seen at this clinic. There is no charge for any diagnostic services at this clinic.

The Elks will provide financial assistance to the best of their ability for children needing further treatment or specialty equipment when the family lacks sufficient resources to do so. In the past, the Elks have purchased therapy services, corrective shoes, braces, wheelchairs and augmentative communication devices to help children overcome a variety of physical challenges.
Considine graduates from Butler University

INDIANAPOLIS -- Courtney Considine, the daughter of Chris and Kerry Considine, was a spring 2016 graduate of Butler University. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in business administration in marketing with a minor in strategic communications.

Considine is among more than 700 graduates of 2016 receiving bachelor's degrees from Butler in the spring. While at Butler she studied abroad in Italy and was a member of Alpha Phi Sorority.

She is currently an account executive with the San Francisco 49ers and has relocated to San Jose, Calif.

Farrell on spring 2016 dean's list

DeKALB -- Tim Farrell of Charleston has been named to the College of Business dean's list at Northern Illinois University for the spring 2016 semester.

To earn this distinction, students must meet a minimum semester grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology or a minimum of 3.75 on a 4.0 scale in the colleges of Business, Education, Health and Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Visual and Performing Arts to receive this distinction.
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 ...
NORTHPORT, Maine  We left for Maine with three bicycles on the back of the car. One for him, one for her, one for any house guest who cared to ride along. There were other modest recreational plans for our three-week vacation on the coast. Twice-weekly yoga at a local community center, a little kayaking, a little hiking maybe, and certainly walking the hilly streets of Bayside and admiring its gingerbread-house architecture.

That was all before my wife's broken ankle. On the second day of the trip.

By the end of the vacation, only one bike had been taken out. Only one of us had paddled the Penobscot. Mount Battie remained unconquered. And the yoga mat remained coiled and unused in a closet.

But as vacation disasters go, this was a relatively small one. The broken bone was Debbie's fibula, so she didn't need a cast, just a walking boot. Still, she couldn't walk much. So we had to rewrite our expectations and create a Maine vacation that was friendlier to the differently abled.

Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies

A wise friend who has vacationed in Maine countless times mentioned that some of her best times in the state had been just driving around. Sitting in the passenger seat did turn out to be a boundless source of pleasure for the injured one: the abundant Queen Anne's lace and tiger lilies that decorate the landscape, antiques stores and lobster shacks around every bend, wonderful vistas of inlets with bobbing boats, bridges connecting islands and peninsulas. On one outing, to the 17th century French settlement at Castine, waiting for lobster rolls to arrive, a fellow diner at our picnic table recommended a stop on neighboring Deer Isle: Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies, which Google correctly categorizes as an art gallery. Yes, there are jams, but the big attraction is the sprawling installation by metal artist Peter Beerits, which evokes an old Western town, complete with saloon, jail and 24 slightly menacing life-size characters. No charge, although they take donations, and you do feel honor-bound to purchase a jar of something. There's a nice little cafe with coffee and tarts too.

Farnsworth Museum and Olson House

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland is a well-polished gem, with a collection of American works, especially Maine-influenced ones. In this part of Maine, that means three generations of Wyeths: N.C., Andrew and Jamie. Equally important for our injured traveler, little walking was required. Both the main museum and an annex in a converted church have elevators? galleries easily accommodate available wheelchairs, which, thankfully, we didn't need.

The Farnsworth also runs the Olson House in Cushing, about 20 minutes' drive away. The modest clapboard farmhouse is where Andrew Wyeth painted his most famous work, "Christina's World," in 1948. No elevator, but there's a delightful docent-led tour of the first floor (you can sit for most of it), chock-full of details about Wyeth's relationship with Anna Christina Olson and her brother Alvaro. The high, wavy grass in the painting can be seen in a patch in the front yard, where everyone takes pictures, occasionally in the prone. We didn't. Too hard to get up.

Museum admission is $15, another $5 gets you in the Olson House.

Monhegan Boat Line

Double kayaking was out. But we wanted to be on the water, so we chose a 2-hour lighthouse survey out of Port Clyde with Monhegan Boat Line, $30 per passenger. Easy to board, even on only one good ankle. It came with a fascinating demonstration of lobstering by a 19-year-old tour guide and third-generation lobsterman. At a lighthouse now owned by Jamie Wyeth, someone came out  we were told it was Wyeth himself  and fired off a cannon as a salute. At that distance, it could have been anyone. But he's in our story and we're sticking with it.

Antiques at 10 Mechanic

A throbbing ankle can be a good way to judge Maine's many antiques shops. After a while, you've had your share of distressed buoys and shellback lawn chairs, and clomping through another store with a clunky orthopedic boot can feel more like a chore than an adventure. Not so, however, with Antiques at 10 Mechanic in Camden, a former movie house where "Peyton Place," which was filmed nearby, had its world premiere. Antiques at 10 Mechanic feels like a grandfather's attic crossed with Beatrix Potter's pantry and, perhaps, an old set shop from MGM. You can't walk 2 feet without wanting something. The day we visited, Lou Bega's "A Little Bit of Mambo" was playing on the stereo, and broken ankle girl was practically dancing through the store. Bonus: Saturday Cove, a popular spot for Flax clothing, housewares and art in Northport, which closed this spring, has an outpost in the back of the store.
TECUMSEH -- As this towns Baptist pastor, Hugh Giesbrecht spends most of his time tending the souls of his friends and neighbors.

But when his phone rings, he must nurture their broken bodies.

He must drop what hes doing, rush to the firehouse, climb into an ambulance and respond to car crashes, farm accidents, heart attacks, diabetic problems and any other malady requiring emergency medical attention.

Hes done this dozens of times a year, at all hours, for 20 years. But Giesbrecht and the other 10 members of Tecumseh Rescue -- teachers, nurses, farmers, lawyers, hairdressers and, once, an undertaker -- are all volunteers, paid nothing.

Its a job that needs to be done, Giesbrecht said. Its a great service to the community.

Rescue squad members must train to get licensed. Then they must train to keep their licenses -- 20 hours of continuing education every two years for emergency medical technicians.

Which is why Giesbrecht and dozens of other volunteer first responders gathered at the firehouse Tuesday night.

For four hours, a team from Bryan Health -- two physicians, a Ph.D., a nurse practitioner -- spoke at length about treating trauma, children, heart problems and mental health crises.

The lessons were specific -- how to spot symptoms of an aortic dissection, for instance, or that some people feel chest pain in their jaws and fingers. And they were general -- the volunteers were told its OK to ask a patient if he intends to hurt himself, and even to say the word suicide.

The training was free, organized by Drew Case of the Southeast Nebraska Area Health Education Center and Clint Strayhorn, emergency manager for Johnson and Pawnee counties. Bryan Health brought experts and handouts.

A lot of people give credit to the large hospitals for making a difference, Heather Talbott, Bryan Healths trauma outreach and injury prevention coordinator, said just before the training, as the volunteers were filling their plates and taking their seats.

But these are the real heroes.

* * *

The idea for last weeks training started last year after Case offered an emergency medicine course in Beatrice. The course was intended for physicians -- small-town doctors often have to pull emergency room shifts -- but was also attended by paramedics and EMTs.

They said, This was great, but this was for the physicians, and it was a bit over our head. How about doing something for us?

Case thought about that. Rural first responders are some of the unsung heroes of Nebraska. They work day jobs, they maintain training, theyre willing to answer calls in the middle of the night to rescue friends and strangers.

More than 7,200 first responders -- from emergency medical responders all the way up to paramedics -- are licensed in Nebraska. Most are emergency medical technicians, and most are volunteers.

Theyre doing this out of loyalty to their community, to their neighbors. You dont see that in urban areas."

The training also fit with Cases mission as director of the Southeast Nebraska Area Health Education Center. The office, one of five in Nebraska, uses federal funding to address the shortage of health care providers in rural and underserved regions.

So Case tries to interest school students and undergrads in health careers, and he points those already studying medicine toward rural areas. He also recruits health care professionals to smaller towns, although that can be tough.

How do you convince people not to move to the city where they can make a lot of money? But those of us who live in a rural area know its about a lot more than the money.

Case, who spent eight years as a critical care nurse for the Naval Reserves, grew up in Lincoln but moved to the Pawnee County countryside more than a year ago. Green Acres, they call him now.

The final goal of his center is to keep rural medical providers in rural areas, often by offering them the continuing education required to keep their licenses valid. And thats what brought him and the team from Bryan Health to Tecumseh.

Case had surveyed first responders across the state, asking them what kind of training they needed. He heard from more than 70, who suggested a wide range of possible topics.

Trauma. Cardiac crises. Pediatric problems. Pregnancy and delivery. Behavioral health. Farm chemical emergencies.

Theyre saying, These are the things that make us the most uncomfortable. These are the things I come upon and I want more training, Case said.

He and Strayhorn engineered the timing of the training -- after work on a weekday, during a nonbusy stretch of the farming season -- to get a good turnout. More importantly, Strayhorn said, they offered a free meal.

The result: More than 60 volunteers from seven counties showed up for four hours of continuing education. It didn't cost them a thing.

It took a long time to narrow down what we wanted to get accomplished, Strayhorn said. I honestly didnt expect that many people.

* * *

The volunteers often see the people they know the best going through their worst.

Being a small town, we know almost everybody, and sometimes theyre relatives, and sometimes theyre really good friends, said Lori Panko, who joined Cook's rescue squad 17 years ago.

They're trained to set that aside, to address the crisis before them, knowing their feelings might haunt them later.

Someone has to do it.

There's a need, a real need for it, Panko said.

The compliance officer at Farmers Bank of Cook is grateful her employer is flexible, allowing her to answer her phone and climb into an ambulance during her day shift. That's a critical time, when most volunteers are working out of town but more people are awake, on the move and likely to become patients.

Volunteer squads struggle to find and keep members. They can't get out of work, they can't deal with bodily fluids, they can't bear seeing friends and family needing help.

We have lost people because they come to a scene they cant handle. They cant do it anymore, said Giesbrecht, the longtime Tecumseh volunteer. Thats a big issue in rural Nebraska, just finding people who are volunteers.

A training session like Tuesday's helps keep squads intact and informed. The lesson on potentially suicidal patients, for instance, was particularly important. First responders are trained to measure and monitor hard diagnostic numbers, like heart rates and blood pressure and other vital signs.

A patient's state of mind is harder to gauge. Learning the right questions to ask helps.

It's certainly an issue we have to keep in mind all the time, Panko said. It's very subjective, especially for a first responder, without possibly knowing the patient.

It also helped that this training was so accessible, she said. Here was a room full of people so used to going where they are needed, but this time, the help came to them.
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WASHINGTON -- This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Iran's intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. That's what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. That's what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

 Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Iran's international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

 Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Iran's orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

 Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assad's regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand -- a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military -- he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldn't he? He's pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administration's response to these provocations? Urging "both sides" to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijing's territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesn't care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because he's convinced that in the long run it doesn't matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking -- primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers -- China, Russia and Iran -- know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And they're going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes' view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however -- Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands -- it matters greatly.
Its been 20 years now since the 1996 welfare reform, a rare bipartisan triumph, was signed into law. Critics predicted gloom and doom, but it soon proved to be a success. Why?

Simply put, it was because of the laws work requirements. But how those work requirements, well, worked is less well understood  and that leaves us poorly prepared to maintain and build on that reform to help more Americans achieve self-sufficiency.

The 96 reform inserted work requirements for able-bodied adults into one of the largest cash-assistance welfare programs, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). AFDC was transformed into Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and for the first time, able-bodied adult welfare recipients were required to work or prepare for work in exchange for receiving benefits.

The welfare reform law required that 50 percent of work-eligible TANF recipients work or perform some type of work preparation, such as job training, job search, or community service. Between 1996 and 2002, the number of families on welfare dropped from 4.3 million to about 2 million. Today, about 1.6 million families are receiving TANF.

Initially, welfare reform was successful. Employment rates among low-income households increased, and child poverty plummeted. Today, however, most states TANF work programs are at best mediocre.

The work rate for TANF recipients is low. On average, only 33.5 percent of adults in TANF fulfilled the work requirement in fiscal year (FY) 2013, the most recent year for which data are available. This means that only one-third of adults receiving TANF engage in work or work preparation that meets the work standard of between 20 to 35 hours per week, depending on the age of children and number of parents in the household.

TANFs rolls are filled with many adults who are doing little if any work at all. In FY 2013, 56 percent of TANF recipients were completely idle, performing zero hours of work or work preparation in an average month.

Missouri ranked highest in idleness with 77 percent of its work-eligible TANF caseload performing zero hours of work or work preparation per month. A few states are doing well in engaging their TANF recipients: Idaho (only 6 percent of work-eligible TANF recipients idle in a given month); Illinois (10 percent); Maine (16 percent); and Wyoming (18 percent).

One of the reasons why so many states have low work participation is loopholes in the law. States can lower their work participation rate requirement by contributing extra state funds to TANF or by simply counting money spent by other organizations on low-income families rather than actually requiring people to work or prepare for work. Some states have artificially boosted the number of working TANF recipients by providing TANF checks to working individuals on other welfare programs.

The biggest problem, however, is that the original 50 percent work participation rate is simply too low: 50 percent of TANF recipients can be doing no work at all, and a state can fulfill its work requirement. The main reason why the work rate was set at 50 percent was pressure from governors at the time the law was passed; for the most part, they sought to keep required work participation as low as possible.

The goal of welfare should be to promote self-sufficiency for able-bodied adults, and work requirements play a critical role in achieving that aim. A work requirement establishes reciprocity between the individual who receives assistance and the taxpayers who provide it. Most important, a work requirement makes assistance available to those who need it while ensuring that individuals are encouraged toward self-sufficiency.

Todays policymakers have been idle for too long. They should build on the 96 law by insisting on more of what made it a success in the first place: work.
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump -- he who likes to fly home at night in the comfort of his own plane to sleep in the comfort of his own bed -- is at it again on the question of Hillary Clinton's stamina, or alleged lack thereof.

"To defeat crime and radical Islamic terrorism in our country, to win trade in our country, you need tremendous physical and mental strength and stamina," he said in Wisconsin. "Hillary Clinton doesn't have that strength and stamina."

And a day earlier, in case you missed it, "Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face."

It's obvious what's going on here. The strength and stamina combo is a gender-age two-fer, a double whack at Clinton for the price of one. Strength, what men have, and women lack; stamina, with its intimations of go-all-night virility. Clinton, in this depiction, is both a weak girl and a dried-up old crone.

No matter that Trump is a year and four months older -- and, for that matter, endures a far less rigorous schedule. In Trump World, what counts is the attack, not the truth.

Trump first began hitting Clinton on strength and stamina during the primaries, a fascinating detour from his usual precision-bombing of opponents. Ordinarily, Trump homes in on an opponent's actual deficit, and proceeds to magnify it: low-energy Jeb Bush, Liddle Marco or, more pertinent at present, Crooked Hillary.

But sometimes, under attack, Trump shifts to that trusty playground tactic -- (BEG ITAL)I know you are but what am I?(END ITAL) -- a move intended to jiu-jitsu the conversation away from his own perceived vulnerabilities. Thus, Trump has trotted out "unstable Hillary Clinton," "a totally unhinged person," and "like an unbalanced person." (BEG ITAL)I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.(END ITAL)

Increasingly, though, the rap on Clinton combines gender, age and health in a smarmy package of unsupported insinuation. "She's a mess, a total mess," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt. "She'll do an event, she'll make a short speech off a teleprompter, and then she goes home and goes to sleep."

When Trump uses the teleprompter, it is a supposed token of maturity and professionalism; when Clinton does, she is failing -- indeed, possibly brain-damaged. "She took a short-circuit in the brain," Trump said in New Hampshire this month, seizing on Clinton's explanation of how she flubbed an answer on her emails. "Honestly, I don't think she's all there."

Trump is subtle only by comparison to his unhinged allies -- and employees. Say-anything, know-nothing spokeswoman Katrina Pierson was on the job on MSNBC Thursday.

"What's new are the other reports of the observations of Hillary Clinton's behavior and mannerisms ... as well as her dysphasia, the fact that she's fallen, she has had a concussion," Pierson told Kristen Welker.

"It is extremely important to note that Hillary Clinton has taken a lot of time off the campaign trail," Pierson added. "It is something that needs to be addressed."

What needs to be addressed, actually, is Pierson's own "behavior and mannerisms," including her time-travelling assertions that President Obama and Clinton were responsible for the 2004 death of Army Capt. Humayun Khan ("It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life") and alleging that Obama launched the 2001 war in Afghanistan ("Barack Obama went into Afghanistan, creating another problem").

On the topic of Clinton's health, Pierson is back-stopped by a cabal of conservative websites and commentators who have peddled out-of-context photos and video snippets to paint Clinton as a weakened, stumbling victim of brain damage.

Fox News' Sean Hannity has been in the repulsive lead, citing video of Clinton's shaking her head in pretend surprise at being accosted by reporters to suggest neurological injury. "It almost seems seizure-esque to me ... violent, out-of-control movements on her part," Hannity said.

Presidential candidates' fitness for office, including their medical fitness, matters enormously, especially when Trump would be the oldest president ever elected, Clinton second only to Ronald Reagan. Both could reasonably be called on to disclose more health information; the Trumpian claim by the candidate's physician, that he would be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency," is particularly risible.

But the Trump & Co. attack on Clinton's health, with its undertones of ageism and sexism, has no basis in reality, and no place in a presidential campaign. It would be tempting to say this is beneath even Trump, except that it isn't.
The grave of Anna Cox is hidden in a southwest Lincoln neighborhood, ringed by seven manicured lawns, buffered by clusters of trees.

The anonymity of her resting place can be likened to how she spent 43 years of her adult life, out of the sight of her children and former husband, family and friends, on a quiet campus on the southwest edge of Lincoln.

It was known then as the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane. Now it's the Lincoln Regional Center, a treatment center for people with mental illness. It has changed much over the years since Anna Cox died there in 1947 at age 75.

In a ceremony this month her great-grandson and his wife, Tim and Pam Cox, dedicated a headstone -- the first one for the secluded cemetery that is the burial site for 250. The rest have only small concrete markers stamped with numbers, many of those covered by mowed, dried grass.

The descendants who come to the Regional Center to pay tribute to long-ago relatives they never knew, in anonymous graves, are a sign it's never too late to reach back and give them dignity, said Rachel Johnson, religious coordinator at the Lincoln Regional Center.

Tim Cox went to the Pawnee City courthouse more than 20 years ago to do a little research on his great-grandparents and learned they had been divorced in the early 1900s, before his great-grandfather, A.D. Cox, moved with their children to Montana.

After Tim and his wife Pam retired, they learned his great-grandmother Anna Cox was buried in Lincoln, at Haines Branch Cemetery, which is part of the Lincoln Regional Center.

Last year, on a trip from Montana to where they have now retired, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, they saw Anna's peaceful but hidden gravesite. And Tim Cox wanted to do something to commemorate her life.

He wanted to know her, and what was his great-grandmother's point in life.

"You know, at the time that all transpired, women did not have any rights at all," he said.

Nobody should condemn his great-grandfather for whatever his role was in sending her to the Hospital for the Insane, he said.

"We really don't know what really did happen. There's always two sides to a story. We all need to think about that."

According to Lincoln Regional Center records, Anna Cox was 33 when she was admitted in March 1904 from her home in Pawnee City. She was divorced by that time from her husband Arthur, her occupation listed as "housework." She had six living children, the record said, the oldest around 11, the youngest 4 months old.

Her behavior had been erratic for about nine months, the records said. Doctors diagnosed her initially with subacute mania, meaning her condition had a recent onset, or had a somewhat rapid change. When she arrived she spoke rationally, was controlled, quiet and even cheerful.

Over the next few years, things changed and doctors would describe her as sometimes having outbursts, violent at times. Still, she was known as an excellent worker, even if at times they described her as a bit incoherent.

By the time Anna Cox died in 1947, after 43 years locked away, her diagnosis was listed as dementia praecox, more commonly known as schizophrenia. Her cause of death was a deterioration of her heart and lungs.

There's a lot, even looking at the records, the family doesn't know. With no photograph, no one now living has ever seen her face.

But Pam Cox knows that never seeing her children, never knowing their fates in those decades at the asylum would be enough to make Anna, or any person, go slightly off the rails.

Johnson performed the remembrance ceremony for Anna Cox in early August. It was obvious to her from reading the records that Anna needed to be there, she said.

"She was safe here. And she was cared for here. And she obviously cared for people here," Johnson said.

Even with her situation, her life had great meaning and purpose, she said.

At the time she was admitted, 588 people resided at the mental hospital.

Besides her lifetime of work at the hospital, in the dining room and on the wards, Anna Cox sewed, dusted, cleaned and kept her living space in order.

"Anna came here after having everything she knew and cherished taken from her, and despite her yearnings, she was never able to leave," Johnson said.

But from the beginning to the end of decades there, something allowed her to overcome her losses and dig deep to faithfully serve staff and patients who moved in and out of the mental hospital, Johnson said.

Instead of thinking of Anna's story as sad, she will think of her as a pioneer in mental health recovery, she said, and of her fortitude, strength, hope and compassion.

"Or better yet," she said at her service, "let's reclaim her and many like her with a commitment to dignify their journey of recovery, and ours, with the simple recognition: What spirit."
1876: Walsh & Putnam bought the Lincoln Gas Co. from St. Louis interests. At that time, gas was carried through the streets in wooden mains, and gas leaks were a serious problem.

C.M. Clark proposed to reduce the grasshopper scourge by trapping the insects in nets.

The Lincoln hospital for the insane was at capacity with 90 patients.

1886: The Rock Island railroad was surveying a line into Lincoln.

Pawnee County declared for Church Howe for Congress, and Hall County began a move to elect Gen. Thayer governor.

1896: Mayor Frank Graham closed the gambling houses of Lincoln.

Despite rising controversy, John Currie was still at work on his marble statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Capitol grounds.

1906: The recently erected Lyric Theater on 13th Street opened.

The Omaha ice trust was under fire for selling ice at excessive prices during a heat wave.

1916: A record number of automobiles brought a crowd of 15,000 to the circus parade. Motorists were later praised for the scarcity of accidents during the day.

Lincoln bakers scored a victory when the City Council repealed an ordinance dictating bread sizes. The bakers were thus free to sell any size they wished.

1926: An anti-Prohibition candidate for governor began circulating petitions in Omaha. James F. Christie declared himself to be the "sopping wet"candidate.

The Republican candidate for Congress from the 1st District, W.E. Andrews, challenged his opponent, A.C. Shallenberger, to a series of debates.

1936: Gov. Robert Cochran asked for volunteer committees to help deal with a serious drought.

A clash between Mayor Dan B. Butler and William Simon, state secretary of the Communist Party, marked a request by Omaha Communists for use of the streets for campaign meetings.

1946: Because of a housing shortage, Lincoln Mayor Lloyd J. Marti declared Aug. 25 through Sept. 1 as "Rooms for Students Week."

A shortage of hotel rooms caused delays for many state legislators arriving for a special session of the Legislature. The main purpose of the session was to liberalize Nebraska's old age and blind assistance program under Social Security.

1956: Nebraska state Sen. Terry Carpenter stunned a nationwide television audience by nominating "Joe Smith" as the Republican candidate for vice president. Carpenter was disturbed by the dull convention, which ultimately renominated Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon as its standard-bearers.

A controversy over regulations setting hours at the new dump north of the city erupted in a City Council meeting.

1966: Ground was broken at 52nd and O streets for a new 800-seat suburban theater to be operated by the Cooper Foundation.

A suit was filed by a private citizen to void Lincoln's annexation of West Lincoln.

A survey released by the American Association of University Professors revealed University of Nebraska faculty pay scales ranked third among Big Eight schools.

1976: Gov. Jim Exon declared 40 counties disaster areas after drought and hailstorms caused as much as $400 million in crop losses. The declaration allowed farmers to apply for 5 percent interest loans to cover losses.

1986: A cardboard sign at the Frontier Airline counter at Lincoln's Municipal Airport informed passengers it had closed because of financial problems and they should look to other airlines for their flying needs.

1996: Lincoln-based Weaver Potato Chip Co. was seeking buyers for the 64-year-old firm to rescue it from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Former Lincolnite and American neo-Nazi Gerhard Lauck was sentenced to four years in prison in Germany for inciting racial hatred and distributing neo-Nazi propaganda in violation of the German constitution.

Canadian firm MDS Health Group Limited of Toronto purchased locally owned Harris Laboratories, a clinical research company.

2006: Open house will be held for the old Leavitt House, which was moved from 70th and O streets to 2400 S. 148th St. and renovated by owners Bruce and Maureen Stahr. Plans are to open the home as a bed and breakfast in the next two years.
For Edgar Allan Poe, that phrase was a metaphor to express admiration for a woman. For the traveler, it is a literal reminder of the contributions Greeks made to philosophy and political theory, to art and architecture.

When we had the opportunity to climb to the Acropolis or to wander through the remains of Delphi during our trip April 7-22, we were invited to marvel at the ancient Greeks. And when we talked with Greeks we met on our trip, we were given a glimpse of how that history is playing out in their lives. There was an undeniable pride as they escorted us through ruins, and as they struggled to deal with the current refugee crisis in the context of their own development as a country of refugees over the centuries.

For two weeks, we stepped back to ancient Greece and explored contemporary life on seven of the Greek islands. Then we sailed to Turkey, departing for home from Istanbul. We were four from Lincoln: Carole and Ward Curry, Linda Shriner and me. We were visitors, part of a small tour group, folks with questions and cameras. Following were some of the highlights of the adventure.

We began with five days on mainland Greece, traveling from Athens to Delphi and up to Meteora. The Greek countryside was charming, with villages tucked into hillsides and in valleys.

Then, suddenly, there was Meteora: huge rocks that rise 1,000 feet from the valley floor. About 35,000 years ago they were under water, but earthquakes changed the landscape dramatically and now they stand exposed  with 16th century monasteries atop some of them. The monasteries served as Christian refuge while Ottoman Turks ruled Greece. They still operate as active monasteries and a nunnery.

The focal point of our visit was the Greek Islands. The ship was beautiful, the Aegean calm and the islands splendid, each with its own character.

Greek sovereign territory includes approximately 6,000 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, 277 of which are uninhabited. We were primarily in the Cyclades islands, southeast of mainland Greece. One of the first we visited was Delos, the mythical birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The island was settled some 5,000 years ago, but now it has only a score of people there, administrative staff to preserve mosaics designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Naxos was not far. It is the largest in the Cyclades, an island that supports itself with agriculture, not tourism. We discovered a wonderful shop where the proprietor makes cheese and olive oil. It was a cross between an old-fashioned hardware store and an open-air market with barrels of spices and nuts. Baskets lined the top shelves, and birds seemed to nest in those protected spaces.

One of the postcards of the trip, of course, was Santorini, at the southernmost tip of the Cyclades, about 120 miles southeast of the Greek mainland  an island rumored to be the remains of Atlantis. It is part of a circular collection of islands that was created by a violent volcanic eruption in 1600 BC. The volcano is still active, but dormant, now buried in a lagoon measuring approximately 4 by 7 miles and nearly 1,300 feet deep, bordered on three sides by steep cliffs.

Our destinations on Santorini were villages perched approximately 1,000 feet above the water where we docked. Ascent is by cable car, or mule, as you prefer.

To the south, the easternmost island in the Cyclades is Amorgos. It is shaped like a seahorse, dramatically picturesque, the home of an active monastery built in the 11th century. The monastery is carved into the rock, hundreds of feet above the water. For the visitor, the more meaningful description of its locale is this: it is 370 steps up the rock. No cable car or mule here, but the monastery and the view from it are worth every deep breath and every step required to reach it.

Only three monks remain at the Hozoriotissa Monastery. They never make the trek; indeed, they never leave the monastery. Volunteers bring what they need, and they remain in contemplative isolation.

We left the Cyclades to visit Patmos, a tiny island, one of the northernmost in the Dodecanese chain. It is mentioned in the Book of Revelation and is best-known as the place where that Book was written  whether by John the Apostle, John the Theologian or, less specifically, John of Patmos, seems to be an open question. At any rate, the Greek government named it a Sacred Island in 1981, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Two weeks into our trip, we left Greece for Turkey and home. We had an opportunity to visit Ephasus, one of the best-preserved and most-extensive (2,200 acres) classical Greco-Roman cities in Asia.

Then we flew to Istanbul, the great romantic city on the Bosporus Strait, straddling Europe and Asia. We visited some of the highlights from the Blue Mosque to the Grand Bazaar, capping the visit with dinner at a rooftop restaurant where we watched the full moon rise over the Hagia Sophia, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Constructed in the sixth century, it was the Greek Orthodox mother church until the Ottoman Turks seized control in 1453 and converted it into a mosque, as it remained until 1935. Today, it is a museum  still a remarkable structure, its enormous dome the model for Byzantine churches that followed.

We experienced the glory that was Greece, and the fierce pride that still characterizes Greece and Turkey today. The elephant in the room throughout our trip and as I write is, of course, the refugees, the threats, the conflicts, the future of the European Union. We talked with ordinary folks about some of this. We formed impressions. And I suspect each of us would be happy to share those impressions. But they are best shared over a cup of coffee.

Greece and Turkey are experiencing serious economic weaknesses, and they are open for tourist business. We felt welcomed. We felt safe, even while recognizing that everything is relative.
Dear Doctor K: My doctor says I have dense breasts, and a friend says that means I have an increased risk of breast cancer. I'm hoping you'll tell me that's not so.

Dear Reader: I wish I could fully reassure you, but I can't. A woman who has dense breasts does have a slightly increased risk of breast cancer, although not clearly an increased risk of fatal breast cancer.

What are "dense" breasts? Women with dense breasts have relatively less fat in their breasts. Specifically, if more than 50 percent of your breasts are made up of other breast tissue (as opposed to fat), then by definition you are said to have dense breasts. It's not uncommon; about 40 percent of women have dense breasts.

Dense breasts cause a second problem: They can make cancer harder to spot on standard mammograms. That's because both breast tissue and tumors appear white on a mammogram. It's easy to see individual snowflakes when they fall on a black glove, but it's hard to see them when they rest on a bed of snow. That is the challenge radiologists face when trying to read the mammograms of a woman with dense breasts.

There now is a federal law in the United States that mammogram reports should always explicitly state whether a breast is dense or not.

So should you have additional screening tests for breast cancer? Probably yes, but don't expect perfection. No test can diagnose breast cancer with 100 percent accuracy, especially in women with dense breasts. In addition, the additional tests that I'm about to describe pick up a lot of "false positive" test results.

False-positive results look like cancer, and therefore lead to a biopsy, but the biopsy shows no cancer. Until the result is known, a woman and her family understandably have anxiety. Also, the biopsy can lead to complications, like an infection, though that's rare. Finally, the tests and the biopsy add financial costs.

Yet the additional testing may spot a cancer that might have been missed by a standard mammogram. The additional tests that are often done include:

* ULTRASOUND. In September 2012, the FDA approved a new breast ultrasound system specifically for screening dense breasts. This ultrasound scans the entire breast using high-frequency sound waves and quickly produces several images. If you were going to have additional testing, your doctor most likely will recommend this ultrasound.

* MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI) uses magnets and radio waves to visualize the breasts. It is most valuable in women at higher risk for breast cancer that runs in families. However, it is not recommended specifically for dense breasts, and may have as many false-positive results as standard mammograms.

* DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY sends X-ray images of the breast to a computer. It is somewhat more accurate than regular film mammography in women with dense breasts.

Talk with your doctor about the best way of detecting breast cancer because of your possible higher risk.

(This column is an update of one that ran originally in September 2013.)
Name: Robert (Bob) Frohlich

Age: 73

Current town/city of residence: Caledonia

Connection to Racine County: We have lived in the Racine area for more than 50 years.

Occupation: Retired, but writing.

Title of book and publisher: Aimless Life, Awesome God, published by Xulon Press.

Synopsis of book: Why am I still alive? That question was in the back of his mind when in 1965, Robert Frohlich was headed out towards Arizona to look for a job after serving in the U.S. Army for three years. Escaping a splintered family and a troubled past, his car broke down in Wisconsin. Through a series of events that involved finding lifelong friends, stable work, and the love of his life, he never left, finally finding a place to stay after wandering for most of his life. However, that was not the first time God caused Roberts life to change direction, nor will it be the last. By learning to trust in the Lord and let things come as they may, Robert has led a fulfilling life serving God, his family and his community. Aimless Life, Awesome God is the story of Robert Frohlich, but it is also the story of anyone willing to let God redirect their lives according to his awesome plan.

Is this your first book? Yes.

Why did you write the book? I have wanted to share my gratitude to God for saving my life more than once, and for leading me into this wonderful life that I have enjoyed. I hope those who read the book will enjoy the stories and be blessed for having read the book.

How long did it take you to write the book? One week writing it pen on paper, followed by a seeming eternity of data entry and editing.

How did you get interested in writing? I have enjoyed writing since high school, but have submitted only two articles for publication, one of which was published in Decision magazine some years ago. A good friend, and former colleague, Barbara Bras published her first book last year, and she both inspired and encouraged me to write this book.

Where is the book available for purchase? Locally at Arise! Christian Store in West Racine and by order at Barnes & Noble. Its also available online at Amazon.com and the Xulon Press Bookstore. Digitally it is available in iBook, Kindle and Nook format.

Is the book available at the library? Not yet.

Website or Facebook page readers can visit for more information: My author website is RobertFrohlichAuthor.com and my Facebook author page is https://www.facebook.com/Robert.Frohlich.Author.
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RACINE  When Ron Thomas thinks about the state of homelessness in Racine in 2016, he sees a lot of similarities to 1993.

In July, while Thomas, 66, sat in one of a ring of chairs surrounding a wooden table in the Racine County Courthouse, he heard County Executive Jonathan Delagrave suggest re-implementing the REST system if a location couldnt be agreed to for a short-term, low-barrier homeless shelter. In 1993, Thomas was part of the group that founded the Racine Emergency Shelter Taskforce, in which a local church housed Racines homeless population for one night a week in a rotation of seven churches.

What goes around, comes around, Thomas said. If somebody had told me in 1993 that, guess what, in 2016, here we are talking about a REST model, Id say somethings real, real wrong.

Thomas led the REST program from roughly 1998 until its end in 2005, when it was replaced by the Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization. Today, Thomas is primarily a community advocate, but in January, he was named the president of Racines local collection of citizens committed to solving homelessness, the Continuum of Care.

His role with Continuum of Care marks an official return to advocacy for the homeless, although he attended the groups meetings as a concerned citizen before Gai Lorenzen of Legal Action of Wisconsin named him her successor. His experience with REST may make him uniquely capable of dealing with the complex homelessness issues facing Racine today.

The Continuum of Care for the City and County of Racine is an unincorporated association of nonprofit agencies, government and other stakeholders working to prevent and end homelessness in Racine County.

Rons been a helpful bridge from the standpoint of CoC and a helpful bridge in a lot of other areas for me specifically, said Delagrave. Im really appreciative of his community activism.

When Thomas worked with REST during its 12 years in operation, the seven churches used by the organization in a given year would open to the homeless from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., offering them a place to stay from Oct. 1 through the end of April. The organization had its own 5013 status and a 15-seat van that Thomas would sometimes drive to pick people up off the street.

We were like a pseudo agency, he said. We had good relationships out there, but we were always struggling for finances.

But magically, when Thomas thought REST would run out of money, community contributions would come in from sources like SC Johnson to save the day.

I can remember a day when we were almost broke and that afternoon, after a call, we got a $5,000 check in the mail from SCJ, he said.

Eventually, the emergence of HALO made the REST program redundant. Still, HALO is a high barrier shelter, meaning it cannot take in people who have been using drugs and alcohol, since it also houses people in recovery from substance abuse.

That leaves a shelter gap in Racine for the homeless.

As naive as we may have been, I think we thought HALO would be the be-all and end-all, he said. Here we are, 23 years later, in the same kind of quandary as to people who dont fit into, say, a HALO or wherever.

Symbiotic relationship

Fast forward to Friday, and Thomas is smiling as he opens the August 2016 meeting of the Continuum of Care. Not only was the county executive in attendance for the first time, but multiple representatives of Segue Inc., the local organization attempting to find a location for and run a short-term homeless shelter, and HALO were sitting around the table.

Weve got a good group of people here that represent a lot of organizations that are tied in or have been tied in to the Continuum of Care, so this is a good thing, he said.

That diverse attendance is vital for the solution of homelessness in Racine, according to Thomas. He believes that high-barrier shelters, like HALO, need to have a symbiotic relationship with low-barrier shelters, like the one Segue is working to establish.

Youre going to have individuals in the high-barrier shelter that are going to be successful, get into permanent housing, and live happily ever after, Thomas said. Youre going to have others in that system that fall back. Theyre going to end up back in the low-barrier shelter. And youve got low-barrier shelter individuals that say hey, I dont want to be here, Im tired of being here, I want to get to (the high-barrier shelter). 

Perhaps no one is better suited to bridge the gap between those two shelters than the director of the Continuum of Care, especially one with decades of experience helping the homeless such as Thomas.

He is someone I rely on with grassroots community issues, specifically homelessness and other poverty-related issues that the county is working on, Delagrave said of Thomas.

For now, Thomas is focusing on his responsibilities with Continuum of Care, bringing every homelessness stakeholder to the table, including HALO and Segue.

As president, I would strongly recommend to anybody and everybody that symbiotic relationship, Thomas said. That relationship is critical in order to meet the challenges and complexities of the homeless in this community.
RACINE  The Racine Zoos beloved orangutans Max and Jenny have long been a draw for area residents, but on Saturday they got a chance to impress primate specialists and caretakers from zoos across the country.

The visit was part of the husbandry workshop organized by the Orangutan Species Survival Plan. An arm of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Orangutan SSP works with 54 accredited zoos across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to help guide the management of the captive orangutan populations in North America. In a zoo setting, husbandry essentially covers the caretaking, and sometimes the breeding, of animals in captivity.

The bulk of the workshop, which included seminars and other informational session, was held in Madison, but more than a dozen participants in the workshop took a trip to the Racine Zoo on Saturday as part of a post-workshop trip.

The visit was a first for the Racine Zoo, and the caretakers  some from as far away as Miami and Borneo  got a behind-the-scenes look at how zookeepers care for Jennie and Max, as well as the other primates in the zoos Vanishing Kingdom exhibit.

Elements of the primates exhibits, enclosures, eating habits and care were some of the chief subjects of the discussion. Some of the zookeepers were impressed with the hammock-like swing that doubles as a scale for Max and Jenny. Others were keen to learn of the zoos work breeding tamarin monkeys. In April the zoos mating pair of emperor tamarins added to their brood one by welcoming a set of twins.

The exchange of ideas and information-gathering that happens during such workshops and zoo tours is important in advancing the care of orangutans and other primates, said Crystal Champeau-Williams, the Racine Zoos primary primate care specialist.

Sometimes just seeing how somebody does something helps you figure out a problem that you may be having, Champeau-Williams said, adding that workshop attendees also heard from a research specialist about efforts to assist wild populations of orangutans.

As part of this years workshop, Champeau-Williams and some other orangutan caretakers from zoos across the county also got a chance to learn about the DNA makeup of the orangutans they care for.

As a souvenir of sorts, Champeau-Williams got a bracelet of different colored beads symbolizing Maxs DNA. Each bead on the bracelet essentially represented a different letter in the animals DNA sequence, she explained.

Linda Jacobs, an orangutan caretaker at Jungle Island zoo in Miami, Florida, who cares for six orangutans, said what she appreciates about the workshops is the exchange of ideas.

Everybody here loves orangutans so much, Jacobs said. Its like being with kindred spirits.
Abusing authorities

Instead of bringing down corruption in the country, the CIAA chiefs impeachment will further aggravate it
Authorities urged to check smuggling of female Nepali workers

The Nepali embassy in Riyadh has urged the concerned authorities to control smuggling of Nepali housemaids into the Gulf kingdom following what it calls marked rise in the number of women falling to various forms of exploitation at the hands of their employers.
Chinese prez keen to visit Nepal: Mahara

Chinese President Xi Jinping is willing to visit Nepal and the date for the same will be finalised at the top leadership level soon, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Saturday upon his return from his official visit to China.
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
Dr KC, supporters protest outside Baluwatar

Dr Govinda KC and his supporters staged a protest outside the prime ministers residence in Baluwatar on Saturday demanding swift implementation of the agreements the government has signed with him.
Encroachment unchecked

More than 1,200 hectares of forest land belonging to the Chitwan National Park (CNP) has been encroached upon at various places, according to park officials.
Hande Kader: Outcry in Turkey over transgender woman's murder

The murder of Hande Kader, a transgender woman, has caused an outcry in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul. Turkey remains conservative on LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) issues, but on Sunday activists will stage a rare protest in Istanbul, writes Rengin Arslan of BBC Turkish.
India supports Nepal govts priorities: Modi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that his government would fully support the priorities of the government of Nepal and expressed hope that the new dispensation in Kathmandu would be able to steer the country towards greater peace.
Injured rhino shifted to Chitwan for treatment

A one-horned rhinoceros that was found injured with bullet wounds has been rescued and transferred to Janakauli community forest in Sauraha on Sunday. The rhino was rescued from Tileshwor community forest of Chandrapur-2 in Rautahat district.
Iron, steel prices rise by up to Rs8 per kg

Prices of iron and steel products have been risen by up to Rs8 per kg over the last two weeks amid a rise in the demand for the construction materials for reconstruction purposes.
Jumla folks celebrate 'Sano Paltan Jatra'

Residents of Jumla district celebrated 'Sano Paltan Jatra at Khalanga, the district headquarters, on Sunday.
Local power

Population size should not be the primary consideration when restructuring local bodies
NC district chiefs to talk local body restructuring

The Nepali Congress is holding a two-day meeting of its district presidents from Sunday in Kathmandu to discuss restructuring of the local bodies.
PM Dahal's India visit slated for Sept 15

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will embark on a three-day official trip to India on September 15 during which a major project is likely to be signed.
Barkley Rosser notes at Econospeak:

Women New School Econ PhDs Hit The Big Time

Dr. Stephanie Bell Kelton served as the top economic adviser of Bernie Sanders. She has apparently recently returned to her old position in the economics department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

It has now been announced that Dr. Heather Boushey will serve as Chief Economist for the Hillary Clinton transition team, assuming that she wins the forthcoming presidential election. She has been the Director of the Center for Equitable Growth in Washington.

I note that both of them received their economics PhDs from the New School economics department. Looks like women coming out of that department have been hitting the poliltical big time recently. Congratulations to both of them as well as the New School economics department..
Police recover 400-yr old stolen idols, ornaments

Police have recovered 400-year old idols and ornaments stolen from a temple in Naudobahal, Lalitpur, and arrested three persons involved in the theft.
Rhino found with multiple bullet injuries

A one-horned rhino was found with multiple bullet injuries at Chandrapur Municipality-2 in Rautahat district on Saturday. It is suspected that poachers shot at the pachyderm on Friday night.
Selfies fuel boom in make-up sales

Some call it extreme narcissism, for others, it is just a bit of fun. For Estee Lauder, the selfie is a trend that has helped drive a rise in make-up sales.
Tardy I/NGOs draw flak from quake survivors

Earthquake survivors and local authorities in Kavre and Gorkha have said that a majority of the I/NGOs working in earthquake affected areas are not doing their job swiftly.
Three new Army posts for Babai Valley conservation

The Nepal Army has set up three posts in Babai Valley of the Bardiya National Park (BNP) for conservation of endangered wild species there. With this, the number of Army posts guarding the Babai valley has reached eight.
Warning or yearning?

Raj or Swaraj, Delhis power elites have always taken Nepal for granted as their natural backyard
Young force

A silent battle continues among political parties to divert the potency of student unions to their advantage
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

Yes, they will make the city more inviting

Maybe ... does it really matter?

No, the signs in place are fine

No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars

Vote

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Education reform urgent to accelerate economic growth

By Kim Jae-kyoung





Dominic Barton

SINGAPORE  Dominic Barton, chairman of McKinsey & Company, has painted a rosy picture for Korea, forecasting its economy to continue its solid growth down the road.

He said that the country still has great potential to grow at a decent pace, citing two factors  global competitiveness of Korea's major manufacturing companies and its economy's transition toward the services industry.

"In the past five years, Korea's growth has stagnated for the country and some corporations in terms of revenue growth, margins and investment, but growth is never a straight line," Barton told The Korea Times.

"But Korean companies are still on the cutting edge of healthcare, consumer electronics and other advanced industries globally. Also, Korea's economy is one in transition toward services."

Barton, who led McKinsey's Seoul office from 2000 to 2004, has called for Asia's fourth-largest economy to make the migration from an export-led manufacturer to a country with a world-class services industry.

He has stressed that Korea needs to go beyond manufacturing and take a leading position in services by fostering a more vibrant small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector to maintain growth momentum.

The veteran consultant cited the aging population and China's slowdown as major downside risks.

"There are some structural challenges," he said. "Korea's working age population will peak in 2016 and the slowing Chinese economy has decreased growth in exports."

Barton, who also serves as chairman of the Seoul International Business Advisory Council, said that Korea's most critical task is to revamp its education system to foster more talented graduates fit for the 21st century.

"In the long term, what will be most important to accelerate growth and boost productivity (in Korea) is for the education system to adapt to the changing environment," Barton said.

He has maintained that education reform will bring a critical opportunity to Korea. He believes that Korea should introduce more vocational education programs to create more jobs and create global champions in more areas.

The Canadian consultant also said that the government should provide more incentives for companies to invest in new and innovative business domains.

"The government must encourage more innovation in corporations by incentivizing more industry-financed R&D," he said.

Barton, whose services are sought out by business and government leaders around the world, cited the pressures on people to succeed as the key driver for Korea's growth.

He pointed out that one of Korea's greatest strengths and one major driver of its economic development is the creativity and work ethic of its people.

"I think that outside of the country, people are impressed by that industriousness and see its results in Korea's cities and companies, but what they don't see is the pressure that's put on people in such a high-achieving society," he said.

"You have to live there to really feel it. Korea has some of the highest standards in the world. When people talk about tiger moms, I think the ultimate definition is found in Korea."

Barton has spent 24 years with McKinsey. Prior to his current role, he was McKinsey's Asia chairman from 2004-2009, based in Shanghai. He served as chairman of the International Advisory Committee to the President of South Korea on National Future and Vision under the Lee Myung-bak administration.
Memorial stones will be installed in Hokkaido in Japan to honor Koreans forced to work there during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), a civic group said Sunday.



The group, Steppingstone for Peace, said it is putting the "stepping stones for peace" on various sites where the forced labor took place.



The stones will be topped with copperplate, 45 centimeters in width and 35 cm in length, with information like the victims' names, ages, places of birth, dates of birth and death, and the causes of death written in both Korean and Japanese.



The stones will be installed initially in three places: the Shumarinai Dam, the Mitsubishi Bibai coal mine, and the Honganji Temple in Sapporo.



On Saturday, around 20 members of the Korean civic group left for Japan where they will be joined by a Japanese civic group called "East Asia Citizens' Network."



The two groups have been excavating the bodies of 115 forced labor victims in Hokkaido since 1971 without any support from either government.



Last autumn, they carried the remains on a 3,000 km tour throughout Japan before they finally brought them back to Korea. The remains were placed in the cemetery "Homecoming in 70 Years" in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.



The installation is their latest effort to continue to remind both nations of the painful history. Despite protests from radical Japanese groups, they say their efforts will continue unabated.



On Monday, they will hold a symposium "Homecoming in 70 Years and Peace in East Asia" in Japan.



The two groups said they will continue to work together to expand the number of memorial stones and create an online site dedicated to spreading and sharing information about Japan's brutal activities during the colonial period.



"Many victims still remain buried on forced labor sites around Japan," said Chug Byudng-ho, professor of Cultural Anthropology in Hanyang University in Seoul. "In cooperation with the Japanese civic group, we will continue sending warnings against the nationalist movement by Japan's extreme right groups, not to mention telling true history to the international community." (Yonhap)




By Andrew Hammond



Senator Bernie Sanders called on Saturday for the Democratic Party to abandon efforts to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in Congress. His move follows a set-piece economic speech by Hillary Clinton on Thursday in which she re-emphasised her opposition to TPP, underlining growing global concerns about the prospect that after seven decades of Washington being at the forefront of efforts to liberalise the international economy, political backlash is killing off support for free trade.



In the face of these worries, the Obama administration will continue this week its August blitz to boost support within the United States for the 12 country TPP deal. At least 30 events are planned by the end of the month in a major mobilisation effort to build popular and congressional assent for the landmark trade and investment deal which is the biggest regional free trade agreement in history, and the largest trade deal struck since the 1994 completion of the Uruguay Round which created the World Trade Organisation.



A reason for the big push, which moves in September to Capitol Hill, is the potential hammer blow to US prestige and leadership if TPP fails, and also the prospect that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal with Europe could follow the same path. Aside from the opposition to TPP of both Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, Clinton and Donald Trump respectively, US House Speaker Paul Ryan  who is a TPP advocate  said last week that "we don't have the votes" in Congress for the bill to be brought up to Congress before the end of Obama's presidency, even in the lame duck' session after November's elections.



TPP is strategically important for the administration not just because the 12 countries -- the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam -- encompass around 40% of world GDP. In addition, it has an important rules-setting component and President Barack Obama has asserted that the treaty will enable Washington, rather than Beijing, to create the foundation stone for "twenty first century trade rules", including standards on trade, investment, data flows and intellectual property.



As Obama has noted, "when more than 95% of our potential customers live outside our borders, we can't let countries like China write the rules of the global economy. We should write those rules, opening new markets to American products while setting high standards for protecting workers and preserving our environment".



The precise overall economic impact of the proposed deal is hard to forecast with precision. However, the Petersen Institute for International Economics has indicated that it will provide an approximately 300 billion dollar boost to the dozen TPP countries (which might expand over time to include other countries, including China) by 2025.



Yet, TPP is a very controversial agreement with many domestic constituencies, including labour organisations in the United States itself, who are concerned about the impact upon wages and jobs for blue-collar' workers in the country of the free trade deal. Congressional lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the nature of TPP deal, which would phase out a vast swathe of import tariffs and nontariff barriers to trade, including the Republican Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Orrin Hatch.



The fact that normally pro-free trade Republicans are questioning the deal so intently underlines why congressional passage is so uncertain, despite the fact that it last year passed so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which enables the White House to negotiate deals without significant congressional interference after negotiations are complete. This means that while the US House of Representatives and Senate still must approve or reject final agreements in straight up or down' votes, it cannot amend them.



Although some US free trade agreements have been passed without TPA, these included relatively small deals, such as a free trade agreement with Jordan. Given the complexity of TPP, TPA renewal was widely seen as essential for any final agreement amongst the 12 countries as Washington's partners in the venture do not want to see hard fought items negotiated over the last few years potentially unravelled by the US federal legislature.



While much of the congressional discontent with TPP centres around the economic impact of TPP, it is being promoted by the Obama administration to also embed US influence in the strategically important Asia-Pacific region. For instance, the treaty will have a significant rule-setting component, perhaps more so than any other previous trade deal, in multiple areas including limiting subsidies to state-owned companies which could become very important were China eventually to join TPP.



More broadly, there is also a significant geopolitical component to TPP inasmuch as it will help reorient and lock-in US international policy toward the Asia-Pacific region and other strategic high-growth markets. In this sense, Obama believes it would be a multiple major win for his administration as he seeks to define his presidential legacy with only half a year before his tenure in the White House formally comes to an end in January.



The White House recognises that passage of TPP will serve the goal of re-assuring Asia-Pacific allies about enduring US security and political, not just economic, commitments to them. And, in turn, the new free trade agreement will send a clear message to others, especially China, about US intent to continue to place greater strategic emphasis on the region, despite deep continued involvement in other regions of the world, including the Middle East.



Taken overall, the uncertainty over the fate of the TPP treaty is growing. A breakthrough remains possible that will help Obama define his White House legacy and also shape the contours of the twenty first century global economy. However, the prospects are increasing of the deal failing to secure congressional ratification which will damage US prestige and leadership in Asia-Pacific.



Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS (the Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy) at the London School of Economics.




No

Yes, a light case

Yes, two or more light cases

One serious case

Two or more serious bouts

Vote

View Results
ANGOLA  Every morning, Bill Ramos surrenders and prays for another sober day.

Around 40 people a year enroll for the 270-day stay recommended at Four County Transitional Living, a halfway house for addicted men in the northeastern Indiana region. Not everybody succeeds, but Ramos counts four years and two months without drugs and alcohol.

Its changed my life in every aspect, said Ramos, of Angola, who still visits Four County in downtown Angola on a regular basis and goes to meetings daily to help others find and maintain their sobriety.

Jason Deck of Coldwater, Michigan, who entered Four County after being hospitalized with life-threatening illness, is at 11 months of sobriety. He works a full-time job and continues living at Four County as house manager.

I choose to stay around right now, said Deck. He said he needs Four County.

A fifth annual golf outing to raise funds for the nonprofit Four County Transitional Living is planned for Saturday at Zollner Golf Course in Angola. The proceeds will support the house and its mission. A lunch and registration start at 11:30 a.m. and shotgun start is at 1 p.m. To register, call Bob Osterholt at 243-0600 or email to bob@printingplace.com.

The recovery house, in a large second-story suite atop an innocuous stairway, is nothing special in appearance. There are bedrooms, common areas and a kitchen where the men share the duties and costs. The residents are required to work and attend regular 12-step meetings. They must remain sober. Their shared experience of change bolsters the group, and those who cant live by the rules must leave.

Four County Transitional Living accepts men who are sick and tired of being sick and tired. It doesnt matter if they have been in trouble with the law, lost things that were important to them or suffer from health consequences. These are people who want to make a change, and to do so needed to get away from the environment they were in.

Youve got to really want it, said Rick Newman, director. Newman has been sober for eight years, and still lives the daily intentional practices he learned through 12-step meetings. He and Ramos go to a meeting at the Steuben County Jail every Wednesday, and share support with inmates struggling with substance abuse issues.

We go there because its helping others, said Newman. Its good for them. Its good for us.

The meetings provide an altruistic fellowship, said Newman, that anyone can belong to. Four County Transitional Living, and its partner agency in Angola, Women In Transition, use the tenets of the 12-step program to help people get back on their feet.

Deck said he had reached rock bottom. Hed been to another recovery program then was struck by pneumonia, probably the result of his unhealthy behavior, he said. After a stay in a hospital, Deck applied to Four County. The regimented lifestyle helped him focus on his health  diet, exercise and sobriety.

This recovery house saved my life, said Ramos, who now goes to church and spends quality time with his children, grandchildren and fellow recovering motorcycle riders.

This program helped me get my faith back, Deck said.

The meetings are not about a specific church, or a particular faith. The men connect with a higher power of their own understanding, which provides them lifelong support in their day-to-day struggle with addiction.

At this time, the house is at its maximum  15 men. The numbers fluctuate, said Newman, and residents have come from as far away as Indianapolis.

Our job here is to help you succeed, said Deck. Were very lucky to have programs like this available. It literally has saved my life.

Four County Transitional Living Golf Outing

When: Saturday, Aug. 27

Where: Zollner Golf Course, Trine University, Angola

Lunch and registration: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Shotgun start: 1 p.m.

Cost: $50 per person; includes golf cart, driving range

Contact: Bob Osterholt, 243-0600, bob@printingplace.com
ANGOLA  Glenda Ritz passionately told those at Fridays Steuben County Jefferson-Jackson Dinner she plans to continue her fight for public schools.

Ritz, Indianas superintendent of public instruction, is running for re-election and was the dinners speaker at 6 Autumns, Angola. As no surprise, several teachers attended.

Judy Rowe, Steuben County Democratic Party chair, recalled introducing Ritz at a past Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, when she first announced her candidacy. She had a message and was a phenomenon that year, Rowe said. Well help her get re-elected for kids.

Ritz upset Tony Bennett in the 2012 election. A 34-year educator, Ritz oversees the Indiana Department of Education and has often butted heads with the State Board of Education and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over major policies.

In her four years in office, she said shes learned a lot, but one thing most importantly.

I learned I dont need permission to oversee the IDOE. I just buckle down, Ritz said to applause.

Ritz stressed education is the source of a strong economy and plans to continue to work toward that in some key areas. Were at 22 percent poverty. We need to be sure we have acceptable wages, she said.

Her focus includes:

 Fully funding pre-K: Its having quality teachers in place and infrastructure, she said.

 Testing is my top priority  ISTEP is a waste of time and energy, she said, referring to the annual assessment that is being replaced. She added she instead favors growth assessments.

 Middle and high schools: We need them to know they need more education and training to earn a livable wage, Ritz said.

Ritz called for the recruitment and retention of teachers, and closing the digital divide, which will help create positive learning environments.

I really want to end labeling schools A, B, C, D and F, Ritz said. Kids should be leaving schools with the same opportunities.

The IDOE is responsible for distributing more than $8 billion of state and federal funds to educate 1 million students in more than 2,000 schools.

Ritz holds two masters degrees from Ball State University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, with licences to teach elementary, middle and high schools in special education, general education and library science.
Employees who will be affected by a workforce reduction plan at the Fort Wayne BAE Systems plant will be notified of that by late July. None of those notifications will be going out to any of the plants hourly workers.

Employees were told Jan. 19 that BAE was planning a workforce reduction for this year that would affect less than 10 percent of the headcount there.

The company employs about 1,000 at a new, 334,000-square-foot aircraft parts production facility Scannel Properties built for it on 41 acres at 4250 Airport Expressway. BAE has a 10-year lease on the $46-million building, which it moved into last year.

Employees were told the downsizing would affect those represented and not represented by IUE-CWA Local 901. The International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers - Communications Workers of America local represents about 670 assembly solderers there.

Most local BAE employees believe the company plans to lay off up to 100 of them, but the unions contract requires the company to give it 45 days to negotiate that kind of downsizing, said Brent Eastom, president of the local.

Union officials and plant managers found ways to whittle down the reduction required for hourly workers to only 44. The local negotiated an early retirement package enticing enough to lure away all of the hourly employees the company said it needs to shed.

The companys pension and retirement medical benefits were made available earlier than usual as part of the package so that some senior members could feel comfortable retiring at an early age, Eastom said.

The agreement was ratified on March 7 and, within two weeks, the union found it had enough members willing to take early retirement so that no hourly employee layoffs would be required, he said.

By July 15, all of the members accepting early retirement packages will have received them. A relatively young workforce will have had a chance to see the benefit of a union being able to work with the company, Eastom said. We were able to put our heads together and do right by the workforce.

The need for the reduction resulted from changes in anticipated workload levels at the facility and was planned to help ensure BAE remains competitive in the dynamic commercial aerospace market, Liz Ryan Sax, who handles external communications for the company, said in an email.

The local plant develops products including commercial aircraft engine controls, flight controls, cabin systems and flight deck systems, she said. Functions at the facility include supply chain management, product development, production and readiness and sustainment.

Employees who are not represented by IUE-CWA Local 901 may also experience some cuts.

To remain competitive, we are constantly assessing staffing levels and job requirement specifications based on workloads and business continuity, Sax said.

The decision to reduce our workforce is never easy, and BAE Systems is working closely with union, local, state, and federal officials to assist employees affected by this layoff. Incentive packages vary, and we dont share the specifics of any incentive package offered to our employees.

Investigation

In other local BAE news, Sax confirmed that the company took disciplinary actions against some of its employees after it noticed irregularities with some employee tuition reimbursements.

Because the investigation remains ongoing, she said the company cannot comment any further on the matter.
Vernon Communications Cooperative on Wednesday held a grand opening at its new Viroqua Technology Center at 214 N. Main St. in that community.

The Westby-based co-ops new center in downtown Viroqua is a full-service co-op office, and also offers computer sales, diagnostics and repairs. The center also is home to the co-ops new Professional Services Department.

Our Professional Services will offer managed IT solutions for business, including network management, server solutions, wireless networks and phone systems, said Emily Rozeske, the co-ops member relations manager. This will be a service that we will provide outside of our current territory, including the markets of La Crosse, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center and Sparta.

Hours at the new center are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The co-ops three core services are high-speed internet, telephone and digital television. For more information, call 608-634-3136 or visit www.vernoncom.coop.

The Smokes 4 Less tobacco shop chain has opened its second La Crosse-area store, at 1220 Crossing Meadows Drive, in the Crossing Meadows shopping center in Onalaska.

The shop opened in early August and sells cigars, cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and supplies, chewing tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

The Smokes 4 Less shop that opened in 2013 in Shelby Mall in La Crosse will remain open. For more information, call 608-881-6910 or visit the stores Facebook page.

Wells Fargo Advisors has moved its La Crosse office to 2 Copeland Ave. from the previous location at 3652 East Ave. S. The new location opened June 27 and has eight financial advisors on staff.

While our location has changed, our focus on helping our clients achieve their financial goals has not, Branch Manager Mark Dahlke said. Were excited to welcome everyone to our new location on Copeland Avenue and we look forward to continuing to provide our clients with tools that will strengthen their financial portfolio and better prepare them for the years to come.

Wells Fargo Advisors is a full-service investment firm that offers financial products and services to both individuals and businesses. It also offers financial advice tailored to the personal investment objectives of each client. For more information, call 608-788-9800.

Owner Travis Thompson has opened his new and much larger Hegg Mill LLC feed mill at N23395 Hwy. 53, a half-mile north of Ettrick.

The mill opened June 13 and will be showcased at a corn silage burn-down day for farmers from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday. Farmers can bring in corn stalks to have moisture levels measured, so theyll know when to harvest for silage. Lunch will be available.

Thompson said he is using the old feed mill at W11925 County Road C for storage.

His business serves farmers and the general public, said Thompson, a farmer who worked at the mill for seven years before buying it in 2008. The mill continues to produce livestock feed.

And with the new, larger facility, Thompson also has begun selling pet food for everything from dogs to cats to rabbits and birds in its retail showroom. He also sells farm items such as feed scoops and gloves in the new showroom.

Normal hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 608-525-4545 or visit www.heggmill.com or the mills Facebook page.
DES MOINES, Iowa  Its no day at the beach, but Hillary Clinton is having the political equivalent of a quiet August.

Donald Trump may be dominating the political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, but its Clinton whos winning positive headlines during visits to some of the most competitive states in the presidential race.

The Republican nominees constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about Clintons emails and allowing her to spend plenty of time raising money behind closed doors.

I think shes actually smart to stay quiet at this time. Shes not a popular candidate with the Democrats. She has a lot of negatives herself. Theres a lot of news that could be made about her, said Rick Tyler, a former aide to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and onetime Trump rival.

But, Tyler said, its all getting subsumed by the black hole candidate that is Donald Trump.

A disastrous stretch for Trump has helped solidify Clintons lead in national preference polls and most surveys in closely contested states. Clinton campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania this past week, and the Democratic nominees voter registration efforts and policy pitches went largely unnoticed as Trump shook up his campaign staff.

Trumps reshuffling also overshadowed fresh stories about Clintons use of a private email account and server as secretary of state.

Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubios presidential campaign.

Clinton seems more than content to let Trump dominate coverage on cable news and in national newspapers. In the meantime, her campaign has carefully courted journalists in the communities she visits, pushing tailored policy messages. For example, stressing her plans to respond to the Zika virus in Florida and how shed support manufacturing jobs in Detroit.

Local supporters have hit Trump on issues such as his refusal to release his tax returns. Clinton had an opinion piece on water quality in this past week in Floridas Treasure Coast Newspapers.

After an appearance in Ohio on Wednesday, the top headline the next day in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland read, Clinton Tears Trump Plan to Cut Estate Tax, while The New York Times main campaign story focused on the tumult in the Trump campaign.

If the Republicans are spending their time attacking and fighting each other, it gives you a little bit more liberty to go out there and articulate your message. Theyre not necessarily offering a counter-argument, said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clintons White House. It gives you more real estate in a more uncluttered way to break through.

Republican pollster Greg Strimple said thats not just spin, arguing the overarching national message of the campaign is not one that can unify the country, so I would focus on doing small events that have local flavor.

It also keeps her profile lower, he said, which allows the circular firing squad of the Trump campaign to continue.

Since the bus tour that followed the end of the Democratic convention, Clinton also has focused heavily on fundraising. She has been to more than 10 fundraisers in the first half of the month, hitting mansions in Miami and enjoying a private performance by Aretha Franklin in Detroit.
MILWAUKEE (AP)  The Environmental Protection Agency says its finalizing a plan to supply water to some residents of Kewaunee County of northeastern Wisconsin, where manure from large dairy farms is being blamed for contaminated wells.

Robert Kaplan, acting regional administrator for the EPA, told residents at a meeting organized by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin this past week that his agency will announce a plan within the next month to supply residents who have tainted wells.

Farming practices have been a source of friction in many areas of Wisconsin. The issue has been especially visible in Kewaunee County, which has longstanding groundwater problems, a large cattle population, and fractured bedrock that allows manure, waste from septic systems and other pollutants to trickle more quickly into aquifers.
Dear Jill: Have you shared any tips from shopping for colleges with your oldest daughter? If not, will you be?  Greg D.

Ive been receiving a few emails and messages asking about the path we chose for our daughters education, and Id be happy to share some of the details with you.

For a little perspective, Ill share the deal my parents presented to me back in my senior year of high school: My parents offered to pay for two years of community college plus two years at a state university. You will continue to live at home during the community college years. Do not take any gap years, and do not earn failing grades. Take longer than four years to graduate, and the mom-and-dad-pay deal ends.

I took this deal, and so did my sister, both graduating on time in four years. While it may not seem as glamorous or exciting as going away to school for four years, we both felt that we got excellent educations. All of our credits transferred to our universities and we received the same bachelors degrees that four-year attendees did.

Ive never regretted taking this path. In many ways, I found the years I spent at community college to be better and more enriching than the years I spent at the university. I had so many personal growth opportunities within student leadership organizations in community college, and I felt that the smaller class sizes there were beneficial to me.

As my husband and I have raised our children, weve saved money to pay for their schooling with the intent of steering them to a similar path. During our daughters senior year in high school, we presented her with the same option. Choose a local community college. Knock out all of those core classes everyone needs to take to graduate with a four-year degree. Then, choose a state university or an out-of-state university that will honor in-state tuition rates. Well pay for school and living expenses, and youll graduate debt-free with two degrees.

Our daughter took the deal, just as I did years ago, and her years at community college have been filled with extracurricular experiences that rival those she might have enjoyed at a larger, more expensive school. In May, she graduated with her Associates degree, and she will complete her Bachelors at a public state university.

Her community college path cost around $2,000. We were able to save so much money over the past two years that sending our daughter off to the university in the fall wont break the bank. Her public university tuition will cost around $11,000 each year.

Its been somewhat eye-opening for me to discuss college choices with other friends and acquaintances though. One friend told me that there was no way she could consider a public university for their son. State universities simply accept too many people. What good is a degree from there? (I, of course, cheerfully replied that I was a state university grad and I think Ive done well for myself since college!)

For me, having our daughter graduate debt-free always has been one of our goals. I would rather see her graduate from a state college that we can afford so she can start her life as an adult with no debt. Some of her peers will graduate from private universities with six-figure debt.

Graduating debt-free allowed me so much freedom to start my own life, buy a home, start a business and raise a family. Im grateful for that and I want our daughter to have the same freedom. I dont feel Ive personally been hindered in any way by graduating from a public university versus a private one. (For the record, I also dont believe all jobs require a college degree, though many employers make a college degree a job requirement  an issue thats far outside the scope of my column.)

If college decisions are in your future, I hope that this sheds a little light on some of your options.
The La Crosse County Board and the countys health department are so worried about the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources failure to oversee holders of wastewater discharge permits that the board passed a resolution urging the agency to follow whats already the law.

When roads are in bad shape, its easy to tell before things get to a crisis level. The ride gets bumpy, and motorists see cracks in the pavement.

Its different with water. Only regular testing and regulatory vigilance can guard against contamination of surface and groundwater from industrial, agricultural and municipal wastewater.

The county boards resolution was prompted largely by a report from the states nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau in June that revealed significant problems with the DNRs monitoring, enforcement and permitting of the Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or WPDES.

(The DNR is) supposed to be doing certain things to make sure the state water supply remains pure, drinkable and healthy, said county board member Monica Kruse, who who is chairwoman of the boards Health and Human Services Committee. These are statutorily required services that are supposed to be provided at the state level, and theyre just washing their hands of them.

The Legislative Audit Bureau report, which looked at WPDES permits and enforcement for industrial, municipal and concentrated animal feeding operations from 2005 to 2015, included findings that the DNR was not issuing violation notices in the vast majority of cases when violations were found, was not reviewing permit renewals properly or in a timely manner while issuing permit renewals nonetheless, was falling short on required inspections of CAFOs, and was not keeping records in a way that ensured they were accessible to staff, let alone the public.

The countys resolution, which was sent to Gov. Scott Walker, DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp and local legislators, requested the DNR take the following actions for the 17 WPDES permit holders in La Crosse County:

Ensure the records of all inspections and determinations are electronically recorded and available in a timely fashion to DNR staff responsible for monitoring and enforcing environmental regulations.

Conduct inspections of permit holders within 12 months of expiration of their current permits and not reissue permits before inspections are conducted.

Reissue permits only when the permit holder is in substantial compliance as required by state statute.

Follow enforcement policy and issue notices of violations when permit holders violate the terms of their permits.

Provide the county with a report of the compliance status of all permit holders in the county.

The resolution is asking basically that the DNR follow whats already the law, said Jim Steinhoff, who supervises the countys Health Department lab operations. We have these laws and we know if you dont follow them the water gets contaminated and that causes illnesses.

In La Crosse County, the DNR has issued 17 WPDES permits. Of those, 11 are sewage treatment facilities ranging from the regional treatment plant in La Crosse to two facilities serving mobile home parks. The other permit holders include Xcel Energys waste-to-energy incinerator on French Island, the Metallics facility on Brice Prairie, Bills Pumping Service near Holmen, the U.S. Geological Survey operation on French Island, Stella Jones near Bangor, and Babcock Genetics, a concentrated animal feeding operation for swine near Holmen that has a permit for up to 4,100 animal units (a pig weighing more than 55 pounds counts as 40 to 50 percent of an animal unit).

Groundwater contamination has been a big issue in Kewaunee County, which has a large number of CAFOs and an underlying geology that allows manure and other contaminants to quickly migrate from the surface to the groundwater from which wells are drawing drinking water. Last fall, more than a third of the wells in the county were found to have unsafe levels of bacteria and/or nitrates, with CAFOs being the likely source of the contamination. In several towns, every well was contaminated.

Kruse said it was like the Wisconsin form of the Flint water crisis, referring to elevated lead levels in residential drinking water in Flint, Mich., caused by the city switching to a more acidic water source that readily leached the hazardous metal out of old pipes.

You should be afraid. You should be very afraid, said Sharon Hampson, vice chairwoman of the La Crosse County Board. Its a real and present danger.

In a way, Steinhoff said, Kewaunee Countys contamination could be worse than Flint because bacterial contamination can cause immediate health problems. It could very quickly be life threatening, he said.

Some communities in Kewaunee County (as well as Midwest Environmental Advocates) have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to have the DNR removed as the responsible agency for enforcing the federal Clean Water Act. Its probably unlikely that is going to happen, but it shows you the amount of concern a lot of people in that part of the state have, Steinhoff said.

According to Steinhoff, La Crosse Countys Babcock Genetics CAFO was referenced in the audit bureau report, noting that monitoring wells on the site had found nitrogen concentrations exceeding the limit starting in 2005. Steinhoff said the audit bureau asked the DNR specifically about the Babcock Genetics CAFO. The response was that theyre still studying it, he said. The question the people of La Crosse County should be asking is, How long does this take to come to some resolution.

Steinhoff found it especially disturbing that about 98 percent of the required 1,900 self-monitoring annual reports from CAFOs from 2005-14 were not electronically logged when they were received. That information is basically lost. People in the DNR who rely on that software, like managers in Madison, for example, would never see the information that was reported, he said. Basically, youre blind and dont know whats going on with water pollution because these reports dont go into their system.

The audit bureau report noted that the annual reports were not electronically recorded because staff members did not have time. DNR staff also told the audit that they do not have time to thoroughly review each annual report.

Although there were 558 cases from 2005 to 2014 where DNR policies called for issuing notices of violation (403 for exceeding effluent limits, 155 for late reporting), only 33 permit holders actually received violation notices, according to the audit bureau report, which disturbed both Steinhoff and Kruse. Lack of enforcement when violations are found coupled with a lack of monitoring basically sends a signal that WPDES permit holders dont have to worry about compliance.

Its carte blanche. They can do whatever they want, Kruse said. I think all of them should be held accountable.

Kruse puts the blame for the DNR shortcomings on Walker and the GOP-led Legislature, arguing that Walker and Republican lawmakers have never met a regulation they didnt hate and that the DNR has backed off on water contamination enforcement as a matter of policy to help the business community, especially big agriculture.

They are trying to be as business friendly as they can be, Kruse said. In the process, they are leaving the citizens of Wisconsin vulnerable to some very bad things.

State Sen. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, agreed that the DNR under the Walker administration has had minuscule oversight. It seems like the message coming out of this administration and that agency is that there arent really penalties or consequences, said Shilling, who is the Senate minority leader. Its his department thats responsible for enforcing these rules, and there generally has been poor enforcement.

The audit, it should be noted, covers 2005 to 2015, and problems with the DNR enforcement predate the beginning of the Walker administration in 2011. DNR staffing has been on the decline for many years, falling 15 percent the past 20 years. Staffing reached a critical point in the summer of 2011, when a wave of resignations and retirements after Act 10 (which took away state employee bargaining rights) left one in five DNR positions vacant.

The DNR vacancy rate has improved but last summer it had climbed again to 14.2 percent after falling from 2012 to 2014. Not only were DNR managers not hiring staff to fill vacancies; they saw fewer positions authorized. In the most recent budget, Walker proposed trimming 67 jobs from the DNRs staff of 2,647 full-time equivalent positions; the budget bill he signed cut 92 jobs.

When the states Natural Resources Board brought discussed the LAB report with Stepp, she told the board that lack of money for staff was a big part of the reason why the DNR couldnt keep up with WPDES enforcement and permitting work. Also, she said, rules prevent the agency from bringing on new employees while experienced retiring staff members are still on board so they can help train the new hires.

Stepp told the board that an internal staffing analysis underway could improve WPDES enforcement.

Stepp did not respond to a request for a response to the La Crosse County Boards resolution, but James Dick, the DNRs communications director, said the county board will get a response from the DNR about supervisors concerns.

Dick defended the DNRs approach to WPDES violations, saying that the tiny number of violation notices doesnt mean that violations are being ignored or going uncorrected.

The DNR is committed to a step enforcement approach where we try to resolve violations at the level appropriate for the circumstances. Minor violations may be resolved first through an informal discussion or notice of noncompliance and can be escalated to a more aggressive approach, such as a notice of violation, Dick said. The goal is to achieve compliance, not set a record for the most NOVs issued.

Dick said the DNR is taking the LAB report seriously, even if there is some disagreement over some of the allegations. We are working on our electronic recording efforts while having our staff focus on maintaining or increasing the number of inspections. We set inspection goals that are approved by the EPA and those goals are being met, Dick said.

Walker has said he wouldnt rule out increasing funding for the DNR in the biennial budget that will be debated next year. In addition, State Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, has called for an increase in funding for the DNR by having more of the permit fee revenue it collects stay with the agency rather than going nto the general fund.

According to the audit bureau report, in 2014-15 only about $72,000 of the $5.4 million collected went into accounts dedicated to environmental management, and the numbers in the report were similar going back to 2005.

The disconnect between fees and amount spent on enforcement and permit oversight doesnt sit well with state Rep. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska. We are now basically shaking down these entities, but the service that is being provided doesnt seem to have any relationship at all to that fee, he said. That just to me feels wrong.

Doyle also is a member of the La Crosse County Board, and while he was not present for the vote on the boards resolution regarding WPDES enforcement, he said he fully supports the resolution. If other counties and municipalities follow suit as expected, it could make a difference come budget time.

This is part of a concerted effort to have a small voice turned into a much larger voice, Doyle said. Of course, he added, it really takes the majority party to pull the trigger and say something has to happen.

The scrutiny coming from the EPA could help, too. If the federal government starts to threaten to impose sanctions  that may be what it takes to make action finally occur.

Its important, Doyle said, that something be done to drastically improve WPDES enforcement and permitting processes before the EPA steps in to take over enforcement.

We shouldnt rely on the federal government to do the right thing, he said.
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP)  The Hoerter home is brimming with energy. Jasmine, 6, twirls through the house in a floral sundress while Isaiah, 4, trails her, shouting and laughing. Micah, 2, is shy but active and wastes no time tottering after his siblings at full speed. Elijah looks on, smiling at everyone and everything. From the look on his face, if he werent only 9 months old, hed be tumbling around the deck with the rest of them.

On the back porch of their home in Wausaus West Side, Patrick and Destiny Hoerter watch over their four children and think about the fifth who died just over a year ago. Josiah Jojo Hoerter died from complications with MeCP2 duplication syndrome, a rare genetic disease, on Feb. 7, 2015. He was the Hoerters biological nephew and when they finally were able to adopt him at 11 months old, they knew something wasnt right. He was behind other children his age, unable to talk or walk. As he grew, he needed a wheelchair and eventually needed home care for nearly 20 hours a day.

They spent years trying to make his life better, bouncing between hospitals and home care before realizing with the amount of care required to keep him alive and happy, Jojo might not have a lot of time left. Jojo qualified to get a wish granted by the Make-a-Wish Foundation and thats where the idea for the inclusive playground began to take hold in the Hoerters minds. But Make-a-Wish said Jojo needed to be alive for the wish to be granted, and the family knew he would never live long enough to enjoy the playground.

Make-a-Wish flew Jojo and his family to Michigan instead, where he said goodbye to his foster family and biological parents before dying in February. After feeling the deep loss within their family, the Hoerters decided to make this dream of an inclusive playground a reality to honor Jojo.

An inclusive playground is built over a rubber surface instead of wood chips for easy wheel chair access. It has higher 8-foot platforms for kids to wheel under and zip lines with seats for those who cant sit unassisted on a regular swings. But its more than just architectural specs, walkways wide enough for wheelchairs and expression swings where parents and children can swing facing each other. Its a place where special needs children can gather with their friends and be freed from the isolation of living in a world that isnt always accessible.

In Wausau, JoJos Jungle will be located at Brockmeyer Park.

The Kids Are Special Here or K.A.S.H. Playground in Stevens Point was an inspiration to the Hoerters. K.A.S.H. board president Kareen Everman understands more than anyone how important a place like this is in a community. In 1977, Evermans son Brett was in a car crash just before his second birthday. He suffered a traumatic brain injury from the accident that left him severely disabled. Although hes 21 now and defied doctors predictions that he wouldnt live long, transitioning into motherhood with a disabled child brought Everman a different perspective.

I didnt know there was a need until my son was disabled, she said. People just think we live in an accessible world but ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) regulations are minimal and if you have a kid in a wheelchair you learn that really quickly.

Everman spearheaded the project to build K.A.S.H. Playground and has consulted many people in the years since, including the Hoerters, on how to add an inclusive playground into their community.

Our kids dont want to be playing by themselves, she said. They want to be around other kids.

That sentiment is a large part of the reason behind the designs for Jojos Jungle. We realized Jojo will never be able to play on this playground, said Destiny. But his friends can, disabled or not.

When they approached the county about the project a week before Jojo died, it was with a four-year timeline from idea to playground, accounting for fundraising, land surveying, city permits and construction. They originally thought it would be completed in 2018 but that was shortened significantly in May by a $1 million donation from B.A. and Esther Greenheck Foundation.

Now, thanks to that grant Patrick Hoerter said, we figured we could do it in half the time. Two years total.

But even with other generous donations from local companies, like the land surveying donated in kind by Becher Hoppe, the Hoerters are struggling with how to move the project forward.

We just dont know how to do certain things, said Destiny, We really need the help of the community and people who have done some of the things we havent before.

Though many people in the community have suggested ways to raise more funds, the Hoerters now need help putting on those events. They want to start a yearly 5K race in memory of Jojo, but need volunteers and people who have done it before to help them. We will help anyone to fund an idea, were just not sure where to even start, Destiny said.

The Hoerters are still planning to break ground for the project on May 21, 2017, which would have been Jojos 5th birthday. Its symbolic, said Patrick, but we have an awful lot of work to do if we want to see the playground exist next year. Theyve been busy planning and finalizing renderings of the playground since the donation and hope the community can help them with a final push forward.

I still miss him every day, said Destiny. And as Im picking out things for the playground I know he would love, its so hard for me to know he wont ever get to play on them.

Jojos whole family misses him, especially his sibling closest in age, Isaiah. Isaiah can often be found wondering aloud, Daddy, I wish these steps went all the way to Heaven so I could go get Jojo, or as the family walks around in The 400 Block, I wish those skyscrapers went all the way up to Heaven so I could bring Jojo back.

The playground project has been a way for the family to remember their brother and son, as well as bring the community together. Destiny emphasized the need for a playground like this not just for the children, but for the parents of the children. A typical friend doesnt understand that I cant just meet them at the park at 10 a.m. with a special needs child, she said. This would be a way to bring together parents who dont have to feel alone.

The Hoerters hope the 1.3-acre playground will become a safe, enjoyable environment for the community and with a little more help from the city of Wausau, theyre sure they can accomplish their goal in time to honor Jojo next year.
3 men charged in looting: MILWAUKEE  Prosecutors have charged three men in the looting of a liquor store during the unrest that followed the police shooting of a black man in Milwaukee. The men were arrested early last Sunday as police arrived and ordered everyone inside to come out. The criminal complaint filed Friday says the defendants told police the windows were already shattered and other people were looting the store when they went inside. Durrell Jones, 45, of West Allis, was charged Friday with burglary, while Joseph Lindsey, 22, and Devon Love, 20, both of Milwaukee, were charged with unlawful entry into a locked building.

Woman convicted of hiding boyfriends corpse: ELLSWORTH  A woman has been convicted of hiding her boyfriends corpse, but the jury could not agree on whether she was guilty of homicide for killing him. Douglas Bailey was found in a box along a road in Hazard, Ky., in December. The 51-year-old was a trucker who was reported missing after he failed to show up for Thanksgiving in Peoria, Illinois. The Pierce County jury found Rose Kuehni, of Prescott, guilty Thursday of hiding his corpse, but split on the second-degree homicide charge. A hearing on a retrial is set for Wednesday.

Sheriff headlines pro-Trump rally: GARDNERVILLE, Nev.  An urban, black Wisconsin sheriff elected as a Democrat joined Republican leaders at a rally on a northern Nevada ranch Saturday urging the GOP faithful to put aside any reservations they may have about Donald Trump and help defeat Hillary Clinton. Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. took aim at the Never Trumpers he warns could end up getting Clinton elected president if they skip the November election.

Body of girl, 5, found after Amber Alert: ST. PAUL, Minn.  Authorities have found the body of a 5-year-old Minnesota girl just hours after they had issued an Amber Alert saying she had been abducted by a family friend. The body of Alayna Jeanne Ertl was found in Cass County, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis. The suspect in her disappearance, family friend Zachary Anderson, 26, has been arrested and a vehicle found, police say. No other details were immediately available.

Crop duster dies in plane crash: RUTHTON, Minn.  Authorities are investigating a plane crash in southwestern Minnesota that left the pilot dead. The Pipestone County Sheriffs Office says the crop-dusting plane crashed Friday morning near Ruthton. Authorities say the pilot, 68-year-old James Arnt of Worthington, clipped a guy wire to a tower and crashed into a field. He died at the scene.

Authorities seek to ID skull: LITCHFIELD, Minn.  Meeker County investigators are still trying to solve the mystery of a human skull found in January. Officials confirmed Friday that the skull was human and came from a man in his mid-40s. He was either white or Hispanic. But investigators dont know when or how he died, or the mans name. Deputies found the skull in January while responding to a report of an unresponsive man at a home near Litchfield. Seventy-seven-year-old James Webster died at the scene, where officers found a large amount of marijuana and the skull.

Fox suspected of biting two had rabies: MINNEAPOLIS  Health officials say a fox suspected of biting two people on the south side of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis has tested positive for rabies. The fox was captured soon after an attack on a jogger Wednesday morning and was euthanized for testing. The confirmation came back Friday.
Three people face multiple drug charges after police reportedly intercepted a July 29 methamphetamine transaction in Sparta.

Police received a tip that Benjamin M. Harr, 36, Sparta, had asked if anyone was looking to purchase methamphetamine. The tip reported that Harr had arranged for a meeting at the old middle school in Sparta and would drive a minivan to the site.

When police arrived, Harr was reportedly walking on Benton Street north of the school. Police identified the parked minivan and waited for Harr to return to the vehicle.

After Harr got back in the minivan, police approached the vehicle and identified themselves. One woman, later identified as Kristy Womick, 34, La Crosse, reportedly attempted to conceal something as police ordered her from the van. The report says she had a cell phone, cash and a gem bag with a crystal-like substance consistent with methamphetamine.

Police identified a third person in the vehicle as Shelby J. Lombard, 34, Onalaska. A search of Lombard reportedly uncovered drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine. A search of the car allegedly uncovered unused needles.

Harr was referred to the Monroe County District Attorney for possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and bail jumping. Womick was referred for possession of methamphetamine, and Lombard was referred for possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and a probation/parole violation. All three had Aug. 15 bond hearings.

In other sheriffs office news:

Ashla R. Schultz, 25, Tomah, was referred to the district attorney for allegedly causing a disturbance outside a Monroe County courtroom Aug. 8. According to the report, police encountered a woman crying and holding her face while Schultz was screaming at her. The report says Schultz refused a sheriffs deputys order to sit down and remain quiet. The woman went to the hospital and later told police that Schultz had struck her in the face and stomach. Schultz was referred for disorderly conduct and battery. She had an Aug. 12 bond hearing.

Richard Allen Rivest, 26, Ontario, and Kevin L. Rivest, 24, Birchwood, were referred to the district attorney after police responded to an Aug. 6 disturbance in the town of Sheldon. Richard Rivest allegedly hit Kevin L. Rivest over the head with a lamp, and Kevin Rivest allegedly struck Richard Rivest several times in the face. They were both referred to the district attorney for disorderly conduct and battery and had Aug. 9 bond hearings.

A 17-year-old juvenile was referred to the district attorney on multiple charges after an Aug. 7 incident in the town of Ridgeville.

Police were called to a site near the Elroy-Sparta Bike Trail for a welfare check on a person who appeared to be under the influence of drugs. Police arrived and found the juvenile lying on his back outside a bike tunnel with a metal pipe and cigarette lighter next to his feet. The report says the metal pipe had residue of synthetic marijuana. The report says the juvenile made a hand gesture that resembled a gun to the head, which police interpreted as a suicide threat. Police summoned an ambulance to the scene.

As police attempted to handcuff the juvenile, he allegedly kicked an officer and refused to put his hands behind his back once police wrestled him to the ground. The juvenile was taken to the Monroe County Jail, where he was placed under a suicide watch. He was referred to the district attorney for battery to a police officer, resisting arrest and possession of drug paraphernalia. He had an Aug. 9 bond hearing.

Clint O. Terrell, 17, Camp Douglas, was referred to the district attorney for bail jumping and contempt of court for an incident while he was incarcerated in the Monroe County Jail.

According to the report, Terrell erected his bed sheet outside his food tray slot and around his neck. When jail staff responded, Terrell laughed and allegedly said, You got them all to come running. When jail staff informed Terrell he would be moved to another cell, Terrell allegedly retreated to the back of his cell with his fists clenched and told jail staff he wouldnt move willingly. He eventually complied and was moved to a padded cell, where he was placed on suicide watch.

Diego M. Mendez, 19, Chicago, faces a potential charge of possession of intoxicating mushrooms. Mendez was a passenger in a car that was stopped for speeding shortly after midnight Aug. 12 on Interstate 94 in the town of LaGrange. A search of Mendez reportedly uncovered a baggie with small pieces of dried plant material, which has been sent to the Wisconsin Crime Lab for testing. Charges would be referred to the district attorney pending results.

Stephen Robert Earhart, 35, New Lisbon, was referred to the district attorney for hit-and-run and failure to notify police of an accident. The report says Earhart drove a vehicle that went through a guardrail and rolled over on Highway 71 east of Liberia Avenue Aug. 13.

Police made contact with Earhart at a Norwalk residence 90 minutes after discovering the vehicle. Earhart told police he struck a deer, which caused him to strike the guardrail and that he attempted to call 911. A preliminary breath test from Earhart 10 minutes after he was contacted by police registered a blood-alcohol count of .048. The legal limit is .08.
A new Amnesty International report says survivors tell of the torture of tens of thousands of political prisoners in Syria.

The report also estimates more than 17,000 people died or were killed in Syrian military prisons between March 2011 and December 2015.

An uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011. This led to a civil war that continues today.

Charges in the report, called It Breaks the Human, were based on interviews with 65 torture survivors. Most witnesses told Amnesty they had seen at least one death while in prison.

Prison 'horror'

The Director of Amnesty International for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, called the report a catalog of horror stories.

For decades, Syrian government forces have used torture as a means to crush their opponents, Luther said. Today, it is being carried out as part of a systematic and widespread attack directed against anyone suspected of opposing the government in the civilian population and amounts to crimes against humanity.

Syrian authorities have denied the charges.

The report said that abuses increased at the start of the Syrian uprising. Anyone perceived to oppose the government is at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance and death in custody, it said.

Torture during interrogations

Most detainees told Amnesty they experienced torture and other ill-treatment during almost all interrogations. The torture described included beatings, electric shock, psychological abuse and other methods.

Amnesty Syria expert Claudia Scheufler helped put the report together. She said there is much more torture now than there was in the past.

I was looking through one of our old reports from 1987. And the torture methods that we documented then are actually scarily similar to the ones that we have documented now, but obviously the scale has changed dramatically.

Sexual assaults were also reported by men and women prisoners. Witnesses said some of the sexual violence happened during so-called security checks conducted on new detainees.

The report said many beating survivors were kept alongside others who died. Witnesses said guards kept wounded prisoners in cramped, unsanitary facilities with no medical care.

[They were] hitting me everywhere After they were done beating me with the wooden sticks, they took the cigarettes. They were putting them out all over my body. It felt like a knife excavating my body, cutting me apart, said one witness.

A lawyer detainee told his story: They treated us like animals. They wanted people to be as inhuman as possible I saw the blood, it was like a river I never imagined humanity would reach such a low level they would have had no problem killing us right there and then.

Nadim Shehadi, from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said the report tells of the Syrian governments long and brutal history.

For most Syrians, Palmyra prison was where the Syrian regime perfected torture. Where people were held in the thousands, where they were forgotten. And the saying in Palmyra was that the lucky ones were dead, because life was made so horrible by the brutality of the prison.

Call for action

Amnesty urged the international community  specifically the United States and Russia - to put greatest importance on human rights abuses in any peace negotiations with Syrian authorities.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Edward Yeranian reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. Additional information came from the Associated Press. Jill Robbins 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

catalog  n. a series of documented bad events

systematic - adj. using a careful system or method or done according to a system

perceived  adj. thought of in a particular way

arbitrary  adj. not based on a system of principles, unfair

interrogation  n. to ask someone a lot of questions, often with great force

unsanitary  adj. dirty, especially in a way that is dangerous to health

scarily - adv. done in a manner that causes fear

excavate  v. to dig into or make a hole

brutal  adj. extremely cruel, harsh or violent


The human body has about 25,000 genes. Researchers already know of 65 genes they believe carry a risk for autism. Now, researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey have identified 2,500 more that could help create the conditions for autism.

The discovery is important because the genes could lead scientists toward finding a cause and, possibly, a treatment.

Autism and  Facebook?

Autism is a condition that makes it difficult for some people to communicate, learn and socialize.

Arjun Krishnan is a researcher at Princetons Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. He says researchers used what they called a machine-learning computer program to identify autism-related genes.

Krishnan explains that the program identified similarities between brain-related genes and the 65 autism-risk genes.

Then, the program looked for other genes that are friends of both sets.

He says the process is like finding friends on Facebook.

"And if Facebook wanted to find out who your friends are and wanted to suggest a friend for you, what they would do is find out who your friends are and then find out other people who are friends with those same people. And if they are, they are very likely friends of you, too. So that is how they give you suggestions of new friends you might know. We used a very, very similar strategy..."

The strategy permitted researchers to find patterns within the brains huge circuitry. It showed that having genes that are friends of both brain-related and autism-related genes can increase a persons risk for autism.

The findings can also help researchers understand why one person may be only mildly affected with autism, while another is severely affected.

Olga Troyanskaya is a professor of computer science and genomics at Princeton. She says peoples entire sets of genes influence what kinds of symptoms they have.

In other words, autism researchers need to consider not only individual genes, but also gene combinations.

Researchers still have not found a way to diagnose autism, beyond just observing the child. But they hope this new research into gene patterns will lead to a way to diagnose very young children. Then they can be helped as soon as possible.

Im Anne Ball.

Jessica Berman reported this story for VOA. Anne Ball adapted it for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

autism  n. a condition or disorder that begins in childhood and that causes problems in forming relationships and in communicating with other people

circuitry  n. a system or group of circuitsor paths

diagnose  v. to recognize a disease by examination

entire - adj. compete; not lacking any part
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- In 2005, Jesse Israel was a sophomore film student at New York University who had signed an up-and-coming college band to a record label he had co-founded out of his dorm room.



The band was MGMT. And Israel went on to run that record label, Cantora Records, for the next nine years, building it into a successful company with business partners and a Manhattan office.



Then he decided to walk away from all of it.



As the company was growing there was something inside of me  that was saying, This has been an amazing chapter in your life but its time to move on and figure out whats next, Israel, 32, told ABC News Dan Harris during an interview for his podcast, 10% Happier.



All the logic said, Stay at the company, amazing business partners, great SoHo office, company reputation is killer, money is good, but my intuition and sort of my heart was saying, Youre meant to do something else right now.... and I had no idea what I was going to do next. Zero."



The Los Angeles native took some time off to travel to Africa and then scaled back his New York City lifestyle, moving out of a Brooklyn loft into an apartment with roommates, trying to figure out his next project.



I was jumping into comparison [with my peers] at that stage in my life. It was just like instant torture, Israel said. And I had to just drop it or else I would go into these patterns, these holes. I would totally lose sight of how exciting this new phase of my life was, where I was able to give myself to exploring what I was really here to do ... [but] I had to make this choice that my lifestyle was going to change.



Israel said he looked into ways he could bring people together through shared interest, which he was already a seasoned pro at doing. About a year after he graduated college, Israel started a cheeseburger club called the Burger Boys of NYC (now retired), a sort of "mens group," Israel said, built around guys in their 20s getting together and eating cheeseburgers all over the city.



Israel went on to start a bike club called the Cyclones that grew to more than 1,000 riders. With funding and networking from the Cyclones, he helped create a bike-share program in Tanzania, an idea born from his travels when he would see children walk for miles to get school.



But by December 2014, a few months after he had left the record label, Israel was looking for his next project -- and he was running out of savings.



It was too cold to ride bikes, and then I was like, Oh, God, Im faced with the giant question mark of the unknown once again, Israel said. At that point I was asking people what they thought my greatest gifts were  because I was getting job offers that were in the music and tech world that were so incredible and I felt so lucky to be getting these offers, but I knew it wasnt what I was here to be doing anymore.



After toying with a few ideas, Israel came up with a plan to start Medi Club -- a New York City community for young adults to meet, meditate and share quiet, he said.



Israel said he started practicing meditation in 2010 as a way to relieve stress. First he tried Shambhala, a form of Buddhist meditation, for several months and then moved to Vedic meditation, a form of mantra meditation, which he practices twice a day, every day.



Meditation had been this huge piece of my young adult life  and it was one of the only consistent components of my life during this period of intense transition, he said. And I was seeing that lots of young people in my communities from the music industry, the tech house, the places I was partying in New York City; these active people that you wouldnt think would be meditating at the time were starting to learn meditation.



At the first Medi Club meeting in December 2014, Israel said they had about 23 people show up. Today, Medi Club meets once a month and they cap the admission at 150 people.



Medi Club has grown to host smaller 10-person groups called Circles on a weekly basis, Israel explained, and then a larger event in conjunction with nonprofits called Big Quiet roughly every three months, where they invite thousands of people to participate in group meditation and listen to guest speakers and performers.



Israel said they charge a range of prices for their gatherings, the lowest being $10 and the highest being $50.



[Medi Club] is essentially an events business, Israel said. But we have all sorts of ideas about how to go beyond that. This thing can scale and reach lots of people if were actually making money and putting the team to it.



Israel acknowledged that there are some who might criticize Medi Club for turning a profit off meditation, but he pointed out that there are other for-profit businesses around meditation starting to crop up. He also said he has income from a web video production company he started in college.



There are elements of [Medi Club], that people dont like, that we charge for, and I totally respect it. But its probably not for that person, he said. We actually started without charging and it didnt feel right to me. It didnt feel like we would be able to do it in a way that we feel like we need to do it  so its something Im planning on sticking by.



He added that Medi Club is still a work in progress, but he hopes to expand it to other cities around the world.



What I can see is this: People are very appreciative of what were creating and very hungry for it, he said. My belief is that if we can continue to grow this  there will be ways to support myself, to support a team, to support a global team eventually, and theres a decent amount of blind faith thats going into it. But thats how the whole thing started.

Watch the full interview below or download the 10% Happier podcast on iTunes.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Kolkata: Amid growing concerns over terrorists using the porous Indo-Bangla border, the BSF has submitted a detailed proposal to the West Bengal government about the amount of land needed for setting up fences in a highly sensitive 81.7 km area on an urgent basis.

The issue of erecting fences along the international Indo-Bangla border was in cold storage for last several years. It was taken up just months after the terror attack in Dhaka and various intelligence inputs about how the porous Indo- Bangla border is fast turning into a transit point for terrorists and cattle smugglers.

"The matter of identifying land and survey of land was held back since 2009. But recently the state government had sought detailed proposals from us regarding the amount of land that is required in the south Bengal frontier.

"We have placed a detailed report about the amount of land and alignment that is needed and other basics that is required by the BSF," Sandeep Salunke, Inspector General BSF (South Bengal frontier) told PTI.

According to Salunke, that the BSF had handed over a detailed report of land plots needed in North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad district to fence 81.7 km without delay.

Bangladesh and West Bengal share about 2,216.7 km of border.

"Out of the 915 km of border in the South Bengal frontier only 371 km is fenced. So we have sent the proposal for setting up fences in 81.7 km at an urgent basis. These areas are highly sensitive. Fencing would be an added advantage in border patrolling," a senior BSF official said.

According to state secretariat sources, the report was handed to the state chief secretary and home secretary and the process for the survey of the land has already started.

"Yes we had received a report from them. Now the state has land purchase committee, under the state owns land policy, which will look into it. The BSF will pay for the land and it will be registered under BSF only.

"The process of survey of that land and alignment has started on an war footing. The entire process will be completed very soon," a senior official of the state home department told PTI on condition of anonymity.

According to BSF and state home department sources, 67.38 km in North 24 parganas, 7.99 km in Nadia and 6.41 km in Murshidabad district need immediate fencing as these areas are fast turning into safe heavens for JMB members and other anti-socials.

The North 24 Parganas district shares nearly 241 km of international border with Bangladesh. As per state police and BSF sources, till July more than 50 Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested for illegally crossing over.

According to state government sources, the deadlock over the land issue came after there was agreement with the Bengal government's suggestion of direct land purchase by the BSF with help from the state administration.

Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given strict instructions to the police and district administration to stop cow smuggling across the international border.

According to BSF and state home department sources, the recent terror attack in Dhaka's posh Gulshan area and recent arrest of Mohammed Musiruddin (25) that has exposed the presence of the terror group in the state, particularly in the districts bordering Bangladesh including Burdwan.

"After Burdwan blast it came into light how this porous border was used by the JMB terrorists to set up their base in the state. A proper border fencing would help in checking it,"

a senior state IB official said.

Burdwan district entered the terror map in October 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices at a rented house at Khagragarh. The JMB wants to established the Sharia rule by overthrowing the democratically-elected government in Bangladesh, the NIA had stated in its charge sheet.
Patna: With the rise in level of the Ganga, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday expressed apprehension of further rise in water level by Monday in view of release of water from Bansagar dam as flood-like situation prevailed in state.

Kumar, who held a high level meeting to assess the situation, later went on an aerial survey of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Begusarai and Khagaria.

He told reporters there is at the moment no possibility of flood waters entering into Patna city.

Meanwhile, the rising water level of Ganga has more or less created flood-like situation in all the districts situated along the banks of the river in Bihar.

Ganga and six other rivers were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur, Buxar and Hajipur districts, a disaster management department statement said.

Ganga was flowing above danger mark at six places in various parts of three districts - Digha ghat, Gandhi ghat, Hathidah in Patna, Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district, Munger district and Buxar district.

The districts which are witnessing flood-like situation included - Patna, Vaishali, Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar, the department statement said.

Around 15,000 people are sheltered in 82 relief camps after being evacuated from flood affected areas, it said adding that all camps have the facilities of medical team with medicines.

Stating that several districts of Bihar have been facing the threat of inundation, Kumar said that "The water level of Ganga has increased due to release of water from Indrapuri barrage and other rivers merging into Ganga.

"Besides, a huge volume of water has been released from Bansagar dam and it is expected that water level, which has reduced, will once again rise by tonight or tomorrow morning," Kumar said.

The chief minister held Farakka dam responsible for slow discharge of water from Ganga which has become shallow due to heavy siltation. This causes flood water to spread to other areas.

He appealed to people to vacate the rivebank areas and come to relief camps which would provide them proper food and shelter.
Srinagar: One person was killed in a clash between a mob and security forces in downtown Srinagar on Sunday evening, shattering the peace that was by and large witnessed in Kashmir through the day with curfew in force in the capital and two other towns.

Irfan Ahmed was injured in a clash between stone pelters and security forces in Fateh Kadal area and he succumbed to his injuries in SMHS hospital later, a police official said.

With this, the toll during the 44-day unrest has gone up to 65, including two policemen.

Earlier, the situation was largely under control through the day with incidents of stone pelting reported only from three places  Kangan in Ganderbal and Trumgund and Behrampora in Sopore.

The miscreants assembled on roads and pelted stones on police and security forces, police spokesman said.

Apart from these incidents, "the situation remained under control across the valley till the filing of this report," he said.

Curfew was in force in the entire Srinagar district as well as in Anantnag and Pampore towns as a precautionary measure, a police official said.

He said restrictions on the movement of the people were also in force in rest of the Valley.

Shops, private offices and petrol pumps remained closed while public transport continued to be off the roads.

Mobile internet also continued to remain suspended in the entire Valley, while postpaid mobile services and incoming facility on prepaid mobiles were resumed yesterday. However, outgoing facility on prepaid services remained barred.

The separatist camp had called upon people to assemble and occupy local chowks and centers from 3 pm to 5 pm on Sunday.

The separatists have also asked the people to paste on walls the letters, asking all ministers, MLAs and MLCs from all parties to resign from government and party positions.

The separatist camp, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, has extended the agitation till 25 August.
Jammu: Hitting out at Amnesty International for hosting an event where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised in Bengaluru, displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday demanded a probe by central investigating agency into its activities in India.

They also dared the NGO to publish a report on the human rights violations and atrocities perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hijbul Mujahideen and its followers like Hizb terrorist commander Burhan Wani.

"A central investigating agency should probe into all the activities of Amnesty International for being selective in its protest against human rights violation.

"The NGO should come out and openly condemn slogans raised during the event organised by them," said RK Mattoo, Chairman of the Kashmiri Hindu Cultural Welfare Trust (KHCWT) said.

Earlier this week, the Trust had filed a complaint against the NGO for "allowing" anti-national slogans to be raised during an event organised by it on 13 August.

"Amnesty International's report titled 'Denied: Failures in accountability for human rights violations by security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir' provides a biased perspective and negatively contributes to protection of human rights in the Valley.

"So, Amnesty should immediately introspect and inquire into their report making process," Mattoo said in a statement released on Sunday.

The Trust had demanded the NGO also focus on the plight of five lakh Hindus who fled Kashmir decades ago and pursue rehabilitation of Pandits with the Indian government.

"Their reports should focus on the three lakh Sikhs under threat by separatists in the Valley and the victims in Shopian incident, where more than 2,000 Kashmiri Pandits employees were tortured and forced to flee and their reports should reflect on the bloodbath and terror unleashed by separatists in the Valley," he said.

Questioning the neutrality of Amnesty, Mattoo narrated the sequence of events that lead to sloganeering.

"The programme was initially not designed to include the voices of the Kashmiri Pandits. But after I questioned them through my Facebook post, they invited me to speak.

"I spoke on the exodus of five lakh Kashmiri pundits after brutal killing of around 800 of them by Islamic militants in 1989-90," he claimed.

"My positive remarks about the Indian Army was shouted down by some people in the audience. And chaos followed," alleged Mattoo.
Kannur: A 27 year-old BJP worker died when a country bomb which he was allegedly making exploded at his residence in Koothuparambu on Sunday, police said.

Deekshit was seriously injured in the blast and died while being rushed to a hospital, they said.

The roof of the house where he was "making" the bomb was destroyed in the blast, they further said.
Hyderabad: A day after Rahul Gandhi's veiled attack on the BJP and Sangh Parivar, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday blasted him saying one who expresses solidarity with extremists, fundamentalists and communalists was trying to preach about the unity of the country despite having "no moral right" to do so.

Terming Rahul's remarks as "the pot calling the kettle black", Naidu also lashed out at the Congress and said its politics of appeasement and vote bank has widened the divide between majority and minority. He also asked why the party has encouraged fundamentalist and communal forces.

Holding Congress responsible for complicating the Kashmir issue, the senior BJP leader accused it of being hard on nationalists, while going soft on terrorists.

Yesterday, while addressing a function in New Delhi, Rahul had made a veiled attack on the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, saying there are forces which are "promoting" disharmony and are seeking a "divided and divisive" India.

Taking a strong exception to the remarks, Naidu said the Narendra Modi-led government was trying to bring social harmony and focusing on oneness in nation.

"The remarks are like the pot calling the kettle black. It is the Congress party which has preached, practiced divisive politics in the country in last 50 years and it has always encouraged fundamentalist forces and communal elements. It has thrived its politics on caste, region and religion," he alleged.

"It is divisive politics coupled with vote bank politics practiced by Congress that has brought our country to the present situation," Naidu alleged.

"It is the appeasement politics of Congress that has widened the divide between majority and minority, though nothing worthwhile has been done to minorities...and it is the legacy of the Congress regime that has complicated the Kashmir issue," he said.

"Don't raise an accusing finger against the BJP, it will boomerang on you. You have played vote bank politics; you never bothered to bring unity in the minds of the people; you have ruled the country for more than 50 years and ruined the country. How dare you criticise our ideology, you have no moral right to do that," Naidu said.

Questioning Congress on what social harmony that the party has brought in all these years, Naidu asked who is responsible for the present state of affairs right from the practice of untouchability, to social disharmony amongst the people.

"It is your politics, it is your divisive agenda which is responsible for the present situation," he said.
Panaji: A day after BJP chief Amit Shah addressed a gathering near Panaji, Goa Congress on Sunday alleged that he seems to be ignorant about the corruption prevailing in the BJP-led state, which is why he promised to provide a graft-free government if the party is voted to power in Goa.

"Kicking off the election campaign, Amit Shah made a statement that only the BJP can give Goa a corruption-free government, therefore BJP should be elected again. This shows that he is either ignorant about what is going on in the state or being misguided by local leaders or he knows everything, but is trying to fool the people," Congress Goa spokesperson Trajano D'Mello told a press conference on Sunday.

"The BJP chief has failed to accept that corruption is at its peak in Goa," he said.

He said Shah failed to show a single remarkable achievement of the BJP government in Goa as promised in the 2012 manifesto.

Shah addressed a gathering of booth-level BJP workers near Panaji, kicking off the party's campaign for Assembly on Saturday.

"It appeared that Amit Shahji has kick-started the Lok Sabha elections rather than the Assembly elections as he failed to touch the burning issues," the spokesman said.

The BJP chief failed to express why Goan people should give BJP a second chance when he together with Manohar Parrikar and Laxmikant Parsekar have failed to convince people that they have fulfilled all the promises of the 2012 manifesto.

"This government promised that the economy would be improved, but on the contrary loan worth crores of rupees was taken. Doles are being given and on the other side squeezing on electricity and water bills. Dole of Rs 1,500 and taxes of Rs 3,000," the spokesman said.
Mangaluru: BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday said nationalism was being questioned in the name of freedom of expression and "propaganda" against nationalism could not be considered as freedom of speech.

"It has become a fashion for some people nowadays to question nationalism. This is being done in different places and new theories are being planted.

"Nationalism is being questioned in the name of freedom of expression," he said, addressing a gathering at Mangalore University auditorium as part of BJP's 'Tiranga Yatra' and 'Balidana Smarane' (honouring martyrs) campaign in Mangaluru.

Shah said, "Some people were also campaigning on social media on whether nationalism was necessary or not" and that he would like to tell them that independence would not have taken place if there was no love for the national and patriotism.

"The propaganda against nationalism could not be considered as freedom of speech," he said.

"The entire nation should unite to uphold patriotism. Freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and many more sacrificed their lives for the country," he said.

Shah appealed to the youth to read the history of the country and understand how many people sacrificed their lives for it.

The programmes were being organised to pay tribute to the freedom fighters, to inspire the youth to follow in their path and to remind the youth that the independence the country achieved was because of the sacrifice of lakhs of people, he said.

"This should be an inspiration to the youth to live their life for the country. To live for the nation was the message of this Yatra," he said.

Shah also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his foreign policy has emphasised on trade along with culture. The economy of the nation was moving in the right direction, he added.
New Delhi: With Kashmir in turmoil, a delegation of opposition parties from the state will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to impress upon him the need for finding a "political solution" to the crisis by initiating a dialogue with "all stakeholders".

The delegation led by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of the National Conference will apprise Modi of the ground situation in the state, which is in the grip of a prolonged spell of violence and lockdown since the gunning down of militant commander Burhan Wani by security forces on 8 July, and highlight the plight of Kashmiri people.

The delegation will include CPI-M MLA Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, state Congress President GA Mir, senior leaders of National Conference and some Independent MLAs.

Sources in the opposition parties that would comprise the delegation said it would request the Prime Minister to impress upon the state government to stop dealing with the situation "administratively" as it was leading to "unprecedented disaffection", especially among the youth.

It would underscore the need to initiate a "credible and meaningful" dialogue with "all stakeholders" to bring an end to the unrest without "further waste of time", sources said.

The delegation would bring up the issue of use of pellet guns by security forces which has caused injuries to civilians on a large scale and pitch for an end to "mass harassment, raids and arrests" as these have worsened an already volatile situation in the state.

With the unrest in Kashmir showing no signs of abating, leaders of opposition parties ed by Omar had yesterday called on President Pranab Mukherjee and requested him to urge the Modi government to find a political solution to it.

The visit to the President followed a meeting chaired the 46-year-old Omar where serious concern was voiced about the turmoil spreading to other parts of the state including Jammu and Kargil.

The former Chief Minister, who was also accompanied by senior leaders of NC including Nasir Wani, Davinder Rana, Ali Mohammed Sagar and AR Rather, had on Saturday said, "The fire that has been raging in Kashmir Valley has already started spreading across Peer Panjal and Chenab Valley in Jammu region and Kargil area."
Panaji: Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday asserted that the real fight in the upcoming Goa Assembly polls would be between AAP and the ruling BJP, claiming Congress would not be able to win even a single seat in the 40-member House.

He alleged that BJP wants to win Goa just "to make money," and in the upcoming polls, people of Goa will vote in favour of the "honest" party.

Kejriwal, while talking to reporters after addressing the gathering of SC/ST community members at Quepem village in south Goa, also took a potshot at BJP saying that since the saffron party is afraid of losing Goa, its chief Amit Shah held a public meeting in Panaji instead of going to Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

"Congress would be completely wiped out from Goa and would not win even a single seat. The straight fight is between BJP and AAP," Kejriwal said while appealing people not to "waste" their vote by supporting Congress.

"As far as BJP is concerned, people rallied behind the party during the 2012 Goa polls. Voters who would not vote for BJP even in their dreams, supported the party because they felt Manohar Parrikar would make a difference. But in the last five years, BJP has cheated the people. The party has turned out to be worse than Congress," he said.

Amit Shah was in Goa yesterday to launch BJP's election campaign for the Assembly polls due next year.

The Delhi chief minister said Shah does not have a connect with the people of the state.

"He came, addressed a gathering and went. He did not meet people. AAP is meeting people. BJP wants to win Goa to make money," Kejriwal claimed.

He said even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid of losing the party's hold in the state.

"You must have heard that when Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar went to meet him (Modi) in Delhi, he was enquiring about the response to my rally in Goa. What does this indicate?," Kejriwal said.

He said the kind of energy that is visible in Goa is the same that was in Delhi before it went to polls.

Taking a dig at BJP leaders, Kejriwal pointed out that during his meeting in the state Shah claimed that Delhi has not seen development in AAP regime.

"I challenge Shah, Parrikar and Parsekar to come to Delhi. I will take them around mohalla clinics and polyclinics. I will show them what development AAP has done. On the other hand, let BJP show me what development they have done in Goa. I can't see anything happening here," he said.
Baghdad: Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits, officials said.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where up to 1,700 recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group.

"The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison," a spokesman for the governor's office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, told AFP.

"The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions," Abdelhassan Dawood said.

"They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions," he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum.

Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases.

The Dhiqar governor confirmed to AFP that the executions were carried out by hanging.

His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq's south.

"Tens of relatives attended the executions," said Dawood. "They shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), they were happy to see those people dead."

The trials that have led to Iraq's latest batches of death sentences have been severely criticised by rights groups as failing to meet basic standards.

Amnesty International had slammed Iraq's systematic resort to the death penalty following the execution of 22 other people in May this year.

"The use of the death penalty is deplorable in all circumstances, and it is particularly horrendous when applied after grossly unfair trials marred by allegations of confessions extracted under torture as is frequently the case in Iraq," the group's Iraq researcher Diana Eltahawy said.

The United Nations had criticised Abadi's call to speed up executions, which according to Amnesty already topped 100 for 2016 before Sunday's hangings.

"Fast-tracking executions will only accelerate injustice," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said earlier this month.

The Speicher massacre is considered one of IS' worst crimes since it took over large parts of the country in 2014.

Combined with a call by the country's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to take up arms against them, the Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass recruitment of Shiite volunteers to fight the jihadists.
Ankara: At least 30 people were killed and dozens more wounded late on Saturday in an attack possibly carried out by a suicide bomber on a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, officials said.

The explosion is the latest attack to have rocked the key Nato member in a horrific year that has seen a string of strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody 15 July botched coup.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 30 people had been killed and 94 wounded in "an abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding".

A previous toll had put the number of dead at 22.

"We condemn the traitors who organised and carried out this attack," he said, vowing that those responsible would be "brought to account".

Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said it was not clear who was responsible for the explosion but there was a "high possibility" it was a suicide attack.

The lawmaker added that it was the type of attack that could have been launched by the Islamic State (IS) group or the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

'IS the culprit'

The explosion took place in the Sahinbey district of the city which is said to have a large number of Kurdish residents, fuelling speculation of Islamic State (IS) jihadist involvement. Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence.

"Initial information suggests it is Daesh (IS) who did this," Gaziantep MP for the AKP, Samil Tayyar, was reported as saying by Dogan news agency.

He added: "It is an area where many of our Kurdish brothers live."

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.

"The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament, adding that a suicide bombing was the likely cause.

A major city lying just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Images from the scene showed bodies covered in white sheets while distraught relatives of the victims were comforted in the street.

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara in deadly attacks, while IS suicide bombers have twice killed tourists in the centre of Istanbul.

Meanwhile the country is still reeling from a failed 15 July coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his supporters from all state institutions.

Twelve people were killed on Thursday in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup.

As has been the case in previous attacks, Turkey's broadcasting regulator RTUK banned broadcast of footage from the scene of the attack in Gaziantep.

Information and Communication Agency (BTK) head Omer Fatih Sayan told state-run Anadolu news agency that those sharing images of the bombing would face prosecution.

'More active Turkey'

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the over five-year Syrian civil war.

In a sign that Turkey's position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russia and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.

Iran and Russia are the main allies of Assad whereas Turkey has always insisted his exit was a precondition for the end of the conflict.

Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of IS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies.

However Western states say Ankara has begun to move strongly against the group and seal its borders to jihadist traffic after the attacks blamed on IS on its soil this year.
VIROQUA  U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin heard alarming testimony from Vernon County officials at a round table discussion about heroin and opioid drug abuse.

The Wisconsin Democrat spent an hour talking first about her efforts in Congress on the Jason Simcakoski Promise Act  bipartisan legislation that promotes the responsible, measured prescription of opioid painkillers.

Baldwin said her visit to Vernon County was specifically to hear more to inform my work as I go back to (Washington, D.C.).

Health, law enforcement, local government and judicial representatives agreed opioid abuse is a growing problem.

Viroqua Police Chief Daron Jefson said his department was dealing with an overdose death earlier this month. The syringe was still in the drug users hand.

We learned this same person had overdosed on July third in La Crosse and then one other time since then before their death, Jefson said. We are seeing multiple overdoses ... Its getting worse and worse.

Jefson said of particular concern were false reports of stolen prescriptions, by which prescription drug abuser get new prescriptions just days after an initial prescription is written.

Someone abusing drugs and getting two long-term painkiller prescriptions within days could really go on a tizzy then, Jefson said.

Baldwin said a balance has to be struck with the medical truth that opioid prescription drugs are a necessary, useful treatment for pain. She said since 2000, measuring pain and treating pain has become a vital statistic measured by medical professionals. The key is looking at the duration of a prescription and shortening it.

Baldwin said recent new guidelines for opioid prescriptions by the Center for Disease Control have become the gold standard for medical professionals and the federal government has supported reforming how it is addressing the national epidemics of prescription opioid and illegal heroin trade through the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, passed by Congress this year.

CARA is an important first step at the federal level, Baldwin said.

A number of local professionals including Sharon Williams of the Vernon County Department of Human Services, Paul Schmidt of Center Point Counseling Services and Vernon County Coroner Janet Reed echoed concerns about number of different treatment options that are impractical or difficult due to lack of money.

Schmidt said that drug addicts who are on federal medical assistance as their primary health payment method actually cause health care providers to lose between $12 and $15 an hour because the reimbursement rate is so low.

Schmidt said one such provider closed due to lack of funding in the Prairie du Chien area.

Reed said Monroe County is a big hotbed for drugs when it comes to heroin and other illicit drugs. Vernon County Lt. Deputy Jason Crume said that in addition to opioid drugs, there continues to be a steady growth in the abuse of methamphetamine.

Vernon County District Attorney Timothy Gaskell said drug abuse continues to cause untold collateral damage as it affects children and families.

My greatest concern is for children who try it once and are hooked because its such a high, Gaskell said of heroin and methamphetamine. What I would like to echo from what Ive heard is that we have a strong community of professionals who are trying to address the issue.

Baldwin was heartened by what she learned.

I suspected I would hear a lot about the need for resources, Baldwin said, noting a sense that all those at the table were working together.

This is an emergency like the Zika virus or the Ebola virus, Baldwin said, pointing out that lives are being lost.

My greatest concern is for children who try (heroin or methamphetamine) once and are hooked because its such a high. Timothy Gaskell, Vernon County district attorney
MILLSTON  The marshes of eastern Jackson County  remnants of a prehistoric inland sea called Glacial Lake Wisconsin  are home to one of the states most unusual crops. From late spring until late fall, harvest of long-fibered sphagnum moss takes place in Jackson County, the largest producer of the horticulture product in the United States.

My dad called it Wisconsins silent industry, said David Epstein, owner of Mosser Lee of Millston, Wisconsin.

Epsteins grandfather William, his father, Lewis, and uncle Max began the company in 1932. This year the company will ship an estimated 50,000 3.5-cubic-foot bales of moss  worth between $1 million and $2 million  to horticultural businesses all over the country and to Europe. Chile and New Zealand are the two other main producers of long-fibered sphagnum moss; they primarily serve the Asian market.

When the glaciers from the last ice age melted some 14,000 years ago, they left behind swamps and marshland in eastern Jackson County  plus parts of Monroe, Clark and Juneau counties  where long-fibered sphagnum moss grew and flourished. Its ability to retain water at 20 times its weight and its antibacterial qualities were well-known to Native Americans.

The moss also regenerates itself. Marshes are carefully harvested every seven to 10 years. Epstein said his company has never had a marsh go fallow in 85 years. Most of them are on public land and are regulated by the Jackson County Forestry and Parks, which oversees the bidding process that harvesters go through.

Marshes are complicated ecosystems; moss helps sustain them. Mossers rake moss by hand or by machine, breaking it off at the soil line. That allows the perennial plant to continue to propagate through sporing.

Jim Zahasky, Jackson County Forestry director, said the county opened 61 acres of marshes for moss harvesting this year, although the average is about 50 acres. Most bids go to Mosser Lees parent company, Deli Inc., and to Hancock Brothers, a family business in nearby Warrens, Wisconsin.

Once in a while we will have a small producer purchase a marsh that still pulls by hand, Zahasky said.

Epstein and company president Guy Huus recently took me to a harvest in process at Marsh 50 in the town of City Point, Wis. Dozens of boats  basically flat sleds built with oak  were loaded with moss. The boats are pulled across the marsh by old tractors equipped with wooden tracks that allow them to travel across the spongy surface without damaging the marsh.

Mosser Lee has a custom-built pulling machine that it uses to harvest the moss, but on this day it was in the shop for repairs. But the show goes on, so mossers still have their forks to harvest by hand, which is necessary near the edge of the marsh where the machines cant reach.

The marsh was surprisingly solid, and my muck boots sank in only a few inches. Underfoot was layer upon layer of decomposed sphagnum moss that had formed peat. Along with the moss the marsh was also thick with wild cranberries, which are separated along with any weeds from the final product.

The loaded boats are emptied on dry land and trucked to the drying plant, which is a large sandy field. Similar to hay, the moss is spread out in windrows, allowed to dry under the hot sun and then taken into a shed, where it is compressed into bales  all done by hand. Huus said the companys employments peaks at about 40 during harvest season.

In charge of the harvest at Marsh 50 is Mark Zillmer, who has mossed for about 35 years. Zillmer left the businesses for a few years to run a resort in South Dakota but came back when the Great Recession hit.

This is where I belong, Zillmer said, sloshing barefoot through the marsh.

While his co-workers wear boots, Zillmer said he quit wearing them a few years ago. Using a fork with curved tines, Zillmer smoothly worked his way through a patch of moss, neatly dropping it on the boat. Its back-breaking work, especially under the hot summer sun with biting flies. Even with the harvesting machine, its still hard to find mossers, Epstein said.

The best people to hire are from farms, who understand hard work, he said.

Workers start at about $10 an hour; Epstein said his company usually loses employees to the nearby cranberry industry when its fall harvest begins. About 75 percent of the companys moss comes from its own workers, but there are still a few individuals who can make $20,000 to $25,000 a year by hand-pulling moss. A proficient hand-puller can do about 100 bales a day.

Epstein said they once mossed marshes owned by the state, but the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources stopped the practice in the 1990s. He said some of those marshes are now overgrown with invasive weeds and tamarack.

Long-fibered sphagnum moss has been used for bandages and for purifying water, but most of its use today is in the horticulture industry for seed germination, orchid propagation and hanging baskets. Epstein said his moss lines decorative flower baskets in Chicago. Home Depot and Lowes are two of his larger customers.

Epstein said moss is used as a natural scrubber in coal-fired electrical plants, removing mercury emissions. He said its also ground up and mixed with iron as a supplement for baby pigs born anemic.

No one can predict the future, but Epstein said business is growing and research continues. We may yet find new uses for a prehistoric product that has grown for millions of years.
Chinese planes and ships held war games in the Sea of Japan last week, the military said, during which Beijing displayed its latest-generation frigate at a time of bitter territorial disputes with Asian neighbors.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website this weekend that the long-range exercises staged Friday pitted a red army against a blue one in a simulated bomber attack on a naval task force.

It quoted the commander of an unidentified flight wing under the East Sea Fleet, Zhang Wenzhong, as saying the planes found, identified and struck their targets in a radically short time.

The statement made no mention of what sort of conflict the exercise was intended as a response to, prospective foes or why the Sea of Japan was chosen as the location of the drills. However, China has grown increasingly assertive over its claim to a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan, recently dispatching more than a dozen coast guard vessels as Chinese fishing vessels swarmed the surrounding waters.

The ministry said the main ships involved in the exercise were the Jingzhou, a latest-generation type 054A class stealth frigate of which China is planning to deploy more than two dozen, and the type 052C destroyer Xian.

The ministry said aircraft were guided to their targets with the aid of early warning planes.

Other types of aircraft involved werent identified, although China has been touting the capabilities of its latest-generation long-range H-6K strategic bomber equipped with the DH-20 land-attack cruise missile, giving it the ability to hit targets as far away as Australia. Only Russia and the U.S. are currently able to launch cruise missiles from the air.

Along with its island dispute with Japan, China is involved in an intense rivalry with the U.S. over military dominance in the region. Tensions in the South China Sea have also risen after China refused to accept an international arbitration panels ruling invalidating its claim to virtually the entire strategic water body.

China plans joint naval exercises with Russia in the South China Sea next month, a move criticized by the head of the U.S. Pacific fleet as increasing instability in the region. Christopher Bodeen, Beijing, AP
The worlds largest bloc of Muslim countries expressed concern over alleged human rights violations in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which has seen weeks of deadly clashes between Muslim protesters and police.

Iyad Madani, secretary-general of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, said at a news conference in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad that the situation in Kashmir was deteriorating and urged the international community to act.

The situation is getting worse rather than better and this cannot continue, Madani said after meeting with Sartaj Aziz, the foreign affairs adviser to Pakistans prime minister.

Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region, is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both. Most Kashmiris want an end to Indian rule and favor independence or a merger with Pakistan, which has long called for a referendum on the regions future. Hindu-majority India has refused to hold such a vote.

We should not be afraid of referendum, Madani said, adding that it was up to the Kashmiri people to decide their future.

Standing next to him at the news conference, Aziz accused Indian forces of using lethal force against Kashmiris protesting peacefully over extrajudicial killings. He said a peaceful solution to the dispute over the region is an imperative for regional peace and stability.

More than 68,000 people have been killed since rebel groups began fighting Indian forces in 1989 and in the subsequent Indian military crackdown. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.

Meanwhile, a Kashmiri couple in their late 70s was injured in firing by Indian forces who have intensified nocturnal raids to arrest protesters in the region, police said Saturday.

The husband and wife were injured Friday night by pellets from a shotgun fired as they tried to resist a police party looking for one of their sons for allegedly leading anti-India protests in the southern Tral area, police and locals said.

A police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy said the raiding party accidently fired at the couple and regretted the incident.

In signs of an intensified crackdown against protesters in Indian-held Kashmir since last week, local residents have increasingly accused counterinsurgency police and army soldiers of systematically raiding neighborhoods, ransacking houses and beating residents to intimidate protesters.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested for participating in protests and clashes in recent weeks, state government officials said.

Earlier in the week, Indian army soldiers beat a young college teacher to death and injured dozens of other people in a raid in the southern Khrew area. The army later said that it regretted the incident.

A security lockdown and protest strikes have shut the Indian portion of Kashmir since the killing of a popular rebel commander on July 8 sparked some of Kashmirs largest protests against Indian rule in recent years.

A strict curfew and a series of communication blackouts have failed to stop the protests, as residents have struggled to cope with shortages of food, medicine and other necessities.

At least 63 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in protest-related violence. Munir Ahmed, Islamabad, AP
Iraq yesterday executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State groups massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014, officials said.

The men were hanged at the Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq, according to provincial Gov. Yahya al-Nasiri. A Justice Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, confirmed the executions.

IS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after seizing Saddam Husseins hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base just outside the northern city. Shortly after taking Tikrit, IS posted graphic images of gunmen shooting the men dead after forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch.

The Speicher massacre sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against IS, a Sunni extremist group. The militias now rival the power of Iraqs conventional armed forces.

Iraqi forces arrested dozens of men allegedly linked to the massacre after retaking Tikrit in 2015 with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes. The men executed yesterday were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court earlier this year.

The head of the provincial council in Salahuddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, criticized the judicial process, saying some of the men executed had been tortured to extract confessions.

Some of them were not even present at the scene of the crime, Ahmed al-Karim told The Associated Press. We support the death penalty for those who committed crimes, but the use of violence and torture [in Iraqi prisons] should be investigated.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to fast-track the implementation of death sentences following a series of large-scale bombings in and around Baghdad in recent months.

The United Nations criticized that policy earlier this month, saying that given the weakness of the Iraqi justice system, the rushed sentences risk causing greater injustice.

Iraq ranks among the top five countries in the world in the use of capital punishment, according to figures compiled by the rights group Amnesty International. Qassim Abdul-Zahra, AP
An Islamic State group suicide bomber as young as 12 years old attacked an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens of others, the Turkish president said yesterday.

The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep, near Turkeys border with Syria, was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking live on national television in front of Istanbuls city hall, said the attacker was aged between 12 and 14. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

It was clear that Daesh had such an organization in Gaziantep or was attempting to make room for itself in recent times, Erdogan said, using an alternative acronym for IS. Many intensive operations were conducted, are being conducted. Of course our security forces will be conducting these operations with even greater intensity.

A bus driver who shuttled some of the guests from Siirt to Gaziantep said that he couldnt believe the party was targeted.

This was a wedding party. Just a regular wedding party, Hamdullah Ceyhan told the state-run Anadolu Agency. This attack was deplorable. How did they do such a thing?

The bride and groom werent in life-threatening condition and were undergoing treatment, Anadolu reported. The grooms sister and uncle were among the dead, the agency reported.

Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year that have either been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party  known by its acronym PKK  or were blamed on IS. In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkeys capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims.

The attack comes as the country is still reeling from last months failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Gulen denies any involvement.

Earlier, Erdogan said there was absolutely no difference between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulens movement, calling them terrorist groups.

These bloodthirsty organizations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation, he added.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  yearlong peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

In Gaziantep, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and the countrys health minister visited the wounded and inspected the site of the attack.

This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism, he told reporters. We [] are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing, which he said turned a wedding party into a place of mourning and he vowed to prevail over the devilish attacks.

Opposition parties have also denounced the attack. The main opposition Republican Peoples Party will be holding an emergency meeting in the late afternoon and a delegation was being sent to Gaziantep by the Nationalist Movement Party. Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party will be holding a protest against the attack in Istanbul.

Foreign governments, including the U.S., Sweden, Greece, France, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan, have condemned the attack.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in.

Hundreds of residents had gathered near the site chanting Allah is great as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Turkish authorities issued a media blackout on coverage of the attack until the investigation is completed. Cinar Kiper, Istanbul, AP
Spending by tourists decreased by 4.5 percent during the second quarter of this year when compared year-on-year with the same period of last year, as reported by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), after analyzing the results of a visitor expenditure survey.

According to the report, the total spending (excluding gaming expenses) amounted to MOP11.70 billion, which is MOP550 million less than that in 2015.

An approximate decrease of same-day visitors by 10 percent is one of the contributing factors for the reduction in spending. According to the data, the spending in Q2 has registered a slight raise (1.4 percent) when compared with the figures recorded in Q1 (MOP11.54 billion).

The Q2 per-capita spending of visitors was of MOP1,601, with the biggest decrease due to a drop in tourists arriving from Fujian Province by 31.1 percent.

On the other hand, per-capita spending of visitors from Japan (MOP1,731), Malaysia (MOP1,657), Hong Kong (MOP955) and Taiwan (MOP1,548) increased by 12.1, 10.1, 9.8 and 12.7 percent respectively.

The report also highlights that visitors have spent their money mostly on shopping (43.4 percent), accommodation (26.8 percent) and food & beverage (20.9 percent).

As for the areas that suggested most dissatisfaction from tourists, environmental hygiene and public facilities are still topping the list, being accountable respectively for 78.4 percent and 67 percent of complaints. RM
Officials in the U.S. are investigating a Beijing businessman who they suspect might be operating as a Chinese intelligence agent linked to Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng. The latest information on the case comes from the transcript of an FBI interview filed in court earlier this month.

Ng is currently standing trial in New York on allegations that he fueled a bribery scandal incriminating the recently deceased former General Assembly president, John Ashe, in return for the sponsorship of a UN conference center in Macau that would serve as the billionaires legacy.

Last year, when Ng was arrested and confined to his New York City apartment after a USD50 million (about MOP400 million) bail, he was asked by FBI agents whether he knew if his business associate Qin Fei was in any way involved with Chinese intelligence services. Ng said he did not know, admitting only that Qin was a consultant at his company, Sun Kian Ip Group.

Qin had been traveling with Ng when the latter was arrested last year, but subsequently returned to China, according to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article.

However, prosecutors believe the links go deeper than Ng suggests. They suspect that Qin was involved in directing Ngs activities in the U.S., acting as his handler, and frequently traveling with the casino magnate on his trips to the country.

According to the WSJ article, people with information on the matter claim that Qin, the suspected agent, is a mysterious individual.

Qin has emerged as a shadowy figure in the case, according to people familiar with the matter, and little is known about him. People who live near a Long Island mansion, which public records indicate he bought almost two years ago, say they have never seen him [there], with one person saying [Qin] hasnt even removed the cover from the fountain in his front yard, the report read.

Furthermore, the WSJ reported that the suspected Chinese agent treated Ng as a subordinate despite the fact that he is older than Qin. The suspected agent is believed to be 54-years-old, while Ng is 68, according to a U.S. government document.

Qin would direct Mr. Ng to fly his private jet from the Chinese gambling haven of Macau to Beijing to pick him up for trips to the U.S., order Mr. Ng to carry his luggage, and complain that he walked too slowly, the WSJ cited an informant.

Little public information exists on Qin even in China. Corporate records list him as the partial owner of a Beijing-

based company, which was set up in 2000 with a registered capital of RMB50 million (MOP 60.3 million) and seven employees. Ng is registered as the companys legal representative.

Ng and his assistant Jeff Yin were both arrested in the U.S. last year, on charges that they had made false statements about the purpose of USD4.5 million (MOP36 million) brought into the country from China, which the casino mogul had initially stated was to be used for gambling, real estate purposes, and for purchasing art and antiques.

According to prosecutors, it may have instead been used to renovate the house of Business Associate-2, who may have been Qin, who at that time was looking to renovate his USD10 million (MOP80 million) Long Island mansion, according to a Reuters report on Friday.

Additionally, the Macau billionaire is being accused of being involved in a UN bribery scheme, which allegedly involves staff at the highest tiers of the international organization, as well as multiple departments such as the recently revealed United Nations Development Program.

His company has been tied to a USD1.5 million (MOP12 million) donation to the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, which focuses on promoting collaboration among developing countries, particularly in the southern hemisphere.

Most infamously however, Ng is accused of giving former General Assembly president John Ashe over USD500,000 (almost MOP4 million) in exchange for, among other things, a conference center that his company would develop.

Ashe died in June awaiting trial, due to physical injuries during a weightlifting accident. The official cause of death was traumatic asphyxia [] while lifting a barbell on a bench.

Meanwhile, Ngs lawyers have alleged in court papers that the investigation into the Macau billionaire is being inappropriately piloted by a state-sanctioned U.S. geopolitical interest in slowing the progress of Chinese influence over developing nations.

The Clinton-China affair

The relationship between the Clintons, China and prominent Chinese businessman Ng Lap Seng is one that dates back decades, with the latter allegedly involved in misconduct that occurred during the presidential administration of Bill Clinton.

Macau billionaire Ng was famously involved in a fundraising scandal in the 1990s, involving the Democratic presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.

He was the alleged secret source of foreign money in a campaign scandal during the Clinton administration, that was channeled through an Arkansas restaurant owner, Charlie Trie, to the Democratic National Committee.

Trie, a friend of then-president Bill Clinton, became acquainted with Ng in 1994, before making a USD100,000 donation later in the year, even though he had never made any comparable contribution before and had no apparent wealth. In total, more than USD1 million was funneled through Trie, allegedly backed by Ngs finances.

Ng, who has close ties to the Chinese government and is listed as a member of a senior advisory group, the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, was not charged with a crime during the investigation.

Meanwhile, Trie, an American citizen, pleaded guilty to violating U.S. campaign financing regulations.

The link between the Clintons and Ng is also highlighted by the fact that the Chinese businessman visited the White House 10 times over a two-year period between June 1994 and October 1996. DB
TWIN FALLS  A Washington mother with ties to a Sinaloa drug cartel who trafficked large quantities of methamphetamine into the Magic Valley with her 12-year-old son pleaded guilty to federal drug charges last month, but not before leading police to several of her Magic Valley buyers and a stash house in Washington full of drugs and weapons.

A federal judge this week accepted the guilty pleas of both the mother, 34-year-old Brenda Trinidad Jaime-Sainz, of Yakima, Wash., and one of her Magic Valley buyers, 32-year-old Mauro Morales-Jimenez, of Buhl.

Both were indicted by a federal grand jury in May on charges of distribution, possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Morales-Jimenez was also indicted on a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien.

Court documents describe the pair as large-scale suppliers of drugs who were well-armed, flush with cash and likely part of a larger operation connected to Mexican drug cartels. Documents from Twin Falls County, Gooding County and U.S. District court show Jaime-Sainz brought large quantities of methamphetamine to Idaho from Washington and sold it at whole sale prices to several buyers, including Morales-Jimenez, who operated out of a Wendell storage shed.

Court documents also show the operation to bust the duo included confidential informants, undercover cops, secret GPS tracking devices and an impromptu sting operation in which Jaime-Sainz helped officers capture Morales-Jimenez.

Last month, Jaime-Sainz pleaded guilty to three of her charges while Morales-Jimenez pleaded guilty to two drug charges. Terms of their plea agreements are sealed, but a federal judge this week signed orders accepting the guilty pleas and the terms of their plea deals. Each drug charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

New details of the investigation

In April, a confidential informant and an undercover Idaho State Police detective each bought a pound of methamphetamine from Jaime-Sainz, who was with her 12-year-old son, outside a Twin Falls restaurant on Blue Lakes Boulevard North.

In a new detail revealed in federal court documents, it was Jaime-Sainzs son who handed the methamphetamine to the undercover detective and took the money from him.

The same night of that sale, April 17, police attached a GPS tracking device to Jaime-Sainzs car. The next day, they tracked her to a storage shed in Wendell, where Morales-Jimenez paid her $52,000 for methamphetamine she previously delivered to him. Investigators later learned Morales-Jimenez paid Jaime-Sainz $4,500 per pound of methamphetamine she delivered, and that he owed her $90,000, meaning she had delivered at least 20 pounds to him on previous occasions.

But the GPS device didnt just lead investigators to Morales-Jimenez and his Wendell storage shed  it also led them to a stash house in Yakima where prosecutors say Jaime-Sainz went at least six times in April.

DEA agents later raided the stash house, seizing more than two pounds of heroin, a pound of methamphetamine, cocaine and drug scales, court documents said. They also found body armor, an AK-47 style rifle, a .38-caliber revolver, a .357-caliber revolver and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

As for Jaime-Sainz, she was arrested April 23 in Payette County shortly after she crossed from Oregon into Idaho on Interstate 84. Police were tracking her movements using the GPS device and found 10 pounds of methamphetamine in the trunk of her car. She was again accompanied by her son, who was taken into custody by child protection services.

Jaime-Sainz was taken to ISP headquarters in Jerome where she told detectives six pounds of the methamphetamine was bound for Morales-Jimenez, a regular customer. Jaime-Sainz agreed to help police in a sting operation by following through with the sale of the drugs to Morales-Jimenez under the supervision of undercover detectives.

Accompanied by an undercover Blaine County Sheriffs detective April 23, Jaime-Sainz met with Morales-Jimenez at a Wendell storage facility and exchanged six pounds of methamphetamine for a large amount of U.S. currency. After the purchase was complete, the undercover Blaine County detective alerted other officers who raided the storage shed and arrested Morales-Jimenez.

Inside the shed, officers found $16,500, a drug ledger, a Glock .40-caliber pistol, a Marlin .22-caliber rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun with the serial number removed, court documents said. Officers said Morales-Jimenez, a non-U.S. citizen who likely faces deportation for his conviction, does not have a permanent residence but was living in the Siesta Motel in Buhl.

Since the federal indictment, Jaime-Sainz has also told investigators the names of some of her other Magic Valley buyers, court documents said.

The pair will be sentenced Oct. 17.
TWIN FALLS  The Twin Falls Police Department is seeking service-minded individuals to fill several vacancies within the department.

TFPD is two officers short of its maximum allotted positions, and with routine turn-over, it expects to be looking for more recruits by the time the two new officers are fully trained and integrated into the department.

We have 74 openings for sworn officers and currently have 72, city spokesman Joshua Palmer said. Were actively hiring for two new officers, but because of the time it takes, by the time we have those officers in, we know well have retirements and officers leaving for other jobs.

There are some basic, standard requirements that all candidates must meet: they must be at least 21, must be a high-school graduate or equivalent, must be able to pass an extensive background check and must pass psychological and physical fitness examinations.

But even beyond that, Palmer said, the department is seeking something more in its candidates.

We are looking for individuals who are service-minded, Palmer said. We want people who want to work in the community, who want to provide the highest level of service possible, especially in difficult circumstances. We want those who can see themselves living here and being part of the community.

Pay starts at $18.19 an hour for new, non-certified recruits with no experience. After going through training, that moves up to $19.46 an hour. Officers with previous experience can expect to earn between $19.46 and $23.36 an hour.

According to the application, new officers spend their first 16 weeks with a field training officer before theyre assigned to patrol areas using a patrol car, a motorcycle, or on foot.

Duties include: responding to calls for service; initiating police action when appropriate; investigating crimes in progress; mediating disputes; rendering aid to the sick, injured, and those desiring assistance; and performing other tasks as required.

Benefits include health, dental, life and long-term disability insurance as well as a retirement plan through PERSI, the Public Employees Retirement System of Idaho.
TWIN FALLS  On Sunday mornings near the corner of Main Avenue and Shoshone Street, Guppies Hot Rod Grille will be ready and waiting for you with a surprise.

Filling the parking spaces in front of the restaurant will be a display of hot rod cars, something that Guppies owner and hot rod fanatic Aaron Gupton calls his own mini car show.

Along with the dazzling sight of the cars, youll smell the scent of delicious food wafting from the kitchen and hear the oldies music drifting out from inside the restaurant.

This ambiance is what Gupton strives for every day with every customer at every meal. In fact, he wants it to be less like a meal and more of an experience that will blow you away.

I wanted to create something that people are going to remember, Gupton said. I want people to walk out the door and do a double take and say, Wow, that was badass.

But before he created the hot rod themed grill that serves up what some customers call the best food in town, Gupton was building his restaurant empire one job at a time.

Guptons father, Dale, raised his children with one philosophy: If you want money, you have to work for it. It was as simple as that. Which is why from the time Gupton was old enough to work, he found work wherever he could.

Once he stepped foot into the restaurant business, Gupton knew he had found a passion. This passion sparked a need to create his own business, and thats when his dad made him a promise.

I told him that if he learned all the areas of a restaurant that Id open a restaurant with him, Dale said. So Gupton held on to that promise and began to learn.

He spent almost 30 years working in all aspects of the food industry. He worked as a waiter and a dishwasher, and he held several upper-management positions at both corporate chain restaurants and local eateries.

This wealth of experience was only half of the puzzle, though. Gupton knew he needed to find a location, and he had one in mind: Kellys Restaurant.

Gupton had a job there, and once the owners made the tough decision to close its doors, the father-son pair took that moment to bring new life to the place that helped solidify Guptons restaurant dreams.

Kellys closed their doors in September 2014, and gave Gupton their blessing to revitalize their coveted spot in downtown Twin Falls.

Dale remembers that moment very well, recalling Gupton and his team worked quickly to turn the place around in just a few hours.

We started to tear that place apart and in one night him and his buddies virtually gutted Kellys Diner, recalled Dale. Then in a period of just over four months, things started to materialize.

By December 2014, Guppies Hot Rod Grille had opened its doors, and began serving up made to order, delicious food.

Its exactly what he said it was going to be. He told me exactly his vision of what he wanted and what his ideas were going to be, and hes made it exactly how he wanted it, said Chad Poulsen, longtime friend of Gupton. Its always improving, its always evolving. Thats the mind of Aaron. He runs his business like a hot rod car. Hes always adding on to it, always making it better, but its still very unique.

The charm of Guppies doesnt just come from the authentic decor that was scouted from a family in Boise from true Chevrolets.

The charm of Guppies comes from Gupton, a family man and a Twin Falls local who cant get enough of helping his community.

Poulsen recalls a time when Gupton caught wind of a charity car wash and decided he wanted to find a way to give back.

At the time, Gupton had five or six cars, and he made a point to take not just one, but all of his cars through the carwash, paying top dollar for each one.

He went as far as purchasing them the best car wash soap he could afford for the group, because in his eyes, if they were going to be giving quality car washes, they needed quality soap.

Thats just who Aaron is, Poulsen said.

Aaron is the most legit guy, as in what you see is what you get. Hes one of those guys that if he cares about something, he goes all in, Poulsen said. Hes a genuinely good guy and cares about his community.

This car wash generosity is just one way that he gives back, but Dale jokingly says that his giving has gotten out of hand.

If Gupton could, hed give more than hed make, Dale said. Hes always finding a way to give his time or items to raffles, charity auctions and even small events like a car wash at The Cove.

To Gupton though, its just part of his philosophy, and part of why he gets so much joy from the work that he does.

Whatever people do with their lives, I think if you apply positive energy and passion and a little empathy toward the community, youre going to find that itll be more gratifying in the end  for yourself and for the people youre coming in contact with. Thats what I try to do, Gupton said.

Of course, Gupton also feels the community makes it easy to give back because its full of good people who want to do amazing things for each other.

We are a giving community. When you want to help somebody, a lot of people get on board and want to be a part of that, he said. Once you start something, people want to be a part of it. Thats what I like. Theres a lot of good people down here.

So what is it that makes Guppies Hot Rod Grille just so fantastic? Is it the black and red tile that lines the floor, or the authentic taillights and hubcaps that fill the walls? Perhaps its the welcoming faces that greet you as you walk in and make you feel at home.

Or maybe it has something to do with a dream that started almost 30 years ago and a promise made by a man who knew that if his son put his mind to it, he could be unstoppable.

No matter the reason, one thing is for sure: Guppies Hot Rod Grille is a masterpiece, created by one mans genuine generosity and his drive to make one of the coolest places in Twin Falls.
Teen sitcom Saved By the Bell was only a year removed from television the last time Idahos public education funding formula was revamped: 1994.

And like the neon, geometry-infused outfits that characters wore in the show  and the cliche version of high school they inhabited  the formula is long outdated.

Created at a time when the internet was more rumor than resource, the formula has been bandaged with a multitude of line items to accommodate new trends in a rapidly changing educational environment.

Administrators say the antiquated formula hinders them from providing the best learning opportunities, which is why lawmakers formed an interim committee during last years legislative session to modernize it. The committee is being led by Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise.

Student needs have changed, said Horman. Theyre more mobile. We have more English language learners. We have more special needs students. So we need to recognize that.

Its a heavy task considering the formula is used to distribute more than $2 billion per year.

The formula

The formula which determines how much state funding a school gets is very complex.

Each school measures average daily attendance between the first day of school and the first Friday in November. The average score is then translated into a certain number of support units  which is meant to mirror the number of staff which will be needed at a school. The formula gives a little extra help to smaller schools, a little less to larger schools.

Once the number of units are calculated, theres a second formula which breaks school staff down into teachers, administrators and classified staff  a catch-all for anyone else who works in the school system. Finally, the number of units is cranked through another formula which determines how much money each school gets.

Its a complicated formula for a complicated system, but Horman said it has obvious flaws.

Our formula disburses funds for a playground supervisor in the same amount as a network administrator, because back in 1994 you didnt really need a network administrator, she said. That classified broad-brush stroke simply doesnt work anymore.

And a host of Band-Aid provisions have been tacked on one after another to deal with problems that have arisen in the formula.

For example, when the state upped the math and science graduation requirements, lawmakers realized more math and science teachers would be needed. But there was no easy way for the formula to take that into account. So they added a line item.

The one-page summary for the public schools budget doesnt fit on a legal-size piece of paper anymore, Horman said. You have to print it on 11-by-17 to even read it.

Problems on the ground

Guy Wangsgard is Bonneville Joint School District 93s chief financial officer. After 18 years working in Idaho school districts, hes intimately familiar with the funding formula.

It doesnt make it easy to integrate tools  computers, online infrastructure  that are integral to todays learning, he said.

The systems based on the 94-95 school year when everything was brick-and-mortar and textbooks, Wangsgard said. I think weve done a good job helping our teachers teach in a way students can learn, but the formula itself doesnt provide much means or support for that.

Line-item funding is helpful, Wangsgard said, but its always tied to specific projects or initiatives. Because line items need to approved by the Legislature, they slow a teachers ability to integrate new techniques.

Horman said the common complaint about the long list of line items is that it reduces local flexibility, since all the funds are earmarked for specific purposes.

Kelly Edginton is Head of School for the Idaho Virtual Academy. It educates roughly 2,000 students from around the state.

Many of the schools most costly expenditures  including student computer leases and internet service  are paid for with money usually reserved for other districts transportation costs.

Were bringing the school to the student rather than bringing the student to school, Edginton said.

Daily attendance

Another wrinkle is that the amount of funding a school receives is highly dependent on average daily attendance.

That means if enough students enroll at a school in the second half of the year, the school might need to hire another teacher. But because the attendance average is calculated in the first few months, it could be more than a year before a school gets funding to pay that teacher.

It makes it difficult to educate children who enroll later, Edginton said, which can be a large portion of a virtual schools student body.

If a school has 10 weeks where average daily attendance is higher than midterm numbers, additional funding is triggered, but thats a tough mark to hit, Edginton said.

The formula is not set up for mobile students, so thats the difficulty with virtual education, she said. The costs are a little bit different.

While a brick-and-mortar school can add a student midyear with relatively little expense, the virtual academy has to lease another computer and pay an additional familys internet stipend.

We want to serve our kids, and a lot of them have high needs. Students who are moving schools are higher risk as well, Edginton said. Different patches may have been put on the formula here and there to make it fair, and I know the Legislature wants to make it fair, but the formula makes things difficult.

The committee

Winder said the committee is taking a broad look at issues with the funding formula.

Well look at as many issues as we can look at, he said. Well go out and listen to the public and the stakeholders around the state.

Horman said she expects it will take up to two years for the committee to recommend a new formula. It has already held one meeting in the Boise area, and in coming months it plans to hold meetings to get public input in north and eastern Idaho.

Weve got to have local experts who deal with it on a daily basis, she said. Thats the only way were going to solve the problems with the current formula.

Horman said one key feature of the new formula will be to focus on students.

If you think about a formula that will endure over time, its hard to imagine what the changes 20 years from now might be, she said. The student will always be a constant. So it makes a lot of sense to build a funding formula around the thing you know will be a constant.
This appeared in Saturdays Washington Post.

Donald Trump, you may have heard, reshuffled his staff and began sending signals that he would be more presidential. That was not a few days agoit was four months ago.

As the candidate closed in on the Republican nomination, Trumps new national campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, assured Republican National Committee members that the billionaire had been playing a part and would soon adopt a more balanced persona.

The promised pivot did not happen, of course. Now Manafort is gone after another personnel shake-up, and Trump and his new staff are again signaling a pivot.

Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing, Trump said Thursday. I have done that, and . . . I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.

Its unlikely Trump can suppress his instinct to bully and disparage over the remaining 80 days of the presidential campaign. Its certain he would not do so over four years of a presidential term. His record to date leaves no doubt about his characterconfirmed even Thursday, when he immediately undercut his supposed apology by adding, Sometimes I can be too honest.

Too honest about what?

Was it too honest to insist that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, even after fact-checkers debunked the claim? That President Barack Obama may not have been born in the United States? That the Obama administration wants to accept 200,000 under-vetted Syrian refugees? That Obama founded ISIS and Hillary Clinton was the co-founder?

Was it too honest to mock the physical disability of a reporter and then deny having done so?

Is it too honest for Trump to claim that he cant release his tax returns when, in fact, he simply does not want to?

And which wrong statements does Trump regret? That a federal judge cannot oversee a fraud case against Trump because of that judges Mexican heritage? That Carly Fiorina would lose because she is not physically attractive, or that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly may have asked him a hard question because she was menstruating? Does he regret his depictions of other women, recalled by Kelly, as  fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. . . . You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees?

Was it a wrong thing to say that Sen. John McCain, R-Arizonawho endured more than five years of torture in Vietnam, refusing early release in solidarity with fellow prisonersis not a war hero because he was captured?

Was it wrong to insult a fallen war heros parents, Ghazala and Khizr Khan? To suggest that they and every other foreign-born Muslim should never have been allowed into the country because of their faith? Todisseminate an anti-Semitic graphic, with a Star of David over a pile of cash, and then deny it was anti-Semitic?

Is it honest to claim that climate change is a hoax?

Was it a wrong thing to argue that the United States should torture suspected terrorists and kill their innocent children?

Is it honest to claim to be the law-and-order candidate when you have wished to see protesters punched and carried out on a stretcher? When you suggest the election is being rigged and that Second Amendment people may rise up if you lose?

Is it honest to defend a campaign staffer who manhandled a reporter and then called that reporter delusional? To call Mexican migrants rapists? To glorify yourself as a great philanthropist while taking credit for other peoples donations?

Is it honest to spread bizarre conspiracy theoriesthat Sen. Ted Cruzs father was involved in assassinating John F. Kennedy, that Clinton killed Vince Foster, that vaccines cause autism, that Antonin Scalia was murdered?

No pivot could undo the damage of this campaign or erase the bigotry and lies that have fueled it.
Special to The Washington Post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to see Donald Trump become the next president of the United States. To that end, Putin and his government have taken unprecedented steps to influence our electoral process to help the Republican Partys nominee. Whether Russias interventions will succeed is not obvious. But its clear that Putins government has the motivesand the meansto try.

Putin has rational motives for wanting Trump to win: Trump champions many foreign policies that Putin supports. Trumps most shocking, pro-Kremlin proposal is to look into recognition of Crimea as a part of Russia. President Barack Obama and nearly every member of CongressRepublican and Democrathave rejected that idea vigorously. Only Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela have recognized Russias annexation of Crimea. Naturally, Putin would love to see the United States join that list.

Trump also has made clear his disdain for the United States alliances around the world. Demonstrating his misunderstanding of how NATO works, Trump has demanded that other NATO members essentially pay us for protection, making many of our allies, especially in the eastern part of Europe, nervous about his commitment to defend them. Trump has also disparaged our allies in Asia, creating new opportunities for Russian influence. On trade, Trumps promises to disrupt our agreements also play right into Putins agenda. From Putins perspective, what could be a better way to start the New Year than a trade war between the United States and China or Mexico? Trumps threats to stop paying our debts also would radically undermine our credibility as a lender, another desirable outcome for Putin.

On the whole, Trump advocates isolationist policies and an abdication of U.S. leadership in the world. He cares little about promoting democracy and human rights. A U.S. retreat from global affairs fits precisely with Putins international interests. And if Mr. Trump becomes president, experts on U.S. politics predict a tumultuous period domestically. If a President Trump tried to implement his radical ideas regarding immigration or walling off our southern border, a serious push-back effort would ensue, both in Congress and in the country as a whole. A United States convulsed by infighting over Trumps deeply divisive policy proposals gives Putin more freedom to act around the world.

If a Trump victory would serve Putins interests, a President Hillary Clinton would not. Clinton will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia, seeks to strengthen relations with our allies and speaks out about human rights.

Putin and his government already know Clinton from her four years as secretary of state. They remember the tough line she took in seeking to negotiate a political transition in Syria; her effortsthough failedto get Russia to support even modest U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding this humanitarian tragedy; and her early advocacy for arming Syria opponents of Bashar al-Assad, Moscows ally. They remember her public criticism of irregularities in Russias December 2011 parliamentary election, which Putin lambasted as a signal to Russian protesters to take to the streets against him. And they remember her portrayal of Putins prized foreign policy projectthe creation of the Eurasia Economic Unionas a a move to re-Sovietize the region. No one should be surprised that Putin and his government would rather see Trump in the White House.

Putin not only has strong motives for wanting to Trump to win over Clinton, but also has some means to try to influence our presidential vote.

Kremlin-controlled media outlets have stated publicly their preference for Trump. RT, Russias state-controlled television station broadcasting in the United States, has a clear preference for Trump. In one of many pro-Trump reports, the Russian state-controlled news service, Sputnik, said it confirmedTrumps claim about Obama being the founder of the Islamic State and tweeted the hashtag: #CrookedHillary. With vigor and volume, pro-Kremlin bloggers echoed these same messages on Twitter and Facebook. Putin himself has weighed in, praising Trump as a colorful (yarkii) and talented politician (though not as a genius, as Trump has claimed), who seems more amenable to work with Russia than other candidates.

More audaciously, Russians apparently stole emails from the Democratic National Committee, after which Trump then encouraged Russian spies to steal again and publish more of Clintons emails. No one should be surprised that the Russian government uses its incredible cyber capabilities to collect intelligence on important U.S. politicians. That is what spies are supposed to do. What they have never done in the past, however, is publish stolen information to influence a U.S. presidential election.

To be precise, WikiLeaksnot the Kremlindumped this data into the public domain on the eve of the Democratic National Convention with the clear and successful intent of damaging the Democratic Party and their candidate for president. To remind, WikiLeaks is a foreign agent now meddling directly in our electoral process. We are unlikely to ever know for sure if Russian spies gave this data to WikiLeaks, as WikiLeaks refuses to say and probably would not even know. The Russians are sophisticated enough to use intermediaries to make sure the recipients of the stolen information would not know the original source. WikiLeaks is promising to release more emails, fueling expectations about a possible October surprise.

U.S. electoral experts, not me, must judge whether Russian efforts will sway the elections this fall. From my amateur armchair, the tactics seem crude and counterproductive. Does Sputnik tweeting #CrookedHillary really win over any undecided voters? I hope not, but I dont know. What I do know is that Secretary Clinton could well become President Clinton on Jan. 20, 2017. Russian officialsfrom Putin to the person running the Sputnik Twitter accountmight want to start thinking about what they plan to do then, and stop playing around with our electoral process now.
This appeared in the Idaho Press-Tribune:

What kids are taught in school helps shape who they become as adults. They are profoundly impressionable as youngsters, and despite the stereotype of the rebellious, teacher-hating pupils, the simple fact is that most students admire their teachers and want to please them. Ergo the education system has tremendous power to sway the culture.

So it should come as a surprise to nobody that the classroom has become another major battleground in the great ideological battles of our time. Its the reason some parents opt to homeschool their children through high school, and its a frequent source of consternation for conservatives at the college level, where studies have indicated a dearth of ideological diversity among faculty and guest speakers that favors the left.

Here in Idaho, state lawmakers rejected new K-12 science standards in February in response to criticism that the state Department of Education violated state laws in crafting them. While that claim was never proven, to even the more casual political observer, it shouldnt be too hard to guess why Gem State lawmakers took issue with the new standards.

Its because they delved into hot-button topics like global warming and evolution.

Religious conservatives who tend to favor creationism arent happy about the idea of the kiddos being taught the Big Bang Theory. Their common gripe is often that the latter is, as its name implies, just a theory, and if its going to be taught, students should also be exposed to another theory  creationism, intelligent design or something of that nature.

Human impact on climate change is another sensitive issue for conservatives, who often argue that it is being over-exaggerated for political reasons. The climate has always changed, they argue, and did so long before the invention of the internal combustion engine or coal-fired power plant.

Whether its a scientific lesson that contradicts your religious beliefs or political ones, here are some words of advice to parents. Tell your kids that its a fact of life that theyre going to be exposed to ideas and beliefs they wont always agree with. As parents, instill your children with the values you believe in and tell them that they dont have to agree with conflicting ones, but they should at least hear them out respectfully. Teach them critical thinking and to question what they believe in.

Scientific consensus (Some observers may see this term as an oxymoron) has been wrong in the past. Heck, scientists are still trying to make up their minds on whether eggs are good or bad for you. Every year or two they change their minds, it seems.

Scientific consensus once viewed the proposition that the Earth had just one continent that eventually split into seven as ridiculous. But when tectonic plates were discovered, continental drift became accepted science. History is full of other examples where the consensus was ultimately proven wrong.

The school system is within its bounds to teach students todays accepted science, and it should. Parents concerned with some of the lessons should teach their kids that they are expected to know those lessons, but that science is still an enterprise conducted by imperfect human beings who make mistakes on occasion.
Reader Comment:

Exchange programs help global be good again

In this time of ongoing turmoil, student exchange is good medicine for a world torn by terror. We want to invite the families of the Magic Valley to help us combat international fears and prejudices by welcoming a foreign teen into their homes and hearts!

In recent weeks, all eyes have turned to Rio and the Olympic games. But as we cheer on Phelps, Biles, and Ledecky, many of us quietly hold our breath: rumors of a potential terrorist threat are woven through the press and shared on social media. The result? Fear. International, a word once celebrated as exciting and elite, now feels scary and oppressive.

And yet  we have a choice!

If we want to break down prejudices and build understanding (even in the face of terror), relationship is the most likely antidote. Real relationships with other human beings. This is where student exchange comes in. Welcoming an international student is a simple, tangible way to teach our children that different is not dangerous. When students engage with a classmate from Germany or Thailand, they begin to see the world differently. They become more likely to judge the country based on their friendship (and not the other way around).

In short: Exchange students provide a much-needed way to let global be good again!

Weve partnered with local high schools to find host families to welcome these students. We cant do it without community support  so lets link arms and be part of the solution.

We are seeking host homes for 60 students from Germany, Thailand, Switzerland, Spain, Austria and Italy. All students must have a host home by Aug. 31. Readers can consider helping by hosting as a short-term or long-term host family.

To learn more, readers may contact International Experience directly at 888-266-2921, and we will connect you with the local coordinator in your area, or visit www.IE-USA.org.

Jodi Lundell

International Experience
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King Mohammed VI voiced hope that the commitment and sincere solidarity which have always existed between the Algerian and Moroccan peoples would be rekindled so that the two neighboring countries could better defend Arab and Maghreb interests.

In his speech made Saturday on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, the Moroccan Sovereign said the commemoration of this landmark event in Moroccos liberation history against French colonizer, is an opportunity for Moroccans to ponder the values and principles that inspired earlier generations.

That historical era was characterized by coordination and solidarity between the leaders of the Moroccan resistance movement and the Algerian Liberation Front, said King Mohammed VI.

The Moroccan resistance movement provided moral and material support to the Algerian revolution which, at the time, was facing a fierce campaign by colonial forces seeking to quash it before it celebrated its first anniversary, added the Sovereign in his speech.

Moroccan popular uprising against French colonization and the solidarity of Moroccans with their neighbors breathed new life into the Algerian revolution, said King Mohammed VI, recalling the major role played by the two countries in the liberation and independence of Africa.

Today, given the current circumstances facing Arab peoples and the Maghreb region, we are in great need of that spirit of solidarity to enable us to rise to common development and security challenges, stressed the Moroccan Monarch.

We hope that the commitment and sincere solidarity which have always bound the Algerian and Moroccan peoples will be rekindled so that we may continue to work together, honestly and in good faith, to serve Arab and Maghreb causes and rise to challenges in Africa, said King Mohammed VI.

Unfortunately, the land borders between Morocco and Algeria have been closed since 1994 at Algerias initiative, costing the two economies billions of dollars.

Furthermore, relations between the two neighboring countries remain strained because of the Sahara issue and Algerias financial and military backing of the Polisario separatists.

These strained relations affect the evolution of the Maghreb Union (Algeria/Morocco/Tunisia/Mauritania & Libya). This Union represents a potential market of nearly 100 million consumers. Yet, inter-Maghreb trade is among the lowest and does not exceed in the best case 3 percent of the total trade of each country.

The Maghreb integration disruption costs each country 2 percent of its annual growth, while the Maghreb Union could have gained each of the five countries 5 percent of GDP.

According to World Bank estimates a deeper integration, including the liberalization of services and the reform of investment rules would have increased the per capita real GDP between 2005 and 2015 by an additional 34% for Algeria, 27% for Morocco and 24% for Tunisia.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco condemned Saturday all forms of terrorism and those who kill innocent people in the name of Islam, saying the Islamic religion does not permit the slaying of innocent people or any kind of suicide for whatever the reasons.

In a speech he delivered on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, the Moroccan Sovereign said those who engage in terrorism, in the name of Islam, are not Muslims, stressing that their only link to Islam is the pretexts they use to justify their crimes and their folly.

These terrorists have strayed from the right path, and their fate is to dwell forever in hell. They think  out of ignorance  that they are engaging in jihad. Since when has jihad been synonymous with killing innocent people? wondered the Monarch.

Is it conceivable that God  the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate  could order someone to blow himself up or kill innocent people? added the Sovereign, affirming that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.

As for jihad in Islam, it is governed by specific conditions, including the fact that it is to be resorted to only for defense purposes  not for murder or aggression. It is forbidden to kill people under the pretext of jihad, insisted King Mohammed VI.

Also, to be valid, jihad would have to be called for by the Commandership of the Faithful  and not by an individual or group of people, underlined the Moroccan Sovereign, saying that those who call for murder and aggression, those who excommunicate people without a legitimate reason, those who interpret the Quran and the Sunnah to suit their purposes, are actually lying to Allah and His Messenger.

According to King Mohammed VI, terrorists take advantage of some young Muslims  particularly in Europe  and of their ignorance of the Arabic language and of true Islam, to spread their distorted messages and misleading promises.

The Sovereign also said that several Muslim groups and societies perceive themselves as authorities on Islam, but in reality, they are far from Islam and its tolerant values.

Such attitudes encourage the spread of the extremist ideology, of excommunication and terrorism, for terror advocates believe that this is the path to true Islam, stressed the Sovereign, calling on these strayed people to take a hard look at themselves and decide to what extent they are responsible for the crimes and human tragedies perpetrated in the name of Islam.

All of us are targets. Whoever thinks or believes in what I have just said is a target of terrorism, warned the Sovereign, urging Muslims, Christians and Jews to unify ranks to counter extremism, hatred and reclusiveness.

Morocco was hit by terrorism as Europe and many parts of the world. And as ignorance spreads in the name of religion, all people of the Book should stand united against the fanatics and extremists, said King Mohammed VI.
The United Nations Friday called world leaders to lend attention to the humanitarian situation in Libya where millions of people are, according to the world organization, in need of humanitarian assistance.

Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, Martin Kobler, speaking on World Humanitarian Day indicated that lack of attention to the humanitarian crisis in Libya exacerbates the suffering of Libyans and migrants.

More than 2.4 million people in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance. They lack medicines, vaccinations and suffer from poor hospitalization services.

Almost 300,000 children are out of schools and almost 350,000 Libyans are displaced within the country, he said, ringing the alarm over their situation which has gone from bad to worse after several years of political crisis marred by wars and power conflicts.

All of us, Libyans and partners in the international community alike, need to focus more on the growing humanitarian needs in the country and redouble our efforts to ease the suffering of the people, he said.

The humanitarian needs created by the crisis in Libya are enormous and this should serve as an incentive for us to do our utmost to give hope to the people, particularly those in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. he added

Five years after toppling the countrys powerful leader, Muammar Gaddafi, Libyans are still struggling to patch together the country now divided between opposed forces.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco firmly believes that Africa is capable of overcoming its current development obstacles and achieving its goals of progress and prosperity by using and capitalizing on its own human and natural resources.

In his speech addressed to the Nation on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, a milestone in the Moroccan fight against French colonization, the Sovereign said the problems plaguing African peoples today, such as backwardness, poverty, migration, wars and conflicts () is the result of the disastrous policy adopted for decades by colonial powers.

Despite the extensive damage caused by colonialism, I believe Africa has the means to ensure its development and to take its destiny into its own hands, thanks to the resolve of African peoples and to the continents human and natural resources, stressed the Monarch, renewing Moroccos steadfast commitment to continue supporting the causes of African peoples.

For Morocco, African continent means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent, underlined King Mohammed VI, saying that Africa also means sincere affection, appreciation, close human and spiritual relations as well as tangible solidarity.

Furthermore, Africa is the natural extension of Morocco and the embodiment of the countrys strategic depth, added the Sovereign, affirming that this multi-dimensional relationship puts Morocco in the center of Africa and means that Africa holds a special place in Moroccans hearts.

For this reason, Africa has been given top priority in Moroccos foreign policy, explained King Mohammed VI in his speech. He also went on to say that Morocco and Africa are one and share the same destiny, noting that the success of Moroccos African policy is due primarily to its solidarity with African countries, win-win partnership serving African socioeconomic development and African citizens.

Morocco does not merely export medicines to Africa; it also makes sure to set up pharmaceutical companies and healthcare centers. It develops infrastructure, builds vocational and technical training centers and implements projects that offer steady jobs and income, said the Sovereign.

We attach as much importance to improving the livelihood of Africans in their countries as we do to African migrants in Morocco. As a result, they do not suffer the same hardships endured in many parts of the world, added King Mohammed VI.

He said that Morocco was one of the first countries of the South to adopt a genuine solidarity-based policy regarding sub-Saharan migrants. This integrated policy, which is rooted in humanitarian values, is designed to make sure migrants rights and dignity are safeguarded.

Morocco has regularized the situation of migrants using fair and reasonable standards. It has provided the conditions needed for migrants to reside, work and lead a dignified life within our community, stressed the Sovereign, highlighting the generosity and hospitality of the Moroccan people who always welcome warmly their guest with open arms.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco underlined Saturday the multi-dimensional relationship binding Morocco to Africa, which holds a special place in Moroccans hearts, and which is a top priority in Moroccos foreign policy.

For Morocco, Africa means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent, King Mohammed VI said in a speech he delivered Saturday on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People.

This revolution, which is taking place on the eve of Youth Day, marking this year the Sovereigns 53rd birthday, embodies the Moroccan peoples strong attachment to their King and to the independence and territorial integrity of their country. The commemoration of this event also brings back to mind the help and support extended by Morocco to other Maghreb and African countries that were under the yoke of colonialism.

In this vein, the King pointed out that That historical era was characterized by coordination and solidarity between the leaders of the Moroccan resistance movement and the Algerian Liberation Front, and that the Moroccan resistance movement provided moral and material support to the Algerian revolution which, at the time, was facing a fierce campaign by colonial forces seeking to quash it before it celebrated its first anniversary.

That uprising and that solidarity breathed new life into the Algerian revolution, and the two countries also played a major role in the liberation and independence of Africa, the Sovereign said.

King Mohammed VI expressed hope that the commitment and sincere solidarity which have always bound the Algerian and Moroccan peoples will be rekindled so that we may continue to work together, honestly and in good faith, to serve Arab and Maghreb causes and rise to challenges in Africa.

Touching on the problems plaguing African peoples today, such as backwardness, poverty, migration, wars and conflicts, in addition to despair and succumbing to extremist and terrorist groups, the Sovereign said this is but the result of the disastrous policy adopted for decades by colonial powers.

Colonial powers looted Africas resources, stifled the potential of its sons and daughters, mortgaged their future, impeded the continents development and sowed the seeds of discord and strife among African countries, he deplored.

Yet, despite the extensive damage caused by colonialism, the King said he is confident that Africa has the means to ensure its development and to take its destiny into its own hands, thanks to the resolve of African peoples and to the continents human and natural resources.

The Sovereign who referred to Moroccos recent decision to reintegrate the African union pointed out that the decision that Morocco should take its natural place, once again, within the African institutional family clearly illustrates our commitment to continue supporting the causes of African peoples.

After he pointed out that Morocco and Africa have a shared destiny, he said he believes that there can be no progress without stability: either the two go together, or they do not exist.

And Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, spares no effort to promote African countries stability and development.

Morocco always gives to the peoples of its continent; it does not expect to take from them. Its commitment to African issues and concerns was never made with the intention of exploiting the continents assets and natural resources  unlike neocolonialist practices, the King said, adding that Morocco always makes sure that its cooperation with African countries is mutually profitable.

Morocco does not view Africa as a market for the sale and promotion of Moroccan products, or as a continent for making quick profit. We see Africa as a forum for joint action, for promoting development in the region, and for serving African citizens.

In this respect, Morocco contributes, along with other African countries, to the implementation of human development projects and the provision of social services which have a direct bearing on the lives of people in the region.

As an illustration of this human development-oriented cooperation, the King said Morocco does not merely export medicines to Africa; it also makes sure to set up pharmaceutical companies and healthcare centers.

It develops infrastructure, builds vocational and technical training centers and implements projects that offer steady jobs and income  such as fishermens villages.

All these projects support smallholders and encourage the preservation of ecosystems, he said, recalling in this vein the project for the protection and development of Cocody Bay, in Abidjan, within the framework of a unique model of cooperation between the relevant public institutions in Morocco and Cote dIvoire, with the effective involvement of private sector operators from both countries.

For us, Africa is not about goals and objectives; dealing with Africa involves a commitment towards the African citizen, wherever he or she may be, he went on to say, underlining that Moroccos national responses to many complex regional and international issues  such as development, migration and the fight against terrorism  are in line with a firm commitment to serve African peoples.

That should not come as a surprise since Morocco has always been at the forefront of advocates calling for the liberation of our continent. In this regard, I am following in the footsteps of my pioneering ancestors who believed in Africa, and who worked earnestly for the unity, openness and progress of its peoples, the King stated further.
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Roy Scheele, one of Nebraska's finest poets, has a new chapbook called "The Sledders: Thirty Sonnets" from Three Sheets Press. One of any writer's most valuable tools is memory, and this poem shows it being put to work to breathe life into an afternoon from long ago.

In Possession (Minnesota)

Something almost Flemish about that water,

a golden brown but clear into its depths,

the plank-ends of the dock a fading gray

beside it, and a boat moored at the end;

something, it seems to me in looking back,

about a murky bullhead on a stringer,

one of those rope ones you can hardly see,

so that the fish appeared to scull in place;

something (the details start to widen now)

about white wooden clapboards on the side

of that inn or tavern where my dad had stopped,

a neon beer sign staring out through glass 

late in the afternoon, I drinking deep

of everything I saw, now mine to keep.
The Adams Center was full of temptation on Saturday.

The 11th annual Pet Fest filled Dahlberg Arena, replacing the typical cheers with barking. For 12-year-old Kodi Fraser, it was tough to face reality: she couldn't bring home the chihuahua puppy, Sasha, that she was cuddling.

"I want to but I'm not allowed to," she said.

Her mother, Kim Fraser, said they do their part by volunteering at the Humane Society of Western Montana, but one dog at home is about all they can handle right now.

That dog is Dempsey, a Boston terrier who kept a close eye on all of his potential new housemates.

"My mom won't let us bring home another dog either. When we went to a different pet fest, we brought home Cora," said 14-year-old Ella Brinkman, Fraser's neighbor, pointing to the small dog at her side.

***

That's the kind of responsible pet ownership Pet Fest organizers and mother-daughter team Linda Baumann and Megan Pfaff want to see.

Sometimes, the reality is that you can't take care of a dog or cat.

They want people to get their pets licensed and spayed or neutered, they discourage breeding and puppy mills, and they want people to "adopt, not shop." Beyond that, Pet Fest is an opportunity for pet owners to head to Adams Center to learn more about grooming, veterinarians and more.

"There are so many owner turn-ins at the shelter," Pfaff said. "Some say they didn't realize the dog was going to get this big, or they travel a lot and they don't have time to take the dog on a walk."

It's important to do your homework and know what you're getting into before buying a pet, she said. They're not cute accessories; owning a pet is a responsibility.

Pfaff visited her first dog, Oscar, every day for five days to make sure it would be a good fit. Oscar, a Lhasa Apso-poodle mix, was a stray. Her second dog, a terrier dachshund named Molly, was an owner turn-in.

"Before I had kids, they were my children," she said, pointing to her daughter running around nearby and to her belly, another baby due in October.

Pfaff wants to see Pet Fest grow, especially since it's in a relatively new location.

Until three years ago, Pet Fest was in Caras Park. It moved to the Adams Center for more temperature control, since those hot August days were tough on the animals.

But they've seen participation in the events drop, although adoptions remained at about 90 percent.

"We just want people to bring their pets and come enjoy it," Pfaff said.

***

That joy was evident on the upper floor where adoptions were taking place. At the Humane Society's area, people swarmed the kittens  especially one, Monkey, who fell asleep the second anyone held him and gave him a scratch.

By 12:30 p.m., three puppies, two kittens and one dog had already been adopted.

Volunteer Pat Markert had to put down his rottweiler four years ago, which led him to volunteering at the Humane Society.

"I didn't want to take on another pet full-time," he said. "I was one of those people who thought, 'I can't even go in the shelter or I'll want to bring everyone home with me.'"

It helps that it's a no-kill shelter. And every once in a while, he'll take a dog home for a few days to give it a mini vacation.

Events like Pet Fest are a good way for people to figure out what type of pet they're looking for: a rambunctious puppy or kitten, a calmer one- or two-year-old pet, or maybe a slower, older cat or dog who's looking for a "retirement home," Markert said.

"The one thing I've been surprised by volunteering here is the overall quality of the dogs they get," he said. "So many I've met are just awesome dogs. And of course puppies and kittens, they're a blank slate, so they're all good."

If Brinkman had her choice of dogs, she'd want a black Labrador. Her sister, 12-year-old Elise, had another idea.

"A chihuahua, something Cora's size," she said.
Where theres smoke, theres Montana.

West Coast fires may be far away, but a new study from Harvard and Yale universities predicts most of the smoke they generate will flow straight to Missoula County as North America warms through the coming century. The researchers suggest this adds a new health risk to the discussion of climate change.

Were used to talking about heat waves or sea levels rising, but this is an unexpected consequence, said Loretta Mickley, one of the studys authors from Harvards School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This is a conversation forest-management people need to have with health people.

Its a conversation Montanans have grown used to during hot summers when smoke from Idaho or Oregon fires obscures the horizon and prompts health alerts. Wildfire smoke generates lots of particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter, known as PM2.5. Those particles are so small, they easily bypass most of the human bodys defenses and move directly from the lungs into the bloodstream.

To identify the highest-risk areas, the team used a fire prediction model and advanced atmospheric modeling to separate pollution caused by wildfires from other pollution sources. They also tracked the likely movement of smoke. They focused on what they called smoke waves two or more consecutive days of unhealthy levels of PM2.5 from fires.

The study found that between 2004 and 2009, wildfire smoke was the source for 71 percent of the pollution on hazardous-air days.

The researchers predict those days will increase by almost two-thirds as the climate warms, and the PM2.5 levels will be 31 percent more intense. Thats going to be a problem for 82 million people, mainly in northern California, western Oregon and the Great Plains.

The Harvard-Yale studys conclusions mainly looked at where the largest number of affected people lived. It doesnt highlight the fact that sparsely populated places like western Montana will move from a 3 or 4 rating on its 5-point smoke risk index to a greatest risk 5 by mid-century.

That's because continental wind patterns move from the Pacific Ocean in an easterly or northeasterly path. Big-fire areas like California, Oregon and Idaho send their smoke straight to Montana.

Eastern Montana, now at a 1 or 2 on the index, will shift to 3 or 4. Currently about 20 counties in the western United States fall in the Category 5 wildfire smoke risk level. Thats likely to climb to 97 counties by 2050.

Nationwide, the average length of the smoke-wave season is forecast to grow from 14 days a year to 29. Western Montana counties, however, could see smoke-wave seasons ranging from 25 to 69 days.

The main takeaway for me is a lack of surprise, said Missoula County air quality technician Sarah Coefield. A lot of smoke seems to get funneled here. The Bitterroot Valley seems to be the landing place. They have this amazing, beautiful scenery, but they also get a lot of wildfire smoke.

The basic premise of the study was simple, Mickley explained. As the summers grow hotter and winters grow drier, the chances of large wildfires occurring grow larger. The research team compared the trends from 15 separate climate prediction models and concluded the warming trend was likely to swamp present warm-cool patterns like the El Nino/La Nina effect. The number of wildfires would follow the same upward line.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to estimate daily ambient levels of wildfire-specific PM2.5 at the county scale across the western U.S. and to map the frequency and intensity of wildfire PM2.5 episodes (smoke waves) in the present day and in the future under climate change, the study authors wrote. Our study demonstrated that smoke waves are likely to be longer, more intense, and more frequent under climate change, which raises health, ecological and economic concerns.

That could have serious health impacts, but not necessarily change state policy, according to officials at Montanas Department of Environmental Quality. Missoula County recently cured its federal non-attainment status for air quality after decades of effort removing wood-burning stoves, cleaning winter road sand and carefully monitoring open burning in its inversion-prone airshed.

Because wildfires are considered exceptional events, they are not anticipated to impact the day-to-day operation of other industrial sources, DEQ air quality meteorologist Kristen Martin said in an email. Governments cant control wildfires or where they send smoke, so they dont count wildfire pollution against a communitys air quality standards.

But DEQ does foresee a need to better inform the public about smoke health hazards during a smoke-wave event. And the agency also hopes to see future research on ways firefighters might reduce smoke production.

Climate change is a public health crisis and its happening right now, said Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and coauthor of the paper. Asthmatic kids are going to the hospital today in California because of the smoke from wildfires. If we can figure out who is most at risk, we can start thinking about smoke evacuations and early alert systems for hospitals and local primary care physicians.

Smoke also affects things like road safety, tourism and property values as lingering pales of haze lower visibility. Coefield said it could influence how people think about housing, exercise and public spaces.

Organizations like Climate Smart Missoula have been putting together ideas for dealing with smoke, like finding public places with air conditioning or filtered air when it gets bad, Coefield said. Theres also the importance of situational awareness - we need to pay attention to how our bodies respond to smoke and not dismiss it. Even if youre OK, your neighbor might not be.

"Weve done pretty well this summer, so far. But theres still a month left in that potential wildfire smoke season.
Last week the Missoula County Attorneys Office marked yet another milestone with the announcement that the Montana Attorney Generals Office is ending its oversight of the local offices handling of sexual assault cases.

Does that mean its time to close the book on the issue of sexual assaults in Missoula? To declare the work done and rest easy, knowing the University of Montana, Missoula Police Department and Missoula County Attorneys Office are leading the way on best practices for sexual assault response, not just at the state level but nationally as well?

Not at all. Rather, Missoula can now begin an important new chapter  one in which sexual assault prevention is emphasized throughout the community, and when assaults do occur, victims are confident in reporting the assault, are treated with respect and dignity throughout the process, and justice is carried out swiftly and fully.

That was the encouraging take-home from Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox last Wednesday when they sat down with the Missoulians editorial board. Pabst and Fox pointed out that the state Attorney Generals Office may be ending its oversight of the county, but communication between the local and state offices is better than ever and will continue.

The county attorneys office was the third and final entity in Missoula to reach full compliance on its agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which launched a federal probe in 2012 into the way the county attorneys office, as well as the Missoula Police Department and University of Montana, were responding to rape reports.

UM and the city police department both entered into agreements with the DOJ the following year, and both reached full compliance last year, in 2015. An agreement with the county attorney, however, was delayed due to resistance from the previous county attorney, Fred Van Valkenburg. Attorney General Fox eventually intervened to settle the dispute between the county attorney and the U.S. Department of Justice, and an agreement was signed in 2014.

Foxs office began working with Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst as soon as she was elected to office. In addition to making several immediate improvements Pabst had identified, her office worked with state prosecutors and a special technical advisor to study the process and institute further improvements.

Since entering its agreement, according to a joint announcement, the Missoula County Attorneys Office has:

 Developed clear policies and guidelines for prosecuting sexual assault cases.

 Participated in special training for sexual assault investigation, prosecution, and victim treatment.

 Hired a victim-witness coordinator, investigator and trauma counselor to assist with sexual assault cases and address the effects of secondary trauma on staff.

 Formed a Special Victims Unit that in October will have five dedicated attorneys and a paralegal specializing exclusively in sexual assault cases.

 Improved communication and coordination with law enforcement agencies and community partners.

 Engaged in community outreach.

Perhaps best of all, the focus on improving sexual assault response in Missoula has rippled out across Montana. Other counties are turning to Missoula for expert advice on how to handle cases. The Montana Attorney Generals Office now makes resource materials  including relevant reports and policies  available on its website. And education for all involved continues, with a focus on training at every level of the justice system.

Foxs office has, for instance:

 Formed a special task force to examine sexual assault evidence kits that local law enforcement agencies havent submitted for testing;

 Created a sexual assault prosecution unit within the Attorney Generals Office;

 Increased sexual assault prosecution training opportunities for Montanas county attorneys;

 Worked with Missoula Sen. Diane Sands to launch a comprehensive legislative review of Montanas sexual assault laws;

 Initiated regional compliance check operations to locate sex offenders who arent following Montanas sex offender registration laws;

 Significantly reduced the number of undesignated registered sex offenders;

 Improved the user-friendliness and accessibility of the Sexual or Violent Offender Registry website.

On Wednesday, Pabst and Fox said that both the county and state offices will continue looking for ways to improve. Meanwhile, they will continue working together and individually to push for further changes that go beyond the terms of any official agreement.

One such change in particular is an update to state laws concerning consent and incapacitation, which Pabst described as archaic. Currently, a victim has to completely unconscious in order to be considered incapacitated. The laws essentially require prosecutors to prove a negative, that is, that consent was not only not given, but that the victim actively denied consent. Montanas sex crime laws are overdue for an overhaul.

Heres where every Missoulian can help write the next chapter. The county attorney underscored that her staff has engaged in every public speaking opportunity they have been offered, and look forward to doing so as often as possible with the goal of community education and prevention of sexual assaults.

They have readily shared their knowledge with the wider community; its up to us to take advantage of that growing expertise by encouraging public education on the issues of sexual assault, trauma and the criminal justice system. Too many jurors still cling to disproven myths about rape, such as that it can be triggered by certain kinds of clothing, or that sexual assaults are only committed by violent strangers. Its also critical that the community support funding requests aimed at ensuring our agencies have the necessary resources and staffing to continue making improvements.

Missoula has come a long way, and its only right to pause every so often to appreciate the difficult work, and the exceptional progress, thats been accomplished.

However, we must never lose sight of the fact that the point of all this work is to make our community safer, and to ensure real justice for the victims of sexual assault. Our university, police and country prosecutors are doing their part. Now its time to roll up our sleeves and join them. Our work, the communitys work, has only started.
Inspired by former Sen. Bob Reamss courageous story, I felt it was time to support him by sharing my story. I am a registered card holder and user of medical marijuana. My name is David Lewis and I have chronic pain, depression and anxiety due to my service in the Vietnam War.

I am 68 years old and a fourth-generation Montanan. Since 1985, I have had a heart attack, 12 stents, one nuclear treatment, five bypass grafts and multiple surgeries to rewire and remove my sternum and muscles in my chest due to Agent Orange exposure. The only medicine that works and that I am not allergic to, is medical marijuana.

Come Aug. 31, I will have no more legal access to cannabis. I registered to be my own provider but that is like asking someone to manufacture their own hydrocodone. I am just one patient who will be left behind by the government and people I fought so hard to protect.

Initiative 182 is about patients, like me, who have real medical issues. Approach that ballot in November with the idea that medical marijuana is medicine that helps ease pain and brings relief to so many Montanans.

David Lewis,

Clinton
The worlds largest corporate power-grab, also known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is just waiting for Congress to sign it and say, Yes, take away Congress authority.

This deal gives an incredible amount of power to the largest corporations in the world over national governments. Yes, that includes the U.S. government. No individual American has the resources or right to ensure his or her economic and political interests are safeguarded within this vast global corporate structure.

The clearly desired result of the TPP is to give more power to those with the most money. Indeed, they were the ones who negotiated it, and now they are spending billions to convince you its a good idea.

Montanans are smarter than that. We can see beyond corporate profiteering, because we depend on our own communities for success. We care about the success of our local businesses.

The TPP contains endless pages with rules for labor, environment, immigration and every other aspect of global commerce  and a new international regulatory structure to spread, implement and enforce these rules under the WTO. This new structure will meet, appoint unelected bureaucrats, adopt rules and change the agreement after adoption.

If our Montana delegation wants to really represent Montanans, they will vote against this anti-American power giveaway to global corporations. But why havent U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke or U.S. Sen. Steve Daines come out against it?

They did vote to take Congress ability to amend the deal, how much more are they willing to concede?

Deborah Hanson, board member,

Montana League of Rural Voters,

Miles City
Darien, CT  Only days before he was to enter Yale Law School, Trey Von Der Brown, 22, was mowed down behind the wheel of his powder-blue 2016 Mini Cooper convertible in a hail of police bullets. In the passenger seat, Wentworth MacFarquhar, 19, a second-year student at Yale Business School, was critically wounded.

Rich-white-people rights activists have expressed shock and outrage at the shooting. Mr. Von Der Browns mother, Cecily Bullion Von Der Brown, smartly clad in an Armani pantsuit and size 8 Manolo Blahnik pumps, screamed into news cameras the words so often heard from her benighted community: Why, oh why is it always rich white people who suffer at the hands of bigoted, trigger-happy cops?

Details of the shooting were not immediately clear, largely because officers on the scene had tragically un-remembered to switch on their body cams. The Von Der Brown family and wealthy Caucasian leaders in the area have demanded an investigation into what some are calling an overreaction by the officers.

Central to the investigation is a graphic video of the event, live-streamed onto Facebook by Wentworth MacFarquhar, only moments before police bullets tore through his right shoulder. Mr. MacFarquhar was taken to Cashflow Medical Center, listed in critical condition, and handcuffed to his bed. No guns were found in the car.

According to police accounts, around eleven oclock in the morning, officers began receiving complaints from residents in the area that some wealthy-looking Caucasian males were cruising the neighborhood in a thug-like fashion, sporting Yale jerseys and similar gang apparel. Police easily spotted the vehicle and pulled it over in front of a convenience store, giving the reason that its taillights were suspiciously not busted.

The Facebook video shows Officer Derrick Henderson asking Trey Von Der Brown for his license and registration. Then, as Mr. Von Der Brown reaches into his back pocket, the officer sprays a random barrage of bullets at the young man and his friend.

I was following the official police regulation handbook, Section B, paragraph 12, Officer Henderson explained to reporters. I didnt like the guys looks  so I shot him. Whats the fucking problem?

Mr. Von Der Brown, who was to have checked in at his New Haven dorm next Tuesday, was shot in the neck, shoulder, and right arm. He was taken to Our Lady of Aetna Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

With emotions swirling around this case, and a long history of no criminal indictments for police who kill rich white people, legal experts say it will be difficult to determine if the shootings were justified.

Lets be honest, said Police Commissioner Betty O. Johnson. As a well-to-do white male, Trey Von Der Brown was part of a minority community. Those people dont understand that cops confront danger every day and have to react in seconds.

Commissioner Johnson went on to explain that if police officers coincidentally shoot the same minority people from the same minority community again and again, then thats a simple mistake  not a systemic pattern of brutality and injustice.

It is widely agreed that investigating this case will prove controversial, since, for some reason (possibly genetic), people from wealthy white minority groups tend to become easily outraged.

And when rich white people get mad, honey, its scary, said Commissioner Johnson. Thats why the department has optimized that equal-opportunity thing. With our multi-ethnic, fully militarized teams, weve got it fixed so nobody can say were racist  even if we only shoot white people.

On-the-street interviews, however, indicate that prejudice against the well-heeled honky or the affluent ofay may be hard to eradicate.

Byron Metcalf, on line at a soup kitchen, said: A rich white dude bought my apartment building and now I have to live with my sister and her kids in Section 8 housing. I know all rich white folks arent like that, but every time I see one of them, I cant help it, I sense danger.

Barbara Grigsby, professor emeritus of Wealthy Caucasian Studies at Redhook Community College, has devoted her life to studying this subject. Rich white people own the multinationals, they break unions, theyre behind environmental degradation, they got us into Iraq and an endless war, said Professor Grigsby. They caused and profited from the global economic meltdown. You know, by law, I had to let them sit in my classroom, but they always tried to run things.

Rich-white-people rights activists say this anti-rich-white-people prejudice has wormed its way into the police force.

One of the plainclothes officers working undercover in the neighborhood on the morning of the shooting spoke on condition of anonymity. He said he thought there might be trouble when he saw the expensive car filled with clean-cut college types.

You never know with these people, said the officer. They go around gentrifying everything. That cop who shot those guys? He was just doing his job. Protecting the community. Hey, thats why I joined the police force  I wanted to help.

People criticize us for busting these thugs, the officer continued. But they dont know what its like. This is a dangerous neighborhood. Rich white people are capable of anything.

Susie Day is a writer. Her book Snidelines: Talking Trash to Power is available from Abdingdon Square Publishing: <www.abingdonsquarepublishing.com/snidelines.htm>.




DEER LODGE  The aroma of freshly baked bread and pastries greets early morning customers at 406 Bistro, across from the Old Prison in Deer Lodge.

The rustic, chic atmosphere, staff and food attract patrons who can dine inside, alfresco among colorful umbrellas and flowers in planters, or take their orders to go. The establishment opened earlier this year.

Chef Ray Reed starts his day early making everything from scratch  specialties that include his sticky pecan rolls, cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes, breads and soups.

Business partner Lynn Johnson said she met Reed last September when he contacted her about selling his coffee cakes at the 406 Coffee Cabin, next to the Bistro.

In January they purchased the former Pioneer Meats building, formed a partnership and opened 406 Bistro on March 7. They wanted a name people would remember  so chose Montanas area code 406 as part of the business name.

Ray and I think along the same lines; its almost scary, Johnson said. As far as a partnership, we couldnt ask for it to be better. With his wife, Cindy and my husband, Willie, we make a super team.

Johnson, who is owner-operator of Lynns Hairstyles beauty salon, said, This has been quite an adventure for me; the food industry is totally different from my other career.

The Bistro offers daily specials of soup and bread, also breakfast and lunch specials. One breakfast favorite is a cheesy biscuit bowl filled with sausage, scrambled eggs and cheese, topped with creamy country gravy and condiments of your choice.

People are invited to indulge in a variety of muffins, huckleberry or chocolate chip scones, Danish pastries, cookies, and other treats  with a cup of hot or iced coffee, special tea or milk shake from the Coffee Cabin.

Salads, breakfast and lunch sandwiches are made to order with a choice of sour dough, buttermilk, white, wheat, Asiago or croissant bread.

Their homemade butter uses cream from the Montana State Prison dairy with the buttermilk used for soups and baking.

Reed began his career as a baker and chef at age 17 when he started working in the food department at a hospital in Orlando, Florida.

Ive always had an interest in baking, he said, and the man who taught me was the director of food service for patients and employees. I started in pots and pans when Bill Starr was hired to run the bakery program. His specialty was making breads and cakes from scratch; savory as well as sweet and soon I started making cakes and bread under his supervision. My passion for food grew. I like watching people enjoy what I make for them.

In time, Reed burned out and returned to school to study nursing, a career he worked at for 24 years including at Montana State Prison and Community Hospital in Anaconda.

Last summer Reed had an opportunity to open his own business selling coffee cakes including lemon poppy, apple, cinnamon sour cream, blueberry, double chocolate and banana nut; thats how he met Johnson.

Since the Bistro opened they have expanded services: at 11 a.m. Tuesdays, they take soup, pre-made sandwiches and pastries to the Wallace Building at the prison to sell to the staff, wholesale to other business, catering, and food cart sales at events like Territorial Days and Art in the Park.

Johnson and Reed said they are thrilled by the comments of people who enjoy the atmosphere as a place for families and those who work on their laptops while having a cup of coffee and a meal.

Reed was recently named the professional division Grand Champion Barbecue Chef at the Pigglee Wigglee BBQ Cook-off Festival in Deer Lodge.
After 34 years of ownership under Louis "Herb" Aleksich, Met Tavern is now in the hands of Robyn and Lou Young of Whitehall.

Robyn said she and her husband purchased the bar because it sits in a location thats good for business  close to Butte Civic Center. She said they looked at bars in North Dakota, Roundup and Anaconda, but ultimately decided on The Met in Butte.

Out of all of the towns, I believe that Butte really has the best community as far as togetherness, said Robyn.

And, Robyn said, the couple was also drawn to the history of Met Tavern  one which goes back to the 1950s when the bar was established by Bob Pavlovich.

Bill Maloney and Jay OBrien say theyve been coming to The Met for as long as they can remember.

Pretty much from the beginning, said Maloney, who said his time at The Met started in the 1950s. He added that some of his favorite memories include bar picnics and live music on the weekends.

It was packed, he said. You couldnt even stand it was so packed.

OBrien, meanwhile, said he and his siblings have been coming to The Met since they were kids.

We spent a lot of time back in the car, said OBrien, whose parents frequented the establishment.

But perhaps the most interesting story OBrien and Maloney shared is an urban legend about Evel Knievel, who, according to bar lore, robbed the tavern by cutting a hole in the roof.

Lou Young took The Montana Standard on a tour of the back of the bar, where he pointed out the legendary hole, along with a vintage 1950s refrigerator about the size of a small walk-in bank vault.

Lou, a native of Whitehall, said he was drawn to The Met because of its location near his hometown.

This is home, he said.

But The Met isnt Lous only enterprise. He and his wife also own a pipe-press business in Whitehall.

When asked how the couple went from pressing pipes to owning a bar, Robyn laughed and said this isnt her first time at the rodeo.

She worked for 20 years in the casino industry in Washington state, serving as a general manager and executive gaming director for various establishments, including for the Tulalip Casino, a $78 million gaming establishment in Tulalip, Washington.

Robyn said she was the project manager for the construction of the Tulalip in 2003, a role that afforded her the opportunity to travel the United States looking at how different casinos ran in their design and operations.

It was a lot of fun, said Robyn looking back on her casino days.

Since her time at the Tulalip, however, Robyn has downsized a bit after taking up ownership of the small bar on Harrison Avenue.

Lou, meanwhile, is a veteran of the mining industry. He worked in Buttes mines in the 1980s, and also abroad.

While the Met Tavern might be a relic from the 1950s, the Youngs' relationship is a modern romance.

The couple reconnected on social media after spending years as just friends and eventually married.

We ended up hooking up on Facebook, Robyn said, describing how their parents were best friends when the two were growing up.

In the years ahead, Robyn said, what shes most looking forward to in her new endeavor is interacting with customers.

Meeting the people, she said, and being more involved with the community.

As for Lou, hes all about the local atmosphere.
BONNER  When Steve Nelson and Mike Boehme bought the former Stimson lumber mill site in Bonner in 2011, they saw potential in the blighted, polluted industrial area.

Recently, the duo gave a tour to showcase the business activity going on there. Today, 10 separate businesses employing roughly 250 people occupy the 170-acre site, including a huge data center, an aluminum trailer company that employs 170 people and KettleHouse Brewing Co., which is set to begin producing more than 60,000 barrels of beer from a massive new facility this fall.

For Boehme, the revitalization of Bonner into a manufacturing hub has been a laborious process, but hes pleased with the tenants that now call it home.

Weve kissed a lot of frogs over the years, he said, referring to potential tenants that didnt work out for various reasons. But weve found some princes too.

Britt Fred is the president of Northwest Factory Finishes, a company that employs 40 people in a 195,000-square-foot warehouse on the site. They create pre-finished building materials and ship to customers all over the country, which means dollars are flowing back to Missoula from out of state.

His company was one of the first to occupy the site after Stimson shut down. The mills closure was a huge economic hit to Missoula and especially to Bonner, but companies like his have helped create a remarkable turnaround.

It was a ghost town out here in 2009 when we first arrived here, Fred said. But working with Mike and Steve, we were able to create space, which I had to have, and the opportunity to grow. And its been a great relationship and weve worked well together as pioneers out here and now its great to see all the other industry thats out here.

Zeb Harrington, the operations manager of KettleHouse Brewing Co., said the new brewing facility should be operational by October. Theyre putting the finishing touches on a canning machine from Germany, which will be able to crank out up to 200 cans of beer per minute. The new site will employ approximately 15 people and more than double KettleHouses current output. Again, the product will be shipped outside of Missoula and bring money back to the community that otherwise wouldnt be here.

Montana Data, LLC is a private company that built a massive data center inside the largest warehouse on the site, which happens to be one of the largest timber-framed structures in North America.

The firm employs more than a dozen people and uses huge computers to balance the energy loads of several states when wind dies down or prices change.

They found us on Zillow, Boehme said, referring to a real estate listing site.

In the end, the company chose Missoula because they were able to lease a huge space at an affordable price in a location where energy is cheap and humidity and temperatures are relatively low.

Coaster Pedicab, another company at the site, creates custom bikes and operates them all over the country. They manufacture the bikes using a crew of welders on the spot and then sell advertising to go on the side. Other companies include Willis Enterprises, a log chipping company, custom metal forgers Hellgate Forge, custom shipping container company Montainer, and organic fertilizer firm Montana Grow. Boehme and Nelson also rehabilitated 42 houses on the site that are now used for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Section 8 program that helps very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled afford safe and sanitary homes.

Its a diverse array of business and residential activity that has Boehme hopeful about the future of the old lumber mill. Theres still about 100 acres on the site available for lease, and many companies can negotiate an option to buy. The tour on Monday was sponsored by the Missoula Economic Partnership, which has worked to attract businesses to the area.

Were constantly trying to do improvements out here, Boehme said.
Most would describe Kathy Faroni as a woman who speaks her mind.

Energy, said gaming vendor Bill Janney. She has a lot of energy, and she shoots straight with me. If she needs something she asks; if shes mad about something she tells me.

Faroni  who recently purchased Shortys Saloon on Meadowlark Lane with business partner Dave Smith  said she inherited her appreciation for hard work from her father Harry Muzzy Faroni, whom she described as a hard, Italian, old-fashioned type of guy.

If youve ever enjoyed a Whop Chop sandwich  one of Buttes delicacies, along with the proverbial pasty  youre probably familiar with the work of Muzzy Faroni and his business partner and brother-in-law George Judo Stanisich.

After the construction of the interstate in the 1960s, Faroni and Stanisich opened Muzz and Stan's Freeway Tavern on Montana Street, where the world famous pork chop sandwich was invented.

In 2010 the Whop Chop made an appearance on Travel Channels Man v. Food. The Freeway Tavern was also site to Fox News 2014 interview with Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill.

But before the TV cameras arrived, Freeway Tavern was a modest neighborhood bar where Kathy Faroni says she learned the ins and outs of running a small business.

I was born and raised into it, said Faroni. Its in my blood  the bar, the food industry.

Faroni recalls coming to the bar as a little girl with her mother, who said she was allowed to keep any money she found on the floor. Five or six years old, Faroni would scour the bar, picking up dimes and nickels from bowls filled with peanut shells.

However, Faronis first real taste of entrepreneurship came later on in the form of peeling her weight in potatoes.

When she was 12, Faroni said, her father told her she needed to earn an allowance.

One day he took me to The Freeway, said Faroni. He took a five gallon bucket and put that bucket down on the floor and he said sit, I dont want you to move And the next thing I know, I look and he had potatoes all over the floor. And I remember crying and I said, I dont want to do this and he said then you wont get your allowance. So that was my first job at The Freeway  peeling hundreds of pounds of potatoes.

Today Faroni attributes her hard-working attitude to her parents.

My dad and mom were the best parents you could ever want, said Faroni. We had anything we wanted, but we had to work for it. And if we borrowed, we had to pay (it) back.

And since her time at The Freeway, Faroni has gone on to launch her own businesses, including K&J Construction Cleaning.

In June she and Dave Smith purchased Shortys in a 50-50 partnership.

Under Smith and Faronis ownership, Shortys boasts a casino with 19 gaming machines, two outdoor decks, two full bars and a restaurant. Gaming options include machines by U1 Gaming and Power Vision, among others. Faroni said she also hopes to offer horseshoe and volleyball tournaments and live music in the future.

Although she has a lot of experience in the service industry, Faroni said shes never operated a casino before, so there was a learning curve at first.

However, one challenge she didnt anticipate were the ghosts.

According to Faroni, Shortys Saloon is haunted.

Faroni said previous owners Mark and David Wass had mentioned something about strange occurrences at the property, but she didnt think much of it until doors at the bar started to slam shut and footsteps could be heard going up and down the stairs leading to the administrative office in the basement.

Even the CO2 on the beer taps mysteriously turned off by itself one day, Faroni said.

Because of the strange happenings at Shortys, Faroni said, she was contacted by producers from Travel Channels Ghost Adventures to film an episode at the purportedly haunted location. She said she isnt sure when the filming will begin, but anticipates the crew will arrive sometime in September. Ghost Adventures also filmed at the Metlen Hotel Bar & Cafe in Dillon earlier this month.

But Ghost Adventures wont be Shortys only TV appearance.
MISSOULA  On Thursday, a local band called Modality played a show at the VFW bar in downtown Missoula to mark the release of its new album, a sprawling 80-minute collection of synthesizer and guitar textures, rock drums and modern classical shadings.

But not all band members were there.

Members, including guitarist Clark Grant of Butte, telecommute for practice with their violinist, Charles Nichols, who lives in Virginia. They can be piped in remotely via JamLink, a hardware set-up that allows them to play in real time with synth player Ben Weiss, and Jay Bruns, who plays synth and drums.

They've practiced this way nearly every week since Nichols took a faculty position at Virginia Tech, and Grant moved to Butte to start a community radio station in 2014.

Nichols, who teaches music technology and composition, set up the system so he could keep playing with the band, which he said is "a joy."

In contrast to some groups, there's no front man or lead songwriter, per se.

"If we weren't democratic and we weren't friends, it wouldn't work," Bruns said.

"Under the Shadow of this Red Rock" comprises five songs and two LPs, and sounds like a collective effort, with no instrumental voice dominating the music.

The album is a mix of 1970s German rock, ambient music, synthesizer drone, modern classical "new music" and psychedelic rock, although that description doesn't account for its often serene and melodic atmosphere, occasionally disrupted with harsher moods.

They recorded it two main sessions. In 2012 Bruns, Grant and Weiss went to Butte for five days, where they camped out in the Pioneer Club ballroom. They spread their amps, drums and mics all over the space to capture the full sound of the room.

Several months later, they invited Nichols to come play a show. Bruns and Grant took a home-recording course from Nichols at the University of Montana, and they'd sent him a copy of their recent album, "Particle City."

He liked what he heard and wanted to come play with them. At the first practice, Weiss said they gelled musically, although the younger, largely self-taught musicians were keenly aware that Nichols was classically trained: He began playing at age 3 and performing at 5, going on to earn degrees from Eastman School of Music, Yale and Stanford.

"At the end of the practice, Charles said 'I hope you guys know I'm going to keep coming on Thursday nights until you tell me not to,' " Weiss said.

Grant said, "We were puzzled for a long time, why this lifelong, classically trained violinist wanted to be in our band."

Interest from Nichols, who understands the theoretical workings of computer music, was "validation" of their efforts, Bruns said.

Nichols said the draw was both the performances and compositions.

"I just fit into their sound and we think about music similarly, and we compose music similarly," he said.

The following summer, they spent another four or five days recording with their new member. And often re-recording older songs, or adding and blending the material with his contributions.

"That's what's fun about the group," Nichols said. "We all bring such different experiences and perspectives of music to the band. We all serve different functions in the band. We don't limit what the band can be," he said.

For "Under the Shadow," exploring meant exploring at length.

"One of our mantras for the recording was, 'accept longer,' " Weiss said.

The tracks ballooned to the time associated with minimalist and ambient music, where it's nearly standard practice to release an album that consists of a single composition.

In keeping with those genres, they expanding the duration while paring it down to the essentials, making a few notes count instead of noodling.

"We recognize that we straddle the line of jam-band, and we really want to eschew that," Weiss said.

Clark said his musical taste over the past few years has drifted toward minimalist music, and they sought out a deliberation in their note selection.

Clark, who as guitarist plays the instrument most associated with self-indulgence, typically contributes spare, ringing arpeggios and single-note lines - there's barely a strummed chord on the record, or what you could call a riff. On some tracks, like "I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust," he and Nichols generate dissonant-but-melodic lines that are reminiscent of prime German rock bands like Neu!, or experimental 1980s alternative rock.

On moments like those, Bruns provides a driving motorik groove, although much of the album lacks drums.

Pigeonholing their music is difficult, since it's often too busy and melodic to be considered ambient.

"Charles plays lines on the violin that you can hold onto and say that's a melody line," Weiss said.

That's abundantly clear on the opener, "Rarefied Airwaves," in which his MIDI violin, run through software that simulates guitar effects, draws bright, memorable lines over a bed of shimmery synth.

"That is unusual for that music, but we're nowhere near as melodic as a pop song, even the weird ones that are being released today. So what sort of middle ground are we operating in?" Weiss said.

A recent tour showed the varied contexts they can play in. They played an electronic music festival and conference in Missoula, a rock bar in Chicago, an opera space in Indianapolis, a jam-band bar in Columbus, Ohio, and an academic spatial audio conference at Virginia Tech.

At the bars, they were the strange experimental band. At the latter conference, they were poppy in comparison to pure avant-garde compositions.

While on tour, they began working on new material for an album to be recorded next summer. They're planning for shorter, concise songs this go-round. Bruns didn't bring acoustic drums on the tour, instead playing electronic instruments and controlling a video synthesizer.

The exact sound of the next record could go in myriad directions.

"It's continually evolving and each track is a different exploration of how we interact with each other, and what we do with our instruments," Nichols said.
The Rev. Eda Lorello is among a tiny minority of Roman Catholic women who have been ordained as priests.

The 2013 ceremony was performed through Roman Catholic Womenpriests, an international movement of women who have been ordained in defiance of canon law, at the risk of excommunication.

On Thursday evening, she will host a screening of Pink Smoke over the Vatican, a 2011 documentary about Catholic women who have been ordained. And she will participate in a Q&A with her audience.

Lorello has never been one to shy away from living out her convictions. The lifelong Catholic partially credits that to her parents.

My mother taught me prayer, my father taught me justice, and both (attributes) have been extremely helpful in my life, Lorello said Wednesday in a telephone interview from her home in Long Island, N.Y.

Lorello, who has been a peace activist, has engaged in civil disobedience. But shes always seen that as a final option.

I didnt get up and say I think Ill be arrested today,' she said. Thats a last resort, otherwise it contributes to the violence youre trying to prevent.

Lorello, 83, has masters degrees in theology and pastoral counseling. Both aided her in her lay parish ministry over the years.

Much of her work was in adult formation, at one church teaching precepts of the faith, especially in the aftermath of Vatican II. Then she moved to another parish and took on other roles, but mostly in the teaching area.

She earned a certification in spiritual direction and another as a midlife/long-life directions consultant.

I did workshops on personal and spiritual growth in midlife and beyond not only locally but in other states, Lorello said. I even went to Ireland.

Lorello, the mother of seven, has nine grandchildren, one great-grandson and another great-grandchild on the way. She never felt pulled toward the more traditional path for women  becoming a nun.

Lorello has many friends in different religious orders who are dedicated to their work, for whom she has tremendous respect. But it wasnt for her.

My call centered on bread, wine, oil and water, Lorello said. And those are the sacramental elements.

The desire first arose in childhood. She struggled for a time not because of the call, but I had doubt if this what God wanted me to do.

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Lorello put the thought aside during her teenage years. The turning point came while she was in college and she was given The Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography by Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk.

The book focused on his journey through life in search of a faith, his conversion to Catholicism and his acceptance into the Trappist order. As Lorello read it, the book touched her soul on a very personal level.

And even though she never met Merton, who died in 1968, through his writings he became her mentor. It was after a visit to the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Merton lived, that Lorello finally knew the course she should take.

It convinced me that my call was indeed a call from God for the priesthood, she said.

Lorello called Roman Catholic Womenpriests and asked for an application, which she promptly put into a drawer. A year later, she submitted the paperwork, and she was ordained in 2013.

Lorello knew her ordination went against canon law, which states, A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly.

Ecclesiastically, thats an unjust law, she said. According to Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, an unjust law is no law.

Lorello knew that her actions meant she would no longer be allowed to work in a Catholic parish. But she viewed the choice as a different kind of civil disobedience, a last option.

Ive waited through five popes and Im going to be ordained as a last resort, to do the sacramental work I was called to do, Lorello said.

She is among the more than 200 women who have been ordained since 2002.

"We're not a schismatic group," Lorello said. "We're about reforming the church, bringing inclusivity, bringing equality."

Lorello presides over a weekly house church. She also teaches spiritual direction, visits the sick, and conducts baptisms and wedding ceremonies.

She was pleased that Pope Francis recently called for the creation of a commission to study the possibility of allowing women to serve as deacons in the Catholic Church. It is uncertain what that study will conclude, but Lorello views it as a positive step.

I wont see it in my lifetime, the church ordaining women, she said. But its going to come, and this is a step in that direction."
Ida Reighard of Butte, a registered nurse, has worked 17 years with diabetes patients and in diabetes education. The past eight years have been at St. James Healthcare, where she continues that work. She has a nursing degree from Montana State University and is married with four children. The Montana Standard asked for her perspectives on the high cost of insulin:

1. What do you see on a local level as far as the problem with insulin costs are concerned? Why do you think prices are up?

I see people daily who cannot afford their medication, particularly insulin, and their health is suffering. I feel greed is behind this huge problem. Patients contact me because the insulin their doctor ordered that works well for them has been moved to a new tier in their insurance plan and their insurance is dictating which insulin they can use. I feel pharmaceutical companies have a monopoly and we are not addressing it. My patients tell me their insurance rates are higher, deductibles are higher, and they go without their insulin or monitoring of their BG (blood glucose) levels because of this. I hear things like: If I can find the money until August, then my insurance will kick in or I take it every other day because it will last the month that way so I dont check my blood sugar. I know it is high.

I get at least one call a week asking if I know where they can get insulin.

2. What can patients do to deal with the high insulin prices? What kind of advice would you give?

There really is no answer that I am aware of for this problem. If people qualify for assistance from the pharmaceutical company or from the sliding fee at Southwest Montana Community Health Center, I direct them there. Most of the people I work with have insurance and do not qualify for this type of assistance. Our only option is moving to an older, cheaper insulin that does not work as well. This is still an expense but not as much as the newer insulins.

3. Are there any grants or programs that might fund some of the insulin costs?

I have had no luck with this. There are programs such as the sliding fee program and there are pharmaceutical assistance programs, but these do not work for most people. Recently one of the pharmaceutical companies stopped sending the insulin to people who were on the assistance program. My phone rang off the hook because people that had no insulin, no insurance and no way to buy insulin. It was a crisis. If people do not have their insulin, it is life-threatening, especially for people with Type 1 Diabetes. They will die without it.

4. During your years with diabetes education, when did you first notice the prices began to climb? Have you ever seen anything like this (insulin prices) before in your career in healthcare?

I remember Lantus being $100 a vial in 2000 when it came out. People were switched from cheaper, less effective from NPH to Lantus, which was less insulin so it was pretty close by comparison. Currently Lantus is $300 a vial. It has been on the market for 16 years and for some reason has not gone generic. I honestly cannot think of another medication that is this old going up so high in price. Diabetes is a progressive disease. People require more insulin as the disease progresses. This means more cost. People simply cannot take care of their disease and prevent complications due to cost. Diabetes is difficult to manage, but this makes it impossible.

5. Do you know of any diabetes patients who are forgoing their insulin because they cant afford it?

I see patients daily who cannot afford their insulin and/or diabetes supplies. Often times this has resulted in hospitalization. Insulin is very expensive and even if people have insurance, they have to pay out of pocket until they reach their deductible. Oftentimes people take smaller doses so their bottle of insulin will last longer or they do not take the insulin at all. Patients feel embarrassed and they do not want to tell their medical team they cannot afford their insulin. It is honestly one of the first questions I ask the patient. We have to address the cost otherwise they wont get better.

We are actually switching people from the newer, better insulins to less expensive insulins that do not work as well and are harder to manage because of cost.

6. Any final comments?

I am glad there is some attention to this problem. People with diabetes have a lot to manage. At this cost, they cant even begin to fight this battle. We have the tools. Research has led to treatments and medications that work. Unfortunately, they are not obtainable for most people with diabetes.
EPA appreciates this papers interest in the Solvay facility in Silver Bow, and our ongoing, deliberate effort with the State of Montana to secure the long-term cleanup of waste in the former phosphorous clarifier tank, which is currently contained, monitored, and poses no off-site risks. While last Sundays editorial made some valid points about long-term environmental concerns, we found references to the site as deadly, truly fearsome, and frightening  as well as the characterization of EPA as somnolent more than a little misleading.

EPA and the Montana DEQ have in fact ordered the facility to take significant actions to make sure the plant does not pose any deadly or fearsome risk to the local community. In 2000, an EPA order required (then-owner) Rhodia to conduct response actions to address immediate threats to the environment and secure and remove hazardous materials, including ignitable phosphorous. Those actions were completed promptly.

In 2004, EPA followed up by ordering Rhodia to conduct a comprehensive, site-wide investigation and to develop corrective action measures subject to EPA approval and consultation with the State. Far from maintaining a status quo, these actions have been methodical and substantive, and are intended to deliver cleanup decisions that are thoroughly evaluated, transparent, and protective. As a result, Rhodia, and now Solvay, has established and maintained a rigorous monitoring and sampling regime at and around the facility, collected extensive data on site conditions, provided regular updates on site progress and activities to the community, and completed detailed technical evaluations of alternatives for the complex task of handling the clarifier waste. We expect to propose a remedy for that waste, along with an opportunity for public review and comment, this fall.

Our current focus is getting the remaining job done right. While measures to address immediate exposure risks are in place, the task at hand -- and one that EPA takes seriously -- is holding Solvay accountable for completing an effective, long-term cleanup. We will continue to require the careful monitoring, evaluation, and mitigation of remaining concerns at the facility to ensure public health and safety as we oversee final cleanup actions.

-- Darcy OConnor is acting assistant regional administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
MISSOULA  Missoulas latest wave of refugees has begun. A family of six Congolese arrived in town Thursday from East Africa, and the first five-person family mentor team trained by Soft Landing Missoula swung into action to ease the shock.

Theyre so in culture shock. Theyre exhausted. I know it took me a good month before I was adapting to the time here, said Molly Short Carr, director of Missoulas International Rescue Committee (IRC) office.

Carr arrived in Missoula six weeks ago from a two-year stint working at a refugee support center in Nairobi, Kenya.

As announced earlier this month, the family is made up of a mother, father and four children, three of whom have spent their whole lives in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Because of privacy issues, Carr cant release the names of the new arrivals. Details on the parents plight and flight out of their native Democratic Republic of the Congo arent available.

Youre going to see them in the community and know theyre here, but at the same time we need to remember they are individuals and may not want this information shared, Carr said.

The new family is in temporary housing and at the beginning of a 90-day cultural orientation period.

We assist them and facilitate the process to apply for social services, Social Security cards, registration for the children to attend school and registration for (English as a Second Language) classes for the parents, said Carr.

The three oldest children of the family are of school age.

They are the first of what the IRC hopes will be 25 refugees landing in Missoula by the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30. Missoula can expect to see 100 to 125 refugees in the first year. All are products of a vetting process through the United Nations, Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security that the IRC says began, on average, almost three years ago.

A family mentor team will be trained for each family that arrives in Missoula. Carr said she and the volunteers have been showing the first arrivals how to use an oven, sink and refrigerator. Theyve known no other means of cooking except over an open flame.

If theyre living in a refugee camp theyre not going to have running water, let alone hot and cold water, she said. Theyve never refrigerated milk or eggs or mayonnaise, which are prepared for warm storage there.

Cleaning and maintaining a closed house with walls to keep mice and other rodents out is a new experience as well.

While the majority of Congolese refugees are Christian, I havent asked this family their specific faith affiliation, Carr said.

They speak Swahili, the primary language in eastern and southeastern Africa. Carr is acting as the primary interpreter through their common knowledge of French.

Soft Landing Missoula, spurred by the Syrian refugee crisis, formed a year ago and successfully petitioned the International Rescue Committee, one of nine federally funded resettlement agencies working in the U.S., to open an office in Missoula.

The IRC was here in the late 1970s and early 1980s to help Hmong refugees from Laos start new lives. It gave way to the Lao Family Community, which morphed into the Refugee Assistance Center that helped bring a smaller wave of Russians to town starting in the late 1980s.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) Hospitality program is coming to Muscatine Community College. This is exciting news with classes beginning with the colleges second eight-week session on October 18.

EICCs Hospitality program has been serving students for more than a decade and is housed at Scott Community Colleges Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Center. Offered at MCC will be the 17-credit hour certificate version of the program.

An especially exciting part of the program is that students will be doing internships at Muscatines Hampton Inn and, when they graduate, are guaranteed interviews at the Merrill Hotel and Conference Center currently being constructed on the riverfront.

The partnerships and support we are receiving from the local hotels has been amazing, said Diane Stanley who heads the Hospitality Program for EICC. Students who begin the program in October will be able to complete it with the spring semester and be ready for employment next summer.

MCC is hosting an information session about the program from 4  6 p.m. on August 23. Stanley, along with a representative from the Hampton Inn who will be on hand to discuss the internship opportunities, will be available in the colleges Strahan Hall, 152 Colorado Street, to meet with anyone interested in starting the program. Other staff will also be there to answer questions about financial aid and the registration process.

The Hospitality program trains students for jobs in hotels, restaurants, conference centers and other facilities that regularly serve large groups of people. Students will be trained for a wide variety of positions including events, front desk, catering and banquets, sales, reservations and housekeeping.

Classes will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Beginning this fall will be two classes at the college, Introduction to Hospitality, and Sanitation and Safety. A third class, Hospitality Lab I, and the internship will be held at the Hampton Inn.

Students will complete three additional classes during the spring semester, Professional Communication, Introduction to Computers and a hospitality-related elective.

For more information about the program call 1-888-336-3907 or email eiccinfo@eicc.edu
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Muscatine Symphony Orchestra Wine Walk was held for the third year Saturday wtih guests enjoying wine while exploring downtown Muscatine.

I think its a great community event, said Lisa Brase, enjoying a taste of the wine at We Can Frame That.

We can socialize, look in the shops, and enjoy some wines and snacks.

Flynn Collier, the owner of We Can Frame That, one of the downtown businesses participating in the wine walk, said although the event has grown since last year, he would like to see it continue to grow.

Its a great way to get new people to come and stroll downtown and see all the vast improvements that have been made downtown in the last couple years, he said.

Collier supplied the wine in his store, to support a local business: Odessa Vineyards in Wapello.

The wine walk was started three years ago as a fundraiser for the orchestra. Stephanie Romagnoli, an orchestra board member, said without fundraisers, the orchestra would not be able to play its music in Muscatine.

Its a chance to make people more aware that we have an orchestra here in town, and at the same time were encouraging people to support the downtown businesses. Events like this are important to the orchestra as a whole because we are a non-profit agency, and funding for the arts can be hard to come by, she said,

Micki Tripp said she and her husband, Dennis Tripp, had attended the wine walk last year as well.

Its really a nice way to come downtown, and get in some of the stores you dont usually see, she said.

The couple listened as Tom Taylor, of Dimitri Wine and Spirits, described the various wines he had available at Creations by Oz. His first time at the wine walk, Taylor is familiar with Creations by Oz, as he supplies wines for the store.

I think its great, wine is a really sensual and enjoyable product and to get to taste that and have that as a reason to go and visit local shops; its a good balance of pleasure and getting to know your area, he said.

Lori Carroll played her flute in the Muscatine History and Industry Center, as guests wandered the rooms and enjoyed wine while learning more about Muscatine. Carroll is also a member of the orchestra board, and said she hopes the wine walk will raise awareness about the orchestra.

There are a lot of people in Muscatine who dont even know we have an orchestra. And I teach music so I tell my students, even if classical music isnt what you would choose to listen to, that doesnt mean youre going to hate it, and probably youll like it, she said.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images(ROME) -- Leaders of Italy, France and Germany are set to meet on a small island off Naples Monday to discuss the European Union (EU) post-Brexit.

The trio, working to put up a unified front amid the EU's fragile economy and migrant crisis, will discuss the next steps and create a roadmap for the union in Ventotene.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to push for more unity for the EU without adding more countries, while Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wants Germany to pull away from insisting on austerity measures that have weighed on Italy's debt.

French President Francois Hollande is also said to be against the austerity measures, and wants to enlarge an investment plan for the EU.

The talks come ahead of an EU summit in September. The trio held their first talks in June after the U.K.'s shocking vote to leave the EU.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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 []
The Douglasdale Community Policing Forum (CPF) has alerted people to a bomb scare at the Nicolway Shopping Centre in Bryanston.

On Sunday afternoon, the Douglasdale CPF said an evacuation and search was underway at Nicolway.

It advised people to avoid the area and said SAPS/JMPD road blocks were in operation.

Whilst this falls under our sister station SAPS Randburg, various resources from our Johannesburg West Cluster have been deployed to assist, said the Douglasdale CPF.

According to Crime Intelligence & Community Awareness, no bomb was found following a sweep by police.

This is the fourth hoax bomb threat in the Sandton area in the last eight days, it said.

More on shopping and crime

Crime in South Africa is messing up your shopping experience

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SRINAGAR, India  When news spread in early July that Indian troops had killed a charismatic commander of Indian-controlled Kashmir's biggest rebel group, the public response was spontaneous and immense. Tens of thousands of angry youths poured out of their homes in towns and villages across the Himalayan region, hurling rocks and bricks and clashing with Indian troops.

A strict curfew and a series of communications blackouts since then have failed to stop the protesters, who are seeking an end to Indian rule in Kashmir, even as residents have struggled to cope with shortages of food, medicine and other necessities. The clashes, with protesters mostly throwing rocks and government forces responding with bullets and shotgun pellets, has left more than 60 civilians and two policemen dead. Thousands of civilians have been injured and hundreds of members of various government security forces. On Wednesday, two soldiers were killed when they were ambushed by suspected rebels near the town of Baramulla, army officials said.

But Kashmir's fury at Indian rule is not new. The stunning mountain region has known little but conflict since 1947, when British rule of the subcontinent ended with the creation of India and Pakistan.

The history

In 1947, the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir was asked to join with either India or Pakistan. But Maharaja Hari Singh, the unpopular Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority region, wanted to stay independent.

However, local armed uprisings that flared in various parts of Kashmir, along with a raid by tribesmen from northwestern Pakistan, forced Singh to seek help from India, which offered military assistance on condition that the kingdom link itself to India. The ruler accepted, but insisted that Kashmir remain a largely autonomous state within the Indian union, with India managing its foreign affairs, defense and telecommunications.

The Indian military entered the region soon after, with the tribal raid spiraling into the first of two wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The first war ended in 1948 with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. Nonetheless, Kashmir was divided between the two young nations by the heavily militarized Line of Control, with the promise of a U.N.-sponsored referendum in the future.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many saw the transition as the mere transfer of power from their Hindu king to Hindu-majority India. Kashmiri discontent against India started taking root as successive Indian governments breached the pact of Kashmir's autonomy. Local governments were toppled one after another, and largely peaceful movements against Indian control were suppressed harshly.

Pakistan regularly raised the Kashmir dispute in international forums, including in the U.N. Meanwhile, India began calling the region an integral part of the nation, insisting that Kashmir's lawmakers had ratified the accession to New Delhi.

As the deadlock persisted, India and Pakistan went to war again in 1965, with little changing on the ground. Several rounds of talks followed, but the impasse continued.

In the mid-1980s, dissident political groups in Indian-held Kashmir united to contest elections for the state assembly. The Muslim United Front quickly emerged as a formidable force against Kashmir's pro-India political elite. However, the United Front lost the 1987 election, which was widely believed to have been heavily rigged.

A strong public backlash followed. Some young United Front activists crossed over to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where the Pakistani military began arming and training Kashmiri nationalists.

By 1989, Kashmir was in the throes of a full-blown rebellion.

India poured more troops into the already heavily militarized region. In response, thousands of Kashmiris streamed back from the Pakistani-controlled portion with weapons, staging bloody attacks on Indian security forces and pro-India Kashmiri politicians. Indian soldiers, empowered with emergency laws giving them legal impunity, carried out a brutal military crackdown, leaving Kashmiris exhausted and traumatized. More than 68,000 people have been killed since then.

Kashmir rebels suffered a major setback after 9/11, when the U.S. pressured Pakistan to rein in the militants. Indian troops largely crushed the militancy after that, though popular demands for "azadi," - freedom - remain ingrained in the Kashmiri psyche.

In the last decade, the region has made a transition from armed rebellion to unarmed uprisings, with tens of thousands of civilians repeatedly taking to the streets to protest Indian rule, often leading to clashes between rock-throwing residents and Indian troops. The protests are usually quelled by force, often resulting in deaths.

Recent developments

In 2008, a government decision  later revoked  to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir set off a summer of protests. The following year, the alleged rape and murder of two young women by government forces set off fresh violence.

In 2010, the trigger for protests was a police investigation into allegations that soldiers had shot three civilians dead, and then staged a fake gun battle to make it appear that the dead were militants in order to claim rewards for the killings.

Over those three years hundreds of thousands of young men and women took to the streets, hurling rocks and insults at Indian forces. At least 200 people were killed and hundreds wounded as troops fired into the crowds, inciting further protests.

The crackdowns appear to be pushing many educated young Kashmiris, who grew up politically radicalized amid decades of brutal conflict, toward armed rebel groups. Young Kashmiri boys began snatching weapons from Indian forces and training themselves deep inside Kashmir's forests.

Despite that, the number of militants has apparently remained tiny, with security experts estimating there has not been more than 200 for the last several years.

Anti-India groups

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference is a conglomerate of social, religious and political groups formed in 1993. It advocates the U.N.-sponsored right to self-determination for Kashmir or three-way talks that include India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership to resolve the dispute.

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was one of the first armed rebel groups. It favors an independent, united Kashmir. Currently led by Mohammed Yasin Malik, the group gave up armed rebellion in 1994, soon after Indian authorities released Malik from jail after four years.

Hizbul Mujahideen is Kashmir's largest and only surviving indigenous armed rebel group. Formed in 1990, the group demands Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Its supreme commander, Syed Salahuddin, is based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. The group was led in Indian Kashmir by Burhan Wani until his death on July 8, which sparked the current clashes.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistan-based group fighting for the merger of Indian-controlled Kashmir with Pakistan. The United States lists it as a terrorist group. Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, is on a U.S. terrorist list, with a $10 million bounty on his head. He's also one of India's most wanted men. New Delhi blames the group for several deadly attacks in Kashmir and Indian cities, including the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people.

Pro-India groups

The Jammu Kashmir National Conference is a pro-India political group that has ruled Kashmir for much of the time since 1947. Its most recent leaders, Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah, the current opposition leader in the state assembly, are seen as the strongest proponents of India in Kashmir.

The Jammu Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party emerged in the early 2000s as the strongest opponent to the National Conference, strategically using pro-separatist views for electoral gains. It came to power in 2002. It currently rules Indian-controlled Kashmir in coalition with India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sitting around a table at Alexis Baking Company, members of Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club were chatting and laughing while drinking mimosas on Saturday morning. Its been nearly a year since the book club from Antioch has been to Napa Valley and a year since they were booted off the Napa Valley Wine Train.

They had been looking forward to last years trip for months, they said. One member of their club loves trains and even bought a conductor hat for the journey. But the women were asked to exit the train in St. Helena after someone complained that they were being loud and disruptive. The women  10 black and one white  were escorted through six cars and off the train before a van took them back to Napa.

Their story went viral when the clubs leader Lisa Renee Johnson detailed the ride on Facebook and Twitter declaring that her group was guilty of nothing more than #laughingwhileblack.

Were not victims, she said. Clearly were not victims. We wouldnt be here if we were.

Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club, which was formed in 1997, has been taking trips together to Napa Valley for at least seven years, Johnson said on Saturday. The Wine Train experience hasnt changed that. The group gathered at the baking company on Third Street for brunch before heading out in a limousine to Judds Hill Winery.

The women who were on the train, including Johnson, sued the restaurant on wheels for racial discrimination last October, but the matter was settled during private mediation in April.

We settled on mutually agreeable terms, Johnson said, unable to disclose any details. The whole experience, Johnson said, has made her more aware of biases that people might have. If you have a propensity to think that black people are loud, she said, the group couldnt do anything to not be that. Johnson has tried to use her experience as a conduit for conversation. Its okay if people make mistakes, but they have to recognize those mistakes and apologize for them that way we can grow as a society and avoid reinjuring people, she said.

You cannot take peoples historical context away from them, she added, referring to the group being paraded through the Wine Train while making their exit.

That was the most humiliating experience that I have ever had in my entire life, Johnson said during a news conference announcing the lawsuit. This is 2015, and this just cannot happen again.

Katherine Neal, who was 85 at the time, said she was reminded of when she was about 12 years old and a store clerk asked her to eat her ice cream outside while white families ate inside.

Although the experience in Napa Valley wasnt what they had hoped for last year, they were happy to come back this year.

We come to Napa every year, Johnson said. Thats as a group, several of the ladies have visited Napa Valley on their own just because it is one of the perks to living in the Bay Area, she said.

The group was invited to ABC by owner Alexis Handelman right after the incident happened last August. When I first read the story, I was outraged, Handelman said. I just thought it was so wrong. I wanted them to know theres another face to Napa.

A few weeks ago, Johnson contacted Handelman to let her know they were going to take her up on her offer.

I was touched, Handelman said. What better way to celebrate than to share a meal and toast with a mimosa.

The seven women who made it out for the trip were discussing The Committee by Terry E. Hill  a novel about how an underground committee based in New Orleans works to get a black woman elected President of the United States.

Most of their book club meetings are at one anothers homes, Johnson said, but they do take a lot of trips together.

Theyve been to Los Angeles, New York and Chicago together, said Allisa Carr. When they see something new or different, Carr said, they say Thats interesting  lets do it.

You meet them and you see the joy and the bond between them and you wonder what part of that wasnt OK, Handelman said. Theyre just full of joy and laughter.

The good news is that there is new ownership of the Wine Train, she added, saying that she has hoped that the new owners will show more tolerance and embrace people for who they are. I feel blessed that this got all turned around.

Ownership of the train line, which was founded in 1989, changed hands Sept. 15, three weeks after the incident. The new partners, Noble House Hotels & Resorts Ltd of Seattle and the Brooks Street development firm in Walnut Creek, acquired the line from the family of its late founder Vince DeDomenico, a Napan who co-invented Rice-A-Roni.

Wine Train CEO Anthony Giaccio formally apologized to members of Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club after the incident, retracted claims of their misbehavior and offered them free use of a train car for a future trip. The offer was rejected and instead the women sued.

Asked if they would ever consider riding the train again, Johnson said theyve had many experience in Napa and that they like limos best.l
Yountville will seek a new, public artwork to adorn a town park  and suit the parks origins as a part of the Veterans Home of California.

Town leaders and arts advisers are preparing to recruit candidates to create a commemorative piece for Veterans Memorial Park at California Drive and Washington Street. The green space, a remnant of the Veterans Home from its foundation in 1884, is slated for a renovation that will include a centerpiece in tribute to former members of the U.S. armed forces.

Meeting together on Tuesday, the Town Council and Arts Commission began hammering out a process to seek out artists for the memorial and assemble a jury to sort out the offerings. That panel is expected to include residents of Yountville and the Veterans Home, as well as members of the council and the towns arts and parks commissions.

That park is very active, there are veterans there all day long, and its an initial point where visitors come into our town, said arts commissioner Dee Heizer. The look and feel of that park is important to everybody.

A call for artists could begin in three to four months, although no firm timeline was set this week. A $20,000 commission the council approved Aug. 2 would go to the artist chosen to install an existing art piece at the park, or pen the design of a new one. The memorial artwork would remain town property, unlike the sculptures Yountville displays on downtown streets through its Art Walk program.

The art installation would become part of a $350,000 makeover for a park that greets the thousands of yearly tourists entering the resort town from adjacent Highway 29. In addition to adding the footings for an artwork, the project would include a landscaped entrance displaying the federal, state and POW/MIA flags, as well as new pavement and amphitheater seating for small music concerts.

Military cues in the parks redesign would point to Veterans Parks original role as a part of the grounds surrounding the Veterans Home, Californias oldest. The construction of Highway 29 starting in the late 1950s cut it off from the homes campus, and it became part of the newly incorporated town of Yountville in 1965. Park improvements over the years have added benches, water fountains, restrooms and bocce courts.

Early plans for refreshing Veterans Memorial Park called for displaying the medallions of each of the armed forces, but the town abandoned the idea because using such military symbols requires permission from the Defense Department. That change led Mayor John Dunbar to seek another way to recognize the service of military men and women, and ensure that this is not just a park at the south end of town, as he told councilmembers in June.

Dunbar urged the town to include not only Veterans Home residents in the review process, but also to consult artists living at the Veterans Home as well as the state Department of Veterans Affairs  partly to avoid the conflicts that stretched out Napas own attempt at a memorial for its own, downtown veterans park.

One of the problems (in Napa) was that it became too public a process, and it became a very politically sensitive process because of that, he said of Fallen but Not Forgotten, a bronze soldiers cross of rifle, boots and helmet honoring Napans who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sculpture aroused spirited debate among veterans, residents and the City Council before its dedication in September 2012.

The number of jury members from town government, the Veterans Home and the community remains to be set. Arts commissioners and councilmembers also discussed whether to give priority to artists based in the U.S. or with a military background but made no decisions Tuesday.
I strongly condemn the string of horrific terrorist attacks in Turkey in the last few days. My deepest sympathies are with those who lost their loved ones, with those injured and with the people of Turkey.

We stand united in solidarity with our Turkish Allies in this difficult time. We remain determined to fight terrorism in all its forms.
Karabakh President: Russia leaders statement inspires certain hopes

Armenia ruling party congress kicks off

Man breaks into US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home, demands to speak with her, beats husband with hammer

EU-Armenia Joint Committee on Research and Innovation first meeting to be held in November

Provincial governor of Armenias Gegharkunik: EU monitoring mission already started

US accuses Russia of disinformation regarding Washington intentions towards Armenia, Azerbaijan

Mexico fully legalizes gay marriage

Newspaper: Azerbaijan not inclined to sign anything with Armenia in Russias Sochi

Armenia ruling party convening closed convention

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

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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

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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

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Lazarevsky Club: Minute of silence held in memory of fallen Russian and Armenian soldiers

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Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister Bimalendra Nidhi, who is currently on a visit to India as Prachanda's special envoy, as well as Indian officials confirmed the date on Sunday, Kathmandu Post reported.

Prachanda will return to Nepal on September 17.

Nidhi, in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, handed over a letter from Prachanda to his Indian counterpart.

According to Indian External Affairs Ministry officials, Prachanda has conveyed his desire to speed up development works rather than focusing on political and diplomatic matters.

He has sought help from India in givng impetus to the development efforts in the Himalayan nation, the officials said.

It is expected that a major project would be signed between Nepal and India during Prachanda's visit.

The Nepal Prime Minister has also sent a long list of agreements he wanted to sign during his visit, the report said.

According to a source, Prachanda, in his letter, suggested taking ahead the works on the long-delayed Pancheshwor multi-purpose project on the Mahakali river along the India-Nepal border.

Modi, during his Nepal visit in 2014, had pledged to accord priority to the Pancheshwor project.

--IANS py/dg

( 232 Words)

2016-08-21-18:20:00 (IANS)
"The makers are keen to have her on board since she played the role in the original. Right now, they've only initiated talks and are yet to officially approach her with the offer," a source from the film's unit told IANS.

To be helmed by Nanda Kishore, the remake will star Manoranjan in the lead.

The project is being bankrolled by Rockline Productions.

Amala, meanwhile, is getting ready to commence work on Dhanush-starrer Tamil drama "Vada Chennai".

--IANS hp/nv/vt

( 121 Words)

2016-08-21-13:12:01 (IANS)
In an exclusive conversation with ANI, the 'Baaghi' star revealed that he started taking life seriously only after he took up acting.

When asked was he always so dedicated and focused in life, the 26-year-old actor revealed, "I started taking my life seriously when I decided to become an actor. It is not an easy profession. Just because I am my father's (Jackie Shroff) son, it doesn't give me the right to be a part of this industry."

Continuing with a grim expression, the young lad added, "Everybody is working hard and I am just one of them. I just want to make my family proud and give my family a secure future and that's what keeps me going."

Tiger Shroff along with his co-stars had recently landed in the national capital to promote his new film 'A Flying Jatt'.

The film directed by Remo D'Souza also stars actress Jacqueline Fernandez in a prominent role along with Hollywood baddie Nathan Jones.

The superhero flick flies to your nearby theatres on August 25. (ANI)
Hailing the appointment of Urjit Patel as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Minister of State for Finance Santosh Gangwar today said Patel has proved his competence during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-2 government, and has been appreciated all through. "His appointment as the RBI Governor was a much-awaited decision, the discussion on which was going on since long. The new governor is obviously experienced and deserving. According to my knowledge, he was elected as the spokesperson during the UPA-2 government and his work was duly appreciated," he told ANI. "Now, when the country is moving on the path of economic progress, this decision will bring more direction to the economy. India is making continuous development among progressive and emerging countries and getting recognised as a country with strong economy. We will try to move ahead in a more positive direction," he added. Continuing Patel, he said seeing his past records and work done by him, it is definite that he will for sure work in a way that will be beneficial to the Indian economy. The Government on Saturday appointed Urjit R.Patel as the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor. Patel, who is currently serving as the Deputy RBI chief, will succeed Raghuram Rajan as the RBI chair once he steps down on September 3 after his term comes to an end. Dr Rajan surprised everyone with a letter to RBI staff announcing his decision to return to academics and not be available for a second term. "The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Dr. Urjit Patel as Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years w.e.f. 4-9-16," the press statement issued from the finance ministry said. "The appointment has been made based on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments (FSRASC) headed by Cabinet Secretary," the statement added. The committee undertook an extensive exercise to suggest a panel of names to the ACC. One of the RBI's four deputy governors, Patel, 52, was reappointed in January for another three years. He has run the central bank's monetary policy department since 2013. Patel obtained his BA from the London School of Economics [LSE, University of London], M. Phil. degree from Oxford University in 1986. He received his doctorate in Economics from Yale University in 1990. He joined IMF as a Kenyan citizen. He was at IMF India desk during the 1991-1994 transition period. He was posted to IMF country mission in India 1992-1995. He has also been a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution since 2009. (ANI)
Endorsing Narendra Modi's remarks made by on the human rights violation in Pakistan's Balochistan province, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Sunday said the assertion made by the Indian Prime Minister is an aspiration for all. "The Prime Minister of India spoke of the human rights of the people of Balochistan that their suffering should end and that's an aspiration for all of us, everywhere to have our rights preserved and our sufferings end," Karzai told ANI in an exclusive conversation. Taking on Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil, Karzai yesterday said India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there. He was of the opinion that India has no intention to go conduct a proxy war in the region as it has a tradition of peaceful co-existence. Prime Minister Modi, in his Independence Day address, had thanked the people of Balochistan, Gilgit and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the goodwill they have shown towards him. He had last week in an all-party meeting on Kashmir said the "time has come that Pakistan shall have to answer to the world for the atrocities committed by it against the people in Balochistan and PoK". (ANI)
Coming down heavily on Pakistan for supporting ISIS, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai today said the terrorists cannot be divided into categories of acceptable or not-acceptable as they are all bad. "When they cause harm to people, to citizens, to society, they are bad and this is how you should treat them," he told ANI in an exclusive conversation. Karzai, who was the president of Afghanistan from 2001-2014, also agreed with the fact that Pakistan was supporting the ISIS. "We have no doubt about that. We have evidence, information coming to us from our population that deals the case," he said. When asked whether the Indian military has any role in Afghanistan, he said, "I see a great role for India in Afghanistan. India has already been at the forefront of Afghanistan and to Afghanistan people in infrastructure, education, development, building of institutions of democracy and all of that." (ANI)
Assam Police have suggested that skill development centres be created across the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) to keep youngsters away from militancy, a top police officer has said. The plan, which is in it's initial stage, was conceived by the Assam Police after ideas were sought internally to tackle the recruitment of youths by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland-S (NDFB-S) faction in recent months. "Stopping recruitment in NDFB area is not easy. We are trying to reach out to the people in far-flung villages of these areas. The challenges are many," Assam's Additional Director General (ADG) of Police L.R. Bishnoi told IANS. "On the request of the Special Branch of Assam Police, I have suggested the creation of skill development centres in the Bodo areas. Fifty different villages have been identified for this. If this becomes successful then possibly we can stop the recruitment of youths by this NDFB-S," Bishnoi added. Bishnoi, who is also in-charge of railways and the BTAD, said the list of 50 villages has been already submitted to the police department, which, after proper analysis, will take it forward with the government. "Through these skill development centres the tribal youths in these (BTAD) areas can be engaged in various types of constructive work. If this initiative succeeds, we can also have local skilled workers from the state itself," said Bishnoi. How will these centres work? "As per the plans, the youths will be trained in computer science, handicrafts and plumbing, among several other disciplines," Bishnoi said. The BTAD consists of four contiguous districts -- Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri and Chirang. Kokrajhar was recently rocked by grenade blasts and a shootout in which 14 persons were killed and several injured. Assam Police chief Mukesh Sahay had blamed the anti-talk faction of the NDFB for the attack. The faction is led by I.K. Songbijit. Sahay had also said that the NDFB-S was desperately recruiting boys aged below 18 to replenish losses it has suffered due to ongoing counter-insurgency operations. "We have identified several areas in these Bodo districts where the youths were being recruited by the NDFB-S. We have counselled these youths and sent them back to their parents. The police are taking special initiatives to control the recruitment drive by the NDFB-S," he added. "It is a matter of concern because youths being recruited for the militant group are even school-going students who get influenced due to various reasons, including poverty," Sahay said. According to the Assam Police, there are also instances of girls under 18 being forcibly taken away. (Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at Rupesh.d@ians.in) --IANS rup/bim/vm/sac ( 446 Words) 2016-08-21-13:14:01 (IANS)
Accusing Pakistan of being directly involved in the Kashmir unrest that has engulfed the Valley for almost two months now, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday hit out at Islamabad and asserted that the security of India will not be compromised at any cost. Stating that Pakistan began to send terrorists to infiltrate into India after losing both the 1947 and the 1965 wars, Jaitley said that India had initially found it difficult to handle the situation but with time, overcame the hurdle. "After 9/11, everyone's hatred toward terrorism intensified and the whole world believed that one can't win through means of terrorism. Pakistan was told on an international scale to put an end to terrorism," he said. "In Jammu, when the Amarnath revolution in began in 2008, 2010, they started a new trend of stone pelting. Kids would fill their school bags with stones instead of books and attack security forces. If a troop of 8-10 police personnel is attacked by 200 men with 10, 000 stones what else is that except an attack. But then the nation emerged from that as well," the Finance Minister said. Talking the rampant state of violence in the Valley at present, Jaitley emphasised on the active involvement of Pakistan in the unrest, besides Separatists and divisive forces. "And once again, in a new way, the unity of this nation has been attacked," he added. Stating that the current crisis in the Valley is a major challenge for the nation, Jaitley said that India's need at the moment is absolutely no compromise on the security and the unity of the nation, adding that this strategy of Pakistan will be thwarted as well. "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, we have three clear priorities for Jammu and Kashmir. First is that there will be no compromise with the security of this nation and those who threaten with violence. Secondly, the focus is on the development the state, which the Congress and the National Conference refused to address for seven years. And third, as BJP has a stronghold in Jammu, Nirmal Singh should think about gathering resources from the Centre to contribute to the state's development," Jaitley said. This development comes after the Jammu and Kashmir opposition submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday over the unrest in the Valley stating that it needed a 'political' solution and asserted that Pakistan was not solely responsible for the state of violence. Asserting that both the State and the Central government have failed in finding a solution to the soaring violence in the Valley, NC chief Omar Abdullah said that the problem in the state is a political one and cannot be handled administratively. He emphasised that the unrest in the Valley stemmed from a political problem and that the situation cannot be handled administratively or by creating a humanitarian crisis. Further stating that it was ridiculous to blame Pakistan completely for the Kashmir unrest, he added that Islamabad was partially responsible in fanning the flames, but they were not solely to blame. Earlier, the Congress expressed concern over the current state in the Valley saying that the situation is sliding into 'total chaos' and called for a solution by the opposition. As many as 65 have been killed and thousands of civilians and security personnel reported injured in protest-related violence following the encounter of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. (ANI)
Assad said this on Saturday during a meeting with visiting Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar in capital city Damascus.

"Both leaders acknowledged that terrorism was a global problem," an official source said here on Sunday.

"Assad said as a growing power, India has a role to play in meeting the challenge of terrorism," the source said.

On his part, Akbar said the age of destruction should give way to reconstruction in Syria.

"Assad invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy," the source said.

The Syrian President also welcomed India's objective position on the conflict in Syria.

There was an agreement between the two sides on further upgrading security consultations.

Akbar is on the second leg of his August 17-23 three-nation West Asia tour. He earlier visited Lebanon and met Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

Akbar's visit comes seven months after the visit of Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem to India, during which he sought India's economic and political support.

After Syria, Akbar will also visit the war-ridden country of Iraq.

--IANS ab/py/vt

( 218 Words)

2016-08-21-13:44:01 (IANS)
Abdulah Al Sanousi enjoys the breeze in the lush resort outside Sarajevo where his family bought a flat to escape the summer heat at home in Kuwait, one of thousands of new Gulf buyers whose investment has polarized local opinion.They discovered mountainous Bosnia, where half the population is Muslim, after the Arab Spring which destabilised many traditional holiday destinations such as Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. The trend has picked up with more direct flights, new resorts and the end of visa restrictions.Estate agents and local businesses have welcomed the economic boost. But in a secular country where many Muslims drink alcohol and wear European-style clothing, the arrival of a Saudi-built mall where no alcohol is sold and the sight of burqas and traditional Arab robes is worrying for some."People from the Middle East come here because of the nature and good weather, and very cheap prices for property and other goods," said 28-year old Sanousi, who works in the media industry in Kuwait."Many Muslims feel it's a good place for them, they feel they are with their people, they feel comfortable here," he said in the gated resort that is inhabited mostly by Gulf visitors. It was built by a Kuwaiti investor and opened last year.The number of visitors from the United Arab Emirates surged to 13,000 in the first seven months of this year from 7,265 last year, according to hotel data from the Sarajevo tourist board. In 2010, there were only 65 visitors from the UAE.Bosnia does not have a national tourism authority and data on land purchases is patchy in the Balkan country which has a fragmented government system.Unofficial estimates put the total number of Arab tourists at between 50,000-60,000 a year, with about a quarter buying property.The visitors bring much needed cast to the economy which has not recovered from the 1990s war.But many local Muslims, who pray only at mosques or at home, were shocked when a group of Arab men dressed in traditional robes prayed outdoors at a popular weekend resort near Sarajevo last year. Others have been upset by a Saudi-funded mall that serves no alcohol or pork."I'm not glad that they are coming," said Amina, a Muslim pharmacist from Sarajevo in her 50s. "I'm worried about what influence they can have on our children if they stayed here."DELICATE BALANCEMany Bosnians remember the Arab fighters who came during the 1992-1995 war to fight with Bosnian Muslims against Serbs and Croats, bringing with them a stricter form of Islam which drew followers, some of whom fought in Syria and Iraq for Islamic State.At the end of the war, some restaurants and cafes in the Ottoman-era old town of the capital stopped serving alcohol and pork and residents say they have now disappeared from the menu in other cafes which have started to do the same.Esad Durakovic, a professor of Arabic studies at the University of Sarajevo, wrote in an editorial for the Depo news portal last week property purchases by Gulf visitors could hurt a delicate religious balance in Bosnia."This is not about tourists who come and go but about those who permanently stay on their property," he said, saying that it could fuel a desire for secession among some Bosnian Serbs."They will not want to live in "Muslimstan."Travel and real estate agents dismiss those concerns, saying the country should welcome the money to help get the economy back on track and that the visitors only come in the summer to escape the heat at home."I'm really wondering why so many people are questioning (Arab investments) rather than getting profit out of it... I find it really sad," said Abdelal Mustafa, general manager of Saudi-based HR Holidays travel agency.They want the state to improve legislation to encourage more visitors and investors in Bosnia."The legalisation blocks a lot of money," said Tariq Burjaq, executive director of the Kuwaiti Rawasi Real estate company, which is building a 25 million euro worth residential complex at the foot of Igman mountain, near Sarajevo, with 246 housing units.Mirsada Gostevcic who was selling honey and blackberry and raspberry juice near the Sarajevo Resort where Sanousi's family has a property, does not see what all the fuss is about."I don't mind that Arabs are coming, I don't know why people are bothered with that. This is a country where life is difficult, and we are looking forward to earning more money," Gostevicic said as visitors from the Gulf strolled along improvised shop-stands where local farmers sold their produce.REUTERS SDR PM1347 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-897004.Xml
Cow vigilance group's chief Satish Kumar, who was arrested along with two others from Uttar Pradesh's Vrindavan city late last night, was on Sunday sent to one-day police custody. The latest development took place after they were produced before the Rajpura court here. The trio was arrested after the police received information about the videos posted on Facebook which showed Satish and several others brutally thrashing and harassing the people in the name of cow protection. Rajpura City Police Inspector Gurjeet Singh divulging more details about this case informed that a Scorpio vehicle was also seized from their possession during the time of arrest. "We have arrested the trio and an FIR under Section 381, 377, 384, 342, 341, 323, 148 and 159 of the IPC have been lodged against them," he said. Kumar, who is the chief of Gau Raksha Dal, had been absconding ever since he was booked on August 8 under Section 377. According to reports, several victims have told the police that they were detained by the self-styled cow vigilantes, robbed and tortured. The development comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly rebuked the cow vigilantes, saying most of them are 'anti-social' elements who are running 'shops' in the name of cow protection. In his first comments on the violence against Dalits by cow vigilantes, Prime Minister Modi also asked the state governments to prepare dossiers on the so-called cow protectors as 80 percent of them do illegal activities at night and become cow protectors in the day. "The people, who are troubled by the unity of the society, are in the name of 'gau rakshaks' attempting to create friction the society. I urge my fellow countrymen to be aware of such 'gau rakshaks'," he said. (ANI)
Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution MinisterRam Vilas Paswan today attended Indian Independence Day celebrations organised by Indian High Commission in London. A function held at Gymkhana Club, London was attended by a large number of Indian diaspora, an official statement said here. Mr Paswan addressed the gathering and informed about the initiatives being taken by the Indian Government for all round development of the country. The Minister also visited Dr B R Ambedkar Memorial at London and paid floral tributes. The memorial is the place where Baba Saheb resided while studying at London. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.UNI NY AE 1810 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0099-897357.Xml
After the delegation of leaders of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir held a meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the restive situation in the Valley, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI-M today said that political problems needs to be addressed through political means so that a national consensus could emerge. CPM leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami said the delegation of opposition parties are in Delhi for the last two days to meet national leaders . "We met President of India, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, and tomorrow we are meeting the Prime Minister," said Tarigami , adding "The purpose is to apprise the national political leaders about the grave situation which we are facing in Jammu and Kashmir." "We have expressed our concern and appealed to the national leadership, including Mr. Rahul Gandhi, so that they use their influence and help in building a national consensus and a common approach is formed in addressing the issues of this present unrest," Tarigami added. "In our opinion, it is essentially a political unrest and a political problem, which needs to be addressed through political means ," he said. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah led a delegation of members of opposition parties and submitted a memorandum to the President . Omar said this is the first time in his memory that initiatives that should have been taken by the government are actually being taken by the opposition. "This afternoon a delegation of opposition parties that had previously met in Srinagar, called on his Excellency the President to present him a memorandum and to apprise him of the situation currently prevailing, particularly in the Kashmir Valley, but also showing signs of spreading to Pir Punjal, Chenab Valley region of Jammu and Kargil part of Ladakh as well," he said.(ANI)
A speeding car, allegedly driven by an 18-year-old youth, mowed down a 54-year-old police constable near Welcome metro station in northeast Delhi this morning, police sources said. According to the sources, the incident took place around 0830 hrs when the victim, identified as Head Constable Naresh Pal Malik, was going on a scooter for work.Police said the constable was knocked down of his scooter by a speeding car, allegedly driven by an 18-year-old youth, who did not have a driving license. The constable, who hailed from Ghaziabad, was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead. The police have registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and further investigation is on. UNI SM JW AE 1911 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-897512.Xml
Upping its ante against Samajwadi Party Government, the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to hold demonstration outside Vidhan Bhawan here over poor law and order on August 24 incidentally the day GST bill will be tabled in the House. "The law and order in the state is in shambles. The present government has failed to bring the crime rate under control. To protest government's failure the BJP will hold demonstration outside Vidhan Bhawan on August 24," BJP state secretary Swatantra Deo Singh told media persons here today. He said that party workers from neighbouring 6-7 states will take part in the protest. Party MPs, legislators, party office-bearers and people's representatives will take part in that protest. "We will hold peaceful protest and will not react to use of force by the police," he said. Mr Singh said that law and order has deteriorated in last couple of years because of patronage criminals are enjoying from ruling party leaders. The crime against women has gone up. The National Crime Bureau says UP is number 1 in case of crime against the fairer sex. "In last 18 days 59 cases of crime against women have been reported from Lucknow and near by areas. In last one year, over a dozen cases bank heist have been reported from Lucknow. Interesting fact is despite having CCTV footage police has failed to arrested criminals", he said. BJP leader said that onus is on Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to control crime because he also heads Home department. He should accept his failure and resign, he said adding that on August 24 protest the BJP will stress for resignation of Yadav.UNI MB JW AE 1950 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-897579.Xml
The protesting oil tanker and truck drivers today met the government representatives seeking security and compensation for their damaged vehicles by the miscreants in Kashmir besides for injured persons. Meanwhile the petrol and diesel supply for the Jammu region may resume tomorrow but it will remain suspended for the Kashmir Valley. ''The representatives of oil tanker, trucks and other transporters today had a detailed meeting with the Divisional Commissioner Jammu Dr Pawan Kotwal, which was also attended by the senior officers of police and army,'' Anan Sharma, president J&K Oil Tanker Association here told UNI. He said that the transporters demanded security before resuming supply to the Kashmir Valley, adding, ''compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the injured drivers and for the vehicles damaged was demanded from the government and they have agreed for it but the security matter is still being discussed.'' The agitating drivers including those who suffered injuries in the Valley are also having meeting with the government officials. ''We will be holding a meeting and the petrol products supply to Jammu region may resume tomorrow morning but it will not be restored in Kashmir unless the demands are met,'' he asserted. Jammu and Kashmir Oil Tanker Association yesterday went on strike while all the depots are closed in protest against alleged attack on tanker drivers and damage to the vehicles by some miscreants in Kashmir Valley. ''Around 3 to 4 drivers were mercilessly beaten and more than 20 tankers damaged by the miscreants last evening in Kashmir,'' Mr Sharma added. He said that an indefinite strike has been announced and no tanker from Jammu will carry the oil supply and other petro products to the valley unless the government provides security.UNI VBH JW 2000 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-897622.Xml
Leaders of Gujarat Congress today met President Pranab Mukherjee and submitted a memorandum to him, expressing concern over increasing number of atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat. Claiming that atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat were continuing even after the Una incident, the Gujarat Congress leaders, led by PCC president Bharatsinh Solanki, sought the protection of the President and urged him to use his good offices and issue relevant directions to the administration.Claiming that atrocities in Una were not an exception, but the norm, the Congress delegation said, ''the fact that even after the Una incident shook the nation's conscience, atrocities against Dalit still continue with impunity shows the extreme insensitivity embedded in the Gujarat administration.'' In a statement after meeting the President, Mr Solanki said, ''today, the Gujarat Congress met the President and submitted to him a memorandum highlighting the increase in atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat.''We have apprised him of the rise in social terror in Gujarat, a phenomenon that has manifested over the past 18 years of BJP rule. ''The atrocities in Una is not an exception but the norm. And the fact that even after the Una incident shook the nation's conscience, atrocities against Dalit still continue with impunity shows the extreme insensitivity embedded in the Gujarat administration,''he said. Accusing the Prime Minister of turning a blind eye to atrocities against Dalits in his home state, Mr Solanki said, ''the Prime Minister has time to acknowledge the suffering of people in Baluchistan, but it is unfortunate that he and his party have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the marginalised and underprivileged in his home state. He spoke eloquently over rogue cow vigilantes, but did not tell us how as Chief Minister, he encouraged the very business of such vigilantes.'' ''For a party whose ideology is based on dividing society, we have no hope that they will take any serious action to erase the deep fault lines in Gujarat. Therefore, we have come to seek the protection of the President and urged him to use his good offices and issue relevant directions to the administration,'' Mr Solanki added.UNI AR RJ 2244 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-897694.Xml
Uttar Pradesh government has suspended five jail officials from immediate effect in the murder incident, which occurred in Saharanpur Jail of Uttar Pradesh today.Deputy Inspector General (Jail) V K Shekhar, in a press conference, said here that murder accused prisoner Sukkha had a clash with another jailmate Shahnawaz. In a fit of rage, Shahnawaz had murdered Sukkha by slitting his throat in the wee hours of August 17. Mr Shekhar said in this matter, Jailer R K Singh, Deputy Jailer A K Singh and three other guards Jogendra Singh, Dinesh Singh and Devendra Verma have been suspended for negligence of duty.Shahnawaz is not disclosing anything, even after interrogation of police. Also, police suspects some conspiracy behind the murder, he added. Police is investigating the case thoroughly after registering the case under murder charges on Shahnawaz. Meanwhile, sources said the incident could have links with Varanasi jail. UNI XC-JDM MB RJ 2221 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-897773.Xml
In a major recognition, thespian Kamal Hassan will be awarded the prestigious Chevalier de L'Ordre Arts et Lettres (The Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government. He would become the second tamil actor to receive this award. Earlier, Satyajit Ray of Kolkatta and Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan of Tamil Nadu has bagged this award. The Order is part of France's premier award, the Legion of Honor. "The distinction, which is yet another laurel for the actor, is in recognition of his high level of artistic excellence and his distinguished career achievements. The award will be conferred on Kamal Haasan at a special ceremony," a statement from the actor's PRO said. The highest order of merit was awarded "to recognize eminent artists and writers, as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world." The Order has three ranks - Chevalier (knight), officier (officer), commandeur (commander) and two high offices. Other Indians who have been conferred the Chevalier Order include actors Sivaji Ganesan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Nandita Das and Shahrukh Khan. Reacting to the announced, Kamal Hassan said he thanked his family and fans for supporting him. He also saluted the other recipients of the award and said it was a big honour conferred on him. ''It's a big recognition for his acting career that started from my childhood days'', he said. ''I dedicate "Chevalier award" to my admirers and audience", Kamal said.UNI GV 2315 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-897794.Xml
Samil Tayyar, deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said on twitter that the attack was carried out by Islamic State, Xinhua news agency reported.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack.

Local media reported that the blast occurred at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT) in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighbourhood of the city, while local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey.

--IANS lok/

( 150 Words)

2016-08-21-06:20:01 (IANS)
According to CNN, Erdogan has demanded that the U.S. immediately extradite the 75-year-old imam from his home in Pennsylvania to Turkey.

At a news conference in Istanbul on Saturday, the Turkish President said that the group Gulen leads will be "the number one item on the agenda" during Biden's visit.

Erdogan added that relations between Turkey and the US "so-so" following the attempted coup in which almost 300 people were killed and over 35,00 people were arrested, remanded, or detained.

The US government has condemned the coup attempt and denied any involvement, however, Erdogan has claimed the US has not been forceful enough in their condemnation of the attempt to remove Erdogan from power. (ANI)
At least 30 people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, security and hospital sources said.President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night attack, one of the deadliest this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria."The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."Today morning, smashed garage doors and windows could be seen at the site of the blast.The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.Mahmut Togrul, an HDP lawmaker from Gaziantep, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions."It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."Turkey is still raw after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.Violence flared up again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants.REUTERS SDR PM1230 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-896919.Xml
At least 10 persons were killed and two others injured when a boat capsized in western Indonesia on Sunday, an official said. The boat carried 17 persons, of whom five went missing, Xinhua news agency quoted navy spokesman Admiral Edi Sucipto as saying. --IANS py/vt ( 56 Words) 2016-08-21-13:07:22 (IANS)
A suicide car bomb went off at the local government headquarters in Somalia's Galkayo town in the semi-autonomous Puntland region today, police said."The situation is a mess," said Ahmed Farah, a police officer, who did not have details of any casualties.REUTERS SDR PM1346 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-896998.Xml
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday railed against the United Nations after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organisation. According to CNN, Duterte said, "Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations." "If you are that insulting, we should just leave. Take us out of your organization. You have done nothing anyway," he said during his address in Davao City where he served as mayor for over two decades. The Filipino President also said Philippines will invite China and African nations to form another global organisation in place of UN, as world body is not doing enough to address the issue of hunger and terrorism. Two UN human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the Presidency. About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since Duterte came to power after winning the election on May 9. (ANI)
As per the Dawn, a well-placed para-military officer revealed this information.

Divulging the details of the meeting, the officer said the two sides adopted security measures on their respective borders.

During the meeting, both Pakistan and Afghanistan deliberated over issues related to the border which the two countries share.

In the aftermath of an attack at the Friendship Gate by the Afghan nationals on Friday, Pakistan had closed its border.

The closure of the gate led to suspension of traffic between the two neighbours.

The para-military officer further said that no time-frame can be given about the opening of the border, which has been closed for indefinite time.

He also stated that in retaliation the Afghans burnt the Pakistani national flag and pelted stones at the Friendship Gate and smashed its windowpanes.

The Afghans, celebrating the nation's 97th independence at the border, resorted to pelting stones and chanting anti-Pakistan slogans. (ANI)
At least 51 people were killed when a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 attacked guests dancing on the street at a wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, the Turkish President said.Yesterday the attack was the deadliest in a series of bombings in Turkey this year, and President Tayyip Erdogan said today Islamic State was likely behind it. Turkey faces multiple security threats from militants at home and from Syria."Initial evidence suggests it was a Daesh attack," Erdogan said, using an Arabic name for the hardline Sunni group, during a visit to Gaziantep after the attack. He said 69 people were in hospital and 17 were "heavily injured".Islamic State has been blamed for other attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions. The deadliest one was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists in Ankara.Yesterday's attack comes with Turkey still in shock just a month after Erdogan and the government survived an attempted coup by rogue military officers, which Ankara blames on US-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen has denied the charge.Yesterday's wedding party was for a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, it said, and the groom was among those injured. The bride was not hurt, one local official said.Celebrations were ending at the traditional henna night party, when guests have decorative paint applied to their hands and feet. Some families had already left when the bomb went off but women and children were among the dead, witnesses said.Blood and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the blast hit. Women in white and checkered scarves cried, sitting crosslegged outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives."The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere.""We want to end these massacres," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We are in pain, especially the women and children."FUNERALS, FORENSTIC TESTSNATO member Turkey is a partner in the Western coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, allowing US jets to fly attacks against the group from its air bases. It has also backed some rebel groups in Syria.Syrian rebels were preparing to launch an operation to capture a town held by Islamic State at the border with Turkey, a senior Syrian rebel said today.Hundreds gathered for funerals today, some weeping at coffins draped in the green colour of Islam, local television images showed. But other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.In Gaziantep, the chief prosecutor's office said they had found a destroyed suicide vest at the blast site.Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June.Violence has also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed the PKK.Turkey began air strikes against Islamic State last July, in the weeks after a peace process with the PKK collapsed and it also began targeting PKK targets in northern Iraq.Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shelling from Islamic State territory, killing civilians on some days.Today, ruling AK Party lawmakers as well as Erdogan himself emphasised that they see Islamic State as no different to the Kurdish separatist PKK and the group led by Gulen, all three classified by Turkey as terrorist organisations.REUTERS AKC PR1953 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-897604.Xml
The roadside bomb planted by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) was detonated as the military vehicle passed through a highway in Viransehir district of southern Sanliurfa, Xinhua news agency reported.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US, the European Union and Turkey.

--IANS ask/lok

( 88 Words)

2016-08-22-03:58:03 (IANS)
File photo taken on July 16, 2016 shows Donald Trump speaking during a campaign event in New York, the United States. New York billionaire Donald Trump clinched enough delegate votes to be officially selected as Republican presidential nominee Tuesday evening in the roll call voting at the ongoing Republican National Convention. (Xinhua file photo/Li Muzi)

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Recent days have seen U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton take opposite stances on the tensions between police and African Americans, reflecting a cavernous gap between how the nation's left and right view the situation.

At a time of increased police-black tensions in the U.S., the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin has in recent days witnessed racial riots and looting following the killing of an armed black man by a police officer.

Both Trump and Clinton have differing views of the situation. While Clinton has expressed support for the police, her emphasis has been mostly on social justice - a clear play toward black voters, a crucial part of her base.

In sharp contrast, Trump has emphasized support for the police, at a time when they are under fire from U.S. media, and after a couple of incidents in which officers were lured, ambushed and shot dead by black gunmen.

TRUMP IS STICKING CLOSE TO COPS

"Sticking close to the police is a smart strategy for Trump," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

"This plays to his broader narrative about the need to restore order in the United States and the risks of urban unrest. That strategy won't help him with minorities but Trump has cast his lot with white voters so focusing on law enforcement will help him with his base voters," West said.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that Trump's focus on the police is one that certainly appeals to the base.

Start with former U.S. President Richard Nixon, a long series of Republican presidential campaigns highlighted "law and order" issues.

But while police are still among the most trusted U.S. institutions, that trust has been greatly shaken by a greater awareness of police brutality issues, Mahaffee said.

Still, there's a gap between how Trump's base sees the country and how the broader electorate sees the United States.

While Trump's base looks at rioting and increased attacks as evidence that America is becoming increasingly unsafe, a wider portion of the electorate continues to see numbers that show violent crime at its lowest levels in years, and wonder if emphasis on "law and order" is real or a way to play on some voters' insecurities and prejudices, Mahaffee said.

CLINTON LEANING TOWARD VIEW THAT POLICE NEED TO REFORM

In comparison, West said Clinton leans more to the minority view of law enforcement being out of control and needing to do a better job in its treatment of African-Americans.

Clinton is more empathetic to those who have been hassled by the police and those who have been shot. This helps her among minority voters and independents who think the police have become a big problem in urban America.

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, noted that Clinton also supports the police, but she wants to do it in ways that create calm, justice, and safety on the streets.

"So Trump's efforts to frame it this way don't necessarily mean that is how the public will see it. Given his poll numbers it is not clear this will make a big difference," Zelizer told Xinhua.

Zelizer said the struggle against racism in policing is more than appealing to Clinton's base.

"This is an issue that has bothered many people and there is support for efforts to change the basic dynamics on the street," he said.

Mahaffee said while Clinton's view on mending problems between police and African Americans reflects the opinion of her base, it also reflects the view of more moderate, younger, and more educated Americans who have seen, now first-hand via cell phone recordings and body cameras, both the dangers the police face and the incidents where police have used unjustified force.

This, in turn, has fostered a greater willingness to improve dialogue on these issues, and look to examples of urban police departments where police leadership have improved their relationship with the community, he said.

Related:

News Analysis: Trump tough on terror but temper issue keeps tripping him up

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- While U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's strong point is his tough stance on fighting terrorism, he is having trouble staying focused on the issue as his temper continues to be distractive, experts said. Full story

Trump's VP pick more favored than Clinton's: poll
JERUSALEM, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Israel lauded on Saturday that the Turkish parliament has approved a bilateral reconciliation agreement over the weekend, which put an end to a six-year rift.

"Israel welcomes the Turkish parliament's decision, and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

It added Israel expects the future exchange of ambassadors.

Turkish officials announced earlier that its parliament had authorized the deal between the two countries, signed in June 27, over the weekend.

The deal normalized the bilateral relations strained for the past six years, following a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla in 2010 that set out to block the Israeli-imposed blockade on the enclave.

Ten Turkish activists died in the clashes with the Israeli navy.

According to the agreement reached in June, Israel will transfer 20 million U.S. dollars to compensate the families of the Turkish victims.

The deal also enables Turkey to carry out rehabilitation projects in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, devastated from several rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist organization ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, in the past decade.

The countries also agreed to launch talks over gas exports from Israel to Turkey.
HELSINKI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Saturday there was no drama in the plan for a defence cooperation agreement with the United States.

Niinisto made the remarks following a statement earlier in the day by Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini that he endorsed the plan for such a bilateral agreement and he hoped the talks with the United States would end up with a "good agreement".

The Finnish intention to enter a defence agreement with the United States was reported earlier as Defence Minister Jussi Niinisto signed a comparable agreement with Britain in July.

Niinisto told broadcaster Yle in Rio de Janeiro that "these are fairly technical agreements" and they are "after all of relatively general nature."

Chairman of the Finnish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Antti Kaikkonen also commented on the Foreign Minister's statement. He said it would resemble the agreement between Sweden and the United States.

Kaikkonen said it would involve cooperation in defence material and exchange of information. The agreement would not mean an actual defence alliance, Kaikkonen underlined.
BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Organic wines have slowly but steadily taken root in Argentina, where climatic conditions are ideal for this niche market.

Some 14 wineries showcased pesticide-free organic and holistically-produced biodynamic wines this week at the 3rd Fair of Organic Wines, held at Botica del Angel, a home-turned-museum in the Buenos Aires district of Congreso.

Through Saturday, the fair gave health-conscious wine lovers an opportunity to sample and compare the newest organic and biodynamic wines in an art-filled setting.

It is "the only fair in Argentina that is exclusively for organic wines," Pancho Barreiro, who together with Juan Pino organizes the event, told Xinhua.

"There is in addition a stand (about) environmental awareness (and), sustainability," where those who want to "can measure their carbon footprint," said Barreiro.

While Argentina is consolidating its organic wine production, Argentina's consumers of organic wine still represents a small segment, so many of the labels are exclusively made for export.

"Organic wine is very well accepted abroad, but probably not so much here in the country, (so) nearly 90 percent of the production goes for export," said Barreiro.

However, attendance at the fair indicates that may be changing.

The previous edition drew three times more visitors than the first event, and 2016 is expected to draw even more organic wine aficionados, prompting organizers to extend the fair from two to three days.

Organic wines represents only 2 percent of Argentina's wine production, with most of the participating wineries from Mendoza, the country's best-known wine-making region, and one from Catamarca.

But the sector could grow, indicated Barreiro, given that Argentina's "temperature range facilitates the production of organic wine, because (grapevine) pests can't survive. They die in a day, making it easy to naturally produce organic wine."

In the past three years, "there has been an increase in exports, and this year projections are much higher," said Barreiro, with the leading markets being Asia, Europe and the United States.

The wines on show ranged in price from 70 pesos (4.66 U.S. dollars) for an economical wine to 1,000 pesos (66.66 dollars) for a premium bottle.

Among the participating wineries were Ernesto Catena Vineyards, established by the son of Nicolas Catena Zapata, owner of organic label Animal and biodynamic wines Siesta and Tikal; Bodega Domaine Bousquet, a market leader of French origin that exports to some 40 countries; and Bodega Chakana, which switched to organic/biodynamic farming methods in 2012.

Underscoring the sustainable aspect of organic wine production, fair organizers have pledged to donate 10 percent of the earnings from the event to the Green Spaces Foundation (Fundacion Espacios Verdes), which promotes environmental education.

Argentina is home to some 60 producers of certified organic grapes, most in Mendoza.

In 2014, Argentina's organic wine exports grew 59 percent, a figure that held steady in 2015. In 2016, that figure is expected to reach 70 percent.
BUJUMBURA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has issued a message to the nation whereby he severely warned troublemakers as Burundi celebrates Saturday the first anniversary after the country's 2015 elections.

"This is a warning to all troublemakers. They have to avoid their bad plans. They will fall in the traps that they will have laid," said Nkurunziza in the message to the nation on Friday evening.

He indicated that the celebration of the first anniversary of institutions elected in 2015 is an opportunity to thank defense and security forces that did their best to foil a coup plot staged on May 13 last year.

"Defense and security forces neutralized the insurgency during the electoral process. Elections were held freely and in transparency and were approved by the local and the international community," said Nkurunziza.

He added that Burundian citizens are now enjoying peace and security, stressing that they are united in their diversity.

Nkurunziza said, "No genocide will take place and I take this opportunity to denounce ill-intended people who are saying that a genocide is in preparation in Burundi."

Nkurunziza said that almost 100,000 Burundian citizens who had gone into exile have returned home, while others are preparing to come back home.

"Burundian citizens still living in exile should come back home to build their country and politicians should prepare the 2020 general elections," said Nkurunziza.

He also commended the step reached in the inter-Burundian dialogue as reported by the National Inter-Burundian Dialogue Commission (CNDI).

Nkurunziza indicated that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is at work to shed light on cyclical massacres that happened in Burundi notably in 1961, 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988, 1991 and in 1993.

While acknowledging that Burundi's economy has been destabilized due to troublemakers, Nkurunziza said that the future is "better", grounding his hope on peace and security reported countrywide.

He reiterated his fight against corruption and fraud and promised to continue community works that boost the country's economy and citizens' cohesion.

Burundi has suffered turmoil since April last year when President Nkurunziza announced that he would seek a third term, which he later won in a presidential election on July 21, 2015 boycotted by the opposition.

Nkurunziza was sworn in on Aug. 20, 2015 for a third five-year term in office as the president of the east African nation.

Opponents say the president's move violates the constitution, and mounted waves of protests.

Rights groups have reported several abusive arrests and torture in detention houses.

Over 500 people are said to have been killed in violence while some 270,000 people are said to have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
ANKARA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A bast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of Southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, Dogan News Agency reported.

Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya told local media that a terrorist attack hit a wedding hall in downtown Gaziantep.

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack. Local media reported that the attack occurred at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT), causing heavy casualties.
ANKARA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A blast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, leaving at least eight people killed and over 60 injured, security sources told local media.

Governor Ali Yerlikaya said a terrorist attack hit the wedding hall in downtown Gaziantep, Dogan News Agency reported.

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party's local deputy Mehmet Erdogan told CNNTurk that the blast was "probably a suicide attack."

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack. Local media reported that the blast occurred at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT).
RABAT, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan King Mohammed VI said on Saturday that Africa has been given top priority in Morocco's foreign policy, adding that this multi-dimensional relationship puts Morocco in the center of Africa.

Africa is the natural extension of Morocco and the embodiment of the country's strategic depth, the Moroccan king underlined in a speech to the nation on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, which marked the royal family's return to the country after being forced to exile by French colonial authorities.

"I believe what is good for Morocco is good for Africa -- and vice versa. I also believe there can be no progress without stability: either the two go together, or they do not exist," he said.

"Despite the extensive damage caused by colonialism, I believe Africa has the means to ensure its development and to take its destiny into its own hands, thanks to the resolve of African peoples and to the continent's human and natural resources," the king said.

Evoking Morocco's recent decision to rejoin the African Union, the king said "our decision that Morocco should take its natural place, once again, within the African institutional family clearly illustrates our commitment to supporting the causes of African people."

The Moroccan king said his country's national responses to many regional and international issues, such as development, migration and the fight against terrorism, are in line with a firm commitment to serving the African people.

In mid July, Morocco formally announced its wish to rejoin the African Union, 32 years after leaving the organization.
HAVANA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Cuba is set to hold its first Energy & Infrastructure Summit in an effort to boost clean and renewable energy sources and cut down on fossil fuels, local media reported on Saturday.

Conrado Moreno, a member of the organizing committee, told state-run Radio Havana Cuba that the Sept. 1-2 event, to be held at Havana's Melia Cohiba Hotel, is expected to draw green energy experts from 14 countries in the Americas and Europe.

Participants will explore ways to attract foreign investors in the national energy sector, including touting the new business opportunities under Cuba's new Foreign Investment Law.

The island nation is hoping to expand its renewable energy infrastructure, such as wind farms, solar panels and plants that turn sugarcane into biofuel, said Moreno.

Cuba has long depended on its close ally Venezuela, an oil exporter, to meet its energy needs. But low oil prices have plunged the South American country into an economic crisis, leading the Caribbean island nation to focus more on alternative energy sources.

The United States, which recently restored diplomatic ties with Cuba, will be attending the summit.

The summit is being sponsored by London-based IJ Global, a "project finance and infrastructure journal"; New Energy Events, which serves as a bridge between technology and capital and regional renewable resources; and the infrastructure division of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, a provider of news and information on the global financial community.

Also organizing the event are Cuba's Chamber of Commerce and Renewable Energy Technologies Study Center, with the support of the ministries of Foreign Trade and Investment, Tourism, and Agriculture.

Cuba generates about 4 percent of its energy from renewable sources, but aims to increase that figure to 24 percent by 2030.

The island produces half of its oil needs, and imports the rest at substantial cost. That's why Cuban President Raul Castro is looking to boost local energy production, especially green energy.
TUNIS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The new Tunisian head of national united government Youssef Chahed announced on Saturday the new cabinet member list of 24 ministers, two delegated ministers and 14 secretaries of state.

The new government includes six women ministers and two women secretaries of state, as well as five members less than 35-years-old.

"We have kept our promise... The government is young and founded on the national talents, also with the remarkable presence of women," said Chahed during a press conference after submitting the list to the Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi.

The cabinet list is a result of an opened dialogue with the various political parties, the principal social partners and civil societies, added Chahed.

The new government will focus on fighting against terrorism and corruption, increasing investment and development and protecting environment, Chahed said.

Some major posts, including interior minister, foreign affairs minister and defence minister, remain in their office.

The six women ministers will be in charge of finance, industry, healthy, tourism, women affairs and youth and sports, respectively.

The new line-up should be submitted soon to the Assembly of People's Representatives (parliament of Tunisia) during a plenary session in which the lawmakers should vote the confidence to the new government led by Chahed.

Chahed was designated on Aug. 3 by President Essebsi after the former Prime Minister Habib Essid failed to win the confidence vote in the parliament on July 30 and turned caretaker.

If Chahed and his cabinet can win at least 109 votes, he will become the youngest prime minister, at the age of 40, in Tunisia after the country got independence from France in 1956.
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mexican military troops discovered the bodies of seven men and a woman in a small town in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, the state government said on Saturday.

The eight bodies were found on Friday afternoon in the town of Alto Lucero, and appeared to have been victims of a criminal gang, the state general prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Military troops had been pursuing a convoy of 12 automobiles believed to belong to a criminal gang when they arrived at the site, the agency said.

The criminals had abandoned the vehicles and the bodies and fled the scene, the agency said, adding forensics experts were working to identify the victims.

Several of the 12 abandoned vehicles have no registry, and others carried license plates for Veracruz and central Mexico State, officials said.

"They (the vehicles) are being tested for clues that might clear up the incident," the agency said.

Veracruz has been gripped by a wave of violence in recent months amid turf wars between rival criminal gangs for control of local drug trafficking and extortion, according to officials.
People gather at a blast site in Sahinbey District of Gaziantep province, Turkey, Aug. 20, 2016. A blast occurred near a wedding hall here at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT) on Saturday, leaving at least eight people killed and over 60 injured, security sources told local media. (Xinhua/Mert Macit)

ANKARA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A blast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, killing at least 22 people and injuring 94 others, Gaziantep Governor's Office confirmed early Sunday.

Samil Tayyar, deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said on twitter that the attack was carried out by Islamic States terrorist group.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack.

Local media reported that the blast occurred at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT) in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighborhood of the city, while local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Researchers with Stanford University have used machine learning to extract information about poverty from satellite imagery of areas where survey information from sources on the ground is previously unavailable.

"We have a limited number of surveys conducted in scattered villages across the African continent, but otherwise we have very little local-level information on poverty," said Marshall Burke, an assistant professor of earth system science at Stanford and co-author of a study in the current issue of journal Science.

"At the same time, we collect all sorts of other data in these areas -- like satellite imagery -- constantly."

In trying to understand whether high-resolution satellite imagery, an unconventional but readily available data source, could inform estimates of where impoverished people live, the researchers based their solution on an assumption that areas that are brighter at night are usually more developed, therefore used the "nightlight" data to identify features in the higher-resolution daytime imagery that are correlated with economic development.

However, while machine learning, the science of designing computer algorithms that learn from data, works best when it can access vast amounts of data, there was little data on poverty to start with for the researchers.

"There are few places in the world where we can tell the computer with certainty whether the people living there are rich or poor," said study lead author Neal Jean, a doctoral student in computer science at Stanford's School of Engineering. "This makes it hard to extract useful information from the huge amount of daytime satellite imagery that's available."

The solution, according to Jean, was that their machine learning algorithm, without being told what to look for, learned to pick out of the imagery many things that are easily recognizable to humans, things like roads, urban areas and farmland. And the researchers then used these features from the daytime imagery to predict village-level wealth, as measured in the available survey data.

They claimed that this method did a surprisingly good job predicting the distribution of poverty across five African countries, outperforming existing approaches. These improved poverty maps could help aid organizations and policymakers distribute funds more efficiently and enact and evaluate policies more effectively.
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan security forces regained on Saturday the control of Khan Abad district, Kunduz province, seized by the Taliban militants earlier, police said.

"The security forces launched a counter-attack in the afternoon and kicked the Taliban out of district center Saturday evening," provincial police Chief Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh told Xinhua.

About 23 militants have been killed and over 30 injured during the clashes since early Saturday when the Taliban overran the district center in the east of the provincial capital Kunduz city.

Casualties on the side of the security forces remained unknown.

Dozens of armed militants overrun the district bazaar early Saturday morning and seized government offices there. The district is located some 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz city. A main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighboring Takhar province passes through the district.

The Kunduz province and neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

Taliban has yet to make comments.
YANGON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Non-signatory armed groups in Myanmar have raised an eight-point proposal to the government for finding ways to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA) and join the 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference planned for the end of this month.

The non-signatory armed groups were represented by the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC )'s Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN).

Discussions on the undisclosed proposal were underway between the government's Preparatory Committee for Holding the 21st Century Panglong Conference and the DPN in Yangon's National Reconciliation and Peace Center on Saturday, according to the center Sunday.

Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for Holding the Panglong Conference Tin Myo Win described the talks as productive enough to facilitate the peace process, while DPN's second leader Guan Maw called the discussions constructive, pledging to do their best and find the common ground to join the Panglong conference.

According to sources, the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC), ethnic armed groups and the Preparatory Committee for Panglong Conference will continue discussing the political framework at the peace center here Sunday.

The UPDJC has agreed to allow non-signatory armed groups to the NCA to join the 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference slated to start on Aug. 31 in Nay Pyi Taw.

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also chairperson of the UPDJC made up of representatives of the government, ethnic armed groups and political parties, called for mutual trust and unity to successfully hold the upcoming 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference.

The former Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups out of 15 signed the NCA on Oct. 15, 2015, leaving seven other armed groups who are yet to sign the accord.
ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A blast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, killing at least 30 people and injuring 94 others, authorities said.

Turkey has been targeted by a wave of bombing attacks in recent years. The following is a chronology of major bombing attacks in Turkey since the beginning of 2016:

On Aug. 19, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants detonated an explosive device in the Ozalp district of the eastern Turkish province of Van, hitting a passing military vehicle. Five soldiers and one civilian were wounded in the attack.

On Aug. 18, at least three police officers were killed and 217 others wounded, 85 of which were police officers, in a suicide car bomb attack targeting a police station in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig. The PKK militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Aug. 17, two police officers and one civilian were killed and 73 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police station in Turkey's eastern province of Van.

On July 28, five security personnel were killed and 11 others wounded in two separate bombing attacks by the outlawed PKK militants in southeastern Turkish province of Siirt and central province of Hakkari.

On July 25, a roadside bomb placed by militants of the outlawed PKK killed three policemen in southeastern Turkish province of Mardin.

On June 28, three suicide bombers opened fire at random at Istanbul Attaturk Airport before blowing themselves up, killing at least 41, including 12 foreign nationals, and injuring 239 others. The Turkish government blamed the Islamic State for the attack.

On June 7, seven police officers and four civilians were killed and 36 others injured in a car bombing attack on a police shuttle bus in Istanbul.

On March 19, a bomber detonated his explosives on Istiklal street in Istanbul's Beyoglu district that is home to cafes, restaurants and foreign consulates, killing at least five people and injuring 20 others.

On March 13, a car bomb exploded in central Ankara, killing at least 37 people and injuring 125 others, 19 of whom were in serious condition. The attack was claimed by the Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK).

On Feb. 17, a bomb-laden automobile struck military service buses transporting personnel which stopped at a traffic light at 18:31 local time (GMT 16:31) in Ankara, killing at least 29 and injuring 61. The government said the suicide attacker was a member of the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party.

On Jan. 12, at least 10 people were killed and 15 others wounded in an explosion that hit Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet Square, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed on a Syrian suicide bomber.
CANBERRA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australians will head to the polls in February 2017 to vote on whether they want same-sex marriage legalized.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to inform members of the Liberal National Party (LNP) of the new timeline for the vote at a party meeting in September, News Limited reported on Sunday.

A February plebiscite on the issue would break Turnbull's election promise that the Australian people would vote on the issue in 2016.

A spokesperson for Turnbull said that a recommendation from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) warned against holding the vote in 2016.

"The government has always said that a decision on same-sex marriage will be made by a vote of all Australians in a national plebiscite to be held as soon as practicable," the spokesperson told Fairfax Media on Sunday.

"That commitment has not changed. Late last week, the AEC provided advice to the Special Minister of State that strongly recommended against the conduct of a plebiscite this calendar year."

The plebiscite would be a non-binding vote which would ask voters "do you approve of a law to permit people of the same sex to marry?"

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia would then be introduced to parliament with members of parliament (MPs) expected to vote yes or no depending on how their electorate voted on the plebiscite.

Conservative MPs from Turnbull's LNP have already said that they will be voting against the bill regardless of the result of the plebiscite, prompting same-sex marriage advocates to label the process as a waste of time and money.

"The fact that the electoral commission needs more time, and probably more resources to actually organize plebiscite on marriage equality just shows what a sham this whole thing is," marriage equality campaigner Rodney Croome told the ABC on Sunday.

"We know that the result won't be binding on politicians, that it's going to cost a lot of money, that's going to damage many people."

Opposition leader Bill Shorten is expected to launch a last-minute bid to legalize same-sex marriage by introducing a bill to parliament in the coming weeks.

The AEC has estimated that the plebiscite would cost Australian taxpayers 120 million U.S. dollars.
HAVANA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- World renowned ballet dancers staged a unique show here on Saturday night to back Cuba's efforts to promote it as one of the top commercial ballet venues in the world.

The show, called Royalty Ballet, took place at the Grand Theater of Havana, and 12 of world top ballet stars from Russia, the United States and Britain presented famous classics like Black Swan, Sleeping Beauty and contemporary choreography pieces.

The event was initiated by Cuban-born Rodrigo Almarales, principal dancer of U.S. ballet company Cincinnati Ballet, and joined by dancers from American Ballet Theatre, Russia's Bolshoi, London's Royal Ballet and America's San Francisco, Boston and Cincinnati Ballets.

"Bringing all these international stars together for one show in Cuba is not usual and we did our best to offer the audience a quality performance and I believe they deeply appreciated it," said Almarales.

"We named it Royalty because the top international dancers performed in the show and we hope it can be repeated not only in Cuba but in other countries," he added.
ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a bomb blast near a wedding hall in the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night has risen to 30, in addition to 94 injuries, according to Turkish authorities.

"We condemn the traitors who organized and carried out this attack," said the Gaziantep Governor's Office, which raised the death toll from an earlier report of 22.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Samil Tayyar, a deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on twitter that the attack was carried out by the Islamic State terrorist group.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, however, said the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

Local media reported that the blast occurred in the Sahinbey District of Gaziantep at 22:40 local time (1940 GMT) in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighborhood of the city. Local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey.

Ambulances and police were dispatched to the area following the attack. The site of the explosion was sealed off by police. Hundred of residents gathered near the site, praying for the dead and denouncing the attacker.

The blast in Gaziantep occurred on a day when Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in helping address the Syrian crisis within the next six months.

Yildirim has also pledged a fierce response to the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

The security situation in Turkey has deteriorated recently following a spate of deadly attacks in the wake of a failed coup attempt last month.

On Thursday, five soldiers were killed and six others injured by a roadside bomb believed to be planted by PKK militants in Turkey's eastern Bitlis province.

Also on Thursday, suspected PKK militants killed a villager and wounded a soldier near Nazar village of Hizan district in Bitlis province.

Early Thursday, another bombing near police headquarters in the eastern province of Elazig killed at least three police officers and injured 217, including 85 police officers.

A car bombing on Wednesday night occurred in the eastern province of Van, injuring at least 73 people, including 20 policemen.

In late June, three attackers, alleged to be IS militants, fired at crowds in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport and then detonated their explosive vests, killing 44 people and wounding more than 200 others.

Since July 2015, over 500 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group first started anti-government attacks.

Related:

Backgrounder: Chronology of major bombing attacks in Turkey since beginning of 2016

ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A blast occurred near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, killing at least 30 people and injuring 94 others, authorities said. Full story

Six wounded in PKK bomb attack in eastern Turkey

ANKARA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Six people were injured on Friday in an terror attack in the Turkey's eastern province of Van, local Dogan News Agency reported.

An explosion detonated by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants hit the Ozalp district of the eastern province of Van during the passing of a military vehicle. Full story

PKK militants claim responsibility for bombing attack in eastern Turkey

ANKARA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group on Friday claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack targeting a police station in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig on Thursday, according to a statement on a PKK website.

At least three police officers were killed and 217 wounded, 85 of them police officers in the attack. Full story

U.S. strongly denounces terror attacks in Turkey, expresses support

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Thursday condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks in southeastern Turkey, and expressed support to the NATO ally.
HARBIN, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A fire that ignited oil tanks in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Sunday morning has been put out, with one person injured, local authorities said.

A fuel vehicle caught fire in the suburb of Jiamusi City around 8:00 a.m. when unloading oil and ignited oil tanks in a local fuel storage company.

The blaze, which was previously described as a blast, has been put out by Sunday noon and one person was injured, authorities said.
HANOI, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is holding an exhibition of 12 typical genres of Vietnamese folk paintings in the capital city of Hanoi in a bid to preserve this traditional cultural feature.

The exhibition being held at the Hanoi Museum is displaying 200 works of well-known painting genres such as Dong Ho painting, Hang Trong, Kim Hoang, Sinh village, plain and rural worship painting, among others.

The exhibition, which started on Friday, aims at introducing the collections of Vietnamese traditional folk paintings to domestic and foreign visitors, thus contributing to preserving and promoting this traditional cultural facet of the country, the organizers said.

According to Nguyen Tien Da, director of the Hanoi Museum, traditional folk paintings are valuable cultural assets of the country which contain each community's unique cultural characteristics.

"How to combine traditional and modern arts is an issue that needs thorough consideration and investment, in order to nurture young people's awareness about the preservation of their ancestors' cultural features," Da said.

Truong Quoc Binh, former director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, told Xinhua that as the nation's socio-economic situation is shifting, many types of traditional folk paintings are on the edge of disappearing.

The demand for traditional folk paintings has been decreased, which has forced craft villages and artisans to change to other jobs, Binh said.

For example, dating back to the 16th century, Dong Ho paintings were among the "must-have" things during the Lunar New Year Festival, or Tet as it's known locally, for worshiping or decoration purposes.

People displayed Dong Ho folk paintings in their houses throughout the year and replaced them with new ones every Tet festival celebration. But the tradition has faded away with time.

"Before the year of 1945, my whole village had 17 clans engaged in making Dong Ho paintings," Nguyen Dang Che, an artisan from Dong Ho village in Vietnam's northern Bac Ninh province told Xinhua.

"Due to the trend of economic development, Dong Ho painting gradually lost its position. Most families in the village turned to making votive paper to earn their living. Now there are only two clans in Dong Ho village who still follow the tradition of making Dong Ho painting," Che said.

Meanwhile, Kim Hoang painting, which was also a popular item during Tet in Vietnam, can now only be found in museums or fine art galleries.

It is said that a flood in 1915 destroyed almost all the original woodblocks of the Kim Hoang village. Currently, experts are seeking ways to restore this painting genre, which originated in the late 18th century.

"Vietnam has put significant efforts into preserving traditional folk paintings, including building the list of national intangible cultural heritage and restoring and developing traditional craft villages," said Binh. "However, the country is facing numerous difficulties in preservation work to revive traditional craft villages."

"There are difficulties in sourcing materials, product consumption, supporting artisans, as well as passing down the tradition to younger generations," Binh explained.

"It is such a pity that many of Vietnam's traditional folk paintings have disappeared. Young generations should learn to restore and develop the country's traditional paintings," Pham Cong, an 80-year-old resident in Hanoi told Xinhua while visiting the exhibition.

According to Binh, who is also member of the country's National Heritage Council, there should be more coordination among various sectors and agencies in preserving traditional folk arts, including folk paintings.

"We need a strategy for preservation and development, including more education and training in traditional folk arts, consumption support, tax incentives for artisans, and the building of cultural tourism centers to boost tourism as well as international cooperation," Binh said.

"This exhibition is a good way to introduce traditional folk paintings to visitors, especially the painting genres which have almost disappeared," he added.

The exhibition of 12 genres of Vietnamese traditional folk paintings will be open to the public for six months.
RIYADH, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A group of Saudi men have announced a plan to form a society to promote polygamy in Saudi Arabia, Al Hayat local newspaper reported on Sunday.

Doctors, engineers, religious scholars and university professors are among the 100 founders of the society, in which eight percent of overall members are women.

The key founder of the society, Ataallah Al Abar, told the newspaper that he had submitted official documents to process the establishment of the society.

"We will be promoting men to marry more than one woman and females to accept such trend to give the chance for single women to have partners," Abar said, citing that there are more than two million unmarried women, including widows and divorcees.

The society will have a website that will be as a marriage matching portal for both men and women.

Polygamy is common in Saudi Arabia that implements all Islamic rules, as the religion allows a man to marry up to four women at the same time.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's forthcoming meeting with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama is expected to enhance mutual trust, widen win-win cooperation and deliver guidance for management on differences between China and the United States.

"The upcoming meeting between the two heads of state, just as every strategic talk they have held in recent years, will produce very positive and important influence on China-U.S. bilateral relations," Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the United States, said in a joint interview with Chinese-language news media here on Saturday.

Xi is scheduled to meet Obama during the G20 summit in east China's Hangzhou City next month.

Under the G20 mechanism, the two leaders have already conducted very much coordination and cooperation for years, Cui said, noting that it is also the world's wide expectation that China and the United States can work together to ensure the G20 Hangzhou Summit to achieve a full success.

As the top two economies in the world, China and the United States have responsibilities to play a larger role in ensuring that the Hangzhou summit can yield constructive results as many as possible, Cui said, adding communication channels between the two countries have always been running well.

More than 40 years ago, Hangzhou witnessed the negotiations for the first ever China-U.S. joint communique, the ambassador recalled, stressing "a return to a place full of historic meaning reveals a lot about the direction we should follow."

"The history of their relationship has fully proven that the two global heavyweights must cooperate with each other and must become cooperative partners," said Cui, referring to the building of a new type of major-country relationship.

The ambassador also revealed that China has kept frequent contacts with the United States on the South China Sea issue, reiterating that the issue should not be allowed to define China-U.S. ties since the two countries have neither disputes over even one inch of territory nor fundamental clash of interests in the South China Sea.

The upcoming meeting between Xi and Obama in Hangzhou is the most important agenda of China-U.S. relations in the next stage, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his telephone talk with U.S. Secretary of State John earlier this month.

At the time, Kerry said that the Xi-Obama meeting in Hangzhou is very important, noting the United States is willing to work together with China to ensure a full success of the G20 Hangzhou Summit.

The upcoming G20 summit, with the theme "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy", will be held in Hangzhou City on Sept. 4-5.
Syrian-Kurdish women fighetrs carry the coffin of fellow fighters in the city of Qamishly on August 13, 2016, at the funeral of several fighters from an Arab-Kurdish alliance, who were killed during battles with the Islamic State group (IS) in the northern Syrian city of Manbij. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

RIYADH, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A group of Saudi men have announced a plan to form a society to promote polygamy in Saudi Arabia, Al Hayat local newspaper reported on Sunday.

Doctors, engineers, religious scholars and university professors are among the 100 founders of the society, in which eight percent of overall members are women.

The key founder of the society, Ataallah Al Abar, told the newspaper that he had submitted official documents to process the establishment of the society.

"We will be promoting men to marry more than one woman and females to accept such trend to give the chance for single women to have partners," Abar said, citing that there are more than two million unmarried women, including widows and divorcees.

The society will have a website that will be as a marriage matching portal for both men and women.

Polygamy is common in Saudi Arabia that implements all Islamic rules, as the religion allows a man to marry up to four women at the same time.
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Sunday strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Turkey and reaffirmed solidarity with brotherly Turkey.

A blast exploded near a wedding hall in Sahinbey District of southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, killing at least 30 people and injuring nearly 90 others, Gaziantep Governor's Office confirmed early Sunday.

"The Government and people of Pakistan are deeply anguished and saddened by the news of the latest terrorist attack in Turkey, targeting a wedding ceremony in the southeastern Province of Gaziantep," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

"The heartlessness of this brutality is evident from the fact that a celebration was turned into mourning. Pakistan condemns this despicable act of terrorism in the strongest possible terms," the ministry's spokesman said in a statement.

"We extend our profound sympathies and condolences to the brotherly people and Government of Turkey. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost their loved ones. We also pray for the speediest recovery of the wounded," he said.

The spokesman said the terror attack in Gaziantep follows the most recent acts of terrorism in Van, Bitlis and Elazig.

"We have no doubt that those seeking to disturb the peace, stability and internal harmony of Turkey would never succeed. We remain firm in our belief that the fraternal people of Turkey would decisively defeat the scourge of terrorism with their resolute will and unshakable resolve," he said.

"For its part, like always, Pakistan remains in abiding solidarity with Turkey as it wages its valiant struggle against terrorism, works to preserve its peace and harmony, and perseveres in its journey of progress and prosperity," he concluded.
Chinese and Mongolian media representatives gathered for the 7th China-Mongolia press forum in the Chinggis City, capital of Mongolia's Khentii province, on Aug. 20. (Xinhua/Zheng Chuang)

ULAN BATOR, Aug 20 (Xinhua) -- An annual China-Mongolia press forum that is now in its seventh year has helped the people of the two countries better know each other, giving a boost to the bilateral relations.

Chinese and Mongolian media representatives gathered on Saturday in the Chinggis City, capital of Mongolia's Khentii province, for the forum with the theme of "deepening media cooperation and creating a bright future."

Addressing the forum, Cui Yuying, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office, called on the media organizations from both countries to boost their exchanges and cooperation.

"We have had frequent exchanges of visits at the high level between our two countries. We have had close cooperation in economy and trade, and we have had robust people-to-people exchanges," she said.

"The friendly cooperation between our two countries is now at its best," she added.

The forum gathered more than 90 representatives from some 30 Chinese and Mongolian media organizations, including those from the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International, as well as Mongolia's national news agency Montsame and its national broadcaster.

Cui called on the media organizations of the two neighboring countries to work together to lead the bilateral relations in the right direction, tell great stories of the bilateral cooperation and deepen the practical cooperation between them.

Held annually since 2010, the China-Mongolia media forum has now grown into an important channel to help the peoples of the two countries better know each other. It has led to a number of practical cooperation projects with win-win outcome, and the cooperation mechanism has been upgraded as the cooperation was expanded and enriched over the years.

Munkhtuul Banzragch, editor of Montsame, said that Mongolian and Chinese journalists have been sharing their experience and views at the forum and that the media organizations have strengthened their cooperation as the cooperation between their countries expanded enormously over the past decade.

She said some media organizations have agreed to cooperate with each other and conduct public survey.

"This is very important step for uplifting the cooperation between the media organizations of Mongolia and China," she said.

The forum this year is also part of the "Feel China" project, which is held under the framework of a China-Mongolia cultural cooperation agreement signed between the governments of the two countries.

Bilateral cooperation between China and Mongolia have expanded in recent years with win-win outcome. Observers said that there is still great space for the two neighbors to further expand their cooperation and that more robust people-to-people exchanges can be a boost.
MOGADISHU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A suicide car bomb explosion ripped through the local government office in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Sunday, local media reported.

The number of casualties remains unclear.
Women mourn as they wait in front of a hospital morgue in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, after a suspected bomber targeted a weddingcelebration in the city, Turkey, August 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

ANKARA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least 30 people were killed and 94 others wounded in a blast at a wedding ceremony on Saturday night in southeastern Turkey, the Anadolu Agency reported Sunday.

The terror attack took place in the Beybahce neighborhood of the Sahinbey district of Gaziantep province, according to a statement by the governor's office.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack in a written statement, saying that Islamic State (IS) was the "likely perpetrator."

"Those, who cannot overcome Turkey and try to provoke people by abusing ethnic and sectarian sensitiveness, will not prevail," he said.

"There is no difference between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which martyred 70 security personnel last month, the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETO) as an actor of July 15 coup bid claiming 240 people and the possible motive of Gaziantep terror attack IS," he added.

Erdogan said that the aim of attacks like Gaziantep was to sow division between different groups in Turkey such as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines."

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Samil Tayyar said that the attack was carried out by the IS.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

"The aim of terror is to scare the people, but we will not allow this," said Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament.

Violence flared up again this week in the southeast and east of Turkey, with the PKK killing at least 12 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers.
ZHENGZHOU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- About 70 percent of water used in Beijing comes from China's Yangtze River valley through a massive water diversion program, water authorities have said.

Over 1.5 billion cubic meters of water were diverted from the Danjiangkou Reservoir conjoining central China's Henan and Hubei provinces, as of Aug. 10, accounting for 70 percent of Beijing's water demand.

Water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir began flowing to Beijing in December 2014, as one of the three branches of China's south-to-north water diversion program, channeling water from the Yangtze River valley in southern China to address water shortages in the country's north and western regions.

To ensure water quality, Henan has made a 1,595 square km water protection zone near the reservoir and removed nearby factories and companies along the water diversion route to make room for forestry. The province has also put 181 water treatment and soil conservation projects in place to protect water sources.

In exchange for clean water from the south, Beijing has funded water protection and related programs in Henan with 250 million yuan (37.69 million U.S. dollars) per year since 2014.

Over the past five years, Beijing has signed combined investment deals with Henan worth 1.08 trillion yuan, with 431.9 billion already invested.

Henan is also slated to sign a number of deals with Beijing on Monday, for cooperation in education, technology and many other sectors, authorities said.
YAOUNDE, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and several others injured in a suicide bomb attack Sunday morning in Mora, a town of the Far North Region of Cameroon near the border with Nigeria, security sources told Xinhua by phone.

The attack was committed by an unidentified man who ran into a group of people at the entrance of a local market and detonated the bomb fastened on his belt, the sources said.

The sources said, "on site at least four people including the bomber himself were killed and several others injured."

Sunday is a regular market day in Mora, a base of the multinational joint force created in 2015 by Lake Chad Basin Commission to fight against Boko Haram.

Cameroonian security forces suspected Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram was behind it. The Boko Haram has made Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger their targets with the purpose to create a caliphate.

Since July 2015, more than 100 people were killed in the Far North Region in such attacks.

Cameroon strengthened its surveillance in the Far North Region in order to stop this terrorist threat.
DHAKA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least five people have been killed and scores of others injured after roof of a tin-shed jute factory building collapsed during a storm in Bangladesh's central Faridpur district, some 101 km away from the capital Dhaka, on Sunday afternoon, official said.

A police officer told Xinhua by phone from Faridpur that "at least five workers died and 50 others were injured when the roof of the tin-shed factory fell upon them during the storm."

He said some 400 people have been working in the jute factory.

Quoting officials involved in the rescue operation which is still underway, the police officer who declined to be named feared that the death toll may increase as more people are believed to be trapped under the debris.
The photo taken on July 26, 2015 shows the explosion site in Maroua, capital of Far-North Region in Cameroon. The death toll of a suicide bomb attack which took place on Saturday in Maroua rose to 21, one army source told Xinhua on Sunday. (Xinhua)

YAOUNDE, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and several others injured in a suicide bomb attack Sunday morning in Mora, a town of the Far North Region of Cameroon near the border with Nigeria, security sources told Xinhua by phone.

The attack was committed by an unidentified man who ran into a group of people at the entrance of a local market and detonated the bomb fastened on his belt, the sources said.

The sources said, "on site at least four people including the bomber himself were killed and several others injured."

Sunday is a regular market day in Mora, a base of the multinational joint force created in 2015 by Lake Chad Basin Commission to fight against Boko Haram.

Cameroonian security forces suspected Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram was behind it. The Boko Haram has made Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger their targets with the purpose to create a caliphate.

Since July 2015, more than 100 people were killed in the Far North Region in such attacks.

Cameroon strengthened its surveillance in the Far North Region in order to stop this terrorist threat.